Weekly Reflection 022904AD

Sunday, February 29, 2004AD

1^st Sunday of Lent

Like Us in All Things But Sin

Jesus was like us in all things but sin. Jesus was tempted in all the ways that we are, yet He never succumbed to temptation. We reflect on the temptations of Jesus during the 40 days of prayer and fasting. Jesus has much to teach us about the temptation in our lives.

The number “40” is a number that is “charged” biblically. It usually refers to a period of testing and/or teaching in the Scriptures. Obviously, in this case, St. Luke speaks of the test of Jesus at the start of His public life. Next, after this section of Luke’s Gospel, Jesus proceeds to the synagogue in Nazareth to announce that the “Spirit has anointed (Christened) Him to preach Good News to the poor.”

The triple temptation which Jesus has experienced had to do with the nature of the ministry which He was about to undertake. Basically, what the devil confronted Jesus with was the temptation to prove Himself in other ways besides the way which God the Father had pre-ordained. The God of Life willed that “it was necessary for the Messiah to suffer and to die and then, to rise again” to save us.

The devil tries to dissuade the Messiah from this course of action. First, the tempter suggests that Jesus proves that He is the Messiah through magic tricks. “Turn these stones into bread.” Next, the devil suggests that Jesus tries to establish Himself as a political Messiah. In return, the devil will give Him all the power and the glory of kingdoms if Jesus worships Him. An interesting insight here is that the nations of the world are, indeed, Satan’s to give! St. Augustine of Hippo had a field day with that idea in the De Civitate Dei.) Finally, the devil suggests to Jesus that Jesus test God by jumping off the parapet of the Jerusalem Temple.

To each of the temptations hurled at Him, Jesus responds with quotations from the Book of Deuteronomy. This fifth book of the Torah stresses the love and gratitude of the individual Israelite for the Presence of Yahweh with the Chosen People. Yahweh is with the individual and with the community, but always on God’s terms and never on ours. There is a divine necessity (which Christians call “the Cross”) within every human experience and a Divine Presence as well. By quoting Deuteronomy, Jesus is clearly within His Jewish religious tradition in resisting temptation to go another route.

Interestingly, the fall of our first parents, Adam and Eve, was succumbing to the serpent’s temptation to go another route and to “be like God.” They were not content with God’s plan for them and they preferred the tempter’s alternative. Chaos, dysfunction and sin set in our world, as a result. Our modern world still suffers the effects of that decision.

It is curious to notice as well that just as Jesus began His public life with the triple temptation in the Gospel, so also, in Luke’s Gospel, the “last temptation of Christ” is also three-fold. As Jesus is dying on the cross, He is tempted three times to “save Yourself”. It was the leaders, the soldiers and the criminal on the other cross who did the Devil’s work by tempting Jesus to short-circuit Yahweh’s Divine Plan.

Jesus’ final response to the Devil’s temptation is to die with the words of Psalm 32 on His lips. “Father, into Your hands I commend my spirit.” He died as God’s obedient and humble Son, as the elder brother of our human family, as a person of faith and hope who said “Yes” to the Divine Necessity of the Cross.

We can only ask Jesus to give us a Share in His Spirit so that each of us in obedience and humility and solidarity with others say “Yes” to God’s Plan for each of us. Jesus does not require the impossible of His disciples. He asks us to live and die as He did. As Gabriel told our Blessed Mother, “Nothing is impossible with God.” We always ask God to give us the strength to resist temptation and always offer our “Yes” to God. 022904 AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 022204AD

Sunday, February 22, 2004AD

7^th Sunday in Greentime

Who Gets In?

On these Sundays before Lent, we hear excerpts from Jesus’ Sermon on the Plain in Luke 6. Jesus’ teaching sounds familiar, yet it is more “in your face” earthy than His words in the Sermon’s counterpart in Mtt 5-7.

Last week, we heard Jesus’ terse Beatitudes and Woes addressed to the poor of His time. This week, we hear further demands as we near Lent.

Some of them are hard to hear. The commands to “love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you…be merciful, just as your Father is merciful, stop judging, stop condemning, forgive and you will be forgiven” are hard to swallow. Yet, Jesus expects that we try, through, with and in Him, to fulfill His demands. Can we measure our degree of commitment to Jesus by our serious efforts even to believe that we should live the way that Jesus expects?

Pope John Paul recently spoke on Psalm 15, a psalm said entering the Temple in Jerusalem. The Pope said that while other temples, Babylonian and Egyptian, had entrance requirements, such as ceremonial washings, gestures, and garb, the Temple of YHWH was different. Basically, the entrance requirements to God’s Presence (Shekinah) were about relationships with God and one another.

The familiar triad of Micah comes first. We are to do the right, love the good and walk humbly with God each day. How we fulfill these commands vary from person to person because all our life scenarios vary.

Next, entrance requirements address our dealings with one another. We are not to slander one another; we are not to do any harm to our neighbor; we are not to exploit the needs of others for our own gain; we are to act honorably in all our dealings. In a sense, Jesus’ Words, at the beginning of His Ministry represent the entrance requirements into His Community of Disciples. How do we measure up to the requirements?

If we need to “clean up our acts” as we near Lent, a small example is useful. These days, Americans are barraged with religion constantly because God is in these days. Which candidate is the deeper believer?

Just for example, in Italy, and in all the European community, on every pack of cigarettes sold, the striking words appear, “Fumare uccido” (Smoking kills). Talk about “in your face”. Here, we have gotten inured to the mild warnings on the side of packs of cigarettes. Are politicos, in our God-fearing country, more concerned with pleasing tobacco states and cigarette producers than pleasing God?

Jesus echoes Psalm 15 as He proclaims the entrance requirements to His band of Disciples. Pope John Paul stressed that now, more than ever, entrance to God’s Presence has more to do more with ethical monotheism than with ceremonial washings, gestures, garb, and saying “God bless America” at the end of every speech?

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Weekly Reflection 021504AD

Sunday, February 15, 2004AD

6th Sunday in Greentime

A DaVinci Code??? (Part Two)

Another implication that the author suggests is that it was Christianity that debunked the idea of the feminine in God. Others beg to differ with his suggestion. Hundreds of years earlier, biblical theologians suggested that YHWH (the God of Israel) had a consort, viz., Shekinah. When the Temple was constructed by Solomon and YHWH was believed to be present in the temple, that Presence of YHWH was known as Shekinah. Eventually, Shekinah was subsumed into YHWH totally. Remember that the author of the book wants you to remember that his book is fiction.

While the author incorrectly implied that the Dead Sea Scrolls were Christian documents, he was correct in speaking of the Nag Hammadi scrolls as Gnostic Gospels discovered in a cave in Egypt in 1945. The Gnostics were a group of early Christians who believed that some were more enlightened by Knowledge (gnosis) than others. They tended to stress also that this enlightenment came from within rather than without. In a sense, they believed that Jesus would unleash a hidden knowledge within some to bring them to a greater perfection of faith. (That was them.) The implication here is that the Church feared an internal self-knowledge that the Church could not control. Mainstream Christianity stressed that Jesus was the Redeemer who brought enlightenment from without (through baptism into the Body of Christ). While the origins of the Gnostic Gospels are still disputed and while the Church did not incorporate them into the Canon of Scriptures, the conclusion of the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas might be telling, “Let a woman who wants to be a believer become a man!” Maybe, they made no mistake by omitting the Gnostic Gospels. Don’t forget, though. Remember the author wants you to remember that his book is faction.

The person of Jesus as an unmarried man has challenged many over the years. The Scriptures hint that Jesus was single at the time of His public Ministry, when began around the age of 30. One could argue from silence that Jesus might have been married earlier and that His wife died before His public life. We so not know anything definitively from the Scriptures prior to His baptism by John the Baptist. Some even said, in good faith, that a single man as a religious figure is unheard of in the Hebrew tradition. However, there is a contradiction in the fact that Jeremiah, one of the great prophets around 600 BC, was single as a sign that he knew that Israel would be taken by the Babylonians and the temple destroyed. His single status was a sign of the crisis mode that Judah had entered. (The figure of Jeremiah is alluded to in Matt 16.) Was Jesus following a Jeremiah mold in His Ministry in that God was acting definitively in His Ministry?

Whatever, the author is laughing all the way to the bank. Don’t forget, though. Remember that the author wants you to remember that his book is fiction, 021504 AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 020804AD

February 8, 2004AD

5^th Sunday in Greentime

A DaVinci Code???

At latest count, 8.5 million copies of the DaVinci Code have been bought. Many have read it obviously. If you haven’t read the book and want to do so, borrow a copy from a friend.

First of all, remember the author wants you to remember that his book is fiction. Like James Michener who wrote epic historical novels, this author writes of real people and institutions. However, Michener stressed that his novels were fiction. The author claims that he is writing fiction, but is he is winking at us?

In the introductory page, the author tells us that all facts in the book are correct. Sorry. To mention a few errata, the Dead Sea Scrolls were Jewish documents, not Christian ones. While the divinity of Christ was proclaimed at the Council of Nicea in 325 AD, what about St Paul’s and the early Christian proclamation 250 years earlier that Jesus Christ is Lord? What would the author say of John 1.3, “The Word (Jesus Christ) was God” and John 20.28, with Thomas’ proclamation of faith, “My Lord and My God”? Remember the author wants you to remember his book is fiction.

While Opus Dei exists and some ultra-religious people (not necessarily Opus Dei) wear metal around their thigh, innuendos can be interesting. Remember that the author wants you to remember that his book is fiction.

The crux of the matter is the person of Jesus Christ. Is it not something to rejoice in that Jesus generates so much interest in an age that is media-driven and practical- atheistic in attitudes and actions?

Without getting specific about a book that a few still have not read, part of it is the suggestion that Jesus was so human that He had a lady. Such a human reality would make believers question His divinity. I don’t think so!

The author implies a conspiracy afoot here to hide that if Jesus were a sexual person (like all of us), that his divinity would be compromised. Would not the reality that Jesus had to visit the men’s room several times a day like all of us challenge His divinity as well? Would not the reality that Jesus needed to use a deodorant now and again in a hot, dry climate (like all of us) challenge His divinity as well? Would not the reality that Jesus had to eat and drink (like all of us) challenge His divinity as well. But, don’t forget. Remember the author wants you to remember that his book is fiction.

There is also the quite legitimate implication that the Church downplayed the role of women after its early development. However, at least two facts can be offered as provisos. 1) Honest biblical theologians know that women played a crucial role in the ministry and vision of Jesus of Nazareth. Luke 8. 1-3 tells us that the women who accompanied Jesus to Jerusalem and who included Mary Magdalene as well as Susannah, the wife of King Herod’ steward, Chuza, provided for the itinerant preacher’s band with their own resources. Reflection on this reality will open new vistas especially when we realize how structured and how male dominated the Palestinian culture was then. In addition, the baptismal hymn that St Paul captured for all time in Gal 3.28 will never go away, viz., “In Christ there is no Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female. All are one in Christ.” 2) While the Church de-emphasized

the role of women in the Jesus Movement’s earliest days, there is one woman, Mary of Nazareth, who remains on the scene, while she barely makes an appearance in the Da Vinci Code. Interesting that even a few years ago, there were some in the Catholic Church who pushed for Mary’s proclamation as Co-Redemptrix (with Jesus). Demeaning to women? Sorta makes ya wonder! Religious sociologists tell us that the role of Mary in the Catholic mind is that of the hint of femininity in divinity. Recall also that the figure of Mary is one that unites rather than polarizes liberal and conservative Catholics, Anglo and Hispanic, old and young. To neglect the mother of Jesus in the book is strange. Don’t forget. Remember that the author wants you to remember that his book is fiction. 020804AD jfq (to be continued next week…)

Weekly Reflection 020104AD

Sunday February 1, 2004AD

4^th Sunday in Greentime

Jeremiah – a Prophet-Priest –

Not a Bullfrog

The prophet Jeremiah lived about 600 years before Jesus of Nazareth. He lived during one of the most turbulent times in Judah’s history. God inspired him to read between the lines and gave Jeremiah the courage to announce things from God’s perspective. His audience did not always like what he said.

He was born into a family that made up of lower clergy in the Jerusalem temple. Jeremiah was raised around the temple and royal palace.

The Spirit of the Lord came upon him and Jeremiah proclaimed four related insights. 1) YHWH’s tender Love for Judah was infinite. 2) YHWH’s expectation was that Judah would return this tender Love – but did not do so. 3) He understood that YHWH’s tender Love would bring chastisement and ultimate restoration because YHWH is always faithful. 4) If individuals bear the law of built-in punishment for their actions, institutions bear the same law.

Civil religion was not going to help the matter. In fact, it might also complicate the situation. Jeremiah proclaimed that people went to the Temple and feel self-assurance so long as they said as a people, “This is the temple of YHWH, the temple of YHWH, the temple of YHWH.”

Not so easy as that! Jeremiah saw that the very ones who encouraged self-assurance in people through civil religion were also the ones who were encouraging and profiting from a growing chasm between rich and poor. Since the poor were part of the covenant people, YHWH expected that there would be recognition and solution on the part of Judah. Such redress was not forthcoming.

Over the course of 40 years, Jeremiah proclaimed his message. He was hounded by people who did not like his message. Once, he was even imprisoned in a sewer.

In a reading today, we hear of the call of the prophet Jeremiah and the belief that YHWH was with him. Sometimes, his mission brought him almost to the point of despair. He once expressed a wish that he never had been born to bear this aggravation.

He said that trust in manipulating world politics, not YHWH, would bring doom. It did with the fall of Jerusalem in 587 BC.

Jeremiah remained celibate to stress the seriousness of his message. Yet, even before the fall of the city, he went out to buy a field as a sign that YHWH had not given up on Judah, but remained faithful through the tough love that Judah would undergo.

He knew what Jesus would teach, viz., that those who, with God’s Help, acknowledge and behave in deeds that God (and not them and their interests) is the Center of reality are returning the tender Love of God for all. YHWH loves and demands that.

The prophet Jeremiah teaches that YHWH always remains faithful. We can change – and sometimes need to do so, if we are not responsive to God’s Love. 020104AD jfq