Catholic Life Ministries

By Robert Fontana

Happy, Holy Easter!  Because of the resurrection of Jesus, we proclaim in the ancient Creed: “I believe…in the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting.” I was reflecting on this truth following the deaths of a number of friends whose remains were entered into the earth. I wondered, if earth could speak, what would Mother Earth say to the corpus of one being laid to rest with hope in the resurrection of the body.  This is what came to me:

Mother Earth’s Letter to the Corpus of Friend

Dear Body of Friend, O holy corpus, O sacred bones and skin! Friend has been called home; you are still here. He has stepped into God’s time; you are left on earth time. I know you grieve your soul’s departure, the soul that animated your flesh and bones, that breathed air into your lungs, and sent life-giving blood through you heart. Be patient, O sacred corpus of Friend, in God’s good time, you will be united again.

In the meanwhile, you, O beautiful and grace-filled flesh and bones of dear Friend, you will be returned to the earth, to the soil from which you came. Earth comes from the stars and the galaxies, which in turn come from the Great Beginning when God unleashed the Spirit’s creative powers into the universe.  Earth, like a tender mother, through powerful and mystical forces guided by the Spirit, gave birth to the great seas and land masses, to the creatures of the air, water, land, and those below the land, and finally, in the last age, to woman and man.

You, sweet body of Friend, holy relic, are being returned to the soil that gave you birth. Do not be afraid. I will hold you until that great day when the dead shall rise, and you have been fully reunited with Friend in the transfiguration of the dead. Until then, be at peace.

By Robert Fontana

Jesus is not content to have his followers remain in the upper room, in Greek, “Cenacle.” The Cenacle is that warm place of close friendships, Eucharist, foot-washing, and drawing near to the Father’s love in the Son and through the Holy Spirit. The entire purpose of the Cenacle experience is to prepare its participants to leave its safety and security and enter the graced and broken world to be a power for good. It is into the “world” that God so loves that he sent his only Son, not to condemn it, but to save it. John 3:16 

The “world” does not mean secular society and culture as opposed to life in the Church with its focus on faith and religious practice. “The world” in Scripture refers to the collective power of sin that shows itself in selfishness, self-centeredness, and violence; the abuse of human rights, break up of families, and the denial of dignity to so many: the unborn, migrants, the elderly, the imprisoned, the disabled, the ill in body and mind.

Jesus leads us out of the Cenacle into the world, a journey that always leads to the cross: 

So they took Jesus; and carrying the cross by himself, he went out to what is called The Place of the Skull, which in Hebrew is called Golgotha. There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, with Jesus between them…

A few women from the Cenacle, including Jesus’ mother, and the “Beloved Disciple,” remained with him at the cross. They remained because of love, because they knew that Jesus, who was condemned as a criminal, was just the opposite. But they did not understand, could not understand until after the resurrection, the full meaning of this death: it was a life-giving death, a world-saving death for every human being that had ever lived and would ever live, and for creation itself. For Jesus’ death reconciled the world to God and paved the way to eternal life:

…now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead came also through a human being. For just as in Adam all die, so too in Christ shall all be brought to life, but each one in proper order: Christ the first fruits; then, at his coming, those who belong to Christ… (1 Cor 15:20-23)

But Jesus’ death means more than simply opening the doors to heaven. Jesus leads his followers to the cross because in his dying Jesus embraces suffering humanity and invites his followers to do the same. Some of his followers could not bear to be with Jesus in his suffering, and they fled. But others who were more stout-hearted, mostly women including his mother, stood with him in painful solidarity:

Meanwhile, standing near the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, “Woman, here is your son.” Then he said to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home…

Good Friday reminds us that we too can stand with the suffering Jesus today, not merely liturgically but personally, by risking to step into the lives of suffering people and assist them in bearing the burden of their suffering. Clearly that is the meaning of Simon of Cyrene who helped Jesus carry his cross. Can we help children, the sick, the mentally ill, the immigrant and refugee, the unemployed and underemployed, the elderly and lonely, know the love of God through sharing our care and compassion?

Fr. Thomas Judge, the founder of the Missionary Cenacle Family to which Lori and I belong, understood this as well. He insisted that the abandoned Christ on the cross, “the naked, crucified Jesus on Calvary,” is the Christ of the Cenacle (Meditations, p. 327); and Christ crucified can only be truly loved and comforted by loving and comforting the poor and spiritually abandoned in the world, those individuals and groups of people who do not know God’s love or the love of their neighbor. The Cenacle that stands at the cross in solidarity with the suffering Jesus is the Cenacle that stands in solidarity with suffering humanity. 

On Good Friday we are reminded of the salvific death of Jesus, a death that bore the sins of the world and opened for all of humanity and creation itself, life everlasting. With this truth is a corresponding truth: we disciples of Jesus most effectively remember Jesus’ death by our personal solidarity and service to the suffering people we meet within the providence of our everyday lives.

By Robert Fontana

For all of you observing Lent, reading and praying through the Bible is a no-brainer. I can see your raised eyebrows with my suggestion that you also read the National Geographic magazine. First let me comment on reading and praying the Bible.

When I was in graduate school, a professor posed this question to the class: Is the Bible prescriptive for the life of believers today or descriptive of life of believers of the past?  What do you say to that question?

Biblical fundamentalists lean towards the “prescription” side of the question, believing that the Bible prescribes in specifics how we must live today. We dare not veer from its direction less we incur the wrath of God. Of course, there are real problems with this view. The Hebrew and Christian Bibles support slavery, a non-scientific view of the origins of the known universe, strict male dominance in the family and church, and religious domination of the nation. Christian nationalism is an outgrowth of this view of the Bible.

There are also real problems with saying that the Bible is only “descriptive” of how the people in biblical times lived and does not have serious guidelines for us today. Radical proponents of this view reject anything unique in the Bible.  For them, Jesus is another figure in history like Moses, Buddha, and Mohammed. The goal of the spiritual life is self-actualization. “Sin” consists fundamentally of the social structures that sustain racism, consumerism, and power.

As so often happens in the spiritual life, the truth lies in a “both/and” approach to the issue. There are teachings and insights in the Bible that we need to insist are prescriptive for us today, e.g. belief in Jesus as the Beloved Son of God, and the ethical standards of the 10 Commandments and the Beatitudes. But clearly, not everything is prescriptive. We are not going to blame all mental health problems and disease on the devil and depend solely on praying with greater faith for healing.

When you read and pray the Bible this Lent, remember this: before there was ever one written word of the Bible, there was a community of faith, the Hebrew people from the time of Abraham to Jesus, and, after the Resurrection, a Jewish-Christian people. Until the time of King David, the Hebrews lived their lives of faith without any written “Word of God.” Furthermore, the Hebrew Bible as we know it did not reach its full form until the time of Jesus. Without a  written “Word of God,” how did they pass on the     revelations they had received from God? The answer lies in the living faith of the  people – their music, stories, laws, rituals, and symbols.

The same is true for the early followers of Jesus. There was no written New Testament as we know it until the end of the fourth century. How did the early Christians pass on and interpret the revelation of Jesus without a written Bible? Again, – through storytelling, music, laws, rituals, and symbols.

Clearly the “Word of God” is not fully contained in a book, the Bible. For Christians the “Word of God” is the Risen Jesus who is present to His people in the written word which gives testimony to how the first   followers of Jesus understood who he is and how they were to live as his disciples. Jesus is also present in the lives of holy men and women in history who teach how to follow Jesus in their particular time and place. And we know the presence of Jesus through the lived experience of God’s people today. Each generation of believers gets to pray through the Scriptures and discern what the risen Jesus is saying through his word in Scripture, through his word in Church history, and through his word to the living Church today.

We take the Scriptures seriously but not literally. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, “we must acknowledge that the books of Scripture, firmly, faithfully, and without error teach that truth which God, for the sake of our salvation, wished to see confided to the Sacred Scriptures.” (Art. 107) We discern with the Church, the community of faith, what is descriptive of the life of believers from the past and is not binding for us today, and what is still prescriptive from the past and must be adhered to. An example of the first (descriptive) is the biblical acceptance of slavery. A prescriptive biblical passage is Jesus’ teaching:

“But to you who hear I say, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you…Do to others as you would have them do to you. For if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them.” (Luke 6:27-28, 31-32)

The Bible is not a science book. It does teach that God created the world, and we build on that with the scientific evidence gathered over centuries, from dinosaur bones to pulsars.

The Bible teaches that created things can manifest the presence of God. St. Paul makes this clear in his  letter to the Christians in Rome: “Ever since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes of eternal power and divinity have been able to be understood and perceived in what he has made.” 

(Romans 1:20) Many sources illuminate and illustrate the unfolding of God’s creative power in the vastness of the universe and in our tiny universe of planet Earth.

National Geographic helps me to better understand God’s creative power, active in the world. I am humbled and amazed with every issue as its writers and photographers reveal the beauty, complexity, and even fragility of the Earth, God’s creation, which we share with flora and fauna great and small. 

For example, in a recent NG magazine on whales, the writer tells the story of a researcher who observed a   baby beluga whale through the glass of an aquarium tank. As the two stared at one another, the researcher, smoking a cigarette, blew a cloud of smoke towards the baby Beluga. The baby swam off, returning a  few  seconds later with its mother who proceeded to release her mother’s milk, creating a cloudlike display which resembled the puff of cigarette smoke. WOW!! What is going on here? A Beluga watching a  human. A baby whale communicating with its mother. Mother whale mimicking the human. I’m in awe.

The Holy Spirit inspires the Bible, but we must discern what in the Bible is “prescriptive,” as we prayerfully distinguish what we hold on to for our lives today.

The Holy Spirit is the creative power that brings forth life on our planet. Through different sources, such as scientific journals, we can learn more about the Spirit’s creative power and how to cooperate with it so that life continues on our planet.

Along with the Bible, National Geographic can be great spiritual reading for Lent.

This devotion is a family and/or community prayer often prayed at noon (or when it is convenient) on Fridays during ordinary time, every day during Lent and on any day when life is difficult.

L    For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, not to condemn the world  but to save it. (John 3:16)

All Christ suffered for [us] that [we] should follow in his footsteps. (1 Peter 2:21)

L  Though he was in the form of God, [Jesus] did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he humbled himself …becoming obedient to death…death on a cross. (Philippians 2:6-8)

All Christ suffered for [us] that [we] should follow in his footsteps. (1 Peter 2:21)

L  Jesus said, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross  and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” (Matthew 16:24-26)

All Christ suffered for [us] that [we] should follow in his footsteps. (1 Peter 2:21)

L Let us pray.

All Father, I abandon myself into your hands; do with me what you will. Whatever you may do, I thank you: I am ready for all, I accept all. Let only your will be done in me, and in all your creatures – I wish no more than this, O Lord. Amen. (Prayer of Abandonment, Charles de Foucauld)

By Robert Fontana

Lent is here and “Spring is in the air.”

Ahhhh, what a great time of the year. Fasting from meat on Fridays and going to fish fries on Friday nights; attending Stations of the Cross on Mondays in March and rushing home just in time for watching the latest game in March Madness; and coping with the last days of darkness, rain, and winter with time for a walk through the cherry tree blossoms at University of Washington.  Oh, of course, we pause from the solemnity of Lent on St. Patrick’s Day for some good Irish music, Irish beer, and Irish stew (or corned beef and cabbage if that’s your preference).

Lent is here alongside the rest of life’s happenings. Lent can easily become one of many Spring rituals that lead us to that wonderful Easter Day where we co-mingle the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus with the resurrection of the earth: Easter vigil and hunt for Easter eggs; baptisms of new members of the church and decorating the home with tulips and daffodils; Good Friday fasting and Easter Sunday feasting, with lots of chocolate.

What keeps Lent from simply becoming part of the cultural decorations of Winter as it becomes Spring? Lent has real meaning, of course, only when we use this season as a challenge to conform our lives to the life and teachings of Jesus and the Holy Spirit. This is complex. Jesus is both compassionate towards us in our weaknesses and demanding towards us as his disciples.

Jesus meets each of us exactly where we are in the spiritual life, and invites us to grow and mature, to gain a greater interior freedom to love God and neighbor. Certain aspects of Jesus’ teachings and actions will confront one person, while another person, reading the very same verse, may be unmoved.

That brings me to the Biblical text that confronts me this Lent:

Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove that splinter from your eye,’ while the wooden beam is in your eye? You hypocrite, remove the wooden beam from your eye first; then you will see clearly to remove the splinter from your brother’s eye. (Matthew 7:3-5)

I don’t know about you, but the older I get, the bigger that beam seems to be! In fact, it’s not one beam, it’s several beams tied tightly together.

As I have learned over the years, an indication that I have a “beam” or many of them stuck in my eyes and need to do some self-reflection on why they are there and how to remove them, is how I instinctively react to a certain situation, news report, comment from a friend or stranger, etc. My gut reactions that are defensive, that insist on an immediate response, explanation or even retaliation, are clear evidence that the major problem here is in me and not the other person or event.

Learning to pay attention to myself and my reactions to life to identify how I want to change or mature has been a long and slow process. I was introduced to this method in self-awareness while training to be a chaplain at Fircrest, a school for the severely mentally handicapped in Seattle. I was assigned to work with residents who had the cognitive ability of a small child and could not verbalize their needs.

What was my reaction to working with these folks who seemed to be trapped in big bodies with little ability for self-care? FEAR! I did not know how to be me with them. I was worried about doing the wrong thing and afraid of dealing with their tantrums or other forms of acting out.

I brought these issues to my supervisor and small group, initially saying that I was probably in the wrong place. I did not belong here. “No,” said my wise teacher, “you are in the right place because these people are going to teach you to let go of your fears, let go of your ego that wants to accomplish something, and let go of your timeframe and slow down. You are not here as much to learn about working with this population of people but so these beautiful people can teach you to learn about yourself. Being here and learning about your fears and anxieties will teach you how to let go of these so that you can be with these people as they need you to be with them.”

That training lasted for four months in the Summer of 1990. I have been trying to practice the lessons my differently abled friends taught me ever since.

Lent challenges me, not so much to look at my sins and say, “Mea culpa,” although there is that aspect of Lent. It has me asking Jesus,

“What’s the beam in my eye that needs to be looked at and removed in this situation, in this relationship?”

At the end of each day, I try to do what the Jesuits describe as an examen of conscience. I review my day and try to name moments – encounters or situations – that evoked an emotional response. What happened? What were my emotions? Where did they come from? What biases, prejudices, sinful inclinations and/or painful memories do they tap into? What is the Spirit telling me through these moments? How am I being invited to mature, to grow?

Of course, the day may have also presented positive moments and emotions. I examine these in the same way.

It may be that I need to speak to someone about something he or she did that I found hurtful or that I didn’t understand. But before I do so, I want to reflect and call on God’s grace to take the “beam” out of my eye before I take the “speck” out of his/hers.

By Robert Fontana

Lent is fast approaching. And in Providential irony, Ash Wednesday is also St. Valentine’s Day (February 14). How about that for a divine challenge! Ash Wednesday invites us to fast, pray, and give alms. St. Valentine’s Day invites us to splurge on dinner, show love to those we love, and give flowers and lots of chocolate. And it follows that other day of great splurging – Fat Tuesday aka Mardi Gras. The last big “let the good times roll” before the disciplines of Lent take hold (with exceptions, of course, for St. Patrick and St. Joseph feast days).

However you resolve the dilemma of Ash Wednesday’s coinciding with St. Valentine’s Day, prepare yourself now for the spiritual journey you want to take during the great 40 days of Lent. On this retreat we followers of Jesus are invited to encounter the Lord with all the honesty and authenticity that we can muster. If we do this, if we sincerely prepare ourselves to encounter Jesus anew, it can be a wild and crazy ride because Jesus does not fit neatly into our liberal – conservative categories.

We don’t get the Jesus we want. We get the Jesus we need.

Keep in mind, the Jesus who said,

“Come to me all you who are weary, and I will give you rest,” (Mt 11:28)

is the same Jesus who said,

“Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth. I have come to bring not peace but the sword. For I have come to set a man ‘against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and one’s enemies will be those of his household.’” (Mt 10:34)

At first glance it might seem Jesus is being schizophrenic, a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. However, most parents, teachers and anyone who cares for children and youth know that we must do this delicate balancing act of “comforting and afflicting (or challenging) our children all the time.

For example, your son, trying to impress a girl with his driving skills, backs into a car. The other car has very little damage but the rear of your car is crushed. Your son, with tears in his eyes, comes to tell you what happened. You, of course, are glad that no one was hurt and feel bad for your son who clearly shows remorse. You hold him in your arms, tell him you love him, remind him that cars can be fixed and that you are glad he is alright. He feels consoled, cared for, and comforted. The “afflicted is comforted.” He is reminded that he is absolutely loved no matter what!

But wait, that’s not the end of it. You look your son in the eyes and say, “Of course, you will have to pay for the repair out of your work money.”

He looks at you with horror in his eyes. Six months later, after making his last payment to you for the repair of the rear hatchback, he says, “I sure hate making money at my job and handing it directly to you.” 

The “comfortable” has been “afflicted.” He needed to be held accountable for his behavior and accept the appropriate consequences so that he could mature and grow into a wise, thoughtful, and healthy contributor to society.

Something similar happens when we encounter Jesus in an honest authentic way. We do not simply get the Jesus we want, the One who consoles and comforts us, we get the Jesus we need, who wants us to learn from our mistakes, hurt, conflict. For example:

Charlie goes to see Fr. John because he is having marital problems. Fr. John greets him with great compassion, listens to his pain, and offers him a safe place to unload. The “afflicted” has been “comforted.“

Fr. John, being a wise spiritual director, also invites Charlie to examine his role in the conflict. Charlie admits that he’s been under a lot of pressure at work, has been drinking too much at home, and that his wife complains of being hurt and neglected. Now Fr. John gets to ask Charlie, who’s an active Catholic, “Are you the person you want to be in this marriage? Are you being the husband and father that you want to be in Christ?” The comforter has now become the afflicter (in a loving and kind way).

Charlie thinks about it.  “No, I’m not being the person I want to be.”

“Well, who is that person you want to be in this marriage and family? And what are you doing that’s getting in the way of your being the husband and father you want to be and can be?

There’s silence. Fr. John lets it sit there for a while then says, “Tell me about your relationship with alcohol.” And for the first time in his life Charlie admits that he can’t manage his drinking. It’s out of  control.

If Fr. John had offered only comfort, it would have allowed Charlie to hide behind Fr. John’s kindness and care. He would not have been challenged to mature, to grow up and take responsibility for his part in the conflict at home nor to make a realistic assessment of his drinking habits. This is not uncommon. Many active Catholics, Protestants, and Evangelicals use religious practices and friends to hide from the difficult and complex issues that keep them from maturing into healthy adults. They turn to Jesus for comfort but do not stick around for the “affliction/challenge” that they need to grow and mature in faith.

The beautiful thing is that when Jesus does “afflict” us, he walks with us every step of the way as we take a hard look at ourselves, address the issues within that are keeping us from growing in faith, and find the courage to mature.

Whatever your Lenten plan is, draw close to Jesus, receiving both his comfort and his “affliction.” In your prayer, at worship, with a spiritual companion or director, bring your struggles, your questions, your fears to Jesus. Allow Jesus to bless you with tender love and guide you along a path of life in the Trinity.

By Robert Fontana   

(reprint from 1/31/2016)

Faith can be fun for kids and adults alike.  In fact, if it is not fun some of the time, even for us older folks, faith will lose its power to touch our imaginations and enrich our lives.  One way to keep faith fun in the home is to select a few of your favorite saints – perhaps those saints with whom your children share a name or with whom your family has a cultural connection – and plan to celebrate their feast days in your home with good food, a children’s version of the saint’s story, and some sort of prayer ritual.

We Fontanas like to observe the Feasts of St. Joseph (March 19) who is the  patron saint of Italy, St. Clare (August 11) and St. Francis (Oct 5), and of course, our Irish patrons (Lori’s side of the family) saints Patrick (March 17) and Brigid (Feb 1). 

St. Brigid’s feast day is Thursday, February 1, which, in Ireland, also marks the first day of Spring.  So on St. Brigid’s Day we are going to gather with family for some good Irish stew and some good Irish faith-fun, including the  following prayer service:

Begin with this Prayer to St. Brigid

Saint Brigid, daughter of Ireland and lover of Jesus, draw us by your prayers into the living flame of God’s love.  Help us to clean our hearts and homes of all that is selfish and sinful.  Pray that we will be attentive to the poor and spiritually abandoned, that we will practice the Beatitudes in good times and bad, and that the warmth of God’s love will animate all that we say and do.

Each member of the home then takes a bandanna, handkerchief, or even a cloth napkin in hand and walks through the house, dusting the furniture, TV, books, and lamps, etc. singing “Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.”

When the house has been thoroughly dusted, all go outside and tie the cloths on the branches of a shrub or tree (or porch railing).  Then together, pray this prayer:

All:  St. Brigid, come this day to our home and hearts; come by the power of God and be our guest.  And help us, dear Brigid, to wipe away the dust of too much “me, and my, and mine” that we might love others with a selfless heart.  We pray this in the name of Jesus.  Amen. 

Our Father…

Return to the house for dessert (Irish mint ice cream!)

By Robert Fontana

Jesus lives in my neighborhood. I do not mean to shock you with this fact, but I don’t like him. When I see Neighbor Jesus coming towards me or find myself walking towards him, I want to avoid any interaction. Neighbor Jesus is nothing like the Bible Jesus I see depicted in movies, hear about in sermons and homilies, or even imagine in my own mind. Bible Jesus is awesome! He is a great storyteller, welcomes children, loves animals and nature, challenges hypocritical religious leaders, and comforts the sick and the sorrowful.

I like Bible Jesus. But Neighbor Jesus, that’s another story.

Neighbor Jesus lives in the green space near our home that is about one-half mile long and maybe 100 yards wide. The green space begins at Cowen Park which has a large open meadow and playground. The green space continues east forming a deep ravine with a flowing stream and lush trees and ferns on either side. It concludes at Ravenna Park with a ballfield and playground which give the green space its popular name, Ravenna Ravine.

At a random point anywhere between the two parks, Neighbor Jesus will find a spot to call home and settle in. Sometimes this means he brings in a tent along with a collection of items I assume are stolen from people’s yards and nearby stores. These items get strewn around his tent along with milk cartons, food wrappings, plastic bags, and other garbage. And, yes, when Neighbor Jesus leaves one spot to move to another, he leaves his former spot a mess for someone else to clean up.

Neighbor Jesus is nice enough, though I have heard some angry outbursts from him on occasion. We do exchange pleasantries when we cross paths. Lori and I have “friendship bags” prepared for people whom we encounter who do not have homes. These bags contain soft food items, socks, sweet treats, and a handout with information about how to access nearby shelters. We’ve given Neighbor Jesus a number of these, plus I often bring him coffee and occasionally an egg sandwich. He is grateful for these kindnesses.

I confess I don’t like continuing to give him these friendship bags because I do not want him to stay in the area. I certainly do not want him to know where I live and have him come knock on my door asking for help. And I don’t want to be picking up all the “trash” from the Friendship Bag that I gave him only a few days ago.

I walk through the Ravenna Ravine 3-4 times a week for my prayer time. I walk through the beautiful and diverse trees to spend time with Bible Jesus whom I like…and I do not want to encounter Neighbor Jesus. I do not like finding him sprawled out under a tree or hanging out on a bench asking me for a “cuppa coffee.” He ruins my time with Bible Jesus! He’s such an inconvenience!

Just today we had such an encounter. I was polite enough as I spoke to Neighbor Jesus who was just waking up, huddled beneath a tarp, obviously freezing cold in the 19-degree weather overnight. Yes, he asked me for coffee, and I said, “No, sorry, I don’t have any.” Which was true; I wasn’t carrying any coffee with me. But what I was really saying was, “Don’t interrupt my time with Bible Jesus! I only have so much time, and I don’t want to use it up on you, Neighbor Jesus.”

Predictably, as I walked away and turned my attention to Bible Jesus, I felt uncomfortable. I could hear Bible Jesus reminding me of a key passage from Scripture, “When I was hungry…sick… imprisoned…naked…you comforted me.” And then I heard a voice in my head/heart say, “There is little difference between Bible Jesus and Neighbor Jesus. Neighbor Jesus is what Bible Jesus looks like crucified, crucified by who knows what. Childhood trauma? Severe addiction? Terrible decisions? All of the above? Perhaps he has a criminal record? Perhaps he has burned all his family relationships? What is yours to do now?”

I walked back to Neighbor Jesus whose birth name is Jay and asked if he still wanted that coffee. “Yeah,” he replied, sitting up. “And you got one of them bags with stuff for me?”

“Wait here,” I said. And I walked back home to get hot coffee, an egg sandwich, and yet another Friendship Bag for my Neighbor Jesus.

By Robert Fontana

Every human being is a child of God, endowed with gifts to enable him or her to be a power for good in the world. At this time in history of great polarization, tribalism, and war, it is essential that we resolve to be the change in the world that will truly contribute to the common good. Here are a few suggestions:

1. Pray to the Holy Spirit every day for the grace to be alert to how you can be a power for good within the  relationships, commitments ,and circumstances of your life, especially in the home and at work.

2. Cultivate silence in your day, 10-20 minutes of silence, to slowly learn to grow in self-awareness and to learn to listen with the ears of the heart.

3. Pray with and befriend a faith community different from your own. If you are an active Christian, consider meeting with a local Muslim, Hindu, or Jewish community. Be curious about what they believe and how this impacts how they live. As appropriate, share your own story of faith, and look for what you hold in common.

4. Make a commitment to be in nature 2-3 times (at least!) a month. Psychotherapists are increasingly urging clients to spend time in nature as a method for calming one’s anxieties and as an anecdote to depression. Nature has an enormous healing capacity for those open to it. This means time in nature (it could be your garden) to listen, feel the breezes and wind, and simply gaze at its beauty, rather than always doing the more active pursuits of hiking, skiing, and biking. Most people are “nature starved.” For Catholics, nature is a sacrament capable of revealing the hidden presence of God.

5. Strengthen the bonds with the primary people in your life. If you are married, work on your      marriage. If you have children, have family meals throughout the week, and family time without electronics.  Single or married, be intentional in spending time with those people who help you be your best self.

6. Lastly, during this election year, commit yourself to protecting democracy at home and abroad. This is not a partisan resolution. Whatever your politics, protecting democracy is essential for protecting religious freedom, freedom of the press, freedom to gather, and other freedoms outlined in the U. S. Constitution. To quote Winston Churchill: ‘Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.…’

By Kathleen Kichline

There are times in our lives and times in our world when Matthew’s telling is a more accurate rendering, when the circumstances Matthew describes resonate with our own  experience. Matthew speaks of troubling dreams, Herod killing the children of Nazareth, and a family fleeing under the   cover of darkness to seek refuge in a foreign land. This, too, is Christmas. It is “Christmas, The Rest of the Story.” 

If we only focus on the familiar, beloved Lukan version, we can limit the manger to a gathering place for the wide-eyed child, for those singing “Joy to the World,” and for families reunited for the holidays. But   Christmas is also for the one who just buried a loved one, for the parent who cannot afford food for their child—let alone a gift—for the sick, the confused, the addicted, and for those with nowhere to sleep that night. These may not recognize themselves in the perfection of the Lukan story, one we have painted over in the warm glow of Norman Rockwell scenes. The stark simplicity of the original telling has been spiced with gingerbread and peppermint, transferred to a snowy clime, plumped with festivities and food, and turned into a scene that resembles a Hallmark greeting card, a scene that painfully excludes those whose lives look nothing like that, whose lives are less than perfect, those, in fact, who are most in need.

What if the story were told instead of a father awakened by a nightmare to sit bolt  upright in bed, cold with fear. Only it was no nightmare; it was warning, and it was real. He knew because the angel had warned him before and could be trusted. Evil, dangerous men were coming in search of his wife and his child, intent on murdering them in their beds. He only had time to awaken them,  gather a few things, and flee into the night. 

Guided by stars and perhaps more dreams, he leaned into the desert winds, looking over his shoulder, and shielding his family. They left all that they knew, uncertain of when or if they would return, and they descended into the foreign land of an ancient enemy, there to seek refuge and hide among those they did not know. And amid all that chaos, the story reaches its climax…that in the middle of all the chaos, God was with them. 

Maybe if you have had cold sweats, have feared for your life or your child’s, have owned nothing more than what you could pack on your back, maybe if you have heard your neighbors’ screams in the night, have left behind family and friends, are alone, hungry and tired and aching, maybe you would hear this story and think, “Yes, that man is me. That story is like mine.” And when you heard the punchline, “God was with them,” you would be startled and look around to see if God could also be with you. 

That might become your Christmas story, at least for this year. Once upon a time, you would say, when my life was in peril and at its worst, God was with me. That is what Emmanuel means, God-with-us. And that Christmas story would become your own.  

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This article comes from Kathleen’s book, WHY THESE WOMEN? TAMAR, RAHAB, RUTH, AND BATHSHEBA (pp. 139-140); used with her permission. You can buy it on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Why-These-Women-Stories-Before/dp/B09R2WRK8W. Better yet, go to your local book store and ask them to order it for you!