theROCK

Bringing About the Realm of God

Yesterday, I mentioned to someone that I was going on a trip to the Dominican Republic. Before I was able to explain that it was a mission trip, she responded with the same warning she had been given, “Don’t leave the resort!” Next week, I will be traveling with five of my brother diaconal candidates to visit La Sagrada Familia, the sister parish of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. We will be staying in exactly the place where tourists are told not to go. Mission is bringing about the realm of
God, especially to those places our society tells us not to go. It is a commitment to transform our world into the world that God wants for each of us, even when it feels uncomfortable. We are called through our baptism to live as Jesus lived and
become the instruments through which God works to make mission possible. Each of us has been chosen to bring love, hope, reconciliation, and healing to all people, especially to those on the margins, just as Jesus did in his day.

In hear in the Gospel, that many of Jesus’ disciples returned to their former ways of life and no longer accompanied Him because what He was teaching made them uncomfortable. Right now, I too am feeling uncomfortable about my upcoming trip. However I have chosen, like Peter and the Apostles, to stay with Jesus on mission. Please pray for our Dominican brothers and sisters, and for me, and all those who go on mission. 

Doers of the Word

How often as children were we told: “Wash your hands before coming to the table!” We hear in the gospel, that the Pharisees questioned Jesus' apostles:  “Why do your disciples not wash their hands before eating?” There were many observances in Jewish laws which seem to be primarily hygienic in origin; distinctions between foods that were “clean” and “unclean” as well as certain foods that could be dangerous to eat, and eating with dirty hands that could be a source of disease or sickness. Attaching a religious sanction to the recommended behavior helped to insure adherence to the law. 

By the standards of the day, the disciples were indeed breaking the Jewish law, but Jesus speaks of where real uncleanness comes from. The source of uncleanness is not with any food or drink that comes from outside. Real uncleanness comes from what’s found in our hearts, from within us. Washing hands does nothing to change that! 

Jesus is challenging the Pharisees, and all of us, to be people who demonstrate our faith not by external observances, but by the depth and breadth of the love found in our hearts. In many ways, Jesus is reminding us that our religious practices, our faith, have to be better than mere externals. It’s really about an inner conversion, a transformation that calls us to a change of heart and a deepening of our personal relationship with God, Jesus, and love for one another. 

St. James tells us that we are to “be doers of the word and not hearers only.” He teaches the importance of faith in action which comes from the heart. Each week, we will have many encounters and opportunities with other people. Will I be a more loving, caring and compassionate person.…will I “become Christ, each for the sake of all”?

Our Patron, St. Dominic

In 2021, we celebrate the 800th year in commemoration of the death of St. Dominic de Guzman, our parish patron. 

St. Dominic lived during the same time as St. Francis of Assisi. They actually met each other in Rome. Where the followers of St. Francis emphasize charity and works of mercy, St. Dominic lamented the poor preparation priests had in defending the faith. He felt that through good preaching of Catholic principles, a strong faith could be established. This strong faith would help combat Catholic heresies which had surfaced in the church in the Middle Ages.  Both St. Francis and St. Dominic began church reform from the bottom up. The Dominican order claims great teachers such as St. Thomas Aquinas, great mystics such as St Catherine of Sienna, St. Rose of Lima, patron saint of Latin America and the Philippines, and Bartolomé de Las Casas, who worked against oppression of the indigenous people being exploited by the Spanish in Central America. Even St. Ignatius, founder of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), first turned towards God when, during his recuperation from injury, he became devoted to St. Dominic after reading a book by a Dominican friar.

Dominican spirituality consisted of four pillars: prayer - to allow ourselves the milieu to be open to God’s word, study - which includes searching for understanding of truth, all to help our neighbor, preaching- taking the Word of God and incorporating its message into our everyday life, and community- to both embrace the diversity of gifts God gives, but also to muster strength and avoid discouragement. Our parish honors a great saint who in turn honors us with his legacy.