Sunday, February 17, 2008AD
2nd Sunday in Lent
Listening to Jesus Now
Last Sunday, we heard of the temptation of Adam and Eve to which they succumbed. ”You too can be like God.” However, Jesus offers us the power to resist temptation if we ask.
This perennial temptation remains with us. There are two choices. Either, we can choose YHWH, the God of Life, or, we can believe the Original Lie, viz., we really don’t need God, you know, and so choose the god, EGO (Easing God out) and then, we are on our own, or so we think! Recall last week that Jesus resisted temptation throughout His life and on the cross. We are no so strong, without Him.
The Voice in the Transfiguration tells Peter, James and John, “This is My Beloved Son. Listen to Him.” Don’t listen to others when they contradict what Jesus is saying. Transfiguration occurs shortly after Jesus has predicted His impending destiny of death and Resurrection in
However, Jesus speaks to us though the koan of the Cross, viz., the riddle or enigma that the Crucified Christ is to the “world”, (aka) the “System”. The thrust of the “System” is to fix, to understand, to control (a la our first parents, Adam and Eve). Jesus tells us that that is not the way that human destiny is ultimately played out. Ultimately, all of us experience the mystery of descent and transformation. We need to learn from Christ Jesus the way to surrender, to let go and trust the Holy Mystery. One theologian said “Yuppie types cannot easily comprehend the “koan”, the enigma, the riddle of the Cross because the system speaks just the opposite of the Cross.”
In the cacophony, we scarcely hear the Voice of Jesus. So many vie for our attention and offer an alternative view, which “eases God out”, (acronym, EGO). Many listen to alternative worldviews and buy into them, even in good faith. Sadly, some individuals and institutions (both church and state) claim to call out “Lord, Lord” and then, fail to do what Jesus demands in the Sermon on the Mount. Listen to the candidates these days.
For example, in steroid scandals in professional and amateur sports, why do athletes do what they do? Are they following the Voice of YHWH, proclaimed by Jesus or the Ego-nic voice of pride, of profits, of prestige? When we hear that so many receive a slap on the wrist, one can only wonder what is operative in the minds of those who tolerate such behavior.
Another startling example now is that of genetic reproduction. Recently, we heard that one’s favorite pet can be cloned. (In fact, a cat has been cloned already.) Anybody with half a brain knows what we will all be hearing soon. Talk of designer children (never of designer old people) can almost be predicted. One wonders what the Creator thinks!
How often do Catholic people succumb (without serious reflection) to conventional wisdom about violence as quick fixes in a world that is out of control? Jim Wallis, in the Great Awakening, broaches this question.
As we hear the Voice telling us, “Listen to Jesus”, we recall the Jesus tells us in the first Beatitude, “Blessed is that person who, with God’s Help, tries to acknowledge God as the center of reality because that person is heading in the right direction.” However, there was another voice that we heard recently, viz., that of the Tempter, “You too can be like God.”
It is not an exaggeration that the primordial sin of the human race has been arrogance, an attempt to be something that we are not. Like it or not, we are not God. To attempt to control reality through military or political power, through profits, through prosperity, through prestige, through anything which we absolutize is an insult to God. The god of conventional wisdom (EGO) tells us to ease God out as the center of reality, placing ourselves in control. How long can it be before we self-destruct?
