“…there is no one who has given up…father…for my sake and for the sake of the Gospel…”
From Today’s Gospel, Mark 10:29
Governing by clericalism Bishop Zurek once tried to “crush me under his feet” by raging, “I knew your father! He was prayerful, did ordinary, everyday acts of Charity and practiced a passive charity that loved others and never criticized. He was a faithful and loyal disciple that the Lord Jesus desires…
…You are nothing like your father!
Today would have been Dad’s 90th birthday, and in the light of today’s Gospel I’m asking, “Is Bishop Zurek correct in inherently saying, “You have given up your father for something other than Jesus’s sake or the sake of the Gospel” ❓
Anyone who knew me 50 years ago can testify to the fact that I had given up house, brothers, mother, father and land for the sake of a now defrocked priest at St. Mary’s. He preached the Gospel, but the clericalism rampant in the diocese at the time protected him as he overstepped in his service and mistreated the people of God and thus disfigured the Church with his dictatorial attitude. As a result I perhaps now see more readily than others when clericalism becomes a whip, a scourge, a form of worldliness that defiles and damages the face of the Lord’s bride, the church, by enslaving God’s holy and faithful people.
While I was slowly returning to Jesus and the Gospel and beginning to “receive a hundred times more” of what I had given up, Dad patiently worked on beautifying the face of the Church at St. Mary’s. Msgr. Waldow officially proclaimed him as the one who had done the beautiful landscaping around the campus, and on the day Dad died Fr. Scott cut a rose flower from one of the gardens, placed it on the main altar and told the parishioners who had gathered for Saturday evening Mass that, “Today St. Mary’s lost their gardener.”
You are nothing like your father!
Bishop Zurek
So, is Bishop Zurek correct in saying, “You are nothing like your father!” ❓
In true Catholic fashion I answer, “It’s not a question of whether ‘I am or I’m not’, it’s mysteriously ‘both and’…
…for although my soul and conscience are not like my Dad’s in the way I see reality…
…are they not identically alike in leading us both to beautify the face of St. Mary’s Cathedral Church for the sake of Jesus and the sake of the Gospel…
…and isn’t that something that should never be given up…
50. Surrogacy also violates the dignity of the woman, whether she is coerced into it or chooses to subject herself to it freely. For, in this practice, the woman is detached from the child growing in her and becomes a mere means subservient to the arbitrary gain or desire of others. This contrasts in every way with the fundamental dignity of every human being and with each person’s right to be recognized always individually and never as an instrument for another.
PARAGRAPH 50 of Declaration of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith “Dignitas Infinita” on Human Dignity
…for, just as in the practice of surrogacy in which the woman is detached from the child growing in her and becomes a mere means subservient to the arbitrary gain or desire of others, isn’t a baptized person, through clericalism, detached from the new life growing in them and just becomes a mere means subservient to the arbitrary gain or desire of a cleric…
Given the complexity of the ecological crisis and its multiple causes, we need to realize that the solutions will not emerge from just one way of interpreting and transforming reality.
From Paragraph 63 of ENCYCLICAL LETTER LAUDATO SI’ OF THE HOLY FATHER FRANCIS ON CARE FOR OUR COMMON HOME
…and given the complexity of the ecological crisis and its multiple causes, shouldn’t we realize that the solutions will not emerge from just one way of interpreting and transforming reality;…
…just as my Dad did and I am doing in our own given ways ❓