The unique event

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today invite contemplation of the unique event we encounter in relationship with Christ.

A unique experience

The Letter to the Hebrews declares the climax of the revelation of God to humanity in Jesus.

 * [1:1–4] The letter opens with an introduction consisting of a reflection on the climax of God’s revelation to the human race in his Son. The divine communication was initiated and maintained during Old Testament times in fragmentary and varied ways through the prophets (Heb 1:1), including Abraham, Moses, and all through whom God spoke. But now in these last days (Heb 1:2) the final age, God’s revelation of his saving purpose is achieved through a son, i.e., one who is Son, whose role is redeemer and mediator of creation. He was made heir of all things through his death and exaltation to glory, yet he existed before he appeared as man; through him God created the universe. Heb 1:3–4, which may be based upon a liturgical hymn, assimilate the Son to the personified Wisdom of the Old Testament as refulgence of God’s glory and imprint of his being (Heb 1:3; cf. Wis 7:26). These same terms are used of the Logos in Philo.1

In the Gospel from Mark, four fishermen leave their work to follow Jesus as a result of a unique event in their lives.

 * [1:14–15] After John had been arrested: in the plan of God, Jesus was not to proclaim the good news of salvation prior to the termination of the Baptist’s active mission. Galilee: in the Marcan account, scene of the major part of Jesus’ public ministry before his arrest and condemnation. The gospel of God: not only the good news from God but about God at work in Jesus Christ. This is the time of fulfillment: i.e., of God’s promises. The kingdom of God…Repent: see note on Mt 3:2.2

Jeanne Schuler asserts that nothing is more real than the indwelling of Father, Son, and Spirit. This intimacy is everlasting and begets all things.

 God becomes one of us.  How this stretches the mind!  No wonder revelation trickles in over generations.  It is too much to take in. Skeptics try to put on the brakes.  If mystery transcends human measures, it lies beyond our reach. Even words tarnish the truth.  We better remain silent. For skeptics, the intellect goes dark in God’s presence. So stop with God’s oneness and puzzle no further.
But the creed we share is bold.  “I believe in the one God, the Father almighty…”  From words arise new ways of being; we are not chained to an anthropomorphic wheel.  Meaning takes us deeper; it is never just about us. Through faith our horizon expands as each catches the cosmic vibration, the love that moves all things.

Don Schwager quotes “Common people on an uncommon mission,” by Eusebius of Caesarea (260/263-340 AD).

 "Reflect on the nature and grandeur of the one Almighty God who could associate himself with the poor of the lowly fisherman’s class. To use them to carry out God's mission baffles all rationality. For having conceived the intention, which no one ever before had done, of spreading his own commands and teachings to all nations, and of revealing himself as the teacher of the religion of the one Almighty God to all humanity, he thought good to use the most unsophisticated and common people as ministers of his own design. Maybe God just wanted to work in the most unlikely way. For how could inarticulate folk be made able to teach, even if they were appointed teachers to only one person, much less to a multitude? How should those who were themselves without education instruct the nations?... When he had thus called them as his followers, he breathed into them his divine power, and filled them with strength and courage. As God himself he spoke God’s true word to them in his own way, enabling them to do great wonders, and made them pursuers of rational and thinking souls, by empowering them to come after him, saying: 'Come, follow me, and I will make you fish for people' (Mark 1:17, Matthew 4:19). With this empowerment God sent them forth to be workers and teachers of holiness to all the nations, declaring them heralds of his own teaching." (excerpt from PROOF OF THE GOSPEL 3.7)

The Word Among Us Meditation on Hebrews 1:1-6 introduces the Jesus we will be meeting throughout the next four weeks: a dynamic, powerful Messiah who is completely committed to rescuing us from sin and bringing us to heaven. May the Spirit open our eyes to see him more clearly.

 The Letter to the Hebrews is infused with an experiential knowledge of Jesus and his power to deliver us from bondage. He is our “great high priest” (Hebrews 4:14) who constantly intercedes for us (7:25) and whose blood was shed to cleanse our consciences (9:14). He is the author and perfecter of our faith (12:2) who sustains not only our lives but the entire universe as well (1:3). He is able to deal with every fear, every sin, every obstacle in our life of faith. He can give us every reason to “hold unwaveringly to our confession that gives us hope, for he who made the promise is trustworthy” (10:23).5

Friar Jude Winkler discusses the author of Hebrews who may be a Jewish Christian possibly from Alexandria who is using rabbinic arguments and who knows Greek philosophy. The philosophy that the spiritual is greater than the material, present in Greek philosophy, is refuted in Hebrews. Friar Jude observes that God often calls by surprise. He urges us to have open hearts ready to discern and respond.

Cynthia Bourgeault comments that Jim Marion’s book, “Putting on the Mind of Christ: The Inner Work of Christian Spirituality,” returns us to the central challenge Christianity ought to be handing us. Indeed, how do we put on the mind of Christ? How do we see through his eyes? How do we feel through his heart? How do we learn to respond to the world with that same wholeness and healing love? That’s what Christian orthodoxy really is all about. It’s not about right belief; it’s about right practice.

 For the better part of the past sixteen hundred years Christianity has put a lot more emphasis on the things we know about Jesus. The word “orthodox” has come to mean having the correct beliefs. Along with the overt requirement to learn what these beliefs are and agree with them comes a subliminal message: that the appropriate way to relate to Jesus is through a series of beliefs. In fundamentalist Christianity, this message tends to get even more accentuated, to the point where faith appears to be a matter of signing on the dotted lines to a set of creedal statements. Belief in Jesus is indistinguishable from belief about him.6

Jim Marion, author of the acclaimed Putting on the Mind of Christ, shows us how to expand consciousness and follow the genuine path of Jesus and the world’s mystics into greater inner development.

 Is God dead? Jim Marion says that what has really died is our myth of God, our worn-out notion of the deity in the sky, separate from us, who intervenes in our lives only when petitioned strenuously. God still exists, but we need to update our interpretation of God’s nature. The mythic sky God was never real, says Marion. It was only a concept of God, now outdated.
The real God is in the human heart, within the world, operating as the engine of evolution. God grows us from within into ever higher levels of awareness.7

Alessandro Rovati, adjunct professor of theology and political philosophy at Belmont Abbey College, offers a review of Disarming Beauty.

 Julián Carrón deems many of the attempts of today’s Christians to respond to the current crisis as destined to fail. Neither anger against a cultural tide that is not going in the wanted direction, nor retreat into safe spaces, nor the reactionary attempt to fight for traditional values will suffice. Instead, rather than being something to be lamented, the crisis is an opportunity for Christians to rediscover and communicate Christianity in its original elements. Christianity is more than the transmission of a set of rules or of a body of theological notions. Christianity, according to Carrón, is the encounter with the person of Jesus, the mystery who entered into history to become a companion to human beings and respond to their structural need for happiness. It is an event, “a fact that did not exist before and, at a precise moment, was introduced into history. Everything else is a consequence of that” (64). As it was a human encounter that changed the lives of those who first met Jesus, so now it is through a human reality that Christ remains present in history. “Christ remains present in his Church,” explains Carrón, “making possible the contemporaneity that allows people of every age to come into direct relationship with him” (66). Despite all the difficulties that our culture poses against it, the Christian faith has a chance in today’s world because people can verify here and now its ability to correspond to the longing for fulfillment that everyone nourishes.8

The surprise encounter we have with Christ is an event that builds the confidence that pursuit of truth and beauty in the circumstances of life equips us to put on the mind of Christ and reflect Him in our action.

References

1	(n.d.). Hebrews, chapter 1 - United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Retrieved January 14, 2019, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/hebrews/1
2	(n.d.). Mark, chapter 1 - United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Retrieved January 14, 2019, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/mark
3	(n.d.). Creighton U Daily Reflections .... Retrieved January 14, 2019, from http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/daily.html
4	(n.d.). Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved January 14, 2019, from https://dailyscripture.servantsoftheword.org/
5	(n.d.). Mass Readings and Catholic Daily .... Retrieved January 14, 2019, from https://wau.org/meditations/
6	(n.d.). Daily Meditations Archives — Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved January 14, 2019, from https://cac.org/category/daily-meditations/
7	(2004, July 19). The Death of the Mythic God eBook by Jim Marion - 9781612830315 .... Retrieved January 14, 2019, from https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-death-of-the-mythic-god-the-rise-of-evolutionary-spirituality
8	(2017, October 3). Disarming Beauty | Reading Religion. Retrieved January 14, 2019, from http://readingreligion.org/books/disarming-beauty