Sunday Homily 10-18-09, 29th Ordinary Time
Readings: Isaiah 53,10-13; Psalm 33, Lord, let Your Mercy be on Us, as We place Our Trust in You; Hebrews 4, 14-16; Mark 10, 35-45
Isaiah:
A review:
Authors: at least 3 because there are 3 distinct parts to Isaiah the book.
Time of Composition: near the end of the Babylonian Captivity, i.e., ca. 550 BCE.
Subject Matter: warnings about impending doom because of the badness of the people in part 1 up to chapter 39. The remaining two parts are called the Book of Consolation, letting the people know that a more peaceful & prosperous time is coming.
Today’s Selection: (read all of chapter 53) 4 observations—
A. This chapter in 2 Isaiah is not included as one of the 4 Suffering Servant Songs, though it presents the same theme.
B. The he, the servant that is talked about is
–for the Hebrews, the Jewish nation/people;
–for Christians, Christ.
C. False Belief number 1? The Jews thought Yahweh demanded suffering or sacrifice of valuable items ( e.g., sacrificial lamb ) as payment for badness.
D. False Belief number 2? Not for the first 200 years, but eventually Christians were taught to believe that an original great sin had been committed by our ancestors & that sin could only be paid for by a human-divine hero, Jesus. He had to be sacrificed to this god. Or as the first line of our official reading says, “The lord was pleased to crush him infirmity.” Do you think God really crushes people with infirmity?
Was there really an original sin? Contemporary theology says no.
The Greatest
August, 2007, there was an article in the N.Y. Times. It focused on a work called Come, Be My Light, a collection of letters by Mother Teresa. I mentioned Mother Teresa last week as an example of a person who gave it all up and went out into the street to help the disadvantaged. Why did she do this? Apparently because of her faith in Jesus and his message. The N.Y. Times article, however, noted that Mother Teresa confesses in her letters that for years she harbored doubts about her belief in God, this while she was rescuing homeless people off of the streets, living out the role of servant mentioned in the gospel.
I mention this event because despite people's accomplishments, we are all human, and because many of us have the similar doubts. Mother Teresa got a lot of criticism for these doubts, people even calling her a fraud or hypocrite. I would propose that she was more genuine because of her doubts.
Two observations that seem relevant to this issue. The observations come from an excellent book, The Future of Faith by Harvey Cox (loaned to me by John Cade). Cox has been teaching divinity at Harvard for 40 years and wrote the famous Secular City in '65. The observations are, first, a short history of Christianity and, secondly, where is Mother Teresa and where are we.
First, Cox says there have been three stages of Christianity, the stage of faith, the stage of belief, and the stage of the spirit.
He suggests that we have been living in the third stage for the past 50 or more years. It is characterized by a desire on the part of many people to become spiritual. Not necessarily religious with all the rules and dogmas. This period is reflective of the first stage.
The Age of Faith lasted around two hundred years after Jesus. During this time there was a spiritual excitement about the prospect of a new world coming. Jesus called it the kingdom and it was a this world event. There were many little Christian communities, a variety of liturgies, a democratic process, and an anti Roman Empire stance. There was a sense of being touched by the spirit of Jesus, with his vision for a better world where the poor and outcast would be welcomed.
Despite an excitement of spirit, the time was marked by persecution. The Roman Empire did not tolerate groups of people who would not worship the emperor. It was during this time when the Christians were the entertainment in the Colosseum.
The second stage, the Age of Belief, officially begins in 313, when the emperor Constantine granted freedom to Christians. Fairly quickly Christianity became the religion of the empire. Sounds good so far. But as Cox notes, when the Empire made Christianity official, Christianity became an empire and lost much of its spirit. Faith was measured by belief in dogmas, belief in things about Jesus.
A clerical class developed, the class became rich and powerful, they began to lay down beliefs that had to be held, writings were revised so as to create a fiction to support apostolic succession so these clerics would appear entitled. Creeds multiplied. Only 12 years after Constantine's Edict of Milan of 313, a council of Christian leaders, now called bishops, met at Nicaea in 325 and came up with the complicated Nicene Creed.
In 385 CE a particularly ominous event took place. For the first time ever a meeting of bishops, condemned of heresy and had killed 7 Christian men. The group under the leadership of a man named Priscillian encouraged abstinence from meat & wine, recommended study of the sacred writings available to them, and allowed what could be called charismatic praise of God.
So where are we and where was Mother Teresa? I was born about 30 years after Mother Teresa, but she & I both were brought up in the Age of Belief. I had to memorize the Baltimore Catechism. The more I memorized, the more faith I must have. I don't think Mother Teresa ever moved totally out of the Age of Belief. However, her life exemplifies the Way of Faith
Today I find lots of Catholics & Christians, like myself, trying to return to that original time of faith & spirit. Dogmas like the infallibility of the pope, the Assumption, the Immaculate Conception, & canon law are not vital. A spirituality that deepens faith is vital.
Where are you on this journey?
Source: The Future of Faith, Harvey Cox (excellent)
Picture 1: Mass begins with Kevin helping
Picture 2: Sebastian welcomes the Community
Picture 3: The Community
Picture 4: The Coffee Shoppe with Joan & Jerry, Bob & John