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September 24, 2006

Twenty Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time - A Child's Vision of Life

If you were to ask the ordinary Christian who reads the gospels with any regularity, ask what they like best about Jesus, besides the fact that he was Son of God, they might tell you without hesitation, that what they like best is the way he treated little kids, or how he appreciated little kids. Who can argue with that? Anyone who likes little kids can't be all bad!

It is true; most people remember with great delight those several passages about Jesus and little children. We can identify with that sort of attitude. After all, we were kids once ourselves, we all know little kids, how cute they are, how loving, how innocent, (at least until they are six years old) how dependent they are on the adult world, et cetera. Most folks, therefore, would say that Jesus' attitude toward children proves that he was as human as the rest of us. God probably loves little kids too, but Jesus proves it. Jesus defends kids; he speaks of them as models for what he says his kingdom is like. "Such is the kingdom of God," Jesus says.

Now, right there, my friends, we will get a sense that, for all his affection for children, Jesus is not all that interested in little kids as such.

True, Jesus loved kids, but not simply because they are cute and cuddly. If he is going to compare them to politics, then we know immediately that something serious is going on.

Now, don't be put off with the word politics because politics often has a bad "odor." Politics has to do with the affairs of the people, the polis, with peoples' concerns.

You will notice I said "politics" but whenever Jesus uses the word "kingdom", he is actually talking about politics, that is, about a certain way of looking at the world, at culture, at the concerns of people, especially a certain number of people, namely, the poor.

So, what Jesus is suggesting is that when you observe the lives of little children you will immediately begin to understand how he thinks of life in this world or, better, how God thinks life in this world could be in the best of circumstances.

So, that is what Jesus means when he uses the word kingdom. One author I read recently described it like this: "Kingdom, in Jesus terms, means what life would be like in the world if God decided to come and be in charge." Another author described it as "God's dream, God's dream of life", as opposed to our understanding of reality, the way things really are.

So, when Jesus talks about the model of the life of little kids, he is actually referring to two different ways of looking at life.

The first is one we know best if we simply look around and see how things are, how life happens, the way politics and culture and even religion have developed over these many years. We could call that the secular or worldly model.

How should we characterize that model? Here are some words we often hear: "Politics as usual." We immediately know what that means. Some other words: Competition, winning at all costs, domination, power, privilege, consumption, affluence, appearances, individualism. That is pretty much the way life goes in this world. People are interested mainly in "getting ahead," getting a "leg up" on the other person, never being thought of as a loser.

Now, this does not mean that all these characteristics are bad in themselves or that people are bad who espouse them. It just means that life in this world is often conceived of as a struggle, competition at the expense of the neighbor, about taking advantage over others.

So, according to Jesus, life in this sort of world is a battleground: The one who has the most power, the most influence is the one who ends up with all the marbles, as kids say. That's one way of looking at life, at one set of politics, if you will.

Now, here is the way Jesus' politics looks: It can be described simply as a politics of compassion, the politics of the poor, the disadvantaged, the oppressed, the "little ones of God."

Remember, of course, Jesus spoke mainly to peasant people, the little ones of the world. He had less concern with the powerful, whether of the state or of the temple. They could take care of themselves.

So, life or politics in Jesus' kingdom meant that people should be able to live together in peace, to care for one another, to have compassion for one another; that would be the ideal world, the "dream of God".

Now most so-called "upper class" people would probably say, "this is all craziness; life doesn't work that way. Everyone has to take care of himself.

But, of course, we also need to ask: What happens when everyone takes care of him or herself? The rich get richer and the poor get poorer; some suffer while others are able to control their destinies. In other words, the politics of individualism doesn't make life in this world any more bearable for most people. All this is what leads to war and oppression.

Jesus, of course, would say, "Could life in the world be different if we tried? Could peace and compassion be given a chance?"

I think we all would like to believe that it could despite the fact that it does not happen as often as it should.

So, that is why Jesus thought little kids could be an example, a model for us adults. The problem is that we grow up and put so-called "childish ways" behind us, and all that is to our great loss. But God's "great dream" is more than a dream. It's the way life was meant to be and could be. Even little kids would tell you that.

The scriptures: Wisdom 2: 12, 17-20, James 3: 6-4:3, Mark 9" 30-37

Posted by Julie Galligan at 11:22 AM.

September 17, 2006

Twenty Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Self Definition

No one has ever asked me the question, but if someone did ask me the question, I would probably think a little bit about it. The question: "Who are you?" Most of us would say, "Well, my name is and I work over at so'n'so's, and you can find me in the phone book, on e-mail or even on the Internet." That might be enough for some, but it would not be asking very much, in fact, it would simply be asking for superficial answers.

The fact is (I think it's a fact!) that we really don't know who we are: We may know our name, obviously, and where we have come from; we know who our ancestors are and all that. But it is really an assumption we know the answer to the question of who we are and that we can give a clear answer. We're just operating on externals, on what we can prove from what we can see in the mirror or hear from our voice.

A better question about our identity might be: "What do you believe in? What is important to you in life? What do you stand for? What would you defend against all odds? That would tell your questioner something, not everything, but something more than your name, address and phone number.

Self-identity is one of those mysterious things that we work at our entire life, at least from the time we begin to take life seriously in our teenage years. It's around that time that we begin to form ideas, convictions, resolutions, et cetera. Of course, all those keep changing as we grow older so that by the time we are senior citizens we may still trying to figure out who we are, which is ok, of course.

I wanted to offer that little introduction so that we can think a little about Jesus and who Jesus was. There is no doubt that Jesus of Nazareth was (is) one of the most interesting and mysterious people who ever lived. He was mysterious not because he was Son of God, but because he contradicted practically everyone's assumptions about himself. I'm sure that if people asked Jesus who he was, he would not have said, "Well, I'm Jesus from the town of Nazareth. Joseph was my father, Mary, my mother. I have relatives who have lived around here for years." Jesus would not have said any of that. Rather, he would have said what he would like people to remember about him. "I would like to be known as a prophet in the model of Isaiah and Jeremiah." He would have said, "I would like to be known as a wise man, a sage, a preacher of compassion, a man who challenges conventional wisdom, a man who intends to establish a new movement of the spirit among my people." Above all, he would have said, "I have come to establish kindness in the place of violence, love in place of hate, peace in place of war. In other words, I'm a person who looks at life in a completely differently than most people." That's probably what he would have said. By the way, Jesus never said, outright “I am God." But he did say that he had come to do God's will that he had come to establish God's kingdom on earth.

In short, I think that tells us more about Jesus than what he looked like, how he spoke, et cetera, although those have always been interesting questions too.

Well, all this comes from the simple question in Mark's gospel: Jesus is interested in knowing what people think of him, but that is not enough because the general public had rather superficial notion of Jesus: Healer, miracle worker, multiplier of bread for 5000, multiplier of wine at weddings, a kind of prophet, a military kind of person, et cetera.

But Jesus, obviously, was not satisfied with that. It was too shallow. So, he asks Peter, who should know, "What do you think, Peter? What is your perception of me? Peter replies: "You are the Christ; you are the anointed of God."

But it is interesting that when Jesus reminded Peter that God's anointed would have to suffer and die, Peter thought that was absurd. “It was impossible for God's anointed to have to suffer and die. In other words, he still didn't really understand who Jesus was; he was merely looking at externals.

All this finally brings us to the question we have to face every day if we are Christians: Who do we think Jesus is, and how does that affect our life? That question really defines our Christian life because the way we answer it will tell us how to live.

Perhaps the most important thing to remember is that we should not do what Peter did: We can't make Jesus be someone he never intended to be. We can't make Jesus fit our own ideas and assumptions. We simply have to let Jesus be who he is for us today and live with that even though it may make us a little uncomfortable. After all, Jesus asked some hard questions, expected his followers to be ready to suffer a little for what they believed in.

I suppose, for most of us, being Christian or Catholic doesn't threaten us with very much suffering or even much hardship. (Perhaps a little fasting once in a while.) But usually being Catholic is not even very hard work: We go to Church on Sunday, say our prayers, live morally upright lives and that's about it. That alight well be ok, but it might also be well for us occasionally to ask: "Lord is there anything else you have in mind for me? Have I missed anything' If we ask ourselves that question honestly, we can be sure there will be some interesting answers.

The scriptures: Isaiah 50: 5-9a, James 2: 14-18, Mark 8: 27-35

Posted by Julie Galligan at 11:09 AM.

September 10, 2006

Twenty Third Sunday in Ordinary Time - Human Incompleteness

I never think of it very often, perhaps none of us do, but all of us make hundreds of decisions every day. Pm thinking particularly about the way we use our human senses: What we will watch or look at, what we will listen to, what we will enjoy, what we will avoid at all costs. For instance, I would rather watch a beautiful sunset than a segment of Seinfeld or Treasure Hunt on TV. I would rather listen to a piece of jazz by the organist Billie Preston than something by the Rolling Stones. (this is a personal preference, of course). Nonetheless, our senses, our human faculties give us lots of options.

It has often occurred to me that God must have had us in mind when he created all things of beauty, things to hear and see and smell and touch. What good is a sunset if you can't see it? What good is a Beethoven sonata if you can't hear it, a lilac bush if you can't smell its beautiful odor, a glass of Chardonnay if you can't taste it?

At the same time, we must be honest and say that there are lots of folks who do not have the use of one or other of these senses and perhaps that may seem like a great tragedy, at least to those of us who have never been without them.

Fortunately, in our own times, we have become much more sensitive to the needs of folks who are handicapped. There was a time when we paid scant attention to their need for access to buildings or transportation and all the other things we take for granted; we seem to be slow learners.

From my reading of the gospels and the daily life of Jesus, I get the impression that he was a very sensitive and intuitive person. Hardly anything escaped his notice: He observed changes in the weather and asked what it could mean. He pointed out the loveliness of the birds in the air and the fields of flowers. But he also insisted that, lovely as these may be, every human person is even more precious in God's sight.

Although Jesus was sensitive to beauty, he also knew that not everyone was able to experience all this first hand. So, from your reading of the gospels, you will already be aware how often Jesus would be overwhelmed with grief and compassion for people who were blind, who could not hear, or who had no access to healing water, et cetera. Now, Jesus did not assist everyone who was handicapped, and that is a great mystery we shall never solve. We do know however, that he did have compassion for people who came to him for help.

Of course, that is a model for all of us, whether or not we have full use of our human faculties. People with handicaps do not ask for compassion, they simply ask for understanding and respect. After all, when you think about it, we are all somewhat handicapped. There is no such thing as a "perfect person, a perfect human being."

What can we learn from all this? For one thing, we can all learn how better to appreciate the gifts of our human senses, how we could learn to pray better, for instance, simply by experiencing everything around us to the fullest, whatever is beautiful, lovely, comely, inspiring, enlightening, tasteful, harmonious, full of meaning. In other words, we ought not take our human faculties for granted, but rather let them be more for us than eyes, ears, noses and limbs. They are the means whereby we experience God. In other words, God is in the obvious, but it takes a little noticing.

Speaking of noticing the obvious, I am always reminded here of that little piece of poetry by Elizabeth Barrett Browning that goes like this:

Earth's crammed with heaven
and every common bush afire with God. But only they who see take off their shoes. The rest sit around it and
Pluck blackberries.

I think that might have been something like that which Jesus had in mind when he suggested that we should pay attention to the birds and the flowers. They are metaphors for God if we have the good sense to pay attention.

The scriptures: Isaiah 35: 4-7, James 2: 1-5, Mark 7:31-37

Posted by Julie Galligan at 11:03 AM.

September 03, 2006

Twenty Second Sunday in Ordinary Time - Written in Stone

For those of you who love old movies, there is one that you might remember from the year 1956, The Ten Commandments, starring Charlton Heston, in the role of Moses (who else?). Anyway, what I remember best, besides the famous scene of the parting of the Red Sea is Moses receiving the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai: Fire springs from God's finger tips and the commandments appear written on tablets of stone in Roman numerals. (you wouldn't expect them to be scribbled in sand, would you?) The point, of course, is that now God's law is forever set down, never to be changed, "written in stone," as we say. Anyone can read it who chooses to. You can read it in books of theology, in catechisms, even on the walls of courthouses. Moses himself is enshrined on the facade of the Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C. as one of the great lawgivers of history.

Well, obviously, the studios at Paramount or Metro Goldwin Mayer may have gotten the history a bit wrong or at least exaggerated, but the idea was good. All law comes from God and it cannot be changed on human whim.

Of course, over the years, down to our very own time, we have been fussing about whether the Ten Commandments should be set up in secular buildings and properties. Indeed, some while ago a judge in a southern state was admonished, disciplined and chastised for insisting that a representation of the Ten Commandments should be publicly displayed on the lawn of the local courthouse. What better place, you may say.

What is so interesting about all this, of course, is that the Ten Commandments, along with thousands of other laws, are actually inscribed on stone for all to see on a ten-foot tall black rock in the Louvre in Paris. It is called the Stele of Hammurabi. Hammurabi was a king and lawgiver who lived around 1780 B.C. in what is today Khuzistan, Babylonia. (Iraq) He is presented on the stone as receiving the Law from the Sun God Shamash, which tells you right away that people in those days knew that all law came from God (or the gods!) All law is divine law.

So then, what should we make out of Law or laws? Oddly enough, laws are something we sometimes hate, but probably need more than we think. What would life be like in this world, even in the local neighborhood, without them?

The author of the book of Deuteronomy, today's first reading, tells the people of his time that if they keep the law they will give evidence to other nations of their wisdom and intelligence. The point he is making is that law is not meant to restrict us but rather to help us be more human, more humane.

Unfortunately, we never seem to think much about the beauty of law except when we, or someone, breaks the law and needs to pay for it.

When you read the gospel for today, you get a pretty clear insight about how Jesus felt, not about Law, or the Law, not God's Law, but about human rules, warnings, et cetera. Jesus was referring, particularly, to the cleanliness codes regarding eating, what Jewish people today the Kosher laws.

What is interesting to notice, however, is that Jesus, who was also a Jew, was not antagonistic toward the cleanliness rules. He was more concerned about the possibility that the keeping or disobeying of these small, everyday rules of kitchen etiquette might distract people from the true Law, the Law of God, or even the Law of the Heart. These are his words: "You disregard God's law and cling to what is human tradition."

So, what should all this mean to us, we Catholics? Lots of folks who are not of our faith, of course, have the sense that we are a religion of rules, habits, customs, rites and traditions: Signs of the cross, genuflections, keeling, sitting, standing, fasting, abstaining, Easter Duty, Novenas, et cetera. It might seem to outsiders that every move in our faith is covered by some rule. It's not so, of course: Most of our daily traditions are meant to help us do things together, to be a unified community.

Now, of course, if we get so entangled in the human traditions, as Jesus says, that we forget what God's Law is calling us to, then we have lost our way. The temptation or the danger of getting lost in rules, as in Jesus day, is not so different from our own times.

That leads us finally to ask some questions about law itself: Why should we need it at all? It would seem as though law is already an admission of our human weakness, of our failure to live peacefully with one another without it. In a sense, that is true: We all live under what is called the Law of Nature, our natural instincts that tell us to do what is

right and avoid what is wrong. But, given our human "falleness," (what we once called Original Sin) we obviously do not follow our best natural instincts. So, in that instance, law comes in to save the day for us, alas, to protect us from. ourselves.

We all know what life would be like without Law or laws. It would be total chaos. Indeed, it is often chaos even with all our laws.

On the other hand, we have to admit that living together in the human community is often a messy thing and those who have made laws over the centuries have done us a great favor; they have helped us and instructed us in ways that are truly humane. The ideal might be that we should eventually be able to live without laws, but I'm not holding my breath for that possibility to happen any time soon.

Perhaps the best we can hope for is that if each of us truly tries to live according to our best natural instincts and according to God's law and the law of our faith, we will be doing something good for this messy world in which we live. It's is something we should be happy to do...even without laws.

The scriptures: Deuteronomy 4: 1-2, 6-8 James 4:1: 17-18, 21-22, 27 Mark 7: 1-8, 14-15, 21-23

Posted by Julie Galligan at 10:52 AM.