Of Saints and Sinners

At times, the tension of the Saints 2009 'super' season was difficult to watch. Years of faith, hope and expectation culminated in an amazing dash for the Lombardi trophy. In our very own New Orleans Superdome, the sight of unprecedented destruction and disaster only 4 years before, the city watched as Sean Payton, Greg Williams, Jonathan Vilma, Tracy Porter and countless others did the impossible. We went to the Superbowl. We won the Superbowl. It all seemed too good to be true.

And it was.

In the last 24 hours, the NFL has revealed that their investigation of the New Orleans Saints has uncovered a history of corruption and cover-up on a Watergate/Spygate scale. While welcoming such football legends as Kurt Warner and Brett Farve into our stadium, coaches and players placed illegal bounties on their heads. The hard hits in those games, hits that virtually sidelined our most talented opponents, were fueled by more than just spirit: they were fueled by a cash flow. Greg Williams encouraged it. Sean Payton and Tom Benson knew about it, and did little to stop it. The crime was bad. The cover up was worse.

As difficult as it was to watch the Saints finally make it to victory, it is now even more difficult to watch this scandal unfold. Difficult in an entirely different way. Difficult in a way that makes it appropriate to discuss this in a spiritual way. The Saints, true to their namesakes, have become spiritual inspiration in this city. Payton, Benson and their comrades were made quasi-religious icons in this culturally Catholic city. We've attended Mass with them, seen them lead prayer breakfasts. We've waited in line for them to sign their books, but we've also watched them receive blessings from local ministers, Louisiana bishops and even the Pope. The NFL bestowed the Lombardi trophy upon them and, for our part, we bestowed something of a halo. They were heroes on the field and off: winning games, supporting charities and renewing our sense of hope and dignity. We had faith in them, faith in the full sense of that word. That faith is now reeling in doubt. What do we do with this? These men were hallmarks of integrity. They weren't just lucky: they were good. We've discovered that some of them were just lucky and bad. Now, their luck has run out. And we who believed in them, are struggling to make sense of it all.

Lent in New Orleans has never been that big of a sacrifice. The seafood is good. There are a lot of festivals to distract us. Yet we all know that there is much we need to do penance for. With a consistently high crime rate, perennial public scandals and a 'culture of violence' that our Catholic mayor and Archbishop have decried, this should be a time of soul searching. Apparently that culture of violence is not limited to the Ninth Ward: it has infected our beloved Superdome as well. Paying bounties to knock revivals off is bad enough among drug dealers. Among NFL players, it’s just shocking.

That's what we know thus far. So now, we pray. We fast. We repent. No, this isn't just Catholic guilt extrapolated into the sphere of sports. Payton and Benson received the same ashes on their foreheads that we did last Wednesday. And those ashes are not an empty symbol. Nor are they just an emotional expression. They are the remains of last years palm branches. They are what is left over after the biggest parade in the church's liturgy, when Christ rode into Jerusalem and was hailed as a king. We threw just such a parade for these men. Now, we must face the truth and wear the ashes. The difference, of course, is that Christ was innocent when, a week later, he was put on trial. These men may not be. Nonetheless, we must pray for mercy. Yes, pray. They are not just NFL leaders: they are our brothers in Christ. This is the season to love them more than we do during the football season. This is the season to change our ways, to become better and to look to a prize greater than the Lombardi trophy, that perishable crown. Don't get me wrong. I love football. I am a Saint's fan. I will remain a Saint's fan. But, first and foremost, I am a Christian watching my fellow Christians endure tribulation. And I will pray them through it.

Called to be Saints in the New Millemium

 This is taken from the Holy Father's speech to Students Yesterday.

It is not often that a Pope, or indeed anyone else, has the opportunity to speak to the students of all the Catholic schools of England, Wales and Scotland at the same time. And since I have the chance now, there is something I very much want to say to you. I hope that among those of you listening to me today there are some of the future saints of the twenty-first century. What God wants most of all for each one of you is that you should become holy. He loves you much more than you could ever begin to imagine, and he wants the very best for you. And by far the best thing for you is to grow in holiness.

Perhaps some of you have never thought about this before. Perhaps some of you think being a saint is not for you. Let me explain what I mean. When we are young, we can usually think of people that we look up to, people we admire, people we want to be like. It could be someone we meet in our daily lives that we hold in great esteem. Or it could be someone famous. We live in a celebrity culture, and young people are often encouraged to model themselves on figures from the world of sport or entertainment. My question for you is this: what are the qualities you see in others that you would most like to have yourselves? What kind of person would you really like to be?

When I invite you to become saints, I am asking you not to be content with second best. I am asking you not to pursue one limited goal and ignore all the others. Having money makes it possible to be generous and to do good in the world, but on its own, it is not enough to make us happy. Being highly skilled in some activity or profession is good, but it will not satisfy us unless we aim for something greater still. It might make us famous, but it will not make us happy. Happiness is something we all want, but one of the great tragedies in this world is that so many people never find it, because they look for it in the wrong places. The key to it is very simple – true happiness is to be found in God. We need to have the courage to place our deepest hopes in God alone, not in money, in a career, in worldly success, or in our relationships with others, but in God. Only he can satisfy the deepest needs of our hearts.

Not only does God love us with a depth and an intensity that we can scarcely begin to comprehend, but he invites us to respond to that love. You all know what it is like when you meet someone interesting and attractive, and you want to be that person’s friend. You always hope they will find you interesting and attractive, and want to be your friend. God wants your friendship. And once you enter into friendship with God, everything in your life begins to change. As you come to know him better, you find you want to reflect something of his infinite goodness in your own life. You are attracted to the practice of virtue. You begin to see greed and selfishness and all the other sins for what they really are, destructive and dangerous tendencies that cause deep suffering and do great damage, and you want to avoid falling into that trap yourselves. You begin to feel compassion for people in difficulties and you are eager to do something to help them. You want to come to the aid of the poor and the hungry, you want to comfort the sorrowful, you want to be kind and generous. And once these things begin to matter to you, you are well on the way to becoming saints.

In your Catholic schools, there is always a bigger picture over and above the individual subjects you study, the different skills you learn. All the work you do is placed in the context of growing in friendship with God, and all that flows from that friendship. So you learn not just to be good students, but good citizens, good people. As you move higher up the school, you have to make choices regarding the subjects you study, you begin to specialize with a view to what you are going to do later on in life. That is right and proper. But always remember that every subject you study is part of a bigger picture. Never allow yourselves to become narrow. The world needs good scientists, but a scientific outlook becomes dangerously narrow if it ignores the religious or ethical dimension of life, just as religion becomes narrow if it rejects the legitimate contribution of science to our understanding of the world. We need good historians and philosophers and economists, but if the account they give of human life within their particular field is too narrowly focused, they can lead us seriously astray.

A good school provides a rounded education for the whole person. And a good Catholic school, over and above this, should help all its students to become saints. 

 Let us join in the great hope of the Holy Father.  His hope is that he is speaking to some future English saints.  He calls them out at the very beginning.  You are called to be saints, don't settle for something less.  He challenges the celebrity cult.  His goal is to refocus the youth on the saints.  He doesn't want us to settle for created things what he prudently calls, "second best."  Happiness is found only in God.  He invites the youth to friendship with God, what St. Thomas Aquinas called one of the greatest goals of human life.  Friendship with God helps us to see the truth of things in humility.  
The pope knows the scientific outlook is strong in England, Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, and Stephen Hawking being its prime examples.  He warns them of the narrow outlook of scientific mentality.  He calls it dangerously narrow, cataracts on the intellect.  

Don't Judge a Book By Its Cover

Handbook for Ministers of Care by Genevieve Glen, OSB, Marilyn Kofler, SM, and Kevin E. O'Connor

This book was written for laity new to ministry of any kind, but especially to the unique and difficult ministry of visiting the sick.

Judging by a cover such as the one you see, worry is probable. I worry about books with such abstract drawings. These show up in various part of the book almost insultingly as if lay people can't read a book without pictures. I didn't particularly find the images even helpful in illustrating a point the authors were making.

In the first chapter, the writers made sweeping generalizations without backing them up. This book was written for people discerning such a ministry so it is written simply and matter of factly. However, one could give one historical example to back the claim, "{Ministry of care} was a ministry open to all the baptized that gradually, through the ages, became a ministry for priests and religious, especially those who established and served in hospitals," (4). That might be true be a pastor or supervisor might not have the same historical theological background as the authors. One cannot take such a statement without some evidence. This happens a few more times where the authors make blanket statements such as the previous one.

The writing style is colloquial. This brings across the points the authors mean to make, and it makes for a clear and easy read. However, the colloquial style surrender theological clarity a few times using common phrases that can leave ambiguity.

If one who recommends it is aware of its shortcomings and properly explains things, it is a great source for those visiting the sick. It is very practical and helpful in providing someone with a good solid base knowledge of visiting the sick. It gives practical guides on how to order a visit. It goes through the liturgy of a communion visit. It goes through special cases that someone might or probably will run into. I found the entry on demetia and alzheimer's disease to be very enlightening. It is good resource for someone visiting the sick to have.

The Ministry of Absence

So for several years now we've been hearing about this thing called ministry of presence, when you're "there for people" in their time of need and minister simply by being there...more or less. With that stuck in my head as a common model of ministry, you can imagine my confusion when I read through Henri Nouwen's book A Living Reminder and find him talking about a 'Ministry of Absence'. I immediately went "HUH?!" As I read on it made sense though. So often we feel we have to be with people to comfort them that we forget that it is God who actually does the work in the person. Nouwen's point is that just as Christ had to leave this world to send the Holy Spirit down upon us, so to in ministry must we know when to leave the person in the hands of God and allow the Holy Spirit to descend upon them and begin the healing that only the Hand of God can work. There was more in the book than just that one concept, but that is the thing that stuck out to me as I read through so I wrote on that. The book was a quick read, coming in at under 75 pages long in the big-margin, 1.5 spacing print (gotta love it!). Decent book; though I wasn't entirely sure how it all came together as a whole...the pieces were nice.

WIT

Although we typically focus on books and such for this blog, I felt compelled to write about something else today... I guess it falls under the "other tidbits" category.

As part of my chaplaincy program here in Orlando, we do a variety of activities aimed at helping us to become better chaplains/pastors. One such exercise was done this morning, in the form of a movie. The film was called "WIT" and starred Emma Thompson; it was originally a play, written by Margaret Edson. It ran about an hour and a half and at the end, half the people in the room were crying. Even I felt like I should have been shedding a few tears. It was certainly yanking on my heart-strings like few movies can. The story is about a woman who undergoes treatment for ovarian cancer and illustrates her experience of the hospital and staff, among other things. At the end of the film, the five of us just sat there unable to say a single word as the credits rolled past. After watching it, it made me seriously consider what it is that I do when I go meet with patients. I would strongly suggest that everyone watch this movie. It's not just about a woman's battle with cancer - it is much much more.

Did I drink the Kool-Aid???

I just finished reading a book by John Savage titled "Listening & Caring Skills". I know, I know -it sounds I drank the Kool-Aid, and I might have. But it did taste pretty good! Despite the book's eighties-riffic cover and laughable titled, the content was surprisingly good. As the title would indicate, it was very practical and the author did a really good job of adding in personal experiences and stories to illustrate his points. Toward the end he started to get into some of the deeper stuff that we don't always get around to looking at - our own history. He gets into how things that have happened to us or ideas that we have adopted in the past can come back to haunt us in very real ways down the road. It was interesting how he illustrated that even our theology is colored by our own life experiences. For example, those who suffer as a child might have a theology focused on suffering or victimhood, or one who has self-esteem issues as a child may find themselves questioning whether God really loves them like He claims to. Granted, some things just have to be taken with a grain of salt, but all in all, I would say that it was a pretty decent book. If you're looking for fun reading, this ain't the book. If you're looking to actually be a more attentive listener, and thus a better friend or pastor, this could be a help along the way.