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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.

Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time 'C'

Saturday August 7, 2010

God speaks to us through our ancestors.

Who among us does not possess an encyclopedia of family stories; stories that take us to another time and place; stories that make us laugh and stories that make us cry or bring a tear to our eye. Whatever the gathering, a wedding or wake, occasioned by a photo album or wall gallery; a super 8-millimeter film, video or DVD, the stories unfold. I like to call them grandma and grandpa stories because they take us farthest back into history. We may tell the same story with a different twist. The details are not as important as the message and its meaning. After we have listened for a while, someone may sit down at the piano or pick up a guitar and grove into an old tune that mirrors the event or the times in which the stories originated.

Sooner or later in their telling, we may be introduced to a family hero. Every family has at least one —mother or father, aunt or uncle, grandmother or grandfather—an ancestor who faced a particularly difficult challenge with exceptional strength, courage, and grace. Although they may not have been perfect, they are our heroes. After all, saints were not always saints! We need both the heroes and their stories because they empower us to greatness in difficult times.

Although written long after the great exodus, the Book of Wisdom is a kind of hero story about our ancestors who were delivered from Egypt. It’s about their faith and courage. It is interesting that the Greek word used for ‘faith’ is emunah that is related to the Hebrew word for ‘Amen’. It denotes conviction and courage and the hope that God would be faithful to them. Even more than this, it was the gut conviction that God was already fulfilling a promise about what would happen in the future. I suppose it’s something like smelling the sweet fragrance of a rose that has yet to blossom fully.

According to an ancient Jewish midrashic legend, when Moses raised his staff and extended his arms over the Sea of Reeds, the sea did not divide as described in the Book of Exodus or as portrayed in Cecil B de Mille production. It was not until the first man had jumped into the water that the promised miracle happened and the waves receded. Of course, this cannot be documented or proven (that’s what makes it a midrashic story) but it does make a case for that proactive faith to which every believer aspires. It is this quality of faith to which the author of the Book of Wisdom called his Jewish compatriots living in Alexandria during the first century before Christ. The Jews were heavily influenced by Hellenistic thinking, ready to abandon their tradition in favor of a philosophy more to their liking. Although faith is not irrational, it is not something that can be rationalized into. Faith is a gift.

The Letter to the Hebrews pursues this same notion of faith using the Greek word, ‘hypostosis’, defined as the absolute assurance that what God promises, God will fulfill. The author then goes on to extol the faith of Abraham who without a second thought and without knowing where he was going, left everything behind and followed the inspiration of God to venture out in search of a new land. By faith, although they were too old, he and Sarah received the power of procreation and were blessed with a family that blossomed in the great progeny of Israel—“as many as the stars of heaven and as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.” They believed and they were justified before the Lord. And so to this day, we claim Abraham and Sarah as “our ancestral parents in the faith.”

Luke understood the exodus as a prefiguring of the Christian Passover with Jesus as the hero of the story. Jesus leads us daily through rough seas and provides a dry path on which we can travel safely. We need to live in the conviction that he was there and that he is here. We need the conviction of our ancestors—that kind of faith that keeps us alert and ready to recognize his coming into our lives, indeed, his presence here and now. With his grace to uphold us, there is nothing we cannot endure.

When we come into this assembly, we bring our encyclopedia of family stories, be they stories about grandma and grandpa or perhaps figures from our extended family—ball players like Babe Ruth or Lou Gehrig; poets like Gerard Manley Hopkins and others who captured the mystery of life leaving us with anthologies that buoy up the human spirit so that we might be able to look beyond our noses to see reality through the lens of faith. Our heroes do not have to be saints. Isn’t it interesting how even after a rogue passes away, we find something nice to say about him at his funeral!

When we come into this assembly, we connect our family stories with the God story and with the Jesus stories or perhaps with Mary or one of the saints. This is called in our tradition, the “Communion of Saints”.

Every day is a challenge but every day is also a gift. Faith makes all the difference in the world. Even in the face of disappointment and even death itself, faith helps us not just to believe but also to know that failure is never final and death is not the end; that the regeneration of the spirit is endless and that life continues as we pass into the bosom of Abraham and into the heart of God.

Perhaps one day you and I may become someone’s hero!