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Daily Scripture

+ 7th Week of Easter

Much ado about nothing or, is there something to it?

Readings: Acts 19:1-8 Psalm 68:2-7 John 16:29-33

Paul traveled through the interior of the country and down to Ephesus where he found some disciples. He said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?” They answered him, “We have never even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” [Acts 19:1-3]

Depending on one’s sacramental theology and pastoral practice, this text has been variously interpreted. For example, those who work with the RCIA (catecheumenate) hold that the sacrament of Confirmation should be administered with Baptism as it was in the early Church. It is one of the sacraments of initiation—Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist. The Eastern Rite of the Roman Catholic Church has retained the tradition of administering all three at Baptism. Yes, the infant receives a small piece of the Eucharist bread. And so in the Eastern Rite, there is no formal celebration of First Holy Communion at the age of reason or Confirmation by the bishop at whatever age the local diocese has determined the age of maturity appropriate for Confirmation. All three sacraments are administered shortly after birth.

Others feel that the celebration of First Communion and Confirmation at a later age ensures the participation of youngsters in parish religious education programs – at least until Confirmation. In this case, many Catholics view Confirmation as the completion of or graduation from religious studies.

In recent years I have become convinced that the RCIA folks and the Eastern Rite Catholics have it right. All three sacraments of initiation should be administered together. First Holy Communion and Confirmation have become more social than spiritual. I do not mean to suggest that there is no connection or that there should be no celebration after sacramental ceremonies but for many, the accent is on the wrong syllable.

The path from Baptism to Christian maturity is life-long and the benchmarks for progress are not easily measured by grouping children by age or grade level for a period of preparation that is largely academic.

This is not to suggest that religious education is optional. Faith development is unique to each person within the context first of family and then of parish. Religious education / formation is intended to provide insight into faith development at an age-appropriate level.

Catholicism has become ‘child-centered’ the result of which, we have an adult population whose religious and spiritual development stopped at Confirmation.

The celebration of Eucharist is the primary setting for faith formation. Religious education is a necessary component but detached from Eucharist, it remain just another subject to master.

Of course this all assumes that the parish celebration of the Eucharist is truly inclusive and meaningful rather than just an empty ritual. The parish at worship should be a rendition of a community of faith that strives to live its faith ‘in the town square’ as I mentioned in Sunday’s homily.

Notwithstanding my commitment to religious dialogue, I do believe that effective dialogue is based on the assumption that although both parties are knowledgeable about the topic. Though they may have different perspectives, they are not based on ignorance of the subject.

Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time 'B'

Sunday June 21, 2009

God is in the storm

On December 26, 2004, a gigantic tsunami overwhelmed twelve countries in Asia and Africa virtually and indiscriminately wiping out entire populations within minutes.

Two years later in late summer we witnessed in never-ending kaleidoscopic frames of destruction a city reduced to ruins as wind and rain bore down on levies that succumbed to the ravages of nature’s savage attack. Relatively few were spared but the helpless poor were its greatest victims.

In between these catastrophic events were floods in Pakistan and earthquakes in Indonesia, and since those traumatic events, ships have sunk, planes have crashed and fire storms have ravaged millions of acres of forest destroying anything and everything in their path.

And though the memory has given way to more current crises that unfold day after day, the aftermath and long-range effects of all of these disasters remain vivid in minds and hearts and stored in the collective memory of everyone affected by them. I can’t imagine how difficult it must be for survivors to listen to these texts and even more difficult to hear preachers and homilists call them to faith in a caring God.

But you and I also have a personal log of our own storms, some of them life threatening. We all assume that our disasters are the worst but no one gets out of this life alive. Sooner or later, the personal storm of all storms will strike and we will have no alternative but to cry out for help—“Lord do you not care that I am perishing?” I’m not sure we will be pleased with the response, “Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?”

I have heard evangelists and other preachers tell of miraculous healings hoping to inspire faith in the afflicted. Indeed, I have witnessed many ‘miraculous’ healings but I’m always cautious about applying the norm or standard of faith as a sure cure. What about all those people whose faith did not spare them? Does it mean that their faith was to weak to save them? Life and death situations are a bit more complex than this. We need to avoid a simplistic reading of these texts.

I consider it wiser to search for meaning rather than for explanations.

Jesus was not a magician. At this point in his gospel account, Mark was still in the process of identifying Jesus as the Messiah, Son of God. This story is the sixth in a series of miracle stories interspersed with parables and teachings. The evangelist connects Jesus with God’s power over the wind andthe sea. “The Lord addressed Job out of the storm and said: ‘Who shut within the doors of the sea, when it burst forth from the womb; … Thus far you come but no father and here shall your proud waves be stilled!”

God was in the sea and God is in the storm. The apostles reacted to Jesus, “Who then is this whom even the wind and sea obey?”

Mark was a very creative storyteller and catechist. He knew that his listeners would look beyond the story to the deeper truth, indeed the hidden reality far beneath the surface of the sea to the God who is also hidden in the midst of our own storms. God doesn’t bale us out of our difficult moments but upholds us in the midst of them.

As a young boy when I complained of how hard life was at times, especially in school, my dad would say, “Sometimes we just have to ride out the difficult times.” He didn’t brush me off with a cute or simplistic comment. In many ways, he was speaking words of wisdom to the simple. He was absolutely correct. Sometimes we just need to ‘ride out the storms of life.’

No, not every catastrophe or personal disaster ends in death but some do and some day, one will do us in and it won’t be due to our lack of faith.

In his second letter to the Corinthians, Saint Paul was struggling with the chaos of death, not only in connection with is own mortality but with the death of Jesus who was not spared by the Father. “Indeed, he died for all, so that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.”

However, we must take care not to read into Paul’s words what he is not stating, namely, that Jesus’ death was not his goal. Rather he came to live for us and for all humanity and it was in this commitment to life, that he was forced to surrender his life. He was ‘faithful’ until the end despite the consequences imposed by those who rejected him.

I think that faith gives us a lens through which we are able to view life with all its ambiguities, uncertainties, adversities and even its defeats.

May he give us
all the courage we need
to go the way he shepherds us.

That when he calls
we may go unfrightened.

If he bids us come to him
across the waters,
that unfrightened we may go.

And if he bids us climb a hill,
may we not notice that it is a hill,
mindful only of
the happiness of his company.

He made us for himself,
that we should travel with him
and see him at the last
in his unveiled beauty
in the abiding city where
he is light
and happiness
+and endless home_. [Bede Jarrett, 1881-1934]
[ The Complete Book of Christian Prayer, The Continuum Publishing Company, 1995, New York, NY

“So whoever is in Christ is a new creation: the old order has passed away; behold new things have come.”