Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Good Advice

I wrote a paper recently about the virtue of humility, in which I explored those who proudly justify themselves and those who humbly convict themselves. The message within Luke's Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, is that the lack of humility did not allow the Pharisee to recognize his own sin. A friend of mine asked “How could the Pharisee’s prayer have been improved”, and I wondered if there are examples in the Bible, where man acknowledges his own goodness in prayer.

One example that avoids the sin of pride is, “I have kept the ways of the Lord; I have not done evil by turning from my God. All his laws are before me; I have not turned away from his decrees. I have been blameless before him and have kept myself from sin” (Psalms 18:21-23). Another example is, “I have led a blameless life; I have trusted in the Lord without wavering. Test me, O Lord, and try me, examine my heart and my mind; for your love is ever before me, and I walk continually in your truth. I do not sit with deceitful men, nor do I consort with hypocrites. I abhor the assembly of evildoers and refuse to sit with the wicked” (Psalms 26:1-5).

The difference between the Psalmist’s prayers and the Pharisee’s prayer may be subtle, but notice that the Pharisee put down the tax collector. Essentially, when we over evaluate how good we are, especially in comparison to others, we are not dealing with the sin in our own lives and we under evaluate God’s work in the lives of others. When you pray do not be like the hypocrites giving thanks for yourself; instead give thanks to others and acknowledge the works of God in your life. “Let another praise you, and not your own mouth; someone else, and not your own lips” (Proverbs 27:2), seems like good advice to me.

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Merry Christmas

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

"Hail, favored one! The Lord is with you."
"Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.
Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son,
and you shall name him Jesus."
"Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb."


"Do not be afraid; for behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy
that will be for all the people.
For today in the city of David a savior has been born for you
who is Messiah and Lord."

In times past, God spoke in partial and various ways to our ancestors through the prophets; in these last days, he spoke to us through a son, whom he made heir of all things and through whom he created the universe, who is the refulgence of his glory, the very imprint of his being, and who sustains all things by his mighty word.

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Lectio Divina

Lectio divina is a slow contemplative praying of the Scriptures which enables the Bible, the Word of God, to become a means of union with God. Its only goal is to bring you into the presence of God by praying the Scriptures. The art of lectio divina begins with cultivating the ability to be silent and to listen deeply. Allow yourself to hear the still small voice, the “faint murmuring sound” (1 Kings 12:12) which is God touching our hearts.

Read - What is going on in the text?
Pick a reading or a text that interests you; read and re-read it slowly, attentively, and quietly, listening to discover a word or phrase that holds your attention.

Meditate - What is the text saying to you?
Allow the word or phrase to become God’s word for you at this moment, and repeating it gently let it touch you and affect you at your deepest level.

Pray - What do you want to say to God about the text?
Allow the word or phrase that you are pondering to change you, by offering to God those thoughts or parts of yourself that you have not previously shared.

Contemplate - What difference does this text make in your life?
Return to silence, let go of the word or phrase and simply enjoy the experience of being in the presence of God’s transforming embrace.

Together with our daily labor, time set aside for this simple liturgy enables us to discover the underlying spiritual rhythm in our daily lives. Within this rhythm we can offer more of ourselves to our relationship with God, and more fully embrace what He is continuously extending to us in the person of Jesus Christ.

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Options

My sister responded, via email, to my post titled "Wish List". She was very kind, and her point was that giving to others, especially at Christmas, has made the holidays more enjoyable for her. She and her family have adopted the giving of donations in a big way, as others have I'm sure. There are a lot of options when you choose to help, and here are a couple more suggestions that I've just learned about.

HomeBoy Industries assists at-risk and formerly gang-involved youth to become positive and contributing members of society through job placement, training and education. I heard Father Greg speak recently, about his successes and challenges, and I can tell you that everyone in the auditorium was moved to tears. Please check out his speaking schedule, buy his book Tattoos on the Heart, donate via their virtual car wash, or click the Donate Now button on their website at HomeBoy Industries.

The Heifer Organization gives you the power to change a life forever. Your gift of cows, goats, sheep, chicks, bees, or trees give people hope and a way out of the cycle of hunger and poverty. These are living gifts that provide families with the dignity of feeding themselves, and also with the means to pay for clothing, education, doctor visits, and decent shelter. You can donate or order a catalog on their website at Heifer Organization.

Certainly, there can be no more meaningful way to celebrate the giving spirit of this special season than to give to those in need. Remember to reach out to those near and dear to you with gifts of compassion and support all through the year. Jesus taught us to take care of those in need, and like my sister it'll change your life forever.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Synoptic Synergy

There doesn't have to be confusion about the Synoptic Gospels. Even though they "don't seem" to agree on some of the details don't get caught up on the differences, because the differences within the stories don't matter. What does matter is that although the authors of each of the Gospels are speaking to a different audience, they are presenting aspects of the same Jesus. So whether the stories being told in the Gospels agree isn't important, because it is the Truth of the person of Jesus.

For the writers of the Gospels, as it is for us today, their experience of Jesus was different because of their personal histories. The material used by the writers may or may not have actually happened, or may have happened one way and not another, but nevertheless, what is written is true to the spirit of Jesus' character. Jesus is the Truth that we find in the Bible and Tradition, so the question is "What did this story mean in its setting", and it is not "Did this actually happen". We should be thankful that whoever selected the four Gospels wanted to celebrate the diversity and not preserve just one version.

Catholic understanding has always been allegorical, and not literal or fundamental. The Gospels are a single message of the story of Jesus' life and teaching recorded by different authors and presented to different audiences. The truth is the message in the words and stories found in the Bible, and not in its historical details. The Bible "contains" the Word of God with a message that is as important today as it was yesterday. Jesus "is" the Word of God who continues to proclaim God's message for us.

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Eddie

I met a guy named Eddie yesterday. I've spoken to him before, even though I didn't know his name, as he stood near a bus stop that I walk past twice a day. Some days I see him in the morning as I'm going to work, and some days I see him in the evening on my way home. He always greets me with cheerful eyes and a big smile and he always says, "Hello my friend". Although I've never stopped to talk, I usually asked how he was doing, at which he would reply, "Oh, I'm hanging in there", and I would respond, "Me too".

This morning was different. As I left the parking lot where I park my car I could see that someone near the bus stop was in trouble. The person was on his hands and knees, facing away from the street, as if he had tripped after getting off the bus. His black duffle bag was on the sidewalk next to him, and as I approached him I could see that it was the person I've spoken to before. He was trying to stand up, and as I offered to help him a very nice park ranger lady showed up to help both of us. We got him to his feet, but he was unable to walk, so we let him hold on to us and we waited. Although we didn't try to engage him in conversation, he repeated, "I haven't done anything" over and over, and I'll admit that it wasn't convincing because it was obvious that he had been drinking. He kept saying that he couldn't understand why his legs felt paralyzed, but my guess is that he just didn't have any feeling in them.

Eddie eventually recognized me and said, "Hello my friend", and I responded with a smile and a simple, "Hi". He was still on his feet and he still couldn't walk, and so we let him hold on to us. As we waited I found myself hoping that he wouldn't remember our visit that morning, because his greeting wasn't accompanied with his usual cheerful eyes or his big smile, but instead tears covered his face. I tried to help him understand that everyone needs help at some time, that this was his time, and that it was OK. Eddie said he was tired and I don't think he's slept recently, so we tried to convince him that he should go to a shelter. He didn't want to go to the shelter because they "always make me leave". Eventually he was able to move off by himself, towards his black duffle bag.

I left him with the park ranger lady and walked toward my office, thinking I would have felt better if he had gone to the shelter. Something else he said to me, slowly and carefully, and more than once as he looked into my eyes was, "You have no obligation". I tried to tell him that I think he's wrong, because we do have an obligation to help others. God's command regarding the poor can be found in Deuteronomy 15:7, "If one of your kinsmen in any community is in need in the land which the Lord, your God, is giving you, you shall not harden your heart nor close your hand to him in his need." I hope I see Eddie standing at the bus stop again, and when I do I'm going to stop and talk to him for a couple of minutes.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Sandwiches

The other day while studying the Gospel of Mark I was introduced to something very interesting, called Markan Intercalations. According to Webster's Dictionary, an intercalation is the "insertion or introduction of anything among the others, as the insertion of a phrase, line, or verse in a metrical composition". This is similar to a sandwich (ok too obvious) or a triptych painting, in which three separately framed panes make up one painting by the fact that each is related in some way.

In Markan Intercalations, the writer of Mark begins a story about one thing, pauses in the middle and tells a different story, and then completes the first story. This in itself would be interesting to discover, but what makes these especially interesting is that each of the three pieces is related in some way. Here are six examples of the literary triptych found in the Gospel of Mark;

3:21               Jesus' family
3:22 - 30        Conflict with authority
3:21 - 35        Jesus' family

5:21 - 24        Jairus' daughter
5:24 - 34        Bleeding woman
5:35 - 43        Jairus' daughter

6: 7 - 13         Apostle's mission
6:14 - 29        Death of John the Baptist
6:30               Apostle's mission

11:12 - 14      Fig tree
11:15 - 19      Temple action
11:20 - 25      Fig tree

14: 1 -  2        Conspiracy against Jesus
14: 3 -  9        Anointing woman
14:10 - 11      Conspiracy against Jesus

15:54              Peter in the courtyard
15:56 - 65      Jesus' interrogation
15:66 - 71      Peter in the courtyard

This suggests to me that the writer of the Gospel of Mark was not only inspired by the Holy Spirit, he was also a clever fellow. Read these sections of Mark and see how each of the pieces are related. Some scholars have suggested that the entire Gospel of Mark makes up one overall triptych, beginning with Jesus teaching in Galilee, then about Jesus traveling and teaching the Disciples, and finally Jesus teaching in Jerusalem.

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Nietzsche is Dead

The cover of Time magazine once asked the question “Is God Dead”. In the April 8, 1966 Easter issue the article began with the sentence, “We must recognize that the death of God is a historical event: God has died in our time, in our history, in our existence".

These words were written by an associate professor of religion at Atlanta’s Emory University, a Methodist school. The author, Altizer, was not alone in proclaiming his atheism, and took his starting point from Nietzsche who wrote in The Gay Scientist that, “God is Dead; but given the way of men, there may still be caves for thousands of years in which his shadow will be shown". The Time article went on to explain that the death-of-God theologians didn’t argue merely that Christianity’s traditional image of the Creator is obsolete. They said that, "it was no longer possible to think about or believe in a transcendent God who acts in human history, and that Christianity will have to survive, if at all, without him".

Although it was argued that modern science had eliminated the need for religion to explain the natural world, and that God took up less and less space in people’s daily lives, the immediate reality did not indicate a death of God or religion. While only 27% of Americans called themselves deeply religious, as many as 97% declared a belief in God. The article led to a public backlash, and by the end of the decade the ‘death of God’ movement had lost much of its momentum. Later, in The Death of God, someone named Vahanian concluded that “God is Dead”, because “modern secular culture had lost all sense of the sacred, lacking any sacramental meaning, no transcendental purpose or sense of providence”.

I'm glad to report that Nietzsche, Altizer, Vahanian, and everyone else that "thinks" God is dead are (dead) wrong! Catholic sacramental liturgy is alive and well in my life, and the lives of at least 1 billion Catholics around the world. Non-demoninational mega churches are springing up almost everywhere, the Christian music world is main stream, and Christian schools, TV, and Radio are doing well. I found the cave Nietzsche referred to in his article, and on the wall below his hastily written signature a shadowy hand has written;

God is Dead!  (Signed) Nietzsche.
Nietzsche is Dead!  (Signed) God.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Introduction to the New Testament – Class 4

Tonight we discussed the Gospel of John which was probably written in the 90s, and as with the other Gospels, was probably not written by one person. The final editing of the gospel and arrangement in its present form probably dates from between A.D. 90 and 100. This gospel is quite different in character from the three synoptic gospels. It is highly literary and symbolic, and it does not follow the same order or reproduce the same stories as the synoptic gospels. To a much greater degree, it is the product of a developed theological reflection and grows out of a different circle and tradition.

The Gospel of John begins with a magnificent prologue, which proclaims Jesus as the preexistent and incarnate Word of God who has revealed the Father to us. The gospel narrative contains a series of "signs", and because the author is primarily interested in the significance of these deeds, they are interpreted for the reader by various reflections, narratives, and discourses. The fourth gospels narrative has been organized and adapted to serve the evangelist's theological purposes as well. Among them are the opposition to the synagogue of the day and to John the Baptist's followers, who tried to exalt their master at Jesus' expense, and the desire to convince Christians that their religious belief and practice must be rooted in Jesus. Such theological purposes impelled the evangelist to emphasize motifs that were not so clear in the synoptic accounts of Jesus' ministry, such as the explicit emphasis on his divinity.

The whole gospel is a progressive revelation of the glory of God's only Son, who comes to reveal the Father and then returns in glory to the Father. The author's purpose is clearly expressed in what must have been the original ending of the gospel at the end of John 20: "Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of [his] disciples that are not written in this book. But these are written that you may [come to] believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through this belief you may have life in his name."