James Otis Sargent Huntington

Today, November 25th, is the feast of the founder of our Order, Blessed James Otis Sargent Huntington. It is a great feast day for us and, we like to think, for the Episcopal Church as well.

Most feast days of saints correspond with either the date they died or the next "available" date (one that does not already have a feast associated with it). This is not the case with Father Huntington. He died on June 29th in 1935, and that  and that day, already the feast of Saints Peter and Paul is a major red letter day and therefore could not be bumped.

And so the date that was chosen was the anniversary date of Father Huntington's life vows. This was a significant moment not only in our particular history, but in the history of the Episcopal Church, as Father Huntington was the first Episcopal priest to take monastic vows. And so, on this date in 1884, the Order of the Holy Cross was born and with that birth, a new life for many men who would follow Father Huntington into monastic vows, and for so many men and women around the world who have been touched by one of us. It is a day in which to celebrate and to give great thanksgiving for this wonderful man.

We have two fathers in the faith that we look to for inspiration. We are Benedictine monks, and so, of course, we look to St. Benedict, his Rule, and the great 1,500 year tradition that goes with all of that for guidance and inspiration. But St. Benedict is the "Father of Western Monasticism" and one of the most important figures in "Church History". His largeness is both a draw to me as inspiration (I really love being a Benedictine monk) but also a drawback because of intimidation (how am I suppose to relate to the Father of Western Monasticism?).

But Father Huntington is a man I can understand more personally. First of all, even the way I speak of him or to him in prayer, with the words "Father Huntington" is telling. I don't refer to him as Blessed James Otis Sargent Huntington, as he is officially known in "Holy Men, Holy Women", but simply as Father Huntington. That seems to be respectful enough  by using the surname for the founder of my Order, while being intimate enough by using the title "Father".

For that is what Father Huntington is to me: a father. I was truly blessed to have in my own father (Joseph, who died back in 2003) a man who really loved me, my siblings and mother; a man who had my best interest at heart; and a man who gave me guiding principles that have lasted me a lifetime. This is the kind of man I imagine Father Huntington to have been.

On his deathbed, Father Huntington promised us that he would always intercede for us. I believe he has and continues to do so. Whenever I feel like I am drifting in my own vocation, I find myself down in our crypt, where Father Huntington is buried, asking him to intercede for me, to help me remain faithful to my monastic vocation.  The same is true for our entire Order. Whenever I perceive that we need guidance, direction, or inspiration, I find great hope in Father Huntington's promise to always intercede.                                                                                                      
The guiding principle that can probably best sum up Father Huntington's approach to faith is his most famous words:

"Love must act as light must shine and fire must burn."

Love. Light. Fire. Act. Shine. Burn. These are all great words for a monastic vocation and for a life of faith in general. The love that Father Huntington had for God and for God's poor was unbounded. His vision was to "act" in both prayer and service on behalf of the poor whether those people were financially or spiritually (or both) poor. Throughout his life, there was so much light shining from him that it must have seemed like fire to those who encountered him. One of the things I most love about Father Huntington is that he talked about joy a great deal. His understanding of leading a faithful monastic life was that it was based on the love of Christ, prayer, and service and that it would lead to joy. 

And he was right. Being a monk is a joyful thing. An incredibly joyful thing. Back in 1884, Father Huntington set in motion a movement here in the United States that has led to my being able to live the life that God most wants me to live - and it is a life of joy. Thank you Father Huntington. 

I ask you all to please remember our Order in a special way today in your prayer. Ask our God, if you will, to continue to guide us in our vocation, to send us new vocations (there's lots of interest brewing out there), and to always enable us to live in joy as we become more and more faithful to prayer and service. 

And please know that we keep all of you in our prayers each and every day. 

Peace be upon you. 

And so the War Goes On And On and On

It is very hard to look at these faces. But I hope you will look very closely at them. These are some children from Afghanistan that are hungry and in danger of life-threatening diseases as they sit in a refugee camp displaced by the war in Afghanistan. These children need food. They need health care. They need their families. They need hope. They do not need more war.
But that is what we are going to give them. Here's the latest from NBC, which echoes what many other news outlets have been saying the last few days:

"KABUL – While many Americans have been led to believe the war in Afghanistan will soon be over, a draft of a key U.S.-Afghan security deal obtained by NBC News shows the United States is prepared to maintain military outposts in Afghanistan for many years to come, and pay to support hundreds of thousands of Afghan security forces. The wide-ranging document, still unsigned by the United States and Afghanistan, has the potential to commit thousands of American troops to Afghanistan and spend billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars. The document outlines what appears to be the start of a new, open-ended military commitment in Afghanistan in the name of training and continuing to fight al-Qaeda. The war in Afghanistan doesn’t seem to be ending, but renewed under new, scaled-down U.S.-Afghan terms."

What a surprise. Countries that claim to be Christian are not countries that wage endless war seeking domination of peoples in distant lands. Empires that worship wealth, weapons and war do that. And so the Empire wants to continue to fight an unending war, committing thousands of troops and billions of taxpayer dollars to that effort. And to what end? More refugees. More death. More terrorists. More children sitting with empty soup bowls in their hands. 

God offers us tender compassion and calls us to live in tender compassion with one another. The proposed endlessness of this war is offered in your name if you are a citizen of the United States. Our service members are going to be in Afghanistan endlessly getting maimed and killed. Our service members are going to be in Afghanistan endlessly maiming and killing. Our treasure is going to be used to destroy lives and countries and children with soup bowls. 

Why don't we organize ourselves into a band of actual Christians calling our leaders to stop endless war and to  use all those billions of dollars to feed hungry children and to offer health care to them and to us. That type of Empire is called the Kingdom of God. That's the kind of reign we should be working for. So how do we want to do this? Start by looking long and hard at those faces. God have mercy on us. 

Peace be upon you. 

Shalom

I have been studying the Mennonite approach to peace-making for a little while now, and right now I am reading "Covenant of Peace, the Missing Peace in New Testament Theology" by Willard M. Swartley, who is one of the Mennonites' most important theologians. While I disagree with him on a few things, most notably his theological point of view of homosexuality, he is a "must-read" for people interested in peace and non-violence.

In the beginning of his chapter on the Hebrew word "shalom" he refers to that word as "iridescent" which I just love. He goes on to say, what other scholars have said, that "shalom" has many meanings, but that "well-being, wholeness, [and] completeness" are at the core of its meaning. He goes on to say that the word "ranges over several spheres and can refer in different contexts to bounteous physical conditions, to a moral value, and, ultimately, to a cosmic principle and divine attribute."

I read that chapter sometime last week and have been thinking about it ever since, especially as Election Day approaches. Here in New York State we have local elections today in which people are running for town and county levels offices. There are also a number of state wide ballot questions - some of which have considerable moral import.

But what I want to talk about is shalom in the context of local elections. Many people sometimes think about "peace" as an absence of violence. And that is, in fact, a necessary aspect of having a condition of peace. But peace is much more than an absence of violence. It is having a condition, in a particular location, in which all people share in well-being, wholeness and completeness, to borrow from Swartley. That requires a great deal more than people simply not shooting at each other.

So, what is this condition of well-being. First, that each person have adequate food, clothing, shelter. That each person have adequate health care, access to education, employment. A good question to ask as you prepare to vote might be, "does candidate x have the well-being of all my neighbors at heart, and how about candidate y?"

The first line of opportunity to build peace, that is, to have a condition of shalom, is at the local level. There is a great deal that needs to be done on the national and international fronts as well, but beginning with the local is always the most effective way to build a peaceful community. A community that is iridescent with the colors of shalom.

So, local elections matter. They matter because we get to vote for people who, hopefully, want to put the Scriptural value of shalom into action, without promoting a particular religion, but by promoting non-violence within the community, by promoting care for the poor, the neglected, the young, the elderly, the environment.

So, today, let us pray for all those running for office. And let us pray for those we elect that in their hearts, in their minds, and in their actions, the Scriptural values of shalom will be present and will grow. Let us pray that these women and men understand that their actions, their votes, their way of leading, can build peace or can further destroy it.

Peace be upon you.

All Souls Day

Today we commemorate All Souls Day, which can be sometimes confusing to folks or disregarded by other folks as some relic of the past. On the most basic level, however, All Souls Day does something, in the context of Christian spirituality, that nearly every other culture and spirituality does: it is a way of remembering our dead loved ones. Even within our own American secular culture, we do this, most especially on Memorial Day, when we remember those who have died defending the nation in war.

But All Souls Day is about more than remembering our loved ones who have died, it is also an opportunity to pray for them and to ask their prayers for us. No, we are not hung up on souls lingering in purgatory, but I think we do have to acknowledge that, since we believe that in death "life has not ended, but changed" the souls of our departed loved ones - indeed all those who have gone before us - might just well need or want our prayers.

I always want and need the prayers of others. That is especially true when facing change of any sort. Change is difficult and fraught with choices that can be confusing even baffling at times. Prayer from others always makes that process easier. So, for me, it follows that if death is not an end, but a continuation of the spiritual journey, all the change that is implied in that journey, is fodder for prayer.

The souls of our loved ones who have died, and eventually our own souls, will continue to make that journey toward the light, the Light that is Christ. We are, in fact, in a continuing community of all the living and the dead. Praying for, and asking the prayers of our beloved dead, is one of the most basic human and spiritual things to do.

So, let us pray for our dead and let us ask them for prayers as well. They are part of our community, grounded, as it were, in Christ. May the light of the prayers of the entire community lead you, and all your loved ones, to the Light.