Blog # 304 Father's Day
The Catholic custom of referring to a priest as "Father" is and has been a serious obstacle in the minds of many of our fellow believing Christians. It is worthwhile noting that the Bible verse in question,
(Mat. 23: 9), is immediately followed by another verse that reads: "Avoid being called teachers. Only one is your teacher, the Messiah". (Mat 23: 10). There is a history to the problem of course.
In the early ages of the Church, before and during the time when the New Tesetament was being composed there was no problem. Nor was there a problem as the Church moved through the centuries until on the American scene fundamentalistic preachers developed it into a major issue. It is not a ommon problem among Scriptural scholars, nor is it a problem in other parts of the world where the American influence has not prevailed.
Certainly the Catholic Church knows the words of the Gospel with regard to Jesus' statement. We know, however, as well, the meaning of the statement. Taken out of context, we would no more have taken up the custom of calling a priest Father, let alone tolerate it for centuries, than we would have taken up or tolerated a custom of stealing, telling lies, or murder.
The Bible itself, the inspired word of God, makes use of the term father both in regard to God and to natural human fathers on earth. In the Hebrew Scriptures ( the Old Testament), the word father is used 706 times, but only 10 of these refer to Yahweh (God). In the Christian Scriptures, ( the New Testament), the word father is used 359 times, of which 229 are in reference to God. On the surface it would seem the Bible itself contradicts the command of Jesus, which we know is impossible.
For St. Paul, who explicitly referes to himself in the Bible as a father of believers, the use of the term was a blessing rather than an obstacle or a wedge between himself and God. This is true because for him it was a definite reminder and proclamation of the fact Christian believers through faith and Baptism experience a second birth, becoming children of God, heirs with Christ of the Father's eternal love. Our use of the term for the ordinary minister of the Sacrament of Baptism (a priest) is the same. It seems a lack of knowledge, both of the meaning of Scripture in this instance and of the meaning of our Catholic tradition and the reasons we retain the tradition are at the root of any problem a sincere Bible-reading person would have with it.
Here are a few samples of references in the Bible using the word father for someone other than God: 1Cor 4: 14 - 17. I am writing to you in this way not to shame you but to admonish you as my beloved children. Granted you have ten thousand guardians in Christ. you have only one father. It was I who begot you in Christ Jesus through my preaching of the Gospel. I beg you,then, be imitators of me. This is why I sent you Timothy, my beloved and faithful son in the Lord. Rom 4:16,f. "Abraham is father of us all, which is why Scripture says, "I have made you father of many nations... Rom 9 10. "for when Rebekah had conceived twin children by one man, our father Isaac... Acts 7:2; James 2: 21; Acts 2: 29; and 4: 25.
Aware the gift of new life into which we are born by faith and Baptism is a share in the life of the Resurrected Jesus, it is always helpful to reflect upon how that life is identified and proclaimed in the Scriptures. The Resurrected Jesus is the same person as the historical Jesus who walked among us, ate our bread, needed and enjoyed the sleep we need and enjoy but is now revealed in His glorified state. Jesus was constantly aware of the Father's presence to him. Though divine and from all eternity united with the Father in divine love, like us, Jesus while on earth was called to discover and respond to God humanly in the physical world, in people, and in the human experience of prayer. It was to this response to which Jesus was referring when on the night before He died in obedience to the Father's plan for Him on the Cross He said His obedience was evidence to all that He loved the Father. His invitation to all was to join Him in that love.
Not all would understand. Not all would be willing. In the course of Jesus' life as given in the Gospels we find Him so perfectly obedient to the Father's will that all who heard Him speak and saw Him act should have known His love for the Father was the supreme value in His life. This could only be total love. Nothing and no-one could take the Father's place as Creator of all that exists. No-one should be thanked as the Father should be thanked, no-one worshiped in His stead. No-one could asssume his authority or His Name."Do not call anyone on earth your Father. Only one is your Father, the one in Heaven."
Sadly, it seems that our Catholic practice of referring to a priest as Father remains a problem of such major proportions as to preclude on the part of some any serious possibility of investigating and discovering the richness of our faith, history, and tradition. All that we would ask of anyone who would want to enter into discussion with us with regard to a justfiication or condemnation of the practice on our part is an open mind, a willingness to accept our word as sincere, and a prayer for the light of truth for us both.
First of all it should be said most clearly we as Catholics profess faith in One God, Father,Son, and Holy Spirit. There is no other God. Statues are not God. Mary the Mother of Jesus is not God. Angels and Saints are not God. The Pope, priests, nuns. and ritual are not God. Not being God, they neither deserve nor are offered the praise thanks adoration love and worship we offer to God alone. We do not believe in any competitor for God's glory. We don't even come close to being tempted away from our conviction here. The official texts of the Mass illustrate and give clear evidence of our awareness of the Father's place in our life our love, and our devotion to Him.l
Here are a few samples from that text. "Father, it is our duty and our salvation always and everywhere to give You thanks." "I believe one God, the Father almighty." " You are indeed holy, O Lord, the fount of all holiness ". "Our Father...Hallowed be Thy Name...Thy will be done." And the final proclamation at the most solemn part of the Mass is: "Through Him (Jesus), and with Him, and in Him, to You, O God, Almighty Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, is all honor and glory , for ever and ever. Amen!"
Back in 1990 I was living down in Manassas. Georgia. I was scheduled to offer early Mass in Statesboro, twenty-five miles away. I was out before dawn feeding the chickens in the pen in the back yard. They were just chickens, but they were mine, and they gave me special joy. I was happy to be very careful not to make any noise or fuss when I was placing their feed, careful not to wake them up. In some notes I wrote later that morning I saw this incident as a reminder of how God relates to us. How happy I was to care for the chickens. How 'happy' God is to care for us, and how much more perfectly and powerfully He does. "Look at the birds of the air...Your Father feeds them." How much more love, wisdom, and care our Father shows for us! God delights in us when we are good. (Prov 2: 31) "...and I found delight in the sons of men." Happy we should be! That is God's plan, all the way to the end. Those who discover it and follow it need not be afraid. Do you ever think we might come to a day here in the United States when we will celebrate Our Father's Day with a joy like we have on Christmas?
Sunday, June 16, 2013
Sunday, June 9, 2013
Blog # 303 The Question of Evil
Blog # 303 The Question of Evil
For several weeks now I have been hoping to get this blog composed and published. I had many insights that came and went that seemed helpful to me in my response to the reality of evil in the world, but when I sat down at the computer they would seem less attractive and go away. Another day would pass, and then a week of days without Blog # 303. Reflecting about this for the past couple of days I think I have come up with a root cause, background, or primary reason for my difficulty. I had been asking many questions about the nature and existence of evil, and as the process of addressing them continued, more and more questions would come. A single answer to all of them would always come into focus in my mind. Here is that answer : GOD !
I was becoming more and more secure in my choice of that answer and convinced of its validiy as the only response I would ever need or could imagine that would ever be available to me or to anyone who would be sincerely seeking the answer to a question about the existence of evil of any kind in our experience of creation.
The only problem I had, and I think this was a primary root of my difficulty in getting started on this blog, was the simple logical fact that for anyone else other than myself to buy into that single answer, we would have to start with the same basic meaning or identity we give to the word God . This is not to say that people other than myself who did not have the same meaning and identity I give to 'my' God would not be capable of having a differenet answer to the question of evil that would seem valid and adequate for them even if it were to be their response would be to say there is no just and all-loving God.
The single God in whom I believe and proclaim as the answer to all questions regarding evil in creation is the sole Creator of all that exists, revealed by Jesus in the Blessed Trinity as Father, Word, and Sprit . In making a statement like that, I keep myself fully aware that in consequence of our natural limiations and God's infinity, all we say and think in reference to God is always by way of analogy, this being something like saying the picture of a man on a dollar bill is George Washington. It is true and not true at the same time in a different way in each case.
I believe and make my own all the Catholic Church solemnly teaches with regard to the the identity of God as infinitely good, all-knowing,all-powerful, all-loving, ever-present, with the Eternal Word incarnate as one of us in Jesus.
If we were looking for someone to blame for the existence of evil in creation, that would be easier to do in the case of willful sin and the evil of pain suffering and death that exist as the result and in consequence of sin. The sinner is to be blamed. But even here with God identified as the sole creator of all that exists, God shares a responsibility not only for the existence of sin but for the results and consequences of sin as well. I refrain from blaming God here in the light of God's warning us of the need to avoid temptation leading to sin and also of God's promise of the grace we need to overcome it. Nevertheless, the God whom I know and love does not back away from some responsibility for everything that exists, good or evil from our limited point of view.
A far more difficult universal aspect of the question of evil comes with the case of infants, young children and other innocent people who are victims of natural disasters such as hurricanes,tornadoes, erupting volcanoes, mass murders, train wrecks, and all of us who have lived, or ever will live, suffer, and die. Death is not only one among the many human physical emotional and spiritual evils we can and do experience but is easily seen as the greatest of all and the one we all have to face. It seems, then, our primary interest and need in addressng the question of evil is to realize we are not seeking an answer to a question that affects some of us but all of us, and therefore is applicable to all evil and to all people. From this we can see how we are addressing the question whether or not it is adequate and sufficient to have God as the single answer to all the questions that come to us in the process of forming our response to evil. We begin with evil seen and experienced as evil ,and move through other questions to the point where there is no longer a prolem of evil , to die and to suffer are not altogether bad, and there is no need or room for further questions once we understand and experience total love.
Here are a few samples of the questions I have used in coming to the conclusion God is the answer to all and any questions we might have as individuals and as a community of world-wide human creatures. What is the nature of evil? Why is one thing or experience evil and another thing or experience
good? Is there any identifiable thing or experience that is absolutely or totally evil? Can we identify a purpose or usefulness of any kind for evil? Could someone who does not believe in a personal God discover a purpose or usefulness for evil? Can we discover relationships between repairing evil and forgiving offenses we experience?
I'll leave for another blog some significant references from the Bible that helped me see the truth that claims God is the ultimate answer to questions we might have with regard to the meaning and purpose of suffering, and particularly of death.
For several weeks now I have been hoping to get this blog composed and published. I had many insights that came and went that seemed helpful to me in my response to the reality of evil in the world, but when I sat down at the computer they would seem less attractive and go away. Another day would pass, and then a week of days without Blog # 303. Reflecting about this for the past couple of days I think I have come up with a root cause, background, or primary reason for my difficulty. I had been asking many questions about the nature and existence of evil, and as the process of addressing them continued, more and more questions would come. A single answer to all of them would always come into focus in my mind. Here is that answer : GOD !
I was becoming more and more secure in my choice of that answer and convinced of its validiy as the only response I would ever need or could imagine that would ever be available to me or to anyone who would be sincerely seeking the answer to a question about the existence of evil of any kind in our experience of creation.
The only problem I had, and I think this was a primary root of my difficulty in getting started on this blog, was the simple logical fact that for anyone else other than myself to buy into that single answer, we would have to start with the same basic meaning or identity we give to the word God . This is not to say that people other than myself who did not have the same meaning and identity I give to 'my' God would not be capable of having a differenet answer to the question of evil that would seem valid and adequate for them even if it were to be their response would be to say there is no just and all-loving God.
The single God in whom I believe and proclaim as the answer to all questions regarding evil in creation is the sole Creator of all that exists, revealed by Jesus in the Blessed Trinity as Father, Word, and Sprit . In making a statement like that, I keep myself fully aware that in consequence of our natural limiations and God's infinity, all we say and think in reference to God is always by way of analogy, this being something like saying the picture of a man on a dollar bill is George Washington. It is true and not true at the same time in a different way in each case.
I believe and make my own all the Catholic Church solemnly teaches with regard to the the identity of God as infinitely good, all-knowing,all-powerful, all-loving, ever-present, with the Eternal Word incarnate as one of us in Jesus.
If we were looking for someone to blame for the existence of evil in creation, that would be easier to do in the case of willful sin and the evil of pain suffering and death that exist as the result and in consequence of sin. The sinner is to be blamed. But even here with God identified as the sole creator of all that exists, God shares a responsibility not only for the existence of sin but for the results and consequences of sin as well. I refrain from blaming God here in the light of God's warning us of the need to avoid temptation leading to sin and also of God's promise of the grace we need to overcome it. Nevertheless, the God whom I know and love does not back away from some responsibility for everything that exists, good or evil from our limited point of view.
A far more difficult universal aspect of the question of evil comes with the case of infants, young children and other innocent people who are victims of natural disasters such as hurricanes,tornadoes, erupting volcanoes, mass murders, train wrecks, and all of us who have lived, or ever will live, suffer, and die. Death is not only one among the many human physical emotional and spiritual evils we can and do experience but is easily seen as the greatest of all and the one we all have to face. It seems, then, our primary interest and need in addressng the question of evil is to realize we are not seeking an answer to a question that affects some of us but all of us, and therefore is applicable to all evil and to all people. From this we can see how we are addressing the question whether or not it is adequate and sufficient to have God as the single answer to all the questions that come to us in the process of forming our response to evil. We begin with evil seen and experienced as evil ,and move through other questions to the point where there is no longer a prolem of evil , to die and to suffer are not altogether bad, and there is no need or room for further questions once we understand and experience total love.
Here are a few samples of the questions I have used in coming to the conclusion God is the answer to all and any questions we might have as individuals and as a community of world-wide human creatures. What is the nature of evil? Why is one thing or experience evil and another thing or experience
good? Is there any identifiable thing or experience that is absolutely or totally evil? Can we identify a purpose or usefulness of any kind for evil? Could someone who does not believe in a personal God discover a purpose or usefulness for evil? Can we discover relationships between repairing evil and forgiving offenses we experience?
I'll leave for another blog some significant references from the Bible that helped me see the truth that claims God is the ultimate answer to questions we might have with regard to the meaning and purpose of suffering, and particularly of death.
Saturday, June 8, 2013
Blog # 302 We are all related
Blog # 302 We are all related
Did you ever consider what the difference would be for you if you believed in more than one God? We sort of take for granted the notion of God as Single, Unique, Creator of all, Ever-Present. All-Knowing, All-Powerful, All-Good, etc. There was a time in human experience, when the notion of a single God would have been like thinking the world was round at the time of Galileo.
One significant insight that comes to me when I consider what might be the difference if there were several gods rather than one is this: with the notion of a single Creator of all that is, everything that exists is connected.
There are no exceptions here. Frost and warmth, light and darkness, youth and old age, flowers and insects, mountains and rivers, life and death, men and women, you and I are all connected if you accept as fact there is but one God, one Creator of all.
Rather than the word 'connected' we could have used the word ' related'. Then the notion I am reflecting upon comes out like this: Everything and everyone that exists is related to everyone else and everything else that exists in the one Creator of all. In fact, this relationship is so profound and all pervasive that all other relationships are subsequent to it and based upon it. The relationship we have to one another as brothers and sisters in a family is not as deep as the relationship we have to all creation in God our common Creator.
Such a thought might be a shock to some people. Yet when you think it out, our parents give us much of what and who we are. God gives us all that we are. This little consideration gives a bit of insight into the meaning and significance of God's command , given us in the divine Jesus, (Immanuel - God Among Us) "Love one another as I have loved you." To have commanded us to love one another as brothers and sisters would have been less strong.
These thoughts are helpful in discovering and appreciating more perfecctly the meaning and power of our human history and in our study in the field of science as well as our study of the Bible. Days and years are related. Historical epochs are related. Ezra is related to Moses. Moses is related to Abaham. Abraham is related to Adam and Eve. David is related to Luke. All of creation is related to Jesus the Word of God, the Messiah, the Galilean carpenter and rabbi. We discover something of the full identity of Jesus in discovering the identity of Moses, Abraham, of Adam and Eve and of ourselves.
This connectedness in history could very well be recognized even by a person who does not believe in God. But for someone who does believe in God the connections in creation did not merely happen, as it were, by chance, but were built into creation according to a plan we call God's love. The birth of Moses did not surprise God. God loved Moses into being. So for Abraham and Adam and Eve and for you and for me.
In Jesus something altogether special and unique occurs. In Jesus God relates to all creation not from some unimaginable place, with some unimaginable degree of Power Wisdom Goodness and Love, but in Bethleham, at a given moment, in a given year of time, like us in all but sin.
Jesus is related to Moses and to Abaham and to Adam and Eve and to you and me through His birth from Mary. Yet Jesus is also related to the Father and the Holy Spirit in a unique way that could never be ours unless it were through Him. But that we know is God's plan. This is the good news of salvation. We are to be like brancehes on a vine in the image given by Jesus and as members of His Body the Church as given by Sts. Paul and John. "See what love the Father has bestowed on us in letting us be called children of God. Yet that is what we are!" We are brothers and sisters in Adam. We are children of God in Jesus.
Jesus was sent not merely to teach about God, as others had been sent before Him to prepare the way for Him, but to be God among us, God Incarnate, in human flesh, walking talking sleeping eating, yet divine. He was not merely to be a good example to us,but the power to make us good. At the beginning of His public ministry , in the synagogue of Nazareth Jesus selects a passage from the prophet Isaiah: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor, liberty to captives, sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing."
Though sent and anoinetd by the same Spirit to bring the same message of God's wisdom and goodness, there was an essential difference between the prophets who had come and gone before Jesus and Himself. Other prophets had announced and proclaimed the message and promises of God. Jesus claims He IS the message and the fulfillment of the promises. Limited in His humanity but infinite in His love, Jesus is the perfect expression on earth of the Father's will. He was sent by the Father for this.
But it was not for His sake that Jesus was sent. It was for the sake of others. "Come, follow me", Andew Peter James John Frank Mary Tony Annie Mae. Down through the ages until the end of time the invitation continues to be given. "Come, join me in fulfilling God's plan for you, bringing justice,peace, light, freedom, love."
There is but one Creator of all that is. All creation , past, present, and whatever is to come shares in the invitation Jesus was sent to bring. "...a people living in darkness has seen a great light." Look, listen, learn, follow. Thank You, Jesus!
Did you ever consider what the difference would be for you if you believed in more than one God? We sort of take for granted the notion of God as Single, Unique, Creator of all, Ever-Present. All-Knowing, All-Powerful, All-Good, etc. There was a time in human experience, when the notion of a single God would have been like thinking the world was round at the time of Galileo.
One significant insight that comes to me when I consider what might be the difference if there were several gods rather than one is this: with the notion of a single Creator of all that is, everything that exists is connected.
There are no exceptions here. Frost and warmth, light and darkness, youth and old age, flowers and insects, mountains and rivers, life and death, men and women, you and I are all connected if you accept as fact there is but one God, one Creator of all.
Rather than the word 'connected' we could have used the word ' related'. Then the notion I am reflecting upon comes out like this: Everything and everyone that exists is related to everyone else and everything else that exists in the one Creator of all. In fact, this relationship is so profound and all pervasive that all other relationships are subsequent to it and based upon it. The relationship we have to one another as brothers and sisters in a family is not as deep as the relationship we have to all creation in God our common Creator.
Such a thought might be a shock to some people. Yet when you think it out, our parents give us much of what and who we are. God gives us all that we are. This little consideration gives a bit of insight into the meaning and significance of God's command , given us in the divine Jesus, (Immanuel - God Among Us) "Love one another as I have loved you." To have commanded us to love one another as brothers and sisters would have been less strong.
These thoughts are helpful in discovering and appreciating more perfecctly the meaning and power of our human history and in our study in the field of science as well as our study of the Bible. Days and years are related. Historical epochs are related. Ezra is related to Moses. Moses is related to Abaham. Abraham is related to Adam and Eve. David is related to Luke. All of creation is related to Jesus the Word of God, the Messiah, the Galilean carpenter and rabbi. We discover something of the full identity of Jesus in discovering the identity of Moses, Abraham, of Adam and Eve and of ourselves.
This connectedness in history could very well be recognized even by a person who does not believe in God. But for someone who does believe in God the connections in creation did not merely happen, as it were, by chance, but were built into creation according to a plan we call God's love. The birth of Moses did not surprise God. God loved Moses into being. So for Abraham and Adam and Eve and for you and for me.
In Jesus something altogether special and unique occurs. In Jesus God relates to all creation not from some unimaginable place, with some unimaginable degree of Power Wisdom Goodness and Love, but in Bethleham, at a given moment, in a given year of time, like us in all but sin.
Jesus is related to Moses and to Abaham and to Adam and Eve and to you and me through His birth from Mary. Yet Jesus is also related to the Father and the Holy Spirit in a unique way that could never be ours unless it were through Him. But that we know is God's plan. This is the good news of salvation. We are to be like brancehes on a vine in the image given by Jesus and as members of His Body the Church as given by Sts. Paul and John. "See what love the Father has bestowed on us in letting us be called children of God. Yet that is what we are!" We are brothers and sisters in Adam. We are children of God in Jesus.
Jesus was sent not merely to teach about God, as others had been sent before Him to prepare the way for Him, but to be God among us, God Incarnate, in human flesh, walking talking sleeping eating, yet divine. He was not merely to be a good example to us,but the power to make us good. At the beginning of His public ministry , in the synagogue of Nazareth Jesus selects a passage from the prophet Isaiah: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor, liberty to captives, sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing."
Though sent and anoinetd by the same Spirit to bring the same message of God's wisdom and goodness, there was an essential difference between the prophets who had come and gone before Jesus and Himself. Other prophets had announced and proclaimed the message and promises of God. Jesus claims He IS the message and the fulfillment of the promises. Limited in His humanity but infinite in His love, Jesus is the perfect expression on earth of the Father's will. He was sent by the Father for this.
But it was not for His sake that Jesus was sent. It was for the sake of others. "Come, follow me", Andew Peter James John Frank Mary Tony Annie Mae. Down through the ages until the end of time the invitation continues to be given. "Come, join me in fulfilling God's plan for you, bringing justice,peace, light, freedom, love."
There is but one Creator of all that is. All creation , past, present, and whatever is to come shares in the invitation Jesus was sent to bring. "...a people living in darkness has seen a great light." Look, listen, learn, follow. Thank You, Jesus!
Sunday, May 12, 2013
Blog # 301 Evil
Blog # 301 Evil
Philosophers, theologians, Social Welfare professionals, victims of criminal violence, pacifists, widows and widowers, men and women of deep faith in God and those without faith in God have worked and wondered in search of what has been referred to as 'The Problem of Evil'. I am among those who wondered.
I think I came closest than ever to a solution to the problem of evil on the day I denied there was a problem of evil. It is not that I have me eyes closed to evil in the world. The recent tragedy of innocent school children killed in Newtown,Connecticut, and then just a few weeks later the slaughter of people at the finish line of the Boston Marathon prompted me to write this blog. I had the honor, privilege, burden, challenge, or whatever you want to call it, of personally spending a good part of a day visiting the death camp at Auschwitz, Poland years ago. Many days there are stories in the local newspaper of shootings stabbings violence and hatred even among members of one's own family. I do not deny evil in the world. I do not think that evil is good and not evil. I just want to say I see it differently than most people seem to do. I do not defend evil or think it is good. Evil is bad. It is evil. Calling or naming it a problem is what I call into question.
Ordinarily when we think of anything as a problem we incline to think of it in relation to a solution. Once we arrive at a solution the problem is solved and the case is closed. In the case of the 'problem' of evil we should not be surprised there have been several well thought out and sincere solutions proposed. Some have been satisfied to solve the 'problem' in identifying someone to blame for it. It is the result of sin in the world. Eliminate sin and we would eliminate evil. Partly true.
If we were to consider pain and suffering as evil, as many do, then blaming it on sin, we do not have the solution to the problem of good and innocent people suffering and in pain. If we were to say evil is beyond God's control, we would have a solution that would be in contradiction to our identification of God as unlimited, totally good, all-powerful, and all loving. In seeing this as true, some would feel no need to go further in their search for a solution to the 'problem' than to deny the reality of a personal unique unlimited good powerful and loving God. For them, in the stage to which we have come in our natural evolution as human beings, evil remains an inevitable given. The solution is to recognize this and to avoid it as well as you can.
In these and other solutions sincerely offered to solve the 'problem' of evil I see a fundamental danger and an obstacle of arriving at the truth we are seeking. It is the danger of identifying the task in which we are engaged as seeking a solution to a problem. Ironically, the danger comes from having a solution. We work to solve a problem until we arrive at a solution that we confidently feel is the truth. The situation is complicated by the fact that others working toward a solution to the same problem confidently and sincerely arrive at a different solution. If our solutions are different, someone is correct or closer to being correct than another. That is another problem. But if I am sufficiently confident in my solution and someone else's solution does not evidently harm me, it tends not to be my concern. I remain apart from them.
I would like to try to illustrate how this works out when we apply it to what I consider one of the greatest evils of all. The problem is the division of the Church. I have to point out and admit that as far as I can tell I am in a definitely very very small minority of people among those I know personally and through the media, government leaders, church members, people all around me who otherwise are very much like me in our everyday experience of life who see this as a problem to be solved. It is not that others confront me and try to change my convictions. I think they are just not aware of what I am concerned about as a concern of theirs. They just don't think of it. If I did not experience it as real I don't think I could imagine how we could claim to live by the Gospel message of salvation and not be seriously concerned about our division.
We can shed significant light on the 'problem' by focusing it in the form of a question: What does it mean to be 'saved'? Identifying this as a problem we seek a solution as our response. Each Sunday here in the United States millions of good people gather in large and small Christian gatherings to worship a single God in the name of a single Savior, but divided in the solutions they give to the problem of our division in direct contradiction to the prayer of Jesus that all who would come to believe in Him would be united in the love and obedience He lived in His relationship with His Father Whom He had identified as the sole Creator of us all. (Jn 17: 11, 20 - 23, 26).
In considering evil as a problem and seeking to solve it with a solution, we have in the ocurrence of different solutions the situation of something being correct or incorrect and and therefore division among the searchers of truth which in itself is one. In response to this I have continued to refrain from using the title Problem of Evil and subsituting the title Question of Evil.
Solutions for me imply conclusions, the end of a process. Questions lead to answers but also for me leave room for other questions from other people who have different answers than ours to what we thought were the same questions until we asked questions of one another and discovered our questions were not the same. Then through further questions we can grow in our knowledge of the truth that unites.
The process is ongoing rather than conclusive. Sincere questions are invitations to unity rather than intrusions and sources of division.
There are a few more things to consider with regard to the question of evil so we will include them in a different blog.
Saturday, May 4, 2013
Blog # 300 Further thoughts on the Eucharist
Blog # 300 Further thoughts on the Eucharist
In His unique historical experience of unconditional trust and total love for the Father, Jesus freely laid down His human life on the Cross in obedience to the Father's plan for Him. Limited in time and space by the reality of its genuine physical nature, His death occurred in a specific place at a specific time. In the reality of its nature as death, it occurred once and for all. His blood shed, His body given, would live again in the glory of His Resurrection , but never die again in the physical limits of Calvary almost two thousand years ago..
What then of the event of the Last Supper the evening before the event of Calvary? And what of what happens when the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is offered day after day on our altars in Catholic churches throughout the world? "This my body, given". "This is my blood, the blood of the new and eternal covenent, poured out for you for the forgiveness of sins." These words could literally be applied to the body and blood of Jesus as He hung on the Cross and died in the experience that fulfilled the promise made to Adam and brought salvation to the whole world. But what of their meaning and power when applied to the bread and wine of the Last Supper and of the Mass?
Is our Catholic faith and theology correct in proclaiming these words can and should also be applied literally to what happened at the Last Supper and to the daily offering of the Sacrifice of the Mass? The majority of our fellow non-Catholic Christians throughout the world have come to answer that question "No, the Catholic Church is wrong in this regard. The words in question produce a symbolic reminder of what actually happened once and for all two thousand years ago."
I am thoroughly convinced of the truth of our Eucharistic faith. Yet I recognize a problem someone might have in reconciling it with what we see and touch in our sense knowledge of the the Mass. It helps to realize that by its nature faith is not to be proven but to be believed. There will always be an elemant of mystery whenever we deal with truths that are beyond our competence to understand fully, from the notion of creation itself down through the divinity of Jesus, the authenticity of the Bible, to what happened at the Last Supper and what happens each time the Mass is validly offered.
In admiration and appreciation of the teaching method of Jesus in His use of parables to clarify and proclaim His message, I tried to come up with something that would help me understand the truths we believe and proclaim with regard to the relationship of Calvary, the Last Supper and the Mass. I will share it with you here.
Before Mass started a couple of weeks ago, with just a few people there early, I handed out five dollars. Then in the homily of the Mass I told the people what I had done and asked them to imagine, that is, to create an image in their minds of what I did. Several 'saw' me give a five dollar bill to a single person. Others who voluntered to reveal what they had imagined 'saw' me give five single dollar bills to five different individuals. What I actually did was give a one dollar bill to a single person and in four cellophane sandwich bags I gave out four additional dollars in four different modes. One had a roll of fifty pennies and ten dimes. Another had four quarters. Another had twenty nickles and a fouth had one quarter five pennies two dimes and ten nickles. Each had something in common with them all. All of them were money!
Applying this to the problem someone might have in reconciling the Biblical narratives of the Crucifixion and the Last Supper with with one another and with the Church's tradition and faith regarding the identity of what goes on in the celebration of the Sacrifice of the Mass, we are dealing with a reality and truth that is beyond our human competence to understand completely. We seek to understand what we believe rather than to prove it. This was similar to the experience of the people at Mass a couple of weeks ago who did not and could not in the limited experience available to them know for sure what and why I had done what I did unless they believed me or an other reliable witness who testified to it. And this was true for them in a question of what was not in itself beyond their capacity to comprehend, the simple all-human gift of five dollars. How absolutely certain it would be in regard to the questiion of the mystery of the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist !
We can see a parallel to this in the case of the witness of St Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians in his significant and familiar testimony to the Eucharistic action and words of Jesus at the Last Supper ( 1 Cor 11:23 - 27). "I received from the Lord what I handed on to you, namely, that the Lord Jesus on the night in which He was betrayed took bread, and after He had given thanks, broke it and said, "This is my body, which is for you, Do this in remembrance of me". In the same way, after the supper , He took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me."
It is very significant that Paul did not say remember me by doing this but do this to remember me. The action is prior to the memory of it in time power importance and meaning.
In the parable of the money, applied to various coins and paper, we see all of it as money existing in different modes. Applied to Calvary the Last Supper and the Mass , we see all three events as real in themselves and all three identified and impowered by the same redeeming infinite love of Calvary expressed in three different modes. We gain some understanding of this in the light of our faith in the identity of Jesus and the Eternal Word as one single person with the astonishing effect of granting the suffering and death of Jesus supernatural unlimited divine power with regard to the bread and wine similar as to what was given in the other miracles of Jesus such as raising the dead and curing the deaf and the blind by the simple act of declaring it when this would be the Father's will.
One more application of the parable. There is such a thing as counterfeit money. Genuine authentic money is backed up by the authority of the government that has the right and power to authenticate or guarantee its value. The authenticity of our faith in the meaning and value of Calvary the Last Supper and the Mass and their common identification in the total love of Jesus in obedience to the Father is primarily found in the Bible and the official teaching of the Church, but it is supported as well in history and tradition, in the lives of holy people who have lived by it and loved God in its light, in the parts and effects of it we can experience ourselves that give us joy,peace, comfort in our sorrows, support in temptation and in our weaknesses, in our personal praise and thanks to Jesus that inspires us ever more prefectly to love and appreciate His goodness and power, and in all the other natural and supernatural gifts we receive each day that tell us we are loved by God uniquely one by one and as a community of belivers in the same love the Father has for Jesus. ( Jn 17: 23,26).
In His unique historical experience of unconditional trust and total love for the Father, Jesus freely laid down His human life on the Cross in obedience to the Father's plan for Him. Limited in time and space by the reality of its genuine physical nature, His death occurred in a specific place at a specific time. In the reality of its nature as death, it occurred once and for all. His blood shed, His body given, would live again in the glory of His Resurrection , but never die again in the physical limits of Calvary almost two thousand years ago..
What then of the event of the Last Supper the evening before the event of Calvary? And what of what happens when the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is offered day after day on our altars in Catholic churches throughout the world? "This my body, given". "This is my blood, the blood of the new and eternal covenent, poured out for you for the forgiveness of sins." These words could literally be applied to the body and blood of Jesus as He hung on the Cross and died in the experience that fulfilled the promise made to Adam and brought salvation to the whole world. But what of their meaning and power when applied to the bread and wine of the Last Supper and of the Mass?
Is our Catholic faith and theology correct in proclaiming these words can and should also be applied literally to what happened at the Last Supper and to the daily offering of the Sacrifice of the Mass? The majority of our fellow non-Catholic Christians throughout the world have come to answer that question "No, the Catholic Church is wrong in this regard. The words in question produce a symbolic reminder of what actually happened once and for all two thousand years ago."
I am thoroughly convinced of the truth of our Eucharistic faith. Yet I recognize a problem someone might have in reconciling it with what we see and touch in our sense knowledge of the the Mass. It helps to realize that by its nature faith is not to be proven but to be believed. There will always be an elemant of mystery whenever we deal with truths that are beyond our competence to understand fully, from the notion of creation itself down through the divinity of Jesus, the authenticity of the Bible, to what happened at the Last Supper and what happens each time the Mass is validly offered.
In admiration and appreciation of the teaching method of Jesus in His use of parables to clarify and proclaim His message, I tried to come up with something that would help me understand the truths we believe and proclaim with regard to the relationship of Calvary, the Last Supper and the Mass. I will share it with you here.
Before Mass started a couple of weeks ago, with just a few people there early, I handed out five dollars. Then in the homily of the Mass I told the people what I had done and asked them to imagine, that is, to create an image in their minds of what I did. Several 'saw' me give a five dollar bill to a single person. Others who voluntered to reveal what they had imagined 'saw' me give five single dollar bills to five different individuals. What I actually did was give a one dollar bill to a single person and in four cellophane sandwich bags I gave out four additional dollars in four different modes. One had a roll of fifty pennies and ten dimes. Another had four quarters. Another had twenty nickles and a fouth had one quarter five pennies two dimes and ten nickles. Each had something in common with them all. All of them were money!
Applying this to the problem someone might have in reconciling the Biblical narratives of the Crucifixion and the Last Supper with with one another and with the Church's tradition and faith regarding the identity of what goes on in the celebration of the Sacrifice of the Mass, we are dealing with a reality and truth that is beyond our human competence to understand completely. We seek to understand what we believe rather than to prove it. This was similar to the experience of the people at Mass a couple of weeks ago who did not and could not in the limited experience available to them know for sure what and why I had done what I did unless they believed me or an other reliable witness who testified to it. And this was true for them in a question of what was not in itself beyond their capacity to comprehend, the simple all-human gift of five dollars. How absolutely certain it would be in regard to the questiion of the mystery of the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist !
We can see a parallel to this in the case of the witness of St Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians in his significant and familiar testimony to the Eucharistic action and words of Jesus at the Last Supper ( 1 Cor 11:23 - 27). "I received from the Lord what I handed on to you, namely, that the Lord Jesus on the night in which He was betrayed took bread, and after He had given thanks, broke it and said, "This is my body, which is for you, Do this in remembrance of me". In the same way, after the supper , He took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me."
It is very significant that Paul did not say remember me by doing this but do this to remember me. The action is prior to the memory of it in time power importance and meaning.
In the parable of the money, applied to various coins and paper, we see all of it as money existing in different modes. Applied to Calvary the Last Supper and the Mass , we see all three events as real in themselves and all three identified and impowered by the same redeeming infinite love of Calvary expressed in three different modes. We gain some understanding of this in the light of our faith in the identity of Jesus and the Eternal Word as one single person with the astonishing effect of granting the suffering and death of Jesus supernatural unlimited divine power with regard to the bread and wine similar as to what was given in the other miracles of Jesus such as raising the dead and curing the deaf and the blind by the simple act of declaring it when this would be the Father's will.
One more application of the parable. There is such a thing as counterfeit money. Genuine authentic money is backed up by the authority of the government that has the right and power to authenticate or guarantee its value. The authenticity of our faith in the meaning and value of Calvary the Last Supper and the Mass and their common identification in the total love of Jesus in obedience to the Father is primarily found in the Bible and the official teaching of the Church, but it is supported as well in history and tradition, in the lives of holy people who have lived by it and loved God in its light, in the parts and effects of it we can experience ourselves that give us joy,peace, comfort in our sorrows, support in temptation and in our weaknesses, in our personal praise and thanks to Jesus that inspires us ever more prefectly to love and appreciate His goodness and power, and in all the other natural and supernatural gifts we receive each day that tell us we are loved by God uniquely one by one and as a community of belivers in the same love the Father has for Jesus. ( Jn 17: 23,26).
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
Blog # 299 From Jerusalem to Augusta and back
Blog # 299 From Jerusalem to Augusta and back...
Blog # 298 focused upon the event of the original Good Friday experience of Jesus in Jerusalem. It was identified as an act of perfect obedient love and, as directed to the Father, labeled Worship.
In the light of our belief in the mystery of the Incarnation, in Jesus and the Word of God we have the same person. And in further light coming from the Incarnation, we have, in the normal experiences of Jesus as one of us, truly human experiences such as hunger fatigue lonelines generosity death temptation and the other normal limitations other than sin we all know in our day by day human lives. On the other hand when the Father's plan for Jesus called for thoughts actions or words beyond the scope and capacity of His biological human nature, Jesus, in obedience to the Father, was personally capable of experiencing these realities as divine as well as human or in other words as experiences of God on earth in Him and therefore infinite, beyond and independent of the limitations Jesus knew and we know as mere human creatures.
In that paragraph, reminding us of the clearly revealed identy in a single person of the Eternal Word and Jesus, and the consequences of this identity, seen in the perfectly human (limited) and divine (unlimited) experiences in the life of Jesus, it seems to me we have a fundamental and most important theological truth that does not normally seem to be part of the conscious awareness of folks in a typical congregation assembled before the altar at a time the Sacrifice of the Mass is being offered. In the light of such a lack of awareness it seems to me we could hardly understand, let alone be aware of what was going on at the Last Supper the evening before Jesus died, and, in the light of this, at the Eucharistic table around which we might be asembled as Mass is being offered.
First we must be aware of and appreciate what was going on at Calvary. The physical suffering and death of Jesus on Calvary, necessarily limited by its nature, occurred in its historical mode once and for all, never to be repeated in that mode. On the calendar, the twenty four hours of the day Jesus died on Calvary will never come again. So it is with the blood He shed and with all of the pain and suffering that goes with being crucified. It began that morning, continued for a time until His heart stopped beating and He died. He had given all He possessed. He had no more to give. Such is the way it is with death. It was this way for Jesus in the plan the Father had for Him. He had said "Yes" to it in the garden of Gethsemane the evening before. It would never happen again this way.
What next? In the Biblical narrative of it, the mystery of creation sin and salvation started with our Creator's promise to send a redeemer bearing the gift of forgiveness of sin. It continud on in Moses, Abraham, and a long line of Prophets who handed on the story of the promise and kept the hope for it alive in God's Chosen People. Then came Jesus, identified in the minds of people living around him in the town of Nazareth as the son of Joseph, a local carpenter. While still a young man Jesus made the claim for himself to be the fulfillment of the promise made to Adam. For a period of about three years He engaged in a ministry of preaching, shedding light on the meaning of the promise and upon His own divine identity as God's Beloved Son.
Finally on the evening before He died, while officially celebrating the Feast of Passover commemorating the release of God's Chosen People from the slavery of Egypt, Jesus did the most important and astonishing thing He ever did. It was His greatest miracle. It was the act that fulfilled the promise of Genesis and won salvation for all people who would hear of it and believe in it. He took bread and said it was His body given. He took wine and said it was His blood, the blood of the new and eternal covenant, poured out for the forgiveness of sins.
The same words Jesus proclaimed over the bread and over the wine at the Last Supper could truly have been said of the body and blood of Jesus on Calvary as He hung and died on the Cross the day before. The same words applied to both instances express an identical truth about the bread and the wine and His body and blood but in different modes. The key to understanding this lies in the words given and poured out. Given and poured out on Calvary in one historical mode. Given and poured out at the Last Supper in another mode unique to that occasion.
Three men died on Calvary that first Good Friday. One of them died a broken and despairing man. A second of the men we know as Saint Dismas, the Good Thief. The third man, Jesus, was God, the Eternal Word, come among us as Jesus precisely for this moment, to die, to show us what it means to love most perfectly in the unconditional trust and total self-giving of Jesus in His death on the Cross. This was the fulfillment of the promise made to Adam on behalf of all people. Jesus' death was His greatest love and His greatest glory (Jn 17: 5,6), an act of worship that won for Him the victory over sin and death in the experience of His predicted Resurrection three days later and the title of Redeemer of All Mankind.
The Title of this blog is 'From Jerusalem to Augusta and back... Those three dots indicate there is more. We have been in Jerusalem for the death of Jesus and the Last Supper. We have to come back to Augusta before we finish. We have identified the Last Supper with Calvary. It remains to identify the Sacrifice of the Mass that we experience here in Augusta at St. Mary on the Hill with the other two.
The infinite love of Jesus the Word of God was experienced and proclaimed as a unique experience, once and for all, in the naturally limited physical nature of the suffering of Jesus on the Cross (as one of us He had only so much to give and gave it all), and naturally limited as well by time and place in its historical mode ( in a certain hour on the hill of Calary). The experience of the Last Supper was also a once in a lifetime unique experience, never to be repeated in its historical mode. What made it so was the unique physical presence of Jesus at the table . The words spoken by Jesus over the bread and the wine at the Last Supper were spoken in the sound of His personal voice in the sight of His physical presence. The combination of these precise details would never occur again.
As the Last Supper was the experience of Calvary in a different mode so the experience of the Mass is the experience of the Last Supper in still a different mode. We refer to it as a Sacramental mode. In every experience in the Sacramental mode we have three elements, a reality that is signified in some tangible way, and a response by the person receiving the Sacrament. In reference to the Sacrifice of the Mass Calvary is the basic reality signified in the here and now by the love and Sacramental presence of Jesus in the bread given and in the wine poured out and received by a believer in the Sacrament of Holy Communion.
This has been a long blog with a rich content that merits reflection upon it. I hope to share a few further insights that will be helpful in another blog 'tomorrow'....
Blog # 298 focused upon the event of the original Good Friday experience of Jesus in Jerusalem. It was identified as an act of perfect obedient love and, as directed to the Father, labeled Worship.
In the light of our belief in the mystery of the Incarnation, in Jesus and the Word of God we have the same person. And in further light coming from the Incarnation, we have, in the normal experiences of Jesus as one of us, truly human experiences such as hunger fatigue lonelines generosity death temptation and the other normal limitations other than sin we all know in our day by day human lives. On the other hand when the Father's plan for Jesus called for thoughts actions or words beyond the scope and capacity of His biological human nature, Jesus, in obedience to the Father, was personally capable of experiencing these realities as divine as well as human or in other words as experiences of God on earth in Him and therefore infinite, beyond and independent of the limitations Jesus knew and we know as mere human creatures.
In that paragraph, reminding us of the clearly revealed identy in a single person of the Eternal Word and Jesus, and the consequences of this identity, seen in the perfectly human (limited) and divine (unlimited) experiences in the life of Jesus, it seems to me we have a fundamental and most important theological truth that does not normally seem to be part of the conscious awareness of folks in a typical congregation assembled before the altar at a time the Sacrifice of the Mass is being offered. In the light of such a lack of awareness it seems to me we could hardly understand, let alone be aware of what was going on at the Last Supper the evening before Jesus died, and, in the light of this, at the Eucharistic table around which we might be asembled as Mass is being offered.
First we must be aware of and appreciate what was going on at Calvary. The physical suffering and death of Jesus on Calvary, necessarily limited by its nature, occurred in its historical mode once and for all, never to be repeated in that mode. On the calendar, the twenty four hours of the day Jesus died on Calvary will never come again. So it is with the blood He shed and with all of the pain and suffering that goes with being crucified. It began that morning, continued for a time until His heart stopped beating and He died. He had given all He possessed. He had no more to give. Such is the way it is with death. It was this way for Jesus in the plan the Father had for Him. He had said "Yes" to it in the garden of Gethsemane the evening before. It would never happen again this way.
What next? In the Biblical narrative of it, the mystery of creation sin and salvation started with our Creator's promise to send a redeemer bearing the gift of forgiveness of sin. It continud on in Moses, Abraham, and a long line of Prophets who handed on the story of the promise and kept the hope for it alive in God's Chosen People. Then came Jesus, identified in the minds of people living around him in the town of Nazareth as the son of Joseph, a local carpenter. While still a young man Jesus made the claim for himself to be the fulfillment of the promise made to Adam. For a period of about three years He engaged in a ministry of preaching, shedding light on the meaning of the promise and upon His own divine identity as God's Beloved Son.
Finally on the evening before He died, while officially celebrating the Feast of Passover commemorating the release of God's Chosen People from the slavery of Egypt, Jesus did the most important and astonishing thing He ever did. It was His greatest miracle. It was the act that fulfilled the promise of Genesis and won salvation for all people who would hear of it and believe in it. He took bread and said it was His body given. He took wine and said it was His blood, the blood of the new and eternal covenant, poured out for the forgiveness of sins.
The same words Jesus proclaimed over the bread and over the wine at the Last Supper could truly have been said of the body and blood of Jesus on Calvary as He hung and died on the Cross the day before. The same words applied to both instances express an identical truth about the bread and the wine and His body and blood but in different modes. The key to understanding this lies in the words given and poured out. Given and poured out on Calvary in one historical mode. Given and poured out at the Last Supper in another mode unique to that occasion.
Three men died on Calvary that first Good Friday. One of them died a broken and despairing man. A second of the men we know as Saint Dismas, the Good Thief. The third man, Jesus, was God, the Eternal Word, come among us as Jesus precisely for this moment, to die, to show us what it means to love most perfectly in the unconditional trust and total self-giving of Jesus in His death on the Cross. This was the fulfillment of the promise made to Adam on behalf of all people. Jesus' death was His greatest love and His greatest glory (Jn 17: 5,6), an act of worship that won for Him the victory over sin and death in the experience of His predicted Resurrection three days later and the title of Redeemer of All Mankind.
The Title of this blog is 'From Jerusalem to Augusta and back... Those three dots indicate there is more. We have been in Jerusalem for the death of Jesus and the Last Supper. We have to come back to Augusta before we finish. We have identified the Last Supper with Calvary. It remains to identify the Sacrifice of the Mass that we experience here in Augusta at St. Mary on the Hill with the other two.
The infinite love of Jesus the Word of God was experienced and proclaimed as a unique experience, once and for all, in the naturally limited physical nature of the suffering of Jesus on the Cross (as one of us He had only so much to give and gave it all), and naturally limited as well by time and place in its historical mode ( in a certain hour on the hill of Calary). The experience of the Last Supper was also a once in a lifetime unique experience, never to be repeated in its historical mode. What made it so was the unique physical presence of Jesus at the table . The words spoken by Jesus over the bread and the wine at the Last Supper were spoken in the sound of His personal voice in the sight of His physical presence. The combination of these precise details would never occur again.
As the Last Supper was the experience of Calvary in a different mode so the experience of the Mass is the experience of the Last Supper in still a different mode. We refer to it as a Sacramental mode. In every experience in the Sacramental mode we have three elements, a reality that is signified in some tangible way, and a response by the person receiving the Sacrament. In reference to the Sacrifice of the Mass Calvary is the basic reality signified in the here and now by the love and Sacramental presence of Jesus in the bread given and in the wine poured out and received by a believer in the Sacrament of Holy Communion.
This has been a long blog with a rich content that merits reflection upon it. I hope to share a few further insights that will be helpful in another blog 'tomorrow'....
Thursday, April 25, 2013
Blog # 298 Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord.
Blog #298 Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord
Years ago when I was an altar boy the title of our liturgical celebration the Sunday before Eater as far as I can remember was always simply Palm Sunday. In the recently published official edition of the Mass texts it is given a more complete title which identifies it further by reference to the Passion of the Lord. I was happy about this and chose the expanded title as the title of Blog # 298.
I did this in order to give myself an opportunity of sharing with you some important insights into the theological identity of the passion and death of Jesus that I feel may be unfamiliar to many. As I have come to understand, experience, and apply them, they have clarified for me more clearly than ever the theological nature of the events of Calvary, the 'last Supper' and the Mass, the relationship between these three, and the relationship all three have to the Sacrament of Baptism.
It seems to me for many people the primary and almost total goal of the sufferings and crucifixion of Jesus was to atone for sin. I remember from years ago in one of our theology classes in the seminary the question being asked whether death would have occurred in our human experience of life if sin had not occurred. It was a speculative question since sin did occur and continues to occur all over the world. No one could be sure of the answer to our speculative question if God would not have revealed it to us, but the experience of reflecting upon the question helped us identify and appreciate more fully the actual historical 'work' or goal of the Crucifixion and death of Jesus on behalf of all people throughout the world and down through history until the end of time. "There is no salvation in anyone else, for there is no other name in the whole world given to men by which we are to be saved." ( Acts 4:12).
My speculative answer to the speculative question back then in our theology class and carried on through the years was : Yes, death, or an experience equivalent to death, that God would provide,would have existed and would have been offered to every human person God would create even if sin had not occurred. Of course this experience would have been without the negative elements of the experience of death as we know it that can be ours with sin in the picture, such as the feelings of guilt, fear, the mystery and challenge of suffering, shame, etc. I found a clue to the solution of the question in seeing death as the unique opportunity it is of experiencing the perfect love of giving all that we have on earth in the instant we cross the border between life and death, not that we be conscious at that moment but that now in good health and full feedom we choose it according to God's plan for us and never negate that choice for the rest of our lives.
I will give just a few familiar texts here that have served as a background and basis for my further insight into the theological identity and goal of the Crucifixion.
"Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that all who believe may have eternal life in him." (Jn 3: 14, f). "When you lift up the Son of Man, you will come to realize that I AM and that I do nothing by myself...The One who sent me is with me. He has not deserted me since I always do what pleases him." ( Jn 8: 28 f). " Now has judgment come upon this world, now will this world's prince be driven out, and once I am lifted up from earth - will draw all men to myself." ( This statement indicated the sort of death he had to die.) (Jn 12: 32 f).
As part of the long discourse given by Jesus at the Last Supper, John has this: " I shall not go on speaking to you longer; 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." (Jn 14: 31). And He led the Apostles to Gethsemani and His arrest by the secular Roman Government.
Until fairly recently I used to refer to the experience of Jesus on the Cross as an example of perfect loving obedience, doing the will of the Father to the extreme of laying down His life. I saw that view as correct in recognizing the Crucifixion as both obedience and love , but now see it as incorrect in identifying the Crucifixion in its essence as obedience rather than as love, in other words with the emphasis on obedience rather than on love and in this way altering the nature of the experience. (Jn 14: 31).
The major consequential difference between these two ways of identifying the Crucifizion and death of Jesus may not be perfectly clear at first to all. Everything that Jesus thought, desired, spoke, or accomplished was done in obedience to the Father's will. All of these examples of obedience could be and were multiplied morning, noon, and night, day by day every moment of the life of Jesus on earth.
Everywhere, and always. The Crucifixion was also an act in
obedience to the Father's will.
But of its very nature it cannot be placed among and as equivalent to all the other acts of obedience Jesus performed. In other words, the Crucifixion was not just one act of obedience among many. To lay down one's life , the act of dying, is unique, once and for all, total. There is no competitor when it comes to other possible experiences. Jesus actually died on the Cross. The Eternal Word, equal to the Father and the Spirit, by force of the mystery of the Incarnation had become one of us,and given the name Jesus, was capable now of death as we are so capable.
He gave His life into the hands of His Father in the greatest love that has or ever will have touched the earth.
All the experiences of Jesus were done as an expression of His love for the Father. Obedience unites us one way or another to the authority giving the command we obey. Our personal motivation in choosing to be obedient at any one time could be fear, as for example I might choose to do my work in a factory in obedience to the boss for fear of losing my job. Or an elephant might do his series of tricks at a circus for the sake of the reward given him immediately afterward. The motivation may also be love but in the case of obedient love the object of our obedience, the what of a command, is not something external to us but within. If we were to receive a command to obey, the comand determines what we are to think say or do. If we were to receive a command to love, love determines the nature and extent of our obedience. In other words I can experience obedience without love but not genuine love without the will to obey.
The distinct unique love we have for God is referred to as worship. Worship is held for God alone because God, as the sole Creator of all that exists, deserves or is worthy of such love. The experience and proclamation of Jesus on the Cross, His unconditional trust and total love is clearly recognized as an act of worship.
Down through the ages from the first beginning of the story of creation, from Cain and Abel, the children of Adam and Eve, through Moses, and Abraham, in the selection and setting aside of the tribe of Levi as priests, the experience of sacrifice was designated and commanded by God as the official experience and sign the Chosen People received to experience and signify their unconditional trust and total love for their Creator.
The experience and proclamation of Jesus on the Cross fulfilled all of the conditions given in our theological definition of sacrifice: An offering to God alone by an official representative of the people with a change or destruction of what is offered in order to recognize, experience, signify and proclaim our unconditional trust, total love, and complete dependance upon our Creator.
The suffering and death of Jesus was an act of worship. All that went before was in preparation, by God's design, for this. As Jesus said explicitly of the law and the Prophets, He did not come to destroy them but to fulfill them. They led the way to Him. There never could be any greater love than His, that of the eternal Word, equal to the Father and the Spirit from all eternity now living among us as one of us without ceasing to be the Word, yet as one of us destined to die, giving willingly in faith all that He possessed on earth in obedience to the Father, in death. "Do not think that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets. I have come not to abolish them, but to fulfill them.." (Mat 5: 17). "There is no greater love than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends." ( Jn 15:13).
The 'work' or goal of Good Friday was the Crucifixion, death, love, worship, fulfillment of a covenant. What has this to do with the Last Supper and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass?
Check out Blog # 299.
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Years ago when I was an altar boy the title of our liturgical celebration the Sunday before Eater as far as I can remember was always simply Palm Sunday. In the recently published official edition of the Mass texts it is given a more complete title which identifies it further by reference to the Passion of the Lord. I was happy about this and chose the expanded title as the title of Blog # 298.
I did this in order to give myself an opportunity of sharing with you some important insights into the theological identity of the passion and death of Jesus that I feel may be unfamiliar to many. As I have come to understand, experience, and apply them, they have clarified for me more clearly than ever the theological nature of the events of Calvary, the 'last Supper' and the Mass, the relationship between these three, and the relationship all three have to the Sacrament of Baptism.
It seems to me for many people the primary and almost total goal of the sufferings and crucifixion of Jesus was to atone for sin. I remember from years ago in one of our theology classes in the seminary the question being asked whether death would have occurred in our human experience of life if sin had not occurred. It was a speculative question since sin did occur and continues to occur all over the world. No one could be sure of the answer to our speculative question if God would not have revealed it to us, but the experience of reflecting upon the question helped us identify and appreciate more fully the actual historical 'work' or goal of the Crucifixion and death of Jesus on behalf of all people throughout the world and down through history until the end of time. "There is no salvation in anyone else, for there is no other name in the whole world given to men by which we are to be saved." ( Acts 4:12).
My speculative answer to the speculative question back then in our theology class and carried on through the years was : Yes, death, or an experience equivalent to death, that God would provide,would have existed and would have been offered to every human person God would create even if sin had not occurred. Of course this experience would have been without the negative elements of the experience of death as we know it that can be ours with sin in the picture, such as the feelings of guilt, fear, the mystery and challenge of suffering, shame, etc. I found a clue to the solution of the question in seeing death as the unique opportunity it is of experiencing the perfect love of giving all that we have on earth in the instant we cross the border between life and death, not that we be conscious at that moment but that now in good health and full feedom we choose it according to God's plan for us and never negate that choice for the rest of our lives.
I will give just a few familiar texts here that have served as a background and basis for my further insight into the theological identity and goal of the Crucifixion.
"Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that all who believe may have eternal life in him." (Jn 3: 14, f). "When you lift up the Son of Man, you will come to realize that I AM and that I do nothing by myself...The One who sent me is with me. He has not deserted me since I always do what pleases him." ( Jn 8: 28 f). " Now has judgment come upon this world, now will this world's prince be driven out, and once I am lifted up from earth - will draw all men to myself." ( This statement indicated the sort of death he had to die.) (Jn 12: 32 f).
As part of the long discourse given by Jesus at the Last Supper, John has this: " I shall not go on speaking to you longer; 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." (Jn 14: 31). And He led the Apostles to Gethsemani and His arrest by the secular Roman Government.
Until fairly recently I used to refer to the experience of Jesus on the Cross as an example of perfect loving obedience, doing the will of the Father to the extreme of laying down His life. I saw that view as correct in recognizing the Crucifixion as both obedience and love , but now see it as incorrect in identifying the Crucifixion in its essence as obedience rather than as love, in other words with the emphasis on obedience rather than on love and in this way altering the nature of the experience. (Jn 14: 31).
The major consequential difference between these two ways of identifying the Crucifizion and death of Jesus may not be perfectly clear at first to all. Everything that Jesus thought, desired, spoke, or accomplished was done in obedience to the Father's will. All of these examples of obedience could be and were multiplied morning, noon, and night, day by day every moment of the life of Jesus on earth.
Everywhere, and always. The Crucifixion was also an act in
obedience to the Father's will.
But of its very nature it cannot be placed among and as equivalent to all the other acts of obedience Jesus performed. In other words, the Crucifixion was not just one act of obedience among many. To lay down one's life , the act of dying, is unique, once and for all, total. There is no competitor when it comes to other possible experiences. Jesus actually died on the Cross. The Eternal Word, equal to the Father and the Spirit, by force of the mystery of the Incarnation had become one of us,and given the name Jesus, was capable now of death as we are so capable.
He gave His life into the hands of His Father in the greatest love that has or ever will have touched the earth.
All the experiences of Jesus were done as an expression of His love for the Father. Obedience unites us one way or another to the authority giving the command we obey. Our personal motivation in choosing to be obedient at any one time could be fear, as for example I might choose to do my work in a factory in obedience to the boss for fear of losing my job. Or an elephant might do his series of tricks at a circus for the sake of the reward given him immediately afterward. The motivation may also be love but in the case of obedient love the object of our obedience, the what of a command, is not something external to us but within. If we were to receive a command to obey, the comand determines what we are to think say or do. If we were to receive a command to love, love determines the nature and extent of our obedience. In other words I can experience obedience without love but not genuine love without the will to obey.
The distinct unique love we have for God is referred to as worship. Worship is held for God alone because God, as the sole Creator of all that exists, deserves or is worthy of such love. The experience and proclamation of Jesus on the Cross, His unconditional trust and total love is clearly recognized as an act of worship.
Down through the ages from the first beginning of the story of creation, from Cain and Abel, the children of Adam and Eve, through Moses, and Abraham, in the selection and setting aside of the tribe of Levi as priests, the experience of sacrifice was designated and commanded by God as the official experience and sign the Chosen People received to experience and signify their unconditional trust and total love for their Creator.
The experience and proclamation of Jesus on the Cross fulfilled all of the conditions given in our theological definition of sacrifice: An offering to God alone by an official representative of the people with a change or destruction of what is offered in order to recognize, experience, signify and proclaim our unconditional trust, total love, and complete dependance upon our Creator.
The suffering and death of Jesus was an act of worship. All that went before was in preparation, by God's design, for this. As Jesus said explicitly of the law and the Prophets, He did not come to destroy them but to fulfill them. They led the way to Him. There never could be any greater love than His, that of the eternal Word, equal to the Father and the Spirit from all eternity now living among us as one of us without ceasing to be the Word, yet as one of us destined to die, giving willingly in faith all that He possessed on earth in obedience to the Father, in death. "Do not think that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets. I have come not to abolish them, but to fulfill them.." (Mat 5: 17). "There is no greater love than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends." ( Jn 15:13).
The 'work' or goal of Good Friday was the Crucifixion, death, love, worship, fulfillment of a covenant. What has this to do with the Last Supper and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass?
Check out Blog # 299.
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