the scandal of the Cross

Christianity acknowledges that we are sinners; we are all sinners. It is a belief that God, in Jesus, “did not come to call the righteous, but sinners” (Mark 2:17). Jesus did not merely come to call sinners – he spent all of his time with them. He ate with them (cf. Mark 2:15-17); it was, you could say, his mission.

“’Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Today salvation has come to this house… For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost’” (Luke 19:5, 9-10).

If we are Christian, and if we are truly honest with ourselves, we must admit that we are all sinners, and that the “righteous” that Jesus did not come to call do not – quite frankly – exist. Yet many Christians seem to be tempted to see Christianity through the lens of a perfect holiness. They are even tempted to point out the lack of holiness, the unholiness, of their brothers and sisters. How unfortunate. Such a temptation seems to miss, I would say, the more concrete reality that the holiness we desire is not human holiness, but the Lord’s. What seems to scandalize many Christians, however, is the fact that God himself has chosen to give this holiness – His holiness – to the “unholy hands” of men. In the final analysis, this is what theologians through the centuries have called, ‘the scandal of the Cross’.

A well-known theologian and author, Joseph Ratzinger, has expressed it this way:

“We come up here against the real mark of the ‘New Covenant’: in Christ, God has bound himself to men, has let himself be bound by them. The New Covenant no longer rests on the reciprocal keeping of the agreement; it is granted by God as grace that abides even in the face of man’s faithlessness.”

This comes from a book written several decades ago titled, Introduction to Christianity. He continues:

““Let us go a step further. In the human dream of a perfect world,
holiness is always visualized as an untouchability by sin and evil, as
something unmixed with the latter; there always remains in some form
or another a tendency to think in terms of black and white, a tendency
to cut out and reject mercilessly the current form of the negative
(which can be conceived in widely varying terms). In contemporary
criticism of society and in the actions in which it vents itself, this
relentless side always present in human ideals is once again only too
evident. That is why the aspect of Christ’s holiness that upset his
contemporaries was the complete absence of this condemnatory note – fire did not fall on the unworthy, nor were the zealous allowed to
pull up the weeds they saw growing luxuriantly on all sides. On the
contrary, this holiness expressed itself precisely as mingling with
the sinners whom Jesus drew into his vicinity; as mingling to the
point where he himself was made ‘to be sin’ and bore the curse of the
law in execution as a criminal – complete community of fate with the
lost (cf. 2 Cor 5:21; Gal 3:13).

Many people, indeed many Christians, like to criticize the Catholic Church for her “many sins”. But hasn’t the problem of “sin” been the lot of all of humanity?

In the Old Testament, we follow the story of God’s Chosen People, his Holy Nation, Israel. Here, we see the notion of “holy” to be used in it’s proper context, assigned by God; “holiness” means to be “set apart”. The holiness, then, is truly a grace from God; it is the holiness of God, and not of the people of Israel. Indeed, following the story of Israel, we see unholiness abound. They were sinners; sin was their lot, too. Yet no Israelite would deny that they belonged to God, that they were His Chosen People. The Israelites truly knew themselves to be set apart. The Church, which is Catholic and founded by God in Jesus (cf. Matthew 16:17-19; 28:19-20), is also “set apart” in this way.

“For I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior” (Isaiah 43:3).

Not all that long ago, a growing Protestant community was thriving in the United States. Many faithful and dedicated souls flocked to this church each week to hear the inspiring messages of their pastor, who spoke passionately about the saving work of Jesus Christ. And then, tragedy struck. The pastor had been arrested and convicted of murdering his wife – and the man whom his wife was having an affair with.

Did you hear about this story?

I have not shared the details, the names of those involved, or the location of the church. It was, however, in the news – but not much. Instead, scandals in the Catholic Church flourished in the news and headlines. The Catholic Church is the largest body of Christians in the world; perhaps this makes scandals in the Church “easier” to cover. However, all things considered, I would argue that the real scandal is a failure to understand Christianity – indeed, a failure to understand the life and mission of Jesus himself, who came to dwell with us sinners.

I must admit: I find a certain comfort in knowing that God, through Jesus, continues to choose to dwell with us, who are unholy, sinners and often times faithless. While it is unfortunately tempting to be scandalized by this – indeed, even for Christians – it is also a source of comfort and joy; it is, finally, an invitation to “repent, and believe in the good news” (cf. Mark 1:14)!

Thank you, Lord, for coming to dwell with us, and to save us poor sinners. Please help me to not be judgmental of my brothers and sisters. I am a sinner, Lord; help me to not “throw stones” at other sinners (cf. John 8:3-11).

Easter 2010: a need for catholicism

“Have I found joy?... No, but I have found my joy and that is something wildly different…

            The joy of Jesus can be personal.  It can belong to a single man and he is saved.  He is at peace, he is joyful now and for always, but he is alone.  The isolation of this joy does not trouble him; on the contrary: he is the chosen one.  In his blessedness he passes through the battlefields with a rose in his hand…

            When I am beset of affliction, I cannot find peace in the blandishments of genius.  My joy will not be lasting unless it is the joy of all.  I will not pass through the battlefields with a rose in my hand.”  - Jean Giono, 1936.

Easter, 2010:

Today I was thinking about the need for catholicism in our world.  A Greek word used by first century Christians, catholic means “one and universal”.  Catholicism is a word - I would say - that perhaps best describes the unity that Jesus desired when he prayed, “that they may be one, Father… as we are one: I in them and you in me.  May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me...”(John 17:21-23); it was a word that first century Christians did, indeed, use to describe this reality.

            Unfortunately, this kind of Christian unity does not exist in our world today.  Over the centuries, philosophies of individualism have crept into the religious consciences of Christians: the individual, personal encounter one must have of Jesus has been overemphasized, seemingly to the point of being at the expense of the one Body of Christ (cf. Ephesians 4:4-6).

            Comparative religious studies have seen this cycle of individualistic philosophies time and again.  Plato emphasized a need to escape this life, and it is a journey that each individual should make on his own.  Buddhism also feels a need to escape, even if through many reincarnations.  In the end, the only God is that of Escape.  These paths in life seem to sacrifice any attempt towards unity with other human beings, even if they are on the same journey.  It is, finally, a lonely journey, and these individualistic philosophies have also unfortunately made their way into Christian theologies.

            How tragic, how very far from the expressed desires heard in the prayer of our Savior.  Certainly, there are many Christians in the world today, but they are separated into 25,000-plus denominations - a number that has been growing with each passing year.  Instead of communicating the unity and peace of God with humanity, these separations communicate fracture, rupture, and divorce between God and humanity.  Tragic indeed. 

            It seems to me that contemporary Christianity has all but completely lost a grasp for the meaning of covenant.  We are living in the days of the New Covenant; we are a people covenanted to each other and to God, a family, in the “blood of the new covenant” (Luke 22:20; cf. 1 Cor 11:25).  Easter, 2010; today, in the liturgy of our covenanted family, water was sprinkled on all those present.  It is the waters of our baptism, a reminder of our covenanted promises in Christ – and a fulfillment of the covenant the Lord made with Israel at Sinai, where Moses “sprinkled the blood of the covenant” on the people (Exodus 24:6-8).

            

I am convinced that catholicism is needed in the world today; we should be united, “one and universal”.  It is, I feel, what the Lord desired from the beginning: a covenanted family in God, in Jesus.

A Walk Through Salvation History (part 3): "He opened their minds"

*This is the third and final part of a 3-part series I wrote on Salvation history; scroll down to read the other two posts in this series that precede this one*
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"Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures” (Luke 24:45).

We have been talking about Salvation history; we have seen how God has revealed his desire to bring all of humanity into his family. We have seen the progression of how God has done this through his covenants; with Adam and Eve, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, and finally Jesus, we see how God had sworn covenant oaths with a couple, a family, a tribe, a nation, a kingdom, and finally with a Church (all nations).

The history of our Salvation is also a history of our sin. Adam and Eve disobeyed God; Noah got drunk, and shamed himself; Abraham slept with an Egyptian mistress; Moses doubted God’s promises, and he himself was not allowed to enter the Promised Land; David became an adulterous and a murderer. And yet, God still leads his people; he led the chosen people of Israel; he leads the Church today. He is able to do so because he is God – and as John Paul II rightly observed, “sin cannot destroy the order of Love”, the order of God who saves humanity.  Despite humanity's many sins, the sovereignty of God in Salvation history can never be thwarted.

On the day of Jesus’ Resurrection, he accompanied some disciples as they journeyed to Emmaus, and opened up for them the meaning and the fulfillment of the Scriptures:

“He said to them, ‘How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?’ And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself” (Luke 24:25-27).

Some time soon after, Jesus appeared again to the apostles:

“He said to them, ‘This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.’ Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures” (Luke 24:44-45).

The fruit of what Jesus explained to them concerning the Scriptures remains in the Church to this day. The evidence from the preaching of the apostles is more than impressive!  These men, who may not have been able to make such connections between the Scriptures and their definitive fulfillment in Jesus on their own, is realized in what we read in the New Testament (see, for example, Acts 2, 8 and 13). These are connections that Jesus himself must have given to them, as he “opened their minds to understand the Scriptures” - "all the Scriptures concerning himself".

Jesus is the new Adam, who brings about a new creation (Romans 5:12-14, 17-19)
Jesus is a new Noah, who brings about a flood that saves through baptism (1 Peter 3:20-21)
Jesus is the new son of Abraham, in whom all the nations of the world will find blessing (Matthew 1:1; Galatians 3:29)
Jesus is the new Moses, who gives his people a new Passover, leading them through the final exodus of sin and death (1 Corinthians 10; 1 Corinthians 5:7)
Jesus is the son of David, in whom is fulfilled the everlasting covenant that God promised his people (Luke 1:32-33; many more!)

Perhaps we too can say with those disciples who journeyed with Jesus on the road to Emmaus: “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” (Luke 24:35)

A Walk Through Salvation History (part 2): A Series of Covenants

Before discussing in detail the major covenants that God established with his people throughout history, it will be helpful to touch upon the meaning that these covenants hold for God.

In essence, covenants are what establish our kinship with God: they form God’s family through swearing oaths. It seems quite clear that God, in establishing covenants throughout history, has wished to gather his family together. Ultimately, it is in light of the New Covenant in Jesus that all these covenants of Salvation history have their fulfillment. Paul seemed to grasp this reality very clearly, understanding the context of the old covenants fulfilled in the New Covenant:

“I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be there God, and they will be my people” – “I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty” (2 Corinthians 6:16, 18; cf. Leviticus 26:12, 2 Samuel 7:8, 14).

We are God’s family, and we are children of the Father (see 1 John 3:1-2). The story of God swearing covenant oaths with His children – which is also the history of our Salvation, the history of Israel together with the history of the Church – is outlined in the overall story of the Bible.

God gradually unveiled his desire to create an eternal covenant kinship with all of his children through the succession of the major covenants he established, as revealed in his Word:

Adam and Eve, establishing a covenant with one couple (Genesis 1:26-2:3)
Noah and his family, establishing a covenant with one household (Genesis 9:8-17)
Abraham and his descendants, establishing a covenant with one tribe (Genesis 12:1-3, 17:1-14, 22:16-18)
Moses and the Israelites, establishing a covenant with one nation (Exodus 19:5-6, 3:4-10, 6:7)
David and the Kingdom of Israel, establishing a covenant with one kingdom (many nations) (2 Samuel 7:8-19)
Jesus, establishing a covenant with one Church (all nations) (Matthew 26:28, 16:17-19)

With each succeeding covenant, the family of God is enlarged; they find their fulfillment in the New Covenant of Jesus, “the everlasting covenant” (cf. Hebrews 13:20). Salvation history is the history of these covenants. John Paul II once commented on this “unbroken history” by observing that this proves that man’s sin cannot destroy the order of Love, the order of God’s profound ability to give us Salvation despite our many faults and sins. The sense of this deep continuity between the Old and New Covenants can be seen in this Eucharistic prayer of the Church:

Father....You formed man in your own likeness
and set him over the whole world...
Even when he disobeyed you and lost your friendship
you did not abandon him to the power of death. . .
Again and again you offered a covenant to man and...
in the fullness of time you sent your only Son to be our Savior.

A Walk Through Salvation History (part 1): “Salvation is from the Jews”

I wanted to begin a series of posts on Salvation history, for I find it all to be very fascinating. Perhaps what thrills me the most is the way in which God really has been (and continues to be) the author of history, despite all of the sins and shortcomings of his children. This was certainly true of the Jews, of their history plagued by many sins and failures to live up to the demands of the covenants that God made with Israel; and yet God was always there, maintaining his presence in their pilgrimages, preparing the way for the Messiah. This is still true today, since the Messiah's coming: God still leads his people, and saves them. No doubt the history of our Salvation is a history of very many atrocious sins and crimes against God. But through it all, God is still the author of history – and the author of our Salvation. And this is what I find to be most fascinating: God does this in ways that only God can.

“Salvation is from the Jews” (John 4:22).

Salvation history does not begin with the birth of Christianity. The words quoted above are from Jesus, upon speaking with the Samaritan woman at the well. In no uncertain terms, he tells the woman the importance of the Jewish people in Salvation history. Jesus explains to her how the Father seeks true worshippers, “in spirit and in truth” (see John 4:21-21). The woman, in turn, relays to Jesus her understanding of the expectation of the Messiah: “I know the Messiah (called Christ) is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”

“Then Jesus declared to her, ‘I who speak to you am he’” (John 4:25-26).

“Salvation is from the Jews.” What does this mean? It means that Salvation history begins with the history of the Jewish people. It is Israel’s history that prepares the way for the Lord – and for us. This preparation is perhaps best seen through the different covenants that God made with humanity in history. This is important because at the culmination of these covenants is our covenant with God through Jesus Christ:

“Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you. This is the blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins’” (Matthew 26:27-28).

In a very real sense, these words of Jesus, which were spoken at the Last Supper, already have a rich history and meaning for Israel. They are reminiscent of the “blood of the covenant” at Sinai (Exodus 24:8). Here at the Last Supper, however, Jesus is instituting a New Covenant (see Luke 202:20; 1 Corinthians 11:25), which fulfills this old covenant (cf. Hebrews 8:13, 9:15). So it is therefore necessary for us to view Salvation history in the light of these great covenants that God made with his people – that will be the task of my succeeding posts.

"what is worship?" (part 2)

*This is the second part of a two-part post on worship; scroll down to see the first post that precedes this one"
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“Behold the lamb of God!” (John 1:35; cf. 1:29)

I would like to take up again the question that was posed by a friend recently: “What is worship?”

As I mentioned in my last post, this is a question that I feel cannot be answered in any short response. So I am approaching it once again; this time I wish to discuss the connection between ‘worship’ and the biblical roots for ‘the Lamb of God’. The connections are many – and as the apocalypse of St. John reveals, the Lamb of God is worshipped in Heaven for all eternity:

“’Worthy is the Lamb that was slaughtered to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!’ And the elders fell down and worshipped” (Revelation 5:12; cf. 5:13-14).

When Jesus approached John the Baptist in the Jordan River, John addressed him in words that were truly prophetic: “Behold the Lamb of God” (John 1:29; 1:35). It seems probable that John knew well the historical and prophetic roots for the Lamb of God, of which he rightly attributed to Jesus, “who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). What are those historical and prophetic roots?

Recall the story of Abraham’s sacrifice, when the Lord asked him to offer his son Isaac “as a burnt offering” (Genesis 22:2). God tested Abraham; when Isaac asked his father, “where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”, Abraham responded: “God will provide himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son” (Genesis 22:7-8). These words were certainly prophetic. If we consider the fact that in the original Hebrew there were no punctuations, we could read that verse in a way that John the Baptist might have read it: “God will provide Himself, the Lamb, for the burnt offering, my son.” What is also significant is the fact that the region where God had asked Abraham to offer the sacrifice of his son – “the region of Moriah” (Genesis 22:2) – was the same region where the hills reside just outside the future city of Jerusalem. It was the region of Calvary, where God would indeed provide the Lamb of God.

John must have also understood the prophetic connection of the Passover with Jesus as well. The Passover is when the Lord instructed the Israelites who were in bondage in Egypt to sacrifice and eat a lamb (see Exodus 12). The lamb had to be “unblemished, without broken bones” – which we see Jesus fulfilled on the Cross (see John 19:36; cf. Exodus 12:5, 46; cf. Psalm 34:20). They had to “eat the meat roasted over fire, with bitter herbs, and with bread made without yeast” (Exodus 12:8). The Passover was to be commemorated every year, with detailed liturgical formulas (see Exodus 12:14-28). The sacrificial lamb was a ransom, in place of the firstborn of the Israelites household; so the Passover – and its annual commemoration – was in a real sense an act of redemption – a “buying back”. It therefore seems probable that the Baptist saw Jesus as the fulfillment of the Passover, the true Lamb of God who definitely completes Redemption for Israel – and all humanity.

John probably also knew well the prophetic words of Isaiah, who spoke about the suffering servant, who appeared as “a lamb lead to be slaughtered” (Isaiah 53:7). It was this suffering servant – this “lamb” – who made his life “an offering for sin”, according to the Lord’s will (Isaiah 53:10). Perhaps this, too, was what was in the mind of the Baptist, who beheld Jesus as the Lamb of God, “who takes away the sin of the world”. Some years later, it would be the apocalypse given to John the Apostle on Patmos, who beheld the Lamb, “as if slaughtered” (Revelation 5:6; cf. 5:9, 12).

“You were slaughtered and by your blood you have ransomed for God saints from every tribe and language and people and nation” (Revelation 5:9).

How truly prophetic were those words of John of the Baptist, who seemed to connect worship with the Lamb of God – a connection confirmed in the apocalypse given to the apostle John on Patmos.

"what is worship?"

“A time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks” (John 4:23).

Not too long ago, someone posed the following question to me and to several others: “What is worship?”

Initially, I wasn’t sure how to respond. There are many allusions to worship throughout the Bible. I felt that in order to answer that question, no short answer could be given. The Bible itself has much to teach us about worship. Worship has even been the subject of many authors, poured into many books; but it is a difficult question to answer in any short response. That is at least how I felt.

So I decided to write a blog about it. It may even turn into several blogs. In any case, I realize there are probably countless ways to approach this question. Since one of the emphasis for my blog is Catholic roots, I will begin there, and approach it from there.

I’ve mentioned in previous posts about how God wishes for us to engage all our senses in worship, and for all our senses to be filled with him. This is because it is how we were created: with bodies, with senses. It is why Catholicism is such a “sensual religion”, with all of her “smells and bells” – so we can engage all our senses in worship of God. In a word, it is so we can fully participate as human beings in worship of God, and participate “to the depths of our being”. And if this sounds a little strange to us, it shouldn’t – if we are Christian. By virtue of the “Word made flesh” (cf. John 1:14), Jesus Christ – who became a “body among bodies” – fully reveals the dignity of our humanity, our status as creatures, specifically made this way, “in the image and likeness of God” (cf. Genesis 1:27).

With this in mind, lets get back to the question: “what is worship”?

There is a term used in Catholic theology that is used to denote the ways in which Heaven and earth meet in worship; it is called the ‘sacramental imagination’. In essence, it refers to the ways we can experience the graces and glory of Heaven here on earth, in and through our senses, in and through our bodies, and the "stuff" of this world (and lets not forget: "God saw all that he made, and it was very good," Genesis 1:31). This, too, may at first sound strange.

But consider the revelations given to St. John. The visions given to St. John were the apocalypse – a Greek word that means “to unveil”, or “an unveiling”. What was unveiled for John? Heaven was unveiled. John, in fact, beheld the “new Jerusalem” (cf. Revelation 3:12; 21:2), and the worship that took place there. The descriptions of the heavenly worship are quite elaborate, to say the least. A question arises: why would heavenly, spiritual worship be depicted in such earthly terms? Why were so many things of our material creation seen to be in use in the worship of Heaven?

If in Heaven we will not find such things as harps and candles, then what was being unveiled (“apocalypsed”) was a way by which we could participate in the worship of Heaven. This is, in fact, how the sacramental imagination of the Catholic Church has looked at worship. It even seems to be something revealed by God, given to St John on Patmos; it is how a sacramental imagination has “made sense” of these “sensual realities” concerning worship - and in particular the worship of Heaven, revealed to John. This is how the Church “entered into worship" from the beginning; it is how the Church worships still, today. “Taste and see” for yourself (cf. Psalm 34:8):

An altar (Rev 8:3)
Priests (presbyteroi) (Rev 4:4; 11:15; 14:3; 19:4)
Robed clergy (Rev 4:4; 1:13; 6:11; 7:9; 15:6; 19:13-14)
Candles, Lamp stands, Menorah (Rev 1:12; 2:5)
Incense (Rev 5:8)
Manna (Rev 2:17)
Chalices (Rev 15:7; see Rev chapter 16; 21:9)
“Lift up your hearts” (Rev 11:12)
“Holy, Holy, Holy” (Rev 4:8)
The Gloria (Rev 15:3-4)
The Sign of the Cross (tau) (Rev 14:1)
The Alleluia (Rev 19:1, 3, 6)
Reading from Scripture (see Rev chapters 2-3)
The “Lamb of God” (Rev 5:6, and throughout)
Intercession of angels and saints (Rev 5:8; 6:9-10; 8:3-4)
Antiphonal chant (Rev 4:8-11; 5:9-14; 7:10-12; 18:1-8)
Silent contemplation (Rev 8:1)
Sunday worship (Rev 1:10)