Of Things Divine and Orange

Today is Freddie Furlong's 54th birthday. He was a classmate of mine from second grade until Christmas of my senior year of high school. Why I remember his birthday, I have no idea; the same reason I remember Steve Stromberg's birthday is 9/26, I guess.

I will be seeing Freddie and Steve this coming Friday as we celebrate our 40th Reunion for the St. Mary's, Delaware, OH, 8th Grade Class of 1965. I'm looking forward to seeing many from our class over the weekend: Cathy Wolf, Cathy Reed, John Bills, Tom Frentsos, Barb Bianchi, Eddie O'Connell, Brenda Ingle, Jim Russell, Bob Held, Rick Longstreth, Charlie Kelly, and Debbie Ford. Steve Walker is coaching his high school's football team in their final game of the season Friday night, so he can't make it., and some live too far away to get back for the reunion: Greg Amato, Randy Thompson, Kathy Shane, Barbara Buchaan. Sadly, one member of our class is dead and another is serving a government-issued sentence. Sister Paulinda (now Colleen), the only surviving teacher he had at St. Mary's, is sending a note of remembrance and congratualtions.

There will be no homily post for Ordinary Time, 31-A, due to the class reunion.

I'm gonna have a good time. And, I'm glad gasoline prices are falling at a nice clip since I waited to late to get a good airfare.

Anyway, happy brithday, Freddie!

Fr. Bryan Timby

One of the anthems for my generation in the summer of 1968 was “All You Need Is Love” by the Beatles. It was a simple song with a simple message.

The same thought has been expressed through the ages by couples in love when confronted by parents concerned for the welfare of their children trying to make it in the world. “They say our love won’t pay the rent…but I got you, Babe” has had more incarnations that we can count.

Yes, love is a driving force and it causes people to do things they wouldn’t ordinarily do. Even with the wealthy, it is only love that holds things together and brings joy to life.

When I was upgrowing at St. Mary’s Catholic School in Delaware, Ohio, the Franciscan sisters taught us to understand that there are three kinds of love – eros, philios and agape – and each had its own value and place in the Kingdom of God. While Jesus focused on agape and filial love – love of God and love of neighbor – the media today focuses on erotic love so much so that television programs, print advertising, many family films, and the music videos our children watch have lured an entire generation into thinking that sex is the ultimate expression of love, affection and friendship. How things have changed! When I began dating 40 years ago the big dilemma was whether to kiss her on the second, third or fourth date. And the choice I had was the forehead or the cheek. Now, even adolescents as young as sixth grade consider it normal to have sex as a part of a date.

But, when Jesus spoke of loving God above all else and loving neighbor as ourselves He took the notion of love way beyond that of erotic encounters. In fact, what he said was radical, even revolutionary to those who heard him.

Jesus is not the one who invented the Golden Rule. Moses did. But Jesus did make it the summary of the entire Law and of the prophets. The poor Levites, who formed the priestly class in Judaism, saw hundreds of years of study and explanation simplified in such a way as to render useless the 613 laws that are written in the Book of Deuteronomy intended to help people live according to the Ten Commandments. That's how difficult we find it to love God and neighbor. We need 613 rules to tell us how!

Agape (God's love freely received and freely returned) and philios (loving one’s neighbor in a way that allows him a true encounter with the love of God) has been the motivation of every saint that has ever walked this earth.

When we choose to love … Yes, I said “choose” … Love is not a feeling; it is not a place in our lives we fall in and out of … It is an act of the will ... We chose to love … So, when we realize the depths of God’s love for us and we choose to love God in return, we enter into the very depth of God’s selfless love for us and those around us. Such a choice always makes demands of us, and the length to which we go in fulfilling those demands is the barometer of our level commitment to the choice we made to love.

A person truly in love with God conducts himself or herself in such a way that every choice they make has only one purpose - to further fulfill that love ... from choosing to sit in prayer with the One who is loved ... to choosing to be faithful in worship of the One who is loved ... even to choosing what we allow to entertain us.

The choice to love God demands action, and that action is intended to move us toward holiness. Yet along the way we fall. We fail in our fidelity to God. We are not always faithful to the One who loves us. We lie, we cheat, we steal, we look at porn on the Internet, we work so much that our families suffer, we choose movies and television shows that incidiously expose us to new attitudes and values that gradually supplant our sense of morality and convince us that times have changed, life is more complicated now, and we are more free without the demands that the love of God sets before us.

We consider ourselves to be “open-minded.” But, my friends, we would do well to heed the words of a sage whose name escapes me and remember to take care not to open our minds so widely that it allows just anything to drop in because there is a lot of garbage floating around out there that may seem appetizing but is really rancid and can cause spiritual indigestion, even death.

We must worship. We must pray. We must seek the mind of the Body of Christ. Then we must conform ourselves to the Truth revealed by God’s love for us and taught by the Church. Even if it is a question or teaching that poses some difficulty, we conform ourselves because God loves us and we love God. While we know that God loves us even when we are sinning (St. Paul writes where there is sin there grace abounds even more …), we also know that God loves us so much that He wants us turn away from sin because of our love for Him. That is agape love: that God emptied Himself for me, and I will do anything, even give my life, with no motivation other than to love God more perfectly.

To love God above all things especially comes to life in the choices we make our relationships with people, whether they be family, friends, or sthangers. Because we choose to love God, we choose also to love those around us. It doesn’t matter what a person’s personality is like. If we love God, we choose to love each and every person, even the ones we find most bothersome.

Blessed Theresa of Calcutta is a great teacher in how to bring our love of God to life. She chose to live among the poorest of the poor and to hold them in her arms. She loved everyone. It was evident in the way she spoke of love to everyone. It radiated from her wrinkled face and twinkled in her eyes. She lived for the love of God and she found it in her brothers and sisters, especially in the ones society had cast aside.

In the midst of so much disaster along the Gulf Coast in the last two months there has been a great outpouring of charity, another word for love. It is wonderful to see the generosity of people here at Holy Rosary -- we have a new family from Louisiana moving into a house on Ivy this very morning -- and to know that members of our Men’s Club actually went down to Biloxi to help clean-up the mess. But, regardless of how many of millions have been donated in cash, food, housing, clothing and personal service, they mean nothing to a Christian unless they are done out of love for God. Without the love God, acts of charity are simply humanitarian deeds that do nothing but make us feel good about ourselves, give us warm fuzzies. True philios requires agape. True love of neighbor requires the love of God. It is a selfless act to love another for no other reason that God has loved you first.

Some people find it difficult to love a God they cannot see. But, all anyone needs to do, according to Mother Theresa, is adjust their sights from the invisible to the faces of the people on the street. It is in those faces that we encounter Jesus face-to-face. It is in the way that we love them that we are held close to the bosom of the God who has and will always love us.

St. Augustine of Hippo, my hero-saint, once said, "The love of God is the first in the order of precepts; the love of neighbor is the first in the order of practice."

Practice in loving our neighbor begins right after Mass as we jockey for the fastest moving line out of the parking lot and scatter to the four winds to take the Good News to the homebound, the person suffering from AIDS, the abused women in a safe house, to the sick, to our neighbors, to our family members who are hurting.

Believe me, there is no love lost in any love given away so freely.

Looking back, I guess the song was right after all, “…love is all you need…love is all you need…love is all you need…all you need is love.”

Well, the game was a defensive one. It was closer than I thought at 6-3 with Bama winning with 13 seconds left in the game. Of course, Tennessee had two huge fumbles that gave the game away. The first happened less than five minutes into the game when we lost the ball at the 11 yard line on a way to a score. The second was a fumble that rolled out of the back of the end zone, turning the ball over to Bama. That was two touchdowns from careless play that prevented Tennessee from winning the ballgame. Tennessee certainly outplayed Bame. It's just that lack of offense is killing us. The General (Neyland, for the uneducated) said that is was defense that won games. It was true today. Unfortunately, it was Bama's defense!

At least there is no other team with three losses that can be proud of the fact that all three losses came at the hands of Top 5 teams. Big Deal. We're still 3-3. Tennessee is the SEC version of the Big Ten's Michigan Wolverines.

The question to ponder this week is: Will Steve Spurrier continue his domination over Philip Fulmer?

My personal question is: When will we find a real offensive coordinator, one with some imagination and guts?

Next week: South Carolina in Knoxville. I will be in Delaware, Ohio at the 40th Reunion of my 8th Grade graduating class.

It used to be the third Saturday of October every year, but in recent years it seems THE game is played on the fourth Saturday of the month. Tennessee versus Alabama. The Vols against the Crimson Tide. What a bitter rivalry it was for more than 50 years. Then the Southeastern Conference expanded and new rivals came into play: Florida and Georgia. Bama is still hated by the Big Orange, but the intensity has subsided somewhat. This year, I expect Tennessee to succumb to the boys from Tuscaloosa for a few reasons: 1) the Vols have not been able to generate any offense and the Tide has Brody Croyle in full health; 2) Croyle will thread balls through the Tennessee secondary like my grandmother used to thread needles; 3) Alabama is primed to beat Tennessee Coach Phil Fulmer on Bryant-Denney field to pay him back for the role he played in revealing recruiting violations three years ago; and, 4) Tennessee has yet to play like a team (with the exception of the second half of the LSU game) and now lacks on field leadership. I will be celebrating Mass while the second half is played out, but I think the game will be decided in the first quarter unless there is another miracle in Davy Crockett's coonskin cap.

Pat Heffernan, 1932-2005
Funeral: 10/14/2005

Yesterday afternoon, when Pat’s body was first brought to church two things of great significance occurred. Fr. Russ sprinkled the coffin and proclaimed, “As Pat died with Christ in Baptism so may he rise with him to everlasting life,” and the white pall was draped over the coffin.

Both of these actions remind us of the faith that Pat proclaimed and the hope that we share because of the covenant that God carved out with His people.

The sprinkling recalls his baptism when he entered into a relationship with Christ. It was a relationship that was the foundation of Pat’s life and one he reminded himself of every time he entered church, dipped his hand into the holy water and made the sign of the cross. It was a relationship he renewed every Easter when he humbly acknowledged his faith in God and the saving action of the Holy Trinity while rejecting Satan and all his works.

The white pall reminds us that it is by the blood of the Lamb that we are saved and those so saved live for ever, even though their bodies may die, and worship Jesus, the Risen Lamb, at the throne of God in heaven.

As it should be for every Christian, it was his baptismal covenant with God that motivated everything Pat did in this life. He paid attention to God. And he responded in love because he knew that his own love was but a reflection of God’s love for him, whether it be for Jean, his beautiful wife of 48 years, his two daughters, Edie and Colleen, his brothers, and his grandsons, or his love of his Church, his parish here at Holy Rosary, the work of the Christian Brothers, or his beloved Memphis Tigers. He was able to love because he knew he was loved first by God.

Like Job, Pat was able to get past many trials, especially in the past two years, because of his knowledge of God’s plan of salvation. He knew that his vindicator lives, and he knew that he belonged to God, and his life reflected what he believed.

The Beatitudes that we heard from Matthew’s Gospel this morning are often referred to as the “Attitudes of Life” or the “Attitudes of Being.” They go beyond the Ten Commandments in a way that doesn’t just keep us from sinning against God and neighbor but rather compel us to love one another in a Godly way. Who doesn’t recognize Pat Heffernan in these instructions?

To live humbly is to be honest before God and man in such a way that allows us to know what gifts we have received from God and to recognize others’ gifts that complement us, and then to use those gifts to build up the Kingdom of God.

To mourn is not just about grieving a loved one’s death but an attitude that recognizes sin and grievances in the world for which we long for correction. To mourn for someone whose life has gone awry is to long for correction. To mourn for a country torn apart by internal strife is to take her citizens to heart and bear them up to God in our prayers.

To be meek is not to be weak. It is the attitude that allows a person to honestly admit there just may be someone better at doing something and having the wisdom and courage to let it happen.

To hunger and thirst for righteousness is the call of everyone who has heard the Gospel or is in covenant with the LORD. The prophets of old remind us time and time again that the poor must be taken care of, the widows must be tended to, the orphans and homeless must be provided for, and Jesus was straightforward in telling us that whenever we minister to the least of our brothers and sisters we are ministering to him.

To be merciful is to participate in God’s own life. We know well the prayer that Jesus taught us and how we ask God to judge us as we judge others. Showing mercy to those who have wronged us is, in actuality, a living icon of the image of God and what we long for and even expect from Him.

To be clean of heart requires that we have no motivation but the love of God. There can be no desire for public praise. No need for compliments. We live because we are God’s and die as God’s.

To be a peacemaker is a constant struggle in the world. It begins in the family, continues in the workplace and local communities, and ends in a global society.

Whether it be his initiative to help foster understanding between the Protestant and Catholic factions in Northern Ireland … or, his quiet demeanor at the nine o’clock liturgy and a concern for those who weren’t present (“How’s Debby?”) … or, the way he greeted visitors to his bedside at the hospital or at home (“It is so nice to see you, Father, but it is I who should be visiting you.”) … or, the way he helped to support priestly and religious vocations in the Diocese … or, his generosity to those less fortunate than he … Hugh Patrick Heffernan was a living breathing beatitude.

There is an old American Indian saying that there are two wolves that live within us that seek to control us: one hungers for jealousy, greed and power while the other hungers for love, peace and justice. When asked by a young boy which of the two wolves would be successful, the chief responded, “The one you feed.”

Pat Heffernan fed the right wolf. His love of life was best reflected in his desire to serve God above all things and to love his neighbor as himself. He walked through life with the humility of a man who walked in the grace of God. It was an attitude of being that was based on his faith in Christ, a faith we share with him that promises us eternal life, eternal love, and eternal peace.

So today we gather not to say “good-bye” but “see you later.” For just as we bid our farewells to his earthly presence we are confident that one day soon, Pat will be greeting us once again and welcoming us to the mansion God has prepared for us.

And for any of us who think that we can no longer talk with Pat or seek his counsel, remember he IS alive. Only his address has changed.

The tension between religion and government has existed for a long time. Just in recent days we have seen this tension lived out in the upheaval of religious activists trying to prevent an election in Iraq and the controversy over the most recent nominee to our Supreme Court.

This tension is something our founding fathers wanted to avoid when they included a clause in the Constitution prohibiting Congress from establishing a state religion. They had no intention of a godless society, but one of laws based on the morality brought by the religiosity of the citizenry. Even Thomas Jefferson wrote that “this experiment of government by the people is relegated to failure without the assistance that God alone can provide.”

When my grandmother became a citizen of the United States in 1956, she was asked one question: Do you renounce all allegiance to all other nations? She gladly said, “Yes.”

The Pharisees sent their followers to try and get Jesus to choose either Rome or the LORD. They couldn’t care less about the tax issue. Unlike us who know Jesus from a post-Resurrection experience, they despised Jesus. They thought he was demonic and under the control of Satan. They plotted and schemed against him because they figured that any influence he had on the people would end with his execution. Little did they realize that the cross to which he was nailed only gave more power to the words he spoke and miracles he worked. But they were blinded by their hatred.

So which was it to be, Jesus? Death by stoning for blasphemy? Or, death at the hands of a Roman executioner?

But Jesus left the decision on the hearts of his inquisitors. Give to Caesar that which is his and to God that which is His.

We are citizens of this world, but we are first and foremost citizens of heaven. This creates a certain tension because we are instructed by Sacred Scripture to put God first but also to show respect and obedience to legitimate government authority because it is an extension of God’s authority to work for peace and order in this world.

We are certainly supposed to give to God that which is His. Praise. Gratitude. Witness. Those are the three things God expects of us.

What about when the demands of government are in conflict with what God teaches?

Some say income taxes are unconstitutional and have formed militias because they are “at war with the federal system.” Now, I don’t like paying taxes any more than the next person, but they are legitimate, and it is apostolic teaching to pay the taxes requested of us, even if we think they are too high or distributed unfairly.

But when government imposes laws that are truly contrary to divine revelation, it is every Christian’s duty to stand up and give witness to the Truth, to be counted as a citizen of heaven. Issues like abortion, euthanasia and assisted suicide come immediately to mind.

When asked to help defend the nation, we are called to respond. Even if we conscientiously object to war, we are called to contribute to the effort through other kinds of service to the nation. There is no conflict there. But when we are asked to support something that is morally reprehensible, we are challenged and there is tension between religion and patriotism.

There are always going to be differences of opinion, but we have to remember that opinion is not Truth. If there are two opposing opinions and one is correct, then the other is wrong. It is the responsibility of a Christian to bring Christ to the world to enlighten the world, to change the world, and we must never forget that.

We can praise God in private without upsetting the social structure. We can give thanks to God through tithes and service without challenging the world. But when it comes to bearing witness to the Truth a Christian must always anticipate arguments, trickery and lies from those who cling to self-love and political correctness.

Last year, when I was on a panel of religious leaders discussing Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ for the Memphis Commercial-Appeal, a comment was made by one rabbi that “Jews seeks peace even above the truth.” Before I could respond a reporter asked another question of a different minister otherwise I would have quoted Jesus and said, “[Jesus] came not to establish peace but division, to set father against son, mother against daughter, daughter-in-law against mother-in-law....” That is exactly what the Truth does. It separates right from wrong, deception from truth, conscience from the unconscionable.

Jesus has left the decision to us. Do we choose God or do we choose nation? I think we can do both, but we must be careful not to fall into the error of thinking that patriotism bears the same weight as discipleship in the kingdom of God.

At the judgment, no one will be asked if you were a good American. Everyone will be asked if you were a good disciple.

Yep the choice is ours.