I am happy to be back to Christ the King after the first phase of my sabbatical. After attending four weeks of Spanish classes in Antigua, Guatemala, I spent the whole month of September in the mountains of Peru. I was picked up from Cusco airport by Fr. John Prochaska, a missionary working in Tocroyo (Hector Tejada), 4.5 hours from Cusco, around 13500 feet above sea level. I arrived there as winter was still holding the hills and valleys in its freezing grip, and I thought I would not survive the onslaught of cold winds and freezing temperatures. In addition to cold, I experienced a mild headache for a couple of days because of the altitude. And then, everything turned out so good. I was acclimated to the hills in a couple of days and the people and their traditions had a fascinating sway on me. I had no TV, no wifi and no phone for a month and it was awesome. I would like to share a few pictures that we took with you.
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I am happy to be back to Christ the King after the first phase of my sabbatical. After attending four weeks of Spanish classes in Antigua, Guatemala, I spent the whole month of September in the mountains of Peru. I was picked up from Cusco airport by Fr. John Prochaska, a missionary working in Tocroyo (Hector Tejada), 4.5 hours from Cusco, around 13500 feet above sea level. I arrived there as winter was still holding the hills and valleys in its freezing grip, and I thought I would not survive the onslaught of cold winds and freezing temperatures. In addition to cold, I experienced a mild headache for a couple of days because of the altitude. And then, everything turned out so good. I was acclimated to the hills in a couple of days and the people and their traditions had a fascinating sway on me. I had no TV, no wifi and no phone for a month and it was awesome. I would like to share a few pictures that we took with you.
The rainbow Mountain
The rainbow Mountain
The rainbow Mountain
In one of the editions of Catholic Voice, someone from Concord wrote, “I have many friends of other faiths, but I cannot, I will not, pray with them. They do not believe in Catholic teachings. They do not believe in our God.” I have no idea why Catholic Voice would ever give credence to such an un-catholic sentiment. However, what made me really happy was that two people responded to Catholic Voice calling them out on publishing what they called false and ignorant statement. One of the letters came from a Christ the King parishioner, stating, “The Catholic Church accepts our brothers and sisters of other faiths with respect and affection, quoting Vatican II.” Today, the Gospel gives us a beautiful example how Jesus welcomed Zacchaeus with respect and affection. Jesus stopped in the middle of the road and looked up to Zacchaeus perched on a limb and said, “Come down. Today I must dine at your house.” Reaching out with respect and affection to one of those despised by his friends and neighbors, jesus showed us how we must welcome the stranger, the unloved, the unlovable, people who do not belong to our faith or who do not act like us.-the Zacchaeus in our midst.
Zacchaeus is described as short in stature, not just in physical stature, but also in terms of his moral standing among his neighbors who, no doubt, despised him. He was a tax collector. When Jesus said, I am coming to your house today, he could hear rumbling.. people are murmuring- He has gone to the house of the house of a sinner. Now there are many such encounters in Jesus’ life – most of them controversial.
Think of Simon the Pharisee’s reaction when Jesus would allow a woman all knew to have a poor reputation to wash his feet with her tears (7:39) or the reaction of the Pharisees to the sinners and tax collectors who love to listen to Jesus (15:1-2) or the thoughts of his disciples seeing Jesus with the Samaritan woman at the well or the elders with woman caught in adultery face to face with Jesus. These are personal encounters with Jesus- all of them grace-filled moments but controversial and outrageous.
I I know someone in our Church who acts like Jesus today. He is sometimes very controversial too. I am going to display some slides for you.
Pope Francis makes surprise visit to women rescued from prostitution
HE admitted that he has no right to judge the gays and lesbians
He washed and kissed the feet of prisoners including a Muslim woman
HE did not despise the atheists. They should be seen as good people if they do good. He said
He is reaching to other faiths. Urging everyone to respect each other.
He has a sense of humor
Pope holds private meeting with transsexual man and his fiancée after his local priest had denounced him as ‘the
devil’s daughter’
I would like to make a few comments on the slide that you just saw. The transgender man is Lejarraga. According Hoy, Lejarraga wrote to the pope last year, saying he had been "marginalized" by church officials in the city of Plasencia in the Estremadura region. A practicing Catholic, he said local clergy had rebuffed him and said one parish priest had called him "the devil's daughter."
He hoped he could explain to the pope transgender issues and even possibly receive a papal blessing. Hoy reported Francis phoned Lejarraga twice in December, and during the second phone call, invited him to come visit at the Vatican.
According to Hoy, Francis told Lejarraga in an initial phone call that God loves all his children "as they are." He went on: "You are a child of God and the Church loves you and accepts you as you are." Lejarraga reportedly attended the meeting with his fiancée. During the meeting, Lejarraga asked Francis if, after his gender reassignment, there was "a place somewhere in the house of God for him." He told Hoy Francis responded by embracing him.
Now I want to make sure that you know that the Church under the leadership of Pope Francis teaches that we must accompany those with gender issues with love and help them accept their God-given gender.
But that is not the point. We must be Jesus like in welcoming people- the Zacchaeus in our midst.
Pope Francis describes Catholic religion and our own mission in terms of an Encounter. In Evanelii Gaudium, Pope Francis urges us to “a renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ, or at least an openness to letting him encounter them” In Spanish, the pope’s first language, the word encuentro is packed with deeper meaning than its translation. In short it means that Christ is constantly reaching out to all persons, but the event of an encounter happens when that invitation is acknowledged and responded to by a human being. The beauty of the story of Zacchaeus is that Jesus invites Zacchaeus to a personal relationship and he accepts and responds with change.
Let me conclude my thoughts this way. How do you think it feels to be shut out by the crowd? When your opinion doesn’t matter? When your ideas are constantly rejected? That is the story of Zacchaeus. What do you, or the church need to do to overcome its barriers or label? To lead people to encounter Jesus in their lives?
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