Author: Rosemary

Readings: Exodus 34, 4-9; Psalm, Daniel 3, 52-55; 2 Corinthians 13, 11-13; John 3, 16-18.

The Trinity: First proclaimed as a dogma in 350, Council of Nice, France.  Church leaders were influenced by 1) reflecting back on biblical passages that identified God sources, e.g., Jesus & Holy Spirit; 2) Babylonian, Egyptian, and Greek philosophy (e.g., Plato) which believed in a plurality of gods and an afterlife.

Exodus: The second book of the O.T. & the Hebrew Torah (1st 5 books).  Basically the story of Moses leading the Hebrews out of Egypt, where they had gone because of drought generations earlier.  Today’s metaphorical passage tells of how Moses got a second set of the 10 Commandments after he broke the first set in anger at the people.  The people are in the desert.  We will read all the first 9 verses.

Already Condemned?

Last week a good friend of mine called up and said, "Stack, are all non-Catholics going to hell?"  Seems like she had been talking with a friend of hers about an acquaintance who was not Catholic.  The person said that all people who do not believe in Jesus are condemned.  Catholics hold that all who are not Catholic are condemned.  Right?

My friend who has been a lifelong Catholic said that she had heard this a long time ago, but did not think anyone really believed it anymore. 

"No," I responded, "It is not true."  Even though we have today’s Gospel telling us so, that "whoever does not believe has already been condemned."  How do you reconcile this?

Two observations.  First is about the nature of Scripture.  Second is about passages that are more inclusive.

First, the Bible.  We have an example in John’s passage today of the danger of taking one line or event literally.  If you take the Bible literally you parents have the justification to kill your son or daughter who is disobedient.  Slavery should still exist.  You should pluck out your eye if it is a source of temptation to you.  With that we would all be blind from adolescence.  This, along with much more like it, is in our Bible.

So much of the Old Testament is legend, but legend intended to convey the writer’s moral lesson.  Like today’s story of Moses & the 10 Commandments.  Legend.  Moses supposedly lived at least 300 years before the events recounted here were written down.  300 years of oral passing on.   Could you write a history of, say, the Revolutionary War or even the Civil War?

The lesson is: don’t take literally every sentence in the Bible. 

At the same time, and this is the second point, there are some lines that are terrific, like the line in Exodus today about the Lord being gracious & merciful, patient & kind.  As many of you know, this is one of my most favorite lines.  The line shows up at least 3-5 other times in the Scriptures.

So do we pick and choose the lines we like in the Bible?  Yes, I think so, using common sense and our experience.  Otherwise we are like dumb sheep.  Finally, putting together our experience of living and identifying lines in Scripture that we find helpful, we put together our own personal image of our God.  Is that God gracious & merciful, patient & loving, or condemning?  For me it is definitely the former.

What do you think?  Is God condemning people?  Or is our God gracious & merciful, patient & loving?

AUDIO: http://mysite.verizon.net/reso7rjy/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/2008-05-18.mp3   

Readings: Acts 2, 1-11; Psalm 104; 1 Corinthians 12, 3-13, John 20,19-23, Pentecost.

Mothers’ Day Notes:

• The idea originated, ca. 1870, with 3 women who had worked in hospitals during the Civil War. 
• Julia Ward Howe (Battle Hymn), Anna Maria Reeves Jarvis, & her daughter, Anna Jarvis wanted a Mothers’ Day of Peace because of the horrors they had seen in the military hospitals.
• Woodrow Wilson, 1914, established the national holiday.

Pentecost Notes:

• The word signifies 50, in this case, 50 days (or 7 weeks).
• O.T.: the Hebrews celebrated the 50th day after the Passover (Egypt, first born sons killed by angel, Jewish sons spared, to threaten Pharaoh into letting the Hebrews depart Egypt).  The celebration eventually focused on agriculture & thanksgiving for the first fruits of the spring, and finally Thanksgiving for the Torah.
• N.T.: Christians tied this occasion to the spiritual fruits of redemption, the Spirit, 50 days (or 7 Sundays/weeks) after the Resurrection.
• Question: a 1 time only event or repeatable (e.g., Pentecostals)?

Mothers’ Day

In Thursday’s USA Today there is an article by Paul Aronsohn about two women, his mother & his sister, Margot & Patti.

When Patti was ca. 25 years old she was diagnosed with a rare disease that eventually would take her life, a disease that resembles M.S., but which does not seem to have a name or be very common.  This happened in ’89, almost 20 years ago.

As the years have passed Patti slowly went down.  Originally active athletically & intellectually, she first had to walk with a cane.  Then she took up a walker, then moved into a wheel chair.  Finally, a few years ago, she became bed ridden.  To eat she has to use a feeding tube, into which something like Ensure is poured, yuk.

During the years her three sibling and friends have helped her.  But the person who has helped her the most was her mother who was herself about 50 when the diagnosis was given. 

Today Patti is about 45, totally bed bound, fed through a tube, can talk a bit, is conscious, and is awaiting the end.  Her mother, Margot, is mid-70’s, takes care of Patti full time in Florida where they moved because of the milder weather than New Jersey.  During the day Margot has help, but at night she sleeps beside Patti’s bed in case Patti needs anything.

What kind of love is this!!  Remember Jackie Ritter’s story about landing in Holland instead of Italy?

Whom do you love this much?

AUDIO:  http://mysite.verizon.net/reso7rjy/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/2008-05-11.mp3

Readings: Acts Acts 1, 1-11; Psalm 47; Ephesians 1, 17-23; Matthew 28, 16-20, Readings of the Ascension.

Observations on the Ascension in Acts (and in Luke’s Gospel):

• Luke wrote the 2 accounts: the Gospel of Luke & Acts
• Intended to be read as metaphor or symbol, emphasizing a) Jesus is One with God & therefore can be experienced everywhere; b) Jesus is Lord, a value not only for religious reasons but also political reasons at a time when leaders were lords.
• Reasons why it is considered symbolic: a) time is inconsistent–40 days mentioned in Acts, while the Ascension in Luke’s Gospel seems to take place at most a few days after the Resurrection; b)  the archaic view of a 3 story universe is assumed, i.e., heaven above, hell below, earth in the middle.

What Sends You Up?

There is an old 4 story convent in Venice on the north side in Cannaregio.  4 or 5 elderly nuns live there & they have a beautiful private garden behind their convent, which is just a stones throw from the large body of water separating Venice on the north from the mainland.  Also living in the convent are about 25 elderly women and one Ethiopian lady about 50 who is the guest hostess and door keeper. 

In the morning before breakfast maybe 6 of the ladies gather in the entrance area to chat among themselves and with Magda the hostess lady, and to watch the morning’s comings and goings through the main entrance.

One morning I decided I would join these delightful people to practice my Italian which the women all praised at great length.  I’m thinking, these are Venetian women.  I would love to hear their stories, ask what Venice was like during Mussolini’s time, what were their happiest memories, and so on.

So I went down, greeted everyone, and began to ask them about a booklet I had seen on the coffee table that was about the Jesuits.  I began to get looks of incomprehension and I realized I was talking jibberish to them, mixing Spanish into everything I was saying.  I was so deflated.  All this time and effort put into learning Italian and I could not even use the right word for magazine.  I was ready to quit the language.  I’ll never get it.

The next day I get up and decide I will try again.  I prepare ahead of time and take my time getting started.  The ladies were charming and complimentary as ever and all went well.  I went out of there soaring. 

A couple of days later in a taxi in Florence I had the driver reinforce my positive experience.  He not only says my Italian is good, but that I got the rythm and accent.  That compliment sent me over the moon.

What sends you up? 

We talk about the Ascension today and I would propose that ascension moments are available to all of us.  I would distinguish between passive and active moments.

For example, my moments of language success were active, in the sense that I worked to achieve them and success really sent me up. 

I can work to put together a celebration like we had last night and have an ascension moment all evening and for days afterward.  Our Sunday celebrations do that for me. 

Helping Karina and her mother in Cuernavaca.  Our decades long tree project and the joy of seeing the trees blossom in spring with new growth.  Some of the trees we planted in the 80’s I can’t believe they were small such a short time ago.  I can only imagine the high Tom got running the Boston Marathon.  Beth has been working toward her nationals swim meet yesterday in Austin.  Rob says she’s done really well. 

There are passive or vicarious moments that send me up.  Our music at Mass, watching Kovatis chase the little kids around the cafeteria, watching Maggie & Chloe play during Mass, Chloe & Hunter dancing last night.  My first cup of coffee on the back porch in the morning.  Listening to Handel or Vivaldi’s 4 Seasons.

These moments are the spice of life.  Some come as gifts, others involve effort, but are worth it. 

On this feast of the Ascension, what sends you up? 

AUDIO: http://mysite.verizon.net/reso7rjy/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/2008-05-04.mp3

Readings: Acts 8, 5-17; Psalm 66; 1 Peter 3, 15-18; John 14, 15-21.

 

Conditional or Unconditional Love?

On the west coast there is a writer named David Sheff who wrote a book about his son Nic.  The book is called Beautiful Boy.  In turn, Nic wrote a book about his own experience of growing up, a book called Tweak.

When Nic was 11 years old he got totally drunk for the first time.  During his four years in high school, he continued down this path, drinking, smoking pot, and experimenting with drugs.  On graduation Nic entered the world of methamphetamines and he plunged toward the bottom.  Tweak refers to the condition of a person on meth, totally strung out.

David tells in his book how for 2, maybe 3 years he refused to accept that his beautiful son was a drug addict.  On numerous occasions, after Nic had been gone for weeks on end, David would get Nic into a rehab program.  Nic would rehab for a month or two, come out and stay clean and sober for three or four days, then disappear into his meth world for another stretch. 

Nic got so desperate he would break into his dad’s house and into his dad’s friends’ houses to steal money or items to sell.  At a really low point he stole $8 from his little brother Jasper.  All this helped him to feel lower than dirt, but he was obsessed about his addiction.

During the first two years, David worried constantly and would welcome Nic home whenever he showed up or called for help.  Only slowly with the help of counseling, consulting, and Al Anon did he begin to believe in the tough love concept.  He told Nic he could not help him with money & bed, only get him into rehab. 

During one long clean & sober period it looked like Nic had turned a corner.  He even gave Jasper $8 and wrote him a touching apology.  Shortly after that, he disappeared again. 

I watched David mature in this book.  Though a loving father, in the beginning he was a poor parent and self indulgent.  As Nic spirals downward, David continues to love.  But he matures and his love matures.  Which brings me to a subject I’ve been hearing about & reflecting upon, conditional vs unconditional loving.  The Gospel brings up the idea.  Did David ever love Nic with unconditional love?   How would I see it?  What would be the signs?

Three comments about conditional & unconditional love:

1.  Have you ever noticed how the Bible is full of conditional love statements?  Look at today’s Gospel.  "If you love me, you will keep my commandments."  "Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me."  Also, John 15, 10 & 14.  "If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love."  "You are my friends, if you do what I command you."  Sounds very conditional and parental. 

In other places there is talk about the sheep and the goats and the unquenchable flames.  The Old Testament is one long story of a jealous Yahweh.  Many tragedies befell the Hebrews because they did not show enough honor to Yahweh.

2.  Does Jesus show us the face of an unconditionally loving God? In his words? What we hear today is pretty conditional.  What about his actions? 

What if God is an unconditionally loving God, or an unconditionally accepting God?

3.  How do I become unconditionally loving?  Do I want to?  As a parent?   Two observations:

     a.  Is unconditional love made up of unconditional acceptance?  I think so. Tough.  Is there a distinction between accepting the person and accepting the actions, e.g., addiction and abuse?  I think so.  It is how tough love comes into play.

     b.  Is unconditional acceptance of another influenced by unconditional acceptance of myself ? I think so.  David had a hard time with guilt.  He felt guilt, I think appropriately.  He was told the 3 C’s: you did not cause it, you cannot control it, and you cannot cure it.  Nonsense.  I see regularly and believe in the miracle of cure, cure of the spirit, cure of the heart.  And I can accept that I cause harm to other people.

   

In summary, I would suggest that we become more spiritually whole the more we love unconditionally.

Whom do you love unconditionally? 

AUDIO:  http://mysite.verizon.net/reso7rjy/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/2008-04-27.mp3