Fr. Chuck's Column, January 31, 2021

 Since last March, we have been improvising our litur-gy to meet the demands of the safety precautions for the pandemic. And we are not yet finished making changes, accommodations, and exceptions. Every week seems to bring a new wrinkle.

This week the challenge is the Feast of St. Blaise and the tradi-tional blessing of throats. Tuesday is Candlemas Day, a tradition-al day for blessing of candles. The following day is the Feast of St. Blaise, and the candles are used to bless throats.

St. Blaise was both a medical doctor and a bishop. He was bishop of Sebastea, which is now Silvas, and is a city in central Turkey. In the year 316, during a persecution of Christians, Blaise was arrested by the Governor of Lesser Armenia, a man named Agric-ola. On the way to prison a woman laid her infant, who was chok-ing on a fish bone, before the bishop. Blaise blessed and cured the child. While this amazed the Governor, he still had St. Blaise beaten and killed. At least, so goes the legend.

Since then St. Blaise has become popular among Catholics for healing of diseases of the throat. And traditionally, on his feast day, Catholics receive a blessing of their throats that includes using blessed candles. The priest or minister holds the candles on the person’s throat and prays: “Through the intercession of St. Blaise, Bishop and Martyr, may God deliver you from ailments of the throat and from every other evil.” And the person responds, “Amen.”

But this year, due to the requirements of social distancing and wearing masks, we will not be doing individual blessing of throats. Instead, as instructed by the Vatican and the Diocese, a priest at the altar, without holding candles, will bless everyone in the congregation at once. And those watching virtually will also be prayed for and blessed.

For those who like the familiarity of the old rituals, tying us to our youth and early adulthood, this will certainly be a disappoint-ment. But given the risks involved, especially with the new, more transmissible variants of the virus, this makes very good sense. Hopefully, next year we will go back to the old-fashioned feel of candles on our throats, and will be glad for the normalcy of it all. Meanwhile, we need the blessing and intercession of St. Blaise more than ever.

Fr. Chuck's Column, January 24, 2021

 

Happy Third Week of Ordinary Time!! If all goes as planned, and that seems to be a big “IF” these days, we will host our Bishop, Joe Vasquez, this afternoon. He will be here to celebrate the Sacrament of Confirmation with a portion of our high-school confirmandi (those to be confirmed).

In this unusual time the celebration of the Sacrament will be different. First of all it will NOT be a Mass but simply a Liturgy of the Word. Secondly, it will be only a portion, less than half, of the candidates for Confirmation. The other candidates for Confirmation will receive the Sacrament on future Sundays, and I as the Pastor, will be the celebrant.

This rather odd way of doing things is because of the continuing Covid-19 pandemic, and the need to continue to socially distance, avoid large crowds, and wash your hands frequently.

Nonetheless, the confirmandi of our parish will still be sealed with the Holy Spirit, and God will confirm God’s choice of each of them, that was first made at their Baptism. Strengthened by the Holy Spirit they will be encouraged to live more like Jesus Christ in their daily lives. That, the most important part of the Sacrament of Confirmation, won’t change.

For all of us, many things have changed due to the pandemic. Our lives and our routines have been upset. But the love of God for us in Jesus Christ is as firm and solid and real as it has always been. So things continue to look different and odd from what they were before, but the grace and love of God has not changed one iota.

 

Homily Second Sunday of Ordinary Time January 17, 2021

 Homily    Second Sunday of Ordinary Time        January 17, 2021

           Today we have the Second Sunday of plain old, common, ordinary time.   And we are in year B, where we hear from the Gospel of Mark.  However, the Gospel of Mark is short and the year is long, so the Gospels get padded with passages from the Gospel of John, as we have today.

          Frankly, I think this Gospel is a mess.  For example, John mentions the time of the interaction between Jesus and the two disciples of John the Baptist.  John the Gospel writer interjects into the story the statement: “It was about four in the afternoon.”   Seldom does John mention time, and usually he has a symbolic purpose for mentioning time that is full of meaning.  But the Gospel commentaries I have checked do not give any deeper meaning to this rather random statement of the time. 

          Pope Francis has an interesting take on this statement.   The Pope states: “I take the call of Jesus’ first disciples as an icon. This experience made such an impression on their memory that one of them even noted the time: it was about four in the afternoon (cf. Jn 1:39). 

          Pope Francis has a point, but I find the exegesis a bit thin, shall we say.

          Also, John keeps translating names and terms.  Three times he translates terms, which seems kind of odd or at least distracting.

          So, what are we to make of this?  I think we have to “translate” this Gospel to speak to the actualities of our own lives.

          Here is what I get from this passage.  When the two disciples start to follow Jesus He turns to them and asks, “What are you looking for?”   This is a great question. 

What are you looking for? Hopefully not “Looking for love in all the wrong places,” as the song goes  But what are you looking for?   What are you seeking?  

          I find this a difficult question to answer.  On the surface it is easy to answer: I am looking for the Covid Vaccine, for Diocesan approval of our development project and a signed contract, for good health and even weight loss.  But the deeper you go with the question, the harder it is to answer.   What are you looking for?  

          This is an important question that demands our time and attention.  What do you want out of life?  What are you looking for?

          The two disciples in the Gospel I think are not sure either, so when Jesus asks them “What are you looking for?” they respond with a question, “where are you staying?”   This could be taken on a very literal level of what is your address, but in the Gospel of John there is almost always a deeper level.  The verb translated here as “staying” is the same word Jesus uses in chapter 15 when He says “Remain in me, abide in me, stay in me.”  I think we get some sense of the double nature of this question in the English phrase, “where are you at?”   It can mean where is your physical location, but also can mean what make you tick, what are you about, what moves you?   It is a deeper question than just what is your address.

          Jesus responds with a wonderful invitation:  “Come and see.”  The answer to where Jesus is at, what Jesus is all about, is much more than can be expressed in words and concepts.  The fullest form of this knowledge is experiential.  Come and see; come and experience what it means to be a disciple of Jesus.  

          Today is also “Come and See Sunday”, an opportunity to talk about vocations, especially vocations to the priesthood, religious life as a sister or brother, and the permanent diaconate. 

          My own vocation story is that in high-school and college I wanted to be a lawyer, and maybe go into politics.  But the idea of priesthood would come back from time to time, I would ignore it, it would go away for a while, and then come back again somewhere in the back of my mind. 

          Eventually I thought I would take a year off from school before starting law school after I graduated from Washington University in St. Louis.  I went to spend the year at the Paulist novitiate.  But, once I accepted the invitation to “come and see” and I went and saw in the Paulist novitiate, I was hooked. 

          All of us in one way or another receive that invitation of Jesus to “Come and you will see.”   Following Him has its own logic and its own justification, and its own reward.

          After spending the one afternoon with Jesus the former disciple of John the Baptist, Andrew, went to find his brother Peter and told him, “We have found the Messiah!”    May we all, to our delight and joy, respond the invitation of Jesus, and find our Messiah and Savior.   God bless!

Fr. Chuck's Column, January 17, 2021

 

Years ago as a young man I very much enjoyed watching the Cosmos series on TV with Prof. Carl Sagan. He had an axiom which I think is very applicable today: “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.”

Recently there have been many claims going around regarding massive fraud in the recent national election. This is, by any stretch of the imagination, a most extraordinary claim. It strikes at the very heart of our democracy. Such a claim, I believe, requires extraordinary evidence.

But I have seen no such evidence. Neither have any judges seen any such evidence in numerous court cases filed about the election results, nor have any of the state authorities charged with guaranteeing the integrity of the election in several states where there have been re-counts, found any evidence for these extraordinary claims.

Just as freedom of speech does not permit you to shout “Fire!” in a crowded auditorium where there is in fact no fire, so making repeated claims of election fraud that are not backed by solid and demonstrable evidence (hearsay, rumor, anonymous reports are NOT evidence) is IRRESPONSIBLE, DANGEROUS, and WRONG!

We enjoy the great right of freedom of speech in this country. But that does not guarantee that everything that enters our mind should be spoken out loud. To do that is just plain stupid.

We are in a difficult and dangerous time in our country. All of us have a sacred responsibility to promote and defend the truth. Do not say whatever comes into you mind. Do not retweet or pass on electronically something that is simply interesting and provocative. Weigh what you think before you open your mouth. And do not listen to those who make extraordinary claims with little or no evidence other than their emotions and feelings.

We need to be vigilant in protection of the truth. On the first floor of the UT Tower are the words from the Gospel of John: “You will know the Truth and the Truth will set you free.” (John 8:32) The truth is too great of a treasure to make light of it. Speak the truth. It is the way forward. And please remember, “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.”

 

Fr. Chuck's Column, January 10, 2021

 

As I hope you know, our parish/school community is actively planning for a major development of our facilities on our site. Only the church would remain. The rectory, parish halls and offices, school buildings and gym, would all be demolished and replaced. If you want more information on where the plan is at this stage, go to staustin.org, click on HOME, then on the drop down on Our Property Development Journey.

Our project (emphasis on “our”) offers us a unique opportunity to project a message about who we are, what we do, and what we are all about. We have an opportunity in the architecture we build to say something to the wider City of Austin about who we as a parish and school are, and what we do. What do we want to say about ourselves?

Perhaps the most prominent location for doing this is the corner of Guadalupe and 21^st Streets. Currently this corner on our part is pretty non-descript. Across 21^st Street from us, on the wall, is an iconic image of a sort of frog with the words, “Hi, how are you?” Dozens of people each year stop and have their picture taken in front of that sign. I think that we can have an image or symbol or architectural feature that says something true and significant about us, that this building is not just another office building, that it is not an extension of the University of Texas, but is a spiritual community that follows Jesus Christ and is committed to the wider Austin community.

The current architectural plan for this corner renders it as mostly glass windows. This gives the impression that this is just another new office building. Also, on several of the floors of this corner are classrooms, and the teachers do not want windows, both for privacy but also to have wall space where they can post things. Apparently wall space is important in modern classrooms. So we need a different architectural solution for this corner.

The Development Committee is looking for creative ideas of how to make this public location more significant for us. How can we use architecture and design to say to Austin something about what this building is and does? Perhaps it would be sculpture, or engraved words, or images, or painting, or even neon signs? We need the creative people in our community to help us come up with a solution. Of course, considerations of cost, durability, care and maintenance, and all the other practical aspects will be considered.

If you have an idea, an image, a phrase, that you think would serve us well there, I invite you to write it up and send it as an email to develop@staustin.org. Let’s see what we can come up with. We don’t have much time, so please send in your ideas soon.

Finally, I ask for the help of all of you to pray for a successful outcome of our parish Development team with the Diocesan Finance Council on Jan. 28. This is about the last big hurdle with the Diocese prior to signing the actual development contract. It is critical that this meeting go well. So your prayers for the guidance of the Holy Spirit for us all, so that we have a good solution for both St. Austin Parish/School and the whole Diocese of Austin, are very important.

 

Baptism of the Lord Jan 9-10, 2021 Austin TX

 Baptism of the Lord             Jan 9-10, 2021

         “On coming up out of the water he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit, like a dove, descending upon him.

And a voice came from the heavens, 
“You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”

         It seems to me that God the Father, in this address to Jesus His Son, is saying two things.  First, I love you.  “You are my beloved Son;”   The second thing the Father is asserting is something a little different:  “with you I am well pleased.” 

        Now I cannot speak to this from first-hand personal experience from the parent’s point of view.  When my pastor back at St. Nicholas Church in North Pole, Alaska, would often be asked how many children he had, he responded “none to speak of.”  I likewise in terms of children have “none to speak of.”

        Still, I observe parents and their relationship to their offspring, and it seems pretty clear that the great majority of parents love their children.  There are a few unfortunate exceptions to this rule, but generally, and pretty much universally here in this parish, parents love their children.  All of you parents can identify with God the Father when God says of Jesus, “You are my beloved Son;”  It seems natural and normal for a parent to love their child, whether  daughter or son.

        But are you pleased, indeed well pleased, with your children?  This is a different thing.  You love your children just because they are your children.  But are you well pleased with them? 

        Those of you who are children, I hope your parents love you just because you are their children.  But are they pleased with you? 

        That judgement is based on a different set of criteria.  That is about what the children do.  I am sure that at sometime, most parents are not pleased with their child; when they back into the garage door, or flunk an exam because they failed to study, or they get in trouble with the police.  But hopefully, most of the time, for most of you parents, and for you children, parents are pleased with their kids. 

        And this is what God says about Jesus.  “with you I am well pleased.”   You can feel the pride and satisfaction that God the Father has in Jesus.

        Now what about us?  All of us, by our Baptism, have been conformed to Christ and are truly children of God.   You are God’s child.

        And God loves you.  God loves you very, very much.  Simply because you are a child of God.  It does not depend on what you do.

        But, and this is where it gets interesting, is God pleased with you?  Is God well pleased with you?

        God loves you no matter what.  And God will never stop loving you.  But God does call us to a certain way of life, a life of love, of service, of honesty, of compassion, of truth and righteousness.  That is why God the Father is well pleased with Jesus, because he embodied and lived that life.

        And in the same way, God wants, desires, to be well pleased with you.  God longs and aches to be proud of you as God’s child.

        We have the remarkable ability, every one of us, to make God proud of us, to be well pleased with us, or to be disappointed with us.   It is entirely up to us. 

        And just as it is very painful, and a deep wound, for a parent to be disappointed, even ashamed, of one of their own children, so it is a disappointment and a pain for God to not be proud of every one of us. 

        As we celebrate this Feast of the Baptism of the Lord we naturally recall our Baptism that made us beloved children of God.  We also have the great privilege, and opportunity, to make God proud of us, well pleased with us.  And we do that simply by living the life of Jesus, in honesty, compassion, generosity, and love. 

 

It was a wonderful and great experience for Jesus to hear those words from the sky, “with you I am well pleased.”   What a joy and wonder it will be for each of us to hear, at the end of our life here, our Father in Heaven declare, “With you, I am well pleased.”

God bless! 

Fr. Chuck's Column, December 13, 2020

 

Here it is the third week of Advent already! Time is flying by. I hope that you have registered to join us for the information sessions today on the big Development Project here at St Austin Church and School. We have some exciting pictures to show, and bring you up-to-date on the latest developments! We have quite an adventure ahead of us. The presentation will be given twice, once at 10 a.m. and again at 2 p.m. TODAY, Sun., Dec. 13. You are welcome to join either presentation, and you can sign up at www.staustin.org under the heading of “Our Property Development Journey.”

The presentation will be recorded, and you will be able to watch it later through our website. Many hours of planning and work have brought us to this juncture. The results are truly exciting!

Also, the finishing touches on the interior renovation of our church should be done by Christmas. We are waiting on some electrical work and several fine-tuning of balances and other adjustments. Christmas in the church should be wonderful.

I hope that you are all staying safe and being very careful during this dangerous time. Until we have wide-spread availability of the vaccine, we are in for a difficult time. Let us continue to be wary, and continue to do all those things that help keep us and those we love safe and healthy: wearing a mask, observing social distancing of at least six feet, washing your hands frequently, avoiding crowds, and just being very careful.

 

Fr. Chuck's Column, December 6, 2020

 

It is Advent and there is a lot going on. Today, Dec. 6, in addition to being the Second Sunday of Advent, is also the Feast of St. Nicholas. My first priestly assignment was to St. Nicholas Church in North Pole, Alaska. This is always a special day for them. This is also a day very much revered by the Orthodox, and a wonderful day to pray for ecumenism, and healing in the Body of Christ. Jesus prayed that all His followers be one, so we should do the same and pray for healing of the division between Christians.

We will have a livestreamed Mass at 8 a.m. Sat. morning, Dec. 12, the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Fr. Paolo will try out his Spanish. All are welcome!

Next Sun., Dec. 13, we will have two on-line presentations on the project to redevelop our campus. There will be one presentation at 10 a.m. and then it will be repeated at 2 p.m. I hope that you will be able to attend one of these sessions, so important to our future as a parish. On our parish website you can sign up to join one of these sessions. I think you will find it time well spent.

We have a Penance Service scheduled for 7 p.m. Mon., Dec. 14. Of course, we cannot do a Penance Service virtually. We are still trying to figure out if we can actually make this work, and keep everyone safe, or not. Please remember the clergy and staff in your prayers as we try to unravel this conundrum.

And before you know it we will be celebrating Christmas. Due to the pandemic we will have to limit seating, and those attending will need to reserve a space. Please go to our website to reserve a space. Of course, the safest option for you and your family is to join us VIRTUALLY on Christmas. We will live-steam the Masses from church, at 4, 6 and 9 p.m. Christmas Eve, and 10 a.m. on Christmas Day.

So we have a busy month ahead of us. You all stay healthy. This will be an Advent like none other. God bless,

 

Homily for Epiphany January 03, 2021

 HOMILY                                                                                                         EPIPHANY   2021

 "We three kings of Orient are .. NOT Kings!"  In fact the whole "king" thing is all PR. These guys are passing themselves off as kings in the song, but in reality, the Gospel tells us they were MAGI.  Magi are not kings.  Magi studied the occult and magic.  We get our word "magicians" from Magi.  They really were magicians.  These guys pulled rabbits out of the hat, did card tricks, sawed ladies in half and that stuff.

These guys are rather shadowy figures.  They have several aliases:  Other translations (old NAB) call them Astrologers: you know, psychics, horoscopes, auras, crystals, New Age weird stuff.   After all, they are wandering around the country-side trying to follow a star!  

We know almost nothing about them - we don’t know their names, nor their country, (only that they come from "the East", I mean, it could be New Jersey!) nor what happened to them - not even sure there were 3 of them.  The idea of THREE Kings is based on the number of gifts. 

They were dreamers: they change their itinerary and route and go back another way on the basis of a dream!  They were not practical, sober, industrious types like us.  I mean who gives myrrh as a birthday present?  How weird is that? 

In any case they were NOT Kings - not responsible pragmatists, administrators, realists.  They didn’t know anything about budgets and personnel policies. They were, well, kind of flaky!

IN CONTRAST to these magi, take Herod – Now There was a KING!  He was a RULER!  In fact, he is known to history as Herod the GREAT. 

Unlike those shadowy, mysterious, flaky Magi/astrologers -HEROD made his mark on history.

King Herod the GREAT ruled for 34 years.  He was a wily, unscrupulous schemer and clever politician.  He ruthlessly and cold-bloodily eliminated anyone who stood in his way, or might possibly stand in his way. 

Including most of his own family. 

King Herod went through ten wives.  He built theaters, roads, temples, amphitheaters, monuments, gardens, palaces and fortresses all over the place, and taxed the people severely to pay for his projects.   He even ordered the killing of many prominent people on the event of his own death so that people would not rejoice when he died.  Of course, once he was dead no one paid attention to his commands.

If you go to Palestine today you can still see the ruins of his works.   Herod knew about POWER.  He was a ruthless, cruel, no-nonsense, realistic pragmatist.  

Notice in the Gospel how Herod interrogated the magi to find out from them the exact time of the star's appearance.  This man doesn't deal in dreams and visions and “feelings” - he wants the facts.  He wants what's real.  Because he was a doer.  He made things happen.  He was a POWER.  He was HEROD THE GREAT!

Still, .....   we don't sing any songs about Herod at Christmas time - or any other time of the year.

We don't put plastic statues of him under the tree in the Manger scene.      And Herod, for all his power and hard-bitten realism, never did find the Christ child.

SO WHAT ABOUT US?

This Gospel story instructs us to look beyond the facts, to see beneath the surface, to open ourselves to a deeper dimension of reality, in order to really see.  To dream that nations can resolve conflicts without war:    That in spite of scandals of sexual abuse by clergy, and then cover-ups by bishops, the Spirit is at work in the Catholic Christian community.   To see that the way to the fullness of life is not the result of trying to get all you can, but comes from fidelity, selflessness, and care of others.  That what we see is only the surface, and reality is much, much deeper.

Specifically, we are called to look beyond the surface reality of a new-born baby, to see the Glory of God's LOVE shining resplendent in the Christ Child.

Our friends the magi have yet another title, one that fits them better, the WISE MEN.  Because for all their mystic flakiness - they were wise enough to look beyond the mere facts - to peer into what was really happening - to follow their faith and hope - and so they came to the Christ Child.

King Herod, for all his accomplishments - was not great.  He was a FOOL, because he missed the whole purpose and meaning of life.

We are now called to be wise - to follow the Star of Faith - to bring along the gift of ourselves - to seek, to find, and to adore, The radiant splendor of the Father's Glory,

The Word made Flesh, Jesus the Christ!

Happy Epiphany!