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Daily Scripture

+ Feast of the Birth of Mary

We have the best and the worst among our ancestors>

We know that all things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. [Romans 8:28]

You will recognize the gospel passage as the one we usually avoid, assuming it has nothing to offer contemporary Christians. However, it does have a purpose beyond tracing the lineage of Jesus to David. It is not a scientific genealogy so don’t attempt to ‘prove’ it scientifically.

It’s a mixed bag at best. There are saints and sinners among the list but they are all ancestors of Jesus through Mary. It’s odd that on this feast of the birth of Mary that we read the genealogy of Joseph because it is through Joseph not Mary that Jesus is connected to David.

I suppose we are all connected at least spiritually. The late great Seton Hall professor and convert to Christianity, Msgr. Osteriecher, used to remind us frequently that we are all spiritual Semites, i.e., we are Judeo-Christians and therefore trace our lineage through David to Abraham.

And that’s why we claim Mary as our spiritual mother. Indeed, she is.

Beyond that, it’s good for us to be reminded that few if any of us are of pure breed. We often refer to our family as a “Heinz 57” family because like the food brand, we have at least 57 different nationalities among our ancestors, not all of them saints, to be sure. But whenever we got together for a ‘family’ event, we were one. I hosted the last family reunion at St. Joseph several years ago for over 200 relatives comprising four generations.

It’s never too late to give thanks for our heritage.

Second Sunday in Lent 'C'

Sunday February 28, 2010

It was a transforming experience.

It was during a trip to Colorado many years ago on a clear quiet evening that I walked up to a high point outside of Aspen to look at the stars. It was unbelievable. I had never seen as many stars in my life. It wasn’t that there were more stars over Colorado than over New Jersey; it was just that I could see them more clearly above the smog and atmospheric grit that hovers the earth at lesser heights. It was a mesmerizing experience. Although I didn’t climb the mountain to pray, the experience led me to prayer — not recited prayers, but prayer without words — contemplation — the opening of the soul to the mystery of God. It was awesome. I felt very small before the façade of the universe, yet I was keenly aware of God’s presence. In fact, I think I saw God’s face in the heavens. I felt empowered to respond to the wonder of God, yet I was still in touch with my own humanity and mortality. I remained for quite a while to “listen to the silence” of God’s ‘voice’ on the mountaintop, as it were. My life looked so different from the mountaintop. It was a transforming experience, the memory of which has never left me and continues to sustain me when I have been tempted to lose hope or heart. When I can’t junket out to Colorado, I walk up to Fort Nonsense the highest point between Morristown and the Orange Mountains.

Mountain top experiences sometimes happen on mountains but not always. In fact a mountain is more often the metaphor for a spiritually transforming experience that enables us to see “our reality” more clearly and empowers us not just to talk the talk but walk the walk of life with greater commitment, integrity, and enthusiasm. The Bible refers to these experiences as visions or dreams. The theological term for such is “Theophany” or the manifestation of God, a window to the soul. There are many descriptions of such visions and dreams in both the Old and New Testaments. As with Peter, James and John, the temptation to “freeze frame” is strong, but we must come down and move on.

The Book of Genesis captures the oral tradition passed down about Abraham‘s call. It was believed to have been a personal encounter with God that inspired him to move on to a new land with in the conviction that God would be faithful to him and his descendents. It is interesting that Abraham is revered as “Father in faith” to Jews, Moslems and Christians — we are all part of his posterity, in some sense the covenant made with Abraham by God symbolized through an ancient ritual sacrifice of the animals has never been revoked even though we find its fulfillment in the covenant made with us in Christ.

In fact the description of the Transfiguration of Jesus in Luke’s gospel is the perfect sequel to Abraham’s vision. Luke intends this as a turning point in Jesus’ journey toward Jerusalem and Calvary. As he was transfigured on the mountain, Moses and Elijah joined him. It was the belief of many Jews that Moses and Elijah would return at the end time. Luke interprets this story of Jesus’ transfiguration as an affirmation of his call as Messiah — the seal of a new covenant. He is the new Moses and the fulfillment of all the ancient prophecies. His faithfulness to the covenant initiated with Abraham took him on a journey that would lead to another mountaintop called Calvary — not that God demanded Jesus’ death but rather his faithfulness to divine love. He was the epitome of divine love in human form. That kind of faithfulness and love is costly. It can and often does lead to death. But Paul assures us in his letter to the Philippians that the covenant does not end in death but to ultimate glory. “Our citizenship is in heaven and is from there that we expect the Lord Jesus Christ who will transform us.”

Marty Luther King had a mountaintop experience that empowered him to journey to a place he had never been and ultimately to his death. His faithfulness to that journey changed the course of black history in this country.

I have a dream that one day our Church will be community in which there will be no divisions or exclusions—women and men equal at the table; young and old of whatever gender and orientation. All will be welcomed. Our God can make it happen but not without our consent and involvement.

I have a dream that one day our country will come together in a common cause and purpose for the common good of every man and woman in a true spirit of solidarity, a time in which the honest sharing of differences will open us up to a new truth and blend into solutions that work for everyone.

Lent can be a mountaintop experience for the disciple of Christ. It’s a time not of testing but an opportunity to accept the challenge of contemplating the mystery of life in a new way. It’s a new opportunity to catch the rhythm of God through our daily prayer in whatever form it takes. It is yet another opportunity to encounter Jesus in our own personal passage [Passover] through the Red Sea [baptism] through the desert [the dryness of life] alert to God’s presence in both the pain and the consolations that accompany the daily embrace of life [“Lord, it is good for us to be here!”] So let us break bread together and sip some wine that one day we may come to the glory that was promised to Abraham, Moses, and all the prophets, fulfilled in Jesus, and given to us as disciples.

Lent can make a difference. In essence, it can be a transforming experience that will enable us to discover a new truth that we are all children of God as well as people of the earth. The road to a new Jerusalem will inevitably take us to Calvary and make many demands that we die to self but Calvary is not the end of the story.