Tag Archives: Jesus

“…see, I am doing something new” and the fowler’s net. John 8:1-11

06 Saturday Apr 2019

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bird caught in the fowler's net 2What was our Lord writing on the ground with his finger? No one really knows but it is an interesting addition that the gospel writer makes to this narrative and it does lead one to wonder. What was he tracing on the ground?

In light of today’s first reading from Isaiah where the Lord proclaims that he alone is the one “who opens a way in the sea and a path in the mighty waters,” I can imagine our Lord tracing the scene of the crossing of the Red Sea, because at this moment this is what our Lord is preparing to do – both for the woman caught in adultery and for the mob caught in the cycle of recrimination and violence.

Yes, the woman was caught in sin. We do not know the circumstances, nor the situation and we can honestly wonder, “well, why wasn’t the man involved also brought forward for judgment?”. But there was sin and this woman who sinned is now standing before the only one without sin. Of all, he alone can judge and condemn her. There is judgment but no condemnation. After the people walk away, our Lord asks, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She replied, “No one, sir.” Then Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on do not sin any more.” In this moment we see lived out the words found in Isaiah, “Remember not the events of the past, the things of long ago consider not; see, I am doing something new!” The Righteous One has come but not to condemn but rather to give life. This is the amazing grace! He alone has now opened a way in the sea and a path in the mighty waters. Mercy is given and divine mercy alone sets the sinner free from the trap of sin.

“We escaped like a bird from the fowler’s net. The net was broken and we escaped; our help is in the name of our Lord…” (Psalm 124:7-8). “…see, I am doing something new!”

But the path through the waters is not just for the woman, it is also for the crowd! They are caught up in the frenzy and blood thirst of a mob. They are clinging to the stones they want to hurl at the woman! They also are trapped in the fowler’s net of sin, violence and death although they do not recognize it. Their trap is not as public as that of the woman. Christ will also do something new for them.

Again, God says through the prophet Isaiah, “In the desert I make a way, in the wastelands, rivers.” The cycle of violence gives no life and to be trapped in that cycle is to be trapped in a lifeless desert! Only God can call forth life in that desert, only God can call forth rivers in that wasteland. So, in his encounter with the demonic frenzy of the mob, Christ – the only one without sin – quietly bends down, traces on the ground and says, “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Jesus is truth and he alone calls forth truth and the violence of the mob breaks on the truth of who he is. The gospel says, “…they went away one by one, beginning with the elders.”

Something new had just happened! The cycle of violence had just been broken by the one who is truth and who is mercy … and he continues to trace on the ground.

Friends, the readings for this Sunday are not circumspect. No one is exempt. Everyone – in one way or another or in many ways – is caught in the fowler’s net. Everyone is trapped – whether recognized, public or not. Where are we before our Lord – the only one without sin, the one who is both truth and mercy. Will we let him do something new? Will we let him open a way in the sea and a path in the mighty waters for us?

An Incarnational Faith

10 Sunday Feb 2019

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hands of Christ“What does discipleship look like?’’ This was a question we were asked again and again in theology studies. What does it look like? How do disciples act in the world? How does one show that he or she is a follower of Christ?

We can always look to the communion of saints and learn from them to some degree but not completely because we live in our own specific time and specific context and every life is different. What does discipleship look like in our world today?

I believe that one of the besetting sins of our day is a desire to escape the human condition and we see this manifested in so many ways. The recent horrific legislation passed in New York and Virginia – which basically gives a wink and nod to infanticide – is a bitter refusal of the reality of the gift of life. The abuse of drugs and opioids so prevalent in our society has at heart a desire to escape our human condition – its limits and its sufferings. The tendency to live more in the virtual reality of our iPhone than in the reality of our life seems a very common mode of escape.  The confusion regarding gender identity that contains within it a denial of the role that our physical body itself plays in our identity. It is as if the body and the material does not really matter…

This desire to escape the human condition has even entered our Christian understanding. I will confess a pet peeve that I have and it regards a comment often said at the death of a loved one. I understand that the intent of the comment is to comfort and I have even said it myself but it is incorrect. Sometimes, in order to comfort, people might say upon a person’s death, “heaven now has a new angel.” No, heaven does not have a new angel. Angels are a different class of being. Angels are pure spirit. We do not become angels upon our deaths. How do we know this? Because Christ did not come back as an angel upon his resurrection! His was a resurrected body and he specifically points this out in his resurrection appearances. “See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; handle me, and see; for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see that I have.” (Lk. 24: 39) Our true identity is not solely spirit. Our true identity as human creatures is body, mind and spirit. This is the fullness of who we are and it is this fullness that will be raised on the great day of resurrection! We proclaim this every Sunday when we proclaim the creed. This temptation to over spiritualize our human nature finds root in numerous spiritualities and approaches to faith that denigrate the body and the material in favor of a view of the spiritual that does not seriously take account of the incarnation – that God became flesh and himself entered into the human condition.

In a world and a time so intent on trying to escape the human condition in so many ways what does discipleship look like? How are we to live as Christians? It is incarnational. It accepts the human condition and it recognizes that it is within our very human condition with all of its limits that we find a privileged place of encounter with Christ our Lord who is the Word made flesh.

Having a faith that is incarnational is neither a turning away from the path of discipleship nor a failure to strive after that which is better, but rather the opposite. It is learning to be amazed, just as Peter was, with how Christ is able to encounter us within the very limits of our human condition. “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.” But Christ does not depart. He remains and it is in that ongoing encounter with Christ within the limits of his human condition that Peter is healed and is even made a fisher of men but Peter never escapes his human condition. He does not need to because Christ – the Lord of Life – is there. The disciple must always be where the Master is.

What does discipleship look like today? It must be unabashedly incarnational – not wanting to escape the human condition but willing to encounter Christ within the very limits of our human condition.

Earlier this week a priest at our diocesan priest study days in Gatlinburg shared what I thought was a powerful image of a faith that is incarnational. If you have ever been to Notre Dame Church in Greeneville, TN you know that the church sits at the top of a rise and that to get to the church you must ascend a pretty long driveway. A member of that church community had been trying for quite some time to get pregnant. She finally was able to get pregnant and one day in her gratitude to God for her pregnancy she dropped down on her knees at the bottom of the drive and crawled all the way up the drive on her knees and into the church to the altar as a show of gratitude for the blessing God had given her. That is an incarnational faith. That is what discipleship looks like.

The St. Michael the Archangel Prayer

22 Saturday Sep 2018

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St. Michael the ArchangelThe St. Michael the Archangel Prayer was written by Pope Leo XIII around 1885. It is said that the pope had a vision of evil oppressing the Church and wrote the prayer in response. It is not a liturgical prayer but it can be prayed communally. In light of recent events in the Church; Bishop Stika has requested that every parish in our diocese offer the St. Michael prayer after the concluding prayer of the Mass for a year beginning on September 29th (the Feast of the Archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael). The prayer assures us of God’s triumph over Satan and evil and God’s love and protection of the Church.

The strength of St. Michael the Archangel is found in his name which means “Who is like unto God?” It is a rhetorical question bringing with it the awareness of the transcendence, omnipotence and majesty of God. In art, St. Michael is often presented as a warrior casting Satan down to the ground. This is a symbolic presentation of the singular truth of Michael’s name overcoming and casting down the pride of Satan who (in his foolishness) thought that he was greater than God. Who is like unto God? No one – no creature, no pride, no arrogance, no sin, no power nor principality – is like unto God. All is cast down before God and St. Michael stands in witness to this. The victory belongs to God.

In the prayer we say,

Saint Michael Archangel,
defend us in battle,
be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil;
may God rebuke him, we humbly pray;
and do thou, O Prince of the heavenly host,
by the power of God, cast into hell
Satan and all the evil spirits
who prowl through the world seeking the ruin of souls.

“…may God rebuke the (devil) … and do thou, O Prince of the heavenly host, by the power of God, cast into hell Satan …” God rebukes. By the triumph of Christ, Satan has been overcome and cast into hell. The archangel and his name stand in testimony to this victory and to the truth that Christ will always protect his bride the Church.

Last Sunday our Lord told his disciples that he must suffer and be crucified. Peter took our Lord aside thinking he knew better. Our Lord’s response? “Get behind me Satan. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.” In today’s gospel our Lord again says that the Son of Man must suffer and be killed. What are the disciples doing? They are arguing among themselves about who is the greatest among them. Our Lord’s response? He brings a child into their midst and putting his arms around the child says, “Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me but the One who sent me.”

Salvation and the Kingdom of God is not found in the proud illusion of one’s own strength and greatness (this is the sin of Satan – which the disciples were skating dangerously close to in today’s gospel) but in the humility of welcoming Christ and the salvation and victory that he has won for us. St. Michael stands in witness to this. “Who is like unto God?”

What can we as parish do in light of the sins and evil affecting our world and our Church? We can put into effect the words of St. James in his letter, “But the wisdom from above is first of all pure, then peaceable, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, without inconstancy or insincerity. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace for those who cultivate peace.” We can humbly welcome Christ and one another in the name of Christ. We can strive to live the truth, peace and mercy of the Kingdom of God as church community here in our time and in our world.

What more can we do? In wonder we can stand alongside St. Michael and proclaim by both our words and our actions that singular truth that neither Satan nor all his hosts of demons can stand against:

Who is like unto God?

Jesus, Facebook and true encounter

07 Saturday Jul 2018

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jesus-friend-requestLiving in our social media age has led me to ask the following questions in light of today’s gospel (Mk. 6:1-6). “If Jesus were alive today would he be on Facebook?” “If he were on Facebook, what would he post?” “How would we react to his posts? Would we like them, would we unlike them, would we unfollow him, would we perhaps even defriend him?”

I just returned to Facebook after a short break and I took the break not because I think Facebook is evil and trying to control our thoughts – advertisers have been attempting this since the dawn of trade – and not because I don’t want to see people’s pets or what my friends had for dinner – I’ve posted both of these myself. (It’s interesting, I will post what I think is a thoughtful reflection and maybe get a few likes. I post a picture of my dogs and I get hundreds of likes! What’s up with that?!)

I took a break from Facebook because I was tired of the demonizing of the “other” (whoever that might be on whatever issue) that I often see, especially around political and social issues. The negativity is toxic and it does wound one’s soul I believe. I reckon the effect of viewing a steady stream of negative posts and memes on our psyche to being similar to being force fed an unceasing diet of bags of potato chips. It does nothing but leave a person’s soul and intellect bloated, obese and capable of only belching noxious gases in return.

I tend to believe that our Lord would not be on Facebook and not because he does not want to know what we had for dinner or our pet’s latest escapade but because we see throughout the Gospels how he values true encounter and true relationship. Although social media has positives – keeping people connected and sharing information to some degree – it is neither true encounter nor does it give space for real dialogue or for real friendship.

We are told in today’s Gospel that the people in our Lord’s “native place” – the ones who knew him and his family – took offense at our Lord when he returned and taught in the synagogue. “Where did this man get all this? What kind of wisdom has been given him? What mighty deeds are wrought by his hands?” These people preferred to stick with their “perception” of Jesus rather than take the risk of true encounter and true relationship with him in that moment which, by its very nature, challenges and changes people.

For this reason, Jesus was not able to “perform any mighty deeds there”. The gospel even says that our Lord, “was amazed at their lack of faith.” Our Lord was amazed and the people missed that opportunity for new life! No mighty deeds were performed there.

Avoiding Jesus, which can even occur within a life of attending Mass devotedly yet choosing to remain with our limited perception of who we think Jesus is rather than risking a true encounter with him, has effects. The opportunity of new life is missed and we, like the people in Jesus’ “native place”, are less because of it. Our Lord departs that place.

Our Lord desires true encounter and true relationship! He invites each of us to encounter him. Yes, it will challenge and change us … and it will give life.

Turn the screen off.

Take a walk outside.

Just have a face-to-face conversation with another human being.

Christ in the particular

30 Saturday Jun 2018

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Daughter of JairusI recently read a daily reflection that made the following point: “Just as nature abhors a vacuum, Jesus abhors vagueness.” In one sense it is easy to speak in generalities and vagueness in regards to faith and God. “Yes, I love God. I love all people. I want to help and serve everyone. I want peace for the whole world.” It is easy to say these things in the general sense but how do we live in the particular moment? Can I show love to the person I don’t like or understand? Can I be patient in a chaotic moment of family life? Can I take time to pray even though the demands of the day seem unceasing? Can I choose hope even in a time of pain and loss? Can I seek justice in moments of injustice? Can I turn the other cheek even when I am wronged? It is not in speaking nice generalities but rather in the choices of particular moments that the Kingdom of God is found.

One of the teachings of the gospel for today is that our Lord does not disdain the particular. In fact, he chooses to enter into the particular moment as a privileged place of encounter. The gospel gives us two particular moments where Christ is present in his healing grace – the woman with the bleeding disorder and the young girl. We are told that the woman had the disorder for twelve years and that the girl was “a child of twelve”. The use of “twelve” links the older woman and the young girl. For a woman to have a bleeding disorder in Hebraic culture meant that she was perpetually unclean and that she could not have children which would be seen as a great dishonor. The young girl dies at the age of betrothal and near the time she can have a child. Both are tragic and particular circumstances where life is painfully denied. Into both of these particular tragedies Christ enters in and he brings light and healing!

Christ says to Jairus, “Do not be afraid: just have faith.” Christ says the same to us and we must take these words to heart, especially in those moments of struggle and tragedy in life. “Do not be afraid…” Christ is neither separated from pain nor struggle. Christ does not disdain the particular. Christ is even in those moments of pain and he is there with life, healing, peace and hope.

The Book of Wisdom tells us “God did not make death, nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the living … God formed man to be imperishable; the image of his own nature he made him. But by the envy of the devil, death entered the world…” In the miracles presented in the gospels – the healing of the sick, the casting out of demons, the walking on water in the midst of a storm and the raising of the dead – we are taught that Christ as Lord has overcome all the forces of chaos and evil that would wound and kill body and spirit. We are also shown that God does not fear these moments and is willing to be present within these particularly tragic moments of human life offering his life, healing and grace.

We are not abandoned. Christ is with us. When the storms of life threaten to drown us, Christ is there. When the divisions caused by evil wear us down and threaten to overcome us, Christ is there. When illness and pain break us down, Christ is there. When death shatters us, Christ is there. Our God has overcome all these forces of evil and death. He does not fear them nor does he disdain the particular moment we find ourselves in. Christ is there for us in his life, his healing and his grace and he says to us, “Do not be afraid; just have faith.”

Christ “lifted up” (4th Sunday of Lent – B)

10 Saturday Mar 2018

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christ-on-the-cross-sketch-eug-ne-delacroixNicodemus is an interesting figure in the gospel. He is a devout man and someone who is intrigued by Jesus. Nicodemus believes the Jesus is a teacher of God and that the signs which Jesus does prove that God is with him yet Nicodemus wants to fit Jesus into his own paradigm, into his own narrative about how God should act. Before the passage we just heard we are told that Nicodemus comes to Jesus, “by night”. Nicodemus is attracted to Jesus but he is still in the darkness of his own presumptions. How often we are like Nicodemus. How often we know people like Nicodemus.

The dialogue that Jesus has with Nicodemus is a continual invitation (using a play on words) by Jesus to Nicodemus to take that necessary step in faith into the fullness of life – the Kingdom of God – that Jesus alone is the way into. It is an invitation to step away from our limited certainties of how things are and will always be (including God) into God’s own free action of love.

One such invitation (and play on words) is found in the term “lifted up”. “Jesus said to Nicodemus, ‘Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.” The Greek word for “lifted up” is a word that has a double meaning. First, it does mean a physically “lifting up”. Just as Moses hoisted the image of a serpent as the means for the healing of the people so will Jesus be physically hoisted upon the wood of the cross for the healing of the world. The Christian God is a God of paradox – and eternal and immutable God who was born, who suffered and who died. If we are to be Christian then we must enter into this paradox and learn what it both teaches about God and also about ourselves and where true life is found and lived.

The Greek word for “lifted up” also means “exaltation”. For the Christian to be authentic in his or her life that means that Christ/God must be exalted. Simply put, Christ/God must be the center of the Christian’s life and anything or anyone else that would vie with God for this center must be put in their proper place.

Our lives must be centered on God. If this is done then everything we do and all we are derive from God. We will be moral, honest and honorable. We will seek to tell the truth and not distort the news. We will not spread falsehoods. We will not gossip. We will pursue righteousness, devotion, love, faith, patience and gentleness. God must be exalted in the life of every Christian and this means that God alone is the center.

We can all be like Nicodemus. Attracted to the light of Christ yet still clinging to the darkness of our own presumptions. Jesus’ invitation to Nicodemus is his invitation to us. Take that step in faith – the mystery of a God who suffered and was lifted up on a cross and a God who must be exalted in our lives.

Chinook Winds and Christ

10 Saturday Feb 2018

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chinook windsOn my recent vacation in the Canadian Rocky Mountains I learned about the chinook wind. The chinook wind is a rapid climate phenomenon produced by specific atmospheric conditions interacting with the stark geography of the high mountains. If all the proper conditions line up correctly a chinook wind is produced which is a steady stream of warm air that flows down from the mountain tops into the valley below on the eastern side of the Canadian Rockies. This wind has been known to sometimes melt thirty inches of snow in the course of a single day! The largest temperature shift produced by a chinook wind was recorded in the seventies when the wind moved the temperature from forty degrees below zero to forty-five degrees above zero in a twenty-four hour period. In the frigid cold of a Canadian winter the chinook wind is a promise of spring and an end to winter.

The beginning of Mark’s gospel can almost be read as the movement and power of a chinook wind! Jesus appears on the scene, he is baptized by John in the Jordan, he overcomes the temptations in the desert and he begins his ministry by calling his first disciples. He casts out demons, he cures many people of their illnesses and in today’s gospel we have our Lord healing a leper. “If you wish,” says the leper, “you can make me clean.” All of this within the very first chapter of Mark’s gospel!

Mark wants us to know that in Christ the grace, life and salvation of God has poured forth into our world and into our hearts – so long frozen and locked in sin and death! Something utterly new and unique is occurring within this man called Jesus! Jesus teaches, he heals, he casts out demons, he calls people with his own authority and he neither acts nor speaks like the scribes and the Pharisees.

It is interesting and telling that it is the people in need – the leper, the person who is ill, the one possessed by a demon, the poor, the flock without the shepherd – who first recognize this and realize that something new is occurring. The leper kneels before Jesus and says, “If you wish, you can make me clean.” Those persons caught up in their own power and need to control – be that political, religious or social – do not recognize (throughout the gospel story) Christ both for who he, himself, is and for the grace and salvation he brings. They are locked within themselves. The people who are in need, the people who recognize their poverty are the ones who are open to the great wind of mercy, life and hope that Christ brings and who receive that life!

Christ brings life and healing but we, on our part, must recognize that we need life, that we are mortally wounded and that, without Christ, we are lost! We must be honest enough to continually admit our need, our frailty and our weakness. This is not just a recognition for the beginning of our faith journey but rather an honest assessment needed for every day of our faith journey! Christ does not come just to encourage or to applaud our efforts. Christ comes to give us life and salvation and without him we are both lost and we are dead!

Today’s gospel passage ends by saying that Jesus remained outside in the deserted places, yet “people kept coming to him from everywhere.” They recognized and they knew that something utterly unique was occurring in this man named Jesus – the very pouring forth of the mercy and life of God into our world! May we also recognize this.

The God who tramples the waves of the sea.

12 Saturday Aug 2017

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Julius Sergius von Klever Tutt'Art@ (36)

“Jesus Walking on the Water” by Julius Sergius von Klever

 

Matthew’s presentation of the occurrence of Jesus walking on the water (Mt. 14:22-33) is not about showing Jesus as someone with magical or superhuman powers but rather about showing Jesus as the one who can do what God alone does.

Matthew, fully conversant with the Hebrew Scriptures, knows the connections and they are alluded to in his telling of this miracle. In the ninth chapter of the Book of Job (9:8), we hear that it is God “who alone stretched out the heavens and trampled the waves of the sea.” Here we find Jesus walking calmly on the water, trampling the waves of the sea. In Psalm 144:7 we hear the cry of the creature before the Creator, “Stretch forth thy hand from on high, rescue me and deliver me from the many waters.” Here, Peter having taken some steps in faith becomes fearful, he begins to sink and he cries out, “Lord, save me!” We are then told that Jesus immediately “stretched out his hand,” took hold of him and lifted Peter to safety. God alone is the one who can stretch forth his hand and rescue us from the waters that threaten to drown us!

There is a third connection, I believe, and it is from the first reading (1 Kings 19:9a, 11-13a). Elijah, the prophet, is told to go outside because God is passing by. There is a strong and heavy wind but God is not in the wind. There is an earthquake but God is not in the earthquake. There is a burning fire full of fury but God is not in the fire. Finally, after all this, there is a tiny whispering sound and the prophet hides his face because he knows that now God is passing by. In the Gospel, the wind is rolling and the waves are crashing but God is not found in this tumult and chaos rather, quietly and calmly Jesus walks on the water. Christ (who does that which only God can do) neither fears nor needs the tumult and power of the forces of the world to make his presence known because he is the Lord of Life and all creation bows before him. The “tiny, whispering sound” which underlies all things and all creation is the full grandeur of God!

Our lives and the tumult of our world can get chaotic and overwhelming. God is not in the strong wind because God is more than the wind. God is not in the waters that threaten, that can overwhelm us, because God tramples on the waters.

Matthew, in his Gospel, is making use of this occurrence of Jesus walking on the water, to say something utterly unique about Jesus. Jesus is not just another mystic or guru and neither is he a person with magical or superhuman powers because none of these figures would be able to trample the waters because none of them would be more than the waters. Jesus does what only God can do. Jesus is beyond the tempests of life and creation precisely because he is the Lord and Author of Life! And the Author of Life is also the Lord of Mercy! Jesus, who does what only God can do, tramples on the waves of the sea and he stretches out his hand to save us even as the waves threaten to overwhelm. “Lord, save me!” is the only authentic cry of the creature before the Creator and Savior.

“Father, I thank you for hearing me.”

02 Sunday Apr 2017

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Jesus-Raises-Lazarus-from-the-Dead-540x300There is almost an ordinariness to the way our Lord goes about his mission of proclaiming and living God’s Kingdom.  Even his miracles and the raising of his friend Lazarus are not exceptions.  Our Lord takes his time in getting to the scene of Lazarus’ illness and death.  He takes time in speaking with both Martha and Mary.  Arriving at the tomb he asks that the stone be rolled back.  He addresses the Father and then, with a loud voice, cries, “Lazarus, come out!”  The once-dead man walks out. 

There are no flashes of light or rolling thunder.  Our Lord does not need to make strange incantations or weave any sort of spell.  He does not even seem to have to fast in preparation for such an extraordinary thing.  There is no burning of incense or sacrifices offered.  Jesus simply gives honor to the Father, calls Lazarus forth and his friend is restored to life.  

This is not a feat of our Lord’s own will at work.  Jesus is not a comic book superhero saving the world through his own strength and determination nor is he a wizard overcoming by his own intellect and perseverance (a.k.a., “will to power”).  Scripture tells us that Christ let go of his own glory and power and took on the form of a slave.  The salvation won through Christ is through the “letting-go” of the divinity which allows the humanity to live in full relationship of love and trust with the Father.  Jesus tells us that he can do nothing apart from the Father.  Jesus does not heal, or feed the multitude, or cast out demons or walk on water or raise the dead through his own, independent and isolated exercise of will but through his relationship with the Father.  Therefore he does not need the trappings of the superhero or of esoteric magic.  It is all through relationship and relationship is often one of the most ordinary of things. 

St. Paul in his letter to the Romans reminds us that we also have been invited into this relationship.  “But you are not in the flesh; on the contrary, you are in the spirit, if only the Spirit of God dwells in you.  Whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.  But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is alive because of righteousness.  If the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the One who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also, through his Spirit dwelling in you.”  (Rom. 8:8-11) 

How often and how easily we overlook the grace we have been given, that is indeed active within us!  We easily we get lost in the noise and distractions of our world.  The Spirit of the One who raised Christ from the dead has been given us and dwells within us – giving life and transforming us.  God does not need the trappings of the extraordinary to accomplish his purpose.  The sacraments are a prime example of this.  Water, bread, wine, oil, the words of the priest, the love of a couple – yet underneath the ordinary divine grace, relationship and life is found and given.  

We should not disdain the ordinary and the grace and new life found there.  Just as Christ emptied himself of glory and held to his relationship with the Father so should we.  Life is not found in our control, our ego, our own little “wills to power”, living within our own little bubbles.  Life, salvation, healing, grace is found through relationship – recognizing God’s presence given and within and seeking to live always in the amazing ordinariness of that relationship. 

“Father, I thank you for hearing me.  I know that you always hear me; but because of the crowd here I have said this, that they may believe that you sent me.”

 

“Arrival” and catching the language of God.

03 Saturday Dec 2016

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arrivalThis last week I saw the movie “Arrival”.  I found the movie to be very thought-provoking.  I do not want to ruin the movie for anyone so I will not delve too deeply into the story but the heart of the movie is about language, thought and even time.  The movie asks a simple question; “If aliens arrived on earth how would we communicate?”  Especially if the aliens were so different physiologically from us and did not communicate by sound as we do.  The movie centers on a  translator and her work to overcome this barrier.  At one point in the movie there is a discussion about how learning another language might actually effect and even change a person’s way of thinking.  Learning a new language helps us to think differently and to see the world differently.  

In biblical thought, a prophet is not a fortune-teller or someone who can somehow magically tell what is going to happen in the future.  Rather, a biblical prophet is someone who lives a deep relationship with God and who is able to read the signs of the times from that perspective.  To make use of the discussion in the movie – a prophet is someone who has caught a bit of the language of God and is able therefore to think differently and to see the world differently.  A prophet is someone who begins to see as God sees and to dream as God dreams.  

In today’s gospel (Mt. 3:1-12) we are given the figure of John the Baptist.  The man whom Christ himself called the greatest of prophets.  John is this uniquely charismatic figure drawing huge crowds from all over Jerusalem, Judea and the whole region around the Jordan.  He proclaims the coming Kingdom of God and he calls his listeners to repentance.  Almost as if to provide a contrast, the gospel brings the Pharisees and Sadducees into the picture.  They approach the baptism of John not as a true spirit of repentance but because it looks good before the crowd who they knew held John in high regard.  John’s eyes were on the promise of eternity and the mercy of God because he had caught the language of God while the eyes of these religious authorities were only on what looked good in the moment and what would seem pleasing to others.  John’s eyes were on the ever new possibility of the Kingdom of God precisely because he had caught the language of God. 

We could say that John already saw and set his life by the vision offered by the prophet Isaiah in the first reading (Is. 11:1-10).  John saw that day when the one would come on whom the spirit of the Lord would rest and who would judge rightly and who would strike the ruthless and bring forth justice and through whom the wolf and the lamb would be guest of one another.  In the Jordan River, John would baptize the one who is himself the incarnate Word of the Father. 

In Christ, the language of God is fully revealed and spoken and it overcomes all the sad divisions of our world.  Isaiah’s poetic use of imagery is all about the divisions and fears and animosities of life being overcome – “the cow and the bear shall be neighbors … the baby shall play by the cobras den …” – all this shall occur through Christ. 

And it continues through his body, the Church.  In Christ the role of the prophet is not ended, it is multiplied infinitely!  Through our baptisms we are all called to be prophets!  In the Eucharistic Prayer entitled, “Jesus, the Way to the Father” we find these words, “Grant that all the faithful of the Church, looking into the signs of the times by the light of faith, may constantly devote themselves to the service of the Gospel.” 

To be a prophet is not to somehow magically see into the future but to live in deep relationship with God and to read the signs of the times from that perspective.  The prophet learns the language of God fully revealed in Christ.  The prophet allows that language to change his or her own pattern of thought and the prophet lives by the ever new possibility of God’s Kingdom which says that all the sad divisions of our world and our individual lives can be healed and can be overcome.  

To learn a language changes the way we think.  The prophets caught the language of God, John learned it and even baptized the Word incarnate and, now, the Word is given and spoken to us. 

We can live differently.  We can live through the very Word given to us as God intends.