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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.

Easter Sunday 2010

Saturday April 3, 2010

The story didn’t end there

Churchgoers are gathering today in Christian assemblies all over the world and even in forbidden lands, silent ‘allelluias’ are sounding if only ‘in pectore’ because whatever one’s theology or ideology, the news cannot be kept under wraps.

However, the strains of alleluias—silent or sung—combined with the sweet fragrance of lilies and spring bouquets dissipate all too quickly and give way to the surreal reality of life in a world preoccupied with economic woes consumed by political wars and religious turmoil.

Nevertheless, through ancient rituals, the Easter feast can occasion an opportunity to go back to the beginning so that we might go forward with greater confidence and a bit of insight as to what is real and what is surreal, what is authentic religion and what is a religious charade.

The Scriptures provide a lens through which we might discern more clearly the reality that took place long before the four evangelists wrote their narratives when the women first told Peter and the others about the empty tomb, a biblical metaphor for sure to announce that the one called the Christ was alive.

It may be helpful to recall that ‘evangelical secretaries’ did not take notes as the events described in the gospels unfolded. The gospels were written years later with a great deal of adaptation to the circumstances in which the authors found themselves.

It was Paul who provided the earliest written ‘witness’ as it were of the life and practice of the first believers. He was an adaptive problem-solving pastor attempting to deal with the issues of his day in the light of his faith and the still evolving teachings and expectations of the early Christian assemblies.

In his excellent commentary on the resurrection, Scripture scholar and pastor, Roger Karban put it this way:

“Our evangelists didn’t write to convince their readers that Jesus had risen from the dead. They presumed that they already believed in Jesus’ death and resurrection. They wrote to provide their communities not with history but with the implications of these two events.”

The earliest believers were not witnesses to resuscitation but to resurrection. They are not the same.

None of the biblical writers with the possible but remote exception of John ever come into physical contact with the historical Jesus, this itinerant preacher who challenged the high and the low with a message that eventually led him to the cross but whose life changed the course of human history forever. Some got it right but some over time have committed horrible crimes in the name of Christianity. We’re here this morning not to reinvent Christianity but to clear away the trappings and to get the message right.

In these days of skepticism, I think we are dealing not so much with the denial of the resurrection as about the denial of what preceded it. Discussion about an empty tomb is diversionary to the truth of Jesus’ life and message as a Jewish Palestinian reformer who challenged the religious leaders to live what they preached without all the legalisms and religious trappings that Judaism had accumulated over time.

And over the centuries, the Church has taken on the trappings of an absolute monarchy with an accent on control and a defensive response to its need to be accountable. In the words of Emanuel Kant, “Our age is, in especial degree, the age of criticism, and to criticism everything must submit. Religion through its sanctity, and law-giving through its majesty may seek to exempt themselves from it. But they then awaken just suspicion, and cannont claim the sincere respect that reason accords only to that which has been able to sustain the test of free and open examination.” [Critique of Pure Reason]

And so today we gather not to ‘freeze frame’ the past but to weave our individual and communal stories into the Jesus story before his death and resurrection so that we can celebrate the feast with integrity.

We are here to connect with three realities—the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. We are here to celebrate our participation in all three in our own lives individually and collectively by our active engagement with the world through works of justice, love and peace and I might add, accountability!

The major disconnect that afflicts our Church today is the denial of the living presence of the servant Christ among us and our fear of taking the message of Christ to heart at our family table, in our neighborhood, in our work place and at the highest levels of church polity.

Until we confront the hungers of the world, the horrors of war, the neglect of the poor, and our religious defensiveness, we deny the reality of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection.

It’s time for principle to replace improvisation, for resolve to replace expediency, and for integrity to replace prevarication.

The crucifixion is the greatest demonstration of human and divine accountability for truth ever witnessed by authentic believers.

And as long as we are ready to walk to Calvary with Jesus, all will know that the story didn’t end there.