SpiritMatters Monthly September 2009

Ba De Ya - Dancing in September...

September has never been my favorite month. As a child September always meant an end to summer vacation and a return to school work. Growing up in Florida, the most exciting thing about this time of the year was that it was the height of hurricane season, and that at least, offered the potential for some excitement. Perhaps it is no coincidence that September begins with Labor Day, because this month more than any other, seems to be about work. On Labor Day, we celebrate people who work. Students begin their fall courses working towards getting their diplomas or degrees, so that they may eventually get a job and work in their chosen field. Others return from their summer vacations, prepared to work through another fall, winter and spring.

September falls in the middle of what the Church calls “ordinary time,” which is to say that it is not one of the special seasons like Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent or Easter. Ordinary time is, well, ordinary. Most of our lives are spent in ordinary time, just as most of our lives are spent doing work, so unless we want our lives to be boring and our work to be drudgery, then we had best learn how to make the routine and daily necessities of our existence meaningful.

One of the most popular movies of this summer has been the film “Julie and Julia,” about two women whose lives are enriched and made more meaningful by the most mundane daily activity: cooking. At a time when the media was trying to convince people that cooking was a chore to be avoided, Julia Child entered the scene to show how much pleasure could be had in this necessary daily activity. What for so many people had been just meaningless work, became for Julia a life-giving vocation, and through her a vocation for many others.

How do you view the ordinary time in your life? Is it about dull, meaningless work or is it about a life-giving vocation? What Julia taught so many is that finding joy in everyday activities is less about what you do, and more about how you do it. Life is meant to be meaningful everyday, not just on special occasions.

For many people Labor Day will be a day of barbecues and parties and outings to celebrate a long weekend and the symbolic end of summer, but may we also remember that this holiday was founded to celebrate people who work and the work that they do. September might not be as exciting as some of the other months of the year, but that doesn’t make it any less meaningful; perhaps being a bit more routine should make September more meaningful than other months. After all, which relationships generally mean more to us: the ones that come and go in a flash or the ones that are there day in and day out? May we see the ordinary times in our lives not as dull and boring, but as life-giving. And may our work be like our food: a necessity that gives us strength and pleasure at the same time.

Bon Appétit,

Fr. Kevin +

SpiritMatters Monthly August 2009

Tell me your story...

I am willing to bet that most people at some point in their lives have had a “religious” experience. Whether it was a very strange coincidence, a vision, a revelation, a premonition or some other mysterious occurrence, most of us can identify an event or experience that has defied rational explanation. What is truly fascinating to me is not that people have these experiences, but how reluctant they usually are to talk about them. Even the clergy and religious, those whom we might expect to be the most open and understanding of mystical experiences, often prove to be very tight-lipped about experiences that do not fit or may challenge the prevailing religious attitudes at the time. We all want to be considered reasonable, rational people, so when we have experiences that challenge our view of the world, we are likely to suppress them or keep them to ourselves, rather than talk about them and risk being labeled an eccentric or a fanatic.

We often define religious communities as groups of people that share a common belief. Long before the term “catholic” was used to describe Christians of a particular denomination, it was used to refer to those Christians which upheld the general or universal beliefs of the entire church. What the church, and other religious communities, often forget though, is that those things which are now considered universal beliefs, often began as someone’s individual experience. A good example of this phenomenon is the Feast of the Transfiguration, celebrated by Christians in the catholic tradition on August 6th. The story is told that Peter, James, and John followed Jesus to the top of a mountain, where his image was mysteriously transformed and Moses and Elijah suddenly appeared at his side. Since 1456, the Transfiguration has been celebrated as a major feast of the church; parishes have been named after this event and it has been depicted in countless works of art. The story has been retold so often that it has become a part of the common belief of many Christians. But what we often forget is that this story which is now a part of the common belief of many, actually began as the private experience of a very few. Only three individuals actually experienced the Transfiguration, and yet now it is a celebrated feast of the entire catholic tradition.

The Transfiguration is just one of the many examples I could give of the experiences of a few becoming the beliefs of the many. I don’t think that this phenomenon is peculiar to the Christian religion, but rather a tendency of most religions although we may frequently overlook it. How might our lives change if we lived constantly aware that we owe our most cherished beliefs to the experiences of others? How might we value our own experiences if we realized how meaningful they might be to someone else? What would happen if we combed through our religions and got rid of every story or every belief that wasn’t accepted by everyone else? What would we be left with? Not much I would venture to say. Our lives and our faiths are made richer by the stories of others. The Transfiguration is a pretty weird story, but if I am honest, probably not that much weirder than some things I have experienced in my life. Part of why I love my job is that it affords me the opportunity to listen to the religious stories of others and that has enriched my life immeasurably. What’s your story?