Pastor's Corner

Bad news. A fierce storm hit New England, especially the North Shore on Thursday evening, February 25, creating power outages, knocking down trees and damaging all kinds of property.  When I went over to church the next morning I was greeted with news that the front of the church was strewn with metal and wood that had been blown off of our steeple. I surveyed the damage and it was as bad as it sounded.  Yet good news, too. No one was hurt and there was no collateral damage to windows or other structures. Along with this article I will post a photo of the steeple so you can see the damage for yourself.  The rectory and the convent building lost some glass but again, thankfully, no one was hurt nor was there water damage in those buildings.

More bad news and good news.  We needed to make the steeple area safe by removing pieces that remained and were loose and by making the exposed area watertight.  I am very grateful to John Stueve, our property manager, for doing this as quickly and efficiently as possible but it definitely incurred some expense for the lift and related costs. Yet again, more good news. We are moving as fast as we can to starting the major repair to the steeple this spring, so we can address more of the storm-related damage at that time as part of the project. Clearly we need to make sure the whole structure is weather proof! A few people mentioned to me that the tower now makes a dramatic advertisement for our campaign.  I agreed! Speaking of our campaign, we passed an important mark the same week as the storm: $900,000 has been pledged for our campaign!  The million dollar mark is not too far off and we are hoping to hear from folks that have not yet made their gift or pledge.

Putting it in a larger perspective.  There are much greater challenges that people are facing, and needing hope. For example, our natural disaster and its effects seem small in comparison to what happened and is still happening in Haiti.  The photos and stories of loss of life and property as well as ongoing disease and hunger has subsided from the news but it is still very real. The good news is that the parishes of our archdiocese have collected almost
$2 million for the relief effort.  I am grateful to you and proud to say that our parish contributed $11,468 and
St. John’s School contributed an additional $1,500 of that amount. Let’s keep the people of Haiti in our thoughts and prayers.

Finding hope. In the last few months I have become even more aware of the crises that we are facing at home, nationally and locally.  Health care reform seems to elude us, with our President and congress making far too little progress on legislation that the country as whole can rally around. Everyone acknowledges the need to make sure that no one is without some kind of coverage and to rein in the staggering costs of medical care and insurance. But it would take another Solomon to find a solution acceptable to all or even most Americans. Not seeing such a one on the political horizon, it will take much hope to believe that some meaningful steps will be taken in a direction that will be both effective and reasonable cost-wise. Even with the best of care, we still confront serious illness among our friends and loved ones. There are so many people I meet who face tough battles just to stay alive. I ask your prayers for one in particular: Mary Ann Cronin-Tretter, one of the fifth grade teachers in our school. Much as she wanted to finish the year, Mary Ann is taking time away from her beloved students to get the treatment she needs to win her fight against Multiple Myeloma, which she has had for some years. She is a woman of deep faith who takes a lot of strength and hope from the prayers and expressions of care shown by the children and faculty and friends who know her. In mentioning her I want to repeat the invitation made some time ago in our bulletin. If you or someone you know is seriously ill and would like the prayers of our community, please let us know. We can have a place in the bulletin similar to that for our men and women in the armed services. Sickness can be something we want to keep to ourselves at times and we want to respect people’s privacy. They may just want a priest or friend to pray for them. But if someone wants us to pray for them, we want to offer the prayer of the whole community. And, please, consider asking for the Sacrament of the Sick, about which I wrote a few weeks ago.  This is one special way we can ask God’s help and bring hope to those who are ill and need to know that someone in the church cares.

What does “taking the Lord’s name in vain” mean? If I say “”Oh my God!” or “Jesus!” or “Sweet Mother of God!” when I am startled, have I sinned or been disrespectful?

Taking the Lord’s name in vain involves a lot more than using the name of God or Jesus as an expletive. To understand this commandment (the 2nd of the ten), we might begin by recognizing the importance of a person’s name. Our name gives other’s access to our identity. In Hebrew culture, as in many others, to know and use a person’s name was to have power and influence over someone, to be in a relationship. Even today, a person who is a superior to another may say to that individual “You can call me Joe” as a sign that they are allowing that person a special prerogative, a privileged intimacy. God gave his name to Moses, and one of the names of God is Yahweh. It is so sacred that Jews do not speak it. For this reason, out of a similar respect for this special name, the Church for centuries never used the literal word Yahweh until recently, and then even more recently it has asked us to remove it from hymns and prayers! So clearly we need to be careful and thoughtful about using the name of God.

When we refer to “swearing” we can mean two things. One meaning is the use of words offensive to others that are spoken in rage. To use the name of God or the saints in a hurtful way is a sign of disrespect because it lacks love…both for God and for another. To use it when we are startled (to use your example) is more likely to be inappropriate than disrespectful—because it happens in a moment of surprise. It can be a bad habit any of us can get into. Perhaps, Lent might be a good time to try to break ourselves of bad habits such as this one, and to think about our language!

But let’s look at the second meaning of swearing which is taking an oath. This is closer to the intention behind the second commandment in ancient times, as well as today, because it refers to calling God to witness something we are saying. To take an oath in court, for instance, is to hold ourselves to speak the truth in the presence of God. To speak falsely under oath is not only offensive to people because of the dishonesty; it is offensive to God because we have called on Him to stand by our words. Cleary this is an abuse of the name of God and shows that we are using God to stand by our falsehoods, and not holding ourselves accountable to Him.

And finally, let’s go a step further and look at this commandment in a larger context. How do I speak about God to others…or do I even care enough to talk about Him? Do I tell people how much God means to me? When I speak about Jesus or the Holy Spirit, does what I say manifest love, respect, and understanding for God? I suggest that this broader interpretation of the second commandment might challenge all of us, even us “professionals” – preachers and religious educators, to take greater care of the way we use the name of God.