‘Attitude of Gratitude’ observation for Tuesday afternoon

I am grateful for the day’s first cup of coffee. Early in the morning, everything is silent and it’s still dark outside. (During June it’s hard to get up before the sun does, but I still manage to do so most of the time, presumably because the sun does not have a middle-aged bladder and can sleep later than me.) While still half asleep, the aroma emanating from the Kuerig machine is delightful. I wish it wasn’t so noisy, though. When the thing starts brewing, the pre-dawn silence is shattered by what seems like a wood chipper.

Sitting on the couch for a few minutes, praying and meditating a bit to get ready for another day, with a steaming mug of freshly-brewed coffee in my hand, has become my favorite time of the day. And no matter how good or freshly-brewed any subsequent cups of coffee might be, the first one of the day always tastes the best. Sometimes at night when I’m getting ready for bed, I’m already looking forward to the next morning’s first cup of coffee. This means I’m either learning to be grateful for small pleasures, or my life has become painfully boring. I prefer to think it’s the former, not the latter.

‘How Come You Catholics Worship a Piece of Bread?’

“How come you Catholics worship a piece of bread? Don’t you know that idolatry is the worst sin of all? And yet you Catholics bow down and worship the bread used during the communion service—which, of course, is only symbolic—as if was God. The idea that the bread becomes the body of Christ is not biblical. Therefore, you are committing the terrible sin of idolatry. That’s why you’re not real Christians!”

*     *     *

Wow, have you ever been confronted with these questions by a friend or co-worker or, most zealous of all, a family member who USED to be Catholic? How do you respond? Is it really true that we Catholics worship a piece of bread?

The Eucharist is a central part of the Catholic faith. In fact, the Catechism of the Catholic Church says the Eucharist is “the source and summit of the Christian life.” Why would a piece of bread and a cup of wine be so important? Well, that’s simple. It’s because the bread and wine truly become the body and blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ.

And the reason Catholics believe the bread and wine become the true body and blood of Christ also is simple: because Jesus said so.

Unlike what our zealous friends might claim, the doctrine of the Eucharist is VERY biblical. It’s one of the easiest Catholic doctrines to defend directly from Scripture. In John’s gospel, chapter 6, Jesus offered His “Bread of Life discourse.” He repeatedly said that people must eat His flesh and drink His blood. Unlike other times during His ministry—when He spoke in figurative terms and was quick to explain the figurative meaning if His listeners got confused—here Jesus did not offer a figurative explanation for His shocking statements. He actually doubled-down and repeated in even more graphic terms His original claim: people must eat His flesh and drink His blood.

As folks in the crowd began to leave, shocked by what He said, Jesus did not say, “Wait, come back. Let me explain. It was just symbolic.” Instead, He let them leave, and then turned to His 12 apostles and defiantly challenged them: “Do you also want to leave?”

Good ol’ Peter spoke up in reply, “To whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” In all likelihood, Peter was probably thinking, “I’m staying, but what you just said makes no sense!”

Maybe it started to make some sense at the Last Supper, when Jesus held up bread and wine and said, “This is my body….This is my blood.”

It certainly made sense to the apostle Paul, who wrote about the Eucharistic ritual in his first letter to the Corinthians: “Is not the cup…a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ?” The clincher comes a few verses later when Paul exclaimed, “Whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord….For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself.”

“…without RECOGNIZING the body of the Lord…” That does not sound like symbolic, figure-of-speech language, does it? It sure sounds like St. Paul knew without a doubt that the bread and wine are truly the body and blood of Jesus.

The Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian life, because it truly is Jesus. Our Lord proclaimed it, the apostles believed it, and the Bible clearly teaches it. And as Catholics, we should not be defensive about it. 

Oh, and one last thing, in case you’re not sure: Catholics definitely ARE real Christians.

‘Attitude of Gratitude’ observation for Sunday afternoon

I am grateful for just a wonderful day. Sitting on the back porch in the shade with my honey. The weather absolutely perfect: warm, comfortable, no humidity. Earlier today it was the parish’s annual chicken barbecue. The food was great, and we sat with Fr. Tim. Enjoyed the food and commiserated about the woeful Red Sox. Before that a great liturgy, being in communion with the Lord of the Universe by partaking of His body and blood, soul and divinity. How can it get any better??

The ‘Wait, What?!’ of the Week, June 12, 2015

For quite a while now we’ve been told that gay people are born that way and it’s impossible to change a person’s sexual orientation. To put a religious spin on it, we also are told that God doesn’t make mistakes, so if anyone says gay behavior is wrong then he is actually going against God who made gays that way.

Now, with the media circus known as Bruce/Caitlin Jenner, we are told that transgender people need to correct the mistake of their birth biology. In other words, hormones and mutilating surgeries are needed to correct the mistake that God made.

Wait. What?! God doesn’t make mistakes when it comes to gay people, but He does make mistakes with transgender people? Hmm, something is fishy here. 

I heard a term recently: “Polite fictions.” Our culture is teeming nowadays with polite fictions. Everybody smiles and says, “How nice,” all-the-while ignoring reality. And logic and reason are completely ignored too, such as the “God doesn’t make mistakes—except when He does” contradiction, and the “he fathered four children, but he’s really a woman” nonsense. I believe Pope Benedict called this the “tyranny of relativism,” the abandonment of truth, when feelings trump facts and emotions are more important than evidence. In this day and age the only thing that’s wrong is to claim that something is wrong. We venture down this path at our peril.

‘Attitude of Gratitude’ observation for Thursday evening

I am grateful it is now that wonderful time of year when there are more than 15 hours of sunlight per day. A couple weeks on either side of the summer solstice is just an awesome period of time. Sunrise is around 5:15 am and sunset is about 8:30 pm. This means it’s actually light outside before 5, and it doesn’t get fully dark until after 9.

Of course, south of here it’s not quite as pronounced, while north of here it’s even more spectacular. Maybe one of these years I’ll visit Scandinavia during the third week of June. That must be really amazing to watch the sun ALMOST set, and then begin rising in the sky again. (See time-lapsed photo below.) It’s The Land of the Midnight Sun. But I’m quite happy here in The Land of the 15-Hour Per Day Sun. 

And for all you folks in Australia, sorry you’re experiencing the least amount of sunlight during the year, in this, the dead of winter in your hemisphere. But it’s not like you have two feet of snow on the ground, so I’m sure you can handle it!

Feeling Sorry For Bored Retirees

At my age (“three score minus two,” as Abe Lincoln might say), I’ve noticed that a lot of the guys I went to school with are starting to retire. I don’t mean “retire” in the sense that they got laid off when the big corporations they worked for downsized them out the door (or as Abe Lincoln might say, “Dumped the chumps approaching the age of three-score”). Nowadays, these fellas spend their weekdays going to job interviews, where they beg young smart-alecks to hire them, and then they spend their weekends at Home Depot earning a part-time paycheck, where they beg other young smart-alecks to explain the stupid computer system one more time. No, I’m not talking about these guys when I say “retire.”

The folks my age to whom I refer are the ones who actually retire on purpose. These are the select few who were smart enough 30 years ago to get a job with an organization that offers a “magic pension,” something the vast majority of us can only dream about. A “magic pension,” by the way, is one that pays a set amount each month (plus annual cost of living increases) for the rest of the pensioner’s life — even if he lives to be 120 years old. It’s called “magic” because the funds flow from a fiscal fountain that never runs dry. So when I say these folks were smart enough to get a job with a particular organization, the organization, of course, is the government. These guys are civil servants.

Now, you may get the impression from what I’ve written so far that I am jealous of state employees who are still in their 50’s and who can retire with full pensions for life, while private sector dummies like me have to work until age 80 in order to have enough money for retirement. (And we have to make sure we die at 83 or else the money runs out.)

I’m not jealous of these guys. In fact, I feel sorry for them. Think about it: here they are, in the prime of middle-age, with lots of experience, lots of knowledge, and enough energy to work the standard 50-hour week. (Oops, I forgot, they’re staties. I mean 35-hour week.) And what do they do instead? They sleep late. They play golf. They nap. They go out to dinner each night. They watch TV whenever they want. And sometimes they go on vacation — but how can you even tell? What a sad existence. And they’re stuck in this same boring routine for the next 25 years or more. 

These poor schmoes are missing out on the really challenging and fulfilling aspects of life, for example: the thrill of juggling six phone calls at the same time from irate customers, who are preventing you from making six outgoing phone calls to other customers who haven’t paid an invoice since February, in the hope that you might collect enough money in the next 24 hours to meet payroll this week. Now, that’s entertainment! That is nothing like the boring retirement life of golf, Judge Judy, watering the petunias, and ordering the early bird special.

The non-retired life, my life, is a life filled with purpose. It’s a life where you are needed. It’s a life where other people really depend on you — to the point where they won’t hesitate to give you a mouthful of bloody Chiclets and slash your tires if their paychecks bounce. 

So, being only “three score minus two,” I’ve got at least “one score and two” years to go before I can retire. And I wouldn’t have it any other way (mostly because I can’t).

‘Attitude of Gratitude’ observation for Tuesday afternoon

I am grateful for my one-hour commute to work each morning. Yes, I realize this is somewhat odd. I mean, who really wants to sit in bumper-to-bumper traffic every day? But this period of time is the perfect opportunity for me to say the Rosary. If I lived five minutes from my office, I’m sure I’d never get around to saying this wonderful, powerful prayer. Because of my commute, however, I have the privilege of meditating on the Joyful, Luminous, Sorrowful, and Glorious Mysteries. (No, I don’t do all 4 at a time. Just one set of mysteries per day. I’m not THAT holy!)

Don’t forget the old expression: “When you pray the Rosary, you pray the Gospel.” 

So the morning commute is my special time to pray, and I’m grateful for it. The afternoon commute, on the other hand, when I desperately want to get home but the line of cars in front of me creeps along at 5 mph, well, that’s the time when I usually lose whatever grace I obtained in the morning! And for the lady in the silver Honda, um, sorry about the rude hand gesture yesterday afternoon.