Blog # 315 Catholic Theology # 2
The current series of blogs entitled Catholic Theology will be concerned with some very important Catholic theology that had become misunderstood, neglected, and even denied by some Catholic theologians over the past thirty or forty years. It focuses upon the identity authentic Catholic theology gives by faith to the death of Jesus on Calvary, the identity of SACRIFICE. In logical sequence of this identity we treat the identity of the Last Supper, the Sacrifice of the Mass, the priesthood of the laity, the identity of Baptism, and the Church identified as the Mystical Body of Christ with Jesus as her Head.
The problem that helped me be motivated to write these blogs was a gradual movement among authors of articles in reputable and popular theological magazines that emphasized the experience of Jesus on Calvary primarily and almost exclusively as an act of atonement making up
to God for sins. As the movement grew in its influence upon people in the pews, the experience of the Last Supper with the command of Jesus to do what He had done with them that evening before He died began to be seen primarily as a holy meal shared by those whose sins had been forgiven on the Cross rather than the experience of the same sacrifice as that of Calvary, anticipated and experienced in a different mode.
THE MOST FUNDAMENTAL QUESTION
I am convinced the most fundamental and important question we can ask ourselves as free intelligent human beings is the question of our relationship with God. A professed atheist, in
denying the very existence of any god at all, would deny any relationship with a god of any kind. "I have no relationship with any god and desire not to have any relationship with any god." That decision expresses his or her relationship, unknown and unchosen but real, with God the Father of all, Who knows us, though we may not know Him. An agnostic answers questions about his or her relationship with God by saying "I don't know". Those of us who relate to God by faith relate to God primarily through prayer, with prayer being defined as a lifting up of our minds and hearts to God.
PRAYER
Four goals or purposes of prayer are given as: worship, thanksgiving, reparation for sin, and petition for the gifts and graces we need and desire to help us carry out God's will for us. These goals can be achieved or expressed in thoughts and words, but also in actions , as for example taking a kneeling position, with hands folded, or raised and extended toward Heaven, making the sign of the Cross, etc. For my purpose here, which is to establish a claim for an identity of sacrificial worship for the action-prayer of Jesus dying on the Cross, I will focus upon references in the Gospel of St. John concerning the occasion of the Last Supper the night before Jesus died. Particular emphasis will be given to the prayers of Jesus offered on that occasion.
Sunday, July 20, 2014
Saturday, July 19, 2014
Blog # 314 Catholic Theology #1
Blog # 314 Catholic Theology #1
All of us, Democrats, Republicans, Independents, those who belong to a Church, those who do not, those who pray regularly, those who do not pray, those who are single, those who are married, those who are divorced, those who are healthy, those who are sick, those who are wealthy, those who are poor, those who are Catholic, those who are not Catholic, and every one else all have two ways of arriving at truth, either by experience or by faith. This experience is different from just taking a guess, hoping something would be true, or merely having an opinion on something that could be true or not true.
I am a Catholic. I want to be a Catholic. That has something to do with truth. The
natural truth I, a Catholic, experience, for example: Catholics pay the electric bills just as anyone else, Catholics get wet when they come to church in the rain without an umbrella, and Catholics get sunburned at the beach can be shared as experiences with all the people included above in the first paragraph of this blog. Also for a Catholic, even some truth dealing with God, a good moral life, the authenticity of the Bible as the word of God, the role of Jesus in our quest for justice, peace and salvation, and other important truth that lies beyond the scope of our experience can be shared with many of our neighbors who are not Catholic but believe in the same God in Whom we believe. In this case our believing in the same truth would be based upon our faith in the testimony of other believers rather than by experience.
There exists some truth, however, that is officially and exclusively claimed as truth by the Catholic Church. Examples of this would be our belief in the authority of the Pope as the Vicar of Jesus and the head of the Church, the presence of Jesus in the tabernacle, and the efficacy of the Sacraments. As a Catholic I believe these certain truths. In order to do so, I must know them as what the Catholic Church calls me to believe. (Rom.10: 14,15). And to know here means not only to be able to recite the words of a creed, but to know how the truths I believe affect and apply to our everyday experience of life in our current moment of history. In other words, as St. James puts it: Faith that does nothing in practice is thoroughly lifeless. (James 2: 14-17).
Since by definition faith deals with truth a believer would not otherwise know than by faith, the bottom line will not be for me as a Catholic whether or not I believe what we might label 'Catholic' truth. That question is answered "yes" in my claim to be a Catholic. The important question is do I know and understand what I believe as a Catholic.
In a series of blogs entitled Catholic Theology beginning with this blog, I hope to touch upon several important fundamental points of our Catholic faith that have been unfamiliar misunderstood distorted or neglected over the course of recent years. These points include the Incarnation, the divinity of Jesus, the definition of worship, how sacrifice in its true theological meaning fits into the definition of worship, the priesthood of the laity, and how the Crucifixion, the Last Supper, and the Mass must be seen in their relationship to one another before we can understand and believe in the true meaning of any of them. Some of what I hope to present may seem new and unfamiliar to you. That just plays up the need for it to be written. Please let me know if it is not clear or helpful to you. I hope it will help us in living out our Catholic faith in the spirit in which Pope Francis has begun his ministry among us these past several months.
The Lord be with you as you read!
All of us, Democrats, Republicans, Independents, those who belong to a Church, those who do not, those who pray regularly, those who do not pray, those who are single, those who are married, those who are divorced, those who are healthy, those who are sick, those who are wealthy, those who are poor, those who are Catholic, those who are not Catholic, and every one else all have two ways of arriving at truth, either by experience or by faith. This experience is different from just taking a guess, hoping something would be true, or merely having an opinion on something that could be true or not true.
I am a Catholic. I want to be a Catholic. That has something to do with truth. The
natural truth I, a Catholic, experience, for example: Catholics pay the electric bills just as anyone else, Catholics get wet when they come to church in the rain without an umbrella, and Catholics get sunburned at the beach can be shared as experiences with all the people included above in the first paragraph of this blog. Also for a Catholic, even some truth dealing with God, a good moral life, the authenticity of the Bible as the word of God, the role of Jesus in our quest for justice, peace and salvation, and other important truth that lies beyond the scope of our experience can be shared with many of our neighbors who are not Catholic but believe in the same God in Whom we believe. In this case our believing in the same truth would be based upon our faith in the testimony of other believers rather than by experience.
There exists some truth, however, that is officially and exclusively claimed as truth by the Catholic Church. Examples of this would be our belief in the authority of the Pope as the Vicar of Jesus and the head of the Church, the presence of Jesus in the tabernacle, and the efficacy of the Sacraments. As a Catholic I believe these certain truths. In order to do so, I must know them as what the Catholic Church calls me to believe. (Rom.10: 14,15). And to know here means not only to be able to recite the words of a creed, but to know how the truths I believe affect and apply to our everyday experience of life in our current moment of history. In other words, as St. James puts it: Faith that does nothing in practice is thoroughly lifeless. (James 2: 14-17).
Since by definition faith deals with truth a believer would not otherwise know than by faith, the bottom line will not be for me as a Catholic whether or not I believe what we might label 'Catholic' truth. That question is answered "yes" in my claim to be a Catholic. The important question is do I know and understand what I believe as a Catholic.
In a series of blogs entitled Catholic Theology beginning with this blog, I hope to touch upon several important fundamental points of our Catholic faith that have been unfamiliar misunderstood distorted or neglected over the course of recent years. These points include the Incarnation, the divinity of Jesus, the definition of worship, how sacrifice in its true theological meaning fits into the definition of worship, the priesthood of the laity, and how the Crucifixion, the Last Supper, and the Mass must be seen in their relationship to one another before we can understand and believe in the true meaning of any of them. Some of what I hope to present may seem new and unfamiliar to you. That just plays up the need for it to be written. Please let me know if it is not clear or helpful to you. I hope it will help us in living out our Catholic faith in the spirit in which Pope Francis has begun his ministry among us these past several months.
The Lord be with you as you read!
Blog #312 A treasure
Blog #312 A treasure
If, one day this week, while digging in the back yard, I found a million dollars wrapped in a package, you could use a bit of it, right? Well, actually about twenty years ago I did find more than a million dollars, and I want to share it with you.
In the case of the million dollars, I would have had to be digging, to be able to recognize a dollar, and to be able to count to a million in order to know what I had done and what had happened in my life. So with what I actually discovered there. I needed to be looking, searching, working, open, focused, available, and other possible descriptive words in order for the incident to occur. I would have had to be able to recognize a value that was beyond sight, sound, touch, taste and smell to recognize the value I had found. This is just as I would have had to recognize what money can buy to recognize what I had found if I had found a million dollars, in itself just paper, but for someone who knows, a much more valuable realty than paper.
I had discovered far more than a million dollars in that egg. Scripture texts began to come to mind. “Look to the birds of the air”…and to chickens. “The Father cares for them…how much more you?” God is the Designer of chickens, eggs, and us.
If, one day this week, while digging in the back yard, I found a million dollars wrapped in a package, you could use a bit of it, right? Well, actually about twenty years ago I did find more than a million dollars, and I want to share it with you.
In the case of the million dollars, I would have had to be digging, to be able to recognize a dollar, and to be able to count to a million in order to know what I had done and what had happened in my life. So with what I actually discovered there. I needed to be looking, searching, working, open, focused, available, and other possible descriptive words in order for the incident to occur. I would have had to be able to recognize a value that was beyond sight, sound, touch, taste and smell to recognize the value I had found. This is just as I would have had to recognize what money can buy to recognize what I had found if I had found a million dollars, in itself just paper, but for someone who knows, a much more valuable realty than paper.
What I
found was an egg. A gold egg? No, just an egg. I found it in a nest I had set up in a pen
where my six young chickens lived. The next morning I was preparing to have it
for breakfast and I began to think about the whole incident while waiting for
the egg to boil. What do you think I
found when I cracked it open? Right, an
egg, just like so many other eggs I had for breakfast in the past. But as I reflected further this egg was
beginning to be special.
Size, shape, color, texture, and taste were
very much the same as any egg. Egg
white, egg yolk right in the center. The
same. The difference began to show in my
response to the egg. I began to
ask what it really was, beyond what I saw, the why of it, and how it came to
be. A prefect shape, the color of the
yolk was just right, the wonderful taste of a fresh egg. What all went into it was the question on my
mind.
Time,
corn, earth, water, sunshine, and grass all must have had something to do with
my egg. But none of these, nor all of
them together could explain sufficiently the fact the egg was so much like all
other eggs in size and shape, color and taste.
None of the chickens in that particular pen had ever laid an egg before.
They were all eggs themselves just a few
months ago. Who taught the mother hen how to make an egg? Yes, the corn and the grass water and
sunshine had something to do with it, but not all, nor in themselves. To think there was not some reality beyond
these would have been like receiving a package in the mail from someone who
loves you in Chicago
I had discovered far more than a million dollars in that egg. Scripture texts began to come to mind. “Look to the birds of the air”…and to chickens. “The Father cares for them…how much more you?” God is the Designer of chickens, eggs, and us.
May
we receive many eggs in our life! May
all that we call our own remind us of the Lord.
All of creation is on loan to us.
But God owns it. May our
eggs give us more than vitamins. May they also nourish our souls! Enjoy your breakfast!
Thursday, July 17, 2014
Blog # 313 Back In Business
Blog # 313 Back In Business
It has been since September of last year (2013) that I published the most recent blog.
It might be a good idea before beginning what I hope will be a more regular experience of publishing new blogs, to introduce myself as the author of Catholic Insights. My name is Fr. Charlie Hughes, born in Woodhaven, Queens County, New York City, on a Saturday afternoon upstairs in the back bedroom on a Saturday afternoon in December 1927. I was there but I don't remember it, so, like yourself I take the information I gave you as true on the word of others, by faith.
In 1947, in my third year of college, I joined a Religious Community that had its origin just a few years before in 1939. Our name is: THE HOME MISSIONERS OF AMERICA. Our Founder was Father William Howard Bishop, a Diocesan priest from the Archdiocese of Baltimore, Maryland.
Father Bishop had become aware of some startling statistics about the presence of the Catholic Church here in the United States. Growing up in Woodhaven, you could walk to any one of several Catholic Churches in almost any direction. Ordained a priest in 1954, my first assignment was in Statesboro, Georgia in the Diocese of Savannah. We had three Home Mission priests and one Home Mission Brother assigned to the parish which covered seven Counties, a hundred miles from north to south and seventy two miles from east to west. Similar situations to ours were the norm in rural areas throughout the South and Southwest.
Father Bishop made a map of the United States showing the Counties where there were no Catholic Churches. He colored in those Counties and it was obvious there was a very large region of them in the South and Southwest. He labeled the Counties that did not have a Catholic Church as a whole: NO-PRIEST LAND, U S A . The Catholic Church was a Metropolitan-based Church. In founding his Religious Community he invited his fellow-Catholics to join him in prayer and an effort to recruit members for the new Community who would dedicate themselves to the work of making the Catholic church available in the home mission field right here in the United States in a similar way the Maryknoll Missioners and others had so successfully done with regard to foreign mission territories.
If you want to know more about us here is list of available contact points:
P O box 464518, Cincinnati, OH 45246-4518; (513) 874-8900; www/Glenmary.org ; info@glenmary,org.
On the occasion of my 60th anniversary of ordination as a Glenmary priest I am almost totally deaf and hardly capable of continuing to carry on the role of a Pastor of a local parish. I have moved back to our headquarters in Cincinnati in hope that through prayer and the writing of blogs I will be able to continue live out my passion for evangelization and respond positively in this limited but real way to the command of Jesus to proclaim to all the world the message we have received
from Him.
It has been since September of last year (2013) that I published the most recent blog.
It might be a good idea before beginning what I hope will be a more regular experience of publishing new blogs, to introduce myself as the author of Catholic Insights. My name is Fr. Charlie Hughes, born in Woodhaven, Queens County, New York City, on a Saturday afternoon upstairs in the back bedroom on a Saturday afternoon in December 1927. I was there but I don't remember it, so, like yourself I take the information I gave you as true on the word of others, by faith.
In 1947, in my third year of college, I joined a Religious Community that had its origin just a few years before in 1939. Our name is: THE HOME MISSIONERS OF AMERICA. Our Founder was Father William Howard Bishop, a Diocesan priest from the Archdiocese of Baltimore, Maryland.
Father Bishop had become aware of some startling statistics about the presence of the Catholic Church here in the United States. Growing up in Woodhaven, you could walk to any one of several Catholic Churches in almost any direction. Ordained a priest in 1954, my first assignment was in Statesboro, Georgia in the Diocese of Savannah. We had three Home Mission priests and one Home Mission Brother assigned to the parish which covered seven Counties, a hundred miles from north to south and seventy two miles from east to west. Similar situations to ours were the norm in rural areas throughout the South and Southwest.
Father Bishop made a map of the United States showing the Counties where there were no Catholic Churches. He colored in those Counties and it was obvious there was a very large region of them in the South and Southwest. He labeled the Counties that did not have a Catholic Church as a whole: NO-PRIEST LAND, U S A . The Catholic Church was a Metropolitan-based Church. In founding his Religious Community he invited his fellow-Catholics to join him in prayer and an effort to recruit members for the new Community who would dedicate themselves to the work of making the Catholic church available in the home mission field right here in the United States in a similar way the Maryknoll Missioners and others had so successfully done with regard to foreign mission territories.
If you want to know more about us here is list of available contact points:
P O box 464518, Cincinnati, OH 45246-4518; (513) 874-8900; www/Glenmary.org ; info@glenmary,org.
On the occasion of my 60th anniversary of ordination as a Glenmary priest I am almost totally deaf and hardly capable of continuing to carry on the role of a Pastor of a local parish. I have moved back to our headquarters in Cincinnati in hope that through prayer and the writing of blogs I will be able to continue live out my passion for evangelization and respond positively in this limited but real way to the command of Jesus to proclaim to all the world the message we have received
from Him.
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
Blog # 311 Our union with Jesus
Blog # 311 Our union with Jesus
There have been several long gaps between blogs in my presentation of the claim I refer to as the CHRISTIAN RESPONSE to 'evil' in creation. I personally hold to the truth of the claim and present it in the name of authentic Catholic theology.The claim refers and can be applied to anything that exists,from sin to suffering, all the way to death itself.
Death, understood properly, as it is identified and presented in the Bible and in our Catholic theolgy is a blessing rather than, as it often seems to be seen, as a fearsome experience and a curse.In my claim, Christian death is identified as good,the greatest blessingfor which we could have hope, because it calls for our greatest love.
Because of the long gap in the blogs I have been presenting on the subject of 'evil' in creation I will give here a review that will lead into Blog #311.
Of primary and fundamenral importance in our discussion is our faith in a single Creator of all that exists. This means we claim for God a responsibility for ALL that exists and NOTHING THAT EXISTS is totaly evil. In the very first book of the Bible God looked at what He had created and saw that it was very good. Anything that exists, ORIGINATING IN GOD'S ETERNAL CREATIVE LOVE,MUST HAVE SOMETHING OF GOODNESS IN IT, IF NOTHING MORE THAN THE FACT IT EXISTS.
This 'anything' would include varying degrees of arthritic pain in our body, the loss of money through a slump in the New York Stock Exchange, the sickness, suffering,death of a loved friend or relative, and all the other 'evils' we could identify all the way up to death which considered in itself independently of any reference to faith,is the most serious evil we can experience or imagine because in contrast to all other 'evil' which on a personal level is partial, death is a TOTAL loss or destruction of all that is identifid as ours.
Applying this on a practical level to Jesus and ourseves we begin by identifying the act of obedience of Jesus to the Father's plan for Him that he die on Calvary. Jesus and his disciples went directly to Gethsemane from the last Supper. We find him in great anguish and praying to the Father: "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass me by. Still, let it be as you would have it." And a second time: "My Father, if this cannot pass me by without my drinking it, your will be done!"(MAT 26: 39,42). And in Mark 14:36: He kept saying,"Abba, (O Father), you have the power to do all things. Take this cup away from me. But let it be as you would have it, not as I."
The freely willed act of dying on Calvary on the part of Jesus the Incarnate Word of God, was a human-divine act of unconditional trust and total love. Addressed to the Father, it was an act of worship. The Father's response to this gift was the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead. A new and eternal covenant between Jesus and the Father was initiated on Calvary on the day in history two thousand years ago when Jesus laid down his life in obedience to the Father's plan for him.
We begin to see more clearly the content of that covenant as well as the meaning and power of the prayer of Jesus at the last supper in John's Gospel (17:20-29):I pray for those who will believe in me through their word, that all may be one as you,Father, are in me, and I am in you...I have given them the glory you gave me that they may be one, as we are one - I living in them, you living in me - that their unity may be complete. So shall the world know that you sent me, and that you loved them as you loved me. Father, all those you gave me I would have in my company where I am, to see this glory of mine which is your gift to me, because of the love you bore me before the world began...To them I have revealed your name, and will continue to reveal it so that your love may live in them, and I may live in them."
All who believe in Jesus are united with Him but not all who are united to Him are united in the same way and to the same degree. As for example, I may be united to a family living next door to me merely by the fact we live next door to one another we are neighbors. For the time being I may not know their names or how many live in the family but I wave to them and they wave to me whenever we see one another as we go out to pick up the newspaper or drive away on our way to work in the mornings. I may be their cousin, their landlord, a partner with them in a local industry. One or the other of us may eventually have done something injurious to the other and damaged our relationship. We no longer wave a greeting when we leave for work or mow our lawns at the same time.
It is similar with our relationship with Jesus and through Jesus with the Father. In our
Catholic tradition, handed down from the beginning, we understand the words of the prayer of Jesus given in St. John's Gospel as literally true. We believe that as the Father lives in Jesus, Jesus lives in us. Our Christian experience of unity with Jesus is not to be lived out merely in memory of Jesus or in imitation of Jesus along with His help and inspiration, but actuallyin the real three dimensions of our daily life. To help me understrand and appreciate this I like to recall an analogy that tells of a little boy coming home from pre-school one day and very excitedly running to his mother in the kitchen with the news he knows that 2 + 2 is 4. She asks him how did he find that out. "The teacher told me!"
The teacher shared something of him or her self and in a real sense 'lives' in him. The boy makes the truth his own and can make use of it for the rest of his life, but in a limited sense it still 'belongs' to the teacher.
Ths blog is long so I'll leave for 'tomorrow' further consideraions relating to our unity with Jesus by faith. In this unity is the answer to all of our questions about 'evil' in creation, and the content of our Christian Response to 'evil'.
There have been several long gaps between blogs in my presentation of the claim I refer to as the CHRISTIAN RESPONSE to 'evil' in creation. I personally hold to the truth of the claim and present it in the name of authentic Catholic theology.The claim refers and can be applied to anything that exists,from sin to suffering, all the way to death itself.
Death, understood properly, as it is identified and presented in the Bible and in our Catholic theolgy is a blessing rather than, as it often seems to be seen, as a fearsome experience and a curse.In my claim, Christian death is identified as good,the greatest blessingfor which we could have hope, because it calls for our greatest love.
Because of the long gap in the blogs I have been presenting on the subject of 'evil' in creation I will give here a review that will lead into Blog #311.
Of primary and fundamenral importance in our discussion is our faith in a single Creator of all that exists. This means we claim for God a responsibility for ALL that exists and NOTHING THAT EXISTS is totaly evil. In the very first book of the Bible God looked at what He had created and saw that it was very good. Anything that exists, ORIGINATING IN GOD'S ETERNAL CREATIVE LOVE,MUST HAVE SOMETHING OF GOODNESS IN IT, IF NOTHING MORE THAN THE FACT IT EXISTS.
This 'anything' would include varying degrees of arthritic pain in our body, the loss of money through a slump in the New York Stock Exchange, the sickness, suffering,death of a loved friend or relative, and all the other 'evils' we could identify all the way up to death which considered in itself independently of any reference to faith,is the most serious evil we can experience or imagine because in contrast to all other 'evil' which on a personal level is partial, death is a TOTAL loss or destruction of all that is identifid as ours.
Applying this on a practical level to Jesus and ourseves we begin by identifying the act of obedience of Jesus to the Father's plan for Him that he die on Calvary. Jesus and his disciples went directly to Gethsemane from the last Supper. We find him in great anguish and praying to the Father: "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass me by. Still, let it be as you would have it." And a second time: "My Father, if this cannot pass me by without my drinking it, your will be done!"(MAT 26: 39,42). And in Mark 14:36: He kept saying,"Abba, (O Father), you have the power to do all things. Take this cup away from me. But let it be as you would have it, not as I."
The freely willed act of dying on Calvary on the part of Jesus the Incarnate Word of God, was a human-divine act of unconditional trust and total love. Addressed to the Father, it was an act of worship. The Father's response to this gift was the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead. A new and eternal covenant between Jesus and the Father was initiated on Calvary on the day in history two thousand years ago when Jesus laid down his life in obedience to the Father's plan for him.
We begin to see more clearly the content of that covenant as well as the meaning and power of the prayer of Jesus at the last supper in John's Gospel (17:20-29):I pray for those who will believe in me through their word, that all may be one as you,Father, are in me, and I am in you...I have given them the glory you gave me that they may be one, as we are one - I living in them, you living in me - that their unity may be complete. So shall the world know that you sent me, and that you loved them as you loved me. Father, all those you gave me I would have in my company where I am, to see this glory of mine which is your gift to me, because of the love you bore me before the world began...To them I have revealed your name, and will continue to reveal it so that your love may live in them, and I may live in them."
All who believe in Jesus are united with Him but not all who are united to Him are united in the same way and to the same degree. As for example, I may be united to a family living next door to me merely by the fact we live next door to one another we are neighbors. For the time being I may not know their names or how many live in the family but I wave to them and they wave to me whenever we see one another as we go out to pick up the newspaper or drive away on our way to work in the mornings. I may be their cousin, their landlord, a partner with them in a local industry. One or the other of us may eventually have done something injurious to the other and damaged our relationship. We no longer wave a greeting when we leave for work or mow our lawns at the same time.
It is similar with our relationship with Jesus and through Jesus with the Father. In our
Catholic tradition, handed down from the beginning, we understand the words of the prayer of Jesus given in St. John's Gospel as literally true. We believe that as the Father lives in Jesus, Jesus lives in us. Our Christian experience of unity with Jesus is not to be lived out merely in memory of Jesus or in imitation of Jesus along with His help and inspiration, but actuallyin the real three dimensions of our daily life. To help me understrand and appreciate this I like to recall an analogy that tells of a little boy coming home from pre-school one day and very excitedly running to his mother in the kitchen with the news he knows that 2 + 2 is 4. She asks him how did he find that out. "The teacher told me!"
The teacher shared something of him or her self and in a real sense 'lives' in him. The boy makes the truth his own and can make use of it for the rest of his life, but in a limited sense it still 'belongs' to the teacher.
Ths blog is long so I'll leave for 'tomorrow' further consideraions relating to our unity with Jesus by faith. In this unity is the answer to all of our questions about 'evil' in creation, and the content of our Christian Response to 'evil'.
Friday, August 23, 2013
Blog # 310 Resurrection in union with Jesus
Blog # 310 Resurrection in union with Jesus
The subject matter we have been treating in recent blogs is very important in helping us understand and carry out the task we have been called by Pope Benedict XVI to achieve in this Year of Faith. We are being called to a personal uniquely individual and community-wide Catholic revitalization of 1. our faith in God and our love for God through Jesus, and 2. in our love for one another in that faith.
When a lawyer, thinking most likely in terms of the ten given through Moses in Exodus 20: 1 - 17 asked Jesus "Which commandment of the law is the greatest?" Jesus replied: "'You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, with you whole soul, and with all your mind.' This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' On these two commandments the whole law is based, and the prophets as well".(Mat 22: 36 - 40).
That reply of Jesus to the lawyer easily reminds us of that other occasion when celebrating the Passover with the Apostles Jesus said there is no greater love than this: to lay down one's life for a friend."
From Cain and Abel,the sons of Adam and Eve,(Gen 4: 1-4),all the way down through history to Calvary,people recognized the power of sacrifice as expressing total love for their God. This was true even of those who professed faith in many gods before God's revelation to Abraham there is but one God, the single Creator of all that exists.
We have evidence in the Bible of God condemning sacrifices being offered insincerely without the accompanying total love that sincere sacrifice expesses. The notion of sacrifice as worship was never condemned. It was rather the insincerity of those who abused it that was condemned.
The act of sacrifice is defined as an offering to God alone, by an official repesentative of the people, of some material thing, with the change or destruction of what is offered in order to recognize God's supreme dominion and our complete dependence upon God. That definition applies to the freely chosen death of Jesus on Calvary, the experince of Jesus with the Apostles at the Last Supper, and the experience of Jesus and those believing baptized Christians who with Him offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass day by day.
The unconditional trust and total love Jesus offered the Father in His act of perfect worship on the Cross is the same unconditional trust and total love He offered at the Last Supper and offers in the worship of the Mass.
In all three instances it was the gift of worship. The Father's response to Jesus was the gift of RESURRECTION.
Yesterday, August 20, we celebrated the feast of St.Bernard , Abbot, who lived back in the twelfth Century. I told the people offering Mass that morning with me I thought the short passage read as the Gospel for Mass that day was among the topmost in importance in the entire Bible. This was because I saw in it the power that causes OUR resurrection from the dead in union with that of Jesus. It was from the Gospel of St. John 17: 20 - 26. In union with Jesus in His gift of Worship we remain in union with Him in His resurection.
As part of the long discourse Jesus makes on the occasion of the Last Supper John has Jesus pray this way.(17:1). Father, the hour has come! Give glory to your Son that your Son may give glory to you, inasmuch as you have given him authority over all mankind that he may bestow etrnal life on those you have given him...I pray for all those who will believe in me through their word that they be one, as you, Father are in me and I am in you;...that they may be one, as we are one, I living in them, you living in me-that their unity may be complete. So shall the world know that you sent me, and that you loved them as you loved me.
In our Catholic theology we believe that unity for which Jesus prayed is given, through faith, in the Sacrament of Baptism. That gift, the gift of Sanctifying Grace, is designed and desired by God to be kept and developed all the way up to the instant of our death when it is transformed into the experience of eternal life.
Friday, August 16, 2013
Blog # 309 Life in Jesus
Blog #309 Life in Jesus
There are many types of evil we can think of that we can experience in the course of our lifetime, whether that evil be the temporary pain of a sprained shoulder, arthritis, pneumonia, cancer, the 'loss' of a loved one in death, blindness, loneliness, depression, mass murders, active volcanoes, hurricanes, tornadoes, war injuries, an auto accident while driving home from work, or, ultimately for us all, death.
There are many types of responses people make to the evil we experience including fear, shame, anger, medicine, surgery and drugs of one sort or another, seeking counsel, prayer, pain relievers a humble acceptance of the will of God on the part of some, and loss of faith in God on the part of others.
I am proposing a SINGLE RESPONSE to all that is evil and have labeled that response the CHRISTIAN RESPONSE.
The Eternal Word of God, incarnate, and called Jesus, was sent among us precisely to be a uniquely authentic witness to God's presence on earth in Him, and in his entire life, death, and resurrection, to give testimony with regard to the identity and purpose of all creation including what is commonly referred to as evil. The Word of God, as Jesus, was sent not merely to speak of the meaning and value of suffering and death, but to live it out in his entire life's experience and especially in his suffering and death on Calvary.
A key question is whether there was something going on on that afternoon when Jesus died on the Cross that could not be seen by our eyes but was just as real as the blood being shed and the death that was occurring. What could not be seen was the truth to which that blood poured out bore witness.
Jesus had said quite clearly about love there was none greater than for a person to lay down his or her life for a friend.(Jn 15: 13). When Jesus gave no answer to Pilate's question where did Jesus come from, Pilate was angered and said: " Do you not know that I have the power to release you and the power to crucify you?" Jesus answered: "You would have no power over me whatever unless it were given you from above." Jesus was going to die because it was the Father's will, not that of Pilate!
Then as part of the long discourse on the occasion of the Last Supper John has Jesus give this testimony about His death: "the Prince of this world is at hand. He has no hold on me, but the world must know that I love the Father and do as the Father has commanded me. Come, then, Let us be on our way." And He led the Apostles to Gethsemane where the conclusion of His prayer was "Thy will be done". The whole episode of the death of Jesus was programmed by the Father and carried out in the perfect obedient love of Jesus. It was to be a free act composed of unconditional trust and total love. Only God deserved such trust and such love. Calvary can be identified as an act of WORSHIP on the part of Jesus!
On Calvary that gift of worship belonged to Jesus alone. It was His gift to the Father. At the Last Supper that SAME LOVE was shared with the Apostles in a different mode. This was something like the monetary value of a single dollar bill and four quarters as the same but in a different mode. That same love of Calvary and the Last Supper, after the Resurrection has been shared with all who are made one with Jesus by faith and Baptism down through the ages throughout the world in the WORSHIP identified in the mode of the Sacrifice of the Mass.
To understand and justify that statement we must keep in mind our Catholic theology concerning the gift of Baptism and Sanctifying Grace. Through faith and Baptism we are recreated as it were in union with the Resurrected Jesus as branches on a vine and members of a living body, the Church. We are called and equipped to share the love of Jesus in such a way that as Jesus said to Philip:” Philip, if you see me you see the Father. The Father and I are one." "If you see me, Fred, Jack, Mary, Florence, Pedro, Francois, all who are united in Jesus through faith and Baptism in the gift of Sanctifying Grace, you see Jesus, walking, talking, praying, worshiping, through, with, and IN JESUS!
Because the ground we are covering in recent blogs may be 'new ground' for many faithful Catholics who were instructed and trained to 'go' to Mass rather than to offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass each Sunday, I'll end this blog here and hopefully continue with a few more helpful Catholic theological insights tomorrow. The Lord be with you, and by faith within you!
There are many types of evil we can think of that we can experience in the course of our lifetime, whether that evil be the temporary pain of a sprained shoulder, arthritis, pneumonia, cancer, the 'loss' of a loved one in death, blindness, loneliness, depression, mass murders, active volcanoes, hurricanes, tornadoes, war injuries, an auto accident while driving home from work, or, ultimately for us all, death.
There are many types of responses people make to the evil we experience including fear, shame, anger, medicine, surgery and drugs of one sort or another, seeking counsel, prayer, pain relievers a humble acceptance of the will of God on the part of some, and loss of faith in God on the part of others.
I am proposing a SINGLE RESPONSE to all that is evil and have labeled that response the CHRISTIAN RESPONSE.
The Eternal Word of God, incarnate, and called Jesus, was sent among us precisely to be a uniquely authentic witness to God's presence on earth in Him, and in his entire life, death, and resurrection, to give testimony with regard to the identity and purpose of all creation including what is commonly referred to as evil. The Word of God, as Jesus, was sent not merely to speak of the meaning and value of suffering and death, but to live it out in his entire life's experience and especially in his suffering and death on Calvary.
A key question is whether there was something going on on that afternoon when Jesus died on the Cross that could not be seen by our eyes but was just as real as the blood being shed and the death that was occurring. What could not be seen was the truth to which that blood poured out bore witness.
Jesus had said quite clearly about love there was none greater than for a person to lay down his or her life for a friend.(Jn 15: 13). When Jesus gave no answer to Pilate's question where did Jesus come from, Pilate was angered and said: " Do you not know that I have the power to release you and the power to crucify you?" Jesus answered: "You would have no power over me whatever unless it were given you from above." Jesus was going to die because it was the Father's will, not that of Pilate!
Then as part of the long discourse on the occasion of the Last Supper John has Jesus give this testimony about His death: "the Prince of this world is at hand. He has no hold on me, but the world must know that I love the Father and do as the Father has commanded me. Come, then, Let us be on our way." And He led the Apostles to Gethsemane where the conclusion of His prayer was "Thy will be done". The whole episode of the death of Jesus was programmed by the Father and carried out in the perfect obedient love of Jesus. It was to be a free act composed of unconditional trust and total love. Only God deserved such trust and such love. Calvary can be identified as an act of WORSHIP on the part of Jesus!
On Calvary that gift of worship belonged to Jesus alone. It was His gift to the Father. At the Last Supper that SAME LOVE was shared with the Apostles in a different mode. This was something like the monetary value of a single dollar bill and four quarters as the same but in a different mode. That same love of Calvary and the Last Supper, after the Resurrection has been shared with all who are made one with Jesus by faith and Baptism down through the ages throughout the world in the WORSHIP identified in the mode of the Sacrifice of the Mass.
To understand and justify that statement we must keep in mind our Catholic theology concerning the gift of Baptism and Sanctifying Grace. Through faith and Baptism we are recreated as it were in union with the Resurrected Jesus as branches on a vine and members of a living body, the Church. We are called and equipped to share the love of Jesus in such a way that as Jesus said to Philip:” Philip, if you see me you see the Father. The Father and I are one." "If you see me, Fred, Jack, Mary, Florence, Pedro, Francois, all who are united in Jesus through faith and Baptism in the gift of Sanctifying Grace, you see Jesus, walking, talking, praying, worshiping, through, with, and IN JESUS!
Because the ground we are covering in recent blogs may be 'new ground' for many faithful Catholics who were instructed and trained to 'go' to Mass rather than to offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass each Sunday, I'll end this blog here and hopefully continue with a few more helpful Catholic theological insights tomorrow. The Lord be with you, and by faith within you!
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