Developing hierarchy

Today's first reading tells the story of the first Deacons. While we now think of it as the lowest level of clergy. They were,in a sense, the first of the modern orders. As acts recounts it, the apostles needed to remain dedicated to teaching and that the needy in the Greek speaking part of the community was not being ministered to sufficiently. The apostles laid hands on and prayed over this new group of ministers called deacons.

As the church grew the order of presbyters (priests) would come into being and the successors to the apostles whom the scriptures call bishops.
But it is worth remembering that in the 21st century, even the man who is now Pope was once ordained a deacon, and never leaves behind that ministry to serve the most needy.

That doesn't mean what you think it means

This closing of today's gospel reads, "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever disobeys the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God remains upon him." The wrath of God is death. For John it really is a matter of life and death.

The greek word translated here as disobey is the word άπειθεω, apeitheo, but it is much more than the English word, apathy. It means a stubborn, headstrong unwillingness to be convinced. It would have been much simpler if the gospel had divided the world into two groups. Those who believe and those who don't. In Greek it would have meant using the same verb in both halves of the sentence with the prefix α- on the second one to make the negative. It would have been perfect parallel construction. Those who believe have eternal life; those who don't believe will not see eternal life.

But that's not what the text says. Why? Because life is not that simple. The gospel is not that simple. We like the world in binary choices: black or white, good or bad. We want to make life simpler than it is. True Christianity embraces the complexity of life and the love of God for every person, created in the image and likeness of God.

This week, as some Americans were disgracing themselves by dancing in the streets at the death of Osama bin Laden, our church was reminding us of the sacredness of every human life, even his.

First Fridays For Food Security

For those who remember first fridays, and those who don't.

Beginning this Fridays the US Bishops will begin a program called First Fridays for Food security to see more info check out there page on Facebook.

The light and the darkness

In John's gospel today, he writes "The light came into the world but the people preferred darkness." This is of course a metaphor and a bit of hyperbole on the part of John, because no one really prefers darkness. We now know of the physical and mental positive effects of light on human beings and the detrimental effects of light deprivation. We may a moments be attracted to the darkness, the forbidden, the unknown, but no one really wants to live in a dark place.

What John describes as a preference for darkness is really shame, shame "because their deeds were evil." The word shame seems to have fallen on hard times in the 20th century. In the latter half of the last century, it was as if we wanted to create a world of shameless people. That would be a good thing if what we meant by that was that we wanted a world in which no one ever did anything they should be shamed of. But that wasn't what was meant.

Thankfully in the 21st century we seem to have recovered our understanding that shame is a natural and healthy response. Even my dog knows when he has done wrong and feels ashamed, he wants to hide.

What God does not want is that any of us stay in that dark place. We should remember where the reading starts, "For God so loved the world..."

Science has now caught up with theology; we know that what the church calls natural law is real. There is a basic moral code built into the human person; we are drawn to the light. We know when we have sinned and like the dog, we sometimes want to go and hide in the darkness. But if we do, we will surely die. We have to trust in God's love, walk out into the light, face our sin, and receive God's forgiveness.

Why at the beginning of May?

Today we celebrate the feast of two apostles of which little is know:James the Son of Alpheus (aka James the Lesser), and Philip. Why together and why today? The feast day is not set in the way many saints days are set, the day they die and enter eternal life, because we don't have that information. In fact, all we know about this James is his name. Today's feast marks the transfer of the relics of the two Apostles to their present location, the Basilica of the Twelve Apostles in Rome.

Because the Basilica was behind the building where I lived, I went there often to pray. You walk into the church up the center isle through the gate and down the steps into the area under the altar. There you see a window with a kneeler in front of it and behind the glass two simple stone coffins.

In my travels I have found certain places where the holiness is palpable. Time seems to stand still. Those who know me know I am not one for standing or even sitting still. Kneeling there, time seemed to stop and I could stay forever. How or why I don't know. I can only tell you what I experienced. Time after time I could return to that place, the tomb of two relative unknowns among the saint, and find the peace Christ spoke of in Sunday's gospel.

Consubstanial with the Father

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Athanasius, a fourth century father of the Church most known for his role in fighting the Arian heresy. While probably no one would identify himself as an Arian in the 21st century, I would dare say the gist of the heresy is still with us.

If asked what image comes into your head when someone says the word "God" I would beat that very few people immediately think of the Son, or the Holy Spirit. Most people I dare say think of the Father or something more abstract.

At the heart of Arianism was the belief that God the Father was the first, and was therefore greater than the Son. The son was thought of as created by the Father. The council of Nicea condemned this belief and affirmed that the Father and the Son were for all time, ὁμοούσιος, a term which has no simple English translation. In the new English translation of the creed, the translation is changed from "one in being" to "consubstantial."

While this is not a simple word it does convey the idea moire clearly. The Son is not less than, or lower than the Father. The Son is of the exact same substance as the Father. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit were before time or space ever came into existence.

The fact that the Son became incarnate, shared our human life, suffered, died, and was buried, did not make him less than the father. His sharing our life made us more. If he was truly divine as Athanasius defended then we share that divinity, if he was merely a higher creature as the Arians believed then we remain creatures.

Quasi Modo Sunday

There is probably no Sunday in the Calendar with more names than today. Long before Blessed John Paul II added Divine Mercy Sunday it was the Second Sunday of Easter, the Octave of Easter, White Sunday, Thomas Sunday,and Quasi Modo Sunday.

The name quasi modo we only associate with the character from the Hunch Back of Notre Dame. In fact, in the novel the Archdeacon who finds him names him for the Entrance Antiphon for the Sunday on which he is found, today. That antiphon remains in the missal even today. It is 1 Peter 2:2

like newborn infants, long for pure spiritual milk so that through it you may grow into salvation

We are reminded in this Easter season that while it is true that in baptism we are given a new life in Christ, that new life like any new life must grow, and in order to grow it must be fed.

With what do you feed you soul each day?

I will freely admit I used to be a news junkie, until I realized tv news just recycles the sakes stories all day. Most of what's out there could at best be seen as spiritual junk food.

We have to start by recognizing that everything we read, watch, or listen to is in some way "soul food." It leaves an imprint on our soul, and so we should make conscious choices. Is it ok to have a little junk food now and then? Sure.

But what way to many of us do is consume a steady diet of junk all week and then think we can make up for it with one meal at the table of the Lord on Sunday. That would be like going to the weight watchers meeting every week, and not doing anything else, and saying "I go to weight watcher every week, but do understand why I'm not loosing weight."

Our new life in Christ, "our salvation", as St. Peter puts it is something we have to grow into, and we only grow into with a proper diet, what he calls "pure spiritual milk": the scriptures, prayer, spiritual reading, and the sacraments.

This week I encourage you to pay attention to what you consume. You may be surprised at how unbalanced your diet is.