Suffering in unison

Today we reach on of the most debated verses in the Bible, Col 1:24. The sticky part is where Paul claims:

I am filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ on behalf of his Body, which is the Church,

The idea that there was something lacking in the suffering of Christ goes against everything thing we believe. At the center of Christian theology is the belief that the Passion of Jesus Christ was suffered once for all.

The key to understanding this verse is that St. Paul is focused on the Church, the Body of Christ. This new Body of Christ unlike his singular earthly body is just at the beginning of its formation when St. Paulnis writing. While the suffering, death and ressurection of Jesus was on one level the fulfillment, God's plan for the world must unfold over centuries. The plan will not be complete until the second coming of Christ.

In the meantime, this new Body, the Church, must slowly be filled up with new members. And this new Body, the Church will still have to suffer, just as the earthly physical body of Jesus suffered. Paul is very bluntly warning his people that the suffering is not over, it is not yet finished. There is still suffering yet to come. In that sense the suffering of the Body of Christ, is still lacking, incomplete.

When we suffer, we never suffer alone. We suffer as members of the body of Christ, the Church. The head of that body, Jesus suffers with us. So deep is his love for us. The word compassion means" to suffer with" and so the suffering of Christ,the passion of Christ continues as long as even one member of the body suffers, because he is compassion itself.

The good news is, just as our suffering is his suffering, his strength is our strength. He shares in our suffering; we share his strength. We share in his passion and his ressurection. No matter what pain we feel we must know that we are never along in our suffering, Jesus is right there with us. In fact, his entire body, the Church, suffers with us. We suffer as one.

We should never be afraid to allow our brothers and sisters to share in our moments of suffering. We should never fall into the trap of believing that our suffering is ours alone or that hiding our suffering is a sign of strength. Pretending not to suffer is mere hubris.

Paul warn us that as Christ suffer so the Church will suffer. But also provides the certain hope that just as Christ conquered, so too there is no suffering that we cannot conquer together.

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The first Icon

I remember one day sitting in a theater and when a person in the movie brought out a religious icon the child in front of me said to his friend "the church is using computer language" not realizing that the church had icons long before there were computers. But if you were to ask the question how far back do icons go in Christianity, the answer would be St. Paul's letter to the Collosians.

In Chapter 1 St. Paul describes Jesus as the image (icon in Greek) of the invisible God,

the firstborn of all creation. For in him were created all things in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible,...

In the Old Testament they were forbidden from making any image of God, because God had not yet made himself visible. With the Incarnation, the invisible God reveals himself, true God and true man. The icon (image) is not like a photograph, drawing, or painting. Jesus is the true icon, God made visible, tangible.

It is from St. Paul's use of the word icon that the tradition of iconography developed particularly in the east. The iconographer was more than an artist. Iconographers were men of prayer. They were expected to live a life consonant with their vocation. The process of creating an icon involved not only painting but long periods of prayer. Just as Christ the icon revealed the thereto fore invisible God, so any icon is meant to reveal more than the physical likeness but also reflect the presence of the Holy Spirit that, as St. Paul also tells us,dwells in all the saints. As a matter of fact the physical likeness of an icon to the person (Jesus, Mary, or one of the patriarchs, prophets or saints) is of a secondary importance. The role of the icon is to connect us to the spiritual reality.

Unfortunately many of us have only ever seen the mass produced icons easily available. If you have a chance visit an Orthodox Church and spend some time in prayer mediating before an icon hand painted by a true iconographer. My first such experience was more than 30 years ago in a monastery in Russia, and I will never forget it.

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Abandonment as virtue

Today's gospel ends with the words,

Leaving everything they followed him.

It seems so simple in our imaginations and it looks simple in all of the movies. But remember these men were no different from you and I they had families, friends, and stuff. They were no less attached to their families, friends, and stuff. And yet as they gospel says, they abandoned everything.

It seems to me this gospel places before us two questions. Firstly, what or who is there in my life that I could not walk away from? Secondly, are there things or even people in my life that I need to walk away from?

We know that we are to love God above all things and yet each of us can develop either habits or relationships that are not good for us. Abandoning a relationship may seem heartless and yet did not the apostles abandon everything? This is not simply running away from responsibility in the name of religion. Many people have used religion as an excuse. This is the fruit of prayerful reflection and spiritual direction that can challenge us to look at everything and everyone in our life and be truly willing to abandon any or all of it for the sake of the kingdom.

What do I still need to abandon in order to be a true follower of Jesus?

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The abortion "news"

Yesterday the news was filled with another supposed change "priests can now forgive abortion" is often how it read.

To understand what did and did not happen yesterday, let's start with

Can. 1398 A person who procures a completed abortion incurs a latae sententiae excommunication.

Why a penalty for abortion and not other murders, because others forms of murder are punished through the civil law. A similar penalty exists for a person who violates the seal of confession, which again would not be punished in the civil law.

As for the remission of the penalty, the law reserve it normally to the "ordinary" which contrary to the news media is not just the bishop. In every diocese there is a vicar general, and in most dioceses a variety of Episcopal Vicars who are also ordinaries. More importantly be bishop can grant the ability to remit the penalty in confession, and in many dioceses in the U.S., they have done this already. As a priest of the Diocese of Richmond, I have had it for all 26 years of my priesthood.

I am glad the news media is pointed to the mercy expressed by the Pope. I simply wish it would stop trying to paint the Church as some heartless institution. They never stop and ask what the purpose of the penalty is to begin with.

Unlike the penal systems in most states, the penal system in the Church exists not simply to punish a person, but more important to encourage conversion, reconciliation, and healing.

The penalty of excommunication imposed on the person who procurs an abortion is imposed to encourage the person to go to confession. In the confessional they talk about it. Twenty-six years as a priest has taught me that often there is a great deal of emotional pain experienced by the woman who has the abortion. The confessor has an opportunity to absolve the sin, remit the penalty, and provide pastoral care.

The Pope has made no change in the teaching of the church nor any major change in the pastoral practice. For the Jubilee Year he is in a variety of ways simply attempting to underscore the boundless quality of God's mercy. In his words,

The forgiveness of God cannot be denied to one who has repented, especially when that person approaches the Sacrament of Confession with a sincere heart in order to obtain reconciliation with the Father.

 

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Home builders for Jesus

It's the little things in St. Paul that can be the most profound. Today we begin with 1 Th 5:1 in which Paul writes regarding the question of when Jesus will come back,

you have no need for anything to be written to you.

Really? If we look at the history of Chrsitianity, it seems that in every age someone is trying to predict the moment of the second coming. When I was a child I remember preachers trying to align the Soviet Union with the Book of Revelation, and who can forget all the fuss around the year 2000. Even today I'm sure you could go online and there would be someone cherry picking Bible verses to line them up with the events of today to prove that we are living in the end times.

And yet, St. Paul tells us not only can we not know, but more importantly, we have no need to know. Why? Because if we live as Christians, we live each day as if it were the one. And if we live each day as if it were the one, then we can be at peace, not worrying about the second coming, or more specifically, the final judgement.

They reading ends my commanding us to do two things to one another

-parakleite- comfort

Oikodomeite- build up ( it should be noted that the word refers specifically to building a home (oikos)

If each day we console one another and build up one another into the household of God, then Paul is correct. We have no need to know we Jesus is returning.

 

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Athletes in Christ

Today St. Paul deals with one of the most vexing issues for all of us, death. But if we look closely the Scripture distinguish two kinds of death: death plain and simple, and death in Christ. Death per se is the result not of God's plan, but is the price we all pay for sin. Death in Christ is a temporary state, a time of transformation. Not only will the dead in Christ rise, but St. Paul tells us today that the dead in Christ will be the first to rise at the second coming of Christ.

On Sunday the second Eucharist prayer borrows the language of today's first reading from 1 Thes. 4 when it distinguishes "those who have fallen asleep in Christ" from those who have died.

Not only will our souls be saved but our bodies as well. What the ressurected body will be like is a mystery. We know that it will be like his.

Once more we are reminded that human body is not a bad thing. It was created by God and as such is good, and according to God's will is destined to participate in eternal life. It is true that in our bodies as they are we experience weakness and temptation to sin, but that dies not make the body itself evil.

St. Paul does use rather harsh language about how we must deal with this our bodies. He says we must enslave it. (1 Cor. 9:27) He uses the metaphor of the athlete as well to describe how every Christian should treat their body.

Too many Christian have fallen into the error of simply dismissing their bodies as unimportant. Today we are reminded that while at the moment of death our souls are separated from the body, we had better be ready for the reunion, and in the mean time treat our bodies as if we are to spend eternity with them. Few of us may be athletes as the world uses that term but all of us should be runners for the prize as St. Paul means it.

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What makes a nation great?

This first reading today ends with a question: What great nation has statutes and decrees that are as just as this whole law which I am setting before you today? But what does it mean to be just.

We use the word in two ways.

When I began my law studies with the Jesuits in Rome, one of the first things we had learn was Ulpian's definition of Justice

Constans et Perpetua Voluntas Ius Suum cuique tribuendi

The constant and perpetual will to give to each person that which is their right

This is the virtue of Justice which we should all strive to have. If we are truly just people then we strive always and everywhere to respect the rights of every human being. I recently heard someone, in reference to a group of people they obviously didn't like, utter the sentence, "They don't have any rights."

This brings us to the second meaning of the word "just." Not only should we be just, that is, possess the virtue of Justice, but our laws must be just, and the system for enforcing those laws must be just. But that raises the question, what makes a law just.

Some would say that in a democracy it is "the will of the people." But if that is the ultimate guide, you do not end up with justice, you end up with what John Adams called "the tyranny of the majority." Justice is rarely found by taking a poll.

For us as Christians the answer is simple, in order for any law to be just, it must correspond to God's law, and more specifically the law Christ taught us, the Law of Love. To some that may sound naive, it may sound like a violation of the first amendment but it is neither.

It is the ultimate protection for each of us. It recognizes that our rights do not come from the people, or the constitution; they come from God. And any law that violates the God given rights of any person is unjust, no matter how many people want it.

Too many people seem to be busy fanning the flames of anger and division, with tragic consequences. It is time for the Christians among us to return to the basics: "love your neighbor as yourself", or phrased in th negative in the Old Testament "Do to no one what you yourself hate."

The first reading today posses a question:what great nation has statutes and decrees that are as just as this whole law which I am setting before you today. We like to think of ourselves as a great nation this reading reminds us that what makes a nation great is not power or wealth but the justice of its laws.

 

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