It Could Be You
and Might Very Well Be!!
“The Principle of Unintended Consequences” means that sometimes, the results of some of our actions are not what we anticipated at all. Did you ever do something for someone that the person took the wrong way? It frequently happens. It certainly happened to Jesus all the time!
Lazarus is the third of the triad of characters in John’s Gospel whose stories have been seen from the earliest days of Christianity as baptismal stories. (The Samaritan woman at the well and the man born blind, both of whom we met on previous Lenten Sundays are the other two.)
God knew what was to happen. The “world”, viz., those who have it all figured out on their own terms, either with or without God, did not know, in the case of Lazarus, that the principle of unexpected consequences would launch the salvation of the world in what happens in this story.
Lazarus, (in Hebrew, Eleazar) whose name means “God will help”, was sick and died before the arrival of Jesus on the scene. Jesus was chided by both Martha and Mary for his tardiness in responding to the crisis. However, Jesus knew Who He is, viz., the Resurrection and the Life. Jesus, indeed, demonstrates this in the mighty sign which He performed at Lazarus’ tomb , the dead man emerged at the command of the Giver of Life. Where there had been death, life once again abounded.
However, the principle of unexpected consequences kicks in because of another reality known as
“the Caiaphas principle”, “that it was expedient that one man die for the sake of the nation.” That is exactly what was about to happen, but more than Caiaphas ever imagined.
Because Jesus gave life to the dead Lazarus, it was decided that it was expedient that Jesus must die. Because Jesus died on the cross “lifted up” for the “crime” of life-giving, the giving of the fullness of life burst forth for all in the death and the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Because we are invited by the Holy Spirit and accept the call of baptism and the Christian life, we die to our old way of life, our old attitudes, and our pre-conceptions and rise with the Lord through our incorporation into His Body. How wonderful and ironic and marvelous it is!!
It is only fitting that human language and the human mind is unable to grasp what is going on here. That is why we need faith. Religious language is a weak effort at best. Martha was making a lofty faith statement, but she did not know exactly what Jesus meant when he said, “I am the Resurrection and the Life.”
Martha is correct when she answers Jesus. Still, she still had more to grasp because Jesus had not yet completed His Revelation through His death and Resurrection. It is only when Jesus is “lifted up”. However, she is moving in the right direction.
Now, the question re-appears. Who exactly is the disciple whom Jesus loves, the one whose gifted faith was deepest of all? Was it the Samaritan woman? Was it the man born blind? Was it Lazarus? Was it Martha? All of their lives were radically changed by their encounters with Jesus. As a matter of fact, with God’s Help, you could be the “Beloved Disciple” Think about it! 031702 AD jfq
Sunday, March 17, 2002
Saturday, March 9, 2002
030902AD
Could This Be You?
Long ago, biblical scholars saw two levels of the healing of the blind man in today’s Gospel. First, it describes the physical healing of a 39 year old man who was born blind. Yet, in the story, more than physical sight is given. The man born blind us brought to the illumination of faith by Jesus as he gradually comes to accept Jesus as the Son of Man, even more, the Lord.
The season of Lent has, as one of its origins, a 40 day period of intense preparation by catechumens (tyro-Christians) for the reception of the Sacraments of Initation, viz., Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist, during the Easter Vigil from Holy Saturday into Easter Sunday morning.
Some of the names by which Baptism was called in early Christianity was the “Sacrament of Illumination and Enlightenment.” The custom of lighting the small baptismal candle from the Paschal Candle is the vestige of this former sacramental name.
Notice the story of the man born blind. The healing takes place bear a pool and it involves a washing with water. While Jesus only appears twice in the story, He is ever the Subject of the story because of the controversy over the identity of the Healer. While Jesus speaks to the man directly twice, the man only sees Jesus once because he was still blind in the first encounter.
Something curious happens as the story unfolds. As more grief is heaped upon the man, he calls Jesus “that man”, then, a “prophet”, then, “from God”, then,”Son of Man”, then, “Lord”. Like the Samaritan woman last week, the blind man’s faith develops because of the influence of Jesus. The blind man is a symbol of what we are all called to be as disciples of Jesus.
In the latter portions of the fourth Gospel, we start to hear of the “beloved disciple”, one who is the model disciple, the one whom we are all called to be. Much conjecture has been made about the identity of the beloved disciple.
Traditionally, the Fourth Gospel has been attributed to the Apostle John (hence, its unofficial name.) However, all the Gospels are anonymous documents as we are not sure of the identity of any of the evangelists. As a result, some thought that the Apostle John was humbly remaining anonymous in his self-description.
Another opinion is that perhaps, Lazarus, the dead man raised to life in John 11 was the beloved disciple. (This last of Jesus’ 7 signs is the immediate trigger which results in the death and Resurrection of Jesus.)Neither Lazarus nor the beloved disciple had been mentioned earlier in the Gospel.
Still, another opinion is that, perhaps, it is our hero, the blind man, in today’s Gospel, who is the beloved disciple. He is favorable presented in the Gospel as a Jewish disciple who receives initial illumination and enlightenment from Jesus (Whom he cannot see) near a pool of water. As the pressure mounts, his faith in Jesus grows. Finally, in the closing scene today, he “sees” Jesus Who obviously loves him and Whom he obviously loves in return.
The question in the Gospel today is not, “Is the man born blind the beloved disciple?” Maybe yes or no.
Rather, the real question is “Am I the beloved disciple?” 031002 AD jfq
Long ago, biblical scholars saw two levels of the healing of the blind man in today’s Gospel. First, it describes the physical healing of a 39 year old man who was born blind. Yet, in the story, more than physical sight is given. The man born blind us brought to the illumination of faith by Jesus as he gradually comes to accept Jesus as the Son of Man, even more, the Lord.
The season of Lent has, as one of its origins, a 40 day period of intense preparation by catechumens (tyro-Christians) for the reception of the Sacraments of Initation, viz., Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist, during the Easter Vigil from Holy Saturday into Easter Sunday morning.
Some of the names by which Baptism was called in early Christianity was the “Sacrament of Illumination and Enlightenment.” The custom of lighting the small baptismal candle from the Paschal Candle is the vestige of this former sacramental name.
Notice the story of the man born blind. The healing takes place bear a pool and it involves a washing with water. While Jesus only appears twice in the story, He is ever the Subject of the story because of the controversy over the identity of the Healer. While Jesus speaks to the man directly twice, the man only sees Jesus once because he was still blind in the first encounter.
Something curious happens as the story unfolds. As more grief is heaped upon the man, he calls Jesus “that man”, then, a “prophet”, then, “from God”, then,”Son of Man”, then, “Lord”. Like the Samaritan woman last week, the blind man’s faith develops because of the influence of Jesus. The blind man is a symbol of what we are all called to be as disciples of Jesus.
In the latter portions of the fourth Gospel, we start to hear of the “beloved disciple”, one who is the model disciple, the one whom we are all called to be. Much conjecture has been made about the identity of the beloved disciple.
Traditionally, the Fourth Gospel has been attributed to the Apostle John (hence, its unofficial name.) However, all the Gospels are anonymous documents as we are not sure of the identity of any of the evangelists. As a result, some thought that the Apostle John was humbly remaining anonymous in his self-description.
Another opinion is that perhaps, Lazarus, the dead man raised to life in John 11 was the beloved disciple. (This last of Jesus’ 7 signs is the immediate trigger which results in the death and Resurrection of Jesus.)Neither Lazarus nor the beloved disciple had been mentioned earlier in the Gospel.
Still, another opinion is that, perhaps, it is our hero, the blind man, in today’s Gospel, who is the beloved disciple. He is favorable presented in the Gospel as a Jewish disciple who receives initial illumination and enlightenment from Jesus (Whom he cannot see) near a pool of water. As the pressure mounts, his faith in Jesus grows. Finally, in the closing scene today, he “sees” Jesus Who obviously loves him and Whom he obviously loves in return.
The question in the Gospel today is not, “Is the man born blind the beloved disciple?” Maybe yes or no.
Rather, the real question is “Am I the beloved disciple?” 031002 AD jfq
Saturday, March 2, 2002
Reflection, March 2, 2002
Who Was that Lady?
Jesus rocked the boat on many an occasion in His time. (Indeed, He continues to do so today!) However, much of the controversy caused by His Gospel is lost on us because in subtle ways, His ideas are slowly sinking into our minds and hearts.
We see His revolutionary mores in the Gospel of the Samaritan Woman at the well. She was a Samaritan (Strike One); she was a woman (Strike Two); she was a known adulteress with 5 ex-husbands (Strike Three). However, she was not “struck out” by Jesus. She ends up an apostolic disciple after her encounter with Jesus at the well (baptismal imagery?). By the end of the story, she ends up as an evangelizer to her townfolk in what Pope John Paul would call today “Evangelization.”
As Jesus speaks to her at the well, the grace of God is setting her up. Her understanding of Jesus gradually evolves as Jesus elicits her faith. At first, she refers to Jesus as a “Jew”, then, “sir”, then, “prophet”, then, “Messiah”.
Then, when Jesus speaks of His own Divinity, He says to the woman, ‘I am”, identification with YHWH, and the “Great I AM”. Later, the other Samaritan outlanders whom she brings to Jesus proclaim that Jesus is the “Savior of the World.” Through her graced encounter with Jesus at the well, the entire town was on the road to Evangelization.
When Jesus gets to the heart pf the matter about the quality of her personal life, He prompts her honest response. Jesus reaches her through His revelation about herself. She sees herself as God sees her, defenseless and sinful. (She has received the gift of “poverty in spirit”.)
When Pope John Paul visited us in 1995, he called all of us to this “new Evangelization”. This is an graced effort to “hear the Gospel again for the first time.” The Pope asks us to re-discover with God’s Help how God has been drawing is forward in our life’s journey.
Some of our self-questions might include the following: 1) Has my understanding of God evolved or stagnated during my life’s journey thus far? 2) Has my self-understanding evolved or stagnated? 3) Has my understanding of Jesus’ expectations of me evolved or stagnated? Last, why do you answer the questions as you did?
Who was that lady in the Gospel? She might be “you” and me. In the waters of Baptism, we were all brought to meet Jesus for the first time. We became His disciples as we learn from Him about ourselves and God. In Confirmation, we were commissioned as His Apostles as well, viz., sent out to proclaim that Jesus makes a difference with us and that we are proud of that difference. Confirmed Catholics should not be the same as everyone else because we are apostolic disciples. With Jesus’ Help, we bring others to hear and to see and to believe for themselves. 030202 AD jfq
Jesus rocked the boat on many an occasion in His time. (Indeed, He continues to do so today!) However, much of the controversy caused by His Gospel is lost on us because in subtle ways, His ideas are slowly sinking into our minds and hearts.
We see His revolutionary mores in the Gospel of the Samaritan Woman at the well. She was a Samaritan (Strike One); she was a woman (Strike Two); she was a known adulteress with 5 ex-husbands (Strike Three). However, she was not “struck out” by Jesus. She ends up an apostolic disciple after her encounter with Jesus at the well (baptismal imagery?). By the end of the story, she ends up as an evangelizer to her townfolk in what Pope John Paul would call today “Evangelization.”
As Jesus speaks to her at the well, the grace of God is setting her up. Her understanding of Jesus gradually evolves as Jesus elicits her faith. At first, she refers to Jesus as a “Jew”, then, “sir”, then, “prophet”, then, “Messiah”.
Then, when Jesus speaks of His own Divinity, He says to the woman, ‘I am”, identification with YHWH, and the “Great I AM”. Later, the other Samaritan outlanders whom she brings to Jesus proclaim that Jesus is the “Savior of the World.” Through her graced encounter with Jesus at the well, the entire town was on the road to Evangelization.
When Jesus gets to the heart pf the matter about the quality of her personal life, He prompts her honest response. Jesus reaches her through His revelation about herself. She sees herself as God sees her, defenseless and sinful. (She has received the gift of “poverty in spirit”.)
When Pope John Paul visited us in 1995, he called all of us to this “new Evangelization”. This is an graced effort to “hear the Gospel again for the first time.” The Pope asks us to re-discover with God’s Help how God has been drawing is forward in our life’s journey.
Some of our self-questions might include the following: 1) Has my understanding of God evolved or stagnated during my life’s journey thus far? 2) Has my self-understanding evolved or stagnated? 3) Has my understanding of Jesus’ expectations of me evolved or stagnated? Last, why do you answer the questions as you did?
Who was that lady in the Gospel? She might be “you” and me. In the waters of Baptism, we were all brought to meet Jesus for the first time. We became His disciples as we learn from Him about ourselves and God. In Confirmation, we were commissioned as His Apostles as well, viz., sent out to proclaim that Jesus makes a difference with us and that we are proud of that difference. Confirmed Catholics should not be the same as everyone else because we are apostolic disciples. With Jesus’ Help, we bring others to hear and to see and to believe for themselves. 030202 AD jfq
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