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His Name is John,<\/em> Daniel Bonnell, 2008<\/p>\nNativity of John the Baptist<\/em> It is summer: the height of vacation season, While not a huge baseball fan, Of course, that surface information is probably insufficient, For example, there was a recent posting in the blogosphere Paralleling this obsession with baseball statistics Neuroscience is also making its way into sports like baseball Scientists tell us that that much of the effect of a curveball The center of our eyes is made up of tightly packed cells, Batters see incoming ball first with the center of the visual system. The reason that I take this excursion We are supposed to be in Ordinary Time. We know John \u2013 the scariest character of the Advent season, He certainly has a central role to play in Advent, From an historical perspective A key factor is that the early church did not have Instead of a yearlong plan, Because of shifting calendars For the early church, however, it was the 24th\u00a0of June. Now you might be saying to yourself, And I agree that such history is not really persuasive, But if we think this feast is only about history, What today\u2019s feast is challenging us to accept If you are an Anglophile \u2026 a royal watcher \u2026 Is it because the Brits can\u2019t tell time? Ever know anyone born on Christmas Speaking of Christmas: Just as there is no historical evidence And, heresy of heresies, But if he didn\u2019t, who cares? So as is our custom, we changed the date at Old Saint Patrick\u2019s Seeing with the center of the eye and not peripheral vision\u2026 reminds us that the season of justice we celebrate at Old St. Pat\u2019s For Advent is not simply preparation for Christmas day, We do not celebrate the preciousness of nativity, but in the horrific present We do not celebrate Thanksgiving We do not celebrate Mother\u2019s Day but when we uphold the dignity of every woman, Over the past few years There is also a parallel form of temporal tyranny John the Baptist impudently shatters such tyrannies And so the wild man from beyond the borders In his 2004 Testimony: The Word Made Flesh, Berrigan concludes:\u00a0\u201cSo let us enter Advent in hope, even hope against hope. Let us see visions of love and peace and justice. Let us affirm with humility, with joy, with faith, with courage: Jesus Christ \u2013 the life of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n Advent is again upon us \u2026 it is ever upon us. <\/p>\n
\nOld Saint Patrick\u2019s, June 24, 2018\u00a0<\/em>
\nEdward Foley, Capuchin<\/em><\/p>\n
\noutdoor concerts,
\nfamily reunions,
\nand the national past time
\nNo, not politics, \u2026 baseball.<\/p>\n
\nif I am going to preach in Chicago, I have a responsibility
\nto know how well the Cubs are doing (40 and 28)
\nand how well the White Sox are not<\/em> doing (24 and 47).<\/p>\n
\nsince 9 out of 10 Americans love statistics,
\nand baseball seems to lead the way here.<\/p>\n
\nabout how the curve ball is coming back in Major League Baseball.
\nStatistics demonstrate that there were almost 8
\nadditional curveballs thrown in the 2016 season
\nthan in 2015,
\nmany of them by the Cubs pitching staff,
\nwhich seems to have contributed to their World Series win.<\/p>\n
\nis the growth of sports sciences,
\nwhich have heighted the introduction
\nof more quantitative approaches
\nto coaching and managing in MLB,
\nlike deciding how to arrange the pitching or batting rotation.<\/p>\n
\nand may actually be able to explain
\nwhy the curveball is making a comeback.<\/p>\n
\nis the optical illusion
\nresulting from the way our eyes are designed.<\/p>\n
\nbut the periphery is made up of loosely packed cells.
\nLike an HD camera in the center
\nand a cell phone camera in the periphery.<\/p>\n
\nBut soon it becomes too fast to track,
\nso batters switch from central to peripheral vision,
\nwhich is when the magic of the curveball occurs
\nand gives the illusion of a rapid break,
\nthe price of switching from central to peripheral vision.<\/p>\n
\ninto baseball and curveballs,
\ncentral vision and peripheral vision,
\nis that today the church metaphorically throws us a curveball
\nthat could be more a pious illusion than spiritual reality.<\/p>\n
\nYet, apparently out of nowhere
\ncomes the Solemnity of John the Baptist.<\/p>\n
\nbadly dressed like a 1st<\/sup> century Palestinian Indiana Jones,
\nwith that distasteful diet of locusts and raw honey.<\/p>\n
\nso we are resigned to dealing with him then.
\nBut what is he doing intruding into our summer?
\nI mean, who would ever invite him to a beach party?<\/p>\n
\nthere are reasonable explanations
\nwhy the feast of the Baptist occurs on this date.<\/p>\n
\na yearlong liturgical cycle like we have.<\/p>\n
\nthe early church instead followed the seasons
\nmarked by solstices and equinoxes,
\nlongest, shortest, and most equal days of the year.
\nJohn the Baptist\u2019s feast falls on a traditional solstice day.<\/p>\n
\nour summer solstice in 2018 was the 21st\u00a0of June,
\nthe longest day of sunlight in the northern hemisphere.<\/p>\n
\nAnd as John was considered a prophetic solstice,
\nthe brightest of the ancient prophets,
\nhis feast was symbolically placed
\non the day of enduring sun,
\nas he foretold the coming of the eternal Son of God.<\/p>\n
\nHey Padre \u2026 thanks for the history lesson,
\nbut I passed that course already and don\u2019t need the credit \u2026
\nbut I will file it under
\nspiritual tidbits that I can later use
\nat my next Christian cocktail party.<\/p>\n
\nwhich is why I stopped teaching much of it years ago,
\neven in seminars on the liturgical year.<\/p>\n
\nabout some obscure, long dead herald,
\nthen we have been tricked
\ninto seeing with our peripheral vision \u2013
\nand spiritually haven\u2019t kept our eye on the ball.<\/p>\n
\nis Advent as solstice,
\nDecember in June,
\npreparation for incarnation while on summer vacation.
\nOxymoronic?\u00a0 Maybe \u2026 but think about it this way:<\/p>\n
\nyou know that England celebrated the queen\u2019s birthday
\non June 9th\u00a0even though the actually birthday is April 21st.<\/p>\n
\nOr is it because they understand
\nthat a birth celebration is as Hemmingway would have it,
\na moveable feast \u2026
\nand the essence is not the calendar, but the celebration of life?<\/p>\n
\nwhose family let them choose another birthday date
\nthat did not collide with this major holiday?<\/p>\n
\nWe celebrate that as the birthday of Jesus
\neven though there is no historical evidence
\nJesus was born that day.<\/p>\n
\nthat the Annunciation took place on the 25th\u00a0of March,
\nthat Mary was assumed into heaven on August 15th.<\/p>\n
\nthere is precious little hard evidence
\nthat St. Patrick actually died on the 17th\u00a0of March.<\/p>\n
\nWe\u2019ll still drink green beer,
\nwear embarrassing green outfits,
\nand send out the plumbers\u2019 union to dye the river green,
\nbecause the point is not the date,
\nit\u2019s the celebration.<\/p>\n
\nand had the parish St. Patrick\u2019s Day Mass
\non Sunday the 18th<\/sup> of March this past year.
\nAnd no one had a problem with that.<\/p>\n
\nSeeing with the center of the heart\u2026
\nSeeing with the center of the soul\u2026<\/p>\n
\nis not just September, but every month.
\nThe season for celebrating resurrection
\nis not just Easter, but every Sunday in Ordinary Time.
\nThe season for celebrating Lent and our need
\nfor individual and communal reconciliation
\nis not just March, but every day in our political history.
\nAnd the season for celebrating Advent
\nis not just December\u2026<\/p>\n
\nbut a deep commitment
\nto preparing for the very incarnation of God in our world
\nevery moment of human history.
\nIt is a deep commitment
\nto proclaiming the adventing of God\u2019s reign
\nin the impertinent present\u2026
\nin the eternal now…<\/p>\n
\nof babies, of children,
\nonly on the 25th\u00a0of December around a Christmas tree,<\/p>\n
\nwhen tearful children are pried
\nfrom the arms of distraught parents
\nand placed in detention camps
\nin apparent defense of our freedom.<\/p>\n
\nonly in the presence of an overstuffed bird
\nand a table set with too many casseroles,
\nbut in the multicolored faces
\nand diverse faith traditions,
\nof neighbors and strangers,
\nwho teach us gratitude for a God
\nwho deigns to call each person,
\nin the stunning rainbow of humanity, a beloved child.<\/p>\n
\nonly when we can make the phone call,
\nsend the flowers or chocolates,
\nplan the brunch,
\nor prayerfully remember our own mothers
\nnow in God\u2019s embrace,<\/p>\n
\nof every parent,
\nof every child, even if not well-mothered,
\nbecause they all belong to God,
\nand so belong to us.<\/p>\n
\nwe have witness what some observers consider
\na form of geographic tyranny:
\nthat only those who have been born in a place \u2013 the U.S.,
\nor have somehow bought into that place \u2013 the U.S.,
\nare the only one to enjoy the riches of that place – the U.S.<\/p>\n
\nsuggesting that a season like Advent only lasts a few weeks,
\nthat the toleration of the stranger has a term limit,
\nthat the hospitality of a nation has a finite shelf-life,
\nor that the very mercy of God has an expiration date.<\/p>\n
\nof geographic and calendric borders,
\nsymbolized by his refusal to be confined to December,
\nhis refusal to be captive to a time-bound Advent,
\nhis refusal to be sequestered in the desert.<\/p>\n
\nof religious piety\u2026 of societal decency\u2026
\ninvades Ordinary Time,
\nannounces that every time is the adventing of God,
\nand announces that every human boundary
\nis rejected by the Holy Spirit
\nwho broods where She will.<\/p>\n
\n<\/em>poet and prophet Daniel Berrigan penned this \u201cAdvent Credo\u201d:<\/p>\n\n
\nThis<\/strong> is true: God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life;<\/li>\n
\nThis<\/strong> is true: I have come that they may have life, and that abundantly.<\/li>\n
\nThis<\/strong> is true: Unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder.<\/li>\n
\nThis<\/strong> is true: To me is given authority in heaven and on earth; and lo, I am with you, even until the end of the world.<\/li>\n
\nThis<\/strong> is true: I will pour out my spirit on all flesh and your sons and daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions and your old men shall have dreams.<\/li>\n
\nThis<\/strong> is true: The hour comes, and it is now, that the true worshipers shall worship God in spirit and in truth.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\nIn the spirit of the Baptist and with the courage of the Baptist
\nlet us herald again the in-breaking of God\u2019s just reign
\nin our own time,
\nacross every border,
\nin the face of every prejudice,
\nthrough Christ our Lord.<\/p>\n