We Won’t Get Fooled Again — or Will We?
Maryland has produced new license plates for the year, 2012. On the plates are the words, War of 1812, Bicentennial. That little known conflict was declared in 1812 and concluded on December 24, 1814. It was called the Second War for Independence. What’s up with that?
Every year, our Catholic Church makes January 1 a Day of Prayer for Peace in the year ahead. Pope Benedict has maintained this tradition during his ministry. His New Year’s Message for today is a call to educate young people for peace.
Students (hopefully) study the history of the United States. Students in Catholic schools have the luxury to use critical thinking in analysis of America’s wars through the application of St Augustine’s “Just War Theory”.
As some mark the Bicentennial of a war, New York Catholics might find it worthwhile to apply St Augustine’s criterion to this little known conflict. According to a standard textbook in US History, used in area schools, the causes of the war were fivefold: 1) to seize Canada from England; 2) to take Florida from Spain, England’s ally; 3) to stop British seizure of American ships because of the Napoleonic Wars; 4) to end English aid to Native Americans in the West; 5) to demonstrate the strength of the United States. After two years of sporadic conflict, the Treaty of Ghent was signed on December 24, 1814. The Treaty was status quo ante bellum , viz., the way it was before.
According to traditional Catholic teaching, still in process of evolution, as we recall the words of Blessed John XXIII, “we know more now”. St Augustine taught that for a Catholic to fight morally in a war, certain criteria had to met, each and everyone. If one or more criteria were not met, it would be immoral to fight in such a war.
First, the war had to a war of self-defense. (Preemptive strikes don’t count!!) (NB. This condition was unilaterally rejected by Donald Rumsfeld in 2003 because of American Exceptionalism,(really?)) 2) The war must be a last resort. All efforts for peace had to have been exhausted. 3) The war has to be declared by a legitimate authority. 4) There had to be a reasonable chance of winning. 5) Weapons used had to be just. (Victims question the morality of a just weapon.) 6) Harm done had to be less than any good done. (Again, ask the victims!)
Why 1812? The interpretation has been usually that, indeed, England had violated American interests on the high seas during the European Napoleonic Wars (not to end until the Battle of Waterloo in 1815). In addition, there was indeed evidence of British incitement of Native Americans in what is now the state of Indiana. The British were supplying guns and ammunition to the Native Americans. Someone always makes money when there is a war. There was a battle in 1811 between Native Americans and Americans under the command of General William Henry Harrison. Neither side won, but the Americans claimed that they did. Also, a new breed of Congressmen had been elected in 1810. Many of the group, including Henry Clay and John C Calhoun, appear on the scene. They were militant to assert the young nation’s fighting spirit. There were hopes that if England were defeated, then both Canada would join the USA and Florida would be thrown in by Spain. This would give the USA all east of the Mississippi.
Incidentally, John Quincy Adams was in Ghent, in Belgium, to negotiate the Treaty of Ghent, which proclaimed a stalemate and a return to existing conditions. In addition, several New England states seriously considered at the Hartford Convention in 1814 the possibility of New England’s seceding from the USA as a protest to what they considered an unjust war. In addition, the Battle of New Orleans, on January 8, 1815, promoted the celebrity of another military leader, Gen Andrew Jackson. New Orleans was fought two weeks after the Treaty of Ghent was signed. 8 Americans and 2000 British soldiers died in the battle. The news arrived in Washington DC that the Treaty had been signed just as the victory at New Orleans. Spinmeisters had a field day with that.
There were so many variables. Was it a war of self-defense (or an opportunity to move while England was engaged in other wars? 2) Was it a last resort or an opportunity to use an advantageous situation for gain? 3) Was the war declared by a legitimate authority? Here, the evidence shows that Congress did vote, but how representative was Congress when women and Blacks were excluded from voting? 4) Was there a reasonable chance of winning? 5) Were just weapons used? 6) Was the good accomplished greater than the harm done? (In # 5 & 6, again, it depends on whom you asked.)
Using Catholic critical thinking, students reached a conclusion that the War of 1812 was probably not a just war in which a Catholic could have participated morally. Still, the sad scenario of “normalcy bias” kicks in, viz., you are weird or disloyal if you don’t go along with the group.
Last month, the USA ended the Second Gulf War, begun on March 19, 2003. (Incidentally, the DaVinci Code was published the same month!) Even after 9 years since the war began, the causes of the war remain unclear. Also, many supported the troops, but didn’t send their own children!
Today, Pope Benedict asks us to teach our children the ways of peace. Maryland celebrates the Bicentennial of a dubious war in 1812. We conclude a nine year war in the Middle East. One can only comment,“Sadly, the more things change, the more they remain the same.” Are the words of Blessed John really XXIII true? Do we know more now? Lord, make us all instruments of Your Peace. God bless the whole world – no exceptions. jfq 010112AD
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Friday, December 23, 2011
Reflection, December 25, 2011AD
Do You Know What We Know?
What is your favorite Christmas carol? These days, it is surprising and sad that many Catholic children do not know too many carols. In politically correct environments, children know about Rudolph, Santa and Frosty the Snowman, but they do not know about the Three Kings, the Shepherds, the little drummer boy or Mary’s Boychild. Sad. It is incumbent upon families and churches to stress again and again the importance of traditional Christmas carols. If they don’t learn them from us, they won’t learn them at all.
The author of the first Christmas carols was also the creator of the first Christmas crèche, St Francis of Assisi. The keynote of his message was the belief in the Incarnation, viz., that God became human in the person of Jesus of Nazareth Whose birthday we celebrate today. The birth of Jesus establishes what Catholics call the Deep Incarnation or the Divine Indwelling or the Emmanuel (God is with us!).
Our Hispanic sisters and brothers in Christ refer to the “Bethlehem Principle”. If God could be born in Bethlehem 2000 years ago, then God can be born (and is, all the time) in any setting. It is a restatement of our frequent silent, contemplative prayer, here at St Patrick’s. God is everywhere; I am somewhere; God is in me; I am in God. God is everywhere; we are somewhere; God is in us; we are in God; God is everywhere; all are somewhere; God is in all; all are in God. The intuition behind the Bethlehem Principle is consolation. God is with me in every moment of my life. Or as King David put it in Psalm 23, “The Lord is my Shepherd.” Ask for Help to believe always.
We speak around here about retreating in solitude to the monastery of our own hearts. These mini-retreats can last for one second or longer (preferably). We try to re-orient ourselves to be present to the Presence. The rules of thumb for such a mini-retreat are simply, “Show up; slow down”; “Don’t think; just be”; “Let God be God”.
The formal word to describe this prayer is contemplation . The word “contemplation” has contained within it the word “temple” the place where God dwells. Surprise!! As the Patriarch Jacob said, “You were here all along and I never knew it.” This truly can change the way that you look at your own life. It should!!
We need to realize at the same time, that the Bethlehem Principle is applicable in other ways as well. God shows up in the most unlikely places. We think of those with whom we do not identify. On the TV series, Lost, they were called the Others. We call them frequent with more descriptive terms. There are those with whom I have no affinity, whether because of racial, ethnic, religious or political differences or even people who don’t like us or whom we don’t like. Like it or not God is present in them as well. As we say, “God is their Father; Eve is their Mother; Jesus is their brother; earth is their home.” The very realization of this obvious truth, with God’s Help, can lead us to compassion. You did not ask to be yourself; they did not ask to be themselves. You may not take them out for lunch, but you will understand them differently.
Finally, if God dwells in all and God is with us in all scenarios and we are all connected, then Jesus the Emmanuel can bring us to try a new code of conduct. Actually, it is not a new code, but the original code that we forgot about. We call it the Golden Rule. It appears in many forms, but every major religion has a variation of it. Ours is “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Jesus sums it up by the fusion of the two great commandments, “Love God totally and love your neighbor (brother and/or sister) as yourself. Notice that three Realities are identified: God, your neighbor and you.
Each year, our parish places our crèche deliberately in front of the Cross on Cox Avenue. It is a reminder of something that our ancestors took for granted in religious art. In many scenes of the birth of Jesus, the image of the Cross is somehow situated in the scene. It is subtle reminder that Jesus died on the cross with His arms extended and helpless just as He was placed in the manger as a helpless baby with arms extended as well. Both the Christmas manger and the Calvary cross were made of wood, taken from a tree, as a reminder of the tree from which Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit in the Genesis myth. The tree reminds us all as well that, indeed, the Christmas tree is a stealth religious symbol because it was a tree was prominent in three crucial biblical stories, viz., 1) the tree in the Garden of Eden; 2) the manger made from the wood of a tree; 3) the wood of the cross made from the wood of a tree.
We Western Catholics tend to be left-brained people, like most Western culture. We tend to think that intellectual knowledge is the only way to know anything seriously. We tend to play down volitional knowing, sensory knowing, emotional knowing, esthetic knowing, imaginative knowing. If it doesn’t qualify as empirically verifiable, it doesn’t count. Hope in Christ Jesus qualifies something perhaps as a subliminal knowledge. 350 years ago, Blaise Pascal, the great French mathematician, said after a profound religious experience, “The heart has reasons to believe that the head cannot know.” We catch his drift.
No wonder St Francis got such a charge out of the Christmas. His contemplation of the Incarnation changed his view of all reality. On this Christmas Day and throughout the year, celebrate the Bethlehem Principle, viz., if God can be born in Bethlehem, then God can be born (and is!!!) in every situation. Isn’t it wonderful? 122511AD jfq
What is your favorite Christmas carol? These days, it is surprising and sad that many Catholic children do not know too many carols. In politically correct environments, children know about Rudolph, Santa and Frosty the Snowman, but they do not know about the Three Kings, the Shepherds, the little drummer boy or Mary’s Boychild. Sad. It is incumbent upon families and churches to stress again and again the importance of traditional Christmas carols. If they don’t learn them from us, they won’t learn them at all.
The author of the first Christmas carols was also the creator of the first Christmas crèche, St Francis of Assisi. The keynote of his message was the belief in the Incarnation, viz., that God became human in the person of Jesus of Nazareth Whose birthday we celebrate today. The birth of Jesus establishes what Catholics call the Deep Incarnation or the Divine Indwelling or the Emmanuel (God is with us!).
Our Hispanic sisters and brothers in Christ refer to the “Bethlehem Principle”. If God could be born in Bethlehem 2000 years ago, then God can be born (and is, all the time) in any setting. It is a restatement of our frequent silent, contemplative prayer, here at St Patrick’s. God is everywhere; I am somewhere; God is in me; I am in God. God is everywhere; we are somewhere; God is in us; we are in God; God is everywhere; all are somewhere; God is in all; all are in God. The intuition behind the Bethlehem Principle is consolation. God is with me in every moment of my life. Or as King David put it in Psalm 23, “The Lord is my Shepherd.” Ask for Help to believe always.
We speak around here about retreating in solitude to the monastery of our own hearts. These mini-retreats can last for one second or longer (preferably). We try to re-orient ourselves to be present to the Presence. The rules of thumb for such a mini-retreat are simply, “Show up; slow down”; “Don’t think; just be”; “Let God be God”.
The formal word to describe this prayer is contemplation . The word “contemplation” has contained within it the word “temple” the place where God dwells. Surprise!! As the Patriarch Jacob said, “You were here all along and I never knew it.” This truly can change the way that you look at your own life. It should!!
We need to realize at the same time, that the Bethlehem Principle is applicable in other ways as well. God shows up in the most unlikely places. We think of those with whom we do not identify. On the TV series, Lost, they were called the Others. We call them frequent with more descriptive terms. There are those with whom I have no affinity, whether because of racial, ethnic, religious or political differences or even people who don’t like us or whom we don’t like. Like it or not God is present in them as well. As we say, “God is their Father; Eve is their Mother; Jesus is their brother; earth is their home.” The very realization of this obvious truth, with God’s Help, can lead us to compassion. You did not ask to be yourself; they did not ask to be themselves. You may not take them out for lunch, but you will understand them differently.
Finally, if God dwells in all and God is with us in all scenarios and we are all connected, then Jesus the Emmanuel can bring us to try a new code of conduct. Actually, it is not a new code, but the original code that we forgot about. We call it the Golden Rule. It appears in many forms, but every major religion has a variation of it. Ours is “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Jesus sums it up by the fusion of the two great commandments, “Love God totally and love your neighbor (brother and/or sister) as yourself. Notice that three Realities are identified: God, your neighbor and you.
Each year, our parish places our crèche deliberately in front of the Cross on Cox Avenue. It is a reminder of something that our ancestors took for granted in religious art. In many scenes of the birth of Jesus, the image of the Cross is somehow situated in the scene. It is subtle reminder that Jesus died on the cross with His arms extended and helpless just as He was placed in the manger as a helpless baby with arms extended as well. Both the Christmas manger and the Calvary cross were made of wood, taken from a tree, as a reminder of the tree from which Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit in the Genesis myth. The tree reminds us all as well that, indeed, the Christmas tree is a stealth religious symbol because it was a tree was prominent in three crucial biblical stories, viz., 1) the tree in the Garden of Eden; 2) the manger made from the wood of a tree; 3) the wood of the cross made from the wood of a tree.
We Western Catholics tend to be left-brained people, like most Western culture. We tend to think that intellectual knowledge is the only way to know anything seriously. We tend to play down volitional knowing, sensory knowing, emotional knowing, esthetic knowing, imaginative knowing. If it doesn’t qualify as empirically verifiable, it doesn’t count. Hope in Christ Jesus qualifies something perhaps as a subliminal knowledge. 350 years ago, Blaise Pascal, the great French mathematician, said after a profound religious experience, “The heart has reasons to believe that the head cannot know.” We catch his drift.
No wonder St Francis got such a charge out of the Christmas. His contemplation of the Incarnation changed his view of all reality. On this Christmas Day and throughout the year, celebrate the Bethlehem Principle, viz., if God can be born in Bethlehem, then God can be born (and is!!!) in every situation. Isn’t it wonderful? 122511AD jfq
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Reflection, December 18, 2011AD
Mary of Nazareth — Change Agent!!
The Fourth Sunday of Advent is the Sunday to pause and reflect on our Blessed Mother’s Virgin Birth. (Last year, St Joseph, Jesus’ foster father got special kudos; this year, we tip our hats to the Mother of Jesus.)
We hear the story of the Annunciation today. Vatican II said that the two principal titles of Mary are accented in this Gospel, viz., Mary, the Mother of God, and the first disciple of Jesus to hear God’s Word, and to keep it in her heart.
Mary’s response to the mandate of the Archangel Gabriel indicates her (God-given) act of faith in which she consents to the call to discipleship and to give birth to the Son of God Most High. Mary surrendered, let go and trusted that God’s Word to her would be fulfilled , “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. Let it be done to me according to your Word.”
The stress upon the Virgin Birth by both St Matthew and St Luke indicates not only the uniqueness of the Birth of this Child. Mary’s Virginity showed a sufficiency with God for her.
The image of the Annunciation to Mary, so popular for such a long time, is an image of Mary at prayer. The image indicates an attitude of watchful waiting for God in her heart and mind and life. Despite the routine of her life, Mary (and Joseph) had to be people who responded to God’s Call to each of us (no exceptions) to slow down, to be silent, to let go and trust God in every scenario.
Clearly, our Blessed Mother must have followed through with her words. One theologian averred that certainly (lest we ever forget) parents are the first teachers of their children in the ways of faith and hope. Values are caught, not taught. A big reason why Jesus turned out as well as He did was that He had experienced such exemplary religious formation from Mary and Joseph.
In different times, God calls each of us to the same challenges. God’s Grace (the Holy Spirit) prompts us to agree to be servants of the Lord in our lives, different than Mary, and yet, similar.
We live today in a world dominated by the media (which dumbs down important news and hypes up trivia for us) on the evening news, if we even bother to watch. We live in a world that has bought into the middle-class, materialistic mirage that just so long as I have what I want and need, then, my life is fulfilled. We live in a world in which we assumed that military and violent solutions to real problems are a natural resource for people, just so long as one throws in the Name of Jesus every once in a while. In some ways, these days, we are paying the price for so much of this. Check the papers, the evening news or your computer.
In the twentieth century, Mohandas Gandhi saw Jesus as an avatar of the Infinite and caught what Jesus spoke about in the Sermon on the Mount. However, he never was baptized because he felt that most of us did not take discipleship of Gospel non-violence seriously enough, in large numbers, to warrant Gandhi’s baptism into Christ Jesus. He said that each person should become, with God’s Help, the type of person that we want to see as our world. He said that, if the whole world lived by an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, eventually, the world would be populated by blind people who could not eat corn on the cob. He said that the only religion that does not get the non-violent implications of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is Christianity itself. Gandhi did not mince words.
In the 21st century, with God’s Help, we can challenge Gandhi’s accusation by following the example of Mary of Nazareth. God had a plan for her that was creative, life-enhancing, expansive, and abundant. With God’s Grace, Mary said yes.
Earlier this month, we celebrated the Conception of Mary in the womb of her mother, Santa Anna. Mary’s parents did a great job raising their daughter. Through nature and/or nurture, God prepared the mother of the Messiah as the one who mirrored God’s Love in the flesh to her newborn.
The subtleness and intimacy of the love of Mary (and St Joseph the foster father) shaped Jesus’ religious consciousness during those early years of life. Recall Jesus is like us in all things but sin. Certainly, Mary and Joseph did God’s Work!
God has a plan for each of us, as well, that is creative, life- enhancing, expansive and abundant. God gives each of us the Grace to agree to God’s Intention for us. God’s plan is similar to that of Mary’s , the Mother of God. More and more, the word “holiness” has become word like “love” and “nice”. We use them so much that they became drained of meaning. A more appropriate word these days might be the word “integrity”. Holiness is connected to “wholeness”’; integrity is connected to “intergration”. God wants us to live integrated, wholistic, viz., holy lives by acknowledging God as the ever present Center of our lives and of our universe and to try to get our relationships with God, with one another, with our environment and with ourselves in order.
As our Buddhist siblings say, “it is about right relationships”. The call to Gospel non-violence that Mary (and Joseph) , Jesus, Gandhi, the Dalai Lama, Martin Luther King, Popes John Paul and Benedict heard is essential to our celebration of the Coming of the Prince of Peace!
So, as Vatican II said, we become disciples of the Lord. We become mothers of God, whenever we bring God to situations where God needs to be brought. What would we say to Gabriel? What would we say to people like Gandhi and the Dalai Lama? What do we say to our God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ? 121811AD jfq
The Fourth Sunday of Advent is the Sunday to pause and reflect on our Blessed Mother’s Virgin Birth. (Last year, St Joseph, Jesus’ foster father got special kudos; this year, we tip our hats to the Mother of Jesus.)
We hear the story of the Annunciation today. Vatican II said that the two principal titles of Mary are accented in this Gospel, viz., Mary, the Mother of God, and the first disciple of Jesus to hear God’s Word, and to keep it in her heart.
Mary’s response to the mandate of the Archangel Gabriel indicates her (God-given) act of faith in which she consents to the call to discipleship and to give birth to the Son of God Most High. Mary surrendered, let go and trusted that God’s Word to her would be fulfilled , “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. Let it be done to me according to your Word.”
The stress upon the Virgin Birth by both St Matthew and St Luke indicates not only the uniqueness of the Birth of this Child. Mary’s Virginity showed a sufficiency with God for her.
The image of the Annunciation to Mary, so popular for such a long time, is an image of Mary at prayer. The image indicates an attitude of watchful waiting for God in her heart and mind and life. Despite the routine of her life, Mary (and Joseph) had to be people who responded to God’s Call to each of us (no exceptions) to slow down, to be silent, to let go and trust God in every scenario.
Clearly, our Blessed Mother must have followed through with her words. One theologian averred that certainly (lest we ever forget) parents are the first teachers of their children in the ways of faith and hope. Values are caught, not taught. A big reason why Jesus turned out as well as He did was that He had experienced such exemplary religious formation from Mary and Joseph.
In different times, God calls each of us to the same challenges. God’s Grace (the Holy Spirit) prompts us to agree to be servants of the Lord in our lives, different than Mary, and yet, similar.
We live today in a world dominated by the media (which dumbs down important news and hypes up trivia for us) on the evening news, if we even bother to watch. We live in a world that has bought into the middle-class, materialistic mirage that just so long as I have what I want and need, then, my life is fulfilled. We live in a world in which we assumed that military and violent solutions to real problems are a natural resource for people, just so long as one throws in the Name of Jesus every once in a while. In some ways, these days, we are paying the price for so much of this. Check the papers, the evening news or your computer.
In the twentieth century, Mohandas Gandhi saw Jesus as an avatar of the Infinite and caught what Jesus spoke about in the Sermon on the Mount. However, he never was baptized because he felt that most of us did not take discipleship of Gospel non-violence seriously enough, in large numbers, to warrant Gandhi’s baptism into Christ Jesus. He said that each person should become, with God’s Help, the type of person that we want to see as our world. He said that, if the whole world lived by an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, eventually, the world would be populated by blind people who could not eat corn on the cob. He said that the only religion that does not get the non-violent implications of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is Christianity itself. Gandhi did not mince words.
In the 21st century, with God’s Help, we can challenge Gandhi’s accusation by following the example of Mary of Nazareth. God had a plan for her that was creative, life-enhancing, expansive, and abundant. With God’s Grace, Mary said yes.
Earlier this month, we celebrated the Conception of Mary in the womb of her mother, Santa Anna. Mary’s parents did a great job raising their daughter. Through nature and/or nurture, God prepared the mother of the Messiah as the one who mirrored God’s Love in the flesh to her newborn.
The subtleness and intimacy of the love of Mary (and St Joseph the foster father) shaped Jesus’ religious consciousness during those early years of life. Recall Jesus is like us in all things but sin. Certainly, Mary and Joseph did God’s Work!
God has a plan for each of us, as well, that is creative, life- enhancing, expansive and abundant. God gives each of us the Grace to agree to God’s Intention for us. God’s plan is similar to that of Mary’s , the Mother of God. More and more, the word “holiness” has become word like “love” and “nice”. We use them so much that they became drained of meaning. A more appropriate word these days might be the word “integrity”. Holiness is connected to “wholeness”’; integrity is connected to “intergration”. God wants us to live integrated, wholistic, viz., holy lives by acknowledging God as the ever present Center of our lives and of our universe and to try to get our relationships with God, with one another, with our environment and with ourselves in order.
As our Buddhist siblings say, “it is about right relationships”. The call to Gospel non-violence that Mary (and Joseph) , Jesus, Gandhi, the Dalai Lama, Martin Luther King, Popes John Paul and Benedict heard is essential to our celebration of the Coming of the Prince of Peace!
So, as Vatican II said, we become disciples of the Lord. We become mothers of God, whenever we bring God to situations where God needs to be brought. What would we say to Gabriel? What would we say to people like Gandhi and the Dalai Lama? What do we say to our God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ? 121811AD jfq
Friday, December 9, 2011
Reflection, December 11, 2011AD
Don’t Worry — Be Happy??????????
St Paul offers curious words to the house churches in Thessalonica (present day Salonika) and the house churches of Armonk as well. He urges his audience, then and now, to “rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in all circumstances. This is what God expects of you in Christ Jesus.”
St Paul’s words were preserved by the Jesus Movement and incorporated into the Christian Scriptures (aka the New Testament). His audience, therefore, his words worth saving and worth reflecting upon again and again. Yet, the same words seem utopian and unreal to most people today. How can one rejoice always, for example? What does St Paul mean by the phrase that he used over 150 times in his letters, in Christ Jesus?
In addition, biblical scholars tell us that St Paul’s First Letter to the Thessalonians, whence our second reading today is excerpted, is the earliest preserved document that we have in the Christian Scriptures. It is dated around 50AD, no more than 20 years after the death and Resurrection of the Lord, dated around 30AD). Then, too, again, the audience bought the message, as if they had an insight into its truth.
St Paul’s methodology was to establish house churches of the Jesus Movement in major cities around the Mediterrean Sea. He stayed about two years in the venue and then, moved to another place. He prided himself on going to places where the Jesus Movement had not yet been established. Examples of some of the churches which he established were in Corinth, Ephesus, Philippi, Thessalonica and Galatia.
His target audience was the non-Jewish Gentiles who frequented the Jewish synagogues in these cities. We know of a group of Gentiles attracted to the logic of monotheism, the higher ethics and value placed upon the human person, within Judaism, viz., where else in the world was everyone (no exceptions) was seen as created in the image and likeness of God; male and female God created them?
Paul thought of himself until the day of his death as a Jewish missionary who was bringing God fearing Gentiles into the Jewish matrix through their acceptance that Jesus is Lord. (Not all Jews nor Jewish Christians agreed with Paul’s reasoning.) It was in St Paul’s interest as well as the Jesus Movement to maintain a low profile within the “system”. In essence, in their acceptance of the Gospel of Jesus and the proclamation of God’s non-violent New World Order, seen as a leaven or catalyst for change within the Pax Romana (viz., the big lie, back then, was that everyone was happy and there was something wrong with you if your weren’t.
Using modern language, we can update the view of reality that St Paul proclaimed then (and now.) Basically, St Paul and his Jesus Movements in their various house churches believed that God, in Christ Jesus, lived in each and every person. They believed that God, in Christ Jesus, was present in every scenario. Since God was the God of Life and the God of Love, everything ultimately is oriented to Life and Love. This orientation is programmed through the Paschal Mystery of death and Transformation (aka Resurrection) in what modern quantum physicists call the “conservation of energy,” viz., nothing is wasted in the universe. This orientation is lived in a cosmic web in which everyone and everything is connected. Recall Albert Einstein’s “theory of relativity”, that nothing in reality can be understood completely unless it is understood in relationship to everything else in reality. It is not for nothing that the very first paragraph of 1 Thessalonians refers quite unembarrassedly to the Trinitarian relationship of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Thessalonian Jesus Movement had no problem with St Paul’s frequent and favored use of in Christ Jesus in his inspired correspondence. Modern physicists speak of the “Christ Quantum,” the vibrational field established in the Incarnation of the Archetype of Creation, as St Paul calls Jesus. (Col 1.18).
There were three things that the Apostle of Joy (as Jesuit writer, Jim Martin, calls St Paul wanted us all to remember. 1) Never forget that whenever you pray to God “out there”, you miss the point. God lives in you; you live in God. That is the biggie!! 2) Never forget that God can transform every negativity in your life. It is all about consciousness-raising. (A negative experience in one’s past is not necessarily an excuse for a pity-party.) 3) Never forget that God wants you to help transform the negativities in the lives of others. As Lily Tomlin said, “I saw a person in trouble and thought that someone should do something about that and then, I thought, I am someone.”
If a group of people, 2000 years ago, could buy into a new view of reality that transformed their lives, their Catholic descendents today (that’s us) need to ask for the gift of faith in Christ Jesus not to gulp when we hear St Paul says to us, one more time, there is no such thing as a bad day. Everyday is a good one because it is a gift from the God of Life and Love. (That is why we call it “the Present”!!). Granted, some days may be better than others. Our Thessalonian ancestors in the Jesus movement would agree and urge us, their Armonk descendents, to ask for the same faith in Christ Jesus that sustained them. Maranatha. Come, Lord Jesus!! Emmanuel! God is with us!!
For the Jesus Movement, then and now, it is always Advent; it is always Christmas!! 121111AD jfq
St Paul offers curious words to the house churches in Thessalonica (present day Salonika) and the house churches of Armonk as well. He urges his audience, then and now, to “rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in all circumstances. This is what God expects of you in Christ Jesus.”
St Paul’s words were preserved by the Jesus Movement and incorporated into the Christian Scriptures (aka the New Testament). His audience, therefore, his words worth saving and worth reflecting upon again and again. Yet, the same words seem utopian and unreal to most people today. How can one rejoice always, for example? What does St Paul mean by the phrase that he used over 150 times in his letters, in Christ Jesus?
In addition, biblical scholars tell us that St Paul’s First Letter to the Thessalonians, whence our second reading today is excerpted, is the earliest preserved document that we have in the Christian Scriptures. It is dated around 50AD, no more than 20 years after the death and Resurrection of the Lord, dated around 30AD). Then, too, again, the audience bought the message, as if they had an insight into its truth.
St Paul’s methodology was to establish house churches of the Jesus Movement in major cities around the Mediterrean Sea. He stayed about two years in the venue and then, moved to another place. He prided himself on going to places where the Jesus Movement had not yet been established. Examples of some of the churches which he established were in Corinth, Ephesus, Philippi, Thessalonica and Galatia.
His target audience was the non-Jewish Gentiles who frequented the Jewish synagogues in these cities. We know of a group of Gentiles attracted to the logic of monotheism, the higher ethics and value placed upon the human person, within Judaism, viz., where else in the world was everyone (no exceptions) was seen as created in the image and likeness of God; male and female God created them?
Paul thought of himself until the day of his death as a Jewish missionary who was bringing God fearing Gentiles into the Jewish matrix through their acceptance that Jesus is Lord. (Not all Jews nor Jewish Christians agreed with Paul’s reasoning.) It was in St Paul’s interest as well as the Jesus Movement to maintain a low profile within the “system”. In essence, in their acceptance of the Gospel of Jesus and the proclamation of God’s non-violent New World Order, seen as a leaven or catalyst for change within the Pax Romana (viz., the big lie, back then, was that everyone was happy and there was something wrong with you if your weren’t.
Using modern language, we can update the view of reality that St Paul proclaimed then (and now.) Basically, St Paul and his Jesus Movements in their various house churches believed that God, in Christ Jesus, lived in each and every person. They believed that God, in Christ Jesus, was present in every scenario. Since God was the God of Life and the God of Love, everything ultimately is oriented to Life and Love. This orientation is programmed through the Paschal Mystery of death and Transformation (aka Resurrection) in what modern quantum physicists call the “conservation of energy,” viz., nothing is wasted in the universe. This orientation is lived in a cosmic web in which everyone and everything is connected. Recall Albert Einstein’s “theory of relativity”, that nothing in reality can be understood completely unless it is understood in relationship to everything else in reality. It is not for nothing that the very first paragraph of 1 Thessalonians refers quite unembarrassedly to the Trinitarian relationship of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Thessalonian Jesus Movement had no problem with St Paul’s frequent and favored use of in Christ Jesus in his inspired correspondence. Modern physicists speak of the “Christ Quantum,” the vibrational field established in the Incarnation of the Archetype of Creation, as St Paul calls Jesus. (Col 1.18).
There were three things that the Apostle of Joy (as Jesuit writer, Jim Martin, calls St Paul wanted us all to remember. 1) Never forget that whenever you pray to God “out there”, you miss the point. God lives in you; you live in God. That is the biggie!! 2) Never forget that God can transform every negativity in your life. It is all about consciousness-raising. (A negative experience in one’s past is not necessarily an excuse for a pity-party.) 3) Never forget that God wants you to help transform the negativities in the lives of others. As Lily Tomlin said, “I saw a person in trouble and thought that someone should do something about that and then, I thought, I am someone.”
If a group of people, 2000 years ago, could buy into a new view of reality that transformed their lives, their Catholic descendents today (that’s us) need to ask for the gift of faith in Christ Jesus not to gulp when we hear St Paul says to us, one more time, there is no such thing as a bad day. Everyday is a good one because it is a gift from the God of Life and Love. (That is why we call it “the Present”!!). Granted, some days may be better than others. Our Thessalonian ancestors in the Jesus movement would agree and urge us, their Armonk descendents, to ask for the same faith in Christ Jesus that sustained them. Maranatha. Come, Lord Jesus!! Emmanuel! God is with us!!
For the Jesus Movement, then and now, it is always Advent; it is always Christmas!! 121111AD jfq
Friday, December 2, 2011
Reflection, December 4, 2011AD
Two Ways to Spend a Weekend
Jesus’ warmup act makes his annual Advent appearance today as we hear of the ministry of St John the Baptist. Again, the strange figure has been transformed in a variety of ways over the course of the twenty centuries, so that today we do not get the strange presence that he was on the scene back then – and now as well.
John shook up the crowd and ultimately, he shook up King Herod, the beneficiary and flunky of the System, imposed by Rome. When the System said enough to John’s program, Herod knew that something about John was on the level, even for people like Herod himself.
The basics are clear. 1) You did not have to go to the Jerusalem Temple to hear God. God spoke through John the Baptist in the wilderness, where things were basic and less complicated; 2) John knew that the System was not the way that God envisions; 3) all of the people were enmeshed in the System in one way or another; 4) God could not tolerate the maintenance of the System and change was on the way; 5) the stakes were high; 6) you might have a chance if you were sincere in snapping out of the miasmic dream of the System cleaning up your own act as a sign of good faith; 7) you were baptized by John in the Jordan once and for all, no repeats, as assign of your intention of smelling God’s coffee; 8) hang on tight and hope for the best. 9) Jesus Himself heard John and was baptized by him as an act of solidarity with the Jewish nation confronted by the Baptist; 10) Jesus rejected the fire and brimstone aspects of John and later on, preached a message guaranteeing that God has already forgiven each of us sinners. Would you have gone out to hear John the Baptist speak and act out on the banks of the Jordan? Back then, if you had heard about this strange dude in the wilderness, you probably would have had to walk.
Why would you have gone out to hear John? Perhaps, you might have wanted to satisfy your curiosity. But, might it have been that the spin you were getting on John was that the Baptist had something to say that you might want to hear?
We can safely assume that John’s audience back then – and now – were people who experienced days that were good and days not so good as well. 95% of the people back then were probably tenant farmers and poverty had to have been a problem. We can be sure that people then, as now, experienced the vicissitudes of life. They experienced troubles, sickness, accidents, failures, disappointments, bad luck and reality changers that shake all of us up. These negative experiences of life shake us out of what has been called “normalcy bias”. As bad as it is, most people felt – and feel – that things are what they are; you can’t change it! In addition, biblical historians remind us that in addition to the ups and downs of every human life, the social and economic and political scene was quite unpredictable as well. There were several uprisings against the social-economic-political scene that we know about from other sources besides the Scriptures. People get discontent with the status quo – then and now. The cauldron was bubbling and it indicated that people had reached the limits of normalcy bias. (The very fact that both John the Baptist and Jesus had groups of people following them made both of them dangerous figures that had to be watched. Both had to have suspected that having a following.
We frequently describe Americans as victims of the N- syndrome, viz. pathological behavior described by words beginning with letter “N”. We tend to want to maintain the normalcy bias, why rock the boat, if it doesn’t affect you too adversely. You can’t change the System. We tend to be numb to the needs of people less fortunate than we. (We stop making child-like statements, “That’s not fair” when we are grow up, unless it affects us personally.) We tend to be non-stop. Remember the Puritan adages, “early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.” Think of how we annual loss of control in the pre-Christmas Rush. Whatever, people went out of their way to hear the Baptist. Also, some heeded him. This is one of the reasons that Herod saw John as a threat. Somehow, John the Baptist challenged the System and Herod, the flunky of the System had to put him out of commission.
Today, in our non-stop lives, how many of us would make the journey to hear a John the Baptist like figure? We are not talking about a Therapeutic Moralistic Deism here. Some leave our Catholic midst because they feel that religion must be therapeutic and feel good. They go to the other places where the music is more relevant and they feel good when they leave. What happens when the euphoria wears off. And it will, it will.
John the Baptist, preached to grown ups. Jesus preached to grown ups and blessed children. His message was a serious one, though a compassionate one. It involved a consciousness –shift. The System is not what God wants. God offers an alternative vision or consciousness known as the Kingdom of God. It is yours, even now when you take the vision seriously, acknowledging God as the Eternal Transcendent Constituting Other and try to live as Jesus provides the paradigm. God is with you each now, God can transform your pain, God can help you transform the pain of others.
Would you go to the wilderness to hear John? Would you to stop and listen to Jesus as He passed through your town? Would you be too busy to spare the time? Today, when in Advent (known to the System as the Christmas Rush), in whose parking lot would you end up? Jesus’ or the Mall’s?
120411AD jfq
Jesus’ warmup act makes his annual Advent appearance today as we hear of the ministry of St John the Baptist. Again, the strange figure has been transformed in a variety of ways over the course of the twenty centuries, so that today we do not get the strange presence that he was on the scene back then – and now as well.
John shook up the crowd and ultimately, he shook up King Herod, the beneficiary and flunky of the System, imposed by Rome. When the System said enough to John’s program, Herod knew that something about John was on the level, even for people like Herod himself.
The basics are clear. 1) You did not have to go to the Jerusalem Temple to hear God. God spoke through John the Baptist in the wilderness, where things were basic and less complicated; 2) John knew that the System was not the way that God envisions; 3) all of the people were enmeshed in the System in one way or another; 4) God could not tolerate the maintenance of the System and change was on the way; 5) the stakes were high; 6) you might have a chance if you were sincere in snapping out of the miasmic dream of the System cleaning up your own act as a sign of good faith; 7) you were baptized by John in the Jordan once and for all, no repeats, as assign of your intention of smelling God’s coffee; 8) hang on tight and hope for the best. 9) Jesus Himself heard John and was baptized by him as an act of solidarity with the Jewish nation confronted by the Baptist; 10) Jesus rejected the fire and brimstone aspects of John and later on, preached a message guaranteeing that God has already forgiven each of us sinners. Would you have gone out to hear John the Baptist speak and act out on the banks of the Jordan? Back then, if you had heard about this strange dude in the wilderness, you probably would have had to walk.
Why would you have gone out to hear John? Perhaps, you might have wanted to satisfy your curiosity. But, might it have been that the spin you were getting on John was that the Baptist had something to say that you might want to hear?
We can safely assume that John’s audience back then – and now – were people who experienced days that were good and days not so good as well. 95% of the people back then were probably tenant farmers and poverty had to have been a problem. We can be sure that people then, as now, experienced the vicissitudes of life. They experienced troubles, sickness, accidents, failures, disappointments, bad luck and reality changers that shake all of us up. These negative experiences of life shake us out of what has been called “normalcy bias”. As bad as it is, most people felt – and feel – that things are what they are; you can’t change it! In addition, biblical historians remind us that in addition to the ups and downs of every human life, the social and economic and political scene was quite unpredictable as well. There were several uprisings against the social-economic-political scene that we know about from other sources besides the Scriptures. People get discontent with the status quo – then and now. The cauldron was bubbling and it indicated that people had reached the limits of normalcy bias. (The very fact that both John the Baptist and Jesus had groups of people following them made both of them dangerous figures that had to be watched. Both had to have suspected that having a following.
We frequently describe Americans as victims of the N- syndrome, viz. pathological behavior described by words beginning with letter “N”. We tend to want to maintain the normalcy bias, why rock the boat, if it doesn’t affect you too adversely. You can’t change the System. We tend to be numb to the needs of people less fortunate than we. (We stop making child-like statements, “That’s not fair” when we are grow up, unless it affects us personally.) We tend to be non-stop. Remember the Puritan adages, “early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.” Think of how we annual loss of control in the pre-Christmas Rush. Whatever, people went out of their way to hear the Baptist. Also, some heeded him. This is one of the reasons that Herod saw John as a threat. Somehow, John the Baptist challenged the System and Herod, the flunky of the System had to put him out of commission.
Today, in our non-stop lives, how many of us would make the journey to hear a John the Baptist like figure? We are not talking about a Therapeutic Moralistic Deism here. Some leave our Catholic midst because they feel that religion must be therapeutic and feel good. They go to the other places where the music is more relevant and they feel good when they leave. What happens when the euphoria wears off. And it will, it will.
John the Baptist, preached to grown ups. Jesus preached to grown ups and blessed children. His message was a serious one, though a compassionate one. It involved a consciousness –shift. The System is not what God wants. God offers an alternative vision or consciousness known as the Kingdom of God. It is yours, even now when you take the vision seriously, acknowledging God as the Eternal Transcendent Constituting Other and try to live as Jesus provides the paradigm. God is with you each now, God can transform your pain, God can help you transform the pain of others.
Would you go to the wilderness to hear John? Would you to stop and listen to Jesus as He passed through your town? Would you be too busy to spare the time? Today, when in Advent (known to the System as the Christmas Rush), in whose parking lot would you end up? Jesus’ or the Mall’s?
120411AD jfq
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)