FAITH, FAMILY, FRIENDS

A week or so ago I heard an interview on PBS in which former President George Bush was talking about his recently deceased mother. He said that there were three areas of importance in her life: faith, family and friends. That was what sustained her throughout her remarkable life. And isn’t that what sustains us throughout our lives?

First and foremost there is faith. Our faith in God is what holds us up when hope seems to be lost, when life is difficult and painful. We believe our God will give us the grace and strength to get through those days and help us find resurrection and new life. When we think back upon those days, and we all have had them, we realize that it was precisely this faith of ours that got us through.

But faith is two-sided. There is our faith is God. There is also faith in ourselves. No matter how much faith we have that God will get us through the dark days, we also have to have enough faith in ourselves that we can make it through those days no matter how dark or difficult or long. And, again, when we look back on those days, we have to acknowledge the truth that we did our part while God did God’s part.

Then there is family. We do not go through this life alone. In good times and in bad it is our family who walks our journey with us. They stand beside us, support us, encourage us just as we do them. My wife, during her many years in management always told those who worked with her that family always comes first and not the job. There are too many sad stories about families that broke up because the job always came first. It never does. Family does.

And thirdly, friends. Sometimes, especially in this day and age, we find ourselves far away geographically from family. Work takes us there. Yes, our family will be there if we absolutely need them. But our new friends become our new support system. Isn’t that

what a church family is all about? I’ve served parishes where no one was born and raised in that parish. They came from somewhere else. But they also became a family supporting one another through good times and bad.

Mrs. Bush was so right. It is our faith, our family and our friends that see us through this life. One is not more important than the other. We need all three. Without faith in God and in ourselves, no matter how supportive family and friends are, it is impossible to survive the dark days that come to us. Without family and friends to support us, it is almost impossible to go it alone, if not impossible.

Too often we take our faith, our family and our friends for granted. I know I have. I am thankful I happened to have stumbled on that interview and be reminded about what is really important in my life. If you are like me those reminders often come when we least expect them and, perhaps, when we most need them.

Ecclesiastes Was Wrong, Sort Of

The cynic in me sometimes gets the best of me, especially when I ponder the foolishness and thick-headedness of humanity, my own included. Why is it, I often wonder, that we keep making the same mistakes over and over and over again? Why do we hardly ever seem to learn from them? Why do we diligently read history but choose to ignore its lessons and so are doomed to repeat it as we do, much to our dismay, chagrin and personal and corporate suffering and regret? In my cynicism I wonder why we even bother to study history

Ecclesiastes, one of the wisdom writers of the Old Testament, had his own take on all this. He, too, must have studied the history of his people and observed the actions of his contemporaries and even of himself and simply came to this conclusion: “What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done; there is nothing new under the sun.” (1:9)

Yet, as much as I agree with him and as much as it is evident that history repeats itself so as to seem that there is truly nothing new under the sun, I must conclude that Ecclesiastes was wrong, sort of. And as much as it is obviously evident that we do not or stubbornly refuse to learn the lessons of the past, it is not written in stone that we cannot learn, that we must and will repeat those past errors ourselves.

Every moment of every hour of every day is new. It is not a repeat of the past nor will it be repeated in the future. Every moment is unique. That should give us hope and allow us to be optimistic even as we lament our failures to learn from our mistakes and our proclivity to keep repeating them over and over again. Because each moment under the sun is a brand new moment, we have the choice and opportunity to either repeat our mistakes of the past or not.

That has always been the case, of course. Every person and every generation is given that same choice. Thus, it seems, the question we need to ask ourselves individually and corporately is why we act the way we do. Is there some defective gene endemic to human beings that prescribes such foolish behavior so much so that Ecclesiastes noted its prevalence almost 3000 years ago?

Would that there were. Then we would be off the hook. We could blame our foolishness on our DNA rather than on our FSA – Foolish Selfish Actions. If our DNA were the cause, then God would be the one we could blame because God created us the way we are. The truth is our DNA is quite attuned to those times when our FSA want to control our lives. God created us and God’s Spirit lives in each and every one of us. That is why we do not have to repeat our past mistakes and sins.

We are not doomed to repeat history. God’s grace is there to enable us to keep each new moment new, to strengthen us to not do what we know is foolish and to do what we know is, well, full of God’s grace and love. Yes, Ecclesiastes observed what we still observe. Nevertheless, we have it within ourselves as persons and as a community, both of faith and of the world, to make ourselves, our world and all things new.

I AM AN ITALIAN-HISPANIC-AFRICAN-JEWISH-ETC. AMERICAN

We did our ancestry check a while back and I discovered that while I am 78% Italian, I have blood from most of southern Europe as well as some from Africa. There are even a little Jewish genes in me. But, then, I am no different from any other person in this country. The only exceptions are the real Native Americans, who, sadly because of how our ancestors treated them, are few and far between.

The point is that none of the rest of us is a pure American. We are all mixed breeds, each and every one of us. That means that no one of us better or purer than anyone else. We are a mixed breed and we are all Americans. So why do we label some Hispanic Americans or African Americans? Labeling others because of genetic makeup only separates us and makes it so much more difficult to act as one people, one nation. But, unfortunately, we do. Is it any wonder, then, why there is so much division in our country?

Not only that, if we would check back on our forefathers, they all came to this country looking for a better life. Both of my grandfathers came here from Italy at the turn of the last century with barely the clothes on their backs. One found work in the coal mines in Eastern Pennsylvania and the other on the railroads in Western Pennsylvania. When they had saved enough money, they returned to Italy, picked up their wives, returned to their new homes and began to raise a family. All they wanted was a better life.

All those coming to this country today want is a better life than they now have. They want to find a job, and it is almost, like my grandfathers’, hard labor for low pay. But they take it, work hard, make a living, raise a family, pay taxes, make this country even better. They aren’t looking for a handout or free anything no matter what the politicians have to say. And they certainly aren’t criminals, not the overwhelming majority of them. Some are. Some of my Italian relatives, I suspect, were part of the Mafia. Not everyone is an upstanding citizen.

The truth is that we need more immigrants and not less. Everywhere I look businesses are hiring. We do not have enough workers and we are not reproducing enough. The trucking industry alone needs 900,000 new truck drivers. But we need more immigrants not only to fill out employment rolls but because they make us better. When I was a teenager in the late ‘50s, my Dad opened a pizza shop. Now pizza and Italian cuisine is everywhere and almost considered “American”! And there is Japanese, Chinese, Hispanic – the list is endless – cuisine. And Americans of every genetic makeup dine on it.

What made the United States so attractive to my grandparents was the opportunity it freely and welcomingly gave them for a better life. They took it. People all over the world are looking for that same opportunity. We can’t take it away from them. In fact, we need them as much as they need us.

JOHN THE BAPTIST DIDN’T GET IT AND NEITHER DO WE

We tend to believe that John the Baptist really understood Jesus and Jesus’ mission, but he really did not. John was the last of the Old Testament prophets who believed that God would send a Messiah to right all things wrong and, in the process, lead a military revolution against the powers in charge and make Israel the new world power. That’s what John and, in fact, even Jesus’ disciples and his other followers believed.

They were all wrong. Remember the account (Luke 7:8-23) where John was in prison and he sent his disciples to ask Jesus if he, Jesus, was “the one who is to come”, namely, the Messiah, or were they to look for someone else? Why did John have to have that question asked of Jesus? I believe it was because the message Jesus was preaching was not the kind of message a warrior-messiah would preach. John didn’t get it.

And neither do we. Like John, like those who were following Jesus for all the wrong reasons back then, we, too, today, somehow still think that the way to overcome all that is wrong in this world is through the force of power. They were correct and so are we. But what kind of power: that is the issue. Not the power of the force of arms but the power of love. There is no power on earth that is stronger than the power of love.

We still seem to think that what makes us powerful as a nation is that we have more and bigger and more powerful weapons than any other nation. On an international level, on a political level, that may seem true, may even be so. But what makes a country great, what makes a people great, is the love and care that country and its people have one for another. Nothing else matters and nothing is more powerful.

People matter; every person matters. Every person. That was Jesus’ constant message. That was the message he sent back to John. Everyone matters especially the least, the lost, the lonely, the outcasts of society. Everyone. To the extent that we believe some people are more important, better, whatever, than others, to that extend we still don’t get it. We still don’t get Jesus’ message.

Granted, it is an easy message to understand but a difficult one to live out. It always was and always will be given our proclivity to look out for Number One long before we start looking out for anyone else. That is why, sadly, the world is not much better off today than it was in Jesus’ time. After Pentecost some people started getting the message and started living out that message and the world began to change. But then politics and power took over once again and the message got lost. If it did not get lost, it was pushed to the back burner.

But I have hope. The message that is coming from Parkland and all across this great country of ours is that everyone matters and that only love for one another will not only make us great but make us be what we were created to be. Maybe we’re finally getting it.

REJOICE ALWAYS

St. Paul in his first letter to the people of Thessalonica (5:16) tells them – and, thus, tells us – to “Rejoice always.” Really? Rejoice when you’ve just lost your job? Rejoice when your marriage breaks apart or your children are sick or you just failed an exam. Really? Rejoice when bad happens to us or to people we love or even to people we do not know? How are we supposed to do that? Even more, why should we do that?

Yet that is what Paul says we must do. Why? Well, to begin with he would tell us, as that old song says, we should rejoice because “this is the day the Lord has made.” And because the Lord has made this day, then “let us rejoice and be glad in it.” God has given us, individually and collectively, this day to live out as best we can. Yesterday is past and tomorrow is not yet and, moreover, there might not be a tomorrow for us given that each day is an individual gift from God.

Even so, even being thankful that God has given us – given me – this day as a gift, everything about this day on a personal level can be very painful making it very difficult for me to find any reason to rejoice this day. That may very well be true. But that is to miss Paul’s point, I think. While I may find little or nothing for me to rejoice about on a personal level given that I may be drowning in pain and suffering, nevertheless, people I love have reasons to rejoice which should give me a reason to rejoice amid my pain.

That may be difficult to do, of course. In fact, it almost always is. When we are in pain of any kind, it is truly difficult to summon up the strength to rejoice in the good others are experiencing. We are expending all of our strength just to get through this day and Paul expects us to summon up the strength to rejoice that others are not in pain? Well, yes, yes indeed, Paul would say.

Even more, while we may be in pain, deserved or undeserved, there are always many reasons for us to rejoice amidst all that pain. And we can put names and faces on those reasons. In fact, those named faces are the ones who are standing beside us, walking with us, praying for us as we endure the pain we are now experiencing. They may not be able to take away the pain, undo the damage, make things better, but their presence always helps somehow in some way to ease that pain. Is that not a reason to rejoice?

This day has been given to us for a reason. It has been given to us to live as fully and as faithfully and as best we can else God would not have been given it to us in the first place. Once we awaken to this day, even though we may awaken to pain, Paul would remind us, we are to find all the reasons we can to rejoice in it. And if we awaken pain free, rejoicing in that gift, we are to do all we can to help the ones we love who are in pain to get through the day.

There are always reasons to “rejoice always”.  It is up to us to find them…and rejoice!