fourteenth Sunday Ordinary

Fourteenth Sunday Ordinary
July 3, 2005

"You are not in the flesh... you are in the spirit, if only the Spirit of God dwells in you... For if you live according to the flesh, you will die, but if by the Spirit... you will live." (Romans 8:9-13) I thank you Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to little ones." (Matthew 11:25-30)

Jesus prays in gratitude to his Father for the spiritual wisdom revealed to common folk. Learning and education can sometimes obscure simple truth. The spiritual life is revealed, not learned in books. My grandfather, not an educated man and a self professed agnostic, often referred to "them educated idiots". As a kid I wondered how much of this was a recognition of this truth, and how much was sour grapes about his college-educated brother. Probably both. On the other hand "common sense" isn't always right. Grandpa was flat wrong in his opinions about the superiority of white people.

St. Paul writes about flesh, body and the life of the Spirit. Recall that "the flesh" does not refer to the body, but to something like "self-absorption". The life of the spirit is openness to God's life in everything and everyone, to gratitude for every experience, and recognition of our absolute dependence on the Most High for everything we are and do. Several of my friends and I have a running joke that "after all, it is all about me", which we trot out at key moments when we are feeling the most needy. There is a serious side to this. When we are feeling the least (or most) in control we are inclined to want to regress to this principle of the flesh. We do not "conquer the flesh". The spiritual life calls for a gradual absorption over a lifetime of the "little, selfish me" into the larger, more generous, expansive and accepting "me". This is the way of life over death.

In recent years I have thought quite a bit about my body and what is and is not going on with it. What is this mysterious connection between body and spirit? I sometimes hear people refer to "the battle" with ALS or cancer. I have never experienced it this way. Struggling with or against the body seems only to create anxiety and frustration, further alienating body and spirit. (This may also be true of other "battles" which we presume to wage against sin, crime, and evil. The more we battle, the worse it gets.) The military analogy does not get me very far when applied to the spiritual life. My experience tells me that there is no such opposition, even though my body does not always do what I want it to (an understatement in my case). My body is not "bad", although it does not seem to always want to cooperate with the spirit as it should.

Let us pray for a renewal of the life of the spirit in which tolerance, respect for each other and acceptance of our own and others' limitations will prevail.

Thirteenth Sunday Ordinary

Thirteenth Sunday Ordinary
June 26, 2005

"Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me,and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me;Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." (Matthew 10:37-42)

Jesus continues his instructions to his new apostles, stressing the radical demands required of people who would follow his teachings. Statements like those in this passage point up the insufficiency of "literal" interpretations of the Bible. In truth a "literal" approach is impossible as well as out of step with traditional Christian theology. The Bible was not lowered from heaven as we find it today. We understand the meaning of the words of Scripture by paying attention to the personal and historical context in which they were written. Jesus, as most rabbis of his day, used metaphor, hyperbole and contradictory statements intended to provoke deeper thinking.

If we took a this saying out of the total context of the gospel, we might conclude that loving our parents and our children is secondary to following the Spirit of God wherever it leads. In real life "Jesus or family" seems to be a false dichotomy. Don't we, at least in the vast majority of cases, know that loving and honoring our parents and children is not only obeying the commandments, but a primary way to love God? Isn't the family of faith also the body of Christ? So, in what sense are we to take Jesus' statement that we must prefer one to the other?

I was talking recently with a close friend about how changes occur in our lives, especially for us 50 and 60 somethings. It occurred to us both that some of the most significant changes in our personal and work lives must be made alone. I wonder if this isn't some of what Jesus is referring to. Following the lead of the Holy Spirit is sometimes a lonely and dangerous undertaking.

This saying of Jesus should be reminding us of an important dimension in the life of the spirit. We can "love" parents and children to the point that we avoid this frightening reality. There are times when we must let them go to find their own way to God and the world while we find ours. God is sometimes discovered most dramatically when we are willing to let go of every security, including family, when the time comes to do that. We may deprive our loved ones of this experience if we overprotect them or ourselves. In a similar way, there are also times when we can be over attached to this life as we think it should be. In doing so we will miss the opportunity for a new life in a more fulfilling way than we could have possibly imagined.

Twelfth Sunday Ordinary

Twelfth Sunday Ordinary
June 19, 2005

"O LORD of hosts, you who test the just, who probe mind and heart,let me witness the vengeance you take on them, for to you I have entrusted my cause." (Jeremiah 20:10-13) "And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna". (Matthew 10:26-33)

The prophet cries out in anger and terror about what his enemies are plotting against him. This may seem like unfounded fear of persecution until we remember that Jeremiah was actually treated very badly. His prayer that his enemies be crushed and humiliated, and his delight that God has vindicated him by doing so, though not difficult to understand, are foreign to our way of thinking. This is precisely the kind of belief that fuels terrorism and warfare from many quarters. Yahweh does not necessarily have to punish our enemies to prove that our faith is authentic.

Jesus, instructing his new disciples, tells them not to be afraid of what people might say or do against them. His words strike a different chord than Jeremiah's. Gehenna, a mostly uninhabited wilderness, represents an alien and a lifeless place. If we get too literal about it we may miss the point. What we are truly to fear is anything which has the power to annihilate and exile the whole person, body and soul.

Jesus says that we should not be afraid and then almost immediately tells us what we should be afraid of. No one lives entirely free of fear. But we often fear the wrong things: not having enough wealth, beauty, youth, health or whatever else we think we must have to survive. Nevertheless it has often been pointed out that only fools are fearless. The courageous are able to move ahead in spite of their fears. There are some things we would do well to be afraid of. These include people who, in spite of our best efforts, wear away our ability to respect and cherish ourselves, and thus undermine our ability to trust God. It is easy to give them too much power out of a misguided loyalty. Some people we can only love from a distance.

God rescues even the embittered Jeremiah from his anger and paranoia. The Most High pays attention to even the fate of a dying bird, how much more to each one of us. I am reminded of this each time I wonder if this will be the last week that I will be able to write these reflections, and then given a way to do it one more time. Here is an idea of enormous importance, that the creator and sustainer of an enormous universe can be paying attention to the smallest detail of our ultimate well-being.

Eleventh Sunday Ordinary

Eleventh Sunday Ordinary
June 12, 2005

"Therefore, if you hearken to my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my special possession, dearer to me than all other people... ." (Exodus 19:2-6). "The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, drive out demons. Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give." (Matthew 9:36-10:8)

The Most High speaks to his people through Moses, claiming them as his own even though "all the earth is mine". Jesus calls his apostles and gives them a short definition of the kingdom of heaven which they are to proclaim to all.

I'm not sure how these passages strike you, but I get a wonderfully warm and secure feeling when I read them. Precisely the way I feel when family and friends are around to look after me. Being a part of God's dear ones, special and important, without any cost on my part. An ALS research scientist and friend of mine said recently that he was convinced that my longer than expected survival, and flourishing life is due to all the love and care around me. No doubt in my mind about that. I have noted recently how "family and friends" are no longer very distinct. Friends have become family, family have become friends. I wonder if this is not exactly what the Most High and Jesus have in mind. We are the instruments of the kingdom of heaven here and now. We are the family of God, our fate and well-being linked intimately together.

Making the necessary shifts into a 21st-century mentality, don't we have our own ways of curing the sick, driving out demons and raising the dead? Divine intervention occurs many different ways. My niece Molly was at death's door due to a stroke at the tender age of 22 barely a month ago. Thanks to rapid and competent medical treatment she is now graduating from college this week and has already given a talk to the local stroke support group. It is possible, though less likely, that this would have happened without all the medical expertise available to her. None of us escapes the physical, emotional and spiritual trials of life, or death itself. Life and health have a considerably wider definition than what immediately meets the eye. The real point is that we do not have to wait for divine intervention even if we do still have to live with the realities of life and death on our little planet. The kingdom of heaven is close at hand in the lives of Molly and her family.

Without cost we have received, without cost we give back. Jesus referred to this as a "pearl of great price". We often say to each other, barely thinking about what we say, got the best things in life are free. The more we let go of our anxieties about of what we must have to survive, the more lavishly are we rewarded in the kingdom of heaven.