What Are You Thirsting For?

 

I am extremely humbled that on June 7^th, I will have the privilege as the “archdeacon” to present to the parishioners of Divine Mercy Polish National Catholic Parish, Deacon Erick Flores to be ordained as a Catholic priest and new pastor of their church.

 

In Las Vegas while the illusion of happiness is the invitation to come and win the jackpot that could change your life. In reality, the real crisis for local residents is that their water supplies may soon run dry. Despite the record snowfalls and floods in California, their reservoirs are at record low levels and the residents and visitors will thirst for water.

 

Jesus spoke alot about water and he used water images. People lived in a desert and the people understood how difficult it was to get water. To get water people could not just walk into a store and buy a bottle of water. The reality was that water in the time of Jesus was extremely scarce. It was difficult to come by. They had to dig wells and they had to go to these wells wherever they were. They probably had to go to the center of their village where the wells were located and they had to draw out the water and most likely wait in line for other people to draw out their water. Jesus is using this image because it is something they have to think about every day.

 

We all have thirst and we all have hunger. The bushman of Kalahari desert in South Africa talk about two kinds of hunger. There is a great hunger and a little hunger. The little hunger yearns for food, clothing, and shelter and the greatest hunger of all is the hunger for meaning.

 

I think hunger and thirst can be used interchangeably because the people of our time are hungry for meaning, we are thirsty for meaning.

 

There’s only one thing that makes human beings profoundly bitter and that is a life without meaning. And that’s what’s our culture is doing thrusting a life without meaning, chasing the illusion that happiness is winning a slot jackpot, or a roulette table, or a bet on a sports game, a life without meaning.

 

There’s nothing wrong searching for happiness but far more comfort to the soul is something greater than happiness or unhappiness and that is meaning because meaning transfigures all. Once you realize what you are doing has meaning for you it is irrelevant if it makes you happy or unhappy for you are content.

 

Deacon Erick vocation to the priesthood will give his life meaning bringing the good news of Jesus to people who have felt abandoned, broken, discriminated and empty. His meaning will be to bring his people comfort in their pain, hope in times of trail, and love in moments of despair.

 

Father Erick will preach: “On the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood up and exclaimed, “Let anyone who thirsts come to me and drink. He who believes in me as the Scripture has said, out of his heart shall flow rivers of living waters.” Now this is what Jesus said about the spirit which those who believed in him were to receive.

 

So that you have enough water otherwise you will die and the people you love will die this incredible, scarce resource is abundantly available in Jesus.

 

We are all desperately thirsting for something. Do you know what it is? And who or what or where do you imagine will satisfy this thirst. Jesus is saying if anyone is thirsty, let them come to me and drink. Whatever your thirst is, you likely know it or if you don’t know, take time and go away in silence and reflect what it is for you.

 

Pray to God: “I am thirsty, please satisfy my thirst.” That’s the invitation Father Erick will bring to all his people in his parish and visitors from around the world. Yes, people from around the world will come to Divine Mercy to satisfy their thirst, to satisfy their hunger.

 

Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends, and especially Deacon Erick as he prepares to be anointed with your spirit to bring the good news, comfort, mercy and meaning to all your people to satisfy their thirst and satisfy their hunger.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Good Bye Does Not Mean the End

 

Ascension Thursday is the most under-understood mystery of religion.

 

Because we experience many painful goodbyes in life. There are so many times when someone we love has to go away, or we have to go away. There are many times when, for whatever reason, someone has to move on and irrevocably change a relationship. Almost always this is painful, sometimes so painful that it leaves us feeling restless and empty, as if all the color, energy, and joy have gone out of our lives.

 

The pain in this kind of letting go is often excruciating, as parents know, but to refuse is to deny the opportunity for new life.

 

But, as we know, usually this isn't the end of the story. Most of the time, after the restless, dark heartache of a painful goodbye has worn off, we experience the opposite, a deep joy in sensing now our loved one's presence in a different way.

Parents experience this when their children grow up and leave home to start lives of their own. At first, when a child leaves home to go to college, to get married, or to take a job elsewhere, we are often left with a restless heartache that leaves us feeling empty. But, after a while, especially when our child, now an adult comes back to visit us our heartache can just as quickly disappear because our loved one, now no longer a child, can offer us a richer love and presence than he or she could when they were little. The pain of losing someone turns into the joy of finding something deeper in the one whom we thought we had lost.

 

When Jesus was preparing his disciples for his ascension, he told them: "It is better for you that I go away! You won't understand this now. You will grieve and have heavy hearts, but, later, this will turn to joy and you will understand why I have to do this because, unless I go away, I can't send you my spirit."

 

This is the experience of the people of Divine Mercy when their pastor chose to leave their church. Initially, they were in shock, disbelief, angry and deeply feeling lost and abandoned. That’s how I found this congregation in February with tears in their eyes and empty hearts. My mantra, “one day at a time” and trust in the spirit of Jesus that you will get through this trauma. Now let’s fast forward to what occurred this past week.

 

Erick, a parishioner, had been working side by side with their pastor and he felt the pain of lost and disbelief. However, he was determined that the parish would not close permanently. In March, after a two-week hiatus, Divine Mercy reopened its doors and welcomed all people Mexican and Anglo back to church. I flew to Las Vegas to help bring First Communion to over 70 children, yes you read that right, 70 beautiful children. Then a week later, Bishop John flew to Las Vegas to confirm 40 young adults and incarnate Erick as a deacon to serve the parish while the search began for a new pastor.

 

Well, from their moment of darkness and heartache when their former pastor chose to leave, the spirit was nurturing a vocation inside the heart of Deacon Erick to become a priest. So the journey began and with the help of Fr. Don who zoomed instructions in the PNCC tradition to this humble man of faith, Bishop John called Erick last Tuesday and informed him that he would gladly come to Divine Mercy to consecrate him a Catholic priest. Erick shared with me that he sobbed on the phone in joy and said “of course” another “God Moment.”

 

So the lesson in faith is that good bye does not mean the end of a relationship or in this case a parish. Rather, the paradox of presence and absence in love is a great mystery. We need to be present to each other physically, but we also need to be gone from each other at times. We bring a blessing both when we visit someone and when we leave after the visit is over. Presence is partly predicated on absence and there is something of our spirit that we can only give by going away. Why is this so?

 

Because absence is sometimes the only thing that can purify presence. When we are physically present, there are always certain tensions, irritations, disappointments, flaws in our bodies, and faults in our character that partially block full love and blessing. That's why we rarely appreciate our loved ones fully, until they are taken away from us.

 

Absence can help wash clean. What the pain of absence does is stretch our hearts so that the essence, the beauty, the love, and the gift of the one who is absent can flow to us without being colored by the tensions, disappointments, and the flaws of everyday life. 

 

As well, the other's absence can work to stretch our hearts so that we can receive him or her in a way that more fully accepts and respects who he or she really is. In the case of this parish’s former pastor, his absence stretches the people of Divine Mercy need for forgiveness.

 

The Ascension of Our Lord is about going away so that his loved ones can fully receive his spirit. It's about the mystery of saying goodbye, when goodbye isn't really goodbye at all, but only love's way of taking on a different modality so that it can be present in a way that's deeper, purer, more permanent, less-clinging, and less-limited by the tensions, disappointments, inadequacies, wounds, and betrayals that, this side of eternity, forever make our intimacy a work in progress.

Now the “good news” even gets better. Last Thursday, on the Feast of the Ascension, Deacon Erick was interviewed on a Spanish radio station and announced to the people of Las Vegas that Bishop John Mack, the Buffalo-Pittsburgh Bishop of the Polish National Catholic Church will be coming to Las Vegas to ordain him a Catholic priest on Wednesday, June 7^th at Divine Mercy Catholic Parish, another “God moment.”

 

This will not be a private ceremony, but rather a joyous occasion for Deacon Erick. his family from Mexico, the faithful Divine Mercy parishioners who stuck around to see what was going to happen to this parish, and a calling to all the former parishioners who have strayed away to return and  attend this once in a lifetime spiritual ceremony. An ordination to the Catholic priesthood of a local parishioner. In celebration of this event, I received notice that nine priests from around the country plan to attend the ordination in support of their brother priest.

The people at Divine Mercy are no strangers to the pain of saying goodbye to friends. But they are a resilient faith community and they want all their Mexican and Anglo friends to come back to Divine Mercy and join them in prayer and service so that we follow the words of our Jesus that “ALL MAY BE ONE.”

Mark your calendars and save the date. Wednesday, June 7^th (TIME OF MASS TBA). Let Today’s Sonshine go viral on the internet, in others words please forward this Sonshine to all your family and friends as well as all of Las Vegas to join this parish for this once in a lifetime spiritual event in which Jesus is truly present on Divine Mercy’s altar in the love and faith of all its people so that “WE ALL MAY BE ONE.”

 

 

 

Mother's Day is Tricky

 

A church service on Mother's Day is tricky. If it only honors mothers on that day, I start to wonder if the church's message is that a woman's highest achievement is marriage and family. Where does that leave other women, who are childless?

Bottom line: mentioning Mother's Day in worship is just tricky. There's no formula. So perhaps it would be more practical to celebrate that most families are messy. Perhaps we simply admit that it's a difficult day for many. Or we acknowledge that God is keenly aware of all that we hold in our hearts.

I think an interesting idea to incorporate into a Mother's Day service would be to not only honor mothers, but to profile other women from different backgrounds and walks of life—artists, poets, women in government, female mentors, women who work in their career or community, women who care for an aging parent, or women who work with young adults. There could even be a special place in the service where someone who's struggled with infertility or who has lost a child, can read a poem they wrote that speaks to their circumstances and what this day means to them. It would sobering, for sure, but it would offer a more realistic and balanced view of what womanhood truly is, and would convey the real joys, passions, ambitions, and pains of many women on Mother's Day.

I have been writing Deacon Erick sermons who serves at Divine Mercy in Las Vegas. As I reviewed my past sermons on Mother’s Day, I shared the following blessing for all “nurturing women” in his parish. I have used this blessing for many years when I served as pastor at Holy Family in North Java.

There is a story about a woman whose mother taught her many prayers and this was one of my favorites. She was about six years old at the time and was sitting outside on a block of concrete, and she was crying. She didn’t even know why. She was just crying and crying. Her Mother came along and said, “What’s the matter?” She said, “Nothing, leave me alone!” Her mom did - and then she really started crying!

About 15 minutes later her mom came back and sat beside her. “You know,” she said, “I have to tell you something. There are going to be a lot of times in your life when you are going to cry, and you won’t know why. You won’t understand and neither will anyone else.

Then, she said she was going to teach her a prayer for the times when she was crying and didn’t know why. She made her get off the cement block and stand up. She said, “Now, put your arms around yourself. “She did but it wasn’t good enough.
         

“You’re just folding your arms” she said. “Put them all the way around yourself. Cuddle your body. Hold yourself the way you would hold baby in your arms.

“Now, after you have a real good hold of yourself, close your eyes and begin to rock yourself. Rock yourself real good, the way you would a baby, and just keep doing it. When you grow up, no matter how old you are, and you are crying and you don’t know why, I want you to rock yourself just like this. As you do it, remember that you are God’s little child, and that God understands why you are crying even if no one else does. And, remember, too, that God holds you close just the way you are holding yourself because God loves you very much. Then just keep rocking yourself and be comforted.”
         

Now isn’t that a good prayer? This woman still says it today when she feels bad.

With all the “nurturing women in the front of the church rocking themselves I recommended it for each woman.  Just stand wherever you are - in the kitchen, in the bathroom or outside in the barn - and wrap your arms around yourself, tight as you can and rock yourself.
         

 

 

We Miss Our Grian

 

Yesterday afternoon, I found myself digging my eighteenth grave for a beautiful kitty by the name of Grain. She was the “queen” in our home of eight fur balls. For thirteen years, since we moved to East Bethany, she would perch on the window sill watching the outside birdies and squirrels snacking on the bird feeder or she enjoyed basking in the sun up on the shelf in the guest bathroom.

Grian would sleep next to my wife’s pillow at night and she would come for breakfast and lick the butter off of her toast in the morning. So here is a prayer for all our furry companions who have blessed our homes.

O Lord our God, we come before You this day in sadness. Grian who brought us so much joy in life, has now died. Her happy times in our family’s embrace have come to an end. We miss Grian very much.

Help us, O God, to remember the good times with Grian. Remind us to rejoice in the happy times she brought to our home. I am reminded of the time my relatives came to visit and they didn’t pay attention and left the outside porch door open and Grain snuck out of the house into the woods.

Later that evening, we looked for Grian and she was missing. We checked under the beds, in the closets and came to the conclusion she had somehow found her way outside. I remember calling out into the night, into the woods, “Grian, where are you girl, come home to mommy and daddy.”  

Then a miracle, I saw two white eyes sparkling in the distance. She had wandered into the woods to explore her new found freedom. We were simply glad that she was safe and no coyote or owl had made her an evening meal.

We pray now in gratitude, to you God, for creating Grain, for entrusting her to our care, and for sustaining her in our love for thirteen years. We understand that all that lives must die. We knew that this day would come. And yet, O God, we would have wanted one more day of play, one more evening of to pet and nuzzle with our little girl..

O God, as we have taken care of Grian in life, we ask that You watch over her in heaven. You entrusted Grian to our care; now, we give her back to You. May she find a happy new home in Your loving embrace.

As we remember Grain and all the kitties buried in our pet cemetery, may we love each other more dearly. May we care for all Your creatures, for every living thing, as we protected the blessed life of Grian, may her memory bless our lives with love and caring forever. Amen.

Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends whose pets have found a home with You, We miss them all and believe that we will see them when we are called into your glory. In honor of their devotion and care, please forward the names of all your pets so that we can join our prayers in gratitude for all the love they have given us in this life. 

 

 

Trust in God

 

Have you ever been in a situation where your heart was so stirred up, so unsettled, so confused that you didn’t know what you would do or where you would turn? Jesus’ disciples feel this way. In a time of doubt and uncertainty, Jesus speaks words of comfort to them: “Do not let your hearts be troubled.” The word for “troubled” means “stir up, unsettle, throw into confusion.” To put it another way, Do not let your hearts be stirred up, unsettled, thrown into confusion. Trust in God. Trust also in me.

 

My senior neighbor went to her bank to withdraw money to go grocery shopping. She went into shock when the bank teller told her that she had no money in her account. The bank manager reported that her social security was not deposited in April. Worse she discovered that a vendor was making automatic withdrawals from her account each month as far back as January 2022.

 

Maggie and her sister were able to do a little grocery shopping with her food stamps but she could not pay her monthly mortgage. She drove with her sister to the social security office and they discovered that the nursing home was issued her April check. I contacted the nursing home finance department and they denied that the facility put in a claim for her money. Once again at social security, she filed a claim for back payment and told it would take 30 days to refund her money. Now the mystery, who was the vendor taking automatic withdrawals. 

 

The bank manager shared the name and a phone number of the unknown vendor. With Maggie at my side, I called and the vendor and learned that this company sells warranty insurance to replace your appliance like a refrigerator or washer when it breaks down. The customer service agent reported that she has had this service since 2019 and that it was renewed in 2022. With Maggie at my side, she denied that she requested this service. The agent handed me off to her supervisor and once again I shared that this senior never request their service and expect a refund. I was surprised and relieved to hear when the supervisor apologized for any misunderstanding and reassured my neighbor that the service would be cancelled and she would receive a full refund. 

 

In times of quiet desperation, Jesus says to us what he says to his disciples: I will be the dam that holds you when the levee breaks, the tunnel that brings you through to the other side when you’re stirred up, unsettled, thrown into confusion. Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God. Trust also in me.

 

Lord I pray for all my Sonshine Friends who are going through storms in their life. When the rains come, when the waters rise, our temptation is to look for answers to our “where” and “how” questions. In those moments—in all moments—there is one who stands before us, we need to trust in God.