Lord, Liar, or Lunatic

Calvary by Michael Godard

Where can you get accurate, reliable information these days.

I was looking for a particular quote I’d once heard.

So I typed key words into Google.

It found the quote and led me to Wikipedia.

It’s a quote C S Lewis and others had used.

Jesus is one of three things: the Lord, a Liar or a Lunatic.

Jesus said many times that he is the Lord.

As in today’s Gospel when the crowd asked, If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.

He answered, The Father and I are one.

One might argue that that’s still a little vague.

Maybe he just means they’re in agreement.

But there are also many other instances in the Gospels where Jesus indicates that he is God.

He used God’s name for himself when he said, Before Abraham was, I AM.

He said, If you have seen me you have seen the Father.

He praised Thomas for calling him My Lord and my God.

And he said many other things that only God could legitimately say.

He forgave sins, he said he would sit on the throne of judgment.

He said he had the power to lay down his life and take it up again.

It’s occurred to me before that there could be a fourth possibility to C S Lewis’ three.

It could be that the evangelists wrote those things, but Jesus didn’t actually say them.

Not that they were trying to deceive—just taking some artistic license in conveying their story.

But if we start down that path, we soon have nothing that we can accept as the Gospel truth.

The Wikipedia entry had some pretty surprising statements—it said:

New Testament scholars agree, nearly unanimously, that Jesus never said he was God.

It quoted a book by a Protestant theologian named John Hick to support that claim.

I looked for more information on that book and found that its second edition had a new chapter.

Agreeing with that viewpoint and written by a Jesuit theologian, Fr Roger Haight (H-a-i-g-h-t).

That gave me some pause, but then I thought—well he’s only a Jesuit.

(Actually I love the Jesuits; some of my best friends are Jesuits.)

Then digging a little deeper I found that Fr Roger Haight had been silenced by the Vatican.

That is, ordered by the Vatican to cease writing and teaching.

So, clearly the Catholic Church doesn’t share Hick’s supposedly “near unanimous” view.

All in this supposed great majority don’t necessarily contend that Jesus was not God.

They simply contend that he probably didn’t actually say that he was God.

God may have chosen to hide that fact from Himself in His incarnation as Jesus.

So maybe Jesus didn't know with absolute certainty that he was God, 
Until after the Resurrection.

But his earlier statements indicate that, even before his death,

Through his communication with the Father, he did already believe that he was God.

We know we can’t read everything in Scripture literally.

(Although some people try.)

So where do we draw the line?

And now we see that we can’t even assume that everything in Wikipedia is beyond dispute!

What can we rely on?

We have our Church’s long history of inspiration and scholarship to guide us through Scripture.

We have our gift of faith.

We have the Spirit within us.

We can rely on those as we ponder that key question Jesus once posed for his disciples:

But who do you say that I am?

Tuesday 4th Week of Easter

Jn 10:22-30      Read this Scripture @usccb.org

In His Hands (2)

A few weeks ago, my spiritual director had a major stroke.

He's also a dear friend of many of us here at St Joseph's.

Fr Joe McCloskey of the Gonzaga Jesuit Community.

I visited him at the hospital but he was always sleeping.

Awake and semi-conscious for only a couple minutes each day.

His family has been saying that Fr Joe is now fully in God's hands.

And they are prepared for whatever might happen.

He's now been moved to a Jesuit care facility in Philadelphia.

On my last visit here in DC he was sleeping as usual, but his sister was there.

She told me she found comfort in a quote someone had just given her.

A quote from Fr Pedro Arrupe, the former Superior General of the Jesuit Order.

(Fr Joe knew Fr Arrupe and had told me about conversations they'd had.)

Like Fr Joe now, Fr Arrupe in 1983 suffered a severe stroke.

He lost his ability to walk and to speak.

So he resigned from his office as Superior General.

The Jesuits met in Rome to elect a successor, and they wheeled Fr Arrupe into the room.

He couldn't speak to them, but he had written a message, and an aide read it to them:

     More than ever I find myself in the hands of God.

     That is what I have wanted all my life from my youth.

     But now there is a difference; the initiative is entirely with God.

     It is indeed a profound spiritual experience

     to know and feel myself so totally in God's hands.

Fr Joe's sister was reassured by Fr Arrupe's expansion on that familiar phrase.

The one her family had already adopted—in God's hands.

She found comfort in knowing that, spiritually, Fr Joe was at peace.

Enjoying that very same profound spiritual experience that Fr Arrupe had expressed.

With our Psalm today we repeated those words King David used when he was in distress:

Into your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit.

Words echoed by Jesus himself as he hung on the cross.

Father into your hands I commend my spirit.

And echoed again by our first Christian martyr, the good deacon, St Stephen.

Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.

But putting ourselves into God's hands isn't an act to save for desperate or final moments.

It's not even so much an act of doing as an act of acknowledgment.

Fr Arrupe and Fr Joe made that acknowledgment as young men.

But they didn't experience that full appreciation until many years later.

In today's Gospel, Jesus invites us—gently prods us—to action.

Come to me now.

You are already in my hands.

Don't be only semi-conscious of that truth.

Acknowledge it fully; experience the profound comfort—now.

Whoever comes to me will never hunger.

Whoever believes in me will never thirst.

Hear Little Laurie London Sing About It

  

Tuesday 3rd Week of Easter

Jn 6:30-35      Read this Scripture @usccb.org

You Don't Have To Journey Alone

It's sometimes said that individual Catholics don't do enough Bible reading.

It's true that many Protestants do stress individual Bible reading much more than we do.

And no doubt, we could all gain from more Bible reading.

And from meditating and contemplating—and acting—on what we read.

But the Bible isn't so simple a book to just pick up and understand.

It's filled with references, allusions and expressions from thousands of years ago.

It uses a mix of familiar and unfamiliar literary devices.

It's literal and figurative; prosaic and poetic.

There are fundamental truths that are stated clearly and repeatedly,

And jump right out at us.

Even though they might be beyond natural possibility,

One without the gift of faith would have to ask,

Is this Bible saying that Jesus actually rose from the dead? Literally?

There are also less-clear statements, exaggerated language, and seeming contradictions.

How do you trace Jesus' human genealogy?

(The Gospels give us two very different versions.)

Did Jonah actually survive for three days inside a whale?

Does Jesus want us to actually pluck out our eyes and lop off our hands?

It would take a lifetime of study to correctly understand every detail—

If even a lifetime would be enough.

Over the centuries, great scholars have led the Church to an authoritative interpretation.

They've come to agreement on the most important truths of Scripture.

But even those scholars have differed on some of the details.

So, where do we get our own understanding of Scripture?

For many of us it begins with our parents, our first teachers.

Then from our teachers at Catholic school or Sunday School or Bible Study Class.

From our own reading and study and discussion.

From this first half of every Mass—where we celebrate the Liturgy of the Word.

From our relationships with God and with others.

And from our life experiences.

In today's Gospel we see the most authoritative and excellent teaching of the Scriptures.

Jesus himself continuing his direct, personal instruction to his disciples.

Throughout his ministry he taught them by his words and actions.

By living out the truths that would later be recorded as the New Testament.

Then, in his resurrected glory, he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.

And he sent them out to spread the Good News to all the nations.

But he didn't leave them alone to accomplish their mission.

He instituted his Church, with himself as its head.

He promised to stay with it always, in Spirit, and guide it until the end of time.

So, his Church is here to guide us today.

Its witnesses and scholars have devoted thousands of lifetimes to better understanding the Scriptures.

They've written letters, treatises, commentaries, lessons and books.

They've held debates, conferences, synods and councils.

They've developed, preserved, and passed down to us, the wisdom and truths they found.

Sharing in all of that is one great benefit of our being part of the Church.

We're each still responsible for ourselves.

For developing our own understanding of Scripture.

For developing our own well-formed conscience.

For attending to and nourishing our own relationship with God.

For listening for any direct, personal instruction he might be offering us—

His current day disciples.

For carrying out our own actions and good works.

And for spreading the Good News so that others can hear and begin their own journeys.

But we don't have to figure it all out alone, or carry it all out alone.

As members of Jesus' Church, we have him, his Holy Spirit, and the rest of the Church.

Like those disciples in the locked room, and those disciples on the road to Emmaus—

We have guides and companions to help us along our way.

3rd Sunday of Easter

Lk 24:35-48      Read this Scripture @usccb.org

No Needy Person

A few years ago I was standing in Red Square.

Lenin’s tomb was there in front of me.

Along the road to the Kremlin, I’d seen plaques and statues honoring Karl Marx.

But none of the people I talked with had fond memories of the communist days.

Outside the Kremlin gate I saw a few visitors following an old custom.

They'd toss coins backwards over their shoulders.

And a group of babushkas, poor old peasant women,

Would scramble to gather up the near-worthless Kopecs.

A little further in the distance, tall cranes marked the many construction sites.

Luxury hotels and “Western Condos” with million-dollars-plus units.

Marx’s vision was altruistic and idealistic and good.

From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.

But that's a lot to ask of our fallen human nature.

And the Communism of Marx and Lenin was a dismal failure.

It was further doomed at the outset – by its atheism and its sole reliance on humans.

It would be hard enough to make that idealistic system work with God’s help.

In one nation under God.

What chance could it have without God’s help?

According to our reading from Acts,

The Communism practiced by the early Church community was working very well.

Those who had much shared fully with those who had little.

The community was of one heart and one mind.

There was no needy person among them.

Perhaps that community was successful because its members were all,

As our Gospel indicates, born of the Spirit.

Perhaps the Communism of the early Church will never work for a community so large as Russia—
Or the US.

Where the hundreds of millions of members are never of one mind and heart.

But the task falls to each of us who recognize that we're born of the Spirit.

The task of striving toward the altruistic, idealistic goals of that early Christian community.

The task of striving to see that there is no needy person among us.

Tuesday 2nd Week of Easter

Jn 3:7b-15      Read this Scripture @usccb.org

Know Thyself

Just when did Jesus come to know with certainty that he was God?

We can wonder about that.

It's a good topic for meditation or contemplation.

But we won’t really receive a certain answer in this life.

Did he have that divine knowledge as a child?

Or did he receive that revelation at his Baptism, or at his Transfiguration?

Or at some other point in his earthly life?

Perhaps he went through the trials of his life, ministry and passion

Secure in the absolute knowledge that he was God.

Knowing all that God knows – everything.

Some of his statements show that he certainly believed he was God.

Such as his repeated reference to himself using the name God had used with Moses—I am.

As when he identified himself in the garden when the mob came to arrest Jesus of Nazareth.

Did he do all this with absolute certainty of his divinity?

With full conscious awareness of, and access to, his full divine powers?

Maybe.

But, the Gospels tell us that he was a man, like us in every way except for sin.

That would seem to indicate that he had chosen to limit his powers during his earthly life.

Perhaps to limit even his own internal knowledge of those powers and his true identity.

That would mean he acted as a mere man.

But a man with great courage and great faith.

Absolute faith and trust in what he heard the Father telling him.

Knowledge of what Jesus knew when, will come to us as part of the beatific vision.

But regardless of when Jesus first knew with absolute certainty that he was God,

He surely knew it by the time he met Mary Magdalene outside the tomb on Easter morning.

We can be sure he spoke with full knowledge that he was more than a mere Rabbouni.

More than a mere man.

And what was his message to us in this first conversation after the Resurrection?

The first conversation where we can be sure that he absolutely knew who he was.

He used it to reaffirm that fundamental piece of Good News that he had revealed earlier.

The Good News he had given the disciples when they asked him to teach them to pray.

The Good News about who we really are.

And so, on Easter morning---

As the fully-knowing, fully-aware God-man---

Jesus, quite remarkably, continues to call us his brothers and sisters.

And he continues to assure us that we can call God, Our Father.

Tuesday of Easter Week

Jn 20:11-18      Read this Scripture @usccb.org