Just Do What He Says

The gospel celebrating The Wedding at Cana is unique to John and is the first of the miracles which he referred to seven signs.  John referred to these signs throughout Jesus’ ministry as events pointing to the Lord’s divinity. 

While the scene conjures up a beautiful image of Jesus as a young man accompanying his mother to a wedding feast, it reminds us that the mystery of God’s incarnation in Jesus, has as much to do with Jesus’ humanity than his divinity. That God could do miraculous things is easily understood. After all he is God. But that he could live like us with all our fears and joy, fully human is still amazing. He is one of us… and that’s the whole point.

The exchange between Jesus and his mother is endearingly familiar and personally humorous. Mary, to whom John never calls by name, senses the embarrassment of the wedding hosts and points out to Jesus that they have run out of wine. Despite any response from Jesus and without any further consultation, Mother Mary tells the servants to follow his instructions and do whatever he says. 

I have this image of my mother encouraging me on the high diving board in Steeplechase: “Come on, you can do it! I know you can!” “But, Ma,  it’s too high and I’m scared.” “Don’t be afraid, I’m here, you can do it, I know your can do it.” And I  did.

Or a time much later in my life when in the throes of an ongoing job interview process,  my mother comes home with the telephone number of a “big shot executive” son of a friend” who is expecting my call Saturday morning. 

“Ma, this is embarrassing and not how it’s done I protested. You don’t get a job in this company just because your mother works with someone’s mother.” Oblivious to my response, she replies “Never mind, just call him at 10:00 AM tomorrow; he’s expecting you.” 

I wonder what my mother or Mary saw in their sons at that moment. What was that my mother knew that I could dive off the high board and I could get the job of my dreams?  Mary had faith in her son and believed that such a miracle was possible? How did she know that this was his time? How did my mother know that I was ready and just needed a little push?  

And what about the unspoken “dialogue” between Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King. In many ways the exchange between Mary and Jesus is somewhat reminiscent of that unspoken “dialogue,” characterized by Rosa’s refusing to yield her seat. Could this well-publicized event have provoked King, whose time he thought had not yet come, to transform history. His moment was at hand.

It is more than coincidence that Jesus’ mother surrounds his earthly ministry. She is there at the very beginning of his ministry and is there at his very painful end. She is the nurturing force, and the earthly mother of the Word of God made flesh as she shares parenthood with God. 

Perhaps this sign in John 2:1-11 serves to remind us that whenever Jesus reveals his divinity, he is simultaneously revealing something about his humanity. Could this also serve to remind us of transformative changes in our faith as God’s incarnation in Jesus is about his incarnation in us. Are we ready; do we need a little push? 

 

You are My Beloved Son

I wonder how many of us celebrate the date of our Baptism as we might our birthday or anniversary. I’m not sure I can even locate my baptismal certificate much less know the month or day it took place. This Sunday we will celebrate the baptism of Jesus according to Luke 3: 15-16, 21-23. Despite the fact that this event in our church calendar was once considered an even more important feast than Christmas, the Baptism of Jesus is usually acknowledged with a Gospel reading and a sermon. Yet, along with the Epiphany, it is a celebration of the true nature of the incarnation of God. Perhaps we should wait a little while before we put away our manger scenes. 

I suspect that for many Christians the sacrament of Baptism is somewhat of a mystery. If you ask some why they want their children baptized they would be hard pressed to explain. Do we do it to please grandparents? Is it a cultural act? Is it some sort of “ticket to admission” to a particular church or is it a pre-qualification for communion? How many of us were raised believing that Baptism was intended to “wash away” our sins? 

Instead, the sacrament informs us that the presence of God is with us and in us and is essential to our very being. Baptism reminds us that in addition to being part of the Christian community, we were invested in God’s Kingdom long before any sprinkling of water or liturgical incantation took place. 

In this Gospel Luke seems to “be apologizing” for having to baptize Jesus, when he tells us that he is not worthy to loosen the thongs of his sandals. Then he goes on to say that while I am baptizing you with water, the one mightier than I is coming and will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. How many times have we said “Oh Lord I am not worthy” when we really are worthy? We are worthy because of our birth rite but like Mary we are humbled. 

Back to our Gospel…when all the people and Jesus had been baptized, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased. This powerful affirmation of the Father made it clear to all just who Jesus was.

“In a very profound way we are in fact brothers and sisters to one another. Each of us has already received the first great gift of our spiritual inheritance: the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God resides in each of us as the source of the divine life and the source of all life…The life of God in us means that we are closely bonded to one another. We are more closely united by the living presence of the Spirit in us than we would be by family blood lines. The shared life in God, makes us family in a profoundly personal way. This is the faith vision of the reality which we call Church.” (John Powell, S.J. The Christian Vision, p131)

One Solitary Life

 

Here is a man who was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another village. He worked in a carpenter shop until He was thirty. Then for three years He was an itinerant preacher.

He never owned a home. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never had a family. He never went to college. He never put His foot inside a big city. He never traveled two hundred miles from the place He was born. He never did one of the things that usually accompany greatness. He had no credentials but Himself...

While still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against him. His friends ran away. One of them denied Him. He was turned over to His enemies. He went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed upon a cross between two thieves. While He was dying His executioners gambled for the only piece of property He had on earth – His coat. When He was dead, He was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend.

Nineteen long centuries have come and gone, and today He is a centerpiece of the human race and leader of the column of progress.

I am far within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched, all the navies that were ever built; all the parliaments that ever sat and all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as has that one solitary life.

This essay was adapted from a sermon by Dr James Allan Francis in “The Real Jesus and Other Sermons” © 1926 by the Judson Press of Philadelphia (pp 123-124 titled “Arise Sir Knight!”). If you are interested, you can read the original version .

Let It Be Done Unto Me According to Your Word

In (Luke 1:39-45) Mary yields to the will of God and serves as as an eternal model for us. In Her words "Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word," 

Mary's example reminds us that we too share in the birth of Christ. The Word speaks to us when we open our hearts and listen; when we let go of all our worldly distractions and surrender to God's will. He speaks through our senses, in words,  sounds, and often a palpable presence within us...a mere feeling. When we are open to His will we participate with Mary in his birth in us...as the Word becomes our flesh, and we  and become bearers of his light and celebrate the birth of love in the world. 

Let it be done unto me according to your word.  Let the Word that was in the beginning with God become flesh from my flesh. Let the Word, I pray, be to me, not as a word merely spoken, only to pass away, but conceived in flesh, and remain with us forever. 

Let him be, not only to be heard with our ears, but to be seen with our eyes, felt with our hands, borne on our shoulders and cradled in our arms. Let the Word be to me, not as a word written and silent, but vibrant and alive in me. Words that are not just traced with dead signs upon dead parchment but livingly impressed in human form upon my chaste womb; not by the tracing of a pen of lifeless reed, but by the work of the Holy Spirit. (Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153) In Defense of Humility, Watch for the Light, p38)

Can we be Today's John The Baptist

 

In recent weeks our world news and discussions have focused on the aftermath of the elections one month ago and the  subsequent political fallout that at best can hardly be called our "finest hour." In addition, the incessant news cycles and talking heads comingled with the noise of Christmas advertisements, reminds us that all is not calm, all is not bright. 

Father Alfred Delp, a Jesuit priest writes of another turbulent time in history from a Nazi prison camp, shortly before he was hanged in 1945: 

"May the Advent figure of John, the relentless envoy and prophet in God’s name, be no stranger in our wilderness of ruins. (Luke 3:10-18) For how could we know unless someone cries out above the tumult and destruction and delusion? Not for an hour can life dispense with these John the Baptist characters These are original individuals, struck by the urgency of their  mission and vocation. They cry for blessing and salvation. They summon us to the opportunity of warding off - by the greater power of the converted heart - the shifting desert that will pounce upon us and bury us. 

The horror of these times would be unendurable unless we kept being cheered and upright again by the promises spoken. If we want to be alive we  must believe in the golden seed of God that the angels have scattered and still offers to open hearts. So many need their courage strengthened; so many are in despair and in need of consolation; there is so much harshness that needs a gentle hand and an illuminating word, so much loneliness crying out for a word of release, so much loss and pain in search of inner meaning. 

God’s messengers know of the blessing that the Lord has cast like a seed into these hours of history. Understanding this world in the light of Advent means to endure in faith, waiting for the fertility of the silent earth, the abundance of the coming harvest. Not because we put our trust in the earth, but because we have heard God’s message and have met one of God’s announcing angels ourselves. 

“The Blessed Woman… is the most comforting of all the Advent figures. That God became a mother’s son; that there could be a woman walking the earth whose womb was consecrated to be the holy temple and tabernacle of God – that is actually earth’s perfection and the fulfillment of its expectations. So many kinds of Advent consolation stream from the mysterious figure of the Blessed Expectant Mary. The woman has conceived the child, sheltered it beneath her heart, and given birth to the Son. Advent is the promise denoting the new order of things, of life, of our existence. Advent comes in these three figures. This is not meant as an idyllic miniature painting, but as a challenge. 

 Let us ask for faith in the motherly consecration of life as shown in the figure of the Blessed Woman of Nazareth. Let us be patient and wait, wait with Advent readiness for the moment when it pleases God to appear in our night too, as the fruit and mystery of this time. And let us ask for the opening and willingness to hear God’s warning messengers and to conquer life’s wilderness through repentant hearts. (Watch for the Light, The Shaking Reality of Advent,”pp.90-91)"

Can we become today’s John The Baptists

Our Time in the Desert

Adversity can play a key role in honing our ability to hear what is beyond the usual scope of our ordinary consciousness. No doubt for many of us the Covid 19 pandemic that began in the winter of 2020 and endures through 2024, forced us to face stressful challenges that were outside the “norm” of our usual experience. I wonder how this time and the early days of confinement and isolation heightened our awareness of events that otherwise would have gone unnoticed. 

Many people seek so-called desert “experiences” by way of solitary retreats during which forced confinement might help provide clarity and enlightenment that otherwise might be overlooked or taken for granted in “ordinary times” during which we are surrounded by our family, friends and our "usual routine."

Unlike John-the-Baptist in Luke 3:1-6 , we don’t always get a chance to choose our desert times and places. They are often provided for us in the form of illness, social unrest, war, changes in employment, failures in relationships, death of loved ones and natural disasters. These deserts all hold new possibilities for hearing the word of God at ever deepening levels. 

Speaking personally, it’s not too soon for me to assess how forced confinement has been a transformational experience. Perhaps it’s still too easy for me to dwell on the things I missed or have been taken away. It’s not a matter of addition or subtraction or replacing what no longer is with something else. What no longer exists still does in one aspect of my being and may be a springboard to new ways of living and personal growth. One thing we all know up close and personal:  life can turn on a dime and that the present is only as certain as our last breath. It’s all we can count on in this dimension.

All Things New

Behold, I make all things new. —Revelation 21:5 

In his  Meditations Richard Rohr, reflected on his illness and on his mortality and wrote, "I’ve been comforted by others who have experienced loss and aging with fearless grace. Over the next few days I’ll share some of their thoughts. Today, join me in reflecting on this passage from Quaker teacher and author Parker Palmer’s new book, On the Brink of Everything: Grace, Gravity and Getting Old."

I’m a professional melancholic, and for years my delight in the autumn color show quickly morphed into sadness as I watched the beauty die. Focused on the browning of summer’s green growth, I allowed the prospect of death to eclipse all that’s life-giving about the fall and its sensuous delights. John18: 33b-37 

Then I began to understand a simple fact: all the “falling” that’s going on out there is full of promise. Seeds are being planted and leaves are being composted as earth prepares for yet another uprising of green.

Today, as I weather the late autumn of my own life, I find nature a trustworthy guide. It’s easy to fixate on everything that goes to the ground as time goes by: the disintegration of a relationship, the disappearance of good work well done, the diminishment of a sense of purpose and meaning. But as I’ve come to understand that life “composts” and “seeds” us as autumn does the earth, I’ve seen how possibility gets planted in us even in the hardest of times.

Looking back, I see how the job I lost pushed me to find work that was mine to do, how the “Road Closed” sign turned me toward terrain that I’m glad I traveled, how losses that felt irredeemable forced me to find new sources of meaning. In each of these experiences, it felt as though something was dying, and so it was. Yet deep down, amid all the falling, the seeds of new life were always being silently and lavishly sown. . . .

Perhaps death possesses a grace that we who fear dying, who find it ugly and even obscene, cannot see. How shall we understand nature’s testimony that dying itself—as devastating as we know it can be—contains the hope of a certain beauty?

From Richard Rohr's Center for Action and Contemplation, Death and Resurrection, "All Things New," 11/18/18