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

Life giving proof

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today connect to evidence of life giving experience in relationship with Jesus.

Connection

The commentaries curated today offer guidance in growing in that experience.

The First Letter of John strongly asserts that life is found in our connection to the person of Jesus.

 * [5:6–12] Water and blood (1 Jn 5:6) refers to Christ’s baptism (Mt 3:16–17) and to the shedding of his blood on the cross (Jn 19:34). The Spirit was present at the baptism (Mt 3:16; Mk 1:10; Lk 3:22; Jn 1:32, 34). The testimony to Christ as the Son of God is confirmed by divine witness (1 Jn 5:7–9), greater by far than the two legally required human witnesses (Dt 17:6). To deny this is to deny God’s truth; cf. Jn 8:17–18. The gist of the divine witness or testimony is that eternal life (1 Jn 5:11–12) is given in Christ and nowhere else. To possess the Son is not acceptance of a doctrine but of a person who lives now and provides life.1

In the Gospel from Luke, a leper’s faith and Jesus compassion bring healing and fullness.

 * [5:14] Show yourself to the priest…what Moses prescribed: this is a reference to Lv 14:2–9 that gives detailed instructions for the purification of one who had been a victim of leprosy and thereby excluded from contact with others (see Lv 13:45–46, 49; Nm 5:2–3). That will be proof for them: see note on Mt 8:4.2

Steve Scholer prays that we focus this year on sharing our possessions, especially our most valuable possession, the Son of God, with others, and thereby affirm that, through our thoughts, words and deeds, Jesus truly does reside within us.

 How we live our daily lives as Christians is testimony and proof positive that we “possess” Christ and that he is with us each and every step of our journey through life. We must remember that Christ’s death on the cross was a gift to all of us and a gift we never want to lose possession of. We need to remember his gift in our thoughts, words and deeds, in hopes of making it more “tangible” to us and to cherish this wonderful — yet oh so intangible — gift.3

Don Schwager quotes “Jesus' healing demonstrates the power of the kingdom of heaven,” by Ambrose of Milan, 339-397 A.D.

 "The authority of power in the Lord is here compared with the steadfastness of faith manifest in the leper (Luke 5:12-13). He fell on his face because it is a mark of humility and modesty that each feel shame for the sins of his life, but shyness did not restrict his confession. He showed the wound, he begged for the remedy, and the very confession is full of piety and faith. 'If you will,' it says, 'you can make me clean'” He conceded the power to the Lord's will. But he doubted concerning the Lord's will, not as if unbelieving in piety, but as if aware of his own impurity, he did not presume. The Lord replies to him with a certain holiness. 'I will: be clean. And immediately the leprosy departed from him.' For there is nothing between God's command and his work, because the work is in the command. Thus he spoke, and they came into being (Psalm 33:9). You see that it cannot be doubted that the will of God is power. If, therefore, his will is power, those who affirm that the Trinity is of One will affirm that it is of one power. Thus the leprosy departed immediately. In order that you may understand the effect of healing, he added truth to the work." (excerpt from EXPOSITION OF THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 5.2–3)4

The Word Among Us Meditation on 1 John 5:5-13 declares faith is not just a list of theological statements. That won’t give us the grace and conviction we need to overcome the self-centered philosophies in the world around us. Of course, we need to understand the truths of our faith, but lasting victory comes as we embrace these truths and let them change the ways we think and act.

Friar Jude Winkler connects the witness of Spirit, water and blood declared in 1 John to our sacramental life in Baptism and Eucharist. Jesus compassion is particularly underlined in the Gospel of Luke the physician. Friar Jude notes the philosophy of Luke that the good Jew or Gentile honestly seeking truth and beauty may follow Jesus example and the will of the Father.

Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, would like to offer some spiritual advice so that we can read Scripture the way that Jesus did and use it for good purposes.

 If your understanding of Scripture leads you to experience any or several of the fruits of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23)—I think you can trust that this interpretation is from the Spirit, from the deeper stream of wisdom.
As you read, if you sense any negative or punitive emotions like morose delight, feelings of superiority, self-satisfaction, arrogant dualistic certitude, desire for revenge, need for victory, or a spirit of dismissal or exclusion, you must trust that this is not Jesus’ hermeneutic at work, but your own ego still steering the ship.

The Ven. Dr Edward Dowler, Archdeacon of Hastings in the diocese of Chichester, reviews Disarming Beauty: Essays on faith, truth and freedom by Julián Carrón.

 The solution to the current predicament will come, rather, only through the power of a personal and Christian encounter with people who are capable of disclosing to others a new and wider reality. Initially, this will be a human encounter, such as with a nurse or a teacher such as Fr Giussani, or with a group of Christians. Ultimately, such human encounters themselves mediate what is necessary above all: an encounter with Jesus himself. Carron quotes Benedict XVI in his encyclical Deus Caritas Est: “Being Christian is not an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.”
Giussani and Carron indicate some important lessons for the English and Anglican context, in which those who specialise in philosophical analysis, and those who emphasise the importance of introducing people to Jesus tend to operate in very different worlds.6

Fullness of life is experienced in an encounter with the person of Jesus.

References

1	(n.d.). 1 John chapter 5 - United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Retrieved January 11, 2019, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/1john/5
2	(n.d.). Luke chapter 5 - United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Retrieved January 11, 2019, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/luke/5
3	(n.d.). Creighton U Daily Reflections .... Retrieved January 11, 2019, from http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/daily.html
4	(n.d.). Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved January 11, 2019, from https://dailyscripture.servantsoftheword.org/
5	(n.d.). Daily Meditations Archive - Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved January 11, 2019, from https://cac.org/richard-rohr/daily-meditations/daily-meditations-archive/
6	(2018, September 21). Disarming Beauty: Essays on faith, truth and freedom, by Julián Carrón. Retrieved January 11, 2019, from https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2018/21-september/books-arts/book-reviews/disarming-beauty-essays-on-faith-truth-and-freedom-juli%C3%A1n-carr%C3%B3n

Love for hardened hearts

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today challenge our approach to making the nature of God’s Love visible to those who have been hardened by fear and rejection.

Finding restful waters

The First Letter of John declares the identity of God as Love while addressing some heretical concepts that separate Jesus from the Father.

 * [4:13–21] The testimony of the Spirit and that of faith join the testimony of love to confirm our knowledge of God. Our love is grounded in the confession of Jesus as the Son of God and the example of God’s love for us. Christian life is founded on the knowledge of God as love and on his continuing presence that relieves us from fear of judgment (1 Jn 4:16–18). What Christ is gives us confidence, even as we live and love in this world. Yet Christian love is not abstract but lived in the concrete manner of love for one another.1

In the Gospel from Mark, Jesus “nature miracle” connects to the experience of God expressed in Psalm 23 leading us to restful waters.

 * [6:52] They had not understood…the loaves: the revelatory character of this sign and that of the walking on the sea completely escaped the disciples. Their hearts were hardened: in Mk 3:5–6 hardness of heart was attributed to those who did not accept Jesus and plotted his death. Here the same disposition prevents the disciples from comprehending Jesus’ self-revelation through signs; cf. Mk 8:172.

Sr. Candice Tucci, OSF, asks “Where do we find Jesus?” St. Ignatius of Loyola would say we find Jesus in all things, people, places, and creation. She remembers a prayer of St. Patrick and adds the writing of Teilhard de Chardin, SJ to broaden our search for insight.

 The first reading is a beautiful reading reminding us of the great love God has for each of us. “If we love one another, God remains in us and his love is brought to perfection in us.” Amazing! God’s love brought to perfection in us? God is love in us? God in us?! WOW! A thought to sit with for a while…
Teilhard de Chardin, SJ, in his writings reflects on Christ in the context of the universe. He says, “Cosmic energy is love.”  This Love is the Christ, our God, interacting with us in every moment of every day.

“God is love, and those who remain in love remains in God and God in them.”3

Don Schwager quotes “The wind was against them,” by Augustine of Hippo (354-430 AD).

 "Meanwhile the boat carrying the disciples - that is, the church - is rocking and shaking amid the storms of temptation, while the adverse wind rages on. That is to say, its enemy the devil strives to keep the wind from calming down. But greater is he who is persistent on our behalf, for amid the vicissitudes of our life he gives us confidence. He comes to us and strengthens us, so we are not jostled in the boat and tossed overboard. For although the boat is thrown into disorder, it is still a boat. It alone carries the disciples and receives Christ. It is in danger indeed on the water, but there would be certain death without it. Therefore stay inside the boat and call upon God. When all good advice fails and the rudder is useless and the spread of the sails presents more of a danger than an advantage, when all human help and strength have been abandoned, the only recourse left for the sailors is to cry out to God. Therefore will he who helps those who are sailing to reach port safely, abandon his church and prevent it from arriving in peace and tranquility?" (excerpt from SERMON 75.4)4

The Word Among Us Meditation on Mark 6:45-52 asks how should we understand Jesus’ words to the disciples? And more to the point, how can we deal with our fears when we face terrifying circumstances?

 We all know the kinds of things that could make us afraid: a cancer diagnosis, job loss, financial upheaval, a child in a car accident, and many others. These are the situations where fear can overwhelm and paralyze us. They’re the situations in which it feels as if we are in the boat with the disciples—and just moments away from capsizing.
But look what happens right after Jesus tells the disciples to do something that seemed impossible: “He got into the boat with them” (Mark 6:51). Which is exactly what Jesus does for us. He joins us in our “boat.” He doesn’t just tell us not to be afraid; he enters into our situation and promises to remain with us every step of the way.5

Friar Jude Winkler picks up the theme of the depth of the Love of God expressed in the First Letter of John. Fear is connected to the sense of awe at the Presence of God in the Bible. Friar Jude explains how the Nature Miracles in the recent passages from Mark allude to Moses and Psalm 23.

Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, shares some examples that reveal Jesus’ hermeneutic so that we might follow his methodology in using Scripture.

 Jesus talks much more out of his own experience of God and humanity instead of teaching like the scribes and Pharisees, who operated out of their own form of case law by quoting previous sources.6

John L. Allen Jr. and Ines San Martin interview Father Julián Carrón, leader of the Catholic movement Communion and Liberation about the worry of some that Pope Francis, along with some priests and bishops, are engaging in ‘encounter’ without the same expectation of conversion from the errors the people they are committing.

 Conversion doesn’t depend on the act, it depends on us. When we go to meet a thief, we bring ourselves to that encounter. Jesus had no problem going to the house of Zacchaeus, without explaining all his theology or moral rules. He went because the truth was incarnate in his person. The problem is, what people are meeting when they meet us? If what they meet in you is simply a manual of things to do, they already know that and they’re still not able to do it. But if they find themselves in front of a person who offers love, they’ll start wanting to follow that person and be like them, which is what happened to Jesus.7

Love is the antidote for fear. Our approach to those hardened by fear and rejection needs to emphasize a love encounter of restful waters rather than a Pharisee like confrontation with Law and rules for salvation.

References

1	(n.d.). 1 John chapter 4 - United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Retrieved January 9, 2019, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/1john/4
2	(n.d.). Mark chapter 6 - United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Retrieved January 9, 2019, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/mark/6:3
3	(n.d.). Creighton U Daily Reflections .... Retrieved January 9, 2019, from http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/daily.html
4	(n.d.). Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved January 9, 2019, from https://dailyscripture.servantsoftheword.org/
5	(n.d.). Christmas Weekday - Mass Readings and Catholic Daily Meditations .... Retrieved January 9, 2019, from https://wau.org/meditations/
6	(2019, January 4). Daily Meditations Archive: January 2019 - Daily Meditations Archives .... Retrieved January 9, 2019, from https://cac.org/category/daily-meditations/2019/01/
7	(2017, June 21). 'If you don't think Francis is the cure, you don't grasp the disease,' CL. Retrieved January 9, 2019, from https://cruxnow.com/interviews/2017/06/21/dont-think-francis-cure-dont-grasp-disease-cl-head-says/

Love reflected in Life

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today invite us to contemplate love in action that witnesses to our experience of relationship with God.

Love shared

The author of the First Letter of John establishes the nature of God as Love.

 * [4:7–12] Love as we share in it testifies to the nature of God and to his presence in our lives. One who loves shows that one is a child of God and knows God, for God’s very being is love; one without love is without God. The revelation of the nature of God’s love is found in the free gift of his Son to us, so that we may share life with God and be delivered from our sins. The love we have for one another must be of the same sort: authentic, merciful; this unique Christian love is our proof that we know God and can “see” the invisible God.1

In the Gospel from Mark Jesus recalls by action the shepherd of Psalm 23 as He multiplies loaves and fishes for His Jewish audience.

 * [6:35–44] See note on Mt 14:13–21. Compare this section with Mk 8:1–9. The various accounts of the multiplication of loaves and fishes, two each in Mark and in Matthew and one each in Luke and in John, indicate the wide interest of the early church in their eucharistic gatherings; see, e.g., Mk 6:41; 8:6; 14:22; and recall also the sign of bread in Ex 16; Dt 8:3–16; Ps 78:24–25; 105:40; Wis 16:20–21.2

Beth Samson had always understood the Gospel reading as “The Miracle of Magic”, but she read another perspective, and it became the “The Miracle of Sharing”.

Don Schwager quotes “The Lord fills all things with blessing from above,” by Cyril of Alexandria (376-444 AD).

 "So that by every means the Lord might be known to be God by nature, he multiplies what is little, and he looks up to heaven as though asking for the blessing from above. Now he does this out of the divine economy, for our sakes. For he himself is the one who fills all things, the true blessing from above and from the Father. But, so that we might learn that when we are in charge of the table and are preparing to break the loaves, we ought to bring them to God with hands upraised and bring down upon them the blessing from above, he became for us the beginning and pattern and way."  (excerpt from FRAGMENT 177)3

The Word Among Us Meditation on Mark 6:34-44 tells us that Jesus’ “heart was moved with pity,” and he decided to put aside his grief and care for the people (Mark 6:34).

 This says so much about the heart of Jesus. First, he wants to spend time with us. You could say that he even enjoys his time with us. He will never “dismiss” us when we go to him (Mark 6:36). Second, we can trust that Jesus will give us the gifts we need, even when we least expect it. Even when it never occurred to us to ask, he will pour out his grace and his peace. We just have to make time, like those in the crowd, to come and sit with him.
Jesus’ greatest gift to us is the Bread of Life in the Eucharist. Even better, we don’t have to travel far to receive this heavenly food. He comes to us on every altar at every Mass and feeds us. And just like the people who ate and were satisfied, we, too, can be filled to overflowing every time we share a meal with Jesus.4

Friar Jude Winkler describes Love as presented in 1 John as that which moves us to die to self for the good of the other. Verdant pastures, the gift of food and the subsequent passage of Jesus walking on the water connect the Gospel to Psalm 23. Friar Jude urges that we understand the “Nature Miracle” of the Gospel as integral to essence of Jesus then and now.

Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, comments that after both the Reformation and the Enlightenment, Western Europeans reduced our ways of knowing to one for all practical purposes—the supposedly rational/literal/historical. We have largely compacted and limited the Bible to this single sense for several centuries now, in both its Catholic and Protestant forms.

 Unknown to many post-Reformation Christians, early centuries of Christianity—through authoritative teachers like Origen, Cyril of Alexandria, Augustine, and Gregory the Great—encouraged as many as seven “senses” of Scripture. The literal, historical, allegorical, moral, symbolic, eschatological (the trajectory of history and growth), and “primordial” or archetypal (commonly agreed-upon symbolism) levels of a text were often given serious weight among scholars. These levels were gradually picked up by the ordinary Christian through Sunday preaching (as is still true today) and presumed to be normative by those who heard them.5

The reduction of our understanding in the modern world is a theme of Disarming Beauty by Fr. Julián Carrón. It is an engaging and thought-provoking collection of essays about the most pressing questions of contemporary society.

 Carrón offers a broad diagnosis of the challenges in society, and then introduces their implications in the context of families, schools, workplaces, and political communities. In a dialogue with his audience, he inspires and encourages them to lay out a new path for the Catholic Church and the world. Throughout his essays, Carrón addresses the most pressing questions today and provides insights that will interest everyone, from the most devout to the firm nonbeliever. Grappling with the interaction of Christian faith and modern culture, Carrón treats in very real and concrete ways what is essential to maintaining and developing Christian faith, and he invites an ongoing conversation about its purpose.6

The reduction of our appreciation of love and beauty to what modern rationality declares must be based on our biological senses blocks our openness to experience the beauty, mysticism and poetry of love that transcends and transforms our relationships.

References

1	(n.d.). 1 John chapter 4 - United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Retrieved January 8, 2019, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/1john/4
2	(n.d.). Mark, chapter 6 - United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Retrieved January 8, 2019, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/mark/6:3
3	(n.d.). Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved January 8, 2019, from https://dailyscripture.servantsoftheword.org/
4	(n.d.). Meditations - The Word Among Us. Retrieved January 8, 2019, from https://wau.org/meditations/
5	(2019, January 4). Daily Meditations Archive: January 2019 - Daily Meditations Archives .... Retrieved January 8, 2019, from https://cac.org/category/daily-meditations/2019/01/
6	(n.d.). Disarming Beauty. Retrieved January 8, 2019, from http://disarmingbeautythebook.com/