Esther's Prayer

On retreat with the Bishop and priests of the Diocese at beautiful Lake Junaluska, immersed in natural beauty in all its autumnal glory, this would not seem to be the right setting for anxiety of any kind. On the other hand, perhaps, perhaps the contrast makes the anxieties of life appear that much more stark. After all, didn't our retreat master himself begin by reminding us that we bring our demons with us on retreat?

Coincidentally - or providentially - the scripture reading in today's Office is Esther 14:1-9, the famous "Prayer of Queen Esther," when, after hearing her Uncle Mordecai's news about the impending thereat to the survival of the Jewish People, Queen Esther, seized with mortal anguish, had recourse to the Lord. To highlight the seriousness of the crisis, the text tells us she took off her splendid garments (she was a queen, after all) and put on garments of distress and mourning. That's a nice nostalgic reminder that there once was a time - until quite recently in fact - when people dressed appropriately for the occasion, before the current tyranny of casual dress overwhelmed everything, driving yet one more nail in the coffin of civilized living.

Esther's prayer is desperate, for the situation in which the Jews found themselves thanks to Haman's genocidal ambitions, was indeed a desperate one. It is also poignantly universal, expressing the sensibility of everyone who has ever felt threatened, alone, and abandoned.

"My Lord, our King, you alone are God. Help me, who am alone and have no one to help but you, for I am taking my life in my hand. ... O God, more powerful than all, hear the voice of those in despair. Save us from the power of the wicked, and deliver me from my fear."

Esther's prayer is one which could be prayed by anyone is serious angst about any impending evil - personal and private or political and public. The threat immediately facing the Jewish People was, of course, a political one. Hence the significance of Esther calling God Israel's King - presumably in contrast to the merely earthly sovereign whose royal rank she shared. But, while Esther seems to speak somewhat disdainfully of her royal (but Gentile) husband in her prayer, she is also well aware that it is her royal position which may be the means for her people's salvation. As her Uncle Mordecai himself had told her: "Who knows but that it was for a time like this that you obtained the royal dignity?"

The story of Esther reminds us that life is always dangerous, that threats abound on all sides, that feeling endangered and threatened, alone and abandoned, may be the just person's natural state in this vale of tears. But it teaches - and that is after all the point of the story - that God's providential care for his people is infinite and manifests itself in surprising ways. And it teaches us not to disdain the natural, human opportunity's social and political life affords us to benefit from God's providence in the here and now.

The Last Debate

On the 50th anniversary of the Monday evening in 1962 when JFK broke the news of the Cuban Missile Crisis to an anxious nation, his 9th successor and wanna-be 10th successor fought it out on TV together one more time. 

So addicted are we now to politics as entertainment that the first reaction of some was that the debate was boring. Of course, foreign policy ought to be boring in that - now as in 1962 - it deals with serious stuff. But, yes, it was also boring in that the two candidates used their time to rehash their standard talking-points. And, in an election in which it is widely believed that voters are motivated primarily about the economy, neither could resist the opportunity to change the subject back to his domestic agenda - or to the critique of the opponent's domestic agenda.
And, of course, Governor Romney repeated his counter-factual, nonsense-jingle about President Obama's "apology tour." Each side has its predictable applause lines that cheer up its base voters - regardless of relevance. Perhaps when this is all over both guys should go on an "apology tour" expressing contrition to the American people for the vacuous tedium of their talking-points when so many serious matters really are at stake in this election.
Perhaps it is true that the voters aren't that interested in foreign policy. Perhaps that's all part of the same syndrome that causes Americans not to learn foreign languages and to expect everything everywhere in the world to be done in English. But foreign affairs are important - and never more so than in this inter-connected, "globalized" age. The threat of an Iranian nuclear weapon may nto be quite on the same scale as Soviet missiles in Cuba in 1962, but it's up there in seriousness. Whoever is president on January 20 will face many challenges both to our own national security and that of our allies (especially Israel), not to mention the long-term challenges to craft a functional balance of power in the world that can maintain an effective degree of international order and facilitate addressing global threats like climate change.

"Do Not Be Afraid"

Today the Catholic Church in East Tennessee commemorates Blessed Pope John Paul II, "Secondary Patron" of the Diocese of Knoxville. (The photo shows his tomb in St Peter's Basilica, now one of the most visited shrines in the vatican Basilica). So far as I know, the only special connection Blessed Pope John Paul had with the Diocese of Knoxville was his having been Pope when the Diocese was founded 24 years ago in 1988. His impact on the Universal Church, however, was enormous. There was, of course, his influential role in the transformation of the Eastern Bloc and the collapse of the Soviet Empire. There was his strong commitment to strengthening Catholic-Jewish relations, reflected in the Holy See's long overdue diplomatic recognition of Israel. Above all, there was the recovery of confidence at all levels of Church life. After a period in which it seemed as if the Church was losing its way and was giving up (at least in the West), the new Pope from the East recalled the Church to its essential mission and restored some of the confidence that seemed to have dissipated in the previous decade. 

John Paul set the tone for this revival of confidence right at the beginning of his pontificate - in his homily at his Inaugural Mass, the text which is so fittingly read in today's Office of Readings: Do not be afraid. Open, I say wide the doors for Christ. to his saving power open the boundaries of states, economic and political systems, the vast fields of culture, civilization, and development. Do not be afraid.

True Greatness

One of my favorite movies from the early 1990s that I enjoy seeing over again is Quiz Show - a film about the TV Quiz Show scandal of the late 1950s. Being old enough to remember the actual events, the movie’s main initial appeal for me when I first saw it was largely nostalgia. Beyond nostalgia, however, every time I see the film, I’m impressed by how well it portrays a certain social pecking order that virtually everyone (especially those less favored in that hierarchy) accepted and affirmed. Thus, the hero, Richard Goodwin, is portrayed as so mesmerized by the very personification of status and privilege, Charles VanDoren, that he goes out of his way to try not to have to hold him accountable for his dishonesty, while less glamorous (and hence less favored) characters are depicted as so much less deserving of sympathy. Clearly, rich and prominent people just feel entitled to their privileged status, and the less privileged accept this and often cater to it. Of course, to know that about our society, one need only tune in the news.

When it comes to human behavior, there really does seem to be nothing new under the sun.  In today’s Gospel [Mark 10:35-45], Jesus has again just told his disciples what lies in store for him when he gets to Jerusalem. The 1^st time Jesus did this, Peter had tried to talk him out of it, prompting a severe reprimand and a no-nonsense instruction on what being a disciple really means. The 2^nd time, the disciples did not understand and were afraid to ask him. Instead, they argued among themselves, discussing which of them was the greatest. When asked by Jesus what they had been arguing about, they remained silent, which suggests at least some sense of embarrassment. This time, however, with no hint of embarrassment, James and John, two of Jesus’ most favored disciples (and thus the ones most especially susceptible to an attitude of entitlement), responded to Jesus’ 3^rd prediction of his impending death, with their startling request to sit with him in glory, one at his right and the other at his left.

Apparently, the other 10, neither accepted nor were willing to cater to the status hierarchy proposed by James and John. Jealousy (as Britain’s Queen Alexandra famously said some 102 years ago) is the source of so many problems in life. So, the 10 became indignant when they heard this – their jealous indignation prompting in turn yet another instruction from Jesus, clarifying both what his life was about and what that of any would-be disciple of his must therefore also be about.

What makes this incident so fascinating is the brilliant way Jesus handled his hard-to-teach disciples – both the 2 ambitious brothers and the 10 jealous others. Jesus was obviously a very good teacher. He recognized his disciples’ natural ambition. Rather than just condemning them outright, he affirmed their ambition and then gave it new content.

So you want to be great, Jesus tells his disciples. Okay, then, be great – but not by imitating all those powerful, prominent people you all admire & envy so much, but by imitating me. “For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.” How’s that for an ambition to aspire to, an accomplishment to envy?

If following Jesus as his disciple, as a Christian, is to have any real meaning in this world, Jesus is telling us, then it must be different with us from the way it is with the rest of the world. Among other things, it means siding with those whom Cardinal Dolan at this past Thursday’s annual Al Smith Dinner in New York called the uns - "the un mployed, the uninsured, the unwanted, the unwed mother, the innocent fragile unborn baby in her womb, the undocumented, the unhoused, the unhealthy, the unfed, the under-educated."

By his own life - and above all by his death - Jesus illustrated that by showing how different it is with him from the way it tends to be with us. Our task is not to analyze the world, which is just being the way the world is, but to change the world, by changing ourselves – confidently approaching the throne of grace to receive mercy and help from our great high priest who has similarly been tested in every way, yet without sin [Hebrews 4:14-16].

Homily for the 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Immaculate Conception Church, Knoxville, TN, October 21, 2012.

Dinner at the Waldorf

The Cardinal Archbishop of New York took a break from the Synod of Bishops last night to host the annual Al Smith Dinner, New York's premier (and prestigious) fundraiser for Catholic Charites. Sharing the dais with him were the two candidates for President of the United States, each of whom acquitted himself well in the Al Smith Dinner's tradition of self-deprecating funniness. If, just a few nights earlier, the two had at times overly resembled two overgrown boys, two rivals strutting in the school yard, playground, or streetcorner, last night their presence and demeanor recalled a more civil, more humane style of politics - a style rooted in the recognition (articulated by each of the candidates) that there really are much more important things than politics. Each candidate acknowledged the other's primary identity as a husband and father - something far more important even than being a president.

The star speaker of the night, however, was the Cardinal himself, who suggested that the Al Smith Dinner shows both the country and the Church at their best and spoke of how faith "affects everything we do, and dare, and dream." In keeping with the customary expectation that speakers should also act like stand-up comedians, he dutifully poked fun at his weight, suggesting he'd have looked better on the dais if Chris Christie had been the Republican nominee and would be in better shape today if Michelle Obama had been 1st Lady when he was growing up. Powerfully evoking the memory of Al Smith himself, however, His Eminence identified the Church squarely in the side of those he called the "un-"s - "the unemployed, the uninsured, the unwanted, the unwed mother, the innocent fragile unborn baby in her womb, the undocumented, the unhoused,  the unhealthy, the unfed, the under-educated." Then he added "Government, Al Smith believed, should be on the side of these 'un-'s, but a government, he also believed, partnering - partnering with family, church, parish, neighborhood, organizations, and community, never intruding or opposing, since, when all is said and done, it's in God we trust, not ultimately in government or politics." 

(For video of the Cardinal's complete remarks, one can go to http://www.patheos.com/blogs/deaconsbench/2012/10/video-cardinal-dolans-speech-at-the-al-smith-dinner/).

The tradition of the two candidates appearing together at the Al Smith Dinner goes back to Kennedy and Nixon in 1960. It's a valuable tradition, which modifies the unedifying brutality of the electoral process. It also highlights, as did the Cardinal in concluding remarks, both the value of a vibrant network of religious and social institutions and community organizations and the indispensable benefit of Government.