Under persecution -- stay or go?

A curious disconnect between the first reading for the 32nd Sunday in Ordinary time for year C which was proclaimed at Mass yesterday and the report of a Syrian Orthodox Archbishop in London encouraging Iraqi Christians to abandon their homes (story here) in the face of the "ethnic cleansing" being perpetrated on the community.
The Reading taken from 2 Maccabees 7 is the one in which a mother encourages her seven sons her sons to remain faithful to the Lord to the point of death under torture. It is tough to imagine a mother able to take such a stance, yet lest we consign the possibility of such sacrifice to the pages of history perhaps we should take into account the example of the parishioners of Baghdad's Our Lady of Salvation church who gathered together for Mass just one week after Islamic militants attacked that congregation and left 58 people dead. This suffering community gathered again yesterday and offered prayers for their persecutors as well as for the victims. (story here). Iraq's top Catholic prelate, Chaldean Cardinal Emmanuel III Delly, has encouraged the country's remaining 1.5million Christians to stay.
The Syrian Archbishop demonstrates a loving concern for Christians in Iraq and offers sage counsel. The Cardinal and the Catholic community of Our Lady of Salvation church are inspiring in their reliance upon God for protection. I can only prayerfully consider what choice I might be led to make under similar circumstances and ponder if there is a point at which courage and faith become foolhardiness.
Meanwhile in the United States perhaps 25% of those who describe themselves as Catholic managed to find time to worship God this weekend. As Americans we tend to value things according to their relative cost and too readily fail to recognize the treasures we have.

More names added to the list of All Saints...

As I prepared to leave the house this morning to head toward church for Mass in observance of All Saints Day, I was saddened to hear of the death (martyrdom) of Catholics in Baghdad. (story here) The Church is being assailed by a secular culture here in the United States, but at least to date we are being spared the level of persecution that is rampant in places such as Iraq, Sudan and many other nations in which Christians and particularly Catholics live with a target on their backs.
We are called to be saints. Indeed, scripture tells us that we are to be conformed to the image of Christ. The crucifix serves as a reminder of that calling. A head crowned not with glory but with thorns in a mockery of kingship. The hands that set the stars in the heavens pinned to the tree in impotence, arms spread wide in love and in the emptying of self. A heart pierced and pouring out blood marking the very earth in the same manner that the blood of lambs marked the homes of those to be saved in Egypt.
I doubt that many of the 52 slain in Baghdad anticipated how close they would come to the cross as they gathered to worship. May those who paid with their lives for the faith we often take for granted inherit the promise of the kingdom and serve as an example for us as we remember all the saints this day.

Didn't see this coming...

Interesting to read that in Britain, Mohammed (under various spellings) now tops the list of the most popular name for boys with Oliver, Jack and Harry next in order. Bet you didn't expect that, did you Nigel? (story here)

Whatchu lookin' at...

I'm still processing my reactions to an experiment we tried last Saturday following the conclusion of a conference focused on the lessons of the Fathers of the Church.
The conference featuring Mike Aquilina, Rod Bennett and Carl Sommer was impressive in itself and provided much material for thought and reflection. But the thing that is sticking with me is the experience of celebrating the vigil Mass for the 30th Sunday of Ordinary Time according to the ordinary form (novus ordo) but facing ad orientem, that is toward the east or the same direction as the congregation for the offertory and consecration.
Predictably, although we had made people aware we would be trying this and have no plans to implement it as standard practice, some had their feathers ruffled. To those who said, "You had your back to me!" I replied, "No, I was facing God just as you were." Of those who protested that Vatican II mandated that the priest face the people, I ask "Where is that found in liturgical instructions." Not only is such an instruction not in the documents, a careful reading indicates that the assumption is that the priest would be normally facing away from the people.
Liturgical nitpicking aside, what I found remarkable in this experiment was the sense that, when the prayers were directed to God and we were all facing the same way, that prayer was being offered as from one congregation to our creator and not to one another. I experienced a heightened sense of reverence. In short, I felt a retention of those characteristics that make the Mass of Vatican II so approachable and engaging and a re-emphasis on that sense of wonder characteristic of the extraordinary form of the Mass. We retained the community identity and enhanced the realization of the Mass as sacrifice.
In theater the actors face and perform for the people, but in liturgy the only audience is our heavenly Father. This simple change of orientation eliminated any sense of performance and re-focused me on prayer.

Dolan does it again...

Is there a churchman who speaks the truth more clearly, concisely and boldly than Archbishop Dolan of New York? Once again he has had the audacity to use his blog to point out to the New York Times their obvious bias. (posting here)

In an era in which too many of our catholic leaders are willing to repeat Kevin Bacon's line from Animal House, "Thank you sir... may I please have another?", it is refreshing to hear someone say, "Enough already!"

Do you believe in God? Well then, how about Calvin Klein?

My good friend Deacon Richard Hudzik drew my attention to a study done by a Duke University marketing professor and colleagues in New York and Tel Aviv. Their paper, "Brands: The Opiate of Non-Religious Masses?," appears currently online in the journal Marketing Science. (story here)
The study revealed that the brand name logo on a laptop or a shirt pocket may do the same thing for some people that a pendant of a crucifix or Star of David does for others. Put another way, those who have no religion tend to place greater emphasis on brand names, or perhaps worship at the altar of consumerism. The more religious the individual, the less the brand name seems to matter.
Interesting food for thought.

Faith requires action

Issuing a call for Filipinos to take a stand against a proposed Reproductive Health Act that would lead to wide spread government distribution of artificial birth control devices Bishop Nereo Odchimar of Tandag, Philippines, president of the Catholic Bishop's Conference of the Philippines made the following statement.

“We think faith is only believing, forgetting the important point which is doing what we believe. Remember that through faith, impossible things become possible. We don’t have to be complacent. Our problem is that we always want the easy way out."

(story here and here.)