Sunday Gospel Reflection, January 17, 2016: Jesus so revealed his glory...

  Jesus so revealed his glory...  

  How is God revealed to us?  

  And how do we reveal God to one another?  

   In the Old Testament, Israel's relationship with God was often depicted in marital terms:  Israel was the spouse of God, often unfaithful, always forgiven.  The prophet Isaiah speaks of the transformation of the nation at the end of exile:  Israel shall be called by a new name pronounced by the mouth of the Lord.  God thus reveals himself in his renewal of union with the people; Israel's role as the Bride of God is in itself a revelation of God's glory, and Israel herself manifests that glory to all the earth:  Nations shall behold your vindication, Isaiah says.  For it is in praise, as Psalm 96 states, that God's glory is made manifest, and all participate in the revelation of God at work in the world, recognizing that God is their source, and our source, at work in us as well.  Tell his glory among the nations; among the peoples his wondrous deeds, the psalmist sings.  We are thus called to make God's work explicit, called to participate in the revelation of God.

   The miracle at Cana is considered a moment of revelation as well, a revelation of God's presence in person of Jesus, of God walking among us and what his presence means for us.  It is the moment, according to John, when Jesus' disciples began to believe in him, though his mother already trusts in God's plan, and lets her faith move her forward as she tells the servers, Do whatever he tells you.  She knows that God's plan is at work, and that Jesus is at the center of it.  The miracle at Cana is the first sign that Jesus is the Messiah:  it speaks to the overabundance of heaven, the infinite love of God, the superabundance of God's love being revealed in Jesus.

   As Paul tells the Corinthians, our gifts are given to each of us for some benefit.  Our capacity to reach out to one another, to open hearts, to meet the needs of those around us is a proclamation of the glory of God.  We begin to let the glory of God be revealed in us whenever we allow God's love to dominate our lives, and thus become bearers of that life-giving love to others.  It is this revelation that we strive for, this revelation that allows our relationship with God to be re-created, ever anew.

This post is based on Fr. Pat's Scripture class.

Image source:  Wordle

Sunday Gospel Reflection, March 8, 2015: The temple of his body...

The temple of his body...

If Jesus is God dwelling among us, what more do we need?

Have you ever wondered why Jesus storms the temple in John’s Gospel, overturning the moneychangers’ tables and wreaking havoc in the marketplace?  The disciples believe that he is standing up for God’s house, that the merchants who have set up shop must somehow be defiling this sacred space.  They have encountered the love of God in the person of Jesus, yet their reading remains literal… but we know there is more going on here.  Destroy this temple, Jesus says, and I will rebuild it in three days.  His reference is, of course, to the temple of his body:  Jesus carries the presence of God within him, is the presence of God among them.  And Jesus will be the final sacrifice necessary:  we proclaim Christ crucified, Paul tells the Corinthians, we proclaim a Christ whose final act, whose ultimate sacrifice, is beyond our comprehension; it is wiser than human wisdom, stronger than human strength.

We don’t fully understand all the implications of Jesus’ sacrifice for the redemption of humankind.  We can follow God’s commandments as set out in Exodus, and trust, as God tells Moses, that God will bestow mercy down to the thousandth generation on the children of those who love him.  These are the words of everlasting life, as Psalm 19 proclaims.  But, as Paul says, neither signs nor wisdom suffice:  neither is as strong as faith.  We discover God partially in the law and in wisdom – but God works beyond these limits, and God’s love has no boundaries.  This, then, is the challenge:  to encounter the love of God, to find Jesus, dwelling among us – and to turn toward that love, in faith, to follow it no matter what it demands of us.  If our hearts open us to the power of Jesus to save us, what more do we need, really?

This post is based on Fr. Pat's Scripture class.

Image source:  Wordle

Sunday Gospel Reflection, November 9, 2014: You are God's building...

You are God's building...

Where is the temple of the Lord?

This Sunday we celebrate the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome in 324 A.D., a church founded by the Emperor Constantine and given to Sylvester, the bishop of Rome; it became the mother church of all Christian churches to follow.  Our readings therefore all center on different images of temples, from the historical to the future Jerusalem; and from the temple that was Jesus to the temple that is the Church – and all of us – today.

Ezekiel borrows imagery from the book of Genesis that will be echoed again, much later, in Revelation, thus creating a kind of continuity over all human time.  Ezekiel’s temple, with water flowing out from it, is divine in origin and life-giving, revealing God in God’s Creation.  It is a vision filled with hope, a promise of future restoration, of return to paradise… not ours to enjoy just yet, but one day.  Psalm 46 is similarly a song of confidence, reminding listeners that no matter what form chaotic forces might take, God in his holy dwelling will be there to vainquish them, to restore order, multiplying the astounding things he has wrought upon earth.  There, too, the waters of the river gladden the city of God…

Jesus is likewise present on earth to restore order, though in this week’s gospel from John, he certainly seems first to be creating no small amount of disorder, overturning the tables of the moneychangers and driving them out of the temple area.  The activities going on in the temple are not illegitimate:  the Jews had to change their Roman coins for Hebrew ones they could use in the temple area.  But Jesus is there to explain that the temple of his Body has come to be last and greatest sacrifice by which all will be saved – thus, their temple is no longer necessary.  Jesus is the Holy of Holies, yet no one seems to understand this, not even his disciples.  It is only much later that his disciples will remember that he had said all this, and realize that, after his Ascension, they have become God’s building, as Paul tells the Corinthians, all building upon the same foundation, seeking the kind of union only Jesus can create thanks to the Spirit dwelling within them.

The Feast of the Dedication is thus ultimately a celebration of our identity as Church, and church; it is about our capacity to identify ourselves as being members of the Body of Christ on earth, with Jesus dwelling within us.  The next time you enter Our Lady of Mount Carmel and cross yourself, know that you are opening yourself to the body, to be part of this body, so that as a community of many members, we can live this bond that is church more fully, committed to a relationship with Jesus, and with one another.

This post is based on Fr. Pat's Scripture class.
Image source