Keynotes for May 2008

May 4, 2008
Ascension of the Lord

Acts1:1-11
Ephesians1:17-23
Matthew28:16-20

Can human power actually spark-detonate-unleash the power of God Almighty? That's what Paul tells the Ephesians on this wondrous feast day. He invokes one stupendous blessing upon them, a blessing that could possibly be the most formal, the most elaborate and the most substantial in all the religions of mankind. He prays that they know the hope of God's call, the riches of his glorious inheritance, and the surpassing greatness of his power. But not that they simply know God's power; he would that they activate it. The passage reads:

. . . that you may know. . .what is the surpassing greatness of his power for us who believe, in accord with the exercise of his great might, which he worked in Christ, raising him from the dead and seating him at his right hand in the heavens.

Now that God has lifted his Son in ascension to his rightful dominion over the universe, has He actually put us in charge? Has the supreme force-might-strength of all being now placed Himself at our disposal? Does He truly respond to our orders? Yes, says Paul, "for us who believe in accord with" [and conform ourselves to] his will.

Now that's a partnership beyond all astonishment! For it is conferred upon
men (include ourselves here) who, as the readings remind us, are impervious creatures, stubbornly incredulous, often confused, and still dumbfounded by signs and wonders. When Luke puts aside his gospel manuscript and takes to reporting the Acts of the Apostles, the first recorded question he pops out of their mouths is, "Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom of Israel?" The forty day post- resurrection blitz of appearances is over.Intensified instruction and spiritual fortification have been completed, and still they don't get what Jesus was aiming at? Do they think he came for the purpose of saving one nation? one small tribe for a mere minute in history? Ah, but look how much of the apostles' narrow, misguided recalcitrance we see in ourselves. If we were to witness his ascension with that chosen cohort, maybe we too would stand there and with our microscopic squint block any glimpse of the grand vision. Our Lord's ascent into the vastness of the skies opens up a sprawling kingdom far beyond the heavens. It should infuse in us more energy than all that is contained in the one receding, smaller and smaller, planet called "earth".

In Mathew's gospel we witness the aspostles gathering on the mountaintop for Jesus' departure. Here again, "When they saw him, they worshiped, but they doubted." Does this lingering scepticism come from a stubborn streak, or what? What is left to doubt? We put ourselves back in their time and place, or we look deeply into our souls in our own lives, and then we have to answer candidly, "Plenty." Yet despite their disposition not to trust, Jesus choses this moment of his career to confer upon them the essence of divine POWER, i.e. the power in one human being to impart the very life of God to another human being.

Then Jesus approached and said to them, "All power in heaven
and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

Here is the wondrous mandate that should leave men of every era "looking intently at the sky" with mouths agape. Just pause for a minute and consider
how else he could have taken leave of this earth. With another procession of palms? with some stupendous, final miracle? by giving a farewell speech atop the temple? by disappearing amid a fanfare of trumpets? Our Lord's ascension was no mere physical exhibition, but rather a symbolic punctuation of everything he came for, all that he stood for, and all that he entrusted to us. His choice of ascending into the heavens reconfirms his promise that we, too, shall ascend to a life eternal, for our having exercised his power to impart new life, supernatural life to those around us. Paul assures us that
We were buried therefore by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, we too might walk in the newness of life.(Romans6:3-4)

Our church teaches that the sacraments we receive impart their grace by the
very fact of their being performed (ex opere operato), not by exercise of their administers (ex opere operantis). The Catechism of the Catholic Church says
". . .the sacrament is. . . wrought. . . by the power of God."

From the moment that a sacrament is celebrated in accordance
with the intention of the Church, the power of Christ and his
Spirit acts in and through it, independently of the personal
holiness of the minister. Nevertheless, the fruits of the
sacraments also depend on the disposition of the one who
receives them.(1128)

Would it be fitting, therefore, to call ourselves the triggers to God's awesome power? Well, look what happens when we, of our free wills, choose to initiate the reception or conferring of a sacrament, upon ourselves or someone else.

Our action instigates the infusion of God's massive graces. And we do so at the behest of the One who proved his rightful place in the universe. The One who transcended our solar system and galaxy, who positioned himself at the center of world governments, the One who made himself at home in the midst of communities, congregations, and in the deepest recesses of our hearts. So to us comes down the challenge to follow him, to share his sacraments, to make disciples, and thereby to find our own rightful places in all the same constellations of his providence.

May 11, 2008
Pentecost

Acts2:1-11
1Corinthians12:3b-7,12-13
John20:19-23

Pentecost is the annual occasion for every Christian to celebrate his/her catholicity. The liturgy today revels in the multiplicity of God's works, but the readings also proclaim the wholeness of all peoples unified in the one Spirit. There are many tongues of fire, and many languages spoken from many countries, different gifts, different forms of services, different workings of the Lord, unfortunately a plethora of sins, but only one power to forgive or retain. "Catholic" means "according to the totality." It is unity without exception, a oneness that belongs to all and to which ALL belong. This is the oneness which every believer in Jesus embraces; the completeness of Christ's body claims every member.

Our world today is beleaguered by greater fragmentation than ever before. We have moved on from those divided and distinguished worlds of yesteryear's poets, where no man was an island, to molecular biology and physics, to a sensitivity fine tuned to the slightest of particles, to the most fleeting of nanoseconds, soundbites in piecemeal, thinslices of purpose, to the tiniest impulses emitted from microchips. We flit hither and yon at a frenzied pace, joining every society, club and cause and getting nothing done. Our brains become so distracted and misdirected that we find it harder than ever to gather in the composure that Jesus envisioned. Our sense of belonging seems left behind, somewhere in the smithereens of Y2K.

Nevertheless we can still grasp something of Jesus' design for universality when we recall what happened to the apostles, hiding in the upper room as he suddenly stands in their midst. What assurances his greeting of "Peace" brought them, in seeing those fresh wounds now in check, in feeling his breath gently upon their foreheads, and in hearing that most exciting mandate:

Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are
forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.

What an overwhelming bestowal of reinforcement and wholeness, of solidarity and singleheartedness. In a flash they were moved to fling open the doors and embrace their brothers Jewish and Roman alike, of every ilk and stripe, regardless of friend or foe. All at once they felt the urge to rush into the streets and shout "Jesus is Lord," even though the full charge of Pentecost was still to come.

In the Sequence of today's Mass we ask the Holy Spirit to
Heal our wounds, our strength renew;
On our dryness pour your dew;
Wash the stains of guilt away:
Bend the stubborn heart and will;
Melt the frozen, warm the chill;
Guide the steps that go astray.

It sounds like a plea for the restoration of the individual soul, but it is not. We must recite it as intended, as a prayer for the integration of every human person into the one living body that is Christ on this earth. Ours is the one and only church he founded, where every language is heeded and understood, where every form of service is accepted and respected, where the diversity of the Lord's works is revered, where sins no matter how many or how detestable are forgiven. Being catholic, especially on this wondrous feast of Pentecost, is a gift that every Christian can proudly lay claim to and enjoy. The Catechism sums it up in Paul's words to the Galatians:
Finally, the unity of the Mystical Body triumphs over all human divisions: "For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (791)

May 18, 2008
Most Holy Trinity

Exodus34:4b-6,8-9
2Corinthians13:11-13
John3:16-18

Company--Fellowship--Adoption: something of the mystery of the Holy Trinity, ie., how there can be three persons in one God, is revealed to us through a cross illumination of these three concepts. When the Lord decends on the cloud, Moses welcomes Him with a surprisingly friendly, familiar--might we even say 'chummy' ?-- demeanor.Yes he bows to the ground in worship. But then he pops up with: "If I find favor with you, O Lord, do come along in our company" Now what could possibly induce a Father, Son and Spirit who enjoy eternal satisfaction in the glory of one another's company to want to tag along with this rambunctious prophet and his stiff necked companions? Full of wickedness and sins, by their own admission, we might add. Who is so so brash with the awesome I AM of the universe as to presume that He will "receive us as your own"? Yet history tells us that despite all the bizzare strangeness and wild wonder of this contradiction, seeking the company of the Jewish people is exactly what God did.

Later, Paul looks equally daring and astounding when he teaches the Corinthians this formulaic greeting:

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the
fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.

A fellow, says the dictionary, can be anybody, from a worthless, unimportant person of low station to a member of a learned society. Unabashedly Paul is encouraging his followers to, like, just be buddies with the Holy Spirit? As though their company (and ours today?) is of some attraction that is supposedly mutual, and reciprocal? Indeed, Paul must be sincere, for he would have his listeners treat one another with congeniality and encouragement, by mending their ways and living in peace, for then, he says, "the God of love and peace will be with you." It never occurs to him, them, (or even us today) to question whether God might have any INTEREST in doing such. A moment's pause does make us admit that we of our own merits cannot possibly be that loveable. There has to be way more to this divine desire than we ever suspected. Company and fellowship within the Trinity itself just has to be so extraordinary that it somehow radiates out to benefit us.

The notion of adoption opens further light into the mystery. The Divine Office for Trinity Sunday includes this passage from Ephesians (1:3-10):

God chose us in him
before the world began
to be holy
and blameless in his sight.
He predestined us
to be his adopted sons through Jesus Christ.

Through the immeasurable generosity of God's favor and Jesus' blood, says Paul, we were redeemed and our sins forgiven. But above all this we were taken into the Family, as the Father's children, as Jesus' brothers and sisters. "God so loved the world," says John in today's gospel, "that he gave his only Son." Now what God in his right mind would settle for such a trade off? Sacrifice his most precious, divine Son just to garner a world full of imperfect creatures? Give up the most vital, the most beloved being of his own begetting just to gather in the billions of indifferent, vain, rebellious urchins who inhabit one planet?

If He were to take me back simply as a celery stalk, a pinecone, a leaf or a flower, I an accomplished sinner among sinful people, would be glad. And I should feel exceedly overcompensated if He were to admit me as a squirrel, kitten, hedgehog or other inhabitant of the sentient kingdom. But if He has to have me in his eternal presence as a member of the intelligent species, then why not as some beggar, refugee, slave or chasened criminal? When I approach my redemption from these steps, then my being taken back as an HEIR seems preposterous. Yet we are told that this God sated in his own fellowship is at the same time a God who hungers for myriads upon myriads of companions, in millenium after millenium. Could it be that such a God does find yet another kind of satisfaction in the all-inclusive adoption of his choicest creatures?

To creatures of intelligence, when we think about it, a Creator comprised of several persons cannot be all that mysterious. How does love come into our lives to start with, if not from persons: our parents, siblings, grandparents? And how is love sustained in our waning years if not by progeny, grandchildren, and heirs ? How there can be three persons in one God is not the mystery. The mystery is this: to a God who always was, is, and forever will be the perfection of all relationships, does the inclusion of one human being (or billions of human beings) into his company and fellowship matter? What difference can it make? To God whose pure activity is total self-sufficiency, the answer is: None. But to us humans the answer is:

Everything. Our inclusion in God's intimacy means Everything. Existence is of his very essence. Our existence, on the other hand, is not a necessary one. We exist only by virtue of HIS being. We are sustained in existence only by his mercy and good graces. And for a situation that means that much to us to also mean that much to God, there can be only one explanation: Love. Within the circle of the Trinity we will find our innermost security and our highest appreciation, if we are willing to ascend.

On one Christmas night of his pontificate, Pope Leo the Great got up and preached the then-revolutionary message that every Christian is another Christ! He should be aware of his dignity, said the Pope, as one who has been lifted up above ordinary levels. On this Trinity Sunday the challenge is extended to us. Do we who have already been adopted dare to ascend, to enter the company of his fellowship?

May 25, 2008
Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ

Deuteronomy8:2-3,14b-16a
1Cor8inthians10:16-17
John6:51-58

Each of us knows himself to be an individual entity, a body and soul that forms one single being, discrete, autonomous, self-directed and self restrained. Each of us has our own "say" as to what we will or will not do, and where and how and when, and with intelligence as our guide we enjoy the freedom to make these choices. Our choices have consequences for which we are responsible, but we accept the responsibility that comes with individuality because being an individual means being loaded with so much potential and promise. For the most part, we revel in the autonomy of our self-rule. For evidence of this we need look no further than the actions of little children. While I am showing a house to one mother, Abigale her daughter, a toddler not yet two years old, seeks one mirror after another in the house, and at each fresh image of herself points to the discovery with a gleeful "Ab--bee-gail!" Who would contend that anyone other than herself is directing such behavior? The main down side to individuality seems to be its separateness, the condition wherein each of us senses so little (or nothing) of what is going on in the body or mind of someone else, and wherein we often feel that others are clueless about our own moods, concerns and dispositions. We observe the same separateness in all other individuate,
living creatures, and we realize that all of them will also die. The longing to overcome our separateness constantly surges through the human frame. Our separateness puts us out there at all times on the verge of isolation. Amid many interactions with others we sometimes feel lonely, lost and helpless. Even our yearning for solidarity with other humans yields no certainty that our personal existences will be perpetuated. Among our memories we hear the familiar refrain from a college drinking song:

post jucundum juventutem,
post molestam senectutem,
nos habebit humus.

The ancient Isrealites trudging throught the desert in today's first reading surely valued their human individuality.They took themselves to be beings of full freedom and full responsibility. They assumed that they governed their own personal selves; they enjoyed directing their own actions. But God, ever close beside them, was imparting afflictions to test that very sense of autonomy: snakes and vermin of the wasteland, hunger pangs, severe heat and hallucinatory thirsts. We wonder if waves of desperation and defeat perhaps swept over these Jews, an onslaught to which their very separateness as individuals would have made them susceptible. What enormous relief for them to wake up to the manna showered upon them. And yet, after being nourished in body and satisfied, they were still to learn that bread alone does not sustain man's penchant to thrive and live out his dreams.

This pervasive sense of isolation in the human condition may have been the matrix for Averroism. In the twelfth century the Spanish Islamic philosopher Averroes (1126-98) taught that only one intellect (soul) exists for the human race, one in which every human participates. Logically this doctrine abolishes the attributes of personal responsibility, personal liberty, and personal immortality, for how can each of us be in charge of a self if we are all subsumed under one soul? Averroism persisted for the next four centuries but was eventually rejected by the Fifth Lateran Council in 1518. In The Catholic Catechism(1975) Father John Hardon sets forth the Council's declaration that:

The soul is not only truly, of its own nature and essentially,
the form of the human body. . . but also it is immortal and,
corresponding to the number of bodies in which it is infused,
is capable of being multiplied in individuals, is actually multiplied, and must be multiplied. (p.104)

Each human soul informs a separate human body to form one human person.
Every human person has his own soul. And this state of existence, which makes every human person a discrete, free, autonomous and responsible being, also carries with it a promise of immunity from extinction. Even though it took western philosophy sixteen centuries to arrive at this conclusion, the seeds of it were planted by Jesus himself. He did not teach that all humans are subsumed under one soul; instead he invited all individuals to participate in himself, the echo of which we hear in Paul to the Corinthians:

Brothers and sisters: the cup of blessing that we bless, is it not
a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break,
is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because the loaf
of bread is one, we, though many, are one body, for we
all partake of the one loaf.

In this participation the soul's hunger for perfect union is fulfilled. Here, at last, the angst of separateness is overcome. Within the Body of Christ our longings to merge into an endless union are ultimately satisfied. By pondering these truths on this feast of Corpus Christi we come to fathom how Jesus' twin mandate brings about its result: that our love for God and for our fellow man is what catapults us into an everlasting life. It is our bonding to one another through his mystical body that confers the gift of immortality upon us. He promised this when he said,

I am the living bread that came down from heaven;
whoever eats this bread will live forever. . . .
whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life,
and I will raise him on the last day.

Receiving Jesus in the Holy Eucharist is both conquest over our separateness
and healing for our distraught spirit. It alone guarantees us immunity from that isolating, haunting, and terrifying mental state called solipcism.