Dear Friends,

If you feel like you are living in an alternative universe, your perception is spot on. What we are being surrounded by is an inversion of the basic concepts of right and wrong and the complete leveling of the meritocracy. Discussion and debate have been replaced by denunciation. Reason and Truth are derided as tools of the oppressor. The idea of a color-blind society has been replaced by race obsession, persuasion with public shaming and the rule of law replaced by the fury of a mob. So, individuals no longer rise to positions of leadership or authority based on their abilities, gifts, talents, accomplishments, hard work, or contributions to a community but rather based on their oppressed status or disadvantages as defined by radical activists.

Dear Friends,

Sometimes I think we should rename Thanksgiving Day to “Lord grant me grace to accept my blessings” Day. Too often we fail to realize all that we do have or we assume we had something to do with it and cut grace out of the picture. Sometimes we look with suspicion on the opportunities presented to us and rather than seeing the wrong turn we made as a chance for something new, we just see it as a way to get lost.

Sometime ago I saw a headline that read: “Scientists say Universe should not exist”. True enough. It’s outside the realm of scientific inquiry to answer “why” the universe exists or to put it another way, they can’t really tell us why there is something rather than nothing. Our under-standing of the world and ourselves is too often constrained by an insistence that only science can give us knowledge. By doing so we cut off knowledge from other sources, such as theology or philosophy and the world becomes meaningless and life is at best the instinctual will to survive.

But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed You’re gonna have to serve somebody, It may be the devil or it may be the Lord But you’re gonna have to serve somebody. “Gotta Serve Somebody” by Bob Dylan

The values we hold and the choices we make reveal to others who we are serving. The problem we face is that left to our own devices we tend to rationalize and justify choices that are really self-serving. So we need something outside of ourselves to hold us accountable for our choices. Being part of a community helps us to that but only if we are willing to use the community of the Church to measure our choices so that they are made not by a self-deluded standard but by the standards of Christian service.

Dear Friends,

One of the harder ideas to shake from our thinking is that the amount of wealth that can be had in the world is basically a zero-sum game. In other words, if someone gets rich it is because someone else got poor. But this way of thinking has for centuries kept people in poverty. Today many economists are challenging this way of seeing wealth and the free market by pointing out that there is in fact a nearly infinite amount of wealth that can be created and in which everyone can participate in its creation and benefit from it. Markets tend to reward those who excel by serving others well and meeting the needs and wants of customers. Economic activity then should be pursued as mutually beneficial exchanges and not the domination of the strong over the weak. In this view each of us then is a potential producer of wealth and resources for others.

Dear Friends,

In Oregon, the state Board of Education recently suspended the requirement for proficiency in reading and math for high school graduation. The stated reason was that such requirements were “a harmful hurdle for historically marginalized students”. Wow, talk about the bigotry of low expectations. This sort of reasoning stems from identity politics. Each individual is judged and valued based on their identity, not on the content of their character or their virtuousness or even their abilities. And the identity that most matters and defines everything is the oppressor/oppressed category.

Dear Friends,

For us, living in the West, especially in the US, it’s hard to wrap our head around the ancient hatreds that run through the Middle East. After all, we are a country that in recent memory fought a bitter war with Germany and Japan and today we are allies and friends. Or even more recently, Vietnam. Our ability to turn a foe into a friend is part of the reason that US Presidents since, at least, Jimmy Carter have tried to broker a peace agreement in the Middle East.

Dear Friends,

In a few weeks we will be in November when we traditionally remember the dead. In fact, we begin the month remembering all the saints whose faith and living merited them the Kingdom and we then remember All Souls, praying that the known and unknown dead may reach Heaven’s Gate. But before we get there, we would do well to consider our own dying. Specifically, how we die but not in the sense of the cause or the circumstance. Rather what condition will our hearts be in when we enter the last phase of our lives?

Dear Friends,

Time to welcome back our “fair-weather” parishioners! I am finally getting used to the seasonal reality of living in Sun City West. But while you were gone, us, “all weather” parishioners were no slackers. We were busy breaking records and setting new records! Whether we wanted to or not we all participated in the Olympics of Heat. Apparently, the summer of 2020 which went from May to Thanksgiving was just a practice session!

Dear Friends,

Over the years, I have witnessed more marriages than I can count. Most of them young couples, in love and idealistic. But I always wonder, “do they know what they are promising?” Granted, I did not really know what priesthood would ask of me when I was ordained but still the marriage vows contain some challenging realities: for better or for WORSE, in good times and in BAD, in SICKNESS and in health, until DEATH do us part. What has really touched my heart is watching many of you deal with the worse part, the bad times, particularly as it relates to sickness. And I am sure it was the good times, the healthy times, and the lively times, that motivate you to care for your spouse as they decline.

Dear Friends,

What a drag it is getting old
"Kids are different today, " I hear every mother say
Mother needs something today to calm her down
And though she's not really ill, there's a little yellow pill
She goes running for the shelter of her mother's little helper
And it helps her on her way, gets her through her busy day

Mother’s Little Helper sung by Rolling Stones

Dear Friends,

Can you really play golf every single day? I know some of you will answer an arousing: YES! But after a time, the thrill of the game will decrease, and a certain unsettling routine sets in if not an outright compulsion. We probably think, “when I retire I can golf everyday”. It’s a nice thought but it reveals a lack of preparation for retirement. And a lack of preparation can make our sunny and bright Retirement Utopia of Sun City West turn into a Sun-less maze that we get lost in.

Dear Friends,

“Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.” (Matt. 13:51) We are fortunate to have both the old and the new as part of our mission for this portion of the Body of Christ in Sun City West and in the Vistancia/N. Peoria area. First the new. Part of our Parish mission at this moment in time is to help start a new parish in the Vistancia/N. Peoria area. For the past two years we have been celebrating Mass in the Gym at Vistancia Elementary School. We have purchased 60 acres of land off the west side of Lake Pleasant Parkway, north of Rt. 303, just below the CAP canal.

Dear Friends,

We are all used to having numbers and statistics thrown at us in order to describe the magnitude of an issue or a problem. But too often, those numbers are just an abstraction, and we miss the real human cost, the pain and suffering behind the stats. Years ago, I visited Cambodia and though I didn’t want to see them, it’s unavoidable not to notice the “Killing Fields”. You see tens of thousands of bones and lifeless skulls in the Fields. It is very sobering. That the Khmer Rouge killed millions of their fellow countryman is not an abstraction when you see the Killing Fields but a painful eye-opening moment to the reality of evil.