My daughter, Beth, and my son-in-law, Derek, at their wedding.
The Wedding of Cana is more than just a Jewish wedding at which Jesus turned gallons of water into wine. It is the first of seven signs in the Gospel of John revealing the Divine nature and mission of Jesus. More importantly, it is the point of “no return” for Jesus, in which he makes known his Messianic Mission to our world. We hear this in his dialogue with his mother. When Mary tells him that there is no wine, Jesus answers her, “Woman, how does your concern affect me? My hour has not yet come.” Mary replies by telling the servers, “Do whatever he tells you.” In her own way, Mary is telling Jesus to quit stalling and do what he is suppose to do (We all need a little push from our moms from time to time).
It is significant that this miracle occurred at a wedding. For the Jewish people, marriage was symbolic of the covenant between God and the People of Israel. The prophets often speak metaphorically of God as the faithful groom and Israel as the bride, albeit unfaithful bride. For the Jewish people, the Kingdom of God, eternal life, was often described as a wedding feast in which everyone’s hunger was satisfied and everyone drank wine to their heart’s content. In light of the symbolic meaning of a wedding feast, it seems apropos that Jesus chose a wedding feast in which to first reveal his mission of ushering the Kingdom of God into our world.
All of this was not lost on the disciples of Jesus. Their eyes and their hearts were opened to what Jesus was doing. As in all of our lives, they had a decision to make. Were they going to make a leap of faith and go forward with Jesus on his mission into an unknown future? Or, were they going to play it safe and stay behind in the status quo of the past? At the conclusion of this Gospel story, the disciples make that leap of faith and go forward with Jesus.
The choice presented to the disciples is presented to us
today. Jesus beckons us to join him. Will we play it safe and remain in the
status quo of once was? Or, shall we boldly trust him, and with him usher the
Reign of God into our world? It is our choice.
This is a reflection on the current crises we are experiencing in our politics and our culture. I apologize for its length.
THE PANDEMIC OF SELF-GLORIFICATION
Back in the late 1980’s, there was a great amount of interest in Satanism/Black Magick (not to be confused with the White Magick of the Wiccans). This attraction can be attributed to a number of things and events at the time, everywhere from a naivete “Red light Green light hope to see a ghost tonight” mentality, pop culture, and entertainments especially amongst adolescents to those seriously exploring this area of supernatural life. The lives, works, and rituals of renowned Satanists, e.g. Aleister Crowley, were in demand. There was an increase in the number of grave desecrations in Minnesota, and many articles written in the daily newspapers about the topic, including the Minnesota Monthly. One of the greatest concentrations of of witches covens was in Minneapolis/St Paul during this time (I don’t know if that is currently true). I had a good friend who was a public school art teacher who told me he once experimented with Black Magick/Satanism while as an art major at the University. He got out of it when the things that were supposed to happen actually began to happen. Frightened, he left the occult life altogether and, at the time we knew each other, was a very devout evangelical Christian.
At the time, I felt the need to know more about this subject, so I did a copious amount of research. My own children were growing up during this period of history and as a responsible parent and working in parish ministry, I thought it important to be informed.
At this time (essentially the Reagan Era of the ’80’s), along with this increased fascination with Black Religious practices, there was also occurring the glorification of the self, making one’s own self-interests primary in life with the exclusion of the needs of others. This was documented in the scholarly study “Habits of the Heart” in which it was found that the individualism that marked what was great about the United States, e.g. the common good was greater and more important than the individual good, was being replaced with an individualism that ignored the common good and glorified the needs of the individual. From that time to our own present time, the common good of all Americans has been jettisoned as garbage, while the glorified self has become all the more prominent.
Is Self-Glorification synonymous with Satanism? No, that would be like the Church Lady from SNL trying to equate the word, Santa, with Satan (illustrated by the rearrangement of the letters in the word, Santa). One can self-glorify without belonging to a coven or doing Satanic ritual.
So, what does Self-glorification share with Satanism? The common denominator is that Self becomes God. It is the worship of Oneself. It is the worship of “Me”.
In Satanism, the basic tenet of faith is that the one to be worshiped is not Satan, it is one’s own Self. The Self is God. The highest feast day of the year is one’s personal birthday (a twisted, dark kind of Christmas). All the other occult feast days are less important. The practices, rituals, sacrifices are performed to coerce Satan to do the bidding of the Self. In essence, one uses the power of Satan to advance Oneself. To go back to the book of Genesis, what was it that expelled Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden? They wanted to elevate themselves to be God. Satan, in the guise of the serpent, tells them to become God they must eat the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge. As we know full well, they did and quickly found out that they were NOT God.
In our present time, we are experiencing the effects of the glorification of the Self. More so than in other times, there is an obsessive cult of celebrity in our culture. It is pandemic. It is visible in check-out counter reading material, or on the television and radio. As the artist, Andy Warhol, once said, everyone wants their 15 minutes of fame. More serious is the cult of celebrity present in the Halls of Congress, the Cabinet, and, tragically for our nation, in the White House. At the funeral of President George H.W. Bush, when all present were praying the Apostles Creed, only one person refused to pray. The “leader of our nation” kept his mouth shut, the creed hanging statically at his side.
We do not need to host a show on radio or television, perform on stage or screen, write books, be elected to public office etc to fall prey to the cult of celebrity. Do we not to some degree feel the desire to self-worship, to glorify ourselves? It is pandemic on and in all areas of our lives. We can see it evident in our communities, our places of work, in our own homes and even in our places of worship.
In direct contrast to this self-worship, cult of celebrity of our present time, is the person of Jesus. He made it clear that his mission on earth was not one of self-glorification. The self-servicing ethic of the cult of celebrity did not play any part in Jesus’ mission to humanity. He ran away from those who tried to force celebrity status upon him (Note: in John’s Gospel, after the feeding of the 5000, he fled and hid from those who wanted to make him King.) He made it abundantly clear that he came to serve, not be served. Even as he approached his own execution, he prayed that it was God’s will, not his will, that must be done. As the Servant of God, he refused to elevate his own Self, and chose to empty himself of his own Self. He then commanded those who are his disciples to do the same.
This is extremely pertinent to those who are religious leaders. Pope Francis warns against the sin of clericalism in the Roman Catholic Church. Clericalism is a form of self-glorification. It seems that in the last 20 years, there has been a restoration of clericalism in the formation of priests and deacons . I haven’t seen so many black cassocks (something to which I refer as clerical cross-dressing), birettas, and other unnecessary clerical accessories as I do in some of those recently ordained as priests and deacons. As a Roman Catholic Deacon, I am allowed to wear clerics (clergy shirt and collar, something I refer to it as wearing my flea and tick collar). I wear clerics only when absolutely necessary. A simple deacon’s cross is generally the extent of my clerical ensemble. At Mass, I wear a simple alb (an alb is basically a long baptismal gown) a stole, and a cincture (to keep me from tripping on my alb). As a Deacon, I am to be “Christ as Servant”. A priest is to be “Christ as Sacrament”. In neither role, are we to raise ourselves to cultic celebrity. We are to be servants of the Servant of God, nothing more and nothing less. While I cannot speak for any other Christian denomination or world religion, if we are truly religious leaders we will forswear a life of Self-glorification.
So how do we respond to this pandemic? What are we to do? It is as simple as repeating the oft abuse cliché, “What would Jesus do?” And, then doing it! Jesus emptied himself of his self in service to God and to humanity. We are to do the same. Thomas Merton and Richard Rohr are great Roman Catholic sources who have written extensively on this. I am sure that my brothers and sisters in other Christian denominations, in the Jewish faith, and in other world religious traditions can cite other sources in their religious traditions to help all in following this way of life. We seek our entire life to find fulfillment. Paradoxically, we find that we are not fulfilled not in Self-glorification, but, as Jesus says in the Gospels, in losing oneself so as to be one with the One who loved us into existence.
We seek our entire life to find fulfillment. Paradoxically, we find that we are fulfilled not in Self-glorification, but, as Jesus says in the Gospels, in losing oneself so as to be one with the One who loved us into existence.
If you were to ask me, “What is the most important sacrament?” I would answer, “Baptism.” On this upcoming Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, that closes the Season of Christmas, what follows is some random thoughts of mine upon this very important, vital sacrament of the Church.
The sacrament of Baptism allows us to enter into a deep, special relationship with God. The Roman Catholic Church teaches that the Primordial First Sacrament is Jesus Christ. The second most important level of sacrament are those who have been baptized, the living and breathing Body of Christ on the Earth. On the third level of importance is the other sacraments of the Church (Confirmation, Holy Communion, Reconciliation, the Anointing of the Sick, Matrimony, and Holy Orders). It is through our baptism that we are ushered into all these other sacraments we will celebrate during the span of our lives.
Because infant mortality was so high, in the past, it was pressed upon parents of newborns to baptize their infants ASAP following the birth of their child. Why the rush? Many in the Roman Catholic Church believed that eternal salvation was attained only through being baptized. Should a child die unbaptized, not having been cleansed of Original Sin, the child would not be permitted in heaven. The child would go to Limbo, a place that was neither heaven nor hell (not to be confused with a dance in the Carribbean). Approximately 30 years ago, the Roman Catholic Church dismissed this teaching as false, making the correction that a child dying prior to being baptized is welcomed back into the loving arms of God.
Why is it important to have our children baptized? The answer is simply to be in an everlasting relationship with the God who loved our children into existence. God permeates our very being. God is above and below, before and behind, to our right and to our left, within and outside of us. The Jewish faith has long taught that the breath that animates our bodies is the breath of God. The gifts which we have been given have all been given to us out of love by God. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, baptism enables us into a deeper relationship with God than if we were not baptized.
What is baptism not? In the parlance of the game of Monopoly, baptism is not a “pass go, collect $200 card” into heaven. As with the relationships we have with others in our lives, we can choose to enter into a deeper relationship with God or we can refuse to be in relationship with God. Baptized or not, a relationship with God will not be forced upon us. We must choose to be in relationship with God. If we reject God, God will respect our choice and will leave us alone. Baptism is more than just joining the “Jesus Club.” Baptism is NOT a free pass into heaven.
Why wouldn’t we want to be in relationship with God?
Admittedly, I was formed and raised in my faith by two very faithful people, my mom and dad. However, like many of my generation, I just didn’t take and believed what they said to believe as true. I had to find out for myself. I questioned, doubted, fell into “disbelief”, questioned my disbelief, studied, meditated upon the faith I had been taught. My faith is not a “Blind Faith,” but, rather, like the Apostle Thomas, I had to probe the wounds in the hands and side of Christ. I began to believe again not because I was told to believe, but because I CHOSE to believe. I, intentionally CHOSE to fully enter into a relationship with God.
What had been missing during my time of disbelief? I found within myself a deep seated longing for something more than just the relationships I had in my life. This longing was deeper than the longing I felt and continue to feel for Ruth, my wife, who is the greatest experience of God in my life. It was a longing, a sense of not being fully complete. From that point onward I have been following that longing, that need to be united with the source of my longing.
For better or for worse, I have dragged my family along on this journey to completeness. After 42 years of ministry in the Church, a graduate degree in Pastoral Studies, ordination to the Diaconate, receiving my certification as a spiritual director, the longing is still there, and more intense than ever. I have not arrived but am still enroute.
The only way to be completely fulfilled as a human being is to be in a deep, loving relationship with God. That is why baptism is so important. The Church (inclusive of all Christian denominations) is filled with broken and sinful people, clergy and laity alike (after 42 years of ministry in the Catholic Church, how well I know this). However, it is through this most broken institution, in the sacrament of baptism, that we find the entry point into an everlasting relationship with the God who is the source of all for which we long. Why would we walk away from this baptism? Why would we deny ourselves the very breath that we need to fully live?
On this Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, let us embrace the gift of relationship that we received at our own baptism. Let us choose to deepen that relationship with the God who loved us into existence. Let us choose to “One” ourselves to the One who is the very source of all our longing.
The feasts of the Epiphany, and the Baptism of the Lord, which closes the season of Christmas, are, in fancy terms, theophanies. A theophany is a visible manifestation of God. On the feast of the Epiphany, God is visibly made manifest in the person of the infant Jesus to the Wise Men. On the feast of the Baptism of the Lord, Jesus is visibly made manifest to John the Baptist and those who had gathered at the Jordan River to be baptized by John.
Biblically, when theophanies occur, they are rather startling supernatural occasions, great storms and winds, a pillar of fire, the parting of the Red Sea for example. In their own way, the Epiphany and the Baptism of the Lord, are, in themselves supernatural events. However, in the day to day events of life, God is made visibly manifest to us less dramatically, and far less supernaturally.
I have written about her before, but one person whose life for me was a daily theophany was a good friend, Blanche Schutrop. Blanche never advanced beyond an 8th grade education, She tutored school children. She was a sacristan, a professed Secular Franciscan, and coordinated home communion visits. She liked to watch the Twins over a couple of beers with her husband, Ivo. She was a homemaker by profession. Blanche was a simple, uncomplicated person. Yet, in her simplicity, in her humble service to others, God was made visibly manifest. If there was a pastoral need in the parish, people didn’t go to the pastor or to me. They went to Blanche. Blanche was a living, breathing, visible manifestation of God. Blanche was a theophany.
Who are those living, day to day, theophanies in our lives?
This is something to ponder during these waning days of the Christmas season.
They are all around us. There are no cracks of lightning, thunder booming,
great winds rising when they enter a room or interact with us. Yet, we sense
that within them God is very much present. By virtue of our own baptism, we are
to be a visible manifestation of God to others. Are our lives theophanies? Or,
are they anything but a theophany? May our new year resolution be to ask for the
grace in becoming a living manifestation of God to others.
January 2nd was the feast day of my diaconal brother and friend, Tom Coleman. Tom died on January 2nd in 2011. He and Lucy, his wife, were inseparable all their married life, so much so, that Lucy died 17 days following Tom’s death, on January 29th.
Tom and Lucy can be best described as hardworking people, deeply committed to their faith. They were very down to earth folks. Lucy, especially, had a wonderful earthiness to herself and to her humor.
The music presented here is the music I composed for them at the time of our ordination on September 24, 1994.
Psalm Offering 3, Opus 5 (The Ordination Psalm Offerings). (c) 1994, Robert Charles Wagner. All rights reserved.
I just received word that my friend, Barb Ciresi, died on New Year’s Eve. Barb is 75 years old. Barb is married to my ordination classmate, Deacon Jerry Ciresi. Barb has been suffering from advanced dementia for the last several years. Sharp, with wonderful insight, a great sense of humor tinged with a wee bit of cynicism (the product of working with doctors, the medical system, and being married to a deacon and indirectly the Church) Barb could be counted on to cut to the chase and give a well thought out, measured critique on many topics, including faith. Her wake will be on Sunday, and her funeral at Assumption, downtown St Paul, at 10 am on Monday. Below is my message to my good friend and Church comrade in arms, Jerry Ciresi.
Jerry and family,
Ruth and I cannot begin to express the great sorrow we are
feeling at the news of Barb’s death. As one married to a wonderful woman (who
like Barb is also a nurse), I know that my life revolves around my wife who is
the sun of my galaxy. I joke about living in a benevolent matriarchy, however,
truth be told, I see myself as a student learning lessons of how to love from
Ruth. While you have not expressed your relationship to Barb in those words,
Jerry, I know that she is the one person upon which you have centered your
life, and there are no words that can begin to express the emptiness you are
feeling right now. This is a time in which an honest conversation with God
begins with the question, “Just what the hell are you doing to me?”
Pious platitudes and religious sentimentality come up so empty, so meaningless.
“God has a plan” some might say. Raw emotional grief will echo back
that we know where God can stick that plan. I am sure that there were times
when Jesus muttered, “Now what!?” to God the Father. As a person of
faith, I walk with you my friend, dumbstruck, grief stricken, and pondering
another encounter with the eternal Mystery, trusting, hoping that I might be
given a brief glimmer of understanding. Ruth and I regret not being at Barb’s
wake on Sunday because our daughter, Beth, is getting married at approximately
the same time. However, I will be at Assumption to celebrate Barb’s life with
us and Barb’s life with God on Monday morning.
The feasts of the Holy Family and the Solemnity of Mary are times in which we are called to rehumanize Joseph, Mary, and, to some extent, Jesus. It is very tempting to deify Mary and Joseph, or at least, raise them to the stature of super heroes. There have been attempts throughout the past 2000 years, as recently as the 1980’s, by devotees of Mary to call on the Church to name Mary the co-mediatrix (co-redeemer). St John Paul II, one of Mary’s greatest advocates, decisively squashed those attempts. He reminded the Church that there is only one Redeemer, and that is Jesus.
These feasts serve to remind us of Mary, Joseph, and Jesus’ vulnerability as human beings. Mary’s Immaculate Conception (a doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church) did not give her the ability to peer into future or give her any special powers in which to raise her son. Mary and Joseph, like all parents had to figure out how to parent their kid, day to day, moment to moment. We find in Luke’s story of the “Finding in the Temple, that Jesus, like most 12 year old adolescents, is trying to figure out who he is. He knows that there is something special about him and he seeks out the place where he thinks he can find some answers, the Temple. When Jesus comes up missing, Joseph and Mary panic, like all of us do when one of our kids is missing. Upon finding Jesus, Mary scolds Jesus for being inconsiderate and causing them great worry. When Jesus answers her cryptically, Mary does not understand his answer (welcome to parent’s world of raising an adolescent). Luke describes Mary has having to ponder in her heart what Jesus meant. Sound familiar?
On these two feasts, the Holy Family is revealed to be just like all our families with one exception, their child was both very human and very divine. Their love for their child is just as strong as the love we have for our children, even when our kids prompt us to tear out our hair and momentarily ponder about selling them to the gypsies. When we examine the commonalities between the Holy Family and our familes, we will find, perhaps to our surprise, how “holy” our own families are.
I am delighted to finally have this music available on Amazon, iTunes, and other digital services (Spotify etc)
This music is dedicated to refugee families from all over the world, especially those fleeing the violence and the poverty of their nations of origin. Like Joseph, Mary, and Jesus who were refugees to Egypt over 2000 years ago, they seek to find a safe, secure, peaceful place in which to raise their families.
With the exception of Psalm Offering 8, “In the beginning was the Word”, much of this music was composed when I was the music/liturgy director of St Hubert Catholic Community in Chanhassen, Minnesota over 40 years ago. At that time, the majority of this music was composed for four-part choir. During the summer months, I would look over the readings for the upcoming season of Advent and Christmas and plan the music for my choirs and cantors to sing. I composed a number of Advent and Christmas hymns and motets, largely based on those liturgical readings of the Advent and Christmas seasons. Some of the hymns are based on psalms, some on the prophetic texts of Isaiah, and others based on the Gospels of Christmas.
In this Opus I have taken the choral
arrangements of these Advent/Christmas Psalm settings and motets and reimagined
them exclusively for piano. In the past, some of these choral motets and psalms
were offered up as a prayer for specific people or peoples. As stated in the opening
paragraph, I have chosen to rededicate these reimagined songs to all migrant
families fleeing the poverty and dangers of their native countries.
While the prayer intent of these songs is somber and serious, the music of this opus reflects the wonder and the joy of the liturgical seasons of Advent/Christmas. The light of Christ pierced the darkness of Judea at the time of his birth. May Christ’s light pierce the darkness of our present age and lead us to the light and peace that His birth promised over 2000 years ago.
Here are 2 songs from the album.
Lord, Let Us See Your Kindness (c) 2018, Robert Charles Wagner. All rights reserved.
How Beautiful The Mountains (c) 2018, Robert Charles Wagner. All rights reserved.
For the past several years, I have gone from writing a Christmas letter to writing a Christmas poem. Here is this year’s Christmas poem.
JOSEPH’S PLAINT AT CHRISTMAS
I was awakened abruply, the words of the Angel, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt”, rang in my ear. Alarm suddenly breaks through my grogginess as I awaken Mary and the donkey to flee for our lives into darkness that lay outside the stable.
Astride a donkey, Mary, makes a cradle in her arms, safely sheltering our Child as she rides. Leaving behind our homeland, now corrupted and shredded by the violence of power, greed, and deceit, I lead my family carefully, stealthily through dark dangers to the safety of a foreign nation, to make a home amongst those who once enslaved and killed my people.
As strangers in a strange land, we are welcomed as freed people allowed to live and grow in safety and security. Awakened once more the angel’s voice calls to me in the deepness of sleep. We arise to return to the land that bore us, to fulfill our mission and, most importantly the mission of my Child.
How can my Child sleep in heavenly peace when his children, refugees like us, are ripped from the arms of their mothers and fathers, caged like animals, by those whose minds are as dark and dank as the worst of dungeons?
God’s angel weeps at the violence of a cruel humanity toward those beloved by God, the angel’s voice silenced by the fear, prejudice and greed in their hearts.
The children’s anguished cries rend the heavens, and reach my Child’s ear, in them, my Child suffers. Their fear become his fear, their hunger, his hunger, their thirst, his thirst, their imprisonment, his imprisonment, their suffering, his suffering, their poverty, his poverty, their deaths, his death.
Who will welcome my Child this Christmas? Who will protect my Child from the the dangers of the journey? Who will cradle my frightened Child in their arms? Who will dry the tears of my Child languishing in a government cage? who will welcome, feed, clothe, and shelter my Child this Christmas?
Who? Will you?
(c) 2018, Robert Charles Wagner. All rights reserved.
It is easy to be dazzled by the lights, sounds, smells, and tastes of the Season so much so that Christmas is reduced to mere commercial and religious sentimentality. The Prologue of John’s Gospel reminds us that all of Creation was birthed through Jesus, the Logos of God. This profound insight was grasped in the spirituality of the early Church, Sts. Francis and Clare of Assisi, and Juliann of Norwich, who spoke of Jesus as both Incarnate brother and Mother of all Creation.
To truly “keep” Christmas, we must recognize our Incarnate Lord, who is both Brother and Mother to all refugees languishing in refugee camps and U.S. prisons. In Matthew 25:31-46 we hear Jesus say, “Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.” As we enjoy our Christmas celebration with our families, let us pray for the families of all refugees and for the reunification of refugee families in the United States this Christmas.
Poetry, more so than prose, has the uncanny ability to
engage our lives. Poetry will challenge us and force us to reflect on the
assumptions upon which we have built our world. This is especially true about
religious poetry. Two of the most significant, modern religious poets are
Denise Levertov and Mary Oliver. On this fourth Sunday of Advent, I give you
two poems that Mary Oliver wrote about the Annunciation.
ANNUNCIATION
To the impossible: Yes!
Enter and penetrate
O Spirit. Come and bless
This hour: the star is late.
Only the absurdity of love
Can break the bonds of hate.
AFTER ANNUCIATION
This is the irrational season
When love blooms bright and wild.
Had Mary been filled with reason
There’d have been no room for the child.
As Christmas draws near, may the Spirit enter and
penetrate our lives with the absurdity of love that destroys all hate and
death. May we be filled with the same irrational impulse to welcome, as Mary
did, the Child of God into our lives.
