tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-39232943790481364222024-03-08T12:42:17.561-08:00Homilies, Sermons and HaranguesTom Cornellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01412350144966958090noreply@blogger.comBlogger76125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3923294379048136422.post-39258671545102626712016-03-20T14:32:00.000-07:002016-03-20T14:37:13.580-07:00We Know Not<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">GOOD FRIDAY 2016<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Catholic Peace Fellowship<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Deacon Tom Cornell</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> After
the Last Supper, Jesus and his companions walked across the Kedron Valley to
Gethsemane, the Mount of Olives. If you
visit Israel today, you will surely want to see the Mount of Olives where Jesus
suffered his Agony in the Garden. You
come to a little stream at the bottom of the valley on the way. The guide tells you, “This is the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Kedron</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">River</st1:placetype></st1:place>.”
You are surprised. It’s not much of a
river now, just a little stream, not much more than a trickle. You can hop over it. It was broader then, the guide tells
you. Jesus and the apostles took their
sandals off to wade across. Imagine
it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> Jesus
knew he had a special relationship with the Father even as a boy. “Didn’t you know I must be about my Father’s
business?” At his baptism he had heard
the voice from the clouds, “This is my beloved son, listen to him.” Then the Spirit led him into the desert where
he fasted and prayed for forty days and nights to discern his mission. And there he was tempted by Satan, who at
last departed from him, for a while, we are told, for a while. Satan would come back and tempt him again,
maybe now. As they waded across the
river, if Jesus turned his eyes to the right, southward, did it occur to him
that safety was not far away, escape?
The caves! Caves where robbers
and insurgents hid were just a night’s walk into the desert. Night was about to fall. By morning he could be far enough
away.... True God, true man. What drowning man does not grasp at
straws? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> Jesus knew what was coming, who was coming, an
arrest party, Judas. In righteous wrath
Jesus had upset the tables of the buyers and sellers in the Temple court; he
had driven their animals out with a knotted cord and he had castigated the
Temple authorities: “<span style="background: #fdfeff; color: #001320;">My house
shall be called the house of prayer; but you have made it a den of thieves.”</span> He had enemies. They were coming after him now, to kill
him. If he made it to the caves to hide
for a month or two maybe the anger against him would pass, maybe the tide would
turn again in his favor. Or maybe they’d just forget. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> Just a few days earlier the crowds
had greeted Jesus on his arrival in Jerusalem riding on the back of an ass.
Then they shouted for joy, wouldn’t you, wouldn’t I? Imagine you are in that crowd. “Hosanna, hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the
Lord!” They cast their cloaks down
before him, and palm fronds. We are in
the same crowd a week later before Pilate’s praesidium. This time the shouts have changed. Now it’s “Give us Barabbas!” “We have no king but Caesar!” “Crucify him!” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> Imagine
the humiliation on the Cross, Jesus stripped in front of men and women too, his
mother. His body is weakened by hours of
beating; he heaves, gasping for breath.
Taunts are hurled up at him, gall and vinegar raised to his parched
lips, three hours of this. “Father, into
your hands I commend my spirit.” It is
over. The salvific act is
completed. We are saved. At the reading of it we fall to our knees in
awe and sorrow and we pray. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> God’s command to Abraham to spare Isaac
signaled the end of child sacrifice. The
descendants of Abraham were never to do such a thing, the most horrid
abomination among the pagans, feeding their sons and daughters to Moloch. Today, old men -- and now old women, send
young men -- and now young women to kill and to be killed in war and they call
it sacrifice, the ultimate sacrifice they call it, when it is more truly
sacrilege. God does not will the death
of a sinner. He did not will the death
of Isaac and he did not will the death of Jesus. God cannot will evil. Sin did it, we did it,
you did it, I did it. God willed faith
and obedience, Obedience for Jesus was the acceptance of his destiny as it
unfolded in the spirit and in the deeds of nonviolence. And this Jesus did to the utmost, achieving
atonement, at-one-ment. But why such a
brutal death? To show us the ugliness of
sin and the greatness of God’s mercy!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> Just
imagine: what if Jesus hanging on the
cross had prayed, “Father, you are just.
I demand justice now. Avenge me!” There would have been no salvation. No! He
prayed, “Father, forgive them. They know
not what they do!” Jesus obeyed. Jesus heard the will of God in the depths of
his soul and he acted upon it: God demands compassion, forgiveness. So were we saved, by his obedience and his
prayer of forgiveness, in the final revelation of God’s love, the Paschal
Mystery, life out of death. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> From what are we saved? From sin, of course, the results of sin,
hell. Rings of torture, fire, steam and
ice in Dante’s <i>Divine Comedy</i> are
poetic images inadequate to describe what it is not to love any more, to be
alone. “Hell is not to love anymore”
(George Bernanos). Sin is a deliberate
rupture of right relationship. Sin is a
turning from love. Sin is refusal to
acknowledge Truth. “What is truth?”
Pilate asked, not the last skeptic. From
what are we saved? From the wages of
sin, death, the second death, hell, utter alienation. It need not be. It is true.
God’s seal on Christ’s redemptive act is the Resurrection.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> Forgiveness is an act of will to break the
cycle of vengeance and violence and death.
Jesus forgave. Peace is Christ’s
gift to us, a peace that the world cannot give.
There can be no peace without justice.
Pope John Paul taught there can be no true justice without forgiveness
for we are all enmeshed in the web of guilt.
Vengeance is death. Forgiveness
is life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> Oh God, take away our hearts of stone and
give us hearts of flesh. Inscribe in our
hearts your law of justice; carve into us the New Commandment that Jesus gave
his own at the Last Supper, to love one another “as I have loved you,” that is,
even unto death. Make us know that every
time we turn to violence even in a just cause we shout, “Give us Barabbas!” Every time we put loyalty to nation-state
above loyalty to God we shout, “We have no king but Caesar!” Every time we strike out in anger to harm or
to kill, we shout, “Crucify him!” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> Forgive us, Lord, we know not
what we do! </span><b><span style="font-family: "symbol"; font-size: 14.0pt;">W</span></b><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Tom Cornellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01412350144966958090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3923294379048136422.post-73123929646879581532016-01-14T12:52:00.002-08:002016-01-14T12:56:48.805-08:00Works of Mercy, Works of Peace<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;">WORLD
DAY OF PEACE 2016<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Catholic Peace Fellowship<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Deacon Tom Cornell<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Pope Francis has designated January 16<sup>th</sup>
World Day of Peace this year in an especially moving appeal for the things that
make for peace. He declared indifference
a fundamental spiritual problem, indifference first of all to God, then
indifference to our fellows and to the fate of our common home in defiance of
the Two Great Commandments. It is all
too easy to be indifferent to men and women in prison. They are not like us, we assume. We are respectable, hard-working, law-abiding
citizens; they are not. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> “If they didn’t belong there they wouldn’t be
there,” some will say. “This is a free
country,” they argue, “and everyone is presumed innocent until proven guilty in
a court of law, and we have the fairest laws and the most honest courts in the
world.” And the kicker: “If you can’t do
the time, don’t do the crime.” </span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">The fact
remains that the United States has less than five percent of the world's
population but almost a quarter of the world's prisoners. The US is number one all right! China with four times our population comes in
a distant second.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Pope Francis has long made prison ministry a mainstay of
his vocation. On nearly every foreign trip he has made he has visited prisoners
to offer words of solidarity and hope, and he still stays in touch with
Argentine inmates he ministered to during his years as archbishop of Buenos Aires. And Francis has gone farther than his
predecessors in condemning the death penalty, saying there is simply no
justification for the death penalty today.
He has called for its world-wide abolition. He has called life prison
terms a "hidden death penalty" and solitary confinement a "form
of torture" — and said both should be abolished as well. "Jesus tells us that love for others —
foreigners, the sick, prisoners, the homeless, even our enemies — is the
yardstick by which God will judge our actions….
Our eternal destiny depends on this.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I remember a conversation I had with the associate warden at
Danbury federal prison in 1968. “You are
an educated gentleman,” he told me. “You
will soon learn that most of the men in here are good for nothing. They’ve always been good for nothing, and
that’s all they’ll ever be. Good for
nothing!” And so that’s the way he and
the rest of the staff treated us, as good for nothing. 1968 was the most tumultuous year across the
globe since 1848, and although I had helped to conceive it, for better and for
worse, I missed half of it. I missed the
police riot at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. I had to see what I saw of it on TV in a
Mafia dorm. The Mafia guys rooted for
the cops. “Kill the ______
hippies!” I was lucky to be assigned to
that dorm because it was safe there. Rape
is a constant threat in prison. When an
effeminate man was assigned to our dorm and one fellow declared “he’s mine!”
the Mafia boss told him that if there were any force involved he would wake up
the next morning with his throat slit. Nothing happened. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The maximum sentence for violation of the Selective Service law is
five years and $250,000 fine. Most men
convicted under the draft act as I had been got two to three years. I must have had the shortest sentence in
Danbury, only six months, for burning my draft card. But it was horrible, even if it was
“baby-time,” as the inmates called it. Even so, I value the experience. Without it I would not understand the
suffering of people behind bars. It is
unremitting boredom. No one in jail is
happy, guards included. Prison guards
have the shortest life expectancy of any occupation. And the cooks! Unhappy people cannot cook. The food was terrible; whatever they cooked
they ruined one way or another.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Preaching on this subject has little if any positive effect on
parishioners. REC does! REC, Residents Encounter Christ, is a
Cursillo based three-day retreat program that brings eight or so parishioners
into a prison for a couple of over-nights so that they can share their faith
journeys with prisoners, called “residents” rather than convicts. Mostly middle-class white men share their
lives with mostly poor men of color. They
laugh together at the silly games woven into the program. That’s the best part for me, to hear them
laugh. You don’t hear much of that in
prison. And we find that we have much
more in common than not. We come to see
these men as brothers and sons, if only for such a short time. It is forbidden to have any on-going
relationship with the men. It’s here and
now and that’s it!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Who benefits from this
program, REC, the prisoners or the parishioners? You guessed it, the parishioners of
course. They cannot fail to notice the
disdainful glance of a prison guard when he sees a civilian carrying a
Bible. These church people are advocates
for the inmates! That’s not what the
guards want! Most importantly, the
parishioners come to realize how little correction there is in the correctional
system, how little penance in the penitentiary, how little justice in the
Justice Department. Then they are open
to questioning how much defense there is in the Defense Department. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Ask your pastor if he knows how to contact a REC organizer. If he doesn’t, call the chancery office. Visiting the prisoner is a corporal work of
mercy. Praying with the prisoner is a
spiritual work of mercy. In the end, the
merciful will be shown mercy. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">W</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Tom Cornellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01412350144966958090noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3923294379048136422.post-87162015955814442282015-11-22T13:49:00.001-08:002015-11-29T08:25:32.156-08:00Take Heart!<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">ADVENT 2015<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Catholic Peace Fellowship<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Deacon Tom Cornell<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> The Catholic Church is the largest and
oldest association of people in an organized structure on earth in all of history. In two thousand years’ time, over so vast an
area with so many people, we’ve had the opportunity to make just about every
mistake conceivable. It’s no wonder
there have been scandals. It’s
painful! So why love this corrupt
institution?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> First of all, the Church is not corrupt, not in
itself. Some of its representatives have
been, yes! But the Church remains the
Mystical Body of Christ and the Holy Spirit will never desert us. “The gates of hell will not prevail.” Members might fail, some very badly, but the
Church remains what it is, bringing us Jesus in word and sacrament. If it were not for the Church not many people
on earth would ever have heard of Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, Lord and
Savior. Jesus would be lost to history were
it not that his followers kept together and developed, from New Testament
times, the basic hierarchical structure of the Church, East and West, with
bishops, priests and deacons, the same structure and the same seven sacraments throughout
the far-flung ancient world up to the present day. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> Here we have the biblical readings every
Sunday revealing God’s plan of salvation.
Then there are the saints. If we
have villains, we have the most marvelous heroes too. Their memorials, their stories, their feasts,
are strategically placed throughout the year.
Their lives tell us what authentic Christian discipleship is all
about. We must admit, their stories are
often sanitized for mass consumption and dumbed down, sorry to say. The details of their lives are censored to
suit certain constituencies. Take Saints
Francis and Anthony, for instance.
Francis rocked both the Church and the state. We don’t hear much about that today. He not only excoriated wealth and privilege
but the political life of his day. He
fought in a battle of Assisi against Perugia before his conversion, but
thereafter he refused further military service.
His Rule for the lay Third Order forbade members to bear arms under any
circumstances. Hundreds, then thousands
of men joined the Third Order in Italy rather than serve in the military. The princes didn’t like that at all. They pressured the Pope and that section of
the Rule was dropped. They had their
way. Money talks, even in Rome! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> St. Anthony was a hell-raiser; he
wasn’t just the sweet looking guy walking around in a brown robe with the Baby Jesus
sitting on a Bible in his right hand and a big white lily in his left. People called him “Il Martello,” “The
Hammer.” He relentlessly hammered away at the bankers
of his day. He’d have had a fine time at
Occupy Wall Street. He’d fit right in! The bishops took him seriously at last and condemned
usury at an area Church synod. The Church
today has taken the same stand, essentially in line with Occupy Wall Street. But who hears about that from the
pulpit? Nevertheless, our Church is
truly a champion of the poor and oppressed and of peace. Pope Francis has brought that right to the
fore. And he is probably the best loved
man on earth. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> We just celebrated the feast of Saint Martin of
Tours, “patron saint of soldiers,” as he is called.
As the son of a Roman army officer, Martin was forced, conscripted into
the army for a twenty-five year term.
The persecution of the Church was over by his time and Christianity was
now the state religion. But when Martin
was baptized he refused further military service and sat out the next war in a
prison cell for a year. It was after his
release from prison and the army that he cut his cloak in half to share it with
a beggar. St. Martin should be publicly
invoked as “patron saint of conscientious objectors” at least as well as
soldiers. We have to ask, why isn’t he?
The patron and model for parish priests is the Cure of Ars, Saint Jean
Batiste Vianney. He was a French army deserter
and hid out in the woods for over a year.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> We of the Catholic Peace Fellowship propose
active nonviolence for defense against tyranny and oppression of any and every
kind. But those who protect the freedom
and security of their fellow citizens honorably in the military deserve our
respect and support too. When their
patriotism and bravery are abused, when they are sent to unjust war and useless
slaughter, then we must protest in the name of God. Patriotic rhetoric will not make up for the
abuse of our soldiers or comfort them when they feel they can not resign after
four and five and six deployments because there are no jobs for them back home. It should make us all pause – more veterans
of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have committed suicide than were killed in
battle. The Veterans Administration
makes a mockery of the chauvinistic cant, “Support Our Troops”! Treatment is so poor and so delayed that many
simply walk away. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> There are things worth dying for, I
haven’t the slightest doubt: among them our faith, “a
faith to die for,” as Michael Baxter put it. Ancient Christian communities are being decimated in Egypt, Iraq and in Jesus own home country, Christians accepting death rather than renouncing our Christian faith. Let their witness strengthen ours. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"> We are a family, our Church, and like
any other family, with a rascal or worse here and there, but a Mother Theresa,
a Damian the Leper, an Ignatius Loyola, a Francis Xavier, a Therese of Lisieux,
a Dorothy Day, a Franz Jaegerstaetter, a Francis, a Clare and an Anthony. They are our brothers and sisters and our examples. They give us heart. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> The world we know today is faced with
more grave threats than ever before in history, threats to our very existence. If we are to deal with the proliferation of
nuclear weapons, with climate change and global warming, with endemic poverty
and the just revolutionary claims of the world’s disinherited, with terrorism, and with massive dislocation of peoples, know that the Catholic Church is a voice of
sanity in this insanity, this
chaos. We have all we need. We have the Book and the table and we have
examples to show the way, Dorothy Day not the least among them. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> Was it a sign? Dorothy Day died just as the sun set on the
last day of the liturgical year 1980. This
is a new day, a new liturgical year. Take
heart! If we learn from her example and
have the courage that the Holy Spirit offers us, neither capitalism nor the sovereign national state will survive the 21st Century. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"> Take heart, and take part!</span></div>
Tom Cornellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01412350144966958090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3923294379048136422.post-31839246839802536712015-08-29T08:29:00.003-07:002015-09-06T12:30:19.937-07:00Believe Him!<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">22
Sunday B #125 <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Deut 4, 1-2. 6-8<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Ps 15<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Jas 1, 17-18.21b-22. 27<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Mk 7, 1-8. 14-15. 21-23<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Saint James-Saint Mary Church, Marlboro, N.Y.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">August 30, 2015<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Deacon Tom Cornell<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 19.9733333587647px;"><b> </b></span></span><br />
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> Do you ever wonder: what was worship like in
those first days of the Church, the Mass?
The Jesus people were almost all Jews.
They gathered at synagogue on Saturday as they always had and then on
Sunday, the day of the Lord’s Resurrection, they met again, most often in
private homes. There they sang
hymns. Maybe they had a letter from
Saint Paul or John to read. They certainly had psalms to sing. They did not have a reading from the
Gospel. No Gospel had yet been written. But they remembered Jesus. They would share their memories of what Jesus
said and did, his Sermon on the Mount, the feeding of the 5,000, his healings
and exorcisms. The presider, an apostle
or his designated successor, a bishop or presbyter, which in Greek means elder
or priest, would then have a few words, a sermon, or maybe a deacon might
preach. Some would</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"> state prayer
intentions and all would say together the prayer the Lord had taught them. Then the presider would invoke the Holy Spirit
over gifts of bread and wine. He would repeat
Jesus’ words at the Last Supper just as Father Tom will do in a few
minutes. Then he and a deacon would
distribute Communion. There would be a
short thanksgiving prayer, a blessing and a closing hymn. Then the deacons would take the consecrated
bread to the </span><span style="font-size: 18.6666660308838px; line-height: 21.4666652679443px;">home-bound</span><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">. Just like
today! </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> From
the beginning we find the same basic structure of the church hierarchy, bishops,
priests and deacons, and the same basic structure of our central act of
worship, the Eucharist, Mass. Except at first there was no
reading from the Gospel. The first
Christians expected Jesus’ Second Coming any day, so there was no perceived
need to write his story down. The
Apostle Mark would be the first to write that story, the Good News, as he
called it, <i>evangelion</i> in Greek, <i>gospel</i> in Old English,<i> good news</i> in our
language, around the year 65 A.D., some thirty or more years after the Lord’s
Passion, Death and Resurrection. Matthew
and Luke were the next to write their Gospels, perhaps ten or so years
later. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"> John
was the last to write, John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was a young man when he
lay beside Jesus at the Last Supper. He
was probably about twenty years old at that time. He would be the only apostle to live out his
days and die a natural death. He wrote
his Gospel perhaps thirty years after Matthew and Luke, near the end of the
First Century. You certainly must have
heard, as we went through John’s Sixth Chapter the last few weeks, that Jesus in John doesn’t
sound like the Jesus in Mark. John's language is exalted. Mark's is plain and down to earth. How could that be?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> Imagine
what it must have been like for the earliest Christians. After following Jesus for three years, having
witnessed his miracles and heard his profound world-up-ending teaching, having discovered
his empty tomb, then experiencing the Risen Lord alive among them again, they
must have spent the rest of their lives trying to figure out what had hit
them. John’s Gospel reflects their
mature understanding, that Jesus is the Incarnate Word of God. John begins his Gospel with the words, “In
the beginning.” The first words of
Genesis, the first words of the Bible are, “In the beginning.”<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"> We
start our readings today with the Letter of Saint James. It seems appropriate. This is my first sermon in Saint James-Saint
Mary Parish. Do we have any parishioners
from Milton with us here today? Saint James, as you know, was a relative of
Jesus. He led the church in Jerusalem. And he wrote a most important letter about the
relationship of faith to works. We are
saved by faith in Jesus. Nothing that we
could possibly do would merit our salvation.
We cannot earn salvation. We are
saved by faith, a free gift. But if our
faith is genuine, then it will show in the way we live our lives. We believe in Jesus, the only begotten son of
God. But do we believe Jesus, do we </span><span style="font-size: 18.6666660308838px; line-height: 21.4666652679443px;">believe</span><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"> him that it is better to give than to receive, that we
must love our enemies, that if our enemy hungers, we must feed him? </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
</div>
Tom Cornellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01412350144966958090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3923294379048136422.post-58406367269592837672015-07-25T14:17:00.003-07:002015-07-28T05:17:26.321-07:00MIRACLES<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">17
Sunday B #110<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">2 Kgs 4, 42-44<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Ps 145<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Eph 4, 1-6<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Jn 6, 1-15<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Saint Mary’s Church, Marlboro, N.Y.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">July 26, 2015<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Deacon Tom Cornell<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> <i>Jesus went off to the other side of the Sea
of Galilee and a large crowd followed him, impressed by the signs he gave by
curing the sick. Jesus climbed the
hillside and sat down there with his disciples.
It was shortly before the Jewish feast of Passover. Looking up, Jesus saw the crowds approaching
and said to Philip, “Where can we buy some bread for these people to eat?” He only said this to test Philip; he himself
knew exactly what he was going to do.
Philip answered, “Two hundred denarii would only buy enough to give of
them a small piece each.” One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother,
said, “There is a small boy here with five barley loaves and two fish; but what is that between so many?” Jesus said to them,
“Make the people sit down.” There was
plenty of grass there, and as many as five thousand men sat down. Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks and
gave them out to all who were sitting ready; he then did the same with the
fish, giving out as much as was wanted.
When they had eaten enough, he said to his disciples, “Pick up the
pieces left over so that nothing gets wasted.”
So they picked them up and filled twelve hampers with scraps left over from
the meal of five barley loaves. The
people, seeing this sign that he had given, said, “This really is the prophet
who is to come into the world.” Jesus who could see that they were about to come and take him by force and make him king,
escaped back to the hills by himself.
(JB trans.)<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> Those of you who follow
the readings in the misssalette notice that I read a different translation of the Gospel reading. Our bishops allow us to use the Jerusalem
Bible translation at Mass, and I’m very grateful that they do. The new NAB translation is simply awful. The translators may have been fine theologians,
but they needed an English major. Now
let’s take a look at the readings.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;"> Our first reading from
the Second Book of Kings has the Prophet Elisha feed one hundred men with
twenty barley loaves, “and when they had eaten there was some left over.” That clearly foreshadows today’s Gospel story
from John. Since the beginning of Advent
we have been reading from the Gospel according to Mark. But today and for the next four weeks we will
be reading from the sixth chapter of John’s Gospel, Jesus’ “Bread of Life Discourse,”
beginning with the multiplication of the loaves and fish to feed the five
thousand. There are those who say that
the real miracle wasn’t a physical multiplication but a moral miracle, that the
men had hidden bread on their persons and, under the influence of Jesus’
teaching, they opened their secret stores to share freely with all around. Personally, I prefer to think it was a real,
physical multiplication, but you can take your choice. Or maybe it was both. </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">“The hand of the Lord
feeds us; he answers all our needs.” I
know it. That’s my story. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> The first time
I heard Dorothy Day speak was in the spring of 1953, sixty-two years ago, at a
Friday Night Meeting at the Catholic Worker headquarters down in the Bowery
when the Bowery was the City’s skid-row.
I don’t remember who the speaker was that night or the topic. All I remember is that someone got up to say,
“As Catholics we all believe in the right to life. If we believe in the right to life we must
also believe in the right to the means to life, food, clothing, shelter and the
like. People should have a sense of
security that these needs will be met.”
That proposition is still debated in this country today, but even then,
at the Catholic Worker, it was a settled question. But Dorothy Day didn’t like what she
heard. She stood up to pitch the
conversation to a higher plane: “Security,
security! I don’t want to hear any more
about security! There are young people
here tonight. And there are great things
that need to be done, and who will do them but the young? And how will they do them if all they are thinking
about is their own security?” Then she
started stringing Bible quotes together:
“Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They do not toil nor do they spin, yet
Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed as one of these…; think not on the
morrow, what you shall eat and what you shall put on; your Father has care of
you” She ended with, “Unless the grain
of wheat falls into the ground and dies it remains alone. But if it falls into the ground and dies it
bears a great harvest.” By then she had
me. I took up my sleeping bag and
followed her.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> I learned from experience
that the hand of the Lord feeds us; he answers all our needs. I cannot doubt that the Lord performs miracles
for my life has been a string of them, beginning with Monica who consented to be
my wife and to take the chances, the risks that come with a life dedicated to
practical nonviolence. Many of you know,
some may not, that I was a civil rights activist down in Alabama with Father
Dugan as well as here, arrested in Selma. I was arrested I don’t know how
many times for peace protests. And I was
imprisoned for five months during the Viet Nam war. The average sentence of those convicted under
the Selective Service Act at that time was three years; the maximum was five years. God and Judge Thomas F.X. Murphy were good to
us, giving us such a light sentence, just half a year. So
was my boss. He kept me on at half-pay. And The New York Times commissioned me to write an
article for the Sunday magazine on my prison experience. That brought in the rest of my lost income. That seemed like a miracle. Then Jimmy Carter gave all of us who had been
convicted of nonviolent offenses in protest against the war full pardons
on the very first day he was in office. That
means, on a job application, if I am asked if I have ever been convicted
of a crime or a felony, I can legally answer NO!
Another miracle. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;"> And we did
accomplish great things. We tore down
the legal structures of racial segregation in this country through nonviolence. We held the military back from the use of the
nuclear option in Viet Nam through nonviolence. General
Curtis LeMay was urging President Johnson to nuke North Viet Nam back
to the Stone Age. Johnson pointed out a
White House window, to us! We can’t get
away with it, he told the general. And
we reintroduced nonviolence into the mainstream of Catholic and Protestant
moral theology. And then there is the
family, our family. Monica and I have
seven </span><span style="font-size: 18.6666660308838px; line-height: 19.9733333587647px;">descendants</span><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">. They are all practicing
Catholics, healthy, happy and bright. How
blessed we have been! How can I doubt?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> Now the miracle we are
all about to witness and partake in is the Eucharist, what the Bread of Life
Discourse is all about. Jesus so loves
us that he gives himself to us as food and drink in bread and wine consecrated
by his priest upon this altar. When we
eat his body and drink his blood we fulfill a desire planted deep in our souls
and we become, or begin to become, what we eat and drink. “Man ist wass man isst” is a German proverb
that means, “One is what one eats.” John tells us in his First Letter, “<span style="background: #FDFEFF; color: #001320;">Beloved, we are God’s children now,
and what we will be has not yet been revealed; but we know that when he appears
we shall be like God, because we shall see him as he is” (1 Jn 3,2). We shall
be like God, for we will see him as he is!
In the meanwhile, we have the Bread of Life and the blood of the Risen
Lord. Let us all eat and drink worthily
in faith. </span></span></div>
Tom Cornellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01412350144966958090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3923294379048136422.post-70170853375492009622015-06-24T11:38:00.003-07:002015-06-28T13:59:21.766-07:00Laudato Si'<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">13 Sunday B #98<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Wis 1, 13-15. 2, 23-24<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Ps 30<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">2 Cor 8, 7-9. 13-15<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Mk 5, 21-43<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Saint Mary’s Church,
Marlboro, N.Y.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">June 28, 2015<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Deacon Tom Cornell<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Our
first reading from the <i>Book of Wisdom</i>
reminds us that all creation is good, and that God created us in his own image
and likeness. We read in Genesis that at
the Creation God gave man dominion over the earth and over all that is in it, not
to despoil or misuse it but to till it, to make it prosper, to nurture our
common home. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">The
whole world has been waiting for the Holy Father, Pope Francis, to weigh in on
the ecological crisis. Is it a
crisis? Is climate change, global
warming a fact or fraud? Is it the
result of human activity? Is Mother
Earth under threat? Is it a matter of
life and death? Is the scientific
evidence in? Is it a moral
question? On June 18, the
Pope gave his answer in an encyclical letter, addressed to all people living on
Earth. Its title is <i>Laudato Si’</i>, or <i>Be Thou
Praised</i>, from <i>The Canticle of the
Creatures</i> by Saint Francis of Assisi. The answer is yes. Yes, it’s real. Yes, 97 percent of all scientists agree. Yes, this is a moral, a religious question
and should be addressed from the pulpit.
Otherwise, why would the Holy Father publish such a letter, almost 200
pages long? The response world-wide has been
overwhelmingly favorable. Our Pope is
seen, by Protestants as well as Catholics, by non-Christians as well as
Christians, by non-believers as well as believers, as the preeminent voice of
conscience in the world today. One of
Pope Francis’s major points in his letter is that environmental degradation
hurts first and worst the poor. Let us
consider that in light of today’s Gospel reading.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Jairus
was an official of the local synagogue, a well-respected, a wealthy man. He didn’t have to push through the crowd to
approach Jesus. People made way for
him. Then he fell at Jesus’ feet to
beseech him. It was important in those
days how one approached another person in public, especially someone he did not
know, and especially if he was going to ask a favor. Although Jairus was a leading citizen, he
prostrated himself on the ground before the penniless itinerant preacher-healer
Jesus and begged: “My daughter is at
death’s door. Please, come lay your
hands on her that she may get well and live!”
Mark interrupts the story abruptly.
A poor old woman enters the scene.
Jairus is kept waiting by an old impoverished woman, a woman suffering
from a flow of blood. It is not just
that she is ill and poor and a woman; she is unclean, ritually unclean. Women were considered unclean once a month,
but this poor woman had been haemorrhaging for twelve years. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Notice
how the woman approaches Jesus. The
crowd makes no way for her, she does not fall before him; she is afraid even to
approach Jesus face to face. She dares
only to stretch out her hand and touch his clothing, “the hem of his garment,”
from behind. When Jesus realizes that
healing power has gone out of him, he demands to know who has touched him. Then in fear and trembling she comes forward
and falls before him to explain herself.
“Daughter,” he tells her, “your faith has saved you. Go in peace and be cured of your
affliction.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> Then Mark returns to the story of Jairus. Word comes that his daughter has died. Jesus tells him not to fear but to have faith. As they approach Jairus’ house they hear the
din of wailing. Finally the touching
scene: Jesus takes her hand and says, “Little girl, I say to you, arise!” She gets up and walks around, and finally the
charming detail, “Give her something to eat.”
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> What are we to take from this “miracle within a miracle,”
as it is called, the story of Jairus interrupted by the story of the woman with
a flow of blood? The action stops, the
powerful synagogue leader is put on hold, for the sake of a woman, a second-class
citizen in those days, and worse, one who is poor and worse than that, “unclean.” The lesson is this: in the economy of Jesus, in God’s economy, it’s
not the big-shots but the poor, the sick, those who are pushed aside who come
first, not the big-shots, but the little-shots. Nowadays we call it “the preferential option
for the poor.” Not that any are
excluded! The Holy Father makes it clear
in his really beautiful encyclical that Christian solidarity is universal
friendship, no one is left out. But
those who have the means must be especially mindful and open-hearted and
open-handed to the poor, as Paul tells us in our second reading today. And everyone can do something to stem the
tide of pollution. Plant a tree, or at
least a tomato. Eat locally grown
food. No more plastic bags from the
supermarket. Take reusable cloth bags of
your own. Don’t flush for everything. Dry your clothes in the sun and the breeze! They’ll last longer and smell better. Little steps like these make a difference,
and they raise consciousness. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">And always give thanks for God’s great gifts to us, first
for the world he has created for us and then for our Catholic faith, for our Catholic Church,
and for such a Holy Father. Long may he
live! </span><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14pt;">W</span>Tom Cornellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01412350144966958090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3923294379048136422.post-60965454093046994512015-05-31T07:56:00.002-07:002015-05-31T13:02:53.204-07:00ONE AND THREE<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">TRINITY
SUNDAY B #165<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Dt 4, 32-34. 39-40<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Ps 33<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Rom 8, 14-17<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Mt 28, 16-20<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">St. Mary’s Church, Marlboro, N.Y.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">May 31, 2015<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Deacon Tom Cornell<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The eleven disciples
set out for Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had arranged to meet
them. When they saw him they fell down
before him, though some hesitated. Jesus
came up and spoke to them. He said, “All
authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, make disciples of all the
nations; baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Spirit, and teach them to observe all the commands I gave you. And know that I am with you always; yes, to
the end of time.” (JB trans.)<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Today’s reading from Deuteronomy has Moses
address the Hebrew people after they had been led out of Egypt, after the
Covenant, the Ten Commandments had been given at Mount Sinai, as they were
about to enter the Promised Land. God
had to remind them again and again through Moses: there is but one God who led
you out of slavery. There is no other! One! Keep
my commandments, not the Ten
Suggestions, but Ten Commandments. God
had to call the People back, time and time again. Many fell away. But to the Jews who remain faithful to the
ancient Covenant to this day, the one-ness of God is the depth of mystery, the
rock of their faith. (Hassidic Jews
today sing a song that goes, “Einer iz Gott, un Gott iz einer, un wayter keiner!” “One is God and God is one and beyond him none!”) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
To the Muslins too, the one-ness of God is central. (I’ll never forget how fourteen year old
Ahmed’s face shone when he said to me, “Allah waheed!” “God is one,” as he pressed his prayer beads
into my hand. His faith was palpable.)
It is hard for Jews and Muslims, to say nothing of atheists and
agnostics, to understand that we Christians too believe that God is one -- and
also that God is three. One God, three
divine persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
How can that be? That’s not for
me to say. It is for me to believe,
because Jesus, who rose from the dead, said so in today’s Gospel. In John’s Gospel it’s even clearer, “I and
the Father are one.” And it has been the
teaching of the Church since the beginning.
It’s a faith our ancestors went to the Coliseum for. Persecution has followed the course of the
Church, and the blood of martyrs has been the seed of Christians since the beginning.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Upon
seeing the risen Lord on that mountain in Galilee, some of the eleven doubted,
or hesitated. The original Greek word
literally says they stood in two places (</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">edisastan</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">), confused, as if not
knowing which way to turn. It should be
a comfort to you and me to know that even those who walked the earth with Jesus,
who ate and drank with him and witnessed his many miracles had moments of
doubt. Without doubt there cannot be
belief. We believe because we wish to
believe, we will to believe. But even this
desire is not of our own but a grace, a free gift of God. In his love, God always makes the first
move. Take his gift and be glad, and
share it! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> The
disciples went out and did as Jesus told them, out to all nations, baptizing
them in the name of the Father and of he Son and of the Holy Spirit, the Triune
God. All nations are now God’s special
children, brothers and sisters in Christ, one family, each and every one an
actual or a potential member of the Mystical Body of Christ. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> For
many Christians, these are hard times; persecution of Christians has seldom
been so widespread or vicious even in the land of Jesus’ birth. The age of martyrs is not over. Archbishop Oscar Romero died a martyr’s death
for the Faith thirty-five years ago.
Last week a quarter of a million people gathered in San Salvador, four
national presidents and six cardinals of the Church, to witness his
beatification. It’s on the front page of
today’s issue of <i>Catholic New York</i>. Not everyone is happy about that. Learn that history, if you don’t already know
it, and ask yourself why. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> The
last line of Matthew’s Gospel is a promise that will be kept. “I am with you always, yes, even to the end
of time.” We are not alone. We will never be alone. And after the last empire crumbles, the Church
will still stand, even until the last day when all will be made new, even us. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Tom Cornellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01412350144966958090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3923294379048136422.post-34510928770887350112015-04-26T08:29:00.003-07:002015-04-26T08:29:37.933-07:00THE ONLY NAME<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">4
Easter B #50<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Acts 4, 8-12<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Ps 118<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">1 Jn 3, 1-2<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Jn 10, 11-18<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Saint Mary’s Church, Marlboro, N.Y.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">April 26, 2015<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Deacon Tom Cornell<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> It’s
over! Suddenly it was over, that long,
hard winter. Then, just as suddenly,
winter made a reappearance: hail on Thursday, snow squalls on Friday. But be reassured. The earth is coming back to life. Nature does her hardest work this time of
year. Everything is coming up. Life is good. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> Jesus rose from the dead to assure us of life,
eternal life, life everlasting. God
created man a little lower than the angels, the Psalmist tells us, but when the
Eternal Word of God took flesh in the Virgin Mary’s womb, God elevated man
above the angels. The Apostle John tells
us that now we are sons and daughters of God, but what we shall be, in the
Resurrection, what we shall be has not yet come to light, but when it does, we
shall be like God for we will see Him as He is.
Try to take that in! We shall be
like God! We shall see Him as He
is! If we really believe this wild
horses could not keep us from Sunday Mass every Sunday, to meet Jesus in
breaking open the word of the Gospel and in the breaking of bread! And why should we fear death if we can
believe this? As we age and one bodily system
after another fails us, we fear death not for ourselves but for our children
and theirs. That is the most terrible
loss. But even then, God is good. God is merciful, compassionate. He suffers with us.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> “There
is no other name,” Luke tells us in Acts, no other name by which we are to be
saved. Jesus is the only savior, the
sole mediator between God and humankind.
There is no other. Does that mean
that non-Christians cannot be saved?
There was a time, before the Second Vatican Council, when some people
might say so, as hard is to imagine today.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> I’ve told this story before but some
of you might have missed it. It happened
at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City, in the office of Abraham
Joshua Heschel, the most influential rabbi of his generation, in the spring of
1967. Heschel had been asked by Cardinal
Bea in Rome to go to the Vatican with a team of Jewish leaders to help prepare
for the Council. That was a first. No Jew had ever been asked to help prepare for
an oecumenical council of the Catholic Church.
When they gathered, at a private meeting with Pope Paul, Cardinal Bea asked,
“What would the Jews hope to see come out of the Council?” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> They were astounded. This is how I remember Heschel
answering. “This is what I told
them. ‘We Jews face very extinction. There are four threats. First, the Enlightenment hit our people
unprepared so that in a generation’s time the observance rate fell precipitously. With non-observance comes inter-marriage;
that’s factor two. That means children
lost to Judaism. Three, we lost one out
of every three of our people to the Nazi Holocaust. Four, the State of Israel is in a precarious
position surrounded by enemies. On top
of all that, you people are trying to convert us! How would the Church understand it, and how
would you take it personally, Your Holiness, if the religion that Mary taught
little Jesus in their home in Nazareth were to disappear from the face of the
earth?’ The answer: ‘I never thought of
it that way. But we’re going to!’ ” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> The result of this consultation was
the document <i>Nostra Aetate, In Our Age, </i>on
the relation of the Catholic Church to Non-Christian religions. The Council Fathers condemned all forms of
anti-Semitism and repudiated the view that all the Jews of His time or their
descendants are guilty of Jesus’ death.
They held that God’s covenant with the Jews stands and has never been
withdrawn or revoked. The Church honors
the truths that can be found in all religious traditions, but she recognizes
the special and unique relationship we have with the Jewish people, as wild
olive branches grafted onto the good root stock of Israel. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> The Council called upon people of all
faiths to put aside past hurts and to work together for the common good, for
justice and for peace. We recognize and
honor the truths found in all religions.
But Jesus remains the sole savior, the One who saves not only Catholics
and Christians but Jews and Muslims and Hindus and Buddhists and even those who
claim they have no faith but seek truth and goodness with a sincere heart. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> God’s greatest gift to us is our
faith. Can you believe that at last we
will be like Him for we will see Him as He is?
If that is so, we can stand up to anything, as the 41 Coptic martyrs did
only a few weeks ago in Egypt. They were
given the chance to renounce their Christian faith, but they gladly died with
the word Jesus on their lips, Jesus, Jesus.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"> “I do believe, Lord. Help Thou my unbelief!” </span>Tom Cornellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01412350144966958090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3923294379048136422.post-2822278404365129762015-02-07T05:32:00.001-08:002015-02-24T11:46:13.296-08:00Choose Life<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">LENT 2015<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">Dt 30, 15-20<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">Ps 1<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">Lk 19, 22-25<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">The Catholic Peace Fellowship<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">Deacon Tom Cornell<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;"> “I have
set before you life and death, a blessing and a curse. Choose life, then, that you and your
descendants may live,” the parting words of Moses to the Hebrews as they
prepared to cross the Jordan into the Promised Land. “Choose life!”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">Today’s psalm doesn’t
square with our experience. “Happy the
man who follows not the counsel of the wicked. ...He is like a tree planted
near running water. . …Whatever he does
prospers. …Not so the wicked. They are
like chaff which the wind blows away.” Would
that it were so. Often good people
suffer and the wicked do just fine; we know it.
Look at the halls of power anywhere.
In our own country a council of the wicked invites a mass murderer to
address a joint session of Congress to instigate war against Iran! They all ride in state, so far! “Pride goeth before a fall.” In the end, the First Psalm will be
vindicated. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">There
are contradictory themes in the Bible. The
trials of Job and Ecclesiastes’ cry of, “Vanity of vanities and all is vanity”
tell a different story than the First Psalm.
We read in Exodus that “The sins of the fathers will be visited upon
their sons…. The fathers eat sour grapes and the sons’ teeth are put on edge
(Ex 34,7). On the other hand, “Each is
to die for his own sin. Every man who
eats sour grapes is to have his own teeth set on edge” (Jer 31, 10 In the
end, all will be put right. That is our
hope. Christ is our hope, who broke down
the wall that separated us, Jew from Gentile. “Happy are they that hope in the
Lord.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">We
have to hope and trust in the Lord in the face of all that threatens life today. The nuclear threat has never receded; we
can’t bear to face that reality. The Cold War is back, and a real danger it
will turn hot. Who could imagine in this
day and age horrors such as IS and<i> </i>Boko
Haram visit upon innocent people? <i> </i>Then
there is climate change. The
overwhelming consensus of scientists from all over the world blames human
activity for environmental degradation and predicts extinction of species, even
our own unless drastic steps are taken to reduce green-house emissions. Our hyper-individualistic culture calls for
abortion on demand, at any stage of pregnancy or even delivery. “If we will not spare our children, whom will
we spare?” asks Mother Theresa. We are all affected by a spreading culture of
death. We don’t have to go far to look for
crosses to bear. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">We enter Lent today, a
somber time of fasting and prayer and almsgiving in anticipation of the joy of
Easter. Here are some suggestions for fasting,
prayer and almsgiving. Fasting: no meat
on Fridays of Lent, and on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, and only one full
meal and two light meals for those between ages 18 and 59 and who are
well. You might voluntarily adopt a
stricter discipline, especially if that will help you get back into clothes you
have outgrown in girth. You can fast
from other things than food. Fast from
distraction. Turn off the TV and the
radio. Establish a zone of quiet around
you that will facilitate prayer. Prayer:
try reading <i>The</i> <i>Liturgy of the Hours</i>, especially the <i>Office of Readings </i>every day, with selections from the ancient
Fathers; they are so very rich. Or plan to go through the New Testament by Holy
Week. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">Read the works of Fr.
John L. McKenzie, the foremost Catholic biblical scholar of his time and
unsurpassed to this day. He was an
original sponsor of the Catholic Peace Fellowship. I keep his <i>Dictionary of the Bible</i> by my bed.
His <i>The Two-edged Sword: An
Interpretation of the Old Testament </i>and<i>
The Power and the Wisdom: An Interpretation of the New Testament </i>will
deepen your insight into Christian radicalism.
It was he who said that if you can’t understand from reading the New
Testament that Jesus was nonviolent, then you can’t understand anything about
him. Dorothy Day said of Fr. McKenzie, <span style="background: white; color: #252525;">“I thank God for sending me men with
such insight as Fr. McKenzie.”</span> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">Almsgiving: dig deep and
help the Catholic Peace Fellowship. I
will not embarrass our staff people but just let me say they work hard for what
we all believe in so deeply at real personal sacrifice. Help them to help those who call upon our
services. Pray about it. And choose life! </span><b><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">W</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Tom Cornellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01412350144966958090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3923294379048136422.post-33065709377228937302015-01-25T08:26:00.001-08:002015-02-03T06:32:29.621-08:00Ministry of Justice<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_GoBack"></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;">3 SUNDAY B #68<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Jon 3, 1-5. 10<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Ps 25<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;">1Cor 7, 29-31<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Mk 1, 1-15<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Saint Mary’s Church, Marlboro, N.Y.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;">January 25, 2015<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Deacon Tom Cornell<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> Nineveh
was an enormous city, once the largest city in the world, but that was long
ago, over two thousand years. Now it
lies in ruins. Its massive wall remains, and little else. A few days after Christmas, 2002, before the
US invasion of Iraq, a small group of us stood under the arch of what was once
a Nineveh city gate to read the whole Book of Jonah. Then we went across the Tigris to Mosul. A giant bell tower with a large Christian
Cross to mark a Catholic parish and school rose above the city. I wonder if
it’s still there. St. Thomas the Apostle
founded that church. It is now almost
entirely gone. Christians have been
forced either to convert to Islam or to flee, to abandon their homes, their
shops, their livelihoods or to die. How
much of it is our fault, we must ask ourselves! Why should we care? Because we are one body, one church.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> Today’s
Gospel reading from Mark tells of the calling of the first apostles. “Come, follow me; I will make you fishers of men.”
They left their father and his hired men
and went off with Jesus on the spot. For
three years they travelled with Jesus, walking through Galilee, up the Syrian
coast, through Samaria, finally to Jerusalem, learning from him of the approaching
Kingdom of God. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> Jesus’ mission was to the lost sheep
of Israel (Mt 10, 5-6). But it was through
Jesus that the promise to Abraham that his children would be a blessing to all
peoples would be fulfilled. It was only
after his death and resurrection that Jesus’ ultimate purpose was revealed to the
Twelve, the Apostles, their mission: “Make
disciples of all the nations; baptize them in the name of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teach them to observe all that I have commanded
you. And know that I am with you always,
even to the end of time” (Mt 28, 19-20).
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> From Jerusalem the apostles went out. None of them established as many churches as
Paul with the possible exception of Thomas, who traveled as far as India, where
a vibrant Catholic church thrives today in the State of Kerala. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> The church is local and it is universal,
governed by all the bishops gathered
around the Bishop of Rome, the Pope, whose primary function it is to symbolize
and to guarantee the unity of the Church spread throughout the world. We have been blessed with wonderful popes
during my time. And what a Pope we have
today! We knew, from the very first
words he spoke to the crowd in St. Peter’s Square after his election that a new
day is dawning. We expected to hear Latin,
something like “Laudetur Jesus Christus,” “Jesus Christ be praised,” which is
fine, but what we heard was, “Buona Sera!” “Good afternoon!” Instead of blessing the crowd, the Pope asked
their blessing, and bowed. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> Pope
Francis will not change the doctrine of the Church. No one can do that. But he will forward a fundamental purpose, to
serve the people, especially the poor and those who have no one else to speak
for them. For the Church speaks to
people’s material as well as their spiritual needs, good news to the poor. What does good news to the poor sound
like? “You’re getting a disability check right now, about a
thousand dollars a month. We’ll cut that
back to eight hundred next year.” Does
that sound like good news to you, to the poor? "We can’t afford to educate your
children past high school because we’d have to raise taxes?” Does that sound like good news to the poor? Redistribution of wealth may not be good news to the super-rich,
but they can take it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> When the Holy Father speaks of the
need for the redistribution of wealth, some people think he’s talking some
kind of new and dangerous idea. Not at
all. It comes right out of the Prophets
of Israel and the Jubilee Year of the Old Testament and out of the social
doctrine of the Church. Listen to this: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 107%;">“Workers have been
surrendered… to the hard-heartedness of employers and to greed… so that a small
number of the very rich have been able to lay upon the teeming masses of the
laboring poor a yoke little better than
that of slavery.” Is that Karl
Marx? No, it’s Pope Leo XIII </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;">in
his encyclical <i>Rerum Novarum, On the
Condition of the Working Class</i>, in 1891.
</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 107%;">Our society has made great advances since then, due largely to
organized labor, but we have also taken steps backward. The gap between their productivity and
workers’ pay and the gap between rich and poor have been growing step by step along
with the decline of organized labor. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 107%;"> The social
doctrine of the Church continues to develop by way of<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 107%;">papal encyclicals and
the teachings of bishops’ synods and national conferences of bishops. The Synod of Bishops in 1971 decreed that
work for justice is a constitutive, that is an essential, element of the
preaching of the Gospel. It’s not
optional, something you can tack on if you want it. Some
people didn’t like that and have been trying to water that teaching down ever
since. They won’t get far with Pope
Francis in Rome.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 107%;"> Our archdiocesan seminary has
commissioned me over the past several years to teach Catholic Social Doctrine
to deacon candidates, like our dear Vinny Porcelli. Deacons have a special responsibility to
convey our social teaching to the people because of the very nature of our
order, the diaconate. We are not priests. Ours is not a priestly office. It is an office of justice and charity on
behalf of our bishops. Charity is a hard
word. No one wants to be the recipient
of charity. It is demeaning. And to offer as a handout to the poor a small
part of what was stolen from them is an outrage crying to heaven. Let us rather say justice and mercy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 107%;"> We all agree on the right to life
from beginning to natural end by virtue of our humanity, made in the image and
likeness of God. If that is so, then it
follows that we have the right to the means to life, food, clothing, shelter,
medical care, purposeful work and decent living conditions. This again is nothing new. Read it in Pope John XXIII’s <i>Pacem in Terris, Peace on Earth, </i>1963.<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 107%;"> </span></i><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 107%;">Let me get back to Nineveh, and Mosul in Mesopotamia, the land
between the rivers. The vast majority
of Muslims want the same things we do, peace and honest work to raise our
families. How is it that fanatics should
murder in the name of God in a wave of barbarism one would have thought impossible in
this day and age? Saddam Hussein’s day
looks good in comparison. If Iraq needed
a regime change, and it did, we should have left it up to the Iraqi people
themselves to do it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 107%;"> Why say these things in church? Because justice is a constitutive element of
the preaching of the Gospel. Amen. </span><b><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 107%;">W</span></b><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 107%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
Tom Cornellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01412350144966958090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3923294379048136422.post-7961228283366179102014-12-31T14:55:00.001-08:002015-01-11T09:46:07.911-08:00Holy Family 2014<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">Gen 15, 1-6. 21, 1-13</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Ps 105<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Heb 11, 8. 11-12. 17-19<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Lk 2, 22-40<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Saint Mary’s Church, Marlboro, N.Y.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">December 28, 2014<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Deacon Tom Cornell<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"> It’s
been a while. I’m glad to be back; it’s
been a rough road. We’ve all been
through a rough road in this parish these past couple of years. The less said
about that the better. You all know what
I mean. But it’s over now. We have a pastor, a real pastor who wants to
be with us. He’s kind and he’s wise with
the wisdom that is a gift of the Holy Spirit. We are lucky to have him. And by we, I include the people we haven’t
seen here for a while. There’s an empty
hole right there, too many empty spaces.
Where are they? Go tell your
friends and neighbors who have dropped away, it’s time to come back. Meet Father Tom. Come home for Christmas! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Today is the Feast of the Holy
Family. We are a family, a parish family,
and more than that, we are one in the Mystical Body of Christ. When one member suffers, all suffer. When one is built up, all are built up (1 Cor
12, 26). We need one another. We need each other. We are not meant to struggle alone, neither
in the battle to keep a roof over our heads nor in spiritual battle to grow in
faith, hope and love. God did not lead
the People out of Egypt one by one, but as a group. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">As many of you know, Monica and I worked closely with Dorothy
Day. We were married at the Catholic
Worker. Dorothy was our matchmaker. Dorothy described the Catholic Worker
movement as a big disorderly family, and we’re still at it behind the
cemetery off Lattingtown Road. Come visit
any time. Our bishops have petitioned
the Vatican to declare Dorothy a saint, unanimously. Imagine that, Saint Dorothy of News York! And just weeks ago, at the Roman synod, Cardinal
Dolan begged the Holy Father to move her Cause along. In her early adult life, Dorothy was a
Communist. But all her life, even as a
Communist, she felt pursued by God. She
tried to resist, but she finally gave in at the age of 27 and converted to the
Catholic Church. Her Communist friends were
puzzled. “If you want to believe in God,
that’s your personal decision,” they would say, "but keep it to yourself, and why
do you have to join a church, and of all churches the Catholic Church, the
worst of them all, the biggest and the strongest, the most reactionary of all
our enemies.” Dorothy answered them in
their own terms. As revolutionaries we
join together in a group, a party. We
are not meant to battle alone. So it is
in spiritual battle, to grow closer to God, to grow in faith, hope and love we
worship together, as a family of faith, a church. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Dorothy didn’t go shopping for a
church. She later explained that no
other church ever entered her mind. She
didn’t examine the claims of the Catholic Church. It was just that, in all the cities where she
had ever lived, New York, New Orleans, Los Angeles, Chicago, the Catholic Church
was where the immigrants, the poor and the workers flocked. That was good enough for her! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"> Today as we commemorate the Holy Family of Nazareth, Jesus, Mary and Joseph, we think
of family, our own and others. Many families
suffer badly. My father was orphaned at
age eight, I at age fourteen. Then, even
worse, there are parents who bury their children, an unspeakable loss. In times of economic stress a breadwinner may
lose his job. It’s quite a feeling when
the girl behind the counter hands you your last unemployment compensation check
and says, “Good luck!” Yeah, you’re
going to need it. Then there is the
family whose husband and father is called to war. Whatever their troubles might be, They need
our presence, just to be there. If you
know of a family in distress, find a way to be present to them. Somehow, shared suffering hurts a little
less. Go visit them, and invite them to
church next Sunday. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">And any others you might know. Let’s get these pews filled up again. This chapel was scheduled for the chopping
block some years ago as you know, but you people appealed to the Archdiocese
and promised to keep Our Lady of Mercy open and running at no financial
loss. And you’ve done it,
beautifully. A few years ago I had the
opportunity to bring a world-renowned liturgical artist to visit. She had designed churches all over the world,
even in Asia. She was stunned; she loved this sacred
place. It is really special. Bring a friend next week.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Happy New Year of Our Lord 2015! God bless </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 19px; text-indent: 0.5in;">and keep </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">us all.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
Tom Cornellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01412350144966958090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3923294379048136422.post-39378618950104323192014-11-24T11:44:00.000-08:002014-11-29T04:55:56.367-08:00CHRIST THE KING 2014<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">CHRIST THE KING 2014
#160 <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Ez 34, 11-12.
15-17<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Ps 23<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">1 Cor 15, 20-26, 28.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Mt 25, 31-46<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Catholic Peace Fellowship<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">November 30, 2014<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Deacon Tom Cornell<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> Our
first reading today, from the Prophet Ezekiel, pictures God as a shepherd
guarding and protecting his flock. But
the last verse has a note of warning. “I
will judge between one sheep and another, between rams and goats.” The familiar Psalm 23 has one jarring note as
well. “You spread a table before me in
the sight of my foes.” In short, there
are foes, we have enemies. Nevertheless,
“only goodness and kindness follow me all the days of my life and I shall dwell
in the house of the Lord.” Saint Paul’s
First Letter to the Corinthians has an eschatological tone. <i>Eschata</i>
is the Greek word meaning the last things, that is, “death, judgment, heaven
and hell.” Paul tells us that “the last
enemy to be destroyed is death.” That
brings us to the Gospel reading for today, the Last Judgment scene from Matthew,
the separation of the sheep from the goats.
“Depart from me you accursed….”
But what is hell? Surely Dante
did not take literally his own description of damnation. He knew he was writing metaphor, inspired
metaphor at that. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> George Bernanos said that hell is not
to love anymore. If that is so, what then
is heaven but a love-feast? There is an
image of heaven from the rabbinical tradition of heaven and hell as each a
banquet, each held in identical rooms.
In one room are the damned.
Plates piled with sumptuous goodies are placed before them but they
gnash their teeth because they cannot reach them, their forks and spoons are
too long. The room of the blessed is
identical in all ways, except that all are happy and content. They use their outsized forks and spoons to
feed each other. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> We
build our heaven, we build our hell here on earth, here and now. We bring into the next life what we have made
of ourselves, sheep or goats. The Last
Judgment scene in Matthew’s Gospel inspired the Church teaching of the works of
mercy. Feed the hungry, give drink to
the thirsty, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless, all taken from today’s
Gospel reading. The Church added to bury
the dead. Each time we do any of these
things for the least of the brethren we do it for Jesus Christ, and conversely,
whenever we refuse we refuse Jesus. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> Dorothy
Day liked to point out that the works of mercy are the direct opposite of the
works of war: destroy their crops, poison their wells, bomb, burn their
villages, their cities, their homes. Bury
the dead? Yes, as many as possible,
under the rubble of their own homes, fields and factories. There are spiritual works of mercy too. Instruct the ignorant, counsel the doubtful,
reprove sinners, bear wrongs patiently, forgive injuries, pray for the living
and the dead. Again, the works of war
are the exact opposite: deceive (it has been said that the first casualty of
every war is the truth); intimidate, force conscience to act against its own
judgment. Forgive? Not on your life. Give them back a dose of their own medicine,
twice and ten times over!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> And
so we gather as a Catholic Peace Fellowship.
We are commemorating this month the fiftieth anniversary of a retreat
Thomas Merton called and led at the Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani on the
Spiritual Roots of Protest. A. J. Muste
was there, John Howard Yoder, the eminent Mennonite theologian, Dan and Philip
Berrigan. Martin Luther King and Bayard
Rustin had been invited but Dr. King had to go to Oslo to accept his Nobel
Peace Prize, and Bayard went with him.
Jim Forest and I were the youngest and are among those still alive. Merton gathered us around the question, <i>Quo Warranto?</i>, mediaeval Latin for “by
what right?” By what right, he asked, do
we question, challenge our betters, those put in authority over us, the
President and his advisers? Don’t they
know more than we do about what’s going on in Viet Nam? How dare we, by what right, do we speak out
against them, even actively resist? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> Merton’s answer was simply to read
from the book of the Prophet Jeremiah: “You
duped me, O Lord, and I let myself be duped: you were too strong for me and you
triumphed. All the day I am an object of
laughter; everyone mocks me. Whenever I
speak I must cry out, violence and outrage is my message. The word of the Lord has brought me derision
and reproach all the day. I say to
myself, I will not mention him, I will speak in his name no more. But then it becomes like a fire burning in my
heart, imprisoned in my bones. I grow
weary holding it in, I cannot endure it” (Jer 20, 7-9). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> We do it because we have to, that’s all. At times it has been thin gruel, but it’s
been a banquet nonetheless. Keep it up,
lest we be counted among the goats. </span><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">W<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Tom Cornellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01412350144966958090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3923294379048136422.post-9672628507203929072014-05-03T20:19:00.003-07:002014-05-03T20:20:50.523-07:00May Day 2014<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">MAY DAY 2014, St. Joseph the Worker<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">St. Joseph
House, New York City<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Deacon Tom Cornell<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;"> He
did it again! Father George gave me no
warning this time. I’m not
prepared. So just let me tell you what’s
been going through my mind as I have been looking out over this congregation,
in this place. First of all – the
children. So many of them, so beautiful! We are a pro-life church and a pro-life
movement. Let them squall and holler if
they will. We can take it, and be glad. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;"> Then
I see the photograph on the far wall, near the door, Bob Fitch’s famous photo
of Dorothy Day in Fresno at her last arrest, for the United Farm Workers, in
1973, sitting on her little portable three-legged chair framed by two big cops
with revolvers on their hips. That makes
me think of the day so many years ago when I was walking to work at the CPF
office down at Beekman Street, walking past 223 Chrystie Street. I knew Dorothy was in town so I dropped in. She said sit down, get a cup of coffee. Cesar Chavez is due any minute. Minutes later he came in. He had to be Cesar Chavez. He had no one with him, no driver, no
secretary, just himself. As he noticed
the Guadalupe on the wall he paused, turned to it, made the Sign of the Cross,
then joined us at the table. There was
no small talk, no “How was your trip?”
Dorothy got right to the point.
“What can we do for you?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;"> “We
have six men coming in from California to organize a lettuce boycott. They’ll visit the headquarters of all the
supermarket chains and ask them to refuse to handle lettuce that doesn’t have
the Union Eagle on it. Then they’ll go to the individual supermarkets and
appeal to the grocery managers. Then to
the mom-and-pop bodegas. Do you have
room for them here?” “No,” Dorothy
answered. “All our beds are full. But I know there’s an empty apartment in the
building where we rent. I’ll rent that
one for you. There’s no heat or hot
water in those apartments.” “You don’t
have heat and hot water, we won’t need them either.” “You can all eat here of course. Is there anything else?” “Yes,” Cesar answered. “Six men can’t cover all that territory. We’ll need help.” “Tom,” Dorothy turned to me. “Here’s where you come in. You know the union
leaders here in the City. See if they
can free people up to help.” I was
working with A.J. Muste, Dorothy knew.
A.J. had trained major labor leaders at the Brookwood Labor School in
Katona. All I had to do was call up the
Distributive Workers Union, the Pharmacists Union 1199, the Taxi Drivers and
the Meatpackers, explain the need and they all said, “Send ’em on over!” It took twenty minutes, that’s all, to lay
the foundation of the lettuce and the grape boycott. It was that easy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;"> Then
I see the portrait of Martin Luther King on the east wall. Tommy was one month old when Martin King
called us to Selma, Alabama. I asked
Monica’s permission to go. None of us
could be sure we would come back home alive.
Forty of us had been killed since Emmett Till in Chicago and three more
would die in Selma. I was a marshal for
the March to Montgomery. When we got
back to Selma after the March, I went to the old folks’ solarium at Good
Samaritan Hospital where I was living, in hope that there would be decent
coverage of the March on the Evening News.
The solarium was crowded. It was
not the Evening News on the TV. It was
the President of the United States, Lyndon Johnson, addressing a joint session
of the Senate and the House of Representatives, and he was talking about us. He named us.
He said we were right, there’s no room in this country any more for
racial hatred and bigotry, he said. He
demanded they pass the Voter Rights Bill. He would sign it into law. Then he put his papers down on the lectern
and looked into the camera, to say, “We shall overcome!” We were thunderstruck. We knew, at that moment, we knew we had
won. The President, a Southern white
man, was standing with us. We had won!
Tears poured down the faces of hardened radicals from the labor
movement, not a dry-eye to be seen.
Martin King was seen to weep only that once. The South would change, this country would
change. Not that we have achieved racial
justice, we are far from that even now.
But we tore down the legal structures of racial segregation and we did
it with nonviolence. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;"> Then
I see here closest to the altar, the photo of Archbishop Oscar Romero and his
flock in a poor village. The FOR had
just fired me in 1979 after fourteen years.
I was out of work and out of money.
Archbishop Romero knew, and gave me an assignment and $1,500 to
stimulate programs around the country to raise awareness in the US public of
the role our country was playing in the repression in El Salvador. With the help of movement contacts we were
able to get a dozen or so people to picket a post office and hand out leaflets
in some cities, and organize small educational seminars in others, and a major
event at a major seminary. Ita Ford and
Maura Clark attended the seminar I led at St.
Bridget’s Church here on the Lower East Side. I sent a report to the Archbishop and he
replied with a thank you by mail. Jim
O’Callahan was in the CPF office when that letter arrived. I showed it to him. He said, “You ought to frame this letter in
red, Tom. This man is going be killed!” Weeks later, it happened, and Ita Ford and
Maura Clark!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;"> That’s
what I see when I look out at this room.
The children. We have a
future. And the past, so rich in
memories -- of Dorothy, of Cesar, of Martin, all that I owe to you. You made, you make this movement. Keep it up!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Tom Cornellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01412350144966958090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3923294379048136422.post-77732666430199738542013-11-01T12:00:00.003-07:002013-11-01T13:04:15.295-07:00Kill for Peace?<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">23
Sunday C #129<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Wis 9,
13-18 <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Ps 90 <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Phlm
9-10. 12-17 <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Lk 14,
25-33 <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Peter
Maurin Farm, Marlboro, N.Y. September 8, 2013<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Deacon
Tom Cornell<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> In his last two Sunday
Angelus messages, Pope Francis condemned the use of chemical weapons in Syria
and called for a peaceful resolution to the conflict that is tearing that
country apart. That riled Mark Phillips
of CBS News. He criticized the Holy
Father for “siding with (Russian President) Putin.” Then The New York Times censored Pope
Francis. The so-called “journal of
record” ran an article on Syria in the morning edition that, among other
things, quoted the Holy Father’s words on violence. A later edition deleted those words and any
reference to the Pope. Are the mass
media joining the rush to war just as they did in the run-up to Iraq? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> Last week, Pope Francis called for a
special day of prayer and fasting for peace in Syria and to forestall any attack
on that country. The Pope urged all
Christians, all believers and all men and women of goodwill to join him in a
day of fasting and prayer for peace. The
Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew, leader of the Orthodox Church, asked
all Orthodox Christians to join Pope Francis and Catholics the world over in prayer
and fasting to hold back the hand of violence.
It is rare that clergy, consecrated sisters and brother and lay people
as well are called to join in prayer and fasting for peace, and even more rare
that the Orthodox faithful should join with the Pope in the same. But there you have it. When Pope Bergoglio chose his name, Francis,
he had a purpose in mind.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; text-indent: .5in;">
Yesterday Pope Francis led a Prayer Vigil
for Peace in St. Peter’s Square with 100,000 people in attendance, streamed
live by Vatican TV, from 6:50 p.m. until 11 p.m. Rome time, over four hours. Francis spent most of the vigil in silent
prayer, but during his sermon he issued a heartfelt plea for peace, denouncing
those who are "captivated by the idols of dominion and power" to
destroy God's creation through war. "This evening, I ask the Lord that we
Christians, and our brothers and sisters of other religions and every man and
woman of good will, cry out forcefully: Violence and war are never the way to
peace. May the noise of weapons
cease!" he said. "War is always a defeat for humanity."<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> Three days ago, our Cardinal
Archbishop Timothy Dolan, as president of the U.S. bishops’ conference, and
Bishop Richard E. Pates of Des Moines, Iowa, chair of its Committee on
International Justice and Peace, wrote to the President and every member of the
U.S. Congress to say that a military attack “will be counterproductive, will
exacerbate an already deadly situation, and will have unintended negative
consequences.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> President Obama has decried the use of
chemical weapons in Syria, as well he should.
“Their use should not go unpunished,” he asserts. Has he or this country the legal or moral
authority to punish those who employ chemical weapons? Does he include the use of Agent Orange by
the U.S. in Viet Nam? That’s a chemical
weapon! During the Viet Nam War, the
U.S. military dropped tons of</span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agent_Orange" target="_blank"></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> chemical weapons, including Agent
Orange, on the forests and farmlands of Indo-China, destroying food supplies and
ravaging the lives of hundreds of thousands of innocent people. An estimated 400,000 people were killed or
maimed, half a million babies born with birth defects, and the cancer rate has
soared. The Red Cross </span><a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2012/08/10/world/asia/vietnam-us-agent-orange/" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">estimates</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> that one million people in
Viet Nam have serious health problems related to Agent Orange. And American soldiers suffered as well, from
“blow-back,” as it is called. A friend
of mine, the father of two sons, was just released from z month in the hospital. He has an auto-immune deficiency. The cause? Some forty years ago, his father, a U.S. soldier
in Viet Nam, ingested Agent Orange. How
long will we, and the Vietnamese, pay the price?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> Or white phosphorous? That’s a chemical weapon! White phosphorous burns through and flesh and
bone it touches with inextinguishable fire until all flesh and bone is
destroyed. The U.S. used white
phosphorous in Fallujah, Iraq! Will that
be punished? Iraq attacked its own Kurds
and Iran with poison gas during the 1980s war.
But Saddam Hussein was our ally then; we armed him. Was that punished? And what of depleted uranium? Is that not indiscriminate in its
effects? And napalm? That’s a chemical weapon. The U.S. poured tons of napalm on a wooden
city, Tokyo, in 1942 and killed more civilians than even in Hiroshima. No other nation has come close to U.S. use of
napalm. The Monroe Doctrine established
the Western Hemisphere as a U.S. zone of influence. The Bush-Obama Doctrine would establish the
globe as a U.S. zone of influence. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> The U.S. President does not have the
legal, much less the moral authority to attack Syria, though he claims
otherwise. Our Church teaches that
recourse to war is justifiable only in the event of a direct military attack,
declared and carried out by competent authority, observing civilian immunity
and only as a last resort after all alternatives have been tried and failed. A
military attack upon Syria would violate every principle of just war theory. A military strike on Syria would be an act of
war, unjust war. Killing in unjust war
is murder. Failure to speak out when you
know an act of war in unjust is to be an accomplice to murder. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> Now let us join the Holy
Father and our American bishops in a prayer the bishops have offered for this
crisis:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> Almighty eternal God, source of all
compassion, the promise of your mercy and saving help fills our hearts with
hope. Hear the cries of the people of
Syria; bring healing to those suffering from the violence and comfort to those
mourning the dead. Empower and encourage
Syria’s neighbors in their care and welcome for refugees. Convert the
hearts of those who have taken up arms and strengthen the resolve of those
committed to peace.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> Oh God of hope and Father of mercy, your
Holy Spirit inspires us to look beyond ourselves and our own needs. Inspire leaders to choose peace over
violence and to seek reconciliation with enemies. Inspire the Church around the world with
compassion for the people of Syria, and fill us with hope for a future of peace
built on justice for all. We ask this
through Jesus Christ, Prince of Peace and Light of the World, who lives and
reigns for ever and ever. Amen.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> Now let me hear AMEN!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Tom Cornellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01412350144966958090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3923294379048136422.post-68495422788412393232013-08-28T04:24:00.002-07:002013-08-28T04:26:23.680-07:00What's the Point?<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">20 Sunday C
#120 2013<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Jer 38, 4-6. 8-10<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Ps 40<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Heb 12, 1-4<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Lk 12, 49-53<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Deacon Tom Cornell<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Peter Maurin Farm<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Marlboro, N.Y.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">August 18, 2013<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> “I have come to cast fire upon the earth, and how
I wish it were already ablaze! …Do you
suppose that I am here to bring peace on earth?
No, I tell you, but rather division.” How are we to understand these words? He, the Prince of Peace, also said, “My own
peace I give you, a peace the world cannot give.” (Jn 14, 27).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> How often does the word “peace” appear in our
Mass? When a bishop presides, his first
words after the Sign of the Cross are “<b>Peace</b>
be with you.” After the penitential rite
we sing the <i>Gloria</i>, “Glory to God in
the highest and <b>peace</b> to people of
goodwill.” At Communion the priest
addresses the congregation with the words, “The <b>peace</b> of the Lord be with you always.” The deacon then says, “Let us exchange the
sign of <b>peace</b>.” Then we recite, “Lamb of God, you take away
the sins of the world, grant us <b>peace</b>. At the dismissal the deacon says, “Go in <b>peace</b>.”
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> The fire that Jesus would cast upon the earth is
his own word to set ablaze the hearts of believers, those who love God, and God
is Mercy, Truth and Goodness and Love, to set them ablaze. That word of justice, peace and love can, and
does, divide some times, very painfully, sets fathers against sons and sons
against fathers. I know. I couldn’t go home for three years because of
my protest against the Viet Nam war. And
Jeremiah knew. It was said that he too
demoralized the troops. Jeremiah didn’t
want to be a prophet. Anyone who does
should have his head examined. A prophet
speaks the word of God to those who do not want to hear it. That is never convenient. It landed him in a cistern and many others in
jail and prison cells, even in our own day and our own country. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> Pope Francis’ words on this
day in Rome were: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-line-height-alt: 12.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-size: 14.0pt;"> “… Jesus says, ‘I came to bring
division’; not that Jesus wishes to divide men against each other. On the contrary, Jesus is our peace, he is
our reconciliation! But this peace is not the peace of the grave, it is not
neutrality. … This peace is not a
compromise at all costs. Following Jesus
means rejecting evil, egoism, and choosing the good, truth, justice, even when
that requires sacrifice and renunciation of our own interests. And, yes, this
divides; we know that it divides us even from the closest bonds. But remember: it is not Jesus who divides! He posits the criterion: living for ourselves
or living for God and for others; be served or serve; obey ourselves or obey
God. This is the way that Jesus is a ‘sign of contradiction’ ” (Luke<span class="aqj">2:34</span>) </span><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #222222; font-size: 14pt;">(August 18, 2013, <i>Angelus, </i>Vatican City). </span><span style="color: #555555; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-line-height-alt: 12.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #222222; font-size: 14pt;"> His predecessor had words to say on
the subject too: </span><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 14.0pt;">
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 14.0pt;">
“ ‘To love your enemies’ (Luke 6:27; Mt 5:44) was something of a
manifesto presented to everyone, which Christ asked his disciples to accept,
thus proposing to them in radical terms a model for their lives. …Why does
Jesus ask us to love our very enemies, that is, ask a love that exceeds human
capacities? What is certain is that Christ’s proposal is realistic...This page
of the Gospel is rightly considered the <i>Magna
Carta</i> of Christian nonviolence; it does not consist in surrendering to
evil—as claims a false interpretation of ‘turn the other cheek’ (Luke 6:29)—but
in responding to evil with good (Romans 12:17-21), and thus breaking the chain
of injustice. It is thus understood that nonviolence, for Christians, is not
mere tactical behavior but a person’s way of being, the attitude of one who is
convinced of God’s love and power, who is not afraid to confront evil with the
weapons of love and truth alone. Loving the enemy is the nucleus of the
‘Christian revolution,’ a revolution not based on strategies of economic,
political or media power. God does not oppose violence with a stronger
violence. He opposes violence precisely with the contrary: with love to the
end, His Cross. This is a way of conquering that seems very slow to us, but it
is the true way of overcoming evil, of overcoming violence, and we must trust
this divine way of overcoming” (Feb. 19, 2007 <i>Angelus</i>, Vatican City).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 14.0pt;"> How many
of us have ever considered our commitment to Christ and his Church a
revolutionary act? Well, it is, and we
are all subversives, or should be subversives when it comes to unjust social
structures that deny people their fundamental rights, that impoverish and keep
people in poverty, and war, unjust war. To
subvert means, literally in Latin, to turn things over, turn them upside
down. That’s what Jesus did when he
said, “Blessed are the poor….” How to do
it in our time and place? That’s for
each one of us to decide for ourselves.
But if Christians are indistinguishable from non-believers in their
public lives, then what’s the point? </span><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14.0pt;">W</span></b><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<br /></div>
Tom Cornellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01412350144966958090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3923294379048136422.post-20250190055357950972013-03-16T08:19:00.002-07:002013-03-16T08:20:24.059-07:00Pax Christi Mass for Peace 2013<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Is 2, 1-5</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Ps 72<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Jas 3, 1-2. 4, 18<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Mt 5, 38-48<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Saint Augustine Church<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Highland, N.Y.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">March 16, 2013<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Deacon Tom Cornell<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> Thank you, Fr. Tom (Lutz), thank you for hosting
this Pax Christi Mass for Peace here at Saint Augustine’s, our grandchildren’s
parish. It’s a special pleasure for me
to be with Fr. Tom again at the altar. You
may not know that Fr. Lutz took over at St. Mary’s in Marlboro when Msgr. Dugan
was dying, and walked into a hornets’ nest. The hornets were after me. Fr. Tom stood up to them. And thank you, Madeleine Labriola and all Pax
Christi members who make this Mass for Peace happen every year. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> The readings today are so familiar I hardly
need dwell upon them, Isaiah’s vision of the Messianic Era when swords will be
turned into ploughshares and all the nations will climb Zion’s holy mountain to
learn the ways of peace and justice, and they shall study war no more. This vision is an essential of our Faith. We pray, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done
on earth….” It will not be fulfilled by
anyone other than Jesus himself when he comes again on the Last Day. But we have a part to play. We are baptized into Christ’s death and
resurrection, and we are baptized into his mission as well. The Kingdom of God
is then and there, but it is also here and now, because he said, “The kingdom
of God is within you” (Lk 17, 21). The Greek (</span><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14.0pt;">entos uymon</span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">) can
also be translated, “The kingdom is in your midst.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> We saw an in-breaking of the Kingdom
last Wednesday when tens of thousands of people crammed into St. Peter’s Square
on a cold rainy night. The whole world was
watching, and that in itself is proof that the moral leader of the Christian
world is the Bishop of Rome. Even
non-believers look to Rome and hope for a word that will lead us out of the
morass we are in, the proliferation of nuclear weapons, the spread of
fanaticism, a hardening of hearts against the most vulnerable, the poor, the
aged and the sick and the yet-to-be-born.
And on top of that, the threat to the biosphere itself. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> There is a sense, all over the world,
that a page in the book of history is turning.
A new Pope, a new day, we pray, a new burst of faith and hope. God is good!
God is love! God has care of us! It is fifty years since the Council that was
supposed to renew the Church. Fifty
years and we are still waiting. It takes
time. I have the feeling that this is the
time. Things are changing. Fifty years ago the Council Fathers urged us
to look upon questions of war and peace with a totally new attitude, a totally
new attitude. You here today, you of Pax
Christi, are proof that it’s happening.
We are called a little closer to Christ.
If the New Testament teaches us anything about Jesus of Nazareth it is
that he was nonviolent, he was a man of peace.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> We fail in so many ways. But especially at this season of Lent we pick
ourselves up, dust ourselves off and start over again, because we have the
freedom to turn away from God in sin. There will be a reckoning. We condemn ourselves when we turn away. Let this time of penance, prayer, fasting and
almsgiving heal and cleanse us to receive the Risen Lord at Easter!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> Something else is in the news these
days, and it too points the way out of the mess we are in, and that is the
Cause of our own Dorothy Day for canonization as a saint! Cardinal Dolan asked the assembly of all our
bishops in Baltimore last January to approve her Cause so that it can move forward
in the Vatican. He got it, unanimous
endorsement! St. Dorothy of New
York! Imagine! She was our match-maker, Monica’s and
mine. We have spent our lives in her Catholic
Worker movement, and we now manage the Catholic Worker Farm behind the cemetery
on Lattintown Road. Her message was
peace, simplicity, poverty and community, like our new Pope Francis’s. A template for survival, I dare say.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> Monica and I were on a lecture tour
in Rome in 1998 when we were told that Cardinal Stafford wanted to see us. He was the highest ranking American in Rome
at that time, the President of the Pontifical Council for the Laity. Of course we were glad to oblige. We had no idea what was on his mind, why he
wanted to see us. The Cardinal asked us
about the current state of the Catholic Worker movement. We were happy to tell him the Catholic Worker
is in good shape, authentically Catholic.
We traded stories in a very relaxed and friendly, informal way. We didn’t know that Dorothy’s Cause had to
get his approval before it could go forward, and Cardinal Ratzinger’s too! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> Cardinal
Dolan told the bishops, as had Cardinal O’Connor and Cardinal Egan before him,
that Dorothy Day should be held up as an example of authentic Christian
discipleship for our time and place. That’s
what canonization is for; it’s not to honor a person. It’s to hold up a model of authentic
Christian discipleship for our time and place.
Pope Benedict himself spoke of Dorothy and her devotion to the service
of the poor in his Ash Wednesday sermon.
But there is more to Dorothy Day than that. Lots of saints have served the poor. Dorothy was different, different in a way
that speaks to our time and our country.
She was not content to feed the hungry, clothe the naked and shelter the
homeless. She asked: Why are they hungry? Why are they homeless? Why in a country that prides itself on its
wealth are there so many poor and why are they so poor and for so long, over
generations? And why are the poor
cannon-fodder? Is there a connection
between an unsustainable life-style and the wars that we have been in almost
without ceasing since 1950? Is there a
connection? Pope Benedict seems to think
so. In his World Peace Day he condemned
the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund for usury, yes! Usury!
He cited unregulated capitalism as a threat to world peace and a cause
of war, as did Dorothy Day all her life long.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> Dorothy Day was arrested and jailed
seven times, the first for the women’s vote, then for peace and for workers’
rights in nonviolent civil disobedience against war and preparation for war, the
last time when she was 75 years old, for the United Farm Workers, in
California, in support of a strikers’ picket-line. She served then two weeks in the county jail,
a vacation, she said. A jail-bird held
up as a model of authentic Christian discipleship for our time and place? Yes! In
past times the Church had to teach rude, uneducated barbarians how to live
together in obedience to lawful authority.
Today we have to learn and teach when and how to disobey illegitimate
authority in conscientious objection, non-cooperation and active nonviolent resistance,
to obey God rather than men, as Saint Peter had it (Acts 5, 29) . Dorothy Day will be the patron saint of all
that!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> The Gospel calls us to practice the
works of mercy. Dorothy pointed out, over
and over again, that the works of war are the exact opposite of the works of
mercy, both the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. Feed the hungry, give drink to the
thirsty? No! Poison their fields and their wells! Shelter the homeless? No!
Bomb their cities! Visit the
prisoner? No! Put non-conformists in jail. (J. Edgar Hoover asked Franklin Roosevelt to
put Dorothy Day in prison three times!
He didn’t!) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> And how about the spiritual works of
mercy? Again, the exact opposite of the
works of war. Instruct the
ignorant? No! Lie to them.
The truth is always the first casualty of wear. Counsel the doubtful? No!
Threaten them with prison! Draft
them! Console the mourning? No!
Give them more to mourn about!
Forgive injuries? No! Make then pay ten times over!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> Dorothy Day of New York, our own saint,
if she is canonized, and it looks better and better, Saint Dorothy Day of ,New
York. Learn more about her, you young
people especially. Read the new
biography of Dorothy by Jim Forest, <i>All
Is Grace</i>. Cardinal Dolan bought 155
copies, and he gave one to Pope Benedict!
Or just ask Monica or me. </span><b><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14.0pt;">W</span></b><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Tom Cornellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01412350144966958090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3923294379048136422.post-17763197376451702052013-01-21T12:09:00.002-08:002013-01-21T12:09:06.676-08:00The Blind See, the Lame Walk<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">THE BAPTISM OF THE LORD C
2013 #21<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Is 40, 1-5. 9-11<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Ps 104<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Ti 2, 11-14, 3, 4-7<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Lk 3, 15-16. 21-22<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Peter Maurin Farm, Marlboro,
N.Y.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">January 13, 2013<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Deacon Tom Cornell<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> “The Lord will bless his people with peace.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> Our first reading from the Prophet Isaiah
foretells the coming of the Christ “upon whom I have put my spirit,” says the
Lord. He will bring justice, a just
peace, not just to Israel but to the nations as well. And he will do it not by raising an army, but
quietly, gently. “A bruised reed he will
not break.” He will not take advantage of anyone’s weakness but lift up all,
friend and enemy alike. Then in our second
reading from St. Paul’s Letter to Titus, the Lord addresses his Christ and
calls him “a light to the nations to open the eyes of the blind, to bring
prisoners out of confinement and from the dungeons those who live in darkness.” This has an eschatological meaning – that’s a
fancy word that indicates it’s for the End Time, the Second Coming, the final
establishment of His kingdom which will have no end. But it’s also meant to point to present
reality. The mystery of the kingdom of
God is that it is then and there but also here and now. By that I mean the fulfillment of the kingdom
can only come about by God’s own intervention at the end of time, in the new
heaven and the new earth foretold in Scripture, but it is also here and now in
embryo, if you will, because He said “The kingdom of God is within you, in your
midst.” Here and now, if we will have it.
The blind see? The lame walk? Yes!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> I saw it happen, yes I did, in Selma, Alabama,
almost 47 years ago. It was Jesus Christ
who led the March to Montgomery in the person of Martin Luther King. Most of the white people of Alabama were and
are good Christian people. But many,
very many were blind, blinded by the racist propaganda fed them by those who
knowingly profited by setting race against race, worker against worker, by
reinforcing negative stereotypes of black people and by propagating scare
stories. Fear is a powerful weapon, and
the root of war, as Thomas Merton put it.
It’s still going on, mass media blinding people, making them believe
that the poor are their enemies, that Muslims are their enemy, or the Chinese. Back then, in 1965, the stories they spread about
us in the news media made us look like degenerate hippies or Russian Reds, wild. But as we marched through town and out on
Alabama Rt. 80, the frightened people saw us for real, not as we were
portrayed, ministers and priests and rabbis, nuns in full habit, and nicely
scrubbed young and middle-aged and old men and women, black and white and who
knows what, but normal, disciplined people, joined in a great cause for which
we were willing to put our lives on the line, and I saw, as they watched us, I
saw the scales fall from their eyes as Black people previously lame walked, as
young and old Black people imprisoned in the dungeons of segregation walked out
into the sun, heads held high. It was a
glorious time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> We won, and we didn’t fire a shot,
killed no one, injured no one, lied to no one, humiliated no one. And we won, through the power of nonviolence,
the ethic of Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount put into practice. The President of the United States, Lyndon
Johnson, a Southern white man, addressed a joint session of the Senate and the
Congress, and the American people, and the world, and demanded the Voters’
Rights Bill of 1965 and he got it, and everything changed. The legal structures of racial segregation
were dismantled. The sad, tragic irony
is that today, more than a generation later, racial segregation is again the
order of the day, not just in the South, but in Northern cities where more than
ninety percent of some inner city schools are minorities. God does not show partiality, even if people
still do.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> Our reading from the Acts of the Apostles has
Saint Peter come to the realization that God’s saving grace is available to
people of all nations, not just the Jews, as he had been thought. The very
first Gentile Peter will baptize is a soldier, a Roman soldier, a centurion in
charge of one hundred men of the occupation force. That is startling! The first recruit among the Gentiles to the
cause of the Prince of Peace was a Roman soldier! Did Cornelius renounce the use of weapons and
refuse to kill? Military converts were
required to do just that, even if their superior officers ordered them to do
so, but we do not know. The Roman Army
performed many tasks other than war-making, mail-delivery, for instance, and
flood-control. We do know that Cornelius
was of good conscience and the grace of God fell upon him. Many other soldiers, upon baptism or after
deeper conversion, refused further military service, among them Saints
Achilleus and Nereus, Saint Camillus and Saint Martin of Tours, the patron
saint of soldiers who refused to be a soldier.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> The Gospel reading simply affirms that this man,
Jesus of Nazareth, is the one, the long-awaited Messiah, Christ. It is he who will usher in the kingdom of
justice and peace. If the evening news does
not reflect that truth, whose fault is that? Jesus Christ is our peace. We are his body in the world. Let’s show it, let’s prove it! The nonviolent Civil Rights movement offers a
template. Jesus is the Commander in
Chief of the nonviolent army. Yes, that
is an army too, the nonviolent movement.
We used to sing, “We are soldiers in the army; we have to fight; we know
we have to die.” But far fewer die in
the nonviolent struggle. And it ends in
reconciliation and healing, not bitterness, resentment and envy. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> The Lord
will bless his people with peace! “The
Lord has blessed his people with peace!”
That is the Paschal Mystery, the meaning of the birth of Jesus, his
ministry, his death and resurrection. He
is our peace. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span><b><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14.0pt;">W</span></b><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Tom Cornellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01412350144966958090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3923294379048136422.post-82587226675222153422012-12-21T09:07:00.001-08:002012-12-21T09:07:13.032-08:00Newtown Tragedy<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">GAUDETE SUNDAY 20012<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">3 Advent #9<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Zep 3, 14-18a<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">(Ps) Is 12, 2-6<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Phil 4, 4-7<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Lk 3, 10-18<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Peter Maurin Farm, Marlboro,
N.Y.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">December 16, 2012<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Deacon Tom Cornell<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> It’s a challenge to faith, the problem of
evil. How can a good and loving and all-powerful
God allow such things as happened in Newtown last Friday? On the other hand, how can we bear such loss
without faith, and without a community of faith, our church? Our own parish family is still staggering
under the loss of our Sarah Saturday before last, a sixteen year old girl killed
in an automobile accident. Now this, so
close to us, ten miles over the Connecticut border, twenty first graders and
six teachers. I did my teaching
internship at Newtown High School in 1959 and I was student counselor and
English and Latin teacher in the next town over, Brookfield, for three years
after that, and might well have stayed there but for Dorothy Day and the
Catholic Worker movement. You couldn’t
ask for, you couldn’t imagine better towns, better public schools, peaceful,
orderly, safe. And yet…. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> No one is safe. Every breath we take may be our last. Be prepared!
And remember the words of Julian of Norwich, “The worst has happened and
been repaired.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> This is Gaudete Sunday. <i>Gaudete</i>
is Latin for <i>rejoice</i>! Rejoice?
How rejoice? We are more than
half way through Advent, the period of waiting, waiting for the repair. The worst has happened? The Fall!
And been repaired? How
repaired? Jesus Christ, Christ himself, Christmas, Emmanuel,
God with Us, come to suffer, die and rise again. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> Evil entered that classroom in
Newtown, but God was in that classroom too, and he is the stronger. He has taken the little ones to himself. We weep for ourselves! They are our children too. All children are our children. Their families have only their memory. They will not see those beautiful children
grow and learn, see them at First Communion, Confirmation! There will be no weddings, no grandchildren! It is for ourselves that we weep. They are in bliss, eternal bliss, forever
innocent, to rise in glory on the Last Day.
That’s a Promise! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> Last week a similar number of
children in Afghanistan were killed by a bomb blast near their school. Was it unexploded ordinance? There have been so many more. Drone strikes are not surgical, as we have
been led to believe. Many children have
been killed by these fiendish weapons, nearly three hundred in the
Afghan-Pakistan border area. Afghani and
Paki mothers and fathers feel the same anguish, anger, grief and loss as American
mothers and fathers do. Does this in any
way diminish our loss, our pain? Of
course not! Are those kids our children
too? God’s children? Of course they are. So why do we let these things happen?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> The Popes have spoken of a culture of
death that pervades our society, a culture of violence, violence against the
most vulnerable among us, the unborn and the elderly, against the poor, against
immigrants, against children, against women.
We will balance the budget they say, but not by pulling out of
unnecessary and unwinnable wars paid for on the credit card. Let the old, the sick, disabled war veterans
and children pay. We have been lied to
by politicians as long as I can remember, consistently, by Democrats as well as
Republicans, and that’s a form of violence in itself. I refer also to child pornography, widespread
and easily available to feed unnatural lust and loathing, and the trafficking
of women. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> Too many guns, too little mental
health evaluation and care in this country.
The Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, in his first
address to the diplomats assigned to the Holy See, announced that the Church’s
first priority in the field of international relations is the building of a
culture of peace, a culture of nonviolence, a culture of life. Do we need any more evidence that this is
what we need in our country today?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> “His winnowing fan is in his hand,”
John the Baptist announced. Even here in
an agricultural setting we may need to explain what a winnowing fan is, and what
it means to winnow. Before
mechanization, the way a farmer removed the grain of wheat from its husk, or
chaff, was to spread the wheat stripped from the stalk on the barn floor. He would then take a large fan and stir the
air over it all. The dry husks, or
chaff, are lighter than the grains of wheat, so the breeze the fan creates
lifts the chaff and scatters it a few feet away from the heavier wheat. The farmer can then gather up the wheat for
storage and sweep up the chaff to compost or to burn. That’s what it means to winnow, and the fan
used is called a winnowing fan. John’s
words are harsh. “The chaff he will burn
in unquenchable fire!” a terrible judgment.
We have to take his words seriously, for we will be called to account. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> Think on these words, think on what we
have just experienced in that first grade classroom when you are selecting toys
for your little ones this Christmas. If
you have already bought a war toy, or a violent video game, TAKE IT BACK! Exchange it for a teddy bear, or a chess
set! Teach peace! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> Glory to God in the highest, and on
earth, peace! Peace be with you! </span><b><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14.0pt;">W<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
Tom Cornellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01412350144966958090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3923294379048136422.post-4197953411716370832012-10-01T13:55:00.000-07:002012-10-22T08:42:48.652-07:00Cast Your Whole Ballot<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">26 Sunday B #</span></b><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">137<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;">Nm 11, 25-29<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;">Ps 19<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;">Jas 5, 1-6<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;">Mk 9, 38-43. 45. 47-48<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;">September 30, 2012<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;">Peter Maurin Farm<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;">Marlboro, N.Y.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;">Deacon Tom Cornell<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"> Imagine this passage from the Letter of Saint
James being read aloud at a recent national political convention. I won’t say which one. We just heard the words, God’s words. They’re important. So let’s hear them again and take careful
heed:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"> “Come now, you rich, weep and wail over your
impending miseries. Your wealth has
rotted away, your clothes have become moth-eaten, your gold and silver have
corroded and that corrosion will be a testimony against you, it will devour
your flesh like fire…. Behold, the wages you have withheld from the workers who
harvested your fields are crying aloud and the cries of the harvesters have
reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.
You have lived on the earth in luxury and pleasure and you have fattened
your hearts for the day of slaughter.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> Word as harsh as these might well have been
directed at the other party convention too, I won’t say which one, words of
condemnation for the crime that cries to heaven for vengeance, the slaughter of
the innocent yet-to-be-born. The legal
right to abortion at any stage of gestation or even birth for any reason
whatsoever is now part of that party’s orthodoxy. How long will the hand of God’s justice be
stayed? "God is not mocked." (Gal 6, 7) “Vengeance is mine,” says the
Lord, “I will repay!” (Deut 32,35; Rom 12, 19)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> The president from one party declares that anything
the president does is by that very fact legal.
The president from the other party acts upon that and authorizes
assassination by drone missile, targeted assassination of individuals he
chooses to designate enemy combatants without any judicial process, appeal,
oversight or review, and ten or more innocent women, children and other
by-standers die as “collateral damage.”
Obscene! And some people wonder
why they hate us. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> Our bishops have given us guidelines, guidance,
not in how to vote, but in how to weigh the candidates and party platforms. It is not their place or mine or anyone else's to
tell you how to vote. But we who are
ordained to teach the faithful the principles of social justice based on
Scripture and natural law have it laid upon us to do just that. The bottom-line is this: how will your choice affect the most vulnerable in our society?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> Catholic social teaching holds that
all citizens have the right to participate in the political life of their
communities and nations, that is, among other things, to vote. The right to participate entails the
responsibility to participate. Any who
fail to exercise that right endanger the right of others to do so. Catholics make a better showing at the polls
than our fellow citizens. We make up 20% of the population but 27% of the voting public. There was a time when we tended to vote as a
bloc, for the New Deal, for instance, up to 80 percent! But we are not beholden to any party, nor
should we ever be! And voting is not the
only way we participate in public life. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> Here we are about five weeks from Election
Day. I confess to you, I haven’t made up
my mind yet, whom to vote for or even whether to go to the polls at all, the
choices are so bad. Choosing the lesser
of two evils is choosing an evil, after all.
Maybe a third party. But they’re
all compromised. Then again….<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> I am consoled by the words of a great
American once scorned but now seen as a national treasure, Henry David
Thoreau. “Cast your whole vote, not just
a piece of paper.” If we live the life
that Jesus taught us to live, a life centered on the works of mercy, we cast
our whole vote every day of our lives.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> God be with you and God be with us all on November
6, a day of tears for the poor, the aged, the sick and the unborn. God forgive us! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> <b><span style="font-family: Symbol;">W</span></b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<br /></div>
Tom Cornellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01412350144966958090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3923294379048136422.post-50781453459078736342012-09-26T11:16:00.002-07:002012-10-01T18:28:45.327-07:00The Subversive Lord<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">25 Sunday #134<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Wis 2, 12, 17-20<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Ps 54<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Jas 3, 12-4,3<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Mk 9, 30-37<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">September 23, 2102<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Peter Maurin Farm<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Marlboro, N.Y.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Deacon Tom Cornell<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> In last
Sunday’s Gospel we heard Jesus predict his passion and death. Peter objected. Then Jesus rebuked Peter, “Get behind me you
Satan; you are thinking as men do, not as God does.” Today we hear Jesus predict his passion and
death once again. The chief priests and
the scribes would betray him. The
disciples, who had been with him through his travels, didn’t know what to make
of it! How could that be? What had Jesus done or said that would turn
the Temple authorities against him so that they would turn him over to the
Romans for execution? He had cured the
sick, cast out demons, he had done all things well, had made the deaf to hear
and the mute to speak. His words – they
were the most sublime anyone had ever heard, or would ever hear, the Sermon on
the Mount. What was wrong with that? Where is the crime in that? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> Plenty!
That’s the point. The world
teaches us to seek power, wealth, influence, control. The Beatitudes, the whole Sermon on the
Mount, turn the world upside down. Jesus puts forward a little child in today’s
reading. Who welcomes a little child
welcomes me, and not me but the one who sent me, God! Power, wealth are not evil in themselves, they
are in fact good if, and only if, they are used for the common good and the
relief of suffering. But how easily we
fool ourselves, making necessities out of luxuries!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"> In this story, <span class="apple-style-span">the disciples are mirror images of ourselves. They failed to see how Jesus was upsetting
the apple-cart, until perhaps, he upset the tables of the money-changers and
the merchants in the Temple precincts. The Sanhedrin feared Jesus would bring down Rome on them so they handed him over. So Rome had to take him down. The
Roman authorities were in fact very liberal in their administration of the
provinces of their vast Empire. They
allowed conquered peoples to retain their own legal systems, their customs and religious
rites insofar as they did not interfere with Rome’s ultimate control. But at any sign, at any hint of insurrection
or subversion, Rome came down hard and fast, ruthlessly, crucifying hundreds,
thousands, to make any example of them. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span class="apple-style-span"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span class="apple-style-span"> Jesus knew his days were numbered.
His insight into the meaning of the kingdom of God made it clear to him
how opposed it was to the kingdom of mammon. But it remained a mystery to his
followers how anyone would not love Jesus as they did, even as they failed to grasp the depth of his meaning. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">
Their failures, their
unwillingness to understand, prefigure the patterns of future generations of disciples
over the ages, people just like you and me, slow to understand the radical
message of Jesus, and slower yet to follow. The Good News of Jesus
Christ, the Gospel is subversive, subversive of every pattern and structure of
oppression, domination, discrimination and war and the piling up of superfluous
wealth when any of God’s children are starving. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> Jesus didn’t give up on the first
disciples. He won’t give up on us
either. Jesus teaches us to stand with
the powerless, the marginalized and the disenfranchised rather than seek favor
by catering to the rich and the powerful to feather our own nests. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">
They had to kill him. But they
couldn’t keep him dead! “He rose again
on the third day, in accordance with the Scriptures. …. His kingdom will have no end.” It begins here and now, when we embrace that
little child. </span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14pt;">W<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Tom Cornellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01412350144966958090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3923294379048136422.post-63408955547626094202012-08-27T16:53:00.003-07:002012-09-05T14:01:19.119-07:00Joshua Casteel, R.I.P.<br />
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<span style="font-family: Perpetua, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Tom
Cornell</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Perpetua","serif";"><span style="font-size: medium;">posted on America Magazine blog</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Perpetua","serif";"><span style="font-size: medium;">and Independent Catholic News, London </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Perpetua","serif";"><span style="font-size: medium;">August 27, 2012</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Perpetua","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Joshua Casteel died, August 25, in New York
City, after a long, brave and painful battle with cancer, another victim of the
war in Iraq, at age 32. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Perpetua","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">If ever there was an “all-American boy!” A photo of Josh as president of the Young
Republicans in his high school is charmingly naïve. Tall and handsome, blue-eyed and
blond-haired, of Norwegian stock, he must have looked quite at home as a cadet
at West Point Military Academy. But he
couldn’t take the mindless chauvinism, he told me. No critical thinking! “I could take orders, but I can’t give them
in an outfit like that,” he said. He
thought it only right to fulfill the commitment he made when he signed his
enlistment contract, so he asked not for release but for reassignment as a
common soldier. He was sent to language
school, in California, where he learned Arabic well enough to be assigned to
Abu Graib Prison in Baghdad as an interrogator.
He arrived there just after the prisoner abuse scandal broke in
2004. He had over one hundred
interrogation sessions with prisoners, 90% of whom, he determined, were guilty
of nothing but being Arab. General Janis
Karpinski, in charge of the prison at that time, disagreed, maybe 80%. One was 14 years old, another nine!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Perpetua","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Joshua was brought up in a fervently
Evangelical family. But Josh’s Christian
faith began to falter. He read Cardinal
Ratzinger’s <i>Introduction to Christianity</i>. That not only revived but strengthened his
faith. He was received into full communion
with the Catholic Church. An admitted
jihadi prisoner challenged Josh’s commitment to the New Testament ethic of
nonviolence. The jihadi had the better
of the argument, Joshua decided. He came
to the conclusion that he was in fact a conscientious objector to war and to
military service. He applied for early
discharge as a conscientious objector. His
commanding officer recognized the sincerity and validity of his claim. Joshua was released with an honorable
discharge and returned home to study and to write plays and stories based upon
his experience. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Perpetua","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Archbishop Joseph Fiorenza, retired, of
Galveston-Houston, arranged for Michael Griffin, theology professor at Holy
Cross College in South Bend and editor of the Catholic Peace Fellowship <i>The Sign of Peace</i> and me to present
Joshua to Pope Benedict in Rome, March 2007 at an outdoor Mass. The Holy Father was obviously impressed with
Josh’s story. As he was led away, Mike
Griffin told the Holy Father the purpose of our trip to Rome, to spur further
development of ministry to conscientious objectors, support and encouragement. “You mean men like him?” said the Pope,
pointing to Joshua. “Yes, Holy Father, men like him!” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Perpetua","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Having earned an MFA at the University of Iowa,
Joshua started advanced studies at the University of Chicago when he suddenly
took sick. It was lung cancer, 4th
stage, metastasized. The disease
progressed rapidly. He was soon in
excruciating pain and dependent upon strong opioids. Treatment seemed at times hopeful. He was admitted to an experimental therapy
program at a secret location in Lower Manhattan. He responded very well. Then a sudden downturn, due to pancreatitis. In little more than a week, attended by his
mother, Joshua slipped away. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Perpetua","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;"> A victim
of the war? Yes, probably, but there is
no proof. Joshua believed that his
cancer was caused by living at Abu Graib near an open burn-pit operated by the
US military. All manner of refuse
including plastics was dumped into open-air pits to be incinerated. The fumes are toxic. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Perpetua","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Let Joshua have the last word, or words he
spoke to Aaron Glantz, in a radio interview on Pacifica Radio KPFA, San
Francisco, on our trip to Rome: <span style="background: white; color: #222222;">“We were seeking pastoral guidance from
the Holy See as to how to best address the</span><span style="color: #222222;"> <span style="background: white;">issue in America, which at the core is an issue of
spiritual formation and catechesis, that people don’t know the history of
Catholic conscientious objectors…. And
this is where the issue of nationalism is</span> <span style="background: white;">front
and center…. In this country,</span> <span style="background: white;">Catholic Christians often don’t act as if their
Catholic identity is their</span> <span style="background: white;">primary
identity – that somehow it’s ok to closet your Christianity when the</span> <span style="background: white;">State tells you to.
That’s not the history that Christianity hails from;</span> <span style="background: white;">it’s simply not the case.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Perpetua","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Pray for us,
Josh, that God will grant us even a small share of your faith and courage, and
consolation to your bereft mother Kristi and sisters Naomi and Rebekah. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
Tom Cornellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01412350144966958090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3923294379048136422.post-19800969513129987712012-08-18T14:09:00.000-07:002012-10-01T18:29:49.863-07:00Bread of Life<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">20 Sunday B
#119<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Pvb 9, 1-6<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Ps 34<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Eph 5, 15-20<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Jn 6, 51-58<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Peter Maurin Farm</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Marlboro, N.Y.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">August 19, 2012</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Deacon Tom Cornell<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> Our first reading from the Book of
Proverbs speaks of the Temple of Wisdom built upon seven columns, or pillars. But it doesn’t tell us what those seven
pillars are. Let’s say they are the
seven virtues: </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prudence" title="Prudence"><span style="background: white; color: windowtext; font-size: 14.0pt; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">prudence</span></a><span style="background: white; font-size: 14.0pt;">,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justice_(virtue)" title="Justice (virtue)"><span style="background: white; color: windowtext; font-size: 14.0pt; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">justice</span></a><span style="background: white; font-size: 14.0pt;">,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temperance_(virtue)" title="Temperance (virtue)"><span style="background: white; color: windowtext; font-size: 14.0pt; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">temperance</span></a><span style="background: white; font-size: 14.0pt;">, courage, and</span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faith_in_Christianity" title="Faith in Christianity"><span style="background: white; color: windowtext; font-size: 14.0pt; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">faith</span></a><span style="background: white; font-size: 14.0pt;">,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hope_(virtue)" title="Hope (virtue)"><span style="background: white; color: windowtext; font-size: 14.0pt; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">hope</span></a><span style="background: white; font-size: 14.0pt;"> and charity</span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> Or they might be what scholars of
religion call the pillars of all major religions: the contemplation of God, the ultimate
mystery; then where do we come from and where are we going and why; the destiny of the universe itself; salvation, redemption, from what and for what;
and what other planes of existence there
might be. Christians will deal with
these questions from our understanding of Hebrew and Christian Scripture and
our own and our common experience, Sacred Tradition, and ultimately, through
the person of Jesus Christ. Wisdom,
Sophia, Logos was with God and danced at the Creation, to become man in Jesus
Christ.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span> <span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> For the past three weeks, now four, we have
been hearing “The Bread of Life Discourse” from the 6<sup>th</sup> Chapter of
the Gospel according to John. Jesus
speaks of himself as the bread of life, his own flesh and blood as food for
eternal life. Many of the Jews who heard
these words found them intolerable; they couldn’t bear to hear them. They
walked away; they would listen to him no more.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> The bread of life come down from
heaven will be offered to you in minutes.
This is the whole purpose of the priesthood. Jesus would leave this earth, go back to the
Father, sit at his right hand until he comes again to judge the living and the
dead. But until that time, Jesus remains
with us. “Where two or three are
gathered in my name, I am there in their midst.” Jesus is present in the poor the sick and the
suffering. “When you did these things for the least of these my brethren, you
did them for me.” Jesus is also truly present,
body, blood, soul and divinity in every particle of the bread and wine consecrated
by a valid priest at the altar. He
remains with us in sacramental sign because, no matter how badly we go astray,
no matter how foolish we become, he wants to be with us, to nourish and guide
us even despite ourselves. Such is the
infinite mercy of God. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> God the Father did not directly will
that his only begotten son should die, mocked and scourged, upon a felon’s
cross. But it was inevitable. It was God’s will that Jesus submit and
resist not the evil of men. This would
be the ultimate sacrifice which we commemorate at every Mass. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> If the Incarnation had been postponed
for two thousand years and Jesus had been born in Bethlehem, Connecticut or
Marlboro, New York instead of Bethlehem in Juda, the outcome would have been
the same. We would have killed him. One way or another we would have killed
him. That’s what we do to the lambs of
God. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> And Jesus would forgive, “Father,
forgive them, they know not what they do,” just as he did at Golgotha. And we would be forgiven, saved. Saved from the consequences of our own blind
stupidity, willfulness, pride, greed, gluttony, lust, envy, sloth and anger, saved
from the isolation we put ourselves into when we hide from each other’s pain
and want and need. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> The bread of life! Communion!
The word means oneness with God and oneness with each other. So we must bear one another’s burdens, live
as brothers and sisters, not judging, but sharing, just as God has shared with
us, shared his own very self! Such a
gift we have been given! How can we not
share with others then? Our hearts
should be so full of gratitude that they open and pour out whatever we have,
even foolishly. God will not be outdone
in generosity. His eye is on the
sparrow. I know he watches you and me! </span><b><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: David;">W</span></b><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Tom Cornellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01412350144966958090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3923294379048136422.post-91104914202682051312012-07-01T09:46:00.000-07:002012-08-26T05:15:02.033-07:00Fortnight of Freedom<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: 14pt;">13 Sunday B #98<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Wis 1, 13-15. 2, 23-24<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Ps 30<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;">2 Cor 8, 7. 9. 13-15<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Mk 5, 21-43<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Peter Maurin Farm</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">July 1, 2012<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Deacon Tom Cornell</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"> Our first reading from the <i>Book of Wisdom</i> reminds us that all creation is good, and that God
created human beings in his own image and likeness, the basis of all human
rights. The reading from <i>Second Corinthians</i> is a clear command to
us Christians to share what we have beyond our own needs with those who have
not. Our reading from Mark’s Gospel is
deceptively simple. Mark is like
that. Sometimes Mark seems overly
simple, if I may say so. Jesus did this
and then Jesus did that; this happened and then that. The most common phrase in Mark is “and
then.” Sounds like a kid reprising a
movie, doesn’t it? But take a second
look.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"> Jairus was an official of the local
synagogue, a well-respected and presumably a wealthy man. He didn’t have to push through the crowd to
approach Jesus. People made way for
him. Then he fell at Jesus’ feet to
beseech him. It was important in those
days how one approached another person in public, especially someone he did not
know, and especially if he was going to ask a favor. Although Jairus was a leading citizen, he
prostrated himself on the ground before the penniless itinerant preacher-healer
Jesus and begged: “My daughter is at the
point of death. Please, come lay your
hands on her that she may get well and live!”
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"> Mark interrupts the story abruptly. A poor old woman enters the scene. Jairus is kept waiting, by an old
impoverished woman, a woman suffering from a flow of blood. It is not just that she is ill and poor and a
woman; she is unclean, ritually unclean.
Women were considered unclean once a month, but this poor woman had been
haemorrhaging for twelve years straight.
By the letter of the law she should not have been in any crowd. She should not have come into contact with
any other person lest that one too be declared unclean, but up in Galilee the Law
was not as strictly observed as it was in Jerusalem. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"> Notice how the woman approaches Jesus. The crowd makes no way for her, she does not
fall before him, she is afraid even to approach him face to face. She dares only to stretch out her hand and
touch his clothing, “the hem of his garment,” from behind. When Jesus realizes that healing power has
gone out of him, he demands to know who has touched him. Then in fear and trembling she comes forward
and falls before him to explain herself.
“Daughter,” he tells her, “your faith has saved you. Go in peace and be cured of your
affliction.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"> Then Mark returns to the story of Jairus and his
daughter. Word comes that she has
died. Jesus counsels faith instead of
fear. Then the din of wailing as they
approach Jairus’ house. Finally the
touching scene: Jesus takes her hand and says, “Little girl, I say to you,
arise!” She gets up and walks around,
and finally the charming detail, “Give her something to eat.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"> What are we to take from this “miracle within a
miracle,” as it is called, the story of Jairus interrupted by the story of the
woman with a flow of blood? The action
stops, the powerful synagogue leader is put on hold, for the sake of a woman, a
second-class citizen in those days, and worse, one who is poor and worse than that, “unclean.” The lesson is this: in the economy of Jesus, in God’s economy,
it’s not the big-shots, but the poor, the sick, those who are pushed around and
those who are pushed aside who come first, not the big-shots, but the
little-shots. Nowadays we call it “the
preferential option for the poor.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"> But aren’t the poor poor because they
are lazy? Isn’t it their own fault in
the richest nation on earth, the richest in world history? During this time of economic distress, I
don’t think many of us are going to fall for that line. For decades many of us, I included, have
lived one pay check from homelessness, and worse. Imagine what it feels like when the clerk at
the Unemployment Office hands you your last check and says, “Good luck!” It could happen to any one of us.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"> It is hazy, hot and humid, but we can
not let pass our nation’s birthday without reflection. On July 4<sup>th</sup>, 1776, our forefathers
declared our independence in the most powerful document of political
history. For the first time in history a
nation was founded on the premise of God-given inalienable rights for all, at
least on paper. No government can in
justice take away our rights because no government has given us our
rights. They are from God! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"> And yet today, in the middle of the
“Fortnight of Freedom” that our Archbishop, Cardinal Timothy Dolan has
declared, let us take heed of the threats to our heritage of freedom. They are real. The President claims the right to order the
assassination of anyone he deems a “terrorist,” foreign or US citizen, with no
review, no appeal, no need to explain or justify. Since 1215 the British government has been
obliged to justify imprisonment, no less execution. US law is based upon English Common Law,
including <i>Magna Charta</i>. Good-bye, <i>habeas
corpus</i>! Good-bye, <i>Magna Charta</i>! One hundred and sixty-eight men are being held in Guantanamo Prison in Cuba, most of them, admittedly,
simply because they are Muslim, of Oriental ancestry and in the wrong place at
the wrong time. They have been there for
over ten years despite the lack of any evidence that they have committed any
offense! They are there because we
simply don’t know what to do with them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"> Ours is the most wealthy country in
the world, in world history, so we pride ourselves! According to one standard that is correct. But if you take the aggregate wealth of the
nation and divide it up among the citizens, nowhere near! Norway is the richest country in the world by
that calculation. In quality of health
care, we have the best in the world, yes, for those who can pay for it; for
most of us it ranks about 36, just ahead of Slovenia according to the World
Health Organization. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"> Having destroyed Iraq in order to
save it, we are now at war in four countries.
We spend as much on war, wars past, current and future, as the rest of
the world combined. That money could
heal our sick, educate our young, create jobs to repair our crumbling
infra-structure and see to a dignified retirement for our aged workers. And yet, college students graduate burdened
by debt they may work their lives to liquidate and we congratulate ourselves
that they will not have to pay 7% interest on their loans, only half that for
the next year. And thereafter? As for religious freedom, Catholic Air Force
officers are forced to sign a pledge that they will not hesitate to launch
nuclear weapons of mass destruction upon command even though their use has been
condemned unequivocally by the highest teaching authority of the Church, the
Second Vatican Council . <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"> These are crimes against life itself,
at least as much as contraception. Everyone
knows our Church’s stand on abortion and contraception. How many know our stand on nuclear
weapons? The Vatican has informed the
United Nations that there is no longer any legal or moral justification for
the production and maintenance of nuclear weapons! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"> Yes, our religious liberty is indeed
under threat. <i>Habeas corpus</i> is under threat.
<i>Magna Charta</i> is under
threat. The planet itself is under
threat. Why all this hullaballoo about
the Affordable Health Act? Do you sense
a lack of proportion here? </span><b><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14pt;">W<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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Tom Cornellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01412350144966958090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3923294379048136422.post-25942711305739593882012-06-16T06:51:00.000-07:002012-08-26T05:15:42.091-07:00Faith Works!<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: 14pt;">11 Sunday B #92<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Ez 17, 22-24<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Ps 92<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;">2 Cor 5, 6-10<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Mk 4, 26-34<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Peter Maurin Farm</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">June 17, 2012<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Deacon Tom Cornell<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"> Happy Fathers’ Day! When a man becomes a father it changes his
life. It changes him. He takes his first look at the little creature reddish and wrinkly at his wife’s breast and he knows, but it takes a while before
the enormity of it all sinks in: life
has changed; he’s no longer the man he
was. Women seem to understand these
things instantly. It takes us men a
little longer. We know we have been given
a mighty gift, to be co-creators with God and our wives, co-creators of a new
human life. We have taken our place on
the ladder of life, passing on what had been passed on to us from all
generations since the beginning of time.
Knowing this gives us a feeling of deep satisfaction, worth, happiness. May that feeling be renewed in all fathers
today and stay with you all.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"> Jesus taught us to call God “Our Father,” and so
we do. But we know that God is neither male
nor female. He is neither a man nor a
woman. God is spirit, to be worshiped in
spirit and in truth. Our God did not
create and then walk away. God is
involved in His creation. Like an
earthly father, God provides and protects.
He led the People out of slavery in Egypt. He gave the People the Law, and then He gave
his only begotten son over to us that we might have life everlasting through faith
in him. But God has a feminine side
too, nurturing and comforting, like a mother hen who would gather her chicks under
her wings, as Jesus put it of himself. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"> In Paul’s Second
Letter to the Corinthians today we read, “…we must all appear before the
judgment seat of Christ, so that each one might receive recompense according to
what he did in the body, whether good or evil.”
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"> In today’s Gospel we hear Jesus
compare the Kingdom of God to a field of wheat.
The farmer scatters the seed and of its own accord, he doesn’t know how,
it grows until he can harvest another crop.
The seed the farmer scatters is our good deeds, the works of mercy,
feeding the hungry, giving shelter to the homeless, visiting the sick and
imprisoned and counseling the doubtful, forgiving injuries, praying for the
living and the dead and so forth, the corporal and spiritual works of
mercy. We need not know how, we need not
even see the results, ever, but these will build the Kingdom of Heaven until
Jesus comes again to bring it to fulfillment.
But we can’t do them without faith.
And so with the mustard seed.
Faith, as weak as it may be, can be nurtured and grow to sustain great
deeds. Without faith we can do nothing
and faith is a free gift, a grace of God, Paul tells us (Rom 3, 21-26). Pope Benedict in his encyclical, <i>Spe salvi, Saved by Hope</i>, he tells us
the same. By hope he means a confident
expectation, faith. So what is it? Are we saved by faith or by good works as
Paul seems to imply in today’s reading?
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"> Theologians have been teasing this
question for centuries. Good works will
flow from authentic faith firmly held, but faith is itself a gift, a grace
freely given. However we understand the relation
of faith with works, in the end we must neither presume nor despair. These are sins against the Holy Spirit. We presume if we say, “I’m saved. It doesn’t matter what I do, what I have
done. My sins are paid for by Christ’s
blood. I won’t be called to account
because I believe.” That’s wrong! That’s a grave sin. But it would be just as grave a sin to despair: “I’m so bad, I’ve done such horrible things
in my life that not even Christ could forgive me! So I might as well keep being the wretched
creature I am and keep doing the same damned thing. ” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"> Jesus stands there and knocks at the
door. Do not dare to lock it. He wants to enter and sit down with you at
the table. If you have any doubts about
that, bring them to our new pastor, Father Bassett. His door is open, the deacons’ too. And be glad, rejoice and be glad. We have a Savior and we have an Advocate, the
Holy Spirit of God, and we have a Church community holding each other up. We have the Word in Scripture and we have the
Bread of Life at the altar table. Come
and be filled! </span><b><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14pt;">W</span></b><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Tom Cornellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01412350144966958090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3923294379048136422.post-57421040052522142042012-05-23T14:43:00.003-07:002012-08-26T05:17:02.739-07:00Dorothy Day, a Sign of Unity<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: 14pt;">7 Easter B #60<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Acts 1, 15-17. 20-26<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Ps103<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;">1 Jn 4, 11-16<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Jn 17, 11-19<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;">May 20, 2012<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;">Peter Maurin Farm</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Marlboro, N.Y.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Deacon Tom Cornell<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"> “God is love.”
That’s a pretty stark statement, no adverb, no adjective, no
qualification. I remember the first time
I heard it, really heard it I mean. It
hit me hard. I was a teenager and I was
struck to the core and I never got over it, and I pray I never will. Love is not just a four letter word! The idea of love is cheapened in our world
today. It is not lust. It is not sentimental “puppy” stuff. It is not a Hallmark jingle for Mothers’
Day. "No greater love hath any man than
this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” And even more, for his enemies, as Jesus did. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"> Love is the force that set the world,
everything, creation in motion. Love
alone could move the Unmoved Mover. Love
unites us, makes us one, one with each other, one with Jesus, one with God. Jesus’ prayer to the Father at the Last
Supper is that his disciples be one, united, and their disciples after them,
that they all be one as he is in the Father and the Father in him so that the
world might believe, believe that it is God who has sent Jesus, that Jesus’ way
is the way God wants us all to follow, the way of self-giving love. He prays that their unity might be complete
so that the whole world might come to believe.
Today they will come to believe when they see how we love one another. The ancient Greek and Roman pagans saw the
Christians, how they lived, and said to their fellows, “See how they love one
another.” And so the Empire was
converted. “Preach the Good News always,
and if you must, use words.” If today they
do not believe, it is because we do not love enough.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"> Christ’s church is one. Christ willed it, so it must be. But our unity is not complete, it is not
visible. At the Second Vatican Council
the Council Fathers were asked to define the church. They did not.
They could not. Not if define
means put a limit to, put borders around,<i>
de fine</i>. You can not define God, put
borders around God. Jesus Christ is his
sacrament, his efficacious sign, as we say.
But you can not define Jesus Christ, that is exhaust the meaning of
“true God and true man.” The church is his sacrament, his efficacious sign in
the world. And neither can you define
the church, put borders around it, <i>de
fine. </i>The Council Fathers were asked
to identify the church of Christ with the Roman Catholic Church. They refused.
We can define, put borders around the Roman Catholic Church, say who is
in and who is out, but we can not put borders around the church of Christ, say
who is in and who is out. So the Council
Fathers put it that the church of Christ <i>subsists</i>
in the Catholic Church. That means that
the Catholic Church is necessary for the very being of the church of
Christ. It is interesting to note that
the other churches and denominations define themselves in terms of which teachings of the Catholic Church they reject.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"> We no longer hear of the Catholic
Church claiming to be “the one true church.”
Dorothy Day in her autobiography, <i>The
Long Loneliness,</i> wrote that she
never considered the claim of the Catholic Church to be the one true church, or
any of its other claims, whether they were true or not; </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">she just accepted them
because she experienced the Catholic Church as the church of the poor, the
church of the workers, the church of the immigrants in all the cities where she
had ever lived. That was enough for
her. We say nowadays that the Catholic
Church, if not the “one true church,” is the “uniquely true church” because it
has a unique fullness of the means of salvation, including the Petrine ministry. It is also, and this is most important, the
sacrament of the unity of the human race, the sign that brings into being the
knowledge of the human family as one with no ethnic, no racial, no national
distinctions. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"> They tell us today that the Catholic Church
is polarized between conservatives and progressives. Dorothy Day is now seen as a bridge between
the so-called conservatives on the one hand and the so-called progressives on
the other. I can tell you from personal
knowledge that Dorothy Day was a fiercely loyal, though sometimes an angry
daughter of the Church. She was angry
when she saw Church leaders and institutions failing to live up to their own
teachings. But she stood her ground in
loyalty and obedience. When she was
asked, during a tense period of the Cold War, what she would do if the Cardinal
(Spellman) ordered her to close down the Catholic Worker, she said she would
obey. She also told me that in that event
she would move the operation across the East River to the Diocese of Brooklyn
or across the Hudson River to the Diocese of Newark!
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"> Dorothy would be astonished if, when she was
alive, anyone were to tell her that she would one day be seen as a sign, an
efficacious sign, of unity. But that is
what her life was about, the unity of the Church in witness to an unbelieving
world, a witness to love and to compassion.
It is only that the rest of us are finally catching up to her. If you would like to consider membership in
the Guild that Cardinal Egan established to forward her canonization as a
saint, see me any time. </span><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14pt;">W</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Tom Cornellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01412350144966958090noreply@blogger.com0