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May 27, 2009
Pentecost [May 31, 2009]
Wind and fire: They are no doubt the most fascinating elements on our planet. There will be a fierce desert wind somewhere today. There may be a forest fire somewhere in the California foothills. Some people will be happy to sit around a campfire keeping themselves warm against a cold night wind. We take all this for granted, of course; it’s all part of the complex nature of the universe.
It must be said, of course, that all things that are also have meaning. Scientists may not ask the question of meaning because they have done their work and they can tell you why fire burns and wind blows. Perhaps there is nothing fascinating for them about natural elements. (Of course, I may be wrong; perhaps scientists think more deeply about wind and fire than even metaphysicians or contemplative monks.) At any rate, my hunch is that most folks in the modern world make little time for contemplation. They take the elemental forces in the universe for granted.
Not so our ancient ancestors, particularly our ancestors in the faith, people from the Middle East, the Hebrews in particular.
Here are several clear references to fire in the Old Testament: God, in the burning bush, cited in Exodus summoned Moses to reveal his name YHWH. It was sacred fire, of course. Moses took off his shoes in the presence of the Holy as many Arabs still do today.
A pillar of fire led the Israelites during the night in their escape from Egypt. A fire burning on Mt. Sinai announced the presence of God.
You see, all these might have been natural phenomena, but the Hebrews found meaning in them, sacred meaning.
As an aside, it has always seemed to me that nature provides a fine opportunity to experience wonder: Sunsets, sunrises, rainbows, cloud formations, et cetera. They all exist, of course, but they also have a unique meaning for each individual viewer.
Wind or winds have also held a prominent part in Jewish history and faith. Early on, in the Book of Genesis, wind is felt sweeping over the primordial waters to bring forth life that signified the presence of God.
In various other places in the Old Testament wind was interpreted as the breath of God, a sign of God’s spirit. We all know, of course, the story of how Adam was brought to life: God breathed air into him.
For those Israelites leaving Egypt across the Sea of Reeds, a strong East wind assisted them on their journey.
Prophets, Elijah and Ezekiel are caught up into the heavens with a whirling wind.
For the Israelites, therefore, wind is not a threat but the sacred force of God assisting his people.
Given all these references to wind and fire in the Jewish bible, it is not unlikely that we might find them mentioned in the Pentecost event spoken of by Luke in the gospel and in Acts. This was the moment in human history when the Holy Spirit moved, not over the waters, but over the lives of some followers of Jesus in the form of wind and fire and from that moment on the history the world has not been the same.
The effect of that fire and wind was to spark the disciples into action, that is, to spread the good news of Jesus to the far corners of the earth. Did it work? Take a look and see where Christianity can be found on the planet today.
From that moment forward, then, the message of God ceased to be solely a Jewish possession. Parochialism was now a thing of the past. Everyone far and wide would feel the brunt of that wind and fire. We, obviously, are the recipients of that great force here and now.
So what does Pentecost mean to us? How does wind and fire affect the contemporary Church? Here is what a contemporary theologian says: “Wind and fire remind us that ours is a church that is characterized by mobility and not stasis, by charism rather than constraint, by ecstasy rather than by retrenchment. Wind and fire blow and breathe and burn with an energy that cannot be quenched. Wind and fire attest to the difference the Jesus movement has made, is making and should make in the world.”
Of course, sacred wind and fire will never have any effect in the world unless we Christians, you and I, feel that wind in our face and that fire in our bellies and are determined to carry that good news of Jesus to the far corners of the world….well, at least around the block, or around the neighborhood. It has to start somewhere, right? But once you catch the spirit, there is no stopping it. You know how it is: Once they get out of control, no one knows where they will stop, which, of course, is as it should be.
The scriptures: Acts 2: 1-11; 1 Corinthians 12: 3-7; John 20: 19-23
Posted by Cindy Lentine at 09:43 AM.
May 19, 2009
Ascension [May 24, 2009]
Well, let me start right off by telling you that this feast of the Ascension of the Lord is a very difficult feast for me to understand. I’ve struggled with it for years, but I think that this year I may have solved my problem.
First off, it starts with the word “up.” Now, that is only a two-letter word, but a very puzzling word in itself. You might think that up is up, right? But listen how it is often used. The sun comes up, we wake up, we wash up, we speak up, we work up an appetite, we lock up the house; we look up a word, we add up our accounts, someone tells us to lighten up if we have stirred up trouble. And now, in today’s gospel, Mark says that Jesus was taken up into the heavens to be seated at the right hand of God.
It was from that one word used three times in today’s scriptures, that we derive the title of this splendid feast, the feast of the Ascension. So you see how I struggle with all this?
But let me insist immediately that I do believe Jesus Christ was taken up into the heavens. How he was taken up I do not know. What does help though are some other words: Jesus returned to the Father. Jesus reigns with the Father; Jesus Christ sits at the right hand of the Father. So, that helps me not to have to imagine Jesus going up into the skies like a NASA spacecraft or an Atlas Booster. I think those analogies are much too simplistic to compare to Christ’s sacred experience.
If I had my way, I would change the title of the feast from Ascension to Homecoming, or The Last Instruction, or The Great Commissioning. That’s what I would title it, and for this reason. There are actually only three references to “going up” in the scriptures for this feast, one in the Acts of the Apostles and two in the gospel. The main body of the scripture text has to do with other things: In those last few hours Jesus was with the disciples, he consoled them, he promised the Holy Spirit, he instructed them, he gave them spiritual powers, assigned certain ministries, et cetera. So, all those seem more important than wondering what going up means
Ah, but there is one more important element in this story. Jesus gave certain tasks to the apostles before leaving. My sense is that those assignments were meant for the Church. In other words, the last thing Jesus did was to make sure that the Church would not fail. So, he empowered the apostles to teach, preach, baptize and heal after he had gone. Most importantly, however, he told them that they must be witnesses to all that he had said and done.
Now, I am assuming, of course, that this witnessing that Jesus assigned the apostles was meant for us as well. In fact, Paul, in the Ephesian letter, even says so. It was not meant to be a hierarchical gift only, but a gift of the Spirit for all the baptized, you and me, dedicated lay folks, clerics, religious, everybody. How else should the Church survive throughout history? We are a human Church with divine gifts. “Go into the whole world” Jesus says, “and preach the good news to all creation.
I’m sure I could go on, but my time is up, so I will wrap it up for now and simply shut up.
The scriptures: Acts 1: 1-11; Ephesians 1: 17-23; Mark 16: 15-20
Posted by Cindy Lentine at 10:22 AM.
May 14, 2009
Sixth Sunday of Easter [May 17, 2009]
Here is a nice little piece of useless knowledge that you have been waiting to hear all your life-long. It is said that there are some three trillion references to love on the Internet. Don’t ask me who said so. It may just be someone’s guess. (Who cares?)
Nonetheless, outside of the so-called secular world, one version of the bible itself cites the word love over eight hundred times. Again, don’t ask me who counted.
In two of our scripture selections for this Sixth Sunday of Easter, love is mentioned eight times. In this case I counted them myself, if that means anything.
However, if numbers do mean anything at all, and I think they do, then the word love must be important to the human race. Perhaps it’s more than a word; perhaps it is even an intricate element of our human nature.
As a starter, if you read the selection from The First Letter of John in today’s liturgy and the words of Jesus quoted in the gospel, you will see immediately that the theme of these post-Easter liturgies is love.
When I first read them, I said to myself, I wish they would define it for me or, at least, tell me in what context they are using the word. But, you see, they just throw the word out there and assume that we all know what they are talking about, that we all have the same definition for it. That’s frustration, at least for me, because it means that I have to search for the meaning for myself and hope I am not interpreting Jesus’ use of the word wrongly.
At any rate, let me start this way: As I was sitting in the sun on our back patio, jotting down some notes to get started with this homily, I was listening to a beautiful song by Anne Murray on my Ipod. It is entitled: “Life, don’t run out on me.” So, I stopped for a moment and said, “Hey, maybe that’s it; maybe we spend our whole life, from the first breath we take until 2 minutes before we die, longing for that one thing in life that will mean something to us, something I would describe as our heart’s desire. And throughout our entire life, then, we struggle to realize that one thing, hoping that life and time will not run out on us.
Think about this: The tiniest baby longs for the mother’s breast,’ that’s its ultimate desire; the five year old wants its own way. The teenager longs for the girl or boy who will be his heart’s desire, at least for this week. The young man or woman goes to college, hoping to secure a six-figure job when he or she graduates, that’s the hearts desire? He or she ultimately marries the one who will complement the other. Bernie Madoff and lots of others swindle millions of people out of their savings, imagining that this money could end up being their heart’s desire. Now some are in prison, too bad.
Finally, we reach old age and we know that death is closer than we ever imagined it could be. There is nothing more to long for and yet, is it not true, that no one longs to die. (As Zorba the Greek says in Kazantzakis novel: “A man like me should live forever.” Do not each one of us want to live forever or at least as long as we can, in case there is just one more possibility that could fulfill our heart’s desire?
The interesting and mysterious point in all this is that none of us really and ultimately understands what we are searching for; we do not understand our heart’s desire; hence we keep searching throughout life, moving from one false start to another.
I have often wondered if any of us will ever die fully happy, fully satisfied and convinced that we have now realized our heart’s desire.
You may say: What’s all this have to do with love? Well, this is no definitive answer, obviously, but love seems to be that element in human life that directs us to something that will satisfy us, give us full happiness, ultimate gratification.
The huge dilemma, however, is this: The human soul is never satisfied. This temporary human object of my love will never be enough. The soul is always hungry for more, whatever “more” is.
I don’t know if there is any solution to this longing, but my sense is that if we can manage throughout our life to direct our longing to the other, to that other person or cause rather imagining that we can ultimately satisfy ourselves, perhaps that would be enough.
I think that is why Jesus is such a beautiful example of this: His whole life, all he said, all he did, all he died for was done for us, for the human race. He had no selfish, personal intent. He lived and died for us…the other.
I am even confident enough to say that Jesus was probably the only person in the world’s history who died happily. Hanging on the cross, he had finally found his heart’s desire.
So, then, weak as we humans are, distracted as we are by worldly desires, it might be well occasionally to ask ourselves whether this one achievement, this moment in our personal history is what we are ultimately searching for and in which we will find fulfillment. My hunch is that we will probably go on wondering about all this until the Lord calls us to our final heart’s desire, his kingdom where love is all there is.
The Scriptures: Acts 10: 25-26; 1 John 5: 1-6; John 15: 9-17
Posted by Cindy Lentine at 02:09 PM.
May 04, 2009
Fifth Sunday of Easter - [May 10, 2009]
I am unashamed to say that I have been a subscriber to The National Catholic Reporter for close to thirty years. The NCR, as it is commonly known, was first founded by a group of young adult Catholic laymen; hence the second line on the main page says that it is a lay catholic weekly (bi weekly these days, given the economy).
At any rate, being edited and published by lay people, one can expect less surveillance and supervision by the hierarchy. Some may say that this could put the “Catholicity of the paper into question. Others will say, predictably, that it’s the only way to get to objectivity in the news.
Having said all that, I want to add that Catholic news events seem to be popping faster than a bi-weekly Catholic newspaper can absorb them.
Hence, in recent times one must access Catholic news on NCR on line because they occur so rapidly. Indeed, several major Catholic news events may occur within the space of one hour.
I wanted to preface this homily with that piece of information because of the number of disquieting Catholic events that have happened around the world over the past several weeks.
A short description of each event will need to suffice: First, the sexual scandal within the religious community called the Legionnaires of Christ. Secondly, the schismatic Catholic group calling itself The Society of Pius X has separated itself from Rome over issues of the Second Vatican Council. Third, the scandal concerning Bishop Williamson, an Englishman (a member of the Society of Pius X) who claims that the numbers of Jews killed in the Holocaust was much fewer than reported. Thirdly, and some few years ago, the Vatican initiated an investigation of American seminaries for irregularities. Finally, just today (April 15, 2009) the Vatican launched an investigation of alleged irregularities of LCWR, (Leadership Conference of Women Religious) the elected group that represents roughly 95% of American religious sisters.
In addition to such disturbing major issues there are also serious issues noted in the NCR of Catholic individuals who are censured by a local ordinary (bishop) for “irregularities”.
I make no judgment on any of these issues, but what seems evident to me is that there is an increasing number of individuals or groups, initially Roman Catholic, who have broken from the center of the faith. Of course, there have always been such “uprisings” in the Church, all of which seems to indicate that Jesus’ explicit desire for one flock, one shepherd that we read of so clearly in this Sunday’s gospel, is far from fully realized. Even the earliest days of the apostolic church had its unique differences of opinion and practice.
On the other hand, if our Church is to be described as one, holy, Catholic and apostolic, such historical separations from the core of our Church can hardly be beneficial to the Body of Christ.
Personally, I would consider it a privilege and a responsibility to belong to the community that Christ founded even though I may have my share of differences with its leadership. Jesus is still the vine and we are the branches whether we consider ourselves grapes, oranges, apples red-hot chili peppers or whatever.
It is unity that will make us strong. Nothing is accomplished by formally or informally separating ourselves from Christ’s church. Personally speaking, I would feel rather lonely out there in the world if I did not have the Church to support me. But does that stop me, or any Catholic, from speaking out regarding critical issues that affect us in the Church or the world today? I would hope not. If we consider ourselves branches of the vine that is Christ we should consider it a right to appeal to the vine. I can imagine Jesus Christ saying: Hey, that’s okay; we’re part of one another, right?
Scriptures: Acts 9: 26-31; 1 John 3: 18-24; John 15: 1-10
Posted by Cindy Lentine at 11:05 AM.
