This is a short one. In liturgies of the Eastern Churches, there is a very specific prayer to be prayed by everyone who will receive the holy mysteries (communion). It starts like this: I believe and confess, Lord, that you are truly the Christ, the Son of the Living God, who came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the first.
We so often hear Christians speaking about 'sinners' as though this referred only to people other than themselves, as in when they speak about "loving the sinner," while hating the sin. Most often, truth be told, we are all infinitely more likely to love the sin of hating the sinner.
I want to encourage everyone who reads this (yes, all 4 of you), to adopt the practice of never saying (or even thinking) the word "sinners" without immediately adding the words, "of whom I am the worst." See if it has any effect.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Good Friday Revisited
A high school classmate posted a question on my Facebook page asking seriously why we would refer to the day when we commemorate the suffering and death of Christ as 'Good' Friday. I was glad for the invitation to comment, and did so briefly, because I was using my iPhone. The context is that we don't celebrate Good Friday as though we (well, mainly our Eastern Catholic and Orthodox Christian brothers and sisters) weren't going to sing, just two days later, "Christ has risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tomb bestowing life." Just because a dear friend said that I should put this on my blog, here it is (with all my egregious spelling errors corrected):
Great question. In fact, this day is focused not so much on the physical/mental/emotional suffering of Christ, but more on how Christ, by his voluntary suffering and death engages sin and death in mortal combat, conquering death by death and vanquishing the fear associated with the suffering of human life by his own suffering. In a very rough analogy, this is the day when the only true terrorists, sin and death, experienced the shock and awe of the Passion and Death of the deathless Son of God. It is, therefore, a day of extreme joy for us, who were the prisoners of sin and death, and are witnessing the destruction of our captors and the beginning of our liberation. In some ways, the mood might be called a grim jubilation, especially as we are aware of the lengths to which our Savior had to go to win the victory for us, but as another commentator has pointed out, Good may not be a big enough word for this day; it could seem like an
understatement of (literally) cosmic proportions!
Great question. In fact, this day is focused not so much on the physical/mental/emotional suffering of Christ, but more on how Christ, by his voluntary suffering and death engages sin and death in mortal combat, conquering death by death and vanquishing the fear associated with the suffering of human life by his own suffering. In a very rough analogy, this is the day when the only true terrorists, sin and death, experienced the shock and awe of the Passion and Death of the deathless Son of God. It is, therefore, a day of extreme joy for us, who were the prisoners of sin and death, and are witnessing the destruction of our captors and the beginning of our liberation. In some ways, the mood might be called a grim jubilation, especially as we are aware of the lengths to which our Savior had to go to win the victory for us, but as another commentator has pointed out, Good may not be a big enough word for this day; it could seem like an
understatement of (literally) cosmic proportions!
Being a Christian – An Easter Reality Check
April 11, 2010 – Sunday in Octave of Easter
Christ is risen! Indeed He is risen!
In today’s scripture selection for the Roman Catholic Office of Readings, St. Paul gives the Colossians, and us, a hard reality check. In case the week-long Easter celebration has put us off balance, we have here a sobering tonic (without the gin, alas). We Christians, who have been raised up to new life with Christ through our incorporation into Christ’s Body through Baptism (and Confirmation/Chrismation), are to live differently because of it. No question about it. We are to stop seeking earthly things, and seek the things that are in heaven, where Christ is seated at God’s right hand. We have died, after all, and our life is hidden with God in Christ. St. Paul is not promoting some pie-in-the-sky ideology here, but is saying we have to put our money (and everything else) where our mouth is. If you say you’re Christian, then you have to live like it. But what does this mean?
St. Paul is happy to tell us, and gives us something of a checklist for our life in Christ. Being a Christian means we have to kill. We have to put to death the earthly impulses that operate in us. We have to cease cooperating with those impulses, and begin a resolute campaign of non-cooperation. We have to put to death (in ourselves) fornication, uncleanness, passion (the disordered kinds), evil desires, and ‘that lust which is idolatry,’ which I take to mean any powerful desire that places something else (even if it is good) before God in our lives. These are sins that provoke God’s wrath, and as Christians, not only should we not want to be on the receiving end of God’s wrath, we should love God so much that we don’t want to offend him, even if we weren’t going to get a helping of wrath.
St. Paul then says, “Your own conduct was once of this sort, when these sins were your very life.” Wow! This is a real reality check! How many of us who call ourselves Christians continue to have sex with people even though we aren’t married? Do we think that this was something of an option, that as long as it is ok with us, or as long as we didn’t feel very much in love with someone, we probably shouldn’t have sex outside of marriage? Wrong! If we’re giving ourselves over to our passions (and we’ll see that sex is not the only passion), then we’re not practicing Christianity! No ifs, ands or buts! Now, there is a real difference between occasionally sinning due to human weakness and allowing these sins to be our very life, right? When a Christian sins, he or she does not avoid owning up to the fact that he or she did something WRONG. A Christian does not try to continue living a life of having unmarried sex, letting himself or herself be ruled by the passions, and allowing other things to be put before God, because that would mean that he or she is not really a Christian; this is not what Christians do!
St. Paul says explicitly: “You must put that aside now: all the anger and quick temper, the malice, the insults, the foul language.” Ouch! Can this guy really be serious?!? Not only are we supposed to guard our purity by not having sex, and not allowing anything to be placed higher than God on our personal priority lists, but we have to discipline our tempers and our mouths, too? You better believe it. I know, it’s hard, when so many people (other than us, of course) so richly deserve to feel our anger, our insults, and to receive a sound cussing. However, we are to act in a particular way because we are Christians, not because other people are going to act right around us. Again, sometimes things get the best of us, but we can’t defend our misdeeds with a kind of ‘I had every right to be that angry’ argument. As Christians, we have to seek reconciliation, with the offended (and sometimes offending) parties if possible, and certainly with God in Christ.
St. Paul then goes on, “Stop lying to one another.” Well, besides the obvious ways in which we lie on almost a daily basis, what is St. Paul saying? We should be who we say we are when we allow ourselves to be honored with the name “Christian.” We are supposed to have put aside our old self and all its deeds, and put on a new self that continues to grow in knowledge as we are being formed anew in the image of our Creator. Notice that we aren’t finished in becoming a Christian; we’ve only just begun. We are supposed to go on learning and changing our ways, becoming more and more like God in all the right ways, not in the ways our first parents attempted, trying to take the place of God and determining for themselves what was good or evil. We are told that the all-too-common distinctions, for that day, Jew or Greek, foreigner, Scythian, slave or free, circumcised or uncircumcised, are done away with, because Christ is everything in all of us. We could add to that list some distinctions of our own day: black or white, Hispanic or Asian, rich or poor, Republican, Democrat or Libertarian, left wing or right wing, and a host of others. When we allow these labels to obscure our recognition of Christ in each other, then something is horribly awry, and it’s never the other person’s fault in this case. If we allow these distinctions to be more important than seeing Christ in ourselves and in each other, then we are LYING ABOUT BEING CHRISTIAN.
Well, what are we to do, then? If we can’t do all these things we see everyone else doing around us, what do we do? St. Paul gives us a prescription. As God’s chosen ones, holy (set apart) and beloved, we should ‘clothe ourselves’ with:
• heartfelt mercy and kindness
• humility (the opposite of thinking we are ‘better than’)
• meekness (the opposite of always having to have and express an opinion)
• and patience.
This means we should bear with one another and forgive whatever grievances we have toward one another (about which we must first be honest with ourselves). We should forgive as the Lord has forgiven us, just as freely and completely.
Above all, and over all, we must ‘clothe ourselves’ with love. What could that mean? It seems to me that we wear clothes to keep out the cold and other earthly elements. Perhaps it means we have to consciously remind ourselves to love, to approach all other people with a firm resolve to love them somehow. This would increase the likeliness that we could be all those things we are supposed to be. We are called to Christ’s peace, so that peace (not a desire to ‘win’ or ‘be right’) must reign (take the lead, command, rule) in our hearts.
Another thing we can and should do, which will also help us to avoid the bad and do the good, is dedicate ourselves to thankfulness. Ever count your blessings? It’s really a powerful exercise. Instead of focusing on all the things that aren’t the way you want them to be, literally name and count the things in your life that please you. None of those pleasing things had to be that way, but they are, so why not be grateful about it? It’s a gift from God, not the fruit of some great or clever work of yours. You wouldn’t have them if God hadn’t given them, or the means to acquire them, to you, so give thanks to God for them. In fact, write down how you feel today about life in general, toward people and the world, and then truly dedicate yourself to thankfulness for just this coming week (beginning whenever you read this). Three times a day, morning, noon and evening, make a mental list of all the things you can be thankful for, and then say a sincere prayer of thanksgiving to God; it can be simple and short, but mean it. In addition, anytime someone does something that helps you in any way, whether they do business with you or the company you work for, or they hold a door open for you, thank them. Whenever something goes wrong, or someone does something unkind, take a moment to ask God’s help, and grant whatever forgiveness is necessary, letting go of any claim at retribution (I’m not talking about things for which some recompense is necessary, like a car accident where the other person is at fault – do what is necessary, but be kind about it, even if the other person wants to argue). Then, after a week, see how you feel about life. I would think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
Finally, we are to let the word of Christ, rich as it is, dwell in us. To do this, we have to remind ourselves daily of that word, and that means cracking open a bible and reading the gospel in a leisurely way that allows us to remember it and ponder it throughout our day. If something is to dwell in us, we can’t just quickly glance at it, and then move on with the ‘real world’ concerns that clamor for our attention. How could someone who claims to be Christian, by the way, consider the gospel not to be a ‘real world’ concern? If we think that Christ’s word is some sort of ‘la-la land’ fantasy that doesn’t touch our day to day lives, then are we really Christians, that is, real disciples of Jesus Christ who live according to his teachings, or are we rather deluded fools who think that knowing a few things about Christ is somehow going to save us? If the love of money, or sex, or food, or revenge, or drugs has any priority in our lives, then God is being shoved to the side. Is it wise to be so stupid as to attempt to shove the God of the universe to the side in order to pursue our lusts for wealth, power, or anything else? Do you want to be that stupid? Now, the way to make sure that we aren’t being that stupid is to make sure that the word of Christ is dwelling in us, occupying our memory, our reasoning, our will. Whenever we become aware that we have been this stupid, we have to repent (turn back to God), and Catholics or Orthodox Christians have to approach the sacrament of Penance/Reconciliation/Confession (whatever you call it) in order for this repentance to be real (not sure what you other Christians do for this), and keep crackin’ open the gospel. Don’t despair that you don’t become perfect this month or this year. It’s a long process, and don’t try to do it without constantly asking God for help. We aren’t strong enough to do this by ourselves. In fact, the goal is not to become more moral, but to grow closer to God in Christ. The transformation that takes place through this will make us more moral. Well, that’s a lot of work, but ain’t it great that we even have the hope of being transformed this way?!?
Happy Easter, y’all!!!
Christ is risen! Indeed He is risen!
In today’s scripture selection for the Roman Catholic Office of Readings, St. Paul gives the Colossians, and us, a hard reality check. In case the week-long Easter celebration has put us off balance, we have here a sobering tonic (without the gin, alas). We Christians, who have been raised up to new life with Christ through our incorporation into Christ’s Body through Baptism (and Confirmation/Chrismation), are to live differently because of it. No question about it. We are to stop seeking earthly things, and seek the things that are in heaven, where Christ is seated at God’s right hand. We have died, after all, and our life is hidden with God in Christ. St. Paul is not promoting some pie-in-the-sky ideology here, but is saying we have to put our money (and everything else) where our mouth is. If you say you’re Christian, then you have to live like it. But what does this mean?
St. Paul is happy to tell us, and gives us something of a checklist for our life in Christ. Being a Christian means we have to kill. We have to put to death the earthly impulses that operate in us. We have to cease cooperating with those impulses, and begin a resolute campaign of non-cooperation. We have to put to death (in ourselves) fornication, uncleanness, passion (the disordered kinds), evil desires, and ‘that lust which is idolatry,’ which I take to mean any powerful desire that places something else (even if it is good) before God in our lives. These are sins that provoke God’s wrath, and as Christians, not only should we not want to be on the receiving end of God’s wrath, we should love God so much that we don’t want to offend him, even if we weren’t going to get a helping of wrath.
St. Paul then says, “Your own conduct was once of this sort, when these sins were your very life.” Wow! This is a real reality check! How many of us who call ourselves Christians continue to have sex with people even though we aren’t married? Do we think that this was something of an option, that as long as it is ok with us, or as long as we didn’t feel very much in love with someone, we probably shouldn’t have sex outside of marriage? Wrong! If we’re giving ourselves over to our passions (and we’ll see that sex is not the only passion), then we’re not practicing Christianity! No ifs, ands or buts! Now, there is a real difference between occasionally sinning due to human weakness and allowing these sins to be our very life, right? When a Christian sins, he or she does not avoid owning up to the fact that he or she did something WRONG. A Christian does not try to continue living a life of having unmarried sex, letting himself or herself be ruled by the passions, and allowing other things to be put before God, because that would mean that he or she is not really a Christian; this is not what Christians do!
St. Paul says explicitly: “You must put that aside now: all the anger and quick temper, the malice, the insults, the foul language.” Ouch! Can this guy really be serious?!? Not only are we supposed to guard our purity by not having sex, and not allowing anything to be placed higher than God on our personal priority lists, but we have to discipline our tempers and our mouths, too? You better believe it. I know, it’s hard, when so many people (other than us, of course) so richly deserve to feel our anger, our insults, and to receive a sound cussing. However, we are to act in a particular way because we are Christians, not because other people are going to act right around us. Again, sometimes things get the best of us, but we can’t defend our misdeeds with a kind of ‘I had every right to be that angry’ argument. As Christians, we have to seek reconciliation, with the offended (and sometimes offending) parties if possible, and certainly with God in Christ.
St. Paul then goes on, “Stop lying to one another.” Well, besides the obvious ways in which we lie on almost a daily basis, what is St. Paul saying? We should be who we say we are when we allow ourselves to be honored with the name “Christian.” We are supposed to have put aside our old self and all its deeds, and put on a new self that continues to grow in knowledge as we are being formed anew in the image of our Creator. Notice that we aren’t finished in becoming a Christian; we’ve only just begun. We are supposed to go on learning and changing our ways, becoming more and more like God in all the right ways, not in the ways our first parents attempted, trying to take the place of God and determining for themselves what was good or evil. We are told that the all-too-common distinctions, for that day, Jew or Greek, foreigner, Scythian, slave or free, circumcised or uncircumcised, are done away with, because Christ is everything in all of us. We could add to that list some distinctions of our own day: black or white, Hispanic or Asian, rich or poor, Republican, Democrat or Libertarian, left wing or right wing, and a host of others. When we allow these labels to obscure our recognition of Christ in each other, then something is horribly awry, and it’s never the other person’s fault in this case. If we allow these distinctions to be more important than seeing Christ in ourselves and in each other, then we are LYING ABOUT BEING CHRISTIAN.
Well, what are we to do, then? If we can’t do all these things we see everyone else doing around us, what do we do? St. Paul gives us a prescription. As God’s chosen ones, holy (set apart) and beloved, we should ‘clothe ourselves’ with:
• heartfelt mercy and kindness
• humility (the opposite of thinking we are ‘better than’)
• meekness (the opposite of always having to have and express an opinion)
• and patience.
This means we should bear with one another and forgive whatever grievances we have toward one another (about which we must first be honest with ourselves). We should forgive as the Lord has forgiven us, just as freely and completely.
Above all, and over all, we must ‘clothe ourselves’ with love. What could that mean? It seems to me that we wear clothes to keep out the cold and other earthly elements. Perhaps it means we have to consciously remind ourselves to love, to approach all other people with a firm resolve to love them somehow. This would increase the likeliness that we could be all those things we are supposed to be. We are called to Christ’s peace, so that peace (not a desire to ‘win’ or ‘be right’) must reign (take the lead, command, rule) in our hearts.
Another thing we can and should do, which will also help us to avoid the bad and do the good, is dedicate ourselves to thankfulness. Ever count your blessings? It’s really a powerful exercise. Instead of focusing on all the things that aren’t the way you want them to be, literally name and count the things in your life that please you. None of those pleasing things had to be that way, but they are, so why not be grateful about it? It’s a gift from God, not the fruit of some great or clever work of yours. You wouldn’t have them if God hadn’t given them, or the means to acquire them, to you, so give thanks to God for them. In fact, write down how you feel today about life in general, toward people and the world, and then truly dedicate yourself to thankfulness for just this coming week (beginning whenever you read this). Three times a day, morning, noon and evening, make a mental list of all the things you can be thankful for, and then say a sincere prayer of thanksgiving to God; it can be simple and short, but mean it. In addition, anytime someone does something that helps you in any way, whether they do business with you or the company you work for, or they hold a door open for you, thank them. Whenever something goes wrong, or someone does something unkind, take a moment to ask God’s help, and grant whatever forgiveness is necessary, letting go of any claim at retribution (I’m not talking about things for which some recompense is necessary, like a car accident where the other person is at fault – do what is necessary, but be kind about it, even if the other person wants to argue). Then, after a week, see how you feel about life. I would think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
Finally, we are to let the word of Christ, rich as it is, dwell in us. To do this, we have to remind ourselves daily of that word, and that means cracking open a bible and reading the gospel in a leisurely way that allows us to remember it and ponder it throughout our day. If something is to dwell in us, we can’t just quickly glance at it, and then move on with the ‘real world’ concerns that clamor for our attention. How could someone who claims to be Christian, by the way, consider the gospel not to be a ‘real world’ concern? If we think that Christ’s word is some sort of ‘la-la land’ fantasy that doesn’t touch our day to day lives, then are we really Christians, that is, real disciples of Jesus Christ who live according to his teachings, or are we rather deluded fools who think that knowing a few things about Christ is somehow going to save us? If the love of money, or sex, or food, or revenge, or drugs has any priority in our lives, then God is being shoved to the side. Is it wise to be so stupid as to attempt to shove the God of the universe to the side in order to pursue our lusts for wealth, power, or anything else? Do you want to be that stupid? Now, the way to make sure that we aren’t being that stupid is to make sure that the word of Christ is dwelling in us, occupying our memory, our reasoning, our will. Whenever we become aware that we have been this stupid, we have to repent (turn back to God), and Catholics or Orthodox Christians have to approach the sacrament of Penance/Reconciliation/Confession (whatever you call it) in order for this repentance to be real (not sure what you other Christians do for this), and keep crackin’ open the gospel. Don’t despair that you don’t become perfect this month or this year. It’s a long process, and don’t try to do it without constantly asking God for help. We aren’t strong enough to do this by ourselves. In fact, the goal is not to become more moral, but to grow closer to God in Christ. The transformation that takes place through this will make us more moral. Well, that’s a lot of work, but ain’t it great that we even have the hope of being transformed this way?!?
Happy Easter, y’all!!!
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