Weekly Reflection 013005AD

Reflection: January 30, 2005 AD

4^th Sunday in Greentime

Re-learn the Vocab!!!

More and more, we become aware that the Jesus Movement is marginalized in the world. In many quarters, conventional wisdom tolerates our “neurosis” as quaint. In others, some persecute the Jesus Movement. (A few years ago, Robert Royal wrote a book, “The (Christian) Martyrs of the Twentieth Century.” Conventional wisdom dictates the meaning of words and ideas. Catholics are particularly “linguistically challenged” in the Beatitudes, this morning’s Gospel. What Jesus means by a word is not necessarily what Western civilization means. A prime example today is “poor (in spirit).”

Who wants to be poor? Our culture thrives on prosperity and power and possessions, viz., paying your own way to control your reality. Who would want it otherwise?

When Jesus gives us the first Beatitude today, He talks about a different type of poverty that is blessed to have been given. Blessed is that one who knows that one cannot, no matter how hard one tries, ultimately to be the captain of the ship of Self. That’s all right. Someone else (God) is Captain.

Three Noble Truths have confronted the one gifted with poverty in spirit. 1) No matter how hard you try, you cannot avoid the down side of life permanently. You can buy it off here and now (and that is all right), but you cannot do so forever. 2) No matter how hard you try, you cannot be the center of the universe. The world does not spin around you. 3) No matter what your Mama told you, your existence is a part of a cosmic process known as life, death and life again. Catholics, since St Augustine, call this process the Paschal Mystery.

The one who is “poor in spirit” accepts this Reality. The God of Life, the God of Mystery, the God of Now, the God of Love, the Creator and the Father of Jesus is on our side and knows better than my mind knows.

God is watching us. The symbol of the “eye” appears as a divine symbol. If one is guilty, the eye is a threatening eye. If confident that a loving Creator is watching, then, one feels rescued.

Fr Jim Keenan, a Jesuit priest from NYC, suggested that Catholics substitute the word “rescue” for “mercy”. One who is poor in spirit realizes that one has already been rescued by God in the past and the present. That person trusts that God will rescue us from whatever perils us now and then. Instead of the litany, “Lord, have mercy”, he suggests that we pray, “Lord, rescue us.” Try it and see!!

Frequently, what we need rescue from is the enmeshment and compulsion and addictions that conventional wisdom foist upon us. French Catholic, Blaise Pascal, wrote, “If each could slow down and be silent and in solitude for 30 minutes, then, the troubles between people would cease.” In the process, we will be rescued because we would see how God is ultimately in charge and not me. That’s poverty in spirit and that’s the greatest wealth one can have.

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Weekly Reflection 012305AD

January 23, 2005AD

3rd Sunday in Greentime

1^st Vegas, part Two

Someone described the Church at Corinth to which St Paul wrote his letters as a community of Catholics in a wild and wooly place like Las Vegas. (With all due respect, Las Vegas has a reputation on which it thrives. “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” was not dreamed up out of nowhere.) Still, we can be sure that both in Vegas now and Vegas then (aka Corinth), there were many, many people in earnest seeking to live holy lives in the midst of a far-out world.

St Paul’s methodology was to establish a Jesus Movement community in Corinth whose life in Christ Jesus would influence others in the wider community to get on the Christian bandwagon. However, St Paul found that it was not that easy. St Paul continues unknowingly to describe similarities between the Church in Corinth in the 50’s of the first century and the contemporary American Catholic Church. What he says about the situation then certainly mirrors the situation now.

St Paul’s strategy was to create Christian communities in key cities of the Roman world that would live the message of Jesus in their dealings with one another and with the rest of the world. The Spirit of Christ Jesus invigorated and energized the Jesus Movement in Corinth.

St Paul was interested in maintaining the concept of echad , viz., the (comm)unity or solidarity among Christians in Corinth. He was interested in uniting people in Christ Jesus and, in the process, form audio-visual communities of how God wanted the world to live.

However, human nature, such as it was and is, sometimes caused a snafu. St Paul was quite chagrined that apparently the Church in Corinth had some ideology problems. Some groups felt that St Paul was the last word on matters Corinthian. Others favored Cephas (aka Simon Peter), who was a bit more conservative on the question of relationship of Jew and Gentile. A third group favored Paul’s successor, an Alexandrian Jewish convert to the Jesus Movement, who succeeded St Paul as a leading light in the Corinthian Community. Still others said that their relationship with Jesus was a bit different than that of other Corinthians. (Were they a bit elitist?)

At any rate, playing ideological favorites threatened the audio-visual value of the Christian community. Sadly, today, contemporary Catholics vilify one another with the accusation, “cafeteria Catholics”, viz., people’s choosing the Catholic issues that they care to emphasize and look down at other Catholics for not sharing their enthusiasm. Frequently, those who use the term are blind to the fact that they are probably “cafeteria Catholics” themselves. Several years ago, the late Joseph Cardinal Bernadin, Archbishop of Chicago, chaired the Catholic Common Ground Initative to face this sad and scandalous reality in the American Catholic Church. Sadly, many of his contemporaries said there was no need for any discussion.

In the past forty years, a well-known Catholic hymn has as its chorus, “They will know we are Christians by our love”. Paul hoped so in Corinth; let us hope for the same in our church today. 012305AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 011605AD

January 16, 2005AD

2^nd Sunday in Greentime

St Paul’s First Letter to Vegas

Because St Paul wrote several letters to the nascent Jesus Movement in Corinth, in Greece, Catholics can get a clear view of a Christian community in its early days. However, the Christians at Corinth were an unusual group of people. Therefore, while we can learn a great deal about them, it is important to realize that this group was different.

Somebody described the port city of Corinth as comparable to Las Vegas, a free-wheeling place with a variety of folks constituting the population. Like most Christian communities, the Jesus Movement in Corinth probably were constituted by “house churches”, small communities of 30 or so, who would meet in the house of a

Christian with a room large enough to accommodate 30 people. They gathered weekly as a broader community in a venue where all the house churches could gather as one.

Although St Paul did not have the language of Catholic quantum theology, he did proclaim (without the term) the “Christ quantum”, viz., the impact of Jesus Christ, the image of the invisible God and the pattern of all creation. He believed (as we do) that the impact of Jesus affected His followers and enabled to feel His Presence in our midst. The crucified and Risen Lord was alive and well in the Jesus Movement throughout the world. Just give the Spirit of Jesus time and God’s Plan would unfold.

St Paul’s strategy was to establish Christian communities in crucial cities in the Mediterrean basin as communal audio-visuals. His strategy was that local leaders would emerge when Paul moved on. These local leaders would guide and direct the communities. St Paul truly believed that these small groups in key places in the world could transform the world into the world that God wanted in Christ Jesus. (True, his time frame was off, but his strategy continues slowly, slowly to permeate the world.) Paul believed that if Christians were to live as Jesus wanted us all to live, then, others would join the Jesus Movement.

However, problems arose. The Jesus Movement at Corinth was to live the Alternate Worldview in their dealings with others, but particularly among themselves. With an egalitarian view of the kinship group, these folks addressed one another as brothers and sisters. However, class consciousness emerged. More affluent Christians associated with one another and avoided other Christian brothers and sisters. Some Christians in Corinth preferred St Peter’s style more; others favored the style of Apollos, Paul’s successor, after Paul left. Others felt the notion of salvation to mean that “anything went”.

Paul’s challenge in his letters was to restore the original vision of a mission of inclusive election in Christ, viz., Christ had plans to use this community to convert the world. Some of their antics stymied the plan, but did not defeat. Then, as now, some things remain the same. 011605AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 010905AD

January 9, 2005AD

Baptism of the Lord

Light to the Nations

Dr Eric Erickson, an American psychiatrist, followed the gameplan of Dr Benjamin Spock, whose Baby Book, after the Bible and the works of Shakespeare, is one of the all-time best sellers. Dr Spock taught parents what to expect in the physical, psychological and social development of infants to the age of 18. Dr Erickson continued the pattern with adult psychological development, from 18 until death.

Dr Erickson concluded that there were 3 distinct questions that every adult asks oneself during life. 1) Who am I? 2) What am I making or doing with my life? 3) Does my life make sense? All three questions are there, but at each stage of life, one question predominates. Young adults (18-30) focus on identity; middle adults (30 – 65), on generativity; older adults (65+) on authenticity.

Jesus was baptized by John about the time that Jesus was thirty years of age. According to Erickson’s theory, the identity and generativity questions were vying for attention.

All the evangelists agree that Jesus’ public life began after His baptism by John. He discovers Who He is, viz., God’s beloved Son, in Whom (God) is well-pleased, called to be a Light to the Nations. Thereafter, He answers the generativity question by proclaiming the fact that God tells people to “snap out of it” and realize that the ways things are are not necessarily the way that God wants.

His proclamation earned Him of the suspicion of both religion and state and Good Friday was the reaction to Him. Still, God had the final word and the authenticity of Jesus (the third question) is answered by His Resurrection. Indeed, it was worth it.

In baptism, we become incorporated into Christ Jesus and enter into the vibrational field that is known as the Body of Christ. His identity, generativity and authenticity guarantee our own in Christ.

This week, we celebrate the birthday of Rev Martin Luther King, Jr. He attributed his vocation to the reflections of Mohandas Gandhi, the non-violent leader who brought about the nation of India, now the largest democracy in the world. Gandhi was taken with the teachings of Jesus, particularly the non-violence of the Sermon on the Mount (from which we hear excerpts on Sundays this year). He never became a Christian because he was scandalized by the fact that the only religion that did not recognize that Christianity was a non-violent religion was Christianity itself.

We know that Dr King was no blushing rose. He never claimed to be.

As an Indian mystic put it, Dr King merely pointed to the God to be worshiped. In so many respects, he was, like everyone, “a work in process”.

Still, he knew who he was and what to do. Like Christ, the Light of Nations, in whom he was baptized, he was cut down. His legacy lives on.

Pope John Paul tells young people to find their meaning and their life’s work in Christ. He tells parents and families and teachers and mentors to do the same in encouraging life choices in young people. How do we respond? 010905AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 010205AD

January 2, 2005AD

Epiphany of the Lord

Savior of All, Not Some

The tremendous outpouring of concern over the tragic tsunami that pounded so many places around the Indian Ocean has solicited the best in human compassion. Over 65,000+ people died so far and the entire world is responding, as, indeed, we should. It is as if, all the humanity got it for once. As we pray in one of our Eucharistic prayers at Mass, “Jesus teaches us that whether we care to admit it or not, we are all sisters and brothers, we are all family and You are the Father of all this family”.

Catholics believe that the Christ quantum, viz., God’s becoming human in Jesus Christ, affects not only humanity, but all the universe. All creation is affected by Jesus Christ. The human person is the pinnacle of creation, according to Gen 1. However, Jesus Christ is the pinnacle of humanity, the blueprint that God is following in creation, what we are called to be in Christ. However, Jesus Christ is also the icon of the invisible God. In Jesus Christ, Creator and Creation are united. Rejoice!!

The Feast of the Epiphany teaches us that all creation is affected by the birth of this Child. How so? St Matthew tells us that the very re-configuration of the sky (the appearance of the star) indicates a cosmic change has come about.

Yet, two millennia later, we still have yet to do something about the numbness, the pragmatism and the restlessness and violence that resulted in the last century in two World Wars, the Holocaust, the Cold War and literally, hundreds of wars, generated by injustice and exploitation.

Protestant theologian, Reinhold Niebuhr, stressed the grace of God amid the propensity to sin. Scripture was meant to be a self-critique of what individuals and institutions fail to do. We should try to make things better because we cannot make them perfect.

Catholic theologian, EF Schuhmacher, thought differently. He spoke of what he called “the Great Convergence”. Building on the insight of Mohandas Gandhi, if the entire world practiced an eye for an eye ethic, then, eventually all the world would be blind. Schuhmacher believed that sooner or later, people, even those who did not believe that Jesus was Lord, would come to see that what He teaches in the Gospel, especially in the Sermon on the Mount, was the only way that humanity would survive.

1969 astronaut, Mike Collins, said, “I really believe that if the leaders of the world could see their planet from a distance, their outlook would be fundamentally changed. I think the view from 100,000 miles could be invaluable in getting people to work out joint solutions by causing them to realize that the planet we share unites us in a way far more basic and far more important than differences in skin, color, religion or economic systems. The earth appears fragile above all else.”

In these days, when we still cannot calculate the effects of the earthquake and tsunami, it is encouraging that the world responds so nobly. Maybe, Jesus’ insight, reflected in Gandhi and Schuhmacher and Collins will come to pass in a permanent way when we learn (in a tragic way) during this Christmas season, that the Christ quantum, manifested in the Star of Bethlehem and the worship of the Magi, affects all, not some. We are all sisters and brothers in Christ!! 010205AD jfq