Reflection, September 30, 2012AD

 Keep the Jesus Vision Alive!!!

             Every autumn, the world becomes aware that Manhattan is, indeed, the island at the center of the world. Every fall, the Big Apple hosts the Annual Opening of the United Nations General Assembly.  World leaders, far and wide, converge on us for this annual meeting. Popes Paul VI, John Paul II and Benedict have addressed the General Assembly. They represent what one area theologian has said, “A billion words are better than a single bullet in achieving peace.”

In a postnational consciousness, the United Nations would be the closest to what St Augustine of Hippo described as the Human City, in his classic, De Civitate Dei, On the City of God back in the beginning of the fifth century. It is the lattice on which God’s plan for the world (visualized as a growing vine) would unfold. Lattices come and go, but the vine remains. 

In addition, this month, the Dalai Lama will visit the Big Apple. He is currently engaged in trying to get the major religions, east and west, to subscribe to a universal global ethic, viz., something on which men and women of good will throughout the world can all agree. His point is that people of good will should search for common ground on which to build a consensus on how the world can grow and thrive.

He sees at least two areas on which people can agree. First, every major religious system is conscious of what we in the west call Transcendence. We are all aware that each of us is dependent upon and different than Another. In the West, we call the Other God; in the East, they refer to Anatta (Non-being).  East and West agree that through contemplation, the perennial religious practice, all can be present to Transcendence.

In addition, he speaks of the call to compassion. (Unfortunately, in the west, the word has taken on a “bleeding heart” connotation.) He means that simply we all know somehow that if we are to be human really, as Genesis says, “We are our brother’s and sister’s keepers, whether we like it or not.” Everything and everyone is connected. Rugged individualism and autonomy are aberrations in human consciousness that have developed in the arrogant world of the Western Enlightenment. 

The joint stress upon both contemplation and compassion was celebrated big time by the Dalai lama in his analysis of the role of Roman Catholicism in his global world ethic. He speaks favorably of the universal call to contemplation that the Catholic Church stresses in the various intentional communities of contemplation, centering prayer, lectio divina that is grabbing the attention of so many Catholics in their response to the Second Vatican Council’s declaration of the universal call to integrity. 

In addition, he stresses the fact that in Western civilization, it was the Catholic Church that linked clearly with works of distributive justice or enoughism, how Catholics see the fulfillment of Jesus’ mandate that what we do for the least of the sisters and brothers, we do for Him. He cites the development of schools, hospitals, leper sanitaria, orphanages for those enable to handle their own problems in days when the powerful didn’t feel that everyone really counted. A contemplative mind should lead to a compassionate heart, no exceptions.  Jesus must be thinking, “Someone is getting it right!”

Another one who got it right was California Catholic union organizer Cesar Chavez, whose memory naturally comes to mind today when we hear the excerpt from St James’ letter. In his efforts, he was aided and supported by visionaries like Sen Robert F Kennedy and Dorothy Day of NY, (on her way to Catholic canonization.)   In his fervent Catholicism, Chavez integrated his love of God and neighbor in one synthesis that helped enhance the lives of thousands of marginalized people with a sense of dignity and self-worth still needed in a polarized world today.

The American Catholic bishops stated to any who would listen in their video, Salt and Light , released in 1998,  “The values of the Church’s social teaching must not be treated as tangential or optional.  They must be a core part of teaching and formation (of all Catholics). Without our social teaching, schools, catechetical programs and adult formation programs (for all Catholics) would be an offering of incomplete presentation of our Catholic tradition.  This would fall short of our mission and would be a serious loss for those in religious formation. (viz, all of us)  They also wrote, “The Church’s social teaching is a rich treasure of wisdom about building a just society and living lives of holiness amidst the challenges of society.  It offers moral principles and coherent values badly needed in our time.  In this time of widespread violence and diminished respect for human life and dignity in our country and around the world, the Gospel of Life and the biblical call to justice need to be proclaimed and shared with new clarity, urgency and energy.” Do we listen?  

       As we enter October, the Jesus Movement in Armonk prays for a peaceful and equitable world in which all will have enough. We pray for God’s blessings upon the General Assembly which opened last Monday in NYC. We strive to work for a better world as we join with the sisters and brothers of St Stephen’s Episcopal Church and other Christians in our area to commit ourselves to a just world. We continue to hear (and listen to) prophetic voices like the Dalai Lama and Cesar Chavez and most especially, Jesus of Nazareth, who challenge us to build a world, east and west, open to the call of transcendence and the call to distributive justice for all, not just some.   093012AD jfq  

Reflection, September 23, 2012AD

 What Next in the World?

           The middle portion of St Mark’s Gospel, viz.  Mk 8.27 – 10.52 has been called “Mark’s Message to Males.” The message propelled by the Spirit into the male dominated society in the first century needs to be heeded today by both males and females.

           Ina variety of ways, St Mark teaches males (and females) that we are not controllers of our destiny.  1) The dark side of life confronts all, rich and poor alike.  (The rich can avert it longer.) 2) The dark side of life is tough and tough things are part of life. 3) LIFE IS THE GREATEST GOOD.

  All our human family is in the same boat. All males (and females) have to learn that we are all “connected empathetically” with others. Dominant culture does not stress this, although it says that it does. St Mark tells us that “rugged individualism”, which had been peddled as a positive, is a negative value.    

St James speaks today of selfishness and greed as a cause of wars, both personal and structural.  With God’s Help, all of us need to work on that sad reality in our lives.  Jesus also tells us today, that whoever is concerned about and receives the least in the society, receives Christ Jesus and the One Who sent Him. How different than what conventional wisdom (aka the System) teaches us!

It was this difference between the Message of Jesus and the message that the new industrial order in Western Europe and North America was proclaiming as a social-economic Darwinistic given that prompted Pope Leo XIII to add his voice to the critique of the new laissez-faire environment.

Pope Leo (1878-1903) began the tradition known Catholic social-economic-political theology with the publication of his encyclical, Rerum Novarum, On the New Order in 1891.  It was the beginning of what has been called the best kept secrets of modern Catholicism, viz., many cannot see how the church would dare to critique the world.  Remember the arcastic criticism that a prominent Catholic intellectual offered on Blessed John XXIII’s Mater et Magistra (Mother and Teacher)  in 1961. The Catholic wrote an article, “Mater, Si, Magistra No” in response to Blessed John’s encyclical. Clever, don’t you think?

Pope Leo taught that since the earliest days of the Jesus Movement, as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles (he cited particularly Acts. 7, the institution of the deacons to tend  the poor and needy in the Jerusalem Church.           

Several theologians speak now of the Great Convergence, viz., when some people get their acts together and realize that our world cannot survive the way we are going.  We need some new ideas. 

Ironically, the new idea that we need is the Old Idea contained in the Gospel of Jesus.  Some need to hear it again for the first time and then, share it with their children.

Canadian theologian, Fr Ron Rolheiser, wrote a blockbuster book in 1999, entitled, The Holy Longing .  So many of the major religions proclaim some form of a Golden Rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Fr Rolheiser said that we can use the Golden Rule to begin, as Disciples of Jesus, to live as part of God’s and Eve’s one Global Family.  1) Treat all with equal dignity. 2) Behave as if God intended the earth for all persons equally. 3) Remember that the right to private property is not absolute and must be subordinated to the common good. (Leo & John Paul also stressed that point.) 4) No persons or groups should have surpluses if others lack basic necessities. 5) We are obliged morally to come to the aid of those in need. It is a high road to God and human fulfillment.   6) No economic laws transcend the moral scrutiny of the Golden Rule. (Pope John Paul said “no moral freezones”.7) The earth is not just a stage on which humans play.  The ecology is a creature of God, having basic rights .

We listen to the morning news and ask ourselves, “What next?”  Can events in the Middle East get any worse? More of the same, sadly, unless we start to listen to Jesus and His relative, St James, today. 

Aboriginal peoples in North America used to make decisions as a group using as a standard, “How will this decision affect our grandchildren seven generations hence?” Parents and grandparents of today might ask the same question as they teach their children now. Decisions today affect outcomes tomorrow.  At the beginning of the twentieth century, Henry Ford famously remarked, “History is bunk.” Sadly, too many of his mindset then and now have agreed with him.  Jesus, St James and St Mark have different ideas. Who will teach the children?  092312AD jfq 

Reflection, September 16, 2012AD

Who is Bella Figura?

The State of Maryland carries on its license plates this year the words, “Bicentennial of the War of 1812.” Much of the War of 1812 occurred in Maryland, including the invasion and burning of Washington DC. Historians have debated the purpose and the morality of that conflict for the last two hundred years. Are dubious wars apt for state license plates?

In addition, our nation commemorates these years the sesquicentennial of the War Between the States (from 1861 – 1865).  The conflict was the costliest war in the loss of life in the Western Hemisphere to this day. 620,000 people died in the conflict.  (In terms of American population today, it would be the same as 6 ½ million Americans died in battle.) All the lives of American military lost in every USA War, from 1775 to the present (over 2000 in Afghanistan), were still less than the loss in the Conflict between 1861-1865.  In addition, there is no reason to think that modern diagnoses such as post traumatic stress disorder only popped up in the present time. These casualties don’t even fit.     

 On Monday, September 17, we commemorate the 150^th anniversary of the Battle of Antietam, Maryland. It was the bloodiest day in USA History, more than Pearl Harbor or D-Day or 911. 

Some background is in order. The war momentum was on the side of the Confederate States (CSA) after initial CSA at First Bull Run in 1861.  The North expecting a quick victory over the rebels, suffered a psychological morale loss as the conflict continued.

President Jefferson Davis appointed Robert E Lee to take the approach of an offensive defense, viz., what the Pentagon calls today “preemptive strikes.” A West Point graduate, General Lee was a military gambler and shrewd reader of opponent’s minds. His mission was to win a major battle in the North to demoralize the North.  He crossed into Maryland from Harper’s Ferry, Virginia (of John Brown fame) on Sept 4, 1862.

His Northern rival was General George McClellan, another West Point graduate. He was cashiered out of the army to become a railroad executive in the 1850’s, but re-enlisted after the conflict erupted. Lincoln made him head of the Army of the Potomac. He was a great organizer. However, he wanted to always have good spin, so he was reluctant to engage in a battle unless he was absolutely certain that his forces were victorious. As a result, he made 5 tactical errors on the day of the battle, while he still won.  His critics said “He was all sizzle, no steak!” Like many military figures, he was interested in the spin. He wrote to his wife that he was so popular after Antietam that if his army wanted to make him a dictator, he would not blame them.  He probably did not refer in the same letter to the 3,654 Americans who died that day.

Historians see several reasons why the Battle of Antietam was a turning point in USA History. First, even though it was a bloody victory, it insured that the British would not recognize the CSA because Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, which liberated the slaves in parts of the CSA still fighting the war. (Basically, not a single slave was freed .  It was not until the Thirteenth Amendment was adopted in December, 1865 that “the peculiar institution” as it was politely called by conventional wisdom, was abolished.  (Slavery was abolished in Mexico by 1821, in the British Empire by 1833, forbidden by the Catholic Church in 1840, in Russia by 1862.) Still the Emancipation proclamation theoretically made the War Between the States a war to end slavery. As a result, England would not recognize CSA independence, even though British factories needed Southern cotton. 

Second, the carnage of the battle of modern warfare was brought home by photography. Mathew Brady sent several photographers to the scene of the battle. In the fall of 1862, an exhibition in NYC depicted the victims of the Battle of Antietam in graphic photos for all to see. The expendability of young life was shown in the battleground pictures.  Up until the time, people tended to think of warfare as a gentlemen’s occupation. One commentator said that Mathew Brady had brought the horror of war until people’s homes. Up until that time, people would read in the paper of war casualties and forget about it by the time they finished their coffee. Now people could see images of what really was happening.  One paper that Brady had brought the horror of modern warfare into every home that read a newspaper. 

By March 4, 1863, Congress had passed the Conscription Act which affected men from 21-45. ($300 exemptions were allowed if you could find a substitute.)  In July, 1863, occurred the Draft Riots in NYC.  People in NYC had seen the pictures from the Brady exhibit and simply asked the question, “Is it fair?” People wondered why those who could pay the $300 were exempt and the poor were not exempt. Whose war was it anyhow?

Third, the analysis of the Battle of Antietam, in particular, pointed up the absurdity of the situation of modern warfare.  Old generals were playing war  games with old tactics in a new age of fighting.  Military historians all agree on that.  McClellan could  have won an easy victory, since he outnumbered Lee 90,000 to 40,000. Still, he was so worried that he might not get the personal glory (that he felt that he deserved), he frittered five opportunities in one day to expedite an earlier victory.  Bella figura, good spin, or popular image, was important then as well as today, but when it involves 3,654 soldiers, one can only wonder. Indeed, the very same McClellan ran for President against Lincoln in 1864. He had big plans. He lost.

To this day, theologians, versed in the recently by-passed just war theory of St Augustine in 2003, have argued whether or not the North fought and won a just war.  Once again, quoting Blessed John XXIII, hopefully we know more now (Do we really??). Blessed John said in 1963 (101 years after Antietam)  after the Cuban Missile Crisis that in the age in which we live, it is irrational to think of warfare as a apt way at conflict resolution.

Catholics are urged to practice disarmament of the human heart with a personal effort at non-violence in word and action in a trickle-up effort in this new age in human history. How many listen?  A sad anniversary in USA History is a cogent reminder, just as the photos coming into people’s home from Mathew Brady that other people live and die (brutally, sometimes) every day. We can’t think that it does not involved us all somehow.  When it is not my child that is killed, most just can’t be bothered.  In the words of Peter, Paul and Mary (“the Folksingers Three of the 1960”), “When will they ever learn? When will they (we) ever learn?” 

McClellan never became president, but 3,654 young men died that day in 1862. They counted too. They still do!!                          091612AD jfq  

Reflection, September 9, 2012AD

Sit Wherever You Want!!

During this month, our second reading on Sunday will be excerpts from the Letter of St James.  As mentioned last week, this letter has come into the fore recently for many reasons.  Probably dated in the early 60’s AD, before the earliest Gospel (St Mark, c.70AD) was written, the inspired author gives us a picture of a Jewish-based Jesus Movement which considered itself a “ Catholistic(?) synagogue”.

While the group was an early example of the Jesus Movement, the group had lots of flaws about which the inspired author was concerned. Some still have relevance in the Jesus Movement. The problem addressed in our reading this morning was favoritism in gatherings of the Jesus Movement synagogue.  Surprised we are to hear this at such an early date. Recall St Paul’s baptismal hymn, “in Christ there is no Jew or Gentile, slaves or free, male or female.  All are one in Christ Jesus.” How could a Christian group misread the obvious so soon?  (St Paul’s hymn is dated approximately 8-9 years earlier, in c. 55AD)  After all, Jesus fed everyone who gathered for his outdoor gatherings and did not discriminate between classes. (That was, indeed, one of the problems that people had with Jesus’ strategy.)  God cares about all God’s children.

Who are we, contemporary Christians, to look askance at our Christian ancestors? In many ways, people have said that we might do the same thing in many ways, some subtle, some, not so subtle. A commentator said that, up until recently, some Churches discriminated between Black and White folks, so that poor and rich could have been understood as Black and White. Some hint we still

St James stresses, “Show no partiality!” Yet, again and again, Christians have been challenged that that is exactly what we do in so many ways, many of which we do subconsciously. 

Indeed, in his historic “Sermon on the Mound” at Yankee Stadium in Oct, 1979, Pope John Paul said, “in our world today the rich represent countries (the First and Second Worlds then, now the Northern Hemisphere nations) and the poor represent the Third World (the underdeveloped nations throughout the world).”

(Interestingly, the American bishops wrote in 1986 that there was a third world developing in our midst in the inner cities of the USA.) God loves all, but God has a special concern for those less fortunate than others.  So should God’s daughters and sons! (These days, we call the traditional notion, the Preferential Option for the Poor.)

In the world-system in which we live in, frequently, some claim the poor have to blame themselves for the poverty of their lives.  As we heard last week in our reading from James, true religion is keeping oneself pure from the world (system, as it is) and to be mindful of widows and orphans.  (The traditional biblical triad of the poor was the widows, the orphans and the aliens!!! Who are these people today?) Does blaming people for their own poverty obviate the need to help the poor in our midst? Does private philanthropy suffice to tend to systemic problems?  Does abandonment of the needy in our midst, for whatever reason, betray our heritage as a people? Jesus knows. Recently, Pope Benedict continued this line of thinking as he wrote in his third encyclical, Caritas in Veritate, that we need to understand the connection between so many issues that confront us.  Pope Benedict said that “rather than think of the human person as a monad, we should self-define as relational (with God, with one another, with our environment.  We are to be understood neither as the economic ones, nor the sociological ones, nor the psychological ones, nor the political ones.  Rather, we should understand that we are relational ones.  All of us connected with everyone and everything else, including our environment.  This is the way we should face common problems.”  Jesus has been proclaiming that in essence for 2000 years already.  However, as Blessed John put it, “we know more now!”

One recent writer commented that despite the fact that many Europeans no longer practice formal religion, they caught the Gospel of Jesus with its stress upon the solidarity that we are called to live with one another.  In essence, the biblical prophets, including Jesus, answered Cain’s question with “Yes, we are our brother’s and sister’s keepers, whether we care to admit it or not.”

James’ language emphasizes that autonomy is an illusion. We are all dependent upon God. Life is not about individualism, but solidarity.  Deal with it!          090912ADjfq

Reflection, September 2, 2012AD

Two Letters of Straw (Not!!!)

             Martin Luther had a problem with the letter of St James from which we will hear five excerpts in the next few weeks.  He felt that the words in the letter, “Faith without works is dead”, contradicted St Paul’s teaching about salvation’s coming through faith alone in Christ Jesus. He referred to the Letter of St James as a “letter of straw.” The consensus begs to differ with Luther on that one. Now more than ever!!

The letter of St James has been part of the Catholic Bible from the beginning.  In our own time, it has come into a new prominence for several reasons.  First, it probably comes from a date (c.65AD) that places it after St Paul wrote his letters (50’s) and before St Mark put inspired pen to scroll with the composition of the First Gospel, c. 70AD. Second, the author was probably a disciple of James, the “blood relative” of the Lord (on Mary’s side, of course). James himself was murdered in 62AD in a pogrom in Jerusalem against the Jesus Movement, mentioned by Jewish historian Flavius Josephus.  Fr Raymond Brown wrote that since Jesus was a descendent of David, a blood relative of Jesus would have been as well. Therefore, James’ blood connection somehow with Jesus as well as with King David, would have given him an ascendancy in the Jesus Movement after St Peter left Jerusalem for other venues.  Third, the letter represents a very traditional Jewish Christian vision that came to be integrated into the positions of Sts Peter and Paul.  In fact, the document is so Jewish in thought that there are only a few references to Christ Jesus in the letter. This paucity of references has caused some Scripture scholars to wonder if the letter were, in fact, a Jewish teaching that was Christianized by the references to JC! Fourth, it is the most socially and economically focused document in the Christian Scriptures.

In our reading today, one can see what might have caused Luther some agida, but still it clearly can be reconciled with St Paul’s thought of the gift of faith and salvation in Christ Jesus. It is true that St James says, “Be doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deluding yourselves. Religion …is this: to care for orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained by the world (“caught up in the system???”).”  However, St James clearly sees that faith is a gift from God in the preceding verse, “Humbly welcome the Word that has been planted in you.” This is a case of the “biblical theological passive,” viz., the unnamed One who does the planting is God.”             

Twenty-six years ago, in 1986, the USA Conference of Catholic Bishops published, Economic Justice for All. Sadly, it was a largely unread document that went unnoticed by most. On its twentieth-sixth anniversary, several of its thoughts take on an even greater significance in light of the growing social and economic problems that we face in our nation and throughout the world. 

Catholics need to acknowledge that Jesus is not only their personal Lord, but that He is our political Lord as well.  Jesus is Lord, (NOT A SLOGAN!),  the first Christian creed, challenges Caesar and the System about Who really was running the show.  The bishops broached this when they wrote the following in a less complicated time, “The pursuit of economic justice takes believers into the public arena, testing the policies of government by the principles of Catholic teaching.  We ask you to become more informed and active citizens…to advance the common good. We are called to shape a constituency of conscience, measuring every policy by how it touches the least, the lost and the left-out among us.  In another place, the Bishops wrote, “The morality of any human institution, viz., an economy, is to be judged on how well it responds to the most helpless in society.”  One prominent Catholic churchman said “The most helpless in society are the ones who don’t count, the last, the least, the lost and the lowest.”  Another particularly poignant and telling observation was “There was the development even now in American cities virtual third worlds, of which people in more affluent areas have little experience.” With questions such as adequate health care insurance for all and immigration reform that is just and compassionate, both the letters of St James as well as the US bishops in 1986 are hardly to be described as “letters of straw”. Think about it and engage your children in looking to their future.

During these days, as our nation which earnestly says, “God bless America”, may we always try to remember God’s call to justice, God’s call to compassion and God’s call to civility in our discussions.  How do we respond to St James and the US Bishops? 

Pope Benedict, in his new encyclical, Caritas in Veritate (Charity in Truth) reminds us that Catholics must always link up the concept of solidarity (we are all in this together) with the concept of subsidiarty (we try on the lower level to solve problems, then we work our way up.) He tells us to recall the human person in his or her entirety as well as all human persons.  How will you teach your children to respond to the call to authentic globalization with their life choices? 

There is a strange irony that we are thus challenged by Jesus’ blood relative and our bishops as well as Pope Benedict, as we observe Labor Day weekend. If we live in a vacuum, we might react one way.  If we live in the Christ Quantum, we react differently.  090212AD jfq