Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Sherri, give some thought to slowly reading the Story and ask, “what are you teaching me, what are you saying to me?”, and see where it goes.
This is from the “God has a sense of humor and knows how to kick butt” department.
This weekend’s Gospel Story is where the folks felt they knew Jesus and so he couldn’t teach them anything. This was going to be the focus of my homily — are we really ready when Jesus is trying to teach us something. It was the wrong question.
The real question is whether I am ready when Jesus wants to teach me something.
All week and especially today I had been working hard on my homily for this weekend. Today was mostly a day of prayer and homily work. I put a lot of time on my homily today and even wrote a lot of it out. I was so impressed that I sent snippets of it to some folks. Around 3 pm I was still at the table working on it and didn’t know I had lost track of time. I was really proud of myself, and knew that the folks were going to get a great homily. As I drove to the church I was feeling no doubt smug, without my usual quiet thinking and prayerful prep. My attitude was “I got this!”.
As I turned into the parking lot I saw the lot was full. As I walked into the church the pastor was just starting the mass I was supposed to have — definitely a WTF moment.
I’m still very joyfully processing what Jesus is trying to teach me, and this may take a while. But it’s nice to know Jesus cares enough about me to really kick my butt.
As we listen to or read this Gospel Story in the setting of the so much that is going on locally, in our country, and our church, we might look into ourselves to see if Jesus is trying to teach us anything about what we can do to be his disciples in all this, to deal with the threats and violence on just about any issue. Threats of violence against all sorts of folks who disagree with other people’s opinions are happening all around us, even as they happened to Jesus and his followers. Jesus teaches us what we are to do, not what we are to demand that other people so so it is easier for us to live our understanding of the Gospel, which just might not be the way others see the Gospel. We do know that folks are suffering and hurting in any number of situations. It may be that through this Gospel Story Jesus is trying to show us what we can do in our own circle to help, and how we need to remain close in him, our Bread of Life. Then again, maybe not. Jesus is not about answers, security, or safety. He is more about openness, questioning, trusting, growing.
Steve, take a chance and wonder why it is difficult for you.
Some thoughts. The folks in the Story could not accept that Jesus, whom they thought they knew well, was trying to teach them something.
Jesus calls us, as he called folks in his time, to take the chance and let him move us beyond out comfort zones. Sometimes it’s easier just to keep beating ourselves up than to take a chance and start thinking differently about the same old tings.
In the Story the folks felt they knew Jesus and so there was nothing he could teach them. This sort of thing happens a number of times in the Gospels. What it says to me is that I have to be careful that I don’t let myself feel I have Jesus all figured out, because then I will not be able to learn anything from him that I don’t already know. My ideas of Jesus can’t get in the way of Jesus trying to teach me new things whatever they may be. The basic question is what does it mean for me to live as Jesus’ disciple in the setting of whatever is going on in my life right now. The answers to this question are always changing because our circumstances are always changing. Questioning is very important, and the old ideas or answers don’t always work.
“This is God’s work, to believe in the One he sent.”
There is a big difference between believing “in” Jesus and believing “about” Jesus. Believing about Jesus is important, but its purpose is to lead us to believe in Jesus. Some folks never get beyond believing about Jesus, as is clear in the church battles going on these days. They become Jesus’ angry enforcers”. We can learn about Jesus simply by books or web sites. We come to believe in Jesus by prayer, which is not the same as saying prayers. When we think we have Jesus all figured out, that Jesus is the one we create for ourselves to make us feel comfortable and in control, and who gives us the power to judge others. Some folks like to have all the answers, and like the power they feel.
As recent popes have taught, Jesus is not a concept or an idea, Jesus is a person that we encounter. The whole purpose of the church is to lead folks to encounter Jesus in their lives. The Jesus we meet in the Gospel and in our prayer is the living reality of Gd’s love for us and all creation. Prayer leads us to meet in in our every day life.
Jesus never told his followers to pray to him or worship him. He told them to follow him, to imitate him, to live as he lived. He offers a way of living, not a lot of rules and answers. As we encounter Jesus we have many more questions than answers because we are growing to know him more in our life. When he says he is the “Bread of Life” he is saying that what he shows us about living in God is essential to our living as we are created to live — beyond our own comfort zone with and for others.
Francis is trying to move the church to believe in Jesus rather than just about Jesus. He is having an uphill battle. The nature of the institution s to protect its power by enforcing rules. Francis is focusing in letting the Spirit lead the church to question what it is to follow Jesus today.
Right now I’m wondering about why there is so much anger in the church.
Re Peter alleged to be the first ever pope, how about the “apostolic succession” idea? Folks who accept it seem to be unaware that historically it doesn’t make much sense if they were take a serious look at history, which most seem unwilling or unable to do. I see the “founder” of the “church” to be Constantine, not Jesus.
I was at dinner last evening with a girl I taught in the 8th grade many years ago (1980-83) and her husband. They told me the story of his run around to get an annulment, which ultimately was denied. To me his shabby treatment seemed more like the Empire than the way Jesus helped people. He just gave up on the process and they got married civilly. Three years ago on the evening before their civil ceremony, I celebrated Eucharist at their house for their families, and at the ceremony the next day said a prayer, maybe a bit on the humorous side. IMHO Peter the Apostle would have done something like that, His Holiness Pope Peter I probably not.
A friend of mine who teaches at University of Padova sent me this:
” I’m publishing an essay about theology and science, that begins as follows:
“Any fruitful dialogue between theology and science must take into account three fundamental ideas, admittedly more consistent with scientific method than theological. First, the driving force of human history is evolution; there is no credible evidence of another driving force. Second, evolution is not “going” anywhere; evolution is not moving us inexorably toward some final culmination (eschaton). Third, on the evolutionary scale, we humans, having arrived rather late, will almost certainly not survive much longer. Like countless other species, we shall one day become extinct, and the world will go on without us.
“To such a dialogue, theology would bring an extraordinary variety of stories and symbol systems and wisdom literature that cannot easily be reconciled either with one another or with science, but may point to something beyond evolution itself. That is the question both theology and science may debate.”I wonder how many bishops will ask for copies….
I have a co-author from Belgium who wants to submit the final draft to Louvain (Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses), so French and Dutch. I’ll have to take his word for it for the Dutch version.”I’m beginning to realize more and more that I have pretty much left the institutional church system. I believe and see happening the church of the folks in the pews or who used to be in the pews, the folks on the streets where the good things happen, the hungry and fed, the homeless and hurting are cared for, etc., but done without the “approved terminology”. I just don’t belong anymore. While I will help any priest who asks, I want nothing to do with the diocese. My funeral plans call for a quick cremation and burial with y parents, to include military honors, and do not include the pomp of a priest’s funeral. I mentioned this sort of thing to someone I was in the seminary with and who left to get married and is very active in a Parish that does not have the “Real Jesus” as the bishop then told them (https://www.communityofstpeter.org). Also, I just don’t like what I see coming out of the seminary. I don’t know if I can encourage anyone to be a priest.
It’s good I am retired, so I don’t have to taker any strong actions. I could not be a pastor because I cannot take an oath that I do not believe in — loyalty, obedience, anti-heresy, etc. I am deeply grateful for my Army and OGA experience, especially during the Cold War.
Hope this helps. Probably more than you had in mind.
