Dear Good People of Saint Bernadette,

Next week is the First Sunday of Advent, the new liturgical year of grace. The cycle starts all over again as we live the experience of the Mysteries of Christ as they unfold in the time of our lives. At this time of the year I challenge you again to consider your life as an ascent up a mountain as you drive the upward road spiraling up to the summit. Each year as you come back around to north, to west, to south, to east (I hope) you find yourself at a higher altitude, climbing upward. I first had this reflection as I rode in a little bus up to the top of Mount Tabor in Israel. So clear it was to me that each time we came back around the side of the mountain the view was so much more dramatic I was sure it couldn’t get more beautiful - as I had thought the last time I was on that side one level below. Sure enough, we came back around again and the view was even more beautiful than before.

From a greater vantage point of life experience you can see the same view again with a farther, wider horizon, it is familiar, but it is also new. The events of Christ’s passion, death and resurrection are familiar but somehow compelling in a new way. You can see them so much more in the context of the broad landscape of your life and community. Each year the familiar progression of Jesus’ feasts - waiting and birth, Baptism and public life, impending violence, arrest, passion, way of the Cross, crucifixion and resurrection, post-resurrection life and ascension, Pentecost. Each year if the meaning of the feast hasn’t deepened and you can’t recognize some spiritual growth, it means that nothing is happening. We must do more if this is the case.

Perhaps God’s greatest gift to us, second to his life, of course, is time. Time allows us to reflect, to reform, to change our hearts and turn more toward him and away from ourselves.

So many things are going through my head right now as I type this - I will be returning from Taipei tomorrow (another 25 hour long trip) and we have just completed our Colloquium of Buddhists and Catholics. I’ve made some good friends this week, we have shared commitments to start doing things at our own parishes together. As the weeks follow, no doubt I’ll speak more about this gathering of religious leaders from 18 countries and the ways we hope to end misunderstandings and the xenophobia that is so common today. Our theme was “Buddhists and Catholics Walking Together on the Path of Nonviolence”and we talked about ways we can work together to end so much violence in the world. I presented papers on the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and peaceful protests and the Civil Rights Movement, and a report on what has been accomplished in the work of nonviolence in the United States. Bishops from Europe and Asia were present to give keynotes and moderate panels. Cardinal Tauran, Director of the Pontifical Council on Interreligious Dialogue, came today from Rome to Taipei City for the closing ceremony.

The closing statement of the Dialogue affirmed that violence is manifested not only at the individual and social levels, but also structurally through socio-economic, cultural and media forces. It calls all of us to work together to dismantle the evil that operates in us as well as in our social structures by speaking truth to power, speaking truth in charity, overcoming a culture of “indifference” and building a “culture of encounter,” moving from a “culture of reaction” to a “culture of prevention,” ending the culture of impunity and promoting a “culture of respect,” and social peace starting with inner peace.

Violence cannot be answered with more violence, clearly the message of both Jesus Christ and the Buddha, and reconciliation and unconditional love are the only solutions to the cycle of so many forms of violence today. It begins with parents and their children, it rejects the disrespect that is so characteristic on all levels of our society, from our leaders all the way down. We have to begin to look, to honor, to find a sense of loving kindness and find goodness in every person. It requires self awareness and humility, and a generosity of spirit that considers the other person first and as most important. Otherwise our selfishness will not be overcome by love and violence will continue.

Starting next week at Masses we will also begin to pray the parish prayer which was in your parish Ministry Catalogue and Renewal Handbook. We will reprint it and insert it in the front of our Breaking Bread Hymnals in the pews. We must begin to pray fervently that God’s Spirit will truly shape us into the Body of his Son, worthy to be called his children, and equipped to give witness to his love.

God bless you.