Reflection, May 27, 2012AD

 Wear Red and Walk Humbly, One and All!!!

              Biblical scholars strongly feel that the year of the Lord’s death and Resurrection was 30AD. If such were the case, then Palm Sunday that year would have been April 1. Good Friday would have been April 6. Easter Sunday would have been April 8. Ascension Thursday would have been May 17.  Ten days later, the coming of the Spirit upon the Jesus Movement was May 27. Today!!!!!

There are very few dates that are specific in the all-important first century when the Spirit began to form the Jesus Movement into the Body of Christ.  These are the matrix on which the New Testament community was begun. The New Testament continues to this very day.

We have evidence of the Jesus Movement as early as 40AD in the city of Rome when a sarcophagus (casket) of a Roman lady who had died in 41AD bore a Christian symbol upon it. We think that 51AD is a specific date from the New Testament when Gallio was the consul of Corinth. The decision was reached earlier that Gentiles could become members of the Jesus Movement without fully becoming incorporated into Judaism was made at what has been called the Council of Jerusalem in 49AD.  We know that July, 64AD, was the date of the Great Fire in Rome. In the subsequent persecution of the Christians in Rome, it was already possible to distinguish Jews (not blamed for the fire) and Jewish-Gentile Christians (blamed for the fire!) We know the temple was destroyed in the Jewish Rebellion in the summer of 70AD.

Most other dates are speculative.  We are sure that St Paul’s letters (at least 7 of them) were the first works written later incorporated into the Christian Scriptures.  Many think that the Letter of St James was written next. Then, the four Gospels appear, Mark’s Gospel, (c.70AD), Matthew’s Gospel, (c. 75AD), Luke’s Gospel – Acts, (c. 85AD), John’s Gospel (c.100AD).      

True, the pre-paschal Community, viz., the group before the death and resurrection of Jesus was transformed by the Holy Spirit into the post-paschal community. The transformation continues today in Christ Jesus. Your presence here today (hopefully clad in red) indicates that the Holy Spirit (the Integrating Energy of God) is still at work in your life as a disciple (if you are baptized and learn from Jesus, Whose school is always open) or an apostle (if you are confirmed, one learning from Jesus, sent into the world to preach the Gospel.)

Since the days of Albert Einstein and his cohorts, we understand time as relative.  The Jesus Movement has known that from the beginning. They learned it from their Jewish roots with the Semitic concept of zikkar (to remember). It means to relive in the mind.  When the Jewish folks gather for the first Seder and the youngest asks, “Why is this night different from all others?” the eldest says (using the present tense, this is the night when our ancestors are liberated from Egypt. The memory animates the story.  Our ancestors adopted the word, amnesesis, (to remember again).  When we recall, we relive them anew.

Whenever we remember that we are always in need of forgiveness, it is always Lent. Whenever we remember that we are always receiving that forgiveness,  it is always Easter. Whenever we remember that we are always recipients of the Holy Spirit, it is always Pentecost. Whenever we remember that we are always waiting for the Lord to come into our lives anew, it is always Advent. Whenever we remember that we are always welcoming Christ into our lives, it is always Christmas. Whenever we  welcome Christ into our lives in new and different situations and people, it is always Epiphany.    

The Holy Spirit is the God of Surprises. Remember the popular book, The Shack, which so many read and discussed.  The figure of the Spirit in the book changed appearances and changed names throughout the novel.  This was reminiscent of what Jesus said to Nicodemus, in the 4th Gospel, “The Spirit blows where It wills; one knows not whence it comes and whither it comes.”  

The Hebrew word for “spirit” is ha Ruach (a feminine noun!!!!!). The word can be translated in at least three ways. 1) The word can mean “breath”. 2) The word can mean “wind”. 3) The word can mean “energy” enabling ordinary folks to do extraordinary things. The proper understanding of the word is its usage in each particular context.  All three senses appear in our readings this Pentecost Sunday. Jesus breathed on them and said “receive the Holy Spirit!”. The wind roared when the Spirit fell upon the Primitive Christian Community, made up of the 12, Jesus’ relatives, friends, and acquaintances, including the ladies who came up from Galilee, picking up the tab on the journey (Luke 8.1-3). What’s up with that? The energy (Ruach) was given to Peter to preach to thousands that day — and they listened!

  We live in a world of paradox, one of apparent contradictions. Even now, but not yet, God’s Kingdom has broken through in Christ Jesus. Whenever we remember (and behave accordingly) that the Kingdom of God is among us, then the Kingdom comes (even now, but not yet)!! The Jesus Movement has believed this since May 27, 30AD. We  remember and celebrate and proclaim it on May 27, 2012AD. The quantum physicists are finally catching up with us on this. Do the right, love the good, wear the red and walk humbly in the Presence of the Spirit of God, the Fourth Dimension!           052712AD jfq

Reflection, May 20, 2012AD

What If?

           Today, three words dominate our second reading. 1 John tells us, “God is Love and the person who remains in love remains in God and God in that person”.  The three words are God, Love and remain. How are they applicable practically to the everyday life of a Catholic?

           What do we mean by the word “God”? What do we mean by “Love”? What does “remain in Love and in God” mean?

Blessed Juliana of Norwich wrote back in the thirteenth century that while most Catholics could handle the idea that God was almighty and that God was omniscient, most could not fathom that God is Love.  She asked how differently we might behave if we believed John’s words.

Certainly, Jesus wants us to be a community that celebrates God as Love as we deal with one another.  Our community, however, is structured and sometimes, perhaps, structures become obstacles, if not ends, in themselves.  Down through the course of history, structured communities, church and state, have sometimes idolized the structures meant to guarantee the communal life.

An example of this appears today in our first reading with the prayers and the casting of lots for the successor of Judas.  The method of prayer and casting lots was not uncommon in the Hebrew tradition.  Peter did not pull the idea out of a hat.

The number “12” had to be restored after the defection of Judas as a sign of God’s fidelity to Israel.  The reason that the new member had to be a male was simply that Jesus had chosen 12 males as the restoration of the 12 Patriarchs in Israel’s tradition.  The 12 were an audio-visual that God remained faithful to Israel by calling them to repentance.

Certainly, St Luke sets us up in the selection of Matthias as the replacement of Judas.  He gives us three different names for his rival, Joseph, Justus and Barsabbas.  With such nomenclature, and the mere mention of “Matthias” as the other candidate, one would anticipate the election of former, rather than the latter.  God’s ways are not our ways.

The 120 present constituted the 11, Jesus’ relatives and friends, the women who had come up from Galilee with Jesus and Mary, His mother.  During the nine days between the  Ascension and Pentecost, the group prayed and cast lots, expressing their trust in God to make the proper selection.  The dark horse won. 

We know also from Church History that the entire Catholic community prayed for their choice for next pope and/or bishop.

Around 250 AD, the clergy and people of Rome were in prayer before they selected the next Bishop of Rome (aka the Pope). Tradition tells us that a white dove flew in the window of the room where our ancestors gathered and landed on the head of St Fabian, a layman. The entire community then acclaimed him as the one that God wanted.

In the next century, Church History tells of the selection of St Ambrose, one of the great Doctors of the Western Church. According to the story, Ambrose was not yet a Christian (not baptized), yet, as the police commissioner for the City of Milan, it was his job to gather the Church together to pray and select the next bishop of that city, which had surpassed Rome in population and influence by this time. A voice was heard in the crowd proclaiming “Ambrosius episcopus”, viz., “Ambrose the Overseer or Supervisor or Bishop”. The crowd of Catholics felt that since Ambrose, not yet baptized was such a skillful organizer that he would have been the ideal choice.  He was baptized, confirmed and made first Communion, as well as was ordained deacon, priest and bishop in short order. He turned out to be such a force for the Gospel in Italy that one Emperor, Theodosius I, came to beg penance from Ambrose for the massacre of people who had refused to pay their taxes!!       

If we want to maintain the apostolicity of our Church, perhaps, we might re-visit the idea of the “Matthias principle”. St Matthias, St Fabian, St Ambrose all are remembered as the un-engineered choice.  Many wonder today where Roman Catholicism would be in the world of the 21st century if the darkhorse, Blessed John XXIII were not elected in 1958.  Would the Spirit filled days of Vatican Council II (remember that?) had not taken place? Where would we had been without Vatican II after the world changing events of 1968?   After conversation among the entire community, consultation and collaboration of the choice of worthy candidates for church leadership, Catholics could pray over and cast lots. If we are a community that really believed that God is almighty, omniscient and Love, then, we might trust God to make the selection for us. It has happened before.  052012AD jfq                

Reflection, May 13, 2012AD

The Blindness of Mr Bumble

             In Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist, there is an ironic and poignant scene in which Oliver dares to ask Mr Bumble at the Orphanage for more soup. Mr Bumble, in his righteous indignation, gets very upset.  Behind his head are the words from 1 John, “God is Love”.

             One of the last descriptions that “the System”, conventional wisdom would offer as a trait of God is God is Love. Whoever God is, the One in Whom we (claim to) trust, most of us try the fine art of “hedging our bets.”  God may be love, but I will do my best to fend for myself. God might be Love, but God is unpredictable.

Jesus Who knows well that God is Love tells us to love one another as (God has) loved us.  In fact, in St John’s Gospel, Jesus  gives us a simple job description as His disciples, viz., “believe in the God of Life and the One Whom God sent” and “love one another”.

Bracketing his love commandment at the Last Supper, Jesus, as ever, practices what He preaches.  He never asks us to do what He Himself has not done for us.

He had washed the feet of His disciples as a selfless act (pouring Himself out) for His own and of service of others. Recall His words in Mark 10.35, ”The Son of Man came to serve, not to be served, and to give His Life in ransom for the many”.

Next, He gave His Life in sacrifice for us, “Greater love than this no one has, that he would lay down His life for his friends.” While most of us are not called to lay down our lives literally for one another, we do so in lives of selflessness, sacrifice and service for our families, our communities. Life is not about me; I am about life!

Sadly, in colloquial American English, the word “love” has collapsed in usage as have the words “nice” or “interesting”.  In the biblical language, Greek, there were at least 4 different words used for “love”.  “When I “love” Italian food,” the word is “sorge.” When I “love “my neighbor, the word is “philia” When I love significant others, the word is “eros”. When I love without counting the cost, the word is “agape”.

The word used by the Fourth Evangelist is the word “agape”.  It is the love based on the longing for relationship, but the willingness to live for the other within the relationship.  It is a mode of life in which the relationship (and the people therein) become primary. Simply put, it is not what can this relationship do for me; rather, it is what I can do for this relationship.

In the past, some have characterized the three major religions, Protestant, Catholic, Jew, as three variations of dressing up the American Dream with religious language. Religion becomes, for some, something we do for an hour on a weekend because it is what Americans do. In the 1950’s, sociologist, Will Herberg, wrote a landmark book, Protestant, Catholic, Jew, in which he said that the three major religions in the USA then were all vaiations of the American Dream. Nobody seriously objected to his thesis; rather most (including Catholics) taught it.  One wonders what the title of Herberg’s sequel might be if he were to write another now.)  Hopefully, American Catholics are coming to see that American Dream is not the Kingdom of God, proclaimed and personified by Jesus Christ.

What incarnational Catholicism aims for is the realization that the drive to philia and eros and agape built into the human psyche is the saturation of all life with the attitude that God is always with us and we are always with God. Whenever we live our lives with and for others, God is present and active. (Recall the mantra mentioned in the past, “God is a verb”.) 

American culture has been described as superficial. (Recall that the theory that the entire culture might have Attention Deficit Dysorder.)  Our culture has been described as hedonistic. (The good life is the name of the game for many.)  Our culture has been described as having a a propensity to showiness. (For many, success is “having more than most people”.) American culture has been described as “self-deceived”. We refuse to see ourselves as much of the world sees us. 

Sadly, when we have an abundance, we feel a sense of entitlement.  When we don’t get what we want, we feel cheated and revert to our abundance to get even more. Where is the sacrifice, selflessness, service associated with Jesus’ call to love (agape) one another as I have loved (agape-d) you?   Life in Christ Jesus is not co-terminus with the American Dream, viz., life “on Paradise Drive”.

Mr Bumble must have heard the words, “God is AGAPE” many times. He certainly heard them every Easter when he went to church.  Still, did he understand the words? He knew the words, but did he know the words? (In the biblical sense, “to know” is to be “intimately united with, to have internalized” the known.)

The school of the Fourth Evangelist tells us that God is AGAPE, that Jesus Christ Whom the God of Love has sent into the world has given us the great commandment to love one another as He loved us.  He shows how, with the help of the Paraclete-Spirit, to live with faith in the God of Love and Life in selflessness, service, and sacrifice for others. 

Did Mr Bumble get the Message?  Does the system today get the Message?  Do American dreamers get the Message?  Do we all get the Message?  Do we try, with God’s Help, try to live the Message? Do we try, in Christ Jesus to teach the kids to get the Message? Values are caught, not taught.          051312AD   jfq     

Reflection, May 6, 2012AD

The Vine that Jesus Is

        This Sunday, we hear of the Vine and the Branches. (Last Sunday, we heard of the Little Flock of the Good Shepherd.) Both images speak to, in imaginative terms, the relationship of each of us and all of us to Christ Jesus        

        Christ is the Vine; we are the branches; the Holy Spirit is the “life-giving energy or power” nurturing the Vine and the Branches; God the Father is the Vine-grower; our life in Christ Jesus each day is the fruit of the Vine. 

If we were asked how the branches cling to the vine, most would say there are two ways.  First, we  try, with the aid of the Paraclete (the Holy Spirit), to obey the great love commandment of John’s Gospel, “Love one another as I  have loved you”  And how has Jesus loved us?  He did so through service and sacrifice and selflessness for others. 

        Second, we cling to the Vine through prayer, community, the Scriptures and the sacraments, particularly Baptism and the Eucharist.   There are, also, myriad other ways in which Jesus helps us to cling to Him. 

        However, what does Jesus mean by the image of pruning? Most see the term “pruning” as the suffering that we all have to endure at one point or another in our lives.  Suffering strips away the false concept that we are ultimately in control of our lives.  Whether it is through disappointment, job loss, family problems, sickness, accidents, impending old age in a youth-oriented society, as well as death of loved ones, periodically,  we get shaken up to realize that our grasp of security is tenuous and illusory.

        It is at such times that we realize that we have no place to turn but to God Who promises to be with always on days good and not so good.  Jesus assures us that as we cling to the Vine, Which He is, that He and God the Father are in control, more intimately involved in our lives than we are. He asks each of us to make a leap of faith as we bear our pain, that, in the Spirit, He asks us to surrender, let go and trust the Paschal Mystery.

        In an upscale community such as ours,  frequently,  people cannot handle it when things goes awry in their projected life’s pattern.  Years ago, David Brooks spoke of “life On Paradise Drive”, viz., the upper middle class suburban view of reality. Brooks coined such terms as “Bobos” (Bourgeouis Bohemians or Bohemian Bourgeouis) and “uber-Mom”, who knew where her child was going to college 18 years and nine months before entry date and “flexodoxy”, religion as it works for me.

Contrary to conventional wisdom, what they (usually the ones who run the show), it is not about where the child goes to college and it is not about what kind of auto you drive. It is not about what you own, but maybe, what owns you?   

        Three quotes from the Bible don’t get mentioned in official places.  1) “The Lord gives the Lord takes away; Blessed be the Name of the Lord.” 2) “We accept God’s things from God; should we not accept evil also.  Naked came I forth from my mothers’ womb and naked shall I go back again.” 3) “Where were you when God fashioned the universe? Could you have done it better?” You cannot talk about that in nice, conventional places.

From St Mark’s Gospel, three quotes from Him Whose Name cannot mentioned cannot be mentioned either. 1) “Whoever wishes to save his life (in the System??) will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and for the Gospel, (viz., the Truth that is ultimate) will save it? 2) What profit is there for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? 3) Whoever would be great among you will be the servant; whoever wishes to be first among you will be the servant of all.”  “Bobo” culture cannot even pose the questions.

        More traditional cultures teach young people that life is more than the youngsters are.  Life does not revolve around the young.  Living in extended, multi-generational families made that reality easier to understand. We are a part of a greater scenario in which we play a significant, but not central part. It is a humbling and a humanizing experience to realize that the universe does not revolve around oneself.  We all have to learn the lesson.  However, we all do not learn the lesson at the same time, if we learn it at all.

        1) In Bobo culture, children have to learn that while they are the center of their mother’s universe, both they and she need to realize that a Transcendent God (perfectly hidden and perfectly revealed at the same time) is the focal point that permeates reality. 2) Bobo children need to learn that bad things happen (even to them at times). 3)  Bobo children have to learn that life is not about them; rather they are involved in God’s Life. Do we hear that talk around here?   

        Teilhard de Chardin spoke of the “negative diminishments of life”, what Catholics call today as the “cross”. The Fourth Evangelist hints that Jesus’ reference to the “pruning of the branches” means how the Word of Jesus helps us to endure the “cross” as the coming of age of a mature person within a Catholic framework.

        American Catholics heard of “Little Flock of the Good Shepherd” last weekend and “the Vine and the Branches” this weekend.   However, the Paraclete, the Spirit of Jesus, God’s Integrating Energy does it for you and for all of us, may we always cling to the Vine of Jesus Christ. Someday each of us has to cling to the Vine that Christ is. Let us start now!  050612AD  jfq         

Reflection, April 29, 2012AD

What’s in the News Today (and Everyday)?

              Every once in a while, Catholics hear the provocative second reading that is our second reading on this Easter Sunday.  Every year on All Saints & All Souls Days (Nov 1 & 2), we hear it. Frequently at Funeral Masses we hear it. Today on this Easter Sunday, we hear it once again. 

              It is more than a slogan for believers; it is a paradigm for life each day. “We are God’s children now; what we are yet to be has not yet come to light.”

First, the quote tells us (as the Word of God does in several places) that the Bible does not answer all our questions.  It is a variation of the famous question in both the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures, “Who knows the Mind of God?”

Second, it tells us of our human identity here and now, viz., we are God’s children now!” God’s DNA is in us; we are in God’s DNA. (Is DNA another name for the Holy Spirit, God’s integrating Energy?)

Hopefully, Catholic people understand that the Bible is not a question and answer book that solves every problem. If such were the case, why would we need faith in Christ Jesus? Beware of the one with all the answers, he or she might not even know the questions!

It is the second question on which we might focus today. We are God’s children now.  All humans are God’s children, but Catholics are called and empowered in baptism and confirmation to proclaim that reality to all we meet.

How do we do so? In Christ Jesus, we live our lives each day. Does our everyday behavior show that we are God’s children now? Do Catholics show that we take seriously that we are called, in our biblical tradition, the People of God? As Vatican Council II teaches in Lumen Gentium, all Catholics (not some) are to respond to the universal call to integrity (an apt synonym for holiness since “holiness” is etymologically related to the word “whole”). Catholics are meant to be people who in Christ Jesus try to get our acts together and to inspire others to do the same (by our word and example).         

 Diana Butler Bass, a Methodist feminist theologian, writes that we are all called by God to a generative Christianity.  Generative Christians  are people who take seriously what she calls “Great Commandment Christianity.” How much do we try in Christ Jesus to take seriously the Absolute Centrality of God as the core of our existence? Second, how do we try to worship the Invisible God by serving the needs of God’s children, when those needs (as well as their children’s) are clearly visible?

More and more, in our superficial society, we throw slogans out at one another to indicate how we informed  we are (by whom?) to others. We don’t realize that we do it, but frequently, we let others do our thinking for us.  How frequently these days we hear social-economic-political terms that we feel that we know what “they” mean?

This week, we commemorate the 29^th anniversary of the Challenge of Peace, the landmark statement of the American bishops on May 3, 1983, in which three new terms came into contemporary Catholic parlance.  How often do we hear in others places besides in the Catholic community that we are called to be consistent in our commitment to the absolute value of every human life? Do they talk about that on TV? How often do we hear in other places besides the Catholic community of the call to personal disarmament of the human heart, viz., that we are urged, one and all, to adopt a commitment to work in Christ Jesus to become people of non-violence in word and in action? Do they talk about that on TV? How often do we hear in other places beside the Catholic community that we are to behave as we know that we are, indeed, living in a new moment in human history? Do they talk about that on TV? Who really dominates the media?    

Fifty years ago, on Dec 8, 1965, the bishops of the Second Vatican Council said that one of the greatest heresies in the Western world is the artificial dichotomy between one’s personal call to integrity and one’s commitment to a world in which the social-economic-political needs of our sisters and brothers are not addressed. The call of Vatican II was to solidarity in Christ Jesus with those less fortunate than we in the basic Christian stance of solidarity, viz., like it or not, we are our sister’s and brother’s keepers. Do they talk about that on TV? Who really dominates the media?

More and more, people speak of the Gospel call to solidarity (a favorite buzzword going back to Blessed John XXIII and used bigtime by Pope John Paul II), or enoughism or communalism, that everyone has enough. (Know-it-all news commentators use another prejudiced word that most do not understand to define the concept and turn good people off (deliberately?). Solidarity or enoughism or communalism name the vision that St Matthew shares with us in Jesus’ criterion in the Parable of the Last Judgment. “As long as you did it (or didn’t do it) to one of the least of the sisters and brothers, you did it (or didn’t) to Me.”

As we hear today, we are God’s children now.  Does our behavior indicate how seriously we take those words today? Catholics always need to recall that Great Commandment Christianity calls us to live loves of non-violent solidarity in Christ Jesus with one another. Do they talk about that on TV?  Who really dominates the media?  042912AD jfq