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Thoughts on the Sunday readings: the concreteness of the Ascension

17 Sunday May 2015

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Ascension3Today’s gospel (Mk. 16:15-20) has the risen Lord sending his disciples into the whole world in order to proclaim the gospel to every creature.  This very same mission continues today.  Christianity cannot stay within, locked behind closed doors!  But, before we run out to the world, we need to know for whom we are running and whose message it is exactly that we are proclaiming.  I once heard a seasoned Catholic blogger give some sound advice to some young seminarians eager to evangelize the internet for Christ.  She cautioned that before you start saying things about faith and Christ make sure you actually have something to say.  The only way to speak authentically about Christ is to encounter Christ.  Another way of getting at this is by asking the question actually whose disciples are we?

We are not disciples for ourselves even if we might claim the name Christian.  Taking only the teachings of our Lord that we like and find agreeable and then trying to manage and live our lives on our own – agreeing with Jesus but not really feeling a need for him, too closely, in our lives.

We are disciples because God has first loved us – he has called us and saved us in love.  He sends us into the world in order to proclaim the good news in love and peace.  In many ways the gospel is a weak strength – the gospel needs us to proclaim it, if not love begins to disappear and peace begins to lose to violence and hatred.  But for any of this to happen we must live continually in relationship with Christ, remembering that we are his disciples and not disciples for ourselves.

Despite the seemingly, other-worldly nature of today’s feast (What does it mean that Jesus ascends to the Father?), the Feast of the Ascension is a very concrete reality.   It is so because of the simple fact that the hope we celebrate today is not founded in some abstract or utopian principle or ideal of a better tomorrow but in the very resurrected body of Christ.  Christ is indeed risen which means he is risen body and soul, flesh and blood.  Anything less would not be fully and authentically human.  Christ ascends to the Father not just in spirit or thought but in the very concrete reality of his full humanity.  Throughout this Easter season we have heard Christ, time and time again, assuring his disciples that he is indeed present in “flesh and bone”.  This means fully present not just up to the moment of the ascension but in the ascension itself and now at the Father’s right hand.  From the day of the ascension heaven “began to populate itself with the earth, or, in the language of Revelation, a new heaven and earth began.”

In the ascension we truly realize that we are not orphans.  We are not left to the cold and cruel winds of chance, fate and odds or a history without direction.  Direction has been set.  The resurrected Christ now sits at the Father’s right hand!  This, and nothing less, is our goal.  It is what we are meant for and what we are called to by God’s grace.

It is truly concrete and it is achieved and experienced concretely.

In the gospel Jesus tells us that he is “the way” and the way, it turns out, is walked concretely.  The ascension is experienced again not in some abstract manner but in how we concretely treat and love the smallest and poorest brothers and sisters in our midst. When we love concretely we experience the ascension and we are brought toward the fullness of the future that God has prepared for us in Christ.

Let me share an example.  When I was chaplain at the Catholic Center at ETSU our Sant’Egidio group decided to take sandwich bags once a week to the John Sevier Center.  (The John Sevier Center is a low-income housing unit in downtown Johnson City.)  We did not go there as experts in anything.  We knew we could not solve the residents’ problems and struggles.  We just went and we were faithful in going and in this simple act of being present a human space was created both for the residents and for us.  We became friends.  By this we were brought a little bit further toward the fullness that awaits us all.  In this human space miracles happen and signs are given – demons of isolation, fear, hatred and resignation are cast out and life is gained.  I have seen it for myself time and time again.  Now, our Sant’Egidio group here at St. Dominic’s has begun visiting Holston Manor nursing home and it is beginning to happen again – a human space is being created.

Christ bestows his love upon us.  We are disciples for him and we are meant to communicate his love.  Love that is not communicated soon withers and dies.

Love is lived not abstractly but concretely and it is in the concrete act that we are brought toward the fullness that awaits us all.

The Recent Pew Survey, Individualism and Gratitude

14 Thursday May 2015

Posted by in discipleship, faith, individualism, life in Christ, social factors, society

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individualismIn our society’s almost dictatorial focus on the individual have we forgotten how to receive and how to be grateful?

A realization that I have arrived at through my prayer with the Community of Sant’Egidio is that our Lord was neither as influenced by nor as burdened by individualism as we are.  It can easily be demonstrated that individualism is a cherished notion in the modern American cultural landscape if not, in fact, the highest virtue we subscribe to.  We exalt the positives of individualism (and they are there certainly) but do we also recognize as readily the negatives?  I would contend that one negative derived from an uncritical adoption of the tenets of individualism is being obliged throughout life to carry the weight of the presumption that if something does not originate from me exclusively then it is not really all that worthwhile.

I remember in a previous assignment as a college chaplain how I would visit the art museum on campus once a week where the work of art majors would be on exhibit.  For many of the students this showing was their senior thesis.  Much of the work of these students was engaging, creative and very thought-provoking.  But a good amount of it was not and one would leave the exhibit with the perception and hunch that the student was almost straining under the compulsion to have to present his or her own unique perception of reality, particular viewpoint or feelings to the world.  Frankly, in this forced condition, their viewpoint was not all that interesting and often it was clichéd and just plain boring.  At these moments I would exit the exhibit with the words of a wise, old Benedictine monk friend ringing in my ears, “Get over yourself!”

This weight can work in a subtle way but it is there – the weight to always have to be unique, always original and to have to prove it!  This is quite crushing and just not humanly possible.  Christ did not seem to be burdened by this though.  Our Lord demonstrates his freedom (as well as his oneness with the Father) when he responds to Philip’s request of showing the disciples the Father in the fourteenth chapter of John’s gospel,

He who has seen me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?  Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in me?  The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority; but the Father who dwells in me does his works.  Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me; or else believe me for the sake of the works themselves. (Jn. 14:9-11)

Our Lord is quite comfortable in sharing that what he has to give comes both from the Father and out of his relationship with the Father.  He does not seem constrained by the presumption that everything has to be a totally original and unique thought originating from within himself alone in order for it to be authentic and worthwhile.  This freedom that our Lord demonstrates is in fact shared with the Spirit also.

I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.  When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.  He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.  All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.  

These gospel passages lead the reader into the mystery of the Trinity but they also witness to the depth of freedom that our Lord enjoyed in his person with one such ingredient of this freedom being the ability to freely acknowledge what he has received from the Father.  Our Lord is the “free-est” person who ever walked the face of the earth – even being free of the negative weight of individualism.  Because of this our Lord could fully receive from the Father and he could fully live in gratitude.  We, on the other hand, not so much.

Recently, I have noticed a string of articles in response to a just released Pew survey on why younger people are no longer practicing their faith and leaving the Church.  I am not proposing this as the definitive answer but I do think a contributing factor in this trend is this negative weight of individualism and specifically how it limits our ability to recognize what we have received and to be grateful for that.  Many people will say that the Church needs to get better at reaching out to young people, preaching needs to be better and more engaging, we need to return to a sense of traditional Catholic identity or be more involved in pressing social issues that are of concern to younger generations … the list can go on and on.  I agree with these points and believe there is validity to them.  Yes, there is more that the Church needs to do and should do but I think there is another aspect to this equation and I offer this with the greatest pastoral sensitivity having worked many years with younger generations.  I think a number of younger people (as the wise monk would say) need to get over themselves and, frankly, just need to grow some backbone when it comes to their faith.

A number of times now in my ministry I have had the experience of a young couple approaching me for marriage preparation with one of the two being Catholic and the other one from a different Christian faith tradition only to hear them say that they plan to attend a different church once married, almost as if it is no big deal.  This then leads generally into a full discussion where I ask them if they are able to recognize how their faith tradition (Catholic or not) has helped to shape who they are.  What I have come to realize is that more often than not they do not recognize this.  This is quite damning but, I hold, not so much for the couple themselves (as I have come to see them more as victims in this equation, although some as willing victims) but rather the milieu in which they have grown up and live in.  We focus so much on the individual in our society that we fail to help people learn how to recognize what we have received and how we have been formed through outside influences including our faith.  We fail in helping one another realize that we are more than just ourselves.  I encourage the couple to realize that part of what they love and are attracted to in their fiancée is how his or her faith tradition has helped to shape who he or she is.  To summarily toss aside one’s faith tradition or ask the other person to do so or to plan to do so later as a married couple as if it does not really matter is a profound disservice and demonstrates a sad lack of awareness.

Many people suffer from this lack this awareness.  We focus so much on the individual and the illusion of how we are self-made that we forget how much we have, in fact, received, we forget how to receive and we lose the ability to be grateful.  It is a sad state of affairs really.

Yes, the Church needs to do its part but the young people also have a role to play.  They have choices to make.  I do not believe that the younger people choosing to leave the Church are necessarily innocents lacking responsibility in this whole regard.  Maybe their choice reflects how much they themselves have bought into the illusion of individualism where they cannot recognize nor be grateful for what they have received just as much as it might demonstrate certain lacks on the Church’s part.

In all times and seasons the Church must look to the Lord for wisdom, grace and insight.  The Lord’s willingness to acknowledge his reliance on the Father and the joy he found in that is a salvific corrective to the illusions of individualism with its crushing burdens.  Christ knew what he received from the Father, he knew how to receive and he knew how to be grateful.  Christ was neither as influenced by nor burdened by individualism as we are.

The words of my Benedictine monk friend are not meant to be hurtful and are actually quite pastoral if understood in a slightly different nuance, “For the sake of yourself, get over yourself and, yes, grow some backbone in regards to your faith!”

Thoughts on the Sunday readings: Love and Friendship (6th Sunday of Easter – B)

10 Sunday May 2015

Posted by in friendship, homily, life in Christ, love

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Rue_dyingEarlier this week I was channel surfing and came across a broadcast of the first of the “Hunger Games” movies.  I have to admit that when the books and movies initially came out I was skeptical and avoided them altogether but then one day, kind of on a whim, I joined some friends who had decided to see the movie.  I am now a fan.  At the heart of that first movie (which I saw again this last week) is a scene where a young girl is killed in these games that pits child fighting against child to the death.  The heroine, who was trying to protect this young girl is heartbroken.  But in her pain and grief she does a tender thing.  She gathers flowers and places them around the body of the young girl lying dead on the forest floor.

In the cold world depicted in this story where, I would say, the sense of God has been lost (a world that at best can only say, “May the odds continually be in your favor.” rather than, “God be with you.”) the heroine performs a corporal work of mercy.  She buries the dead and she does it in love and friendship.  Via video cameras the nation silently watches and in response, in an imprisoned part of the country, a fight against the injustice of the oppressors breaks out! All because the heroine performed this simple act of taking the time to acknowledge the humanity and the dignity of this young girl … a humanity and dignity that all the “powers that be” were trying their best to negate.

There is a power to love and friendship. You know, if you think of all the great stories – whether they are expressed in movies, plays, literature, opera, whatever medium – a common element that runs throughout them all is the exploration of love and friendship. The settings both geographical and in time may be worlds apart. The characters and plot may be very different but in any good story there is an underlying story and exploration of the dynamics of love and friendship in life. The reader or viewer might not know what it is like to fly a bomber in WWII or stare at the walls of Troy or fight off zombies but everyone knows what it is like to yearn to give love and receive love and to desire friendship and remain in friendship.

Part of the essence of love and friendship is that it does not have to be flashy in order to be true. I thought of this yesterday in our parish’s celebration of first communion. Christ gives us himself (his body and blood) in the form of bread and wine – two things so utterly common. God does not need flash, God does not need smoke and mirrors and God does not need the latest fad in order to accomplish his plan in our lives. We might believe we need these things but God does not. Think of moments of friendship or moments when you gave or received authentic love … I would wager that the memories that come to mind are anything but flashy, more than likely they are common even to the point of being unnoticed by others – laughing with a friend, holding a loved one’s hand, comforting a child…

In today’s gospel (Jn. 15:9-17), Jesus says, As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love … love one another as I love you … You are my friends if you do what I command you. I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father. 

What does Christ give us and what does Christ call us to? Love and friendship. We must not pass this over, because this is the heart of it all! What unites all the great stories? What speaks to the depth of universal human existence? What does Christ give us? What truly transforms our lives and our world? Love and friendship. And the gospel message is that it is both love and friendship with one another and, through Christ, love and friendship with God! Christ calls us his friends; we need to take this to heart. We can never be friends in a sense of peer to peer with Christ but, nonetheless, he calls us friends. We need to pray on this truth and therefore on the great power of friendship that our Lord himself alludes to in this passage.

We should never underestimate the power of love nor the power of friendship.

…love one another as I love you.

I no longer call you slaves … I have called you friends…

Thoughts on the Sunday readings: “Remain” (5th Sunday of Easter – B)

02 Saturday May 2015

Posted by in discipleship, homily, life in Christ, vine and branches

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Vine1Like me, this past week, you may have been saddened by the rioting occurring in Baltimore.  Now that it has been determined that there is need for a criminal investigation we pray for justice and peace in that city.  In the midst of the rioting though, I was personally moved by the report of the gathering of clergy of many different denominations also marching through the streets calling for peace.  These clergy have chosen to remain.  You may also remember not long ago reports of Orthodox priests literally placing themselves between the warring factions in the Ukraine also praying for peace.  These priests chose to remain.  Recently, there were doctors and nurses who chose not to leave the different regions of Africa that were struck by Ebola rather they stayed to help the ill.  They chose to remain.  Every day, unnoticed and unreported, men and women help the elderly, the homeless, the addicted, the imprisoned and the ill.  These men and women choose to remain.

In today’s gospel (Jn. 15:1-8) our Lord specifically uses this word “remain” over and over again.  Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me … Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit … If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you.

True strength is found not in violence, or insults, or in making a scene or calling attention to oneself but rather in the choice to remain.  The choice to persevere.  The choice to trust.  The choice not to live a distracted and self-focused life.  The choice to trust in the good of the other person.  The choice to bear patiently the injustices of our world and even wrongs endured.

No Christian is nor can ever be an isolated island.  The Christian life, by its very nature, must be rooted in the very life of Christ.  For us, Christ is not just a nice idea or ideal or great teacher; for the disciple Christ is Lord and our very lives must be rooted in his.  We must remain in Christ.  The Christian can be thrown into different raging fires of our world and not be burned, not wither precisely because the Christian is rooted in Christ who has overcome the world.  This has been seen throughout history and it continues to be seen in our world today.

A prized part of this “remaining” in Christ is found in the power of his words.  Our Lord says specifically to his disciples, You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you.  Later he says, If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you.  God’s word prunes but it prunes for life – it cuts off that which corrupts and that which stunts life.  When we begin to live God’s word then we remain in Christ.  St. John knew this and it is what he shares in his letter (1 Jn. 3:18-24), Those who keep his commandments remain in him, and he in them… 

Every day we need to pick up and read God’s word!  Every day we need to let these words sink into our hearts and every day we need to strive to live these words!

Christ never says that his disciples will not experience the fires and troubles of this world.  What he does say is that the one who remains in him will not wither, will not burn even in the midst of the fires of our world precisely because he or she is rooted in the very one who has overcome this world!  The Coptic Christians martyred by ISIS died saying the name of Jesus.  They did not wither in this fire of brutality, they remained in Christ, they endured and witnessed the hope we have in Christ and from their witness new life will emerge.  This has been seen throughout history and we see it in our world today.  We are today, and have always been, a church of martyrs.

Christ is Lord!  We remain in him.

The Preacher as Servant to Dialogue – Insights from Bl. Pope Paul VI

23 Thursday Apr 2015

Posted by in dialogue, gospel, homily, Pope Paul VI, preaching

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Pope Paul VIIt is always helpful to notice references in writings, especially papal writings, and then be willing to explore those writings referenced.  With a little digging you can be brought to some insightful, advantageous and even saving information.  Since I wrote my post on the preacher as servant of dialogue I have done some digging into the writings of Bl. Pope Paul VI.  Pope Francis references Paul VI quite extensively in Evangelii Gaudium.  Specifically referenced is Paul VI’s 1975 Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi where the pontiff reflects on the Church’s responsibility of evangelization in the modern world.  What I have found of interest though (and the purpose for this post) is an earlier writing of Pope Paul VI – his first encyclical, Ecclesiam Suam (ES) and its section on the work of dialogue.

In this encyclical, Paul VI explores how the world and the Catholic Church can meet one another and even get to know and love one another.  (ES, 3)  When considering how the Church should engage the world, Paul VI quickly discards the ever-present temptation to focus solely on the evils of the world and crusade against them as well as the desire to subjugate the world in a form of theocracy.  Neither of these approaches will work.  Rather, Bl. Paul VI concludes; …it seems to Us that the sort of relationship for the Church to establish with the world should be more in the nature of a dialogue, though theoretically other methods are not excluded.  We do not mean unrealistic dialogue.  It must be adapted to the intelligences of those to whom it is addressed, and it must take account of circumstances. (ES, 78)

Paul VI then goes on to stress that this form of encounter is demanded due to dynamics prevalent within modern society – the understanding of the relationship between the sacred and profane, the pluralism of society and the maturity of thought men and women have attained in our modern world.  I think it safe to say that gone are the days (at least here in the U.S.) when the priest is the most educated person in the room.  But there is a deeper impetus for the discipline of dialogue and that is the respect it demonstrates.  The willingness to dialogue by its very nature witnesses to a person’s esteem for the other as well as one’s own understanding and kindness.  These are attitudes that every disciple of Christ, especially those called to the task of preaching, should cultivate and exemplify in life.

Our dialogue, therefore, presupposes that there exists in us a state of mind which we wish to communicate and to foster in those around us.  It is the state of mind which characterizes the man who realizes the seriousness of the apostolic mission and who sees his own salvation as inseparable from the salvation of others. (ES, 80)

If we want dialogue then we, ourselves, must be willing to dialogue authentically and, not only that, the discipline of dialogue builds on dialogue. The preacher, as servant to dialogue, must be willing and, in fact, is duty-bound to work at fostering this discipline in our world today.  Our world needs the discipline of dialogue.

Bl. Paul VI roots preaching in this greater task of the Church’s dialogue with our world.  Preaching is the primary apostolate … We must return to the study, not of human eloquence of empty rhetoric, but of the genuine art of proclaiming the Word of God.  We must search for the principles which make for simplicity, clarity, effectiveness and authority, and so overcome our natural ineptitude in the use of this great and mysterious instrument of the divine Word, and be a worthy match for those whose skill in the use of words makes them so influential in the world today and gives them access to the organs of public opinion.  We must pray to the Lord for this vital, soul-stirring gift… (ES, 90-91)

Paul VI then goes on to list out the proper characteristics of dialogue and, if proper for dialogue, then proper for preaching as the preaching task flows by nature out of the greater work of the Church’s dialogue with our world.

Clarity before all else; the dialogue demands that what is said should be intelligible. (ES, 81)  The caliber of an artist is found not in a work of art standing alone and isolated as if in a vacuum but in the ability of a work of art to engage people where they are at in their lives, to move them and to call forth a response, a dialogue.  If there is no engagement, it is fair to question if it is true art.  Striving for clarity in dialogue and striving for clarity in preaching matters.  Let there be no mistake, this takes work and practice but this ability to translate the realities of faith and gospel into the language of where people are at is extremely important and it marks authentic preaching.

Our dialogue must be accompanied by that meekness which Christ bade us learn from Himself: “Learn of me, for I am meek and humble of heart.” (ES, 81)  Our dialogue and our preaching must not be marked by arrogance or bitterness.  We must learn the meekness of Christ himself because in this lies the power of the gospel.  This “meekness of Christ” sets the words of the Church apart from all the other words that continuously wash over people in their everyday lives.  We should not underestimate this characteristic of meekness in the lives of people who are daily inundated and even assaulted by words wrapped in bias, anger, coercion and manipulation.

Our dialogue must have a confidence not just in the power of our own words (which could easily lead to arrogance) but also in the good will of both parties to the dialogue. (ES 81)  We must continually seek the good in the other and this must mark the words that we use and the dialogue we engage in.  To be a good preacher one must be convinced that people are yearning for the Word of God … and they are.  It might not be fully expressed, the desire might even be distorted, hidden or stunted but it is there and the preacher must learn to both listen for that desire and speak to that truth within the heart of people. This is not an easy discipline to acquire in a world that continually seeks to isolate and separate people but it is essential and is truly a counter-cultural witness.

Authentic dialogue must have the prudence of a teacher who is most careful to make allowances for the psychological and moral circumstances of his hearer … The person who speaks is always at pains to learn the sensitivities of his audience, and if reason demands it, he adapts himself and the manner of his presentation to the susceptibilities and the degree of intelligence of his hearers. (ES, 81)  Prudence is a cardinal virtue and can be practiced and developed by any person.  The virtue of prudence is fulfilled in the supernatural virtue of Counsel, one of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit.  Prudence seeks to be aware of the other person(s).  The good shepherd knows his sheep.  Prudence can be seen as a proactive movement of respect.  It is not learning the sensitivities of the other in order to manipulate with the intent of achieving some desired result but learning about the other person in order to meet that person where he or she is at.  Authentic preaching must always avoid the temptation to manipulate.  I believe that Bl. Paul VI understood this because immediately after this reflection on prudence as a constitutive element of true dialogue he writes,

In a dialogue conducted with this kind of foresight, truth is wedded to charity and understanding to love.

And that is not all.  For it becomes obvious in a dialogue that there are various ways of coming to the light of faith and it is possible to make them all converge on the same goal.  However divergent these ways may be, they can often serve to complete each other.  They encourage us to think on different lines.  They force us to go more deeply into the subject of our investigations and to find better ways of expressing ourselves.  It will be a slow process of thought, but it will result in the discovery of elements of truth in the opinion of others and make us want to express our teaching with great fairness.  It will be set to our credit that we expound our doctrine in such a way that others can respond to it, if they will, and assimilate it gradually.  It will make us wise; it will make us teachers. (ES, 82-83)

In the dynamic of manipulation, I try to force you to change, consciously or unconsciously.  Authentic dialogue stands opposed to manipulation in all its forms.  Authentic dialogue summons both parties to an honest investigation of the subject at hand as well as a fearless rooting out of the tendencies of manipulation that each one of us carry within ourselves.

Finally, the discipline of dialogue and preaching must begin in the witness of the preacher’s own life if it is to be authentic and salvific in the lives of other people.

Since the world cannot be saved from the outside, we must first of all identify ourselves with those whom we would bring the Christian message – like the Word of God who Himself became a man.  Next we must forego all privilege and the use of unintelligible language, and adopt the life of ordinary people in all that is human and honorable.  Indeed, we must adopt the way of life of the most humble people, if we wish to be listened to and understood.  Then, before speaking, we must take great care to listen not only to what men say, but more especially to what they have in their hearts to say.  Only then will we understand them and respect them, and even, as far as possible, agree with them. 

Furthermore, if we want to be men’s pastors, fathers and teachers, we must also behave as their brothers.  Dialogue thrives on friendship, and most especially on service. (ES, 87) 

Dialogue and preaching, if it is to be authentic, must become incarnate which means that the preacher’s life must also become incarnate within the life of his community just as the Word of God became incarnate.  We are told at different times in the gospel story that Jesus was aware of the thoughts of other people before they ever even expressed them.  This was no form of magical clairvoyance on the part of our Lord but the ability to listen to hearts.  The Church has been given this ability, the preacher must cultivate this ability.  “Heart speaks to heart” noted Bl. John Henry Cardinal Newman.  The preacher must learn how to listen to both the heart of God speaking to the heart of his people as well as to the reply and yearning of God’s people.

To end, I would like to share one further quote from Ecclesiam Suam. 

To this internal drive of charity (the gifts Christ has bestowed on the Church in abundance) which seeks expression in the external gift of charity, We will apply the word “dialogue.”

The Church must enter into dialogue with the world in which it lives.  It has something to say, a message to give, a communication to make. (ES, 64-65)

The preaching task is rooted in the greater task of the Church’s dialogue with the world.  As a servant to dialogue, the preacher shares intimately in this task.  Hopefully, we can learn from the insight and wisdom of Bl. Pope Paul VI.

Thoughts on the Sunday readings: “Something happened” (Third Sunday of Easter – B)

19 Sunday Apr 2015

Posted by in discipleship, Easter, life in Christ, resurrection

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resurrectionWhen I was a college student at East Tennessee State University and just starting to come back to Church, I took a college class on the history of Christianity.  When we arrived at the subject of the resurrection I remember our professor stating (much to the chagrin of some of the students) that the secular academic discipline of history could not make a conclusive statement either for or against the resurrection.  But what the discipline of history could say is that “something happened” that enabled those first disciples to move from remaining behind locked doors in fear as we find in today’s gospel (Lk. 24:35-48); “But they were startled and terrified and thought that they were seeing a ghost.” to boldly proclaiming Christ as Messiah in the public square as we find Peter doing in today’s first reading (Acts 3:13-15, 17-19); “You denied the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you … Repent, therefore, and be converted…” 

That class (and I would say specifically that statement “something happened”) was one of the key components that led to my returning to the Church and the active practice of the faith.  What was it that enabled Peter (the one who had denied knowing Jesus) and those first disciples (the ones who had run away) the ability to move from fear to being bold and public proclaimers of Christ and the resurrection?  Was it a hoax they cooked up in their minds to steal the body away and see how long they could ride the “Jesus as Messiah” train?  Hoaxes do not last so long (two thousand plus years) nor show such continued vitality and chronic vigor.  Was it that the “spirit” of Jesus had risen – his vision of the world and living together in harmony – while his body remained dead in the tomb?  But who willingly chooses martyrdom for an idea or the “spirit” of someone’s thought (as we see throughout history beginning with those first fearful disciples)?

In today’s gospel we are given some specifics about the resurrection that are worthy of note.  Jesus again appears to his disciples.  Again he greets them with, “Peace be with you.”  Knowing their fear and their uncertainty he then goes on to say,

“Why are you troubled?  And why do questions arise in your hearts?  Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself.  Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones that you can see I have.”  And as he said this, he showed them his hands and his feet.  While they were still incredulous for joy and were amazed, he asked them, “Have you anything here to eat?”  They gave him a piece of baked fish; he took it and ate it in front of them.” 

Neither hoaxes nor ideas ask for a piece of fish to eat.

There are many ways to run from the scandal of the resurrection.  All sorts of people throughout history have proven to be quite adept at it.  One such way (often touted as being an “enlightened” approach) is to see the resurrection as a nice idea – Jesus’ spirit continuing to live on.  But today’s gospel is quite clear.  Jesus is not a ghost, not a vague idea.  Jesus is risen – body and soul!  He is the firstborn from the dead.  Jesus is risen and he has not risen in vain.

If we are to be Christian then we must be willing to encounter the fullness of the resurrection.  We must be willing to encounter that “something that happened” as my professor said so many years ago and in that encounter we must be willing to make a fundamental faith statement, “I believe”.   Only this will move us from fear to peace.

There is a saying that contends that you must have “skin in the game” in order to be truly committed to something.  When the Word became incarnate, when Christ suffered his passion and crucifixion, when the resurrected Christ shows his wounds which he still bears in glory, then God shows that he has “skin in the game” for our salvation.  If we want to know the peace and life of the gospel then we also must be willing to have “skin in the game”.  By our lives, our words, our choices and our actions we must profess, “I believe”.  Nothing less will do.

This encounter and the peace and courage it alone brings, continues today.  We can look at the successors to Peter himself as witnesses of this to our world.  These men do not have any military or economic might yet they continually stand before the powers of our world with nothing other than the word of the gospel.  Think of St. John Paul II confronting communism.  I remember when Pope Emeritus Benedict travelled to Mexico and Cuba during his pontificate.  In the face of the chaotic violence of the drug trade engulfing Mexico the eighty-five year old pontiff proclaimed firmly and resolutely that drug trafficking is a sin and it is wrong.  Then going on to Cuba at a Mass where the very Cuban government sat in the front rows, again this elderly soft-spoken man called for greater freedom.  Think of Pope Francis calling the Mafia out and all worldly powers that would de-humanize the person made in God’s image.  What enables these men to do this?  These men have encountered Christ risen and alive – not an idea of Christ, not just the spirit of Christ – but Jesus Christ himself and, from that encounter, each one has made his faith statement and has moved from fear to a bold peace.

This peace is there for us also if we also are willing to encounter Christ risen and if we are willing to profess him as Lord!

Easter Sunday – Mary, Peter and John ran!

05 Sunday Apr 2015

Posted by in discipleship, Easter, hope, joy, life in Christ, resurrection

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peter_and_john_running-dan-burr-mindreChildren like to run.  Have you ever noticed this?  Watch children at play – pure energy!  In children we see the body just needing to move – not weighed down, not encumbered by age or past hurts – pure life and pure joy!  Children run and in this running we find a witness to life and to joy!

The gospel (Jn. 20:1-9) today tells us that Mary of Magdala ran to the disciples once she saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb’s entrance.  The gospel then goes on to tell us that Peter and John ran to the tomb to investigate.  When you ask children at play, “Why do you run?” they probably will not be able to give an answer.  Maybe at best they will say, “Because we can!” or “We just want to!”  The running is just a witness to live within them.  Why did Mary run?  Why did Peter and John run?  Was it a conscious decision on their part or rather, like children, did the energy of a new life impel them?  I think it was the latter.  An unimaginable energy, an unheard of joy – the tomb was empty!  Death has been conquered!  They ran simply because they had to!

For too long history has wept before the tombs of our world.  How countless the number of men and women who have died by violence, hatred, war, famine, isolation and abandonment!  Even today it continues.  Before the tombs of our world our hearts are left heavy and we feel abandoned.  Before the tomb there is no joy, no desire to run because there seems to be no future – no hope.

Hope impelled Mary and the two disciples to run.  They ran because hope was born again in their hearts!  Not a hope born of this world that ends with the tomb but a hope born of heaven that empties the tomb from within!  In the resurrection of Christ the tomb is emptied from within!  Christ has entered even death itself – abandonment from God – and Christ has overcome death from within.  Death, sin and evil are swallowed up!  The tomb is emptied from within.  Death is robbed of its power!

The tombs of our world remain.  Sadly, too many people still weep before the tombs of violence, war, abandonment and isolation but the finality of the tomb has been broken.  Its power vanquished!

Where is the glory of the resurrection?  It is in the gospel that says there is a different way to live other than the logic of the tomb – a way that says “no” to violence, “no” to abandonment and to war, hatred and isolation.  The glory of the resurrection is found in the heart of the Christian who says “yes” to this different way of living – “yes” to friendship, “yes” to forgiveness and reconciliation, “yes” to peace and “yes” to the belief that death is not the final word!

And when we live this different way?  We run, we run so fast!  We run with Mary and Peter and John!  We run a new way with a new hope born of heaven!  Life itself impels us to run!

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!

Thoughts on the Sunday readings: “We would like to see Jesus.” (5th Sunday of Lent – B)

21 Saturday Mar 2015

Posted by in Christ, faith, law of love, law of reciprocity, life in Christ, sad logic of sin and death, sad logic of violence

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face_of_jesus_610x300“We would like to see Jesus.”  This is the request of some Greeks from today’s gospel.  (Jn. 12:20-33)  “We would like to see” the one who teaches with authority.  “We would like to see” the one who is compassionate, who welcomes the sinner, who goes out to meet others, who weeps for his friend who has died.  “We would like to see” the one who has come not to judge but to save.  “We would like to see” this teacher who says that there is a different way to live.  “We would like to see” the one who says “no” to the logic of violence and isolation.  “We would like to see” the one who does not live according to the law of reciprocity but rather according to a different law – the law of love.

We all know the law of reciprocity.  It is so present, so seemingly uncontested, that we easily take it for granted that it is just the way things are.  The law of reciprocity says an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth!  If you do this to me then I can do that to you!  It is a law that perpetuates the cycle of violence.  It is a law of strict justice/retribution alone.  It is a law that leads one into viewing other people solely in terms of being competitors, even adversaries, rather than brothers and sisters.  Due to this, it is a law that isolates and breaks people, communities and nations into opposing camps.  It is also a law that ultimately binds and enslaves.  Jesus never lived according to the law of reciprocity, rather he lived according to the law of love and because of this Jesus is the freest person that has ever walked the face of the earth.

Behind this simple request of these Greeks is a profoundly fundamental yearning and recognition of the human heart – the desire to live differently, to escape the logic of violence and the tyranny of reciprocity.  We yearn for this.  On our own, we cannot achieve it.  “Sir, we would like to see Jesus.”  We need Jesus because he alone can forgive what needs to be forgiven within ourselves, because he alone can make new of what has been made old through sin.  Without Jesus we are left under the law of reciprocity – it is the best we can hope for.  With Jesus, we can learn and we can live the law of love and we can gain that freedom that Jesus himself knew.  We can be made free!

On the surface it seems that Jesus does not answer the request of the Greeks brought to him via Andrew and Philip.  Rather than saying, “Bring them here,” he goes off into a reflection on the Son of Man being glorified. But this reflection is his response!  “You want to see me?  You want to see the one who lives a different way, the one who does not live according to the logic of violence and the law of reciprocity?  You will see this and so much more!  Watch what happens on Golgotha, watch what happens within the tomb itself!  Watch what happens within “this hour”!

Then he give us God’s answer to that deepest disconnect of the human heart.  “You wish to see me because you also want to be free of the law of reciprocity, you also want to overcome the sad logic of violence and isolation.  You want to live differently.”  “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, in produces much fruit.  Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life.”

Freedom, a different way to live other than the dictates of reciprocity, is found when a person lets go of self and lives for others … in Christ.  This last part is often overlooked.  Sadly, even by teachers of Christianity sometimes.  Jesus is not proposing a vague philosophy open to any person apart from him.  The request of the Greeks was, “We would like to see Jesus.”  Jesus – not his teachings, not his ideas but the person.  When we die to self and live for others within the reality of Christ’s own sacrifice then the logic of violence and isolation can be overcome.  Christ goes on to say, “Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there also will my servant be.  The Father will honor whoever serves me.”  

Life can be lived in a different way.  The sad logic of violence and isolation is not inevitable.  The new law of love is possible!

“We would like to see Jesus.”

Thoughts on the Sunday readings: “Christ crucified” (3rd Sunday of Lent – B)

07 Saturday Mar 2015

Posted by in Christ, cross, Jesus, salvation

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Jesus-Christ-from-Hagia-SophiaIt has been said that when it comes to Jesus there are basically only three options to choose from: either Jesus is a madman, a lunatic (How many people throughout the centuries, struggling with sanity, have concluded that they must be God?), either he is a liar and therefore one of the most evil people of all history, someone willing to deceive generations into the belief that he is God or lastly, he actually is who he says he is.  These are the options we have to choose from and if we are to be authentic in life then at some point we must each make a choice.

For Christians it all comes down to this one person who lived nearly two thousand years ago, who was poor, who never travelled in his adult life beyond his immediate area, who did not seem to have any formal education, who preached the good news of a God of love and humility and who was put to death by the powers that be.  If you are looking for an ascetic or a yogi to follow, then do not look to Jesus, he was neither.  If you are searching for a great philosopher or guru then do not look to Jesus.  If you are looking to a man of success in order to feel validated and bask in the glow of, then do not look to Jesus.  Jesus is none of these things.  He is something totally different all together.  Jesus cannot and will not be captured and contained by any of our definitions and biases.  Jesus can only be encountered.  It is because of this truth that Paul is able to write, “…Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified…” (1 Cor. 1:22).  “Christ crucified” – these two words held together break every human presumption about God and how he operates, about what it means to be human, about life itself.  For Christians it all comes down to a person – to Christ crucified.

In his book, “The Lord” Romano Guardini writes:

God did not reveal himself merely by teaching a truth, giving us commands to which he attaches consequences, but by coming to us, personally.  His truth is himself.  And to him who hears, he gives his own strength, again himself.  To hear God means to accept him.  To believe means to accept him in truth and loyalty.  The God we believe in is the God who “comes” into heart and spirit, surrendering himself to us. 

The “temple” Jesus will raise up is not a building, not a compilation of religious laws and precepts, not a system of political or philosophical thought, not an idea of a better world.  The “temple” that will be raised up is Jesus himself, “Christ crucified.”

We cannot constrain Jesus, neither can we explain him away nor fit him into a nice, neat, little category.  All we can do is encounter Jesus – the one who once was dead but who now lives – and in this is found life.

Thoughts on the Sunday Readings: Transfiguration and the Cross (Second Sunday of Lent – B)

01 Sunday Mar 2015

Posted by in Christ, cross, mercy, Transfiguration

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A priest of our diocese tells the story that one day he and some friends were out driving and they were coming upon Smyrna, TN.  As they approached the city they started arguing about its correct pronunciation – was it “Smyr-na” or “Smeer-na”?  It was close to midday so they decided to ask someone when they stopped for lunch.  They came to a fast food restaurant and once inside the group went to a lady who was standing nearby.  The priest said, “Ma’am, could you please help me and my friends with a debate that we are having?  Could you, slowly and distinctly, tell us the name of the place in which we are?”  The lady gave them a quizzical look and slowly said, “Bur … ger … King.”

transfiguration_of_jesus_christIt is good to know where we are – both geographically and, for our purposes this Sunday, in the life of faith and discipleship.  Today, as we continue our journey toward Jerusalem with the Lord we are at the mount of Transfiguration but it is worthwhile to note both that this mountain points toward Golgotha – the mountain of the cross and sacrifice of the Son – and why it points that direction.

There is a beauty to sacrifice.  Cinema, in its best moments, is aware of this.  Think of those moments in movies that wrench our guts when the hero or heroine sacrifices (the soldier lets go of the rope and plummets to his death so that others in the troop might make it, Obi-Wan Kenobi lets Darth Vader strike him down, the priest in “The Mission” walks directly into a hail of gunfire while carrying the monstrance).  But the beauty of sacrifice is not limited to “big” moments.  Sacrifice can be seen in the parent who works two or three jobs in order to provide for his or her children, it can be found in the life of the teacher whose great work or opus is not a world-renowned symphony but generations of students whose lives are transformed by the love of learning.  There is a beauty in sacrifice.

Before the sacrifice of the cross to which we are journeying with our Lord is the moment of Transfiguration.  Before the sacrifice of the cross, all other sacrifices pale in comparison.  The sacrifice of the cross is infinite.  God dies that we might have life.  We killed God.  Do we recognize the scope of this?  Sometimes the true depth (and beauty) of sacrifice can only be recognized in contrast to what might have been.

Romano Guardini’s book, The Lord, is a powerful exploration of the fullness of the Christian mystery.  One thing that Guardini explores in his book is the great “What if?”  What if Jesus had not been crucified?  We assume that the crucifixion was just the way it had to happen, the way salvation was to be won.  Not necessarily so, asserts Guardini.  Within the Book of the prophet Isaiah running alongside the prophecies of the suffering servant, Guardini points out, are the visions of God’s mountain where peace is established, people forget the ways of war and right relationship is restored.  God is revealed in the midst of his people.  A choice is brought to us.  Christ, the humble God-man, stands before every part of society, yet each one denounces him and each one turns away.  The religious leaders call him a blasphemer, the government/military leaders mock him and wash their hands of him, the very people who welcomed him into Jerusalem waving palm branches later denounce him in favor of a criminal, even his disciples run away.  What if we had not turned away?  What if we had not denounced?  Yet we did.  Christ must go the way of the cross.

crucifix icon6Do we recognize the depth of the sacrifice?  Before the horror of the cross we have the moment of Transfiguration.  What might have been?  There is a spiritual that is usually sung during Holy Week but it is appropriate for all of Lent, “Were you there when they crucified my Lord?  Sometimes it causes me to tremble … tremble … tremble … Were you there when they crucified my Lord?”  The depth of the sacrifice of Christ…

Going back to the story shared earlier, it is good to know where we are in the spiritual life, in our journey toward Jerusalem.  This Sunday, in the beauty and awe of the Transfiguration … of who Christ is and of what might have been … we recognize the depth and love of the sacrifice of the cross.

God came to us.  We turned away.  Christ must go the way of the cross.

Another spiritual, “What wondrous love is this that caused the Lord of bliss to bear the dreadful curse, for my soul, for my soul…”