Monthly Archives: May 2013

The Holy Trinity and the economy of self-gift

26 Sunday May 2013

Posted by in economy of consumption, economy of self-gift, Holy Trinity

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Icon of the Holy Trinity by Andrei Rublev

In reflecting on the deep and abiding mystery of the Trinity, some of the truths that we are brought to is that communion with others is always possible, that this communion is necessary and that it is free, although it does take work.  Communion is always possible because the very Creator of all is a communion of persons – eternally abiding in love and self-giving.  This should not be written off as a nice, superficial thought but rather it should be recognized for what it is – a fundamental anthropological and societal truth that does make authentic and abiding claims on life and reality.  Communion is always necessary because without it we are less.  We are not meant to live isolated lives.  Communion is free and this is much to chagrin of the market-place and the economy of consumption.     

Many voices in our time proclaim the opposite.  “Be a self-made man or woman!”  “Pull yourself up by your own bootstraps!”  “It is you against the world.”  “Fear the other and set up walls to protect and keep out!”  This thought has even found its way into the sphere of Christianity in the emphasizing of a “Jesus and I” approach to faith.  Church and community is nice but it is not really all that necessary.  Now it seems that even the acknowledgement afforded by history to the unique status and communion of marriage and family is being discarded as dynamics in contemporary society seek to reshape family more in terms of what “I want” and “my right” rather than in the life-giving reality of self-gift as laid out in the basic biological blueprint of creation itself.  All this leads to an increasingly isolated existence which plays to the benefit of an economy of consumption.

My personal theory is that we are now living in a time when it is the economy with all the pressures at its disposal attempting to shape us in its image rather than us shaping the economy in our image.  To wit – an isolated, self-focused individual trained to view reality through the prism of “I want” is potentially a much better consumer than one who is connected with other people in life-giving ways that are beyond the power of the market-place (i.e. family and individuals living authentic and honest relationships).  

The economy of consumption wants an upgrade to family and existence in general.  A “2.0 family” as it were.  Family defined by self-gift and sacrifice is no longer good enough.  Family defined by want and individuals who are increasingly isolated is now what is needed to keep the economy humming!

In the Holy Trinity we are shown a different economy – not an economy of consumption but an economy of self-gift and we find it revealed that this economy is not only at the foundation of all creation but is the source, itself, of all creation and life. 

Jesus said to his disciples: “I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now.  But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth.  He will not speak on his own, but he will speak what he hears, and will declare to you the things that are coming.  He will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you.  Everything that the Father has is mine; for this reason I told you that he will take from what is mine and declare it to you.”  (Jn. 16:12-15)

Notice how the three Persons of the Trinity freely receive from one another and freely give to one another.  Notice how this gift of self does not diminish each of the Divine Persons in uniqueness but actually fulfills each of the Persons.  The Father is not lessened by the Son receiving all the Father has to offer nor are the Father and Son diminished by the Spirit taking what they offer one another and declaring it to us.  Self-gift does not need to be feared because it leads to the fulfillment of personhood and life and not to a loss of self!

St Paul in his Letter to Romans reflects on what this all means to us who have been caught up into this very mystery of God’s own existence by God’s sheer gift of grace.  Brothers and sisters: Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith to this grace in which we stand and we boast in hope of the glory of God.  Not only that, but we even boast of our afflictions, know that affliction produces endurance, and endurance, proven character, and proven character, hope, and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. (Rom. 5:1-5) 

As Christians, we strive for the truth of being, even when we fail individually and communally we still strive by God’s grace.  The economy of consumption is not our economy.  We are meant for so much more!  Peace … Endurance … Proven Character … Hope … Love of God.  

These are all the gifts of the economy of self-gift.  
Not a bad list, when you think about it.    


             

Feast of the Ascension: God in the "in betweens"

12 Sunday May 2013

Posted by in Feast of the Ascension, God in the in between moments

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It has been said that as Christians we are always, “aliens in a foreign land.”  We might look the same as others, we might talk the same, we might act the same but as Christians we are never fully at home in this world.  Our souls will always be, in this life, to some extent or another, “restless”.  At some level we know that our true home still awaits us.  As Christians we do not disdain the world nor do we see it as evil.  The opposite, in fact, is the case – we value the world, we marvel at its beauty but we view it within the fuller horizon of the love, truth and hope that we have come to know in Jesus Christ.  What we have come to know in Christ affects everything – even how we judge our place in the world.
This must have been especially true for those first disciples.  They knew Christ.  They had spent time with him.  They experienced the resurrection.  And now, we are told, they watched him ascend into heaven but things are now different – they cannot go back to the way it was before – it can never be the same.  As Christ ascends, they stand in between the earthly ministry and presence of Jesus and the promised fullness of the Kingdom.
“Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking up at the sky?”  In other words, the angels are reminding the disciples even as they stand in between, “Remember, you are in this world and there is work to be done,” but, they also say, “This Jesus who has been taken up from you … will return in the same way…” but, “keep your eyes on heaven.”  As Christians we live with our feet planted in the world but our eyes on heaven.  Right now (like those first disciples) we live “in between”.
As humans, we are not all that good about living “in between” – we like to be either here or there but one of the gifts of the days of Ascension – the time between Christ ascending to heaven and the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost is to teach and help us recognize that God is present even in the “in between” moments of life.
All lives have moments of “in between”.  The announcement of pregnancy to the birth of a child, the ending of one career to the beginning of the next, graduating from college and preparing to either enter the job market or to move forward to graduate school, the moving from one place and culture to another, the pain of losing a loved one to the acceptance of memory and hope, even the pronouncement of a terminal illness to the point of death – these are all moments when we stand “in between.”  Life is full of “in between” times.
Let us not assume that God is not present in the “in between” moments of life.  Even if we cannot go back, even if things are different – God is still present.  We have experienced the fullness of truth and love in Jesus Christ.  God will remain with us even to the end of the ages and through all the in betweens.  As Christians we live with our feet in this world and our eyes turned toward heaven.

Friendship: Sixth Sunday of Easter

05 Sunday May 2013

Posted by in friendship, frienship with Christ, mission of the Church

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“The Trinity” by Andrei Rublev.  A meditation on friendship. 

Where does friendship begin?  It is a question worthy of reflecting upon.  When we look at the friendships within our lives, where and when did they start?  Did the friendships begin all at once in an instant, almost like a thunderclap, or did the friendships we have gradually develop and grow over time, even to the point where we might not remember exactly when a friendship began?  I think that the latter of these two is the nature of true friendship.  Friendship grows over time and it grows through daily encounter and interaction. 

As Christians we believe in the friendship of God – not because we have loved God first but because God has first chosen to love us.  The readings for this sixth Sunday of Easter can be read in the terms of friendship (Acts 15:1-2, 22-29, Rev. 21:10-14, 22-23 and Jn. 14:23-29). 

In today’s gospel we find our Lord saying, “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him…”  In his book, The Priority of Christ, Fr. Robert Barron takes some effort to explore what the doctrine of Christ as fully human and fully God has to say about the very nature of God.  Fr. Barron begins by exploring the very common fallacy of viewing God as just the “biggest” of beings.  He points out that if this were the case then God would still just be a being among other beings and therefore if God is just another being then God’s will necessarily inhibits and limits my freedom and my very being.  Nothing is further from the truth and this is demonstrated in the reality of Christ being fully God and fully human because in Christ we find humanity fully realized and not inhibited in the presence of full divinity.  God is not the biggest being among other beings who will necessarily limit my freedom by his presence; God is “otherly other” – to quote one early Church Father.  God operates in a way that we cannot fully grasp because we are limited beings.  God does not need to compete as we do.

“Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him…”  Christ is offering the terms of a friendship that is truly non-competitive in nature.  This is the amazing promise of Christ.  To the one who strives to keep the word of Christ; God will come and make his dwelling with him or her.  “Dwelling” is a neat word here.  It is not heavy.  It does not oppress.  It is a place of life and home.  The presence of God does not limit nor oppress because God is otherly other.  God can be fully present to us in our lives in a non-competitive manner and in a way that fulfills the human person.  Keeping God’s word leads to true life. 

Our Lord continues this invitation to a non-competitive friendship with the promise of the coming of the Holy Spirit.  “I have told you this while I am with you.  The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you.  Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.”  Christ can promise and give a peace that moves beyond the limits of this world precisely because Christ in the fullness of his divinity and humanity is otherly other.  Christ can enter into your life and my life in a truly non-competitive way.  God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit does not come to limit life but to give life and to give peace.

In today’s second reading from the Book of Revelation we are given the image of the new and heavenly Jerusalem.  It has been noted that in the Old Testament there can be seen a progression in regards to the presence of God.  First, God is present for his people in the meeting tent.  Second, God is present in the temple then God is present in Jerusalem.  In the New Testament, God becomes present within the human heart, “…and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him…”.  John writes of his vision, “I saw no temple in the city for its temple is the Lord God almighty and the Lamb.  The city had no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gave it light, and its lamp was the Lamb.”  There is no need of temple or church in the heavenly Jerusalem because the presence of God is fully realized and welcomed within each human heart.  This welcoming begins today and it is found in the daily invitation to encounter our Lord as he makes himself present to us. 

In the first reading from Acts we find the early Church deliberating about its mission to the Gentiles and how this is to occur and even “if” it should occur.  This is no small thing.  In fact, it is at the heart of the mission of the Church and it, in many ways, is a question about friendship.  Can the friendship with God that we now know through Christ be extended and should it be extended to others?  The Church, guided by the Spirit, comes to the decision that yes, friendship should be extended and friendship is always possible.  This mission continues today and it is primarily an invitation to friendship.  The love that we have heard and seen and touched is a love that, by its very nature, must be extended to others.  As Church, we proclaim that friendship is always possible and we make this proclamation in a time that continually seeks to isolate and divide people from one another.  The Church’s witness of the possibility of friendship is truly counter-cultural in our day and age and it is truly needed.

“Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him…”