Sunday, November 1, 2015AD

All Saints (of New York and Beyond)

Last evening, October 31^st (aka Halloween) begins our Catholic month of Remember. From now on, (particularly today and tomorrow) until Advent  we recall the dead in Christ Jesus  as well as God’s blessings to us here and now, as well as our anticipation, even now, but not yet, of God’s final victory over what oppresses us.

          Today’s festival of All Saints Day originally began as a Christian adaptation of an old Celtic festival on November 1, known as Samhain (pronounced Sow-in, go figure!!) Traditional European folk religion believed that the gates of heaven were only opened once a year, viz., on Samhain, the onset of winter in Celtic lands.  On this Celtic New Year’s Eve, all those who had died the preceding year entered in heaven on this one festival when the gates of heaven were opened annually.

          In the eighth century, the traditional Celtic festival was Christianized as an opportunity to commemorate all those who had died in Christ, putting up the good fight. It is a splendid time to call to mind all those whom we have known and loved and whom we commend to YHWH today and always.

          Once again, we hear the Beatitudes as our Gospel reading. It is the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount (Mtt 5-7). It has been said that the first Beatitude, “Blessed are the poor in spirit because the Kingdom of heaven is theirs”, is the key to the Beatitudes. The Beatitudes are the key to the Sermon on the Mount. The Sermon on the Mount is the key to the Gospel of St Matthew.

          However, the word “poor” is a turnoff in colloquial English. Who would want to be poor under any circumstances? What “poor in spirit” means really complicate the matter.

          The words that Jesus might have used when He spoke of the poor were varied. One word, anav, means “material poverty”. A second word that Jesus might have used was dal, which means “bent over or stooped” (with the burden of poverty). Either word would not have been very attractive things to which a blessing was attached. However, Jesus wants us to consider Himself as the Guarantor of the promise.

St Matthew adds “in spirit” to denote that it was not just material poverty, but a poverty open to all. All of us, remember, no matter what, are ultimately recipients of God’s gifts.

          Jesus’ insight is simply that ultimately when one honestly considers one’s life, everything in life is a gift to us or predicated on a gift to us. When, when one gets very serious about one’s existence, each and every moment of our life is a gift to us. Nobody consulted us on our desire to come into this world. Nobody should decide when we leave this world. Not only are the moments of birth and death sacred moments in which God’s Presence can be felt.  So also when one reflects on the incomprehensible, indefinable, ineffable dimensions of human life, each and every second of our life, we become cognizant of the Divine Immanence (Presence) and Transcendence of our lives.

          Everything that happens between conception and death is a gift when one reflects on it. One’s response can only be cosmic awe, humility and honest realization that, indeed, all is gift and/or based on a gift. We are, indeed, all poor when we realize that everything is a gift. Whether affluent or not, (in the material sense), in God’s purview, God’s daughters and sons are all poor.  All we have to work with are God’s gifts.

          In addition, just as we all stand before God with empty hands, we frequently take God’s gifts as for granted or as entitlements. Before long, we abuse the gifts, we abuse the gifts frequently and find ourselves not only with empty and dirty hands.

          Today, we salute all those who tried, with God’s Help, to do the best they could in every Now moment. While Pope Francis saluted two New York Catholics in his recent speech to Congress, viz., Dorothy Day and Thomas Merton, there were and are many in New York and beyond who tried to respond to the first Beatitude. All of us have known heroic men and women who, without naming the reality, tried to live what St Therese called the Little Way.   They tried to go about each day doing what God required of them with God’s Help in Christ Jesus. 

          What Jesus means in the first Beatitude is that, with God’s Help, when we all have a healthy self-assessment, then we have accepted the gift of poverty in spirit. We truly know our human condition and our participation in God’s universe. God energizes us to live in the new (alternate) consciousness that Jesus calls the Kingdom (commonwealth, better???) of God, even now, but not yet. 110115AD jfq

Sunday,, November 8, 205AD

A Half Penny (or Two Lepta) for Your Thoughts!!!!     

We learned when we were in high school that atoms, indeed, could be smashed. The “un-cutable” could be cut into perhaps, at least 100 subatomic particles. Such subatomic particles include quarks and leptons. Lepton is a Greek word. It is also the origin of the Greek word today in our Gospel, viz., lepta,  about a half penny, the amount of money the widow put in the temple treasury.

One of the most famous vignettes in Jesus’ life is our Gospel this weekend as we hear the story of the Widow’s Mite. The familiarity of the story belies its controversial interpretations even after twenty centuries.

          St Mark juxtaposed two incidents today when the evangelist speaks of the widow’s offering in close proximity to another, the carrying on of religious officials. Jesus berates those who thrive on the offerings and then, Jesus salutes the widow’s act of faith. Jesus’ negative assessment of religious functionaries is a challenge to all religious leaders, then and now, Catholic, Protestant and Jewish, Islamic, et al.

          The actions that Jesus highlighted were their parading around in long robes, their king the best seats at functions and then, their devouring the houses of widows, Jesus has taken off His gloves on this one. As an outsider, He challenges the religious institution on its own turf, viz., the Temple.

          First of all, there is a debate over whether the story of the widow’s mite was an actual event in the last week of Jesus’ life or a parable that Jesus told during Holy Week. If it were, indeed, an actual event, Jesus is making an observation that is quite obvious.  The worshippers at the Temple, indeed, contributed to its upkeep by their donations. However, Jesus’ insight challenges much, then as well as now, of conventional religious wisdom. As a matter of fact, the generosity of the affluent comes from their resource. On the other hand the widow’s two lepta, amounting to a half cent is literally a “drop in the bucket.”

          However, there are those who see the story of the widow’s mite as a parable Jesus told in the Temple. (Even in both non-Jewish and Jewish folklore, there were stories of a similar drift. The almsgiving of the poor are more value, qualitatively, than the almsgiving of the affluent.)

          Whether the vignette describes an actual incident or a parable that Jesus told, the stress in the story is the same. In a radical way, the widow’s action three characteristics of disciples. First, she had received the gift of poverty of spirit. She, indeed, knew that ultimately everything is based on God’s Presence as the center of our lives, whether we believe it or not. (How about us?) One may not see it as such, but the lady is saying that God is the bottom line and center of her life. Recall the theme of the first Beatitude last weekend on All Saints Day. Blessed are those who try to acknowledge, with God’s Help, God as the center of their lives. They are moving in the right direction.

Second, she viewed her life as a totality, under God’s Sovereign Sway (How about us?)

Third, her offering was an act of faith that even she had nothing, she believed that God would take care of her. (How about us?)

          750 years ago, St Thomas Aquinas spoke of the principle of Causality. God, ultimately, is the First Cause of all things. God is the Reason why all exist. However, God, the First Cause works frequently (if not usually) through secondary causes. Our culture does not see God’s Hand at work in the vicissitudes of life; still, it is God’s Presence both in and beyond us at work. Somehow, the widow intuited this with the gift of poverty in spirit. Using the biblical notion, the widow would be an example of the Anavim YHWH (the poor ones of God); she felt that God would ride for her.

          However, the picture had changed by the time that St Mark wrote his Gospel, around the year 70AD. The Temple that the widow was supporting had recently been destroyed by the marauding Roman army. In effect, St Mark knew that Jesus might have intuited. The Temple was not going to last. A few days later that week, on Good Friday, St Mark tells us that the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.  God was always with God’s people, including the widow. (The others who contributed to the temple, for whatever reason, were included as well; the poor widow took that seriously.) (How about us?)

If, indeed, this is an actual event in the last week of Jesus’ life, we can see why this was another reason why religious institutions knew that Jesus had to go.  However, the fact that the story has been preserved means that God, indeed, vindicated the widow and all who acknowledge God, with God’s Help, as the center of their lives. She and they are moving in their right direction. They share God’s gift of “poverty in spirit”.  Are we included in their ranks?  110815AD jfq 

Sunday, November 15, 2015AD

Did Jesus  Really Say That?

       Catholic biblical theologians have been writing about the “Jesus of History” with gusto and perspicacity for several years. John Meier has already published 4 volumes so far of A Marginal Jew, a search for the bruta facta of the life of Jesus of Nazareth.

One of the determining criteria used by Meier, a Notre Dame theologian, is used by biblical theologians as well, is known as the “criterion of embarrassment”, viz., deeds and/or sayings of Jesus that would not have been made up later because such deeds and/or sayings were embarrassing to Christians celebrating His death and Resurrection.

A prime example of this appears at the conclusion of our Gospel today. But of that day or hour, no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, not the Son, but only the Father.” No New Testament author and/or community which have added such a statement in which the Lord professed not to know something about, in the emerging Jesus tradition. Yet, today, He speaks of that day unaware of when it will happen.

The time in which Jesus lived and died and rose was turbulent. Later, in that same first century, the time in which our Evangelist, St Mark, wrote his Gospel was even more a turbulent time.  The Jews revolted against Roman oppression in the early 60’s of the first century. Word was out that a huge invading army was on its way or had arrived outside the walls of Jerusalem. Next, the Jesus Movement had already undergone a savage persecution in Roma after the great fire in Roma, in July, 64AD. In addition, three pivotal leaders of the Jesus Movement had met their death in Christ in the 60’s, viz., Peter and Paul in Roma, James, Jesus’ relative of Jesus, who was the head of the Jerusalem Jesus Movement and the author of the mighty letter (we heard as our second reading in September of this years.) Also in one year, Roma had seen three emperors, Nero, Otho and Galba.

With all that had befallen them, the Jesus Movement had to ask, “How much longer can this all continue. Is there any end in sight?” Many think that St Mark penned his inspired words to strengthen his communities in strife. Recall how we heard on several past Sundays the “Doctrine of the Cross revealed Jesus tells His followers, then and now, that no one said that the Jesus Movement and the faith in Christ Jesus that inspires it would be easy. The Cross confronts every human person in some shape or form at some time or another. (Eastern religions call it “dukkha”!) There are no exceptions. Christian know it as the universal Paschal Mystery of death and Resurrection.   The difference is that followers of Jesus are aware of God’s Presence within this mystery of death and Resurrection.

Still, there is the possibility of transformation. As St Paul asserts so strongly in Romans 8, passim, written about 57AD, to folks on whom the roof was going to collapse 7 years later in the persecution after Nero’s fire. “ I consider the sufferings of the present moments nothing compared to the glory to be revealed in us…We know that all things work for good for those who love God…For I am convinced that neither death nor life…nor any other  creature will be able to separate us from the Love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

How humbling and consoling it is for us today as we realize that we don’t have all the answers. On All Saints’ Day we heard “what is yet to be has not yet to come to light.” (Sometimes, the arrogant don’t even know how to formulate the questions. Sooner or later, they’ll figure it out!) In the ancient days, the Israelites thought that the Temple Mount in Jerusalem was literally the center of the universe. Later, others came to think that the earth was the center of the universe. Still, later, others came to think that the sun is the center of the universe. Now we realize that our solar system is merely a small part of a vaster cosmos that is still in the process of cosmogenesis. (Some still say that we still need to realize that we or our culture or even the National Rifle Association are the centers of the universe.)  Rather, the Creating, Redeeming and Vivifying God revealed in Christ Jesus is the driving force or Center of the Universe. St Bonaventure said 700 years ago that we learn the truth from creation, our knowledge of Christ Jesus and our contemplation in silence!)

Many years ago, German Jesuit theologian, Karl Rahner, probably the greatest Catholic theologian of the twentieth century, asked the question, “What would happen to the human race if the word “GOD’ were eliminated from human language? (In many ways, atheism has tried to do this with its debunking of theism, the human ways in which we try to describe the ineffable, incomprehensible, indefinable Holy Mystery.)

Rahner’s conclusion was that, eventually, humans would have to come up with a new word to describe what we mean by “God”. In the late 1960’s, a movement had arisen called the “God is Dead Movement” In response, another book appeared “God Is Not Quite Dead Yet.” The book said that the drive to transcendence built into human consciousness, oriented to an insatiable thirst for both knowledge and love is something that cannot be denied for long by everyone.  Rahner called it “the existential drive to transcendence”. Traditionally, this is the Christian idea of Actual Grace, available to all.  You cannot deny its reality for long.  Nature will not be ignored.

Even though Jesus admitted that He did not know the day nor the hour (would He have been human like we are if He did?), He teaches all of the Jesus Movement then and now to hang on tight and always trust God. Jesus did. With His Help, we can do so as well.    111515AD jfq

Sunday, November 22, 2015AD

Christ the Archetype, Paradigm, Exemplar, Template

          Humans live in three domes of reality. The first dome of reality is “My World”. We try to answer the question, “Who am I?” We focus on “my story.” a legitimate effort to live one’s life as we search for significance of our lives.  However, our personal viewpoint is exactly that, your viewpoint.  Buddhists have a term “Annatta”, the beguiling mind, viz., just because you see some things a certain way, that doesn’t mean that it is way that others see it. More importantly, how God see it?  In adults, this roughly corresponds to the first half of life. How am I going to take the world by storm? Try it and see. However, don’t forget the words of Pope John Paul II, “There are no moral freezones!” The temptation here becomes egoism, viz., I am the center of the universe (and there is something wrong with you when you don’t realize it!

          The second dome of reality is “Our World”. We focus on “our story “We try to answer the question, Who are we?”  We try to find our place in the world through group identities and loyalties that expand our self-identification. Our identity markers become our ethnicity, our religion, our group identities, our nationality. Once more, there is nothing wrong with such efforts so long as we follow God’s rules.  Again Pope John Paul’s caveat kicks in. “There are no moral freezones”. The temptation here becomes cultural narcissism. “We’re number one!  We are the center of the universe and there is something wrong with you if 1) you don’t think that we are or 2) you think that you are.

          Most people, however, move back and forth between these two domes. Many don’t realize there is a third dome, the big picture.

          The third dome of reality is the “Universe”, God’s world, Reality or the Big Story.  Now the question becomes “What is the planetary and cosmic reality of which I and we are parts? We try to find our place in the universe through our recognition of and immersion in a process that is always operative, both in the universe and in your and our place in the life of the universe.

          The Jesus Movement looks to our Mentor to help us answer these questions through His everyday life, his death and Resurrection. 1) First He still teaches us that life is relational.  Nothing exists as a monad. The notion of rugged individualism is a corruption of the Enlightenment, viz., I can take of myself.    From the time of Jesus, His Movement has spoken of a relational. God is a relationship of Father, Son and Spirit. If God is relational, it stands to reason that creation must be relational as well.

          2) He still teaches us that life (and death) are learning processes in which we come to see our place in the universe.  The learning will never end.  God is mystery, infinitely knowable and unknowable at the same time. Isn’t your life within the universe, even within your everyday existence, on ongoing learning process? God is a Mystery, so are you!

          3) God has engaged the paradox of ascent, descent and transformation as a universal process.  All things are called to life, they grow, change, decline and experience transformation. Scientifically, the process is named “the conservation of energy, viz., nothing is lost in the universe. God is still creating the universe and still creating you as part of the universe.  The Jesus Movement calls this the paschal Mystery. Jesus lived and died and experienced the transformation of Resurrection. In the first century, our Christians forebears sang “Christ Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the pattern of creation, the firstborn of the dead.

4) Creation is driven by a trajectory that leads to new possibilities. Creation acts that there is a blueprint or template that leads somewhere.

Believing Christian scientists (not just evangelical ones either) are saying that much of the Gospel resonates with scientific principles just being named.

That is why that the Jesus Movement reminds ourselves if the Divine Reality, the Big Picture, the Great I AM, “in which we live and move and have our being.”

          As the first followers of Jesus sang and accepted, “Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, the Savior”, we celebrate our faith in that primitive creed as we humbly realize that the first and second domes of our viewpoints or spirituality are not absolute, but rather relativized by the third dome of God’s Story.  God’s view of reality must be differently than yours or ours.  Who is on the money?    112215AD  jfq

Sunday, November 29, 2015AD

What Would Dorothy Do?

In 1991, Pope John Paul issued Centissimos Annos, an encyclical on the changing world on the one hundredth anniversary (1891) of Pope Leo XIII’s critique of industrialization in Europe and North America, the encyclical, Rerum Novarum. Pope John Paul’s encyclical in 1991 targeted the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of communism in Europe.  In 1991, one western leader spoke of a new world order, but had no clue that might not really be the case after September 11, 2001.

The Polish Pope made a significant comment to capitalist nations when he said that capitalism had no right to crow over what had happened with the fall of communism. He said that both communism and capitalism looked at workers as monads, to be used by either system for profit and economic enrichment for the few.

Pope John Paul's words take on a haunting meaning to this weekend after Black Friday. Think of the warning about monads when you watch the (apparently, not so massive as in the past) stampedes at stores on Thursday night and/or Friday morning. When you think of it, consumers are pawns in a system that controls them. Worse, think of the workers (often monadic, with no unionization and no benefits) having to work on Thursday night and Friday morning. (How unfair!!).

During the season of Advent, we Catholics are reminded of the paradox of the Gospel, viz., both Emmanuel (God is with us) and Maranatha (Come, Lord Jesus). The Lord Jesus is in our hearts and midst (He says so!) and yet, we anticipate His coming to us in even deeper ways now and in the future.

That is, of course, if you are not shopping ‘til you're dropping. With a straight face, fair and balanced bloviators speak of the War on Christmas. Perhaps, it would be more correct to speak of the War on Advent. We are supposed to be entering a time of watchful waiting so the Lord comes to us more fully at Christmas and always. Now, the holydays are Black Friday and Cyber Monday!

Recently, there were segments on television about angry consumers who didn't like some Christmas setup. In some places, Santa was bye-bye. Another winter scene was in place.  One irate woman in the area complained about how they were waging war on Christmas. In her expression of resentment and outrage, she didn't seem to have heard some of Jesus' teachings about anger and revenge in the Sermon on the Mount.

Someone suggested that once a week during the next four weeks, just come into church and sit down and slow down and shut down. The Hindu practice of Darshan involved just sitting in a holy place and you look at the Lord and let the Lord look at you. No words, necessary! Be in the church and you gaze on the Lord and let the Lord gaze at you in silence and solitude. No talk necessary, but if you want, use words! Be counter cultural.

Try to get to Penance before Christmas as another way to heed St John the Baptist's call to prepare the Way of the Lord. Many Catholics use the season of Advent as an opportunity for Christmas confession. Be an apostolic disciple and try to encourage a relative or friend to join you.  This weekend, we begin the Year of Mercy. Word travels among the laity about which confessors to approach and which to avoid. Pope Francis says that this is an acceptable way of celebrating the sacrament.

Today we observe the thirty-fifth anniversary of the death of Dorothy Day here in NYC.  Pope Francis, during his visit to us in September cited the great New Yorker, Dorothy Day in his address to Congress. Today we observe the thirty-fifth anniversary of the death of Dorothy Day here in NYC. One can be sure that whatever was usually on Dorothy's agenda for TXG night or Black Friday morning, it did not involve stampeding in shopping malls.

Pope John Paul was certainly on target with his comment on people as ciphers in both communist and capitalist systems. Think about his words in the next four weeks. Think also of the words of St John the Baptist. “Prepare the way of the Lord.” We cannot do that so well, when we are tearing into shopping malls.

Jesus is always knocking at the door of your heart. What would Dorothy do? Would she tell him to come back in the New Year because she was going shopping? Will you open the door for Him or go out shopping? 112915AD jfq