Wednesday of third week of Easter

Readings (Acts 8:1-8, Jn 6:35-40) here


First Reading first:  Like yesterday, we get an honest introduction to Christianity:

There broke out a severe persecution of the Church in Jerusalem,and all were scattered...Saul, meanwhile, was trying to destroy the Church;entering house after house and dragging out men and women,he handed them over for imprisonment.

BUT that's not the whole story.  It couldn't be, for if Christian life was all torture and desolation, it couldn't have possibly lasted 2000 years and spread everywhere. The first reading ends on the whole point of everything: "there was great joy".

Uhh what? How is it that Phillip calmly goes down to Samaria amidst terrible persecution from Saul, and is able to preach joyfully? It's not like it was a secret people were getting imprisoned for believing this stuff,  and it wasn't just Phillip but everyone who was scattered went along their refugee way preaching the word.

After hearing about Saul's rampage against Christians, the responsorial psalm is "Let all the earth cry out to God with joy"  That seems odd.  What is with Christianity and this whole suffering and joy going together thing?


The answer, of course, is Jesus.

The Gospel continues the bread of life discourse of yesterday, and Jesus says "I will not reject anyone who comes to me" and "everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have eternal life and I shall raise him on the last day".

This is the Good News, the source of those tortured Christians joy-- with the bread of life one never hungers, never thirsts. Though they may on earth face starvation and drought, they can still rejoice in the fact that it is nothing to eternity.  Not only that, but temporal suffering can be united to that of Christ and made meaningful, so that it is something to eternity, but a good sort of something.

Many didn't like all of this 'my Father' "I am the bread" "come to me" "I should raise"   etc.  talk. It sounded preeeetty blasphemous.  But that only works if it isn't true.  IF he really is the bread of life, it can't be a sin against humility to say so. If he really is God, he can't really blaspheme.  This is the mind blowing, life changing, awesome claim that is either completely insane or the most true thing you'll ever hear.  These are not the words of a nice guy preacher of the kindergarten grade golden rule- this speech drove a lot of people away, and he let them go.  That joy amid suffering we encounter in the first reading and in every saint ever is only possible in this bordering on crazy claim that God became not only one of us, but our food.  It is crazy, but love always has been a little insane.   

April 12 Readings - Stephen Martyr and Jesus, Bread of Life

The readings can be found here (Acts 7:51-8:1; Jn 6:30-35)

So here we are, going on three weeks after Easter and 7 chapters into the life of the Church, and we already have a gruesome, yet beautiful, death.  Welcome to Christianity. Prepare to die.


READING 1 Context, Summary

Stephen was "a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit", "full of grace and power".  He took care of widows so the Apostles could focus on more heavenly things like prayer and preaching.  When he started performing great signs and wonders, the old school Jews got upset, rounded up some false witnesses and had him arrested for blasphemy.  Sounds familiar...

When questioned, Stephen responds with a long speech about Abraham and Moses, God's promises and the many and various ways the Jewish people tended to poop on those promises.  Bottom line, they [Jews specifically, all of humanity generally, you and me included] are constantly screwing up and ignoring God, trying to do things their own way.   As he says at the end of the speech and the beginning of today's reading,

"You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit, As your fathers did, so do you.  Which of the prophets did not your fathers persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered, you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it"

I'm detecting a pattern here...

And hearing this, the men who falsely accused him realized the error of their ways, repented, and let him g-- no wait, they just got super angry and stoned Stephen to death. During this torture, Stephen saw the glory of heaven that awaited him, and in the light of Christ's gaze begged forgiveness for his murderers.  Again, very familiar...

Oh and btw, Saul was totally cool with all this.

READING 2 Context, Summary

Earlier in this chapter is a multiplication of loaves miracle, wherein Jesus feeds the multitudes, then they go looking for Him later and he says, hey, you're only looking for me because I filled your belly. Don't be ruled by your belly, worry about your soul.
In today's reading, these people, who just the day before ate miracle bread, and were just now told to not worry about bread for your belly, are asking for a sign [you know, in addition to that one we all saw yesterday] and more bread.  It's the sort of thing Moses did, so if Jesus is anybody he should do it too.

So Jesus said to them,
“Amen, amen, I say to you,
it was not Moses who gave the bread from heaven;
my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 
For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven
and gives life to the world.”

And when they ask for that bread, he says
“I am the bread of life;
whoever comes to me will never hunger,
and whoever believes in me will never thirst.”

This week's readings don't go into their reaction to this Bread of Life stuff, but it isn't good.  They basically
say 'who the crap are you?" , kind of exactly like they did to Moses, the prophets, and kept doing to Jesus, Stephen...

THOUGHTS

Three things re the first reading: 1) circumcision 2) not enough to be chosen 3) martyrdom

Two things re the Gospel reading: 4) signs aren't enough 5) we all are idiots

so. 1) Stephen accuses his accusers of being uncircumcised in heart and ears. That sounds weird.  But what was circumcision? A sacrifice and sign of God's covenant with man.  It marked his chosen people, it was initiation into God's flock.  Uncircumcised in heart and ears would be a lack of what these signs point to- a voluntary self exile from God's people via pride and refusal to listen to the shepherd. The external stuff is important, because humans operate in the physical, external world, but alone it is meaningless. If it isn't a sign of interior reality, it may as well not be there. In fact, it's probably better for it not to be there, as that would at least be more honest... 

So Stephen calls a bunch of circumcised Jews uncircumcised where it counts.  He also calls them to real, interior, conversion, to escape the way of their prophet-persecuting fathers and maybe actually follow God. 

2) It's not enough to be chosen.  The Jews are the Chosen People and have a big fat book full of screw ups.  Christians are Chosen through baptism and don't have much better of a record.  You have to be ready to do chosen things- open and humbly obedient to God's will, as opposed to pridefully enforcing your version of what His Will should be.
3) Stephen, as the first martyr, is a particularly good witness [greek: martyr] of what we should all be doing with our Christian lives.  Things to learn from Stephen Protomartyr's example:
 you have to be ready and willing to:
serve poor widows so other people can do more glamorous things
call people out as needed
take a stoning
forgive jerks who stone you

RE the Gospel:

Why this reading to go along with Stephen's martyrdom? Because it also clarifies and sharpens the truth of the Old Testament in the light of the New.  The Jews were familiar with the bread from heaven in the desert, thus they could recognize Christ as the True Bread from Heaven, if they have ears for hearing, eyes for hearing, a heart for understanding.  This brings us to point 4) signs aren't enough.  These people are still digesting the Jesus' miracle bread, just found him miraculously across the lake apparently without a boat and super fast, and yet they still ask to see something more. The signs in themselves are not enough unless you are open to what they may point you toward.  Much like in human relationships, (and the Catholic religion is ultimately just a loving relationship with God) you could have a closed heart and ignore all signs of love and friendship, always demanding more and more 'proof'. Which would be idiotic, but, last point on these readings 5) we are all idiots.  We keep doing the same thing over and over again, ignoring prophets, setting up our silly selves as ultimate judge of everything, forgetting signs almost as soon as they happen.  Luckily, Jesus is THe Good Shepherd, so he's used to moronic sheep and loves us anyway. He never stops giving us the grace to be like Him, like Stephen.

Good Friday 2016

ON this Good Friday Annunciation Day Feast Fast, I am hereby officially commencing my contributions to this blog.  (For awesome, rather nerdy insight on Good Friday happening on March 25, see this other blog I just discovered for the occasion)

Good Friday is the day one most intensely feels the weight of Catholic paradox. God Himself, the Shepherd, becomes the sacrificed Lamb.  The Creator of the entire universe is tortured and thrown up on a tree by his puny, petty, creatures.  The worst, most evil crime in the history of the world-- murdering God-- which shouldn't even be possible, and which leaves blood on all of our hands, is called GOOD.

That seems pretty messed up. The gruesome murder of the only wholly innocent person to live (who is the Son of the other innocent, His Mother who suffer with him) seems like the least good event conceivable.  But that's looking at it based on the human contribution.  Fortunately, (understatement and a half) God allows us a share in His part in it all.  On His end, Good Friday is the ultimate act of infinite, unconditional love and unfathomable mercy.  He freely (and this is God who IS boundless freedom) laid down His life for His friends, even while they killed him, and asked only that they be forgiven for it.

Keeping it short, because I have to get to the greatest day's Liturgy, I end my inaugural post with one of my all time favorite poems, about a guy distracted from his soul's true desires, running away from the cross, yet finding his thought bent on it nevertheless.

Good Friday, 1613. Riding Westward John Donne

Let mans Soule be a Spheare, and then, in this,
The intelligence that moves, devotion is,
And as the other Spheares, by being growne
Subject to forraigne motion, lose their owne,
And being by others hurried every day,
Scarce in a yeare their naturall forme obey:
Pleasure or businesse, so, our Soules admit
For their first mover, and are whirld by it.
Hence is't, that I am carryed towards the West
This day, when my Soules forme bends toward the East.
There I should see a Sunne, by rising set,
And by that setting endlesse day beget;
But that Christ on this Crosse, did rise and fall,
Sinne had eternally benighted all.
Yet dare I'almost be glad, I do not see
That spectacle of too much weight for mee.
Who sees Gods face, that is selfe life, must dye;
What a death were it then to see God dye?
It made his owne Lieutenant Nature shrinke,
It made his footstoole crack, and the Sunne winke.
Could I behold those hands which span the Poles,
And tune all spheares at once peirc'd with those holes?
Could I behold that endlesse height which is
Zenith to us, and our Antipodes,
Humbled below us? or that blood which is
The seat of all our Soules, if not of his,
Made durt of dust, or that flesh which was worne
By God, for his apparell, rag'd, and torne?
If on these things I durst not looke, durst I
Upon his miserable mother cast mine eye,
Who was Gods partner here, and furnish'd thus
Halfe of that Sacrifice, which ransom'd us?
Though these things, as I ride, be from mine eye,
They'are present yet unto my memory,
For that looks towards them; and thou look'st towards mee,
O Saviour, as thou hang'st upon the tree;
I turne my backe to thee, but to receive
Corrections, till thy mercies bid thee leave.
O thinke mee worth thine anger, punish mee,
Burne off my rusts, and my deformity,
Restore thine Image, so much, by thy grace,
That thou may'st know mee, and I'll turne my face.

No Black Mass for me, thanks. I'm evil-intolerant.

For the love of all that is good and holy (literally), I will not "Enjoy the delights of the Devil" tomorrow, thank you very much -- instead many prayers that this Oklahoma City Black Mass will not happen, mostly to keep the Devil away from pretty much everyone (Pssssst, St.Michael - a little help here?) Dress it up however you want, evil is evil is evil and I will not be inviting the Devil into my life, even if it's just City Hall. And if this particular event is not evil, it's pointless and directly offensive to my core beliefs. So just, no, thanks.

Why, do you ask, should i care?

"[The satanists] do intend to mock the rituals of the Catholic church in their services; it is these acts of mockery that make up their services and serve as an integral part of their religious practice." via ABC News.

I mean really. Do I have to explain myself here? While I am not signing petitions or asking anyone to stop doing what they are doing, I am pointing out that sure, they have the right to assemble in a public place, but this is not upholding religious freedom, unless "Anti-Catholicism" is a legit religion now. Try Anti-Islam or Anti-Buddhism or Anti-Veganism -- yeah, not a religion people, that's a mockery of others beliefs and has no inherently good value. Fun fact: that's all the Devil knows how to do because he's not God and so there. Ha. We win (and by we I mean God, then thankfully us along with Him).

Don't worry though; they're using vinegar instead of urine at the City Hall ritual. Because, well, they have to (health codes and all that).