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Daily Scripture

+ 7th Week of Easter

“Parting is such sweet sorrow.”

Readings: Acts 20:17-27 Psalm 68:10-11, 20-21 John 17:1-11

I am in the world no longer, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. [John 17:11]

Shakespeare ‘penned’ the phrase quoted above. I didn’t understand it as a student of Shakespeare in high school but I began to understand it when I waved goodbye to my family as I sailed off to Italy on September 21, 1963 for a three-year stretch in Rome. In fact, it has multiple meanings and applications that I appreciate now more than ever before.

There is another phrase that perhaps gives credence to my thoughts so poorly expressed and it’s this: “Absence makes the heart grow fonder.” Ah, that’s it. At times we need to separate from ‘the source’ in order to appreciate how important it is to stay connected.

The farewell speech of St. Paul in Acts and the farewell ‘prayer’ of Jesus in John’s gospel were more likely composed by the authors of these texts along the lines of the farewell speeches of great leaders of their times in order to attract the attention of Jesus’ followers.

The departure of Jesus and later that of Paul created ‘fallow’ time in the hearts of the neophyte believers that was absolutely necessary if they were to grasp the significance of Jesus’ message and the teachings of St. Paul.

We are once again in ‘fallow’ time as we prepare for Pentecost. It’s a time of discernment during which we are invited to ponder the words and deeds of Jesus so that in his absence, we may come to know his presence in the Spirit that remains within us and around us.

As we ponder, it is important to reflect on the gifts of the Holy Spirit: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety and reverence of the Lord. And the fruits of the Holy Spirit are qualities that are characteristic of a community living in Christ: charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty self-control and chastity.

There is much to ponder as we wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost.

Daily Scripture

Thursday April 3, 2008

+ 2nd Week of Easter

They were living in revolutionary times but they were spiritual revolutionaries.

Readings: Acts 5:27-33 Psalm 34:2, 9, 17-20 John 3:31-36

We gave you strict orders, did we not, to stop teaching in that name. Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and want to bring this man’s blood upon us.’ But Peter and the Apostles said in reply, ‘We must obey God rather than men. [Acts 5:28-29]

I suppose the words ‘revolution’ and ‘revolutionary’ can be defined in different ways and surely had divers applications. George Washington led a revolution that resulted in the emancipation of our ancestors and the establishment of a new nation. We see this as a justified revolution. Native Americans have a slightly different take on the American Revolution.

Osama ben Laden is viewed by radical Moslems as a revolutionary but few in the east or west view his case and cause as anything but rampant barbarism.

The Apostles and early witnesses to Christ were indeed revolutionaries who, as their Master, were not intent on the establishment of a new nation or even a new religion. Jesus and his apostles died as Jews.

Jesus was intent on the liberation of the soul and freedom of the spirit from the notion of alienation from a God who was outside the realm of their existence. The God of the religious institution had been buried in laws and legalisms by ‘traditional’ religion and religious authorities who held people captive to a false and punitive God rather than a God as mother and father of life and blessing, the ground of their being.

I think we are living in similar times. Traditional institutional religious practice has succumbed to a false image of God as primarily punitive—a God defined by rigid formulas and exclusionary categories to which religious leaders hold members hostage. We see this in biblical and doctrinal fundamentalism in almost all ‘name brand’ religions including Catholicism.

Those who speak the truth and who therefore are rooted in God are punished and those who protect the physically or spiritually abusive are rewarded with pedantic accolades that fail to hold them accountable to God’s truth which is anything but punitive.

The war in Iraq, the abuse crisis in the Church and the exploitation of migrants are just symptoms of a deeper global illness not unlike the time of ‘Caesar.’