Be Not Afraid

"Be not afraid... Fear not." People have derived comfort from these words for over 2,000 years, yet we are still afraid. What's more, we are too frightened to admit our fears, particularly the biggest fear of all - death. The fear of death overshadows our lives. We have - or likely have - lived longer than our parents and grandparents. We are better fed; we lose fewer babies, and modern medicine protects us from contagion and disease that will lengthen our lives... and yet, we are still afraid. Shortly after September 11, 2011 the words “Fear Not” seemed a little out of place. Surely we had every reason to be afraid.

 I am reminded of Father Mychal Judge, a Franciscan priest, who served as Chaplain to the New York City Fire Dept., and was the first victim officially registered as fallen at “Ground Zero,” the name given to the site of the former decimated Twin Towers in the early days of rescue and later search. The details of his death are unclear: some say he was fatally wounded as he administered last rites to a dying firefighter; others recall his being killed while in silent prayer. Whatever happened, his lifeless body was discovered in the lobby and carried to a nearby church shortly before Tower I collapsed. What does this have to do with our gospel (Matthew 24: 37-44)? Who knew how that fateful Tuesday that began with skies so blue and air so clear, would end as it did? In many ways, Father Mychal lived this gospel. In many ways this was a man who had arrived at Ground Zero long before 9/11. He had proved himself ready to lay down his life many times during his career. For him 9/11 could have occurred on any day or at any time... he was prepared. If the thought of finding God amidst such harrowing circumstances seems strange, perhaps it is because we are out of the practice of looking for Him. However, we can be certain that Christ's death and resurrection hold the deepest answer to all our fears. Christ was executed like a common criminal and was totally forsaken by his friends. By His overcoming death and our sharing in his resurrection, He took away all our reasons to fear forever. Of course it does no good to recognize this on a merely intellectual level. Knowing that Christ loves us may not save us from fear, nor will it save us from death. And so it comes down to this: The only way to truly overcome our fear of death is to "be prepared" and to live our life in such a way that its meaning cannot be taken away by death. As with Father Mike, it means fighting the impulse to live for ourselves instead of others. It means being prepared to die again and again to ourselves, and to every one of our self-serving opinions and agendas. (Adapted from Johann Chrisoph Arnold, Be Not Afraid, Advent Readings, 2001) 

Christ The King

Although his time on earth was short, Jesus created quite a stir during his even briefer ministry (Luke 23:35-43). He challenged the oppressive Jewish laws, tradition and the Roman hierarchy. He made no class distinction and consorted with the disenfranchised members of society. Conventional wisdom was an oxymoron to Jesus as he set aside the “purity code” by proclaiming it wasn’t what went into your mouth that mattered but what came out. He wasn’t a king, a priest, or a prophet. He performed many miracles that included healing the sick and bringing the dead back to life. Yet Jesus refused to save himself and was executed along with 2  criminals. And to compound the indignity, the soldiers knelt at his feet, not to worship, but to gamble for his clothes, while deriding his reign as “king of the Jews.” The crucified Jesus bore no resemblance to a "king" and so they mocked him. 

Yet, for some reason, one of the two thieves also being executed reprimanded the other who derided Jesus’  and spoke with compassion as he took pity on him and implored Jesus to "remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Now, what made this criminal know that he was in the presence of God? 
 

We celebrate the feast of Christ the King, not because of his regal bearing, but because of his humility; not because of his power, but because of his compassion; not because of his triumph, but because of his travail; not because he fixes our lives, but because he shows us the way to live. 

And what about this kingdom of God? Where is it? Richard Rohr writes that “if we go to the depths of anything, we will begin to knock upon something substantial, ‘real’ and with a timeless quality to it. We will move from the starter kit of ‘belief’ to an actual inner knowing. This is most especially true if we have ever loved deeply; accompanied someone through the mystery of dying, or stood in genuine life changing awe before mystery time or beauty. This ‘something real’ is what all the worlds’ religions were pointing to when they spoke of heaven or the kingdom of God. They were not wrong at all; their only mistake was that they pushed it off into the next world. If God’s Kingdom is later, it is because it is first of all now…In other words, heaven/ union/ love now emerge from within us much more than from a mere belief system and  as Jesus promised the Samaritan woman, “the spring within her will well up into eternal life. (John 4:14)”

Love is Here to Stay

 

 

The more I read the papers, the less I comprehend.
The world and all its capers and how it all will end.
Nothing seems to be lasting, but that isn’t our affair.
We’ve got something permanent,
I mean in the way we care.

…And so did Ira Gershwin pen this beautiful preface to his brother George’s melody. I believe that these words relate to our reading in Luke 21:5-19. Ira Gershwin wrote the lyrics to Love is Here to Stay as a loving tribute to his brother who had just died at 39. The song speaks of love’s permanence in an ever changing world. Ira would have no way of knowing how prophetic his words written in 1938 would be for us in 2019, as we witness the passing of what we thought would be indestructible pillars of our culture and society gradually erode like the song’s “passing fancies.”

A few years ago I had the chance to visit the high school from which I graduated. At the time of my visit I couldn’t resist driving by my childhood home and pause for a while and allow the memories to take me back. Only the front door remained the same. While I did not expect to recognize anyone I would have known, I was able to re-create people and places by super imposing my memory on the scene.

Not unlike those who resisted Jesus’ prediction that the temple would one day be destroyed, I too thought these icons of my youth would last forever. Yes, there is an ache that comes from seeing so much of what we thought would always be, be no longer. But I suppose the older we get the more we know that nothing temporal by its very definition is eternal.

Jesus prophetically speaks of unsettling things that we like to think are just spiritual metaphors. But the current devastation from the forest fires in tbe Southwest, the renewal of war and genocide in Syria are terrible reminders that the things we hold so close are just passing fancies and in time will go. Even if these words don't resonate with us today, the time will come when they just might. Blessedly then, as now, Jesus’ promise remains, “I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict.”

God is watching out for us and His love is here to stay.

"Remember man, presume not God to scan; the proper study of mankind is man.

I don’t think the Sadducees really cared about Jesus’ opinion on resurrection (Luke 20: 27-38). Not unlike news reporters who ask leading questions to which they already know the answer, the Sadducees tried to embarrass Jesus by having him say something that “contradicts” the law. Yet, motive aside, was their question really unreasonable?  The Sadducees saw the whole person as mortal and did not believe in "resurrection.” They attempted to apply the Jewish law to women, marriage and procreation to trap him. Of course in all cultures marriage and procreation are crucial to maintaining stability and preserving survival and Jesus is really not rejecting or taking a stand on the importance of marriage. However, he is telling the Sadducees that marriage is irrelevant and procreation is unnecessary in life eternal. 

 David Steindl-Rast writes that “Jesus’ resurrection has nothing to do with coming back to life (as with Lazarus in John’s Gospel). The Nicene and Apostle Creeds do not refer to ‘coming back’ to this life. No, resurrection is a sacred movement of completion. It’s a new beginning into a new dimension of existence in which the power of love breaks the bonds of death and humanity. The followers of Jesus experienced the resurrection of Jesus Christ as a life-changing event.”

The Sadducees used the laws of Moses to trap Jesus on resurrection. However, Moses was dealing in a time and place during which a man was responsible for the preservation of his family lineage by marrying his brother's wife if his brother dies (Deuteronomy 25:5-10). Once again Jesus defies earthly convention and challenges the laws of Moses as he reminds us that God cannot be defined or confined by man’s laws. We are only capable of understanding that which our human intellect permits. God's "laws" do not conform to "conventional wisdom"or are they confined to our earthly dimension. God is about something more.

“For many of us mystery became an adversary; unknowing became a weakness. The contemplative spiritual life is an ongoing reversal of this adjustment. It is a slow and sometimes painful process of becoming ‘little children’ again in which we first make friends with mystery and finally fall in love with it again.”  (Gerald May, Dark Night of the Soul).