Category Archives: Musings

The Foundation

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The gospel for today’s Feast of St. Simon and Jude is the simple list of the Apostles as given in the Gospel of Luke. Early Christian writers and later stories link Simon and Jude as missionary partners, evangelizing together in Persia (modern Iran) or Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) where they suffered martyrdom together. For this reason, their feast days were merged very early on.

On this feast day, my attention was drawn to the first reading: “So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the capstone.” (Eph 2:19-20)  Specifically, I thought about the way St. Paul used the term foundation. In 1 Cor 3:11, St. Paul writes: “for no one can lay a foundation other than the one that is there, namely, Jesus Christ.” And what are we to make of Matthew 16:18 – “And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.”  That sounds pretty foundational.

It caught my attention because of the way different Christian denominations understand and misunderstand the Scriptural use of the same word as well as the broader metaphor of “building” the spiritual life in Christ. Consider 1 Peter 2:5 – “...like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” The “spiritual house” clearly needs a foundation.

In New Testament writings we see the foundation described in Ephesians as  the Apostles (New Covenant witnesses of Christ’s resurrection) and the Prophets (usually understood either as Old Testament prophets or Christian prophets active in the early Church).  In this view the foundation represents the historical and revelatory basis upon which the Church is built. Christ is the keystone or cornerstone, the essential aligning and sustaining element. The Apostles and Prophets are the human instruments through whom the divine revelation and structure of the Church are communicated.

Other scripture points to Christ as the only foundation: “According to the grace of God given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building upon it. But each one must be careful how he builds upon it, for no one can lay a foundation other than the one that is there, namely, Jesus Christ.” (1 Cor 3:10-11) Here, Christ himself is the sole and irreplaceable foundation and the subsequent building (the Church’s growth and ministries) is built upon that foundation. Whereas Ephesians emphasizes apostolic tradition and continuity, Corinthians stresses Christ’s primacy.

In the letter to the Hebrews we read: “Therefore, let us leave behind the basic teaching about Christ and advance to maturity, without laying the foundation all over again: repentance from dead works and faith in God, instruction about baptisms and laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment.” (Heb 6:1-2). Here, the foundation is doctrinal, not personal. It refers to the basic tenets of Christian faith and practice. The metaphor casts the foundation as the core teaching that allows growth toward spiritual maturity.

In the Book of Revelation we read: “The wall of the city had twelve courses of stones as its foundation, on which were inscribed the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.” (Rev 21:14)  This usage takes the eschatological image of the new Jerusalem as permanently built upon the apostolic foundation. Christ is the Lamb, but the Apostles are the named foundational stones — indicating the enduring authority and witness of apostolic teaching in the Church’s eternal form.

What does this all mean? It is what the Catholic Church has always proclaimed: the ultimate foundation of the Church is Christ Himself — the one in whom revelation, salvation, and unity originate. In his human lifetime Jesus was the means of communication, the teaching, eschatological fulfillment and “continuity.” After his death and resurrection, the foundation in the world rests on the teachings and story of Jesus, but now continuity is dependent upon the sure transmission of the faith via the Apostles and those appointed by them. This apostolic foundation refers to the instrumental mediation of the revelation of Jesus. They are the foundation through whom Christ’s word and authority are transmitted. They are the foundation in witness and structure.

The Church is the sure means by which you “...like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” 

Image credit: Flevit super illam (He wept over it) | Enrique Simonet (1892) | Museo del Prado, Madrid | Wikimedia Creative Commons | PD-US

Becoming what we watch

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Freya India posted an interesting article on “The Free Press” website (and on her substack channel also). The basic premise is that what we watch on TV or stream is wasting our lives on mindless entertainment – but more than that some lives are becoming mindless entertainment for others as people post their lives in images and video on all manner of social media … all for the clicks. It was an interesting read. Enjoy.

“Why look good without getting a selfie; why go out without uploading an Instagram Story?” writes Freya India. (Illustration by The Free Press)
Read the article

Adoption into Glory

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For more than a week we have been reading from The Letter to the Romans.  We transitioned from hearing about Abraham as an example of faith working its way through human imperfection to the source of that imperfection: sin. “Through one man sin entered the world, and through sin, death.” (Rom 5:12) The readings that followed traced the unfolding of the consequences of sin unleashed into the world. But St. Paul offers us hope in the person of Jesus Christ. “…just as through one transgression condemnation came upon all, so through one righteous act acquittal and life came to all. For just as through the disobedience of one person the many were made sinners, so through the obedience of one the many will be made righteous.” (Rom 5:18-19)  St. Paul is making the point that now it is the obedience of the faith that keeps us on the path of righteousness as an antidote to the death brought about by sin.

That obedience is necessary because we live in a world where temptation roams unrestrained emerging from an evil that St. Paul describes as an entity seeking to corrupt the good of the world and people so that we experience death rather than glory. Evil seeks to reign over all, and rob us of the glory God intended for us. It is as St. Peter (1 Peter 5:8), evil is on the prowl and means to devour you. And it is not just you. It is as Paul describes in Romans 8, “…creation itself would be set free from slavery to corruption and share in the glorious freedom of the children of God.” (Rom 8:21). The whole world waits for us to accept our adoption as daughters and sons of God. That acceptance brings us into the presence of God.

Being in the presence of God is a big deal, as big as it comes. Being in God’s presence was lost in Eden and perhaps the rest of Scripture can be thought of as God’s efforts to restore us to that intimate presence afforded to the family of God.

What could keep us from that presence? In the language of the Old Testament it is because something has rendered us “impure” in that we have come in contact with Death. Death that entered the world through the sin of one man. The Book of Leviticus has two whole sections on ritual and moral purity. Leviticus provides rituals of thanksgiving and atonement with one purpose in mind: that we be mindful that we worship the God of Life – Life that is meant to be whole, complete, and without the corruption of decay. Life that is meant to be lived in the presence of God. Life that is Holy as God is Holy.

In the Old Testament, there were regulations to keep the faithful from contact with that which would make them impure and not ready to enter into the presence of God. These regulations were designed so the impurity of forbidden things (e.g., a corpse) would not “infect” the person. The rituals were to restore the person.

In the New Testament, Jesus reaches across those regulations to touch the ritually impure. The lepers, the blind, and in today’s gospel, the woman who was “crippled by a spirit” and as a result was so “bent over” that she was “completely incapable of standing erect.”

Jesus reached out to touch her. Was Jesus made corrupted and rendered impure? No, his holiness “infected” the woman, removing that which was never desired or intended by God. Now she stands upright, a child of God, an heir to the glory of God. 

Now she may draw near into the presence of God as the taint of death has been removed.

May we realize that in this Eucharist we are again touched by Jesus that we may be made holy and live fully in the presence of God. We are “heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ … that we may also be glorified with him.”

Image credit: Healing of the Crippled Woman. By Theophylact, Byzantine Archbishop of Ochrid and Bulgaria. 1055 AD | PD USA

Through One Man: Sin and Death

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In today’s first reading our selection from The Letter to the Romans moves on from its prior focus on Abraham as a model of trust/belief/faith even when he has moments of doubts. Moving ahead to Chapter 5, St. Paul now takes on the matter of sin and death. Paul’s claim that “Through one man sin entered the world, and through sin, death” would have been nothing new to anyone familiar with Genesis chapters 2-3 and the Jewish understanding of those chapters. This “man” is, of course, Adam, whose very name means “man.”

Throughout Romans Chapter 5 and well into Chapter 8, Paul attributes to “sin” a very active role: 

it “reigns” (5:20; cf. 6:13, 14), can be “obeyed” (6:16–17), pays wages (6:23), seizes opportunity (7:8, 11), “deceives,” and “kills” (7:11, 13). In a word, he personifies sin, picturing it as a power that holds sway in the world outside Christ, bringing disaster and death on all humanity. Through this personification, Paul shows that individual acts of sin constitute a principle, or “network,” of sin that is so pervasive and dominant that the person’s destiny is determined by those actions. In the present instance, then, the “sin” that enters the world is more than an individual sin; it is the bridgehead that paves the way for “sinning” as a condition of humanity. The fact that Paul attributes to Adam this sin is significant since he certainly knows from Genesis that the woman, Eve, sinned first (cf. 2 Cor. 11:3; 1 Tim. 2:14). [Douglas J. Moo, The Epistle to the Romans, 1996; p.319]

The verse above is incomplete. The entire verse reads: “and through sin, death, and thus death came to all men, inasmuch (houtōs) as all sinned.” The word houtōs is one of those words that depending on how it is translated has lots of different implications. Remember it is all tied to the expression “through one man.” That being said, the majority of commentators think that “houtōs” draws a comparison between the manner in which death came into the world—through sin—and the manner in which death spread to everyone—also through sin. The implications are death is universal because sin is universal: “all sinned.”

But it is not the only possible rendering. Perhaps the most famous alternative is the translation “in whom,” adopted by Augustine and others. For, assuming that “the one man” is the antecedent of the pronoun, we have then an explicit statement of “original sin”: “in Adam all sinned.” St. Paul’s single verse has resulted in centuries of debate and caused deep divisions among Christians over the “transmission of original sin.”

However, St. Paul’s main interest is not to talk about sin or death, but rather to draw a contrasting picture of Adam and Christ, prominent figures of the beginning and the end time respectively. Adam is a “prototype” of the person to come, namely, Jesus, who would far surpass what Adam did. The world was changed by both of these individuals.

Adam unleashed an active hostile force into the world (sin), which had the power to cause definitive alienation (death) from God, the source of all life, inasmuch as or because all individuals have sinned through personal, actual deeds (v. 12). Thus death has two causes in human existence: Adam’s sin and personal ratification of that deed by individuals who sin. This was Adam’s effect on the world. In contrast, Christ’s effect is starkly different. Through the gracious gift, namely, the redemptive death of Jesus Christ uprightness and life superabound for all individuals who accept him. [Collegeville Bible Commentary, 1989, p.1086]

Debates aside, it is good to remember sin and death are real, but more real are grace and eternal life found in Christ as Lord and Savior.

Image credit: Pexels + Canva, CC-BY-SA 3.0

Trust and Human Imperfection

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“How could God listen to me after all that I have done?” Not an uncommon question asked of priests. The person asking is a sinner…and a saint…a complex person. Today’s first reading is from St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans, one of the most challenging and complex of all the New Testament books – and addresses an equally complex character in the person of Abraham. Known for his unwavering faith in God he is a person who is not always righteous and forthright; a person who sometimes acts in ways not in accord with the will of God. Consider some moments in the story of Abraham.

Early in his journey, Abraham doubted God’s promise of protection, which led him to lie about his wife Sarah being his sister to Pharaoh in Egypt, putting her in a compromising position. This act showed a lack of trust in God’s ability to protect them.  And this tale was repeated to King Abimelech making one wonder about his honesty and trust in God.

Both Abraham and Sarah laughed when God promised them a child in their old age. While this laughter can be seen as a natural reaction to an incredible promise, it also reflects a degree of doubt or disbelief, a lack of trust that led to actions reflecting that doubt.  At Sarah’s urging Abraham had a son via Sarah’s maidservant, Hagar. He essentially took on a concubine who bore Abraham’s son, Ishmael. The rivalry between Sarah and Hagar, and their descendants, the Israelites and the Ishmaelites, persisted for generations – even to this day.

Abraham’s negotiation with God over the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah could be considered his hesitation to accept God’s judgment without question.

That is one side of the ledger. Abraham’s choices for and with God are a far longer list and one might say, on balance, Abraham “did good” and it was credited to him as righteousness.

Except it isn’t a ledger. 

It is a story that serves as a testament to the idea that faith can coexist with human imperfection. Abraham’s journey, marked by both faith and human flaws, is a central narrative in the Book of Genesis. It is as St. Paul notes it is not about the works, even when called for by God. It is not about the failings – for St. Paul notes, quoting the Psalms: “Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord does not record.”

It is a story to accept the grace to trust in the One who can justify even the ungodly. It is a story about accepting the grace to take action in the world. It is a story about accepting the grace of forgiveness. It is a story about trusting and continuing the journey.

That’s how God can listen to us after all we have done.

Image credit: Pexels + Canva, CC-BY-SA 3.0

Jesus: …will He find faith on earth?

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The gospel for the 29th Sunday, the parable of the “Unjust Judge and the Persistent Widow,” concludes with: 7 Will not God then secure the rights of his chosen ones who call out to him day and night? Will he be slow to answer them? 8 I tell you, he will see to it that justice is done for them speedily. But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

Jesus’ comments make clear the intended parallels: from an unjust judge to God; from the widow to God’s elect.  The term “his chosen ones” (hoi eklektoi), used in Luke-Acts only here, echoes texts such as Isa. 42:1; 43:20; 65:9, 15, 22; Ps. 105:6, 43 (cf. Sir. 47:22), which use the term “chosen” in a context that emphasizes election to serve Yahweh (also refers to Deut. 4:37; 7:7; 1 Chron. 16:13; Ps. 77:31; 88:3). 

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The Widow

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The gospel for the 29th Sunday is the parable of the “Unjust Judge and the Persistent Widow.” Language and etymology can tell us a lot. The word chḗra, meaning “widow,” derives from a root meaning “forsaken.” Widows are associated with others who are disadvantaged, e.g., orphans, aliens, or day laborers. They suffer wrongs (Is. 10:2) or loss of rights (1:23). They are held in low esteem (54:4); cf. their special clothes (Gen. 38:14). Yet the OT enjoins all the righteous to be kind to widows. God is their refuge, and he helps them to their rights (Ps. 146:9; Dt. 10:18). He threatens judgment on those who wrong them and promises blessing to those who assist them (Ex. 22:21ff.; Jer. 7:6)

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The Judge

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The gospel for the 29th Sunday is the parable of the “Unjust Judge and the Persistent Widow” which begins in v.2, “There was a judge in a certain town.” A more literal translation: There was a certain judge in a certain town, echoes a previous passages – a certain rich man who experienced an abundant harvest or a certain rich man (fool) who lived in purple garments and fine linens but never gave heed to poor Lazarus.  

This judge is likely a local magistrate yet of notable status within the community. Despite his exterior bearing Jesus characterizes him as someone who neither feared God nor respected any human being (v.2).  In the scriptural tradition The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge (Prov 1:7) and the threshold of God’s grace: His mercy is from age to age to those who fear him (Luke 1:50).  Fear (holy awe) is the manner in which he disciples and others respond to Jesus’ power (8:25, 35; 9:34, 45). Further, Jesus instructs the disciples not to fear their persecutors but to fear God (12:4-5).  Luke portrays those who “fear God” in a positive manner (cf. Acts 10:2, 22, 35; 13:16, 26).  It can be taken that a lack of such fear is a sign of one’s thorough wickedness.  The statement that the judge does not fear God points to 2 Chron 19:7, where King Jehoshaphat appoints judges in Judah, charging them, “And now, let the fear of the LORD be upon you. Act carefully, for with the LORD, our God there is no injustice, no partiality, no bribe-taking.” Without such fear, can one expect justice or impartiality except with a bribe?

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The Focus of the Parable: A Judge and a Widow

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The gospel for the 29th Sunday is the parable of the “Unjust Judge and the Persistent Widow.” This parable is a twin of the parable of the neighbor in need (11:5-8). Both are used to illustrate the importance of persistence in prayer. Both present a person in need persistently pressing a request, and both parables call for reasoning from the lesser to the greater: If a neighbor or an unjust judge will respond to the urgent need and repeated request, then will not God also respond? It is an argument from lesser to the greater by which Jesus affirms the faithfulness of God – He will assuredly act on behalf of the righteous.

The widow’s actions are a model of perseverance in the midst of wrong. The literal translation of v.8 is not “faith” as a general category, but is “the faith” – that is the manner of faith demonstrated by the widow. She is certain of God’s justice and thus acts in resolute faithfulness in anticipation of that certainty. The parable is a metaphor for Jesus’ followers who also will encounter hostility, look for the deliverance that accompanies the coming of the reign of God – and not finding it in their lifetime, may become disheartened. Jesus insists that adversity is integral to the process by which God brings salvation (cf. 17:25, 32-34) – and assures his disciples that, despite delay, they are always to be rooted in hope (18:1-18).

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What is Visible

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Today’s first reading is from St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans, one of the most challenging and complex of all the New Testament books. After opening his epistle, Paul provides a summary of covenant history in just a few verses.

For what can be known about God is evident to them, because God made it evident to them. Ever since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes of eternal power and divinity have been able to be understood and perceived in what he has made. As a result, they have no excuse; for although they knew God they did not accord him glory as God or give him thanks (Rom 1:19-21).

In Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation, Laudato Si’, he wrote that our eyes are not meant to stare into a virtual world of human making, but that our eyes are meant to look into the eyes of another to gain human connections and be in relationships with one another. Our eyes are also meant to look up, around and outside of ourselves so that we might see “invisible attributes of eternal power and divinity” of God – and be amazed, be awed, and understand.

Many years ago while hiking and rock climbing in the Utah desert lands, we were camped out on a rock outcropping under a canopy of stars. There was no city shine, no moon, but there were shadows from the brilliance of the stars. One of our crew remarked that while she appreciated the expression “a thousand points of light” the night sky was really a soft canvas of a night glow. Silently we passed her a set of glasses. The next voice we heard was “Oh my.” The veil had been lifted and she saw what had been present since the creation of the world.

Thomas Jefferson once wrote that priests “dread the advance of science as witches do the approach of daylight”. And yet even the very scientific method was developed by the Franciscan priest Roger Bacon. Sure we had a rough spot with the whole Galileo thing, but the Church worked through it with the Vatican Observatory continuing to contribute to our understanding of the cosmos. In a striking challenge to the academic consensus that science and faith are incompatible, two French scientists argue that the latest scientific data and theories point to a singular beginning which can lead to only one logical conclusion: an all-powerful deity created the universe and all life within it. 

The question of the compatibility of science and faith is not going away, but for us mere mortals we are left to make this day and all days, a time when we are mindful of the world God created with his invisible attributes of eternal power and divinity.  Our eyes were meant for this world, not the virtual world on screens. Look up, around and outside of ourselves to see what God has created and then accord him glory as God [and] give him thanks.

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