Sixth Sunday of Easter 'C'

Sunday May 13, 2007

Going Back in Order to Go Forward

There is something about this time of the year that creates in many people a bit of nostalgia if not melancholy—a longing to go back home; to return to our roots and re-visit places which remain sacred in our individual and collective memories; to be with people whom we haven’t seen in years many of whom may have returned to God; to recapture feelings and experiences that console us and make us feel ‘at home’ again.

It is the season for endings and new beginnings—graduations and commencements, class reunions, anniversaries and jubilees, family get-togethers for First Communion or Confirmation inevitably take us back to times when life seemed less complicated. And of course, Mother’s Day brings its own brand of memories and stories of earlier times when our moms—living and dead—are given free reign to tell the way it really was.

We may indeed be able to go back to the place and though the faces have changed, the stories associated with the place bring back the experience and even bring loved ones back to life—at least ‘in spirit.’

But we can’t really go back to ‘as it was when we left it’ nor should we. In truth, it wasn’t really that way anyhow. The fact is that our memories have deleted ‘stuff’ that we do not want to recall or have edited or revised and filed them under ‘Happy Memories’ even though they may be mixed at best.

Whatever, the “good ole days” were not always golden and surely not without episodic or even prolonged travail. Though we make them sound that way, our ‘war stories do not always end in victory at least for us.

In any event we go back not to escape from reality but to deal with reality with the assurance that we will get through, indeed, that all will be well, as a family and as a community and as a nation.

We in the Judeo-Christian tradition do the same thing with regard to our religious memory. We have the same urge to go back home, to return to our religious roots to revisit times and places familiar to our ancestors; to tell of their victories and put their defeats in clearer perspective. We do this to be assured that the God who intervened in the past will intervene again and again and again.

However, just as in the case of our nostalgia for the happy days of ‘yore,’ the religious memory of our Church within the context of its Jewish ancestry is very selective. The authors of the Bible redacted (retold) stories and sayings of prophets, sages and apostles, and of course, of Jesus in order to buoy up people of faith in latter days and to energize them and us into action. In other words we return to our archetypical heritage and delve even into our collective unconscious as Christians not to escape the the challenge of living in the modern world but to be assured that God will be faithful forever.

With that belabored introduction, we turn now to the description of the early Christian community in the Acts of the Apostles. Though it was a time of grace and peace among the believers, dissension was inevitable. Recall that Christianity was initially a ‘sect’ within Judaism. However, as stories about Jesus spread to the gentiles, it was only a matter of time when serious questions about religious practice would arise both within the gentile community as well as among the Jewish Christians who still remained faithful to the Torah. “How come ‘they’ don’t need to be circumcised?” To you and to me, the issue may be ‘no big deal; but to traditional Jews, it had the potential for a major disruption.

Put in a contemporary context, “How can you say that ‘they’ can be saved without baptism into Christ? In order to live fully in Christ, one must live in full accord with all the rules of the Catholic Church. “Outside the Church, there is no salvation!” As with the Torah, some rules are of divine origin; others though in some way rooted in divine revelation, with the aid of human reason are human applications and therefore able to be adapted and/or changed to accommodate ever changing cultures and new insights into human behavior and development.

The issue about the circumcision of gentiles was hotly debated ‘in council’ at Jerusalem and under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the decision was made that the gentles should not have to undergo the burden of circumcision. “It is the decision of the Holy Spirit and of us not to place on you any burden beyond these necessities…” and then they mention forbidden foods and incestuous unions.

Notice in the description of the visit to Antioch by Paul and Barnabas, prototypes of our present day bishops, that they were accompanied two elders, ‘lay’ disciples, Judas (not the Iscariot) and Silas. A letter was not sufficient nor was it acceptable for Paul and Barnabas to travel unaccompanied by a couple of elders. With no disrespected to Paul and Barnabas, they were sort of voter watchdogs. The people needed to be assured that indeed the matter was discussed thoroughly in council and everyone’s opinion heard. It must be assumed therefore that the elders of the Church did not discuss the matter in isolation from the early Christian community at Jerusalem. Notice too, that the apostles and elders deferred ultimately to the wisdom of the Holy Spirit rather than to their own religious bias. Might we not call this the First Vatican Council of Jerusalem?

John’s vision of the ‘New Jerusalem’ in the Book of Revelations, Chapter 21, though in some sense an anachronism is also a look into the future. For John the ancient City of Jerusalem was a metaphor for the heavenly realm in which Christ would reign. No temple would be necessary—Christ is the new Temple and we are temples of the Holy Spirit. The sun and moon would not be needed because the glory of God would provide light with Jesus as the lamb and the lamp. Through a wide use of metaphor and allegory, the early Christians in the face of persecution were assured that God would be faithful and that suffering and death would not be their defeat.

Jesus said, “Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them and we will come to them and make our dwelling place among them.” This portion of Jesus’ farewell message constructed by John the Evangelist is the prescription for authentic Christian living. “Do not worry; I am sending you the Holy Spirit who will help you to understand the words I have spoken to you. Work things out. Be patient with one another. Compromise on your own opinions but always defer to the Holy Spirit rather than to your own political bias. You will know when the Spirit speaks because you will experience a sense of peace and unanimity among you and even joy.

In recent times, there has been a resurgence of fundamentalism. We see it among Moslems, Jews, and Hindus and yes among Christians and even in the Roman Catholic Church among extremists to the right and to the left. Fundamentalists on the right insist on the literal interpretation of the Bible and doctrine with little or no room for interpretation and adaptation. They apply the text with a suffocating literalism that destroys the human spirit. With an exaggerated trust in their own intelligence, fundamentalists on the left dismiss myth and metaphor as childish nursery rhymes, an insult to intelligence and common sense. They have no appreciation for poetic truth and lack the imagination to catch the rhythm of God in the material world. Both extremes are ultimately self-defeating and destructive of theological progress.

Fundamentalism is rooted in the fear that ‘infidels,’ however we define them, are destroying our values. Though as Catholics we might not use that term to describe those who oppose us, we often resort to the same defensive sanctions and condemnatory statements without sufficient reflection on the destructive impact of our words. Our leaders do not always do the homework necessary to deal with issues vital to the developing consciousness of Christians in the modern world. They simply dismiss such discussions as heretical and condemn such movements as ‘modernism.’ Not good.

This was not the way of Jesus. Those who do not seek the wisdom of God end up on dead end streets. They need no accusers and make no mistake about it; the self-righteous indignation of so-called ‘believers’ is no guarantee of God’s backing whatever their authority and vesture. Religious leaders and commentators who revel in anachronisms and sanctions against those who express a view contrary to their own do not advance the cause of truth and justice.

During these days of religious wars and the desecration of the human spirit, we need to back away from the folly of pure human reason and the concomitant ‘get them before they get us’ strategy.

Whether it be a preemptive strike against our political or religious enemies, we need to turn to the wisdom of the God of all races and nations who will not be satisfied until full justice is achieved among people of every race and nation. This will take many sacrifices, much compromise, and endless dialogue. Bombs, guns and swords or torture of any kind on any side will not do it and the greatest weapon of mass destruction is the human tongue.

As we prepare for the great feast of Pentecost, we pray that somehow God will intervene or rather that we will recognize God’s continuing intervention and come to our senses; that we do indeed need to return to our roots—familial and ancestral—and discover again as if for the first time that evil will not be defeated by evil but by goodness and Godness.

And do you wanna know something? I think many mothers and grandmothers are way ahead of us in the wisdom that makes for healthy compromise. Wisdom (Sophia) is the feminine attribute of God, so listen up!

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