The Rich Man and Lazarus, gospel reading for this Sunday

Small lidded soapstone ring box purchased at tourist shop in Calcutta (2003).   My sister Jeanne kept it for me until her death.

The Rich Man and Lazarus  Luke 16: 19 & ff

(story about meeting a beggar boy when with some tourists in Calcutta)

One afternoon we took a cab to a downtown craft shop that catered to tourists; some of us wanted to purchase gifts to take home.   I finished my shopping first and decided to wait for the others outside on the crowded street hoping to find some rhyme or reason to the riddle of Calcutta.  I found something that surprised me.   A beggar boy of about ten, no doubt carefully trained and rewarded for his skill, began to pester me for a handout.  I resisted and decided to go back into the store knowing that the guard would prevent him from coming in.   

But as I sat inside waiting for my companions the boy kept up a vigil within sight of me through the plate glass doors of the entrance.   He stared at me and every once in a while our eyes met.  No doubt his handlers trained him in this stare convinced that it would finally shame the target into making a donation. 

It worked but in this unexpected way.  Sitting there I saw the eyes of that beggar boy telling me that I was no better off than he.   In the great scheme of things, his eyes said, we are both beggars lacking the means to a secure destiny.   And I heard Jesus’ question from the scripture: “Which of you by worrying can add even a cubit to your stature?”    His stare said to me: “you are poor like me; we are all poor; and the poor always share what little they have.

Myself and my companions as well, we all gave him some money as we left that tourist shop and it was all we could do to tumble into a cab before other beggars came to besiege us.   I have no illusions about that boy…. His future would be the hardness of the street.  At best when he got older he could use his skill to get other boys to work for him the way he himself was working in some syndicate of beggars.

As this boy’s face lingers in my memory, so, too, does the lesson I learned that day.  We are all poor beggars lacking the means to a secure destiny.   Our destiny is with the Lord Jesus who empties himself and makes himself like us.  Jesus offers us the destiny of freedom from sin and the security of salvation.  

The plate glass doors separating me from the beggar boy were the chasm of the scriptures that separated the Rich Man from Lazarus.  But God’s mercy and the boys’ eyes created a bridge across the chasm.   Not that either one of us changed much.  Yes, my companions and I gave him a pittance and I learned a lesson about my own poverty.   A fragile, fleeting bridge to be sure.   But if I am to meet anyone in the afterlife, this boy will be among them.   And I will thank him for teaching me something about the human condition.

9/11: Opus One.... Choir presents Mozart's Requiem

SUNDAY, 9/11, FIFTEENTH ANNIVERSARY

OPUS ONE BERKS CHAMBER CHOIR PRESENTS

MOZART'S REQUIEM

HOSTED BY THE JESUIT CENTER IN THE MAIN CHAPEL

Susan Pena, Reading Eagle Correspondent wrote the Concert Review with the heading:  "Opus One's Requiem overwhelms with sound and emotion....Mozart's Requiem was uniquely suited to this day.  (Choir members) under the direction of Christopher Hoster, gave an extraordinary performance, heartfelt and beautifully sung."    After the last notes of  "quia pius es", silence filled the chapel while some shed tears.

Among the guests were the parents of Johanna Sigmund who died in the Twin Towers.   John and Ruth Sigmund and Johanna's uncle indicated afterward that annually this day is "hard".    Eased it was by a morning Mass honoring the victims of 9/11 and celebrated in their home church with friends and family.   Eased it was, too, by music which Ruth termed a powerful piece "of hope and unity."

The Journey to a Great Life

THE JOURNEY TO A GREAT LIFE

https://vimeo.com/180743432.

I have finished most of the journey myself but this video describes for those seekers some of the great things that we Jesuits experience.    And now that I have watched it, I am happy to say that I have lived with two of the stars and got to know a third one, too, before he was a Jesuit.

Abbey of the Genesee, Piffard, NY

The Chapel of the Abbey of the Genesee, Cistercian monastery about 35 miles south of Rochester NY.  Here I spent seven days on  quiet retreat.    Retreatants were housed about a half mile away but within easy walk or ride to the chapel for Morning Prayer and Mass at 6 AM and Evening Prayer at 6:40 PM

The monks bake bread, Monks' Bread,  each morning.  They and the bread rise well before 6 AM, the monks for prayer at about 2:30 AM.   Not being a baker, I slept in each day.











 Interior of the Chapel with choir stalls to right and left.   Visitors watching from the side of the choirs joined in the psalm chants of the office using texts in the foreground'












The area separating the choir stalls included the Eucharistic table and the lectern with the tabernacle on the back wall.   Colorful windows brought in the light of the rising sun.








      On the walk through the corn and crop fields surrounding the monastery, I  saw this tree that always captured my attention.   It appeared ready to address the cornfield.