Restoring the Kingdom to Whom?

The Ascension of the Lord (Year A)

Acts 1:1-11

Ephesians 1:17-23

Matthew 28:16-20

What is the meaning or significance of Christ’s victory over sin and death? What did the Easter Season mean for the Apostles: those 40 days between His Resurrection and His Ascension to God’s Right Hand? What is it that shines forth in the very intimate experiences reserved for His Apostles in His repeated appearances and teaching over those 40 days since His Resurrection and, now as Jesus is taken from their sight, as He commissions them to be His witnesses to the ends of the earth? What is it that the Ascension of the Lord crowns or confirms?

The liturgy for today says it very simply in the words: “where He has gone we hope to follow.”

However, the lessons the Risen Christ taught them during these 40 days were not all that evident to the Apostles, as we can see from the readings today, both from the Acts of the Apostles and from Matthew’s Gospel:

“Lord, has the time come? Are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”

“When they saw him they fell down before him, though some hesitated.”

It is St. Paul in today’s 2^nd Reading from his letter to the Ephesians who explains to us what the Apostles only learned on Pentecost Sunday with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

Basically, today explains the greatness, the profundity, the length and breadth, the height and depth of what is the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies. We come to see things clearly. In terms of time and history we leave behind us B.C. (all of history from the dawn of Creation, all that which went before the coming of God’s Anointed, His Christ) and we enter into God’s Kingdom, now firmly established in the person of Jesus (Anno Domini, A.D., in the year of our Lord, as good Christian folk used to start off when they were writing something).

“He has put all things under his feet, and made him as the ruler of everything, the head of the Church; which is his body, the fullness of him who fills the whole creation.”

And a lot of us, just like the Apostles before Pentecost say: “And…?” Taking our Christianity for granted as we do, we wonder about what makes us different or, God forbid, better by reason of our baptism into Christ than anyone else. “Where He has gone we hope to follow.” How can we, how dare we say that we are bound to Him, to Jesus, and consequently to God’s Chosen One, His Only One:

“He has put all things under his feet, and made him as the ruler of everything, the head of the Church; which is his body, the fullness of him who fills the whole creation.”

Paul is right in praying for us, because the implications of this, of the mystery of the Resurrection and Ascension of the Lord, aren’t all that easy to grasp:

“May he enlighten the eyes of your mind so that you can see what hope his call holds for you, what rich glories he has promised the saints will inherit and how infinitely great is the power that he has exercised for us believers.”

The Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord celebrates Christ’s victory and our hope to share in the same forever with Him in Heaven. It is indeed an absolute sort of thing, not necessarily moving us to scorn this life, but certainly inspiring a hope which goes beyond the ordinary.

These days I’m listening to CDs from a basic course in Ukrainian and reading a couple of books on the history and customs of that great country, which will soon be my home. According to the one book, buffet food or finger food at receptions is not that popular. Ukrainians, if the book is correct, still seem to believe that the best time comes from sitting around the table and eating and drinking together. The scene the author describes reminds me of a scene from a country home in one of Dostoyevsky’s books, where the young man is for all practical purposes smothered in food, drink, and the warmth of this country home. He likes it, I think, but finds too much what the elderly couple would judge as just right and truly living.

“Where He has gone we hope to follow.” Or as we read elsewhere: “here we have no lasting dwelling place.” Our world today is generally far from Dostoyevsky’s lovely little couple in the country; people tend to be lean and, sadly too, often mean. Food and drink, society and song is not necessarily the antidote for the typical type of alienation from which our Western world suffers. The great cultures of India and China or Japan, for that matter, don’t necessarily provide. Our hope can and must ultimately be found elsewhere or, should I say, beyond elsewhere and forever.

I think it is right that our lives be happy and that we have a certain measure of contentment which we share with everyone else. Maybe our world’s practical atheists don’t miss God, but if they were to encounter Him in our shared joy and in our hope to know His sacrificial love and live with Him forever beyond the grave, I firmly believe that much else would fall by the wayside and they might take us by the sleeve and beg us to lead them to the Lord.

We affirm with St. Paul, that God the Father:

“(He) has put all things under his feet, and made him as the ruler of everything, the head of the Church; which is his body, the fullness of him who fills the whole creation.”

Let your Sunday meditation carry your thoughts, beyond common friends, good times and even generous service to neighbor, to Him and where we hope to follow! His is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever!

 “May he enlighten the eyes of your mind so that you can see what hope his call holds for you, what rich glories he has promised the saints will inherit and how infinitely great is the power that he has exercised for us believers.”

By Faith in One Word

I was somewhat taken by the way the First reading for Saturday of the 6^th Week throughout the Year in the edition approved for England, Scotland and Wales has translated Hebrews 11:1ff. :

“Only faith can guarantee the blessings that we hope for, or prove the existence of the realities that at present remain unseen. It was for faith that our ancestors were commended.

It is by faith that we understand that the world was created by one word from God, so that no apparent cause can account for the things we can see.”

Years ago I memorized those verses in the translation from the New American Bible edition, but I must say that the thought contained in the third sentence as per the Jerusalem Bible is different or at least seems so to me. It would seem that I have less reason to be impatient or Pauline with, for example, exponents of the “Big Bang Theory”:

“It is by faith that we understand that the world was created by one word from God, so that no apparent cause can account for the things we can see.”

As silly as that sounds, seriously it helps me class a lot more “scientists” or “sophisticates” among those who don’t know their right hand from their left. I can pray that their hearts be touched and they might know the God Who spoke that “one word” and know the enormity of their human life destroying experiments (I am shuddering at the horror of embryonic stem cell research).

            Years ago, I knew one of the Polish priests who survived the concentration camp at Dachau and the “medical experiments” which left him with malaria bouts and nightmares for the rest of his life. In the same way today, countless pre-born brothers and sisters will never encounter us this side of Heaven. My concern here today in particular is for the darkness of the souls of those pseudo-scientists back then in the pay of the Nazi regime and now today for the souls of batteries of no less wretched folk whom some would excuse from moral consequences simply on the basis of their geekyness…

            St. Augustine, in The City of God, goes on and on in an attempt to reason with proud pagans and free them from the embrace of folly. Ultimately, then and now the challenge is to argue in favor of, or better, prepare the encounter with the one and only God, Who spoke that “one word” and it all was made. Sadly, too many of those who profess the faith don’t appreciate the fact that that “one word” was and is a word of love for you and for me by name. By His one word we stand over and above His creation.

            This Saturday has given me reason for insistent prayer that “scientists” and “sophisticates” might be saved and that the Lord would bless our world with a new “Augustine” to tirelessly argue the case for the sake of their change of heart and new insight in the lives of those who claim the faith but do not possess it enough to imagine that “one word” and thereby live as creatures in God’s world of an inestimable dignity and worth, willed for us by Him Who has revealed Himself to us in His Son as our loving Father.

Hope is not Hope if its Object is Seen!

Repent!

          Every now and again I run across someone in the blogosphere discussing his or her scruples about praying for the English-speaking world’s most in-your-face, rage-against-God-atheist, Christopher Hitchens, who suffers from cancer. I think the issue is one of not wanting to pray for somebody who would be classed among the unforgivable sinners against the Holy Spirit. As Christopher’s own brother, who himself found his way back to faith from atheism, still hasn’t given up on him, I guess, neither should we: as long as there is life and breath, there is hope of a change of heart, of genuine and full repentance.

Christopher’s brother would seem to have St. Paul on his side. In our Second reading for this Advent Sunday, St. Paul exhorts the Romans (15:4-9) and us:

“Everything that was written long ago in the scriptures was meant to teach us something about hope from the examples scripture gives of how people who did not give up were helped by God. And may he who helps us when we refuse to give up, help you all to be tolerant with each other, following the example of Christ Jesus, so that united in mind and voice you may give glory to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

  It can only be to God’s glory, then, for you to treat each other in the same friendly way as Christ treated you. The reason Christ became the servant of circumcised Jews was not only so that God could faithfully carry out the promises made to the patriarchs, it was also to get the pagans to give glory to God for his mercy, as scripture says in one place: For this I shall praise you among the pagans and sing to your name.”

We live in hope then that the call to repentance issued by John the Baptist will be heard and heeded. We live in hope that our human adversaries and those who openly rage against the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ might through our kindness, friendliness or charity be able to come to the knowledge of Jesus Christ, knowledge through Him of the God we cannot see and thereby be saved.

          My own issue on this 2^nd Sunday of Advent 2010 – Year A is a certain puzzlement over all those pagans and others out there who are not exactly raging against God, but whom we may lovingly class as ignorant, but perhaps better merit the judgment of being condemned as indifferent, as immersed either in the glitter and passing glow or sunk in the mud of this life. What are my or our possibilities for repeating the success of John the Baptist in preparing the way of the Lord and shaking these folks up? Is there…? There must be hope for some of them and somehow it’s up to me to extend to them the Baptist’s hand, isn’t it? How can I effectively work to bring them into the fold? Is the diet of locusts and wild honey, the rough and scant camel hair and leather covering still what legitimates the prophet and precursor today? Do my lack of sunken eyes, of bones sticking out all over and of being generally unkempt, do my extra pounds discredit me as a prophet or put me elsewhere than where the Lord would have His witnesses and shepherds toiling in the vineyard today?

The 2^nd reading from this morning’s Office of Readings comes from a commentary on Isaiah by Eusebius of Caesarea, where among other things this Father of the Church notes:

“The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight the paths of our God. The prophecy makes clear that it is to be fulfilled, not in Jerusalem but in the wilderness: it is there that the glory of the Lord is to appear, and God’s salvation is to be made known to all mankind.

  It was in the wilderness that God’s saving presence was proclaimed by John the Baptist, and there that God’s salvation was seen.”

? ? ?

It would seem pretty certain for Eusebius that all of the YouTube followers’ excitement over surprise Alleluia Choruses from G.F. Handel in Philadelphia shopping malls or Canadian fast food restaurants is misplaced. Jesus Himself asks His listeners to reflect on the “what did you go out in the wilderness to see?” The Lord Himself points to John the Baptist as central or prime to the economy of salvation.

Where is the “wilderness experience” in cradle-to-grave Catholicism and what does it teach about the urgency of never leaving the flock untended? Think of Ezekiel’s condemnation of shepherds not caring for the flock or of St. Augustine condemning the dumb dogs who will not bark in defense of that flock! If I am not obliged to cry out as John the Baptist did, leading people forth to that place of encounter with the Lord Who comes to rule the earth, how is this supposed to happen such that the sheep are separated from the goats flocking to the modern day equivalent of King Herod’s banquets? The distinction, the separation, judgment must come! Is our lack of identification with John the Baptist evidence of a lack of genuine faith, hope and God-like charity? Are we dulling, dumbing down or otherwise delaying the day of His Coming by not leading people out of the doomed metropolis, out to Him in the wilderness? Are we standing by idly as countless tumble over the precipice never thinking that life for us, created in the image and likeness of God, is everlasting and the choice between a joyful and a sorrowful eternity is by us to be made?

I think one aspect of the answer has to do with going back to our passage from St. Paul and looking closer at the matter of where our hope lies. Wicked old King Herod found his support in Christ’s day from the upright citizens of Jerusalem among the members of the party of the Sadducees, those who refused belief in the resurrection, eternal life, angels and all which went beyond the here and now. The Exodus from Egypt into the wilderness as more than a people’s sacrifice for the sake of self-determination was nonsense to them and the fact that they would not go out or heed John’s message sufficed to place them with the goats of Herod’s table on Judgment Day.

The puzzle then and now for me, however, is in seeing clearly just how the embrace of John the Baptist’s radical self-renunciation can be/must be the declaration of hope in the Lord Who comes to rule the earth. Expectantes beatam spem et adventum Domini Jesu Christi… Does turning to the Lord mean turning my back on something, and what? John the Baptist’s call to repent was the purest possible statement from a young man to the effect that I am willing to renounce all for the Lord of my life. It finds an eloquent echo in the conversion experiences of men like Francis of Assisi, Dominic, Ignatius of Loyola. The radical enthusiasm for the Gospel of so many of these saints immediate followers should give us pause as well.

The dawn of the informatic age heard clamors for making things “user friendly”. That particular mantra is gone as Iphones and Ipads have become child’s play things, but I fear that what might have been a legitimate demand for facilitating word processing, changing channels on a home entertainment center or streaming your every thought and action online, might be having an adverse effect on how we look at life and its demands, and therefore on how we present the Gospel. The Pharisees had their alliances with the Sadducees for whatever political reasons despite the fact that they were going in opposite directs in terms of God, time and eternity. That is probably the best explanation as to why John the Baptist, why Benedict of Nursia and why many others over the years have abandoned Jerusalem or Rome and its compromises to look for the Lord where He has chosen to come… to await him in the wilderness of self-denial and repentance.

It’s up to me to respond to his call and do my part to hasten the coming of the day of God!

Properantes Adventum Diei Dei

Life in Hope

Pentecost Sunday
11 May 2008

“Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of persons ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be kindled and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fire! But according to his promise we wait for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.” (2 Peter 3:11-13, RSV-CE)

PROPERANTES ADVENTUM DIEI DEI… I heard a very fine Pentecost homily at the annual jubilee Mass of the local province of the Holy Ghost Fathers. The homilist also alluded to the above quoted text from the Second Letter of Peter, touching me in a very particular way, because this is the Scripture quote which stands behind and explains my Episcopal motto. Father’s allusion was drawn from a reflection he offered to the festive assembly on the nature of hope from the Holy Father’s Encyclical Letter Spe salvi.

WAITING FOR AND HASTENING THE COMING OF THE DAY OF GOD … Going beyond striving to live a holy and godly life and thereby contributing to shortening the time of God’s forbearance, lest “any should perish” and “all should reach repentance”, was certainly something that caught my attention when I picked my motto from this passage. I looked at it first and foremost from the point of view of cooperating with God’s grace. Father’s Pentecost homily this year hit me at an opportune moment and helped me to tighten and thereby light another bulb on that Christmas tree of my understanding of these words from Holy Scripture. He helped me better illuminate for my own understanding the aspect of hope involved in St. Peter’s call for zeal.

If you think about it, trying to hasten the day when “the elements will melt with fire” as an effort tied to genuine hope is a notion which needs some head work. Hoping for the establishment of God’s rule is not an instinctive yearning, like longing to be free from unjust constraints and respected by one’s peers. Eagerly awaiting new heavens and a new earth from God is an intelligent choice subsequent to our encounter with the Truth, with the Light and Life of the world. Godless men and women of good will and even non-Christians sadly content themselves with much less. There should be no doubt in anyone’s mind about the difference which Jesus Christ makes. We need only reflect for a moment about the back and forth we find in the Gospels between Jesus and His adversaries, and even between Jesus and His disciples or would-be disciples. Not everyone expected as revealed in the Person of Jesus the Messiah, the Anointed One, the Christ Who was to come into our world! The history of Creeds and Councils helps us understand something of the struggle to preserve the fullness of that faith over the centuries.

PROPERANTES ADVENTUM DIEI DEI… Is it really more than a longing for the establishment of righteousness? Most certainly! The violent wind which was heard to blow in the Upper Room on that first Pentecost, those tongues of fire which settled upon the disciples gathered there with Mary, the Mother of God, in prayer, were certainly for them and for all who witnessed that event the foretaste and promise of the world to come. On that day, everything melted away in fire and hope’s object in faith may not have been seen but was certainly witnessed from afar. This was not only the birthday of the Church, but in a very real sense the Church’s Transfiguration, meant to strengthen the baptized for the scandal of the share in the Cross which would be ours, to make up what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ.

Freedom’s nature and dignity certainly does not allow us to victoriously establish God’s reign by imposing it on the lives of others. As transformed through our share in the prayer and suffering of Christ and His Church, we stand eagerly on the threshold of Judgment and Eternal Life. It is enough. Holiness and godliness will draw others to the Day as nothing else can. The light on the lamp stand, the city on the mountain top cannot be hidden.

Sometimes we hesitate, terrified or at least stymied by the darkness which seems to have devoured us and to have claimed the victory. The Lord Jesus’ temptations in the desert are not always withstood so valiantly by us, His followers, as we falter in hope, while awaiting that Dawn from on High.

Pentecost: caught up into the Mystery of the Most Holy Trinity through the grace of that whirlwind Who is the Holy Spirit, we live in hope of God’s Day. It is more than enough.

Easter Monday

Opening of the Provincial Assembly
of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Cluny
Easter Monday, 24 March 2008,
Emmaus Centre, Torrecilla, Arima

In the Opening Prayer of this Easter Monday we find a really great prayer intention. Just a few moments ago we prayed: “Help us put into action in our lives the baptism we have received with faith.” As women religious, you know that your baptism finds its perfection in your religious consecration. The prayer intention, if you will, takes on deeper meaning in your lives by reason of your vows. And so with fervor we pray: “Help us put into action in our lives the baptism we have received with faith.”

The first reading today from the Acts of the Apostles is St. Peter’s big Pentecost witness which centers on King David’s prophecy that his descendant, namely Jesus, would not experience the corruption of the grave. The reading from Matthew’s Gospel for today partly overlaps and then sets forth the Gospel reading for this year from the Easter Vigil. We hear again that the first witnesses of the Resurrection were the women. They first discovered the Empty Tomb. They first encountered Jesus, the Risen One, Himself. They bowed down and clasped His Feet.

Regardless of what you, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Cluny, have for specific points on the agenda of your Provincial Assembly, which opens with this Holy Mass, such gatherings by their very nature have their meditative or reflective moments. Willed or not, we find ourselves looking around and taking stock of the family, of the other sisters younger and older yes, but also of your “together” as it presents itself at this moment in time. Where do we go from here? How are we doing? What more can we do? All kinds of hopes, really, fill the thoughts of those who are vowed to the apostolate.

At this particular moment and considering the situation in which our region here finds itself, there probably would be no greater gift that you sisters could give as a gift to our world either as a province or individually than to make the witness of those women, the first witnesses to the Resurrection, make that same witness actual in our day and time. I hope you will accept it from me, when I tell you that this is the optimal moment for each and every one of you, regardless of any other factors, to repeat the Easter experience of those women in the hostile environment of our day and time where once again as at the moment of Resurrection the powers that be hunch their backs and find other explanations for the Empty Tomb. Easter is your time and the Easter Proclamation is at the heart of your calling. Consecrated life and Easter Glory belong together as much or more than the vowed life and Lenten penance do.

Yours is the chance, in a very contrary and confused world, to say as those women did to all who are waiting for any news whatever and even to those with no particular expectations, “Be off and be on your way to Galilee where you will see Him!” Not the commander, not the soldier, but the witness rules the day.

The history of your Congregation’s work in this region can in part be summed up in all you have done to empower women. Yours is truly a success story. In all of that, the unreflective soul might have missed the point that the key or cornerstone to your contribution has always been your witness, your excitement over having encountered the Risen One. Back to basics, as they say, or concentrating on essentials is never a bad program – it works for getting sports teams back on their game; it works in life; it is Lent and Easter; it is baptismal renewal.

Alleluia! He is Risen as He said and will meet you in Galilee! Sisters, be on your way as witnesses! Do the Savior’s bidding as He stands before you in glory! Proclaim His victory over sin and death! Urge others to be on the way to His encounter!