May 26, 2013AD

         Are We Surprised?

         Theologians say that the earliest creed of the Jesus Movement was Iesous Kurios  (Jesus is Lord). As Christian thought grew, we hear of a hierarchy of truths.  Karl Rahner said, in an idea adopted by Vatican II, that the 3 cardinals truths of Christianity were 1) the Trinity; 2) the Incarnation (cf. Jesus is Lord, above); 3) and the Offer and Presence of God over and over in our lives, which we call grace) leading us to fuller life.

Nevertheless, Rahner also said that the Trinity as a doctrine to modern Christians had  become extraneous.  If the doctrine were abolished, it probably would not effect very much of our quests for meaning in our lives.  In the past, some Christians were embarrassed when the accusation was made that our religion was polytheistic, viz., that we worshipped three gods, rather than One God. That was so yesterday!!!!

  Because of the relationship developing now between science and theology, we are recovering what our medieval ancestors knew. If Truth is one, then, there should be no insoluble conflicts between science and theology.  In an interesting way, modern astronomy is becoming a means of validating a central mystery of Christian faith.

The Hubble Telescope continues to circle the earth after over 25 years.  It sends back consistently beautiful pictures of our universe.  Indeed, there are those who say that Hubble is able to photograph the very rim of the universe as the universe is expanding after 14 billion years.

Two things are immediately noticeable.  First, the cosmos is incredibly beautiful. Most photos coming back are quite impressive in their colors, etc. Second, we see patterns in the galaxies that are elliptical. Apparently, everything in outer space exists in relationship to something else.  We can note not a completely circular pattern, but rather an elliptical pattern way out there.  We speak of elliptical orbits.

However, there is something more in the world of inner space, what is going on in the inner space of reality.  Electron microscopes show us today the world of inner space. We can see electrons spinning around nuclei of protons and neutrons.  When the atom was first discovered, it was thought that the electron circled the nucleus in a consistent pattern.  Now we are seeing that the patterns are unpredictable, but orbital.  In the world of inner space, nothing exists autonomously.  We speak again of elliptical orbits.

We all learn as Catholics that we are all created in the “image and likeness of God”. In fact, we read on very the first page of the Bible! Somehow, there is a family resemblance between God and us humans, the pinnacle of God’s creation .We don’t always take that seriously about ourselves and hence, we do not always take it seriously with others either. Still, the great Truth remains. If the universe is a macrocosm and the inner world of reality is a microcosm, then the human person in relational  reality is a mesocosm! We are children of the universe.

For years, Catholics have rejoiced that there are three principal ways in which the familial resemblance were apparent.  First, ultimately, the Trinity is a Mystery (a truth, infinitely knowable and unknowable at the same time.) Aren’t we all mysteries, even to ourselves (a truth infinitely knowable and unknowable at the same time)?  Second, just as the three Persons of the Trinity are Equal, which early ecumenical councils stressed, all human persons are equal. (We make a big fuss about equality on July 4. You don’t see it here at home and God knows, you don’t see it in the world either.  Third, God in the Trinity is Relational.  The Father relates to the Son; the Son relates to the Father; the Relationship is the Holy Spirit. We become who we are, not just the matter and energy that we occupy in space and time, but in the relationships which help us to thrive as children of God (and of the universe.)

  People are starting to refer to the universe as a relational matrix, a cosmic web.  Nothing or nobody is excluded. You can’t know much about yourself without knowing something about the mystery of the “others” in our lives.

More, the ancient and medieval taught us many times that God is in all things. Today, their doctrine is called the Doctrine of the Deep Incarnation.  Either God is all things, or God is in no things.  More specifically Catholic, Franciscan theologians proclaimed, “Crux probat omnia, The Cross determines everything.”  

The Trinitarian God is universal; the Trinitarian God is everywhere; the Trinitarian God has to be in all things.  Therefore, the Trinitarian God exists relationally throughout space (both outer and inner). Again, therefore, the Trinitarian God exists in me now and I exist in the Trinitarian God now.  Don’t think; just be!  Let God be God! 

In a world dominated by Facebook and Facetime, we need to recall God exists in us and we exist in God.  It is a useful reminder to us that  even “Facebook” is relativized believing that God is at the center of my space, not me. It should make a difference to all.  We need Silence; we need Solitude; we need to Slow down and Seek to God’s Silent Voice!!!!!!!! “How can you hear the Silent Voice of God when you are always listening to your IPOD?

During the summer ahead, don’t forget Who gave us the gift of the summer and the Presence of God in all that happens.  Think about coming to daily Mass once a week (and bring the kids and then, take them out for breakfast).  Bring yourself and your kids for a twenty minute sit in the church. Don’t forget that God comes first (particularly on summer Sundays. 052613AD jfq

May 19, 2013AD

Pentecost 2013AD

             We end the Lenten-Easter-Pentecost cycle today.  The slogan for Ash Wednesday is “Remember that you are dust and unto dust, you shall return.”  The slogan for Lent is “snap out of it and believe in the Gospel.” The slogan for Easter is “Jesus is Lord”.  The slogan for Pentecost is “Receive the Holy Spirit. As the Father sent Me, so I send you.”

             The word for spirit in Hebrew is ruach  (and it is a feminine noun). The word for spirit in Greek is pneuma (and it is a neuter noun). This is important because Hebrew and Greek are the two biblical languages. The word for spirit in Latin (not a biblical language) is spiritus (and this can be a masculine or feminine noun) 

Each year, we urge the Community to wear red clothing to Mass on Pentecost as a visual reminder that, like it or not, if we acclaim Jesus is Lord, we live with a different view of reality.  Jesus and His Gospel is our absolute.   Those filled with Holy Spirit are to live His Gospel as best we can in Christ Jesus. Sometimes, such living puts us “out of sync” with the System by which most  people live. The goal of the System frequently is self-preservation of the Status Quo.  This can involve violence, dishonesty, greed and arrogance.   

In imitation of Christ, we recall that after His crucifixion, the Risen One opted not to get even with His institutional murderers.  He offers the opportunity to follow in Christ His example.  On the one hand, we can transmit violence, returning injury for injury in a downward spiral of violence that can cause the world some day to implode. However, in imitation of Christ, we can transform violence.  We can remember that whether we care to admit or not, we are all brothers and sisters and that God is the Father of all, not some. A tough vocation, Jesus asks us, at least, to acknowledge that His way is the Way to go. 

St Paul had a special strategy to implement the Gospel of Christ in the world.  He established small communities over a two year period in pivotal cities in the Roman world.  He believed in faith that a group of 20-30 or so people who tried to live authentic lives in Christ Jesus in large urban centers could change the world.  While he writes, “Jesus is Lord”, he adds in another place, “Faith comes through hearing.”  Today, he might add, “Actions in Christ Jesus speak louder than words.

It is clear from the development of the letters of St Paul within the Christian Bible that Christian living was quite distinctive and noteworthy.  Christians have a different starting point and it shows in how we live our lives.

St Paul saw a Christian vocation as a democratic call to all to live in Christ Jesus every moment of our lives.  The Second Vatican Council, which met from 1962-1965, offered a new name to an old Catholic reality. The Universal Call to Holiness (aka Integrity,) re-affirmed by Vatican II, is a reminder to us of what the Pentecost experience described in Acts and in John 20 (John’s original Easter chapter).  We need to be reminded that, within our Catholic tradition, all, not some,  are called to live the Gospel and not just in Church.   There are not meant to be super-Catholics. Recall that when St Paul wrote his letters there is little evidence that the church was hierarchically structured as it is today. There were localized house churches (cf. Rom 16) and no language of stratification was used.  In Rom 12, earlier in the letter, St Paul tells all men and women in the house churches, “ I urge you, therefore, by the mercies of God, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, your spiritual worship”. Both the words, sacrifice (thousian) and worship (latreian) are words involving the sense of offering one’s very self as the commitment or pledge to God. Examples follow of  how everyday members of the Jesus Movement, viz., you and me and us now) are urged to let our love be sincere, to hate what is evil and hold on to what is good. We are urged and expected to rejoice in hope, endure in affliction and persevere in prayer, not to repay anyone evil for evil, not to be conquered by evil, but to conquer evil with God. All this is made a possibility that Roman Christians (then and now, guess whom?) have been energized by the Holy Spirit. 

All of us are called to live our lives in Christ’s Spirit, 60-60-24-7-365.  All of us are called to be engaged seriously and responsibly in the dialogue with our culture.  As an ancient Christian wrote to Diognetus, “Christians are in the world (today, “the System) what the soul is in the body.” Just as a human body needs an animating principle, we are called to be animators of society.  Too often, we sit back and let others run the show.   

Our red clothing today mirrors our baptism in the Holy Spirit. With God’s Help, may we answer the call! Not just in the church does Jesus need us. He needs us engaged actively and intelligently in an outside arena that needs the insight of the Gospel of Life very much now more than ever.  Followers of Jesus, a secular culture (even when they throw in a “God bless America” now and then to make itself sound Christian) needs us just as the human body needs a soul. Just as the human body needs an animating principle each and every moment, so also does the world in which we live need the Animating Principle, the Christ Quantum (aka the Holy Spirit) unleashed in all the Jesus Movement throughout our lives, not merely on a Sunday morning when we gather to renew our acquaintance with the Lord. It is an ongoing, never-ending process that the Holy Spirit has been in each of us and all of us everyday.  Impress your kids.  Keep in touch every Sunday; most importantly, keep in touch everyday!!       051913AD jfq

May 12, 2013AD

 Jesus’ Theory of Relativity

           Recall that Easter is a seven week, fifty day, celebration of Christ’s Victory for all of us over sin and death. It was the ancient symbol of infinity. Still, that perdures, with such things as “lucky seven”.  Always on the 7^th Sunday of Easter, we hear excerpts of the Prayer that Jesus offered to God the Father at the conclusion of the Last Supper, as it is recorded for us in the Fourth Gospel, viz., John 17. Since our biblical tradition tells us that prayers are always heard, there is no doubt for believers that Jesus’ Prayer has already been answered.  Even now, but not yet!!

It is unfortunate that the Church missed a splendid opportunity to use the entire 17th chapter of John’s Gospel, the Prayer of the Good Shepherd each year because it speaks so thoroughly, yet mysteriously (in the sense of infinitely and knowable simultaneously.) Each year, we hear  longer Gospels of the woman at the well, the man born blind and the raising of Lazarus, as well as the Account of the Death of the Messiah, each Palm Sunday and Good Friday.

Jesus salutes and praises God for what God does in Christ Jesus.  He speaks of the Unity that is between the Father and Himself as well as the Unity between Himself and His Own, more than the Twelve alone, all the disciples, not a select few.    But, what about us?  We are included as well because the Holy Spirit continues to make Christ Jesus’ Presence active in our lives. We live in the Christ Quantum, Christ’s Vibrational Field, the Holy Spirit.    The last part of the Prayer bringing us now into the Gathering of His Own, the  Divine Orbit of the Holy Trinity. It is this portion of the prayer (pertaining to us) that we hear this weekend.

Catholics believe that our Trinitarian God is both the God of Life and the God of Love.  God creates all that is and God unites all that is. Then, too, God does so simultaneously. 

How can we ever make sense of it?   All language about God is inadequate. Metaphors help. God is like a… God is like the...

However, perhaps we can look to other ways of understanding how God operates in the universe. The man honored as the “Greatest Man of the Twentieth Century”, Albert Einstein, might be able to assist here. A new biography of Einstein has just appeared and this aspect of his contribution might not be a part of it.

Einstein is famous for his theory of relativity.  He teaches that matter and energy and space and time, all exist in relationship to one another. Even our perception of this relativity affects the very relativity itself. Everything in reality is related and everything belongs. We might not see it as such, but Einstein (and St Paul) insists that it is so.

In his reflection on reality, as mediated through his theory of relativity, Einstein made some beautiful observations. He hoped that, someday, people would uncover the origin of the Universe.  He said, ”Whatever causes the Universe will be seen as Something that is beautiful and simple.”  He said, in another place, ”All reality is a miracle or nothing is a miracle.” He also stated sadly, after World War II, Humanity had learned how to crack the atom, but we have not learned how to get along with each other.”    

  50 years ago, Einstein and British philosopher, Bertrand Russell, published the “Einstein-Russell Manifesto”. Popes, particularly Blessed John XXIII, assented to it in statements that they made as the Successors of St Peter.  We have to learn how to get along with each other.  The stakes have become too high for humanity to dabble with traditional means of conflict resolution.  They said boldly, “We have to learn to think in a new way…. Remember our common humanity and forget all the rest.” Einstein had applied his theory of relativity to human living. 

The Prayer of Jesus this weekend is about the same thing.  Jesus tells us that He came that we might have life and have it to the fullest.  He prays that we see that even now, we are already united with God the Father in Christ and in the Paraclete-Spirit. It is the Paraclete-Spirit awakening us to the reality as it is and we didn’t know! In Christ Jesus when we love one another as He has loved us (sacrificially and selflessly), we believe the God of Life is the God of Love, the Father of Jesus and of all reality.

It is always Easter when we believe in Jesus, when we take Him seriously as we live our daily lives. Trust Him, not the System    Jesus’ theory of Relativity is always in effect. Albert Einstein merely caught up to Jesus when he spoke thus.  In the Energizing Spirit of Jesus, each day, let us try to live accordingly.  051213AD jfq   

May 5, 2013AD

Put Us in, Coach!!

                          On the Sixth Sunday of Easter, Jesus re-assures us (viz., His Own) of the Presence of the Paraclete-Spirit.. Now that He is not  physically present with us as He was then, He remains in the Holy Spirit Whom He sends as the Father’s Gift.

             All language about God and our relationship with God is inadequate.  Therefore, religious language has to be metaphoric. Ergo, God is like a…… God is like ….  

The two biblical words for Spirit are ruach ( in Hebrew) and pneuma  (in Greek). Both words have multivalent meanings. First, ruach describes the wind, the unseen force that is life-giving, yet unpredictable in its effects. Second, ruach , pneuma describe one’s life-breath, when we stop breathing, we are “out of here”. Third, ruach describes the energy for ordinary folks to do extraordinary things.

The Shack, a very popular novel, appeared  a few years ago selling literally millions of copies.  For those who read the book, the “parable” or story presented a very different view of the Holy Trinity.  While Jesus is rather easy to recognize, God the Father is hard to grasp at first.  Yet, most Catholics (who read the book) catch on.  

However, it is view of the Holy Spirit that confused many, with even Name changes, as well as facial appearances of the Character as (S)He(?) is depicted. The Third Person of the Trinity becomes an non-descript but constant Presence in a variety of  ways. 

This view of the Third Person of the Trinity reflects the ambivalent way in which the Holy Spirit is perceived by Christians. Like the wind, one’s breath, or energy, the Spirit is hard to describe.  In addition, other images, such as the Dove, the Fire and the Water imagery which the Evangelists used represent Reality hard to pin down.      

For example, the Holy Spirit is like the wind, one’s life-breath and an energy to do what God wants of us.  Other theologians have adopted what St Paul, a Greek speaking Jew, who believed in Jesus, meant by the word.  The Holy Spirit is a troublemaker, a taskmaster, a taunter Who prompts us to believe in Christ  and to act what we believe.  Christ Jesus lives in me (and I live in Christ Jesus.  The Spirit energizes us to behave as such.

The Fourth Evangelist describes the Holy Spirit as the Paraclete.  The surprising word has a variety of meanings as well.  A paraclete has been described traditionally as a consoler, a counselor, a defense attorney, an advocate.

However, the understanding has recently expanded into other metaphorical ways to understand the role that the Paraclete-Spirit  fulfills in, with and through us.  Now, we see the Holy Spirit as a mentor in authentic human living, a significant Presence in our lives, guiding us how to live as God wants. In most traditional cultures, it was the mother’s brother, the boy’s uncle, who taught the young boy what it was to be a young man. In contemporary American Catholicism, we use the image of a teacher, a mentor, a nudge, a guidance counselor or a coach to telling us “to get the lead out and do better than we care to do in our lassitude and complacency”.

The Coach Spirit teaches us to do in the Spirit an honest self-evaluation to discover what my sins are (and they are there), rather than focusing on other peoples sin.  It is less fun, but more honest to see oneself as the Spirit sees us in our reality. (Remember that there are three sides to every story, viz., yours, mine and God’s)   I might not be the person as I masquerade (even fooling myself sometimes), others might not be so bad as I judge. “Get rid of the plank in your eye before you remove the splinter in your neighbor’s eye.”          

Jesus tries to transform us from ritual religion to relational religion.  Rituals are what we do; relationships are what make us who we are. Now, Catholics celebrate the Mystery of the Trinity, one God in three persons. We have stressed that God is relational.  What Jesus says is that, through the Holy Spirit, God brings us into the Trinitarian Life.

When we hear that we are created in the image and likeness of God, it is more than just a slogan.  If God’s job description is to be, to create, to love and to unite, the Paraclete-Spirit is, like Electricity, giving us the Divine Energy  to live, to create, to love and to unite in our dealings with one another. 

In this way, can we see the Paraclete-Spirit as the Christ Quantum, the Presence and ongoing effect of the Incarnate God.  As a result, we are brought into the very Life of the Trinity because we are living, here and now, in the vibrational  or force field, the electricity, the energy of Christ Jesus. 

Next Sunday, Jesus prays the Prayer of the Good Shepherd, in John 17, as our Gospel.  He prays that God binds all Jesus’ Own into relationship with God the Father and Christ Jesus in the Holy Spirit.  The following Sunday, we celebrate Pentecost (the Feast of the Holy Spirit) as we complete Easter with the outpouring of the Spirit.  (Don’t forget to wear red to celebrate our belief that we are all clothed with the Holy Spirit!!)  The following  Sunday, we celebrate Trinity Sunday as  we reflect on the Divine Indwelling in us and our dwelling in God.  Again, religious language has to be metaphoric. The Holy Spirit is like our Coach challenging and empowering us to live God’s life here and now.  Put us in, Coach!!     050513AD jfq