Carla Mae's Blog

 In section II of Pope Francis’ Let Us Dream: The Path To A Better Future, we ended last time in considering his concern for the voices and gifts of women. (See August Community Connections. ) Remember, he is building a point of view that provides the wisdom for some important ‘Choosing.’ Get ready. Francis is building up the qualities that equip us to tackle synodality. This is where he is going. Synodality is the focus of the whole end of section II. So, what is the bridge? The pope’s concern about the vital role women must play is but lead-in to two ideas that speak to the heart of the evening news: fraternity vs. individualism, and what he calls the “isolated conscience.”   Fraternity is “the sense of belonging to each other and to the whole of humanity…(It) is the capacity to come together and work together against a shared horizon of possibility…It’s a unity that allows people to serve as a body despite differences…preserves and respects plurality, inviting all to co...

 We’re in the second half of Ordinary Time, and sure enough, the Church brings us back to center: the Cross. It is not by chance that the Exaltation of the Cross is a central September feast. The whole of Ordinary Time is a formation in discipleship flowing from the Cross and Resurrection. So, what are the formation points for us this month? First, we’re reminded that we can’t be part-time disciples. We need full-time resolve. Then we are given the powerful parable of the Prodigal Son, to remind us that we are to be Reconcilers wherever our families, communities, work, or retirement take us. Then the last two Sundays make sure we understand where true riches lie…inwardly and outwardly in our public lives. But we are not to lose sight of the Cross. Why? Because the Cross is the fullness of revelation about God and ourselves. About God, because nowhere, in any other religion, is God revealed as hanging on a tree, dying. Here the hidden God is revealed through the Word...

In June we explored Part I: A Time to See of Francis’ Let Us Dream: The Path to a Better Future. We learned that three conditions distort our vision of these times: They are narcissism, discouragement, and pessimism. Narcissism is drowning in your own image. Discouragement is seeing only what you’ve lost, and pessimism shuts the door on the future.  Once we’re wise to these three ‘dis-eases’ infecting our vision, and intentionally resolving to avoid them, we’re ready for Part II: A Time to Choose. Between the third step, to heal and repair, however, there is an important middle step. We need a firm set of criteria to guide us:      Knowing we are loved by God       Called to serve in solidarity       A healthy capacity for silent reflection, and      Places of refuge from the tyranny of the ‘urgent.’ Francis then takes us back to foundations: the Beatitudes and the Catholic Social Prin...

These weeks of Ordinary Time are full of challenge. Among these challenges are the qualities a disciple of Jesus will need. Foremost of these  is faith. Faith is a way of seeing. Either we are going to use the lens of fear and hopelessness that the culture would offer, or we are going to look ‘odd’ because we see life differently. We view events through a lens of faith with hope in the power of One who brings life even out of death . So, note the dimensions of faith in the texts of these August Sundays. First, we learn that faith means ‘being ready,’ for anything. It means that as long as we are ‘on the Way,’ in Jesus, we are safe even in the midst of trauma. Then we learn that faith will divide us from even family members who choose the fear lens. We will have to stand firm. Next we discover that some folks can be ‘in Jesus’ and not know it. They cling to God while Jesus is hidden from them. Finally, we learn that faith is humble. It does not strut around. It realize...

 We enter the ‘green’ time…the time called ‘ordinary.’ But it isn’t really ordinary at all, because we are no longer ordinary. We have renewed our baptismal new life through the Paschal celebration of Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension. We shine from inside out.  We have been formed for mission and witness during these past fifty days. The Spirit has come to mark us with our seal us a disciple. So now our task in this ‘ordinary’ time is to put on, bit by bit, what a disciple will need. Ordinary time is a school of discipleship. Week by week we say, “So this is what a disciple needs…!”  First come the big feasts: The Trinity, Corpus Christi, The Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart: Three Persons, One Body, and Two Hearts. The triune mystery lies hidden in all creation. One creature cannot be complete without another. The Body of Christ meets us everywhere, in deepest suffering, crying out to us. The hearts ask our deepest love as we live, move, breathe, and ser...

The Easter season is a time of formation in discipleship. The risen Lord is showing us that he is going to be present…but not the way he used to be…walking, talking, eating…with the disciples. He is weening them from physical experience, and forming them for a faith-walk. He presents the intimate image of himself as Shepherd. He also describes how he will feed that constant new faithful presence. He tells the disciples that they must daily eat him. They must eat his flesh and drink his blood. At first they are shocked at this language. But soon they begin to understand a little of the mystery of how this has to do with the way they relate to one another. The word for flesh is sarx. It means more than body, which is the word soma. It means humanness with all its limitations. But he has a risen, transformed humanness…He is no longer “limited.” So, what could he possibly mean? Ah…he is the risen head, but his Body, which we are, is still struggling in time/space, with all its “lim...

 Back in March, we reflected on the Prologue to Pope Francis’ book: Let Us Dream: The Path to a Better Future. We explored some of the big ideas that prompted him to dream, and then write. He ends the Prologue by saying that we need to see clearly, choose well, and act right. This month we will look at Part I, A Time to See.   So, what would Francis have us ‘see?’ First, last, and ways…real people. Not just numbers but real people, especially the people on the edges. Francis believes that the folks on the edges can convert the rest of us. Their plight jars us out of our indifference, which he calls the ‘other virus.’ Their situations will overwhelm us but need never rob us of our hope. Their plight stirs up a culture of service in contrast to a throwaway culture.  But Francis is a realist, and he names three attitudes that will offer escapes from really ‘seeing’ someone’s situation. They are narcissism, discouragement, and pessimism. Narcissism is drowning in your...