Fr. Chuck's Column, September 27, 2020

 

The pandemic has slowed things down, but activity is still happening here at St. Austin. Our parish school has been in operation for about a month, and as of the writing of this article all has been going smoothly, safely and well. Thanks to all the hard work of the school teachers, administration, parents and students. Keep up the good work!

The interior renovation of the church is now fully underway. Scaffolding will be erected in the church this coming week. There are plenty of holes in the ceiling and things are moving forward on schedule. The major development project of our campus had quieted down at the beginning of the Covid pandemic, but is still moving along and now picking up steam.

Option Agreement Approved: At our May 3 virtual town halls we discussed the need to extend the option agreement with Greystar from June to November to give each of us time to     consider implications from the pandemic. That agreement was extended and Greystar began making their option payments again on Sept. 1.

Diocese Building Committee Approved: On Aug. 10 we presented our design plans to the Diocese Building Committee who gave their unanimous approval on the direction we are headed.

What’s Coming:

· Transition Planning: We are gearing back up our summer 2021 transition plans that include temporary locations for the school, parish offices and rectory. This will include finalizing temporary housing for the Priests, resume our Trash & Treasure committee when it is safe to gather and adjust transition plans based on the pandemic environment.

· Architectural Design: We will continue to make minor edits to the designs the Parish saw on May 3. Greystar will have some work to do as they explore their student housing units that may now include an affordable housing component.

· Project Financing: Our request for proposal on financing last spring provided a number of options and we will be finalizing our financing plans once we get another round of construction pricing. The next round of construction pricing will occur after tuning the architectural drawings.

For now, we need to continue to pray for this project using our Prayer for Our Pilgrimage. If you did not see the May 3 virtual town hall it is available online. And please don’t forget if you have any questions or comments anytime please submit to develop@staustin.org and we will get you a response.

God bless!

 

Fr. Chuck's Column, September 20, 2020

 Creation is remarkable! The little I understand about the current science of the cosmos, the great numbers of galaxies, the expansion of space, the enormity of it all, and at the opposite end of the scale the peculiarities of quantum physics and the extremely small, not to men-tion the intriguing speculations of other dimensions and multi-verses, leaves me stretching my imagination to the limit in order to even begin forming a concept of the nature of reality.

So I was disappointed when I read Carolyn Porco’s statement: “All the atoms of our bodies will be blown into space in the disin-tegration of the Solar System, to live on forever as mass or ener-gy. That’s what we should be teaching our children, not fairy ta-les about angels and seeing grandma in heaven.”

Dr. Porco is no dummy. She is an American planetary scientist who explores the outer solar system. She has worked on the Voy-ager missions to Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune in the 1980s. She led the imaging science team on the Cassini mission in orbit around Saturn. She is an accomplished scientist.

Still, I disagree with her. I believe that my personhood, the unique me, is more than a fortuitous combination of matter and energy. There is a “me” that is not reducible to the sum of my matter and energy. Whatever that additional part is called “spirit.” I cannot prove the existence of this “spirit.” But I know that even if I am deluded and there is no such thing as spirit, my life now is still better for me because of my belief in the existence of spirit. Therefore, it makes evident good sense to me to believe this. I am better for it in any case.

I also believe that one day the issue will be resolved, and we will all know if Carolyn Porco is correct (in which case we won’t know since there won’t be anything to know), or if I am correct (in which case we will not so much know as be known). This stance is to take the leap beyond cosmology (which in itself is pretty mind-boggling) to eschatology (which is not science, but faith-based). Eschatology relates all that ever was, or is, or will be, to an end that gives it all, not only existence, but beyond that, meaning and purpose. For us Christians, that organizing principal of eschatology is Jesus Christ Himself. As we reading in St. Paul’s letter to the Colossians: He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For in him were created all things in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, wheth-er thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things were created through him and for him.

I am willing to bet on this by being a person of faith. And some-day we will all know for sure.

God bless,

Fr. Chuck's Column, August 30, 2020

 

This Thursday, September 3, we celebrate the feast of St. Phoebe. Less than a year ago we installed a statue of St. Phoebe above the steps going to the sanctuary, holding a scroll to the right of St. Paul. This is St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans, a very important Epistle, sometimes called “St. Paul’s Gospel.” St. Paul entrusted this important letter to Phoebe to bring, and perhaps to read, to the Roman Christians. He was planning to visit Rome, and this was to be an introduction and defense of his teaching. St. Phoebe was advancing the way for the controversial St. Paul.

In the Letter to the Romans 16:1-3 we learn that Phoebe was a deaconess of the Church at Cenchreae, the port of Corinth in Greece, whom St. Paul admired. Many have speculated that she was a woman of means who contributed financial support to Paul's apostolate, and likely hosted the house church of Cenchreae, as well as provided shelter and hospitality to Paul himself.

So she is a model and patron of all those who support the Church and help in so many ways, and hence she is a great model and patron for our parish. She also is something of a problem. In the old New American Bible, as above, she is referred to as a “deaconess”, but in the Revised New American Bible she is referred to as a “minister”. There is some ambiguity about the word, and at the time St. Paul wrote, offices in the church were not clearly established and codified. So there is some debate about exactly what Phoebe did and what her role in the Church was.

That debate continues today, as Pope Francis has established a commission to study the possibility and practicality of the women’s diaconate in the church today. Considerable research has revealed written and archaeological evidence (mostly tombstones) of women deacons in the early church. Were they ordained, and what did they do? They certainly assisted at the Baptism of women, since people at that time were baptized naked. All this is now under study.

We value our deacons, Billy and Dan. Would it be beneficial to have women deacons as well, to preach, baptize, witness weddings, care for the poor, and do what men deacons now do? Personally, I think it would be a great advantage and help our evangelization. But the Church, who does not rush into these things, has not yet decided.

In any case, the word “phoebe” is Greek, and means, “bright” or “shining”. How appropriate to have St. Phoebe now shining in our church. God bless!

 

Twenty-Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time Cycle A September 20, 2020

 

Twenty-Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time   Cycle A    September 20, 2020

           Do you like this Gospel we just heard?  I hope not.  I hope you found it unsettling and upsetting.  Because this Gospel is not fair. 

          Jesus is speaking about the Kingdom of God, and God is not fair.  We don’t get what we have earned.  Rather we receive grace and blessing and eternal life way beyond and far above what we have earned, what we have a right to.  

          The Good News is this: God is not fair.  We don’t get what we have earned, nor what we deserve, but rather what we need, and beyond that, what we hope for. 

          Most of us are not the great saints, the martyrs, the truly holy people who lead exemplary lives, struggling and working to bring God’s Kingdom on earth, who were hired early in the day and worked through the burning heat.  Rather, a few of us may be really good people who are workers hired at noon, or we may be pretty nice people hired about three, and many of us like myself, are fairly decent folk who are those hired at five.  Am I right?? 

          But we still receive the full daily wage of eternal life, all that we need of forgiveness and grace for the fullness of life.   God’s Kingdom, so startingly presented in this parable, is not about “justice” and “fairness”, but about “mercy” and “generosity” and “life.”  So, this parable is Good News for us.

          But it is also a challenge.  It is a challenge for us to live NOW, not in the way of the world / of what is earned and owed and of right.  But rather is a challenge for us to live the Kingdom of God now: to put into action and practice God’s Kingdom on earth, a Kingdom that goes beyond rights and what is due, to a Kingdom of mercy, generosity and compassion. 

          This parable calls us to act strangely and do weird thing just like the landowner in the parable:

- to pay attention to the person who is a bother even beyond what is polite:

- to be measured, patient, respectful in political discussion even with the opponent who is a bigot and a jerk:

- to be generous and kind to those hurting from the economic dislocation and turmoil:

- to give generously of our own goods, and of our time and our talents, to those in need:

- to pray sincerely for all people, even those we disagree with, and those who irk us:

- to respond to all with generosity that goes beyond what is fair, or deserved, to what the other person needs:

- in other words, to be generous to others as God has been generous to us in Jesus Christ. 

          This Gospel should upset us.   It should disturb us.   Because it calls us beyond what is fair or just to a way of life not of this world.  It calls us to the marvelous, generous, bounteous Kingdom of God. 

          As we heard God say to us in our first reading today:  “For my thought are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord.         As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are my ways above your ways and my thought above your thoughts.” 

          And that is Good News.

God bless. 

HOMILY Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time Sept 13, 2020

 HOMILY    Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time    Sept 13, 2020

           Our Gospel today raises an interesting question:  In your relationship with God do you desire Justice, or do you desire Mercy?   When you come to the end of your life, which is surely coming, do you want what you deserve, that is Justice, or do you want Mercy, which is always not-deserved, not earned, not merited, but rather freely, gratuitously given?

          Justice is transactional.  It is clear.  It is simple.   We like justice because we want to earn our own way.  If we have earned it, then we have a claim on it.  We have accomplished it.  It belongs to us by right.

          But mercy is relational.  It doesn’t depend on us.  We have no right, no claim to mercy.  Mercy depends on another.  We are not in charge.  It is beyond our doing. 

          Mercy is also difficult because it is transformational.  Divine forgiveness, if accepted, if allowed to reside in us, if truly taken into us and made a part of us, changes us.  Because mercy is not earned, is not deserved, is not dependent on anything we do, to truly accept that mercy and be molded by it, changes us to be merciful to others in turn.  We must resemble and practice what we have been given in order to truly own it.

          The servant in the Gospel who is a debtor, who owes a huge amount, literally 10,000 talents, an enormous amount of money that he could never pay back, receives mercy.  But he is not changed by it.  He does not truly accept mercy, does not interiorize it, is not changed by such overwhelming forgiveness.  He still acts out of the mentality of what is earned and what is owed.  He seizes a fellow servant who owes him 100 denarii, a much smaller amount, and reverts to acting out of transaction rather than transformation.

          His refusal to be transformed causes him to loose the overwhelming mercy shown to him.  It is a tragedy of shortsighted selfishness.

          When we stand before God, the last thing we should want is what we are owed, what we deserve.  What we really need is not justice, but mercy.   Mercy. 

          However, divine mercy is not just a commodity, an object, but rather a relationship.  It is by its very nature not earned, but freely given.  It must be freely accepted.  And the accepting of mercy means we need to change.  We cannot then stand on our own goodness, on what belongs to us by right, because we earned it.  Mercy is given freely with no assurance that we somehow deserve it or that it is ours.

          Divine mercy changes us.  If it does not change you, then you have never accepted it.  Divine mercy transforms us IF we open ourselves in humility, and allow God’s mercy to work in us. 

          And at the end of life, what we want, what we need, what we hope for, is mercy.