It's about a readjustment…

~ Fr. John Chagnon ~ 2 Comments

Saw a picture of my old band up on the stage at the Fine Line in Minneapolis. I guess the wistfulness is still there, yet at the same time new challenges are calling out to me and I see a brightness in the future.

I’m being, I believe, called back to my pastoral ministry, to serving the people of God and there is great joy and peace in that. For several years after leaving St. Elias I’ve helped parishes here and there but music and work and other things have consumed much of my time. Now it feels like a good time to work my way back, to take on a more active role, to be what hands were laid on me to be.

You see I’ve been like Jonah in some ways. Called one way and heading out the other. Yet no matter how far I’ve traveled I still feel the tug. I love the church. I love the liturgy. When I serve God’s people in the Church I feel like I’m being significant in the way God wants me to be. Don’t get me wrong. I love music. I love writing. I just want to be where Jesus is more than being on stage or having people read my stuff. I think the call from the band that cut me loose was also God’s call to carry me back. Jonah got spit out of the whale and I got spit, as it were, out of the Redemption Alley Band.

Now its about a readjustment, to embrace again my calling, my training, the reason I went to seminary and set out in that great big world in the first place. I know its the right thing. I know there’s a future in it. I know its where peace and joy reside. It’s been a good trip and I’m glad I took the journey. I’m glad i was with my traveling companions. The plane flight back from a trip is, though, also a good ride.

I’m a Priest. It is my joy, love, and passion. God help me to be what you want me to be.

Wisdom from St. Cyprian…

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Patience is a precept for salvation given us by our Lord our teacher: Whoever endures to the end will be saved. And again: If you persevere in my word, you will truly be my disciples; you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

Dear brethren, we must endure and persevere if we are to attain the truth and freedom we have been allowed to hope for; faith and hope are the very meaning of our being Christians, but if faith and hope are to bear their fruit, patience is necessary.

We do not seek glory now, in the present, but we look for future glory, as Saint Paul instructs us when he says: By hope we were saved. Now hope which is seen is not hope; how can a man hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it in patience. Patient waiting is necessary if we are to be perfected in what we have begun to be, and if we are to receive from God what we hope for and believe.

In another place the same Apostle instructs and teaches the just, and those active in good works, and those who store up for themselves treasures in heaven through the reward God gives them. They are to be patient also, for he says: Therefore while we have time, let us do good to all, but especially to those who are of the household of the faith. But let us not grow weary in doing good, for we shall reap our reward in due season.

Paul warns us not to grow weary in good works through impatience, not to be distracted or overcome by temptations and so give up in the midst of our pilgrimage of praise and glory, and allow our past good deeds to count for nothing because what was begun falls short of completion.

Finally the Apostle, speaking of charity, unites it with endurance and patience. Charity, he says, is always patient and kind; it is not jealous, is not boastful, is not given to anger, does not think evil, loves all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. He shows that charity can be steadfast and persevering because it has learned how to endure all things. And in another place he says: Bear with one another lovingly, striving to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. He shows that neither unity nor peace can be maintained unless the brethren cherish each other with mutual forbearance and preserve the bond of harmony by means of patience.

We love you but…

~ Fr. John Chagnon ~ 2 Comments

That seems to be the way it is, we love you and then that little word “but” which changes everything. It means that bad news is coming, something is ending, or changing, and it probably won’t be good.

In my case the but was followed by “we’ve decided to go with a different bassist” and that was it. They still wanted to talk but what was there to say? At the time I didn’t want to know why they wanted to drop me and I was stunned by the suddenness of it even as I knew exactly what was going to happen when their first text message came my way. I named the band. I set up the locations for the first “alley” photo shoots. I started the Facebook site, the Twitter feed, the web page. I developed the bass parts for all of the songs. In less than five minutes it was gone.

Yet I understand. They wanted to move on. There were a few times when I thought about moving on. Each time I swallowed it back and went on. They were good guys. Good musicians.  We were on a mission. When it clicked it was very good. But I was different. Different in faith. Different in life. Different in where I’d been and what I’d experienced. I wanted to rock more, talk about Jesus more, play more blues. I wanted music people could dance to and yet music with a very real and raw edge. I thought we needed to talk to a generation that had next to no idea about the Bible but knew everything about condoms.  I don’t know all the behind the scenes stuff but in the end it was “We love you but…” the evangelical Christian way of breaking your heart with a pious spin. It still stings sometimes. It stings as I write this.

By all the world’s rules for bands I’m supposed to hate them and hope they fail without me but that’s not how I am, it’s not what I wish to be. There is no good in defining yourself by your hurts or letting them overwhelm you. There will always be things in life that have no explanation, opportunities that should have been but never came to be, mysteries without immediate answers. There’s a reason behind all of this, a reason yet undiscovered and a plan yet to be revealed. I practice my instrument, pray, pray for them, wait, and trust in God’s love. There is a time and place for me but apparently it’s not where I thought it was going to be. God knows. I need to rest in that.

In the meantime I’m between where a door closes and another opens. It’s an interesting place, the place where trust is formed and love is experienced even as every so often I wonder why.

You will be wise…

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if you understand that every time you watch the TV, listen to the radio, or read a magazine or newspaper there is an attempt underway to manipulate you. It’s not just about the information, it’s about the end to which the information is directed. Remember this and you will have insight.

This I Need to Relearn…

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…God comes into our lives when we invite Him with all our being, opening the gates of our heart from the inside. 
He will not come uninvited… The moment you are willing to give over your whole self to God- surrendering your 
life, your loved ones, your health, your victories and defeats- He will come to you and help you in ways you never dreamed possible.

Fr. Vojislav Dosenovich

The Question is…

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whether the well planned protests and violence against our embassies in the Middle East will cause us to defend or back off from our value of free speech. If we back off then the thugs have won and it will be a tragedy perhaps even greater, in its own way, than the first 9/11.

Let me explain. I don’t like it when people portray Jesus in horrible ways, which, in this culture they often do because they know Christians are not going to blow up buildings and kill people. I’m offended by such things, often deeply, but I understand that the value of free speech is such that I will have to put up with offense at times and quite frankly I would rather do that than have a series of government or social editors screening what I should and shouldn’t see, hear, read, watch, you know the drill.

As I’ve been surveying the www it has come to my attention that a General in the US Military called the pastor who apparently is making a film in which Mohammed is a character and asked him to back away from the project. He has done this in his official capacity as a military officer. This has also happened, in my research, at least one time before in different circumstances and with a different general.

We can’t have that. I don’t know if this soon to be revealed film is offensive to Muslims, or at least the ones who like to burn things and kill people. Quite frankly I don’t care. Free speech means that people have a right to say offensive things, stupid things, heretical things, things I don’t like. It also means that I have the right to speak my mind and somebody may not like that but that’s just the way it goes. The freedom is essential to faith, to science, to everything that makes life in a civilized world possible and once we have people in official government capacities asking us to “tone it down” we’ve already slipped into slavery to fanatics and become less of who we are supposed to be.

As for the screaming crazies who like to burn and kill in the name of their “prophet” I only have this to say. If your “prophet” is so weak and sensitive that he can’t take even a little criticism without inciting mayhem why do you believe in his revelation?

Where Politicians Fail…

~ Fr. John Chagnon ~ 1 Comment

is in their understanding that changing the rules, the structures, the environment surrounding a person will change the world to produce the desired outcome. Only transformed hearts, not laws, will change the world.

No…

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we don’t belong to the government, the government belongs to the people. This is a video from the Democratic National Convention but regardless of party it is a false sentiment and deeply outside the spirit of America.

People Forget…

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that professional sports teams are, well, in the entertainment business, nothing more and nothing less and the result is a misplaced sense of loyalty that only goes one way, to the team.

Teams would like to have us believe, of course, that they are regional assets, that having one makes a city special and that the people in any given place owe the team a kind of allegiance because its there, and its “their” team. Yet nothing could be further from the truth, and the truth can set you free.

A professional sports team, perhaps outside of the Green Bay Packers, never belongs to a community. It’s always been and will continue to be the property of the people who own it, their business, their assets, and their profit. The team produces a product, the entertainment provided by watching people who claim to excel at a particular game, and people pay money to watch these events and buy various items related to the team. It’s a show and you pay for it just like you’d go to a concert or a rodeo or a restaurant.

Now they’ve done a very good job of wrapping it up in some kind of greater loyalty, but there’s nothing per se that’s in it for you. You are loyal to though team but the team is loyal to its owners and if the owners feel that you’re not loyal enough, that is attending games and buying things, they will simply move on and demand that kind of loyalty from another town. That’s why the Colts moved from Dallas to Baltimore to Indianapolis and why the Cardinals are in Arizona after being in Chicago and St. Louis and the Rams are in St. Louis after being in Los Angeles.

The truth is that you owe them nothing. They are a product like anything else. You don’t, for example, have to keep going to a restaurant when you dislike the food and so, in the same way, you don’t have to be loyal to a team that continually puts out a bad product. The “loyalty” professional sports teams demand is a very successful advertising gimmick designed to get you to feel an obligation to financially support their business because somehow its “belongs” to the community. Hogwash.

If a car repair place underperformed on their obligations you’d never go there again so why do you have to show up to watch an entertainment product that continues to disappoint? The answer is that you don’t.  The truth is that the team needs to be loyal to you, to give you something worth watching and your loyalty to them is only to the extent that they produce an entertainment product you enjoy. If they don’t you can move on any time you like to something better and let the empty seats tell the team that you’re not interested.

That’s the truth which sets you free. You’re under no obligation to support any professional sports team that fails to live up to your expectations. You’re the consumer. You’re the boss. The teams exist to entertain you with a product you enjoy. You are not obligated in any way to the team unless you choose to be. Good teams will get support. Bad teams will flounder because they should. the power is in your hands.

No more guilt because you think you have the support the local team. You don’t. No more frustration because you’ve invested your heart and soul into an entertainment business (team) that fails to meet your expectations. Switch the channel. Go online. There’s a hundred different things to do and a lot of worthy forms of entertainment  available even on Sunday afternoons.

What the heck, you might even relax enough in the morning to enjoy Church!