Theological Reflection
I think it's valuable for all of us as individuals, communities, a nation, a world to form a vision of a world more in accord with God's Word. I think Jesus wants us to develop and live a world ethic, promote an atmosphere of non-violence, a culture of basic human rights, widespread and democratic ownership of capital, and a world democratic authority. Each structure, of course, would have sub-structures. Our task with God's help is to craft the details of the vision and then work to implement our vision.
We also need a way to proceed non-violently toward our vision. I suggest getting in touch with our own experience, enlarging our experience by some kind of contact with the materially poor and the marginalized, organizing our experience through research and social analysis, engaging in theological reflection, practicing spiritual discernment, making a decision for social action according to a definite time-line, evaluating what is happening, and then beginning the cycle again.
Thus the third step in a process toward a peace with justice is theological reflection. This does not mean searching Scripture for proof texts to support a decision we've already made. Theological reflection means continually going to the riches of Scripture and the values of the churches and allowing God's values to interact with the real world in which we find ourselves. We need to put our Faith into the middle of our world. We need to reflect with the Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other.
If religion is only an escape, or a private matter--if religion does not play an essential role in our everyday lives, what is the purpose of God's special intervention through Revelation, the Incarnation, and Redemption? A private religion is irrelevant, trivial, and a contradiction in terms. The reign of God is by its nature social.
Some have argued that the role of the religious right proves that religion and politics should be kept absolutely separate. But church people are citizens; churches are legitimate voluntary organizations. Churches indeed have the benefit of humanizing and moderating values and can often build bridges instead of walls. But religious organizations should be subjected to the same standards of loving, rational and consistent presentation of their views as any other participant in the public debate. We need to do our homework, which includes having our religious values interface with the situation we have analyzed. And of course, we need sound theology.
I engage thus in
theological reflection on Scripture, the teaching of the churches, human and
church history, and current events.
Philosophy
I think philosophy can be a complement and foundation for theology. I became a philosopher, a lover of wisdom in 1950. I enjoyed thinking deep thoughts, going down to the root of things. Here I developed principles. I saw how people, events, and the world were connected. As I learned to think and distinguish, I began to engage in rational discourse.
My background was Thomistic. Actually I enjoyed the simplicity and profundity of St. Thomas Aquinas. His philosophy was clear, logical, uplifting. Thomas' concept of God gave me a sense of awe at the majesty of God. Thomas's concept of the world was orderly, logical, and connected.
During philosophy I got a sense of natural law. In God's mind is eternal law, a principle or rule of activity. When God created, natural (born) law began. There are physical laws like the law of gravity, the laws studied by physics, chemistry, and biology. There are also natural moral laws, the relationships we have to God, our neighbor, the earth. We are free, intelligent, loving, and social human persons. We can love and be loved; understand and be understood. We can communicate with one another. If we lie, that breaks down communication. We never know when an habitual liar is telling the truth. Thus lying is contrary to the natural law. Natural law is distinct from positive or civil law. Civil law is made by legitimate authority for the common good. Civil law is promulgated by public decree. Natural law is promulgated by God's act of creation. Not all natural law needs to be enacted into civil law. Education and persuasion should precede enactment into civil law. A civil law not accepted by most of the people is difficult to enforce.
Through our reason, we can conclude that each human person has basic human rights. Without the exercise of our basic human rights we cannot grow in our relationships with God, our neighbor, the earth. Positive peace is the enjoyment of basic rights by each human person which allows us to become closer to God, one another, and physical creation.
Another part of my philosophical study has been courses in existentialism. Existentialist philosophers gave me a whole new insight on how to approach reality. Although I didn't give up reason, I did learn to value emotion, intuition, and experience.
I now have a master's degree in philosophy and a doctorate in philosophy with a concentration in peace studies.
Theology
In 1956 I began four years of study of theology. My spirituality and faith was strong. Theology gave depth and scholarship to my faith. In the midst of my theology, John XXIII called the Second Vatican Council. I was fortunate to have progressive teachers like Fr. John L. McKenzie, S. J., Fr. LeSaint, S.J., Fr. Fortman, S.J., Fr. DeVault, S.J., and Fr. James Doyle, S. J. who helped me make the transition from pre-Vatican II to post-Vatican II days.
Since Scripture needs to
be read in the context of the time and setting of its composition as does all
of literature, Scripture should be interpreted
according to its literary form. This made sense, but many resisted change
because Scripture meant so much to them.
The Bible, the Book, is a misnomer. Since Scripture contains history, short-stories, poetry, essays, proverbs, and sermons, the Bible is not a book but a library. The Bible is written in different styles at different times. While Nietzsche cursed the Bible, Gandhi praised it. Scripture has been the blueprint for millions of Christians throughout history. The Bible is a magnetic mountain, a vantage-point that gives one of our most far-reaching and penetrating moral visions.
But the Bible is more than an ordinary library; it is the Word of God. Mere academic study is not enough. We truly hear God's word only in a free, personal act of faith. But unless we know the work of scholars, the Bible can become for us a mere subjective projection of what we want the Bible to mean. The Devil tried to quote Scripture to his own advantage even to Christ. Those justifying apartheid often based their rationalizations on Scripture! Some denying the basic right of Palestinians to self-determination base their self-deception on Scripture! Those who believe in Armageddon base their perverted theory on Scripture!
The best interpreter of Scripture is Scripture itself. We can't take one verse of scripture out of the total context of the bible or of Christian practice. "The poor you have always with you" is interpreted in ways which are contrary to the total context of Christian teaching. Jesus loved the poor and identified with the poor. He certainly doesn't want them to remain poor today in such a rich and abundant technological abundance. (See fuller explanation of this verse below.)
When I studied scripture
in theology, I found more unction and life than the abstractions of
philosophy. In scripture we see that God intervened and gave a totally
new dimension to history. History is meaningful and tending toward a
goal.
Dogma is exact and precise. Philosophy prepares for doctrine. We have a need to try to spell out in human terms the content and implications of the divine message which is the role of the different pronouncements of the Magisterium, the popes, the Ecumenical Councils, and the ordinary teaching of bishops and of the whole Church.
There are three persons
in one God. Three persons have the same identical nature. In my
theological studies I especially enjoyed the treatise on the Trinity and saw
the connection between what I had studied in philosophy and what I learned in
theology. Some of the reasons for the arduous study of philosophy became
clearer in theology.
The Trinity is the central mystery of the Christian faith. A mystery is ineffable, unable to be expressed adequately in words. We fumble and stumble and mumble when we talk about God. Yet, it is important that we try because it is better to know a little about God than a lot about anything else. God is our roots, our origin, where we came from. God is our sustainer, our life now. God is our future, our goal, our happiness. God is our past, our present, and our future.
All of us in our hearts yearn for unity and harmony with one another. We want the common good, the good of all. Yet we also want our own individual freedom. We want to retain our own individual identity. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have perfect unity--the same identical nature. Yet, each is a distinct individual person. The Trinity is a model of common harmony and individual freedom.
In our own lives there is
always a tension between the common good and individual rights and personal
dignity. I think the solution does not lie in denying either part of
the tension but in balancing both the common good and the individual in a
responsible way. Certainly if selfishness and greed mask themselves as
individual freedom, I don't think I'm acting responsibly. If the
individual is absorbed in the collectivity, I don't think that's responsible
either. If one observes this issue in the larger world
picture, one might conclude that in the
Sometimes I forget my problems and lose myself in praise and love and awe of the Holy Trinity. I rejoice in the beauty and power, happiness and security of the three divine persons. I give glory to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Through Sanctifying Grace, within me at the core of my being the Father generates the Son; the Father-Mother and the Son spirate the Holy Spirit.
Jesus was fully man and fully God; one person with two natures. Mary is the Mother of God because she is the mother of Jesus who is one person. Jesus is the high priest, uniting humankind to God.
I believe the
relationship between humankind and God is real. Sin breaks that
relationship. Jesus redeemed us from original sin, the only
Catholic dogma which I feel needs no proof. I live with original sin each
day. Original sin is our group estrangement from God. For
example, prolonged unemployment leads to discouraged workers who remove
themselves from the workforce. If workers cannot find a living wage for
many years, they drop out and are not counted in the statistics as
unemployed. (Daedalus, Journal of the
American Academy of Arts & Sciences, Winter 2002, Orlando Patterson,
"Beyond Compassion, Selfish Reasons for being Unselfish" p. 33)
"Chronic poverty and unemployment in the midst of plenty is directly
related to chronic drug use, criminality, the desolation of communities both
urban and, increasingly, rural, and growing violence in all aspects of
life. A semiliterate and alienated lower class wastes much of America's
potential manpower. . .What is true of the weather is equally true of
the moral climate we share: the rich winners and their children, can no
more escape cultural pollution than they can escape air pollution. .
. there is growing evidence that
The Redemptive act of Jesus, His life, death and resurrection, frees us to grow. The Redemptive act also did something for Jesus. His life, death and resurrection was the gateway for Jesus from life in the flesh to life to God.
God does not want us to
suffer. Suffering is rooted in finitude and freedom. God wants us to use our
freedom to reduce and eliminate suffering. God did not require the death of
Jesus as compensation for what we make of our history. God is
not a God of ransom and atonement, but a God of compassion and non-violence,
the God of Jesus. (See Fr. Edward Schillebeeckx,
O.P., Christ part four.) We are redeemed by the message and
mission of Jesus. Jesus fulfilled his mission and was crucified. We are
redeemed not just by the death of Jesus but despite it. Jesus had a message of
non-violence. Despite the message of non-violence that Jesus offered, he
suffered a violent death. I think the general outlines of this web-page,
developing and living a global ethic; promoting a culture of non-violence in
all its forms; ensuring basic human rights including economic and solidarity
rights; establishing economic democracy and a democratic world authority is
part of the message of Jesus today.
Jesus balances off the mystery of evil with a totally generous and loving life. Christ's life, death, and resurrection shows that life is stronger than death, and that goodness is stronger than evil. Christ changed the thrust of our self-centeredness and put His Heart at the center of things. Through redeeming us, Christ has put joy and hope at the center of things. Let's us join Jesus in putting joy and hope at the center of our world.
The sacraments mean more when one studies their history and theology. At the various stages of our lives the sacraments make present the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, His redemptive act. From my army days on, the Eucharist has been part and parcel of my everyday life. I feel I have been called to be a co-redeemer with Jesus.
Life in physical creation is beautiful, complex, and wondrous. The many kinds of grace or supernatural life are a unique treasure. I also affirm the dignity of free choice. I am glad I have freely joined the Society of Jesus, in which I can follow Jesus more closely, know Him more intimately, and love him more ardently.
Trinity-Family
The central Christian mystery is belief in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The concept of the individual person is realized most perfectly and most mysteriously in the Trinity. "Each of the persons is not 'in itself', nor does it belong to itself, except inasmuch as it simultaneously is related to and gives itself completely to the other two. The being of each of the three Persons is a pure and complete extasis, a going out, a self-giving, a vital impulse toward the other two." ("Trinitarian Inspiration of the Ignatian Charism" Fr. Pedro Arrupe, S.J., No. 86)
"The family is the
foundation of society." (
At the end of four years of theology, I reviewed the latter plus my three years of philosophy. I had a comprehensive examination of all seven years. I saw that Thomistic philosophy and theology was consistent, logical, and sound. In 1960 I received the equivalent of another master's degree in theology, a licentiate to teach theology in a Pontifical Seminary.
Theology is a Greek word meaning the study of God. Faith is our relationship to God. It's very appropriate, therefore, to reflect further on God.
What is God Like?
God is our past, our origin, our creator. God is our present, our sustainer, the infinite and inexhaustible depth and ground of our being. God is our future, our pioneer, our trail-blazer, our goal, our destiny, our savior, the magnetic focus that draws all things to himself/herself.
To the inspired Hebrew
prophets like Isaiah and Ezekiel God is wholly other. He is wholly
other from the gods of the pagans. Psalm 113.4: Their idols are silver
and gold, the work of human hands. They have mouths and speak not; they
have eyes and see not. Like unto them shall be they that make them,
everyone that trusts in them. The house of
God was wholly other from the visible universe of which we are a part; no cosmic force, nor all of them together, can be identified with Yahweh. God stands above and beyond all things that are not God. Yahweh is not circumscribed by anything in nature or outside it. Yahweh is supremely free and independent. God is wholly other in the unmixed goodness which is God's own. (See Fr. John L. McKenzie, S.J., Two-edged Sword.)
The Trinity
The mystery of three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; one God; is the central focus of Christian Faith. "It is the mystery of God in himself. . It is the most fundamental and essential teaching in the "hierarchy of the truths of faith." (Catechism of the Catholic Church, p.62, 234)
The Father generates the Son; Father and Son together spirate the Holy Spirit. The Father's personhood consists in his giving of himself completely to the Son and with the Son spirating the Holy Spirit. The Son's personhood consists in receiving being from the Father and spirating the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit's personhood consists in receiving being from the Father and the Son. What the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit share is the same identical divine nature. The difference of their unique personhoods consists in their relationships. Fr. Pedro Arrupe, S.J. "Trinitarian Inspiration of the Ignatian Charism"(86): "Each of the persons is not 'in itself', nor does it belong to itself, except inasmuch as it simultaneously is related to and gives itself completely to the other two. The being of each of the three Persons is a pure and complete extasis, a going out, a self-giving, a vital impulse toward the other two. . .in each of the three Divine Persons the other two are present. . .the persons are three, and without being confused they compenetrate one another to the most intimate depths of themselves, since their person is 'ecstatis', with a total gift of self and a total and complete openness to the other two.
From that incomparable model the human person must take inspiration for his perfection and, analogically, for his fulfillment and consummation. . . a human personality should not close in on itself but perfect itself in its relationships and otherness. . .in the Divine Persons is found the ultimate model of women and men for others.
If we consider in a Trinitarian light all of man's selfishness: his exploitation, his violations of human rights, his injustice is the complete antithesis of self-giving. . are these not clearly the sin of atheism, inasmuch as they deny what God is in us and what we are for God?. . .Promoting justice means restoring in ourselves the model of the Trinitarian relationships. Freeing the oppressed means finding the sense of equality in which our condition as persons formed in the divine image places us. There is no true person without true donation. Whatever is opposed to donation--selfishness, exploitation, oppression--depersonalizes us in the Trinitarian sense of the word.
"I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through me. . .Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?. . .The word you hear is not mine: it comes from the Father who sent me. This much have I told you while I was still with you: the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name, will instruct you in everything, and remind you of all that I told you. . .When the Paraclete comes, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father--and whom I myself will send from the Father, he will beat witness on my behalf. (John 14, 15)
"Go and make disciples of all the nations. Baptize them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." (Matthew 28.19) "In Christ you too were chosen; when you heard the glad tidings of salvation, the word of truth, and believed in it, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit who had been promised. He is the pledge of our inheritance, the first payment against the full redemption of a people God has made his own, to praise His glory." (Ephesians 1.13, 14)
"Now in Christ Jesus you Gentiles who once were far off have been brought near through the blood of Christ. It is he who is our peace, and who makes the two of us one by breaking down the barrier of hostility that kept us apart. In his own flesh he abolished the law with its commands and precepts, to create in himself one new man from us who had been two and to make peace, reconciling both of us to God in one body through his cross, which put that enmity to death. He came and announced the good news of peace to you who were far off, and to those who were near; through Christ we both have access in one Spirit to the Father." (Ephesians 2.13-18)
Finding God in All Things
There is nothing in my faith, my relationship to God, which is against reason, but the virtue of Faith leads me to a closer and more intimate relationship with God. My parents believed. They were great people. I have so many fellow Jesuits, friends, relatives who are great people and have believed. My Catholic faith is the faith of millions. I have great respect for other faiths and for those of no faith, but I have my own faith and convictions. I find this an advantage to have something solid to build on. My faith and convictions are not an obstacle to being open to listen, to read, to experience intellectual and spiritual growth.
God is Mystery, beyond all language and imagery. Physical creation, reasons of the heart, my spiritual and daily experiences lead me to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God created a world in the state of becoming. God permits moral evil in the context of human freedom and with God's help we can derive good, even greater good, from the consequences of moral and physical evil.
All humans are somehow implicated in original sin and wounded, subject to ignorance, actual sin, suffering, and death. Jesus has redeemed us and radically cured us. Original sin is seen by some as a universal tendency to sin influenced by the sinful structures into which all are born.
The teachings of the Catholic Church are in continuity with the teachings that Jesus handed on to the original apostles. The Catholic Church grows in its understanding of the faith and in its ability to read the signs of the times. The Church teaches with varying degrees of certitude. At the core of the Faith is the Trinity, the Second Person becoming man, the redemption, the Church and the sacraments. The social teaching of the Church helps us to love our neighbor and respect the integrity of physical creation.
The Second Vatican Council modeled a collegial and consultative style of authority which signaled a new direction in the way church leaders can carry out their responsibilities of leadership.
The sacraments have been
instituted by the Church under the inspiration of Jesus Christ. The
sacraments make Christ present here and now.
Some church historians point out a historical precedence for the office of deaconess. (See The Catechism, Highlights and Commentary, Brennan Hill and William Madges.)
To process theologians, God is related to every being at one and the same time. We can save a place for God at our table because God can be at each table wholly and completely. God is reliable. But God has persuasive not coercive power. God encourages, persuades, and nudges us to do what we ought. God does not cause all the tragedies and suffering that people experience; rather, God gives people the strength and courage to survive them. God gives us the ingenuity and hope to draw good from evil.
We can approach God through nature. Fr. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J.: "Blessed be you, universal matter, immeasurable time, boundless ether, triple abyss of stars and atoms and generations: you who by overflowing and dissolving our narrow standards or measurement, reveal to us the dimensions of God . . . I acclaim you as the divine milieu." Hymn of the Universe.
We can approach God through love and friendship. "Our salvation is through love and in love. I understood how a man who has nothing left in this world still may know bliss, be it only for a brief moment, in the contemplation of his beloved. In a position of utter desolation, when man cannot express himself in positive action, when his only achievement may consist in enduring his sufferings in the right way--an honorable way--in such a position man can, through loving contemplation of the image he carries of his beloved, achieve fulfillment." Victor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning.
"It is the love of my lover, my brother, or my child that sees God in me, makes God credible to myself in me. And it is my love for my lover, my child, my brother, that enables me to show God to him or her in himself or herself. Love is the epiphany of God in our poverty." The Message of Thomas Merton.
"I
seek peace, let me BE peace. I seek justice, let me be just. I seek a world of
kindness, let me be kind. I seek a world of generosity,
let me be generous with all that I have. I seek a world of sharing,
let me share all that I have. I seek a world of giving,
let me be giving to all around me. I seek a world of love,
let me be loving beyond all reason, beyond all normal expectation, beyond all
societal frameworks that tell me how much love is "normal," beyond
all fear that giving too much love will leave me with too little. And let me be
open and sensitive to all the love that is already coming to me, the love of
people I know, the love that is part of the human condition, the accumulated
love of past generations that flows through and is embodied in the language,
music, recipes, technology, literature, religions, agriculture, and family
heritages that have been passed on to me and to us. Let me pass that love on to
the next generations in an even fuller and more explicit way.
Source of goodness and love in the universe, let me be alive to all the
goodness that surrounds me. And let that awareness of the goodness and love of
the universe be my shield and protector. Hear the
words of my mouth and may the meditations of my heart find acceptance before
You, Eternal Friend, who protects and frees me. Amen.
The Tikkun Community
We can approach God
through our weakness. In moments of weakness or situations of limitations, people
acknowledge an awareness of something more which empowers them. This
grace gives one the experience of being lifted up, reborn, saved.
"Suddenly I remembered coming home from a meeting in
We can approach God through tragedy. "A person sits at a dying friend's bedside and stares into the abyss of death--and discovers there a loving Power, a holy Presence, which evokes trust and hope. A family grapples with the pain of bereavement--and they sense consolation even in the darkness. Tragedy occurs in so many ways: separation, oppression, mental illness, terrorism, starvation and floods, threats of nuclear war. These events are overwhelming and yet at times, grace-filled. In La Plata Prison Adolfo Perez Esquivel, S.J., was forbidden all books, even a Bible. Faced with long days and nights of solitude he had time to appreciate what he calls "God's silence" the place where faith ripens. Here in prison, everything Adolfo had ever received in the way of Christian culture began to come back to him in an uninterrupted series of insights, at once familiar and fresh. A kind of spiritual nourishment took charge, and Adolfo found, for instance, that he could write out whole passages of the gospel by heart. The lethal experience of prison paradoxically became an experience of interior liberation-- a kind of spiritual striking root." Adolfo Perez Esquivel, Christ in a Poncho.
We can approach God through religion. The Christian sacraments celebrate the major moments of the life cycle and allow these moments to speak of something more, to point to Mystery present in all areas of life. Despite the negative aspects of religion--members of the church at all levels are sinners--many find in religion a privileged place for the encounter with God.
"By belonging to
a community, by feeling part of its history and ideals, people come to an
awareness of something more. We believe in history. The
world is not a roll of the dice on its way toward chaos. A new world has
begun to happen since Christ has risen... Jesus Christ, we rejoice in your
definitive triumph. We march behind you on the road to the future.
You are with us. You are our immortality." Rev. Luis Espinal, S.J., assassinated for his human rights work in
We can approach God through working for peace and justice. We recognize the fundamental human dignity of all persons--and the need for action to heal the afflicted and to change unjust structures of society. Those working for peace and justice sense God calling them and energizing their efforts. Christian Life Community is dedicated to the mission of Jesus, the mission of justice.
"I have learned more about the Gospels from handicapped people, those on the margins of our society, those who have been crushed and hurt, than I have from the wise and the prudent. Through their own growth and acceptance and surrender, wounded people have taught me that I must learn to accept my weakness and not pretend to be strong and capable. Handicapped people have shown me how handicapped I am, how handicapped we all are. They have reminded me that we are all weak and all called to death and that these are the realities of which we are most afraid. They have shown me how much I need Jesus the Healer. It is only when we accept these things that we can learn to open ourselves to the 'Spirit of love which Jesus promised us. Jesus came to give life and give it abundantly. He calls us from death to life, for He, the Lamb of God, took death on Himself and conquered it. He came to preach good news to the poor, liberty to the oppressed and freedom to captives (Luke 4.18) Some of us are captives of our own misery and loneliness, others of false values and possessions; all of us are captives of our fear. Jesus came to free us all by the gifts of His Spirit and calls us to a new life of the Beatitudes and of community." Jean Vanier, founder of L'Arche, Be Not Afraid.
We can approach God through conscience. Only God can justify our feeling that a particular ethical claim is absolute and unconditional. Jesus calls us to love of all, even our enemies. I also feel Jesus calls us to begin to form the structures described on this web-page.
We can approach God through reason. God is the first cause, the uncaused cause. In a contingent world, God is the necessary being.
Sometimes God finds us. We take a few tentative steps toward God, and God runs a hundred yards toward us!
Jesus, Mary, and the Poor
Jesus' commandment to love our neighbor begins at home with the needs of those closest to us. But our love can't end there. Jesus came to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives, new sight to the blind, and to set the downtrodden free. To Jesus each human person is important.
Jesus calls us to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, care for the sick and afflicted and to comfort the victims of injustice. We need to love the individual so much we are willing to re-examine any structure that may be oppressing her or him. If the structures we have today have been set up by fallible and sinful men, they can be changed by all of us discerning together. I think we need a revolution, a spiritual revolution, a peaceful revolution. But one that will do more than put a Band-Aid on a gaping wound. We need a radical change of the sinful social structures in our world today.
Mary made an option
for the poor.
As we approached the present millennium, Pope John Paul II reminded us that when
the time had fully
come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman. (Gal 4.4-6) The highest point in
history, Jesus becoming man, followed Mary’s initial act of faith at the Annunciation.
Mary was blessed because she believed and continued to believe day after day
despite the big trial of the journey to
At Cana Mary began to point out our needs large and small. As a mother Mary wanted
the messianic power of her Son to begin, to preach good news to the
poor. (Lk 4.18) Not even beneath the Cross did Mary’s
faith fail. Like Abraham Mary believed and hoped even against hope.
Daughter of Mary, the Church journeys through time to meet
Christ when He comes again. Mary, the Morning Star, has gone before us
in her pilgrimage of faith, linking us to the rising of the Sun of Justice. The
pilgrimage of faith indicates
the interior history, that is, the story of souls. (Mother of the Redeemer, On the
Blessed Virgin Mary in the Life of the Church, Introduction, 6, Pope John Paul II)
There are many ways in which we meet Mary today, the first is to believe. We
can meet Mary in the
Pope John Paul II concludes: The truth about God who saves cannot be
separated from God’s
love of preference for the poor and humble, that love which celebrated in the Magnificat, is later expressed in the words and works of Jesus. . .At the side of her Son Mary is the most perfect
image of freedom and of the liberation of humankind and the universe. "The
Catholic Church is thus aware--and at the present time this awareness is
particularly vivid--that there is a duty to safeguard carefully the
importance of the option for the poor which is intimately connected with the
Christian meaning of freedom and liberation. It is to Mary as
Mother and Model that the Church must look to understand in its completeness the
meaning of her own mission." (John Paul II, Mother of the
Redeemer, 78,79)
Was Mary active at the beginning of the new millennium when the nations of the world pledged to eradicate extreme poverty? Was Mary active when we raised the minimum wage? Is Mary at our side when we strive for a fair price for the small farmer and a fair wage for the farm worker? Is Mary at our side as we work for an immediate end to the war system, secrecy, domination by a few, economic and political dictatorship?
Corporations are not governed by one member, one vote constituencies but by
those who have the most money. Corporations have enormous staff and financial
resources. Instead of encouraging stockholder participation, corporations often
challenge stockholder resolutions; and the Security and Exchange Commission
frequently rules in their favor. Consumers have limited choices, often
inadequate information, and usually no way to communicate with other consumers
on a large scale.
If there are huge disparities in income and wealth between those at the top and
the rest of the population, the market produces more of the luxury goods and
services wanted by those at the top and fewer of the goods and services needed
by those in the middle. Although we live in an age of technological abundance,
there is a limit to our economic and physical resources. If we use our
resources mostly for luxuries for the wealthy, there will not be enough for
necessities. My dream is that the world's resources be shared fairly by all.
Are the few who own and control the factories, farms, and banks making the
important decisions which affect all of us? Enormous wealth affects even political
democracy. If the wealthy contribute to both political parties, they have easy
access to legislators. Since only the wealthy can hire expensive lawyers,
wealth also influences justice in the courts. The existence of enormous
wealth alongside great poverty is a lack of community, solidarity, and
democracy.
"Thanks to science
and technology, human society is able to solve problems such as feeding the
hungry, sheltering the homeless, or developing more just conditions of life,
but remains stubbornly unable to accomplish this. How can a booming
economy, the most prosperous and global ever, still leave over half of humanity
in poverty? The Thirty-second General Congregation of the Society of
Jesus makes its own sober analysis and moral assessment: 'We can no longer
pretend that the inequalities and injustices of our world must be borne as part
of the inevitable order of things. It is now quite apparent that they are
the result of what man himself, man in his selfishness, has done. . .
Despite the opportunities offered by an ever more serviceable technology, we
are simply not willing to pay the price of a more just and more humane
society.' Injustice is rooted in a spiritual problem, and its solution requires
a spiritual conversion of each one's heart and a cultural conversion of our
global society so that humankind, with all the powerful means at its disposal,
might exercise the will to change the sinful structures afflicting our
world." (Very Rev. Peter-Hans Kolvenbach,
spiritual leader of the Society of Jesus, "Commitment to Justice in Jesuit
Higher Education." Address in 2000 to the 28
I asked Fr. Simon Hendry,
S.J. to reconcile the above with what Jesus said to Judas, "The poor you
always have with you."
"'The poor you will always have with you' can be understood in the light
of Deuteronomy 15.11. 'there will always be poor in
the land. . .', encouraging generosity to the poor. Deuteronomy 15 is a
discussion of the debt laws, the seventh-year release from debt, and the idea
of sharing among the Hebrew people. Deuteronomy 15.11 refers back to
Deut. 15.4-5, 'There will, however, be no one in need among you, because the
Lord is sure to bless you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you as a
possession to occupy, if only you will obey the Lord your God by diligently
observing this entire commandment that I command you today.'
In Deuteronomy, the covenant requires sharing and respect for all. Persons and membership in the community are more important than possessions. The implication here is that if you keep the covenant, there will be no poor, because everyone will have a share in the prosperity of the land. However, if you do not act in a manner consistent with the covenant, there will be poor. Then since there are poor in the land, open your hands to give generously to them. The laws about debt and the forgiveness of debt were an attempt to interpret the covenant in a society moving from a subsistence agriculture to a more commercial economy, aware that in many of the mechanisms of a commercial economy, the principles of the covenant were being violated.
Jesus' comment is an ironic reference to Deuteronomy, quoting part of Deuteronomy 15:11. In John's gospel, Judas is a thief (Jn 12:6), someone who takes for himself what belongs to the community. It's as if Jesus were saying: 'Come off it, Judas, the problem of poverty is not because this woman is anointing me with expensive perfumed oil. Poverty exists because people are not paying attention to God and what a relationship with God requires. She is doing that. You always have the poor with you because you do not keep the whole covenant relationship and you are taking community property for yourself. If you were more like her, there would be no poor.'
Viewed that way, Kolvenbach and GC32 are in agreement with Jesus. We have the poor with us because we have not been paying attention to what a relationship with God requires. If we are serious about being believing Christians, then the results of technological and economic developments are to be shared. An economy would function as the means for producing and distributing to all the goods and services that the community needs, instead of serving primarily as a mechanism for generating private wealth. We have crafted an economy that violates the principles of the covenant. Deuteronomy's critique and Jesus' are still applicable.
Ultimately, the reason we 'will always have the poor with us' is not some inevitable law of nature or economics or some divine plan or decree. It is because we are not living the covenant (new or old) and are not sharing what we have. It is because we don't really believe in God or Jesus or we don't act in a way that is consistent with that belief." Fr. Simon Henry, S.J.
Could I add that we don't believe in the human person, created in the image and likeness of God. The Hebrews were asked not to make graven images of God because God is wholly other from creatures and cannot be represented by statues and paintings. (Ex. 20.4-6; Dt 5.8-10; Lv 26.1; Dt 4.15-23) The image of God is within us. We need to spend our whole lives creating that image in ourselves and helping others to do the same. We are one human family. There are not some created in God's image and others not. Upper income persons are not more worthy of God's love nor of ours. Indeed the church urges us to have a special love and option for the poor in order to give them equal opportunity to mirror God.
Isaiah 55.1: "All you who are thirsty, come to the water! You who have no money, come receive grain and eat; Come, without paying and without cost, drink wine and milk!"
Matthew 5.3: "Blest are the poor in spirit: the reign of God is theirs." Luke 6.20: "Blest are you poor; the reign of God is yours. Blest are you who hunger; you shall be filled." Matthew 25.34: "Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink." James 2.14 "My sisters and brothers, what good is it to profess faith without practicing it? Such faith has no power to save one, has it? If a brother or sister has nothing to wear and no food for the day, and you say to them, 'Good-bye and good luck! Keep warm and well fed,' but do not meet their bodily needs, what good is that? So it is with the faith that does nothing in practice. It is thoroughly lifeless." I John 4.20: "If anyone says, 'My love is fixed on God,' yet hates his brother, he is a liar. One who has no love for the brother he has seen cannot love the God he has not seen. The commandment we have from God is this: whoever loves God must also love his brother."
We are part of the Mystical Body of Christ. We enter the reign of God, become more intimate with Jesus by loving Father, Son, Holy Spirit, Mary, every person and every thing.
St. Gregory Nazianzen, On Love of the Poor, PG 35, 887-890: "You have been made a son of God, coheir with Christ. Where did you get all this, and from whom? What benefactor has enabled you to look out upon the beauty of the sky, the sun in its course, the circle of the moon, the countless number of stars, with the harmony and order that are theirs, like the music of a harp? . . .Is it not God who asks you now in your turn to show yourself generous? Because we have received from God so many wonderful gifts, will we not be ashamed to refuse God this one thing only, our generosity? Though He is God and Lord He is not afraid to be known as our Father. Shall we repudiate those who are our kith and kin? St. Peter says: Resolve to imitate God's justice, and no one will be poor."
If overcoming poverty seems too great a task, I recommend Dr. Helen Caldicott, The New Nuclear Danger, p. 185 ff "Under the banner Business Are Us, the Pentagon hosts a paper on their web site proclaiming that they are America's largest company, the next being Exxon with a budget of 165 billion dollars. With 5.1 million, the Pentagon is the nations' largest employer. It maintains 600 fixed facilities nationwide, with more than 40,000 properties and 18 million acres of land. It stations employees in 130 countries out of a total 178 of the world. Its global presence is ubiquitous.
Globally the annual
military expenditure stands conservatively at 780 billion dollars. The total amount
required to provide global health care, eliminate starvation and malnutrition,
provide clean water and shelter for all, remove land mines, eliminate nuclear
weapons, stop deforestation, prevent global warming, ozone depletion and acid
rain, retire the paralyzing debt of developing nations, prevent soil erosion, produce
safe, clean energy, stop overpopulation, and eliminate illiteracy is only one
third that amount--237.5 billion dollars."
Give All To The Poor
"Jesus looking hard
at him loved him, and said, 'One thing is lacking to
you: whatever things you have, sell, and give to the poor, and you will have
treasure in heaven, and come follow me.' But the young man was appalled at the
word, and went away grieving, for he had many possessions. . ." (Mark
10.17-31) The young man goes away mourning because his possessions
are great. Wealth paralyzes the young man and he cannot let the message of Jesus enter into him. Wealth is a hindrance to hearing the gospel.
(Matthew 13.22; Mark 4.18,19; Luke 8.14) Wealth
deceives. Wealth distracts from a following of Jesus. Wealth
becomes the primary object of attachment. “You
cannot serve God and mammon" (Matthew 6.24;
Luke 16.13) "Be on guard against every kind of greed." Lk. 12.15) "Money is a root of all evils." (I
Timothy 6.10)(See Sondra Ely Wheeler, Wealth as Peril and Obligation, the
New Testament on Possessions)
"Share with your neighbor whatever you have, and do not say of anything, this is mine. If you both share an imperishable treasure, how much more must you share what is perishable. . Never hesitate to give, and when you do give, never grumble; then you will know the one who will repay you." (Attributed to Barnabas, Liturgy of the Hours, Vol. IV, 71, 72)
Co-creators with God
In the summers from 1965 to 1970 I got another Master's degree at the Loyola University of Chicago Pastoral Institute. Here began a new and exciting vision of progressive theology. I saw that what I did in this life had eternal significance for the world to come. It was this life, these relationships that would be transformed and transfigured. I began to see the next life as the full-flowering of the way we live in this life. I felt called to develop my talents, my personality here and now, to be true to my inner self. I feel I am a unique person with a unique mission. When God created me, he decided against billions of other possibilities. There's a true character inside me that should be operating. I feel it's never too late to begin anew. I can't erase the past nor the scars it has left on my character. The past has also enriched me. But it's my attitude toward the future that makes me what I am and what I can become.
In Spe Salvi,
Saved by Hope No. 35 Pope Benedict XVI states: All serious
and upright human conduct is hope in action. This is so first of all in the
sense that we thereby strive to realize our lesser and greater hopes, to
complete this or that task which is important for our onward journey, or we
work towards a brighter and more humane world so as to open doors into the
future. Yet our daily efforts in pursuing our own lives and in working for the
world's future either tire us or turn into fanaticism, unless we are
enlightened by the radiance of the great hope that cannot be destroyed even by
small-scale failures or by a breakdown in matters of historic importance. If we
cannot hope for more than is effectively attainable at any given time, or more
than is promised by political or economic authorities, our lives will soon be
without hope. It is important to know that I can always continue to hope,
even if in my own life, or the historical period in which I am living, there
seems to be nothing left to hope for. Only the great certitude of hope that my
own life and history in general, despite all failures, are held firm by the
indestructible power of Love, and that this gives them their meaning and
importance, only this kind of hope can then give the courage to act and to
persevere. Certainly we cannot build the
Mature
Daughters and Sons
Some are need-centered. They need certain sense and emotional gratifications. They look on others to fulfill their needs. Unfortunately, they often use others as tools to manipulate and maneuver, to impose upon and take advantage of. I'm not saying I have been free from this. Others are growth-oriented. They have reached a stage of self-actualization and self-integration that they do not have as great a need to depend on others and use others as a crutch. They have learned to grow, to appreciate the arts, to find satisfaction in their work, in their family and friends, in their work in the parish and in the community. They enjoy the greatest of all happiness, to love and be loved, to understand and be understood, to trust and be trusted. Although I can't say that I have reached the fullness of self-actualization, I feel I have had a rich family life and a rich religious life. I have been loved and been able to love. I have always found satisfaction in my work.
But we will never be fully ourselves unless we reach out to God who transcends our own partialness. Some look on God as a Big Daddy up in the sky, an over-indulgent father who always gives them everything they want and who always yields to special pleading. I'm not saying I have abandoned the prayer of petition, but I feel much of our unhappiness is of our own making. I also believe God acts through us. I think God looks upon us as mature sons and daughters, partners in God's work of creation and redemption, real women and men who are willing to face life and its realities, willing to face themselves and their own deficiencies. I feel I am called to grow to be true to myself. What I am is God's gift to me. What I become is my gift to God.
At the Loyola Pastoral Institute I had further readings in existentialism and was introduced to process theology. I was fascinated by the lectures of Fr. Alfonso M. Nebreda, S.J., Director of the East Asian Pastoral Institute. Fr. Nebreda stressed pre-evangelization, not trying to preach the gospel to those who are not ready for it.
I learned to distinguish clock time, what Aristotle called the measure of motion, according to before and after, and temporality, or my grasp of time, my assimilation of my own experiences. All of us have clock time in common. Each of us has a different temporality. There is also liturgical time, how God is present in the various liturgical seasons. We cannot live all of life at once. Our lives have to be an integration of past, present, and future.
I also became aware of God's presence in signs, the witness of the saints, physical nature, the sacraments, the events of our lives. Fr. Jose M. Calle, S.J. presented a theology and a philosophy of signs. Only persons can make a material thing into a sign. Words are signs. But sometimes words are not needed. And sometimes words are too explicit. I became friends with women students during the Loyola Pastoral Institute, and I felt they helped me to understand the importance of the use of implicit signs.
Fr. Calle
saw the following six fundamental tensions at the base of human
existence:
1. A yearning to
live is in tension with the anxiety towards one's own contingency.
2. A sense of responsibility is in tension
with the temptation towards escapism.
3. A yearning for freedom exists in
tension with the awareness of partial slaveries.
4. A need for union and communion of life
with others is in tension with the constant danger of egocentrism.
5. A need for a loving and protective
presence is in tension with the very human pain of loneliness.
6. A need for a collective solidarity is
in tension with the common attraction to exclusive ghettos.
God speaks to us in signs, the witness of others, the sacraments, scripture, physical creation. The tensions in our lives can also be a sign, a call from God to resolve that tension in a responsible way. An awareness of these basic tensions confirmed in me the need for on-going Ignatian discernment. God can be a rock of security for us in the midst of our insecurity. I certainly have felt this in the periods of insecurity I have experienced. God can redeem and free us. This freedom has come to me in unexpected ways. I am thankful for the graces I have received. God's Covenant calls us to live in community. However imperfect, Jesuit religious life has been a blessing and solace to me.
Spiritual Discernment
If you look at the sub-section on this web-site "Spiritual Discernment," you'll see that discernment is an integral part of Ignatian spirituality. Though an important separate step, discernment is a helpmate to theological reflection and vice versa. Thus these two sub-sections need to be read together. What follows below is part of both theological reflection and spiritual discernment.
Christians and Muslims Invited to Work for World Peace
In
his first encyclical God is Love, Pope Benedict XVI reminds us
that Mary, the mother of Jesus, “is a woman who loves.” Mary brought the
love of God to her cousin Elizabeth and to John
the Baptist in Elizabeth’s womb. Mary
recognizes the need of the spouses at
Recently Muslim scholars of the world wrote an open letter to Pope Benedict XVI and other Catholic leaders emphasizing how central love of God and love of our neighbor is to each of our faiths. The scholars invited Catholic and Muslims who together are more than half the world’s population to work together for peace. (See www.acommonword.com) Christian scholars responded with Loving God and Neighbor Together (www.yale.edu/faith) When anyone or anything besides God commands our ultimate allegiance a ruler, a nation, economic progress, or anything else we end up serving idols and inevitably get mired in deep and deadly conflicts.
In my own prayer I make acts of love to the Father, The Son, and the Holy Spirit and am conscious of their love of me. I make acts of love to Mary who can bring all of us together despite our different faiths, cultures, and philosophies. I also make acts of love to my fellow religious, my family and friends in this life and the next, those who oppose or disagree with me. Such acts of love take the edge off any differences I experience.
Holy Saturday
The Catholic liturgy for Holy Saturday night traces how God has acted in history: the creation story, the gradually evolving Covenant with Abraham, Moses, David. Reading V is from the prophet Isaiah 55.1-11: “Thus says the Lord: All you who are thirsty, come to the water! You who have no money, come, receive grain and eat; come, without paying and without cost, drink wine and milk! Why spend your money for what is not bread, your wages for what fails to satisfy? Heed me, and you shall eat well, you shall delight in rich fare. Come to me heedfully, listen, that you may have life. I will renew with you the everlasting covenant, the benefits assured to David. As I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander of nations, so shall you summon a nation you knew not, and nations that knew you not shall run to you, because of the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, who has glorified you. Seek the Lord while he may be found, call him while he is near. Let the scoundrel forsake his way, and the wicked man his thoughts; let him turn to the Lord for mercy; to our God who is generous in forgiving. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are my ways above your ways and my thoughts above your thoughts. For just as from the heavens the rain and snow come down and do not return there till they have watered the earth, making it fertile and fruitful, giving seed to the one who sows and bread to the one who eats, so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; my word shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it.”
God’s grace is a gift, we don’t have to pay for it. Our parents give us life and raise us freely. We should be ready to give ourselves to one another in service and solidarity. God is near, often in our neighbor.
Since our thoughts are not always God’s thoughts, we need spiritual discernment to separate God’s thoughts from our rationalizations and self-deceptions.
Ezekiel 36.25-28 “I
will sprinkle clean water upon you to cleanse you from all your impurities, and from all your
idols I will cleanse you. I will give you a new heart and place a new
spirit within you, taking from your bodies your stony hearts and giving you
natural hearts. I will put my spirit within you and make you live by
my statutes, careful to observe my decrees. You shall live in the land I
gave your fathers; you shall be my people, and I will be your God.”
The latter was the formula for marriage, e.g. “I,
Isaac, shall be your husband. You Rebecca, shall be my wife.”
Light and Dark Graced Story
The Deists thought the world was created by God, the Grand Architect, with natural physical and natural moral laws. Once created, the world was left on its own to evolve according to those natural laws. Creating the world was like winding up a clock, setting it on a shelf to unwind by itself. In contrast, the Hebrews and Christians believed that God acted in history. God intervened in three main ways.
First, God revealed Himself\Herself to the Hebrew people as one friend reveals herself/himself to another, slowly, gradually, but intimately. Psalm 146 says Yahweh "keeps faith forever, secures justice for the oppressed, gives food to the hungry." We know God through prayer and meditation on Scripture. But there is no facile way to know God. We should not presume we have God in the box of our abstract definitions. "God's ways are not our ways." We learn more about God by doing justice. (Cf. Jeremiah 22, 13-16)
Secondly, God intervenes
in history by revealing principles and values to live by. In the
twenty-fifth chapter of Leviticus we find that the jubilee year is part of the
first covenant. Land and wealth are to be redistributed. In the
fifteenth Chapter slaves are to be released. Debts are forgiven.
The third main way God intervenes is by entering history, being with us and for us, helping us on our journey. In the book of Exodus the notion of covenant expands as Moses is commissioned to lead God's people to freedom and the promised land. God is the liberator of the oppressed. The Hebrews were poor and powerless and the Lord freed them, leading them as a column of cloud by day and a pillar of fire at night. As Yahweh didn't stay neutral in the conflict between the Hebrews and the Egyptians, so God is not neutral today in the struggle for freedom and human rights, including human rights in Israel-Palestine. ("Scholars today say the “Promised Land” was not so much a land conquered by outsiders as a land united by people already there. There is no evidence to indicate that the Hebrews were immigrants or invaders rather than simply, or at least primarily, descendants of the area’s natives, whom the Bible calls Canaanites. On the contrary there is positive evidence indicating that the Hebrews are simply or at least primarily descendants of these Canaanites, rather than a blend of Canaanites and incoming Hebrews." John W. Mulhall, CSP, America and the Founding of Israel, An Investigation of the Morality of America’s Role.)
We are invited today to interact with God, receiving Revelation in Faith and responding by being co-creators with God, preparing the earth for its final transformation and transfiguration at the end time. We are co-creators when we use our talents and our person to make this a better world in some small way or in some more significant way. I first felt the call to be a co-creator in the 1960's, and the mission still energizes me today. Before that I was concerned mainly with the rules of my religious life, with study and prayer. Since my participation in the Loyola University Pastoral Institute, I feel that my pioneering efforts have made a difference; and I find satisfaction in my work.
Graced history is more
theology than history. Faith history deals with discerning God's action in
history. We can discern God's action in the larger picture of the
world, in our own lives, and in the lives of those around us. Our
faith response is best done in a small faith community or with a spiritual
director or companion. If we're alone when we try to discern God's will,
we can too easily distort gospel values and make
serious mistakes. Some of those who favored apartheid in
Graced story can be divided into the light and dark aspects. The light graced story recalls God's love for us and how we have taken that love to others. We need to savor the light graced story because we tend to pass lightly over the light graced story and move quickly to the dark graced story. We have been loved, and we have loved others. Others have understood us, and we have understood others. We have known genuine friendship.
"I
seek peace, let me BE peace. I seek justice, let me be just. I seek a world of
kindness, let me be kind. I seek a world of generosity,
let me be generous with all that I have. I seek a world of sharing,
let me share all that I have. I seek a world of giving,
let me be giving to all around me. I seek a world of love,
let me be loving beyond all reason, beyond all normal expectation, beyond all
societal frameworks that tell me how much love is "normal," beyond
all fear that giving too much love will leave me with too little. And let me
be open and sensitive to all the love that is already coming to me, the love of
people I know, the love that is part of the human condition, the accumulated
love of past generations that flows through and is embodied in the language,
music, recipes, technology, literature, religions, agriculture, and family
heritages that have been passed on to me and to us. Let me pass that love on to
the next generations in an even fuller and more explicit way.
Source of goodness and love in the universe, let me be alive to all the
goodness that surrounds me. And let that awareness of the goodness and love of
the universe be my shield and protector. Hear the
words of my mouth and may the meditations of my heart find acceptance before
You, Eternal Friend, who protects and frees me. Amen. "
The Tikkun Community
One witness to the closeness of God, someone who knew of loneliness and dark
nights, the Jesuit priest Fr. Alfred Delp. Delp was arrested and sentenced to death during the Third
Reich in
In the First Covenant one generation remembered its past at the Passover and interpreted the past to the next generation. "And when your children ask you, 'What does this ritual mean?' you will tell them, 'It is the sacrifice of the Passover.'" (Exodus 12.26) In the Second Covenant Jesus asked this remembrance or anamnesis in the Eucharist, "Do this in memory of me." (Luke 22.19) Since the light graced story gives us courage and confidence, I recommend praying over our light graced story first. This puts our dark graced story in perspective.
We do experience evil. We have inflicted evil on others. Can this evil story be graced? I think it can. God can be present in the dark graced story revealing that it is evil, calling us to move from evil to good, helping us to move from dark to light.
We are not simply passive spectators in this story. We make history ourselves by making decisions. St. Ignatius Loyola had a method of making a decision in the Spirit. Put simply, we make good decisions at a time when we are in spiritual consolation. We make bad decisions when in a period of spiritual desolation. In a time of spiritual consolation we are moving toward God. In a period of spiritual desolation we are moving toward selfishness and neglect of our neighbor and the earth.
Our decisions need to be in continuity with our past. If we have assimilated our past, we are more genuinely present and can make better decisions about the future. Although we find God in our bodies and in our emotions, spiritual consolation and desolation are not always the same as psychological consolation and desolation. If our mourning is moving us to alleviate the suffering of others and bringing us closer to God and our neighbor, we can be sad, mourning for those who are suffering, and still be in spiritual consolation.
By reading and reflecting on Scripture and history, we can discern after a time the main ways in which God has acted in our world. When we read history, perhaps it is better if we look at the point of view of the poor and the powerless as well as that of the rich and the powerful.
By reflecting on our own lives we can see how God has been present to us as individuals and as groups in similar ways. Has God helped us to draw good out of evil? Have we achieved much more than anticipated? Are we really doing all of this ourselves?
At the last supper Jesus
tells the Apostles He will send the Holy Spirit who will instruct them and
remind them of everything. (John 14.26) The Holy Spirit can help us
to remember in God and help us to determine our forward direction. Life
may be understood backwards into the past, but it is lived forward into the
future.
I feel I need my faith to calm my fears, to energize me for the work ahead, to help me to be honest with myself. St. Ignatius wanted the Society of Jesus to think with the church but also to challenge the church. In the 1530's the Society of Jesus was an innovative idea. St. Ignatius struggled to get approval of his spirituality. In the end, Ignatian spirituality was accepted with enthusiasm.
I personally like big thoughts and enjoy the sweep of Scripture and history. If that's not your thing, you can find value in your own story and in the stories of those about you. Certainly Scripture is a privileged place to find God's ways, and I will attempt to show briefly some main ways in which God has acted in scriptural times.
God's Action in Scripture
In both the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures, God's relationship with His people is described as a covenant. A covenant is different from a commercial contract. Since a covenant deals more with personal relationships than with things, marriage is better described as a covenant rather than a contract. Athletes enter into a contract which deals with an exchange of services. Those who buy a home or a car enter into a contract for the payment of a specific amount of money over a particular period of time. A covenant relationship grows rather than stays static. In a covenant there is more sharing than winning or losing. Even in our giving we receive. A covenant relationship includes God as the most important person in the covenant.
God's Action in the Hebrew Covenant
In the first book of the Bible, Genesis tells us that God created the world because Yahweh wanted to share with us. Since we have been created in the image of God, we can love and be loved. We can understand and be understood. We have intelligence and free will. Since God can recognize each one of us as a daughter or son, each one of us has dignity, value and worth in God's eyes. I don't think a human person has to justify her/his usefulness or productivity. Each one of us is important because we are persons. At the same time each person is called to help unfold God's act of creation, to be a co-creator. We are called to use our intelligence and ingenuity to make this a better world for those journeying with us and for those who will come after us. Since every living thing was a part of God's covenant with Abraham, each person is called to be a steward of God's creation. The unity and harmony of the community extends to all of creation.
Justice is fidelity to the demands of relationship. If persons neglect their family or are unfair to their neighbor, worship of God is not true worship. "If you would offer me holocausts, then let justice surge like water, and goodness like an unfailing stream." (Amos 5.21)
God takes humankind's freedom seriously. The human race neglects the covenant mediated by Moses and sins. By sin we separate ourselves from God, from one another, and from physical creation. When we sin, we need to acknowledge our sin, repent, and move forward. God forgives and saves from the flood, from the Egyptians, from sin. Liberation theology points out that this salvation is not simply spiritual but includes freedom from physical oppression.
Some judge
Chapter 25 of Leviticus describes the Jubilee year during which wealth and property were redistributed. The Jubilee year may not have been observed perfectly, but the ideal was there.
God gave Joseph the grace to forgive his brothers who had plotted to kill him and who sold Joseph into slavery. Joseph was not vindictive. Later Joseph fed his brothers in time of famine. (Genesis, Chapter 45)
Fidelity to the covenant brings land and security. (Deuteronomy Chapter 5) The Lord frees the Hebrews when the Egyptians maltreat and oppress the Hebrews, imposing hard labor on them. (Deuteronomy 26.6-9)
The notion of the covenant is a concrete picture rather than an abstract definition. The idea of the covenant expands to include the reign of David and Solomon. We see the covenant as a kingdom. The relationship of God is to Yahweh's people as a nation not to isolated individuals, separate from one another. (Second Book of Samuel, Chapter 7) Solomon does not ask for riches but to discern right from wrong. Although Solomon does get material goods, his priority is to be able to judge morally. God is pleased with Solomon’s prayer. (Third Book of Kings, Chapter 3)
Tobit feeds the hungry and clothes the naked. God hears the cry of the poor not necessarily directly but through Tobit.
The psalms are sacred hymns, a summary of Hebrew belief, the result of God’s revelation. Since the earth is the Lord's, we become stewards of God's earth. God resists and puts down the proud. Although the arrogant shut themselves off from God and their neighbor, the meek shall possess the land. Because God's anointed cherishes the poor as an object of special love, the anointed of God saves the poor and the oppressed. God loves us and frees us. (Psalms 24, 37, 72, 82, 113, 73, 135)
God interacts with Job and teaches that wealth is not a reward to the honest and the hard-working nor poverty a punishment to the sinful and lazy. Job is not a patient man but a rebellious believer. Job's acceptance of God's will cannot be described as resignation. Job's full encounter with God comes by way of complaint, bewilderment, and confrontation. Those who suffer unjustly have a right to complain and protest. Although Job complains that the wicked prosper, his complaints do not outweigh his hope and trust.
He who does not feed the hungry is a murderer. "The bread of the needy is life itself for the needy; he who withholds it is a man of blood. He slays his neighbor who deprives him of his living; he sheds blood who denies the laborer his wages." (Sirach, Ecclesiasticus, 34.21-22) Job on the contrary is mindful of the poor. (Job 31.16 ff) Job is willing to acknowledge he is a sinner, but he finds no sin that deserves the suffering he is undergoing. God answer’s Job’s complaint. No human work however valuable merits grace. God's love is not handcuffed by our merited deeds. We cannot manage God's action. "Then Job answered the Lord and said: I know you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be hindered. I have dealt with great things that I do not understand; things too wonderful for me, which I cannot know. I had heard of you by word of mouth, but now my eye has seen you. Therefore I disown what I have said, and repent in dust and ashes." (Job 42.1-6. For a fuller treatment of the above I recommend Fr. Gustavo Gutierrez, the Father of liberation theology, Job, God-talk and the Suffering of the Innocent)
Peace is a special characteristic of the Hebrew Covenant, a gift from God and the fruit of God's saving activity. We don't make peace simply by human calculation and human efforts. We need to pray for God’s grace. Nor can we separate peace from justice. Ezekiel from the Hebrew covenant condemned the false prophets who said there was peace while injustice continues. "They led my people astray, saying, 'Peace!' when there was no peace, and that, as one built a wall, they would cover it with whitewash. When the wall has fallen, will you not be asked: Where is the whitewash you spread on?" (Ezekiel 13.16) Isaiah also makes clear the connection between justice, fidelity to God's law and peace. "There is no peace for the wicked, says the Lord." (Isaiah 48.18-22)
From the first covenant Jeremiah (37) and Isaiah (7) both condemned the leaders when, against true security, they depended upon military strength or alliances rather than trusting in God and God's plan. Psalms thirty-three and thirty-seven have the same theme. "The war horse is a vain hope for victory."
True worship must be an expression of justice. "Take away the noise of your songs." If you are unjust, do not raise your arms in prayer. Your hands are full of blood. (Isaiah 1.11-19) When you fast, loose the bonds of injustice. If you fast but practice injustice, your fast is not a true fast. (Isaiah 58.6,7)
I have only given a glimpse of what I see as God's action in the Hebrew Covenant, but my glimpse can lead you to examine the first covenant on your own.
God's Action in the Christian Covenant
The Hebrew Covenant was a gradually unfolding reality. In it was love, solidarity, forgiveness, family, and community. God revealed herself/himself as faithful, loving, and just. Schooled in the first covenant, Mary was greeted by an angel of God and asked to say yes to a proposal she could not fully understand. Mary trusted God and said yes.
Mary's concern for others
prompted her to set out immediately to help her cousin Elizabeth whose unborn
developing baby was John the Baptist. John leaped in
Much of our culture today is obsessed with upward mobility. But the Incarnation of the Word becoming flesh is the paradox of downward mobility. Jesus becomes weak and vulnerable. In the gospel of Luke we see that Jesus was not born of a wealthy, powerful family. Although Joseph and Mary were of the house and family of David, Joseph is a craftsman.
Sharing was a value in the Christian covenant. When the crowds asked John the Baptist what they ought to do, John replied: "Let the person with two coats give to him who has none. Those who have food should do the same." (Luke 3.10)
Although sharing material goods are important, faith and the spirit are primary. "Not on bread alone does one live. God alone shall you adore." (Luke 4.4-8) Jesus is to continue the Jubilee Year of the Hebrew Covenant. "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me; therefore he has anointed me. He has sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives, recovery of sight to the blind and release to prisoners, to announce a year of favor from the Lord." (Luke 4.18, 19) In the spirit of the Jubilee Year the Christian Our Father repeats the notion of forgiving debts.
In Luke we read the usual "Blest are you poor." We also find: "But woe to you rich, for your consolation is now. Woe to you who are full; you shall go hungry. Woe to you who laugh now: you shall weep in your grief. Woe to you when all speak well of you. Their fathers treated the false prophets in just this way." (Luke 6.20-26) Those who have claimed that wealth is a sign of favor by God must have read only selected passages of the Old Testament.
When asked how to pray, Jesus responds with the Our Father. "The year-long celebration of the Jubilee was to begin on the Day of Atonement, which signified salvation through the forgiveness of sins. However, Jesus used words in the Our Father that did not limit forgiveness to sins only. He extended the meaning to include the cancellation of monetary debts as well. . . the word opheilema of the Greek signifies precisely a monetary debt." (Fr. Michael H. Crosby, OFM Capuchin, Thy Will Be Done, Praying the Our Father as Subversive Activity p. 138)
The apostles asked Jesus to dismiss the crowd so they could find food. Jesus answers, "Why do you not give them something to eat yourselves?" (Luke 9.13) Why pass the responsibility to someone else? Jesus fed others through his followers.
When Jesus sent the apostles forth to preach the reign of God, he urged them to travel light. "Take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, no bread, nor money; and do not have two tunics." (Luke 9.3) Following a simple life-style is to follow Jesus.
A discussion arose among the apostles as to which of them was the greatest. Jesus replied: "The least one among you is the greatest." (Luke 9.46-48) The wealthy and the powerful were not among Jesus' inner circle. Jesus wanted his followers to be humble and open. Jesus advises us to "invite beggars and the crippled, the lame and the blind." to our events. We shouldn't be courting favor just with the wealthy who can repay us. Jesus expressed a preference for the poor, preaching to the poor, giving to the poor, inviting the poor to banquets, doing for the poor. (Matthew 11.5; 19.21; Mark 10.21; 12.42,43; Luke 14)
When the very rich young
man who had kept the commandments said he wanted more, Jesus told him to
sell all he had and give to the poor. "You will than have treasure
in heaven." As the rich man grew melancholy and withdrew, Jesus observed that it was with difficulty that a
rich man could enter the reign of God. "I repeat what I said: it is
easier for a camel to pass through a needle's eye than for a rich man to enter
the
Jesus said life was found in the great commandment: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself." (Luke 10.27) Although some debate what the service of faith and promotion of justice is, I think it means basically love of God and love of our neighbor.
Jesus says, "Avoid greed in all its forms." (Luke 12.15) I have heard legislators argue that greed was a virtue that guided the invisible hand of the economy. But Jesus tells us not to grow rich for ourselves, but in the sight of God. If we put the pursuit of God's reign first, the rest will follow. God is our never-failing treasure. We shouldn't set our hearts on an abundance of consumer goods that use up the resources of the earth in a non-sustainable way.
Jesus wanted his followers to interpret the signs of the time. "When you see a cloud rising in the west, you say immediately that rain is coming--and so it does. When the wind blows from the south, you say it is going to be hot--and so it is. You hypocrites! If you can interpret the portents of earth and sky, why can you not interpret the present time?" (Luke 12. 54-56) I think we too need to engage in social analysis of present structures. Responding to individual needs can be an unendi