took and mixed in with three measures of flour until
all of it was leavened." Matthew 13:33
From the April/May 2005 Issue
Looking Back on Lent: Three Perspectives
Lee Kaspari
After a 30-year adventure at Denver Juvenile Court, Lee Kaspari is allegedly retired. He still sells real estate, but has more time to run, bike, hike, ski and attend trials.
Sometimes Lent offers the “grace of self-doubt” to question ourselves and the institutional church. My friend Charles Hardy lived for many years in a cardboard shack with a tin roof in the barrio Nueva Tacagua, Venezuela. He wrote: “I have come to realize that the celebration of Lent is a privilege of the affluent. To tell someone who never has meat on their table that they shouldn’t eat it on Fridays is meaningless. To say that people should eat only one full meal on Wednesdays and Fridays when they never have a full meal any day is insulting.”
The cover story of The Denver Catholic Register (DCR) for February 23, 2005. proclaimed: “Former Denver auxiliary installed as San Antonio archbishop in stately Mass.” DCR editor Roxanne King reported the pageantry: the “Knights of Columbus in their colorful regalia” – Regalia, rights or privileges belonging to a king. “Archbishop Gomez took his seat in the cathedra, the bishop’s throne.” – Throne, the chair of a sovereign ruler or king. “Musical highlights … included a regal entrance hymn.” - Regal, characteristic of a monarch. Oh, for a return to a preferential option for the poor and the mission of the church as service!
A third reflection came in a letter from Plowshares Sister Ardeth Platte
who is serving a three- year sentence at the Federal Correction Institution
in Danbury, Connecticut. She writes: “Oh how I wish the Catholic
Church would identify itself as a Peace Church and would reject organized
war for once and for all times. We could lead the way and encourage each
faith tradition to do the same. Yes, Churches could wage peace. If we interpreted
Scripture under God’s laws it would be a blessing to the world. The
Koran is just as clear.” As we admire the Sisters’ courage
as peacemakers, may we follow their example in taking seriously the commission: “The
Mass is ended. Go in peace.”