Chronology, Christology and Relationship

Texts in the Roman Catholic Lectionary today mentioning two apostles, Philip and James, on their feast day, also opens consideration of Ontology, Christology, Theophany and Kerygma.

Solid beginning

The Gospel Teaching (Kerygma) of Paul in the First Letter to the Corinthians contains the fundamental content of all Christian preaching and belief.

* [15:1–11] Paul recalls the tradition (1 Cor 15:3–7), which he can presuppose as common ground and which provides a starting point for his argument. This is the fundamental content of all Christian preaching and belief (1 Cor 15:1–2, 11).

In the Gospel from John, Philip seeks a revelation of God, or Theophany, similar to that in the Hebrew Testament to understand Jesus relationship to the Father.

* [14:8] Show us the Father: Philip is pictured asking for a theophany like Ex 24:9–10; 33:18.

Amy Hoover asks how are we being invited to notice God in All Things today?

Jesus’ declaration that the Father is in him and he is in the Father is a reminder to me that we all carry God within us.  I think sometimes God is hidden beneath our wounds and our defenses but God is incarnate within us and animates us through our souls.  God is in all of us. Even those that challenge our patience or make us angry or do heinous things. God loves us all and is present within us.  We get to choose, however, to recognize this and enter into relationship or not.
Lastly, the reading from First Corinthians reminded me that God is in all of our experiences, even death.  God is always with us. Whether this is physical death or metaphorical death, God is there consoling us and inviting us to new life.  It a message of the Paschal Mystery. Each death we experience results in an opportunity for new life. Once again, we have to choose to see and enter into relationship with the one who brings the new life.

Larry W. Hurtado, PhD, FRSE scholar of the New Testament and Christian origins, explores the origins of the so-called “ontological” categories in the New Testament.

The so-called “ontological” categories are simply the products of one particular historical discourse and philosophical development, whereas the NT writings are largely shaped by the categories and concepts that derive from the biblical and ancient Jewish tradition.  So, for example, NT writers tend to refer to God’s name, glory, throne, and role as creator and sovereign over all, instead of God’s “being” or “essence.” If it seems to us inevitable that Christian thought had to develop into “ontological” expressions, I submit that this only reflects how much our outlook has been shaped by our intellectual history, so heavily influenced by Greek philosophical traditions.

Don Schwager quotes from “All nature serves for our instruction”, by Leo the Great, 400-461 A.D..

"All nature serves the Word of God for our instruction. Through all the turning points of the year, as if through the four Gospels, we learn from the unceasing trumpet both what we should preach and what we should do... What is there through which the truth does not speak to us? Its voice is heard in the day, it is heard in the night, and the beauty of all things, established by the work of one God, does not cease to put into the ears of our hearts a ruling order, to let us see the 'invisible things of God through those which have been made intelligible to us,' and it is subject not to the creatures but to the Creator of all things." (excerpt from Sermon 19,2)

Franciscan Media reflects on the development in Saints Philip and James of the power to love like God.

As in the case of the other apostles, we see in James and Philip human men who became foundation stones of the Church, and we are reminded again that holiness and its consequent apostolate are entirely the gift of God, not a matter of human achieving. All power is God’s power, even the power of human freedom to accept his gifts. “You will be clothed with power from on high,” Jesus told Philip and the others. Their first commission had been to expel unclean spirits, heal diseases, announce the kingdom. They learned, gradually, that these externals were sacraments of an even greater miracle inside their persons—the divine power to love like God.

Friar Jude Winkler shares background on the Scripture Paul may have used to address the Corinthians. Our basis to continue Jesus Ministry is our entering into the relationship of Jesus and the Father. The Way of Jesus points to Truth even if we die we continue to live.

Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, reflects on the work of Jesuit philosopher and paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955), who by studying the human race over many thousands of years, realized that humanity was indeed learning to evolve in love. And once enough people began living with agape love, it would create a revolution like no other revolution. In time, such all-embracing love would bring about true freedom, true peace, and true harmony on Earth.

[In] Teilhard’s approach, when two people come together in a caring and productive way, not only are the two relating people enhanced and their capacities developed by their interaction, but their union, or relationship, becomes itself a Third Self [which] Teilhard calls . . . “a psychic unity” or “higher soul” or “higher center.” . . . The Third-Self relationship is capable of accomplishing more than either [of the members] alone.

Our essence as sons and daughters of God is our starting point to make Love visible.

References


(n.d.). 1 Corinthians, chapter 15. Retrieved May 3, 2018, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/1corinthians/15

(n.d.). Jesus said to him, “I am the way and the truth * and the life. No one. Retrieved May 3, 2018, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/john/john14.htm

(n.d.). Creighton U Daily Reflections - OnlineMinistries - Creighton University. Retrieved May 3, 2018, from http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/daily.html

(2016, September 26). Chronology and Ontology | Larry Hurtado's Blog. Retrieved May 3, 2018, from https://larryhurtado.wordpress.com/2016/09/26/chronology-and-ontology/ 

(n.d.). Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved May 3, 2018, from http://dailyscripture.servantsoftheword.org/

(n.d.). Saints Philip and James – Franciscan Media. Retrieved May 3, 2018, from https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saints-philip-and-james/

(n.d.). Daily Meditations Archive - Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved May 3, 2018, from https://cac.org/richard-rohr/daily-meditations/daily-meditations-archive/