TableTalk, Wednesday 28 B: BURDENS

In the Gospel of today’s Eucharist, Jesus says to Pharisees and the scholars of the Law, “You impose on people burdens hard to carry”  (Lk 11:46).

We might be tempted to turn the question on Christ himself.  And you, do you not impose on people burdens hard to carry?  In the first reading of this day from Galatians, we hear the list of those burdens.  “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. . . . If we live in the Spirit, let us also follow the Spirit” (5:22).

Live love, serving God and doing the best for the neighbor without conditions.

Live joy, celebrating with unshakeable confidence in all circumstances, good and bad.

Live peace, being in harmony with oneself and others.

Live patience, remaining calm in difficult and disturbing experiences.

Live kindness, showing sensibility and care toward others.

Live generosity, providing magnanimously for others’ needs.

Live faithfulness, dedicating self to God and to living by God’s Word.

Live gentleness, offending no one.

Live self-control, mastering the self.

Given the Christian spiritual burdens, Christ is not like the scholars of the Law who “do not lift one finger to touch them [the burdens]."  The finger Christ lifted to touch the burdens of discipleship was the act of his liberating death and resurrection.  Christians are free for the New Law by the power of Jesus’ Spirit, poured out into the world by his redemptive act.  In Christ, there is no obstacle to living the fruits of the Spirit.  Participating in his Paschal Mystery, the disciples “have crucified their flesh with its passions and desires” for a following of the Spirit.

With this, as with every celebration of the Eucharist, Christ lifts his finger again.   The community’s commemoration of his death and resurrection empowers it anew for living in the Spirit.   

TableTalk, Tuesday 28 Ordinary B: HEDGING BETS

The first reading of today’s liturgy, from Galatians, lingers on the difficult and controversial question of the early Church:  Christians to keep or not to keep the Mosaic Law.

A good number of converts from Judaism were promoting this practice.  Paul countered it, explaining that either Christ alone saves or he does not.   The only law to be practiced is “faith working through love.”

Why the tendency to want the Mosaic observance?  Perhaps full conversion to Christ was too overwhelming for sincere Jews who had given their religious lives—like Paul—to keeping the Law.  It is hard to break old and trustworthy habits.  Perhaps, too, under the pressure of persecution, Jewish converts to Christianity were tempted to think that they made a mistake.  How could Christ mean such misfortune for them?

The insistence on the Law on the part of these new, nervous converts tempted them to “hedge their bets on Christ,” providing a kind of religious insurance “on the side”—the Mosaic Law—to assure the salvation they were hoping for.   While this might have been understandable in the circumstances, it was a “separation from Christ,” according to Paul, and a falling from grace.

Are we really any different from those struggling Christians at the beginning?  We profess Christ but all of us have been tempted at times to “hedge our bets” on him.  We are looking for the fullness of life and fear we shall not have it.  So, we may keep a little “on the side” to assure ourselves.  For some of us, it might be investment or prestige or legacy.  For others, it might be longevity or accomplishment or even some dabbling in other religious faiths.  But we are confronted with the same article of faith as those early disciples:  either Christ alone saves or he does not.  Otherwise, what is the meaning of “Seek first the Kingdom of God and all things will be given you beside”?

Each time we are at the Eucharistic Table, we proclaim God’s salvation in Christ through his death and resurrection.  In communion with Christ, we dedicate ourselves to following this path sacrificially together.  Eucharist is always a purification of the tendency to “hedge our bets”  and avoid falling from New Testament grace.

TableTalk, Wednesday 27 B: BEING IN LINE

The first reading of today’s Mass gives a clear picture of Paul’s relationship with the first Pope and Curia.  What can the Church today learn from it?

First of all, we can see clearly that God gives strong gifts to members of the Church who are not part of the hierarchy.  Paul received the Gospel from Christ himself, independently of the then current teaching authority of the Church.  This tells us that God is ultimately in charge of the Christian project to redeem the world and is the ultimate strategist for the Kingdom.

Second, independent or not, Paul is given a revelation to go to Peter and others of the Twelve to verify that he is teaching the same Gospel as they.  The then hierarchy agreed with Paul’s proclamation and his right to proclaim.  It seems obvious from this that God wishes one message spoken, a unity of faith in the Church, that goes beyond personality and personal charism.  Each gifted member, then, has the duty to ensure this by realizing communion with the leadership.

Within the context of the mutual handshake, Paul confronts the first Pope with his error.  Peter was living one way as a Christian (not observing the Law of Moses himself) and yet talking another way to Gentile converts (requiring them to observe the Law).  The hypocrisy was born of Peter’s fear of the faction in the community that insisted on observance of Mosaic Law as part of Christian practice.  Paul saw that Peter and his colleagues “were not on the right road in line with the truth of the Gospel” and he dared to speak up.  He boldly unmasked Peter and corrected his point of view with Gospel arguments.  It is Paul’s position, not Peter’s, that was subsequently embraced in Christian history.  All of this tells us that dissent is legitimate, sometimes necessary, in the Church as long as it speaks the Gospel truth.  And that is the great challenge of any dissenter.

The Church today, to be true to its call, should take care not to deny this Paul and Peter story in any of its aspects. 

TableTalk, Tuesday 27 Ordinary B: SURPRISE

Paul says today, “So they glorified God because of me.”   That was quite a change in the prayer life of the early Church, which, I am sure, had been on its knees begging God for deliverance from this murderous religious zealot who pursued them even into their homes.  Paul’s conversion caught everyone by total surprise and was the occasion for the Church to rejoice again in God’s deep love for those who follow Jesus.  No one expected this.

That kind of surprise always happens with the experience of the Cross.  The very cause of suffering becomes the vehicle of blessing.  We are surprised because human eyes alone cannot see this in the pain of the moment.  The suffering in body, mind or spirit hounds us.  We cry to heaven for escape.  We do not know that the Cross is leading to a blessing for our lives that could not have been ours otherwise.  God is bigger than the evil we suffer.

Coming to this mentality is a task for our whole Christian life.  As Martha in the Gospel reading today, we are busy about many things, many good things.  We are even energized by all the services we render—until we are hit by the Cross.  That is something we feel should not be happening to us.  It does not fit with what we thought our life was about, with what we thought God was about.  Our suffering even intensifies because of that.

How to get the whole picture?  The Gospel speaks the answer clearly today.  We must have “Mary time” with some regularity, quietly sitting at the feet of the Lord, face up into the Sun, allowing the truth of Christian life to stream into us.  We need “Mary time,” if even a couple of minutes each day, to have our thoughts reshaped, our expectations refined, our spirits prepared.  To not choose this “better part” is to leave ourselves victim to suffering, condemned to a thousand useless deaths.  The “better part” helps us see through to the depths of the “bad” experience, to the hidden resurrection emerging from the tomb.  That is absolutely surprising to any of us.  And it changes our prayer--eventually--from desperate plea to thankful praise.

TableTalk, Sunday, 27 Ordinary, B: MARRIAGE

The Word opens with the contemporary and controversial question:  who is the "suitable partner" for Adam?  Genesis boldly responds:  there is none, except woman.  In the Gospel of the day, Jesus states the bottom line about their union:  once united, always united.

What to recommend for staying married?  First, that each of the two spouses should know self, one's personal needs, goals, potential, limits.  The self is the gift given to the other.  What kind of gift is the unknown?

Second, each spouse must know the other through communication.  The dialogue of all dialogues is the mutual posing and answering of questions like:  how are you today?  what do you need today?  how can I love you today?  how can I be more married to you today?  how am I doing as a parent with you today?  All other dialogues eventually falter without attention to this kind of verbal and non-verbal talk. And marriage soon becomes a pair of individualists living side by side without ever touching.

Third, spouses must share and hold to a good and solid vision of marriage.  In Christian tradition, this involves seeing marriage always as a triangle between the one, the other and God.  It means living into one flesh, rather than negotiating the terms of contract. Good and solid vision accepts the marriage union as indissoluble, fundamentally unbreakable, and proposes fidelity without fudging in any way.  The vision embraces the principle that marriage is open to procreation.  (In Catholic perspective, a decision before marriage to the contrary by either spouse invalidates it.)  Finally, good and solid vision sees the couple as always on Christian mission.  Marriage is not simply a question of establishing a relationship and closing the doors of a home behind it.  Rather, it is a public parable of love, having the intention of influencing the world around it.  The consequences of not sharing and holding to a good and solid vision are serious.  Without the vision, married life can quickly lose its sense.  Lacking the vision can open the door to difficulties and deviations that are eventually destructive not only to couple and family, but also to Church and society.

The Sunday Eucharist celebrates the lasting and good marriage between God and humanity, forged by the death and resurrection of Christ.  It is also the Table that makes available vision and power to stay married.

Because of continuing interest in the meditations Parable and Conscience I will be publishing again each day's reflection, beginning today.  Thank you for reading me.

I hope to  also publish new material with regularity as well.

First Day

Today is the first day of my retirement--and the first day of the rest of my life, as they say.  I am deeply grateful to God for the long and energetic life of activity for the Order and Church that I have had.  I hope now for as many good years "in the sunset" as God will give me.

In the Phoenix newspaper this morning, there was a quote from British author L.P. Hartley (1895-1972):  “The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.”  That represents one of my great challenges now.  With my retirement, I leave a place I will not go back to again.  From now on, things will be done differently there by those who have succeeded me.  In some sense, it is now a foreign country to me.  I love it none the less. But I also will be doing things differently in my new life-space.  Because I spent a lot of time preparing to cross the retirement frontier, the place where I now find myself already feels like home.  My regrets are few as I glance back, my expectations high as I go forward.  To those who helped me decide and "pack" I am also very grateful.


All my life I have been exploring, in God, the "meaning of me."  I think it will become even clearer now.  I hope you will see that for yourself to in the daily blogging that I will resume.