Thank you for your contributions last weekend to Catholic Charities – a total of $748. This was a very good second collection and it indicates your desire, especially during this Advent season, to help those less fortunate. In his dramatic letter, which I read to you at last Sunday’s Masses, our Holy Father has asked us to join fasting to our prayer in order that we might better be able to help the needy in our world. As he stated, the fact of so many refugees – women, children, elderly – often condemned to a cruel death is heartbreaking. In January we will have a special collection for refugees, especially those from Afghanistan. Meanwhile, it is incumbent on each of us to heed the Holy Father’s appeal for prayer, joined with fasting, that understanding and peace might come to our world.
The events of September 11 have had global repercussions, but they also included many individual tragedies. Like many of you, I have been reading about various victims of the terrorist attacks. One of the most poignant was a young Peruvian named Ivhan Luis Carpio had just landed what he considered a dream job as a waiter at Windows on the World, a restaurant on the 106th floor of the North Tower. His story illustrates just how fragile our lives are. The Washington File gave this information about Ivhan:
Last Tuesday was Ivhan Luis Carpio Bautista's day off at Windows on the World. It was also his birthday. But with an extended family back in Peru depending on his paycheck, Mr. Carpio, 24, did not hesitate when a co-worker called that Monday night asking if he would cover a shift. "He worked all the overtime he could," said a cousin, Rita Tatiana Palacio. "Too many people needed the money, including a niece whose school he paid for."
"In the two years since arriving in New York speaking only Spanish, Mr. Carpio had made enviable strides. His English was nearly fluent, he had found the perfect job, and last month had moved into his own place, having previously shared an apartment with his cousin in Queens. The day before the attack on the twin towers, he learned that he had been accepted to John Jay College of Criminal Justice. It was a day of triumph, as he had been uncertain whether the school would accept credits from his two-and-a-half years of law school in Peru. "He was so excited, so happy," Ms. Palacio said. "I remember him saying how he was so lucky, that everything was going to be so good from now on."
None of us knows the moment when the Lord will call us. While we may have to pass through trials and even terrible suffering, still we know that God can bring good even out of great evils. For that reason during this time of Advent we “wait in joyful hope for the coming of our Savior.”
The year 2001 saw great tragedies. It also contained some beautiful signs of hope. For us at Holy Family one of the greatest blessings has been Perpetual Adoration. The first weekend of January Fr. Victor Warkulwiz spoke to us about the apostolate and some 600 people signed up for a weekly holy hour. Like almost everything else in life, there was some waning of enthusiasm and commitment, but thanks especially to the dedication of a committed core group in the English and Spanish communities, we have been able to sustain the devotion.
Another great blessing, not only for Holy Family parish, but also for the greater Seattle area, has been 24 hour a day Catholic radio. So many have told me how much they love listening to Sacred Heart Radio and that they have the dial in the car and home always tuned 1050 AM. Among the fine programming is NW Catholic, which is broadcast every Wednesday at 1 p.m. and Friday at 4:30 p.m. Last week Bill Gallant interviewed Fr. Timothy Sauer, Pastor of St. Joseph, Ferndale and diocesan vocation director. Fr. Sauer spoke eloquently about his 25 years as a priest and how a young man today might discern a vocation. This weekend our two-bit collection is for Sacred Heart Radio. Please be generous.
Catholic radio attempts to make an impact on the larger culture. Unfortunately, that culture in many ways has become more hostile to the faith. In his book, Living the Catholic Faith, Archbishop Chaput of Denver, states, “The day is gone when American Catholics could feel safe with the instincts of our public culture.” As an illustration he tells the story of two movies, Film A and Film B.
Film A is about a loving husband whose wife contracts a painful, incurable disease. He helps her kill herself and is tried for homicide, but is acquitted because the court recognizes the rightness of his deed. Film B is about a kindly abortionist whose protégé at first reacts against his work but eventually come to admire him. Both movies attack Judeo-Christian morality, but as it turns out they came from different epochs. Film B is Cider House Rules, an American movie for which Michael Caine won an Oscar for his role as an abortionist. Film A is I Accuse, produced in Germany in 1941 as propaganda for the Nazi euthanasia campaign.
“I don’t that we are becoming Nazis,” Archbishop Chaput says. “We can lose our soul in a uniquely American way by being selfish and pragmatic, by being faithless in our commitments, and by twisting our freedom into the right to do whatever we want.”
Hollywood has recently produced two films which involve strong elements of magic. Without commenting directly upon Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter I would like to say someone about the relation of magic and Christianity. On one level they have much in common because both magic and religion presume the existence of realities beyond what we call “nature” and that we can connect with those supernatural forces. We can see many examples in the Bible of practices which could be described as “magic.” For example, Acts 19:11-12: “God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them.”
Nevertheless, there is a subtle, but crucial difference between magic and religion. Magic generally involves the effort not only tap into supernatural powers but also to use them, even control them. That, of course, is a dangerous game because we humans are no match for spiritual beings. A person might have the illusion he is controlling them, but it always turns out they are controlling him, using him for their purposes which can turn out to be most horrific. During my thirty years as a priest, I have seen instances both in Peru and here in Seattle.
True religion is very different from magic because its ultimate goal is not control but submission. It involves the effort to communicate with good spiritual beings, above all God himself, and to find our place in his overall plan. Sometimes that brings dramatic results in the here and now (for example, the healing of a sick person or the solution to some great dilemma) but those immediate results are only important in relation to submitting our wills to God.