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August 26, 2009

Twenty Second Sunday in Ordinary Time [August 30, 2009]

As I write this in mid- July, a delegation of our Holy Cross priests is at the Provincial Chapter in Portland, Oregon. The Chapter meets every three years to deliberate on the state of our community and make or change such legislation as best befits the times in which we live. Obviously, nothing really startling happens to change the face of Holy Cross, but often laws need to be rethought and redirected in order for us to be sure that the C.S.C. community continues to be in touch with the Church at large and true to it’s original statutes.

As I read the daily transcripts coming from the chapter each day and when I also read the scriptures for this Twenty Second Sunday in Ordinary time, it occurred to me that both texts were about law and law making. Moses, the great lawgiver tells the people of his day that if they make good efforts to keep God’s law, they will be an example of wisdom and intelligence to the nations around them.

Jesus, for his part, bemoans the fact that the Pharisees confuse the Law of the love of God for the purity laws, the washing of hands and cooking utensils. He labels such people as those who pay lip service to God but their hearts are far from Him.

That often reminds me of the over emphasis on liturgical rubrics which some clerics often practice today. Some say that one can make peace more easily with a terrorist than with a liturgist. True or not, there often is a tendency for all of us to get lost in t he daily minutiae of life and to forget the more inclusive law of love of neighbor.

Speaking of law, then, it has often occurred to me to ask, why law, why law at all? Obviously, you will respond, for good order and the protection of the common good. True enough, but let us assume the best of all possible worlds, a world described in the Genesis story where the first parents lived together in complete peace, accord and good order; seemingly they did not need a law. Law only arose when they broke the original commandment.

So, might we not imagine then that God’s original intent for us was to live without law, in a condition where humankind would live peaceably without the threat of law and punishment? Why should humankind need to be constantly circumscribed by such “protection?”

One might even go further and say that law is an admission of human failure. We only seem to need law to prevent each other from doing the unspeakable, from abusing one another or our neighbor’s human rights.

Given Moses suggestion that keeping God’s law will show our intelligence and wisdom, and given the wisdom the human race seems to have accomplished in today’s world, there should be less and less need for law. And yet, our prisons are filled with individuals who, seemingly, have paid no heed to law, divine or human. Is all this the result of Original Sin? Is the entire world so weakened that we are in constant need of surveillance and thereat?

Jesus, of course, is the greatest lawgiver in human history and yet, his laws are few. Love God and neighbor! That covers everything.

Then, of course, we have the law that assumes and covers all others, the natural law, the law that was instilled in us at first conception. We know how to act by our very nature, and yet we seem to need another law to make up for our failure to use the one we already have.

You may have noticed by now how often I have presented all this in theoretical terms. What if????

Yet, in fact, we live in a world of realities. We do not, in- fact use the God-given intelligence and wisdom with which we have been endowed. Each of us could, indeed, make this a world where law would not be necessary. We have the human wisdom and the ability to live like our first parents did in that first world of divine innocence. It’s seems possible! But at the same time we know how often we fail to measure up to God’s original intention for us. It’s not all theory or imagination. We can make this world better, more human and humane. Laws are nice and necessary even though they are also often nick-picky and bothersome

I guess we need to realize daily that our tendency is to go the way of all the earth and all flesh. Having been warned about following such false paths, there is still time to turn and follow Jesus only law, “love God, love neighbor.

The scriptures: Dt 4:1-2, 6-8; Jas 1:17-18, 21b-22, 27; Mk 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

Posted by Cindy Lentine at 11:04 AM.

August 19, 2009

Twenty First Sunday in Ordinary Time [August 23, 2009]

History, it is said, is the world’s surest teacher. Predicting the future, on the other hand, can often be a risky undertaking. We never seem to have sufficient evidence to be sure that something will or will not happen. Blind faith is not something most intelligent folks are comfortable with.

Here are a few examples: My father once told a story about my grandfather who was then in his late 80’s.
Our family had just bought its first Model T Ford. As dad proudly drove it into our grandfather’s yard he said: “Here’s the future dad.” Grandfather responded: “Believe me, those contraptions will never last beyond six months. Stick with the horse and buggy.” Grandpa died holding to that conviction. There simply was not enough evidence for him to put his faith in the gasoline engine. A person who drives a ‘09 Corvette today would smile at that prediction. In a word, granddad didn’t have enough solid evidence to admit that the automobile might have a future.

A few more examples: A century ago the average life expectancy was 47 years. The American flag had 49 stars. Sugar cost four cents a pound, coffee fifteen cents, eggs, fourteen cents per dozen. Two out of every ten adults could not read. Crossword puzzles, canned beer and ice tea had not been invented yet. Ninety percent of doctors had no college education; only six percent of Americans graduated from high school. Ah, but look at us today! The point here is that we have difficulty imagining what the future holds for the human race.
The same surely holds true also for advances in human knowledge: Philosophy, the arts and sciences, even the capacity of human understanding itself. Oddly enough, we seem to believe only in what has already happened, what we can experience at the present moment in history. Faith in the future is a difficult process. Even those who have a rich imagination are sometimes considered strange.

If all this is true regarding the slow progress of human inventiveness, think, for instance how difficult faith in spiritual matters must be.

For most of us who have been devoted Christians and Catholics all our life long, faith in God and the “things of God” may seem to come easily. Still, speaking for myself, faith in spiritual matters is often difficult for me. I believe and yet I sometimes wonder. How, for instance, is belief in the Trinity true, so too for belief in the Real Presence, miracles, heaven, the truth of the scriptures, et cetera. In matters of true faith, the mind seems hard pressed for answers if, indeed, it is answers we are searching for. Somehow, we are being asked to set the mind and its powers aside and to leave ourselves open to mystery.

I imagine this must be particularly difficult for those whom we label “thinkers,” for the seriously minded of our world. Blind faith does not come easily for such folks.

Yet, in so many matters of spirit, it is a real question: We are all people with a mind whose main task is to ask questions, to doubt, to look for whatever has not yet been discovered.

Think, then, how difficult it must have been for the disciples of Jesus who were not exactly dummies, when they were asked to believe that Jesus was the “bread of life come down from heaven?” Add to this, of course, Jesus healings, miracles, works of wonder, et cetera. If all of these had occurred in our own time, I am sure that we would have been as filled with doubt as the disciples were. Being asked to believe blindly does not seem to be a natural thing for humans. After all, what is our intellect for if not to search for the proof of things? Our natural bent is to use the mind to discover what it can on it’s own.

Perhaps you can begin to understand then why some of Jesus’ disciples went their way and could no longer believe in him or his works.

There are obviously many people who feel the same today, not out of anger, but perhaps more out of frustration because their intellect pulls them in one direction while their “suspicions” tell them that there may well be something sacred out there that we do not yet understand. (Remember the Model T Ford?).

Yes, I remember Jesus’ words to his friends, namely that if they could not believe in him, they should at least believe in his works. Nonetheless, at least for me, I find faith in Jesus more sure than his works, miracles et cetera. Jesus simply appeals to me not so much as a wonderworker but more a person who asked us to believe in him, someone who had no reason to make fools out of us. In short, speaking again, purely for myself, Jesus always appears to me as trustworthy, someone who is worthy of my sincerest search for truth.

There are lots of things I do not understand about this world, much less the world of God’s spirit. Nonetheless, I don’t have the patience to wait and see how all these mysteries will come true sometime in the future. Again, Jesus, just as he is, seems so trustworthy to me; I’m ready and always have been ready to accept him just as he is, the way he appears to me from the scriptures. If someday I am proved wrong in this conviction, I will be sad, but at this point, I’m not betting that it will happen.

The scriptures: Joshua 24, 1-2. 15-17. 18; Ephesians 5: 21-32; John 6: 60-69

Posted by Cindy Lentine at 03:05 PM.

August 11, 2009

Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time [August 16, 2009]

The big attraction on the History Channel last year was The Most Dangerous Catch, the story of crab fishermen launching out of Dutch Harbor in the Aleutians and onto the Bering Sea and the North Pacific. The series went on for months. Actually, it showed me in one segment blessing the fleet! Imagine that. Whether my blessing did, in fact, save anyone from danger I do not know. I do know, however, that ships and their crews do go down every year.

Nonetheless, I always did this task with much joy because it proved to those brave souls that we prayed to our God and their’ for their safety because of the heavy tasks they took on to provide seafood for people around the world.

Nonetheless, I imagine, for many people, water must be a scary thing because it is so uncontrollable. Remember that film, Perfect Storm? People were fascinated by it, but also scared to death.

It occurs to me that the earth itself sometimes seems overwhelming to us earth dwellers. Hurricanes often wipe out entire villages and more. Tornadoes decimate towns and surrounding countryside, floods waste miles and miles of rich farmland. It’s all part of the vagaries of nature. It’s not God’s doing.

Now, I have no way of knowing how rough the Sea of Galilee gets. It surely can’t compare with the North Pacific, but perhaps with the small boats that were used for crossing in Jesus time there was cause for alarm in a storm. At any rate, the story in today’s gospel does indicate that they were so scared that they thought they were going drown and called on Jesus to save them from utter destruction. Obviously, they must have known that Jesus had special powers; otherwise they would never have appealed to him to calm the waters.

Several of the biblical commentaries on this passage point out that this event is not so much about a storm at sea or about frightened sailors. Rather, it is a prediction by Jesus that the future Christian community would doubtless face such storms throughout its history. At the same time the early disciples and all disciples following them should never lose heart, never doubt Christ’s power to keep the Church safe from ultimate ruin.

Protecting the Church from harm is not automatically assured by the power of Jesus Christ, of course. I believe that the Church’s safety comes also from the “crew,” that is, those countless Christians over the centuries who claim to be followers of Christ.

Surely, our Church is important enough to us that we should love it enough to be willing to take on the responsibility of keeping it afloat.

Of all things, we ought not be the ones who put this Ship in jeopardy by our refusal to take on Christian tasks and Christian responsibilities in the world. There are already more than enough dangers out there facing our Church.

I return, finally, to the image of the great crab boats out in Dutch Harbor where I worked. The men who worked the “pots” were a rough and tumble bunch; they could drink beer with the best of ‘em. But one thing you did not do in the presence of those men was to refer to their boat as a “loser.” That would get you into a fight in seconds. These men were proud of their ships and were willing to bear any burden or danger to bring them back to safe harbor unharmed.

I can readily see then why Jesus would choose a boat or a ship as a metaphor for the church. What else can better carry you across stormy waters of life to safety? With a captain like Jesus, who’s afraid of the deep?

The scriptures: Job 38: 1, 8-11; 2 Corinthians 5: 14-17; Mark 4: 35-41

Posted by Cindy Lentine at 02:04 PM.

August 06, 2009

Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time [August 9, 2009]

I first read the story by Jon Krakauer in a copy of Outside Magazine some years ago; it was later stretched into a book and then into a movie entitled Into the Wild.

I’m referring to the story of young Chris Mc.Candless, son of wealthy parents in suburban Washington, D.C. He had completed a brilliant academic career at Emory University and then instead of pursuing a life in business he decided to follow his bliss, his bliss being a trip into the wilds of Alaska. His route took him through the Midwest, the far west and finally into the interior of Alaska.

This is one of those classic stories of a young man who has had enough of the soft life of the city and means to test his skills and endurance in a more primitive setting. Nothing will stop such a person, of course. He must fulfill his search for what he considers “the sacred.” All this sounds very romantic, of course, a once-in-a lifetime experience.

In fact, however, his adventure had a tragic ending. Young McCandless had little experience in the wild. He imagined he could shoot moose, if he were hungry, live in an Indian-style tent and fend for himself as long as he liked. He carried enough food for only a few days. For protection he lugged his light .22 rifle that hardly had enough power to kill a squirrel.

He crossed a calm-running river, came upon an old trapper’s school bus in which he decided to make his home. All went well until he decided it was time to return to civilization. By that time, however, the river he had originally crossed had now risen to a point where it was impassable. The import of the story is that McCandless gradually starved to death. Two moose hunters found his body the following autumn.

Native Alaskans called it a stupid venture; more compassionate individuals, however, regarded it a tragedy that rose out a desire to realize the dream of a lifetime.

So, why am I relating this story, which could be read in the original with greater satisfaction? I do it because we have two similar stories of the pursuit of life’s bliss in our scriptures for this nineteenth Sunday in the Church year.

The first is the familiar story of Elijah the prophet who, like Chris McCandless was also following his bliss, a desert journey to the sacred mountain, Horeb. Again, like McCandless, he has run out of bread and water. He is lying under a broom tree hoping for death. Fortunately, however, an angel (how fortunate!) supplies him with the needed nourishment and he finally arrives at his longed for destination, the mountain of his bliss.

The similar story in the gospel arises out of a heated conversation between Jesus and the Jews. Jesus claims that he is the bread of life, the nourishment that will carry the person faith to eternal life.

So, what do either of these stories have to do with our contemporary life story. As I read it, all of us in unique ways are following our bliss throughout our life.

Unfortunately, however, we often end up in life’s wilderness, in situations where we refuse to make use of the bread that brings eternal life. Like young McCandless, we end up starving ourselves when food and drink are readily available for the taking.

The question is, where is this nourishment for eternal life to be found in the wilderness? In my own experience it can be found in rather ordinary places: For instance, I do some lectio divina each day. Lectio divina is simply a quiet concentration on some short passage in scripture until a new insight springs forth that has never been realized before. I also follow the model of Thomas Merton by making an effort to find bread in the wilderness, nature all around me. Lastly, I try to read books that push my mind a little harder than the usual light spiritual material found in bookstores. The books by theologian, John Dunne, of Notre Dame, for instance, have always pressed me to look deeper. I am struggling with his recent book, The Way of All the Earth. It is worth the struggle.

In short the bread of life can be found in many places in our personal desert. It is simply a matter of getting quiet and letting God have God’s way with us.

Anyway, with the abundance of “bread” all around us, there is no reason to do what Chris McCandless did. And unlike Elijah too, we do not even need to wait for an angel to bring the loaf and jug. It’s already right there for the taking.

The scriptures: 1 Kings 19; 4-8; Ephesians 4: 30-5, 2; John 6, 41-51

Posted by Cindy Lentine at 10:28 AM.