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Daily Scripture

+ Ascension Thursday

There is no proof; there are only witnesses.

Readings: Acts 1:1-11 Ephesians 1:14-23 Luke 24:46-53

You are witnesses of all these things. And now I am sending down to you what the Father has promised. Stay in the city then, until you are clothed with the power from on high. [Luke 24:50-51]

In an age of technology and scientific progress, we have an explanation for everything or at least the promise of the same. Yet, there are still truly human experiences – both positive and negative—that defy human explanation. Death is one such experience. Doctors know the medical reasons for death but an autopsy doesn’t tell the whole story. Conversely, who can explain the field of energy that binds lovers for life?

During his life on earth Jesus created a field of energy that changed the course of history and it did not cease at his death or even at his resurrection. It continues to this day – locally and globally. Or else how explain the heroism of the saints of yesterday and the saints of today? Women and men, energetic witnesses who have said ‘yes’ to unconditional love under any and all circumstances continue to change the course of history in the face of those who attempt to chain the Word of God. No, most of them are not formal preachers or even religious teachers per se, but people who live the message of the Gospel of Jesus day in and day out.

The gospel today is typical of the departure of a hero. We might even consider it the conclusion of a hero story. Jesus assures his disciples that he is not abandoning them. Not only that but he will send an advocate who will empower them to continue his mission. “You will be clothed with power from on high.” They will be clothed with the mantle of Christ just as the ancient Elijah was clothed in the mantle of Elias before Elias departed in his chariot to the heavens. It’s metaphor and allegory, of course but the underlying truth of Jesus mission will continue to be proclaimed as Good News for all.

But hang in there until Pentecost when the gifts of the Spirit will be renewed and we will be empowered once more to preach the Good News—using words only when necessary.

Feast of the Holy Trinity 'A''

Sunday May 18, 2008

De Deo Uno et Trino

When I was a seminarian almost fifty years ago, the treatise on the Trinity was the introduction to our study of theology, “De Deo Uno et Trino,” translated, “About God, One and Three.” It was considered a foundational course. If we could grasp the Trinity, then we would be able to master all the other disciplines in our theological pursuits over the remaining three years of theological training.

Incidentally, it was also assumed in those days that we would learn in four years, everything we needed to know for a lifetime of priestly service.

I don’t know who was more naïve, students or professors!

It is not that the doctrine on the Trinity is unreasonable; it is beyond reason and beyond human explanation. We need to enter the mystery through the protocol of prayer.

Perhaps this is why so many of us fall short of the mystery. Although preachers may feel compelled to unpack the doctrine, they would do better to write poetry and tell stories, which enable believers to ponder the reality of God’s life breathing within in us and in all creation.

But poetry is rooted in prayer. The 12th century Benedictine Abbess, Hildegard of Bingen was one among many mystics who expressed her belief in the Trinity through prayer:

To the Trinity be praise!
God is music, God is life
that nurtures every creature in its kind.
Our God is the song of the angel throng
and the splendor of secret ways
hid from all humankind,
But God our God is the life of all.

These words may seem a bit archaic to us who thrive on technology in our attempt to master every mystery, futile though that may be.

Contemporary thinker, educator, poet and mystic, Michael Fox, places his prayer through the lens of another world view: God as parent—father and mother or better, God as partner; Jesus as the revelation of divine love, and Holy Spirit, bond with God and all humanity, as sanctifier and wisdom unsurpassed.

Of course, each of us must pursue our unique relationship with God through our own unique personality, which also renders our prayer unique and special. Who is God for you? Who are you for God? Of course, you are everything to God.

Though God is real, God is also mystery and known only gradually, moving in time and space; in our own time and space. The great theologian, Karl Rahner, so influential on the thinking of Vatican II wrote about the God who communicates not just to our minds but to our hears.

But say not that God is in my heart. Say rather that I am in the heart of God.

The encounter of Moses with God shortly after the destruction of the golden calf described in the first reading today was not his invitation to God but God’s invitation to him, an expression of God’s desire—no, of God’s promise to walk with Moses and the Hebrew people and with us. It is God, who breaks through the mystery, not we.

Saint Paul addressing himself to a very messy “Christian” community that makes our present church crises seem small in comparison, ultimately pleads with the believers to succumb to God’s grace not as a cover up but as an ultimate admission and confession that peace can be found only within the realm of the divine.

Within the life of the Church there can be no hierarchy other than that of the Trinity—Giver of life, source of love, Jesus, the beloved of God and Holy Spirit and whatever does not correspond to God’s life must be jettisoned and cast away—honors, title, pomp and power. Only through our surrender to the ‘Mystery’ can we find our strength. As the Church comes to accept its political weakness in the face of raw worldly power, will it come to know its strength in the presence of God.

Finally, in his Gospel, John the Evangelist presents the core of the message—divine love, expressed through agape, total self-giving love; pure unadulterated love flowing from the divine, eternal energy that we do not grasp but which enfolds us, envelops us in life as an introduction to the next life.

John tells us this is nothing more or less than the gift of eternal life to which we are introduced on this earth. It is ours for the asking, actually it was given to us as gift at Baptism, unmerited grace, unlimited potential for good, unrestricted access to God— if we ask, we shall receive and if we receive it wholeheartedly, it will change us and if it changes us, it will eventually change our Church and our world.

The earth proclaims the greatness of God
and all creation exults in God’s glory.
Jesus remains the perfect exemplar and everlasting covenant
who unites heaven and earth
and all humanity to the eternal Father.

Holy Spirit,
life-giving breath of God, ‘ruah’
that permeates the fiber of our being
giving strength to the weak,
courage to the fainthearted,
hope to the hopeless,
joy to the sorrowing,
may we succumb to the grace of this feast
and be for all humanity,
a sign that we have not given up on God
but more so, that God has not given up on us.

It was for this reason St. Paul concluded his second letter with these words:

“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the love of God,
and the communion of the Holy Spirit
be with you all!”