A Religion for Grown-up’s!
When 1st Peter writes to his flock, he speaks to the entire community, viz., “the baptized called to be the “priestly people, etc.” He reminds them that, at times, there will, indeed, be great difficulties associated with the faith of Jesus Christ. He continues that theme this weekend.
He tells them then, and us now, “Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope”. Recall, sociologists tell us that our earliest Christian ancestors in the Jesus Movement were remarkably similar to us in socio-economic background! (However, we are probably better educated.)
The Gospels and rest of the New Testament letters were addressed to adults, not children. Again, Sts Peter and Paul and company addressed adults and left it to grownups to communicate to children the message with which the New Testament letters were concerned.
It is important for 21st century Catholics to remember that our religion is for all ages, not just the young. While we have stressed, traditionally, in the USA, the religious formation of children, it has become a serious goal in the past 20 years to make adult religious education a total parish commitment.
While Jesus blessed children, He didn’t specifically teach them. He left it to families to communicate the Word to children.
Pope John Paul II urged the Catholic world to a New Evangelization, back in 1995, in anticipation of the turn of the Third Millennium. The slogan for it was to educate, catechize, adult Catholics to “hear the Gospel again – maybe, for the first time.” The idea was that God’s Word does not change; rather we do. So we change as “hearers of the Word.” Back then, we spoke of the “evangelical helix”, viz., the various ways in which Catholics celebrate our faith. We had the “SBNR” (“spirituals but not religious”) on the fringes. We hoped in the Holy Spirit, to segue many, at least, into “occasionals”. We hoped in the Holy Spirit to have the “occasionals” segue into “regulars”. We hope in the Holy Spirit to have the “regulars” segue into “apostolic disciples”, engaged in various ministries to supplement their status as regulars. Thank the Holy Spirit, we still make some progress here.
Next, in 2000AD, our parish was one of seven Archdiocesan parishes selected to participate in a commitment to total parish catechesis, young and old alike. The program was funded by a grant from General Motors to promote adult religious learning. Our goal in 2000 was to implement a newly published teaching manual for Adults, “Our Hearts Were Burning Within Us”. We try to maintain the best for the religious education of the entire community. We hope that while adults understand that the parish commits itself to a structured religious education program for our children, we aim high for a quality program for all our parishioners. We adjust regularly.
In 2005, the Archdiocese endorsed “The Family Catechesis Program”, which has been successful in our parish. The methodology was to sponsor inter-generational gatherings in which a religious theme would be focused and then, some hands-on activity by the people involved. Finally, some food and refreshments were served. Such events as Bible Bingo, our sacramental Blessing Cup Meals and Confirmation, Great Generation Salutes, potluck suppers wonderfully fill the bill.
In an effort to integrate all three drives in total parish catechesis, we are inaugurating on a trial basis a new program in religious education next fall. We are offering options to third and fifth grade families either to elect a traditional template of religious education on Sunday mornings. Otherwise, students will be home-schooled by their own parents, with mandatory testing provided by the religious text book producers, as part of family catechesis here at the Parish a few times in the year.
In imitation of Jesus and the inspired biblical writers, we aim at the entire parish and trust to the Holy Spirit that parents and families, “the first teachers of their children in the ways of faith and hope” assist us in that project. Grownups, talk about what your faith means to you all the time. Explain the Word of God even in the car as you return home each weekend to your own House Church. Let us all proclaim the Word in the houses as well as on the housetops!
In his first encyclical, St Peter tells us, “Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you (your children, in this case) for a reason for your hope, but do it with gentleness and reverence”. In Christ Jesus, let us try once again. 52911AD jfq
Friday, May 27, 2011
Friday, May 20, 2011
Reflection: 052211AD
A 21st Century Altar of Peace
Ancient Rome which had built an Empire based on violence and conquest propagandized their reign of terror as the Pax Romana, the Roman Peace. In fact, in Rome itself, they constructed an Ara Pacis, an altar of peace. Things seemed peaceful if you toed the mark. However, if you dared to deviate, you were in big trouble. Many died violently (including the Son of God) during this “peace”. The author of 1st Peter tells us today that just as Jesus, rejected by the builders, became the cornerstone, so that through the Spirit, we will be built into a temple of worship. The author was encouraging his readers to put up a good defense against their growing alienation from the so-called “civilized” world, aka the System. Just as Jesus was rejected by the System, so also His followers can be rejected as well. However, God has other plans. Each of us and all of us are enlivened by the Spirit of Jesus Christ and we are asked to live daily lives of service to God and to one another. With God’s Help, we sometimes succeed. At other times, we fail miserably. When one sins and fails miserably, one’s enemies are quick to throw it up in your face and scoff.
Catholics are expected to behave differently. We claim to have met and have been changed by Christ Jesus. Psychologists tell us that we are impacted by every person with whom we have contact. Quantum physicists tell us that we generate “vibration fields or force fields or gravity fields.” Catholics believe that Jesus has an impact on each of us, sometimes, greater, other times, lesser.
The holy priesthood about which 1 Peter speaks in our reading today refers to the daily liturgy that each Catholic person offers to God through Jesus Christ. Whatever it is that you do, whether a spouse, a parent, a child, a relative, a neighbor, a friend, a co-worker, your interactions with others should be (and can be) affected by your union with Jesus Christ. Because you are affected by Jesus Christ, your response to His influence should be your everyday Christian life, lived with His Help as best you can. In this way, you offer spiritual sacrifices as a “chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of His own” Our Sunday liturgy should be a source and summation of what our lives are during the other 167 hours of the week.
As we know, not all of us Catholics, clerical and lay, live becomingly our relationship in Christ Jesus. We know this, but we get frequent sad, painful reminders always.
Interestingly, thirty years ago, Pope John Paul II used the theme of building up a temple of peace made of individual mosaic tiles of human hearts. It was during his historic visit to Coventry, England during the Anglo-Argentine War over the Malvinas (aka the Falkland Islands) in the south Atlantic.
The Pope had planned his visit to England for several years and it was historic because it was the first visit to England by a Pope since the days of Henry VIII. To the surprise and chagrin of many, war broke out between England (Protestant??) and Argentina (95% Catholic). How would it appear for the Pope to visit a nation at war with a Catholic country. The Pope demanded a command performance of a Mass for Peace concelebrated by Archbishops of Westminster and of Buenos Aires, during which they offered one another the Sign of Peace. Then, the Pope traveled to England and then, to Argentina in hastily arranged pilgrimage as well.
While in England, the Pope made a plea for people to build up a temple of peace made up of their hearts that were trying with God’s Help to renounce violence as a legitimate recourse in the twentieth century. He challenged English Catholics ( as well as anyone who would listen) to think twice before following the conventional wisdom of Margaret Thatcher and of the Argentine generals who favored war (sending other people’s children and/or parents, not their own) to take the spotlight off domestic problems which each nation faced.
The Pope’s Coventry sermon, as well as his two addresses in the United Nations as well as his words at the original Ground Zero in Hiroshima, Japan, resonate beautifully with the US Catholic bishops’ Challenge of Peace of 1983. (John Cardinal O’Connor, one of the principal authors of the letter died on the anniversary of its publication.) Pope John Paul had a message for us as well when he visited us the first time in October, 1979. He reminded us to avoid people who generate hatred and bad feelings among people. What would Blessed John Paul say to us in 2011AD about the spiritual altar of peace that Christ is trying to build with each of our individual lives? One can only wonder! 052211AD jfq
Ancient Rome which had built an Empire based on violence and conquest propagandized their reign of terror as the Pax Romana, the Roman Peace. In fact, in Rome itself, they constructed an Ara Pacis, an altar of peace. Things seemed peaceful if you toed the mark. However, if you dared to deviate, you were in big trouble. Many died violently (including the Son of God) during this “peace”. The author of 1st Peter tells us today that just as Jesus, rejected by the builders, became the cornerstone, so that through the Spirit, we will be built into a temple of worship. The author was encouraging his readers to put up a good defense against their growing alienation from the so-called “civilized” world, aka the System. Just as Jesus was rejected by the System, so also His followers can be rejected as well. However, God has other plans. Each of us and all of us are enlivened by the Spirit of Jesus Christ and we are asked to live daily lives of service to God and to one another. With God’s Help, we sometimes succeed. At other times, we fail miserably. When one sins and fails miserably, one’s enemies are quick to throw it up in your face and scoff.
Catholics are expected to behave differently. We claim to have met and have been changed by Christ Jesus. Psychologists tell us that we are impacted by every person with whom we have contact. Quantum physicists tell us that we generate “vibration fields or force fields or gravity fields.” Catholics believe that Jesus has an impact on each of us, sometimes, greater, other times, lesser.
The holy priesthood about which 1 Peter speaks in our reading today refers to the daily liturgy that each Catholic person offers to God through Jesus Christ. Whatever it is that you do, whether a spouse, a parent, a child, a relative, a neighbor, a friend, a co-worker, your interactions with others should be (and can be) affected by your union with Jesus Christ. Because you are affected by Jesus Christ, your response to His influence should be your everyday Christian life, lived with His Help as best you can. In this way, you offer spiritual sacrifices as a “chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of His own” Our Sunday liturgy should be a source and summation of what our lives are during the other 167 hours of the week.
As we know, not all of us Catholics, clerical and lay, live becomingly our relationship in Christ Jesus. We know this, but we get frequent sad, painful reminders always.
Interestingly, thirty years ago, Pope John Paul II used the theme of building up a temple of peace made of individual mosaic tiles of human hearts. It was during his historic visit to Coventry, England during the Anglo-Argentine War over the Malvinas (aka the Falkland Islands) in the south Atlantic.
The Pope had planned his visit to England for several years and it was historic because it was the first visit to England by a Pope since the days of Henry VIII. To the surprise and chagrin of many, war broke out between England (Protestant??) and Argentina (95% Catholic). How would it appear for the Pope to visit a nation at war with a Catholic country. The Pope demanded a command performance of a Mass for Peace concelebrated by Archbishops of Westminster and of Buenos Aires, during which they offered one another the Sign of Peace. Then, the Pope traveled to England and then, to Argentina in hastily arranged pilgrimage as well.
While in England, the Pope made a plea for people to build up a temple of peace made up of their hearts that were trying with God’s Help to renounce violence as a legitimate recourse in the twentieth century. He challenged English Catholics ( as well as anyone who would listen) to think twice before following the conventional wisdom of Margaret Thatcher and of the Argentine generals who favored war (sending other people’s children and/or parents, not their own) to take the spotlight off domestic problems which each nation faced.
The Pope’s Coventry sermon, as well as his two addresses in the United Nations as well as his words at the original Ground Zero in Hiroshima, Japan, resonate beautifully with the US Catholic bishops’ Challenge of Peace of 1983. (John Cardinal O’Connor, one of the principal authors of the letter died on the anniversary of its publication.) Pope John Paul had a message for us as well when he visited us the first time in October, 1979. He reminded us to avoid people who generate hatred and bad feelings among people. What would Blessed John Paul say to us in 2011AD about the spiritual altar of peace that Christ is trying to build with each of our individual lives? One can only wonder! 052211AD jfq
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Reflection: May 15, 2011AD
Who Runs Your Show?
Traditionally, the 4th Sunday of Easter is known as “Good Shepherd Sunday”. Consoling images, both of God the Father as the Good Shepherd and of Jesus Christ as the Good Shepherd, are reinforced by Psalm 23, the most popular of all psalms, as well as by John 10, where Jesus identifies Himself as the Good Shepherd.
This week, 1st Peter uses the very same imagery as he speaks to a harried group of Christians, then and now. Then, followers of Jesus were alienated from the mainstream of conventional wisdom because they practiced Christian ethical monotheism. Christians said that people should behave in a more human fashion in our dealings with one another. We claim that we walk to a different tune from Jesus, viz., that we are not hypnotized by the superficiality of a mass consciousness controlled by the System.
However, some of us still buy the spiel. In addition, we Christians do not always practice what we preach. Therefore, Christians fail and sin in our response to the call of God in our lives. We do not always live, as a community and/or as individuals in community, becomingly the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Sin was a factor, then, as it is now. Christians fail, at times, to live the life that God expects of us.
1st Peter tells his readers that there will be crises in which Christians might suffer. If Christians are harassed, it should be for doing what is right and just. He warns that Christians must never give scandal. We must act as responsible citizens. If we are ever persecuted, it should only be for doing what is right in God’s eyes.
He focuses his argument on Jesus as “the Suffering Servant”, which is derived from the prophet known as Second Isaiah. “He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.” He handed Himself over to the One Who judges justly. Through his innocence, we who had gone astray like sheep have now returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of our souls.
Quite legitimately, the Greek words for “shepherd” and “guardian” have interesting nuances for 21st century Catholics. The first Greek word, poime, translates as “shepherd” or “pastor”. The second Greek word, episcokopos, translates as “guardian or overseer or bishop” Therefore, arguing from 1st Peter, each Catholic can say that his or her Pastor and Bishop is the vindicated Suffering Servant, Jesus Christ.
All Church people, lay, religious and clergy, need to remember Christ Jesus, the One Who is the Shepherd, Pastor and Bishop. We all need to acknowledge that Jesus has expectations of each of us. He will help us achieve those expectations for our own good and for the good of others. He asks us to follow the example that He leaves us in the patterns of His own behavior.
If we are persecuted for doing so, “we are to be patient for suffering for doing what is good.” That is following the pattern of Jesus the Suffering Servant.
However, it is required that we, as individuals and as individuals in community and as a Church community, avoid what is sinful and harmful to the welfare of another person. Here, when we fail, we have to be accountable for our failures. We have to be sure that such failures do not happen again. We have to see how we can change structures within our Church not germane to the Gospel Message of the Good Shepherd, our Pastor and Bishop.
Our church is in a process of purification now. We have to remember that Jesus is the Good Shepherd Who wants us to follow Him. While remaining true to the Gospel, it is time for Catholics to stop re-arranging the deckchairs on the Titanic. We hit the iceberg about 40 years ago. The Jesus Movement will survive as we experience difficult transformation. We are experiencing the Paschal Paradox right now. We have ascended; now we are descending; in Christ Jesus, we are already experiencing transformation. It just may not be the transformation that we wanted.
As one liturgical scholar put it recently, Christ Jesus is the Celebrant of every Eucharist. One of the group presides in His Name. There are, in attendance, a priestly community (guess whom?) who, by the hundreds, are re-commissioned weekly to be sent out to proclaim by our ordinary behavior that we take the implications of Jesus seriously in our daily lives. (Neither dancing in Times Square and/or Ground Zero nor cheering on marching bands on TV talk shows might not have been the way to do so. Neither would a smirk at hearing what was in the enemy’s medicine cabinet nor what DVD’s he had in his collection) Whenever we do not do so, we have to be accountable for our actions. However, the Lord is our Shepherd. We need to remember that, always, we are empowered by the Good Shepherd to live in His pattern. 051511AD jfq
Traditionally, the 4th Sunday of Easter is known as “Good Shepherd Sunday”. Consoling images, both of God the Father as the Good Shepherd and of Jesus Christ as the Good Shepherd, are reinforced by Psalm 23, the most popular of all psalms, as well as by John 10, where Jesus identifies Himself as the Good Shepherd.
This week, 1st Peter uses the very same imagery as he speaks to a harried group of Christians, then and now. Then, followers of Jesus were alienated from the mainstream of conventional wisdom because they practiced Christian ethical monotheism. Christians said that people should behave in a more human fashion in our dealings with one another. We claim that we walk to a different tune from Jesus, viz., that we are not hypnotized by the superficiality of a mass consciousness controlled by the System.
However, some of us still buy the spiel. In addition, we Christians do not always practice what we preach. Therefore, Christians fail and sin in our response to the call of God in our lives. We do not always live, as a community and/or as individuals in community, becomingly the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Sin was a factor, then, as it is now. Christians fail, at times, to live the life that God expects of us.
1st Peter tells his readers that there will be crises in which Christians might suffer. If Christians are harassed, it should be for doing what is right and just. He warns that Christians must never give scandal. We must act as responsible citizens. If we are ever persecuted, it should only be for doing what is right in God’s eyes.
He focuses his argument on Jesus as “the Suffering Servant”, which is derived from the prophet known as Second Isaiah. “He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.” He handed Himself over to the One Who judges justly. Through his innocence, we who had gone astray like sheep have now returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of our souls.
Quite legitimately, the Greek words for “shepherd” and “guardian” have interesting nuances for 21st century Catholics. The first Greek word, poime, translates as “shepherd” or “pastor”. The second Greek word, episcokopos, translates as “guardian or overseer or bishop” Therefore, arguing from 1st Peter, each Catholic can say that his or her Pastor and Bishop is the vindicated Suffering Servant, Jesus Christ.
All Church people, lay, religious and clergy, need to remember Christ Jesus, the One Who is the Shepherd, Pastor and Bishop. We all need to acknowledge that Jesus has expectations of each of us. He will help us achieve those expectations for our own good and for the good of others. He asks us to follow the example that He leaves us in the patterns of His own behavior.
If we are persecuted for doing so, “we are to be patient for suffering for doing what is good.” That is following the pattern of Jesus the Suffering Servant.
However, it is required that we, as individuals and as individuals in community and as a Church community, avoid what is sinful and harmful to the welfare of another person. Here, when we fail, we have to be accountable for our failures. We have to be sure that such failures do not happen again. We have to see how we can change structures within our Church not germane to the Gospel Message of the Good Shepherd, our Pastor and Bishop.
Our church is in a process of purification now. We have to remember that Jesus is the Good Shepherd Who wants us to follow Him. While remaining true to the Gospel, it is time for Catholics to stop re-arranging the deckchairs on the Titanic. We hit the iceberg about 40 years ago. The Jesus Movement will survive as we experience difficult transformation. We are experiencing the Paschal Paradox right now. We have ascended; now we are descending; in Christ Jesus, we are already experiencing transformation. It just may not be the transformation that we wanted.
As one liturgical scholar put it recently, Christ Jesus is the Celebrant of every Eucharist. One of the group presides in His Name. There are, in attendance, a priestly community (guess whom?) who, by the hundreds, are re-commissioned weekly to be sent out to proclaim by our ordinary behavior that we take the implications of Jesus seriously in our daily lives. (Neither dancing in Times Square and/or Ground Zero nor cheering on marching bands on TV talk shows might not have been the way to do so. Neither would a smirk at hearing what was in the enemy’s medicine cabinet nor what DVD’s he had in his collection) Whenever we do not do so, we have to be accountable for our actions. However, the Lord is our Shepherd. We need to remember that, always, we are empowered by the Good Shepherd to live in His pattern. 051511AD jfq
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Reflection: 050811AD
Gather the One Group
During the 1950’s, there was a comedy series, entitled “The Life of Riley”. The show was about a Brooklyn family who had moved to Los Angeles. (This was before the Dodgers did the same. Many of the characters in the series were Brooklyn expatriates who formed an organization, the “Brooklyn Patriots of Los Angeles” (BPLA). They met regularly to talk about the Borough of Churches, their old home.
One of the ways in which we can understand 1st Peter’s encouragement of his audience was to remind them that they were “colonists”, or “sojourners” in this world, no matter where they lived. (Jim Wallis’ group, the Sojourners, trying to stimulate a Great Awakening in our nation based on Gospel values, takes its name from this term in 1 Peter.)
St Peter reminds his audience, then and now, that the stakes are high. Each of us is saved through precious blood by Christ, a “spotless, unblemished Lamb.” 1st Peter urges his audience (with God’s Help) “to be holy as (God) is holy”.
Most people do not realize it but the word “holy” is related etymologically the word “whole”. To be holy is not to be either a Bible thumping individual, not does it mean to be a sanctimonious individual either. A w-holy person is one who, through God’s grace in Christ Jesus, is getting his or her act together as an individual in community with others called to the same mandate. Such a person realizes that each of us is always a work in progress, that each of us is a bundle of contradictions, that each of us is a story still being written. With God’s Help, we try to become integrated, completed, fulfilled, perfected, unified.
He urges his audience to recall that our ultimate task is to live w-holy lives through, with and in God forever. Human language, even the inspired language of the Scriptures, cannot explain our destiny adequately.
Just as the Brooklyn Patriots met frequently to remember their common heritage, so also, the Catholic Disciples of Jesus gather frequently (each Lord’s Day) to remember our common heritage. We gather together as the family of Jesus Christ to hear the stories again, to share our lot with one another, to break bread in Jesus’ Sacramental Meal and to be fortified for the week ahead in this land in which we are really only “colonists” or “sojourners”. Our coming together (our Churching) should focus us on our daily life.
As we hear the beautiful Gospel today of the journey to Emmaus, we pick up a similar vibration with Cleophas and his companion. (People wonder if the companion is Mrs Cleophas. Yet, it might very well be a characterization of you yourself who walk with Jesus each Sunday, each Lord’s Day, each day!!) The two are walking sadly home from Jerusalem on Easter Sunday where they really felt out of place after Good Friday. We are familiar with how Jesus makes the journey with them and explains to them the meaning of the Scriptures and then, dines with them when He “breaks the bread”. Then, their eyes were opened (by faith) and they recognized the Risen Lord. Then, they returned to Jerusalem where they regrouped with the other disciples of Jesus at another Sunday evening meal.
Our Jesus Movement, our Catholic gathering, is important. Now more than ever, we realize that Catholic values make us anathema to many. We realize, as well, that by our Catholic value system, we have set ourselves up and, so, others are very quick to denounce our failures and sins. (God knows that we have them!) We need the consolation of gathering to strengthen one another as a group of “colonists” or “sojourners” in an antagonistic world in which anti-Catholicism literally came over on the Mayflower and is exacerbated by a feeding frenzy media, to the present day.
Each week, whether in Emmaus, Jerusalem, Brooklyn, Los Angeles, the Bronx, Mount Vernon or Armonk, we gather together in Jesus’ Name and Spirit as “colonists and sojourners in this world” as we share the stories, break the bread and minister to one another. 1) Each member of the community needs your presence. 2) You need the presence of the community. 3) The people driving by on Cox Avenue need your witness as they see our crowded parking lot and traffic jams on Sunday mornings. The Presence of Jesus Christ continues whenever His family gathers in His Name. To quote Pope Benedict again in his recent book, “the point is not that Jesus was; the point is that Jesus is.” When we gather weekly to celebrate His Presence and we try to take His Gospel seriously in all aspects of our lives, we make Him even more present. 050811AD jfq
During the 1950’s, there was a comedy series, entitled “The Life of Riley”. The show was about a Brooklyn family who had moved to Los Angeles. (This was before the Dodgers did the same. Many of the characters in the series were Brooklyn expatriates who formed an organization, the “Brooklyn Patriots of Los Angeles” (BPLA). They met regularly to talk about the Borough of Churches, their old home.
One of the ways in which we can understand 1st Peter’s encouragement of his audience was to remind them that they were “colonists”, or “sojourners” in this world, no matter where they lived. (Jim Wallis’ group, the Sojourners, trying to stimulate a Great Awakening in our nation based on Gospel values, takes its name from this term in 1 Peter.)
St Peter reminds his audience, then and now, that the stakes are high. Each of us is saved through precious blood by Christ, a “spotless, unblemished Lamb.” 1st Peter urges his audience (with God’s Help) “to be holy as (God) is holy”.
Most people do not realize it but the word “holy” is related etymologically the word “whole”. To be holy is not to be either a Bible thumping individual, not does it mean to be a sanctimonious individual either. A w-holy person is one who, through God’s grace in Christ Jesus, is getting his or her act together as an individual in community with others called to the same mandate. Such a person realizes that each of us is always a work in progress, that each of us is a bundle of contradictions, that each of us is a story still being written. With God’s Help, we try to become integrated, completed, fulfilled, perfected, unified.
He urges his audience to recall that our ultimate task is to live w-holy lives through, with and in God forever. Human language, even the inspired language of the Scriptures, cannot explain our destiny adequately.
Just as the Brooklyn Patriots met frequently to remember their common heritage, so also, the Catholic Disciples of Jesus gather frequently (each Lord’s Day) to remember our common heritage. We gather together as the family of Jesus Christ to hear the stories again, to share our lot with one another, to break bread in Jesus’ Sacramental Meal and to be fortified for the week ahead in this land in which we are really only “colonists” or “sojourners”. Our coming together (our Churching) should focus us on our daily life.
As we hear the beautiful Gospel today of the journey to Emmaus, we pick up a similar vibration with Cleophas and his companion. (People wonder if the companion is Mrs Cleophas. Yet, it might very well be a characterization of you yourself who walk with Jesus each Sunday, each Lord’s Day, each day!!) The two are walking sadly home from Jerusalem on Easter Sunday where they really felt out of place after Good Friday. We are familiar with how Jesus makes the journey with them and explains to them the meaning of the Scriptures and then, dines with them when He “breaks the bread”. Then, their eyes were opened (by faith) and they recognized the Risen Lord. Then, they returned to Jerusalem where they regrouped with the other disciples of Jesus at another Sunday evening meal.
Our Jesus Movement, our Catholic gathering, is important. Now more than ever, we realize that Catholic values make us anathema to many. We realize, as well, that by our Catholic value system, we have set ourselves up and, so, others are very quick to denounce our failures and sins. (God knows that we have them!) We need the consolation of gathering to strengthen one another as a group of “colonists” or “sojourners” in an antagonistic world in which anti-Catholicism literally came over on the Mayflower and is exacerbated by a feeding frenzy media, to the present day.
Each week, whether in Emmaus, Jerusalem, Brooklyn, Los Angeles, the Bronx, Mount Vernon or Armonk, we gather together in Jesus’ Name and Spirit as “colonists and sojourners in this world” as we share the stories, break the bread and minister to one another. 1) Each member of the community needs your presence. 2) You need the presence of the community. 3) The people driving by on Cox Avenue need your witness as they see our crowded parking lot and traffic jams on Sunday mornings. The Presence of Jesus Christ continues whenever His family gathers in His Name. To quote Pope Benedict again in his recent book, “the point is not that Jesus was; the point is that Jesus is.” When we gather weekly to celebrate His Presence and we try to take His Gospel seriously in all aspects of our lives, we make Him even more present. 050811AD jfq
Reflection: 050111AD
What’s in a Word?
We hear excerpts these Easter Sundays from the first papal encyclical, the First Letter of St Peter. There are several Bible scholars who feel that it is a baptismal sermon that was transcribed. For that reason, during this season when we re-focus and re-commit ourselves to Christ Jesus, St Peter’s words in our second readings these Easter Sundays are aimed at us, as much as our first century Jesus Movement ancestors in the faith of Christ Jesus.
Many describe Catholicism these days as living in a post-Christian era since the watershed events of the twentieth century. Imagine how Catholicism would be today if Blessed (soon to be, St) John XXIII had not responded to the call of the Holy Spirit in convening Vatican II? The Spirit only began an evolutionary process continuing today.
Some see an interesting parallel between this post-Christian era with the first centuries of the Church, viz., the pre-Christian era, from Jerusalem in 30 AD until the legitimization of the Church in fourth century Rome. The marginalization of Catholicism today mirrors the marginalization of the first followers of Jesus. We, like they, live on the fringes of conventional wisdom of Western civilization, not the center.
Then and now, Catholics are out of step in so many ways with culture. We affirm a Gospel of Life amid a world that, at times, glorifies individualism and self-aggrandizement. Catholics are urged to challenge and not accept the violent solution as a “quick fix” to problems. With the endless downward spiral in the Middle East as well as two very long wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Catholics are starting to heed more seriously the call of Vatican II and recent Popes that humanity must come up with some new answers to conflict resolution. Many Catholics realize now that they should have listened to Pope John Paul and Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict), instead of Donald Rumsfeld (of “unforeseen- unforeseeables” fame, in his autobiography) and associates. Catholics also urged to stress, as germane to our tradition, concern for our sisters and brothers as germane to the Gospel. Catholics need to realize that others use similar language and slogans as we do. However, they might not mean the same thing to them as they do to Catholics. Yet, in all of this, we Catholics still sin whenever we do not always practice what we preach. Catholics still need to be forgiven. We are a people that is forgiven and needs forgiveness, a people that are reforming in need of reformation.
On these Easter Sundays, we hear from Pope Benedict’s predecessor. (There are good arguments, pro and con, about St Peter’s actual authorship.) The letter has a great deal of imagery to encourage Christians in a world in which they find increasing alienation because of their commitment to Christ and their higher moral standards.
In today’s reading, we are reminded that our faith is such that it is, at times, tested. We are reminded that God’s gift of salvation is a prize worth the “agida”.
The word that the author uses to describe Christians is the word “paroikoi”, which means, among other things, “sojourners or colonists”. Christians live in the world, but our real homeland is our life with God even now, and in the future. Colonists in this world, our true home is our ultimate life with God in eternity.
(The word “paraoikoi” also is an etymological root for the word for parish. Recall that we can refer to our parish church as our “other home”. However, in this reference, the other home is your residence. )
The use of the word “paraoikoi” as colonist in the sense in which Peter’s letter uses it makes us more aware of the transitory nature of reality. We are here. Our life each day is an experience of the Transcendent if we see with the eyes of faith. Jesus asks us to live each day with the realization that God keeps us in existence from moment to moment to moment. Jesus asks us to live edifying lives so that if we are ever challenged, it will be for doing what is right in God’s eyes. Jesus asks us to live as colonists in a world frequently de-valuing human life, that stresses success more than fidelity to a true humanity, that stresses the individual at the expense of others. Jesus asks us to live Kingdom values and to make the world freer from violence, hunger, cruelty, injustice, inhumanity.
Still, we fail, as individuals and as community. The message of Jesus continues to be perseverance. We paraphrase of Matthew’s Beatitude. “Blessed is that person who acknowledges, with God’s Help, that God (not EGO or WEGO) is the center of one’s life, for that person is moving in the right direction.”
Peter, in the first and in the twenty-first centuries, encourages Christians to weather the storm of alienation in a community that is looking in other directions for whatever reasons. He urges his audience, then and now, to snap out of illusion, to accept forgiveness for our sins, to live Gospel lives, to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus, viz., that we all are family, favored, flawed, fallen and forgiven from the housetops. In these difficult days, Peter’s words have a distinct relevance for all of us, particularly NY Catholics.
In his recent book, Jesus of Nazareth, Vol. 2, St Peter’s Successor, Pope Benedict XVI says that there is no doubt that Jesus lived and died. The question is whether He lives now. In a succinct statement, the Pope writes, “it is not just that Jesus was, rather, it is that Jesus is.” What is our baptismal response? 050111AD jfq
We hear excerpts these Easter Sundays from the first papal encyclical, the First Letter of St Peter. There are several Bible scholars who feel that it is a baptismal sermon that was transcribed. For that reason, during this season when we re-focus and re-commit ourselves to Christ Jesus, St Peter’s words in our second readings these Easter Sundays are aimed at us, as much as our first century Jesus Movement ancestors in the faith of Christ Jesus.
Many describe Catholicism these days as living in a post-Christian era since the watershed events of the twentieth century. Imagine how Catholicism would be today if Blessed (soon to be, St) John XXIII had not responded to the call of the Holy Spirit in convening Vatican II? The Spirit only began an evolutionary process continuing today.
Some see an interesting parallel between this post-Christian era with the first centuries of the Church, viz., the pre-Christian era, from Jerusalem in 30 AD until the legitimization of the Church in fourth century Rome. The marginalization of Catholicism today mirrors the marginalization of the first followers of Jesus. We, like they, live on the fringes of conventional wisdom of Western civilization, not the center.
Then and now, Catholics are out of step in so many ways with culture. We affirm a Gospel of Life amid a world that, at times, glorifies individualism and self-aggrandizement. Catholics are urged to challenge and not accept the violent solution as a “quick fix” to problems. With the endless downward spiral in the Middle East as well as two very long wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Catholics are starting to heed more seriously the call of Vatican II and recent Popes that humanity must come up with some new answers to conflict resolution. Many Catholics realize now that they should have listened to Pope John Paul and Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict), instead of Donald Rumsfeld (of “unforeseen- unforeseeables” fame, in his autobiography) and associates. Catholics also urged to stress, as germane to our tradition, concern for our sisters and brothers as germane to the Gospel. Catholics need to realize that others use similar language and slogans as we do. However, they might not mean the same thing to them as they do to Catholics. Yet, in all of this, we Catholics still sin whenever we do not always practice what we preach. Catholics still need to be forgiven. We are a people that is forgiven and needs forgiveness, a people that are reforming in need of reformation.
On these Easter Sundays, we hear from Pope Benedict’s predecessor. (There are good arguments, pro and con, about St Peter’s actual authorship.) The letter has a great deal of imagery to encourage Christians in a world in which they find increasing alienation because of their commitment to Christ and their higher moral standards.
In today’s reading, we are reminded that our faith is such that it is, at times, tested. We are reminded that God’s gift of salvation is a prize worth the “agida”.
The word that the author uses to describe Christians is the word “paroikoi”, which means, among other things, “sojourners or colonists”. Christians live in the world, but our real homeland is our life with God even now, and in the future. Colonists in this world, our true home is our ultimate life with God in eternity.
(The word “paraoikoi” also is an etymological root for the word for parish. Recall that we can refer to our parish church as our “other home”. However, in this reference, the other home is your residence. )
The use of the word “paraoikoi” as colonist in the sense in which Peter’s letter uses it makes us more aware of the transitory nature of reality. We are here. Our life each day is an experience of the Transcendent if we see with the eyes of faith. Jesus asks us to live each day with the realization that God keeps us in existence from moment to moment to moment. Jesus asks us to live edifying lives so that if we are ever challenged, it will be for doing what is right in God’s eyes. Jesus asks us to live as colonists in a world frequently de-valuing human life, that stresses success more than fidelity to a true humanity, that stresses the individual at the expense of others. Jesus asks us to live Kingdom values and to make the world freer from violence, hunger, cruelty, injustice, inhumanity.
Still, we fail, as individuals and as community. The message of Jesus continues to be perseverance. We paraphrase of Matthew’s Beatitude. “Blessed is that person who acknowledges, with God’s Help, that God (not EGO or WEGO) is the center of one’s life, for that person is moving in the right direction.”
Peter, in the first and in the twenty-first centuries, encourages Christians to weather the storm of alienation in a community that is looking in other directions for whatever reasons. He urges his audience, then and now, to snap out of illusion, to accept forgiveness for our sins, to live Gospel lives, to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus, viz., that we all are family, favored, flawed, fallen and forgiven from the housetops. In these difficult days, Peter’s words have a distinct relevance for all of us, particularly NY Catholics.
In his recent book, Jesus of Nazareth, Vol. 2, St Peter’s Successor, Pope Benedict XVI says that there is no doubt that Jesus lived and died. The question is whether He lives now. In a succinct statement, the Pope writes, “it is not just that Jesus was, rather, it is that Jesus is.” What is our baptismal response? 050111AD jfq
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