Thursday Reflection

Please Watch What You’re Doing!

It almost happened last Wednesday. I came within inches of watching a potential tragedy unfold. From my vantage point on the 23rd St. platform, I witnessed a young woman (so totally focused on her phone as she was texting someone important) come within inches of actually walking off the station platform. I thought those were staged events, fake news, or part of subway urban legend, but NO, it almost happened about 25 yards up ahead of me, and I among others might have been powerless to stop her or get to her in time before her not winning the inevitable impact with the soon approaching # 1 Broadway Local.

As I said, I had never seen something like this almost happen. But I have seen more and more how we bury ourselves in our phones. Two people on a “date” – having a dinner I suppose but each spending time on their phone texting or talking to anyone other than the person sitting opposite. I watch people drop off their little one(s) at our Early Learning Center, and from the moment they reemerge from that building, they are racing to the car and scrolling on phone lest a message had been missed in those 160 or so seconds!

The thought of “driverless cars” with human passengers asleep at the wheel does not give me all sorts of warm and fuzzy feelings! We’re so busy. We are always plugged in and running from this appointment to the next. Many of us have become the chauffeurs of our (as-of-yet) unlicensed youth who have too many activities each day to which and from which they must be deposited and extracted.

Heck I know some folks who take their phone into every room of the house they need to use! Seriously? How can we ever join St. Francis and pray “Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace” when our lives are in pieces – not peace? Are we doomed to forever race from now to then – always checking in to make sure I am in contact with everyone all the time? Have we lost the ability to watch what we are doing or where we are going? How many symbolic subway platforms have we fallen off simply because we are so rushed, we know not what to do.

Fr. Joe

Thursday Reflection

Living with expectations (Good or Bad)?

Be prepared for surprises!

A funny (also cute) thing happened last Friday. It was the first day of “school” for the two year old's program for our Early Learning Center. Their “home” is the two rooms next to my office. Ever since we move that group of youngsters over to the parish house, I have emotionally steeled myself for the angst and drama that is at the heart of opening day. I told one parishioner that today would be “crying Friday” because of all the tears that would be shed by little ones leaving their mommies or daddies.

ut surprise! Even though I have been a teacher (seminary professor, church school teacher, coach etc.) for decades and know that each year, each group, each class has its own personality as well as personalities, I was utterly shocked by the lack of drama that this year’s group displayed. It was like: “hey.. lookie here .. toys, clothes.. stuff…other little kids like me.. wow” and off they went having fun with each other and their teachers, leaving their parents in the dust and in the words of a NY Yankee broadcaster announcing a home run – “see ya!”

I know that there are some truths that are infallibly consistent: being is! Jesus saves! Human life is sacred! My NY Mets will always find a way to break my heart! But I often forget that the vast majority of life is cloaked mystery. One of the most painfully quiet group of teens I ever taught in Confirmation Class (so I expected) turned out to be the most fun and interactive groups of all. It’s a bitter cold and somewhat snowy Sunday morning : no one is going to come to church except some people do! A year or more ago I wrote about one instance on the subways when a young woman was asking for food and not money. No one ever responds to this – but I among many did. And she was so grateful, and this moment of grace exceeded any expectations of hardened New Yorkers.

As I look with gloom and almost despair at the political landscape of our fractured nation, as I prepare for more disappointment and political nonsense, as I wonder if we shall ever deal with the reality of gun violence in our nation, as I look sat the increasing secularization of this land impose an amoral philosophy that will control what used to be free speech and thought, but perhaps God will once again remind me: You have expectations? Surprise!

Fr. Joe

Thursday Reflection

What Exactly is God calling us to do?

“I wish we could remember what is truly important”?

A priest without wearing a clerical collar is practically invisible. One can see and overhear things – often hearing the “true truths” that lie within the human heart. Last week I managed to read and hear a few comments that reminded me why we Americans are often held with distain by the so many of our fellow inhabitants of planet earth. We are often seen as entitled, spoiled, self-centered, overly rich, and untrustworthy and not realty concerned about anything beyond our own comforts of the moment.

I read a comment from a participant in the CTC races who seemed to enjoy his/her experience here EXCEPT this person who claims to have participated in about 50 other races this year, and at each other race, participants were given a free T- shirt. We did not give away free T shirts. Not good! But remember that on that very day we began to watch with horror how a cat. 5 hurricane named “Dorian” utterly obliterated an entire island nation. So many there now have no home, possessions, clothing or food. They are missing family members. And yet one can complain that he/she did not receive his/her 51st T-Shirt this year! Would someone remind me of what’s really important?

I happened to overhear a conversation towards the end of the festivities on Monday. A mom pushing for a placement medal for her son because she “knows” where he placed in his age group in a particular race, and the electronic timer (which placed him lower) is obviously wrong. Now before anyone gets offended about my being judgmental, let me assure you that I could care less where anyone placed. This was a fun, charity and fund raising event. Force me to put my hand on a bible, I would solemnly swear that, from my observations, no one currently on the USA Olympic Track Team need fear losing a place on the roster. But in addition to words and body language, I also saw the young (pre?) teen awkwardly (I watched his face and eyes) let this argument take place because I suspect he knows the truth. He will get a medal because of a pushy parent. He will be embarrassed by her but worst of all, will learn a lesson that it’s always better to get your way than to be honest. Having what “I believe I am entitled to” is the highest priority that one should really live by!

Over the summer, JoAnne and I met up with a person whom I had known 45 years ago when she was a teenager and I was serving as a deacon in a parish outside Liverpool. I remember how challenged I was trying to work with that parish youth group that summer of ’74, (and Sue was an active, loud and very vocal member) and how often they all would fling very harsh questions at me about why we "Yanks” are always acting as if we’re entitled to everything. From my continued observations, I wonder if much has changed.

I hope that this is not only an American flaw as much as it is a 21st century human flaw: the self-absorbed notion that the world revolves around me, and the rest of “you” have to adjust to me.  You know: the guy who insists talking on the train even in the “quiet car!”  It’s not surprising that the most popular form of photograph is now the “selfie.”  It’s always about me!  So I pose a question:  are we permanently losing any sense of what really matters and what is trivial?  Is it always about me and what I want at this moment?  What’s really important?  We know what Jesus commanded about love and service.  We know the answers.  We should know what’s really important!

Fr. Joe

Thursday Reflection

Since I’ve been away…

The summer of ’19 has filled my mind with images of past and present – so much of which could be the substance for spiritual reflection. Here are brief verbal snapshots of today and yesteryear with their possible implications:

Whenever I think we have experienced the final, absolute and utter breaking point that will and must force our nation to face its epidemic of gun violence and mass death along with our terrible image in the world because of this violence (speaking as one who traveled outside the USA this summer and heard such comments), I know in my heart that without a conscience transplant, nothing will change. There will be a new mass killing to report in a few days/weeks. (Reader alert: this “reflection” was written on August 28. Since then, we have had another mass shooting in Texas)! Nothing ever changes. “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me.” (Ps. 22:1)

I looked back a half century to remember a week when we traveled into the heavens, landed on the moon, and believed that our achievements would only be limited by our aspirations. Six more visits and fifty plus years has brought us neither peace on earth no good will toward men (sic.) But at least we have rocks and dust from a dead world – possibly a fitting gift to a planet bent upon ecological suicide.

I looked back a half century and recalled an event of protest, love, lust, mud and some of the best rock music ever – and yet I now know that without a moral compass pointing toward our Creator, feelings of ecstasy (whether caused by the heights of music or the depths of chemicals) are never enough to change a culture, truly raise our spirits or “give peace a chance”.

I went to school in the Netherlands to expand my knowledge of history and theology, and without any warning met a physically unimpressive fellow student whose whole life would change when he learned that he could no longer return home (which happens to be on the other side of the planet) because there would forever be a target on his back “painted” by the forces of crime and corruption that he had preached against. Words of Henry II from the play Beckett took on a powerful new meaning: “And who will rid me of this troublesome priest?”

And yet I also continued to awaken early each day, pray with words in the early morning stillness, walk Abby when she decided that she needed pursue her morning “routine.” Each morning this now middle aged puppy scans and sniffs the perimeter of the yard to know “who goes there?” during the night, greets other obscenely early morning travelers (two large slugs I named “Dimmi” and “Nadia” because I read too many John Le Carre novels over the years as well as a sweet and nimble bunny whom I named “Collette”as she reminds me of someone I knew in the summer of ‘69 – and that is one story I will never share with you!). Abby even drinks in the intoxicating pleasures of dew on the weeds – all of this reminds me that in the silence and simplicity of life, there is peace and purpose.

Fr. Joe