OLOL+SA Newsletter: May 10, 2024 D
THIS WEEK’S BULLETIN: [CLICK HERE]
BETHLEHEM WOOD CARVERS – POSTPONED
Bethlehem Wood Carvers have postponed their visit to our parishes due to a sudden illness of the vendor. We will keep you posted on any rescheduled appearance at our Cluster.
KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS COUNCIL 11411 – MEMBERSHIP DRIVE
Our Council comprises a solid group of men doing good work in fellowship with each other in service to the Cluster and promotion of the Gospel. It’s a great opportunity for men to grow in faith and friendship by serving the Lord and his Church. Knights will be at various Masses this month offering more information. Stop by and ask a Knight!
PENTECOST SUNDAY – WEAR RED – MAY 18TH/19TH
Let’s celebrate Pentecost by wearing red at Mass! Pentecost is the Church’s birthday when the Holy Spirit alighted upon the Apostles and has been passed down to us since that time. Red has always been a color associated with the Holy Spirit.
INTERNATIONAL POTLUCK LUNCH – 1:00 PM ON MAY 19TH AT SAINT ANNE
Let’s celebrate our diversity and our common joy of eating by bringing a dish to share that speaks of your heritage! Please contact Monica Cornelia at (585) 424-6728 by May 12th to join in the fun. Please RSVP because we need a headcount for setting up tables and also to have a balance between entrees and desserts. If you don’t know what to bring, ask Monica!
PROJECT RACHEL FUND DRIVE – MAY 18TH TO JUNE 23
The Knights of Columbus Council 11411 will provide coin canisters beginning May 18th in support of Project Rachel – A ministry of the Catholic Church to those who have been involved in abortion.
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED – BUILDING AND GROUNDS COMMITTEE
The mission of the committee is to assist in maintaining and developing appropriate facilities of the Cluster including assessment of conditions, maintenance plans, repair and construction and safety issues. The committee’s main function is to inspect, catalog, and assist in the bidding process for various projects. Proficiency in skilled trades, engineering, and/or property management are required. Please contact me, Dcn. Bill, for more information.
DCN. BILL’S REFLECTION – The Priestly Prayer of Jesus
[CLICK HERE] for the readings of Sunday
Sunday’s Gospel passage is often referred to as “The Priestly Prayer of Jesus”. Scholars say it is the “Highest Priestly Prayer” and echoes many of the points from the Lord’s Prayer. Due to this significance, I am going very deep, very fast. So, I offer this guidance: Please take the time to reflectively read this rather than skimming through it. Please, for your own wellbeing, explore your own inner experience as to whether what I share speaks truth to you.
“Holy Father, keep them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are one.” (John 17:11b)
In order to understand what Jesus is saying here, it’s important to understand the context of Saint John’s Gospel. John lays out at the very beginning of the Gospel that Jesus is the “Word”. This is the name which Jesus is referring to in his prayer.
To explain that, here is an excerpt from my book, Be Not Afraid…For I Am With You:
“Word” is the English translation of the Greek word “Logos”. Early translators of the Greek New Testament, such as St. Jerome – the first “Biblical Scholar”, were frustrated by the inadequacy of any single Latin word to convey the meaning of “Logos”. The ancient Greeks used the term in different ways. Heraclitus used the term for a principle of order and knowledge. Aristotle applied the term to refer to “reasoned discourse”. The Stoics used the term as the general principle of the Universe. Hellenistic Judiasm, such as Philo, adopted the term to mean “the word remaining within” which represented an intermediary divine being. St. Jerome defined it to mean “the living word”.
Plotinus used the term in his “Meditations” as the interrelationship between hypostases – the soul, the intellect/emotions (spirit), and the One. St. Augustine was influenced by Plotinus and experimented, but failed to achieve ecstasy, with Plotinus’ “Meditations”. St. Augustine defined it to mean the “Divine Eternal Word”. In St. Augustine’s sense, it is Divinity not as a static “Being” but more like an active verb, as “Being in relationship with Being”. For St. Augustine, Jesus the Christ was the very presence of “being in relationship with Being” as in no other human. Love is the very issue that is birthed from this reality.
What we are practicing with Christian meditation and contemplation is to enter the experience of Logos – of “being in relationship with Being” which issues love. Jesus the Christ, the Logos, calls us to follow him not simply by intellectually understanding him theologically nor in attempting to merit “good works” for eternal life after death, but rather to become like him, “being in relationship with Being.”
Jesus is petitioning God, the Father, to keep each one of us in this state of “being in relationship with Being”. We use another phrase to express this – keep us in Full Communion.
Now, it’s true that each of us have our part to play in remaining in full communion with God. Each one of us must work out our sanctification, that is to say, grow in holiness which is “seeking the highest good” or wellbeing in each and every moment. I phrase that practice of sanctification as:
“We are here to end suffering. If ending suffering is more important than anything, we will end suffering. If ending suffering is not more important than anything, we will not end suffering. If I am suffering, it is because I am choosing something over ending suffering. We are not here to create or cling to personal beliefs. We’re here to pay attention, to see how we cause ourselves to suffer, so we can drop that and end our suffering.”
As we practice “ending suffering”, what we discover is that compassion and wisdom is revealed to us. We don’t manufacture it. In fact, we cannot. It just drops in from heaven – From God, the Father. God reveals love to us. God reveals wisdom to us. God, the Father, fulfills the prayer of Jesus. It is God who saves us. (This is not founded on belief, but through real life experience.)
“When I was with them I protected them in your name that you gave me, and I guarded them, and none of them was lost except the son of destruction, in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled.” (John 17:12.)
During his earthly life, Jesus protected the Apostles in many circumstances like during a storm at sea. But, he also trained them in his teachings which protected them from suffering in sin. His Sermon on the Mount – the Beatitudes – and other teachings all got at the root of human suffering and sin. What is the root of human suffering and sin? The Ego.
Each one of us wrestle with the Ego and while the content we suffer with may be different (One person may suffer will illness, another with failure, another with loss of a good, etc.), the process of suffering is the same. The result is the same: A spirit that darkens our life as it offers glamorous yet empty promises that only intensify our anxieties and depressions that compel us to believe we are isolated, separated, alone and abandoned. We tend to personify that as a devil with a pitchfork.
But much like our misunderstanding of Logos, we misunderstand our “worthy” opponent. The Spirit of Evil is pervasive as it whispers, “Everything is wrong. There’s never enough. It’s all your fault.” What makes it so compelling is that we believe those whispers are from “me” and we fight for “my” survival under them. (We believe the virus software is our operating system.) EVERYONE engages with this dynamic, so it becomes even more compelling when like-minds agree. (Misery loves company especially when both are miserable about the same thing.)
Like Judas, we believe what we are doing is right and good when we listen to those whispers in our mind. Sin and suffering multiplies out into the world. Real hurts occur. People are objectified, minimalized, and eventually eliminated. And through our belief that we are good and right in defending Ego, we are blind at being “children of destruction” until it gets pointed out to us.
“But now I am coming to you. I speak this in the world so that they may share my joy completely.” (John 17:13)
Jesus understood that the cross was his destiny. He knew his death was inevitable. Yet, he also knew that death is not the end, “I am coming to you (Father in Heaven)”. The Resurrection ushers in joy established upon the tangible proof that physical death is not the end.
Ego constantly has us running in fear from death and when we examine that fear of death very closely what we discover is it is not physical death that we are afraid of but rather the death of Ego. After we commit a mortal or venial sin, we are not afraid of dying, we are afraid of being found out and the consequences of being found out. Our fear is “I would die if someone knew what I did!” Who would die? Ego.
This fear of Ego dying is so strong, that we will ignore Truth and even hurt others to protect it. In so doing, it does not produce joy and freedom, but rather paranoia and despair. Our world gets smaller and smaller as we seek to control externals to protect this Ego; meanwhile, our misery – fears and angers – increases. Like Gollum stroking his “Precious” in the darkness of a cave (Lord of the Rings), we become corrupted by this vicious cycle of being identified with Ego. (“I’m not going to confession! I’m not going to tell the priest my sin. He’s probably doing worse.”)
Jesus, his death and resurrection, frees us from the world of Ego, sin, and suffering. Divine Love begets joy. That is not pie-in-the-sky poetic, theological thinking and it’s not a childish belief. It is truth handed down from the saints and real joy abounds as we grow in spiritual awareness that Jesus is alive and truly/directly present to us as the Holy Spirit intuitively speaks wisdom and compassion into our minds and hearts.
“I gave them your word, and the world hated them, because they do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world.” (John 17:14.)
As we practice all that Jesus taught that leads us into Full Communion, that deepens our awareness that we are “being in relationship with Being”, we encounter those still attached to the Ego will hate us. We see this in the workplace, in family life, and society all the time. Steven Green’s book The 48 Laws of Power and Machivelli’s The Prince all point to this dynamic. Simply outshine the narcissistic boss and watch how he or she will hate you for it.
Upon hearing the word of truth, we are set on the spiritual journey of ever deepening “being in relationship with Being”, and the freer we become from the world of Ego. Fears and angers subside as we unfetter ourselves from our identification with the Ego. Love, joy, and peace become more and more accessible. In clarity of mind and heart, we see we do not belong to the world of Ego and Life abounds!
The Rite of Confirmation is meant to be a poignant event in which we are strengthened in the Holy Spirit. Yet, the lived experience is that we undergo a lifetime of confirmation. Again and yet again, we practice becoming more skilled at “being in relationship with Being”, guided by the Holy Spirit, strengthened by the Sacraments and Holy Scriptures, surrounding ourselves with a community of holy men and women as we let go of Ego’s death grasp moment by moment.
“I do not ask that you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the evil one.” (John 17:15.)
There is a koan from eastern religions, “Before enlightenment, we chop wood and carry buckets of water. After enlightenment, we chop wood and carry buckets.” Our lives radically change when God reveals wisdom and compassion. “Everything changes” when we encounter God and become consciously aware through an intuitive knowing that we too are “being in relationship with Being”; and yet, nothing changes. The bills still need to be paid, the grass needs to be mowed, dinner needs to be cooked, our beloved needs our attention. Yet, there is a shift of attention from what we do to how we are with what is before us.
Experiencing (intuitively knowing) God will not remove us from this world, our responsibilities, or the temptations from our “worthy” opponent. Jesus didn’t ask the Father to remove us from the world. He asked God to keep us from the evil one. Jesus asked God, the Father, to keep waking us up to how we are attached to the Ego, the Spirit of Evil, and to free us from our suffering with it. This is a necessary work that is more internal than external. It is the work of prayer.
“Consecrate them in the truth. Your word is truth.” (John 17:17.)
In other words, Jesus is asking, “Set them apart from the Ego-centric world through an ever expanding awareness that ‘being in relationship with Being’ is the source and summit of life.”
This awareness sets us free from the compulsive tendencies of personalities, expectations, conditions, prejudices, and projections that were all learned as we grew up trying to survive in the world but now causes us to suffer.
We are truly set apart from the Ego-centric world the moment we become aware that Logos, “being in relationship with Being”, is not just a name of the man who walked the earth two thousand years ago also labeled Jesus, but a name for all of us and all creation are too.
If Christ Jesus is the perfect union of Divinity and creation, then to say we are Christ feels blasphemous. Only Jesus is the only begotten Son of God, right? And yet the term “Christian” means “little Christs”. Whether we are comfortable with the terms or not, this is our aspiration, this is our source and summit. We are to become in truth what we consume – The Eucharist – until all that remains is Christ. There is no ego-centric “me” and yet what remains is “I am”.
“As you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world.” (John 17:18.)
So, we go forth back into our normal, ordinary lives with the mission not to save others, but to sanctify ourselves in this Christ, in this Logos. As Saint Francis of Assisi said, “Preach the Gospel, and if necessary, use words.” The world is transformed because people see the fruit of our wellbeing in God – love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, kindness, goodness, perseverance, and self-mastery (mastery over the Ego). When people witness this in us, our very presence transforms them and so does the world.
The presence of each person is like a struck tuning fork that resonates a pitch that can shatter a wine glass or make it sing too. The love, joy, and peace that we are resonates with people of true love, joy, and peace and we “sing” in harmony – a pitch of lightness.
However, if someone is immoral, devious, miserable, hateful, jealous, envious, wrathful, selfish, and warlike, their “pitch” can shatter us or pull us down to a lower pitch – a pitch of darkness. The world is filled with these traits.
So, we steep ourselves in the Real Presence of Christ, in deepening the awareness of Logos, in strengthening our Communion with the God who is love, joy, and peace in order to resonate that love, joy, and peace out into the world.
Also, the reality of this duality between light and dark, causes us to seek refuge with holy men, women, and fellows who are journeying into the great light of God (those who are love, joy, and peace) and we abstain from those who are ego-centric.
“And I consecrate myself for them, so that they also may be consecrated in truth.” (John 17:19.)
To consecrate means “to set apart in holiness” or “set apart for holiness”. In a world steeped in fear, anger, desire, suffering and sin, we practice setting ourselves apart from the Spirit of Evil resonating out into the world. We practice returning to those who resonate “I am love in wellbeing”. We take refuge in the Church – the people of God.
We do this through the hearing of the Holy Scripture, the reception of the Sacraments, the solitude of silent prayer, the practice of Adoration, meditating on the Mysteries of the Rosary, and in the presence of others who speak wisdom and compassion. We practice this through the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy. In short, we actively participate in the life of the Church.
To do so “in truth” requires us to be completely authentic with ourselves, with others, and with God. Ignoring our suffering, ignoring our personal beliefs, expectations, projections, and emotions only perpetuate suffering. We must have the courage to face the truth head on in compassion.
Finally, we cannot sanctify ourselves in a vacuum, alone, because it goes directly against “being in relationship with Being”. We gather together in Christ, through Christ, to be Christ for one another. This is the call to participate at Church and at Mass. It is not a guilt trip, it is the pathway out of suffering. We are called to magnify the light of the Lord.
Peace be with you,
Deacon Bill
Saint Anne + Our Lady of Lourdes Church Cluster
150 Varinna Drive
Rochester, New York 14618
Office: (585) 473-9656 Ext. 412