Weekly Reflection 062809AD

June 28, 2009AD

Thirteenth Sunday in Greentime

It’s Not about the Money!!

All major religious groups have bills to be paid. Heating, maintenance, upkeep – the list goes on and on. Cynics say that organized religion is a business. Honest people know differently.

The three major “religions of the Book”, viz., Judaism, Christianity and Islam, have, as basic tenets of their faith, the obligation to take care of the less fortunate in their midst. The modern term is “ethical monotheism”. If there is one God, then all are God’s daughters and sons and siblings of one another. When one of our sibs is in trouble, God is concerned and we better be concerned as well.

The Jesus Movement within the first 25 years of the New Testament faced the problem of the poor in their midst. Fr Raymond Brown said back in the 1970’s that there may have been a group of Jewish Christians in Jerusalem who apparently might have pooled their resources for the communal use of goods. These folks, Fr Brown speculates, might have been called the “Anawim YHWH”, a group of Jewish Christians who literally surrendered their material wealth to the good of the community!

However, we know that this was not the common practice. It was not expected that all would surrender all to the group. That this is the case is testified to by our second reading from 2 Cor 8, The Jesus Movement in Greece was passing their turbans around for a collection for the “needy in Jerusalem”, Anawim YHWH that Brown posits.

Jewish Christians strove for Yaqat, the “one-ness”, of the Jesus Movement in Palestine. (St Luke testifies to this throughout the Acts of the Apostles.) In Greek the word that Greek speakers of the Jesus Movement would have used was koinonia, solidarity.

St Paul was very committed to the symbolic value of what was called “the Great Collection.” As a sign of one-ness or solidarity, the collection was seen by St Paul as a means of unification of the Jesus Movement, both at home in Palestine or throughout the port cities around the Meditterrean, if they spoke Hebrew, Aramaic or Greek, the biblical languages.

St Paul had promised the leaders of the Jerusalem Jesus Movement that he would make every effort to collect funds for the poor in Jerusalem. Recall that there were at least three distinct groups in the Jesus Movement in the outlying areas. 1) There were Jews living away from Palestine. 2) There were Gentiles, non Jews who attended Jewish synagogues in the outlying areas because they were attracted to the values and ethics of Jewish ethical monotheism. (NB— It was the second group from which many new Christians emerged in the Jesus Movement.) 3) There were Gentiles who turned from the various pagan religions to the Jesus Movement. New members of the Jesus Movement in the outlying areas were included now in the Yaqat, the koinonia of the worldwide Jesus Movement.

It is interesting that the drive to Yaqat or Koinonia in Christ Jesus continues under different terms today. Our US Catholic Church sponsors Catholic Relief Services from problems throughout the world. Within the USA, we maintain Catholic Campaign for Human Development. Within the Archdiocese of NY, we maintain Catholic Charities. Within our parish, we support many efforts at Yaqat, the koinonia in a variety of ways. For almost twenty years now, our Teen LIFE Group has led many of our creative and vanguard projects, from the girls training school in India to a variety of local causes. The FIAT initative of Project Embrace recently completed Food for Hope with neighboring food pantries in both NY and Greenwich. Our parish has supported for a long time the Ecumenical Food Pantry in Pleasantville. Our parish maintains our weekly Food First Program, viz, where we bring food to church as a form of “pew rent” where we emulate the custom of our Christian ancestors in the house churches to bring offerings for the poor as a sign of gratitude for the gift of the Eucharist. This summer, we focus on foodstuffs beginning with the letter “P”, parmalat, peanut butter, pasta, pinto beans, whatever. Finally, we offer scholarships for needy students in our parish community who are unable to afford tuition in our religious education program. In Christ Jesus, the Jesus Movement in St Patrick’s in Armonk tries to keep the tradition alive!!

Our second reading today challenges an idea that has permeated some Christian circles. All Christians are not expected to surrender everything to the poor! (This was the model for some in the Jerusalem Jesus Movement, the Anawim YHWH, but it was not the model for all.) 1) Rather, there was meant to be a sharing with those in need. “Not that others should have relief while you are burdened, but that as a matter of equality, your abundance at the present time should supply their needs, so that their abundance may also supply your needs, that they may be equality.” 2) Gospel living presumes in the first century as well as the twenty-first century, that power, prestige and possessions are not ends in themselves. Rather, God’s gifts make demands upon all. Our lives are centered in God in Christ Jesus. May our Jesus Movement here at St Patrick’s always reflect basic Gospel values. 062809AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 062109AD

Sunday June 21, 2009AD

12^th Sunday in Greentime

Hardly Ordinary

The Third Millenium is going quickly. We are fast approaching the end of its first decade. Where did the last several years go?

Each year, the Church makes a tremendous linguistic blunder by talking about the various “Sundays in ordinary Time”. While we are not focusing attention on Advent-Christmas-Epiphany in the beginning of winter or on Lent-Easter-Pentecost in the late winter-early spring, other times are hardly ordinary.

What the liturgical calendar means is “time marked by ordinal numbers”. It is meant to correlate the readings and prayers for each Sunday when we do not focus on specific aspects of the salvation Christ wins for us.

Seen this way, we should refer to the 10^th, 11^th, 12^th, etc. Sundays in Ordinal Time. Why not name the Sunday in a more intelligible and appropriate way? As Pope John Paul II taught, “Every Sunday is Easter Sunday”. Every Sunday, we celebrate the Easter victory of Christ Jesus for all of creation.

You and I live in the Third Millenium of the New Testament. This is hardly “ordinary time”. At the very least, it is “Extraordinary Time.” In Ireland and England, for example, the time is called “Greentime” because green is the color of hope and growth.

Also, every year is a ‘Year of the Lord”. “AD” means Anno Domini, viz., the Year of the Lord, (Jesus).

Why not begin writing the letters AD after the year each time that you write the date? This way, you constantly remind yourself (and others) that Christ Jesus is the Center of History, certainly the Center of your history. It is a silent and subtle form of evangelization. Not just the year 2009, rather it is 2009AD (in the Year of the Lord Jesus.)

Just as every Sunday or week is extraordinary, so also, every year is extraordinary. It is a Year of the Lord (Jesus)!

Around here we speak of “reflexive religious moments”. While every moment is a religious moment because God is calling is into existence to Life, Love and Light, we do not always have the time to be returning the compliment constantly.

Therefore, it is incumbent on us to build in specific moments of “reflexive religion”. These are moments when not only is God dwelling in us, but we are dwelling in God as well. Examples of these moments, remember, include a quick morning prayer, a quick evening prayer, grace before meals. Impress your kids!!

Another prime time for “reflexive religion” is our weekly gathering for the Sunday Eucharist. The parish (our para-oikia) is our other home, a family home of all our families.

We bolster one another’s faith and hope by our gathering as church. To do so makes every Sunday “Extraordinary” and every year a “Year of the Lord.”

But that is only the start. Weekly attendance at Sunday Mass is an act of acquaintance with God and the community in Christ Jesus. Acquaintance with many should lead to familiarity with those with whom we are closer. Familiarity with God and the community in Christ Jesus might take shape during the week with a daily Mass once in a while (bring the kids!!) , a little time for Bible reading with serious Christian resources (usually not available on cable TV) or personal readings of Catholic tradition of the past or present.

Still, there is an even crucial level to “reflexive religion”. Each person, no matter age or vocation, needs to respond the God’s invitation to each of us to intimacy, slowing down in solitude and silence to be present to the Presence of the Lord in you each moment. Australian theologians refer to the deep incarnation, viz., God is present in all reality, therefore, God exists in you (and you exist in God). As Blaise Pascal, devout Catholic mathematician 350 years ago, said, “If each person could slow down and sit still quietly for 20 minutes each day and be present to God, then peace would come into the world (at least of that person’s life)!

As the haunting figures of God and Job confront us in our first reading today, we are reminded of crucial quotes in the epic work. In the midst of a middle class life, Job was confronted with severe trials. When challenged to turn his back on God in anger, Job made several remarkable statements. 1) We accept good things from God, should we not accept the bad as well? 2) Naked came I forth from my mother’s womb and naked shall I return. 3) The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the Name of YHWH. Job had to have responded to the call to intimacy with God to make such statements. He spent his 20 minutes a day in intimacy with God.

Each person will face days when confront the same challenges as Job. Do we accept God’s regimen to prepare for such by answering God’s call to intimacy with each? Our culture has lost a sense of the eternal in the temporal, the infinite in the finite, the sacred in the secular, the mystery in our history. The scene in Armonk needs people like you (desperately) to remind us what is really important, even and most especially on a summer Sunday. God comes first!! Restoring each Sunday to its proper focus can do much to help us re-interpret the rest of the week and year and our lives. 062109AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 061409AD

Sunday June 14, 2009AD

Corpus Christi

God’s Twentieth Century Surprise

We celebrate the memory of Pope John XXIII, who died on June 3, 1963. If you were around then, you recall the short time of his ministry. You still live with the effects of his Spirit-filled Petrine Ministry.

(In St Peter’s Basilica, by far, the two most visited sites are the tomb of St Peter under the main altar and the tomb of Pope John, off to the side.) Many of our St Patrick’s pilgrims to the Eternal City stopped to pray there for a while in February. There is a reason for the popularity of Pope John’s tomb.

In the papal election of 1958, the Cardinals thought that an interim Pope would be best because they felt that no suitable successor to Pope Pius XII was available. They deliberately elected the 77 year old Patriarch of Venice as an interim.

What an interim he was!! In his four and a half year ministry, Pope John responded to the call of the Holy Spirit for an ecumenical council to bring aggiorniamento, an updating of the Catholic Church. He wanted to open the windows of the Church to the world recovering from World War II. In addition, he tried to mediate the Cold War between the USA and the USSR with his great encyclical, Pacem in Terris.

His death was mourned by people all over the world. He is still remembered today.

One of the practical changes brought about by the Holy Spirit in Vatican II was the reform of the liturgy of the Eucharist. Today as we celebrate Corpus Christi, we gather with a reformed and renewed sense. We are a welcomed and welcoming people who listen to the Word of God and worship at the Table of the Lord. We are renewed by the Spirit as witnesses to Jesus the rest of the 167 hours of the week ahead. We commit ourselves to welfare of others, not ourselves only.

We strive, with God’s Help, to share the Body of Christ so that we become the Body of Christ. We are all called and we convene or come together. We come as a community, not as individuals. We try to commit more and more, with God’s Help, to the Christic view of reality proclaimed by Jesus. We are companions on the Way for one another. We are committed to a catholic (wholistic) worldview. We are concerned with the complete person (body, mind, soul and spirit) both of our neighbor as well as ourselves and we care about all creation. Everything is connected, relational.

Pope John’s deathbed message in June, 1963 said in part, “Now more than ever, certainly more than in the past centuries, our intentions (as a Church) is to serve people as such and not only Catholics; to defend above all and everywhere the rights of the human person and not only of the Catholic Church; it is not the Gospel that changes; it is we who begin to understand it better…The moment has arrived when we must recognize the signs of the times, seize the opportunity and look far abroad.”

The Holy Spirit used the wonderful days of the short ministry of Blessed John and the years of Vatican II to help us understand more clearly that our Catholic faith is deeply incarnational. (We live in God and God lives in us.) Our life as a Church is historical, sociological and sacramental. We truly believe that God works in the ordinary events of life, through people, through water, through water and wine, through the oils of anointing, through the written Word of God of Scripture.

The Holy Spirit sent Pope John into our world in 1958 to unleash again the evolutionary process that had begun in the upper room on Pentecost morning, 30 AD. We pray that our church heed the signs of the times once more and make the aggiornamentos necessary to thrive anew.

Another buzzword that came into vogue during the days of preparation for Vatican II was the French word, resourcement, viz., going back to our apostolic roots in the sense of looking to the Apostolic Churches of the New Testament for an idea of what our Christian ancestors had in mind. How do we replicate what the first generations of Christians saw their mission in an authentic modern fashion, in accordance with the authentic Traditions of the Church? (There were more than a few who said that the concept of resourcement might have been the most radical of the trends at Vatican II. (“Back to one’s roots” is the etymology of the word “radical”)) .

Finally, Vatican Council II picked up Blessed John’s Farewell Address by teaching us that our understanding of our Christian faith is still in development. For example, in earlier days, Christians took the notion of slavery as a given. In Vatican II, we understand that our God wishes nobody to be in slavery to anyone else. Our understanding of the Deposit of Faith is progressive, evolving. When asked about the fact that such a basic question as slavery was re-interpreted, Blessed John’s response was, “We know more now.”

The Holy Spirit surprised us then and will continue to do so. As 1 Peter told us throughout Easter, through baptism, we became a “Chosen Race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people set apart.” St Paul quoted the lyrics of a baptismal hymn in Gal 3.28, “In Christ there is no Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female. All are one in Christ Jesus.” In the midst of this period of purgation which we experience as a church, we pray that the Spirit raise up leaders to prepare us for the future, as we reflect on Peter and Paul’s words, as well as the words of their successors, such as Blessed John, Pope Paul VI and the Second Vatican Council. Even now, we see happy changes came not after Vatican Council II, but before and during its meetings as well. 061409AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 060709AD

Sunday, June 7, 2009AD

Trinity Sunday

You Can’t Make This Up!!

800 years ago, St Bonaventure said, “Everything is a thumbprint or a footprint of God”. Believers, now as ever, look at the beauty of creation, at dawn or at any time, to experience what is called “God’s primordial revelation.” Each day and the wonders that it brings is God’s Present to us; hence, we call it “The Present.” (Don’t forget to say thanks to God each morning for the Present. It is only when you get older that your realize what a gift each day is.)

800 years ago, as well, Meister Eckhardt, a German Dominican theologian, used three simple images to serve as metaphors for the Mystery of the Holy Trinity Whom we celebrate today. 1) The Father loves the Son; the Son loves the Father in return; the Love between Father and Son is the Holy Spirit. 2) The Father enjoys the Son; the Son enjoys the Father; the enjoyment between Father and Son is the Holy Spirit. 3) The Father dances with the Son; the Son dances with the Father; the Dance of the Father and Son is the Holy Spirit.

The image of the Dancing Trinity, surprisingly, is an ancient one in Church History. The Greek Fathers of the Church spoke of the Trinity as a Perichoresis , viz., a dancing around. (Do you see the etymology of the word “chorus” in the Greek term?)

From our earliest days, we have learned that each person is created in the image and likeness of God. Our catechisms taught us that our ability to know and to love was our divine likeness. While maintaining the same teaching, another spin on the words of Genesis 1 interprets the biblical quote from divine to human. 1) If the three persons of the Trinity are all equal, then, every human person is equal to one another. 2) If the three persons of the Trinity are relational, then, every human person thrives in relationship. 3) If ultimately, the three Persons of the Trinity are incomprehensible (can never be known exhaustively), then every human person is ultimately incomprehensible (can never be known exhaustively, even by oneself!)

Fr Karl Rahner said that most Christians live our lives without any reference to the Trinity. Skeptics have made jest of it throughout the years.

However, these days, in Catholic Quantum theology, we remember that the cosmos, the macro-universe appears to be in an orbital relationship. (The Hubble Telescope has been done over and, please God, will provide data from the farthest reaches of the universe, which is still expanding!) Then, too, we recall that the atom, the micro-universe, is in orbital relationship as well. High tech microscopes hint that we will never be able to get to the smallest particle of matter. (One German physicist-theologian said in the last century that we can only measure what is measurable. We need to admit that there are some realities by which we live that ultimately are beyond left-brain, logical, critical thinking.)

The mystery of what is “way out there and what is way in here” mirrors the Mystery of all reality, of which the very Mystery of “little old you and me” are a part”. Our Catholic thought has always taught that God is relational. Now, we see that not only humanity (the pinnacle of God’s creation) thrives in relationship, so also does reality in its outermost and innermost dimensions. God thrives in us and we thrive in God.

Everyone remembers the vignette of St Augustine’s realizing that it would be easier to pour the Mediterrean Sea into a hole on the beach than to grasp the Mystery of God, One in Three. Still, following St Bonaventure and Meister Eckhardt and Karl Rahner and St Augustine, as well as St Patrick with his shamrock, we rejoice and live in the Holy Mystery because the Holy Mystery rejoices and lives in us. It is good to belong to God. 060709AD jfq