Weekly Reflection 052806AD

Sunday, May 28, 2006AD

Easter Sunday VII

What If?

Today, three words dominate our second reading. 1 John tells us, “God is Love and the person who remains in love remains in God and God in that person”. The three words are God, Love and remain. How are they applicable to the everyday life of a Catholic?

What do we mean by the word “God”? What do we mean by “Love”? What do we “to remain in Love and in God” mean?

Blessed Juliana of Norwich wrote back in the thirteenth century that while most Catholics could handle the idea that God was almighty and that God was omniscient, most could not fathom that God is Love. She asked how differently we might behave if we believed John’s words.

Certainly, Jesus wants us to be a community that celebrates God as Love as we deal with one another. Our community, however, is structured and sometimes, perhaps, structures become obstacles, if not ends, in themselves. Down through history, structured communities, church and state, have sometimes idolized the very structures meant to guarantee the communal life.

An example of this appears today in our first reading with the prayers and the casting of lots for the successor of Judas. The method of prayer and casting lots was not uncommon in the Hebrew tradition. Peter did not pull the idea out of a hat.

The number “12” had to be restored after the defection of Judas as a sign of God’s fidelity to Israel. The reason that the new member had to be a male was simply that Jesus had chosen 12 males as the restoration of the 12 Patriarchs in Israel’s tradition. The 12 were an audio-visual that God remained faithful to Israel by calling Israel to repentance.

Certainly, St Luke sets us up in the selection of Matthias as the replacement of Judas. He gives us three different names for the likely candidate, Joseph, aka Justus aka Barsabbas. With so many names, and the mere mention of “Matthias” as the other candidate, one would anticipate the election of former, rather than the latter. God’s ways are not our ways.

The 120 present constituted the 11, Jesus’ relatives and friends, the women who had come up from Galilee with Jesus and Mary, His mother. During the nine days between the Ascension and Pentecost, the group prayed and cast lots, trusting in God to make the proper selection. The dark horse won.

If we want to maintain the apostolicity of our Church, perhaps, we might re-visit the idea of the “Matthias principle”. After conversation among the entire community, consultation and collaboration of the choice of worthy candidates for church leadership, Catholics could, then, pray over and cast lots. If we are a community that really believed that God is almighty, omniscient and Love, then, we would trust God to make the selection for us. It has happened before. 052806 AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 052106AD

The Blindness of Mr Bumble

In Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist,

there is an ironic and poignant scene in which Oliver dares to ask Mr Bumble at the Orphanage for more soup. Mr Bumble in his righteous indignation gets very upset. Behind his head are the words from 1 John, “God is Love”.

One of the last descriptions that conventional wisdom would offer as a trait of God is God is Love. Whoever God is, the One in Whom we (claim to) trust, most of us might demonstrate the fine art of “hedging our bets.” God may be love, but I will do my best to fend for myself. God is Love, but God is unpredictable.

Jesus Who knows very well that God is Love tells us to love one another as (He has) loved us. In fact, in the Fourth Gospel, Jesus gives us simple job descriptions as His disciples, viz., “believe in the God of Life and the One Whom God sent” and “love one another”.

Bracketing his love commandment at the Last Supper, Jesus, as ever, practices what He preaches. He never asks us to do what He Himself has not done for us.

He had washed the feet of His disciples as a selfless act (pouring Himself out) for His own and of service of others. His action resonates with His teaching in St Mark 10.35, The Son of Man came to serve, not to be served, and to give His Life in ransom for the many”.

Next, He gave His Life in sacrifice for us, “Greater love than this no one has, that he would lay down His life for his friends.” While most of us are not called to lay down our lives literally for one another, we do so in lives of selflessness, sacrifice and service for our families, our communities.

Yet, we live in a culture that has been described as monadic (the individual only is the measure), as therapeutic (how do I get over the baggage that others foisted on me?), as scapegoating (blaming others when I am not always a happy camper, when things do not always work out my way), as vindictive (getting even), as blind (what is wrong with everyone that they all don’t love me?)

Mr Bumble must have heard the words, “God is Love” many times. He certainly heard them every Easter when he went to church. Still, did he understand the words? He knew the words, but did he know the words? (In the biblical sense, “to know” is to be intimately united with the known.)

The school of the Fourth Evangelist tells us that God is Love, that Jesus Christ Whom the God of Love has sent into the world has given us the great commandment to love one another as He loved us. He shows how, with the help of the Paraclete-Spirit, to live with faith in the God of Love and Life in selflessness, service, sacrifice for others.

Did Mr Bumble get the Message? Does conventional wisdom today get the Message? Do we all get the Message? Do we try with God’s Help try to live the Message? 052106AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 051406AD

4^th Sunday of Easter

Sunday, May 14, 2006AD

Cling to the Vine

St Paul wrote of the Church as the Body of Christ, a privileged one among Catholics throughout the two millennia. In addition, Avery Cardinal Dulles has written that many American Catholics identify the image of the “Vine and Branches” as a powerful one in understanding our relationship with Jesus and with one another. Indeed, two principal ways of understanding American Catholics should be “the Little Flock of the Good Shepherd” (last Sunday!!) and “the Vine and the Branches.”

If we were asked how the branches cling to the vine, most would say immediately that it was a twofold response. First, we are to try with the aid of the Paraclete (the Holy Spirit) to obey the great love commandment of John’s Gospel, “Love one another as I have loved you” And how has Jesus loved us? He did so through service and sacrifice and selflessness for others.

Second, we cling to the Vine through prayer, community, the Scriptures and the sacraments, particularly Baptism and the Eucharist. There are, also, myriad other ways in which Jesus helps us to cling to Him.

Let us focus on the image of pruning that Jesus speaks to us today. Some would take the term “pruning” and understand it as suffering that we all have to endure at one point or another in our lives. Suffering strips away the false concept that we are ultimately in control of our lives. Whether it is through disappointment, job loss, family problems, sickness, accidents, impending old age in a youth-oriented society, as well as death of loved ones, periodically, we get shaken up to realize that our grasp of security is tenuous and illusory.

It is at such times that we realize that we have no place to turn but to Jesus. He assures us that as we cling to the Vine, Which He is, that He and God the Father are in control, more intimately involved in our lives than we are. He asks each of us to make a leap of faith as we bear our pain, that, in the Spirit, He asks us to surrender, let go and trust the Paschal Mystery.

Traditional cultures teach young people that life is more than they are. Life does not revolve around the young. Living in extended, multi-generational families made that reality easier to understand. We are a part of a greater scenario in which we play a significant, but not central part. It is a humbling and a humanizing experience to realize that the universe does not revolve around oneself. We all have to learn the lesson. However, we all do not learn it at the same age.

Teilhard de Chardin, last century, spoke of the negative diminishments of life, what Catholics call today as the “cross”. The Fourth Evangelist hints that Jesus’ reference to the “pruning of the branches” means how the Word of Jesus helps us to endure the “cross” as the coming of age of a mature person within a Catholic framework.

American Catholics grasp easily the twofold images of the “Little Flock of the Good Shepherd” and “the Vine and the Branches”. However, the Paraclete does it, may we always cling to the Vine of Jesus Christ. 051406AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 050706AD

Sunday, May 7, 2006AD

Easter Sunday IV

How the Good Shepherd Leads Us

Each Easter, we reflect on Jesus, the Good Shepherd. This imagery has appealed to believers from the very beginning. Even in the catacombs in ancient Rome, Jesus was depicted as a beardless youth tending sheep.

Avery Cardinal Dulles wrote that the image of Church as the “little flock of the Good Shepherd” was particularly strong among Catholics in the USA. Jesus leads us and we hear His Voice as individuals as well as a flock. We are in relationship both with Him and with each other.

However, whence does He lead us and where are we going? We live in a world in which we understand that something is not right. It is a world of secularity. The Transcendent is out the window. It is a world of individualism. The monadic notion of the self leaves out the basic fact that humans are social animals. It is a world of consumerism. We measure a person’s value by what one has, rather than what one is. It is a world of pragmatism. We use practicality as a criterion for human relationships.

The Good Shepherd can lead us out of this dark valley. He offers us an alternate worldview (the Big Picture, viz. the Real Story that He calls the Kingdom of God. The prevalent view of reality that we accept is called “conventional wisdom” and nice people live by conventional wisdom all the time. Doesn’t everyone else? The Good Shepherd tells us not to forget the Centrality of the Transcendent. We go 100 mph, but the Mystery of God reminds us that it is wise to slow down and remember that life is not about speed or success.

The Good Shepherd tells us how we got into the dark valley. Nice people have bought into the Original Lie, viz., “you really don’t need God to live an authentic life!” He tells us not to follow the original lie. He says, “God always comes first” even when conventional wisdom, the original lie says no. Trust the Good Shepherd.

Finally, the Good Shepherd leads us out of the dark valley. He tries to correct the faulty notion of the Original Lie that you (not God) can actually control reality. We live in a middle class environment in which we are able to control much of our lives. In fact, some spend their lives trying to control that reality. You can try, but don’t expect complete success or complete happiness. The inexorable Wheel of Life spins and some spend their lives trying to control its spin. However, it is a loving God Who spins the Wheel, not you. We all learn that sooner or later. The Good Shepherd calls it the Paschal Mystery. We all experience death and Resurrection as part of the destiny that a loving God has created for all reality. You can try to fight it, but ultimately, you won’t succeed. The Good Shepherd has experienced the Paschal Mystery of death and Resurrection and He leads us along the path through the dark valley to arrive at the “House of the Lord (YHWH - the God of Life) where we will dwell forever.” 050706 AD jfq