Archdiocese of Detroit Pontiac Vicariate

Readings' Reflections
Patricia Egan-Myers,
Director, Office of Catechetics

Sixth Sunday of Easter
Acts 8:5-8, 14-17 --- 1Peter 3:15-18 --- John 14:15-21
April 27, 2008

Loneliness Should Not Be

The following thoughts are from Fr. James Smith. I make change some of the text but for the most part these are his reflections taken from Celebration.

Jesus promised not to leave his friends orphaned because he knew the pain of loneliness. Do you? What causes your loneliness?

Loneliness tends to grow on us with age (if you are lucky!). By that I mean there are those born into countries in which they are orphaned at age seven or eight or even younger. There are those who are born as undesirable. These men or women can never find love because in our society they are seen as not attractive enough, not sexy enough. But if loneliness comes in your senior years what you experience is the gradual loss of colleagues at work and recreation, then our friends fade away or die. On a personal note this is what my father found so painful as he died, he lost his friends, his family, he felt the abandonment some of us feel at a young age. Older folks lose interest in things that use to energize them, so their world gets smaller. In the end many seniors life can be reduced to a chair in front of a television and if their lucky that won't be tied into it. If you think this is extreme than you haven't been to some of our nursing facilities.

Loneliness can occur at any age and is more painful if it occurs at a young age. After all you have the added gift of time and longevity. Young people are told it is their fault. They can be more active and join clubs. Young widows are told they have lots of choices ahead of them. There are plenty of men they can find. Elderly widows know that there days are limited and if they are lucky have family which surrounds them with love and gives them the gift time and presence.

What is wrong with being alone? Rocks are alone, trees are alone, and animals are alone; with no apparent ill effects. In fact, a lonely rock is a symbol of integrity; a lone tree against the horizon is a sign of performance; a wolf is proud of being a loner.

Nevertheless, loneliness is one of the greatest human pains. The very fact of loneliness proves that it should not be. It like evil: The only way we know there is evil is by contrast with goodness. If there were no such thing as truth, then lying would not be bad. If there was no such thing as beauty, ugliness could not exist. And if we were meant to be alone, loneliness would not hurt.

Ah, there's the secret! As God once said:"it is not good for human beings to be alone.” It is unnatural, inhuman for us to be utterly alone in the world. We cannot bear the burden of life all by ourselves. We cannot by ourselves maintain our position in this vast, impersonal universe. One is a cruel number.

What we need, what we desire, is to be a part of someone else. Our greatest pleasure is to be embraced, enfolded, cuddled, cared for, sustained, supported, appreciated-that is to be loved. But there is a difference between pleasure and joy. Animals have pleasure through their bodies, but can have no joy without a soul. Angels can have joy of spirit but no physical pleasure. Only humans have the dual benefit of pleasure and joy.

It begins like this; God who is spirit has the joy of creating us humans. We have the pleasure of being loved by God. Then we have the experience the joy of loving God in return. This gives God great pleasure. It is an infallible plan.

Then why are so many people lonely? Is it because as Fr. Jim says they refuse to be loved? Is it because they choose to be alone? He suggests yes. My experience would say no.

My parents experienced great loneliness in their dying years. I know my mother experienced more loneliness throughout life. She felt loneliness and loss every time she had one of her children move away. She felt loneliness in the death of her two sons. She felt alone when all her children were gone and my father worked his 12 hour days.

I believe most elderly people in nursing homes are very lonely. I saw it in the two months my mom was in two different nursing homes. I spent 8 to 10 hours a day in those homes, seven days a week. I saw the folks who never had a visitor. I saw it in their faces and in their eyes. It is hard to die but it is even harder to die utterly alone.

Jesus said he would not leave us orphans but I believe there billions throughout this world who are just that. It is not because Jesus words are empty but because as with everything Jesus has entrusted this mission to us. The sad truth is too many of us feel no call to visit the sick, to care for the poor or the needy. What is the end result, stories like you see about the Mormon cult in Texas. Now there is another story of loneliness but not for today. If you wish to keep Jesus' words true make sure you take care of your own. Make sure you do not abandon your parents' and loved ones when times get tough. Remember.

Pat Egan-Myers

CATECHETICAL NEWS

ALL CLASSES ARE IN SESSION THIS WEEK FOR PRESCHOOL THRU GRADES 7.

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Fifth Sunday of Easter
Acts 6:1-7---1Peter 2:4-9--- John 14:1-12
April 20, 2008

I am the Life

Giving one's life is a service, a diaconate. This has always been the understanding of the Christian community.

The last verses of John's eleventh chapter mark the beginning of Jesus going up to Jerusalem. There the Lord knows he will find death, and that awareness is troubling his disciples. Jesus asks them to deepen their faith in the hour of trial; believing in him believes in God. Jesus' followers form a family, and they will dwell in the Father's house. The Lord assures them of that and he has shown them the way but it is not easy to comprehend his teaching. Thomas has his doubts and his question prompts Jesus to give a brief answer which is a profound revelation of himself: "I am the way and the truth and the life". We go to the Father through Jesus, whose life and message tell us that the way is the practice of loving God and others. Such a path represents a daily exigency. Being with Jesus is being with the Father.

We have to accept the truth and the content of Jesus' message, and as John himself says, we must put it into practice in order to come to the light, another major Johannine theme. Those who reject the testimony of Jesus, the "living stone" upon which we must build our Christian existence are living a lie. The ultimate meaning of Jesus' witness is life which comes from the Father and makes us God's children. In a situation of hunger, pain, and isolation, giving life is putting into practice the truth that Jesus reveals to us and starting on our way to the Father.

Jesus proclaims a God who is close to us. We know him by knowing Jesus, and seeing him we see the Father who sent him. Philip (to what degree are we like him?) has not understood that. Jesus responds by reaffirming his deep oneness with the Father; his works reveal him. Works should also be the expression of our faith. Believing in Jesus is doing the works that he does. Thus we will form part of God's own people.

This was the understanding of the first Christian community. Witnesses of Jesus' gestures of love for everyone, especially the forgotten, they select collaborators of the disciples, deacons who are to look after the needy. The diaconate, or service, is a fundamental dimension of the church. Today it is solidarity with the people excluded by the present economic system and driven into worse poverty, solidarity with those who encounter closed doors and hearts because of their social insignificance (the sick and the elderly). But the diaconate also entails raising our voices and denouncing that situation, even when this upsets some people.

Of course when we begin to name the situations which might be unjust we walk on dangerous ground. We can be accused of being too political.

A final thought on the first part of the gospel. Too often there are factors that cause us to be separated from one another and even from God. The color of one's skin, and ethnic background, a certain level of intelligence, the lack of power or wealth, and the list goes on. Beneath all these extrinsic elements we are all God's children and are called to rejoice in God's single tent, the dwelling we call heaven.

Jesus came to tell us God's tale. We need but look on the rising sun or reflect on the mystery of creation to learn of God's many gifts. We need but realize that we are here on earth for one reason: the reception and giving away of love. We need but listen attentively as God calls everyone to enter his golden tent.

It is all a matter of freedom, freedom from prejudice, from racism, from sin. Our challenge is to love one another as Jesus did, he who is our way, truth and life. By becoming the community God wants us to be and by sustained caring and compassion we live as God's pilgrim people. Each morning it is wise to sit upon our Savior's lap to hear the retelling of God's loving design. We might remember that unless we become like little children we will not enter the kingdom of heaven. I surely remember my mom holding my younger brothers on her lap and telling them wonderful stories of love. God surely does the same.

Pat Egan-Myers

CATECHETICAL NEWS

There are no classes this week. There are catechists' meetings.

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Fourth Sunday of Easter
Acts 2:1, 4a, 36-41 ---1Peter 2:20b-25--- John 10:1-10
April 13, 2008

The Good Shepherd

In the midst of all the uncertainties in which we live, today's liturgy invites us to recognize Jesus as the good shepherd.

By calling Jesus the good shepherd, John found an image, which has impacted the Christian conscience and memory. As it happens so often in the gospels, this image refers to a rural experience. So for suburbanites, and us city folk the stories and images seem foreign but for most of the world this is not the case.

In the gospel of John, Jesus presents himself as the pastor who loves and is concerned for his sheep. He knows them, calls them by name; he is close to them. The sheep also know him; “they know his voice”. This two-way knowledge binds them indissolubly, especially if we keep in mind that in a biblical context to know means to love. We are dealing with an intimate knowledge, which somehow creates a mutual affectionate dependence, whereby at the beginning of the text the good shepherd is the antithesis of the thief and the bandit. The sheep “do not know the voice of strangers”. The thief comes “to steal, kill and destroy,” while Jesus has come so we may have life abundantly.

When we think of this example of John, those of us who have pets no very well that our dogs, cats, birds, horses, etc. know our voices. They come when they hear our voice. They know whether we are angry or happy. Our experience with our pets is what Jesus is describing in the story.

Once again we are in the presence of the central alternative: life or death. Jesus makes us see what is really at stake within the church, namely, how responsibilities are to be carried out in the Christian community. Those who have the task to guide must be close to the Christian people, know their needs and their hopes, and, moreover, they must share their lives. Like the good shepherd, we must be the gate through which people enter into the justice and joy of the kingdom. Pastoral responsibility is a service, not a privilege. The shepherd who neglects the daily suffering of the poor and the abuses they endure becomes a stranger and, in the final analysis, a “thief and a bandit,” even though these terms sound harsh. This is always a risk. The Lord's warning is severe and demanding for everyone.

This is what some people have accused the church of during World War II. Some say the church; the pope did not speak and do enough against Hitler. Did the church really speak out? Today it is challenged to speak out against the war in Iraq. I know the church leadership has spoken against atrocities in Central America, South America, Korea, etc. Are we doing enough? The victims are the ones who can tell us. We have the luxury of being philosophical while they are the ones losing their homes, families, and possessions.

Read the newspaper. Look at the brutality in Kosovo. Recently, I saw a story about the brutal eviction of a family in Peru. The judge, that is to say the person in charge of doing justice, was present. And so were hundreds of bullies in and out of uniform, on horses and on foot. They were all upholding the law, but not justice or human dignity: burned shacks, loss of scanty goods, dozen of people wounded, perhaps some dead, mistreated children. After hearing Peter's homily announcing the risen Jesus, his listeners asked: “ What should we do?” This is the appropriate question to the message of the one whom God chose but who was rejected. How should we proclaim the good shepherd who came to bring us abundant life? When we face situations like the ones we just mentioned what should we do to be shepherds rather than bandits in the world today?

Pat Egan-Myers

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Third Sunday of Easter
Acts 2:14, 22-33---1Peter 1:17-21--- Luke 24:13-35
April 6, 2008

In the Breaking of the Bread

Being a Christian is to believe in the resurrection, which is, therefore, the nucleus of the preaching and testimony of the church.

This Lukan text has profoundly impacted the memory of Christians. Discreetly and in keeping with the customs o the time, Jesus joins the two disciples who are walking to Emmaus and talking with concern about what has just happened in Jerusalem. They are sad (that is to say, the opposite of what the resurrection should produce in believers) and, perhaps, disappointed. They are astounded that the stranger does not know what happened in Jerusalem to Jesus of Nazareth, the prophet of God condemned to death by the leaders of his people. Moreover, the women of their group and a few others have told them about the empty tomb, but their faith is not mature enough to enable them to see in that absence the presence of the risen Jesus.

Believing in the resurrection and perceiving all its repercussions are a process that demands time. It also requires our being able to know how to read scripture. This is what the stranger who joins them does with patience and devotion: “he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures”. As St. Augustine said, Jesus is in fact the key to scripture. We never complete our reading of the Bible; we go to it with our questions, but in turn it questions us. We read it, but we are also read by it. It reveals God to us but it also reveals us to ourselves. The Bible reminds us that we encounter Jesus in those who are excluded and in those who suffer in the world. Following in the footsteps of the bishops at Puebla, the Santo Domingo congregation has underlined this once again, and at the same time it invites us to lengthen the list of the poor in whom we are to recognize Jesus- a task that is not difficult, albeit painful, in the world with increasingly more poor.

The so-called Emmaus disciples still do not recognize Jesus, but they put into practice the welcome they have learned from their master: “Stay with us”. The stranger takes bread, blesses and shares it, and then the disciples remember that Jesus had done just that, which makes them recognize him as the Messiah. In the gift of bread, he expresses his own surrender, which opens the eyes of the two friends. Then they see what their inertia and sadness did not allow them to perceive; the gesture of the Lord gives renewed strength to their reading of the scriptures. Once they are back in Jerusalem, the disciples rejoice and comfort one another by sharing the news that Jesus has risen.

Bearing witness to this is a disciple's mission. When they have to select someone to join the twelve, they choose him from those who were witnesses “with us to his resurrection". Our major question is the following: how are we to be witnesses to the resurrection and life in a world in which, pain and death increase sixty minutes per second? Let us look for the answer with our faith and hope set on God.

Pat Egan-Myers

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