Author Archives: Friar Musings

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About Friar Musings

Franciscan friar and Catholic priest at St. Francis of Assisi in Triangle, VA

Luke’s Account – John’s Account

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The first reading for Pentecost Sunday is the account from Acts 2 so familiar to every Christian. Luke’s account is a very public event compared to the very private Johannine account.  Why the difference? Some scholars defend the basic historicity of the entire Lucan narrative; others conclude that it is essentially Luke’s theological attempt to explain the coming of the Spirit, not an historical account of actual events. Some, holding to the historicity of the Lucan account in Acts 2 hold that John’s account is symbolic only. The Second Council of Constantinople (AD 533) condemned the view of Theodore of Mopsuestia that Jesus did not really give the Spirit on that Easter evening but acted only figuratively and by way of promise.  Some, like John Chrysostom, held that the giving of the purpose was for one particular gift or another; others have said that Easter’s coming of the Spirit is personal while Pentecost is ecclesial or missionary.  And another set of scholars posit a narrower coming of the Spirit targeting special gifts intended for specific ministry (e.g., the forgiveness) versus a more general coming of the Spirit as a blessing and empowerment for the larger Johannine ministry of discipleship: love and holding to the commandments of Jesus. Some simply conjecture that since John is not overly concerned about date/setting but rather the theological implications, that the Johannine account is the same event – John has simply re-located the events.

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Pentecost: Liturgy and Context

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This coming Sunday is Pentecost Sunday. The gospel for Pentecost Sunday has two options. The first option is the beginning part of the same gospel used on the 2nd Sunday of Easter. The second option, also from John, is taken from the “Farewell Discourse” of John 14 when Jesus promises the disciples that although he is going away, he will send the “Advocate.”  This commentary focuses on the first option.

19 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the doors were locked, where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” 20 When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 21 (Jesus) said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” 22 And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the holy Spirit. 23 Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.” (John 20:19-23)

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The Gift of Silence

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Suddenly two men dressed in white garments stood beside them. They said, “Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky?…” We are never told of the immediate reaction of the apostles.

I suspect it was one of those moments of silence which quickly became a bit uncomfortable and perhaps awkward.  Maybe they looked around at each other, waiting to see who would say something or move. Maybe all eyes turned to Peter who was desperately trying to think of something to do or say.

Finally someone cannot endure the silence, “So guys, what do you think we should do?” “I don’t know, what do you think?”  “Maybe we should go back to Galilee”  “I think we are supposed to go back to Jerusalem”   “Jerusalem? And do what?”  “Wait.”  “For what?”  “For the power of the Holy Spirit.”  “I don’t know…..”   And then there is another period of silence…until someone finally begins to move off towards Jerusalem and the grand silence.  The days between the Ascension and Pentecost when they are without the presence of Christ among them. 

I do not think it would be too much of a stretch to imagine one of the disciples saying in joy, “He is risen, alleluia…,”  only to have the following alleluia kinda’ fall off into a question mark, not of doubt, but of what’s next. One of them plaintively offers: “Jesus was always there to lead, to teach, to show…. And now we have silence and waiting.”

Silence and waiting are definitely an acquired taste.

When I was a child in the days between the end of school and Christmas, silence and waiting were definitely not part of my skill set.

Years ago when I was first working in the commercial sector, my company sent me to a sales training seminar. I did not want to go, but it was actually quite helpful. I learned the skill of asking a question and waiting in the silence while the person hems, haws, processes, or ponders the question. If you want to be truly helpful to the prospective client, you need to hear what they have to say.  

Plato taught that often precedes insight. Søren Kierkegaard held that silence was necessary to develop authentic individuality. Simone Weil saw silence as a form of attention and spiritual receptivity. For her, silence allows one to truly attend to the presence of God, the needs of others, or the reality of suffering without rushing to fill the space. Across time, great thinkers have held silence in great esteem.

I find the same patient waiting in silence to be a valuable skill for hearing Confessions, talking with couples in marriage preparation, grief counseling, and a whole host of other pastoral settings. It is indispensable in preparing homilies.  I can’t tell you how often I have sat in silence, waiting for an idea. …And I find it invaluable in my life of prayer.

“Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky?…”

Perhaps the apostles should have said, “Hold your horses, I am looking at the sky, because I am taking this all in.” Maybe in the silence and the waiting, they realized that for the first time: “…in the Ascension, humanity has entered Heaven.  Jesus, true God and true man, now sits at the right hand of the Father. In the Ascension, we have been shown our destiny.  We have been shown the desire and hope of the Father in heaven, that all people will come to their inheritance, to their home.”

Maybe their thoughts continued “And Jesus just spent three years teaching and showing, caring and loving, and more. I can’t resurrect anyone, but I can lift people up. I can help them ascend in this lifetime to be ready when the power of the Spirit comes to them. I need to sit with all this a while and figure it out….”

And maybe they needed more time and silence to begin to contemplate the implications of the Ascension. “We are called to be witnesses to the end of the earth. We have to wait for the power of the Spirit to come upon us.” 

The “Spirit of wisdom and revelation” as it says in the second reading. The wisdom and revelation that need to be pondered and considered, and to sit with , so that … “May the eyes of your hearts be enlightened, that you may know what is the hope that belongs to his call, what are the riches of glory in his inheritance among the holy ones” (Eph 1)

Silence can be awkward or welcomed. But I would offer that the wisdom and revelation of God is best served in the silence and the waiting.  We don’t have enough of it in our lives. So, be it life or angels, don’t let anyone rush you past the silence and the waiting.

“Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky?…”

Because from time to time, we are supposed to – it is a gift of God.

Find some time this week to enjoy the gift.

Amen

The Ascension in the Gospel

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This coming Sunday we celebrate the Solemnity of the Ascension. The first reading for Sunday is taken from the first chapter of Acts of the Apostles. The gospel reading is taken from Luke 24.  Yesterday we considered the account in the Acts of the Apostles in detail. Today we turn our attention to the Gospel account.

From the earliest times in the church, there was a danger of docetism, the heretical belief that Jesus was God behind a thin veneer of humanity: thus his suffering was only play-acting, and the Resurrection was simply a return to a completely spiritual existence with no bodily effect. The Letters of John combated this error (1 John 4:2–3; 2 John 7). The narrative from the Upper Room which precedes our passage stresses that Jesus’ resurrection body is real. The disciples touch him; the marks of the passion are visible in his hands and feet; he eats with the disciples.

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The Ascension in Acts

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This coming Sunday we celebrate the Solemnity of the Ascension. The first reading for Sunday is taken from the first chapter of Acts of the Apostles. The gospel reading is taken from Luke 24. Yesterday we considered a detailed account of the first part of the reading from Acts. Today, we continue our detailed look.

But you will receive power when the holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Verse 1:8 provides a “table of contents” for Acts. The witness “in Jerusalem” is Acts 2 to 7. “Throughout Judea and Samaria” is from chapters 8 to 12, and to “the ends of the earth” from Acts 13 to 28. “The ends of the earth” is an echo of Isa 49:6 (“I will make you a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.” – quoted explicitly in Acts 13:47)) Both Acts and the Psalms of Solomon, a slightly earlier non-Biblical Jewish writing, apply the phrase “the ends of the earth” to Rome. Acts ends in Rome. And Pss Sol 8:15 calls the Roman general Pompey “him that is from the end of the earth.” Of course, it can simply mean the whole of the world, even beyond Rome.

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Naval Special Warfare

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I enjoy reading. While I read scriptural and spiritual books, I also read for my own entertainment, enlightenment, or just because that looks interesting. I just finished a book by Benjamin H. Milligan entitled, “By Water Beneath the Walls: The Rise of the Navy Seals.”  It is not a collection of SEAL war stories, although such accounts are present in the book to the extent they serve a larger question. The author is addressing a question of history, policy and “the way things turn out.” Here’s the question:

How did the US Navy – the branch of the US military tasked with patrolling the oceans – ever manage to produce a unit of raiders trained to operate on land? And how, against all odds, did that unit become one the world’s most elite commando forces, routinely striking thousands of miles from the water on the battlefields of Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, and even Central Africa.  Behind the SEAL’s improbable rise lies the most remarkable underdog story in American military history.

Mr. Milligan served with the SEALs for 8 years and it was a question that was in his mind as he operated. “So, how did this happen? How did the US Navy create a unit whose operational center of gravity is not only directed at a mission performed on 29% of the earth’s surface that its ships cannot touch, but on so fraught with difficulties that most units of the Army and Marine Corp – the US military’s tradition tenants of its land operations – are not able to perform it with any where near the same proficiency?”

You might be thinking “didn’t the Underwater Demolition Teams (UTD) just become the SEALs?” Hardly. The history is fascinating, convoluted, and even involves the CIA. It was a fascinating account, well researched and written. It is not a story that unfolds in a straight line, but runs through Little Creek VA, Ft. Pierce FL, Coronado CA, North Africa, Saipan, Korea, Vietnam, mainland China, and an itinerary that covers the globe.

And as it happens, 50 years ago Naval Special Warfare Group ONE was formed with its headquarters on Coronado Island, California. NSWG consists of Navy Sea, Air, and Land (SEAL) and Special Warfare Combatant-craft Crewmen (SWCC). NSWG-1’s legacy builds on a rich history of naval special operations dating back to 1942, when the Amphibious Scouts and Raiders and the Naval Demolition Unit were formed to conduct critical missions during Operation Torch, the Allied invasion of North Africa. These units laid the foundation for the modern SEAL teams. 

If you enjoy military history, it is well worth the read.

Persistence

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Today’s first reading from the Acts of the Apostles gives us a glimpse into the ordinary life of Saint Paul and how God’s extraordinary grace works through very human circumstances.

Paul arrives in Corinth, a bustling, morally complex city (a nice way of saying it was a typical naval port town). Apart from its activities in support of Mediterranean trade and shipping, because of its international flavor it was a center of a wide variety of temples. One of the larger communities was Jewish, in part because of political persecution in Rome. It is there that Paul  meets Aquila and Priscilla, refugees from Rome. It seems as though they met in the course of their ordinary work: tentmakers. Of course, we remember them as great evangelizers.

This passage reminds us that evangelization often begins and happens in the ordinary. Paul’s partnership with Aquila and Priscilla is not just practical—it’s providential. It’s a reminder for us: our workplaces, our homes, our daily routines can become sacred spaces if we allow God to work through them.

Later in the passage, we see Paul’s persistent preaching. Despite rejection in the synagogue, he doesn’t give up. He simply moves next door, to the house of Titius Justus. And what happens? Crispus, the synagogue leader, comes to believe in the Lord, along with his entire household. Paul’s endurance, guided by the Spirit, bears fruit—just not in the way or place he may have first expected.

Paul is “kicked out” of Corinth, but he has sown the seeds of faith. Someone else will harvest the fruit of his work – as it often is and will be.

So, what does this mean for us? Few of us are preachers, but your example of faith in your job, in your family, or among your neighbors, can touch hearts. Maybe you’re facing rejection or disappointment, but, like Paul, be persistent; don’t give up. New possibilities exist in the very next session of ordinary. And don’t convince yourself that your life is too ordinary to matter in God’s plan. The history of CHristianity is a story of butchers, bakers, candlestick makers – and tentmakers, too – being used by God as a springboard for the Gospel.

Ask for the grace today to be faithful in the ordinary, open to the Spirit’s prompting, and persistent in love, so that like Paul, we trust that God is at work, even when we can’t yet see the full fruit..

Image credit: Saint Paul Writing His Epistles | attributed to Valentin de Boulogne | Houston Museum of Fine Arts| PD-US

The Mission Ahead

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This coming Sunday we celebrate the Solemnity of the Ascension. The first reading for Sunday is taken from the first chapter of Acts of the Apostles. The gospel reading is taken from Luke 24. Yesterday we considered a high-level view of the unity of the two volumes as a way of showing the centrality of the Ascension as a connection of the mission of Jesus and the mission of the Church. Today we consider the Ascension itself.

I think it may be a fair statement that we modern readers are more engaged by the actual ascending into heaven, but I would suggest that is not Luke’s central focus. Luke is more concerned with what was said than with what happened. The vital question was the one posed by the disciples: now that Jesus had been raised from the dead, was God going to complete his purpose by finally establishing his rule? The answer given was twofold. First, the time of this event remained God’s secret; what was more important was the immediate task of the disciples which was to act as witnesses to Jesus from Jerusalem to the end of the earth. The spread of God’s rule was to take place by means of the disciples, empowered by the Spirit. This was the final command of Jesus before he left the disciples. 

Secondly, the departure of Jesus was interpreted as a pattern for his ultimate return to the earth to inaugurate the final establishment of the rule of God. These verses spell out God’s purpose and the place of the church in it. They postulate that the period of witness and mission must precede the return of Jesus. They were in effect a warning to the disciples not to expect a speedy winding up of history. For Luke’s readers some forty or more years later they were a reminder of an ongoing task: the gospel must still be taken to the end of the earth. At the same time the words contain a note of promise in that the departure of Jesus is compensated for by the coming of the Spirit, given by Jesus himself (2:33).

When they had gathered together they asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7  He answered them, “It is not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has established by his own authority.  The question about restoring the rule to Israel in 1:6 also shows continued misunderstanding about what the kingdom of God meant. Acts 2:3 will show that God’s promise was about the coming of the Holy Spirit, not an earthly empire. The prohibition against trying to compute the times of the end is meant to discourage Luke’s readers from guessing what cannot be known. Rather, they should focus on the power of the Spirit as the sign of living in the promised final days. Luke says Christians are to use this power during whatever time is left to witness to Jesus to the ends of the earth. They should not waste energy trying to figure out when the end of the world will be….to be continued. 

Image credit: detail of “Ascension of Jesus” | John Singleton Copely, 1775 | Museum of Fine Arts, Boston | PD-US

The scorpion and the fox

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A well know fable:

A scorpion wants to cross a river and asks a fox to carry him across on its back.
The fox hesitates, afraid that the scorpion will sting him.
The scorpion argues, “If I sting you, we’ll both drown.”
The fox agrees, and they begin to cross the river.
Halfway across, the scorpion stings the fox.
As they both begin to sink, the fox gasps, “Why did you do that?”
The scorpion replies, “I couldn’t help it. I am what I am.”

The fable teaches that some people cannot (or are unwilling) change their fundamental nature—even when it’s self-destructive or goes against logic. It is with that in mind that I recommend the the article: Why Americans Don’t Understand Vladimir Putin.