Nostalgia

Christ was always going ahead, calling people to follow.  Even when he Rose, he came and then went.  He invited his disciples to "Go" and bring people together who were living in differences.  "Baptize the whole world" was the phrase.  They were supposed to go into the world and bring about something new.  The disciples were energized by the energy of the Risen Jesus.  There was not trying to get back to a past.  He did not speak  about Adam or Paradise before the Fall.  His followers proclaimed him as Risen, and that was the energy, the vision for them to be loving across previous Jewish-Gentile boundaries.  

What I see today is a tired effort to get back to the past, one that separates and divides, one that think the world is evil.  More obedience to rules and orthodoxy will be the way to do it.  This will be about as successful as us old runners trying to get back to the way we ran when we were young.  Such runners are delusional. My life seems to be running with delusional runners and working with delusional church people.  But I am committed to both.  Loyalty is difficult at times.  I can get left behind. It can be lonely running in the back of the pack.  It can be lonely living with a vision for a new future not an old past.  

Energy

I think of the Risen Christ as Energy reformed.  Say what?  Well, Jesus dies and get buried.  With death, a self-surrendering death, in love for all people, a new unifying force of energy comes forth from the dead Jesus.  He is raised, still a body that eats food and can be seen, but somehow free of some previous limitations.  Now he is a unifying force of Love that can energize those who come into contact with him, and love him in return.

How does this work?  Look at the Road to Emmaus story.  "Were not our hearts on fire," they said, when they recognized Jesus, now Risen.  Jesus could begin a chain of energy transference, that is, live within and among his disciples if they would stop clinging to his body as they knew it, so he Ascended to heaven.  Then he came as Spirit at Pentecost.  Suddenly, the cowards had courage and could speak many languages.  The Risen Christ is a unifying force that energizes us if we let it.

Don't you remember when you first fell in love?  You had lots of energy.  You could stay up all night talking with your beloved.  Christ is what unifies and energizes us through his love for us and then our love for others.  When we focus on creeds and orthodoxy, we divide and separate.  Christ is a force for all religions.

Suicide

When someone I love kills themselves, I think that I could have done more or done other, to prevent it.  I blame myself for missing something.  This happens especially when that person did a lot of good things.  We have hopes and expectations even, that the future will be good.  Do you really feel you could have done more for the skid row fellow who drinks himself to death?  You cut your losses there a long time ago.  No, it is the person who gives us hope at times, that bothers us the most.  Love is energized by hope.  

But we all have our demons.  We all have ways of killing ourselves slowly over time.  We call it a miserable life and it is always someone's or something's fault.  "If only," we say.  Every day that I skip my prayer, or act unkindly, selfishly toward others, is  day in which I am killing myself.  My demons are having a good run that day.  Why do I live like that?  Is there anyone else to blame for not fixing me?  Is anyone else at fault?  We can blame outside forces for bad things that happen, like losing a job, or partner/friend, but who to blame when we decide to destroy ourselves?  No one.  People who blame themselves for others' decisions to end it all, are living the delusion of omnipotence.  We can all get help to face our demons, but it is only help.  Sometimes, the demons win.  But God loves us even then.  The demons win a around.  God wins the battle for our soul.  Guilt is no good.  Grief for a loved one no longer in skin, makes more sense and is the road to healing for the loving survivors.  

Ecclesia

The word "church" comes from a Greek word, "ecclesia" which means "those called out."    The church was the people called to go out into the world to be "Whole-Makers."  Live your life in such a way, as Jesus preached, so as to bring all people together into some unifying identity.  What happened?

Well, we got into arguments about orthodoxy, creed and heresy.  With Constantine we began to build buildings into which we went to worship.  Worship is good.  But we called the building "church," and when we came out we did bad things and said bad things to those who did not agree with us, and who did not go into the building as orthodoxy would warrant.  We wrote catechisms and taught them.  The Gospel was in there, but we emphasized creedal theology and not the Sermon on the Mount.    

Leaven

The word "Catholic" means, "throughout-the-whole.  Think of leaven.  Leaven is kneaded throughout the bread, slowly, patiently, so that the stuff of bread can become all that it is supposed to be.  Leaven works on the stuff of flour, water, salt, sugar, and makes it something that it was not, and yet has all the ingredients of what it was before leaven worked on it.  BUT THE BREAD DOES NOT BECOME LEAVEN.

So the Catholic is one who leavens the world to become all that God made the world to be, but the Catholic does not try to make the world Catholic.  Jesus taught a quality of life filled with love and deeper notion of Holy Presence who he called Abba.  Evangelization is not about making everyone Catholic or correct believers in creed.  It is about making a new person from the old.  It is called transformation.  Catholics are "Whole-Makers."  It sure beats Inquisition and Crusade!

The Sea

We think that we can control nature.  Build stuff and create boundaries that separate our dry land from the water.  Even God did that in creation, separated the land from the sea.  Seems the ocean did not get the memo, nor reads the Book of Genesis.  Now and again the ocean remembers its beginnings, when there was no land to hold it back, and no human barriers either.  We humans, with our pride and sense of centrality in the spheres, build our monuments to progress, rip up the land for food and fuel, among other things.  We deal in permanence.  Grandiosity and invention replaces humility, a sense of our smallness, our powerlessness.  Now and again the sea says, "What are you doing in my way Manhattan?"  Before there was Manhattan, there was the sea.  Life is kind of fragile, no?  

White Gloves

Think of a group of little old ladies who get together for afternoon high tea.  We have high tea in San Francisco.  There conversations gets focused on whether they should wear only white gloves or would grey ones be allowed as well.  Meanwhile, there is an earthquake going on outside.  The ladies are oblivious.  Strange?

Well, the hierarchy met in Rome and decided that we can only use the title, "Lamb of God,"  when we come to the fraction rite at mass.  Other titles that refer to Jesus, can no longer be used.  Think about it.