« April 2010 | Main | June 2010 »
May 25, 2010
The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity [May 30, 2010]
Trinity as Experience
Some while ago I happened to be thinking about my theological history. Actually, it is not as pretentious as the title may sound but I, like most people, have absorbed an immense amount of religious knowledge in our lifetimes. It all started when my mother (it was always my mother) taught me the Sign of the Cross, then the Our Father, the Hail Mary, Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep, the Apostles Creed, the acts of faith hope, charity and contrition. Now, that’s a hunk of theology right there.
Then came the Baltimore Catechism by Cardinal Gasparri that I grew to hate. More religion in high school taught by our pastor John Hogan of fond remembrance
Oddly, there was a significant gap in my religious history during my novitiate year in the Congregation of Holy Cross and indeed during the four years of philosophy.
But then came the four-year study of theology, the queen of the sciences. After ordination I was pretty much on my own, but as I reflect on it, my sense of theology began to grow more deeply and broadly than in my four years of formal training. This was so because now I had the opportunity to choose the kind of theology that fit my desires, not abstract Thomism, but what I call experiential theology, discovering God in all that surrounded me each day.
Unfortunately, no one ever taught me that this was important during my days in class. Once I had memorized a batch of material for an exam, I would forget it. Experiential theology, however, continues day after because I am bombarded by the God experience practically all the time. Fortunately, at some point I came to the sense that all I needed to do was open my eyes, mind and soul to the sacred and that is when theology began to blossom for me.
Unfortunately, many people “put theology and religion away” when they finish their preparation for the Sacrament of Confirmation, whereas that is exactly the point in life when the experience of God should come alive. All this comes to mind in preparation for the great feast of the Trinity, the celebration of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
In order to come to some understanding of how the study of God came about we must begin with the Hebrew Scriptures, which we may describe as mainly existential or experiential, as opposed to abstract speculation. The God of Israel was perceived of as a God of the book, the Torah, a God who spoke personally to certain individuals, the prophets, for instance. Their God was one to be trusted to keep promises, to punish, but also to reward for behavior good or bad. In short, the God of Israel was a personal God.
The God of the Christians, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ was also perceived as one who loved and punished, warned and rewarded. The God of Jesus was called Father, creator, the right arm of justice, the rock of salvation, et cetera. In short, the God of Jesus could be recognized in the words and actions of Jesus himself.
Hebrew and early Christian theology, depended mainly on human experience rather than the human skills of logic and rational proofs.
Jesus’ last words to his apostles were the promise of the Holy Spirit who would remind them of everything he had told them.
In short, the God of Jews and Christians is One who comes close to his people. This God can be known in all that is good, true and beautiful in the world. In a sense, the God of Jews and Christians can be intuited or personally experienced; this God need not be proven logically because this God has already demonstrated his presence in signs for all to see and hear. This God shows his presence in all the human signs that spell out goodness, justice, love, compassion and heart felt mercy.
In some sense then God is all about us, ready for the hearing and seeing.
Given all we have said thus far, therefore, it must be said that the Christian’s catechism is always open not to theories or propositions but to all things in this world that betoken a God who is ever present to those whose hearts are open to the mystery of creation itself. We are called to be forever-learners until we shall see our God face to face.
The scriptures: Proverbs 8: 22-31; Romans 5: 1-5; John 16: 12-25
Posted by Cindy Lentine at 03:15 PM.
May 18, 2010
Solemnity of Pentecost [May 23, 2010]
The story is told of a heated argument between Napoleon Bonaparte, at the height of his power, and a certain Roman Catholic cardinal: “Your eminence,” Napoleon said, “are you not aware that I have the power to destroy the Catholic Church?” The cardinal, the anecdote goes, responded ruefully: “Your majesty, the Catholic clergy have done our best to destroy the Church for the last 1800 years. We have not succeeded and neither will you.”
Whether this conversation actually took place is anyone’s guess, but even a cursory look at Christian history will tell us that it could have. Despite its history of various heresies, controversies, schisms, scandalous lives of Renaissance popes, cardinals and bishops, dual papacies, sexual abuse of children by priests and religious leaders, despite all this, the Church of Jesus Christ, guided by God’s Spirit, continues to live and even thrive. Perhaps we must even look to ourselves and ask, “What have I personally done to build or annihilate our church?”
When one reflects on the life and history of our Church, it seems obvious that despite the many failures it has sustained, it remains strong and life giving.
The only answer to this human anomaly is found in the three scriptures, (Acts, Corinthians, John), the astonishing story of the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the early Christians. The community of Jesus disciples had no idea what they should do, or even if there was a future for them. Should they welcome gentile people into their Jewish ranks? How should they find the time to preach the good news and take care of domestic responsibilities such as caring for the poor, for widows and orphans? All this was beginning to bring discord into the community until that incredible day when God’s Spirit blew through their gathering and brought with it an insight into communal living that has never been extinguished. That movement of the Spirit endures until this very moment in history as a smoldering wick, always prepared to flame into action when the community itself shows the incentive to do the new, the original, the courageous, the issue that best describes the present situation in the world.
It should be remarked too that the Spirit is not simply a doer of remarkable things. The incentives for new life in the church comes from within the members themselves, people with new ideas, wild suggestions, brave original proposals that will enhance the life of the Church. For reasons of space, I could not even begin to name the millions of individuals, women and men, over the centuries who gave the Church new life just when it seemed as though it was failing for lack of nerve and fresh ideas.
The point is that the coming of the Holy Spirit was not meant as a one-time-only event in the Church’s history. If the Spirit could move the earliest believers in Jesus to overcome their reluctance to solve the huge problem of welcoming non-Jewish converts, could not the contemporary Church find ways to solve its many of the community problems we mentioned earlier. It is evident, for instance, that there are deep divisions in the Church today between traditionalists who wish to reform the reform of the Second Vatican Council and those who claim that we have not even broken the ice for new and fresh possibilities flowing from that Council. Do the two sides need to alienate and condemn one another? Is there not room for dialogue, for reasonable conversation? In short, the Spirit promised by Jesus as not time-limited; it still remains among us to this day. All that is needed for the Church to continue growing is for Christians to stop bickering and begin listening to the Spirit who, by the way, has never left us. To say it in another way: The Spirit cannot move without us. The Spirit is not the Church; it is simply the moving force beneath or behind the Church waiting to be called on to bring the Church into life when there are problems to be solved and issues to be settled. In short, the Spirit will not change the Church for the better unless we decide that we will cooperate with our own insights, visions, and dreams expectations.
Once again, we need to get over the idea that the coming of the Holy Spirit was a one-time moment or event in Christian history. It (she) still waits in every age to see whether or how modern Christians choose to solve their problems, how they will use their brains and good will to get at the issues that affect Christian living. I like to use the metaphor of the tiger lying in wait for prey, and when the right moment comes, it springs into action. So too it could be for each individual Christian living within the Church today. The answer to renewal is not to wait for the Spirit to make the first move, such as an ecumenical council, to go into action. All renewal is local just as all politics is local. All this means that the coming of the Holy Spirit is not simply historical; it is dynamic…always happening, that is, if it (she) can find Christians willing to take the risk of foreseeing the future and doing something about it…always with the Spirit’s inspiration of course.
The scriptures: Acts 2: 1-11; 1 Corinthians: 3b-7, 12-13; John 14: 8-17
Posted by Cindy Lentine at 10:20 AM.
May 10, 2010
Ascension of the Lord [May 16, 2010]
One of the most difficult things any of us has to do at a certain point in our life is to say “goodbye”, perhaps only for a few years, but in other instances, even for a lifetime. Once we have established a bonding with someone, such as children with their aging parents or a trusted professor who has helped us through college, having to break those personal bonds is almost counter to our natural instincts. We rarely choose to be separated permanently from anyone.
A death in the family, for that reason is always a wrenching experience.
So it was too for Jesus’ 12 best friends when he told them (perhaps in tears) that he was leaving them and returning to the Father(Going to Heaven). In their case, it was doubtless a more heartbreaking experience inasmuch as their entire lives, their past and their future were intimately tied up with this special person, Jesus of Nazareth. They had abandoned their life’s careers, perhaps their families and friends, to follow this itinerant preacher who claimed identity with God.
These, therefore, are the basic assumptions that provide the foundation for the liturgical feast we call The Ascension of the Lord. He had been executed for public disturbance and later was experienced by the 12 for a period of weeks; and now he breaks the news to them that he has completed his work and needs to return home.
So, the Church names this sad event “The Ascension of the Lord, the going up into the heavens. In one sense, the event might be better termed the Lord’s leave-taking, rather than his going up. Yet, the title Ascension in Christian usage is entirely appropriate. This seems so, not because heaven is “up” but because we imagine it is up. In a sense we cannot imagine that at death we will go “down” into the hell of the damned, nor can we say that we will go “out.” To go out implies infinity rather than a point in “place.”
All this may sound like philosophical nonsense, but in some sense, the word “up” in Hebrew-Christian history designates the place of God or the place of the gods. It also refers to the place of mystery. Even looking up into the skies gives one a sense of mystery, of infinitude, the place of the Holy One.
Historically, in Hebrew usage, God dwelt above the skies, the place of ultimate divinity. Earth, on he other hand, was the habitation of humankind, below the earth was the place of punishment, hell. We have many instances in biblical literature where the Israelites and other tribes as well, climbed hills, high places or mountains to worship God or their gods.
Spiritually too, we look up to God to offer praise. In the Eucharistic prayer we are invited to “lift up our hearts.” We respond: “We lift them up to the Lord.” It seems so natural to do this.
From a theological perspective, of course, Jesus does not need to go up. Going up simply signifies going home to the father. And where is the Father? The Father, in a human sense can only be up, above all that is earthly.
A final implication is that the Lord Jesus did need to leave and return to the place from which he came because, in his own words he makes it clear that he cannot remain here on earth any longer, otherwise the Holy Spirit cannot come and fulfill all that he (Christ) had accomplished.
Along with this is the implication that there was still much work to be done by the disciples and their successors, the Christians here on earth, you and I, and everyone who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ.
So, then, if nothing else, looking up is a sign of faith. Wherever the Lord Jesus must be, that is where our attention should also be, that is, in the place where the work of salvation is still in the process of completion. I can imagine Jesus saying to the disciples; “I’ve finished my part of he work; now you must finish it up. I’m outa here!
So long!
The scriptures: Acts: 1, 1-11; Hebrews 9:24-28, 10:19-23; Luke 24: 46-53
Posted by Cindy Lentine at 01:45 PM.
May 03, 2010
Sixth Sunday of Easter [May 9, 2010]
There is an interesting little piece of history that may help us put the scriptures of today’s liturgy into focus. It has been the custom in Christian Churches to give a “sneak preview” of important feasts as they appear in the liturgical calendar.
There is a reference, for instance, to the Holy Spirit in today’s scriptures, letting us know that in two weeks we will be celebrating the great feast of Pentecost, the end of the Fifty Days of Easter. So today the scriptures are already saying, “get ready the holy wind of God’s spirit is nearly upon us.”
Let us take a few moments then and think a little about God’s Spirit as it has appeared in a few important points in history outside of the scriptures themselves
Perhaps you will have noticed it in that lively little selection from the Acts of the Apostles that the fledgling community of Jesus was only a few years old and it was already experiencing the problem of exclusion, that is, the question of whether gentile members should have to undergo the ancient Jewish laws of enrollment before they could be accepted into the Christian assembly. So, the leadership held a vigorous discussion and at the end of it the apostles and the elders made this statement: “It is the decision of the Holy Spirit and of ourselves that no burden should be placed on you that is not strictly necessary.” He was referring to circumcision and the dietary customs of the Jews. And so it was, the suggestion passed, gentiles were welcomed, and history was made.
Today’s gospel is an instruction Jesus gave his disciples at the Last Supper. He knew that they were already worried about what lay ahead if he should be captured and killed. So, Jesus simply says, “My friends, have no fear, what we have accomplished together will continue under the guidance of God’s Spirit that I shall send you; He will teach you everything and remind you of all I have told you, just in case you should forget.”
Then the question arose, as to how all this should happen, how would the Spirit be recognizable? Well, we already know what happened: The Wind of God’s Spirit blew through them and nothing was the same after that. We know the story. Here we are together as Church, people of God built up from a few dozen of Christ’s disciples.
The question, however is this: If the coming of the Holy Spirit was meant not just for the early disciples, but for disciples of all ages, how will we recognize it? Where is the wind of Wind of God’s Spirit today? Well, let me suggest an answer to that by way of story, poetry, and existential experiences.
Many of you will remember Good Pope John XXIII, the bishop whom the cardinals in the Vatican elected because they thought he was too old to do much harm. However one night shortly after he was elected, he was lying in his bed and this thought came to him, as he tells it: “Hey, maybe we should call an ecumenical council of all the bishops throughout the world. Wouldn’t that be cool? The next morning, he knocks on his secretary’s door, Pietro Sambini, “Pietro, get your pen and writing pad. I am calling an ecumenical Council for the entire Catholic Church.” Pietro says: “Are you crazy? You know how these cardinals in Rome are? They don’t change anything other than their clothes and then only when necessary. Forget about it; it will only cause world chaos” “No,” the pope said, “In my bed last night, I heard the Holy Spirit tell me to call a council, and, believe me, Pietro, we are going to have a council. Enough! Start writing this letter to the Catholic Church.
Well, that is somewhat the way it happened. Pope John had his council and it turned out to be one of the most extraordinary events that happened in the Catholic Church in 500 years. In his first speech to the assembled bishops in St. Peter’s Basilica, he said something to the effect that the Catholic Church had to open windows that have been closed for too many years. We need to open them up and let in some fresh air.”
Well, let me suggest, my friends, that without a doubt the Council was a work of the Holy Spirit. It turned out that only a few conservative cardinals refused to cooperate and only a small minority of bishops today still hold back. From the day Pope John got out of bed and called in his secretary with the announcement, the Catholic Church has been a different institution; indeed many Christian Churches have changed along with us because of that great event. Fresh air, the wind of the spirit is still circulating through the churches.
The very fact that I am standing here in this church is a small sign that the wind of the spirit has made a difference.
Are there any other hints that the Spirit is still moving in the world and the Churches today? Let me suggest, for instance that wherever one finds truth, beauty and goodness, there we will find God’s Spirit dwelling.
As an example of this let me read for you a short piece of poetry from the pen of Gerard Manley Hopkins, the English Jesuit priest. It is entitled God’s Grandeur
The world is charged with the grandeur of God. It will flame out, like shining from shook foil.
It gathers to greatness, like the ooze of oil crushed;
Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man’s smudge & shares man’s smell;
The soil is bare now, nor can foot feel being shod;
And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs---
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast & with ah! bright wings.
That same Spirit moves through all people who are determined to work for truth, justice and charity among all, whether churched, unchurched, seekers, doubters, debaters, researchers, people of law and medicine, clergy, philosophers, teachers, ordinary folks of open mind and soul. There the Spirit dwells.
The Spirit also moves in the hearts of those who strive to find God in whatever seems ordinary, the common theophany of nature, the first smile of your little child, the last word of your beloved grandparent, the overwhelming sense that the universe is infinite and ultimately unknowable, all of those realities and more, are part of the Divine Spirit
Finally, I would like to read a quote that sums up all we have we have been trying to say thus far; It is a quote from Pope Paul VI given at the beginning of the second session of the great Vatican Council. Here is what he said: “The Church is a mystery. It is a reality imbued with the hidden presence of God.” Could it be then that the Church is more than its externals, more than its squabbles, more than its sad history? I do believe so. The Church is you and me, Catholics and Episcopalians, Christians of every stripe, with the strong wind of God’s Spirit pushing us, shoving us, pulling us until we finally get it right. When that time comes, my friends, we will finally be known as members of the kingdom that God has prepared for us from all eternity.
The scriptures: Acts 15:1-2,22-29; Revelation 21:10-14, 22-23; John 14, 23-29
Posted by Cindy Lentine at 09:40 AM.
