Second Sunday Advent

Second Sunday Advent
December 5, 2004

"The baby shall play by the cobra's den... there shall be no harm or ruin on my holy mountain. (Isaiah 11: 1-10) May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to think in harmony with one another... (Romans 15: 4-9). "... every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire..." (Matthew 3:1-12).
The prophet envisions a great age of peace on the earth; St. Paul encourages us to live together peacefully; John the Baptist (the last of the prophets, in the Christian tradition) denounces any who would frustrate the goal of paving the way for the Messiah with stern warnings about their fate.
There is a contrast between John the Baptist's attacks on religious hypocrites ("you vipers brood") and the prophet's metaphor of babies playing safely next to poisonous snakes in the messianic age. Pity the poor snakes: they don't deserve their reputation. How is the goal of attaining this age of universal harmony furthered by name-calling against those with whom we disagree or disapprove? Perhaps not every detail of what we read in the scriptures must be imitated. It is worth keeping in mind that it is not us who decides which of us are hypocrites or trees needing to be burned. That is the exclusive right of the Messiah.
John the Baptist has a privileged position in history as the prophetic announcer of the coming of the messianic age. His reputation as an ascetic (living in desert isolation and eating grasshoppers) is again a contrast with the abundance of the new age of love, forgiveness and harmony promised by Jesus. His ideal, like that of St. Paul, is that he should diminish in personal stature in order to prepare for the coming of the Messiah. Like all the great prophets and saints then and now, he was profoundly aware of his inadequacies and insignificance, and still able to speak the truth as it was revealed to him. Not a bad model for any of us.
After the Thanksgiving holiday, where feasting and family are the center of attention, we often feel a need for simplicity and solitude, for "getting back to normal". I was reminded during our Thanksgiving dinner that by next year at this time I will probably be taking most of my nourishment through a small tube inserted directly into my stomach. At first this was a very daunting prospect: no longer being able to enjoy the pleasure of eating. Now it seems like a fairly simple transition, even quite symmetrical: I began life in my mother's womb nourished through a tube and will end it similarly. I will finally be able to take my father's advice that we "eat to live, not live to eat", and the advice of a close friend about avoiding "recreational eating". Like John the Baptist. Life offers abundant opportunities to accept diminishment, and the asceticism which usually comes with it, as preparation for our expansion in the Kingdom of Heaven.

First Sunday Advent

First Sunday of Advent
November 28, 2004

"They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; one nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again... (Isaiah 2: 1-5). You know the time; it is the hour now for you to awake from sleep... the night is advanced, the day is at hand. (Roman's 13:11-14). Therefore stay awake... for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come." (Matthew 24: 37-44)
The prophet has a vision of how our world will be some day when the Son of Man returns. St. Paul urges us to wake up, stay alert and live uprightly. Jesus compares his own times to those of the days before the flood when people were oblivious to the consequences of their actions, and were completely surprised when the day of reckoning came.
The unmistakable message at this beginning of Advent: the way we live now is our future. Even more, the quality of our lives now will determine whether we even recognize the Most High immediately before us whenever that may happen. We may not always realize how intimately present and future are linked together. All we really have is now. The illusion is that the future is a reality, upon which we can count for more time.
A wise old woman in a Spanish film whose title I cannot remember, remarks "when people make plans, God laughs". We do not have to "wait" for this great future event to occur. It is here already, even as we slumber away confident in our illusion that there is more time. Time is the illusion, eternity is the reality. The spiritual life, life in God, can only be lived in the presence of eternity. In this sense, even the traditional "three comings of Christ" in Advent (at Christmas, in our hearts, and at the end of time) is an artifact of this illusion that we have more time. Right now is the end of time. Right now is Christmas. Right now the Spirit of the Most High is within us waiting for us to wake up to that truth.
I have often reflected on how grateful I am that I took advantage of my strength while I had it to do a couple of great bike rides the summer before I was diagnosed with ALS. My companions and I reflect even now that there were already signs, which concerned us but which we ignored, as if it was impossible that this moment of strength and vigor could ever go away. Images of these experiences are still fresh at this very moment and give me as much pleasure now, although in a very different way, as they did then.
So, this Advent let us take advantage of the moment. Act as if we had no more time, because we do not. Tell someone now that you love them, if you do. Ask for forgiveness now, if you know you have hurt someone. Go now for the life you always wanted instead of waiting for the "right time".

Christ the King

Christ the King
November 21, 2004
"Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom... today you will be with me in paradise" (Luke 23: 35-43) "He delivered us from the power of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son." (Col 112-20)
This passage from St. Paul is a powerful statement about the cosmic dimensions of the kingdom into which we have been initiated by the death and resurrection of Christ. The invisible God has included us in a "kingdom" greater and more expansive than the entire physical universe where we share the divine light and life directly. This is exactly what Jesus was referring to when he promises the repentant thief that they will be together in paradise that very day. As St. Paul says, we have a great deal to be thankful for, far beyond the traditional material things we remember at this time of year.
This past week I participated in a symposium for ALS patients and their caregivers, including medical experts there to report on the status of research and advancements in management of the disease. One thing I recommended was "live in the present, plan and hope for the future". The kingdom of God is found in both experiences. I was struck with how these people could bring something positive and life giving out of the cross of a debilitating illness. Sometimes it was difficult to know who was helping whom in the circle of care. Some of us, still able to get out to a function like this were physically there, and some of us, like the person hanging next to Christ, preparing very soon to enter the kingdom in its fullness, were there in another way. I was acutely aware of the latter especially, and came away grateful for our companions on the way. Here was, along with profound loss and darkness, heroism of the finest order, an experience of the kingdom of light.
I am reminded by this experience of how close we are to this kingdom, especially when we feel very far away from it. We all hang on our own crosses next to Christ, already in the kingdom of the God. It also made me think about how many other little communities of light there are clustered around other kinds of crosses: soldiers in battle on both sides, innocent victims of war, victims of physical and mental diseases (especially the rare ones we never hear about), medical professionals (especially the underpaid and underappreciated who do most of the grunt work), those who attend to the needs of the suffering and dying, addicts supporting each other in recovery, victims of abuse of all kinds struggling to live a normal life. I am thankful this week for all of them, and for all of you, companions on the way in the kingdom of light.

33rd Sunday

33rd Sunday Ordinary
November 14, 2004

"We hear that some are conducting themselves among you in a disorderly way, by not keeping busy but minding the business of others." (2 Thessalonians 3: 7-12) "All that you see here--the days will come when there will not be left a stone upon another stone that will not be thrown down...." (Luke 21: 5-19)
St. Paul warns about the problems caused by minding other people's business and neglecting our own. Jesus talks to his disciples about the final destiny of our world, cautioning them not to try to predict when or where it will occur, nor to prepare to defend themselves.
It seems that we have lived so long with Jesus' prediction about the "end of the world" that it no longer is the realistic future which so completely dominated the lives Christians and Jews of his time. Many of us over the centuries have completely ignored Jesus' admonitions to prepare only by living in trust and love of God and each other. Indeed, Jesus' comments about the Temple crumbling were taken later by his enemies as justification for his execution.
· We know that this world will end sooner or later. Perhaps when our sun runs out of fuel, expands to engulf earth, and collapses into a dark star, with nothing left of us but a little cosmic dust. This scenario gives us several million years yet to get it right. We could be clobbered by a large meteorite, as has happened many times in earth's history before we were here, and life as we know it extinguished within a few days. We humans could become the victims of our own technological cleverness, use up the very resources upon which we depend for survival, and make ourselves extinct, leaving the earth to more adaptable species (viruses, rats, starlings, cockroaches, etc.), assuming there is anything left to sustain life at all. There are signs that this is already be happening.
· Excluding cosmic events over which we have no control, maybe we have some part to play in how and when the end of the world occurs. The scriptures refer often to the passing nature of even the most enduring things of this life. The Temple was destroyed not very long after Jesus' death. What about the temple of earth itself? How long do we have before it is destroyed also? We could be looking up in the sky for signs when they are right "down" here in front of us.
· St. John suggested that Jesus' reference to the Temple was a metaphor for himself, and by extension for us, his community of the faithful. We still, like the Christians of St. Paul's time, use up an awful lot of precious energy observing the mistakes of others, defending ourselves against criticism and rejection, and bickering over conflicting political and religious ideologies. In doing so are we missing the bigger picture revealed to us again today? We may not have the luxury of wasting much more time before any decision to act together is taken out of our hands.

32nd Sunday

32nd Sunday Ordinary
November 7, 2004

"That the dead will rise even Moses made known... when he called out 'Lord,' the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; and he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive." (Luke 20:27-38)
The Sadducees were a Jewish sect of Jesus' day who apparently adhered strictly to the literal authority of the Torah, and denied the immortality of the soul and resurrection of the dead. They challenge Jesus by proposing a hypothetical situation in which a person would be married to more than one spouse in the afterlife, thus violating the Law of Moses. Jesus responds that even Moses acknowledged an afterlife by referring to the God of the living, not the dead.
• What many of us fear the most in this life is that there is nothing more to it than what we experience right now, that we survive only in the memories of those we leave behind. Jesus, in commenting on the Sadducees mistaken notion, contradicts this dread that our lives are futile and meaningless. Today we pray from Psalm 17, "Keep me as the apple of your eye, hide me in the shadow of your wings. But I in justice shall behold your face; on waking I shall be content in your presence." This prayer reflects the spiritual reality. If God is eternal, and loves us as much as he says he does, how could we be forgotten in death?
• Five years ago this month, after learning that I had an incurable, debilitating, terminal disease, was given the opportunity of choosing between the cynicism of the Sadducees, or the optimism and hope of the resurrection and eternal life. I had to decide if I was going to live or die. Some people have asked me, "How did you do that". I didn't do it. Fortunately, in one sense, it turned out not to be a choice at all, but a gift from the Spirit beyond and within me. It turned out also to produce an outpouring of love from family and friends -- the communion of saints. I have discovered that I am a very small part of a reality much larger than my personal existence. It is clear to me that we live for and in each other, that our destinies are in each other's hands. The result of this choice and gift has been a vastly richer and more complete life than I could have imagined when I was able-bodied. I highly recommend it, especially if it can be done without the part about disease and disability.
• Eternity may be far richer than simply a wonderful life extended into an endless future time. If we share the life of God, we must share in some way in the divine life not limited by time and space. We will share in the perfection of love now known only imperfectly in a handful of relationships (if we are fortunate). This love between us and God will pervade every human relationship, not simply those forged in this life. The communion of saints is our affirmation that we are all connected to one another over time and space in the love which begins in this life and reaches perfection in the next. Loving and being loved is the most compelling proof of the reality that we survive this life and will live in the next.