Weekly Reflection 092406AD

Sunday, Sep 24, 2006AD

25^th Sunday in Greentime

15^th Sunday after Pentecost

What Next in the World?

The middle portion of St Mark’s Gospel, viz. Mk 8.27 – 10.52 has been called “Mark’s Message to (Mediterrean) Males.” The message propelled by the Spirit into the male dominated society in the first century needs to be heeded today by both males and females, on both sides of the Atlantic.

Ina variety of ways, St Mark teaches males and females that we are not controllers of our destiny. 1) The dark side of life confronts all, rich and poor alike. (The rich can avert it longer.) 2) The dark side of life is tough and tough things are part of life. 3) LIFE IS THE GREATEST GOOD.

All our human family is in the same boat. All males (and females) have to learn that we are all “connected empathetically” with others. Dominant culture does not stress this, although it says that it does. St Mark tells us that “rugged individualism”, which had been peddled as a positive, is a negative value.

St James speaks today of selfishness and greed as a cause of wars, both personal and structural. With God’s Help, all of us need to work on that sad reality in our lives. Jesus also tells us today, that whoever is concerned about and receives the least in the society, receives Christ Jesus and the One Who sent Him. How different than what conventional wisdom (aka the System) teaches us!

Several theologians speak now of the Great Convergence, viz., when some people get their acts together and realize that our world cannot survive the way we are going. We need some new ideas.

Ironically, the new idea that we need is the Old Idea contained in the Gospel of Jesus. Some need to hear it again for the first time and then, share it with their children.

Canadian theologian, Fr Ron Rolheiser, wrote a blockbuster book in 1999, entitled, The Holy Longing . So many of the major religions proclaim some form of a Golden Rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Fr Rolheiser said that we can use the Golden Rule to begin, as Disciples of Jesus, to live as part of God’s and Eve’s one Global Family. 1) Treat all with equal dignity. 2) Behave as if God intended the earth for all persons equally. 3) Remember that the right to private property is not absolute and must be subordinated to the common good. (Pope John Paul also stressed that point several times.) 4) No persons or groups should have surpluses if others lack basic necessities. 5) We are obliged morally to come to the aid of those in need. It is a high road to God and human fulfillment. How about an email today to SaveDarfur.net? 6) No economic laws transcend the moral scrutiny of the Golden Rule. (Pope John Paul said “no moral freezones”.7) The earth is not just a stage on which humans play. The ecology is a creature of God, having basic rights .

We listen to the morning news and ask ourselves, “What next?” More of the same, sadly, unless we start to listen to Jesus and His relative, St James, today.

Aboriginal peoples in North America used to make decisions as a group using as a standard, “How will this decision affect our grandchildren seven generations hence?” Parents and grandparents of today might ask the same question as they teach their children now. Decisions today affect outcomes tomorrow. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Henry Ford famously remarked, “History is bunk.” Sadly, too many of his mindset then and now have agreed with him. Jesus, St James and St Mark have different ideas. Who will teach the children? 092406AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 091706AD

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 17^TH, 2006AD

24^TH SUNDAY IN GREENTIME

14^TH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

Dag Hammarsjkold

45 years ago tomorrow, the world heard of the tragic death in a plane crash of UN Secretary General, Dag Hammarsjkold. He was on a peace mission in the Congo which experienced civil war at the time of independence in 1960. The world lost a great leader – and a holy man!

A Lutheran, he did not have the problem with the Letter of St. James that Martin Luther had. One line of contention was the famous, “So faith of itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” Hammarsjkold’s life demonstrated his belief that “faith works through love” for God and others, viz., God’s children.

So many Catholics, like most people on both sides of the Atlantic, live compartmentalized lives in modules. We do what we have to do in time slots. Sadly, for so many, religion becomes church attendance for an hour a week or otherwise, when necessary. So many fail to see that Catholicism, like all religion, is ultimately meant to be transformational. German Jesuit theologian, Fr Karl Rahner, said that if Western religion does not inculcate the Transcendent dimension of every human life that religion becomes a problem, not a solution to difficulties.

Hammarsjkold’s life was a demonstration of Rahner’s point of integration of Transcendence with life’s experiences. The Secretary-General realized that his family background lent much to the person that he was becoming. His father’s family were military folks who taught the young man that “it was noble to think of life is one of service to one’s country – or even more so, to humanity.” From his mother’s side on which there were several scholars and clergyfolk, he learned that “all were equal as children of God and should be met and treated by us as our masters.”

He was aware of the Immanent Transcendence with him on his election to the post of Secretary-General when he wrote in his journal, later published as Markings. , “Not I, but God in me.” He spoke words that Catholic parents should hope for their children to say someday, “ I don’t know Who – or what – put the question, I don’t know when it was put. I don’t even remember answering. But at some moment, I did say yes to Someone -- or Something – and from that hour, I was certain that existence is meaningful and that, therefore, my life in self-surrender had a goal.”

A committed Lutheran disciple of Christ Jesus, Hammarsjkold did not have the dilemma with today’s reading from St James that Martin Luther had 500 years ago. Clearly, too, Hammarsjkold must have caught the meaning of the words of Jesus to St Peter, who so frequently missed what Jesus was saying. The Paschal Mystery of death and life in Christ is built not only into human living, but to life in the universe in toto . Jesus tells Peter and us that to save one’s life, one must lose it for the sake of Christ and the Gospel. The pattern of dying to EGO and rising to transformation in Christ Jesus is a death and Resurrection. Jesus knew it. St Paul and St James learned it, as well as Dag Hammarsjkold. Let us learn the lesson with God’s Help and teach the children. True religion is ultimately about learning how to bear the pains of life, to make leaps of faith into the arms of a loving and life-giving God and to surrender, let go and trust the Holy Mystery of Transcendence that envelopes us all in Love and in Life and its corollary, to love one’s neighbor as oneself. True religion is about internal transformation, then external transformation, then internal, then, external, etc. 091706AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 091006AD

Sunday, September 10, 2006AD

23^rd Sunday in Greentime

13^th Sunday after Pentecost

James Has a Point to Stress!

During this month, our second reading on Sunday will be excerpts from the Letter of St James. As mentioned last week, this letter has come into the fore recently for many reasons. Probably dated in the early 60’s AD, before the earliest Gospel (St Mark, c.70AD) was written, the inspired author gives us a picture of a Jewish-based Christian community that met in a synagogue!!

The group was an early example of the Jesus Movement. Nevertheless, the group had lots of flaws about which the inspired author was concerned.

The problem addressed in our reading this morning was favoritism in gatherings of the Jesus Movement synagogue. Surprised we are to hear this at such an early date. Recall St Paul’s baptismal hymn, “in Christ there is no Jew or Gentile, slaves or free, male or female. All are one in Christ Jesus.” How could a Christian group misread the obvious so soon? After all, Jesus fed everyone who gathered for his outdoor gatherings and did not discriminate between classes. (That was, indeed, one of the problems that people had with Jesus’ strategy.) God cares about all God’s children. All get fed the Same.

Who are we, contemporary Christians, to look askance at our Christian ancestors? In many ways, people have said that we might do the same thing in many ways, some subtle, some, not so subtle. A commentator made the point that, up until recently, some Churches discriminated between Black and White folks, so that poor and rich could have been understood as Black and White.

St James stresses, “Show no partiality!” Yet, again and again, Christians have been challenged that that is exactly what we do in so many ways, many of which we do subconsciously.

Indeed, in his historic “Sermon on the Mound” at Yankee Stadium in Oct, 1979, Pope John Paul said that in our world today the rich represent countries (the First and Second Worlds then, now the Northern Hemisphere nations) and the Third World (the underdeveloped nations throughout the world). God loves all, but God has a special concern for those less fortunate than others. So should we?

On this 911 weekend, when we are sensitized once again that people, rightly or wrongly, have different views of reality than we, we could offer the following prayer:

God of Justice,

You call us to feel deeply the hurts and hopes of your people, and to look deeply at the root causes of poverty and injustice.

We are called to see first, and then, to understand. We are called to be first, and then to act.

As people of faith, we live in the hope of what the world can be, while struggling to understand the causes for what the world is.

Help us to see, judge and act, starting today that we may help transform the world.

In the Name of Christ Jesus, we pray.

091006AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 090306AD

Sunday, Sep 3, 2006AD

22^nd Sunday in Greentime

12^th Sunday after Pentecost

Not Letters of Straw

Martin Luther had a problem with the letter of St James from which we will hear five excerpts in the next few weeks. He felt that the words in the letter, “Faith without works is dead”, contradicted St Paul’s teaching about salvation’s coming through faith alone in Christ Jesus. He referred to the Letter of St James as a “letter of straw.” The consensus begged to differ with Luther on that one.

The letter of St James has been part of the Catholic Bible from the beginning. In our own time, it has come into a new prominence for several reasons. First, it is the most socially and economically focused document in the Christian Scriptures. Second, it probably comes from a date (c.65AD) that places it after St Paul wrote his letters (50’s) and before St Mark put inspired pen to scroll with the composition of the First Gospel, c. 70AD. Third, the author was probably a disciple of James, the “blood relative” of the Lord, on Mary’s side, of course. James himself was murdered in 62AD in a pogrom in Jerusalem against the Jesus Movement, mentioned by Jewish historian Flavius Josephus. Fr Raymond Brown wrote that since Jesus was a descendent of David, a blood relative of Jesus would have been as well. Therefore, James’ blood connection somehow with Jesus as well as with King David, would have given him an ascendancy in the Jesus Movement after St Peter left Jerusalem for other venues. Fourth, the letter represents a very traditional Jewish Christian vision that came to be integrated into the positions of Sts Peter and Paul. In fact, the document is so Jewish in thought that there are only a few references to Christ Jesus in the letter. This paucity of references has caused some Scripture scholars to wonder if the letter were, in fact, a Jewish teaching that was Christianized by the references to JC!

In our reading today, one can se what might have caused Luther some agida, but still it clearly can be reconciled with St Paul’s thought of the gift of faith and salvation in Christ Jesus. It is true that St James says, “Be doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deluding yourselves. Religion …is this: to care for orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained by the world.” However, St James clearly sees that faith is a gift from God in the preceding verse, “Humbly welcome the Word that has been planted in you.” This is the “biblical theological passive,” viz., the unnamed One who does the planting is God.”

Twenty years ago, in 1986, the USA Conference of Catholic Bishops published, Economic Justice for All. Sadly, it was a largely unread document that went unnoticed by most. On its twentieth anniversary, several of its thoughts take on an even greater significance in light of the growing social and economic problems that we face in our nation and throughout the world. Catholics need to acknowledge that Jesus is not only their personal Lord, but that He is our political Lord as well. Jesus is Lord, the first Christian creed, challenges Caesar and the Empire about Who really was running the show. The bishops broached this when they wrote the following in a less complicated time, “The pursuit of economic justice takes believers into the public arena, testing the policies of government by the principles of Catholic teaching. We ask you to become more informed and active citizens…to advance the common good. We are called to shape a constituency of conscience, measuring every policy by how it touches the least, the lost and the left-out among us. With questions such as adequate health care insurance for all and immigration reform that is just and compassionate, both the letters of St James as well as the US bishops in 1986 are hardly to be described as “letters of straw”. How do we respond to St James and the US Bishops? How will you teach your children to respond to them with their life choices? There is a strange irony that we are thus challenged by Jesus’ blood relative and our bishops on Labor Day weekend. 090306AD jfq