Bible Verses No. 2

2. Philippians 1:1-11

Philippians 1

¹Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus,
To all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers^a]">[a] and deacons:

²Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Thanksgiving and Prayer

³I thank my God every time I remember you. ⁴In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy ⁵because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, ⁶being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

⁷It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart; for whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God's grace with me. ⁸God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.

⁹And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, ¹⁰so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, ¹¹filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.

This is more of a sentimental than theological favorite of mine. It is a beautiful blessing given by Paul to his beloved brothers that epitomizes how the words of the Epistles spoke to the budding early Christian communities as well as the persistently-pilgrim Church of the future, which includes us.

Here's the story: When I went on Kairos XLIII (43) in November 2006 [wow, I'm old], I received in my envelope of joy a letter from good ol' Father Corey. He offered kind words of affirmation and encouragement, with a PS blessing simply to read this passage as a prayer from him to/for me. I went to my desk, got the Bible, and read it right then. I was delighted and took the words to heart as a very fitting prayer for me at that point in my life, especially in the height of Kairos, and for my continuing faith journey. The night ended with more tears of joy, wonderful letters, and peaceful storytime and sleep. The next morning, I woke up tired but feeling good. Downstairs in the common area, co-rector Kate Schwarz asked me to do a reading for morning prayer, and of course, I said I would (I love lectoring). When we got to the chapel and she handed me the sheet, I was shaken in a positive way to see that it was the very same passage Corey had given to me. It further emboldened my proclamation of the Word and solidified this reading's place in my heart.

I love the way this passage links the mystical Body of Christ together. We are the Universal Church, and we are always united as Christ's Body by this social tie as well as the conjugal union between all of us and Jesus in the Eucharist.

Paul's plight as a prisoner helps stress how nothing can sever these ties that bind Christians together in Christ. Through faith in Him and the love He inspires, we can remain united. Through our prayer and hope, we remain together even when physically we are apart.

So this passage serves as a widely helpful prayer for us when we are separated from those we love by distance, business, or even death, and it provides for us a way to use Paul's words as a blessing to those we cannot be with in person; just as Corey offered it to me, so I offer it to all of you:

I thank God whenever I remember you.
I long to be with you in the love of Christ.
I pray that you may grow in Him until you meet Him for all time.

A Few of My Favorite Things: Bible Verses No. 1

'Bout time to get back on here and write again. I am definitely not in a great place for eloquence being on break, relaxation, and increased TV watching, but here goes. The next few posts are gonna be offerings of some of my favorite bible verses and what speaks to me about them. So, number one...

1. Gamaliel, Acts 5: 38-39

A Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, who was honored by all the people, stood up in the Sanhedrin and ordered that the men be put outside for a little while. ³⁵Then he addressed them: "Men of Israel, consider carefully what you intend to do to these men. ³⁶Some time ago Theudas appeared, claiming to be somebody, and about four hundred men rallied to him. He was killed, all his followers were dispersed, and it all came to nothing. ³⁷After him, Judas the Galilean appeared in the days of the census and led a band of people in revolt. He too was killed, and all his followers were scattered. ³⁸Therefore, in the present case I advise you: Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. ³⁹But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God."

Gamaliel is a Pharisee, preaching mercy to the Christian missionaries in the early Church. He speaks from the authority of his role and as a man of the Law. But his words are not the doubt and hypocrisy so often heard by these men in the New Testament. Gamaliel speaks wisely and suggests open-mindedness in discerning the intentions of people. He defers to God, knowing that those in line with God, doing His will on earth, will endure with God's blessing and Providence.

There is so much good stuff going on here. I love the basic litmus test that this verse sets forth. Many people can claim divine rights, origins, and blessings, but only those who are genuine and honest will endure in their causes.

The difficulty in this principle is that it doesn't kick in instantaneously. Just as the righteous ones will endure over long periods of time, it will often take long periods of time for erroneous and misled groups to sputter out. It's a difficult reality because one might hope people claiming God's authority disingenuously would be eradicated quickly for their deceptions.

Perhaps these groups have something offer as well? Does Gamaliel's statement allow for limited success by those who carry at least some proportion of honesty and piety? God foreknows all that transpires, and aware of evil acts before they happen, He already knows what good He will make of those actions. Such misguided groups undertake their activity freely. Although their ends are not completely good and they may be destined for failure, God is able and acts to find or make good in/from all things. Is there maybe some relation between the endurance of certain institutions and their honest direction towards a God-befitting end?

Conversely, the Church has endured and grown since its establishment by Jesus on the rock of Peter. An institution of God and for God that has not been disintegrated because of its true divine origin. The Church continues to develop and assemble believers into the Body of Christ with Jesus as its head. Those who fight the Church fight against God; though the Church is comprised of fallible humans, it is guided by the Holy Spirit that orients the Body towards it proper end. The Church remains prominent and universal because its charism and origin are righteous and of God. So we who belong to it are not fighting against God but with Him, behind Him, and serving Him as our head and protector.

Quick Post

a simple exhortation I found while I was thumbing through City of God to write my paper on how he uses imagination (intentional, spiritual, mental reflection) to draw out clearer theology on pre-Fall and post-Resurrection life...

"Since no one is evil by nature, but anyone who is evil is evil because of a perversion of nature, the man who lives by God's standards has a duty of 'perfect hatred' towards those who are evil; that is to say, he should not hate the person because of the fault, nor should he love the fault because of the person. He should hate the fault, but love the man. And when the fault has been cured there will remain only what he ought to love, nothing that he should hate" (Book XIV, Chapter 6).

Kind of coarse language, but a wonderful exhortation to despise sin yet love the sinner. Once they repent and grow in love, the sin vanishes and only the person, completely deserving of love having been made by God in His image, remains.

Immaculate Conceptions

I enjoyed the setting of the 5:15 mass observing our holy day of obligation for the Immaculate Conception of Mary. The Glee Club's choice for the preparation song wonderfully conveyed the generosity and purity of Mary through their gift of music and was perfect for the occasion of the feast.

As I heard the Gospel reading of Mary's accepting the divine commissioning to conceive and bear the Son of God and drifted off away from the priest's homily, I could not help but look past our Great Altar to the shining statue of Mary elevated high above the Lady Chapel. In this case, the icon did just as it is meant to--not to bring to me to false worship of Mary as a God but rather properly remind me of a greater reality and bring me to prayerful reflection of it.

Mary was immaculately conceived to be without sin and without that inherent corruption that plagues all other humans so that she could purely bear Jesus Christ. How does that fit into our university? We are an institution and Catholic community founded in her name and under her protection. What, if any, relation can there be between our origins and hers? between her role and ours?

I am not going to conjecture that the start of our university was free of original sin or that our founders had completely pure intentions, for however noble their hopes and dreams they were still human and were not full of grace as Mary indeed was. However, in dedicating the university from its start to her name and protection, Fr. Sorin and company (though they founded ND in 1842, and the Immaculate Conception, though believed by some, only became dogma in 1854) likely were aiming to ground their venture in this idea-- that a Catholic university could strive and pray for abundance of grace so as to help peel away some of the usual temptations and weaknesses of humanity and society and orient the university of Our Lady to a righteous end.

The result is a robust, flourishing, vibrant university community founded and grounded in Catholic faith, values, and worship. Although none of us are God's chosen handmaid and none of us are so full of grace as to integrate or perfect our wills, a kind of Incarnation is present here. The Word was only made flesh once, in the Incarnation in Mary's blessed womb, but here at Notre Dame we perpetuate a community that seeks to summon the grace Mary received in order to allow Jesus to become present in us and our community and continue to change the world.

Jesus will not walk the quads and hang out in dorms in the same way he might have in His time walking on earth, but now we are Christ's body, his hands and feet. We assemble as the Body of Christ in the mass, in prayer, or even just where two or three are gathered in His name, and we find sustenance and renewal in taking His Body (and pending H1N1, His Blood) and being His Body until He comes again.

Christ has no body now but yours; no hands but yours-- here on this earth, yours is the work to serve the joy of compassion.

May we seek to have the grace of Our Mother to be together as the Body of Christ, receive His Body in Eucharist, and live as His hands and feet until He comes again.

My Prayerful Image of God

Over silent retreat, in my hardcore struggle to let go and let God, I doggedly pursued feeling God's love for me independent of my world and my life and my faults. Amid a weekend of silence, mental noise, and naps, I found a fruitful image of God through the help of Scripture and reflection.

"I was like those who lift infants (or in my case, a grown person) to their cheeks; I bent down to them and fed them" (Hosea 11:4).

I internalize this image by walking through a few short steps of meditation and centering:
1. I think of myself as looking upward, as if to my dad when I was younger, and wanting to be lifted up.
2. I am somehow affirmed by who I look to (God the Father), and he reaches down to me.
3. He reaches down and takes me under my arms, and I meditate on the feeling of being lifted up, trying to really feel the pressure of someone reaching into my armpits and lifting me.
4. I meditate on being lifted up and center myself on the idea of God holding me up, relieving me of pressure on my knees and legs and letting me rest.
***The high point and destination of this meditation is resting my head on God's shoulder, putting my hands and arms on/around Him, and considering the amazing position I am: with my face turned towards the Father, I am so near to the "ear" of Him, and His "mouth" is so near to my ear.

This is the way I bring myself to try to be more intentional and focused in the effort to talk to God and listen to Him.

Original, Explained, and For Beginners? (Comments encouraged)

I'm gonna try to keep this short because it is an interesting issue that I raise more for the purpose of fostering thought in people who read this rather than drawing out my personal opinions to a deep extent.

The teaching body of the Church is one of the luminous gifts we have as Catholics. The Holy Spirit leads the whole Church so that it may serve rightly as Christ's body on earth. The Church produces great quantities of documents with high quality of teaching and enrichment for our faith. However, I perceive a definite disconnect between the primary products of their faithful work and the reception of it by the faithful.

Encyclicals, the Catechism, conciliar documents, and all the rich library of articulated teaching is a source of explanation and support for our faith journey. It is an integral part of the faith along with interpersonal contact, the social community of the Church, the Scriptures, etc. I feel that the richness of these resources--the hard work of our Magisterium and the diligent reflection and prayer their work entails--could be utilized more fully, more often, and more effectively.

I would offer the example of the Theology of the Body as a way that the Church could attempt to make its teaching more accessible. John Paul II gave dozens of eloquent sermons developing a theology on sexuality that helped draw out how to love and live rightly and embrace one's sexuality as a gift from God. Those sermons are intellectual, dense, and complex. West studied them hard and produced a book to explain JP2's "sexual revolution". He composed a 500-page-or-so volume called "Theology of the Body Explained" to offer a simplified, somewhat condensed version of the teaching. West even continued, writing a 125-page-or-so version called "Theology of the Body for Beginners".

How is this a model for Church teaching? West left the primary source unblemished, and through his work, he probably increased the amount of people who were aware of JP2's talks, who referenced them, and who read them. In addition to the original words of the pope, West offered a more vernacular, synthesized version and also an introductory version. He did not change the teaching or analyze it (he does offer some examples and scenarios for illustrative purposes, but he does not skew the teaching). Rather, he provided different ways to access the teaching. The important element is that JP2's original teaching remains intact and is illuminated by the rehashing and brought to the eyes, ears, and hearts of more hungry believers.

What if the Church could adopt something like this? Even if not institutionally, it could begin locally. Perhaps it starts with a concerted effort to create intentional, focused reflection/discussion groups of lay or ordained people under the guidance of a Church official well-versed in the teaching to produce a more vernacular or accessible version of some Church document. Could this work as something the Church adopts with a mechanism for Magisterial oversight and some way to assure the Spirit's guidance, orthodoxy/accuracy, and maybe through that create versions of Church documents at different levels of accessibility and understanding that retain the authority of the original document?