IN EXILE
By Father Ron Rolheiser, OMI
An American humorist was once asked what he loved most in life. This was his reply: I love women best; whiskey next; my neighbor a little; and God hardly at all!
This flashed in my mind recently when, while giving a lecture, a woman asked this question: Why did God build us in one way and then almost all of the time expect us to act in a way contrary to our instincts? I knew what she meant. Our natural instincts and spontaneous desires generally seem at odds with that towards which they are supposedly directed, namely, God and eternal life.  A religious perspective, it would seem, calls us to reverse the order described by that American humorist, that is, we’re to love God first, our neighbor just as deeply, and then accord to the human pleasures we are so naturally drawn to a very subordinate role. But that’s not what happens most of the time. Generally we are drawn, and drawn very powerfully, towards the things of this earth: other people, pleasure, beautiful objects, sex, money, comfort. These seemingly have a more-powerful grip on us than do the things of faith and religion.
Doesn’t this then put our natural feelings at odds with how God intended us to feel and act? Why are we, seemingly, built in one way and then called to live in another way?
The question is a good one and, unfortunately, is often answered in a manner that merely deepens the quandary. Often we are simply told that we shouldn’t feel this way, that not putting God and religious things first in our feelings is a religious and moral fault, as if our natural wiring was somehow all wrong and we were responsible for its flaw. But that answer is both simplistic and harmful, it misunderstands God’s design, lays a guilt-trip on us, and has us feeling bipolar vis-à-vis our natural make-up and the demands of faith.
How do we reconcile the seeming incongruity between our natural make-up and God’s intent for us?
We need to understand human instinct and human desire at a deeper level. We might begin with St. Augustine’s memorable phrase: You have made us for yourself, Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you. When we analyze our natural makeup, natural instincts, and natural desires more deeply, we see that all of these ultimately are drawing us beyond the more-immediate things and pleasures with which they appear to be obsessed. They are drawing us, persistently and unceasingly, towards God.
Karl Rahner, in trying to explain this, makes a distinction between what we desire explicitly and what we desire implicitly. Our instincts and natural desires draw us towards various explicit things: love for another person, friendship with someone, a piece of art or music, a vacation, a movie, a good meal, a sexual encounter, an achievement that brings us honor, a sporting event, and countless other things that, on the surface at least, would seem to have nothing to do with God and are seemingly drawing our attention away from God. But, as Rahner shows, and as is evident in our experience, in every one of those explicit desires there is present, implicitly, beneath the desire and as the deepest part of that desire, the longing for and pursuit of something deeper. Ultimately we are longing for the depth that grounds every person and object, God.  To cite one of Rahner’s more graphic examples, a man obsessed with sexual desire who seeks out a prostitute is, implicitly, seeking the bread of life, irrespective of his crass surface intent.
God didn’t make a mistake in designing human desire. God’s intent is written into very DNA of desire. Ultimately our make-up directs us towards God, no matter how obsessive, earthy, lustful, and pagan a given desire might appear on a given day. Human nature is not at odds with the call of faith, not at all.
Moreover, those powerful instincts within our nature, which can seem so selfish and amoral at times, have their own moral intelligence and purpose, they protect us, make us reach out for what keeps us alive, and, not least, ensure that the human race keeps perpetuating itself. Finally, God also put those earthy instincts in us to pressure us to enjoy life and taste its pleasures – while God, like a loving old grandparent watching her children at play, remains happy just to see her children’s delight in the moment, knowing that there will be time enough ahead when pain and frustration will force those desires to focus on some deeper things.
When we analyze more deeply God’s design for human nature and understand ourselves more deeply within that design, we realize that, at a level deeper than spontaneous feeling, and at a level deeper than the wisecracks we make about ourselves, we in fact do love God best; love our neighbor quite a bit; and, very happily, love whiskey and the pleasures of life quite a bit as well.
(Oblate Father Ron Rolheiser, theologian, teacher and award-winning author, is President of the Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio, TX.)

Guest Column
By Deacon Jason Johnston
The Supreme Court’s ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges draws Christians into a conflict. Our faith tells us that Marriage has a definition that is unchangeable, instituted in the beginning by God and confirmed and made new as one of the seven sacraments of the Church by Jesus Christ Himself.
However, many of us know someone in our life who has same-sex attraction or is living the gay lifestyle and we want them to be happy. This issue is very close to home and can be very emotional.
It is important for us to see this decision and its consequences in the context of religious freedom. The fear is that the conflict is between our religious liberty and what the Supreme Court has now defined as basic human rights. However, the Church has been in the midst of conflict before and we will be here again.
We Christians should not react, we should respond.  But how do we respond? I propose that we respond in three ways.
1)  We should listen.
2)  We should love.
3)  We should uphold our beliefs and help guide others toward the truth.
First, we must listen. This is most essential. We should listen to what the Church has to say to us. She wants what is good for us, and for each of us to find the love of Christ, and ultimately our salvation.
Listen to the stories of the struggles and the suffering.  Hear an opinion different from our own. Allow those around us to be heard. Because, if we do not listen, no one will listen to us.
It has been pointed out that there is a real difference in an empty sentimentality of emotion and true compassion. Compassion is from the Latin, cum passio, which means to suffer with. We should allow ourselves to be affected by the struggles of our brothers and sisters. This is exactly what Jesus did when He took on flesh and sin and became one of us and died for us on the cross. How many of us suffer in so many ways? How many of us have darknesses and struggles and anxieties and sufferings in our life?
Ultimately, the Church understands the human person, and that many of us struggle. Paul struggled with a thorn in his flesh and it was in his weakness that he realized his own need and his own dependence on God and it was there that he found strength. “For when I am weak, then I am strong.” Paul is like so many of us who struggle, who have something bearing on our hearts, or our minds, or in our physical bodies, but these struggles bring us closer to God, if we allow God in.
Pope Francis said recently, “We must lend our ears…so as to be permeated by the joys and hopes (of the people of today), by their sadness and distress, at which time we will know how to propose the good news of the family with credibility.” We must listen.
Secondly, we should respond with love. Thomas Aquinas said to love is to will the good of the other. As Christians, we are to love everybody, regardless. And that love will be a sign of who we are and who we have chosen to be: true followers of Christ, unwaveringly committed to the dignity of every human person and the respect that he or she deserves. We must never be unwelcoming, or alienating, and we especially may never hate or give in to hate-mongering.
It might be good for you to invite your friends with same-sex attractions, or any of your friends who are open to God’s grace. We want everyone who is seeking true happiness to be introduced to the heart of Christ in His Church.
Finally, we uphold what is true and we gently guide those who seek the truth back to it.  St. John Paul II said, “The Church never imposes what it believes, but rather, freely proposes it ceaselessly.” We have to do it in a gentle and attractive way, infused with the Love of Christ. We will be rejected, just like Jesus was rejected in His own hometown of Nazareth. But we must get back up and proclaim Christ, and Him crucified.
Many of us in this country are divided on this issue and many of us in the Church are divided on this issue. There is a weakness here, but these weaknesses are giving us opportunities to discuss, to learn, to evangelize, and to love. “For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
(Deacon Jason Johnston serves in the Catholic Community of Meridian, St. Joseph and St. Patrick. This column first appeared in the Meridian Star as a guest column August 2.)

Forming our Future
By Margaret Anzelmo
This year in the Diocese of Jackson schools, we are TEAMing Up for Catholic Education, with TEAM as an acronym for Teaching Everyone About Mercy. This diocesan-wide theme is two-fold. The theme incorporates Pope Francis’ Jubilee Year of Mercy and also the theme for this year’s Catechetical Sunday “Safeguarding the Dignity of Every Human Person” into a focus in each school for religious instruction, faith formation and social justice. In addition, the theme demonstrates an outward commitment to our individual schools, to the students and families within them, to our diocese and to Catholic education.
According to Archbishop Rino Fisichella, one of the intentions of this Year of Mercy will be to encourage Christians to meet people’s needs in tangible ways. The logo for the Year of Mercy is Jesus as the Good Shepherd with a person, or a lost soul, over His shoulders. Similarly, Catechetical Sunday is an opportunity to reflect on the role that each person plays, by virtue of Baptism, in passing on our Catholic faith and being a witness to the Gospel.
As Catholic schools, these principles are evident on each campus regardless of any current theme or Jubilee; however, this year the principles are being carried out explicitly and intentionally so that each of us involved in Catholic education, whether our role is as student, educator, or leader, can recognize the part he or she plays in Teaching Everyone About Mercy. A few ways that the schools in the Catholic Diocese of Jackson are incorporating the TEAM theme are:
Greenwood St. Francis School created a school wide goal that states: “At St. Francis School We Strive to…. Encourage all to live in a hope which is nourished by mercy. We work toward this goal by: teaching love in action; helping all to steadily develop a healthy sense of self esteem; daily reading the Scriptures as the source of our hope and the foundation of our practice of mercy and promoting respect throughout the day in many ways.”
Clarksdale St. Elizabeth School is emphasizing the dictionary definition of mercy, “Kindness beyond what can be claimed or expected or more kindness than justice requires,” as the driving force behind several social justice and service projects, such as: bringing canned goods each Thursday to school Mass to donate to a food pantry; sending cards to shut-ins within the parish;  collecting and sending soda can tabs to St. Jude Children’s Hospita and collecting bread for soup kitchens on the feast of St. Elizabeth of Hungary.
Columbus Annunciation School has a banner in the school cafeteria which displays the TEAM acronym as a reminder for their school community. Teachers worked with this theme prior to the start of school through use of the Pope’s Prayer of Mercy and other mercy prayers and by developing a list of how they can show mercy as a staff. The school also has incorporated the concept of mercy into their classroom management plans and into a school prayer service, where students brainstormed ways their school community could show mercy.
Meridian St. Patrick School began their year with a staff retreat led by Fran Lavelle, Director of Faith Formation for the Diocese of Jackson. The retreat focused on the Jubilee Year of Mercy and its incorporation into the diocesan theme. A school wide slogan of “Team Shamrock” and a focus on service learning and virtues is making the theme come to life for all of the school community.
Jackson St. Richard School has incorporated the TEAM theme into a school-wide slogan, Team Cardinal. This slogan is being used in hallway displays, on t-shirts, and as the theme for the school’s annual CardinalFest this fall. The theme is also being emphasized during Catechesis of the Good Shepherd classes, during classroom religion classes, and during school Masses.
Madidon St. Joseph School is tying the TEAM theme into their new emphasis on STREAM (Science, Technology, Religion, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics), which they are calling “STREAMs of Mercy.” As teachers work together across departments to write STREAM units of instruction, they connect each unit to a particular area of social justice so that students are learning academic content through real life applications as they engineer solutions to actual social justice issues in their community.
(Margaret Anzelmo is the coordinator for academic excellence for Catholic Schools in the Diocese of Jackson)

IN EXILE
By Father Ron Rolheiser, OMI
On the Feast of the Transfiguration in 1923, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin found himself alone at sunrise in the Ordos desert in China, watching the sun spread its orange and red light across the horizon.  He was deeply moved, humanly and religiously. What he most wanted to do in response was to celebrate Mass, to somehow consecrate the whole world to God. But he had no altar, no bread, and no wine. So he resolved to make the world itself his altar and what was happening in the world the bread and the wine for his Mass. Here, in paraphrase, is the prayer he prayed over the world, awakening to the sun that morning in China.
O God, since I have neither bread, nor wine, nor altar, I will raise myself beyond these symbols and make the whole earth my altar and on it will offer to you all the labors and sufferings of the world.
As the rising sun moves as a sheet of fire across the horizon the earth wakes, trembles, and begins its daily tasks. I will place on my paten, O God, the harvest to be won by this renewal of labor. Into my chalice I will pour all the sap which is to be pressed out this day from the earth’s fruits.  My paten and my chalice are the depths of a soul laid widely open to all the forces which in a moment will rise up from every corner of the earth and converge upon the Spirit.
Grant me, Lord, to remember and make mystically present all those whom the light is now awakening to this new day. As I call these to mind, I remember first those who have shared life with me: family, community, friends and colleagues.  And I remember as well, more vaguely but all-inclusively, the whole of humanity, living and dead, and, not least, the physical earth itself, as I stand before you, O God, as a piece of this earth, as that place where the earth opens and closes to you.
And so, O God, over every living thing which is to spring up, to grow, to flower, to ripen during this day, I say again the words: “This is my body.” And over every death-force which waits in readiness to corrode, to wither, to cut down, I speak again your words which express the supreme mystery of faith: “This is my blood.” On my paten, I hold all who will live this day in vitality, the young, the strong, the healthy, the joy-filled; and in my chalice, I hold all that will be crushed and broken today as that vitality draws its life. I offer you on this all-embracing altar everything that is in our world, everything that is rising and everything that is dying, and ask you to bless it.
And our communion with you will not be complete, will not be Christian, if, together with the gains which this new day brings, we do not also accept, in our own name and in the name of the world, those processes, hidden or manifest, of enfeeblement, of aging, and of death, which unceasingly consume the universe, to its salvation or its condemnation.  Lord, God, we deliver ourselves up with abandon to those fearful forces of dissolution which, we blindly believe, will this cause our narrow egos to be replaced by your divine presence. We gather into a single prayer both our delight in what we have and our thirst for what we lack.
Lord, lock us into the deepest depths of your heart; and then, holding us there, burn us, purify us, set us on fire, sublimate us, till we become utterly what you would have us to be, through the annihilation of all selfishness inside us. Amen.
For Teilhard this, of course, was not to be confused with the celebration of the Eucharist in a church, rather he saw it as a “prolongation” or “extension” of the Eucharist, where the Body and Blood of Christ becomes incarnate in a wider bread and wine, namely, in the entire physical world which manifests the mystery of God’s flesh shining through all that is.
Teilhard was an ordained, Roman Catholic, priest, covenanted by his ordination to celebrate Mass for the world, to place bread on a paten and wine in a chalice and offer them to God for the world. We too, all of us Christians, by our baptism, are made priests and, like Teilhard, are covenanted to offer Mass for the world, that is, to offer up on our own metaphorical patens and chalices, bread and wine for the world, in whatever form this might take on a given day. There are many ways of doing this, but you might want to try this: Some morning as the sun is lighting-up the horizon, let its red and golden fire enflame your heart and your empathy so as to make you stretch out your hands and pray Teilhard’s Eucharistic prayer over an awakening world.
(Oblate Father Ron Rolheiser, theologian, teacher and award-winning author, is President of the Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio, TX.)

Guest Column
By Sister Constance Veit, lsp
Early in our community’s history, a group of townspeople who witnessed the Sisters’ humble charity toward the elderly dubbed them the “Little” Sisters of the Poor. The name stuck. Recently, however, we have become known to some as “the HHS Sisters” due to our lawsuit against the federal government over the Contraceptive Mandate. This issue has been pursuing us for over three years – pushing us out of our quiet, hidden lives into the unwelcome glare of the public eye – and there is no end in sight as our case now heads to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Why us? When will this journey end? I recently wondered as I prepared for yet another media interview about the case. But then a prayer attributed to Archbishop Oscar Romero, who was martyred in El Salvador, came to mind: “It helps, now and then, to step back and take a long view … We lay foundations that will need further development … It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord’s grace to enter and do the rest. We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker. We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs. We are prophets of a future not our own.”
Stepping back to take the long view helped me to answer the question, “Why us?” Perhaps, among religious communities serving in the United States, we are uniquely qualified to face our nation’s current threats to religious liberty. Our foundress, Saint Jeanne Jugan, was born at the height of the radically anti-Christian French Revolution and established our congregation in its tumultuous aftermath, with virtually no resources. By the time her earthly journey ended, her young community had grown to over 2.000 Little Sisters serving the elderly in nearly a dozen countries. Today we are present in 31 nations. Saint Jeanne Jugan was undoubtedly the prophet of a future not her own.
Based on our humble beginnings, we might say that the will to persevere in serving the poor and bearing witness to the Joy of the Gospel despite seemingly insurmountable obstacles has been written into the DNA of our Congregation. Generations of Little Sisters have soldiered on through two World Wars, civil wars and government persecution of religion in numerous countries around the globe, disregarding their own personal safety in order to stand by their Residents. Others have weathered earthquakes, tsunamis and natural disasters of all sorts. By God’s grace, they faithfully remained with the elderly regardless of dangers or harsh conditions.
Looking back over our long history, I realize that I stand on the shoulders of humble giants. The witness of Saint Jeanne Jugan and the thousands of Little Sisters who have gone before me gives me the courage to do one more interview – and to trust that tomorrow will take care of itself. As Saint Jeanne Jugan often said when faced with challenges, “Give us the house; if God fills it, God will not abandon it … If God is with us, it will be accomplished.”
Taking the long view I’ve come to a new appreciation of the power of God’s Providence. He has never abandoned us and I am confident that he will not leave us orphans in this challenging moment of our history.
Could it be that God is taking our HHS journey all the way to the Supreme Court to give us the opportunity to witness to our absolute confidence in his loving Providence? Could it be that God chose us for this struggle in order to underline the dignity of every human being created in his image and likeness?
God’s modus operandi is to use the weak of this world to confound the learned and the strong. What weaker or more unlikely prophets could he have chosen to confuse the great and powerful of our contemporary culture than Saint Jeanne Jugan, her Little Sisters of the Poor and the needy elderly? God’s mercy is from age to age on those who fear him; the Almighty will do great things for us – I’m sure of it!
(Sister Constance Veit is communications director for the Little Sisters of the Poor.)

Millennial reflections
Jeremy Tobin, O.Praem
Climate change has been on the front burner for a long time. Year after year the extremes in weather patterns have people saying, “See! There is climate change.” The deniers keep up their drum beat. Congress does nothing. Massive hurricanes tear up our seacoasts. Typhoons devastate Taiwan and the coast of China. Wildfires each year are more terrible than the last, and burn up the West. A plant springs a leak of toxic chemicals, and rivers for miles are polluted, wreaking havoc all over. Mississippi is having the worst heat wave in history. Much hullabaloo. But the deniers  soothe people and its back to the usual.
Then there is the recycle movement. Reduce landfills. Push for biodegradable materials. Do we really want people five hundred years from now doing dissertations on our plastic bottles in landfills?
Some of this may sound silly. People make jokes, but it is all very serious. The scientific consensus is in. We  are putting the future of our planet at serious risk.
Pope Francis takes this very seriously. In fact he has made this a centerpiece of his papacy.
Bernie Sanders writes: “Climate change is an unprecedented planetary emergency. If we don’t act aggressively now to combat it, there will be major and painful consequences in store later: rising oceans that inundate coastal areas, bigger super storms like Hurricane Sandy, worsening droughts, out-of-control wildfires, historic floods that come year after year, rising food prices, and millions of people displaced by climate disasters.”
Pope Francis, and this encyclical are making a powerful progressive impact across the world. The Atlantic Magazine reported:
In his Encyclical, Laudato Si, On Care for Our Common Home, Pope Francis rattles off fact after fact about the pitiful state of the earth: Pesticides have contaminated farmers soil. Air pollution has poisoned cities. Man-made waste checkers landscapes. There is not enough clean water for people to drink or tropical forests to regulate carbon in the atmosphere. Whole species of animals are dying out. In one place he says we are turning the planet into a filthy dump, but this planet is our home, all we got.
It is the poorest nations in the developing world that face the brunt of these conditions.
This encyclical is addressed to everyone on our planet, to remind us that there is such a thing as the common good, that all share and have a right to. Ecological crisis is also a summons to profound interior conversion.” He says “politics and technology have failed to save the earth.” Pope Francis criticizes “greed capitalism,” profit at all cost.
I want to focus on the interior conversion part, the spirituality part. To really change the situation involves an interior change. A spiritual renewal has to be built on the interdependence we have on the world and all nature. We are custodians, not dominating rulers.
A Catholic  source reports:
The Encyclical Laudato si’ (Praised Be You) is developed around the concept of integral ecology, as a paradigm able to articulate the fundamental relationships of the person: with God, with one’s self, with other human beings, with creation. As the Pope himself explains in n. 15, this movement starts (ch. I) by listening spiritually to the results of the best scientific research on environmental matters available today, “letting them touch us deeply and provide a concrete foundation for the ethical and spiritual itinerary that follows.” Science is the best tool by which we can listen to the cry of the earth.
Pope Francis, true to his patron, says again and again that we have a relationship with the earth, all its creatures. We are called to protect this patrimony and hand it on to future generations. We are not to exploit it. He analyses Genesis correctly by saying we are not to dominate but to nurture and care for it.
Again and again he blasts those who would simply strip the earth of resources for profit only. Unbridled capitalism is a sin, and he is clear on that.
So the attitude must be one of reverence for God’s handiwork. Like St. Francis we must see the creative power of God at work and assist it by preserving its resources.
(Father Jeremy Tobin, O.Praem, lives at the Priory of St. Moses the Black, Jackson.)