Deacon Dan Wright

Missing Archbishop Found

Here's the kind of story you don't get everyday:

SAN ANTONIO — Retired Archbishop Patrick Flores, the long-serving leader of South Texas Catholics, was found safe early Wednesday more than 200 miles from the assisted living center where he was reported missing the day before.

Flores, 78, was disoriented and was driving the wrong way on an interstate shortly before he was found pumping gas at a convenience store in West Texas at about 3 a.m., Crockett County Sheriff Shane Fenton said.

The retired leader of the Archdiocese of San Antonio was reported missing Tuesday afternoon when he didn't return home from a shopping trip. Flores lives at the facility for retired priests who are in declining health. He has diabetes, difficulty with balance and a bad back — resulting from being roughed up when he was taken hostage by a distraught man in 2000, said the Rev. Ed Loch, the archdiocese archivist.

More than 12 hours after Flores was reported missing, a Crockett County sheriff's deputy responded to a report that a car was headed in the wrong direction on Interstate 10 near Ozona. The deputy then found Flores pumping gas, Fenton said.

"He seemed really disoriented and didn't know exactly where he was at," Fenton said.

Flores told the deputy he was trying to get home and didn't realize he had been driving the wrong way on the interstate.

When Crockett County deputies found that Flores had been reported missing, they called San Antonio police and a local Catholic priest. The archbishop was taken to a local church to wait for someone from San Antonio to pick him up and take him home, Fenton said.

"Nobody's hurt. It turned out lucky," he said.

Flores served as the archbishop for 25 years before retiring in 2005.

He was a bishop for 10 years before being named archbishop and was the first Mexican-American bishop named in the United States.

Flores gained a reputation as an advocate for immigrants and the poor. He was also an outspoken critic of abortion and state law that allows people to carry concealed weapons.

Source

Thank God for guardian angels!

Seeing the Lord

“Blessed are the eyes that see what you see.
For I say to you,
many prophets and kings desired to see what you see,
but did not see it,
and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.” Lk. 10:23-24

A blessing indeed it is to see the Lord.  A skeptic might ask me, "So you see him, do you?"  To which I would emphatically respond "Amen!"

We live in a world that demands evidence: it is a world in which one must see in order to believe.  I am reminded years ago of a professor I had who taught me, in a roundabout way, an important lesson about "seeing."  His philosophy was certainly that seeing is believing.  However, he had learned to see with the minds eye above and beyond what normally counted for evidence.  In many ways I credit this particular professor with having taught me to be a believer.  He taught me to find evidence in places that other people often don't bother to look.

In his time Jesus went mostly unrecognized for who he was in reality.  The ones who needed evidence didn't see him, but to the believers he said "Blessed are the eyes that see what you see."  Indeed blessed were the believing hearts that beheld what prophets and kings longed and waited for but did not see.

Advent is as much about this special "seeing" as it is about the qualities of vigilance, anticipation, and expectation--all aspects of learning to live out a deeper faith.  We must all be watchful and ever anticipating what lies in the dark of the unseen future.  Seeing what is still not yet is an aspect of true hope, which like the candles of our Advent wreaths leads us step by step to peace, joy, and the final fulfillment of love.  When all is complete that which we have hoped for will appear in the most splendid glory that even the minds eye cannot "phantasy" it.

Indeed many desired to hear--as well--what you hear but did not hear it, though their hearing led them to compose psalms and symphonies.  Many even have heard the Spirit rustling like leaves enough to translate to words that sound so sublime.  Yet in his presence we will hear more.

I recall in my youth, just a child, dreaming of the possibility that I might actually hear the voice of God speak to me as he spoke unto the ancients.  I would ask, "May I please hear you, Lord?" Still he replies, "Can you hear me yet?"  Often, it takes a keen ear to detect the voice of the Spirit but at other times it comes as a shout.

In faith we both see and hear when we set our sights and our hearts on communion with the Almighty.  Our conversation--our envisioning and hearing angel choirs--is not a one-sided dream.  Our hope in the Lord serves to plant that which we long for in our hearts, and we experience a true exchange.  He presents us an evidence that belongs to no other but still that we somehow share between our innermost selves.

Yes many have desired to see and hear these things.  We keep on looking and longing--our desire grows deeper, ever stronger.  Increase our faith O Lord; sharpen our vision and tune our ears.  May that which we see now grow ever clearer.  Open our eyes, our ears, and our hearts this season.  Open us to the evidence of seeing.

Sunday Homily: The Advent Invitation

As we begin Advent today I recall the Advent seasons of the past. My recollection of them is that they always seemed to heighten my spiritual awareness during the time of year when we were all supposed to be getting the seasonal spirit anyhow.

I remember during the years before I became Catholic that family members would ask, "Do you have the Christmas spirit yet?" Often I didn't get the Christmas spirit even up until a day or two before Christmas Day, sometimes not even then.

What was missing of course was the season of preparation. It can be a little difficult to have holiday cheer when your entire focus is on the busyness of the season and the material aspects of it. To make it into something more meaningful we have to recognize a special invitation that all of us have received, and all of us should be prepared to make a special invitation of our own.

The prophets told of a coming day when the mountain of the Lord's house was to be established on the earth. They spoke words full of expectation, full of hope, and full of anticipation for the coming of God's just judgments among the nations.

The people heard the words of the prophets and received them as a sacred invitation. They looked and waited, not knowing exactly what to expect—yet they waited with the same expectation and hope of fulfillment as they heard in the voice of the prophets.

We begin the liturgical season hearing an ancient prophecy that foretells an advent: it tells of the coming of a kingdom like nothing else before. Isaiah's prophecy prepares the people for a time to come when all the earth will look to the tribe of Judah and to Jerusalem; moreover, his prophecy invites the people to come forth to the mountain of the Lord: to come and to receive instruction, peace, salvation and justice.

Likewise in our readings for the first Sunday of Advent we too receive the summons to begin our season of preparation.

In many ways the invitation to come to the mountain of the Lord, is one that goes beyond our seasonal observances. The prophetic words of scripture point us to yet another coming of the kingdom. The New Testament expectation of the Second Coming urges us not only to wait and be vigilant but to go forward transformed by the reality and power of our Lord Jesus Christ.

St. Paul, in his Epistle to the Romans, tells us that the night is far spent and the day is close at hand. We are to live as children of the light, and "throw off," he tells us, "the works of darkness." It is no coincidence that the readings convey the message of right judgment or justice.

Our Advent invitation, far from being an invitation to mere passive waiting, is to go forth rejoicing to the house of the Lord and to work actively in bringing about the peace that we proclaim and celebrate in song each year during the Christmas season. Undoubtedly, the message pertains to everyone, and therefore, it's a communal message; however, each of us receives a personal forewarning.

Each individual person shares responsibility, for himself or herself and for the world, as much as the whole altogether bears responsibility. What happens in our world today begins with us individually. As individuals we hold in our hearts the sense of anticipation and expectation that leads us to live watchful lives that are always ready for that moment that no one can predict, the hour when the Son of Man will appear. As individuals we learn to share our anticipation of the kingdom to come with others, and thus we restore its communal dimension.

Through the years I have found Advent to be one my greatest joys. In anticipating the coming of Jesus the human heart cannot help but be transformed in some way. The season offers us a perfect opportunity to reflect on our personal readiness as well as giving us a chance to consider our role in bringing about the Kingdom of God. It is the season when we invite God into our hearts, when we say "Come Lord Jesus."

The God of peace, the God of the kingdom to be, is able to prepare our hearts. He is able to enlighten our souls and make us ready for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ— both in his infancy at Bethlehem and in his everlasting glory.