Deacon Dan Wright

The Invitation: a Message in a Web

Call me indulgent.  I really don't mind so much.  When it comes to being a parent a little indulgence goes a long way.  From my youngest son Dominic, who is autistic, I have learned to be indulgent to extremes--I have learned to watch him closely--to observe his mannerisms and idiosyncrasies--and to learn about God from him.

Dominic has a love for the things of nature.  I actually can't quite express it such a way to do him justice.  He finds the little things of creation and studies them; you might say he cherishes creation in a way peculiar to himself.  From the farthest objects in the cosmos, to the raccoon living under my shed, Dominic has learned to express love and fascination.  I find myself indulging and nurturing this in him more and more.  Along the way I share in his loves; I come to appreciate the things he appreciates.

Around my house we have come to respect practically every living thing, such was also the case when Dominic discovered a magnificent and quite large example of Argiope Aurantia living in the ivy at the front of my house.  Many people would have grabbed the bug spray right away.  However, Dominic had already named our new pet.  "I think we'll call her Taylor," he told me.  At that I realized we were the proud owners of new resident outside our home: Taylor the wonderful writing spider.

After Dominic, dad, mom, brother and sister, made several daily visits to the ivy Taylor eventually moved her web so that she would be closer to us--it only took her overnight to make the long journey around the side of the house to spin a web near the front window--it was a better place to trap bugs, we reasoned, and so Taylor lived near the window for a couple weeks, getting her daily visits from Dominic and the rest of us.  I even warned the fellow who mowed the yard about our special guest.

We took our care not to disturb her, or to get too close.  We simply stopped each day for a moment's admiration.  "Everything has its purpose" I'd tell the kids, "we can learn quite a bit from nature."

It was coincidental to the spider's arrival that Dominic began asking a lot of Jesus questions--sure, he's had religious education, but he hadn't really gotten into a lot of spontaneous questioning.  My wife was taking care of most of the answers, which I reckoned came right out of her traditional Catholic upbringing.  I was thinking about how I would have answered from my Evangelical upbringing, and how "You go to heaven by being good" wouldn't have been a part of those answers for me 20 years ago.  I was thinking more about how you invite Jesus in--sort of the way that we were inviting the spider without really knowing it so much.  Of course being good has everything to do with it: being good is how we imitate God.

In addition to Dominic's questions my daughter has also been talking a bit more about the faith.  She said a kid asked her if she "knew Jesus."  She answered that she certainly knows who he is but hadn't met him personally.  Quite honest for her I thought.  Give her time.   She'll find a way to refine that answer.  When you invite Jesus just a little, he will show up at your door.  It's just the way that nature works, and there's nothing that can be closer to nature than its Creator.  It's easy to see the good in things when you look for it.

Every invitation in life gets a response--whether from nature or from God--so there really should have been no big surprise this morning when I opened the door to leave the house for Mass and there was Taylor staring me right in the face.  You should have heard me scream.  I suppose there is a lesson in all of this, even a very biblical lesson--I'll leave it to you and your comments.

Faith and Authority: An Evening Reflection

In today's gospel narrative the centurion impresses Jesus with his trust in the chain of command. "I...am a person subject to authority," He tells Jesus, "with soldiers subject to me. And I say to one, Go, and he goes; and to another, Come here, and he comes; and to my slave, Do this, and he does it.”  Undoubtedly the centurion knows the value of being the responsible link.  If everyone is conscientous in regard to his or her duty, great things happen--Rome conquers the world.

Now, what about faith, and what about our personal responsibility in relation to faith, in terms of the analogy of the chain of command? 

While the message today has the theme of trust and authority, it seems most clear to me that today's message is more about trusting in a sure authority.  Undoubtedly, our responsibility is part of the overall equation but even more the gospel speaks to us about the faithfulness of God toward us, though often our faithfulness is subject to failure.

The true responsibility of the believer is to depend upon his or her Master with full trust.  The story of the faith of the centurion serves to show us that faith can be a thing easily understood, and not too different from everyday structures of relationship and hierarchy.  The overall theme of faith in authority makes great sense to me, working in a large organization that depends on a chain of authority.  In everyday situations things will either happen or they won't.  However, in an organization that is run well by responsible individuals, each doing his or her duty, each being conscientous regarding the greater good, magnificent things happen--you just trust in those who are in charge while you do your best with those things over which you have charge.

I suppose when it comes to talk of authority that many people stop listening.  We live in an age that has problems with authority.  I think my generation and my slightly older brothers and sisters have tended to have an acute distrust for authority.  It's the result of false authority--we still see it in government, and in organizations where greed and the lust for power have taken root.  We see it in dissenters who fail to trust because false authority has failed them somewhere in their lives. However, we should take care never to confuse false authority with that which derives its power from reflecting eternal truths.

Whatever problems we may still have with accepting and being subject to authority, we must let them go and learn to trust God ultimately.  When everything in our lives is subject to the order--the chain of command--that comes from on high, faith become an easier matter and who knows what might be wrought by the might and authority of God.  When we submit to authority entirely the same authority then has an avenue to be visible in our lives.  Do our lives reflect a false authority, or is it the power and authority of the Almighty God--to whom we have complete surrendered--that is visible in our daily walk?

Almost Caught Up

Forgive my absence for the past couple weeks.  Although I anticipated that getting started for the new school year would include a tremendous amount of paperwork, I failed to foresee that it would take a lot of my blog time.  The past two weeks have been filled with those "Now where do I start" moments.

Hopefully this week you will again be seeing regular posts from me--it's not that I haven't had some great spiritual ideas come my way recently.  It's just that writing time has been a real premium.  Add to it that I've had weddings and baptisms the past two weekends and you'll begin to see the picture.

Not that I'm complaining though--being busy has been a great blessing, and honestly I haven't felt so good in some time.  I'm still excited about my new job this year and as I begin to settle in I'm seeing the hand of God in it everywhere.

The message of service and humility are still strong on my mind from my last post, which was a Sunday homily, and the reality of it is the fuel that keeps me going.  It seems that in every situation that one might count as stressful or slightly unpleasant there is an opportunity to offer ourselves to others--also, there's nothing bad about considering life's uphill moments as penance.  May we always have the grace to offer our situations to the sufferings of Christ.

Bear with me this week as I gather my scattered thoughts.  Deacondanwright.org is far from being over--I'm just getting started.  The Holy Spirit says "write" so here I am.  It may be that I don't know all the reasons yet, and that's often how it is when God tells us to act, but still ours is to obey with faith.  Look for new posts this week!

Sunday Homily: Learning Humility

When it comes to reaching a better understanding of how to apply a biblical principal to everyday living, I often find it helpful to reflect on the past so that I can get a better picture of how, over time, my opinion about certain things of the faith has developed. Growth and development is something we all should have in common, so it should be easy to relate. Today's scripture focuses on humility as a trait belonging to those who choose to follow the path leading to the kingdom of God.

Many years ago as a young college-aged person I remember asking myself, "What is it, after all, that's so bad about wanting to be praised and recognized, about wanting to be rich and happy—to be a great success?" And, "What is so wrong about pursuing my own self-interests and sticking up them when I need to do so?" I recalled, all of my life it seemed, being pointed in the direction of obtaining personal success, gain, prosperity and personal esteem as the true measure of happiness.

Therefore, when I came to the faith in such a way to consider it on my own as a young adult, I had to reckon with the ample scriptural exaltations of the poor, the meek, and the humble. It made for a somewhat difficult path in that I hadn't really been accustomed to being any of these. I had to deal in a personal way, as do the majority of us, with the truth that humility and meekness are not expressions of what the world necessarily values. Rather they are more the embodiment of the way of the few, of the voluntary spiritual poverty of ascetics; however, they are also the embodiment of a king who arrives, not on a noble steed, but on the back of a common donkey. So a choice, and a tension, emerges regarding something essential about Christian morality, about how we relate to the world as persons, and how we come to follow Christ.

Clearly, what Jesus appears to be asking of us in today's Gospel runs opposite to the values of a world that elevates and exalts individual self-importance. Also, it is important to realize that a call to radical humility in is in no way opposed to true self-esteem.

It 's actually quite possible to approach life in such a way that we exercise humility in our daily existence, and to receive the joy of spiritual self-esteem simultaneously. In doing so we accept our secular tasks –whatever they might be—with humble dedication, and thus come to a deep personal communion with our Lord. Humility is possible even though we may in fact have acquired great personal success in many areas of our lives. We must learn to "possess good things as if we owned nothing." Humility realizes that God is the source of every blessing, and all that we have is his gift to us.

Rather than being a form of self-abasement, humility, as Christian morality, finds its truest expression in service to others—especially in service to those who suffer greatly in our world. In terms of the world's morality it is the poor who ordinarily are at the service of the rich; contrarily, in Christian morality, humility is found in turning away from oneself and being at the service of others, especially of those who have the greatest need for mercy. Thus, in Christianity, we have the real foundation for social justice present in the principle of humility, that is, in service. Also, it isn't necessary to go far to find opportunities for service. We have multiple opportunities here at our parish. Humility, most simply stated, is service.

Humility also expresses a great Christological truth, and we must remember that we are to be imitators of Christ. In lives of humility we approach a reality that speaks more eloquently than the blood of Abel. We approach and comprehend the descent of God who humbled himself and took on the form of a slave, and became obedient to death. In Christ's example we see the greatest sacrifice of self for others.

The descent of God in Christ is his pouring out of love upon the world. Moreover, it is God's bringing forth love into the world, and the greatest expression of humility is love; for love seeks not its own but always has in mind the other. Love is that which gives itself entirely to the other, providing, giving, and never counting the cost. Love is that which purifies us and unites us to one another and to God, but without humility there can be no real love, for love depends upon an attitude of self-sacrifice for the other. Recall, "No greater love has one than to give one's life for one's friends."

I have found a great deal of inspiration in the Litany of Humility, composed by Cardinal Merry del Val, during the early 20^th century. It is a litany difficult for many to pray for it asks that we be freed from the desire to be esteemed, loved, honored, extolled, praised, preferred, consulted, and approved. It asks that others be loved and esteemed more than I. That they increase and I decrease; that they be chosen and I set aside; that they be praised and I go unnoticed, and that others be preferred to me in everything. It is indeed a difficult prayer and certainly not one that everyone is required to pray. Yet in it we learn that true humility has to do with our attitude toward others. By placing ourselves at the service of others, fixing our glance entirely on our fellows, and not considering our own needs first we begin to approach the humility that Christ bore perfectly in himself.

In a work published this last spring, Pope Benedict teaches us that the true morality of Christianity is love. He says that love indeed runs counter to self-seeking, that it is an "exodus out of oneself." However, he goes on to say that love is precisely the way that we come to ourselves. With this in mind, humility it seems, is the means by which we come to love, bearing in mind that God is love.

Through humility we learn the way of love; through love we accept God. Rather than being merely a personality trait we are born with or that is instilled in us, humility, in the final analysis, is the choice we make each day to love and serve as our Lord has taught us.