Carla Mae's Blog

  After challenging us to engender an ‘open world’ in chapter three of Fratelli tutti , Pope Francis now proposes that we have “A Heart Open to the Whole World.” (#128-153) This brings before us the whole issue of migrants and refugees. Francis is not pollyanna about this crisis. To “welcome, protect, promote and integrate” these struggling people he knows that individual governments can’t do this alone. He comes right out and writes what many are thinking: we need to “develop a form of global governance” to address this issue as well as several other pressing issues such as war and weapons of mass destruction. The US learned this long ago. The Revolutionary War had just ended. The 13 colonies were governed by The Articles of Confederation, and were suffering from huge debt from the war. Alexander Hamilton went to President Washington and told him the Articles were just not working, that the colonies needed to federate. Washington replied that the colonies would never agree...

  We have celebrated them all…all the great feasts: Easter, Ascension, Pentecost, Trinity…and now comes the capstone: Corpus Christi, or in English, The Body and Blood of Christ. It is the capstone, even though it is the final step – down. How so? Take a wide view. We have a God who is driven by love to send its own deepest Word, its identity, into the human world to fix something that is broken. A relationship is broken. So, in the virgin’s womb he mends it. The Word creates a union between divinity and humanity that can never be broken again. Then he shows us what he intends to do with that hangover we call death…his and ours. After he brings us to life, he takes our very humanness home to the very throne of God and sends us his own Spirit to remind us what wonders he has done, to fill us with joy. But bending way down to become one of us was not enough for this love. He cannot bear to leave us to struggle alone to respond to the Spirit. He found a way to take one more s...

  I’ve had trouble with this expression. Maybe you have too. How on earth can we understand an instrument of torture to be a cause for triumph? Triumph comes with the resurrection, right? But what is the ‘law of the cross’ that makes this death instrument also a cause of triumph?   The answer hit me like a ton of bricks in reading through some old notes. The cross is the symbol of every tear, every pain, every evil, every torture, every despicable human experience we can name. It’s that part of life that we wish we could do away with. It’s physical or emotional, and yes, even spiritual suffering, all too familiar to each of us as it comes our way. The key is in what happens to it. What happens to the cross?   This instrument of torture is changed. It has become holy. A part of our Good Friday liturgy is the ‘Adoration of the Cross.’ Why do we ‘adore’ the cross? What has happened? The Paschal Mystery has become a transformation mystery. Which means, by the w...

The Light of the World came to us in the Christmas Season.   That was Good News. But that infant Light grew up. As a migrant on the run, as a home-town boy, as the son of a skilled laborer, Jesus was pretty incognito. Then the people of his time tried pretty hard to put out the Light altogether. But the Love that fuels the light knew what to do with sin and death. It becomes fuel for forgiveness and mercy. Easter is a Sonburst that will never go out. Love has conquered sin and death. It’s done. Fragments, like the cut-up pieces of a snake, wiggle their way through history putting on a show of power. But don’t be fooled. It’s a lying seduction. Don’t be deceived when it shows up on the news. Shake your head when you hear about it in government or in business. No, the battle has been won. Now, what do we, who have that baptismal cross of oil gleaming on our foreheads, do about it? We settle in for the long haul doing Easter Ministry. We ‘put feet on the talk.’ Eas...

  Pope Francis gives us a pretty dismal picture in Chapter One of Fratelli tutti. In Chapter Two he offers us a familiar parable, that of the Good Samaritan. “A Stranger on the Road” is about a Jewish traveler on the road to Jericho, who gets mugged and left for dead. Jewish ritual leaders see him, look the other way and pass by. Along comes a despised Samaritan, a ‘mixed blood’ Jew who has intermarried with pagan heretics, and he stops and tends to the victim, all the while knowing full well that the victim probably hates him. Aware that Francis has written this text for all the people of the world, we can only imagine its effect on peoples of other faiths who have never heard this parable before. Yet all of us know the Golden Rule: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” But there’s the rub. Each of us has to decide whether to pass by or help what we see going on around us each day, says Francis. (#79) He wonders why “it took so long for the Church unequivocally to cond...

We’ve just come down from the mountain. The Second Sunday of Lent presents us with the Transfiguration of Jesus on Mount Tabor. But what goes up must come down, and this event is no exception. From Mount Tabor they go to Jerusalem. Jesus sets his face toward Jerusalem where he will suffer and die. Why would the Church present us with the Transfiguration just as we begin the season of the passion?   I think it’s because we could never survive the rest of Lent if we didn’t know how the story will end. We’re given a preview of the ending. Jesus shines. He shows himself as the Light of the World. But all hell is going to break loose to snuff out that Light. These three poor apostles have no idea what they are in for. What they experienced on the mountain will be eclipsed: The Son will be darkened by death.   There is a method in the Church’s madness. Like the Beloved in the Song of Songs, she will go searching for her Lover. The sight of his face is fixed in her mem...

 As People of the Word we have been reflecting this past year on Pope Francis’ challenges to us on Hope. How can we proclaim a word of hope in these times? We have reflected on this great virtue, a power given us by that hidden Mystery of God we call “Father.” As the Father cannot be seen, so hope cannot yet see what it longs for. Yet we cannot be still. We preach the Word, in season and out, because if we don’t it burns within us, needing to get out to those around us. As Dominicans we learn in our formation that our first preaching is from the pulpit of our lives. Our lives speak. We bring a presence to the kitchen, the phone, and online. This is the first Word others hear. Then some among us write, speak, teach, or preach liturgically at liturgy. Pope Francis shocked the world with his Laudato si, where he called us all to recognize that we are one with all of creation, and need to care for it. Now he has again challenged the world with Fratelli tutti, where he ze...