Have a Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year!

Advent is a time of hopeful waiting. We wait with patience and expectation but also with joy and excitement. Children are great models of faith for Advent because of the exuberance with which they wait for Christmas. If you are with children on Christmas Eve and/or Christmas Day, really watch the way they wait for Santa to come. When was the last time in your life you were that excited about something? Children at Christmas are generally excited about the gifts they are or will be receiving. How excited are we about the numerous gifts we have been given?

Advent is a time of joy and excitement, but also patience (this part is a bit harder for adults as well as children). In a passage telling the reader to be patient, the letter of James says to "steady your hearts" (5:8). What a great image of patience - to steady one's heart. Our culture tends to be one of instant gratification, which seems to make patience even more difficult. I am a very impatient person, whether waiting in line at the store Christmas shopping or driving behind someone going slower than I would like to be driving. Naturally then in my prayer life, I tend to be impatient. I want things to happen now. God doesn't work that way (at least in my experience and occasionally to my frustration). Ideally, we would model our own patience after God's patience. The second letter of Peter tells us that God's patience is for our sake. When the early Christians were concerned that the second coming had not yet occurred, the letter reassures them:

In the Lord's eyes, one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years are as a day. The Lord does not delay in keeping his promise--though some consider it "delay". Rather, he shows you generous patience, since he wants none to perish but all to come to repentance. (2 Pt. 3:8-9)

While we wait for God, God is waiting for us.

We wait in hope. I have often thought that hope is a forgotten virtue. We talk about faith and love quite a bit, but we don't talk about hope very often. Today's world often seems so cynical and tired. Sometimes when facing just one more scandal in the Church or in the government, it is hard to find that glimmer of hope or even know exactly what it is we are hoping for. It is precisely for these reasons that I think hope is so needed today. We hope for a new day and a better world. The color of Advent is a blue purple, the color of the sky at dawn right before our world is lit up by sunlight. In our part of the world the days are at their shortest this time of the year, so many of you, like me, may begin your day in darkness and witness that purple blue sky while you wait for the light. We hear at this time of year the proclamation of Isaiah, that "the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light." (Is. 9:2) We read the prologue to the Gospel of John,

What came to be through him was life, and this life was the light of the human race; the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. (Jn. 1:3-5)

When we live in darkness, our eyes become accustomed to the darkness. We accept evil and sin in our world because we have become blind to the alternatives. When the Gospel of Matthew talks about the end-times, Jesus warns that "because of the increase in evil, the love of many will become cold." (Mt. 24:12) We lack the imagination and love needed to come up with new and creative ways of addressing the problems in our world and our lives. Poverty and violence seem inevitable. When somebody suddenly turns on a bright light, the natural reaction is to flinch, cover your eyes, and turn away. And yet light is the only thing that dispels darkness. Darkness is the absence of light - it is overcome by light but cannot overcome light. Choosing light is not always the easier choice, but in the end it is the only choice. Advent is the time to face the darkness. We bring light to the world through our acts of love and kindness, through cultivating patience, joy, and excitement. Advent is a time when we choose hope over despair. In choosing to be an Advent people, a people of hope, we must heed the words of the first letter of Peter:

Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope. (1 Pt. 3:15)

Do people see you as a hope-filled person? If someone today asked you the reason for your hope, what would you say?

Christmas is the season where we pray for peace on earth and wish goodwill to all humankind, and so I have found myself increasing distressed at the divisive tone I heard in conversations about Christmas and our culture lately. I understand that many Christians are a bit mystified by the fact that people who do not believe in Christ celebrate Christmas, the feast of the Incarnation. Rather than seeing this fact as a negative one however, as if Christmas has somehow been hijacked from Christians, I believe it is a sign of all that Christmas is supposed to be - the celebration of God's presence in the world. What do non-Christians celebrate at Christmas? In my experience, most of them celebrate family and love. Christmas is the celebration of the incarnation of God's love on earth, and so wherever people gather together to celebrate love, they are celebrating Christmas. It does not detract from Christmas to have those who are not of the Christian faith celebrate the season with those of us who are; it simply affirms and witnesses to the miracle of God's love active and present in the world today. It celebrates Emmanuel, God with us.

We hear a lot about the commercialization and materialism of the Christmas season, and I do think there is a valid critique there about how we sometimes let the details distract us from what is really important, but I don't think we give people enough credit for truly appreciating the spirit of Christmas. I have always been struck by the magical spirit of Christmas. I like the fact that people smile at perfect strangers at this time of year because of a feeling of human fellowship. I like the fact that the city streets are decorated and lit up. If the lights are snowflakes and snowmen, or the trees are called holiday trees instead of Christmas trees, does it really make it any less special or beautiful? I think "Happy Holidays" is a beautiful greeting because it can encompass Christmas, New Year's, Hanukkah, Kwanza, and any other religious or cultural celebration found at this time of year. What a wonderful expression to foster peace on earth! The word "holiday" comes from "holy day", so I don't think there is any reason to take the word as some sort of slight to Christianity. If people send holiday cards with pictures of snowmen on them instead of a manger scene, I would hope that the recipients can just appreciate the beautiful, loving gesture someone made in sending a card instead judging the person as somehow selling out to secular culture.

I do think those of us who are Christians benefit from the reminder to "Keep Christ in Christmas." It is so easy to get stressed out at this time of year because of all that needs to get done that we forget to take time for our own spiritual lives. I do believe that those busy Christmas preparations, decorating the house, baking cookies, shopping for gifts, wrapping gifts, etc., can be part of our Advent preparation for Christmas, but I also think it is good to step back from all of that at times and think about what it is we prepare for - the coming of Christ into the world. I was reading a passage from St. Charles Borromeo earlier this week that spoke of Advent as a time of preparation for three comings of Christ: the historical coming of Christ, the second coming at the end of time, and the coming of Christ into each of our hearts. How do we prepare for that coming of Christ into our hearts? St. Charles says that we put obstacles in the way to Christ's coming into our hearts, and so the preparation of Advent is examine our hearts and remove any obstacles we find to Christ's dwelling there. When we think of keeping Christ in Christmas, we need to recall that Christ is not some theoretical idea or word. Keeping Christ in Christmas means being Christlike in our thoughts, words, and actions. We are the Body of Christ. Like Mary we are called to bear Christ in the world. When others encounter us, do they experience of God's incarnate love? My prayer this Christmas is that Christians around the world do keep Christ in Christmas by the way they touch the lives of others. My prayer this Christmas is for peace on earth and good will among ALL humankind!

Restorative Justice, Part II
The second pair of speakers I heard at the Restorative Justice Conference was Linda Biehl and Ntobeko Peni from South Africa. In the wake of apartheid, South Africa instituted the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, a place where one could apply to receive amnesty for any act, omission, or offense with a political objective. Decisions were made on a case by case basis and amnesty was given when the objective of the crime was in fact political in nature and when the whole truth was given by the perpetrator. The victims also had a chance to tell their story to the Amnesty Committee. In addition to the Amnesty Committee, the Commission had a Human Rights Violations Committee that investigated human rights abuses and a Reparation and Rehabilitation Committee to restore victims' dignity and assist with rehabilitation and healing for survivors, their families, and the community as a whole. 22,000 victims told their stories. Over 7,000 perpetrators came seeking amnesty; around 850 received amnesty.

Ntobeko Peni, having spent about two years in prison for killing Amy Biehl (along with three others), applied for and received amnesty from the committee. Linda and Peter Biehl, Amy's parents, also attended and spoke at the hearings, saying that they did not oppose amnesty and that they had forgiven the men who killed their daughter. In a clip from Long Night's Journey into Day, a documentary about the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Amy's father (who has since died) talked about the work Amy had done to end apartheid, how proud they were that she had been willing to risk her life for that work, and how they would do everything in their power to honor her work and her memory. They spoke of the ironic fact that Amy had told them on the phone of the countless African men who were killed and listed in the papers simply by the number killed as opposed to the killing of a white person which would be headline news, not knowing that her name would be the name in the headlines. The mother of one of the other men involved in Amy's killing sent the Biehls an apology via a video tape. In the tape she spoke of their sorrow gathering around the table for the holidays, facing the sorrow of Amy's absence at the table. The Biehls personally went to meet her and tell her they would not oppose her son's plea for amnesty. The Biehls subsequently founded the Amy Biehl Foundation Trust to work against violence in South Africa. Linda Biehl, Amy's mother, speaks of her work as that of a grandmother working with young men who are looking for parenting, for guidance; men who lost their own childhood on the streets of South Africa during a war.

Ntobeko spoke of growing up watching his comrades be shot and killed daily, but that the environment did not scare him but motivated him. He said he was ready to die for the cause, and eventually was ready to kill for it. He said it was realizing who Amy was that broke him as an individual, and he stopped being a militant. At the hearings, Amy's parents told him that they had already forgiven him, and now it was up to South Africa to forgive him. Their statement had a profound effect on him, as he realized that he had killed someone fighting for the same cause and as he realized that he could have done things differently. He spoke of the current situation in South Africa, where things have not improved a great deal and the youth are involved in substance abuse and criminal activity. He started working with the Amy Biehl Foundation, but still was not at peace with himself. It was only in working with Amy's parents that he eventually realized he still needed to forgive himself, and he said that he found the strength to do so in their forgiveness of him. He said he would not have been able to do it without them.

Linda spoke of the youth in South Africa today who have been taught the skills of violence, but no longer have the resistance into which to put that violent energy, so they are turning to crime. She realized through the experience the importance of mothering, and that it is out of her identity as a mother that she is able to mother those who did not have the kind of childhood her own daughter had. She said that when you can face pain, you can take it to another level. Reconciliation is energizing; it is being proactive.

The third pair of speakers at the Restorative Justice Conference was Robi Damelin and Ali Abu Awwad. Robi and Ali's story can be seen in the documentary Encounter Point, which was recently released and was shown at the Milwaukee International Film Festival a few weeks ago. Robi's son had been killed by a Palestinian sniper while he was serving in the Israeli military and stationed in the West Bank. Robi pleaded with those listening not to take sides in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, saying that you cannot be pro-Israel or pro-Palestine without becoming bitter. She said, "It does not help if you are pro-this or pro-that; help us find reconciliation." There is no black or white, she told us, only a vast amount of gray. In a letter to the mother of the sniper that killed her son David, Robi told the mother that her son would not have killed David had he known him, had he heard David play a Mozart Concerto on the piano. She understands that as a young child the sniper saw his uncle killed and that he had lost two of his family members in the First Intifada. She said that we must work to understand the consequences of the Israeli occupation on the Israeli people and the suffering of the Palestinian people. Robi said that her son went to serve in the West Bank in the hopes that he could be one Israeli soldier who treated the Palestinian people with dignity, and so that those under his command would do the same. After she spoke in once, a Palestinian man came up to her and told her he had been through her son's checkpoint the day before he was shot. He said the soldier apologized for having to make them go through the checkpoint. He said it was the first time an Israeli soldier had ever treated him with such respect. Robi said that images are seen in the media, and judging is so easy, but do you know what is in the heart of the young man who is standing there?

Ali Abu Awwad, whose brother was killed by Israeli soldiers, feels that the biggest enemy to peace is the media. He believes that both sides want peace, but no one is giving them any hope. After his brother was killed, Ali said that he was broken into a million pieces, but he couldn't do anything. He couldn't kill anyone because it would not make it better. He met with a group called Bereaved Israeli Families, and for the first time, he saw the pain of the other side. He said that it is easy to be right, but it is very difficult to be honest. You have to decide to be human, and then allow the other side to be human. You have to understand each other's heaviness, and allow the other side to understand why you are angry. He joined the group of bereaved families, but said that it is not easier; it is harder, but he can live now. He compared it to lighting a small candle in the darkness. You do not light up the whole darkness, but it gives you enough light to take a step to get out of the darkness.

(For those of you who read my bulletin column, I apologize that some of this entry will be repetitive, but I have expanded my comments beyond what I put in Sunday's bulletin!) This past Monday, I attended at the International Restorative Justice Conference on Healing after Political Violence. Restorative justice is a process that focuses not simply on the criminal or perpetrator of a violent act, but also includes the victim and the community. The approach views crime as a wound that needs to be healed, and thus focuses on healing instead of retaliation and revenge. As Janine Geske said in her introductory remarks, if we choose revenge and retaliation, the violence will never end. Mark Umbreit, a professor and Founding Director of the Center for Restorative Justice and Peacemaking, noted that peace requires a heart open to understanding the context of the other. He quoted Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, who states

If we could read the secret history of our enemies we should find in each man's life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility.

Peace and healing can only be found in getting to know and understand the other as a fellow human being. Dr. Umbreit also made the point that political means can achieve disarmament, but communities have to build peace.

The conference focused specifically on healing and reconciliation after occasions of political violence using three pairs of speakers. The first pair of speakers was Jo Berry, a woman whose father was killed in the 1984 bombing of the Brighton Hotel in England by the IRA, and Patrick Magee, a former IRA activist who served time in prison for bombing the Brighton Hotel. The second pair was Linda Biehl, whose daughter Amy was beaten and stabbed to death while living in South Africa as a Fulbright Scholar, and Ntobeko Peni, one of the men convicted in Amy’s murder. The third pair was Robi Damelin, whose son was killed by a Palestinian sniper while serving in the Israeli army in the occupied territories, and Ali Abu Awwad, whose brother was killed by Israeli soldiers and who himself has been shot by Israeli soldiers and spent four years in prison (this was the one pair where neither individual was directly responsible for the act of violence against the other). Listening to these individuals speak was an experience of seeing God’s grace at work in the world. What they were doing, opening up their personal pain to a crowd of strangers, was certainly not easy for them, but each of them felt it was necessary. I learned so much from them and would like to share some of that with you. I realize it is not the same as listening to them in person, but what they had to say was too important not to pass along. I apologize if my notes do not do justice to the words they actually said!

Jo Berry commented that she would not call the experience of forgiveness a Christian experience, but a human experience, a spiritual experience. She said that her forgiveness of Patrick was not motivated by religion per se, but rather that many things motivated it. Pat added that he felt that the churches of Ireland have been a part of the problem rather than the solution, and that any good that came from them came from individuals rather than the institutions. I found that to be very sad. I think that we need to ask ourselves in what ways the Church is fostering healing and reconciliation in the world as opposed to division. There seems to be a lot of division between Catholics right now without much attempt (that I have seen) to understand the feelings, perspective, and context of the person with whom one disagrees. How are we/are we modeling healing and reconciliation within our own worshiping communities?

The overwhelming message of these individuals was the need to see others as human beings, not as the enemy. Patrick Magee stated that he realized he was guilty of something he had always attributed to the enemy – dehumanizing and demonizing those he was fighting against. Jo Berry said that if she had lived Pat’s life, she might have made the same decisions. Jo commented that a friend of hers, after seeing a documentary on her and Pat, remarked, “Pat doesn’t seem like a terrorist at all!” Jo said the problem is that we demonize the terrorist and fail to see him/her as a human being. Pat ironically commented that he is not a violent person, and yet he has caused a lot of violent actions. He began as a pacifist, but eventually was able to see no alternative to violence. He said that what he did goes against his inner grain. Jo commented on how it had affected Pat to choose violence and how seldom that aspect, the damage done to the perpetrator of the violent act, is addressed.

The other sentiment that all of these individuals commented on was that peace will never work if any party is excluded from the talks. Pat commented that no inclusive settlement can be built by excluding the margins. The party excluded will simply grow more angry, resentful, and bitter, and the violence will continue, if not get worse. Jo added that our greatest hope for peace is in listening to those who are not heard, to those who are choosing violence to get their needs met. Victims become the next victimizers.

To read more about Jo and Pat's story, as well as reflections Jo has written herself about the experience, see this article about documentary that the BBC has produced, Facing the Enemy: Everyman. Due to the length of this entry, I will stop here for now, and share some of the reflections from Linda Biehl, Ntobeko Peni, Robi Damelin, and Ali Abu Awaad next week.

Happy All Souls Day! I was initially going to write on the feasts of All Saints and All Souls, but given that it is almost Election Day, I decided to write on politics and the Catholic Church instead! Many questions have arisen lately about the Church's role in the political world. Often times people are very upset when the Church speaks out on or gets involved with political issues, whether it is criticism of the invasion of Iraq, refusing communion to politicians who vote in ways that support abortion, or urging people to vote against the referendum on the death penalty and for the amendment regarding marriage. I can understand people's concern, as I myself disagree with some of the stands on political issues the Church has taken, but I understand and agree with the reasons the Church gets involved in the first place. We live in a country that upholds the separation of Church and State. In fact, the Catholic Church also supports the separation of Church and State on a governmental level. As Christians, however, our religious beliefs should affect our political opinions. Likewise, the Church has an obligation to address its members and society as a whole on justice issues. What the Church cannot do is take a partisan position. In other words, the Church cannot endorse any specific candidate or political party. The Church is not even allowed to state that a certain candidate is the "pro-life" candidate nor can it pass out any literature that endorses one candidate over another. The Church can urge you to vote one way or another on referendums because they address issues not candidates or parties.

For more information on the Church's stance on various political issues and the guidelines given for parish involvement in political issues, check out the website for the Wisconsin Catholic Conference, the public policy and lobbying organization of the Wisconsin bishops. On the years of presidential elections (so last written in 2004), the United States Bishops also write a document titled, "Faithful Citizenship: A Catholic Call to Political Responsibility." When looking at the Church's stance on various political issues, it should quickly become clear that there is no party or candidate that upholds all of the positions of the Catholic Church. The Church maintains that all Catholics have an obligation and a responsibility to participate in the political process, and therefore should vote. They will not (or should not) tell you for whom you should vote. "Faithful Citizenship" speaks of the fact that a Catholic's political responsibility does not end with casting a ballot, but in fact truly begins the day after the election in terms of lobbying your local, state and federal officials on important public policy issues. One of the bedrock tenets of Catholic social teaching is that we must all have a concern for the common good and that the role of the government is to protect the common good. We live in solidarity with the entire human family, and therefore must be concerned not only about issues that affect our lives and those we care about, but also issues that impact the community and the entire global society.

All of the above raises the question of what one is to do when one finds oneself in the position of disagreeing with the Church's position on a specific issue. The first thing to do is to be responsibly informed about what the Church teaches and why it teaches what it does. As one of my professors used to put it, you need to discover the value behind the teaching. Even if you disagree with the position the Church takes, you may find you agree with the value the Church is trying to protect. The second thing to do is think about why you take the position you do. Examine where your own ideas come from and discuss the issue with others you respect, both those who agree and disagree with you. What values are behind your own position? Sometimes what is at stake is the conflict between two values, both of which are good in and of themselves. Ultimately, if you find you cannot accept the Church's position, you may dissent from the Church's stance, but in doing so are asked to keep an open mind about the teaching. The Second Vatican Council, the document Gaudium et Spes (The Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World) addresses the dignity of moral conscience. It states that

deep within his conscience man discovers a law which he has not laid upon himself but which he must obey. Its voice, ever calling him to love and to do what is good and to avoid evil, tells him inwardly at the right moment: do this, shun that. For man has in his heart a law inscribed by God. His dignity lies in observing this law, and by it he will be judged. His conscience is man's most secret core, and his sanctuary. There he is alone with God whose voice echoes in his depths. By conscience, in a wonderful way, that law is made known which is fulfilled in the love of God and of one's neighbor. Through loyalty to conscience Christians are joined to other men in the search for truth and for the right solution to so many moral problems which arise both in the life of individuals and from social relationships. (GS 16)

The document recognizes the primacy of human conscience in decision-making, but it goes on to state that a conscience can go astray through ignorance or the blindness of sin. Following one's conscience is not simply a matter of doing whatever one wants. A conscience has to be informed and examined. The presumption of correctness is given to Church teaching. The Church does not take positions on issues lightly, but rather studies the matter at length, consulting with experts on the issue before forming their positions and teaching. However, when one finds oneself unable to agree with that teaching in the depths of one's (informed and examined) conscience, one has a right to follow one's convictions and can withhold personal assent from the teaching.

Theologian Karl Rahner has an axiom that states, dependence on God and human freedom are in a relationship of direct proportion, not inverse proportion. In other words, freedom does not decrease, but rather increases when we surrender to God. This statement is contrary to what one might normally presume, that the more you surrender to God's will, the less freedom you have. For Rahner freedom is the freedom to be what we were created to be, the freedom to be in love with God. If you think about the analogy of a healthy marriage relationship, your relationship with the person you love, while inevitably involving some compromise, should ultimately bring out the best in you and foster your growth and development as a human being. Remember the famous line from the movie, As Good as it Gets? Jack Nicholson's character says to Helen Hunt's character, "You make me want to be a better person." (This line is, in my opinion, a much healthier concept for a relationship than the famous Jerry Maguire line, "You complete me," which smacks of co-dependence!) Another example is the line from a wedding homily in Gail Godwin's novel Evensong, in which the priest says of the couple, "May their having each other make more of them both." Our relationship with God should be this way - it should make us want to be better people. In loving surrender to God, we discover that God is the one that enables our freedom, the freedom that lets us become who we want to be.

The difficulty is balancing this tremendous freedom and dependence on God. Surrendering to God's will does not necessarily mean accepting things as they are, surrendering to the status quo. We use our freedom to co-create (with God) the reality in which we live. There is a joke about a pastor who prayed day after day to win the lottery to help the poor of his parish, and when he died he was expressing his anger at God for not answering his prayer. God says to the man, "Give me a break, you could have at least bought a ticket!" With freedom and faith there comes a responsibility to see the opportunities we are given and to act on them. At the same time, one must be careful not to use the "God helps those who help themselves" mentality to blame the victim.

The relationship between freedom and surrender means using freedom to try to act in accordance with God's will, but how do we know God's will? While there are many different ways and traditions of discernment in Christianity, the bottom line is we never know with absolute certainty that our actions are in accordance with the will of God. Presuming to know God's will is a dangerous business. The uncertainty with which we live is part of that to which we surrender. I have always taken comfort in the humble words of a prayer by Thomas Merton:

MY LORD GOD, I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end.
Nor do I really know myself,
and the fact that I think that I am following your will
does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please you
does in fact please you.
And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.
I hope that I will never do anything
apart from that desire.
And I know that if I do this
you will lead me by the right road
though I may know nothing about it.
Therefore will I trust you always
though I may seem to be lost
and in the shadow of death.
I will not fear, for you are ever with me,
and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.
Amen.

Last week I addressed the spiral of violence that I see in our society. This week I want to mention the shining example (an example I was remiss not to mention last week) that exemplifies the very Scripture passages I referenced in that entry. There have been many stories and reflections in the news about the Amish community's loving forgiveness in word and deed of the man, Charles Roberts, who murdered their children. I am adding my own reflections because I don't think enough can be said about their extraordinary reaction. In addition to expressing their forgiveness of the shooter, the Amish community reached out to Roberts' wife and children in the midst of their grief. The Amish community responded to violence with love and goodness by visiting the Roberts' family to bring food and express their condolences, inviting the Roberts' wife and family to attend the funerals of the children killed, and attending Roberts' funeral themselves. They have set up a fund for Roberts' children and have expressed the hope that the family will stay in the area as opposed to moving away, assuring them that if they stay, they will have friendship and support. I must add my disappointment in reading the news report that vandals had disturbed Roberts' grave, an act that can only add to the grief of Roberts' innocent family and can only be seen in stark contrast to the loving and forgiving reaction of the families of the victims themselves.

I stand in awe of a community that practices what they believe with a sincerity that I doubt I could match in similar circumstances. While I would not wish ill on the family members who are certainly not to blame for the tragedy and are undoubtedly suffering themselves, I would probably not wish to see or interact with those who would be such a vivid reminder of my own suffering were something similar to happen in my community. The Amish community took the exact opposite approach, reaching out to them in a way that expresses profound graciousness. They say that they forgive because they believe they are forgiven. They grieve, but also believe that their children are in a better place, and so are able to respond with love instead of bitterness. The Amish that live among us have always been a strong counter-cultural witness to what it means to live simply and with humility. At the time of their most public and mournful moment, they have also been a witness to what it means to live the principles of non-violence.

One of the reasons I love working in a parish is because I learn so much from the people with whom I work. A woman at our parish spoke the other night about how it can be difficult to see Jesus as an example for our own behavior and reactions, because while we believe he was fully human, we can also use his divinity as an excuse not to do as he did (well of course he could forgive, he was divine!). She said that when you look at a human person who does live as Jesus lived, it takes away the excuse. If the Amish community can imitate Jesus' own love and forgiveness in such a vivid way, the rest of us have no excuse not to do the same.

Hearing all of the reports of school shootings this past week, I have been reflecting on the prevalence of violence in our society. It seems to me that we are teaching our children to deal with conflict through violence. Popular sentiment all too often seems to favor responding to violence with violence, from war to the death penalty. Why are we then surprised when our children respond to conflict in their own lives with violence? Yet for those of us who are supposed to be witnesses for the Christian tradition in this world, this is not what our tradition teaches us. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus says

But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil. When someone strikes you on your right cheek, turn the other one to him as well. . . . You have heard it said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you. (Cf. Mt. 5:38-48 and Lk. 6: 27-36)

Paul also says in the Letter to the Romans, "Do not be conquered by evil, but conquer evil with good." (Cf. Romans 12: 9-21; Paul is drawing on the Hebrew Scriptures in this passage, cf. Proverbs 25:21-22) How can we, as Christians, witness to this ideal of non-violence in our society? Could we stop the cycle of violence by responding with goodness and love?

I saw the movie Crash last year, a movie that is explicitly about racism, but I really thought the underlying theme of the movie was anger. It made me reflect on how angry people seem to be in our society. That anger seems to bubble to the surface at the slightest provocation, such as someone cutting someone off in traffic. Where is this anger coming from? The tagline from the movie website is "Moving at the speed of life, we are bound to collide with each other." Is it the speed of life, the stress we are feeling from being stretched too thin too much of the time that is a source of this anger? While I don't think that is the entire answer, I think it might be part of the answer. I think many people fall into a pattern of living life on the edge of their breaking point.

Going back to where this reflection started, a recent study by the American Academy of Pediatrics reported that our children do not have enough down time or unstructured playtime in their lives. As a result, more of our children are going to the doctor with medical problems related to stress. Rather than us being more childlike (as Jesus suggests we need to be to enter the kingdom of heaven), it seems we are making our children more adultlike. Perhaps we all need a little more down time. Maybe then, we can do as Paul tells us in the Letter to the Ephesians,

And do not grieve the holy Spirit of God, with which you were sealed for the day of redemption. All bitterness, fury, anger, shouting, and reviling must be removed from you, along with all malice. (And) be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ. (Eph. 4:30-32)

Imagine what the world would look like if even just those of us who profess a Christian belief managed to live in this way!

I have been thinking a lot about the concept of prayer lately, partially because in my own life I have run up against the realization that God is not The Great Wish Granter in the sky. I knew this, of course, on an intellectual level, but to sincerely pray for things and not have them come to pass makes it necessary for me to re-examine my understanding of prayer and my image of God. I am reminded of the line from the movie Shadowlands, where C.S. Lewis (played by Anthony Hopkins) says to his friend, "I do not pray because it changes God; I pray because it changes me. I pray because the need flows out of me constantly." And so I have to ask myself in what ways my prayer changes me.

If I was asked what prayer is, I would respond that prayer is my relationship with God. Prayer is my way of being with God, sometimes spilling out what is in my heart, sometimes listening, sometimes just sitting in silence. Like any relationship, there are times when I feel very connected to God and in sync with God, and there are times when I feel a disconnect between God and myself. Teresa of Avila, a great mystic who tells of experiencing three years of dryness or disconnectedness in her relationship with God, says that in the midst of that dryness one should never stop praying, never cut off the relationship altogether. I have tried to hold true to that advice, praying even when I feel lost and alone, even when I wonder if God is really listening.

Prayer is also about my relationships with other people, about our interconnectedness with one another. Prayer is my solidarity with others in their joys and sufferings, sharing that solidarity with God who is in solidarity with us. As I imagine is true for many people, I generally do want God to "fix things" for me and for those I care about. That doesn't always happen. Returning to prayer as a way of "being with" God and others, I place those I care for in the presence of God. I pray that they feel the love and support and peace of God's presence in their lives. Sometimes I pray for those who cannot pray for themselves, either because they don't believe in God or because they are too angry with God, etc., placing them in the presence of God so that they may somehow experience God's presence through my experience of God's presence. They may not call what they experience "God," but I do believe that they may experience the love, peace, joy, etc., that is what I understand to be God.

In his book of prayers, Encounters with Silence, Karl Rahner writes about experiencing God's silence in prayer. He says,

Isn't Your Silence a sure sign that You're not listening? Or do You really
listen quite attentively, do You perhaps listen my whole life long, until I have
told You everything, until I have spoken out my entire self to You? Do You
remain so silent precisely because You are waiting until I am really finished,
so that You can then speak Your word to me, the word of Your eternity?

Rahner says prayer is giving oneself to God. He says that running from prayer is often running from oneself, from one's own superficiality. And still God patiently waits. Ultimately he says that it is God who opens that deepest part of ourselves to us, the place within us where we encounter God, and so all of our daily prayer is a preparation and a waiting for that moment when we find God at the center of our hearts. Prayer does not change God; it changes me.

The second reading for this coming Sunday is from chapter five of the letter of James, v. 1-6. I am particularly struck by this reading, which begins, "Come now, you rich, weep and wail over your impending miseries," given the recent sentencing of Enron's Andrew Fastow. You see, the letter of James is not simply decrying wealth, but is chastizing those who gain wealth by witholding wages from their workers. The letter states, "the wages you withheld from the workers who harvested your field are crying aloud; and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts (v. 4)." Fastow's sentencing was lenient (6 yrs. instead of the possible 10 yrs. Fastow agreed to in the original 2004 plea bargain), because Fastow, according to those present at his sentencing including his prosecutors, has changed. NPR reports that,

When it was Fastow's turn to speak, he wept as he apologized to Enron's employees, its investors and his family.
"I'm ashamed of what I did, I wish I could undo what I did at Enron but I can't," Fastow said. He said he would accept whatever sentence was imposed without bitterness. Judge Hoyt told Fastow that he'd been drunk on the wine of greed. NPR Story

What a refreshing change to hear about someone admitting he made a mistake and saying he is sorry for his actions. The warning seems to come in Judge Hoyt's statement about being drunk on greed. Too often it seems, when people get so focused on gaining wealth and getting ahead, they are blind to the ways in which their actions hurt others. Wealth can too easily become the controlling force in our individual lives as well as in our world. In this election year, just look at the extent to which wealth currently controls our political landscape.

Scripture warns in many places of the dangers of wealth. The Hebrew Scriptures try to build justice and care for the poor and vulnerable into their lawcode, because their covenant with God obligates them to try and act as God would act. The prophets, however, demonstrate how difficult it was for the people to live in this way. In the gospels Jesus also warns against the dangers of wealth, from saying to his disciples, "How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God (Luke 18:24)," to his parable about the rich man and Lazarus (Lk. 16: 19-31). The temptation today is to soft-peddle these passages or to "spiritualize" them. Many of us, myself included, live very comfortable lives and really have no intention of selling all we have and giving everything to the poor. Nevertheless, I think we have to continue to hold these passages in front of ourselves and let them challenge us.

I was very disturbed to see the headline on the cover of Time on Sept. 18th, which stated, "Does God Want You to be Rich?" (See Time.) The article talked about the revival of a movement called Prosperity Theology that builds on the idea that God promises to be generous with us in this life. While proponents and skeptics of Prosperity Theology can both quote Scripture to support their opposing positions, I think ultimately it has to come down to a deeper reflection on the place of wealth in our lives and the challenge of what it means to be Christian in a world where there is a vast gap between the haves and the have nots. Rather than spending our theological energy justifying our somewhat extravagant lifestyles, it would seem a time for an examination of conscience. In what ways am I benefiting from the oppression of others, and are there ways I can change those situations? What do I value most in my life, and what do I sacrifice in the name of that value (e.g., do I sacrifice career advancement to spend more time with my family, or do I sacrifice my relationships with my family for the sake of my career?)? Am I happy and at peace? Inner restlessness can be a key indicator that what I am valuing most in my life is not fulfilling for me. Am I making the world a better place? This question is a big one for me, because I believe that having more resources gives you a greater responsibility to use those resources (and the power that often comes along with them) to make a difference in the world. If the second reading on Sunday makes us a bit uncomfortable, gives us cause to squirm a bit in our seats, that is not a bad thing. As the saying goes, the Scriptures should "comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable!" (A quick google search showed that this quote is from Finley Peter Dunne and really is in reference to the newspaper, but the sentiment still holds!)