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Daily Scripture

+ 7th Week of Easter

We are to be consecrated in truth.

Readings: Acts 20:28-38 Psalm 88:29-30, 33-36 John 17:11b-19

Consecrate them in the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world. And I consecrate myself for them, so that they may also be consecrated in truth. [John 17:18-19]

Read the Gospel very slowly and if possible, out loud and if necessary, three times! Although John’s literary style is quite complex, the farewell prayer of Jesus is as powerful as is Paul’s farewell message in Acts.

It is not likely that these passages are the actual words of Paul and Jesus. They are compositions that Luke and John or whoever wrote in their name and are based on the oral tradition of the sayings of Jesus and the preaching of Paul. They were written in the style of farewell addresses of prominent leaders of their times in order to win the attention of early believers to whom the message of truth was entrusted.

The ‘truth’ that is being proclaimed is not from a catechism nor is it a defined doctrine or dogma. It is the core truth about the God who spoke through the prophets and then through Jesus about the universality of God’s love.

During this time of immediate preparation for Pentecost, we are invited to think about our own responsibility to pass on the ‘truth’ of God’s goodness entrusted to us in Christ and how we are to live that truth in our daily lives, each in our own unique way. No one of us can do this alone and so we much join hands literally and figuratively within the community of believers everywhere.

To live the ‘truth’ is to live in the Spirit of Jesus Christ the fruits of which are charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, moderation, self-control, reverence, etc. I’m sure you memorized these ‘fruits of the Holy Spirit.’

These are the true ‘marks’ of our authenticity as believers.

First Sunday in Lent 'B'

Saturday March 4, 2006

“Somewhere Over the Rainbow”

A young man approaching middle years thought it was high time to shed a few pounds and so he decided to get into physical. He went on a new diet and took it seriously. He even changed his usual driving route on the way to work precisely to avoid passing his favorite bakery. One morning, however, he arrived at the office carrying a large, sugarcoated, calorie-loaded coffee cake.

For this he was roundly chided by his colleagues, but he only smiled, shrugged his shoulders and said, “What could I do? This is a very special cake. What happened is that by force of habit I accidentally drove by the bakery this morning and there in the window were trays full of the most scrumptious goodies.

“Well, I felt it was no accident that I happened to pass by this way, so I prayed, ‘Lord, if you really want me to have one of those delicious coffee cakes, let me find a parking space right in front of the bakery.” And sure enough, on the ninth time around the block, there it was!”
[World Stories, W Bausch, XXII Publications, Mystic Ct]

There’s probably more truth than fiction to that story if you consider the way we sometimes handle temptation in our own lives. As someone remarked to me one time in jocular manner, the quickest way to get rid of temptation is to give into it.

But the readings today are not just about temptations — the temptations of Christ or ours. They are about the buoyancy of faith that holds us up in the face of temptation.

Thomas Green in his popular book on spirituality, When the Well Runs Dry offers as a metaphor for faith and prayer, the attitude of a person learning to float.

The secret of floating lies in being willing to take the risk and do the opposite of what comes instinctively. When we attempt to keep ourselves rigid in the water, ready to save ourselves from the waves breaking around us, we wind up being swamped by the waves. On the other hand, when we relax and float, we are buoyed up by the rolling sea and we escape being swamped. People find it difficult to let go. It is the same with faith. We need to risk swimming in the sea of God’s grace, to be at home in the water with no visible means of support except the constant buoyancy of God’s presence.

In the face of moral choice, rigidity or obsession on one hand or presumption on the other can lead to defeat. Confidence in God and trust in our own formation will lead to a positive outcome.

And so Satan is not always the enemy. It is more often ourselves that we need to confront in the deserts of life.

Water itself is an interesting metaphor for God’s life. Water is used in baptism. The word used in the Genesis in the description of Noah’s flood is Tehom, the Greek word for deluge. It is the same word used to describe the primordial watery chaos in the story of creation. In other words, Noah and his family were buoyed up in the ark by the waters, when his contemporaries resisted the overtures of God. The waters prefigure the baptismal journey of Israel through the Red sea and our baptism into Christ.

God’s covenant with humanity is real. The rainbow is the enduring sign that God is faithful and there is no spiritual storm or encounter that can defeat God’s tender mercies or lead to ultimate destruction.

In the very brief account of Jesus temptations in the wilderness by Mark we find in him the strength to confront our own demons, evil spirits and wild animals.

Although I had many reservations about Gibson’s film, “The Passion of the Christ,” I found his depiction of Jesus’ struggle in the Garden of Gethsemane very powerful.

I believe that Mark wanted to contrast the Garden of Paradise with the Garden of Gethsemane. In the former, Adam and Eve are confronted by Satan in the form of the serpent and succumb to evil through their disobedience. To ‘obey’ is to listen with the heart, in this case, to the heartbeat of God. To disobey then was to listen to their own hearts and in the process to reject God.

In Gibson’s film, Satan confronts Jesus in the androgynous figure that appeared from one angle to be a woman and from another, a man. In Gethsemane, Jesus was confronted by the sins of humanity but was willingly to absorb them for the sake of humanity. Jesus said ‘yes’ to life and refused even in the face of death to succumb to anything less than life and was faithful to life though it led him to death. It was the great reversal—he gave all to gain all for the sake of humanity.

Catechumens across the world will be called forth today in the Rite of Election to commit themselves to their final preparation for baptism. Candidates will join them in a public gesture during liturgy to state that they too are ready to enter a period of purification during Lent as they prepare for acceptance into full communion with the Roman Catholic Church.

Lent is the time for all Christians in the Catholic tradition to encounter the God of love who buoys us up in the face of life’s choices and the struggles that can lead to sin, personal and social.

Jesus walks the journey with us. He is our strength. In him we find the confidence and courage we need to overcome the fear of drowning. He is our hope and salvation. He is our rainbow!