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.)
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
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.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Life, Goodness, and Power
Our unwillingness to release our desires into the hands of God demonstrates our doubt in the goodness of the One who is life, goodness, and power. Our clinging to finite ideas and things is what limits our growth, gives us pain, and steals our freedom and security. It’s not that ideas and things of this world are bad, it’s that we’ve misplaced them. Thinking they are the source of life, goodness, and power which is reserved for God alone.
We often believe the power to happiness is found in more money, more things, more status, more relationships. What we really do is project power onto these things and relationships and then become unhappy because we do not possess them more fully. Yet, we have the power of happiness within when we can remain in this present moment and accept this moment as a gift from the One who is life, goodness, and power.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Pastoral Letter on Justification
This entry is a response I made to my beloved sister, a presbyterian, when she asked me a question regarding whether we are saved by works or by faith:
Dear Sis and your Bible Study Group,
I love that we can share our faith lives together. I believe our mutual love for Jesus, the Scriptures, and bringing about his Kingdom in our lives bonds us together in ways that human relations alone cannot do. Jesus’ blood is stronger than familial blood alone.
Disclaimer:
First, let me start out by saying that justification, and salvation, is a huge topic – as you know all so well. The topic is one in which we cannot easily just state that we are saved by works or by faith alone. Also, it is connected to our Christological theology (how we view the identity and work of Christ). So, depending upon where we jump into the conversation might cause others to disagree. I believe where and how we jump into conversation about justification is where a lot of misunderstandings between Christians occur on the topic.
The root of our justification is not ourselves but Jesus the Christ
Let me start by saying something obvious yet often overlooked. In the same way that we take the air we breathe for granted, we take for granted the principle that Christ, alone, saves us. It is God’s grace through Christ’s work on the cross that saves us.
Often, we believe that we are working out our salvation through good works or through right-minded faith; but really neither save us. For if they did, we wouldn’t need a messiah. So, justification really isn’t about us so much as it is about what Jesus has done for humanity.
We are saved by faith and works; the faith and works of Jesus – not us. “The resurrection…fulfills all the divine promises made for us. Furthermore, the risen Christ, the conqueror of sin and death, is the principle of our justification and our resurrection. [His resurrection] procures for us now the grace of filial adoption which is a real share in the life of the only begotten Son. At the end of time he will raise up our bodies.”[1] To be adopted as a child of God is through God’s grace alone.
So, it is God’s grace that saves us. Grace is the “free and undeserved gift that God gives us to respond to our vocation to become his adopted children. As sanctifying grace, God shares his divine life and friendship with us in a habitual gift, a stable and supernatural disposition that enables the soul to live with God, to act by his love. As actual grace, God gives us the help to conform our lives to his will. Sacramental grace and special graces (states of life) are gifts of the Holy Spirit to help us live out our Christian vocation.”[2]
Faith and Works, NOT Faith or Works
Note that faith and works are born from grace, “….to respond to our vocation…”, because they are both acts that make up our response.
Faith is “both a gift of God (grace again) and a human act by which the believer gives personal adherence to God who invites his response, and freely assents to the whole truth that God has revealed. It is this revelation of God which the Church proposes for our belief, and which we profess in the Creed, celebrate in the sacraments, live by right conduct that fulfills the two fold commandment of charity (as specified in the ten commandments), and respond to in or prayer of faith. [Faith is both a virtue given by God and an obligation that flows from God’s commands.]”[3]
Hence, we can see from this definition that faith and works are really synonymous in the Roman Catholic Church. Faith (our belief and the works we do based on that belief) is our positive response to God’s grace.
Communion with God and with his Church
Our positive response to God demonstrates our friendship with God. As believers in Christ, our vocation is to deepen our communion with God; that is, deepen our relationship – our positive response – to God.
Ballroom dancing between a father and his poorly skilled daughter is a good illustration of communion with God. The father beckons the daughter to dance with him (Our Calling). We respond by joining his embrace (faith – action based his revelation.) However, with each step we are called to remain in his embrace and allow him to lead us. If he steps back and we don’t follow or he steps right and we step in the opposite direction, we have less of a degree of communion. We can even walk away from the dance; thus breaking communion completely no matter how often God calls us to the dance.
Our salvation, like learning ballroom dancing, is being worked out by God and our response to his lead (divine revelation). This takes time, experience, and a lot of humility.
In one sense, our salvation was complete upon the cross (once and for all) but in another sense, God is working out our salvation throughout our existence. In one sense, we are saved and in the other sense, we are being saved. It is NOT we are saved OR we are being saved, it is both.
Because being saved really means deepening our communion with God. It is a relationship that is dynamic because we are dynamic. If we are real with ourselves, we know that there are moments which we do not fully – positively – respond to God.
Marriage is the most common institute to illustrate this dynamic of a loving response. We get married on a particular day, but what really matters is not whether we WERE married but whether we ARE deepening our communion with each other day after day.
AND, part of that communion with God is to be in communion with his people. For if we do not love the person we see, how can we say we love God whom we cannot see? (1st John)
A great Christian mystery is that we are one body with Christ – not losing our identity but in full communion with God when we are in the state of heaven. Thus, like Christ, who saves us on the cross; we, both the living and deceased of the Church, partake in helping others in their salvation also. Hence, the concepts about Mary and the Saints aiding us in our journey of faith. Anyone who doesn’t believe this needs to ask the question, “how was my beliefs passed down to me?” Saint Paul, Saint Matthew, and other writers of the NT and gospels help all Christians by the works of their writing. But the writing would be dead if it wasn’t for the Holy Spirit illuminating our minds and hearts. This is true about Mary also, if Mary hadn’t willfully received God’s son in her womb or raise him in love; than, we would not know the messiah as we do today. So, we are indebted to other faithful members of the Bride of Christ. (Look at your and my relationship. Where would I be today had you not read the Scriptures to me and challenge me to live a faithful life?)
Right Thinking (Beliefs) and Faith are not necessarily the same
Allow me to make a tangent point for a minute: It is not how much we understand that determines our faith. Rather faith is merely our response to God’s grace.
Sometimes, we can get stuck with the idea that someone doesn’t have faith because they don’t have the same theological understanding as we do. From the “view at pew-level”, this is where divisions can take place between denominations. In other words, because we cannot or do not agree about a theological viewpoint must mean that you (the outsider) must not be “saved.” Making our theological understanding necessary for our justification is a mistake because it means that our understanding is more powerful than God’s grace. This is a form of Gnosticism that the Church rejected in the first millennium.
Yet, each Christian is called to “come to terms” with the wider community’s belief of God and what the Church believes to be divinely revealed from God.
Therefore, faith sometimes becomes synonymous with regula fidea which is the wider community’s understanding of our relationship to God. We hear it in questions like, “What is the Christian faith?” and our answer would be the Creed, “We believe….”.
Just Work is not Enough
In the fourth century, Saint Cyril of Jerusalem mentioned that a man went into the river Jordan to be baptized and while the water was pour over him on the outside; he did not respond to God from his heart and because of that the baptism had no affect.
Annulments of Marriage basically indicate the same viewpoint of Saint Cyril. If one goes to the sacrament and their response is not a genuine free-will response to God then the grace that is found in the sacrament doesn’t occur; therefore, the sacrament didn’t take hold despite any good that transpired afterwards. God will not violate our will.
Also, we are told that we place ourselves in a damnable position if we take Holy Communion with the wrong intention.
Conclusion:
So, it’s not necessarily just what we believe nor is it simply religious acts but our positive free-will response to God’s grace that brings us into deeper communion with him.
We are justified by Christ and him alone. Yet our communion rests in our response to him. Heaven is when we are completely and fully in communion with God. Hell is when we are completely and fully out of communion with God. Purgatory is when we are on the journey; yielding to God in some circumstances and clinging to anything other than Jesus to be our ultimate end and our ultimate happiness.
The vocation of all humanity is to grow in communion with the Holy One who created us. God is our beginning – he created us. God is our end – we will go back to him. The question that lies before each of us is whether or not we are friends of God during our journey back to him.
[1] United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Compendium: Catechism of the Catholic Church, (USCCB Publishing, 2006), Question 131. – Henceforth USCCB.
[2] Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Cathechism of the Catholic Church, (Vatican, 1997), page 881 – Henceforth, CCC
[3] CCC, page 879
Dear Sis and your Bible Study Group,
I love that we can share our faith lives together. I believe our mutual love for Jesus, the Scriptures, and bringing about his Kingdom in our lives bonds us together in ways that human relations alone cannot do. Jesus’ blood is stronger than familial blood alone.
Disclaimer:
First, let me start out by saying that justification, and salvation, is a huge topic – as you know all so well. The topic is one in which we cannot easily just state that we are saved by works or by faith alone. Also, it is connected to our Christological theology (how we view the identity and work of Christ). So, depending upon where we jump into the conversation might cause others to disagree. I believe where and how we jump into conversation about justification is where a lot of misunderstandings between Christians occur on the topic.
The root of our justification is not ourselves but Jesus the Christ
Let me start by saying something obvious yet often overlooked. In the same way that we take the air we breathe for granted, we take for granted the principle that Christ, alone, saves us. It is God’s grace through Christ’s work on the cross that saves us.
Often, we believe that we are working out our salvation through good works or through right-minded faith; but really neither save us. For if they did, we wouldn’t need a messiah. So, justification really isn’t about us so much as it is about what Jesus has done for humanity.
We are saved by faith and works; the faith and works of Jesus – not us. “The resurrection…fulfills all the divine promises made for us. Furthermore, the risen Christ, the conqueror of sin and death, is the principle of our justification and our resurrection. [His resurrection] procures for us now the grace of filial adoption which is a real share in the life of the only begotten Son. At the end of time he will raise up our bodies.”[1] To be adopted as a child of God is through God’s grace alone.
So, it is God’s grace that saves us. Grace is the “free and undeserved gift that God gives us to respond to our vocation to become his adopted children. As sanctifying grace, God shares his divine life and friendship with us in a habitual gift, a stable and supernatural disposition that enables the soul to live with God, to act by his love. As actual grace, God gives us the help to conform our lives to his will. Sacramental grace and special graces (states of life) are gifts of the Holy Spirit to help us live out our Christian vocation.”[2]
Faith and Works, NOT Faith or Works
Note that faith and works are born from grace, “….to respond to our vocation…”, because they are both acts that make up our response.
Faith is “both a gift of God (grace again) and a human act by which the believer gives personal adherence to God who invites his response, and freely assents to the whole truth that God has revealed. It is this revelation of God which the Church proposes for our belief, and which we profess in the Creed, celebrate in the sacraments, live by right conduct that fulfills the two fold commandment of charity (as specified in the ten commandments), and respond to in or prayer of faith. [Faith is both a virtue given by God and an obligation that flows from God’s commands.]”[3]
Hence, we can see from this definition that faith and works are really synonymous in the Roman Catholic Church. Faith (our belief and the works we do based on that belief) is our positive response to God’s grace.
Communion with God and with his Church
Our positive response to God demonstrates our friendship with God. As believers in Christ, our vocation is to deepen our communion with God; that is, deepen our relationship – our positive response – to God.
Ballroom dancing between a father and his poorly skilled daughter is a good illustration of communion with God. The father beckons the daughter to dance with him (Our Calling). We respond by joining his embrace (faith – action based his revelation.) However, with each step we are called to remain in his embrace and allow him to lead us. If he steps back and we don’t follow or he steps right and we step in the opposite direction, we have less of a degree of communion. We can even walk away from the dance; thus breaking communion completely no matter how often God calls us to the dance.
Our salvation, like learning ballroom dancing, is being worked out by God and our response to his lead (divine revelation). This takes time, experience, and a lot of humility.
In one sense, our salvation was complete upon the cross (once and for all) but in another sense, God is working out our salvation throughout our existence. In one sense, we are saved and in the other sense, we are being saved. It is NOT we are saved OR we are being saved, it is both.
Because being saved really means deepening our communion with God. It is a relationship that is dynamic because we are dynamic. If we are real with ourselves, we know that there are moments which we do not fully – positively – respond to God.
Marriage is the most common institute to illustrate this dynamic of a loving response. We get married on a particular day, but what really matters is not whether we WERE married but whether we ARE deepening our communion with each other day after day.
AND, part of that communion with God is to be in communion with his people. For if we do not love the person we see, how can we say we love God whom we cannot see? (1st John)
A great Christian mystery is that we are one body with Christ – not losing our identity but in full communion with God when we are in the state of heaven. Thus, like Christ, who saves us on the cross; we, both the living and deceased of the Church, partake in helping others in their salvation also. Hence, the concepts about Mary and the Saints aiding us in our journey of faith. Anyone who doesn’t believe this needs to ask the question, “how was my beliefs passed down to me?” Saint Paul, Saint Matthew, and other writers of the NT and gospels help all Christians by the works of their writing. But the writing would be dead if it wasn’t for the Holy Spirit illuminating our minds and hearts. This is true about Mary also, if Mary hadn’t willfully received God’s son in her womb or raise him in love; than, we would not know the messiah as we do today. So, we are indebted to other faithful members of the Bride of Christ. (Look at your and my relationship. Where would I be today had you not read the Scriptures to me and challenge me to live a faithful life?)
Right Thinking (Beliefs) and Faith are not necessarily the same
Allow me to make a tangent point for a minute: It is not how much we understand that determines our faith. Rather faith is merely our response to God’s grace.
Sometimes, we can get stuck with the idea that someone doesn’t have faith because they don’t have the same theological understanding as we do. From the “view at pew-level”, this is where divisions can take place between denominations. In other words, because we cannot or do not agree about a theological viewpoint must mean that you (the outsider) must not be “saved.” Making our theological understanding necessary for our justification is a mistake because it means that our understanding is more powerful than God’s grace. This is a form of Gnosticism that the Church rejected in the first millennium.
Yet, each Christian is called to “come to terms” with the wider community’s belief of God and what the Church believes to be divinely revealed from God.
Therefore, faith sometimes becomes synonymous with regula fidea which is the wider community’s understanding of our relationship to God. We hear it in questions like, “What is the Christian faith?” and our answer would be the Creed, “We believe….”.
Just Work is not Enough
In the fourth century, Saint Cyril of Jerusalem mentioned that a man went into the river Jordan to be baptized and while the water was pour over him on the outside; he did not respond to God from his heart and because of that the baptism had no affect.
Annulments of Marriage basically indicate the same viewpoint of Saint Cyril. If one goes to the sacrament and their response is not a genuine free-will response to God then the grace that is found in the sacrament doesn’t occur; therefore, the sacrament didn’t take hold despite any good that transpired afterwards. God will not violate our will.
Also, we are told that we place ourselves in a damnable position if we take Holy Communion with the wrong intention.
Conclusion:
So, it’s not necessarily just what we believe nor is it simply religious acts but our positive free-will response to God’s grace that brings us into deeper communion with him.
We are justified by Christ and him alone. Yet our communion rests in our response to him. Heaven is when we are completely and fully in communion with God. Hell is when we are completely and fully out of communion with God. Purgatory is when we are on the journey; yielding to God in some circumstances and clinging to anything other than Jesus to be our ultimate end and our ultimate happiness.
The vocation of all humanity is to grow in communion with the Holy One who created us. God is our beginning – he created us. God is our end – we will go back to him. The question that lies before each of us is whether or not we are friends of God during our journey back to him.
[1] United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Compendium: Catechism of the Catholic Church, (USCCB Publishing, 2006), Question 131. – Henceforth USCCB.
[2] Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Cathechism of the Catholic Church, (Vatican, 1997), page 881 – Henceforth, CCC
[3] CCC, page 879
Friday, March 7, 2008
Inviting God to Renew Our Life
Fifth Sunday of Lent, "A" Cycle
The Lord's Promise, Ez. 37:12-14
Indwelling of Christ's Spirit, Rom. 8:8-11
Raising of Lazarus, John 11:1-45
Reflection
It is so simple a principle and yet so very powerful: in God, we have life; without God, we are dead.
I believe a reflective person will note that there is always some part of our existence that is dead or dying. Often, we can sense death in our family relationships, in our vocational life, and sometimes in the life of our communities. I think one of the most powerful experiences of death, outside of physical death, is in the dying of a love relationship – when we wake up one morning and realize we are no longer in love with that person of significance.
And yet, we are told, in God, we have life.
How shall we respond to such a simple message? Take a moment and reflect: do you invite God into your daily life? Into that part of your life which you believe is dying or is dead. At home, at work, at school, at play, at church?
Mary and Martha invited Jesus, invited God, to that which was dying in their life, Lazarus. They had been around Jesus long enough to know he had the power to heal their brother.
So, why do we not invite God into that which is dying in our existence?
Do we lack trust in God’s goodness? As faithful Christians, probably not, but we might misunderstand God’s plan for us. I imagine that the disciples might have been confused by or misinterpret Jesus’ delay of his trip for two days.
The Gospel tells us, “Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when [Jesus] heard that [Lazarus] was ill, he remained for two days in the place where he was.” The word, “so”, changes the whole meaning of our Lord’s delay. He delayed because he loved them.
In all of the miracle stories found in the Gospel of John, Jesus never responds to the person’s request immediately, not even to his mother’s request at the wedding feast. What must come first is not JUST compassion, love for our neighbor, but the glory of God. All of Jesus’ actions in the Gospel of John are to the glory of God – to witness God’s power – and through that witness of God’s power, brings new life into creation, into our souls, and into our bodies. God’s glory first and then our need, which is still vitally important to God, comes second.
Sometimes, what gets in the way of us inviting God into our lives, is that we become too attached to what we believe is good for our lives.
The disciples are a witness to this principle. Jesus says, “let us go back to Judea” where Lazarus is buried and the disciples replied, “Rabbi, the Jews were just trying to stone you, and you want to go back there?” Here, the disciples, with all good intentions, try to dissuade Jesus from going to the place where God’s glory is to be manifested.
Not all adversity in our life is evil. Sometimes, God calls us to face adversities greater than we believe we can handle, even physical death, because through them God witnesses his power and love to those around us. The Christian martyrs of the Church witness God’s love even in their death. Often times, we fail to aid God in his glory when we break away from a work relationship, a family relationship, or a church relationship because there is too much adversity…too many problems… found in statements like “I don’t get paid enough to deal with that” or “you’re not worth my effort anymore” and, like the disciples, we justify it with, “Oh’, they’ll be okay. Don’t worry about it.”
Saint Paul points to a similar principle that prevents us from inviting God into our lives, that is, sometimes, we just fail to remember to invite God into our lives because we can become too busy satisfying our animalistic desires instead of responding to God’s divine presence placed in our souls through the Word and Sacraments of God.
I believe we all seek greater life, believer and unbeliever alike. But not every path leads to new life. When we search for greater life ONLY through creation – dainty foods, fancy drinks, changing social life, more money, new property, new experiences – we discover that more and more is required to satisfy us. Yet a human life filled with the Spirit of God has fullness of life regardless of the circumstances they find in themselves.
Are we seeking life in that which cannot create or sustain life within us? Have we forgotten that God is the author and giver of life?
I believe, often times, we suffer because we place limitations on God. Martha and Mary wept. Although they believed Jesus could heal their brother when he was alive, although they believed their brother would rise during the resurrection on the last day, they did not expect that God would raise their brother up on the day Jesus arrived in Judea. Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, by now there will be a stench.” Jesus had to remind her and all that were surrounding them, “I am the resurrection and the life…” and “Did I not tell you that if you believe you will see the glory of God.”
The end of the story, Jesus prays to the Father. In that prayer, he states, “I know that you always hear me; but because of this crowd here I have said this, that they may believe that you sent me.” Jesus, as part of the Trinity, as light from light, God from God, could have raised Lazarus from the dead without prayer. Yet, here he models for us our need to invite God into our lives in order that God might restore new life within us.
In conclusion, do you invite God into your daily life? As the offering gifts are being brought forward today, what part of your life that is dying or is dead will you bring to God? For if God, through his divine presence, can make living body and living blood from inanimate bread and wine; how much more can God bring new life into our very souls, our very bodies, and our very lives.
The Lord's Promise, Ez. 37:12-14
Indwelling of Christ's Spirit, Rom. 8:8-11
Raising of Lazarus, John 11:1-45
Reflection
There is an underlying theme throughout each of our readings today: God’s Spirit creates, sustains, and reanimates life within us, both in body and spirit. Apart from God there is no life. Jesus the Christ faithfully witnessed to this in his raising Lazarus from the dead.
It is so simple a principle and yet so very powerful: in God, we have life; without God, we are dead.
I believe a reflective person will note that there is always some part of our existence that is dead or dying. Often, we can sense death in our family relationships, in our vocational life, and sometimes in the life of our communities. I think one of the most powerful experiences of death, outside of physical death, is in the dying of a love relationship – when we wake up one morning and realize we are no longer in love with that person of significance.
And yet, we are told, in God, we have life.
How shall we respond to such a simple message? Take a moment and reflect: do you invite God into your daily life? Into that part of your life which you believe is dying or is dead. At home, at work, at school, at play, at church?
Mary and Martha invited Jesus, invited God, to that which was dying in their life, Lazarus. They had been around Jesus long enough to know he had the power to heal their brother.
So, why do we not invite God into that which is dying in our existence?
Do we lack trust in God’s goodness? As faithful Christians, probably not, but we might misunderstand God’s plan for us. I imagine that the disciples might have been confused by or misinterpret Jesus’ delay of his trip for two days.
The Gospel tells us, “Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when [Jesus] heard that [Lazarus] was ill, he remained for two days in the place where he was.” The word, “so”, changes the whole meaning of our Lord’s delay. He delayed because he loved them.
In all of the miracle stories found in the Gospel of John, Jesus never responds to the person’s request immediately, not even to his mother’s request at the wedding feast. What must come first is not JUST compassion, love for our neighbor, but the glory of God. All of Jesus’ actions in the Gospel of John are to the glory of God – to witness God’s power – and through that witness of God’s power, brings new life into creation, into our souls, and into our bodies. God’s glory first and then our need, which is still vitally important to God, comes second.
Here, in the story of Lazarus, the greatest act of love is not just reanimating Lazarus from the dead because of his family’s mourning or even Jesus’ personal grief, but the greatest act of love was to show that God has the very power to do so and invites us to believe and trust in Him.
Sometimes, what gets in the way of us inviting God into our lives, is that we become too attached to what we believe is good for our lives.
The disciples are a witness to this principle. Jesus says, “let us go back to Judea” where Lazarus is buried and the disciples replied, “Rabbi, the Jews were just trying to stone you, and you want to go back there?” Here, the disciples, with all good intentions, try to dissuade Jesus from going to the place where God’s glory is to be manifested.
Not all adversity in our life is evil. Sometimes, God calls us to face adversities greater than we believe we can handle, even physical death, because through them God witnesses his power and love to those around us. The Christian martyrs of the Church witness God’s love even in their death. Often times, we fail to aid God in his glory when we break away from a work relationship, a family relationship, or a church relationship because there is too much adversity…too many problems… found in statements like “I don’t get paid enough to deal with that” or “you’re not worth my effort anymore” and, like the disciples, we justify it with, “Oh’, they’ll be okay. Don’t worry about it.”
Saint Paul points to a similar principle that prevents us from inviting God into our lives, that is, sometimes, we just fail to remember to invite God into our lives because we can become too busy satisfying our animalistic desires instead of responding to God’s divine presence placed in our souls through the Word and Sacraments of God.
I believe we all seek greater life, believer and unbeliever alike. But not every path leads to new life. When we search for greater life ONLY through creation – dainty foods, fancy drinks, changing social life, more money, new property, new experiences – we discover that more and more is required to satisfy us. Yet a human life filled with the Spirit of God has fullness of life regardless of the circumstances they find in themselves.
Are we seeking life in that which cannot create or sustain life within us? Have we forgotten that God is the author and giver of life?
I believe, often times, we suffer because we place limitations on God. Martha and Mary wept. Although they believed Jesus could heal their brother when he was alive, although they believed their brother would rise during the resurrection on the last day, they did not expect that God would raise their brother up on the day Jesus arrived in Judea. Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, by now there will be a stench.” Jesus had to remind her and all that were surrounding them, “I am the resurrection and the life…” and “Did I not tell you that if you believe you will see the glory of God.”
The end of the story, Jesus prays to the Father. In that prayer, he states, “I know that you always hear me; but because of this crowd here I have said this, that they may believe that you sent me.” Jesus, as part of the Trinity, as light from light, God from God, could have raised Lazarus from the dead without prayer. Yet, here he models for us our need to invite God into our lives in order that God might restore new life within us.
In conclusion, do you invite God into your daily life? As the offering gifts are being brought forward today, what part of your life that is dying or is dead will you bring to God? For if God, through his divine presence, can make living body and living blood from inanimate bread and wine; how much more can God bring new life into our very souls, our very bodies, and our very lives.
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Reconciliation
FIRST READING: ISAIAH 40:1-11
“Comfort, give comfort to my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her service is at an end, her guilt is expiated; Indeed, she has received from the hand of the LORD double for all her sins. A voice cries out: In the desert prepare the way of the LORD! Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God! Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill shall be made low; The rugged land shall be made a plain, the rough country, a broad valley. Then the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all mankind shall see it together; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken. A voice says, "Cry out!" I answer, "What shall I cry out?" "All mankind is grass, and all their glory like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower wilts, when the breath of the LORD blows upon it. (So then, the people is the grass.) Though the grass withers and the flower wilts, the word of our God stands forever." Go up onto a high mountain, Zion, herald of glad tidings; Cry out at the top of your voice, Jerusalem, herald of good news! Fear not to cry out and say to the cities of Judah: Here is your God! Here comes with power the Lord GOD, who rules by his strong arm; Here is his reward with him, his recompense before him. Like a shepherd he feeds his flock; in his arms he gathers the lambs, Carrying them in his bosom, and leading the ewes with care.” ~NAB
GOSPEL READING: MATT. 18:12-14
"What is your opinion? If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray, will be not leave the ninety-nine in the hills and go in search of the stray? And if he finds it, amen, I say to you, he rejoices more over it than over the ninety-nine that did not stray. In just the same way, it is not the will of your heavenly Father that one of these little ones be lost." ~ NAB
“Comfort, give comfort to my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her service is at an end, her guilt is expiated; Indeed, she has received from the hand of the LORD double for all her sins. A voice cries out: In the desert prepare the way of the LORD! Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God! Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill shall be made low; The rugged land shall be made a plain, the rough country, a broad valley. Then the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all mankind shall see it together; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken. A voice says, "Cry out!" I answer, "What shall I cry out?" "All mankind is grass, and all their glory like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower wilts, when the breath of the LORD blows upon it. (So then, the people is the grass.) Though the grass withers and the flower wilts, the word of our God stands forever." Go up onto a high mountain, Zion, herald of glad tidings; Cry out at the top of your voice, Jerusalem, herald of good news! Fear not to cry out and say to the cities of Judah: Here is your God! Here comes with power the Lord GOD, who rules by his strong arm; Here is his reward with him, his recompense before him. Like a shepherd he feeds his flock; in his arms he gathers the lambs, Carrying them in his bosom, and leading the ewes with care.” ~NAB
GOSPEL READING: MATT. 18:12-14
"What is your opinion? If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray, will be not leave the ninety-nine in the hills and go in search of the stray? And if he finds it, amen, I say to you, he rejoices more over it than over the ninety-nine that did not stray. In just the same way, it is not the will of your heavenly Father that one of these little ones be lost." ~ NAB
REFLECTION
The first reading is challenging. Are you comfortable before our Lord, today? Are you happy with the direction of your life and the circumstances that surround you? Or, are you anxious, concerned, and in need of rest? Are you confident in God’s care for you or is there a bit of doubt in the back of your mind?
God speaks to us through his prophet today that God’s will is to give us comfort. Not a comfort of good fortune but the comfort of a compassionate God. One who speaks tenderly to his people, proclaiming that our sad days are gone and our sins are pardoned.
This message breaks forth in the midst of our lives regardless of where we are spiritually, but it is a special joy for those of us that sense we are in a spiritual desert.
How would you describe a spiritual desert? For me, it is when the excitement of life seems dry, lacking purpose, lacking fruit, and lacking growth. It’s that spiritual place where you don’t want to get up in the morning and face the day. The thought that “So much is not right in the world” runs deep within our minds. This is despair and it lurks in the desert. Do you sense it when you look out at the economic conditions of our city, state, and country? When gas prices go up? In the housing market? In the persistence of the war? Or maybe in the illness of a loved one or yourself? Maybe despair has risen up when a loved one moves out of state or in the breakup of a marriage.
Yet, in this the desert, a voice is heard, “Prepare the way of the Lord. Make straight, in the wasteland, a highway for our God!”
Now, some may not be in the desert of despair, but we may experience the wasteland. Other translations call it the wilderness. When I think of a wilderness, I do not think of a desert but an overgrown woods or forest. A forest whose underbrush is so thick that you cannot walk through it easily. There are briars and thorns, poison ivy, and vines that pinch and pull at my clothes and leave me irritated and frustrated because I cannot get to the place I want to be.
When we allow ourselves to follow our passions without control – that is to say, we try to grossly fulfill our animal desires - we end up in places that we thought would bring us more fruit, greater happiness, but only discover that we have become lost and entangled by our desires. This too can lead us to become weary, uncertain by the circumstances we face, and we must halt at each step we take or risk stumbling further into the destruction of happiness in our relationships and in our interior life.
We see this message in the story of the lamb who risked the comfort of the community to search out for greener grass elsewhere. And, having done so, becomes lost.
It is here, in the wilderness, that the prophet tells us to make a highway for the Lord - A highway in our soul. Cut down the underbrush and overgrowth of our passions to make a place for the Lord. For it is by faith, that we know that lasting comfort doesn’t exist within the circumstances of our life or allowing our passions to go wild but our hope of lasting comfort is found in our faith that the presence of God IS our ultimate source of happiness.
So, what is this highway? How best do we cut down the overgrowth? Law itself is the highway that directs us to our proper end. This highway begins with the natural law that is found in all of us – believer and unbeliever. It is our pursuit of greater life, goodness, and power (to serve). But then it is refined by divine law when we discover all of these longings are found completely in God. So, we progress to the old law, that is, the Ten Commandments given to us by Moses and the Israelites which lead us into right relationship with God and with others.
Reflecting on our communal experience, I believe we each had mountain-top moments when we thought “everything is right in the world.” All the circumstances were in our favor and we were comfortable. But then comes the valley, when the circumstances are not right in our world and we are not comfortable. Something happens and we are robbed of our joy. The prophet calls us to live out the Ten Commandments in order to smooth out those mountain and valley experiences of our life.
Now some may say, I am not in the desert and others may say I am not in the wilderness. Some of us might have the blessing of saying, “I’m on the right path.” But, who among us is not lost in some way? Saint Paul in his letter to the Romans, realized that the more he tried to do what was right, he fell back to delight in his animal appetite that lead us back into that underbrush of vice and eventually sin.
Even when we are doing 99% what God has reveal us to do, who can deny that 1% that is still lost within us.
It is here, that the gospel reading, shows us a better path. And not just a path, but a highway. For it describes God’s love for those of us who are in the desert, the wilderness, or in the ditch on the side of the path. Like a good shepherd, God seeks us out and brings us back to himself through Christ in each of our human experiences and conditions. And this is grace, that God would rescue us from the desert of despair or bewildering forest of our passions and led us back to where he resides. It is this grace, this power of the Holy Spirit poured out on us through Jesus found in the sacrament that enables us to escape that black forest of sin. This is the New Law.
God forgives us for our failings and our sins regardless of whether we are young, like a new blade of grass or an old, bent, and broken flower.
I have heard that forgiveness is when we no longer wish the other person to suffer for the evil they have done to us. But reconciliation begins when the bond of friendship has been restored and both parties seek to growth that friendship further through love.
God is faithful to the word he gave his prophet. Through Jesus, he has brought us the comfort of his forgiving presence found in the Sacrament and in our affirming response to his presence through acts of love and virtue.
The prophet tells us, and maybe we are blessed enough to experience this ourselves, that when we are reconciled to God, there is great joy. A joy so overwhelming that it is glorious and presses out all sorrow. We discover God’s presence and our loving response to him fulfills our interior longings and we are comforted despite our external circumstances.
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