21st Century Temple of Peace
Ancient Rome which had built an Empire based on violence and conquest propagandized the reign of terror as the Pax Romana, the Roman Peace. In fact, in Rome itself, they constructed an Ara Pacis, an altar of peace. Things seemed peaceful if you toed the mark. However, if you dared to deviate, you were in big trouble. Many people died violently (including the Son of God made human) during this “peace”.
The author of 1st Peter tells us today that just as Jesus, rejected by the builders, became the cornerstone, so that through the Spirit, we will be built into a temple of worship. The author was encouraging his readers to put up a good defense against their growing alienation from the so-called “civilized” world. Just as Jesus was rejected, so also His followers can be rejected as well. However, God has other plans. Each of us and all of us are enlivened by the Spirit of Jesus Christ and we are asked to live daily lives of service to God and to one another. With God’s Help, we sometimes succeed. At other times, we fail miserably. When you sin and fail miserably, your enemies are quick to throw it up in your face and scoff. (Does this sound familiar these days?)
Catholics are expected to behave differently. We have met and have been changed by Jesus Christ. Psychologists tell us that we are impacted by every person with whom we have contact. Therefore, Catholics believe that Jesus has had an impact on each of us, sometimes, greater, other times, lesser.
The holy priesthood about which 1 Peter speaks in our reading today refers to the daily liturgy that each Catholic person offers to God through Jesus Christ. Whatever it is that you do, whether a spouse, a parent, a child, a relative, a neighbor, a friend, a co-worker, your interactions with others should be (and can be) affected by your union with Jesus Christ. Because you have been influenced by Jesus Christ, your response to His influence should be your everyday Christian life, lived with His Help as best you can. In this way, you offer spiritual sacrifices as a “chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of His own” Our Sunday liturgy should be a source and summation of what our lives are during the other 167 hours of the week.
As we know and as the world gleefully throws in our faces, not all of us Catholics, clerical and lay, have lived lives becoming our relationship with Jesus Christ. We have always known this, but we get frequent sad, painful reminders always.
Interestingly, twenty years ago, Pope John Paul II used the theme of building up a temple of peace made of individual mosaic tiles of human hearts.
It was during his historic visit to Coventry, England during the Anglo-Argentine War over the Malvinas (aka the Falkland Islands) in the south Atlantic.
The Pope had planned his visit to England for several years and it was historic because it was the first visit to England by a Pope since the days of Henry VIII. To the surprise and chagrin of many, war broke out between England (Protestant??) and Argentina (95% Catholic). How would it appear for the Pope to visit a nation at war with a Catholic country. The Pope demanded a command performance of a Mass for Peace concelebrated by Archbishops of Westminster and of Buenos Aires, during which they offered one another the Sign of Peace. Then, the Pope traveled to England and then, to Argentina in hastily arranged pilgrimage as well.
While in England, the Pope made a plea for people to build up a temple of peace made up of their hearts that were trying with God’s Help to renounce violence as a legitimate recourse in the twentieth century. In effect, he was challenging English Catholics ( as well as anyone who would listen) to think twice before following the conventional wisdom of Margaret Thatcher and of the Argentine generals who favored war to take the spotlight off domestic problems which each nation faced.
The Pope’s Coventry sermon, as well as his two addresses in the United Nations as well as his words at Ground Zero in Hiroshima, Japan, resonate beautifully with the US Catholic bishops’ Challenge of Peace of 1983, whose 19th anniversary we celebrate on May 3rd. (Two years ago, John Cardinal O’Connor, one of the principal authors of the letter died on the anniversary of its publication.
One of the themes of the Bishops’ Pastoral is the call to disarm one’s heart, with God’s Help, each day. This was exactly the theme that John Paul had stressed the year before in Coventry and exactly a variation of the theme that 1st Peter speaks about in our reading today. Despite our sins, and, as God knows, we have plenty of them, let us seek God’s forgiveness and let us allow ourselves to be built into a spiritual house (or temple of peace) so that each Catholic, clergy and lay, can offer spiritual sacrifice of Gospel living, especially focusing on renunciation of violence as a quick fix. Both Catholics and the world need it badly. 042802 AD jfq
Sunday, April 28, 2002
Sunday, April 21, 2002
Weekly Reflection 042102
Titles Are Important!!
Traditionally, the 4th Sunday of Easter is known as “Good Shepherd Sunday”. Both consoling images of God the Father and of Jesus Christ as the Good Shepherd are reinforced by Psalm 23, the most popular of all psalms, as well as by John 10, where Jesus identifies Himself as the Good Shepherd.
This week, 1st Peter uses the very same imagery as he speaks to a harried group of Christians, then and now. Then, followers of Jesus were alienated from the mainstream of conventional wisdom because they practiced Christian ethical monotheism. Christians said that people should behave in a more human fashion in our dealings with one another. However, not everyone bought their spiel.
In addition, Christians do not always practice what we preach. Therefore, Christians fail and sin in our response to the call of God in our lives. We do not always live, as a community and/or as individuals in community becomingly the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Sin was a factor, then, as it is now. Christians fail, at times, to live the life that God expects of us.
1st Peter tells his readers that there will be crises in which Christians might suffer. If Christians are harassed, it should be for doing what is right and just. He warns that Christians must never give scandal. We must act as responsible citizens. If we are ever persecuted, it should only be for doing what is right in God’s eyes.
He focuses his argument on Jesus as “the Suffering Servant”, which is derived from the prophet known as Second Isaiah. “He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.” He handed Himself over to the One Who judges justly. Through his innocence, we who had gone astray like sheep have now returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of our souls.
Quite legitimately, the Greek words for “shepherd” and “guardian” have interesting nuances for 21st century Catholics. The first Greek word translates as “shepherd” or “pastor”. The second Greek word translates as “bishop” Therefore, arguing from 1st Peter, each Catholic can say that his or her pastor and bishop is the vindicated Suffering Servant, Jesus Christ.
All Church people, lay, religious and clergy, need to remember the One Who is the Shepherd, Pastor and Bishop. We all need to acknowledge that Jesus has expectations of each of us. He will help us achieve those expectations for our own good and for the good of others. He asks us to follow the example that He leaves us in the patterns of His own behavior.
If we are persecuted for doing so, “we are to be patient for suffering for doing what is good.” That is following the pattern of Jesus the Suffering Servant.
However, it is required that we, as individuals and as individuals in community and as a Church community, avoid what is sinful and harmful to the welfare of another person. Here, when we fail, we have to be accountable for our failures. We have to be sure that such failures do not happen again. We also have to see how we can change structures within our Church that are not germane to the Gospel Message of the Good Shepherd, our Pastor and Bishop.
Our church is in a process of purification now. We have to remember that Jesus is the Good Shepherd Who wants us to follow Him. Whenever we do not do so, we have to be accountable for our actions. However, we need to remember that, always, we are empowered by the Good Shepherd to live in His pattern. 042102 AD jfq …
Traditionally, the 4th Sunday of Easter is known as “Good Shepherd Sunday”. Both consoling images of God the Father and of Jesus Christ as the Good Shepherd are reinforced by Psalm 23, the most popular of all psalms, as well as by John 10, where Jesus identifies Himself as the Good Shepherd.
This week, 1st Peter uses the very same imagery as he speaks to a harried group of Christians, then and now. Then, followers of Jesus were alienated from the mainstream of conventional wisdom because they practiced Christian ethical monotheism. Christians said that people should behave in a more human fashion in our dealings with one another. However, not everyone bought their spiel.
In addition, Christians do not always practice what we preach. Therefore, Christians fail and sin in our response to the call of God in our lives. We do not always live, as a community and/or as individuals in community becomingly the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Sin was a factor, then, as it is now. Christians fail, at times, to live the life that God expects of us.
1st Peter tells his readers that there will be crises in which Christians might suffer. If Christians are harassed, it should be for doing what is right and just. He warns that Christians must never give scandal. We must act as responsible citizens. If we are ever persecuted, it should only be for doing what is right in God’s eyes.
He focuses his argument on Jesus as “the Suffering Servant”, which is derived from the prophet known as Second Isaiah. “He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.” He handed Himself over to the One Who judges justly. Through his innocence, we who had gone astray like sheep have now returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of our souls.
Quite legitimately, the Greek words for “shepherd” and “guardian” have interesting nuances for 21st century Catholics. The first Greek word translates as “shepherd” or “pastor”. The second Greek word translates as “bishop” Therefore, arguing from 1st Peter, each Catholic can say that his or her pastor and bishop is the vindicated Suffering Servant, Jesus Christ.
All Church people, lay, religious and clergy, need to remember the One Who is the Shepherd, Pastor and Bishop. We all need to acknowledge that Jesus has expectations of each of us. He will help us achieve those expectations for our own good and for the good of others. He asks us to follow the example that He leaves us in the patterns of His own behavior.
If we are persecuted for doing so, “we are to be patient for suffering for doing what is good.” That is following the pattern of Jesus the Suffering Servant.
However, it is required that we, as individuals and as individuals in community and as a Church community, avoid what is sinful and harmful to the welfare of another person. Here, when we fail, we have to be accountable for our failures. We have to be sure that such failures do not happen again. We also have to see how we can change structures within our Church that are not germane to the Gospel Message of the Good Shepherd, our Pastor and Bishop.
Our church is in a process of purification now. We have to remember that Jesus is the Good Shepherd Who wants us to follow Him. Whenever we do not do so, we have to be accountable for our actions. However, we need to remember that, always, we are empowered by the Good Shepherd to live in His pattern. 042102 AD jfq …
Sunday, April 14, 2002
Reflection 041402AD
Gather the Group
During the 1950’s, there was a comedy series on Friday evenings, entitled “The Life of Riley”. The show was about a Brooklyn family who had moved to Los Angeles. Many of the characters in the series were Brooklyn expatriates who formed an organization, the “Brooklyn Patriots of Los Angeles” (BPLA). They met regularly to talk about the Borough of Churches.
One of the ways in which we can understand 1st Peter’s encouragement of his audience was to remind them that they were “colonists”, or “sojourners” in this world, no matter where they lived.
He reminds his audience, then and now, that the stakes were high. Each of us is saved through precious blood if Christ, a “spotless, unblemished Lamb.” 1st Peter urges his audience (with God’s Help) “to be holy as (God) is holy. He urges his audience to remember that our ultimate destination is to be with God forever. Human language, even the inspired human language of the Scriptures, cannot explain our destiny totally and adequately.
Just as the Brooklyn Patriots met frequently to remember their common heritage, so also, the Catholic Disciples of Jesus gather frequently (each Lord’s Day) to remember our common heritage. We gather together as the family of Jesus Christ to hear the stories again, to share our lot with one another, to break bread in Jesus’ Sacramental Meal and to be fortified for the week ahead in this land in which we are really only “colonists” or “sojourners”. Our coming together (our Churching) should focus us on our daily life.
As we hear the beautiful Gospel today of the journey to Emmaus, we pick up a similar vibration. Cleophas and his companion (Mrs Cleophas??) are walking sadly home from Jerusalem on Easter Sunday where they really felt out of place after Good Friday. We are familiar with how Jesus makes the journey with them and explains to them the meaning of the Scriptures and then, dines with them when He “breaks the bread”. Then, their eyes were opened (by faith) and they knew the Risen Lord. Then, they returned to Jerusalem where they regrouped with the other disciples of Jesus at another Sunday evening meal.
Our Jesus Movement, our Catholic gathering, is important. Now more than ever, we realize that Catholic values make us anathema to many. We realize, as well, that by our Catholic value system, we have set ourselves up and, so, others are very quick to denounce our failures and sins. (God knows that we have them!) We need the consolation of gathering to strengthen one another as a group of “colonists” or “sojourners” in an antagonistic world in which anti-Catholicism came over on the Mayflower and is exacerbated by a feeding frenzy media.
Each week, whether in Emmaus, Jerusalem, Brooklyn, Los Angeles or Armonk, let us gather together in Jesus’ Name and Spirit as colonists and sojourners in this world as we share the stories, break the bread and minister to one another. Each member of the community needs your presence. You need the presence of the community. The people driving by on Cox Avenue need your witness as they see our crowded parking lot and traffic jams on Sunday mornings. The Presence of Jesus Christ survives whenever His children gather in His Name. 041402 AD jfq
During the 1950’s, there was a comedy series on Friday evenings, entitled “The Life of Riley”. The show was about a Brooklyn family who had moved to Los Angeles. Many of the characters in the series were Brooklyn expatriates who formed an organization, the “Brooklyn Patriots of Los Angeles” (BPLA). They met regularly to talk about the Borough of Churches.
One of the ways in which we can understand 1st Peter’s encouragement of his audience was to remind them that they were “colonists”, or “sojourners” in this world, no matter where they lived.
He reminds his audience, then and now, that the stakes were high. Each of us is saved through precious blood if Christ, a “spotless, unblemished Lamb.” 1st Peter urges his audience (with God’s Help) “to be holy as (God) is holy. He urges his audience to remember that our ultimate destination is to be with God forever. Human language, even the inspired human language of the Scriptures, cannot explain our destiny totally and adequately.
Just as the Brooklyn Patriots met frequently to remember their common heritage, so also, the Catholic Disciples of Jesus gather frequently (each Lord’s Day) to remember our common heritage. We gather together as the family of Jesus Christ to hear the stories again, to share our lot with one another, to break bread in Jesus’ Sacramental Meal and to be fortified for the week ahead in this land in which we are really only “colonists” or “sojourners”. Our coming together (our Churching) should focus us on our daily life.
As we hear the beautiful Gospel today of the journey to Emmaus, we pick up a similar vibration. Cleophas and his companion (Mrs Cleophas??) are walking sadly home from Jerusalem on Easter Sunday where they really felt out of place after Good Friday. We are familiar with how Jesus makes the journey with them and explains to them the meaning of the Scriptures and then, dines with them when He “breaks the bread”. Then, their eyes were opened (by faith) and they knew the Risen Lord. Then, they returned to Jerusalem where they regrouped with the other disciples of Jesus at another Sunday evening meal.
Our Jesus Movement, our Catholic gathering, is important. Now more than ever, we realize that Catholic values make us anathema to many. We realize, as well, that by our Catholic value system, we have set ourselves up and, so, others are very quick to denounce our failures and sins. (God knows that we have them!) We need the consolation of gathering to strengthen one another as a group of “colonists” or “sojourners” in an antagonistic world in which anti-Catholicism came over on the Mayflower and is exacerbated by a feeding frenzy media.
Each week, whether in Emmaus, Jerusalem, Brooklyn, Los Angeles or Armonk, let us gather together in Jesus’ Name and Spirit as colonists and sojourners in this world as we share the stories, break the bread and minister to one another. Each member of the community needs your presence. You need the presence of the community. The people driving by on Cox Avenue need your witness as they see our crowded parking lot and traffic jams on Sunday mornings. The Presence of Jesus Christ survives whenever His children gather in His Name. 041402 AD jfq
Sunday, April 7, 2002
Reflection 04072002AD
Meeting 1st Peter:
Many describe Catholicism these days as living in a post-Christian era since the watershed events of the twentieth century. Imagine how Catholicism would be today if Blessed (soon to be, St) John XXIII had not responded to call of the Holy Spirit in convening Vatican II? The Spirit only began an evolutionary process which continues to the present day.
In addition, others see an interesting parallel between this post-Christian era with the first centuries of the Church, viz., the pre-Christian era, from Jerusalem in 30 AD until the legitimization and ascendancy of the Church in fourth century Rome. The marginalization of Catholicism these days mirrors the marginalization of the first followers of Jesus. We, like they, live on the fringes of conventional wisdom of Western civilization, not at the center of it.
Then and now, Catholics are out of step in so many ways with culture. We affirm a Gospel of Life amid a world that, at times, glorifies individualism and self-aggrandizement. Catholics challenge and do not accept the violent solution as a “quick fix” to problems. With the endless downward spiral in the Middle East as well as a very long war in Afghanistan, Catholics are starting to heed more seriously the call of Vatican II and recent Popes that humanity must come with some new answers to conflict resolution. Catholics also stress as part of our tradition of concern for our sisters and brothers as germane to the Gospel. Catholics realize that others use similar language and slogans as we do. However, they might not mean the same thing to them as they do to Catholics. Yet, in all of this, Catholics still sin whenever we do not always practice what we preach. Catholics still need to be forgiven. We are a people that is forgiven and needs forgiveness, a people that are reforming and in need of reformation.
During the 7 Sundays of Easter, we hear from 1 Peter, an ancient letter attributed to him, although there are good arguments pro and con about his actual authorship. The letter has a great deal of imagery to encourage Christians in a world in which they find increasing alienation because of their commitment to Christ and their higher moral standards.
In today’s reading, we are reminded that our faith is such that it is, at times, tested as gold is tested by fire. However, we are to be reminded that God’s gift of salvation is a prize worth the aggravation.
An interesting word that the author uses to describe Christians is the word “paroikoi”, which means, among other things, “colonists”. Christians are people who live in the world, but our real homeland is our life with God now and in the future. We are colonists in this world and our true home is our ultimate life with God in eternity.
(The word “paraoikoi” also is an etymological root for the word for parish. Recall that we can refer to our parish church as our “other home”. However, in this reference, the other home is your residence. )
The use of the word “paraoikoi” as colonist in the sense in which Peter’s letter uses it makes us more aware of the transitory nature of reality. We are here. Our life each day is an experience of the Transcendent if we see with the eyes of faith. Jesus asks us to live each day with the realization that God keeps us in existence from moment to moment to moment. Jesus asks us to live edifying lives so that if we are ever challenged, it will be for doing what is right in God’s eyes. Jesus asks us to live as colonists in a world that frequently de-values human life, that stresses success more than fidelity to a true humanity, that stresses the individual at the expense of others. Jesus asks us to live the values of the Kingdom of God and to make the world freer from violence, hunger, cruelty, injustice, inhumanity.
Sometimes, we fail, as individuals and as community. The message of Jesus continues to be perseverance. We recall the paraphrase of Matthew’s first Beatitude. “Blessed is that person who acknowledges, with God’s Help, that God (not EGO) is the center of one’s life, for that person is moving in the right direction.
Peter encourages Christians to weather the storm of alienation in a community that is looking in other directions for whatever reasons. He urges his audience, then and now, to repent our sins, to live Gospel lives, to proclaim the Gospel from the housetops. In these difficult days, Peter’s words have a distinct relevance for all of us. 040702 jfq
Many describe Catholicism these days as living in a post-Christian era since the watershed events of the twentieth century. Imagine how Catholicism would be today if Blessed (soon to be, St) John XXIII had not responded to call of the Holy Spirit in convening Vatican II? The Spirit only began an evolutionary process which continues to the present day.
In addition, others see an interesting parallel between this post-Christian era with the first centuries of the Church, viz., the pre-Christian era, from Jerusalem in 30 AD until the legitimization and ascendancy of the Church in fourth century Rome. The marginalization of Catholicism these days mirrors the marginalization of the first followers of Jesus. We, like they, live on the fringes of conventional wisdom of Western civilization, not at the center of it.
Then and now, Catholics are out of step in so many ways with culture. We affirm a Gospel of Life amid a world that, at times, glorifies individualism and self-aggrandizement. Catholics challenge and do not accept the violent solution as a “quick fix” to problems. With the endless downward spiral in the Middle East as well as a very long war in Afghanistan, Catholics are starting to heed more seriously the call of Vatican II and recent Popes that humanity must come with some new answers to conflict resolution. Catholics also stress as part of our tradition of concern for our sisters and brothers as germane to the Gospel. Catholics realize that others use similar language and slogans as we do. However, they might not mean the same thing to them as they do to Catholics. Yet, in all of this, Catholics still sin whenever we do not always practice what we preach. Catholics still need to be forgiven. We are a people that is forgiven and needs forgiveness, a people that are reforming and in need of reformation.
During the 7 Sundays of Easter, we hear from 1 Peter, an ancient letter attributed to him, although there are good arguments pro and con about his actual authorship. The letter has a great deal of imagery to encourage Christians in a world in which they find increasing alienation because of their commitment to Christ and their higher moral standards.
In today’s reading, we are reminded that our faith is such that it is, at times, tested as gold is tested by fire. However, we are to be reminded that God’s gift of salvation is a prize worth the aggravation.
An interesting word that the author uses to describe Christians is the word “paroikoi”, which means, among other things, “colonists”. Christians are people who live in the world, but our real homeland is our life with God now and in the future. We are colonists in this world and our true home is our ultimate life with God in eternity.
(The word “paraoikoi” also is an etymological root for the word for parish. Recall that we can refer to our parish church as our “other home”. However, in this reference, the other home is your residence. )
The use of the word “paraoikoi” as colonist in the sense in which Peter’s letter uses it makes us more aware of the transitory nature of reality. We are here. Our life each day is an experience of the Transcendent if we see with the eyes of faith. Jesus asks us to live each day with the realization that God keeps us in existence from moment to moment to moment. Jesus asks us to live edifying lives so that if we are ever challenged, it will be for doing what is right in God’s eyes. Jesus asks us to live as colonists in a world that frequently de-values human life, that stresses success more than fidelity to a true humanity, that stresses the individual at the expense of others. Jesus asks us to live the values of the Kingdom of God and to make the world freer from violence, hunger, cruelty, injustice, inhumanity.
Sometimes, we fail, as individuals and as community. The message of Jesus continues to be perseverance. We recall the paraphrase of Matthew’s first Beatitude. “Blessed is that person who acknowledges, with God’s Help, that God (not EGO) is the center of one’s life, for that person is moving in the right direction.
Peter encourages Christians to weather the storm of alienation in a community that is looking in other directions for whatever reasons. He urges his audience, then and now, to repent our sins, to live Gospel lives, to proclaim the Gospel from the housetops. In these difficult days, Peter’s words have a distinct relevance for all of us. 040702 jfq
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