Contemplate the Literal

The psalmist from the texts of the Roman Catholic Lectionary today makes the proclamation that "My soul makes its boast in the Lord". The inspired action of Peter, John and the disciples of Jesus to heal and teach in Jesus name has them brought before the religious authorities who they have disobeyed.  Peter answered the authorities with his decision that it is better to serve God who raised the Son of Man from the dead than men, even the men who uphold a religious tradition in expectation of the coming of the Son of Man. The inspiration to challenge the path proposed by the "Sanhedrin of today" must still be sought. Scholarship and contemplation may seem to be contradictory approaches, yet the comment of Friar Jude Winkler that this passage from Acts uses the passive voice to describe the raising of Jesus by God leads to the contemplation that the Father acts and Jesus allows the will of the Father to act upon Him. In "giving permission" to God, we become examples of the Love which is the Divine. The "dualism" of the Gospel of John is evident in the episode today that continues Nicodemus instruction from Jesus. The challenge of the dualism method is that we stop thinking at the good versus bad claim of the author.  When we do not contemplate the extremes of Life in Jesus versus our choice of  a life of loneliness and selfishness we miss the reality of human life as striving for communion with the Divine while at the same time being distracted from our desire for Life by our addictions to selfishness. Richard Rohr, a teacher with a passion that advocates the avoidance of "dualistic thinking" offers contemplation as a means to movement to deeper levels of spiritual understanding than literal interpretation of text. Rohr offers that 'God comes to us disguised as our life’.