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April 28, 2007
4th Sunday of Easter - Words Have Meaning
I would be the first to tell you that technology scares me to death! A few weeks ago I went out and bought a DVD player (1 don't even know what DVD means). Anyway, the man at the store said that setting it up would be a piece of cake! I spent the better part of the next evening trying to hook it up to my television and finally called the telephone company guy and he came out and took care of it in 10 minutes. I imagine he went away thinking: "this guy is really weird! Any kid can set up a DVD player." 1 think it's my age, but I'm just overwhelmed when it's a matter of connecting wires and sockets and all that stuff.
I'm finding out that we live in a technological age and new discoveries in technology move faster than the speed of light. I can hardly keep up with ordinary things that practically everyone takes for granted, especially young people. I seem to need to learn a whole new vocabulary every week. Examples: Unless you know the meaning of these letters and symbols you may not be able to communicate with anybody: web cams, DSL, Podcast, E mail, E Bay, text messaging, modems, I Pods, Google, Yahoo, You Tube, et cetera. By next week there will be half a dozen more that I have never heard of. It's a scary world out there unless you are "tech-nerd." By the way, there is even a company today that hires technology people to come to your home to set up your television, your computer, your DVD or whatever else. Technology is out of control, at least for the ordinary citizen like myself.
Nonetheless, all this is very important. Throughout history humankind has always found that they needed to communicate, but today communication is more important than ever. We live and depend on WWW, the World Wide Web. If you want to check on your credit card balance, you may be speaking to a young tech person in India or Sri Lanka.
Seriously though, communicating with each other is a sign of our humanity, our wisdom even if it takes a computer or a cell phone to do it. If we don't keep up, we're lost.
Some years ago when Ronald Reagan was president of the United States, he was known as "The Great Communicator." He had risen up through the ranks as a radio announcer, so he knew something about how people hear things and what they will respond to.
A greater communicator than Ronald Reagan, to my mind, was Jesus of Nazareth. He obviously did not have the modern means of communication that we do today. Nonetheless, he knew how to use words that the ordinary person would understand. You remember the story of
how he held 5000 people spellbound for an entire day and well into the evening. Obviously, to do that, you have to have something to say, something that will capture interest.
Now, I don't know whether Jesus was a great orator like Demonstenes the famous Greek orator or the orators of the golden age of Greek culture, but one thing for sure, Jesus was skilled at using metaphors, mainly because he was always dealing with people who had little or no education. His audiences were not people who dealt in ideas; they dealt with images, material things that were part of their ordinary day.
But the important thing to remember in Jesus' use of metaphors is not the thing in itself, but what it meant. Metaphors never stand alone; they always have meaning, they point to something else. So, for instance, when Jesus wanted to speak about the simple life, he would talk about the lilies of the field and the birds of the air. When he wanted to talk about the "signs of the times," he would call peoples' attention to storm clouds on the horizon or of a red sunset. People knew instinctively what he was talking about. No explanations were necessary.
A metaphor Jesus used in several instances, as you well know, is that of sheep and shepherds. You could hardly miss them in those days; they were all over the hills and valleys, sometimes hard to keep in check.
So, why would Jesus use that example? Well, simply because sheep were animals that needed constant care, the care of shepherds. You don't just let sheep run around by themselves. Now, I'm sure Jesus was not all that interested in sheepherding as such. But when he drew out that example, people knew immediately that he was talking about them, the ordinary folks who lived in those surrounding villages, people who were literally pretty much on their own. The local leaders cared little about them, unless they did not pay their taxes.
So, when Jesus speaks about shepherds, he is referring to himself, about how he thinks of his relationship to his neighbors, the people who look up to him. All that was very clear to the folks who sat and listened to him. He was simply and clearly a person who could be trusted. They had no one else.
So, that brings us to say that metaphors are useless to us unless they are transferable, unless they extend across the years and the centuries. The question then is who are the shepherds of our age?
Your first answer, if you are a Catholic,will be to say "the bishops and pastors of churches." True enough. This has been the model of leadership in our church for centuries. But the problem with that model is that the "flock", a word I don't much like, will take for granted that that the bishops and pastors are, in fact, responsible for the life of the average Catholic.
But one thing we learned from the Second Vatican Council deliberations is that "Church is everybody." If it were not for the "flock", the bishops and pastors would have no reason for doing what they do.
So, what that means is that all of us are shepherds for each other; we are literally responsible for each other's salvation, for our Christian life. Being Christian is not a private endeavor. From the very beginning Jesus called groups together: Some in those groups were designated as leaders, but everyone was expected to make sure the whole flock was cared for. We are literally expected to lean on one another for the good of the whole. So, communication makes the Church a healthy Church, a community of believers.
What makes communication hard? What makes it difficult is when we get into our little corners with our pet positions and refuse to talk to each other. That's where charity breaks down and that's where the Church ceases to be the community of Jesus' followers.
On the other hand, communication is an exciting thing because it opens up the possibility for new and creative ideas, the chance for everyone to share something new for the good of the whole.
Despite all the new discoveries and technologies in modem communication, the most effective way to build community is still simply the human voice, the opportunity to talk to one another, respectfully with an open ear and an open mind. It worked pretty well for Jesus although I have a hunch that if the World Wide Web had been around in his time, he would probably have been spending some time on that too. After all, he was "the great Communicator."
The scriptures: Acts 13: 14, 43-52 Revelation 7: 9, 14-17 John 10: 27-30
Posted by Julie Galligan at 12:37 PM.
April 21, 2007
3rd Sunday of Easter - Meal Time
I read an interesting book a while back that had an equally interesting title. It was called: Excavating Jesus! Now, don't be thrown off by that. The body of Jesus has not been excavated. If that were the case, we might have some explaining to do about the resurrection.
Actually, the book takes a look at the excavations that have been done in recent years in the towns and villages that Jesus frequented during his lifetime: Nazareth, Caesarea, Capernaum and Jerusalem. As you could guess they have found many sites and artifacts that are alluded to in the gospels. The scientists think, for instance, they have found portions of the synagogue in Nazareth. They have also unearthed typical Jewish homes along with cups, jugs, kettles, plates and other things. All that tells you that the folks in those days lived ordinary lives as we do. They had tables and beds, household articles for cooking and eating.
The archaeologists also found other things of greater historical interest: The family tomb and burial casket (ossuary) of the high priest Caiaphas. Also a slab of rock with the name of Pontius Pilate inscribed on it in his honor (It's nice to know that the man who had so much to do with Jesus' life actually lived.)
What I found particularly interesting was a picture of a dilapidated 8x26 foot boat that two men unearthed some years ago from the mud near the shore of the Sea of Galilee.
We don't know very much about the work that ordinary folks did in those times, but for sure we know that some people were fishermen, at least those who lived on the shores of the Sea of Galilee.
You also know the number of times boats and fishing and sudden storms are mentioned in the gospels. So, boats and fishing were pretty common in those times.
My point in all this is to say that I feel my faith strengthened when I read about how archaeology confirms many incidents that are described in the gospels.
So, I can just imagine how that incident in today's gospel about the number of fish caught and the breakfast on the shore of the lake happened. It just sounds very real to me. There was a charcoal fire with bread and fish being broiled on it. Jesus is the breakfast cook! He is a preacher and a worker of miracles but also a barbecue chef! It could all have happened as described.
But the question still arises: Why did the early Church and the gospel writer decide to put those ordinary events in the gospels?
Remember, first of all, the gospels were finally put to writing some 50 to 75 years after Jesus death. They come from the preaching that was done in one or another of those early Churches in Antioch or Damascus or other places. So, what we are reading by that time is some theology, some interpretation of the events of Jesus life.
In this case then you have a story that teaches something about the Eucharist. It's a kind of repetition of what Jesus did at the Last Supper. He took bread and gave thanks for it, and passed it around to the disciples to eat.
What that early preacher probably said to his flock, therefore, was something like this: "You folks remember the story of Jesus and the huge catch of fish and how Jesus fed his friends? Well, my friends, that is what Jesus is for us still today: He feeds us with word and bread and cup. Jesus is the bread of life." That's probably what one of those early sermons sounded like. Meals and eating played an important part in Jesus life. Jesus sat down to eat with anyone, friend or foe.
But sitting at table and eating for Jesus was not simply an opportunity to satisfy his hunger. For Jesus, meals were always a sign of something to come, namely the banquet in the kingdom of heaven.
That is the way I would also like to think of the meal we take together each Lord's Day. Like the disciples of Jesus that morning, we also come here hungry, hungry for a word of wisdom and for the refreshment of the Eucharist.
There is really no stronger symbol of our Catholic faith than when we come here together and gather around the table as a family of faith to eat and drink. But what we do here each Sunday is also a sign of something to come, the banquet in the kingdom of heaven.
All that might be worth thinking and talking about when you return home today and have your family meal. It's not just something to satisfy your hunger. Every meal is a sign of God's banquet in God's kingdom whether it's halibut or salmon or even burgers and fries. Eating is always a sign of something beyond the meal; it's a sign of the banquet that will last eternally.
The scriptures: Acts 5: 21-32. 40-41, Revelation 5: 11-14, John 21: 1-14
Posted by Julie Galligan at 06:09 PM.
April 14, 2007
2nd Sunday of Easter - Faith and Flesh
As a priest I think a lot about Jesus; I hope that doesn't sound odd! I guess we all think a lot about Jesus. It's a normal thing for Christians and Catholics to do. After all, our entire Catholic life of faith is wrapped up in the one we call Son of God, the Lord, the Messiah.
Of course, there is also a lot we don't know about Jesus. The gospel writers never meant to write a full biography of Jesus' life; they are sketchy at best. Moreover, they come to us through the courtesy of those little Christian communities we call the early church, the ones mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles and the reading from the Book of Revelation which we just heard a moment ago. Each of them had a slightly different memory of Jesus that they wanted to pass on to us to keep our faith alive even in this the Twenty First Century.
The point is that our Christian faith depends in great part on what we have heard and learned from others. The church of history passes on its faith from one generation to the next.
Another question that often comes to my mind, especially on a Sunday morning when we are all gathered together like this is whether our church, this one here, resembles what Jesus had in mind when he said "On this rock I will build my church?" The church that quickly grew up after Jesus' resurrection was basically Middle Eastern, Jewish and gentile, the cultures and religions of that time. Today, there may be a dozen or more different nationalities and languages gathered for Mass on a typical Sunday morning. Look around! Did Jesus think about that, did the early apostles think that the Church would eventually look like it does today? It may not seem like an important question because we assume that the Church, like other organizations, grows with history.
The point I am trying to come to is that our Christian faith depends heavily on many human factors. We learn that, first of all, from the story of Thomas the apostle in today's gospel. Some over the centuries have called him a doubter, but my sense is that
Thomas was truly a man of faith. He obviously had spent some time with Jesus of Nazareth. He had known him personally, physically. He also knew that Jesus died in the flesh (as Paul says) so, how when Thomas' friends tell him that they have seen Jesus, he wants proof and the only proof he had, as he thought, would be to actually touch the physical body of Jesus. That would be proof enough. I'm sure any of us, given the same situation, would have said the same thing: Give me proof!
The fact is, of course, that we depend on material things all the time for proof of what we are searching for. We want to know, for instance, to whom we are talking to on the phone; we want to know whether the photo we are looking at represents the person whose name appears on the bottom. If a friend of a blind person says, "This is a flower," the blind person may say, "let me touch it," or "let me smell it." In other words, we humans are so much dependent upon our senses that we just have to put our trust in them. We have no other option. Usually, they do not deceive us.
So, my point here is that, as Catholics, as worshipers in Church each Sunday, we are much in the same position as Thomas was. We want to know about Jesus. That's why we are here. But, to be in touch with Jesus we depend on some very human factors: Our sense of sight, of hearing, of touch, even of smell. We taste bread and wine and we believe it to be the body and blood of Christ; we make an act of faith. We smell the rich odor of incense and believe that our prayers also rise up to God's sight. We hear lovely organ music, or a choir and our faith is given meaning by it. We look around and see each other sitting here and we say, "look, that person believes in Jesus like I do. That's a great source of faith for me. We all believe together."
Finally, we are all faced with a great mystery when we talk about faith. We say, "I believe" and we hope we are doing the right thing because we depend so much on simple human factors. In the end, our goal is not absolute surety; like Thomas, it’s about trust, trust that God will not deceive us.
St. Anselm of Canterbury, the great theologian of the Middle Age once made this comment about theology, that is, the search for God. "Theology," he said, is faith seeking understanding." I think that is the reason why we are here today, believers all, seeking understanding. Remember too what St. Paul once said to his parishioners: "We see now as though through a glass, darkly, but then (some day) face to face." Perhaps that's about all we can ask for now, just to see God even darkly with the promise that some day it will be clearly, face to face.
The scriptures: Acts 5: 12-16, Revelation 1. 9-11a, 12-13, 17-19, John 20: 19-31
Posted by Julie Galligan at 04:33 PM.
April 07, 2007
Easter Sunday - All Things Tend to Rise
Some while back a friend of mine asked me a question about Easter. I thought it was going to be something really deep and theological, something I would need to look up in my library. Instead he just said: "Hey, when did Easter actually start?" I imagine he thought I was simply going to say: "Well, on a Sunday a long time ago." Actually, I didn't say that. Without trying to be smart, I simply said: "It started on a Thursday, the Thursday of the Lord's Supper." He said, "Why's that?" And I said: "Well, because all life hangs together, one thing leads to another. Nothing in life is ever completely independent and separate, by itself. I'm not sure he was satisfied with that answer, but he didn't ask any other questions.
Actually, truth be known, Easter began some weeks even before Holy Thursday: Historically, it began on the day Jesus confronted the buyers and sellers and threw them out of the temple. That's when the series of events that led to Easter began. That's when his eventual death began to loom on the horizon.
So, with all that, let me say that we have been celebrating Easter since last Thursday when we celebrated the Lord's Supper here in this Church. We call all this the Paschal Mystery, the great mystery of Jesus' suffering, death and resurrection all tied in together. The great culmination of all of these, of course, comes on the morning of the Resurrection.
Well, whether most Catholics know that Easter began on Thursday or not is immaterial. Christians, whether or not they know anything about the theology of the Resurrection, do know that there is something about Jesus resurrection that draws them back to church year after year.
I think there is a deep sense and intuition in peoples' souls that makes them believe that life is never ended, that death is never the last word in life. Why is it, for instance, that we keep getting up every morning whether we like it or not, whether we are ill or not, whether the day promises to be good or not? I think we get up because we have a deep sense that this day will be important, that we are called to do something good, something creative today, that the world expects something unique from us today.
Why is, for instance, it that doctors strive almost beyond their strength to save peoples' lives? I think it is not just some professional desire to prove that they can do something scientific. I think it is because they truly believe that life is precious and that it deserves to be saved if at all possible.
I could go even further and ask why spring happens every year. (odd question!). Geologically, I think it happens because death and life are built into the universe itself. Everything in this universe in which we live is subject to life and death. There is a certain dying and rising going on all the time. But the point is that death does not have the last word. Something new always seems to rise out of the ashes of the past.
So, how does Easter fit into all this? I think it fits in two ways. First of all, the resurrection did happen; Jesus did rise from the dead, or, as Scripture has it: "God raised Jesus from the dead." That is basically what we celebrate on the Sunday we call Easter. We believe that Jesus died and rose for us, for all humankind.
But, secondly, I believe that Jesus' resurrection can also be understood as a metaphor, a living symbol that God means for all life to die and rise. That does, indeed, happen, and I believe that we may use Jesus resurrection as a confirmation of it. If Jesus died and rose, we can all expect some day to die, but also to rise again.
I will go even further and say that Jesus' resurrection is the reason why Catholics continue to come back to church Sunday after Sunday, Lord's Day after Lord's Day, to celebrate their conviction that life is always meant to continue and Jesus' resurrection is the proof for it. This one human event in our world's history is so important that we can hardly expect to simply celebrate it as a once-only historical event. Easter is what theologians call the "Uhr Sakrament ", a transcendent or transcendental experience. It crosses all boundaries and all meaning "If Jesus lives, I will live, I will live eternally."
Thirdly, I think the reason why we continue to come here each Sunday, each Lord's day is because we believe that Jesus' resurrection is not simply a special privilege afforded to him. His privilege is the one that is afforded to each of us.
Finally, I think the resurrection of Jesus is so deeply engrained in us that we can't help but celebrate it in so many human ways: We dress "like spring," we eat and drink in a special way together as families, we greet one another with the words "He is risen." And the response is: "Yes, he is, indeed, risen."
And finally, I believe there is even something in nature itself that leads us to celebrate this day. Historically, Jesus' death and resurrection happened in the spring of the year. Spring is the time of year when we naturally think about new life because it is happening, bursting out all around us. We could hardly expect to celebrate Easter in the middle of winter, at least not in the Northern Hemisphere.
So, my friends, that is the reason why I think we are here this morning. Something deep inside us drew us here because life is all we have, life is all we have to look forward to and we need to celebrate it.
So, let us say again that Easter began on Thursday, but let us also be convinced that it continues on beyond Sunday after Sunday until one day until we will celebrate it together with the One whom we call The First-Born from the dead, Jesus Christ, Son of God.
The scriptures: Acts 10: 34, 37-43, Colossians 3: 1-4, John 20: 1-9
Posted by Julie Galligan at 04:30 PM.
