Archive for category: Michael Pirri

Dialogue

By Michael Pirri

“And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him.”
Matthew 3.16

Just before the point where today’s Gospel begins, John the Baptist remarks that he baptizes ‘for repentance’. Christ, a man with no sin, shows great humility in approaching John in the river. It is a sign that he is fully human – just like us, he encounters the Holy Spirit at baptism.

Most of us are fortunate that we are able to receive the sacrament of baptism as infants; this initial encounter not only marks our cleansing from original sin, but we are also sealed with the chrism by having the sign of the cross made on our foreheads. If baptism is the first encounter with Christ, how are we meant to build upon this foundation? How do we foster relationships with people in our lives?

Communication is the cornerstone to all great relationships. With friends and family, we can see the fruits of frequent communication borne out. Equally important is an efficiency in communication; a healthy dialogue involves both actively listening and participating. It is no wonder that these are also the words used when discussing how the faithful ought to participate in the Mass: “Mother Church earnestly desires that all the faithful should be led to that fully conscious, and active participation in liturgical celebrations which is demanded by the very nature of the liturgy. Such participation by the Christian people as “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a redeemed people, is their right and duty by reason of their baptism.” (Sacrosanctum Concilium n.14)

Sunday’s Readings:
Isaiah 42.1-4, 6-7
Psalm 29
Acts 10.34-38
Matthew 3.13-17

Fair Share

By Michael Pirri

In Jesus’ day, the tax system was easily corrupted. Tax collectors were effectively able to mark-up their taxes and take the difference for themselves. The more prominent the tax collector, the more tax they could add to tax collected by those below them; Zacchaeus was the chief tax collector – a very prominent man. It looks like wealth inequality is not something new to the 21st century!

When we talk about the widening wealth gap today, we think of the top 0.01% of earners, people who are worth billions of dollars. How can such inequality exist in the world? Why aren’t these people paying their fair share?

Zacchaeus wasn’t paying his fair share either. He was actually taking advantage of those less fortunate than himself.
As painful as it is sometimes to see that HST line at the bottom of your receipts, it helps it some way knowing that at least it helps to pay for things. It funds our hospitals and schools, pays for road repairs and subsidies to public transit, provides grants to non-profits that feed the poor.
What is disheartening though is that it is not enough. When will we, like Zacchaeus, climb the tree in our garden and look into the face of Jesus?

As I write this, the #unignorabletower is trending on social media. A building, dubbed the #unignorable tower, would need to have space for 116,317 individuals and families, proving the point of how massive our poverty and homelessness problem is. Standing at over 2.5 times the height of the CN Tower, The #UNIGNORABLE Tower was imagined by the United Way to represent the scale of the problem, and bring attention to this big and complicated issue.
Sunday’s Readings:
Wisdom 11.22 – 12.2
Psalm 145
2 Thessalonians 1.11 – 2.2
Luke 19.1-10

On November 9 and 10, we are holding our annual Christmas Drive to help fundraise for our Christmas meals and gift bags. Your $15 of support go a long way towards providing items to those in our community who need the most help.

World Communications Day

By Michael Pirri

Every year on the Sunday prior to Pentecost, the Church celebrates the achievements of the communications media. World Communications Day (WCD) was established by Pope Paul VI to encourage us to reflect on the unique opportunities and challenges that the modern means of social communication afford the Church to communicate the Gospel message. In this year’s address, Pope Francis reminds us that we are all interwoven, and that globalization is meant to bring us all closer together, not separate us. Social Media is at the root of a whole host of mental health issues: feelings of anxiety, alienation, inadequacy, and loneliness are becoming more and more prevalent. But how can this be, given that we are so much more connected than previous generations? “Clearly, it is not enough to multiply connections in order to increase mutual understanding. How, then, can we find our true communitarian identity, aware of the responsibility we have towards one another in the online network as well?” (53rd WCD Message) St. Paul remarks in his letter to the Ephesians that we hear today “…the Church, which is his body…” The image of the Church as the Body of Christ is mentioned by Paul numerous times in the New Testament. This is an important metaphor which evokes striking imagery of interconnectedness. “Being members one of another is the profound motivation with which the Apostle invites us to put away falsehood and speak the truth: the duty to guard the truth springs from the need not to belie the mutual relationship of communion.” (53rd WCD Message) Crucial to this interconnectedness, is communication. Even in cases of extreme reclusivity, we do not truly live alone. We exist in relation to others, but also in relationship with others. The same is true for our relationship with God. No matter how distant a life we are living from Him, we are never truly devoid of a relationship with Him. “God is not Solitude, but Communion; he is Love, and therefore communication, because love always communicates; indeed, it communicates itself in order to encounter the other.” (Dei Verbum, 2) The challenge for most of us in this day and age is to continue the work of forming meaningful relationships; investing in one another, we hope to forge a community where we affirm our own humanity. “By virtue of our being created in the image and likeness of God who is communion and communication-of-Self, we carry forever in our hearts the longing for living in communion, for belonging to a community. “Nothing, in fact, is as specific to our nature as entering into a relationship one with another, having need of one another,” says Saint Basil.” (53rd WCD Message)

Sunday’s Readings:

• Acts 1.1-11
• Psalm 47
• Ephesians 1.17-23
• Luke 24.46-53

By Michael Pirri

Our Gospel reading today challenges us to first see our faults before we consider pointing out the faults of others. This reading is especially poignant this week; Former Cardinal McCarrick has been laicized, Cardinal Pell was found guilty of sexual offenses involving minors, and a much anticipated meeting of Church leaders on the abuse crisis seems to have fallen short of expectations. These are no doubt difficult conversations to be having. As a Catholic higher education community, we have an obligation not only to have these conversations, but also to facilitate and lead them. I recently gave a talk on Ministry for the Parish R.C.I.A. program. In it, I spoke about our baptismal call to fulfill our roles as Priest, Prophet, and King. I think the Church today is in need of Prophets – Catholic women and men who go out into the world to spread the message of the Gospel. The abuse crisis is, rightly, jarring – it disturbs us. It is disheartening to experience as a global community, especially when it is not the reality the majority of us live in our faith lives. It erodes our trust in our faith, in the Church, and regretfully, for some even in God. Further, it challenges our values, and the impression of what our values are. We cannot give tacit approval. How are we to fulfill our roles as prophets in the reality we now live in? We are called to be witnesses in our thoughts, in what we say, and in what we do. In that way we are called to share the Gospel with those around us, to be prophets in our daily lives. We don’t need to be teachers, or influencers to be effective prophets, we need simply act in a way which is befitting of our role as messenger of the Gospel. We are to be known by our actions. In this disruption, there is opportunity for reconciliation, for inner conversion. This begins with conversation. With all important dialogue, it is important to be educated on the topic, to seek truth rather than approval, to listen to those who are not listened to, but most importantly to be receptive, to listen. In a few weeks time, there will be an opportunity to do just that – listen and learn. The Wounded Body of Christ: Listening and Responding to Abuse in the Church begins with a talk on Thursday, March 14, and a full day colloquium follows on Friday, March 15. I’d like to encourage you to attend either the talk or the full day colloquium as we begin to consider how to best find our voice on the abuse crisis in the Church.

Sunday’s Readings:

Sirach 27.4-7

Psalm 92

1 Corinthians 15.54-58

Luke 6.39-45

And on Earth, as in Heaven

By Michael Pirri

“Christ did not enter a sanctuary made by human hands, a mere copy of the true one, but he entered in to heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf…” (Hebrews 9.24-28) The modern concept of a church building is a development of the Jewish tradition of the synagogue and the temple. The synagogue is traditionally understood as a place for verbal prayer and reverent reading and discussion of Sacred Scripture. The temple, was a place to encounter the presence of God in a restricted, and limited way. Modern churches combine the two, they are a place to encounter God through the scriptures, and in the sacrifice of the Eucharist. The Sacred Liturgy is where we “take part in a foretaste of that heavenly liturgy which is celebrated in the holy city of Jerusalem toward which we journey as pilgrims, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God, a minister of the holies and true tabernacle” (Sacrosanctum Concilium, 8). Our church buildings serve as a place for us to “see” the full community of liturgy: angels, saints, and the Trinity. In some ancient churches in Rome, inscribed above the doors, you’ll see PORTA CŒLI, Latin for Heaven’s Gate. The importance of the rituals and sacraments that take place in a church cannot be understated. Here heaven dips down to earth and we reach upward, and, for a moment, we see God face to face.

Sunday’s Readings:

• 1 Kings 17.10-16
• Psalm 146
• Hebrews 9.24-28
• Mark 12.38-44

For those interested in how human understanding of the Liturgy helps shape church architecture, there’s a great publication entitled Catholic Church Architecture and the Spirit of the Liturgy by Denis R. McNamara.