Weekly Reflection 112507AD

Sunday, November 25, 2007AD

Christ the King

Whom Do We Trust?

This is a strange Gospel for us to hear on Christ the King Sunday. The last (triple) temptation of Christ to save Himself and His response as a faithful Jew in quoting Psalm 31, “Into Your Hands, I commend My Spirit” hardly seem to fit. To an American Catholic, however, this Gospel is most appropriate and necessary.

Canadian Catholic theologian, Ron Rolheiser, wrote that Western culture is addicted to 1)narcissism (self-love); 2) pragmatism (good if it works); 3) restlessness (never happy, running after more stuff). Such addictions occur both for individuals and groups.

In traditional societies, many people expected initation rites to introduce their teens (particularly the boys) to life in the real world. There seem to be 3 basic realities that the young were taught in these rites. 1) Life can be tough, no matter what they tell you (cf Scott Peck). Enjoy while you can, but someday, know that sickness, accident, old age, disappointment and betrayal come your way. 2) No matter what anyone tells you, you are not the center of the universe. 3) Like it or not, your life is not about you. You are about the Pattern of life and death and life restored, a universal, cosmic Pattern.

At the start of His public ministry, Jesus was tempted by the Devil three times to change God’s plan for Him (if Jesus were truly the Son of God.) Jesus maintained His faith in God’s plan for Him because it was God’s way of showing us (who had messed up since the days of Adam and Eve who “wanted to be like God”) how to live human life. St Luke tells us that Satan departed for an opportune time.

Satan attacked with the final triple temptation in the mockery to “Save yourself”. Jesus’ response at the end of His life was the same as at its start. “God’s will be done.”

These days, many comment on the fact that Christianity has undergone such a revival in born-again movements. What exactly does this mean? Many (politicians and churchpeople alike) frequently proclaim, “Jesus is Lord”, and then, go about their business as if what Jesus’ Gospel meant little or nothing. What about one’s attitude to the death penalty? To immigration? To economic justice? Are one’s opinions influenced by Jesus or by talk show hosts with a penchant for controversy?

In the first days of Christianity, St Paul told the Phillipians that “our true citizenship was in heaven”, not here. St Peter and St Clement described the Church in Rome in the first century as “resident aliens in a world” that seemed to be religious.

When it was apparent that our nation was destined for war in Iraq, the Roman Catholic Church (both Pope John Paul II and the then, Cardinal Ratzinger, urged other ways beside unilateralism to solve problems. Interestingly, 55% of polled US Catholics said that it was more important to them to be American than it was to be Catholic. Sts Peter, Paul and Clement might legitimately ask them to comment on their putative “resident alien” status in this world. Passports are more important than baptismals to these folks.

Jeroboam was the King of Israel after the days of King Solomon. He came up with the “Jeroboam principle”, viz., say that you worship God once in a while and then, go ahead and to do whatever you want, also called “practical atheism”, viz., say that you believe in God, then, do whatever.) The Jews learned the hard way that this can backfire when, in 586 BC and 70 AD, they presumed that God would take care of them, no matter what stunts they pulled.

Many feel that St Luke’s Gospel and Acts of the Apostles might be the most beautiful book ever written. He portrays the Universal Savior as forgiving, other oriented, trusting in God alone. He lived and died that way. In Christ Jesus, we can as well. Do we want to try? Whom do we trust? 112507AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 111807AD

Sunday November 18, 2007AD

33^rd Sunday in Greentime

Didn’t He Say Something?

A Chinese proverb says, “May you live in interesting times.” Both our Church and our nation are changing. We live in interesting times.

Today, in Roma, near the Piazza Navona, stands the Pantheon, a temple to all the gods that was constructed during the time of Jesus. To this day, it is an architectural marvel, in as good condition now as it was then.

Another temple, that Jesus personally visited with the Temple in Jerusalem, which was razed by the Roman armies in September, 70 AD. The only surviving remnant of Herod’s Temple is the “wailing wall”, sacred to Jews on one side and to Islamics on the other side.

Jesus knew something was going down. Though not absolute, the Jerusalem Temple was seen as a boundary marker between Israel and the Gentiles, the pure and the impure, the good and the bad. Still, it did not guarantee that God turned a blind eye to the behavior of those who frequented the Temple and boasted about their attendance and went about their business. In another place, Jesus had asked, “Why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord’ and yet don’t do what I tell you.”

The Biblical prophets, including Jesus, challenged listeners to keep their religion honest and authentic. Don’t expect God to be flattered by your attendance and then, disregard God’s promptings when you return to the reality of the world that you have made for yourself.

God’s people throughout the years frequently lulled themselves into thinking that since God is good, we are God’s people. Others, if they disagreed with God’s people, were bad because God was not on their side.

However, God’s ways are not our ways. As the Scripture asks in many places, “Who knows the Mind of God?” Who can predict how God acts?

The Jewish historian, Flavius Josephus, wrote, “The people of Jerusalem set fire to the city themselves.” Just as Jeremiah had predicted 600 years earlier that God had to act with tough love against Judah in the destruction of Solomon’s Temple for its lack of response to the vision of Jeremiah, some Christians must have felt that the destruction of Herod’s Temple, hinted at by Jesus today in the Gospel, could have been understood in a similar way. Because the people had chosen violence in resistance to Rome, they had rejected the message of the non-violent prophet, Jesus of Nazareth. (cf Luke 6. 27 – 36). Just as Jeremiah had predicted that things would change drastically and radically if the people did not listen to him, so also there must have been some who said that the same thing had happened again when the people, by and large, paid no heed to the non-violent message of Jesus. Things again changed drastically and radically if the people did hear Jesus.

The Jewish historian, Josephus, himself hinted at that. What do you think? 111807AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 111107AD

Sunday November 11, 2007AD

32nd Sunday in Greentime

Not Quite Henry VIII

Many years ago, there was a popular song, “I’m Henry the Eighth, I Am”,during the “British Invasion” spearheaded by the Beatles. Most people remember the song but it was a take-off on today’s Gospel reading. This is one of the few Gospel stories in which Jesus’ ultimate nemesis, Saduccees, the Jerusalem aristocratic establishment, makes an appearance. These were the affluent families who had connections with the temple and who had a working relationship with the Roman oppressors. (One theologian said that when Jesus met His fate on Good Friday, it might have been a deal made between the Saduccees and Pilate that anybody causing problems during Passover was cooked.

As a group, the Saduccees tended to follow only the Torah, the first five books of the Hebrew Bible. There was no reference to immortality and/or an after life in this old stratum of the Bible. Therefore, the Saduccees did not believe in these things. Hence, their question to Jesus was meant to ridicule whatever response Jesus make.

Never One not to confront a challenge, Jesus cleverly used the reference made by God where YHWH self-referred as the God of Abraham and Isaac, who were both dead, yet somehow, remained alive as far as God was concerned. Theologians say that this was a first in Hebrew thought where immortality was assumed by Jesus to have been in the ancient writings all along!

The mindset with which the Saduccees worked was that human intelligence is the final arbiter for what is or is not reality. In a sense, it was an advance notice of Western European Enlightenment theory in the 17^th century, which said that human reason was the ultimate arbiter.

One German theologian, in the twentieth century, taught that while we can know things in the middle of reality, viz., the seasons, the length of a day, etc., the ultimate rim of reality as well as the innermost core of reality ultimately is mystery, “infinitely knowable”, in the sense that we will never stop learning things about reality. (One can never arrive at the edge of the universe; one can never break down an atom completely into its basic elements.)

The biblical question proposed throughout both the Hebrew and the Christian Scriptures is basically, “Who knows the Mind of God?” It is the humble and honest admission that we (or our brains) are not the center of reality. Transcendence and Holy Mystery are the core of all things and the humble, honest person bows one’s head in adoration. Hence, the need for faith.

One of the pivotal scriptures in Judaeo-Christianity (aka Yahwism) is the same Self-identification that Jesus used today in the Gospel reading. YHWH, the God of Abraham and Isaac, is God of Life, God beyond words, God of the Eternal Now. (All are legitimate translations of YHWH!)

The Christian Scriptures refine the definition through the ongoing effect of the Christ Quantum. Now, we know as well that YHWH is Love and those who abide in Love abide in YHWH and YHWH in them.

God’s job description is to create life and to bring it together in Christ Jesus. In God’s Reality, matter and energy and space and time that only matter to us, not to God’s ultimate purpose for reality. Space and time exist for us, not for God.

Jesus adds a great twist in His rebuttal of his antagonists. If, indeed, we are all children of God, then, we become as well “children of the resurrection” God does not have to make plans that are logical to Saduccees then and/or now. God’s categories do not have to jump through the hoops raised by the human intellect.

One Swiss writer said that Catholics profess our belief that we are Children of the Resurrection when we pray the Nicene Creed every Sunday at Mass. He said that the first article of faith in the Creed, “I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth” is simply re-stated in the fourteenth article of faith, “I believe in the Resurrection of the Body and Life in the world to come.” If God is almighty God of Life and of Love, then what is the problem with the almighty God of the Resurrection? Whose wife is she anyway in the Gospel today? Next question, please! 111107AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 110407AD

Sunday, November 4, 2007AD

31^st Sunday in Greentime

Carpe Diem –Grab the Now

Usually, we all think about tax people as we near the dreaded April 15^th deadline for Internal Revenue. However, every few years, Catholics and other Christians who share our common Sunday readings think about tax people as we hear God’s Word on Sunday.

Last weekend, we heard Jesus’ “Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector.” The Pharisee was the “good Joe” who towed the mark, but who congratulated himself when he went to temple to pray. The tax collector got it correctly when he realized that every person stands in need of God’s mercy. Jesus tells us that our God is full of mercy, compassion and forgiveness; honest people know that they need lots of mercy, compassion and forgiveness.

This weekend, another tax collector, Zacchaeus, appears on the scene as Jesus visits Jericho on the last stage of His journey up to Jerusalem.

(Jericho is the oldest city in the world, according to archaeologists, as well as the lowest point on the earth’s surface where people live.)

In this oldest of cities, the little tax collector, hated by all because of his livelihood, had to climb a tree to catch a glimpse of Jesus. However, Jesus knew something about this “reject” that conventional wisdom (the Jericho good Joe’s) did not know. That is why Jesus invited Himself to dinner and lodging at Zacchaeus’ house.

Then, the truth comes out. Hated by his town, Zacchaeus reveals to Jesus (Who apparently already knew it) that while he was wealthy, he had all along been giving one half of his wealth to the poor. In addition, when he found out that he had miscalculated on a tax assessment, he restored his error fourfold. The verb tense indicates that Zacchaeus was already doing this and, somehow, Jesus knew, but the “good Joe’s” did not. God sees reality differently. God sees the full picture. Most people let others interpret reality for them. Who knew? God knew!!

One point that St Luke stresses throughout the Third Gospel is that Jesus has a special love for “rejects”. Recall the prodigal son, the poor widow, the tax collectors, last week and this week.

In this oldest of cities, where people had paid taxes from time immemorial, where people scorned those who were the bad people (usually, not themselves!), Jesus picks up another disciple on His journey. That day was the day of salvation for Zacchaeus finally to get his act together and become a member of the Jesus Movement. “NOW” and “TODAY” are important. For people like Zacchaeus, Jesus passed along the way once and for all, the “NOW” and the “TODAY” of salvation.

Sadly, familiarity can breed contempt. In our relatively, ordered world, in our young adulthood, we should remember to say thanks to God for the blessings given us. We tend to feel that we can, indeed, make our mark by taking the world by storm. (However, our faith tells us that that is well and good so long as we remember to follow God’s Laws, with no moral free zones.)

Still, even in middle-class suburbia, the reality of the shadow side of life confronts us. Unless we have opened ourselves to be prepared in Christ Jesus, we can go off the deep end. These are the “NOW” and “TODAY” in which we can learn to celebrate God’s Presence and Love. Zacchaeus recognized his “NOW” and “TODAY”. In Christ Jesus, may we all do likewise. 110407AD jfq