Did Anything So Great Ever Happen?

Stories of gods and demi-gods are found in cultures around the world. Typically, there is a major, powerful deity who has a spouse and children. Those divine children may also have spouses, or they may befriend and have children with humans. The grandchildren of the great gods, those born of a human and a divine parent, are known as demi-gods (half-gods).

Stories are told of these gods and demi-gods, as well as of their friends and enemies. The stories aim to explain the world in which we live and the reasons people behave as they do.

The gods and demi-gods act in very human ways, loving sometimes, hating sometimes, betraying each other, or tricking each other. A number of charming sets of stories of the ancient gods set in contemporary society has been told by Rick Riordan. His stories are based on Greek, Roman, Norse, and Egyptian deities who are still active in modern times, having children with humans and carrying out their battles and rivalries with each other and with the forces that preceded them. All are set in places that have similar importance today as did the ones from ancient cultures. My family and I have very much enjoyed reading these stories and seeing what places in contemporary America might be the location of Olympus, the gates to Hades, the city of Rome, and other ancient mystical places.

Our own Judeo-Christian heritage has grown out of a different experience. As the Israelites prepared to enter the promised land, crossing the Jordan River into the land they were to conquer and claim as their own, Moses spoke to them of their unique history and relationship with their God. “Ask now of the days of old, before your time, ever since God created man upon the earth … Did anything so great ever happen before?” (Deut 4:32-33, 39040)

What was this great thing that had happened? Their God took them from among the population of another nation, led them out with many signs and wonders, defeated that nation (the Egyptians), led them through the desert, cared for their needs, and gave them a set of rules and commandments by which to live. Finally, their God was giving them a new land in which to live and prosper with their children. This was unique. Their God was not many gods. Their God was one being and entered into a very special relationship of love and care. No other gods were equivalent, nor was any other “deity” to be worshipped. All powers were subject to their God.

To this day, the descendants of Abraham, Jews and Arabs alike, along with Christians and Muslims from around the world, believe in and worship one God. Jesus, born into Jewish culture and family, grew up learning of the wonders of God’s relationship with his people. He was a normal man, from a normal family, and in the course of his life, his nature as both human and divine came to be known. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob became a human in Jesus. Jesus, the Word of God, the Logos, was born into a human family, grew up in a very normal way, and following his baptism in the Jordan River, began to teach and preach. He learned much along the way during his public life. He learned from men and women with whom he interacted. He learned from non-Jews as well as from other Jewish people. He spoke of God’s Kingdom and what it meant in reality for humans.

Powerful people were threatened by Jesus and his teaching. His death should have ended it all, but with the Resurrection, everything changed. Recognition of the divine nature of the man Jesus became the hallmark that broadened even further the amazing things God has done. “Did anything so great ever happen before?” Did God ever before enter into human life so intimately, sharing our joys and sorrows, our triumphs and our defeats, our health and our suffering and death?

St. Paul spoke to the people of Rome about the relationship between humans and God. Those people who have believed and are now led by the Spirit of God become children of God. They are not slaves, subject to every whim of a master. They are God’s little girls and boys, God’s children, brothers and sisters of Jesus, the firstborn. They are loved deeply by the Father and join in glory with their God. This is truly unique. (Rom 8:14-17)

Making it all even more marvelous, this relationship with the Father is not limited to the people originally chosen for a relationship with him. It took a while for the community to realize the full wonder of what God was doing, but they/we got there.

St. Matthew closed his account of Jesus’ life with the story of Jesus commissioning his followers to go out and tell the world what they had seen and heard from him. On a mountaintop in Galilee, the eleven disciples were with him when he appeared. He approached the group, who were not totally sure what to think of his coming to them there, but he had a message, a commission for them. “Go… and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” (Mt 28:16-20)

This trinitarian understanding of God, the one God of the tradition, is seen as including much more than one individual human’s personhood. God is parent/creator. God is brother/redeemer, God is the Spirit of Love, the Holy Breath of God. God has been described as a great dance of love whirling through all of reality.

It’s really a much more complex mystery than we have words to express. God comes to us in many ways and many places. We see God’s face in the love of family and friends. But also in the kindness of strangers and the wonders of all creation. We feel the breath of love, patience, forgiveness, and joy that bubbles up at the most unexpected moments in our lives.

“Did anything so great ever happen before?”

We celebrate the Holy Trinity today and through the week to come. May we rejoice in the wonder of our God who enters into our lives in so many and such marvelous ways. We ask that our eyes be opened to see and hear the presence of God among us. We prepare for the day we will see our God in glory.

Peace and joy be with you, today and always, as we celebrate the wonder of our God!

Readings for the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity – Cycle B

Illustration – The Shield of Faith – Background Information

Mercy and Faith – Hand in Hand

Once upon a time, there was a little boy who was just learning to walk. He was a curious boy and eager to explore his world. He lived in a home in which there were a davenport, a recliner, and a lamp table sitting together in the living room. (A davenport is a piece of furniture also known as a sofa, couch, or Chesterfield, in case you were wondering.) There was a narrow path between the recliner and the lamp table and davenport.

Sometimes, the little boy would be beside the davenport and notice something on the other side of the path between the recliner and the lamp table. The space was just barely wide enough for him to pass through it, but only if he kept perfect balance and didn’t get distracted on his way. So, he would bravely head into what his family came to call Dead Man’s Gulch! Part way through, he would fall and need help getting back up. Someone always came to the rescue and suggested that it might be easier to go around the recliner on the other side. But next time would come around and into the Gulch he would go, with predictable results.

This child’s experience came to mind today as I was reflecting on Divine Mercy, the theme of the Second Sunday of Easter. We often think of mercy as something that is given to those who merit it. By this logic, there are people who do not merit it at all. We look at what has been done and say that some things are simply unforgivable. Each of us has our own sense of what could never be forgiven, however. We look at whether the person harmed “had it coming” because of something they did or did not do. We look at whether the guilty party thought about and planned the action or whether it took place in a moment of blinding anger. Or maybe it wasn’t planned and was really just an accident that things happened the way they did?

But this is really not the way mercy works when we talk about God. We hear words in many readings and psalms to the effect that God judges and punishes sinners. We hear that God abandons the people when they break the covenant, but eventually God’s heart is softened and he again supports and defends his people, once they turn back to him.

That’s the way humans play the game. However, when we read those words, it’s essential to realize that they are the way humans interpret what is going on. It’s not necessarily the way God actually does things.

I suggest that God is actually more like the adults who helped the toddler up each time he crashed in the Gulch. The child was soothed and comforted, then the adult pointed out that it might be easier next time to go around the chair. Of course, it took a long time for the child to realize the adults might be right about that. In fact, it basically took until he got too big to get through the Gulch (or the adults moved the chair closer to the table so the passageway really was too thin).

We try things out. We act out of anger or frustration or despair or any number of other negative emotions. We decide not to act when we should. We act or speak when we shouldn’t. And God allows it to happen. We are free persons, with the option to choose what we will do and to do things wrongly, whether deliberately or accidentally. Either way, we have to experience the consequences – we crash in Dead Man’s Gulch. But God is there to help us get back up and try again.

The early Christian community experienced this first hand on the night of the Resurrection. The women had reported that Jesus had risen. Peter and John had seen the empty tomb. It was too much to believe. Then Jesus appeared in the locked room where they were all hiding. He showed them his wounded hands and feet. He asked for something to eat. They could see for themselves that he was not a ghost and they rejoiced. Then he spoke to them of mercy. He breathed the Spirit, the Holy Breath of God on them and promised that whatever wrongdoing (sin) they forgave would be forgiven by the Father. If they refused forgiveness, it would not be given.

Thomas needed more convincing, since he missed the first visit. Jesus came personally to Thomas as well and provided the proof he had demanded. He spoke those words of blessing for all of us who have followed afterwards, “Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.” (Jn 20:9-31)

The years following the resurrection have been filled with the efforts of the community to live as Jesus lived – trusting in God to provide what was needed, helping each other, serving those unable to fend for themselves, loving and forgiving each other, seeking to give glory to God through their lives, and trying to be a loving, merciful people. (Acts 4:32-35 and 1 Jn 5:1-6)

Sometimes the community has been a beacon of mercy. Sometimes we have missed the mark and become sources of scandal. For this we beg forgiveness and try to make amends. It’s not an easy thing to love as God loves. But it is essential to try. No one is at base unfit to be forgiven, because each of us is still the toddler trying to find the way through Dead Man’s Gulch. God is the parent who is there to pick us up, dust us off, give us a hug, and remind us to try going around the chair next time.

Faith and mercy go hand in hand. When we believe that we are loved and that anything can be forgiven, as long as we too forgive, then the kingdom of Heaven shines forth on Earth through our lives and actions. God’s justice is mercy. Ours must become so too.

Happy Easter. Christ is Risen. Alleluia.

Readings for the Second Sunday of Easter – Sunday of Divine Mercy – Cycle B

Liturgy and Culture – Latin Mass vs English Mass – Shrink Wrapped Religion

Neotraditionalist forms of Catholicism that repudiate the Second Vatican Council seem almost perfect illustrations of commodified nostalgia. … Such nostalgic retrievals inevitably idealize the past by abstracting it from the particularities that created it and sunder it from any organic relation the present …Inevitably such traditionalist retrievals are not only innovative but also deeply contemporary. Fundamentalism is a thoroughly modern phenomenon.[1]

Mitchell quotes Vincent J. Miller[2] above on the non-traditional nature of the neotraditionalist Restorationist movement in the Catholic Church. Interestingly, those Catholics adhering to Vatican II’s contemporary Novus Ordo liturgy can also miss the point. They tend to see liturgy as a “production”. It becomes a work of human artistry and creativity that is choreographed, rehearsed, and performed. According to Gallardetz, choosing between a “relevant” contemporary style of liturgy and “transcendent” traditionalist one is a false dichotomy. The quests for transcendence and community cannot be separated since liturgy is a communion with God and one another. [3] This contemporary divorce reflects a schizoid culture in which literalism forecloses on the sacramentality of metaphor and denies our entry into the eternal hymn beyond our comprehension but within our joy.

Mitchell refers to the “lie” of the metaphor “The moon is my mother”. [4] It is not literally true, but it is true in a deeper sense. The contradiction, the juxtaposing of unlike things opens something else up entirely. In our post-modern consumerist culture our communion is achieved not through the consumption of sacramental elements but the consumption of goods and services. Such a ”communion” only links us to ourselves in our solitary confinement. Our homes, bank accounts, and cars point to nothing beyond ourselves.  Their nameplate brands may offer us explicit and implicit association with excellence, luxury, and power but they are cold comfort on a winter’s night.

In much of our worship we attempt to tame the divine by literalizing and explaining the metaphors of the rites. We have sacred spaces that we do not hallow. We explain the musical score while refusing its transport as something beyond sound and rhythm. Most tragically, perhaps, is that we are joined by fellow spectators in a comfortable and comforting venue. They are nice people and we know many of them from around town.

We are like infants who can play in parallel. Only much later can the child begin to play in encounter. Whether a rock band or schola cantorum is on the marquee, we have come to pray as individuals to be with and to be removed from those around us.  Yet we cannot be that eternal doxology, we cannot join the dance of the Trinity because we are not emptying out ourselves for others. We are in proximity but not in relation. This is often true not only within church walls but in our homes. We have entire industries to manage and develop personal and business relationships but none of them are based on communion. We have definite rules about qualifications to receive the Eucharist but no real requirements about being community to effect the Eucharist. Certainly, we have rules about church attendance but nothing about what attendance is beyond physical presence.

Jules Henry, [5] the anthropologist, decried the commoditization of humanity in mid-twentieth century American society. In his view, the advertising industry embodied by Madison Avenue created consumer demand in Americans by preying on human vulnerability. People were sold goods and services that could make them more attractive, more powerful, and more valuable. The recent and very successful cable television series “Mad Men” [6] portrays the creators of this consumerist culture and the ways it destroys their lives. Henry saw the adoption of consumerism as part of an effort to deny vulnerability by covering it with a sham that created a false self. Over time the tension between the false self and the real self, caused a deep alienation manifested in self- destructive behavior and addiction.

Henry decried the rise of the meritocracy, that our worth and social position are measured only by our most recent achievements. Henry said that people were becoming “pecuniary” or seen only as amounts of financial wealth. Today we would say that people are being “monetized” the way in which we seek to find ways for people to give us money for visiting our websites or using our apps. Our relative worth today is legally based on our current and projected income. Settlements paid out to the families of the 911 attack on New York City were based on the current and projected life long income of the deceased. [7] People lose their jobs, their social standing and worth all at the same time. The companies they have worked for see them as commodity resources.  There is a growing trend for companies to lease employees from a corporation whose only task is to employ them, provide few if any benefits, and place them at the client’s worksite where they have no job security nor prospects for advancement.

This is the lived experience that people are immersed in when they enter the doors of the church on Sunday. Unless we build communities by organizing them in the sense of empowering people to tell their own stories and to create community to overcome consumerist alienation, we can have no real community of praise and thanksgiving. Our rites become colorful or blasé performances or productions of comfort. At worst they become a venue for celebrating one’s monetary success and status. Our sacraments become rites of passage and self-congratulation. Our sacred spaces become artistic venues for video productions.

Our life of praise, wonder, and thanksgiving-communion is a living doxology. It is a hymn of praise echoed by all creation. It is voiced by a human communion transformed by and caught up in the communion of the Trinity. Unfortunately, many times when we offer this, we and others love the words so we eat the menu and wonder why we are not nourished. In other words we think that when perform the liturgy correctly we have done our part. In the restaurant all we have to do is to be polite and read the menu. No passionate, messy eating and drinking is involved. However, we are called and redeemed by making physical our response to God’s activity in the Body of Christ. We are called to live in the Trinity by transforming our lives and those around us in justice and charity. If we only show up and follow the rules without the fire of the Spirit, our communion is only laminated cardboard.

[1] Mitchell, N D Meeting Mystery: Liturgy, Worship, Sacraments, Maryknoll, New York, Orbis Books,2006, 216

[2] Miller, Vincent J, Consuming Religion: Christian Faith and Practice in a Consumer Culture, New York, Continuum, 2004, 81.

[3] Mitchell, 2006, 215   citing Richard Gallardetz, “North American Culture and the Liturgical Life of the church: The Separation of the Quests for Transcendence and Community,” Worship 68, No. 5 (September 1994) 403 -16

[4] Mitchell, 2006, 195

[5] Henry, Jules, Culture Against Man, New York, Vintage Books, 1965

[6] AMC Television series from 2007 – 2015

[7] Between Tragedy and Farce: 911 Compensation and the Value of Life and Death

November 29, 2017

Preparing for the Feast of St. Ignatius Loyola

Novenas – Nine days of prayer before major feasts are a widespread Catholic devotion. The practice derives from the nine days  the disciples spent in prayer after the Ascension of Jesus which concluded with their anointing in the Spirit at Pentecost.

Generally novenas are based on asking for something. Often we pray for solutions to personal problems – illness, finances, worries about family and friends. We often approach God with a wish list. Throughout the course of the novena we come to a more peaceful and hopeful feeling about these problems and issues in our lives.

I would like to propose something a little different for the nine days leading up to the feast of St. Ignatius Loyola on July 31. St. Ignatius left us with some marvelous ways to listen to the Holy Spirit and what God is calling us to do for our happiness and fulfillment. So, instead of asking St. Ignatius to pray for us to help us in our personal difficulties, let’s take nine days to see how we can be more aware of God in our lives and be more attentive to ways in which we can be of service to God and our neighbor.

Obviously, our concerns and worries will come into our prayer and our contemplation in action throughout the day. However, let’s take this time to set these aside as things that need to be solved and try to feel and visualize where the Spirit is leading us. St. Ignatius has given us a very powerful type of prayer called the Examen. Translating it literally as “examination” doesn’t capture its meaning in Latin or Spanish. A good translation is Reflection. The five steps of the Examen / Reflection empower us to become aware of God in our lives. This novena will be based on this special method of prayer.

After all, our journey is not really about us and our cares and concerns. Jesus said that we should not be as worried about material things as we should about responding to the much greater calling we have to announce the Kingdom and to make it a reality through healing and the alleviation of poverty and suffering. Let’s spend these nine days as the disciples did during the first novena. Hopefully, we will be as surprised and transformed as they were.

Last Chance to Copy and Save Your Data!

We will be shifting to a new platform for our discovery engine. Due to circumstance beyond our control, the discovery engine has been down. There is now a narrow window of time to copy and save your own private password protected directories and lists. It is very simple. (For our readers who are familiar with the copy and paste function, we apologize for the great detail. However we are trying to make it as clear as possible.)

To save each item we recommend this method:

First, open a new Excel or similar type of spreadsheet program.
Next, open your directory.
Highlight the title of the item and press the control and “c” keys at the same time to copy it.
Next, move your cursor or “pointer” to the cell at the top of the left column on the Excel spreadsheet and paste the copied title by pressing the control and “v” keys at the same time.

Second, copy the description of the item.
Next, paste the description in the second column next to the title on the spreadsheet.

Finally, repeat the same process for the tags by copying and placing that information in the third column next to the body for the same entry. Be sure to press the down arrow at the end of your line of tags in Theologika to make sure that you copy them all.

Begin the pasting of each item on a new row of the spreadsheet.

Repeat these steps for each item to create an orderly table. Remember to save your file as you go along!

Another option is to create a table with three columns and at least enough rows to correspond with your number of items in your directory in Word or other word processing program. You can copy and paste the information using the process that we have outlined above and increase the number of rows as necessary.

If you have any difficulties or questions please email kathypozos@theologika.net.

Best wishes for a happy New Year. Stay tuned for the new Theologika.net 2011!

Randy and Kathy Pozos

All the World At Peace – The Christmas Proclamation

The New – The Social Media Nativity

A Digital Nativity Story

The Old: The Christmas Proclamation

This is one my favorite rituals of the Christmas season. There are several version of this proclamation. Fr. Felix Just, SJ, PhD presents a good summary. The following is a translation from the version used by the Vatican in 2009.

Eight days before the Kalends of January, fifteenth of the lunar month.

Innumerable ages having passed since the creation of the world, when in the beginning God created heaven and earth and formed mankind after his own image;

Many centuries after the flood, when the Most High placed his rainbow in the heavens as a sign of peace and of the covenant;

Twenty-one centuries after the going forth of Abraham, our father in faith, from Ur of the Chaldees;

Thirteen centuries from the exodus of the people of Israel out of Egypt, led by Moses;

About one thousand years from the anointing of David as King;
in the sixty-fifth week according to the prophecy of Daniel;
in the one hundred and ninety-fourth Olympiad;
in the year seven hundred and fifty-two from the founding of the city of Rome;
in the forty-second year of the rule of Caesar Octavian Augustus;
when the whole world was at peace:

Jesus Christ, eternal God and Son of the eternal Father, being pleased to hallow the world by His most gracious coming, having been conceived of the Holy Spirit, and nine months having passed since His conception, having become Man, was born at Bethlehem in Judah of the Virgin Mary.

THE NATIVITY OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST ACCORDING TO THE FLESH.

A Digital Nativity Story