Tuesday, December 26, 2023


 











Holiday Greetings to Everyone,                                                                                                                      2023

                                                                                                                        

            Once again that season for remembering, rejoicing, looking ahead. As you can see, in our family the young ones have grown so quickly and the older ones just grown in wisdom, age and grace. Nicholas - 2ndyear at U. Vermont; Benjamin – 17, driving HS Junior; Matilda – 10 in 5th gr. sprouting by the minute; Harrison – 9 in 4th gr. more than ready for middle school; and Homer, 2nd gr. reader loving  science.

 

            Many joyful 2023 events to remember but also many losses among the very best of friends and family. Thoughts of each one and their many gifts through years of ups and downs, their generosity more enriching than gold, are the only consolation to be found. I hope those who mourn them now are receiving the support and comfort that carries one through.

 

            I have been kept busy with artistic endeavors, work for the curriculum committee of Lifespring, a local LLI. The effort is like that of a booking agent finding presenters to offer informative talks or a series of classes. Continue to be active at church, and in quilters guild and book group. Cannot forget the days with numerous medical appointments to satisfy the requirements of creeping decrepitude.

 

            The need to contemplate themes of hope, light and love was deeply felt during the Advent season. Concerns for our poor old world abound not to mention those of suffering humanity. So I unite with you in focusing on the simple message of the Nativity mystery. “Peace on earth and good will to humankind.” Enjoy each moment of the season – stay well and safe. And, of course, wishing you a Happy New Year.      Love, Hilda

 

P.S. Hope you enjoy this Christmas memory story about by grandfather Frank Milazzo, born a farmer’s son in Castellammare del Golfo, Sicily, who raised a family in spite of the hardship of the Great Depression and was an ever present loving figure in the early lives of his granddaughters.                                     

 

 

 A Christmas Memory of My Grandpa                                                   

            In Bensonhurst, Brooklyn of the 1950s, it seemed to a child that all the mommies were home every day and all other adults, except the very old, ‘went to business in the city’. Those who went to business walked to the Bay Parkway Station of the elevated BMT Line overshadowing endless fruit and vegetable stands on 86th Street. Each morning, as if in synchronization, workers left closely nestled family dwellings on the cross streets and large apartment houses standing as sentinels on most corners marking the avenues. At the station, they jostled through the turnstiles or, in winter, met clustered around the potbelly stove near the token seller’s booth fortifying themselves to withstand the windswept open train platform high above the street.

            My Sicilian born grandfather, Frank Milazzo, went to business in the city. Senior member of our three generation household, he rose each morning to catch the train which delivered him to what seemed in our family and neighborhood the heart of the city, Manhattan’s garment district. There he was a machine operator, one who ‘pushed the machine’ in endless piece work, always a race against time in a system where production determined the wage. An early International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) organizer and shop foreman and, at times, persona non grata as whistle blower for corrupt union practices, many fellow factory workers respectfully addressed him as Mr. Frank.

            It was difficult to picture my grandfather pushing the machine for speed and precision. He tended not to be good with tools, always ready for the effort, generous in giving time to whatever the work, but not very proficient at the task. When concentrating on details or watching a little granddaughter struggle to balance food on a fork and guide it to her mouth, he would purse his lips and draw them off to the side a bit as if facial effort could guide his hands or the child’s.

            As the machine operators, pressers, pattern and sample makers, cutters and floor ladies at Debbi Dance Dress Company aged, their children grew. No sooner had great white plastic covered albums of wedding photos made their way from hand to hand than announcements of the arrival of grandchildren circulated too. By the time I was about eight years old it was decided that Christmas was to be celebrated by a party on the factory floor for the children and grandchildren of workers. Long before any thought of “Bring Your Daughter to Work Day”, I was going to see my Grandpa’s shop.

            December was one of the garment industry’s slow seasons. The Palm Beach Line was long ago out the door, ready at wholesalers to hit the racks of “better dresses” at Macy’s, Gimbel’s and Saks Fifth Avenue by the first of the New Year. No better time to have youngsters of all ages and sizes, dressed in holiday best, scampering across the factory’s wooden floors newly swept of free of thread ends and fabric cuttings; its ceiling festooned with metallic garlands, embellished by lead silver tinsel. Minus the usual din of droning machines, what would have seemed a ghostly and cavernous space had been transformed into a holiday wonderland. Now children ran down the aisles between rows of machines, taps affixed to heels and toes of brand new patent leather Mary Janes clicking in boisterous joyful rhythm where fevered production was the usual daily round for a sea of garment workers.

            There was candy and soda, usually forbidden at home, and presents delivered by Santa Claus himself. It is not details but the memory of an atmosphere that clings, the permitted peek into the ‘going to business’ world of adults. However, it is the very end of the day that has remained in memory most vivid in detail. After the party Grandpa and I walked up the crowded avenue, passing Gimbel’s Christmas holiday window displays, heading to Macy’s.  The aroma of polished wood  combined with the scent of rich perfume surrounded us as we made our way to the escalator which delivered us to the toy department where I was given the opportunity choose my Christmas present from Grandpa. What ecstasy of indecision! Thoughtful, silent pacing from one tempting display to another, weighing every factor, ever mindful of Grandpa’s patient presence. Should it be a new doll, an erector set, Lincoln Logs or something even more enticing? My ultimate choice was an art set, everything I would need to draw or crayon or paint a masterpiece of my own design in a greater variety of colors than ever before. Surely this box, held securely in my lap for the return trip home on the BMT Line, was all that heaven could be. Grandpa and I sat side by side in a double seat facing backwards bathed in the glaring light of a winter sun low in the west casting its glow over Manhattan’s skyline. As we crossed the Manhattan Bridge, sunlight seemed to click on and off with every shadow cast by steel beams of superstructure. The familiar rhythmic hum and bumpy texture of the train’s passage over venerable tracks lulled the weary and the worn. Occasionally a metallic screech punctuated our progress rousing all but the most unconscious. The back of my legs, exposed by a flared skirt buoyed by crinoline, felt the worn prickly ends of natural cane protruding from the aged woven seat. Gradually all sound and sensation receded as the brightness and warmth of the setting sun had its way with a very tired little girl. The last sight in memory was the Jehovah’s Witness Watchtower printing plant on the Brooklyn side of the East River. She fell asleep leaning securely on her Grandpa’s shoulder dreaming of that first stroke; smooth wet paint brush lightly and oh,  so carefully, applied  to a square of magnificent magenta or promising purple.

            







Monday, May 18, 2020

Pandemic Reflection II - Revolution of Heart


Hard to believe it has been well over a year since I last published a post on this blog.
I am using it now as a vehicle for disseminating Brother Donald Bisson’s most recent reflections concerning our current pandemic era.



Pandemic Reflection: Revolution    
    
by Donald Bisson, FMS edited by Hildegard Pleva                 May, 2020

These weeks of lockdown have created for many of us the opportunity for deep reflection which has challenged the way we live and the way we perceive reality. As a spiritual director, listening to folks while experiencing the pandemic has clarified and also challenged many beliefs I have held to for a long time. These weeks of waiting, the slowed pace and isolation along with the inability to receive comfort from the usual rites of public grief reinforce the sense that our lives will be permanently changed. I believe the temptation issued by the evil one in our midst is to magically turn the clock back to pre-pandemic times, as if this has been a shady dream. Evil stagnates, freezes and results in rigid egocentricity. Change and transformation are of God, especially when I have not chosen them but had them foisted upon me by reality. The growing public demand, beyond all reason, is to return to normal is an echo of the tempter’ voice saying, “Don’t see the truth.” Obedience to this command brings us back to inflationary selves acting out in flag waving and cultic assemblies of adoring crowds. We are tired of struggle, failures of leadership, and thousands of innocent men and women dying in our midst. They declare, “So what, if we lose 2-3% of children who return to schools, we can’t afford to wait any longer!!!!! “

I have noticed that in spiritual direction, especially over a long period of time with a directee, that God is at work in the slow evolution taking place through daily prayer and fidelity to the emerging True Self. The change is so subtle that it is hardly recognizable to ourselves and others. Like a slow drip of grace, day by day we emerge out of ourselves in greater freedom. Our yearly retreat gives us a greater clarity as to the shifts that touch our souls and how to incorporate these shifts into our reality. In my practice everyone is experiencing some kind of breakthrough or even breakdown which I now refer to as inner revolutions projected into consciousness and radically upsetting the status quo. It is revolutionary when the ego has not made the choice, but rather, the ego submits and becomes its victim. This is “a harsh and dreadful love” which disrupts, disturbs and potentially creates a crisis in which the old world has vanished, sometimes in minutes. These personal revolutions eradicate what seems to be years of slow evolution now ushering us into a new world. It may be a call in the night announcing an accident, a doctor’s diagnosis of stage 4 cancer, a partner suddenly walking out or a descent into a depression without knowing its roots. I have heard accounts of an endless variety of revolutionary moments. It feels like a test from God in which the old God feels distant and unavailable. The fruits of a spiritual retreat now feel trite and inconsequential. Revolutions touch us all and the change ahead is unknown and feels impossible. Personally, I have had three such moments in my 71 years of life and now realize that this pandemic is initiating me into the fourth season of instability. But unlike the other great moments of personal change the whole world is experiencing this revolution at the same time; the people I live with, the community to which I belong, the city I live in, the society and church of which I am a member.

The revolution I am reflecting on is not simplistic or merely individual or political. I deeply experience this moment, dark yet numinous, as a call; a religious, spiritual and moral call to mature as a species. The call is universal and not uniquely American, though we have particular challenges at the moment. I am in contact with friends and colleagues around the world all locked down, who know victims of the virus and are adjusting to a radical new world of technology and distance learning. There is a need to articulate that the changes ahead have potential for conversion of heart, mind and spirit much deeper than mere adaptation to new technological demands. We cannot waste the potential of spiritual energy that is being released in the midst of all this suffering and loss. It must be channeled into a new way of being.

Easter is not merely an event in objective history. It happened two thousand years ago and it transformed a group of frightened men and women into an emerging charismatic community about to confront the Roman Empire. This is not the Easter of fuzzy bunnies and Easter egg hunts which our country has adopted as celebration of the spring equinox. The Easter of the past created community and martyrs of faith and an explosion of compensation for the greed, power and immorality of the empire. This force was a revolution which could not be capped and contained. The Easter event is still spiraling and speeding throughout the world where there is love, peace and joy in a community dedicated to the most vulnerable. We see in our midst the ongoing battle for power waged between the world of money, finance and oppression of the poor on one side and, on the other, the world of sacrifice and compassion  present in our emergency rooms, food pantries and all those charitable acts which touch the heart and remind us of our humanity. The revolution is not in denying the evil but in celebrating and aligning our will with the Good. Jung said that in the face of evil we must use all of our ego strength to choose the Good and not succumb to the archetypal darkness exploding in our midst.

Lucifer means” light bearer”. The natural evil of the Covid19 virus is casting a beam of light on our collective darkness, our cruel histories and social injustices. The revolution of self, born in this time of pandemic, first looks at the reality and does not forget what is seen. The historical immoralities of the past are made clear and repeated before our very eyes in the present crisis. They are legion. The social conditions which have acerbated the crisis are now visible and manifest. Evil doubts the holocaust; evil hides the truth exposed. African Americas are disproportionally affected by the virus due to collective racism, underemployment, uneven health care and the kind of jobs which place them in harm’s way. The history of slavery is still here and the pandemic makes it clear once gain. Those fighting the reality of pandemic make present in our time the ugly racist minority carrying nooses, confederate flags and Nazi symbols. So called “good people” have become the embodiment of darkness, ignorance, anger and hatred, representing the underbelly of this country. We cannot allow these violent men with automatic rifles to take over and intimidate society, especially those who are most vulnerable. Four hundred years of history will repeat itself until there are amends and proper reconciliation. This movement will continue to spread into the next generation as a virus of the soul which is more damaging than any physical virus, harming both victims and victimizers souls.
The light bearer pandemic reveals the totally inadequate level of health care for a large number of our citizens. Pope Francis has articulated that health care is a human right not an arena for competition and generation of profit. He also proclaimed that building walls is sinful. The poor at the border are Christ amongst us. We see the results of income disparity and the immorality of corporate greed in forcing the poor to work in dangerous health situations without protection. Latin X families are caught in the bureaucratic battles for those who are legal and illegal in their family effort to care of the sick. Native Americans who have poor or no health facilities at all are dying at much higher rates than those in the overall population. Poor people of any color are pawns of society making minimum wages while serving on the front lines for our food security. Any old testament prophet would be screaming at those in power, accusing them of criminal treatment of the poor in the sight of God!
In our present revolution it must be the reign of God which takes over. Yet, we are far from fulfilling God’s vision. The conflict between the reign of God versus the values of the world are made clear in Mark: 6-29. The banquet of the world is Herod’s party where John the Baptist loses his life. It is the assembly of the powerful, the wealthy and those who compromise themselves in flattery and lust. Herod’s guests represent the “world” and the brand of values echoing in our experiences today. The status quo is the goal; preserved only by not disturbing the social order lest the freedom of the people be liberated. Collusion with Rome guarantees the status quo for the powerful and supreme control of their puppets. The prophet is silenced through violence. In contrast to that world, the second part of this Gospel passage reveals the presence of God in the person of Jesus and his work, the multiplication of the loaves and fish. Here we see the reign of God made manifest in Jesus’ compassionate gesture of multiplying a small amount of food into abundance, with baskets of leftovers. In God’s world there is an abundance when all gifts and resources are shared. Prayer, community and justice thrive in the space of the kingdom. There is joy, freedom, peace, equality and nurturance. Dorothy Day states this kind of revolution is “one of the heart”, a conversion to God’s world, God’s reign. The transformation brings a new way of seeing reality, a new conscious awareness of our interdependence and union in God’s sight. Political parties, both on the left and the right, are not totally representative of kingdom values. The gospel and God’s blessings are not one or the other.

It is the prophet who speaks to truth to power. For a political party to present itself as the sole true representative of the will of the Almighty is an abomination before God. Jesus is the only one who can say, “I am the way, the truth and the life”. I am totally distressed by those religious leaders who remain silent in the face some of the most enormous moral issues ever brought before humanity. Their silence is tacit approval of the status quo and their lack of ethics will be our downfall. We cannot abandon our personal religious freedom which allows us to bring Christ into all aspects of society.

For a short period of time in the 1960s Thomas Merton, the widely published Trappist monk, was gagged by his major superiors in speaking or writing publicly on political issues, which he saw as questions of morality. Yet, he continued to write, though only clandestinely, privately distributed essays which came to be known as the Cold War Letters. In those letters, he defined his vocation as a protest against war and political tyranny. Here is a quote that is very applicable to today: “It seems a little strange that we are so wildly exercised about the murder of an unborn child by abortion or even prevention of conception which is hardly murder and accept without a quandary the extermination of millions of helpless and innocent adults. One would certainly wish the Catholic position on nuclear war would be held with the same vehemence as its position on birth control. With the race troubles in the South one can see the beginnings of a Nazi mentality in the United States. There is a powerful alliance of business and military men who consider everyone who disagrees with them to be a socialist, a traitor and a spy. The atmosphere is not unlike what I remember of the Germany of 1932.” This statement is exactly what is happening in the present moment. A priest associate of mine says that if he speaks from the pulpit of any moral issue other than that of abortion, he is judged as being political. However, if he should promote voting on the basis of the abortion issue alone, he would be judged as being religious and not political. What has happened to the beatitudes, the good Samaritan, the prodigal son, the woman at the well...? These gospel images are rendered invisible by a myopic view of morality and conscience. Pope Francis is being dismissed as merely a socialist reformer because he welcomes the homeless and the immigrant into Vatican City. Has pomp and power once again replaced the poor carpenter from Nazareth?

I have lost all patience with religious leaders and those in the pews who identify themselves as pro-life while so many already out of the womb are in danger. Figures like Cardinal Bernardin and Pope Francis present the full scope of moral leadership which speaks when walls are built at our borders, when the Environmental Protection Agency is systematically unraveled and when the evil of global warming is denied. I have committed myself to respond in place of those who remain silent. In the future when abortion is presented in a homily as the only life issue to vote on or when there is no reference the process of election discernment, I will either speak to the homilist after Mass, or write a letter in protest to the rectory or diocese. The gospel is held hostage but we should not be silent in the presence of injustices of the poor, the sin of racism, rejection of the least favored, and growing numbers of those on death row, etc. The underlying roots of unwanted pregnancies must also be faced and a program of assistance created for women in poverty and despair, suffering sexual abuse and income inequality.  Such a program would offer access to birth control, prenatal and pediatric care, and support in all aspects of childrearing and child care. Beyond the issue of abortion, the lives of all women and the lives of their children, especially those in poverty, are at stake.

Before the pandemic I saw a very moving and disturbing film called the “Hidden Life”. It is the story of a simple famer who underwent a profound conversion experience as he entered marriage and family life. Franz Jagerstatter prayed dangerously. He seriously discerned that his faith and the gospel could not be reconciled with the Nazi Party. He was not looking for martyrdom, but he could not compromise his faith and his stance before God. Even if others could do so, he could not. The church had taught him well, but they could not follow his example. For institutional security, churches compromised their allegiance to Christ for the Fatherland. As a lay Franciscan, he lived the passion of Jesus and Francis. Too often the institution condemns and abandons those who, only many years later, are held up as models of faith and canonized. Thousands of lay people, priests, ministers and religious, including Franz Jagerstatter, paid the price of martyrdom, while the containers of faith, our very religious institutions, were unable to challenge the underpinnings of the system. We seem to be in the same situation.

Cardinal Spellman, then archbishop of the diocese of New York demanded that Dorothy Day, servant of the poor, remove the term “Catholic” from the masthead of her movement’s newspaper, “The Catholic Worker”. She refused in obedience to God. But she would not have wanted to be regarded as a saint since she rejected anything that would differentiate or separate her for the poor and their needs. How do ministers and priests as well as those who sit in the pews continue to teach the essence of the Gospel in season and out of season?  The Letter of James 1:22-24 states, “Be doers of the word and not hearers only. Otherwise you are deceiving yourself. For anyone who hears the word, but does not carry it out is a like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and after observing himself goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.” We must not forget who we are as we stand before the challenges of today. We must ask the question, “Where can we no longer compromise?” There must be a moment for all of us to raise our voices.

The isolation and distancing of the worldwide pandemic is causing both interior and exterior revolutions. As a spiritual director, supervisor and mentor to many women and men, I am witnessing the stirring of a revolution of heart which needs expression in the outer world. Listed here are 10 general observations about the phenomenon that I am witnessing; that I see, feel and acknowledge. The spirit is moving mysteriously in the depths so this is merely an attempt to put some language to a movement of the soul observe in these times.

1. Revolution erupts from a holy space beyond the old securities of the ego. The reality of loss of power, experience of anxiety, pain, prescribed personal limitations and the discomforting sense that we are moving into the unknown are initiating us into something new.

2.  Revolution is the collapse of a view of life which had become very comfortable but now seems impossible to return to. Who and what is drawing me into other choices and a new pattern in life?
3.  Revolutionary times demand a psycho -spiritual response to an unknown meaning and untrustworthy future. We must choose life under radically different circumstances detached from the outcome.

4.  The old agendas and plans are shelved and the new question is where am I being led and by whom?

5.  When revolution takes place it is a shock to realize how well conceived my life had been and how little I knew or wanted to know about the realities of life and its consequences.

6.  Revolution ends the old vision of the “shoulds” in life. Accepting change gives meaning and purpose for a new vision.

7.  Revolution allows us to see our old addictions and coping mechanisms and the opportunity now to let them go for a new life.

8.  Revolution and prophesy are interrelated when a person can no longer live in a trance of collective sleep. As disturbing as it may seem, our eyes can no longer be closed to the truth before us.

9.  The pandemic has awakened us to the human cry for help around us and everywhere on the planet.

10. Illness and death have reawakened our hope and faith in eternal life, the spirit which transcends the present moment and propels it into true life beyond.

However, religion itself can be a road block for growing in consciousness or a vehicle to awakening. It can abdicate its responsibility to stand with the “widow and the orphan” as defined in the scriptures or be a witness of the kingdom. It rallies too frequently to the defense of amoral political positions in order to assure its welfare in the name of religious liberty, a fearful concern emerging from the least consciously aware in our society. As racism, bigotry and prejudice spread as a moral virus among us, religious institutions worry too often about institutional religious liberty. But where are the religious voices speaking for the abandoned in our society? When religious leaders publicly connect with the party in office in a planned effort to deliver Catholic voters or those of other denominations, we in the pews must revolt. We would express horror at such collusion by revolting against such manipulation, a revolt born of a new ethical consciousness. The gospel is being scandalously mocked by powerful forces of money and ignorance. This November does not bring merely an election; it brings a moral test, a call to revolt against the lies which are uttered daily and to stand in conscience not political allegiances. The constant presentation of truth as being a relative rather than an absolute concept must be challenged. Our disaffection with fascism must be registered in response to all attempts to suppress the vote, which is designed to permit permanent possession of power in the hand of a few. These movements, unaligned with Gospel values as they are, must be considered a dangerous moral problem as it spreads throughout the world. These are dangerous times.

In 1948, Erich Neumann challenged the world by declaring that a new ethic was necessary for the emerging global community. The old manner of containing the shadow in religious institutions had failed drastically in the Holocaust and the advent of nuclear warfare threatened a similar disaster. The required new ethic would demand a growth in consciousness which would not merely abide in superficial goodness. I am constantly shocked by ‘good people’ who can, nonetheless, choose to support amoral governmental regulation and legislation and remain blasé́ about decisions motivated only by concern for stock market ratings.

Since the end of World War II there has been no greater call for unity. The pandemic has issued the call for unity, the requirement to come together for a common goal and purpose. Yet while we are bombarded with the propaganda of our greatness, we reject signed treaties, alienate our allies and withdraw from global health organizations in the midst of the greatest health crisis in a century. Some protect their goodness as in a secret compartment untouched by the suffering of those at the margins in numbers outpacing general rate of poverty. Again, Lucifer’s evil light points to the hardness of heart of good folks who are asleep. What will wake up the masses? The word “good” has been toxified when it is identified with gun totting angry white men and women sporting idolatry of white privilege and a notion of liberty which is far from God and consciousness. How will this new era force us to face the dawn with a new way of understanding ourselves as a global community with God? How do we allow the mystical traditions of all religions to speak to the radical interdependence of life with God? The supposed ‘good’ are now indefensible before the new ethic. Profound shadow work is necessary to awaken the most powerful country from its addictions to inflation and lies. Most people in the world now see us as the greatest danger to humanity. We have fallen from the height, no longer a light on the mountain top, but rather, a third-rate nation of incompetents trying to save money not lives, to save the stock market, cavalierly dismissing tens of thousands of deaths as mere collateral damage in favor of the economy. Will we too need a new ethic after the pandemic to guide our reorientation of values and lifestyles? How are our unconscious projections of shadows of politicians effecting our collective souls? How inflated are we in our view of conscience as pure and innocent? How are the powerful identifying themselves as victims while the true victims continue to suffer from social structures designed to keep them poor? How much pain do we have to endure before we wake up and push aside the perpetrators of distortions? How are conspiracy theories of division actually expressions of corporate sin?

For decades theologians, psychologists, and scientists have studied and discussed social transformation. Three specific areas of transformation have slowly appeared out of this movement bringing us to a new understanding of our reality. The pandemic is now forcing these slow-moving reflections and their conclusions into revolutionary high gear.

Revolutionary Religious Thinking

We are the largest fundamentalist Christian country in the world. This is not a neutral fact. Scriptural fundamentalists support an anti-soul view of the world. The nature of this mentality leads to a view of reality which denies scientific findings and favors alternative facts in political discourse. Their beliefs undermine the movements of God being revealed by the sciences in our time. The mysterious movements of evolution and the universe story are the new mythology, the new story, powerfully enhancing our experience of God in the 21st century. The new story challenges the biblical view of humankind as holding total power over nature rather than existing in concert with all nature. Denial of global warming fits into our inflated view which allows abuse of nature. The pandemic itself is a reminder that we are in and of nature, subject to its laws therefore, at times, being its victim who has no control at all. The rule of human domination is derived from literal interpretation of not only sacred texts but also the documents which serve as the foundation of our democratic system, particularly the second amendment to the Constitution.  As Jesus so aptly expressed, the law is created for mankind, not mankind for the law. When mass killings affect New Zealand and Canada via individual possession of destructive killing machines, within days the country comes to grips with the evil done by passing legislation prohibiting ownership of military style weapons. The fundamentalist mentality says we cannot change the written constitutional word just as they would not change a word of sacred text. There is a willingness to sacrifice thousands of dead bodies yearly for the sake of literal obedience to an outrageous God, an interpretation that our forefathers could never imagine.

Our medieval notions of God must be met with a revolutionary response. The secular world will not confront the evil but real spiritual men and women must speak out against a bizarre marriage between religion and violence. In many denominations new ministers are formed to regurgitate old formulas and the churches are emptying. Seminarians in their 20’s are preparing for a 1950’s church they never knew and seekers of God are leaving in droves. We must revolutionize or die by our lack of relevance in the eyes of the next generation of young people who are intelligently inquisitive and deserve more. Clericalism like political fascism is an attempt to control by intimidation an ideology which ignores the truth.

Revolutionary Compassion

The death and suffering around us is an invitation to feel and be touched by the experience of loss and grief. Death initiates us to our fundamental smallness within the great story. Compassion is the invitation for the world to stop the objectification of loss in the numbness created by unbelievable numbers of victims. The revolution proposed here is one of compassion in which emotional connection and empathy are allowed expression. Those in revolt must display a warmth of spirit and possession of true soul, while no longer holding on to productivity as the supreme goal of policy. As we attempt to enter the new normal, we must hold in tension both the health of the people and the need to return to work. The resulting balance is lost on fringe far right voices, who through the safety and comfort of the internet, wish to seduce the masses to spend, shop and quickly recover for the sake of the political and economic expediency. People are considered pawns, especially those dwelling at the lowest rung of society, and therefore expendable. Their fate is to fulfil the requirement of society to bounce back at any cost. Consistent with the seamless garment position in Catholic ethics regarding the right to life, the dignity of human life must be honored no matter the age of the patient. This calls for a level of compassion necessary to know and feel the experience of others, to take it seriously and serve it passionately. We must be moved by human stories and not allow the statistics of lists and graphs to be distorted to support a full reopening of society. This must be a dance for competent physicians and scientists in partnership with thoughtful leaders who can hold the tension between two goods simultaneously and cannot drop one in the favor of another. Society must return with more compassion and feelings for all those who have been affected most.

Revolutionary Commitment to Truth

Truth is really a mystery as well as allegiance to facts. I have never encountered a system so dominated by blatant lies as we have seen in recent years. Fascists of history were creative geniuses weaving half-truths, encouraging existing prejudices, injecting a nuance of doubt in regard to authority, and mixing concoctions of distortions and hatred. Conspiracies are created daily as cover and distraction for believers to willing accept all without question. The cult of lies has ascended to the highest places of honor rendering followers frozen and cold to the truth. An alternative universe has been created in which reality is subjectively recreated each day. Truth is arbitrary and totally neglected. It is crazy making in its power to confuse. We know that fascist systems around the world are helping each other to distort reality. The Gospel has become a pawn in the mix. The saying that even Satan can quote scripture is corroborated daily. In this environment of alternative facts and distortion of reality, the revolution in discussion here is a revolution of Truth, a revolution of Jesus. He not only possessed the truth but in the Gospel of John he is identified as being the Truth. “I am the way, the truth and the life.  When a group chooses to pursue a program of continual truth mitigation, it does so in collusion with darkness itself. I now believe that the evil one who lives in chaos, division and hatred has taken up residence among and around us. This is even scary to admit to myself. This is not a political choice. Political parties are imperfect human creations; in their weakness they chose what is considered a lesser evil in order to maintain in control at this time.  Since I am in contact with people from all over the world, who worry about us and worry about the planet because of us, this upcoming election is for me the one of the greatest moral struggles of my life. I will do anything to participate in this change for the sake of all. God will not magically solve this; our consciences must be activated for real change to take place and to choose life.

Sometimes a passage from scripture heard many times comes providentially to the fore with new meaning and purpose. Jesus, in Matthew 23: 29-32 challenges the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. ” Woe to you scribes and Pharisees. Hypocrites. You build the tombs of prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous and you say If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we wouldn’t have taken part with them in the shedding the prophet’s blood. You testify against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up then the measure of your father’s sins….” Jesus must have been so frustrated with the blindness around him and the endless cycles of treachery in contrast to his idealism. Is it not now the time, in this revolutionary moment, to stop the horrific cycle of glorifying voices from the past and take this present moment seriously? So many directees have come to see that their whole lives have been prepared for this moment. Let us live into it with our eyes wide open.

Monday, January 07, 2019


Living Epiphanies

Reflection presented at Epiphany Concert of St. Joseph Church 
Music Ministry, Kingston, NY, January 6, 2019

As we close this season celebrating the mystery of the Incarnation – God becoming flesh; coming to live among us;  God coming to experience all of human life; Jesus coming to reveal the face of the Father ----- what nugget of inspiration can we underscore in our memory and carry into ordinary time?

Today we mark Epiphany but not merely the single incident of a few wise men or philosophers or seekers we call Magi  who complete their pilgrimage by finding the child Jesus and knowing in their hearts that he was the Messiah; the Messiah foretold by the prophet Isaiah who wrote: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light – for a child is born to us – They shall call Him Wonder Counselor, Father Forever, Prince of Peace.”

Epiphany means manifestation – an experience or event that makes something absolutely clear to the mind or to eye. In our Church tradition the Magi event is only the first of a number of events revealing the identity of Jesus. Soon we will celebrate the presentation of the child Jesus in the temple when it becomes manifest – absolutely clear – to Simeon and Anna that in this child was their salvation. Another is his baptism by John in the Jordan when the voice of God is heard saying, “This is my beloved Son.” Also the wedding feast at Cana when Jesus, by performing his first public miracle, makes perfectly clear his nature and his mission.

The nugget of inspiration we can carry away today is that the time of such Epiphanies need not be over. In fact, we need them more and more every day – moments in which the love of our God is made manifest in our world; when eyes plainly see and minds clearly apprehend the nature and work of God. 

It has been said that Jesus came into the midst of human kind to reveal the Face of a loving Father. Jesus is no longer physically present in this world reveal God’s love. But by virtue of our baptism, participating in his life as priest, prophet and king, we can and must reflect, in His Name, the face of God. In this way WE – how we act and react; what we choose to do and not to do; how we talk to people and not talk to them can be today’s epiphanies. Today and every day, we can make manifest the Loving Heart of God in the world. How do we do it? Didn’t Jesus give us lessons when he said:

       I came to serve, not to be served.
       Let those without sin cast the first stone.
       I give you a new commandment, love one another.

We cannot say that we do not know how to make manifest in this world the nature of a loving God. As Christians we can act out of the conviction that we are to become living memories, living epiphanies, affirming the presence Jesus in the world.

In the Letter to the Colossians it is made clear (3:12-21)
      And let the peace of Christ control your hearts, 
      the peace into which you were also called in 
      one body. And be thankful.

      Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, as in
      all wisdom you teach and admonish one 
      another, singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs 
      with gratitude in your hearts to God.And whatever 
      you do, in word or in deed, do everything in 
      the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to 
      God the Father through him.

Today we can go forward with this nugget from St. Francis in mind: “Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words”. Carry that golden nugget in your pocket as a reminder because “what the world needs now is love, sweet love.”



Tuesday, November 20, 2018

A Hard Message in the Current Crisis

A Structure Outpaced by Human Development
  
 Message sent to my Pastor       
    
The preamble you offered from the heart before presenting an overview of the parish’s financial status was so impressive. It was impressive for its honesty and forthrightness. It was impressive in communicating a concern you share with your parishioners - the disappointment, the absolute dismay and horror, as well as the concern and fear engendered by the current situation of the Roman Catholic Church. I think behind it all is your own sadness about the state of things and your opinions about what the necessary response should be but never seems to come. For all of this sincerity and frank communication I am personally grateful and I think all your people feel the same way.



As I continue to listen to and read reports about current events both political and ecclesial and consider them in the light of history I am beginning to conclude that the Church is losing ground in every way because its very structure has been surpassed by cultural and sociological developments. Its organization as a male bastion could hold sway and power as long as women and other groups were almost universally held as inferior and without rights. Institutional misogyny, slavery, rigid class systems, etc., held in societies were these attitudes were normative. Not withstanding the current mad wave of social hatred raising its head, western civilization has developed (matured in its evolution) to the point of general rejection of past societal norms which cast some to the margins of polite society. The injustice and harm wrought by those systems has been recognized in society and by governments. 



But the Roman Church has not kept pace. It is so out of step with current attitudes that revelations of horrors wrought by the system in the past and those which continue are causing people to bail out; to walk away from an institution whose very structure is revealed to them each Sunday as totally out of step. 



The Supreme Court of the United States ruled in 1954 in Brown vs. Board of Education that by virtue of their very separation into different schools, Black and White students were not receiving an equal education even when their teachers, buildings, books, etc. were on par in quality. Today I have concluded that the Roman Church cannot possibly refashion itself in light of current societal norms of equality of human beings regardless of race, class and gender AND at the same time maintain a structure which does not reflect this equality. 



This brings me to express my current feelings as a woman of the Church. Each Mass or sacramental rite I attend is an affront to my self identity as a woman of dignity, competence, experience and worth. I enter no other place where women are tacitly told they are not equal, not worthy, not able; that there is something inherently wrong with them, that automatically excludes them from a spiritual role and experience. Such structural intransigence will continue to give birth to misogyny, to a sense of privilege in the ordained and hierarchy, and to an attitude which allows for abuse of all kinds. Most basically, these structural realities make any preaching of Gospel morality, of Jesus’s message of love above all, ring hollow if not obviously hypocritical.



This is the truth, the elephant in the room, in the discussion of any Church reform. I was not surprised that Pope Francis requested that the US Conference of Catholic Bishops not issue any statements at the end of its recent meeting. Instead he postponed official statements regarding reform emanating from the Vatican until after a February 2019 meeting in Rome. Could it be that he too has concluded that the hierarchy is incapable of reforming itself? Could it be that he sees that the poison has so infected the body that the entire system requires a venous infusion of moral antibiotic?



I wish the people had an opportunity to discuss these matters in a frank and constructive way and that our opinions could be heard where ears would be open and egos put aside.

Saturday, August 18, 2018


The Catholic Church 


in a Tailspin: Random Thoughts
Concerning the Ongoing Crisis


Friends who read my posts to Facebook have asked that comments offered be gathered into one place for ease of sharing or copy/paste function. The following appeared over the last few days mostly in response to statements from organizations, members of the hierarchy of the Church or articles in Catholic or secular media.


8/15

I hang my head in shame and embarrassment, not to mention the sheer evil of it all. How do we combine the revelation of sexual abuse cover up in PA, which I am sure could be replicated in so many other places. How do we combine this news with the recent ad put out by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops presenting a prayer specifically mentioning changes in the Supreme Court which would mean an end to Roe v. Wade? How do we combine this news with the Church’s stance against the ordination of women, condemnation of LGBTQ community, etc., etc.? 

When the last negative pronouncement from the Church concerning female ordination was released I said that even institutions can choose to commit suicide. I think we are watching it today in slo-mo.

8/16

Famed theologian Karl Rahner said, “The Christian of the future will be a mystic or not at all.” Those words and this opinion piece speak of the necessity, especially in these times, of enriching one’s personal interior relationship with the Divine. It is from this deep and honest relationship that moral decisions are best made. It is the fertile ground of ‘primacy of conscience’, well removed from institutions and dogmatic prescriptions whether religious or political.

8/16

“The underlying causes of these ongoing abuses and the collusion of so many senior members of the Catholic hierarchy are complex and multi-faceted. However, we believe that deeply rooted questions of misogyny and clerical attitudes towards women and girls urgently need to be interrogated, along with other aspects of priestly formation and church teachings on human sexuality and gender. Misogyny flourishes in all-male communities and continues to distort priestly attitudes towards many aspects of embodiment and sexuality. We believe that it constitutes a major contributory factor in the sex abuse crisis which is not sufficiently acknowledged."
                                      Excerpt from Statement from Catholic Women Speak

8/17

Cardinal Dolan can be as obsequious as the Dicken’s character Uriah Heap in his public state regarding revelations from the Pennsylvania Grand Jury probe. Things will not change until the inner unwritten rules of the club change - it is a matter of hearts and minds. As huge as this scandal is, it is only one feature of systematic hypocrisy. The list is long: disregard of parish input in appointment of pastors; mistreatment of good priests who run into rough spots, dismissal of women; ordination of unfit men regardless of warning signs; financial mismanagement; insufficient supervision of priests; lack of requirement for in-service education for priests; the farce of discussion groups in parishes to prepare for school or parish closings or archdiocesan synods and then totally ignoring input from the grassroots, etc., etc. And we cannot forget failure of the larger Church to grapple with the necessity of ordaining married men and also women to the priesthood, the failure to speak out about moral issues with the excuse that we cannot get political. Yet the Cardinal has publicly lobbied against proposed State legislation to extend the statute of limitations for sexual abuse cases. In the eyes of the hierarchy the only issues that qualify for political action are abortion and religious liberty. 

                                                 ***************

I must add that it is also instructive to read the comments posted in response to my posts. They indicate what this has done to the faithful church in the pews. The Jesuit publication America put out a survey yesterday. It allowed for narrative responses to the questions regarding reactions to the latest news. I look forward to passing on the findings from analysis of results.