A pastoral reflection on John 2:13-25 (Jesus in the Temple with the Money Changers)
Radical...growing up, I had a lot of images of Jesus but never an image of him being radical. Jesus sitting with children, with a lamb on his shoulder, teaching his disciples, but Jesus the radical? Where did I miss that? Perhaps Mom and Dad wanted me to be domesticated, trainable, and obedient so they spoke more of the soft, lovey-dovey Jesus.
But, Jesus the table tipper? The whipper of money changers? The driver of cattle stampedes? The ruffian who knocks money boxes out of the hands of merchants? Oh yeah, he’s all that too. On that day, he must of worn a rubber bracelet that said, “WWJWD” (What Would John Wayne Do?).
On that day, Jesus was the man that wrangled all the “bull” to make a straight path for others to enter into deeper worship and relationship with his Father.
What bull is in your life that needs to be wrangled and driven out so that you can grow deeper in worship and relationship with God...to have deeper spiritual freedom and a larger capacity to act in love?
Now, our spiritual freedom and ability to love has three villains: the flesh, the world, and the devil.
“What the Scriptures call the flesh, the old man, or the sinful nature, is that part of us that always wants the easiest way out...To put it bluntly, your flesh is a weasel, a poser, and a selfish pig. And your flesh is not the real you.”* It is what psychologists would say is your false self. The faker who cowardly believes his own bull, “who deliberately chooses to push down his true strength in Christ and lives a false life.”* It’s the person who denies what their heart is really saying to them. They shrink in fear instead of confronting the thoughts, feelings, and problems in their life.
Now, “the World...is any system built by our collective sin, all our false selves coming together to reward and destroy each other...Take all the posers out there, put them together and you get a carnival of counterfeits,—that’s the World."* The money changers were just that—selling a false path to God and making a profit. Resisting "“The World” is not referring to a shallow approach to holiness like never drinking or dancing or watching rated R movies."* Rather it’s the system that corrupts our true strength, that causes us to support the false self, often through pride and a false sense of power.
"The devil no doubt has a place in our theology, but is he a category we even think about in the daily events of our lives? Has it ever crossed your mind that not every thought that enters your mind comes from you?"* Do we ever stop to say, in a Texan draw, “Wait a minute, partner, who else is speaking here? Where ‘em ideas a coming from?” “It’s the image of God reflected in you that so enrages hell; it is this at which demons hurl their mightiest weapons.”
Jesus was a radical and a zealot—that’s how much he loved you and me. Jesus wasn’t afraid to stand up and fight for us, to die for us. He wasn’t a poser. He could gently love children and still fight the World. Like two cowboys in a duel, he could face the devil in the eye and say “Go ahead, take your best shot, ‘cause after you do, I’m going to rise up and defeat you.”
But this isn’t just a story of the past, Jesus is here with us today in word and sacrament. His word and sacrament are like his whip of cords to drive out our false self, to knock over the world, and to defeat the devil. He fills us with his Spirit so we too can be part of his posse. He’s ready to wrangle the crud and bull in your life, to give you a clear spiritual path to his Father. So, which side of the table will you stand on?
* - Much of this post was inspired and quotes taken from John Eldredge's "Wild at Heart"
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Living on the Edge (1 Cor. 7:32-35)
The second reading in today’s Mass (1 Cor. 7:32-35) is interesting to reflect on from a mature perspective. Surrounding this passage, St. Paul is pastorally working with the community in Corinth regarding issues of marriage. Note his first statement, “...I should like you to be free from anxieties.” The anxiety St. Paul is referring to is the anxiety to be prepared for Christ’s return. Remember that the early Church sincerely believed that Jesus would return in their lifetime. So, they were anxious about how best to be prepared for his glory. Two thousand years later, our anxiety is a little different isn’t it? Who doesn’t secretly think that Jesus isn’t going to return in our life time? We cannot sustain an artificial anxiety, pretending to ourselves that Jesus could return today. Believe me, I tried it for years, eventually time wins the argument. Don’t forget we pray at every mass, right after the Our Father, that God would remove our anxiety. That’s not anxiety over paying the bills, that’s anxiety over our final judgment—the same anxiety St. Paul is dealing with at Corinth here in this passage.
But St. Paul hint’s at how we are to live in his next sentence. “An unmarried [person] is anxious about things of the Lord, how s/he may please the Lord.” Note that the task for the single Christian is to “please the Lord” - there’s no place for self-centeredness. In the single life, one is chaste for God. Chastity is not a burdensome discipline that robs us of one of life’s great pleasures. Chastity takes our natural drives and redirects them into other forms of creativity and when directed towards God, increases praise. Many a person in history and today have put aside strictly sexual acts to express a deeper powerful creativity through broader acts of art, science, and charity that is just as fulfilling, if not more, than explicit sexual acts. (But our culture of addiction doesn’t want you to believe that because they’re making money off of the addition.) But, true freedom for the single person is to let go of the addiction to find the right sole mate and look to pleasing the Lord in their life.
The Church has always lifted up the high value of marriage and recognized that marriage between a baptized believing man and a woman is a Sacrament—in other words, a way in which God’s grace and the love of Christ is manifested in the world. At first, St. Paul seems to be down playing marriage but what he’s trying to do, in context with the entire chapter, is to help the Christian first understand that their lives are about pleasing the Lord first and foremost. From that central perspective, the task of the Christian spouse is to see how s/he could please their spouse. Again, there is no room for self-centeredness. Marriage is a vocation, a sacrament of godly service to honor Christ by manifesting God’s love specifically in the world through this human bond. The married person’s fulfillment is found inbeing Christ for their partner and allowing their partner to be Christ to them. And, God willing, in the procreation of children. Marriage expresses God’s permanent, personal, and productive love in the world by transforming this natural filial relationship into an expression of God’s unilateral covenantal love to us.
St. Paul hint’s at what the root of anxiety is at the end of his paragraph. Anxiety comes to us when we’re distracted from our central purpose of pleasing the Lord, regardless of our marital status. If we feel restrained, unhappy in our life then our focus is on ourselves and not in outward loving expression to God. We’re called not to live in fearful anxiety for Christ’s return but rather we are happiest when we are living on our spiritual and physical edge—pushing ourselves to fully and creatively express our devotion to God with the gift of our very lives. It is living on our personal edge for God that prepares us for his second coming—not out of fear but out of becoming fully human through devotion to God.
But St. Paul hint’s at how we are to live in his next sentence. “An unmarried [person] is anxious about things of the Lord, how s/he may please the Lord.” Note that the task for the single Christian is to “please the Lord” - there’s no place for self-centeredness. In the single life, one is chaste for God. Chastity is not a burdensome discipline that robs us of one of life’s great pleasures. Chastity takes our natural drives and redirects them into other forms of creativity and when directed towards God, increases praise. Many a person in history and today have put aside strictly sexual acts to express a deeper powerful creativity through broader acts of art, science, and charity that is just as fulfilling, if not more, than explicit sexual acts. (But our culture of addiction doesn’t want you to believe that because they’re making money off of the addition.) But, true freedom for the single person is to let go of the addiction to find the right sole mate and look to pleasing the Lord in their life.
The Church has always lifted up the high value of marriage and recognized that marriage between a baptized believing man and a woman is a Sacrament—in other words, a way in which God’s grace and the love of Christ is manifested in the world. At first, St. Paul seems to be down playing marriage but what he’s trying to do, in context with the entire chapter, is to help the Christian first understand that their lives are about pleasing the Lord first and foremost. From that central perspective, the task of the Christian spouse is to see how s/he could please their spouse. Again, there is no room for self-centeredness. Marriage is a vocation, a sacrament of godly service to honor Christ by manifesting God’s love specifically in the world through this human bond. The married person’s fulfillment is found inbeing Christ for their partner and allowing their partner to be Christ to them. And, God willing, in the procreation of children. Marriage expresses God’s permanent, personal, and productive love in the world by transforming this natural filial relationship into an expression of God’s unilateral covenantal love to us.
St. Paul hint’s at what the root of anxiety is at the end of his paragraph. Anxiety comes to us when we’re distracted from our central purpose of pleasing the Lord, regardless of our marital status. If we feel restrained, unhappy in our life then our focus is on ourselves and not in outward loving expression to God. We’re called not to live in fearful anxiety for Christ’s return but rather we are happiest when we are living on our spiritual and physical edge—pushing ourselves to fully and creatively express our devotion to God with the gift of our very lives. It is living on our personal edge for God that prepares us for his second coming—not out of fear but out of becoming fully human through devotion to God.
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
The Greatest Commandment (Matt. 22:34-40)
This week’s readings continue the theme of Jesus having controversies with the Jewish leaders. The Pharisees ask an important question and they received an important answer. And, although it was an important question, it still was a test to Jesus because a less careful answer could have left him open to the charge of trying to “abolish parts of the law.”
Jesus quotes the Hebrew Scriptures (Deut. 6:5 and Lev. 19:18), “but to bring them together like this as a summary of all the law and the prophets was a brilliant creative idea. In focusing on the two halves of the Ten Commandments (duty to God and duty to our neighbor) it offers a foundation for all our living; and by summing up that duty as love, it goes beyond the specific requirements of the law to the God-like attitude which must underlie them.” (New Bible Commentary. 1994)
Fulfilling our duty to God and neighbor is life giving. God established these rules not to rob us of the delight in creation or to incarcerate us from creativity and free thinking but rather to grant us life both in spirit and body. In our text today, Jesus shows us the answer that animates the law by positive means – through love.
A mother lovingly says, “Time to go to bed, honey.” “NO! You can’t make me!” replies the child with a stamp of his (her) foot. Patiently but firmly, mother says, “Young man (lady), you march yourself right up the stairs this instance!” “Oh, O-kay...” sighs the child without fully realizing that it’s fear or a lack of energy to fight that motivates them to do their parent’s will, and not obedience out of love.
At one time or another, I’m sure many of us rebelled against our parents when we were children. We may have not acted out in rebellion but perhaps in the fancy and privacy of our minds, we rejected what our parents advised us to do in our hearts despite obeying them in the world. We went to bed early with a grudge because we didn’t want to “deal” with the consequences of upsetting mom further.
The same dynamic happens with us fulfilling God’s commands. If we lack faith in the goodness of God, we might find ourselves following his commands begrudgingly like the older brother to the prodigal son. (Luke 15:29) Realizing that a lack of faith in God’s goodness is blasphemy and illogical, we might continue to ponder why we struggle with a particular commandment and conclude that we somehow are misinterpreting the “original” meaning of the text and somehow justify our actions to be innocent although they might not follow God’s law as we understand them in their literal sense. And so, you can see how we can begin to twist and turn God’s laws like we’re trying to solve a Rubik’s Cube – all with our best interests at heart and in sincerity.
But Jesus cuts through this quagmire of perspective: Love your God, love your neighbor. Love is so rudimentary, so instinctual that it hardly needs explaining. Our actions towards God and neighbor are to be done out of compassion and earnest desire to want what is best for them. We know this comes from within us, prompted by God’s Holy Spirit, and not consequential to our circumstances.
As Christians, we love our neighbor not because of the qualities they possess but because we are called to be like God and love them regardless of their qualities. We offer each other grace to be who we are – part sinner, part saint. And that grace isn’t something we manifest ourselves but is poured out to us and through us by our good God’s Holy Spirit.
This is evangelization - To love our neighbor, to love our God - In action, in word, with authenticity - In spite of the moral failures we see in ourselves and others. And we can only do this to the degree we have experience God’s grace and acceptance of us in our own lives. We love because that is the only means to be fully human and to experience the divine within us.
Jesus quotes the Hebrew Scriptures (Deut. 6:5 and Lev. 19:18), “but to bring them together like this as a summary of all the law and the prophets was a brilliant creative idea. In focusing on the two halves of the Ten Commandments (duty to God and duty to our neighbor) it offers a foundation for all our living; and by summing up that duty as love, it goes beyond the specific requirements of the law to the God-like attitude which must underlie them.” (New Bible Commentary. 1994)
Fulfilling our duty to God and neighbor is life giving. God established these rules not to rob us of the delight in creation or to incarcerate us from creativity and free thinking but rather to grant us life both in spirit and body. In our text today, Jesus shows us the answer that animates the law by positive means – through love.
A mother lovingly says, “Time to go to bed, honey.” “NO! You can’t make me!” replies the child with a stamp of his (her) foot. Patiently but firmly, mother says, “Young man (lady), you march yourself right up the stairs this instance!” “Oh, O-kay...” sighs the child without fully realizing that it’s fear or a lack of energy to fight that motivates them to do their parent’s will, and not obedience out of love.
At one time or another, I’m sure many of us rebelled against our parents when we were children. We may have not acted out in rebellion but perhaps in the fancy and privacy of our minds, we rejected what our parents advised us to do in our hearts despite obeying them in the world. We went to bed early with a grudge because we didn’t want to “deal” with the consequences of upsetting mom further.
The same dynamic happens with us fulfilling God’s commands. If we lack faith in the goodness of God, we might find ourselves following his commands begrudgingly like the older brother to the prodigal son. (Luke 15:29) Realizing that a lack of faith in God’s goodness is blasphemy and illogical, we might continue to ponder why we struggle with a particular commandment and conclude that we somehow are misinterpreting the “original” meaning of the text and somehow justify our actions to be innocent although they might not follow God’s law as we understand them in their literal sense. And so, you can see how we can begin to twist and turn God’s laws like we’re trying to solve a Rubik’s Cube – all with our best interests at heart and in sincerity.
But Jesus cuts through this quagmire of perspective: Love your God, love your neighbor. Love is so rudimentary, so instinctual that it hardly needs explaining. Our actions towards God and neighbor are to be done out of compassion and earnest desire to want what is best for them. We know this comes from within us, prompted by God’s Holy Spirit, and not consequential to our circumstances.
As Christians, we love our neighbor not because of the qualities they possess but because we are called to be like God and love them regardless of their qualities. We offer each other grace to be who we are – part sinner, part saint. And that grace isn’t something we manifest ourselves but is poured out to us and through us by our good God’s Holy Spirit.
This is evangelization - To love our neighbor, to love our God - In action, in word, with authenticity - In spite of the moral failures we see in ourselves and others. And we can only do this to the degree we have experience God’s grace and acceptance of us in our own lives. We love because that is the only means to be fully human and to experience the divine within us.
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Nourished by both Word and Sacrament
Jesus used parables all the time. July 10th's gospel reading (Matt 13:1-23) is a powerful parable that helps us understand how well we receive the Word of God. But there’s a reason why Jesus cloaks the message in a parable.
“When Socrates took on the responsibility of educating the youth of his native Greece, he formulated a method of inquiry and debate in order to stimulate critical thinking and illumine the truth. Pythagoras, like a midwife bringing a child to birth, would draw out of his students the knowledge he knew to be there. Aristotle began with what can be known through experience and challenged his students to probe deeper and investigate more fully.”*
Jesus came later than these men and taught in parables – taking something familiar in order to shed light on the truth about the Kingdom of God. “A parable is meant to convey one basic moral lesson [and it was] intended to persuade, to challenge, to move the listener to some decision, resolution or action. In order for this moral response to be forthcoming, listeners would have to look beyond the story itself to the deeper meaning and allow themselves to be grasped by its truth. While Jesus did not originate the literary form of the parable, he made powerful use of it in order to: (1) evoke a transformation in his listeners; (2) challenge them to embrace a new system of values; and (3) have them open themselves to a new concept of salvation – as not a reward to be merited by the righteous, but the gift of a loving God to sinners.”*
Parables force us to pay attention, to ponder their meaning and ultimately to be open to respond in faith in order to see into the heart and mind of God. If we are closed minded, spiritually prideful, or slothful in our relationship with God, the parable will remain a puzzle to the degree we are unwilling to accept God speaking to us through it.
As Christians, we are called to ponder not just Jesus’ parables but all of the Holy Scriptures over and over again in faith and openness. And we do this not just to be obedient but to be nourished by God’s Holy Spirit through hearing God’s Word and to grow in intimacy/communion with God. “If the Scriptures are not to remain a dead letter, Christ, the eternal Word of the living God, must, through the Holy Spirit, open our minds to understand the Scriptures.” (Catechism line 108).
The Scriptures are a main vehicle/media in which God uses to communicate himself to us. “For this reason, the Church has always venerated the Scriptures as she venerates the Lord’s Body. She never ceases to present to the faithful the bread of life, taken from the one table of God’s Word and Christ’s Body.” (Catechism line 103)
Much like air and food is necessary for life in the human body; so we need both God’s Word through Scripture and Sacrament with equal importance for life in the Spirit.
So, as today’s parable says, what part of us is hardened soil that needs God to jackhammer it loose? What part of us hears God’s word but gets choked out by other ambitions other than to grow in communion with God? And, how well do we thank God for those areas in our life that have been open to his Word and blessed by his Spirit?
(* Quotes from Patricia Datchuck Sanchez, Rafael Sanchez Alonzo, "Jesus Spoke to Them in Parables." Celebrations, July 2011.)
“When Socrates took on the responsibility of educating the youth of his native Greece, he formulated a method of inquiry and debate in order to stimulate critical thinking and illumine the truth. Pythagoras, like a midwife bringing a child to birth, would draw out of his students the knowledge he knew to be there. Aristotle began with what can be known through experience and challenged his students to probe deeper and investigate more fully.”*
Jesus came later than these men and taught in parables – taking something familiar in order to shed light on the truth about the Kingdom of God. “A parable is meant to convey one basic moral lesson [and it was] intended to persuade, to challenge, to move the listener to some decision, resolution or action. In order for this moral response to be forthcoming, listeners would have to look beyond the story itself to the deeper meaning and allow themselves to be grasped by its truth. While Jesus did not originate the literary form of the parable, he made powerful use of it in order to: (1) evoke a transformation in his listeners; (2) challenge them to embrace a new system of values; and (3) have them open themselves to a new concept of salvation – as not a reward to be merited by the righteous, but the gift of a loving God to sinners.”*
Parables force us to pay attention, to ponder their meaning and ultimately to be open to respond in faith in order to see into the heart and mind of God. If we are closed minded, spiritually prideful, or slothful in our relationship with God, the parable will remain a puzzle to the degree we are unwilling to accept God speaking to us through it.
As Christians, we are called to ponder not just Jesus’ parables but all of the Holy Scriptures over and over again in faith and openness. And we do this not just to be obedient but to be nourished by God’s Holy Spirit through hearing God’s Word and to grow in intimacy/communion with God. “If the Scriptures are not to remain a dead letter, Christ, the eternal Word of the living God, must, through the Holy Spirit, open our minds to understand the Scriptures.” (Catechism line 108).
The Scriptures are a main vehicle/media in which God uses to communicate himself to us. “For this reason, the Church has always venerated the Scriptures as she venerates the Lord’s Body. She never ceases to present to the faithful the bread of life, taken from the one table of God’s Word and Christ’s Body.” (Catechism line 103)
Much like air and food is necessary for life in the human body; so we need both God’s Word through Scripture and Sacrament with equal importance for life in the Spirit.
So, as today’s parable says, what part of us is hardened soil that needs God to jackhammer it loose? What part of us hears God’s word but gets choked out by other ambitions other than to grow in communion with God? And, how well do we thank God for those areas in our life that have been open to his Word and blessed by his Spirit?
(* Quotes from Patricia Datchuck Sanchez, Rafael Sanchez Alonzo, "Jesus Spoke to Them in Parables." Celebrations, July 2011.)
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Who is my Neighbor?
A reflection on the gospel story of the good Samaritan.
“And who is my neighbor?” In short, everyone; and this includes all who have hurt us or are considered our enemy. Jesus busts wide open any kind of prejudice in this gospel passage today. He tells us to love everyone. But, it is safe to say that we can prioritize our relationships and responsibilities too. We will always love our friends more than strangers and definitely more than our enemies. But because we love others more does not give us license to hate.
In fact, it’s vital to our relationship with God to love our neighbor – even our enemies – for the scriptures tell us, “How can you say you love God who is invisible, if you cannot love your [neighbor] who is visible?”
The National Conference of Catechetical Leaders states: “Our morality, as Christians, is rooted in two points: human dignity and community…human dignity is rooted in the biblical truth that we are created in the image and likeness of God [and] our understanding of community is found in the model of the Trinity.”
It’s easy to grasp our friend’s dignity but often we are confounded by our enemy’s behavior. Some people can be such jerks in our life that it causes us to struggle with finding an image of God in them. Despite our suffering and possible right for justice, our own humility is the only means to grow in finding that image of God in our enemy.
As Christians, we are called to be like water. “Water easily benefits all things without struggle. Yet it abides in places that people hate.” In Living Together, Dietrich Bonhoeffer puts it another way, “Nobody is too good for the meanest service.”
Bonhoeffer continues by stating, “We learn from the discipline of humility that we must not spare our hand where it can perform a service and that we do not assume our schedule is our own to manage, but allow it to be arranged by God.” And further, “Only where hands are not too good for deeds of love and mercy in everyday helpfulness can the mouth joyfully and convincingly proclaim the message of God’s love and mercy.” By loving our neighbor – especially enemies – we come to learn of God’s love for us more richly and then can proclaim that love with deeper authenticity. Even from a Machiavellian perspective, it’s in our best interests to love others!
But as Marva Dawn, author of Reaching Out Without Dumbing Down, points out, our contemporary culture is increasingly individualistic and self absorbed. The question of our Christian duty to love our neighbor is sterilized with reaching out to far away places and global concerns – I’ve done a good thing when I buy fair trade products (all good acts in and of themselves and we ought to do them) – but we must consider the local community as a priority. How do I tangibly love the person in the pew next to me? I can sit in a pew next to a stranger but can I hold their hand during the Lord’s Prayer?
Our brother or sister in the Lord needs community (fellowship with other Christians), especially when he or she becomes uncertain and discouraged in his or her hope for a holy life. The Christian needs his or her brother as a bearer and proclaimer of the divine word of salvation.
As Christians, we are called to be community; a community through Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ, no more, no less. It is a duty built upon humility and openness and while it is a duty, it is not without reward. We discover God in and through one another. We receive encouragement in difficult times. We find love when we thought all was lost. This is a founding belief and experience of the Church. As Saint Paul told the Christian community of Philippi, “Do not think of your own interests alone, but look to the interest of others.” (Phil. 2:2-4.)
“And who is my neighbor?” In short, everyone; and this includes all who have hurt us or are considered our enemy. Jesus busts wide open any kind of prejudice in this gospel passage today. He tells us to love everyone. But, it is safe to say that we can prioritize our relationships and responsibilities too. We will always love our friends more than strangers and definitely more than our enemies. But because we love others more does not give us license to hate.
In fact, it’s vital to our relationship with God to love our neighbor – even our enemies – for the scriptures tell us, “How can you say you love God who is invisible, if you cannot love your [neighbor] who is visible?”
The National Conference of Catechetical Leaders states: “Our morality, as Christians, is rooted in two points: human dignity and community…human dignity is rooted in the biblical truth that we are created in the image and likeness of God [and] our understanding of community is found in the model of the Trinity.”
It’s easy to grasp our friend’s dignity but often we are confounded by our enemy’s behavior. Some people can be such jerks in our life that it causes us to struggle with finding an image of God in them. Despite our suffering and possible right for justice, our own humility is the only means to grow in finding that image of God in our enemy.
As Christians, we are called to be like water. “Water easily benefits all things without struggle. Yet it abides in places that people hate.” In Living Together, Dietrich Bonhoeffer puts it another way, “Nobody is too good for the meanest service.”
Bonhoeffer continues by stating, “We learn from the discipline of humility that we must not spare our hand where it can perform a service and that we do not assume our schedule is our own to manage, but allow it to be arranged by God.” And further, “Only where hands are not too good for deeds of love and mercy in everyday helpfulness can the mouth joyfully and convincingly proclaim the message of God’s love and mercy.” By loving our neighbor – especially enemies – we come to learn of God’s love for us more richly and then can proclaim that love with deeper authenticity. Even from a Machiavellian perspective, it’s in our best interests to love others!
But as Marva Dawn, author of Reaching Out Without Dumbing Down, points out, our contemporary culture is increasingly individualistic and self absorbed. The question of our Christian duty to love our neighbor is sterilized with reaching out to far away places and global concerns – I’ve done a good thing when I buy fair trade products (all good acts in and of themselves and we ought to do them) – but we must consider the local community as a priority. How do I tangibly love the person in the pew next to me? I can sit in a pew next to a stranger but can I hold their hand during the Lord’s Prayer?
Our brother or sister in the Lord needs community (fellowship with other Christians), especially when he or she becomes uncertain and discouraged in his or her hope for a holy life. The Christian needs his or her brother as a bearer and proclaimer of the divine word of salvation.
As Christians, we are called to be community; a community through Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ, no more, no less. It is a duty built upon humility and openness and while it is a duty, it is not without reward. We discover God in and through one another. We receive encouragement in difficult times. We find love when we thought all was lost. This is a founding belief and experience of the Church. As Saint Paul told the Christian community of Philippi, “Do not think of your own interests alone, but look to the interest of others.” (Phil. 2:2-4.)
True Freedom and Responsibility
The fourth of July, Independence Day for the United States of America, is this coming weekend. Here's a brief reflection on true freedom and responsibility.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all [people] are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” ~ The Declaration of Independence, 1776.
As Christians, life, liberty, and happiness are well defined for us. In today’s (14th Sunday of Ordinary Time - Cycle C) second reading, Saint Paul points out that “the world is crucified to him.” In this statement, St. Paul is stating that the power of all that stands at enmity with God, the sphere of pleasure and ambition related to gross self-gratification, has been broken, not psychologically or mystically, but historically by the cross of Christ. (New Jerome Bible Commentary) By the cross, we are free.
It is this Christian reality of “freedom” that guides our pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness. And, these three ends are not achieved in an autonomous self actualization but in our pursuit of holiness dependent on God, as indicated in today’s alternative opening prayer, “Let sin never ensnare us with empty promises of passing joy. Make us one with you always, so that our joy may be holy, and our love may give life.”
One of my favorite authors is B.W. Maturin. In his Self Knowledge and Self Discipline, he writes, “A healthy body and a plentiful supply of good things of this world are no necessary indication of a happy life. For the life of man is above all things a mental life, he can never rid himself of the companions of his mind.” The more we fill our minds with holy thoughts and bring our desires into line with our Christian duty to love God and neighbor, the more we will achieve true happiness. For God is Ultimate Happiness per St. Thomas Aquinas in his Summa Theologica.
Yet Sin seduces us to believe we can have happiness contrary to God’s law and we can become bound by habits of sin that alienate us from God and estrange us from others. These habits of sin can only be conquered by habits of perseverance built upon a faith that God has freed us from sin. God’s work on the cross grants us independence from Sin. Yet, B.W. Maturin states, “it would indeed be worse than misleading to tell a man who has long yielded to habits of sin that at any given moment he could without constant prayer, vigilance, and strenuous effort, assert his liberty and never yield [to sin] again.”
So, we find ourselves in a real life battle for our souls. As a bumper sticker says, “Peace is won in battle.” Soren Kierkegaard states, “True faith is never an easy matter, nor is it a means to a tranquil life. On the contrary, faith is always a risk, an adventure that requires the denial of oneself and all the joys of the faithless.” The greatest enemy of our freedom and pursuit of happiness is not one another. The really dangerous enemies of our freedom come from within ourselves: fear, uncontrollable passion, and ignorance.
Christianity is not simply an ideology. It’s about establishing the Kingdom of God in our lives, aligning ourselves with Christ and his laws, and being free from sin.
We have a great nation. One established to enable all to have life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. How will we use our freedom? For gross self gratification or for holiness? An old friend once said, “With greater freedom comes greater responsibility.”
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all [people] are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” ~ The Declaration of Independence, 1776.
As Christians, life, liberty, and happiness are well defined for us. In today’s (14th Sunday of Ordinary Time - Cycle C) second reading, Saint Paul points out that “the world is crucified to him.” In this statement, St. Paul is stating that the power of all that stands at enmity with God, the sphere of pleasure and ambition related to gross self-gratification, has been broken, not psychologically or mystically, but historically by the cross of Christ. (New Jerome Bible Commentary) By the cross, we are free.
It is this Christian reality of “freedom” that guides our pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness. And, these three ends are not achieved in an autonomous self actualization but in our pursuit of holiness dependent on God, as indicated in today’s alternative opening prayer, “Let sin never ensnare us with empty promises of passing joy. Make us one with you always, so that our joy may be holy, and our love may give life.”
One of my favorite authors is B.W. Maturin. In his Self Knowledge and Self Discipline, he writes, “A healthy body and a plentiful supply of good things of this world are no necessary indication of a happy life. For the life of man is above all things a mental life, he can never rid himself of the companions of his mind.” The more we fill our minds with holy thoughts and bring our desires into line with our Christian duty to love God and neighbor, the more we will achieve true happiness. For God is Ultimate Happiness per St. Thomas Aquinas in his Summa Theologica.
Yet Sin seduces us to believe we can have happiness contrary to God’s law and we can become bound by habits of sin that alienate us from God and estrange us from others. These habits of sin can only be conquered by habits of perseverance built upon a faith that God has freed us from sin. God’s work on the cross grants us independence from Sin. Yet, B.W. Maturin states, “it would indeed be worse than misleading to tell a man who has long yielded to habits of sin that at any given moment he could without constant prayer, vigilance, and strenuous effort, assert his liberty and never yield [to sin] again.”
So, we find ourselves in a real life battle for our souls. As a bumper sticker says, “Peace is won in battle.” Soren Kierkegaard states, “True faith is never an easy matter, nor is it a means to a tranquil life. On the contrary, faith is always a risk, an adventure that requires the denial of oneself and all the joys of the faithless.” The greatest enemy of our freedom and pursuit of happiness is not one another. The really dangerous enemies of our freedom come from within ourselves: fear, uncontrollable passion, and ignorance.
Christianity is not simply an ideology. It’s about establishing the Kingdom of God in our lives, aligning ourselves with Christ and his laws, and being free from sin.
We have a great nation. One established to enable all to have life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. How will we use our freedom? For gross self gratification or for holiness? An old friend once said, “With greater freedom comes greater responsibility.”
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Guilt and Reconciliation
I wrote this a few months ago - now I have decided to include it in the blog....
In my daily prayer today, I had some guilty feelings about the weekend – not because Catholics are prone to feel guilty but as Tony Robbins, the internationally acclaimed life coach, mentions in his seminar Lessons in Mastery, “I had violated one of my own standards [one of my own personal rules].”
Often in ministry, I see people unable to work through feelings or thoughts of guilt. Some attempt to ignore guilt. I’ve never been able to ignore it. The more I ignore it, the more it eats at me. Some project their guilt on others. As in, “It’s not my fault, [blank] made me do it.” Some will justify their behavior based on worse behavior of others, “Look at such-and-such, they’re doing something worse than me.” Sadly, some will tear others down – reduce the good that is in them – in order to feel better about themselves. But these actions, don’t remove guilt. They only repress the feeling and distract us from dealing with the principle (belief) that caused the guilt to begin with.
As a Christian, one of the behaviors I witnessed within myself is that when I felt guilty, I immediately associated it with God’s rules. This has the potential of bringing in all kinds of added reactions of feelings and beliefs: Sometimes good and yet, in deeper reflection, sometimes painful. Believing in a forgiving God leads to good feelings, but sometimes, believing that I don’t “own” these rules myself – that they’ve been placed on me to obey - can lead to further painful emotions such as feeling coerced.
As adults, whether we actively follow a religion or not, we live with hundreds of standards every day that come from our parents, faith communities, employers, neighborhoods, civil government, and quite often, Hollywood. It’s amazing how we are able to navigate through our days at all without violating someone’s standard.
As I mentioned earlier, the meaning behind guilt is, “I have violated one of my standards.” I think this is a great definition for many reasons.
First, it places the ownership of the violation on me. No one else can bear the responsibility of this violation. It is mine to own. I can’t project it on anyone else.
Second, it places the ownership of the standard on me. I own that standard and this gives me the option to let go of that standard, if I choose it to be a poor one.
Third, it strengthens individual integrity and questions the value of relationships. In other words, it produces healthy personal boundaries by clarifying who I am as an individual. It clarifies what the other wishes in our relationship and provides me clarity about how much I value that relationship. It also empowers me to negotiate or find greater clarity within the relationship, if needed.
Finally, this definition enables me the choice to either change the principle (reject or modify it) or improve my appropriation of it.
As we work with this definition repeatedly, we learn of the happiness of being in control of our lives and relationships. When we choose to accept another’s standard, we value the relationship without reducing ourselves. And, if we fail to live up to a standard of a valued relationship, we are empowered to work towards reconciliation because we become aware of our value in the relationship. Also, we can choose whether or not the relationship (or just a standard in the relationship) has value in it anymore.
In addition, this definition helps us work with others who are coping with guilt. Often, many people I work with poorly react to another’s sense of guilt by being “falsely” compassionate. “Oh, It’s okay. Don’t beat yourself up. We all make mistakes. God loves you.” While all these statements seem to be sweet things to say, they really don’t hit the core of the problem nor remove the sense of guilt.
Helping others through their guilt with this definition respects the person’s feelings, principles, relationships, and helps them to grow in integrity. In doing so, we can heal the brokenhearted and liberate others from feelings of captivity. We can announce to them the favor they have in their relationships and empower them in their relationships. We can help them mourn in their loss. We can help them not become listless souls by helping them strengthen their integrity.
So, the next time we feel guilty. Don’t run away from guilt or belittle it. Remind ourselves, “I have violated one of my own standards” and reflect on its meaning, the relationships in it, and the values we have in those relationships. Then move forward in the direction our hearts lead us: change the standard or change how we react to the standard.
Obviously, if we have truly violated a standard of God (ten commandments) or the standards of a legitimate relationship (employer, government, life partner) then we are obligated to correct that violation and look to reconcile the relationship through just acts like the sacrament of reconciliation, asking forgiveness, replacing another's time or property, reaffirming or restoring the other person's dignity. This will be obvious to the one who values the relationship.
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