Pastor's Spiritual Reflections

By Fr. Leo Schneider (8/19/2007)

Dear People of Holy Name,

What kind of family values is Jesus preaching in Luke’s Gospel today? A father divided against his son and daughter against her mother? The truth is when we make our allegiance to God’s truth we may fine ourselves at odds, even with those closest to us.

Even the early church had its divisions as it discerned what the truth of God meant for them in different matters. We remember the division over circumcision and the accepting of gentiles into the fold. Changing the way they thought and did things took a while and was a painful struggle.

We see the same when one member of a family chooses to live a healthy life and not enter into the dysfunctional family dance. The rest of the family will marshal all their efforts to get that person back in line. That is why overcoming an addiction or the effects of addiction can be a very unsettling force in a family, and there may be divisions for a while, as growth to a healthier way of living is made.

The church today lives with tensions and there always will be tensions, at least I hope there will be. Such tensions are signs of a living church, in constant discernment of the will of God in our own time. What is key is to be able to have open and honest dialogue within the family of the Church. Pope Paul VI was so keen on this, for without honest dialogue there can be no honest discernment of the truth of God.

When the institutional side of the church, or clericalism dominates, the people in the pew and the well informed professional lay theologians will not be heard in an honest way, and the truth God speaks through them will not be heard. Presently, I think of the tension between what biology and psychology have offered in our understanding of human sexuality, and how they seem ignored by the magisterium of our church. It is intellectually embarrassing and has lead to grave mishandlings of issues like pedophilia, that has finally been faced in our church.

We should expect tensions in our church and in our lives from time to time. It is a sign we are all passionate about what we believe, but we must also be willing to speak our truth in a way others can understand, and also make an effort to understand the truth of others, trusting that they are speaking from their hearts of a truth they have come to know in their lives. This is why we say peace doesn’t happen; it has to be worked for.

We should expect tensions in our church and in our lives from time to time. It is a sign we are all passionate about what we believe, but we must also be willing to speak our truth in a way others can understand, and also make an effort to understand the truth of others, trusting that they are speaking from their hearts of a truth they have come to know in their lives. This is why we say peace doesn’t happen; it has to be worked for.

Let us pray for the grace to enter into dialogue with those different from ourselves, with the hope that God’s grace will help us understand others as we would like them to understand us. Also, let us pray that we may be understood and respected in the same way. Working things out is a process and is part of the spiritual life. We are on a journey and are finding our way as we go. I trust that our journey will take us to the promised land, and if we can believe that and imagine, than we should have a good start in imagining and building God’s kingdom of peace on earth.

May the Lord bless us in his truth, and give us an ear to hear his truth in the hearts of all God’s people.

In Christ's Peace, Fr. Leo