Beware of the message of less

In his Introduction to the Gospel of John, Don Schwager writes “Who is Jesus of Nazareth? This is the fundamental question which the Gospel of John poses for us”. The texts today from the Roman CatholicLectionary take us to the beginning of this spiritual gospel where John proclaims, as noted by Luis Rodriguez, S.J. of Creighton University, that the Word ”became flesh and (literally) pitched his tent among us” (John 1:14). The First Letter of John is from a time around 100 AD, in the city of Ephesus, a Greek-speaking center of commerce and culture. Greek culture was not open to the idea that God, the Word, should become flesh and that we would be able to experience the Presence of God in human form. Some forms of anti-Christ heresies involve presenting Jesus a very good moral human who preached love. When we limit our relationship with Jesus to this level, today, we undervalue the Love which is in the gift of Son by Father to humanity. We limit our communion to the affiliation we might have with human leaders. The clay feet of human leaders always limit our expectations for what good might result. Intimate relationship with the Divine through Jesus who acquires clay feet as He pitches His tent among us opens the transcendent possibilities of fulfillment of the joy which is the mission of Jesus expressed by the Evangelist John that we may all be one (John 17:20-26). 

Seeing the Presence

How would we describe our experience of awareness of the Presence of God?  It may be in the qualities enumerated by the psalmist from the texts of the RomanCatholic Lectionary today. We may recognize Divine glory and strength and respond as we “ Worship the Lord in holy splendour;   tremble before him, all the earth”( Ps 96:9) . Friar Jude Winkler tells us that the passage from the First Letter of John today addresses members of the community according to their spiritual maturity. This may correspond to their chronological ages but maturity is not always a consequence of age. The elders, perhaps those in the second half of their journey, see the Presence which has delivered and inspired them to be able to see the tensions and decisions in life between that which leads us to deeper relationship with God and what John refers to as the” world” which Friar Jude reminds us is that which denies Jesus and excludes itself from relationship with Jesus. The young men have found the Presence as they have battled successfully in the building time of life to conquer with the help of God specific obstacles in their relationships with God and others. Those children in the faith have been warmed and attracted by the Presence shining through others. As they continue to be called and welcomed by the more mature believers, they will find Presence in their journey. The Gospel from Luke today tells of the encounter of the Holy Family with prophet, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. Helen Gwilliam animates this character with an inspired biography that relates to our lives in relationship with God and the great Why? questions which often mark our reflections. Friar Jude reminds us that Luke writes about the important role of women in faith communities by including both male and female persons as participants in the journey of Jesus to Jerusalem and His Presence with us as the Living Word.

Wisdom for Holy Family

The texts chosen today in the Roman Catholic Lectionary provide wisdom for family life but do so using references to Scripture and philosophy which have been controversial in Church history. Maureen McCannWaldron of Creighton University finds the wisdom in these texts and reminds us that families are complicated. The rigorous study and prayer in the ideal religious life is sometimes difficult in families blessed with children and the necessary daily tasks to organize and live our busy days. The necessary attention to the needs of those less capable, like the elderly in our families, is often where the support of our relationship with God is so important to find the patience and kindness which Friar Jude Winkler notes the Letter to the Colossians exhorts us to practice. The Wisdom Of Sirach is placed in the Apocrypha by Jewish and Reformed because it was not available in the Hebrew language. (Friar Jude notes that Hebrew versions have recently been found) The focus of this book (from the second century B.C.E) is to align the Jewish community with the traditional wisdom literature, today about family life, which was under pressure from the Hellenistic culture in the region at the time. The letter to the Colossians contains text about wives being subordinate to their husbands which Friar Jude speculates would not be included in this letter if it were written today. (In fact, the USCCB offers an alternate text for liturgy today which omits the references to subordination.) The original inclusion of this relationship was likely influenced by the Stoic philosophy which was prominent in Greek and Roman cites at the time of this letter to the Colossians. The Stoics sought virtue through respect of order in relationships. Friar Jude notes that the direction that husbands love your wives goes beyond Stoic principles. The account from the Gospel of Matthew about the flight of Jesus, Mary and Joseph into Egypt and their return to live not in Judah but to settle in Galilee were decisions for protection of the welfare of the family which we all need to make in our families as we assess the social and political situation in our environment. The desire of Matthew, according to Friar Jude, to stretch this inspired action of the Holy Family into the fulfillment of a prophesy from the Hebrew Testament continues to be the subject of debate among some Christianscholars about tradition versus “sola scriptura”. Perhaps the need to resolve different opinions and seek the Wisdom from God in the study of the texts today is a practical lesson to let the experience of Love come first in our lives in relationship with others.

Spirit and Scholars

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary for the fourth day in the Octave of Christmas bring us into a dualistic tension between light and dark, goodness and sin in the passage from the First Letter of John. Friar Jude Winkler and Felix Just, S.J., PhD note that there are theological differences between this letter and the Gospel of John. The latter volume is a spiritual Gospel. It paints images using background details of day and night to indicate the presence of good and evil. The tension in dualistic situations is rooted in our inability to choose one or the other of the options presented. Friar Jude confirms that when we are in Love with Jesus we do not sin yet our looking back at our journey indicates we do sin and the pastoral concern addressed in the First Letter of John is that Jesus saves and forgives in an ongoing continuous way because our nature is to return to our own control of life wherein we find all the opportunity to turn away from Jesus. The Gospel from Matthew shows an example of the prayer of the psalmist for God to “Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us, for we have had more than enough of contempt.  Our soul has had more than its fill of the scorn of those who are at ease, of the contempt of the proud.”(Psalm 123.4) Friar Jude tells us that perhaps fifty thousand were murdered by Herod during his reign. The reaction of the powerful and privileged to the message of a “New Jerusalem” is predictably not generous. In the Gospel from Matthew the text cites some passages from the Hebrew Testament to link the exile of Jesus, Mary and Joseph in Egypt to messianic prophesy. Friar Jude points out that some scripture scholars often find these linkages of Matthew to be weakly prophetic. The tears of Rachael at Ramah are from a reference by Jeremiah to the wife of Jacob (grandson of Abraham) who died in giving birth to her last son. The prophet of the exile to Babylon is consoling the deportees with the image of God eventually drying their tears. Often dualism is misused today by spiritual teachers to insist on black and white decisions where they may not be appropriate. The loose use of references to Scripture by Matthew would be difficult today for our literal legalistic preferences but as Friar Jude points out our reflection on the experience of the action of God in our lives is often in the rear view mirror and our associations with meaningful texts is spiritual rather than scholarly.

Reflect the Word of Life

Scripture scholars describe the Gospel of John as a spiritual gospel. The Roman Catholic Lectionary for the third day in the Octave of Christmas presents texts to celebrate St. John the Evangelist. DonSchwager introduces the objective of John to write down in 100 CE in Ephesus an account which would answer the question of who is Jesus of Nazareth. Seventy years after the time when John, the youngest of the Apostles, lived with Jesus, he gathers his reflections in a structured manner to address an audience who were largely living in the cultural environment of Greece and Rome. The opening of the first letter of John today tells us that Jesus is experienced by those who encounter Him, from the beginning, as the Word of Life. The deep passion of John is to share this experience of Life in Jesus with us and all people so that our (all people) may know complete joy. The nativity narrative which is the foundation story of the Christmas feast is told with magnificent descriptions of faith filled decisions, journey, and glorious revelation in the Gospels of Luke and Matthew. In John 1:14 it reads “And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth.” The text in the Lectionary today is from the reflection of John on the experience of encountering the empty tomb after Jesus resurrection. John expresses the experience at the tomb of seeing and believing. As John reflects on Jesus identity as the Incarnate Word, the experience of the empty tomb is described by Bede, a church father from the 8thcentury, as a closing bracket which is matched by the opening bracket of Jesus becoming human through the closed womb of Mary. Eileen Burke-Sullivan ofCreighton University is attentive to the joy which is inherent in the Gospel of John. This joy which John seeks to share in his writing is the same joy whichPapa Francesco is advocating people re-discover today in the Gospel.   Ethan R. Longhenry, author of the SPIRITUAL MANNA blog, identifies Christianity as those who live in encounter with Jesus rather than by dogma, doctrine and moral principles. The joy and thanksgiving. which Eileen Burke-Sullivan admits is sometimes difficult to regenerate, is rooted the experience of a personal encounter with Jesus that revives faith and trust in the Way, Truth and Life.

With us in the struggle

Friar Jude Winkler asks why the Church begins the Octave of Christmas with a Gospel reading in the Roman Catholic Lectionary which tells of the first martyr of the Church, Stephen, who is commemorated in the liturgy today. AlexRoedlach of Creighton University hopes that the joy of Christmas motivates us to translate Christ’s teaching into policies and practices that are in line with Christ’s teachings, promoting a fair and just society that is respectful of the whole creation. St Stephen spoke about Jesus as Saviour as a Hellenistic Jew to the Aramaic Jews in Jerusalem and Friar Jude comments that his zeal in preaching angered the religious authorities who stoned him to death as is described in the passage from the Acts of the Apostles today. As we are filled with the Spirit of Christmas, we will identify more with the poor, outcast, oppressed and persecuted of the world. The pattern of standing up with and for those who suffer injustice at the hands of the powerful and privileged has created martyrs in our own time. Certainly the decision to live with compassion for those on the margins will draw the criticism and distain from people close to us which are referred to in Matthew’s Gospel today. Friar Jude reminds us that the disciple of Christ accepts both the joy and peace of the Christmas message of God is with us and the difficulties, hardships and suffering which is part of carrying our cross to make Him visible as Love for all.

Feet bringing Good News

Friar Jude Winkler sets the circumstances around the passage in the Roman Catholic Lectionary from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah in Babylon at the time when the Israelites were in exile there and Jerusalem had been destroyed. The dominant culture around the Chosen People in exile participated in daily pagan adoration rituals which sparked a longing in the Prophet for the feet of the one to bring Good News. The peace and joy in the restoration of Jerusalem would be realized as the people were called back to faith that God is King. The culture around us presents many priorities and passions to drive daily action. Our action at this time brings Good News when Christmas is served rather than received. The opportunities to have feet which bring good news abound as we gather in groups to celebrate. Isaiah and the psalmist make it clear that the salvation from cultural oppression is for all peoples. The text from the beginning of the Letter to the Hebrews is rich in language which Friar Jude explains would be familiar to an audience of Greek thinkers and philosophers. We understand that the position of Jesus as God and human is being presented. As we wrestle with Good News in this Letter to the Hebrews, we are called to faith in One higher than angels, spiritually perfect beings in Greek thought, and both Son of God and born into the world as human. The adoration of the angels for the One born as human is a deep tension for Greek philosophers of the time who held the spiritual image to be far superior to matter in the flesh. The Prologue to the Gospel of John in the text today proclaims loudly that the ancient understanding of God as the Word spoken to create and bring knowledge is become flesh and in the translation cited by Friar Jude has pitched His tent among us. The birth of Word into flesh is the consequence of the “Yes “of Mary becoming Ark of the Covenant and inviting all who are drawn to celebrate this birth to be carriers of the Good News in our own feet acting in service.