Some Heavy Lifting (Up)!!
One useful tool in reading and reflecting on John’s Gospel is the fact that the 4th Evangelist constantly plays with ironic language to present the paradox of the Christ Quantum. Often, language can be understood differently by different people.
There is a prime example in our Gospel this weekend when Jesus refers to the modus operandi of the universe in His being “lifted up”, viz., the Paschal Mystery. What is going on? (You might not pick this up with all the feel-good televangelists or dumb Chicken Soup books or New Age angelology.)
The Fourth Gospel was written in Greek and the Greek passive voice is clearly used here. (Recall that passive voice means that the subject of the sentence is acted upon.) Jesus is lifted up!
To what does the lifting up refer? Does it refer to the crucifixion and/or the Resurrection and/or the Ascension (called the Exaltation by St Paul)? All three simultaneously? Never forget that God is smarter than we are!
Who does the lifting up? Is it the powers that be whose thugs carried out the execution? Is it YHWH doing the lifting up? Both simultaneously?
Are we to recall here the thought of Blessed Juliana of Norwich that God allowed the worst thing imaginable (the death of God) to happen so that simultaneously the best thing imaginable (the Resurrection or Transformation of humanity in Christ Jesus makes its quantum leap.)
The “lifting up” is the Fourth Evangelist’s way of describing the Paschal Mystery, which is the way the Universe operates. All creation is in process of dying and rising. (Even the sun itself is dying each moment.)
Curiously, there is a developing opinion that Jesus and some of His followers were bi-lingual, viz., were conversant in both Aramaic (Hebrew) and Greek. It is curious that the Greek speakers in today’s Gospel approached Philip and Andrew (two of Jesus’ disciples with Greek names that have no Semitic counterpart). (Philippos means “Horse lover”(!!!) and Andreas means “a male person”.) The Greek speakers came to Greek speaking disciples and they approach Jesus. There is no indication that Jesus needed an interpreter when He speaks to the audience. The Greek play on words is operative here.
Dying and rising involves not only Jesus Himself, the archetype of creation, the image of the invisible God. It involves all of us who live and move and have our being in Christ.
One’s answer depends on where the person is with respect to responding to the Paraclete-Spirit? Faith is God’s Gift. All believers are recipient of the Gift. How you handle the Gift is your decision?
In adult life, people go through two different phases. In early adulthood, most of us make our mark, try to take the world by storm and try to make the difference. In later adulthood, adults should learn (but do not always) that life is also about bearing pain, leaping in faith, surrendering, letting go and trusting the Paschal Mystery.
The transition point or Paschal Moment usually involves some type of suffering through which we find our egos destabilized. We learn through disappointments, rejections, absurdities, failures, sickness and sadness that a middle class life is not the reason God created us. There is something more involved, Which we call the Sacred, That permeates and yet transcends our everyday life.
350 years ago, French mathematician-theologian, Blaise Pascal wrote that the reason why bourgeous people strive for leisure time is to avoid facing the moments we have to feel the left hand of God. We look for anything that we feel will gratify our needs at the moment. Pascal also said sagely, “There is a God-shaped hollow in the human heart that nothing else can fill.”
The pattern of death and transformation is the key to the universe and the Paschal Mystery of the Creator’s Son incarnate opens the door and reveals a Reality (a Fourth Dimension?) so close that we cannot see it without the Gift of faith.
St Peter’s 1st letter tells us that we all experience suffering in one form or another in life. He asks us to do so in Christ Jesus by sharing in the Paschal Mystery entrusting our lives to the Faithful Creator in every situation. Sooner or later, we all find out that our lives are not about us. Ask Christ Jesus NOW for the Grace to surrender, let go and trust the Paschal Mystery. What a lift!! Just what we all need!! Just what broken systems need (even if they don’t now it!!) 032512AD jfq
