![\"\"](\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Speaking-the-Truth.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C As some of you may have noticed While I missed being with this vibrant community of faith With convictions of Paul Manafort and Michael Cohen And then of course there were the ecclesial earthquakes I missed you \u2026 And am glad to move on \u2026 But then I like you get waylaid, At first glance today\u2019s gospel might seem more innocent than that But to dismiss this Sunday\u2019s gospel and other lectionary texts The Jesus command to \u201cbe open\u201d ephphatha<\/strong> To be open to the word \u2026 There is a story of a renowned biblical scholar She drew upon every academic and rhetorical tool Jesus was definitely not Catholic, not Christian Judeo-Christian revelation The word is an act of power and action For Jesus the Jew to proclaim to another \u201cbe open\u201d From time to time I have the privilege This ordinarily involves immersing myself in their publications These days I am reviewing the material of a younger scholar He is a fan of the celebrated French philosopher Michel Foucault One of the pieces I was reading this last week In the introduction to that piece, he writes:<\/p>\n I would like to someday become a Catholic who tells the truth, who speaks frankly, who represents As part of this exploration of Catholic truth telling Spurred by my friends honest reflections, Foucault says that this frank speech has five characteristics To summarize: such speech is frank<\/strong>, true<\/strong>, dangerous<\/strong>, critical<\/strong>, and ultimately a duty Paul was such a parrhesiastes My young teacher reminds us, however, No wonder they were so persecuted. If preachers \u2026 are to say anything that really matters to anyone \u2026 they must say it not just to the public Terrible things have happened to us as Roman Catholics, [O]n April 24, 1989, at the funeral of Father Joseph Birmingham in Boston Tom Blanchette saw Cardinal\u00a0Law sipping coffee alone. \u2018There\u2019s a lot of young men in the diocese who will need counseling in the wake of their\u00a0relationship with Father Birmingham,\u2019 Blanchette told him. He confided how the priest had molested him, his\u00a0four brothers, other young men. Law drew him aside and asked him to return to the church. \u2018Bishop Banks is\u00a0handling this, and I want you to make an appointment.\u2019\u00a0Placing his hand on Blanchette\u2019s head, the cardinal prayed in silence. Then he said; \u201cI bind you by the\u00a0power of the confessional never to speak about this to anyone else.\u201d [4]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German pastor, theologian, poet, and resister Helped establish what was called the \u201cConfessing\u201d church In that spirit \u2026 in the spirit of evangelical ephphatha Recently, an auxiliary bishop of Boston blogged:<\/p>\n “A couple years ago \u2026 [when] I was informed that I had been named a bishop \u2026 I was conscious of the fact that, I \u2026 would have to accept whatever the future held with a complete openness to God\u2019s will \u2026 These days, I find myself deeply disturbed by what is happening in the Church. I know the bishops must act decisively and that the action needs to be thorough, transparent, professional and in cooperation with competent laypeople. But still, I ask the question: what can I do? All I know is that I can pray and do penance. To that end, and as your pastor, I commit myself to a full day and night of public penance. On Monday, September 24\u2026 I will celebrate the 9 o\u2019clock Mass as I usually do. Following that Mass I will expose the Blessed Sacrament and remain there in prayer and fasting until the next morning, concluding this period of prayer and penance with the celebration of the 9:00 am Mass on\u00a0Tuesday \u2026 You are most welcome to join me in prayer for a few minutes or for a full hour. In fact, I would welcome your presence as I do the only things I know to do in the face of evil; prayer and penance.\u201d [5]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n [Joncas Kyrie begins]<\/p>\n Victims are not responsible for the sins of their abusers In these darkening days Admitting such puts me in solidarity with at least one bishop [Change vestments from green to purple]<\/p>\n And so we assume the garb of penance And pray to an all merciful God Joncas Kyrie ensues<\/p>\n
\n<\/em>Old St. Patrick’s, Chicago
\n<\/em>Edward Foley, Capuchin<\/em><\/p>\n
\nfor of a variety of reasons
\nI have been away from Old St. Pat’s since early August.<\/p>\n
\nI can\u2019t say I have missed preaching
\nIn the midst of so much societal and ecclesial upheaval<\/p>\n
\nAll the wrangling over a supreme court nominee
\nLeaked portions of the Woodward book on the Trump White House
\nThe anonymous op ed piece by a White House insider
\nRahm Emmanuel\u2019s announcement he won\u2019t see reelection
\nAs the trial around the death of Laquan McDonald looms
\nFlooding in India
\nEarthquakes in Japan
\nBombing of the innocents in Syria<\/p>\n
\nAnd all their aftershocks
\nThe almost nuclear report from the Pennsylvania grand jury
\nOn the decades long sex abuse tragedy in that state
\nThe pope\u2019s visit to Ireland
\nWhere he apologized over and over again
\nFor abuse by Catholic ministers and institutions
\nThe resignation of a U.S. cardinal
\nFor apparently long known abuse allegations
\nThe charge that the pope himself knew of some of this
\nAnd then last week two local priests
\nArrested for scandalous activity in broad daylight
\nOn a major thoroughfare in Miami Beach<\/p>\n
\nBut didn\u2019t miss missing preaching in the shadow
\nOf so much turmoil<\/p>\n
\nAnd address safer issues
\nLike The gospel implications
\nOf the conviction of reporters in Myanmar
\nOr Colin Kapernick resurrected as a Nike spokesman
\nOr this week\u2019s Global climate action summit
\nOr the Cubs, or Bears, or even the White Sox<\/p>\n
\nambushed, maybe even assaulted
\nBy God\u2019s unrelenting word
\nLike an evangelical scalpel
\nIntent on lancing the boil
\nClearing the infection
\nExpelling the poison
\nSo that the sickness might stop
\nAnd healing might begin.<\/p>\n
\nJesus off on a field trip outside his home region
\nMeeting interesting folk
\noffering his usual gifts of insightful teaching
\nAnd powerful healing<\/p>\n
\nAs simply a pleasant healing story
\nThat beckons the comforting message
\nThat whatever ails us, Jesus heals
\nIs to miss the scalpel in the gospel
\nThe prophecy in the healing<\/p>\n
\nIs the same uttered at the baptism of every infant
\nIn preparation for the initiation of every adult<\/p>\n
\nAn openness authenticated in speaking and acting
\nWhat the first reading references
\nAs the singing of the mute
\nAnd what the Jesus modesty of the gospel
\nCannot suppress
\nAs the newly opened now speaks plainly<\/p>\n
\nTeaching scripture to undergraduates at Notre Dame
\nShe ran into some difficulty when one of them
\nRebuffed her assertion that Jesus was not a Christian<\/p>\n
\nAnd let him have it
\nafter her onslaught the undergrad yielded \u2026 sort of
\nSaying, \u201cOk, Ok \u2026 you\u2019ve convinced me
\nJesus wasn\u2019t a Catholic .. but his mother was!\u201d<\/p>\n
\nAnd as a Jew he had an instinct for a God
\nRevealed in speech-acts more than visual signs<\/p>\n
\nIs more like a phone call than facetime
\nMore like twitter [God help us] than Snapchat<\/p>\n
\nSo God \u201csaid\u201d let there be light \u2026 and it was done
\nSpeech is potent and creative<\/p>\n
\nWas demanding \u201cbe a new creation\u201d
\nA new creation that hears what is true
\nAnd speaks that truth in words and deeds<\/p>\n
\nOf being invited by another institution
\nTo review a candidate seeking an academic promotion<\/p>\n
\nScrutinizing their curriculum vitae
\nAnd considering their contribution to the academy<\/p>\n
\nThough I am not sure he would put himself in that category
\nWho became a publishing rock star in his 20\u2019s
\nWith a blockbuster book
\nThat appeared even before he finished his Ph.D.
\nShowoff!<\/p>\n
\nAnd many of his writings engage
\nThis revolutionary and sometimes controversial giant<\/p>\n
\nWas entitled \u201cthe struggle to speak truthfully\u201d<\/p>\n
\nhimself at some risk, who knows what he can do, and do joyfully, with his faith and his suffering and the
\nworld\u2019s suffering, or who at least knows, joyfully, that he does NOT know what to do with his faith and
\nhis suffering and the world\u2019s suffering. [1]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nHe explores the work of Foucault
\nWho lectured on the topic in 1983 in Berkeley CA<\/p>\n
\nI went back and read those lectures [2]
\nThat pivot on the Greek work parrhesia
\nThe term literally means \u201csaying everything\u201d
\nAnd although that could have the negative connotation
\nof a blabbermouth or gossip
\nMore substantially it means “speaking frankly, truthfully
\nOpenly, fearlessly, boldly”<\/p>\n
\n1. It is frank<\/strong> because it represents what someone believes;
\n2. Such frank speech is bound up with one\u2019s most authentic self, speaking what one
\nknows to be true<\/strong>; the parrhesiAS<\/strong>tes is someone who has the moral qualities
\nrequired to know the truth and then to convey such truth to others
\n3. Practicing parrhesia means risking<\/strong> something in such frank and truthful speech; it is
\nnot the truth telling that grammar school teachers tell to the children she teaches; it
\ncomes from \u201cbelow\u201d \u2026 speaking truth to tyrants
\n4. Because it is Criticism<\/strong>; speaking the truth is capable of hurting or angering the
\ninterlocutor
\n5. Finally practicing parrheSI<\/strong>a is both an exercise of freedom and an internal
\ncompulsion, a duty<\/strong> that comes from an authentic self<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>
\nJesus was such a parrhesiastes
\nA dangerous truth teller
\nWho spoke unvarnished truth to those in power
\na divine duty, out of critical love,
\nwhose holy frankness
\nGot him nailed to the jib of a tree<\/p>\n
\nThat I am glad I did not have to live with him
\nHis constant truth telling would have been excruciating<\/p>\n
\nThat this is not just an individual gift
\nBut that the early community
\nWas a parrhesiastic community
\nA truth telling, talk-back-at-power, duty filled community<\/p>\n
\nIn his magical and upsetting book, Telling the Truth,<\/em>
\npoet and preacher Frederich Buechner writes<\/p>\n
\npart of us that considers interesting thoughts about the gospel \u2026but to the private, inner part \u2026 where
\nour concern is less with how the Gospel is to be preached than with what the gospel IS \u2026. They must
\naddress themselves to the fullness of who WE are and to the emptiness too, the emptiness where grace
\nand peace belong but mostly are NOT, because terrible as well as wonderful things have happened to
\nus. [3]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nand to our most innocent
\nAnd some among us have even weaponized
\nour most sacred rituals
\nAs vehicles of oppression and abuse<\/p>\n
\nWho participated in plotting an assassination attempt on Hitler
\nAnd was martyred for that summative act<\/p>\n
\nA segment of German Lutheranism
\nThat refused to allow the churches
\nTo become an instrument of Nazi propaganda and politics<\/p>\n
\nwe are renewed this day
\nIn our journey to become a truly confessing church
\nNot a secret keeping one
\nA parrhesiastic community
\nAnd a first step in that journey towards such holy frankness
\nIs an admission of our collective sin
\nSocietal and definitely ecclesial<\/p>\n
\nHowever, institutions such as any government or society
\nperpetuating lies and abuse
\nand every and any church that colludes in secret keeping
\nthey \u2026 we are responsible<\/p>\n
\nI feel I am part of such a society
\nSuch a church
\nBoth wounded and still wounding<\/p>\n
\nWho understands at least one appropriate public response<\/p>\n
\nDon a Lenten mantle
\nDrape one clerical body in a public symbol
\nOf both shame and grace<\/p>\n
\nThat the spirit of church and society
\nMight conform on the inside to this outward sign
\nThat sin might be absolved, mercy bestowed
\nAnd the broken brought to wholeness and justice
\nThrough Christ our Lord.<\/p>\n
\n