Weekly Reflection 062605AD

June 26, 2005AD – 13^th Sunday, Greentime

Summertime Musings

We begin the summer of 2005AD, a Year of the Lord, an Anno Domini (AD) when you believe in Jesus. (Don’t buy into conventional wisdom’s “Common Era (CE)”!!!!)

At this halfway point in this Year of the Lord, Jesus offers us three familiar adages on which we should think often. He speaks to His disciples. (Recall that’s us in 2005AD!)

Jesus challenges each of us and all of us to ponder with Him our responses to the three challenges that He offers today to the conventional wisdom and worldview of Western Civilization.

In my own worldview, how do I respond to Jesus when He speaks to us? 1) “Whoever finds his (or her) life will lose it and whoever loses his (or her) life for my sake will save it.” What does that mean to you today? You and I are probably in the top 2% of the world population’s materially blessed?

2) Whoever does not take up his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me? What crosses do I have to pick up and carry as I, a man or woman of faith, experience the vicissitudes of life? If you are not carrying any cross right now, thank God for that. Remember that someday you will. Life should be the experience of letting go and letting God, surrendering and trusting God and God’s gift of life, no matter what happens. That is a cosmic (which is why it is a Catholic) reality. The sooner that we realize that, the wiser we become.

In the Hebrew Bible, Job summed up this acceptance of the left hand of God with his three famous statements. 1) We accept good things from God. Should we not be willing to accept bad as well? 2) Naked came I forth from my mother’s womb and naked I shall go back again. The Lord gives; the Lord takes away. Blessed be the Name of the Lord. 3) Where were you when I created the universe? If you could do better, let Me know how.

3) How do we respond to the exaggerated question which Jesus asks of us, “Whoever loves father or mother, son or daughter, more than Me is not worthy of Me”? Jesus is not suggesting alienation from one’s family, but, might he be thinking about how seriously we take the implications of His alternate worldview, when those closest to us might not share our Catholic vision of reality? How important is His view of reality to me or do I merely accommodate His Gospel to a reality with which I am quite comfortable?

A biblical theologian said that the key to St Matthew’s Gospel is the first Beatitude (or happy attitude) in the Sermon on the Mount, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven”, viz., “Happy is that person who acknowledges (and tries to behave accordingly) that God is the Center of his or her life, because that person is moving in the right direction. Jesus and Job’s caveats to us at this midway point in this Year of the Lord come to us at an appropriate time? 062605AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 061905AD

Twelfth Sunday in Greentime

June 19, 2005AD

Foliclely Challenged!!!

Jesus continues to instruct us, His disciples, about our mission to announce in our daily lives our faith in His good news to all with whom we have contact. He hopes for, in our everyday behavior, an expression of our belief in His Presence in the life of the world, certainly within our own lives as a start! We find out, even with Jesus’ Help, that it isn’t always easy.

Jesus reminds His disciples today (that’s us) that God is the never failing Presence in our lives. God’s paradox lies in that God is always within and yet, always beyond us.

Biblical writers used a coded expression to indicate the paradox of God’s Providence, viz., the “theological passive”. (The theological passive is when the subject of the sentence is acted upon by God, Who does the revealing, and makes secrets known, and counts the hairs of our head.)

This verb form appears three times today in our Gospel reading. Jesus must be most patient because he tells us to trust in the virus of the Gospel. Slowly, God prevails. Jesus speaks of the day when “Nothing… concealed …will not be revealed nor secret that will not be made known.”

Further, Jesus encourages all of us to treasure our immeasurable worth in the God Beyond and Within. Males will notice immediately the consolation that Jesus offers, “all the hairs of our heads are counted.” (Those foliclely challenged, take heart!)

The subtle theological passive, along with the more familiar “oriental hyperbole” challenges us to listen joyfully and hopefully to the Gospel of Jesus. Sometimes, this is not easy. Jesus through His life, death and Resurrection says to us the following: 1) God is on our side; 2) our God can be trusted; 3) our universe is safe and ultimately, benevolent; 4) trust God, beyond and within us; 5) there is no reason ultimately to fear; 6) your reality is headed to Something Good.

Just as Jesus sent out His original community to proclaim to the world the need to “wake up and smell the coffee” (Repent and believe the Gospel), He still sends us with the same mandate He issued at the end of St Matthew’s Gospel, “Go to all nations, therefore, and baptize (in the Name of the Trinity) and teach them to observe everything that I have commanded you. Know that I am with you always even until the end of the world.”

These days, more and more Catholics speak of the “Christ Quantum”, the vibrational field established in the Universe by the Incarnation of the invisible God’s Image, Who is the archetype of creation. Just as we are effected by every encounter we have had in our lives, just as we effect every person that we have encountered, (viz., we all rub off on each other, so to speak!), Jesus rubs off on us through Community, Word and Sacrament and countless ways known only to Jesus.

He asks us to trust that all of us are subjects who are acted upon by a loving and provident God. Even if for some men, it is getting easier to count the number of all the hairs of our head, there is consolation knowing that the loving God is doing the counting. 061905AD jfq.

Weekly Reflection 061205AD

Eleventh Sunday in Greentime

June 12, 2005AD

Drive Out the Demons??

Back in 1974, “The Exorcist” was the big movie of the year. Many clergy commented that year, when we were hearing the Gospel of St Mark on Sundays (in which several exorcisms appear) how intent the Church was on hearing what would be said about the topic. In addition, many of us received inquiries from some about discussing their spouse’s need for an exorcism!!

The furor died down. However, should it have? 21^st century theologians refer to the “holy longing”, built into the human condition, which orients us to Transcendence. In a culture that belittles or denies Transcendence, a further problem develops. Theologians define possession as whatever takes over one’s life and controls it, to the exclusion of self-Transcendence.

Possession can dominate and control both individuals and groups in a parasitical way, feeding off one another. For example, if everyone is addicted, why should it trouble me that I am as well?

Some identify “compulsive self-interest” as a sad example of individual and/or group addiction. Others name the quest for ultimate domination or control as a sad symptom of CSI (not the TV show).

Others identify “conspicuous consumption” as another sad example of CSI. There are many for whom “Keeping up with the Jones’” has become the only game in town, dominating them. To remind them that this might be a variation of the Tenth Commandment, “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s goods” would probably go over their heads. After all, everyone is doing the same.

Others see “ethnocentrism” as another demon. This means using one’s culture as the yardstick to judge whether other cultures even have the right to exist as they do. (Hitler was big on that one!)

Without much of a stretch, an honest person can see that “compulsive self-interest”, “conspicuous consumption” and “ethnocentrism” might very well be the names of some of the demons plaguing America today. A few years ago, the Archbishop of Canterbury said that “any institution that guarantees ultimate security for its subjects insults God.” In 1955, Albert Einstein,considered the most important person of the last century made a statement, “We have to learn to think in a new way…Remember humanity and forget the rest.” More recently, English Catholic economist, EF Schuhmacher spoke of what he called the “Great Convergence”. People will realize “The only way that humanity can survive is to listen to Jesus Christ“(even if one were not to become a Christian.)

Jesus’ sending out the missionaries continues today. We are the ones who are sent into our own homes and offices and schools and gatherings to announce that the Alternate Worldview of Jesus Christ is what the world needs now, what it has always needed. If the Spirit prompts people to listen, demons might be exorcised. However, as the old adage states, “Physicians, cure ourselves.” 061205AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 060505AD

10^th Sunday in Greentime -- June 5, 2005AD

Matt about Matt (and Us)

Each of the Gospels is anonymous. However, tradition associates the first Gospel with the tax collector in today’s Gospel.

In Roma, in the Church of San Luigi de Francia, there is a painting by the baroque artist, Caraviaggio, entitled the “Call of St Matthew”. Art experts have spoken about the fact that Matthew is about to rise, but he is still semi-seated. The most salient feature of the painting is that half of the people seated at Matthew’s table are dressed in clothing from the first century; the rest are dressed in contemporary (16^th century) attire. In other words, the call of Matthew continues in our world today.

The name Matthew, in Greek, means “disciple or student”. Therefore, every Catholic, by baptism, is a “Matthew”, a disciple. When Jesus calls, do we remain seated at our desk or table or do we get up and follow Jesus, our Teacher?

One theologian characterizes 6 distinct, yet united, steps when each of us is called again and again and again.

1) Jesus calls us in a specific situation to follow Him in our actions. 2) He calls us here and now. 3) He calls us to respond positively to following Him. 4) It makes a difference in the way we live. 5) Yet, we continue to live our ordinary lives. 6) Finally, we identify more closely with fellow disciples of Jesus Christ, viz., the Church.

People wonder about the name selected by the new Pope, Benedict XVI. One opinion is that the new Bishop of Rome wants to make the re-evangelization of Europe the primary focus of his Petrine Ministry. (St Benedict, the founder of Western monasticism in the sixth century, is the patron of Europe.) Many comment on the rise of secular humanism (aka practical atheism) on the part of many nominal European Catholics.

In one of his first journeys outside Roma, Pope Benedict spoke in Bari, Italy, about the difficulty of being a Catholic in the modern world. He said, “It is not easy for us to live as Christians. From (a Gospel) point of view, the world in which we live, so often marked by runaway consumerism, religious indifference and by a secularism closed to transcendence, can seem like a desert.”

Many would say that Pope Benedict’s statement is just as valid on this side of the Atlantic. People comment on our individualism, our frenetic lifestyles, and our stress upon material success as a possible sign of the worship of the false god, EGO (Easing God Out).

If a modern-day Caraviaggio were to paint a 21^st century “Call of St Matthew”, the scene would be comprised of half the men dressed in biblical attire, while half (men and women both) would be dressed in 21^st century business. (If it were a dress down day at the office or school, then attire would be casual, to be sure.) Still, Jesus’ (and Caraviaggio’s) challenge remains the same. How many rise to follow Jesus? How many remain seated? 060505AD jfq