“Truth Or Lies” Truth! What IS truth? What is THE truth? What has become of truth, the highest pinnacle of life, honour, freedom and integrity, in our world today? It seems there is an ‘assault’ on truth, a ‘denigration’, ‘manipulation’ of truth, causing society to feel unsettled, with little hope for the future, and an ‘abandonment’ of trust in God.
And yet, truth is the foundation of life itself. Human beings have been obsessed with ‘the Truth’ since God created us, and rightly so. But what does it mean? The Oxford Dictionary says Truth is: The quality or state of being true. That which is true or in accordance with fact or reality. A fact or belief that is accepted as true: their example, perhaps ironic at this time, is ‘the emergence of scientific truths’. “Now, are you going to take the garbage out? And don’t say you’re going to do it, and then don’t! That’s akin to lying.” This is a parent’s version of today’s gospel: easy to understand, and a very important lesson for a child: that a truthful, honest, committed person is a godly person. Truth tells us what is right and what is wrong. It teaches us love and respect for each other’s dignity and well-being. And if we say ‘No’, love teaches us we can still go back to our parents, spouses and children, friends, and community, and commit to the right thing, and do it! God, all merciful, sees with joy our changes of heart and commitment to the truth of his gospel. But still, … what IS truth itself? Actress and comedienne, Lily Tomlin, on a 60s TV show called ‘Laugh-In’ defined what truth was in her famous ‘Edith Ann monologues’, playing a 3 yr old sitting in a giant rocking-chair. After each brief story, she would say, “And that’s the truth”. In one episode, she tells us, “Do you know what happened the other day? Momma had a tea-party and this is what Mrs. Lawson said: “I just love these little-bitty tuna fish sandwiches.” And I said the kitty likes them, too. He ate 3 of them when he was walking across the table. … And that’s the truth!” She asks her mother, “Do you believe God made the world in 6 days? That’s what people say: God made the whole world in 6 days. And now he takes Sundays off, … while the rest of us have to get up and go to church! … And that’s the truth!” And then, “Mother, I do not make up things. That is lies! Lies is not true. … But the truth can be made up, … if you know how. … And that’s the truth!” The truth can be made up. Is this part of why we’ve lost our way? A news article said it is critical that world government continues to hold dear those things which mean everything to society: freedom, civility, and truth! For centuries we have tried to express truth in art, literature, drama, and music. An artist in Bejiing recently said, “All artists are in love with the world.” Indeed, they are in love with God, who IS the truth existing in the creation they try to interpret. And what magnificient creations we ourselves are: creatures of various colours, textures, dimensions, strengths and weaknesses, and yet fragile like the rest of our eco-system. Like in his famous poem, In a Station of the Metro, Ezra Pound writes after watching people come and go in the subway: “The apparition of these faces in the crowd; petals on a wet, black bough”. A critic said it vividly shows the elegance of human life, while showing its impermanence. Petals are found in nature in various vibrant colors which represent different human faces and cultures, and the petals which lie dying on the wet bough symbolize the transitoriness of life. The dignity and soul of every human being is captured in two short lines of poetry. Truth still might seem elusive, undefinable, because it is beyond all understanding. But we should recognize the Truth, because it IS with us, in us, and around us, since Truth is God himself. John 14.6: Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” We are making history now. Will we be remembered, not just as nations of people, but as people of God who reached across the divides between us, to unite us in our mutual determination for peace and the common good, a people who will do the work of our Father in heaven who asked us to do his will, to say ‘Yes’, and DO the work, a people of honour, integrity, civility, and truth, because, like our parents told us, truth makes us God-like, a very great honour indeed, because God IS Truth. Rev Fr Christopher Tracey Saint Joseph Parish Saugeen Shores, Ontario
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“God’s Reasoning Not Ours” Many have questioned what looks like an uneven ‘Justice’ dealt to the workers in the parable. “Why did those who worked the whole day, not get more money than those who came later? It doesn’t make sense. It’s not logical. Unions would see fault with this, according to our labour laws, correct?”
But God tells us he does not reason like us, although we are his creations, made in his image: “My ways and my thoughts are higher than yours”. After all, with our very limited intelligence, how could we ever hope to know the mind of God? This is part of today’s lesson, but there is an even more important part: that of kindness, love, and generosity, in our thoughts and in the ways we do things. Those who heard Jesus’ parable in person, understood his point in ways we would not today. In Christ’s time, men would be waiting in a market place each day for employment. Those who were hired first were usually the Jews; the last were usually the Gentiles, in a kind of religious favouritism. Therefore, Matthew was calling his audience to recognize what the real issue was: the false sense of superiority in the workers hired at the beginning of the day caused them to be ungenerous and unkind to those who also had mouths to feed. It really did not have as much to do with a logical, human understanding of fairness, as it did with their own pride and desire for material gain. And like any father, in this case, a parallel with our Father in Heaven, the Lord and Master even goes out himself, rather than sending his labour manager, to hire with kindness and even mercy workers, who are, in allegorical terms, us – his children. So, Matthew, a Jew who is writing for his Jewish brethren, uses Christ’s message to illustrate in terms, which they would definitely understand at the time, just how Jesus wants us to rethink our lives: to live within the true meaning of the Letter of the Law, which is Love, and Not to seek the things of this world, but of the next. Naturally, to live with communal order in society, with a balanced, fair systematic way of equal distribution of material things in this world, and for the safety and protection of life, rules and guidelines are required – human law – such as the medical directives now in place to keep us safe and well during the pandemic. Out of care and concern for each other’s welfare, we are called to “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s” with masks and distancing and controlled numbers of people. But human beings are also Not robots. “If you work little, then you get paid little”, may be an OK place for labour laws to begin, but we are also governed by our hearts as well as our minds. God dwells within our hearts, calling us to hear his guidelines as well which do not rely on the ‘merit’ system. His measurements are based on love and mercy, kindness and generosity, and he calls us to do the same! In fact, the parable points out a third lesson: over centuries of debate we realize we also cannot justify ourselves by good works. We cannot ‘earn’ God’s grace. Grace is something God in his thoughts and ways gives to us as he so desires. So, our goal in life should Not be to seek rewards from God, but to relish the joy of serving him. We might consider: working with our hands, thinking with our minds, but deciding with our hearts, asking throughout our work day, “What would Jesus do?” Khalil Gibran, author of the celebrated, spiritual work, The Prophet, once told us, “Work is love made visible.” So, we can take away three things today in prayer: 1.) We can never know God’s reasoning, but let us try to reason like God. 2.) We cannot earn grace, but let us be grateful for the grace God gives us. 3.) We must give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, but let us give generously and kindly, with mercy, forgiveness, and love, just as God gives us in his thoughts and ways. Rev Fr Christopher Tracey, Saint Joseph Parish Saugeen Shores, Ontario “To Forgive Is Divine” “To err is human, to forgive is divine.” So wrote the great 18th C English poet, Alexander Pope, in his monumental poem, An Essay on Man. It was his attempt to inform humanity of their need to strive for the ethical and moral in their lives, to seek the way of love and salvation thru God, regardless of their human condition. He recognized that this was not only for the individual’s benefit, but for the welfare of the global community, because harmony and peace and productivity in our world begins with forgiveness, which is in many ways, the fore-runner of love. But forgiveness must come from the heart to be divine. Christ points out that, if, for example, we are counting how many times we forgive someone, our forgiveness is not valid nor genuine. Such forgiveness is not that of our merciful God. Indeed, all today’s scripture readings tell us that, if we desire God to forgive our sins and failings, then we must forgive others with sincere, honest, loving conviction. Another great English writer certainly knew the power and significance of forgiveness: William Shakespeare. I noticed Shakespeare’s play, Romeo and Juliet, was playing on several TV stations at the same time: SLVSC was airing the first film version in 1936, with Norma Shearer and Leslie Howard, PBS was hosting a recent production of Prokofiev’s ballet, and TCM was showing, West Side Story, Bernstein’s modern musical adaptation. Perhaps there was a message behind this? Most of us would likely describe Romeo and Juliet as a tragic story of love and loss. But considering today’s gospel message was clearly about ‘forgiveness’, it occurred to me that Shakespeare’s play is not so much about love, as it is about forgiveness. The motivation of the play is the bitterness, anger, and vengeful nature of people who will not forgive each other. In the end, reconciliation is only realized after the deaths of their children, innocent lambs, sacrificed for the sins of their families, much as Christ was sacrificed for our sins. But the result is sincere reconciliation of the families. Forgiveness abounds in the final lines: Juliet’s father says, “O brother, Montague, give me thy hand. This is my daughter’s act of joining us.” Romeo’s father says, “But I can give thee more: For I will raise her statue in pure gold.” Juliet’s father further adds, “[Our children.] Poor sacrifices of our enmity.” The Prince says, their story is to be retold and remembered for the benefit of all – of us! The inability to forgive is perhaps the most destructive state we can ever be in. It goes to the very core of our being, shutting out peace and contentment, barring us from living productive, generous lives, and, most sadly, our ability to love. “Is there someone you are at odds with? Then leave your gift at the altar, and first go to make amends with your brother or sister.” How many of us possibly bear inside our hearts the anger, hostility, and sadness of broken relationships with parents, spouses, family members, relatives, neighbours, co-workers, bosses, sometimes even sadly too late before death abruptly closes the door of forgiveness. Our mind and spirit become depressed, while science tells us this negativity sickens our physical bodies. And what about the guilt and remorse we subject the unforgiven party to? Have we responded to them charitably when they ask for our forgiveness? Or do we punish them with our silence, unreturned phone calls, or complaints about them to others. Or perhaps we are the offending party. Perhaps we are finding it difficult to say, “I’m sorry.” Being sorry – or sorrowful for one’s behaviour – invites the healing which ‘forgiveness’ brings, but many cannot put away their pride to do so. Are we asking which is more difficult: to say we are ‘sorry’, ask for forgiveness? Or ‘to forgive’? But this is not the question we as Christians should be asking. As Christians, we must apologize and forgive everyone in everything, because we all have hurt someone, and we all have been hurt. We all need forgiveness, and we need to forgive all who have wronged us. Forgiveness paves the way to God who forgives us, re-embraces us, and, through us, forgives others. What a relief this is! Philanthropist and writer, Wilferd Peterson, once wrote, “People who cannot forgive, break down the bridge over which they themselves must pass.” Build bridges, not walls. Reach beyond the difficulties and tests of our human condition, and seize life’s challenges with a kind regard for our mutual frailty, and forgive each other’s failings. Without forgiveness, there is No love. Without love, there are No healthy relationships – not with God, nor with community, nor with the world. Seize the moment now – today! Don’t question it. Make the call. Apologize. Reach out. Forgive them, because to forgive “from the heart” is divine. – Rev Fr Christopher Tracey, Saint Joseph Parish, Saugeen Shores, Ontario “Summer of 2020 in God’s Country" And so, now we must contend with summer’s end. Our children return to school, and we to our labours. But this summer’s end is an anxious one for many as we try to prepare for the unpredictable behaviour of the Covid-19 virus. Perhaps some of us even pine for the uncomplicated, easy joys of summers past? But what of our children, the children themselves who are returning to school? What do they anticipate? Are their minds filled with excitement and wide-eyed expectation? Or are their thoughts perhaps burdened with silent fear and anxiety? We can better understand our challenges as experienced adults, but what do our children see and understand? What are they experiencing in their minds and hearts? The great American Pulitzer-prize writer, James Rufus Agee, a quietly devout Christian, wrote a poetic reflection about a balmy, summer evening when he was six years old, living in Knoxville, Tennessee, lying with his family on the cool grass of their backyard, taking in the stars and listening to carriages and horses trotting by on the cobblestone streets. It was the summer of 1915. In child-like terms he writes, “It has become that time of evening when people sit on their porches, rocking gently, and talking gently, and watching the street. People go by; things go by. A horse, drawing a buggy, breaking his hollow iron music on the asphalt; a loud auto; a quiet auto; people in pairs, not in a hurry, scuffling along. On the rough, wet grass of the back yard my father and mother have spread quilts. We all lie there, my mother, my father, my uncle, my aunt, and I too am lying there. They are not talking much, and the talk is quiet, of nothing in particular, of nothing at all. The stars are wide and alive, they each seem like a smile of great sweetness, and they seem very near. All my people are larger bodies than mine, with voices gentle and meaningless like the voices of sleeping birds. One is an artist; he is living at home. One is a musician; she is living at home. One is my mother who is good to me. One is my father who is good to me.” On a commission from the celebrated 1940s soprano, Eleanor Steber, accomplished composer, Samuel Barber, would write his beloved masterpiece for soprano and orchestra based on James Agee’s reflection called, “Knoxville: Summer of 1915”. It is a popular, perennial favourite on many summer-stock stages and concert venues. The scene he captured is now long gone, fading into the past when porches lost their popularity to the relief of Air-Conditioners and Television sets in the 1960s. Yet, this work beckons us to put down cellphones and remove ear-buds, to ponder something we seem to have lost. What is it? It is 2 things: family and community, that wonderful sharing when people come together, smile, tell stories, embrace, and laugh with abandon. Also, when they help and correct each other. The Holy Spirit glides into our lives like the fragrant mist of evening coming off the warm lake, mixed with dew from the vast, yellow fields which ground us in God’s hands. But there is a hint of sadness in Agee’s story, and in the strains of Barber’s music. It seems we have more in common with Agee’s summer than just the nostalgia of an early 20th C evening. A year later, Agee’s father would die in a car accident, and soon after, he would lose loved ones to the Spanish flu pandemic. Agee went on to produce narratives on poverty and man’s inhumanity to man during the depression, trying to correct and inform his community. He would die of a heart attack in the back of a taxicab in NYC at only 45 yrs of age, perhaps longing for that summer of 1915 when family, community, mother and father were good to him. Agee ends Summer of 1915 with a prayer, and a wish to know who he is: “May God bless my people, my uncle, my aunt, my mother, my good father. Oh, remember them kindly in their time of trouble; and in the hour of their taking away. … After a little I am taken in and put to bed. Sleep, soft smiling, draws me unto her: and those receive me, who quietly treat me, as one familiar and well-beloved in that home: but will not, not now, not ever, tell me who I am.” Clearly, an existential question. So, will we tell our children who they are? Will we tell them their best friend is Jesus, with them every moment of their lives? Will we teach them to be charitable, thoughtful, kind, generous, responsible? Will we define right and wrong for them, gently correct them when they need correction? Will we teach them to pray? And will we correct ourselves and each other to determine who we truly are? This is what Jesus is asking us to do: to help each other find out who we are. Let us lie down in the cool grass of our backyards, or sit on our porches in peace, comforted to know, that, like our children, we, too, will flourish with correction and guidance from God, and each other. Because, who are we? – We are all Children of God! Rev Fr Christopher Tracey, Saint Joseph Parish Saugeen Shores, Ontario “Prayer As Praise And Adoration How many of us remember racing home after school or an event, anxious to share some good news about something positive we had accomplished or something we were praised for by our teacher, sports coach or peers? Do you remember the feeling of excitement and anticipation of what a parent or caregiver might say?
Do you remember the breathless exhilaration you felt when they seriously examined your work of art or report card, took time to assess it, and bathed you with praise, maybe even kisses and hugs, for work well done? Or were they too distracted with their labours, maybe reading the paper, a bit too busy with their worldly duties? “Later, honey, I’ll look at it later.” Maybe they just took a brief moment to glance at your ribbon, or spelling award, perhaps with an appreciative smile, but quickly went back to what occupied them? Probably we’ve experienced all of the above, but these brief moments in our early years tend to be highly significant. These positive or negative memories are deeply embedded in our minds, critical, formative moments of keenly felt emotion: “Wow! They love me and care about me!” or “I guess they don’t really care.” We may not think of it from this perspective, but when we do not praise or focus loving attention on God, our Creator feels abandoned in the same way. OT scripture tells us God desires our love, attention, and praise: Exodus 20.5-6: “You shall not bow down to [idols] or worship them; for I the LORD your God am a jealous God.” In Hosea 1.1-4, we see God’s anguish at Israel’s lack of love and attention for him: “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. The more I called them, the more they went from me; they kept sacrificing to the Baals, and offering incense to idols. Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk, I took them up in my arms; but they did not know that I healed them. I led them with cords of human kindness, with bands of love. I was to them like those who lift infants to their cheeks. I bent down to them and fed them.” Clearly, God in his greatness and power, is also the Father of Love who naturally seeks praise and recognition, just as we do in any positive, passionate, symbiotic relationship, as images of God. Some may say, “But God is Not a child!” And yet, are we not all still children? Do not our parents, loved ones, elderly, the poor and displaced also need praise, attention and love? “As you do for the least of these, you do for me.” Parents, remember the joy you feel when your child praises you for dinner, or fixing their bicycle or helping them with homework? Praise does not spoil! Praise strengthens, heals, encourages, and assures the bonds of love between us, our children, and God. And this is the Prayer of Praise and Adoration, the last of our series on defining prayer, the culmination of the other 5 forms of prayer: confession, supplication, intercession, thanksgiving, and lament. And with this understanding, God must be the ultimate recipient of our praise and adoration. Why? Because he gave us life! No Hollywood celebrity nor Sports icon we may praise can ever equal the work of God! We are walking miracles. How could we not in awe itself fail to praise God? It is this awe which should move us to praise God every morning we awake to another day, praise God for those we love and encounter in the day to come, and praise God at night for another day of labour and love as his profound creation. PS 139.13-18: “For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; this I know very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes beheld my unformed substance. In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed.” Jeremiah admits, “If I say, ‘I will not mention him, or speak any more of his name, then within me there is something like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot.”’ Jesus calls us to think as God does, not as humans do; to seek his guidance for a life governed by the spiritual, not over-indulgence in the material. When we follow God, we praise him who gave us life. Jesus gave us the most profound Prayer of Praise and Adoration in all Christianity. The first line rightly begins with praise for God, our Father, our true parent, the first of our duties as brothers and sisters in Christ. Let us pray together, the Lord’s Prayer: … Our Father … Amen. Fr Christopher Tracey, Pastor Saint Joseph Roman Catholic Parish Saugeen Shores, Ontario “Prayer As Lament” Like Jesus in today’s gospel, I also have a question – perhaps rarely asked: What is religion for? What does Christianity accomplish? Why do we need a Messiah?
There will be many good responses to this question, but in many ways the ultimate answer is: to relieve suffering. The psalms attest to this suffering, to the laments of the human race. On the cross Christ himself quotes from Ps 22 (v.1-2): “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? … [while the psalm continues: …] Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer; and by night, I find no rest.” The prayer of ‘lament’ is perhaps our most ‘heart-felt appeal’ to God compared to: prayers of confession, supplication, intercession, and thanks. It is also perhaps the most vital for our human condition, since it helps us cope with the many facets of suffering which we experience: sorrow, anger, depression, desperation, fear and confusion in the face of tragedy or difficult times like the pandemic. Calling to God in suffering does at least 2 things: 1) It confirms our belief and trust in him in tough times, 2) We find true comfort in him who can walk with us like no one else can. Lament and thanksgiving are also not polar opposites. Lament is actually completed by thanksgiving. Again, in Ps 22.27, we hear “All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord; all families of the nations shall worship him.” 20th C African-American author, historian, sociologist, and civil rights activist, William Edward Burghardt Du Bois, says this dual nature of the prayer of lament is found throughout the Song of Songs in its ‘Sorrow Songs’: “The minor cadences of despair often change to triumph and calm confidence. Sometimes it is faith in life, sometimes a faith in death, sometimes assurance of boundless justice in some fair world beyond. But whichever it is, the meaning is always clear: that sometime, somewhere, men will judge men by their souls and not by their skins,” (The Sorrow Songs, par.3, Dubois). Nowhere is this duality more evident that in the great African-American Spirituals where sorrow reaches out with anticipation of a loving God in the promised land: “Deep River, My home is over Jordan. Deep River, Lord, I want to cross over into campground. Don't you want to go, To that Gospel feast, That promised land, Where all is peace? Deep River, Lord, My home is over Jordan.” So, do we need religion? Yes! Because it brings comfort and hope to humankind at the very core of our being where our soul seeks nourishment and expression. Do we need a Messiah? Most definitely! Because the Messiah relieves all suffering, removes all stain of sin, and restores all humanity’s ability to reach heaven. Peter knew Jesus was the Messiah: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And it was easy to determine this, because Peter had seen Jesus answer the prayers of lament in this world, saw him heal the suffering of thousands of men and women, saw him miraculously feed them with bread from heaven, and revive their suffering souls with his words of hope and comfort. Like the old familiar hymn reminds us: “What a friend we have in Jesus, All our sins and griefs to bear! What a privilege to carry, Everything to God in prayer!” Let us pray: O loving God, you hear and walk with us through all our trials. Just as you weep with us, help us to weep with others. Just as you bear and ease our physical suffering, help us to bear and ease through redemptive suffering the suffering of others. Just as you comfort us, help us to comfort others. Just as you give us hope, help us to give hope to others. Just as you love us, help us to love others. – Amen. Rev Fr Christopher Tracey, Pastor Saint Joseph Roman Catholic Parish Saugeen Shores, Ontario |
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Rev. Fr. Christopher Tracey
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