Category Archives: frienship with Christ

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…”                     

The Good Shepherd, Practical Atheism and Authenticity

21 Sunday Apr 2013

Posted by in authenticity, frienship with Christ, Practical Atheism, Relationship, The Good Shepherd

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Icon of Christ the Good Shepherd

Pope emeritus Benedict often remarked that he thought it was not so much atheists who damage the Christian faith as it is the “practical atheists” who do the real damage.  The “practical atheists” are those who profess themselves Christians but who then live as if God does not exist.  At the heart of this practical atheism which is very present in our day and also very easy to fall into is an in-authenticity of relationship.  We say one thing yet we do another and we convince ourselves that no one is the wiser; including God.

Today is Good Shepherd Sunday when we, as Church, reflect on the truth that the risen Lord is indeed the good and beautiful shepherd who came to seek out and save the lost.  But here is the rub: we cannot reflect and proclaim the Lord as Good Shepherd and ourselves remain in-authentic in relation to him.  To proclaim Christ as the Good Shepherd demands an authenticity of relationship on our part.  This authenticity of relationship is witnessed to us in today’s gospel (Jn. 10:27-30) – the relationship of us and the Lord and the relationship of the Son and the Father.

Jesus said: “My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me…”  The movement of authentic relationship begins with our Lord.  When we were lost in the darkness of sin and death, God came to us.  God became incarnate and took on the full weakness and suffering of humanity.  God took on everything except sin.  “I know them…”, says the Lord.  Christ can authentically say this because it is true.

“My sheep hear my voice … and they follow me …”  There are two parts for authenticity of relationship on our part.  One, we hear the voice of the Good Shepherd and two, we follow.  To say we hear the voice and then live as if the voice does not matter is not authentic.  To proclaim Christ as the Good Shepherd means we must continually “tune” our ears to the voice of the Good Shepherd, we must trust and we must follow.

This gospel passage also reveals the wonderful authenticity that makes up the relationship of the Father and the Son.  Christ (in reflecting on the deep and abiding security of the sheep entrusted to his care) says, No one can take them out of my hand.  My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can them out of the Father’s hand.  The Father and I are one.  Our Lord, as Son, is expressing his gratitude for what the Father has freely given him.  Authenticity of relationship finds its fullest expression in gratitude for what is freely given rather than in using the other for ones own need.  Here, I think, is found another subtle yet withering aspect of practical atheism and it is found more in those persons “in” church rather than those persons “outside” church.  God is used as a means for my personal satisfaction and this becomes the only reason that I turn to God.  There are tell-tale signs to this in-authenticity on our part: going to church is more about social status than conversion, worship is more about getting my emotional hit than it is about my coming before the living God and gratitude of heart gives way to demand and fear.

This brings us to the great gift gained through the authenticity of relationship with the Good Shepherd and it is a gift that cannot be pretended.  Either it is there or it is not.  When we live in relationship with the Good Shepherd we gain hope and we gain trust.  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish.  No one can take them out of my hand.  In-authenticity of relationship, practical atheism cannot give this, no matter how hard it pretends that it can.  As Scripture tells us; a tree is known by its fruits.

We must let these words sink into the soil of our hearts, break apart any hardness that remains there and till the earth that hope and trust may take root and grow!  These words are spoken by the one who has risen, the one who has conquered the tomb and the chains of death!  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish.  No one can take them out of my hand.  

Facebook users are probably familiar with the “Go home, you’re drunk” memes.  In this meme there is a picture of someone saying or doing something stupid with the caption, “___________, go home.  You’re drunk.”  If there were a meme for this Good Shepherd Sunday I think it would be a practical atheist saying, “Oh, I am a Christian but I live as I wish.” and the response would be, “Practical Atheist, go home.  You’re drunk.”                         

Friendship with Christ and the journey to Jerusalem

23 Saturday Mar 2013

Posted by in friendship, frienship with Christ, Holy Week, walk to Jerusalem

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A while back an Italian friend of mine observed that we Americans grossly underestimate the power of friendship.  We focus in on our projects and plans individually and even collectively as a people (we like our meetings to give us a sense of productivity), while often failing to notice the gift and possibilities found within friendship itself.  I think that my friend is correct in this assessment.  Certainly, we Americans value friendship in life yet I do believe we often underestimate the basic human need for friendship, how it shapes who we are and all the good that friendship, by its very nature, can accomplish in life and even in our larger world.

Since my friend’s observation I have even found myself wondering about the role of friendship in our Lord’s life.  Correct me if I am wrong but I cannot call to mind a book that truly explores this dynamic in the life of Jesus.  We know that Jesus had friends (Martha, Mary and Lazarus seem to hold a special place for our Lord) and we know, through the gospel accounts, that Christ continually gathered people around himself.  We often reflect on how encounter with Christ and discipleship to Christ transformed the apostles and disciples and how it transforms people throughout history (ourselves included) but how did our Lord’s own honest human need for friendship affect him and his own understanding of himself and his mission?

Any honest examination of the human condition reveals that friendship is a prime mover in the development of the understanding of a human person.  We can all probably point to experiences in friendship (some truly positive and some truly negative) that have helped to shape who we ourselves are and have brought insight and understanding.  We hold in the mystery of the incarnation that Jesus is fully human and fully God.  We profess that the divinity in Christ has not swallowed up his humanity nor has his humanity excluded the divinity.  If Christ is “fully human” then isn’t a part of being human this amazing and complex dynamic of friendship?   

I think that we often keep Christ removed.  I think we are often more comfortable with Jesus as a stoic philosopher/savior whom we can learn from and receive salvation through but who had no real human needs or, if he did, transcended them in such a way that those needs were mitigated almost to the point of being nonexistent.

I do not believe that this does justice to our Lord, to the incarnation nor even to ourselves in the long run.  To be human means to grow in awareness; to be human means to be affected by relationship with another.  Yes, the foundational relationship that Christ had (which we see time and time again in the gospel) was his relationship with the Father but relationship with the Father does not negate relationship with other people and often it is through relationships with other people (friendship included) that God’s will is revealed in one’s life.  I think of the not-so-subtle nudging of Mary at the wedding in Cana that, perhaps, helped our Lord to realize that yes, the time had come to begin his mission in earnest.  I wonder how often those times spent in the home of Martha, Mary and Lazarus helped our Lord to clarify his own thoughts and his own understanding.  It seems that Peter, James and John had a unique relationship with our Lord even among his most immediate group of followers.   

Friendship is one of the most beautiful gifts of the human life.  Why would our Lord and Savior be denied this gift?  It makes no sense that he would but often it has remained an area unexplored.  We live in a time where factors and influences continually separate and isolate people.  It is my belief that people are hungering for true and authentic friendship.  I think that it is time that we followers of Christ earnestly explore the graced reality of friendship in the life of our Lord. 

As Church, we are now entering into Holy Week and it is right that we go with our Lord to Jerusalem and here I would add emphasis to “go with” and specifically I would say, “go with as friends”.  The gospel invites us to walk this way in the gift of friendship with Christ.  There is a Lenten hymn that says that Jesus walked this way alone and that is true to some extent but we as Church are now called to walk this way to Jerusalem in the ever-deepening reality of friendship with Christ and we are invited to make note of how friendship and honest human contact touched our Lord on his journey to the cross.  There are friends who loved our Lord yet turned away in fear.  There is the mother who walked every step with her son.  There is the friend who betrayed our Lord.  There is the man who allowed a place for our Lord to be buried and there is one who came to our Lord under the cover of night.  There is the woman who anointed our Lord in preparation for his burial.  There is the man who helped our Lord to carry his cross.  There are the women who met our Lord and wept for him on the street.  There are the women and the one male disciple who stood with Mary at the cross.  Where are we on this journey?  How did these moments touch the heart of our Lord?

In Holy Week, we walk to Jerusalem with our Lord and we walk the way in friendship. 

 

A Gospel passage in three movements: Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)

09 Sunday Sep 2012

Posted by in 23rd sunday in Ordinary Time (B), frienship with Christ, homily, listening, speaking correctly

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In this Sunday’s gospel passage (Mk. 7:31-37) there are three “movements” worthy of reflecting upon.  This passage tells the good news of how Jesus cured the deaf man with the speech impediment and it is worthy to note how our Lord heals the man. 

The first movement is that Jesus takes the man away by himself.  He took him off by himself away from the crowd.  Jesus welcomes this poor man.  He teaches by way of action what James is later to write in his letter (James 2:1-5); …show no partiality as you adhere to the faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ.  It is certainly true that God shows no preference between people but we see throughout Scripture that the heart of God leans in a special way toward the poor and the weak. 

Jesus welcomes this man and he takes him off to the side as if to stress the need of a personal relation and encounter with Christ as the foundation of any true healing.  Miracles, it has been noted, “occur in the realm of a deep friendship and trust in God.”  It is true that God respects our freedom enough to not force his love on us but it is also equally true that the respect must go both ways.  Neither God nor his love is a genie to be summoned on command by our whims and needs.  The love and grace of God and the miracles of God in life are dependent (to a considerable extent) upon our friendship with and trust in God.

Jesus then, following ancient custom, puts his finger in the man’s ears and then (with saliva) touches the man’s tongue.  These are the second and third movements respectively. 

Jesus touches the man’s ears.  Each person needs to be “open” to hearing the Word of God.  In our distracted world we need to learn how to cultivate the art of listening, especially listening for the Word of God as it comes to us.  This art implies the willingness to live with an open heart and a humble and receptive spirit.  I think in times past we could almost coast on this because times and circumstances lent themselves to the art of listening.  I do not think we can say this anymore.  There are too many distractions.  We must be intentional about creating in our lives and in our world environments (even pockets) of quiet in order that the discipline of listening and real encounter with another can be developed and grow.  This certainly applies to our faith life and our relationship with Christ. 

(At this point, I want to take an aside and point to two things beginning this week at the Catholic Center that relate here.  The first is Monday morning prayer on campus which will be held every Monday at 7:15 a.m.  Each month we will explore a different prayer form together.  The second is Wednesday Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament which our Graduate Student/Young Adult group is organizing which will be held every Wednesday from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m.  These are both moments to just listen and to be with the Lord.)

Jesus touches the man’s tongue, looks up to heaven, groans and says, Ephphatha! or “Be opened!”.  And immediately the man’s ears were opened, his speech impediment was removed, and he spoke plainly.  In the fact that we are told that the man was able to speak plainly we can see that the miracle proclaimed in this passage concerns not just the restoration of speech but really the ability to speak correctly.  Words carry great power.  We find this throughout Scripture from the very beginning in the creation account where we are told that God spoke and it came to be to John’s reflection of Jesus being the Logos or Word of the Father.  Our words can participate in the very creativity of God or they can be misused in order to harm, to do evil and to create nothing but division. 

For our words to be purified, for them to participate in the very creativity of God and not be malicious nor deceitful then we must first of all (as noted above) listen to the Word of God.  Our words can do great good but they can also do great harm.

Three movements: truly encountering and living in friendship with Christ, listening to the Word of God and learning to speak correctly.