Where to Begin?
We celebrate this weekend the Corpus Christi, a holyday last Thursday in many countries of the world).
Corpus Christi, the Body of Christ means the following: 1) the Resurrected Body of Jesus Christ now; 2) the Church, Who are Christ’s Body in space and time; 3) the Sacrament of the Eucharist, which is the outward sign of the Body of Christ Which constitutes the Church. In sum, it’s all about us!!
Our understanding of the Eucharist is multivalent. Its true meaning goes back to the institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper. However, the Last Supper was the culmination of many meals that Jesus celebrated with anyone who would care to dine with Him.
In all four Gospels, we hear accounts of the multiplication of the loaves and fish. One commentator spoke of the similarity in language that the Evangelists used to speak of what Jesus did in both these feeding miracles as well as His Last Supper (in Mark, Matthew and Luke.) The sequence of verbs is – take-- bless – break – give. Each sequence indicates what Jesus had in mind during His ministry as well as its culmination. Whether it was bread and/or wine, Jesus was expressed the same vision. One commentator calls it “enough-ism”, viz., that everyone has enough to eat.
We know that the earliest Jesus Movement, described by St Paul in 1 Cor, spoke of communal gatherings in one another’s house churches. After the communal meal, the Eucharist would be celebrated. Excerpts of ther Hebrew Bible were proclaimed and prayers were said with the “breaking of the bread.” The Christian Scriptures, according to Father Raymond Brown, do not indicate who presided over the Eucharist.
Before the liturgy, the plan was that everyone would bring something for the group to share. Basically, it was our ancestors’ version of a potluck supper. However, abuses set in. Some noticed who brought what. Others noticed how much each ate. Others only sat with their friends and/or peers. Others had too much liquid refreshment and misbehaved. Many missed the point and St Paul’s solution was to cut out the communal meals. (He could have reversed the order and things might have proceeded differently. One of the hymns that was probably sung at these Eucharists might have “In Christ there is no Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female. All are one in Christ Jesus.” Imagine an honest discussion on that hymn either then or now.
Please remember that no matter where you are, GOD COMES FIRST, even on summer Sundays. In the Holy Spirit, the Sunday Eucharist is our way of re-alignment with God the Father, Jesus and with one another throughout the world and the ages. God is the Ground of our Being every moment of our life. Our personal God likes to be remembered and thanked periodically. Our God has told us that the Lord’s Day is significant for this purpose. An hour a week is not much.
“Familiarity breeds complacency”, as Courtney Randall writes, and we should remember certain protocols. 1) Please try to come on time for Sunday Mass. (YOUNG PARENTS, WE ARE NOT SPEAKING ABOUT YOU HERE!! DO THE BEST YOU CAN). When adults consistently come late to the Sunday celebration, what might they be saying, not only about God, about their need to hear the Word of God, (Which late arrivals are not hearing) and for the Church already gathered and whose hearing of the Word late arrivals might disturb?
In addition, bathroom needs should be addressed in advance, if possible. (Emergencies obviously occur.) However, if one anticipates a bathroom visit, perhaps another spot in the church closer to exits accessible to bathrooms is the courteous thing to do. (Recently, at a Lutheran funeral that lasted 45 minutes, not one person left the church. Can Catholics match that or is there a physiological problem with Catholic kidneys?)
Tweeting and texting during Mass, talking during the Mass, yawning without covering one’s mouth? Why do we even have to mention that?
(Recall the Mass that JQ attended in Guatemala!! Over 1500 people acknowledged the Transcendent Orientation of their lives. The Mass lasted 1 hour and 15 minutes. Singing was out of the ballpark. Children remained with their parents and nobody (young or old) ran off to the bathroom and/ or to get a drink of water.)
A sign of reverence, upon arrival at church, (either a genuflection or a bow to the tabernacle) is appropriate and traditional. However, after one has received the Eucharist there is no need to genuflect or reverence the tabernacle or altar because YOU HAVE NOW BECOME THE TABERNACLE YOURSELF.)
With God’s Help, make an effort to join in congregational singing. As St Augustine says, “The one who sings prays twice.”
Thank God and you, the Community of St Patrick in Armonk remarkably remains (95%, at least) until the end of Mass. We love it when you remain as long as you want.
Our celebration of Corpus Christi is multivalent. Our Christian ancestors shared the Eucharist in catacombs, upper rooms, basilicas, hidden hedges and in mud huts. The Eucharist unites us with Jesus’ disciples throughout the world and the ages. A reminder of our connection with some who risked life and limb at times for what is available at our convenience should make us more aware of the need that we never neglect our weekly gatherings or we downplay its significance in our lives. 062611AD jfq
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Reflection: June 19, 2011AD -- Trinity Sunday
You Can’t Make This Up!!
In the earliest written Christians Scriptures, St Paul, in the early 50’s of the first century speaks unreflectively of the Holy Trinity. Indeed, the very first lines of the New Testament, according to Father Ray Brown, is a Trinitarian reference, The Father and the Son, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, all are mentioned in the first sentence. Indeed, the concluding verse of our second reading today also refers to the Trinity, this time, in one sentence!! “The Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God and the fellowship (viz., solidarity) of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.”
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.”
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. We recall that the atom, the micro-universe, is in orbital relationship as well. 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, we live in the Holy Mystery because the Mystery rejoices and lives in us.
More recently, American theologians have added to the metaphors. One speaks of God the Father as an Architect with an Idea of an Edifice in mind; God the Son Incarnate is the Blueprint of the Edifice; God the Holy Spirit is the actualization of the blueprints in a variety of Edifices on a variety of landscapes.
The same theologian also sees God the Father as a Songwriter; God the Son Incarnate is the written Score of the Song; God the Holy Spirit is the variety of ways that the Song can be rendered depending upon the singer.
Another theologian speaks of God the Father as the Sun; God the Son Incarnate is the Sunbeam emanating from the Son; God is the Holy Spirit is the suntan that you get when the Sun reaches you.
The same theologian speaks of God the Father as the water for irrigation; God the Son Incarnate is the channel delivering the water; God the Holy Spirit is the water giving life to the crops.
Just as the angel told St Augustine 1600 years ago, you just cannot figure it all out. Just like each of us, God is a Mystery, knowable and unknowable at the same time.
Be still and that God is God now! 0601911AD jfq
In the earliest written Christians Scriptures, St Paul, in the early 50’s of the first century speaks unreflectively of the Holy Trinity. Indeed, the very first lines of the New Testament, according to Father Ray Brown, is a Trinitarian reference, The Father and the Son, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, all are mentioned in the first sentence. Indeed, the concluding verse of our second reading today also refers to the Trinity, this time, in one sentence!! “The Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God and the fellowship (viz., solidarity) of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.”
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.”
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. We recall that the atom, the micro-universe, is in orbital relationship as well. 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, we live in the Holy Mystery because the Mystery rejoices and lives in us.
More recently, American theologians have added to the metaphors. One speaks of God the Father as an Architect with an Idea of an Edifice in mind; God the Son Incarnate is the Blueprint of the Edifice; God the Holy Spirit is the actualization of the blueprints in a variety of Edifices on a variety of landscapes.
The same theologian also sees God the Father as a Songwriter; God the Son Incarnate is the written Score of the Song; God the Holy Spirit is the variety of ways that the Song can be rendered depending upon the singer.
Another theologian speaks of God the Father as the Sun; God the Son Incarnate is the Sunbeam emanating from the Son; God is the Holy Spirit is the suntan that you get when the Sun reaches you.
The same theologian speaks of God the Father as the water for irrigation; God the Son Incarnate is the channel delivering the water; God the Holy Spirit is the water giving life to the crops.
Just as the angel told St Augustine 1600 years ago, you just cannot figure it all out. Just like each of us, God is a Mystery, knowable and unknowable at the same time.
Be still and that God is God now! 0601911AD jfq
Reflection, June 12, 2011AD -- Pentecost Sunday
The Feast of the Integrating Energy
We end our celebration of the 50 days of Easter on this, the 50th Day. Today, we celebrate the Pentecost, the Feast of the Holy Spirit, the Feast of God’s “Integrating Energy”
Pentecost is a most democratic event. No distinctions were made between slave or free, male or female. (Distinctions came later.) We ask you to mark today with your red attire.
All human language limps when it comes to describing God’s dealings with us. After all, God is infinite and transcendent. God’s dealings with us cannot be adequately expressed, even in inspired biblical language.
In Hebrew, the word for Spirit is ruach, which is feminine. In Greek the word is pneuma , which is neuter. In Latin, the word is spiritus, both masculine and/or feminine.
In biblical Hebrew and Greek, the words for “Spirit” can mean 1) the wind; 2) the life-breath; 3) extraordinary energy, enabling ordinary folks to do extraordinary things. (In the Star Wars movies of yesteryear, they spoke of “the Force be with you.”)
In addition to this, even divinely-inspired biblical God-language is incapable of expressing the eternal in the temporal. All of us already receive the Spirit in baptism and throughout our lives. All of us receive the Spirit now when we gather, as the Community of Jesus Christ, to hear the Word of God and to celebrate the sacraments. (All of us receive the Spirit in times maybe when we ourselves do not realize it.) All of us receive the Spirit which is why we continue to invoke the Spirit upon us. It is a sense of the biblical “even now, but not yet”!
21st century AD Catholics re-examine our biblical roots. We are a community called by Christ to one, holy, catholic and apostolic. More and more, in line with Scripture and tradition, we should scrutinize accretions through the centuries to assure that they, indeed, reflect what the New Testament has in mind. Are they in conformity with the way things were, the way that they should be?
The universal call to holiness, re-affirmed by Vatican II, is a reminder to us of what the Pentecost experience described in Acts and in John 20 (John’s first Easter chapter). We need to be reminded that, within our Catholic tradition, all, not some are called to live the Gospel and not just in Church. There are no super-Catholics.
Interestingly, when we speak of the marks of our Church, in a sense we are repetitive. Both holy and catholic hint at the same thing. Note the syllable “hol” in both words. The root is based on our word, “Whole”. Basically, what we associated with holiness in days gone by is what today people might think as “wholistic”, viz., we are “together as a person.” A holy person, a Catholic person, is supposed to have his or her together by God’s grace (Spirit or energy or force, you name it.) In as sense, as the American bishops said back in the late 1970’s, the marks of the church are meant to be not things of which we brag, rather goals to be achieved, even now, though not yet by God fully in people called to be “holy” and “Catholic”. A holy person (a Catholic person) is meant to be a person who is energized by God’s grace, the Holy Spirit.
All of us are called to live our lives in Christ’s Spirit, 60-60-24-7-365. All of us are called to be engaged seriously and responsibly in the dialogue with our culture. As the ancient Roman Christian wrote to Diognetus, “Christians are in the world what the soul is in the body.” Just as a human body needs an animating principle, we are called to be animators of society. Sadly, too often, we sit back and let others run the show. Sadly, many generate hatred and fear in their simplistic and loud-mouthed talk. Sadly, many buy it
Your red clothing today mirrors your baptism in the Holy Spirit. With God’s Help, may we answer the call! Not just in the church does Jesus need us, but He needs us engaged actively and intelligently in an outside arena that needs the insight of the Gospel of Life very much now more than ever. Christians, a secular culture needs us just as the human body needs a soul. We do not gloat in our exclusive election; we are elected to let the world understand that all are called (not just some). For some reason, from all eternity, God chose you to be the vehicle in your own part of the universe, to mediate in, with and though God’s Spirit what human living is really all about, what integral, wholistic, holy living is all about . In solidarity with the Jesus Movement in the upper room in today’s first reading, we continue to pray for the constant outpouring of the Integrating Energy of God the Father in with and through Christ Jesus. Happy birthday to us! 061211AD jfq
We end our celebration of the 50 days of Easter on this, the 50th Day. Today, we celebrate the Pentecost, the Feast of the Holy Spirit, the Feast of God’s “Integrating Energy”
Pentecost is a most democratic event. No distinctions were made between slave or free, male or female. (Distinctions came later.) We ask you to mark today with your red attire.
All human language limps when it comes to describing God’s dealings with us. After all, God is infinite and transcendent. God’s dealings with us cannot be adequately expressed, even in inspired biblical language.
In Hebrew, the word for Spirit is ruach, which is feminine. In Greek the word is pneuma , which is neuter. In Latin, the word is spiritus, both masculine and/or feminine.
In biblical Hebrew and Greek, the words for “Spirit” can mean 1) the wind; 2) the life-breath; 3) extraordinary energy, enabling ordinary folks to do extraordinary things. (In the Star Wars movies of yesteryear, they spoke of “the Force be with you.”)
In addition to this, even divinely-inspired biblical God-language is incapable of expressing the eternal in the temporal. All of us already receive the Spirit in baptism and throughout our lives. All of us receive the Spirit now when we gather, as the Community of Jesus Christ, to hear the Word of God and to celebrate the sacraments. (All of us receive the Spirit in times maybe when we ourselves do not realize it.) All of us receive the Spirit which is why we continue to invoke the Spirit upon us. It is a sense of the biblical “even now, but not yet”!
21st century AD Catholics re-examine our biblical roots. We are a community called by Christ to one, holy, catholic and apostolic. More and more, in line with Scripture and tradition, we should scrutinize accretions through the centuries to assure that they, indeed, reflect what the New Testament has in mind. Are they in conformity with the way things were, the way that they should be?
The universal call to holiness, re-affirmed by Vatican II, is a reminder to us of what the Pentecost experience described in Acts and in John 20 (John’s first Easter chapter). We need to be reminded that, within our Catholic tradition, all, not some are called to live the Gospel and not just in Church. There are no super-Catholics.
Interestingly, when we speak of the marks of our Church, in a sense we are repetitive. Both holy and catholic hint at the same thing. Note the syllable “hol” in both words. The root is based on our word, “Whole”. Basically, what we associated with holiness in days gone by is what today people might think as “wholistic”, viz., we are “together as a person.” A holy person, a Catholic person, is supposed to have his or her together by God’s grace (Spirit or energy or force, you name it.) In as sense, as the American bishops said back in the late 1970’s, the marks of the church are meant to be not things of which we brag, rather goals to be achieved, even now, though not yet by God fully in people called to be “holy” and “Catholic”. A holy person (a Catholic person) is meant to be a person who is energized by God’s grace, the Holy Spirit.
All of us are called to live our lives in Christ’s Spirit, 60-60-24-7-365. All of us are called to be engaged seriously and responsibly in the dialogue with our culture. As the ancient Roman Christian wrote to Diognetus, “Christians are in the world what the soul is in the body.” Just as a human body needs an animating principle, we are called to be animators of society. Sadly, too often, we sit back and let others run the show. Sadly, many generate hatred and fear in their simplistic and loud-mouthed talk. Sadly, many buy it
Your red clothing today mirrors your baptism in the Holy Spirit. With God’s Help, may we answer the call! Not just in the church does Jesus need us, but He needs us engaged actively and intelligently in an outside arena that needs the insight of the Gospel of Life very much now more than ever. Christians, a secular culture needs us just as the human body needs a soul. We do not gloat in our exclusive election; we are elected to let the world understand that all are called (not just some). For some reason, from all eternity, God chose you to be the vehicle in your own part of the universe, to mediate in, with and though God’s Spirit what human living is really all about, what integral, wholistic, holy living is all about . In solidarity with the Jesus Movement in the upper room in today’s first reading, we continue to pray for the constant outpouring of the Integrating Energy of God the Father in with and through Christ Jesus. Happy birthday to us! 061211AD jfq
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Reflection: 060511AD
Who Decides?
St Luke tells us today that the Primitive Christian Community re-assembled in the upper room (where the Last Supper had occurred) and prayed for 9 days after Jesus’ Ascension. The Jesus Movement consisted of the 11 and His mother as well as His brethren and the women who had come up from Galilee with Him. This was the group upon whom the Spirit came on Pentecost.
This is why we ask the Catholic community to wear red clothing next weekend, on Pentecost Sunday. If you or I were there on Pentecost in 30 AD in the upper room, the Holy Spirit would have been given to us as well. The coming of the Holy Spirit is, indeed, a democratic experience for all in our baptism. All, not some, are included by God. Think about it!
Just before Pentecost, Peter addresses the 120 (!!!!) gathered in the upper room and speaks of the predicament caused by the treachery of Judas. Since the 12 represented the original 12 patriarchs (the sons of Jacob), Jesus meant to reestablish the True Israel. Now the 12’s ranks were thinned. Therefore, it was necessary to select one who had been with Jesus from the beginning of His ministry. Two were selected as possible candidates. First, Joseph (called Barsabbas as well as Justus) seemed to be the one since he is set up with all his nicknames. The other possibility was the unknown Matthias.
It was the group of 120 who prayed and then, cast lots (picked out of a hat) and Matthias was the winner. Notice what Luke tells us in the story. It was the entire group of 120 who prayed and then, picked out of the hat. This notion is known as the “Matthias principle”. What is important is the entire group’s choice of the 2 candidates, the entire group’s prayer involvement and, then, the group left it up to God symbolically through casting of lots.
It appears a bit simplistic, but it is, nevertheless, quite biblical and quite within Jewish tradition. We know that in ancient Rome, the Christians gathered together and prayed and selected a layman, St Fabian, as Pope. The legend says that while they were praying, a dove came in and landed on the head of Fabian, a lay-person in the group. (Or was it the blue bird of happiness?) The total community at prayer took this a sign from God that Fabian was God’s choice.
We also know that the people of ancient Milan selected a non-Christian, viz., Police Commissioner of Milan, St Ambrose, as their bishop, one of the most important bishops of the early Church. The story was that St Ambrose, not yet baptized himself, was the police commissioner of Milan. He was asked to organize the meeting of the people of Milan for prayer and their selection of their next bishop. Apparently, someone started chanting, “Ambrosius episcopos, Ambrose the bishop.” They, in effect, elected a non-Christian (who quickly became one) and who was ordained as one of the greatest bishops in the early church. In fact, he is considered one of the 4 major doctors of the Western Church. The people made a good choice.
Our second reading has been excerpts from 1st Peter, a letter to strengthen all Christians in Northwest Asia Minor harassed for their faith in Jesus Christ. It was the entire group that was addressed as the “priestly people, the holy nation, the people set apart.” What does this really mean if it is not just a slogan? In these times, in which there are already calls for structural changes within our Church, recall the Matthias principle, the selection of St Fabian and St Ambrose. It is important to celebrate the Vatican II principle of resourcement, going back to our apostolic roots. If change was legitimate then, as the Jesus Movement continued to react to the unforeseen events of changing times, such as the deaths of some of the Apostolic generation, the entrance of gentiles into a Jewish messianic movement, or the ultimate destruction by the Romans of the Jerusalem Temple in 70AD, in the tradition is change legitimate today? Even mega Pentecostal churches speak today of the need to provide something like what our Christian ancestors did with their house-churches. Mega-church doesn’t cut it for all anymore. We see traditions and trends that have lain dormant for a longtime within our Apostolic Tradition. In many ways, we Catholics do this already in what we called “faith-based and/or intentional communities”. As our world continues to change, more lay involvement in the everyday affairs of a local community (and larger) ones have a place worth exploring. The question always remains, “How did we get from there to here?” Answers to new problems might, indeed, by right under our noses, if we read the New Testament with candor. Everything old can be new again in Christ Jesus. 060511AD jfq
St Luke tells us today that the Primitive Christian Community re-assembled in the upper room (where the Last Supper had occurred) and prayed for 9 days after Jesus’ Ascension. The Jesus Movement consisted of the 11 and His mother as well as His brethren and the women who had come up from Galilee with Him. This was the group upon whom the Spirit came on Pentecost.
This is why we ask the Catholic community to wear red clothing next weekend, on Pentecost Sunday. If you or I were there on Pentecost in 30 AD in the upper room, the Holy Spirit would have been given to us as well. The coming of the Holy Spirit is, indeed, a democratic experience for all in our baptism. All, not some, are included by God. Think about it!
Just before Pentecost, Peter addresses the 120 (!!!!) gathered in the upper room and speaks of the predicament caused by the treachery of Judas. Since the 12 represented the original 12 patriarchs (the sons of Jacob), Jesus meant to reestablish the True Israel. Now the 12’s ranks were thinned. Therefore, it was necessary to select one who had been with Jesus from the beginning of His ministry. Two were selected as possible candidates. First, Joseph (called Barsabbas as well as Justus) seemed to be the one since he is set up with all his nicknames. The other possibility was the unknown Matthias.
It was the group of 120 who prayed and then, cast lots (picked out of a hat) and Matthias was the winner. Notice what Luke tells us in the story. It was the entire group of 120 who prayed and then, picked out of the hat. This notion is known as the “Matthias principle”. What is important is the entire group’s choice of the 2 candidates, the entire group’s prayer involvement and, then, the group left it up to God symbolically through casting of lots.
It appears a bit simplistic, but it is, nevertheless, quite biblical and quite within Jewish tradition. We know that in ancient Rome, the Christians gathered together and prayed and selected a layman, St Fabian, as Pope. The legend says that while they were praying, a dove came in and landed on the head of Fabian, a lay-person in the group. (Or was it the blue bird of happiness?) The total community at prayer took this a sign from God that Fabian was God’s choice.
We also know that the people of ancient Milan selected a non-Christian, viz., Police Commissioner of Milan, St Ambrose, as their bishop, one of the most important bishops of the early Church. The story was that St Ambrose, not yet baptized himself, was the police commissioner of Milan. He was asked to organize the meeting of the people of Milan for prayer and their selection of their next bishop. Apparently, someone started chanting, “Ambrosius episcopos, Ambrose the bishop.” They, in effect, elected a non-Christian (who quickly became one) and who was ordained as one of the greatest bishops in the early church. In fact, he is considered one of the 4 major doctors of the Western Church. The people made a good choice.
Our second reading has been excerpts from 1st Peter, a letter to strengthen all Christians in Northwest Asia Minor harassed for their faith in Jesus Christ. It was the entire group that was addressed as the “priestly people, the holy nation, the people set apart.” What does this really mean if it is not just a slogan? In these times, in which there are already calls for structural changes within our Church, recall the Matthias principle, the selection of St Fabian and St Ambrose. It is important to celebrate the Vatican II principle of resourcement, going back to our apostolic roots. If change was legitimate then, as the Jesus Movement continued to react to the unforeseen events of changing times, such as the deaths of some of the Apostolic generation, the entrance of gentiles into a Jewish messianic movement, or the ultimate destruction by the Romans of the Jerusalem Temple in 70AD, in the tradition is change legitimate today? Even mega Pentecostal churches speak today of the need to provide something like what our Christian ancestors did with their house-churches. Mega-church doesn’t cut it for all anymore. We see traditions and trends that have lain dormant for a longtime within our Apostolic Tradition. In many ways, we Catholics do this already in what we called “faith-based and/or intentional communities”. As our world continues to change, more lay involvement in the everyday affairs of a local community (and larger) ones have a place worth exploring. The question always remains, “How did we get from there to here?” Answers to new problems might, indeed, by right under our noses, if we read the New Testament with candor. Everything old can be new again in Christ Jesus. 060511AD jfq
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