Month: September 2018

Were That All Are Prophets! A reflection for the 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time

I initially wrote this as an article for the Knights See See newsletter. The reflection is from the readings for this Sunday. I think it works here just as well.

In the first reading for the 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time, we hear the elders of the Israelites complaining to Moses that there were two men prophesizing that were not among their group. In the Gospel, Jesus heard complaints from the 12 apostles about a man exorcising demons in the name of Jesus who was not an apostle. Both Moses and Jesus reply to those complaining in a similar way. Moses said, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the people of the LORD were prophets! Would that the LORD might bestow his spirit on them all!” Jesus said, “Do not prevent him. There is no one who performs a mighty deed in my name who can at the same time speak ill of me. For whoever is not against us is for us.”

Both readings clearly teach that the invitation from God to spread the Good News of Jesus, to continue the work of God from the moment of Creation is not entrusted to just a select few or to some ecclesial caste, or, for that matter, some specific religious tradition. In other words, it is not to just those whose names begin with a Most Reverend (Bishop), Reverend (Priest) of Reverend Mr (Deacon) that are to proclaim the Good News of Jesus in word and action, but to all the baptized. Similarly, the sacred work of Jesus is entrusted to those outside the Catholic tradition, Dr Martin Luther King Jr, Dietrich Bonhoeffer (Baptist minister and Lutheran minister respectively), and even outside the Christian religion, Rabbi Martin Buber and Mahatma Ghandi (Jewish and Hindu respectively). As Pope Francis has taught, there are atheists who will enter Heaven long before many Christians.

What is the primary message taught and lived by all these groups? If one were to study the religions of the world, the common denominator, stated in many different ways, is “Love God with all your heart, mind, and strength. And, love your neighbor as your yourself.” Sound vaguely familiar? It is the heart of Jesus’ message and mission he taught and lived. The days of passing the religious buck to the ordained and religious is over (“Let Father do it. Let Sister do it.”). As Knights of Columbus, this is our primary purpose as an organization. As baptized Catholics this is the primary goal of our lives. And this sacred mission is entrusted to ALL by God.

PSALM OFFERING 10 OPUS 10: Mysterium Caelesti (For Paul, Emily, Zack, Teagan, and Evy)

Sunset at Key West (2006).

“Be still and know that I am God!” (Psalm 46:10, NRSV)

Over an 8 day period, I journeyed with a parish family as they kept vigil by the side of their beloved, Paul. Paul had been battling cancer for four years, and had reached the point when the best option was to let go of this life and enter eternal life. So Emily, his wife, and their children lovingly walked those last hard steps with him and entrusted him to God on September 8th.

Over the last 8 days of his life, I was there almost daily with the family. After he died, we prayed together the Prayers for the Dead. And later, planned his funeral Mass. I wrote Emily, “This past week has been a very sacred week for me as I have journeyed with you, Paul, and your children. It is a hard journey, but it is filled with such great love. In my 41 years of church ministry accompanying people through many joys and struggles, I have found it important to enter into the joys and the suffering of those to whom I minister. I will never feel the incredible impact that Paul’s love and his death has had on you and your children. You have shared an intimacy with Paul I will never have. Yet, I have had the grace of you and your family inviting me into what you are experiencing and it is from there that I share a little bit of the grief you are now experiencing.

It has been a tremendous honor, a sacred one at that, for me. … I have attached above a simple song for piano that I composed just yesterday, dedicated to you, Paul, Zach, Teagan, and Evy. I call these piano songs, “Psalm Offerings.” Unlike the psalms there are no words to these songs. There is usually a scriptural inspiration behind them. What I experienced this past week is a line from one of the psalms, “Be still and know that I am God.” I think of these songs as similar to the Catholic custom of lighting a candle when one offers up a prayer for someone. The only difference is that a song is being played. Being a classically trained musician, I compose in that genre. For whatever it is worth, I give this to you and the family.”

As the psalm verse suggests, this is a meditation on the mystery and love of God. It is composed in the key of F major and is in simple 3 part, ABA form.

Psalm Offering 10 Opus 10: Mysterium Caelesti (for Paul, Emily, Zach, Teagan, and Evy) (c) 2018, Robert Charles Wagner. All rights reserved.

(Repost with music) PSALM OFFERING 9 OPUS 10: Polka Slovnatsí (For George and Jane Brezina)

Ruthie and our son, Andy, at the piano in 1976.

“David danced before the Lord with all his might; David was girded with a linen ephod. ¹⁵ So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet.” (2 Samuel 6: 14-15)

David dancing with joy before the Ark of the Covenant as it entered Jerusalem for the first time is a very vivid image and is the inspiration for this music.

I composed this for two very special people at St Wenceslaus, George and Jane Brezina. They are very involved in the music ministry at the church and George is “the sound guy” for the music ministry at Masses and other musical celebrations. Since St Wenceslaus was founded principally by Czechoslovakian immigrants in the 19th century, it was only fitting that this Psalm Offering is called Polka Slovatnsí (Celebratory Polka).

As the title suggests this is a polka but not what one would ordinarily associate with the typical “In Heaven There Is No Beer” kind of polka that generally comes to mind. It is more in the style of the polkas composed by Johann Strauss Jr (when the Waltz King wasn’t composing waltzes or operettas).

The polka is composed in the key of A major. It is in Rondo form: AA,BB,AA,CC,AA,DD,AA,BB,A,Coda.

Psalm Offering 9 Opus 10: Polka Slovotsni (c) 2018, Robert Charles Wagner. All rights reserved.

Ephphatha! Be Opened! – a homily for the 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

In the baptismal ritual, there is a small rite called the Ephphetha Rite in which the priest or deacon touches the ears and the mouth of the one being baptized and says, “The Lord Jesus made the deaf hear and the mute speak. May he soon touch your ears to receive his word, and your mouth to proclaim his faith, to the praise and glory of God the Father.”

The word upon which we need to focus in the scriptures this Sunday, are the words of Jesus, “Ephphatha!” “Be Opened!”, and the words of Isaiah, “Be strong, fear not!” For our eyes, our ears, our mouths, and, most importantly, our hearts to be opened, we must remain strong and free from fear.

We live in a world consumed in fear. The overriding message of “Be afraid!” assails us day after day on the radio, television and all forms of social media. Fear can paralyze us. Fear will eventually destroy us. I remember a woman coming to me for spiritual direction after 911 who was so fearful that terrorists were going to kill her, she found it near impossible to leave her home to go to church.

Fear prevents us from opening our lives to the freedom of seeing what God wants us to see, to hear what God wants us to hear, to love as God wants us to love. God calls us to let go of these fears that inhibit our growing as disciples of Jesus. Isaiah calls to us from the past telling us that we need not fear because God comes with vindication, God comes to save us.

Often when we think about ghettos, we think of large groups of people living in big urban cities. However, this is an untruth. It matters not where we live, whether it be a rural area, small town, suburbia, or big urban centers, we often find ourselves living in ghettos of our own making. We live in our ghettos because the world outside them is seen as a bad and frightening place. Truth be told, many of our fears are unfounded and largely products of our own imagination.

To open our eyes, our ears, our mouths, our hearts require us to leave the false security and comfort of our ghettos and trust that God will be there to lead us and keep us safe. I remember on July 3rd of 2004 when I received a call from the Chancery. I was told that the Archbishop was reassigning me from St Hubert in suburban Chanhassen parish of 3200 households to be the parish administrator of St Stephen in South Minneapolis. The Archbishop could not find a priest who was willing to be the pastor for the parish. I had served 9 years in a small town parish, and now 20 years in a large suburban parish. Moving my ministry to St Stephen’s was a huge leap out of my comfort zone into something totally unknown to me.

I found St Stephen’s to be a very diverse congregation of disenfranchised people, many of whom were poor, gay and lesbian, ex-priests, ex-nuns, former convicts, the homeless, the developmentally disabled, Ecuadorian and Mexicans, and many people who had been or were broken spiritually, emotionally and physically. We hear in the reading from St James, “Did not God choose those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that he promised to those who love him?” These words of St James’ became so vivid as I sat and talked with, listened to the stories of my parishioners. I found that what I had in common with them was far more than that of our differences. Considering much of what they had experienced in life, their courage to persevere was nothing short of courageous and their faith in God extraordinary. They helped me to see the vulnerabilities in my own life and my own great dependence on God.

When we let go of our fears, we will find our eyes, our ears, our mouths, and our hearts opened up to the presence of God in one another. We find that the homeless man that looks so scary begging for a few dollars at an off ramp, is really a war veteran whose soul was torn asunder when he or she was in combat. Having experienced the horror of combat, he or she could not return to normal civilian life. In the rectory of St Stephens is the parish homeless shelter that sleeps 44 men a night, many of whom I found were Vietnam war veterans suffering from severe Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

There was one homeless man with whom I did spiritual direction who believed that Homeland Security implanted a device in his head and was monitoring everything he said and everywhere he went. He would look nervously out the window at a parked pickup truck on the street and tell me it was someone from the government following him. He didn’t need me to tell him that he was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, and that he should be taking his medications. He needed me to listen to his story. He needed me to see the world through his eyes. I asked him how he coped knowing that his every word and every movement was being scrutinized by the government. Then, I asked him this question, “Where do you find God in all your suffering?” He answered me saying that he firmly believed that God had a plan for him. It was his need to come to know and live God’s plan that prevented him from jumping to his death off the 3rd Ave bridge into the Mississippi River. As our visit ended, I asked him where he lived. He replied, “I live in a storage shelter. It’s not bad living there, but the woman who lives in the storage shelter next to me is crazy.”

Today, Jesus touches our ears, our mouth, our eyes, and our hearts and commands them to be opened. When we trust in God’s power and protection and let go of our fears, we will find ourselves rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that Jesus promises to those who love him.

A Song For My Mother and My Father, Psalm Offering 8 Opus 10

Mom bringing me home from the hospital.

Psalm 71
For you, O Lord, are my hope, my trust, O Lord, from my youth. Upon you I have leaned from my birth; it was you who took me from my mother’s womb. My praise is continually of you. I have been like a portent to many, but you are my strong refuge. My mouth is filled with your praise, and with your glory all day long. I will also praise you with the harp for your faithfulness, O my God; I will sing praises to you with the lyre, O Holy One of Israel. My lips will shout for joy when I sing praises to you; my soul also, which you have rescued. (Psalm 71: 5-8, 22-23, NRSV)

There are certain psalms that have a great deal of meaning for people. Psalm 71 is one of those psalms for me. This song is based on the verses above. As I reflect on this psalm, I find myself a child so very much loved by my God, who is both mother and father to me. God is the parent who never abandons me but is always looking after me.

As a young child, I remember going to the big Chicago department store, Marshall Fields, with my mother. It was right before Christmas and the store was crowded with people. My mother was shopping for clothes, a very tedious task for a four year old child. Marshall Fields’ toy store was a veritable treasure trove of toys, something more akin to my interest then women’s undergarments and the like. The toy section of the store called to me like the song of the Greek Sirens luring Greek mariners to their destruction. Tempted by the thought of all the toys beckoning to me in the toy section of the store, I wandered away from my mother. My mother knew me all too well and let me wander, keeping a watchful eye on me. After tiring of looking at the toys I suddenly realized that I was lost and alone in this vast store filled with people, my mother nowhere in sight. Little did I know that she was keeping an eye on me, just an aisle over from me. I became frightened to the point of panic! Suddenly, there she was in front of me, simultaneously comforting me and gently scolding me for having wandered away from her.

Dad and I.

This is the God, the gentle loving parent that this psalm portrays so vividly to me. I dedicate this to my mom and my dad, who cared for me, protected me, allowed me to make mistakes all the while loving me so very greatly. Their death has not separated them from me. As they did, when I was a child, they keep a watchful, loving eye on me, just as my mother did at Marshall Fields in Chicago so very long ago.

ABOUT THE MUSIC: This song is in simple 3-part form. There are 3 melodies. If one was to label the melodies A,B, and C, the song begins with A which segues to B, then to C, back to A, to B, to C, to B, to C, back to A, and ends with B and a Coda. It is in 2/4 time and composed in the key of C Major.

Psalm Offering 8 Opus 10 – A Song For My Mother and My Father (c) 2018, Robert Charles Wagner. All right reserved.

Trapped in our ghettos – a reflection for the 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

Throughout sacred scripture, we read that the poor, the needy, and the vulnerable hold a high place in God’s eyes and heart. In Hannah’s Song, she sings of God raising the poor and the beggar from the ash heap and setting them on the thrones of the princes. Centuries later, in her Magnificat, Mary praises God for casting down the mighty from their thrones and lifting up the lowly and vulnerable. She extols God for filling the hungry with food, while the rich God sends away with empty stomachs. In Luke’s version of the Beatitudes, Jesus begins with the words, “Blessed are the poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.” God’s Kingdom is so counter-cultural in a society where we vilify the poor, the hungry, and homeless. We accuse them of being lazy, living on the public dole, of not “pulling themselves up by their own bootstraps.”

We often associate the word ghetto as a phenomenon of the big city. You don’t have to live in the city to live in a ghetto. We isolate ourselves in our own ghettos, be they small towns, rural communities, suburbs, parishes, associating ourselves only with those among whom we feel safe and fearful of those who don’t look like us, talk like us, or worship like us.

Have you ever talked with someone who is poor or homeless and heard his or her own story? I have. Many of them lived in homes and communities just like ours. At St. Stephen’s, many of the men who spent the night in the parish homeless shelter are war veterans. What they experienced in war tore apart their souls, so much so, they find it impossible to return to their families and their former lives. Many of the homeless suffer from mental illness. Many have been bankrupt by an illness. Rather than repugnant or fearful, I found many homeless living heroic lives considering the suffering they have experienced.

St. James reminds us in the second reading to not make distinctions between those who have and those who have nothing. For it is the poor who are often “rich in faith” and the wealthy who are not. If God makes no distinctions as to who enters the Kingdom of Heaven, nor should we, as disciples of Jesus, make any distinctions.

Moving away from idolatry of the law, a reflection on the readings for the 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

The American folk artist and icon, Pete Seeger, use to sing an old talking blues that went: “If you want to go to heaven, I’ll tell you what to do, you gotta grease your feet in a little mutton stew. Slide right out of the devil’s hand and ease over to the Promised Land. Take it easy! Go greasy!” If only going to heaven would be that easy.

The readings for today tell us that if we want to be heaven bound, it takes more than just scrupulously following the commandments. St James urges his disciples to humbly welcome God’s Word which has been planted in their hearts and by which their souls can be saved. He tells them to be doers of God’s Word, not mere listeners. How to do this? St James tells them to care for the vulnerable people (the widows and the orphans of James’ time) and to not get caught up in the false doctrines of the world.

In the Gospel, Jesus criticizes the Pharisees’ approach to the commandments. Jesus tells them that they are guilty of idolatry in so much as it is Mosaic Law they worship, not God, who gave humanity the Law. While they scrupulously follow the law, their intent in following the Law is false and twisted. Jesus tells them that they must dig deeper than the mere surface of the Law. To truly keep the commandments, they must discover the intent of God behind the Law, which is precisely the point St James is making to his disciples.

Jesus’ words ring true to us today. The Church has long taught that the intent behind our actions, including our reception of the sacraments is as important as receiving the sacraments. If we go to the sacrament of reconciliation and are not truly sorry for the sins we have committed, no absolution we may receive will absolve us from our sins. Baptism is more than just joining the Jesus club. When we baptize our children, we, as parents, must intend to do our very best to raise our children in the faith. The scriptures are clear that if we are to follow Jesus as his disciples, we must live the “spirit of the law”, not just pay lip service to the law.