October 26th, A note from Fr. Scott

          As I drive around the area I frequently listen to the radio (except for during Lent when I give up listening to the radio as an act of self-sacrifice).  While my car radio has the capacity to program 18 different radio channels, basically I listen to 6.  (The other twelve I programmed long ago when I travelled a bit more and they are tuned to radio stations whose signals do not reach the Elmira area.  Also long ago I forgot how to program the radio which is the real reason the stations remain as they are—yes, I could probably figure out how to do it again, but 6 is actually enough, especially since I also have a CD option.)

          5 of the stations are tuned to various music genres.  2 are oldies stations (yes, I am of that era), 2 are contemporary pop/soft rock, 1 is country, and the 6^th is tuned to a talk radio station.  Clearly music is my preference as I like to sing (while I appreciate classical music, I can’t sing to it so it doesn’t make my regular play-list).

          Quite frankly I abhor talk radio in general, mostly because my (limited) experience has been that of exaggerated opinion, whether it’s sports or politics or conservative vs. liberal viewpoints.  Opinions are fine, I suppose, but I prefer non-biased facts to opinions, which are rarely balanced.  I see little value in blustery opinions that tear others down in order to “prove” their point.  (I equally abhor political attack ads on television—we’ve sunk very low on the maturity scale when our main message is to point out others’ faults instead of presenting viable plans for a better future.  But I will admit, that’s just my opinion.  Others may think differently.)

          The talk radio station to which I do listen is the Catholic Station, called the “Station of the Cross”.  I’m not even sure where it is on my radio dial, only that it’s programmed between an oldies station and a contemporary pop/soft rock station.  I catch bits and pieces as I drive around.  I know the station broadcasts Mass at 8:00 am and the Chaplet of Divine Mercy at 3:00 pm, and at some point on the weekend does offer some contemporary Christian music, but what I really like are the call-in shows during which people ask for clarification about Church teaching or ask for ways to deal with family problems.  The hosts of the program as well as the guest experts offer solid information that can be both enlightening and supportive of our faith tradition.  I like the pastoral approach that seems to be a common thread throughout.  The news presented on the station also reflects things Catholic.

          For those who haven’t discovered the “Station of the Cross”, you might like to try listening sometime.  Not every program offered will capture your attention in the same way, but it’s nice to know we have a resource on local radio that can help us live out our Catholic faith—and our baptismal call.  Baptism begins a journey for us all, a journey of deepening our relationship with God through our own prayer life and the wisdom of the Church, a journey of continuing discovery of all the ways God loves and enlightens us. 

          Have a blessed week . . .

October 19th, A note from Fr. Scott

          It’s happened again.

          The best teams in baseball didn’t make it to the World Series.  (When I was growing up, baseball was the national pastime and there were no play-offs, just the World Series involving the winningest team in each league.  Today, every sport has multiple team and lengthy play-offs primarily because of the economic benefit.) 

          The American League Los Angeles Angels had the most wins of any team in baseball during the regular season, but they were quickly eliminated by a wild-card team, the Kansas City Royals (kudos to them as they hadn’t made the playoffs since before most of the team members were born).  The Washington Nationals had the best record in the National League, closely followed by the Los Angeles Dodgers.  Neither survived their first play-off round, losing to the San Francisco Giants and the St. Louis Cardinals respectively.

          It hardly seems fair.

          But isn’t that why we like our sports so much?  The so-called “best” don’t always win.  There’s great excitement about David defeating Goliath in our modern sports.  Media headlines often use words like “Stunned” or “Shocked”, but that smacks of sensationalism in our world of competitive sports.  Upsets happen all the time.  We ought to be surprised only when there are no upsets.  (Nearly 100 years ago, the great thoroughbred race horse, Man O’ War lost one race—appropriately to a horse named Upset.)

          If we don’t take our sports too seriously (seeing them as an end in and of themselves), there are great life lessons to be learned from sports.  Teamwork, dedication, learning that losing/failure isn’t the end, sportsmanship—all great lessons in life.  Another one of those life lessons is to expect the unexpected. 

          In my life I’ve learned through various means that God is a God of the unexpected.  God is a God of surprises.  In sports we pride ourselves on anticipating what our opponent is going to do before they do it.  That’s key if we are to be victorious.  Unfortunately, we sometimes think of God in the same way: as an opponent whose ways we must anticipate.  We think we know God and what God asks of us.  When young, we are taught to keep the ten commandments; that’s what God wants.  And we know that if we mess up, God is ready to punish us in some way.  That’s what we know about God.

But is that all there is to God?  I don’t think so.

I must admit that I don’t remember anyone ever using the word “fun” in relation to God.  In fact, my youthful recollection is that God didn’t really approve of fun; God was more of a buzzkill (I hope I’m using that word correctly!) when it came to fun. 

          Imagine my surprise when I realized that God has no problem with “fun”, although I suppose it depends on our definition of “fun”.  If “fun” has to include disrespect or harming others (or the self) or the need to be superior or if it involves immoral or sinful behavior, then God no doubt has objections.  If “fun” is the goal of life, then God no doubt has objections.  However, God has no problem with leisure activity that we enjoy and that re-energizes us.  That’s a basic human need (not just for kids), although I suppose many of us have a tendency to go overboard about it.

          Just to be clear: God never wants to be our “opponent”, our “adversary” (the word “satan” actually means adversary and God is the opposite of that).  God wants to be on our team, on our side.  If God isn’t, it’s not God’s choice; it’s ours.   

          God can surprise us in many ways: by giving us the grace to forgive others and let go of grudges; by giving us the grace to refocus on the values that truly matter in life; by giving us the grace to handle adversity; by teaching us that winning is not the most important thing in life; by teaching us to love God with our whole being and our neighbor as ourselves.  There are other surprises, none of which happen in the purely human realm.

          And one more thing: while God is on our team, God is also on every other team.  God wants the best for everyone.  Maybe that surprises us also!

          Have a blessed . . . and surprising . . . week . . . 

October 12th, A note from Fr. Scott

          On a recent morning my car radio reported a story of a group of young people who had stolen a statue of Jesus from a Catholic church somewhere in Oklahoma.  There was a video from the church surveillance camera showing two cars pulling up, 5 persons getting out (apparently teen-agers), and then stealing the statue from the garden, getting back in their vehicles and departing.

          This wasn’t just a free-standing statue, stolen as a result of a night of over-indulgence; it was a corpus of Jesus on the cross.  The crime was clearly pre-meditated as they had tools to pry the body off the cross.

          My first reaction was anger: how could anyone do such a thing!?  Is nothing sacred?!  It’s a direct affront to Catholicism and religious faith in general!  Punishment is required!

          Then I calmed down a bit. 

My second reaction was to feel sorry for the perpetrators of the crime.  What kind of values do these young people have?  Do they have any moral values at all?  Are they so unhappy in their lives that they have to try and hurt others with their mischief?  It must be difficult to go through life without being centered in Someone Who gives meaning and purpose to life.

Then I calmed a bit more.

My third reaction was to wonder if the individuals didn’t mean to be hurtful as much as funny.  Young people sometimes are fond of pranks and the reaction they elicit.  (Older people are sometimes fond of pranks and the reaction they elicit.)  I can remember being young (quite some time ago) and what I laughed at then isn’t what I laugh at now.  I prefer to hope that I’ve matured somewhat in my outlook and now realize that many forms of “funny” are actually hurtful.  Still, it took time to reach that realization.

As it turned out, some days later the corpus was returned to the church, apparently a college prank more than anything.  The church community, happy to get the corpus backed, declined to press charges, although the college may deal with the students internally.  I applaud the church for their willingness to forgive—forgiveness is always the right course of action, never out of style; but I’m not opposed to the college meting out some form of chastisement—everyone needs to learn there are consequences to their actions; we do have an effect (positive or negative) on others whether we want to or not.  It’s the reality of life.

I do have to say that my initial reaction bothers me a bit.  While I know that anger and the desire to retaliate are normal human reactions to being hurt or offended (it wasn’t even a directed hurt toward me, though I felt my beliefs were attacked), I also know that turning those emotions into action is wrong.  As someone once said, “If we live by the motto ‘an eye for an eye’, soon the whole world will be blind.”  (Jesus had something to say about that!)  Fortunately, the grace of God can stop us from taking that next step.   

The next step ought to be a sense of compassion for those who don’t have a relationship with our God, Who so beautifully revealed Himself in His Son, Jesus the Christ.  It seems to me that any act of hurtfulness or violence comes from a person who is very unhappy in their lives.  (Contented people never wish harm on anyone else.)  The Source of true happiness is God—Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Not that we achieve perfect happiness in this life, but we get glimpses of it through our relationship with God, sort of a sneak preview of heaven!

We can’t force others to believe, but we can be a voice of evangelization by the way we live and react to life.  When we model Jesus for others, we help to plant seeds that may one day grow.  When we pray for those who hurt us, we plant seeds.  What happens to the seeds depends on the person’s free will choices as well as God’s grace.  We have no control over that, but we do have control over our own actions and reactions.  We can make no better choice than the choice to be Christ for one another, even when—especially when—we don’t feel like it.

Have a blessed . . . and Christ-like . . . week!

October 5th, A note from Fr. Scott

          “I shot an unbelievable 69!”

          That would have been my response if anyone had inquired about my last golfing venture.  No lie.  I shot a 69.

          Unfortunately, it was for 9 holes.

          To be fair to myself, I don’t golf very often.  Maybe 5 times a year, if that.  I go with my Priest Support Group.  We’ve been together for over 25 years—meeting once a month—and when the weather is decent we play golf.  I haven’t gotten any better over the years although the 69 was pretty bad even for me.

          Golf is a frustrating game.  Sometimes I’ll hit a good shot, maybe even a few in a row.  And then I always think, “I’m getting the hang of this”, only to duff the next few shots.  It’s a pattern that repeats itself pretty much every time I play.  I have no idea why I think I’ll do better next time, unless it’s because I’m a person of hope (even pessimistic people have hope apparently).  But I never do seem to improve.

          Of course, there’s an obvious solution to my golfing woes: I could practice or play a lot more.  However, I know that’s not going to happen.  If I was retired, maybe, or if I developed a great passion for the sport, maybe, but I can’t or won’t spend the extra hours in order to get better.  (And it would take lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of hours to get me to a satisfactory better.)  Hey, it’s OK.  A little public humiliation can do wonders for one’s humility. 

          In order to reach proficiency in anything, one must be willing to spend the time and the energy (and maybe the money) required for improvement.  That’s true of most every area of life (golf included).  One may have natural ability in a particular area, but without proper practice, without learning proper technique, potential is never reached. 

          That’s also true in our lives as Catholics.  Living the Catholic life requires that we put some time and energy forth (money is less important, since one doesn’t need proper equipment or expensive lessons to live out our Catholic identity).  Our relationship with God through Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit doesn’t automatically deepen as time goes by.  We have to “practice” by taking time for prayer, by taking time to learn, and by responding to the needs of others around us.  In so doing, we “get better” at living out what it means to be a Catholic.

          I’m not saying that God demands or even expects us to devote hours and hours of prayer and learning and practice every week to living out our Catholic call.  But I am saying God expects some time on a regular basis.  If we think about our week and the amount of time we spend on various activities, where does prayer fall?  Where does learning about God and the faith fall?  How about volunteer or outreach efforts to others?  Of course, we need to work or go to school; we need to eat and sleep.  But how much time do we spend watching TV or sitting in front of the computer or cleaning or giving our attention to music or engaged in a sporting activity or spending leisure time with family or friends?  Of course, none of that is necessarily bad—but it’s not all good if it prevents us from deepening our life as disciples of Jesus (by virtue of baptism we are all disciples).

          I’m fairly certain that I’ll never put in the time and energy required to be a decent golfer, but I always hope that I’ll put in the time and energy required to be a decent disciple.

          Have a blessed week . . .