Weekly Reflection 122902AD

Sunday, December 29, 2002AD

Holy Family Sunday

Happy B-Day to Whom?

For several reasons, we moved our Christmas crèche to a new locale immediately in front of the Armonk Cross on Cox Avenue. First, happily, Cox Ave is now, more than ever, a major bypass from Main St in Armonk, as our population continues to grow. Second, the illumination on Cox Ave is more adequate than the traditional site inside our campus. Finally, while the crèche appears brilliant, the Crucified Jesus peers atop the creche as a reminder of why Christ was born.

Many Names are bestowed upon the Newborn. Matthew calls Him Emmanuel (God with us). Luke calls Him Savior, Christ and Lord. John calls Him the Word become flesh.

Earlier, in the Hebrew Bible, the prophet First Isaiah spoke of Wonder-Counselor, God-Hero, Father-Forever, Prince of Peace. Second Isaiah called Him Suffering Servant.

Throughout two millennia, Catholics have rejoiced and responded to the symbol of the birth of this Child. We know that our imagination is never able to exhaust what the Coming of Jesus Christ means.

However, we must always be on guard to prevent the saccherinization of Christmas by focusing on beautiful imagery alone. Hence, both on Cox Avenue as well as in our Church, the figure of Christ Crucified dominates behind the creche. The birth of this Child demands a response to the total Gift of Jesus Christ. We never forget that His Gift brought Him to the cross.

Therefore, stakes are high. On Dec 26, we celebrate St Stephen’s Day, the Proto-martyr, who died, like Jesus, forgiving his murderers. On Dec 27, we celebrate St John’s Day, the Fourth Evangelist, who teaches us that God is Love and the person who abides in love abides in God and God in that person. He also teaches us that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. On Dec 28, we commemorate the Holy Innocents, the silent helpless slain by the Herods of the world, then and now. (Pope John Paul speaks of the very young, the very unborn, the very poor, the very sick, the very old, the very marginalized in this category.) On Dec 29, we commemorate the murder of St Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, during Vespers in the Cathedral by forces of Catholic King, Henry II. (The issue at stake, by the way, with Becket and Henry II was the position that clergy should be accorded by both church and state!!!)

Catholics focus on the Incarnation as our central doctrine, viz., that God became human. What implications are there for Catholic attitudes on issues that face us today? The One called the Prince of Peace died on the cross, rejected by church and state. Stephen and Thomas Becket challenged Temple (church) and state, respectively. The Innocents were discarded as a threat by Herod. All of this, because God became human. What implications are there for us at the beginning of this year? We put the creche in its proper venue. 122902 AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 122202AD

December 22, 2002AD

Fourth Sunday of Advent

A Profile in Faith

Traditionally, on the Fourth Sunday of Advent, we salute Mary and Joseph as we anticipate the Birthday of the Messiah. Today, once again, the mother of Jesus steps to center-stage St Luke describes Mary’s encounter with the Angel Gabriel and her acceptance of the message of the Incarnation. In his Gospel, Luke portrays Mary as the one who trusted that ”the Lord’s words to her would be fulfilled.” The Gospel speaks of the call of the Lord’s first disciple of the Lord.

Several famous quotations emanate from this beautiful encounter. We hear the beginning of the “Hail Mary”. We hear Gabriel’s mighty words, “For nothing shall be impossible for God.” We hear the humble acceptance of the young daughter of Abraham and Sarah, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord. Let it be done unto me according to your word.”

The model of Mary’s gifted faith which led her to become the Mother of her Lord, “our God”, at times, seems to offset Mary from the rest of us in our own situations. The lofty scene depicts an iconic picture that is engraved in all our minds and hearts. However, it masks the subtle impact of the message. Here is a young Jewish maiden, in a strongly patriarchal culture, who says “yes” to a pregnancy that it is hard to explain.

The young maiden, Miryam of Nazara, must have felt the following emotions familiar to all of us in rapid sequence: fright, anxiety, aloneness, etc. Yet, gifted with faith in the message of God announced by Gabriel, Mary faced the future with fidelity, expectation, patience, longing for fulfillment. In the process of her graced response to God’s vocation, she became the mother of the Son of God. Her gifted “yes” to God makes her the first of the disciples and the Mother of her Lord. However, she remains the paradigm of all Christian believers, who are asked to respond in faith that the Lord’s Words to us will be fulfilled. If we answer God’s call in the challenges and struggles that we face in life as disciples of Jesus, then, in a sense, we, too, give birth to the Son of God the Most High in our own worlds. When we bring the Gospel to our everyday world, then, Christ is born again in those moved to believe.

Vatican II (1962-65) stressed that the two principal titles of Mary are the first of the disciples and the Mother of Christ. Lofty, yes for us, but as Gabriel said in the Gospel today, Nothing is impossible for God”. We ask for the grace to be edifying disciples of the Lord, to hear the Word of God and to believe that the Lord’s words to us will be fulfilled. In the process, Christ is brought into the world again and, in the Holy Spirit, we fulfill the birthing process of Jesus Christ in the world in which we find ourselves today.

As we salute Mary and Joseph today, let us remember that they are models for our own response to God’s Word to us today. How well, with God’s Help, will we respond? 122202 AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 121502AD

Sunday Dec 15, 2002AD

Third Sunday of Advent

Gaudete Sunday

Rejoice? Yes, Rejoice!!!!!

We celebrate this weekend Gaudete, viz., “Rejoice” Sunday. Our Scriptures this weekend are among the most upbeat in our three year cycle of Sunday readings. The great festival of Christmas and Epiphany, the Birth and Manifestation of the Messiah, is not far ahead. However, rather than just a birthday celebration, the gift of faith teaches us that Jesus is still coming to be, even now, but not yet!!

In this weekend’s first reading, we hear the words of Isaiah 61, which, St Luke tells us, was the Scripture that Jesus read on his inaugural appearance in Nazareth. After He concluded, Jesus said, “Today, this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” St Luke goes out of his way to remind us that Jesus has sent His Spirit as the fulfillment of His promise to remain with us.

This is important for us to call to mind today because of the reading that Jesus did that day in Nazareth. At the conclusion of our first reading today, we read, “As the earth brings forth its plants, and a garden makes its growth spring up, so will the Lord God (of Life) make justice and peace spring up before all the nations.”

We enter next week what, we hope, will not be a cold and snowy winter. It is important to remember that, in the meantime, the process which will burst forth in spring and summer is already underway in the earth. It doesn’t look that way, though.

The Spirit-filled Jesus assures His hearers, then and now, and yet to come, that the God of Life will triumph in the end. Life is stronger than death. Light is stronger than darkness.

How we need Jesus Christ’s reassurance now, more than ever. As some make preparations for war, we need encouraging words from Him.

Years ago, the euphemism, “collateral damage” became a new way of saying “civilian casualties.” (It became such a well-known term that it even became the title for a hit movie with lots of violence a few years later.)

Now, we hear of “pre-emptive strikes”, which, some feel, St Augustine and St Thomas Aquinas might label as “a war of offense (aka first strike)”. Also, as early as 52 years ago, Popes warned of the morality of “just means” with the use of ABC (atomic, biological and chemical) weapons as serious reason to question the morality of war, according to the just war theory.

Catholics need to remember that our religion teaches us that the God of Life will triumph. The gift of faith of Jesus Christ urges us to hope that, though some may delay God’s Plan now, God’s Will will be done.

Many are saying that the Third Millennium began on September 11, 2001. At the end what so many would describe as a “down year” in 2002, God is clever to offer us words that teach us to “rejoice always, pray without ceasing. In all circumstances give thanks, for this is the Will of God for you in Christ Jesus. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophetic utterances. Test all; retain what is good. Refrain from every kind of evil.” Every kind of evil 121502 AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 120802AD

Sunday, December 8, 2002AD

Second Sunday of Advent

Limping into Advent

Language about God and our relationship with God is inadequate and unable to express what we would like. As one theologian in our area said, “All language about God limps.” Human language is incapable of expressing the Mystery of Transcendence. In several places in the Scriptures, God reminds us that even inspired biblical texts are written by human authors in human language. It is healthy for us to remind ourselves that the Mystery of God will never be cracked in this life.

The inadequacy of human language challenges our prevalent notion of Advent, the season in which we find ourselves now. We are not preparing to celebrate the historical event of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth alone. We think of the present and the future as well. We believe that Christmas can be “even now”, but “not yet”. Jesus Christ continues to come to us in the Now Moment in a variety of ways known only to Him. Whether it is in the Sunday community, the Word of God, the Sacraments, one’s personal devotions, or in any moment in which we feel close to the Mystery of God of Jesus Christ, we believe in “Emmanuel”, “God is with us.” That is exactly what Christmas is all about.

Through the gift of faith, we anticipate the future, of which God is the Absolute Lord, despite whatever appearances to the contrary. The Word of God challenges us to believe, with God’s Help, that in the future, “Emmanuel”, “God will be with us.”

Sometimes it is easy to believe; sometimes it is difficult. We rejoice when the gift of faith is easy to appropriate. However, we know that all people live with failure, absences, disappointments and sadness. Life reminds the Christian that we are not the captains of the ship, rather, God is.

God challenges us, with God’s Help, to believe that Emmanuel, God with us, is a reality even now, but not yet.

Celtic spirituality teaches us what Jesus has been trying to do for the past 2000 years, viz., “we live in eternity”, (even now, but not yet.) If God is with us now, then we are in the Presence of the Mystery and enveloped in that Mystery every moment of our lives. God continues to come into our world again and again.

In a sense, it is always Advent for a Christian. We always believe that Jesus Christ, our Emmanuel, Who has already arrived in our lives, is still arriving as our life unfolds and will return in His Fullness in the future.

Jesus asks us to be ever faithful, expectant, patient and longing.

When Christmas arrives as we recall the Birth of the Messiah, please God, we will remember and live by our faith that, just as it is always Advent, it is always Christmas too.

We thank Jesus that, at times, the Immanence of the Mystery is easily felt. We ask Jesus for the Strength to believe that the Immanence of God is also felt in the agonies of life, just as in the ecstasies. Human language limps, but the heart has a mind of its own. 120802 AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 120102AD

Shop till you drop or …. cf below

A sociologist recently wrote that consumerism has become the religion of Western civilization. He expressed his opinion in an objective way. He took for granted that contemporary conventional culture has just written off Transcendence or the Absolute in the way that most live our everyday lives. Belief in God is a peripheral, hardly a given, for many. It may make a difference if God exists; it might not!

Seriously, the sociologist wrote that the new religion practiced by many is “consumerism”, whose god is “Mammon” (aka Stuff), what we own and have. He wrote that the contemporary cathedral is the shopping mall, that scriptures of consumerism are shopping ads, the liturgy of consumerism is “buy, buy, buy”; the clergy of consumerism are the salespeople; the worshipper is the consumer; salvation is “competitive mimetic desire”, viz., “keeping up with the Jones’”; the great ethic of consumerism is “Thou shalt covet thy neighbor’s goods”.

The demi-gods Possessions, Prestige, Popularity, Praise, are among the false gods that are adored during the Christmas Rush (formerly known as “Advent”). And, it is patriotic. As Gordon Gecko said, “Greed is good (for the economy.)”

Recall that this sociologist was serious. He felt that his was an honest estimation of contemporary culture, something to observe, not to condemn.

One of the great mantras of the religion of Mammon during the next month is “Shop till you drop”. The rush on Christmas sales began last Friday, early in the morning. Again, we are evangelized by a new (but isn’t it old?) religion. Time to choose once more. Cf Below

Jesus - Reason for Season

A Catholic theologian wrote that the world is quite correct in calculating time from the birth of Christ. He would surely advocate the traditional A.D., (Anno Domini, the year of the Lord), rather than the politically correct C.E. (Common Era) that even some Catholic publishers have compromisingly adopted.

Catholics believe that Jesus (no one else) is the Prince of Peace). He is the One Who resisted the downward spiral of violence by some religious leaders and a repressive state bringing the Incarnate Son of God to the cross. Yet, the Prince of Peace had the chance for payback after His Resurrection. However, the Jesus Movement proclaimed a Gospel of non-violent engagement with the world. The Risen One and His followers did not seek “an eye for an eye”. Shedding of blood should have ended with death of the God-man. God ended bloodshed by shedding God’s Own Blood! Think about it.

Jesus asks for absolute faith that He is the Prince of Peace. Amid conflicting cacophony, He asks us to trust that God is the Lord of history and that God has the final Word on human events. More and more, people are saying that even if one were not to accept Jesus as Lord, His Gospel of non-violence is the one untried alternative to the world scene that we experience now, so absurdly and sadly.

As Gandhi said, if we consider our enemies as evil perpetrators, then, that still does not give us the right to greater retaliation. If it did, the downward spiral is only perpetuated. Doesn’t Jesus teach us that somehere? Time to choose once more. 120102 AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 112402AD

Jesus was Her Lord

We celebrate this weekend the Solemnity of Christ the King, as we anticipate, liturgically, our belief that God’s Kingdom will arrive, that God’s Will will be done. Yet, we believe that, even now, the Kingdom is already come, whenever people practice, with God’s Help, ethical monotheism as taught by Jesus.

One function which is very primitive in the human subconscious is the tendency to identify “in group” and “out group.” Who belongs to our family, our clan, our village, our nation? However, this tendency to identify “in groups or out groups” can get problematic in certain areas when imputation of guilt or responsibility for injuries, real or perceived, makes one feel a sense of self-righteousness over others.

Dorothy Day, a well-known Catholic, who died on Nov 29, 1980 AD in NYC, understood the tendency to “scapegoat the other” as the enemy as a dysfunctional way of exonerating one’s self of responsibility for one’s response to an injury, real or perceived.

However, she understood that all of us stand before God as people who have tried to be ‘gods” in our lives. She understood that the original sin described in Genesis 3 is really succumbing to the original lie, “You too can be like God.” You too can control reality. In one’s self-deception, we can easily blame others when we feel that we can and should control our reality and don’t.

She tried to live her life, with God’s Help, in conformity to the teachings of Jesus, particularly, the Sermon on the Mount in St Matthew’s Gospel. (Maybe the Sermon on the Mount was the original “Straight Talk Express”?) Jesus reminds us in the Beatitudes that the person who, with God’s Help, acknowledges God (not the false god, EGO (Easing God Out) as the Center of Reality, is moving in the right direction. She understood that we have all been blessed with many gifts by God in our lives. However, she realized that one’s life was not about oneself, but rather about one’s place in God’s plan for reality. She knew that she had to use her gifts in service to others to acknowledge God as her Center.

Whether it was protesting air-raid drills (when she sat in Central Park), her marching with Cesar Chavez on the California migrant workers pickets, her care for homeless people at the many hospitality houses, beginning in NYC, that she established, she believed that she was doing God’s Will by trying to view reality from God’s perspective, not her own.

Her ministry in NYC and throughout the world was to show concern as a voice of the silent and helpless. She showed her concern for the “least of the sisters and brothers”. She understood that Jesus tells us in Matthew’s Gospel which she treasured so much, that final judgment is based on our response to the hidden Christ in our midst, even in those we sometimes scapegoat. 112402 AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 111702AD

Sunday, November 17, 2002AD

33^rd Sunday in Greentime

A Sad Anniversary

Thirteen years ago, this weekend, many were shocked by the murder of 6 Jesuits, their housekeeper and daughter in the University of Central America in El Salvador. Their murderers, later established, were assassins associated with the military.

The massacre symbolized the 75,000+ people of El Salvador who died in the 1980’s in a nation with the size of and population of Massachusetts.

The civil war, waged in El Salvador for so many years, was called a “war of national security” against the communist menace. Sadly ironic but historically telling, the Berlin Wall, such a symbol of communism, was brought down a mere ten days earlier. China and Cuba notwithstanding, the communist monolith was cracking.

One of the Jesuit martyrs was Fr Ignacio Martin Baro, born in Spain on November 7, 1942. He became the only PhD in psychology in El Salvador. He studied the effects of violence upon war-torn people, especially children. (He spoke of one time of a meeting with a group of Indians who had witnessed a massacre in their town. His first reaction was the witnesses were all crazy. Then, it dawned on him that the violence had created dysfunction in the Indians. They were reacting normally to an abnormal situation.)

This insight changed his view of psychology. He felt that traditional psychological analysis was a form of individual self-help in which one tried to come to grips with problems. That was well and good. However, he saw that it was important for psychology not to be bourgeois only; rather, we should want to be “well for others” and to “make others well”. Psychologists should try to critique culture to highlight anything in the culture that is dysfunctional. The individual psyche and the cultural psyche had a symbiotic or parasitical relationship.

He re-interpreted St Irenaeus’ statement in the third century, “God’s greatest glory is the human person fully alive.” Baro saw this not as a call to personal self-help, but as a call to use psychology to eliminate whatever is dysfunctional (personally or culturally) in human development.

This weekend, we hear the familiar parable of the talents, in which the wealthy man gives various amounts of money to the three individuals. The last man was confronted by the donor for not using his gift.

Everything to us is a gift or predicated on a gift. Think about it for a while. However, God’s gifts make demands upon us to share with those who have not received the abundance of the gift that we received.

Ignacio Martin Baro has been called the “First Martyr of Psychology.” He tried to use his talent in psychology for the good of the people of El Salvador, not for personal self-aggrandizement. He understood Jesus and St Irenaeus very well.

To some in El Salvador, all this sounded subversive. His last words were, “You are unjust. You are rotten.” His murderers did not listen. 111702 AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 111002AD

Sunday, November 10, 2002AD

31^st Sunday in Greentime

(Not) Vanna

In several European monasteries, there are mosaics entitled “The Wheel of Fortune”. In some of these mosaics, the wheel is turned by a kindly old man with a white beard. In others, the wheel is turned by a young, beautiful woman.

The old man is a masculine image of God the Father; the young woman is a feminine image of Lady Wisdom. Why two images?

Anthropomorphism is the description of God in human images. It is of what humans are capable. God is transcendent and cannot be understood in human terms, so we have to use images that we can relate to God a little bit, at least, analogously.

Using the predominant (though not total) masculine image, reflecting the culture of the time, in one image, God is depicted as an old man. Using present (though not prevalent) feminine biblical imagery, the mosaics depict God as a young beautiful woman, Lady Wisdom.

In the latter books of the Hebrew Bible, the image of Wisdom personified becomes a way in which the Mystery of God becomes manifest to humans. The Hebrew word for “wisdom” is Hokmah , a feminine word; the Greek word for “wisdom” is Sophia, also a feminine word.

In our first reading today, Lady Wisdom, a feminine manifestation of God, “hastens to make Herself known”. “Taking thought of Lady Wisdom is the perfection of prudence.”

The Wheel of Fortune represents the vicissitudes of human living. In the image, at 12 o’clock, a man is depicted as happy and dressed like a king. At 3 o’clock, he has a worried look on his face and the clothing is a bit tattered. At 6 o’clock, he is in tears and in rags. At 9 o’clock, he looks slightly recovered and hopeful, on the road again. In all cases, the Wheel of Fortune is spun by the old man or the young woman; never the two at the same time.

The Wheel of Fortune teaches us that the Divine (not we) spins the Wheel of Fortune. While we would like to always find ourselves at 12 o’clock, such is not always the case. We go through good times and bad. God’s clock is not always our clock.

Theologian, Fr Richard Rohr, describes life as a combination of agony and ecstasy. We live in a culture that tries its hardest to control reality. Our culture wants it always to be 12 o’clock when we ride high. That is great if it were possible. However, the agony involved, at times, in human living preclude the possibility that we can always control reality and always live lives of ecstasy. It would be nice, but it doesn’t work like that.

The figure of Lady Wisdom, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, morphed into the image of Jesus Christ, the Second Person of the Trinity incarnate, Who becomes for us the Face of God. He teaches the same lesson as the kindly old man and Lady Wisdom. Do we hear Him? 111002 AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 110302AD

Sunday, November 3, 2002AD

31^st Sunday in Greentime

Are You Talkin’ to Me?

We know from the Gospels that Jesus and some of the religious authorities of His time locked horns on several occasions. As we reach Jerusalem with Jesus and the 12 in Matthew’s Gospel, we recall the expulsion of the money changers from the temple which occurred shortly after the Palm Sunday procession into the city. Recall that during this event, Jesus was proclaimed as “David’s Son” and “Hosannas” were proclaimed to celebrate His arrival into the Holy City. The gospels which we have been hearing for the past several Sundays involved a challenge to what Jesus was doing from various segments of the religious elite.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus goes to work on the scribes and Pharisees, who tried to interpret the Law of Moses for the people in an overly-scrupulously effort (from their own viewpoint) to guarantee the stability of the Jewish religion. (It is important to know that whatever Jesus said in the confrontation reported in today’s Gospel was past down through several generations before the Author of the First Gospel composed Mtt 23, whence our Gospel today arises.) During that time, in 70 AD, the Roman armies had destroyed the city of Jerusalem, including the Jerusalem Temple. As a result, after the cataclysm of 70 AD, there were only two viable alternatives for Jews in a “temple-less” setting. 1) The Judaism of the scribes and Pharisees had now morphed into rabbinical Judaism. 2) The Jewish Messiah People (aka Christians) who followed Jesus of Nazareth were still a force within Judaism. (In addition, this group now had affiliations with Gentiles who were in other parts of the world accepting Jesus as Lord.

There was an obvious clash between these two remaining Jewish groups after 70 AD. The scribes and Pharisees did all in the power to purify and strengthen Judaism in the post-70 AD days. Since so many Gentiles had now become affiliated with Christianity and since so many Christians were taking Jesus’ Gospel of non-violence seriously, relations were strained between rabbinical Judaism and Christianity. This strain is reflected in today’s Gospel.

It is important for us to remember the perennial nature of Jesus’ denunciations of those who use religion in any way for self-aggrandizement. For the Jewish authorities then, the important thing was to maintain at all costs the Jewish traditions. In the contemporary world, all religious leaders are under a caution from this Gospel today. Whenever the religion becomes an idol in itself, Jesus’ denunciations start to kick in again. To paraphrase Jesus in another place, “Religion exists for the human person; the human person does not exist for religion.” In these traumatic days, it is important for religious leaders (Catholics, included) to heed Jesus warnings to the professional religionists of His time. 110302 AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 102702AD

Sunday October 27, 2002AD

Thirtieth Sunday in Greentime

The Greatest of All

Thomas Cahill wrote an excellent book several years ago, entitled The Gifts of the Jews. He spoke of the many contributions of the people of the Hebrew Bible to how we think and behave in the world. One of the things that religious historians, such as Cahill, notes is the appeal that ancient Judaism had with its simplicity compared to other religions.

Israel saw, through divine inspiration, slowly, that there can only be one God. In the thousand year formative period of the Hebrew Bible, the Spirit of God brought the Chosen People to see the truth of monotheism.

In the revelation of the Sacred Name, YHWH, to Moses in Exodus 3, God Self-identifies with the Hebrew verb “to be”. God is the God of Life, all life, not some life.

In addition, the belief that each human person is created in the image and likeness of God, male and female, was not lost on people in the ancient world. No other religion or philosophy so enhanced human dignity in a world where society was stratified socially, economically, politically.

Then, too, when the Chosen People were enslaved in Egypt, their God, the God of Life, rescued them from oppression. What YHWH, the God of Life, was saying in essence is that God wants none to be oppressed.

Finally, when Israel itself neglected to respond to their commitment to the God Who had liberated them from oppression, their lack of response had other effects. If God were not taken seriously, neither would those created in God’s image and likeness be taken seriously either. During the days of the prophets, God challenged the people to total commitment to God as their Basic Security and the lack of response to “love their neighbor as themselves”.

It came down to this with the prophets. God had inspired a religion of “ethical monotheism”, viz., if there be only one God, then, all are created in God’s image and likeness and are to be treated accordingly.

Jesus’ fusion of the Shema Y’israel (Hear, O Israel) (Deut 6) with the commandment of love of neighbor from Leviticus 18 speaks to us in very simple terms. Yet, in a society where God is not taken seriously (except when convenient), simplicity can be elusive. Bible history shows that a society that forgets obligations to God and neighbor is headed toward trouble.

Pope John Paul speaks of the “eclipse of God” and the “eclipse of the human person.” in Western society. If God is not taken seriously, neither will the human person be taken seriously. If the person is not taken seriously, neither will God be taken seriously.

Catholicism is a religion of ethical monotheism. If we forget God, we forget people. If we forget people, we forget God. May we always, with God’s Help, act accordingly. Ethically consistent behavior on human life issues, crucial to USA Catholics, is needed now, more than ever, if “in God we trust.” 102702 AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 102002AD

October 20, 2009AD

29^th Sunday in Greentime

…And to God What Belongs to God

It was risky business for Jesus to proclaim the Coming of the Kingdom of the God (the God of Life). Such talk raised the hackles of the ruling power of Rome. It ultimately brought Him to Good Friday (and Easter Sunday)!

For the Pharisees, (liberal) Jewish laymen to join forces with the Herodians (lackeys of Rome’s flunkey King Herod), Jesus must have upset many of His kinsfolk as well. Sad that some tried to put Jesus on the spot in the Gospel today.

What Jesus proclaimed in His famous teaching today is that what is Caesar’s is Caesar’s, but WHAT IS GOD’S IS GOD’S. By the juxtaposition of Caesar with God, God clearly is the One about Whom Jesus is concerned. God (the God of Life) Alone is Absolute. All else is relativized in terms of the God of Life.

The implications of this confronted St Ambrose of Milan and St Augustine of Hippo back in the beginning of the fifth century. They tried to grapple with the question of the relationship between the demands of God and the demands of an officially Catholic Roman Empire (after 395 AD). What happens when the Catholic Empire makes demands that possibly conflict with the demands of the God of Life? How does one render to Caesar’s what is Caesar’s if it conflicts with rendering to God what is God’s?

The just war theory, used recently by Bishop Wilton Gregory in correspondence with government leaders on the Iraq question, took shape in response to the legitimate question raised then and now.

Sts Ambrose and Augustine taught that for a war to be just all the following conditions had to be met: 1) it must be a war of self-defense; 2) it must be a last resort; 3) it must be declared by a legitimate authority; 4) the good accomplished must exceed any harm done; 5) there must be a reasonable chance for victory; 6) just means must be used.

As early as 1950, Pope Pius XII spoke of the dangers of ABC (atomic, biological, chemical) Warfare In the modern era. In addition, Blessed Pope John XXIII wrote in Pacem in Terris (Peace on Earth) on Holy Thursday, 1963, shortly before his death, “In this age of ours which prides itself on such much development, it is irrational to think that modern warfare is an apt means of settling dispute”. Pope Paul VI the famous words at his United Nations speech in October, 1965, “No more war, war never again.” Pope John Paul II spoke often about waging war in the modern world. He said, “In the past it was possible to destroy your opponent’s town. Now, you can destroy your neighbor’s planet.”

The bishops at Vatican II agreed with what recent Popes had said and even went further in 1965.

In the past year, Catholics have commented on the startling relevance of Sunday readings to what was happening in the world and how to react. Does that relevance continue today? 102002 AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 101302AD

Sunday October 13, 2002AD

29^th Sunday in Green

A Prayer for All Reasons And All Seasons

Along with the Lord’s Prayer, Psalm 23 is probably the most loved of all Christian prayers. For nearly 3,000 years, people, much like ourselves and much unlike ourselves, have prayed the Psalm in a variety of settings. It appeals to us now as always. It is a prayer for all reasons and all seasons.

St Paul proclaims to his beloved Philippians that God has been faithful to him in all settings. For St Paul, the most important item on his agenda is the Death and the Resurrection of Jesus Christ and the salvation won for us by Christ which we share in our baptism into Christ. To borrow the old adage, Jesus saves!! As one American theologian wrote, “Everything in your life and my life rises and falls with the Cross of Christ.” Another American theologian proclaims, “The only thing that ultimately matters in our lives is the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.” We pray for the gift of faith given to St Paul and our two contemporaries during difficult days that we experience in church and in the world and in the vicissitudes of our own lives.

St Paul writes that he can manage any situation because “(I) can do all things in Him Who strengthens (me) “ On good days and bad, in the joys, sorrows and glories of life, Paul believes, as we all hope to do in faith, that Jesus is Lord in every situation.

During these days in which our church still struggles as we try to recognize and adjust to recent revelations of abuse of people and power by some priests and bishops, the One person Who so frequently is not mentioned is Jesus Christ. We hear a great deal about lawyers, district attorneys and the media telling us how we are to act, but where is Jesus Christ and His Gospel in deliberations?

In these days, also, as we are being primed for war, again, where is Jesus Christ and His Gospel in deliberations? Indeed, thank God, even fifth century St Augustine had something to say with his just war theory. (It was St Augustine, by the way, who coined the expression “just cause” thrown around in 1990 & today.) Are we listening today?

In our own lives, too, we continue to ask for faith that Jesus is Lord in all our personal experiences. Whenever we are confronted by negative diminishments (evils that befall us), we ask for faith to believe that Jesus is Lord in my life, 24-7-365.

Sadly, Psalm 23 is a prayer that frequently is associated with memorial cards for Protestants who have died. The prayer is meant to be prayed everyday. Maybe, each can add Psalm 23 to his or her own daily repertoire along with the Prayer of St Francis five times a day.

Life and faith are two basic human rights. Life without faith would be intolerable. St Paul probably was nourished by Psalm 23 often, on good days and bad, when he tried to behave and act on his belief that God supplies what we need in Christ Jesus. 101302 AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 100602AD

Sunday, October 6, 2002AD

28^th Sunday in Greentime

Philippi , Vatican II, Boston? The Holy Spirit frequently surprises us with the appropriateness of some of the readings in our Lectionary on Sunday. So often, our Sunday readings seem to have been “Spirit-inspired” for the specific occasions. Christians throughout the world commented on the salience of Sunday readings as well as weekday readings, last year after 9/11. With the 40^th Anniversary of Vatican II this week, we hear from St. Paul to the Philippians.

Someone once said that the Christian community at Philippi seems to have been Paul’s favorite. He does not challenge them vitriolically as he did with the Letters to the Galatians and to the Corinthians. He has an affection for them that is not indulgent. He realizes that they are basically good people in Christ who try the best they can, but, with God’s Help, they can do even better.

Blessed Pope John XXIII called the Second Vatican Council on January 25, 1959 at a liturgy in the Basilica of St Paul in Rome. Many thought that he was daft. His opposition tried to sabotage the council which John had called in the Spirit.

John said that he wanted to open the windows of the Church and let in some more fresh air (a pun on the Holy Spirit). He used the term aggiornamiento, updating the Church to the post World War II world. In effect, he unleashed the Spirit in an ongoing process of renewal.

In a re-read of the documents of Vatican II, two things become apparent. First, the documents voted on by the bishops after much debate were often avant-garde, theologically. Second, the documents seem now to be outmoded. New documents might be needed in a new council for the new time in which Catholics find today.

Progressive theologians disagree on how far we have come. Some say, indeed, it is time for a new council. One said that the next Council should be held in Boston. Others feel that we still have not exhausted the teachings of Vatican II. We need to go over them and re-discover some of the truths highlighted then. One theologian said that we talk about consultation in the church among laity and priests and hierarchy. What has happened to that?

Others ask what has happened to the empowerment of the laity to live 24-7-365, offering their every moment in worship in union with Christ Jesus in the daily sacrifices and selfless acts by which they are already so frequently doing for their families and world. We may not have named the reality as fully as we could. A theologian in our area recently said that we need to think of our Sunday gatherings as an opportunity for a tutorial with Jesus as our Teacher in the Scriptures. When we are re-commissioned each week, we are sent home “to do our homework”. How well do I infuse the Gospel in my home life, my career, my circle of friends, my school associations? Are lay people living the Gospel as best they can? Are lay Catholics content with a certain level and don’t feel the need for growth in Christ? Paul and Pope John XXIII ask us to live in Christ in truth, justice, honesty and purity. How are we answering them? 100602 AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 092902AD

September 29, 2002AD

27^th Sunday in Greentime

Our Attitude in Christ

We celebrate our Annual Fall Festival this weekend as well as the beginning of construction of our parish center. With God’s Help, we try to transform our lives in Christ Jesus.

However, we realize that our parish campus, particularly our parish church, is only a secondary point of our transformation. The most significant place is our own homes, our domestic churches. Our parish church becomes a meeting place, a “church-ing” (as a verb) place for all your domestic churches, viz., your own homes, as we re-enforce one another as we gather each weekend.

A winning nurturing, symbiotic relationship in Christ should develop between domestic church (your home) and our parish church (the home of our home churches). With God’s Help, we are transformed into Christ when we are at work, with our friends, in school, wherever we are. As St Teresa of Avila, said, “Christ has no hands but yours, no feet but yours, no tongue but yours, no heart but yours”. St Paul tried to communicate in inspired, yet humanly inadequate, language that we live in Christ Jesus and we are to offer our daily lives (24-7-365) as our daily liturgy. Our daily lives are a thank-offering for all God’s gifts.

We hear today a hymn, known as Carmen Christi, “Christ’s Song”. Paul tells the hearers of the letter that their attitude must be the attitude of Christ. They are to adjust their attitudes to the Christ’s attitude.

With God’s Help, two attitudes of Christ grow in us. First, we will become people of humility. (Humility is based on the same etymological root as humanity. The root word is humus, a Latin word for soil or earth.) Humility is a reminder that no matter what, we are dust and to dust we shall return. If this is not humbling and human, what else can be? However, the great proviso in all this is the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ that we share through our baptism into Christ.

The second attitude that will grow in us is obedience to God. (Obedience is based on the same etymological root as audial. The root word is audiere , Latin verb “to hear”.) Obedience means behavior in accordance to what we have heard. We hear the Gospel of Christ. With God’s Help, we try to behave as we obey the Gospel.

Two points remain to be highlighted. First, Jesus Christ does not have to adjust His attitude to mine. In humility and obedience, when necessary, with His Help, we try to adjust our attitudes to conform to His. Whenever we act on the job, whenever we exercise our franchise, whenever we share our values with our children, our attitude must be the attitude of Christ. Second, whether at our fall festival or in our upcoming parish center, these are secondary and auxiliary to how we act as church whenever we leave 29 Cox Avenue and are off campus in the mission fields of the week ahead. 092902 AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 092202AD

September 22, 2002AD

26^th Sunday in Greentime

The Big 4-0 for Vatican 2!!

On October 11, we celebrate the fortieth anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican by Blessed Pope John XXIII (1958-1963). Just about everyone is of the consensus that Vatican II was the most significant Catholic event in the twentieth century. Anyone who was around before Vatican II and is around today can testify to the tremendous changes that occurred in our Church since those heady, euphoric days.

German Jesuit theologian, Karl Rahner, wrote in the last century that Vatican II was the first truly ecumenical, viz., worldwide, council in the history of the Church because every continent in the world was represented in its ranks. However, his claim was challenged by those who said that Vatican II was only half an ecumenical council because 50%+ of the Church, women, were not represented in the ranks of participants.

One of the key ideas that Karl Rahner stressed on Vatican II was that it prepared Catholics better for the Church in the Third Millennium. He spoke of several characteristics of a Third Millennium Catholic. 1) Catholics would recover more of what was germane to our Catholicism, to our belief that Jesus is Lord. We will learn to distinguish the essentials of faith. 2) Devotions and pious practices of the past will remain. However, they will focus on what is essential, not on peripherals. At Vatican II, the Spirit spoke to the churches in recovering the centrality of Christology, of the Eucharist, of the Scriptures, of the Church in the Modern world. 3) Rahner said that the individual will be called to respond to the Mystery of God in a grace-filled faith response. (This is one of the places where Rahner stressed that “the Christian of the future will have to be a mystic.” This does not mean someone who walked on air. Rather, Rahner meant that each of us will be more aware of the personal call of the Infinite in our everyday existences, wherever we live our lives. (Cf. below)) 4) Nevertheless, Catholics will still be called to live in mutual support of one another in community. Our presence at the Eucharist strengthens others. Others’ presence in church community strengthens us. The presence of all of us inspires the people who pass and see that we gather to celebrate and live our faith in Jesus.

In Lumen Gentium, Light of Nations , the principal document on the Constitution of the Church, the bishops spoke of the Mystery of the Church in its first chapter. Then, in a striking way, in its second chapter, the bishops described all the baptized as the “People of God”, called by God in Christ to respond in faith and compassion to the Call of Christ in our daily lives. Interesting about this second chapter is the fact that it was only in the third chapter that the bishops spoke of the hierarchical structure of the Church. The stress is placed upon baptism as the sacrament of entry into the People of God, the Body of Christ.

In another lesser known document, Apostolicam Actuositatem, “Apostolic Activity”, the “Decree of the Apostolate of the Laity”, the bishops present some principal themes of the notion of the “People of God” from Lumen Gentium as applicable to the everyday lives of Catholic people. The bishops implement another term from the Constitution on the Church, viz., the “universal call to holiness”. All the People of God are commissioned in baptism to respond to the call of holiness which Jesus announced to all of us, not some of us.

We hear excerpts from St Paul’s Letter to the Philippians for the next few Sundays. He speaks with affection to a group of Jesus-Movement people who live in what today is Macedonia, north of Greece. They seem to have been his favorite community. At least, he speaks of them with great affection.

He urges them (and us) to “conduct (them)selves in a way worthy of the Gospel of Christ.” It is important to remember that this letter was addressed, as was the Letter to the Romans from which we heard during the summer, to all the Christic community, not just some. (Paul, indeed, does mention bishops and deacons in his letter. Indeed, read the following greeting:”Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons”. The letter is addressed to people like ourselves. (The community at Armonk probably is ten times larger than the community at Philippi addressed by St Paul.

He expected a lot from them and apparently, he was not disappointed. He does not do much chiding and admonishing as he did to other Christian communities, particularly the communities in Corinth and in Galatia.

St Paul and Pope Paul VI and the Bishops at Vatican II join together in asking us to conduct ourselves the same today. The bishops stress the fact that most Catholics (the Laity) spend most of the time away from the church edifice. However, that does not mean that their lives are not religious on Sunday and secular the rest of the week. The bishops ask us to focus on our families and upon our careers as the fora in which the laity can mediate the Presence of Christ in the world. The bishops used the familiar Pauline image of the body as a representation of our community in Christ and with one another. They make an interesting point that no part of the human body does not have a role. “No part of the body is passive.”

As St Paul told the Romans and us a few weeks ago in Rom 12.1, quoted in the Decree on the Laity, “Offer your bodies (lives) as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship (leiturgia, liturgy)”. A footnote from the Decree on the Laity says, “The passive apostolate of the laity of merely leading a good life is no longer sufficient today. The laity must be able and willing to defend Christian belief in the face of atheism, materialism and general immoral and amoral philosophies. 092202 AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 091502AD

September 15, 2002 AD

25^th Sunday in Greentime

490 & Then Some…

The “Everybody” figure of St Peter appears on the scene again today. He asks (for us) how many times we must be willing to forgive one who sins against us. He thought that his seven times was more than generous. Once again, Jesus teaches Peter and Everybody (including you and me) that something more than numbers are on the table for discussion.

Jesus does not want His disciples to be enablers by constantly overlooking injuries. We need to stand up for what is best, both for the perpetrator as well as ourselves. That is why Jesus has just explained how we are to deal with deviant behavior in our community (both for the sake of the perpetrator as well as the community). However, the protocol that He gave us in last weekend’s Gospel is bracketed by 2 parables of God’s Forgiveness, viz., the Lost Sheep and today’s Gospel, the Unmerciful Servant.

This parable speaks of an Oriental relationship between the king (the patron) and the employee (the client). In traditional societies, patron-client was a powerful relationship. The employee could be compared to middle-management today, people who climbed the economic ladder, frequently in “survival of the fittest” style of behavior. The implication is that neither servant was a “blushing rose”. The first employee owed what someone calculated was 100,000 days wages (the talents mentioned) to his patron. He did not have a chance ever to repay what he owed. However, something happened to the king. “His heart was moved with pity”, says Jesus. God touched the king’s heart and gave him two-fold grace (extraordinary gift), viz., 1) he had pity on the servant and 2) he cancelled the entire debt. In a sense, the king was living Jesus’ petition in the Lord’s Prayer, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” The first servant lucked out.

However, he did not extend the same mercy to a second servant, who owed him a mere fraction of what he himself owed. It was also calculated that the second debt was tantamount to 100 days wages. (Here, the first servant was the patron and the second was the client.)

The first servant should have rejoiced in the King’s grace-filled generosity by doing the same with the second servant. However, he suffered the consequences of the King’s wrath when the King discovered what happened. Now, the first servant was worse off than he had been before because he was imprisoned before he did the impossible.

Jesus’ moral is that God our heavenly Father will do the same to Peter (and Everybody) if we do not reciprocate God’s pardon of us with our pardon of others. This is serious business.

Some have said that violence is the blind-spot of Christianity. Mohandas Gandhi said that the only people who do not understand that Christianity is a non-violent religion are Christians themselves. WW2 hero, General Omar Bradley said that we have cracked the atom, but we have not cracked the Sermon on the Mount.

However, sadly, we might go one step further. Jesus teaches us that whoever nurses anger in his (or her) heart has broken the fifth commandment because grudges can lead to violence. In addition, almost directly in the middle of the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6, which is directly in the middle of the Lord’s Prayer is the petition that God forgive us as we forgive those who sin against us. If the “as” is understood numerically, many of us might be in big trouble. Frequently, grudges last for years. Frequently, people forget the reason for the grudge!!

Wise people know that it is good to move on. The Treaty of Rome in 1956 was the beginning of the European Common Market (EEC) which is evolving into the European Community. Earlier than that, a group of French and German Catholics decided to form Pax Christi which evolved into the International Catholic Peace Movement. There are the four following purposes to this Catholic group of former enemies who now pray together for peace: 1) to meet together for fellowship in peace; 2) to pray for peace; 3) to study peace; 4) the work for peace. Teilhard de Chardin said that it was obvious that nature is converging to unity. Marshall McLuhan said that the world is becoming a global village (because of improvements in transportation, communication (and now, in technology)).

Pope John Paul II in his Message of Peace on January 1, 2002 AD alluded to the terrorist attacks upon our nation last September 11^th. 1) He said that it is incumbent to identify the guilty accurately. He said that it is important not to lump together all people of similar ethnic, racial or religious backgrounds as accomplices and/ or abetters of aggression. 2) He spoke of the fact that terrorists frequently get recruited in situations where injustice is rife and human rights are downplayed. 3) He said that the pillars of peace were two-fold, one of justice and one of forgiveness. In Christian thought, forgiveness is the opposite of resentment and revenge, not of justice. 4) Therefore, We should pray for peace as we pray for justice and freedom and forgiveness as well as the strength to teach and live these Gospel realities. 5) Some may respond that people cannot live this way. The Pope says that for the sake of the future human family that we must try. Catholics believe that through baptism we are joined to the Victory of the Crucified and Risen Lord, Who has conquered all obstacles. With the Help of the Spirit, we can at least try to see the necessity and possibility that God is offering us the Help that we need to do what seems impossible. 6) It will be a short-term loss to the one who forgives and yet, it will be a long-term victory for both sides when the spiral of hatred and violence is broken with God’s Help.

John Paul did not say this in his New Year’s letter but psychologists tell us that one’s letting go of anger and grudges is good for one both psychologically and physically. (Have you ever noticed road rage and see the raging driver, then, do something in anger his- or herself?) Psychologists tell us that we do ourselves a favor when we try to curb our anger. Jesus teaches us that it can be done.

We are reminded in this section of Matthew’s Gospel that forgiveness is characteristic behavior for a disciple of Jesus because forgiveness is characteristic behavior for God. True, we are not to be doormats or enablers for people. In addition, we have a right to legitimate self-defense. However, we are not to keep a running record of grudges and anger either.

The petition in the middle of the Lord’s Prayer is for forgiveness and the strength to forgive others. After the Lord’s Prayer in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells us that we must forgive one another if we are to receive forgiveness ourselves. At the conclusion of the parable of the unforgiving servant, Jesus says that we will be handed over to the jailers as well if we do not forgive our brothers from our hearts. Gulp!!!! 091502 AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 090802AD

September 8, 2002AD

24th Sunday in Greentime

2, 3 or More – Then and Now

The Jewish people believed that YHWH dwelt in the Holy of Holies, the sanctuary of the Jerusalem Temple.

They spoke of the Divine Presence as the Shekinah . After the destruction of their temple by the invading Roman armies in 70 AD, surviving Judaism struggled to cope. The principal response to this cataclysmic event was the development of rabbinical Judaism, whose ancestors had been the Pharisees. To this present day, when Orthodox Jews gather for morning and evening prayers, they require a minyan, a minimum of 11 men to represent the community. (God is considered the 12^th member, representing the 12 patriarchs). Shekinah is maintained.

For Matthew’s community, in which Jewish as well as Gentile elements were present saw the Divine Presence in a different way. It is Matthew who reminds us in three places that God is with the people, through Jesus, Emmanuel, God is with us. First, we are told that the angel announced to St Joseph that the child to be born would be nicknamed Emmanuel (Mtt 1.23). At the end, the Risen One announces that He will be with His followers always, even until the end of the world. (Mtt 28.20) In the middle of the Gospel, in today’s reading, Jesus tells His Disciples (then and now) that “where 2 or 3 come together in (His) Name, (Jesus is) there with them.”

The gathering is not necessarily liturgical. When we gather for prayer, religious education, for social gatherings as a parish community, Catholics take Jesus at His Word. He is present in our midst.

It is important for us, Third Millennium Catholics in the USA, to recall the Christian Shekinah, viz., that Jesus is present when we gather in His Name. The paucity of the numbers (2 or 3) simply reminds us that we are a communal religion. Catholicism is meant to be lived with God and with others. Jesus is present whenever as few as two gather in His Name.

The most radical, basic form of Church is the house church, viz., your family. Religious psychologists tell us, again and again, that the most important level of church is the family, the church of 2 or 3 or more who live at your house. Parish is next, and so on up the line.

We celebrate Homecoming Sunday today as all our house churches “church (as a verb) together” in our celebration of the Lord’s Day. Our religious education programs open today as we gather in small groups in Jesus’ Name for class. After Masses, we celebrate our Bagels’ and Coffee as we gather in Jesus’ Name in Wallace.

This fall, we celebrate the 40^th Anniversary of the Convocation of Vatican II by Blessed John XXIII on October 11, 1962. Many say that the universal call to holiness was the Spirit-filled insight that continues to move the Church toward Vatican III. Even, in the smallest of situations when we behave as Jesus’ followers in His Name, Jesus is present in our midst. He says so. Think about it. 090802 AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 090102AD

September 1, 2002AD

23rd Sunday in Greentime

Liturgy 24 – 7 – 365

All summer, we have been excerpts from St Paul’s Letter to the Romans. Bible scholars say that Paul’s letters are usually divided into two sections. First, Paul teaches a truth about life in Christ; this is usually in indicative mood. Second, Paul teaches how Christians are to behave as a result of the truth of faith; this is usually in the imperative mood.

We begin the teaching section of Romans today where Paul stresses how Christians in Rome and in Armonk are to behave every moment of our life. He asks us to respond
”in Christ” to the free gift of salvation purchased for us through our sharing in baptism into Christ Jesus.

Important to remember that Paul wants each Christian in Rome (in Armonk) to offer his (or her) body as a living sacrifice, as a daily, existential liturgical offering. He means it, too.

God knows that we have many opportunities to offer good moments as well as bad ones to God through a life in the Spirit energized to act in Christ in every situation. As we begin a psychological new year after a hazy, hot, humid and rain-deprived summer, let us ask for God’s Spirit to offer our lives as a daily liturgy.

Jesus tells us in his rebuttal of Peter’s (Rocky’s) (Everyone’s) suggestion that God’s Ways are not necessarily our ways. “You think not as God does, but as human beings do.”

As we begin a psychological new year and as we near the first anniversary of 9/11, you and I have many opportunities to respond in our minds and hearts to Jesus’ challenging teachings to Peter and to all of us as well, 1) Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself (herself), take up the cross and follow Me. 2) Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 3) What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit one’s life? 4) What can one give in exchange for one’s life?

People on mountain tops in Caesarea Philippi (like Rocky), in Rome (like Paul’s audience in Rome in 55 AD) and in Armonk (like you and me in Armonk in 2002 AD) need to hear the Word of God again and again. With God’s Help, let Armonk Catholics make a life-offering, as a liturgy our every moment, 24-7-365 for the gifts given us first by a faithful God in Christ Jesus. 090102 AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 082502AD

Sunday, August 25, 2002 AD

21^st Sunday in Green

Who Knows??

As we have said many times, it is humbling and consoling to remember that human language about God and about our relationship with God is ultimately inadequate. Even biblical language which is divinely inspired is human language and is only a (God-given)road marker in God’s direction. St Paul hints at all of this today in his prayer of thanksgiving (eucharist) at the conclusion of this section of Romans. Paul has just tried to interpret where his fellow Jews who have not accepted Jesus stand in relationship to God’s Plan. Paul expresses his hope that his fellow Israelites will somehow be brought to faith by the God Whose judgments are inscrutable; Whose ways, unsearchable.

St Paul reminds us several times that God’s faithfulness can always be counted on, even when we are unfaithful. He expresses his wish to the Gentile part of the Roman audience that he is addressing in this letter that God will never rescind the covenant with Israel, even though the covenant has been offered to all, Gentile and Jew, alike. God will work out the salvation of the people of the covenant. God is always faithful.

It is important for us in the pitfalls of our own lives to remember that none of us knows the mind of God, still we can rely on God’s Presence in our lives. Garry Wills in Why I Am a Catholic reminds the reader that the Catholic vision of faith in Jesus focuses on the future, even now. In a carefully and thoughtfully written chapter on God’s Ultimate Victory in creation, he writes of Jesus’ signature prayer, the Lord’s Prayer.

Throughout the chapter, Wills speaks of his belief that the prayer is aimed at God’s fulfillment of the Divine Plan, viz., Hallowed Be Thy Name; Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will be Done. Only God can effect these things in creation ultimately. The second part of the prayer expresses our hope for a share (even now, but not yet) in God’s fulfillment of creation. We want to share in the Messiah’s Banquet (an image of God’s ultimate victory) (even now at the Sacramental Table). We want God to forgive our sins as we forgive others (even now). We want to be protected from the Breaking Point of surrendering in despair (even now). We want to be protected from the Evil (One?) (even now).

In his own way, Peter in the Gospel fulfills the role of Everyone in the Church. He is the know it all big talker that we all are at one time or another. Yet, he caves in at times and denies that he even knows the Lord. Still. “Rocky” was the very human person through whom God works. (Was Jesus making a pun on Peter’s character with this name?)

St Paul cannot fathom God’s plan and neither can we. St Peter can come up with suggestions, and so do we. Neither Peter nor Paul knew the Mind of God. Nor do we. Yet, Jesus teaches again and again to trust that God’s Ultimate Victory is already ours to share. 082502 AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 081802AD

Sunday, August 18, 2002AD

20^th Sunday in Greentime

Paul Speaks to Us in Armonk

Most of the summer, we have been hearing excerpts from Paul’s mighty Letter to the Romans. The letter is dated approximately 55 AD. Paul was sending a letter of self-introduction to the Christian community that had begun as early as 40 AD, about 10 years after Easter. In the letter, Paul stresses several important themes that Roman Catholics, almost 2,000 years later, need to hear and integrate into our daily lives with God’s Help. If we rehearse these themes again, our recitation of the Letter to the Romans will be even more beneficial.

Paul speaks to his Roman audience, both Jewish Christian and Gentile Christian, about the faithfulness or righteousness of God to all whom God created. He quotes the Psalm 117, “Praise God, all you nations, glorify the Lord, all you peoples, for steadfast is God’s kindness to us and the fidelity of God endures forever.”

We thank God for God’s fidelity to us because all of us stand in need of God’s forgiveness, for all of us have sinned. Yet, God forgives us and gives us the Strength to resist evil if we want. God’s constancy is reflected in the necessary constant infusion of the Spirit to all of us baptized into the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Our intimacy with God is through our baptism into Christ, through Whom and in Whom and with Whom we live from moment to moment to moment. This intimacy with the Faithful God is something which unites us with Jesus Christ, the Second Adam, the New Adam. Just as all of us are children of the First Adam who sinned, we share in Adam’s heritage. For the Christian, we are conformed to the Image of the Second Adam and share in His victory.

Our response to this faithful and gracious God is the liturgy of our daily life. We are asked to offer our existence in Christ to God 24-7-365 as a liturgical sacrifice of thanksgiving for God’s Faithfulness, manifested in the death and Resurrection of Christ and the Gift of the Holy Spirit to all baptized into Christ.

However, the faithful God Who has joined us to the Body of Christ and the Life of the Spirit is also the God Who raises the dead. Stakes are higher than any of us imagine. “Eye has not seen; ear has not heard what God has in store for those who love God.”

Paul continues to speak to Jesus’ people in Rome in the mid-50’s and in Armonk in 2002 AD. He continues to remember and celebrate several truths. 1) God is always faithful. 2) All of us have sinned and need God’s faithfulness, manifested in forgiveness. 3) To prevent us from sinning, God infuses the Spirit of Jesus Christ into those baptized into Christ. 4) Our response to this is to hitch our wagons to the Second Adam. 5) We are to live daily lives of thanx or Eucharist for all that God is doing for us. 6) Our final history is not yet complete. The God of Life will have the final say. Let us rejoice!! 081802 AD jfq