Christ: Center & Holy Wisdom of Creation

Over the past few months I've been reading about sophiology, the study of Wisdom. Two books, particularly, have given me much to think and pray about regarding the relationship between Christ and Wisdom, and the relationship of Christ/Holy Wisdom and creation, especially human beings: Sophia: The Hidden Christ of Thomas Merton, by Christopher Pramuk, and Sophia: The Wisdom of God, by Sergei Bulgakov. Pramuk's is an exciting appeal for the long-overdue recognition of Wisdom's centrality to contemporary theology and ecclesiology, and Bulgakov's is one of the finest explanations I've ever read of the relation between Scriptural accounts of Wisdom and each Person of the Holy Trinity. A warning: this isn't lectio divina for the fainthearted! It's intense and heavy. I don't claim to comprehend even half of it, but I think it's extremely relevant to our situation as Church today. I read recently a criticism of someone who is an avowed conservative regarding the way "liberals" present their take on contemporary theology.  The criticism was that you don't see much explicit mention of Jesus. Without engaging in a side-discussion of that statement, which could go on endlessly, it's a point, I believe, well taken.

That's why I was eager to share just the following few ideas, during this Christmastide/Epiphany cycle, from another great theologian, Hans Urs von Balthasar, taken from The Glory of the Lord, Vol I: Theological Aesthetics, published back in the early '80's:

"The Incarnation of the Word means the most extreme manifestness within the deepest concealment...What is most familiar to us [humanity itself] is suddenly turned for us into a word and a teaching about God...

...The insignificant must be the appearance of what is most significant. We could understand it better if the hiddenness of this 'flesh' were supposed to represent the silence of the Word, God's pure concealment. But no: precisely this hiddenness is to be the speech in which God desires to make himself known definitely and insurpassably, beyond misunderstanding or confusion with any other human word...in Christ, humanity is disclosed along with God...God takes on human nature as his own and expresses himself from within it through the expressive structures of that nature's essence...God is able, therefore, to reveal in Christ, at once God and humanity...

...Christ...is the form [of revelation] because he is the content...If for a single moment we were to look away from him and attempt to consider and understand the Church as an autonomous form, the Church would not have the slightest plausibility...The plausibility of Christianity stands and falls with Christ's...

...The fact that Christ 'says nothing to me' in no way prejudices the fact that, in and of himself, Christ says everything to everyone. What is at stake here is the correspondence of human existence as a whole to the form of Christ...

...The gospel presents Christ's form in such a way that 'flesh' and 'spirit', Incarnation to the point of suffering and death, and resurrected life are all interrelated down to the smallest details..."

Well, that ought to give us all plenty to chew on until Easter!   

Jesus: The Holy Name

St. Luke, in Chapter 2:15-21 of his Gospel narrative, gives us his understanding of the meaning of the Christmas event through words spoken to common sheep-tenders. The good news told them was: "Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ [i.e., Anointed One of] the Lord." The child we've come to know as Jesus historically bore the Hebrew name Yeshua/Yeshua bar Joseph. The name derives from yasha = to be open, wide, free; to save. Jesus means He [God] saves.

In Jewish society, the name stood for the person and indicated something about his/her history, purpose and mission in life. Jesus' name was a fairly common one (e.g., the Hebrew Scriptures' equivalent: Joshua). There had been many "saviors". But in God's plan this Jesus, son of Mary and Joseph, was to be the Savior, the Anointed One of God.

You've no doubt heard, as I have, the oft-asked question: "Are you saved?" What that usually implies is something like: "Can you name a specific time/date of a religious experience or conversion??" Or, it implies that some common ground may exist in our conversation, i.e., "Are you part of the 'club'?? If so, then we can associate. If not, then you're suspect and my defenses are up." Sometimes the question is asked, meaning: "Are you a charismatic, or born-again, or evangelical Christian??" For many others, "Are you saved?" carries with it a negative connotation: "Are you saved, in the sense that you're not one of those 'worldly' people who smoke, drink, dance, etc."

When I hear that question, "Are you saved?", I'm reminded of the comments made by my son's school principal in a 1981 PTA newsletter:
"The greatest problem facing our world today is tat of man's relationship to his fellow man. How we resolve this problem will, in a large part, determine whether this nation, and even the world will survive. The human ability to accept others is the brightest light in the darkness of this world. Many of the world's religions point to this human ability as the quality by which man can prevent potential misery and even annihilation.

I am convinced that the answers to this problem lie within each of us. The light is there for us to use as individuals, as a community of persons, as a community of nations. Yet we continue to withhold ourselves from others -- we cut them off -- we don't believe in them -- we don't accept them as being one of us because of a difference in age, sex, color, viewpoint or speech. Darkness is nothing -- as soon as we turn the light on, it disappears. By providing even a little light, some of the darkness disappears.

At this time of year, just think what benefit we can provide for those who inhabit our small corner of the world and even for ourselves, if we turn on the light of affection, concern, sympathy, understanding and love for our fellowman. It is this giving of ourselves that this holiday season represents.

It is not so difficult to give of ourselves -- to open the gates of our attitudes -- so that we can share ourselves with those who may have differing viewpoints. Let this holiday season be one in which we exercise these gifts. It is our potential to give freely and lavishly of them."

Parenthetically, I hadn't read that for some years, until now, and I'm rather astounded at both the passionate simplicity of that man's message, and also the spot-on relevance which it has these 30 years later! On the face of it, there's nothing world-shaking in that statement; it's a simple, direct, practical message.

The simple meaning of "Are you saved?" or of "He saved us." or of "Jesus saves!" is that Jesus wouldn't withhold himself from any one of us. Jesus accepts us. He accepts us despite what we have been in the past and often are in the present. St. Paul describes our condition in his letter to Titus (3:1-3): "At one time, we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy..." This is how we are, and Jesus accepts us.

In his story about Jesus' birth, Luke speaks about light surrounding the shepherds: a symbol of wisdom and recognition that in Jesus we're saved, that he hasn't withheld himself from any of us. This giving and sharing is what the world is crying out for as it stands today at the threshold of this new year, 2011. The non-believers of the world don't generally criticize us Christians so much because of the fact that we believe, or because of our outward religious observances. But the one thing they do call us on is that we don't take our belief seriously enough to actually live it and practice it daily, without prompting from the priest or minister, or from the Church, or from organized religion. We Christians often seem not to understand or to take seriously the truth of the fact that "He saved us".

How can you and I live such that we do convey the reality of "He saves" to others? How do we live the Christmas event throughout the new year? My then 11 year old daughter, Nicole, unknowingly expressed something of an answer to this on Christmas Eve, 1981, when she left a note for Santa which said: "I hope you will bring me the things I put on my list. But most of all, I hope you will bring to all my family and relatives the things they really want..." Exercising the human ability to accepts others, not withholding oneself from them: that's how you and I enable Jesus to save us and others. It's really very simple. There are so many saving gifts which you and I can give to one another all year long: a smile; washing the dishes for someone else; forgiving an old grudge; passing on some good news, rather than a complaint or gossip; saying "Please" and "Thank you"; trying to understand another person's viewpoint, rather than dismissing them.

It's almost a national annual ritual to set about making resolutions at the beginning of the new year. Walter Scott suggests the following possibilities. Perhaps one or two may strike a responsive chord in you and give you a year's worth of motivation this year:

 No one will ever get out of this world alive.

Resolve, therefore, in the year to come to maintain a sense of values.

Take care of yourself. Good health is everyone's major source of wealth.

Without it, happiness is almost impossible.

Resolve to be cheerful and helpful. People will repay you in kind.

Avoid angry, abrasive persons. They are generally vengeful.

Avoid zealots. They are generally humorless.

Resolve to listen more and to talk less. No one ever learns anything by talking.

Be chary of giving advice. Wise men don't need it, and fools won't heed it.

Resolve to be tender with the young, compassionate with the aged,

sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant of the weak and the wrong.

Sometime in life you will have been all of these.

Do not equate money with success. There are many successful money-makers

who are miserable failures as human beings. What counts most 

about success is how a man achieves it.

Resolve to love next year someone you didn't love this year.

Love is the most enriching ingredient of life. 

 

25th Anniversary - The Order of Julian of Norwich

The Order of Julian of Norwich was founded on December 30, 1985, by Fr. John-Julian Swanson. The contemplative Order follows the medieval custom of including both men and women under vows as Members Regular, living in community. The motherhouse is located in Waukesha, Wisconsin, outside Milwaukee.

Beside the Members Regular, there are professed Oblate Members, as well as Associate Members (married or single, clergy or lay), who affiliate themselves with the Order by prayer and financial support as they live the contemplative life in the world.

The Order’s four-fold vows are poverty, chastity, obedience, and prayer. The Members Regular live in semi-enclosed community and fully observe the traditional vows. The Oblates, seriously committed to the spiritual and contemplative life in the world, make profession to live under an adaptation of the Regular vows after a significant period of probation. The Associates, desiring a spiritual bond with the Community in its prayer and work, follow a less stringent Rule of Life.

The Order looks first to the worship of God, secondly, to the support and strength of the wider community of the Order -- its Oblates and Associates -- and thirdly, to the service of others. The overall goal of the Order of Julian is the spiritual renewal of clergy, parishes, and individuals in the classical Christian traditions of contemplative spirituality and mysticism, and the revival of those traditions in the life of the contemporary Church and of the contemporary Christian.

Currently there are Members Regular (5 women/3 men), 1 Novice (female); 78 Oblates, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu; 9 Oblate Probationers; and 133 Associates, representing some 35 states in the United States, as well as other countries: Canada, England, Germany, Scotland, and South Africa.

HISTORY

In June, 1982, Fr. John Douglas Swanson, then Rector of the Church of the Resurrection in Norwich, CT, made a pilgrimage to the Julian Shrine in Norwich, England. At the time he began the pilgrimage, he had no intention of founding a monastic order, nor of becoming a contemplative monk. In fact, at his age, well over 40, he would probably not have been accepted into a monastic order. During a prayerful time in Norwich, however, he came to the realization that, in his words, “This isn’t enough! There must be something more!” Midway over the Atlantic, as he was returning to the U.S., he conceived the idea of restoring the medieval practice of a mixed monastery of men and women devoted to Julian of Norwich.

Predating the founding of the Order in 1982, groups of people in England had formed, as early as 1973, ecumenical gatherings, “Julian Meetings”, as they were called, of devotees of Julian, mainly to support one another in a life of still prayer. Ten years later, similar but separate groups, called “Julian Gatherings”, began to be formed here in the U.S.

Fr. Swanson began living the Rule which he wrote in 1982. Fr. Bill Melnyk became the first Oblate on January 19, 1984. Several Associates were also admitted, and Sister Scholastica Marie Burton, later the beloved second Guardian of the Order, became the first postulant seeking to become a Member Regular. The Order’s official founding day was December 30, 1985 in the Diocese of Connecticut. Fr. Swanson professed Life Vows that day, taking the name Fr. John-Julian.

The Order moved from Connecticut to the DeKoven Retreat Center in Racine, WI, in the Diocese of Milwaukee, in 1987, and then to Waukesha in January, 1991.

Fr. John-Julian, founder and first Guardian, retired in August, 1995, and several years ago was granted permission to live as a solitary. Sister Scholastica Marie was elected, then installed as the second Guardian in September, 1995. She resigned in April, 2003, suffering from cancer, and died six months later, on October 18, 2003. Her successor, Fr. Gregory Fruewirth, became the third Guardian on April 22, 2003, and served until he resigned in April, 2010. Mother Hilary Crupi took up leadership of the Order as the fourth Guardian on April 30, 2010.

O Lord Jesus Christ, guide and sanctify us and our brothers and sisters

whom you have called to follow you in poverty, chastity, obedience, and prayer

in the spirit of Blessed Mother Julian; protect us from danger and want,

and grant that by our prayer and service we may enrich your Church,

and by our life and worship we may glorify your Name; for you reign

with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. 

Simeon: Man of Hope

Luke 2:22-35 speaks of a man of hope: Simeon. There’s nothing in the text to confirm it, but Simeon may have been an older man. Indeed, the Nunc dimittis, the song he voiced at seeing Jesus, and which we use in the office of Compline, suggests it. Artists have depicted him as a venerable, white-haired elder, with clear, alert, sparkling eyes: indicating his waiting and watching.

Simeon makes only the briefest appearance in Luke’s Gospel. His name appears to come from shama Yahweh = Yahweh has heard. He was in Jerusalem, presumably a resident. Luke describes him as “righteous and devout, looking for the consolation of Israel”, and he says the Holy Spirit was upon him. Simeon had apparently been given God’s assurance that he would see the Anointed One, the Messiah some time before he died. On this day, at this time, when Mary and Joseph were bringing the newborn Jesus to the Temple to fulfill their duty as observant Jews, Simeon had felt the Spirit’s urging to go there also.

It isn’t clear how he finally recognized them, but when he did, he took the baby in his arms and blessed God: “O God, you now have set your servant free, to go in peace as you have promised. For these eyes of mine have seen the Savior...” In the midst of their consternation and amazement, Simeon blesses Mary and Joseph, then speaks to Mary those cryptic words about Jesus’ destiny, and about the suffering she’ll endure. And that’s it! We don’t ever hear of Simeon again.

The message here is as simple and unassuming as Simeon himself was:

- Because you and I have accepted Jesus as Lord in our baptismal covenant, we no longer have to prove anything to anyone. Our value, as one who is “in Christ”, is in being who and what our baptismal commitment calls us to be: viz., righteous, i.e., right with God, our neighbor, and our self; and devout, from the Greek word meaning to receive well, be circumspect and aware, to catch on well.

- Simeon helps us appreciate the importance of the unseen, the unclear, that there’s always something more to see and learn in the depths of people and situations in our lives. God is a God of surprises, popping up in the most unexpected places, people, and events, where we ourselves might never bother to look.

- Through the Holy Spirit, Simeon saw God’s presence everywhere, all-pervasive. Simeon is for us a sort of preview of Pentecost. And because of the Spirit’s presence in his life, Simeon was filled with hope. How must it have felt for him to await what God had promised him? Can you imagine how he faced every morning? “Perhaps today is the day!”

In our Baptism, you and I, too, have been in-spired, breathed-into, by the Holy Spirit who unveils for us the promises of God. In the books of Deuteronomy, Joshua, and Hebrews, in the New Testament, the promise is always the same: “...I will never leave you or forsake you.”

Simeon received and lived for the promise of which God had assured him. He prayed, watched, and hoped. And what happened? An old man got to hold a baby, which is a big thing in families, as you know. Everyone grabs a camera and has to have a picture. But there weren’t any cameras that day in the Temple. Just an ordinary couple, Mary and Joseph, and this old man, Simeon, holding an extraordinary baby, Jeshua = The One who saves.

As he was for Simeon, so for each of us, too, Jesus is salvation. May we take him to our hearts and lives, sustained by the hope of God’s promises. May we daily share him and his Holy Spirit, visible through our words and actions, with one another.

St. Gaspar de Bufalo ( Jan. 6, 1786-Dec. 28, 1837)

St. Gaspar del Bufalo - Apostle of the Precious Blood of Christ

January 6, 1786

Born in Rome

July 31, 1808

Ordained priest

December 8, 1808

Founding of the Confraternity of the Most Precious Blood

at San Nicola in Carcere, Rome

June 13, 1810

Gaspar refuses to take the oath of loyalty to Napoleon

July 15, 1810

Exiled to Piacenza

December, 1810

Transferred to Bologna

October 20, 1811

Death of Gaspar's mother,

Annunziata Quartieroni

January 12, 1813

Transferred to the prison of Imola

 May 16, 1814

Transferred to Rocca di Lugo

February 1814

Gaspar returns to Rome

August 15, 1815

Foundation of the Congregation of the Most Precious Blood

at San Felice, Giano dell'Umbria

December 27, 1817

Gaspar appointed director of the missions of

the Archconfraternity of the Most Precious Blood

mid-May, 1830

Gaspar meets Maria de Mattias,

future founder of the Sisters Adorers of the Most Precious Blood

October 31, 1831

Death of Gaspar's father,

Antonio del Bufalo

March 4, 1834

Foundation of the Adorers of the Most Precious Blood

in Acuto

December 28, 1837

Gaspar dies in Rome

January 3, 1838

Gaspar buried in the Church of St. Paul,

Albano Laziale

1861

Gaspar' body transferred to the

Church of Santa Maria in Trivio, Rome

December 18, 1904

Gaspar declared Blessed by Pius X

June 12, 1954

Gaspar canonized a Saint by Pius XII

January 4, 1963

John XXIII visits the tomb of St. Gaspar

at Santa Maria in Trivio, Rome

O God, our Father, you made Gaspar del Bufalo

a priest and outstanding apostle of the Precious Blood

of your Son. Through his intercession, grant that we may

experience the abundant fruits of the price of our redemption.

We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who

lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God,  for ever and ever.

Amen. 

The Holy Children

Had he lived in our times, King Herod ("the Great": hardly descriptive of him except for a few building projects) would've been at the top of Keith Olbermann's list of "Worst Person In the World"!

Herod gave "cold" and "ruthless" a whole different meaning. Out of 9 sons he had three of them eliminated; his 5 daughters apparently fared better. That's not counting all the other people, of high or low degree, for whose death he was responsible. Understandably, his poll ratings weren't real high among his subjects. Even as he approached death, he commandeered sons from noble families into custody and instructed his lackeys to slaughter them all when he died, so that the nation's inevitable mourning would seem to be for him!

The familiar story of the Holy Innocents (Western Church) or Holy Children (Eastern Church) is recounted only in Matthew's Gospel: "When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah: ‘A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud
lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.'"
Though the incident isn't corraborated in any other historical documents, it isn't hard to imagine a man like Herod doing something like this, as insecure and threatened as he was by the Eastern sages' news that "the king of the Jews" was to be born in Bethlehem. One can imagine Herod's rage when the sages, warned in a dream not to return to Herod, "left for their own country by another road." So he ordered the brutal murder of all children, two years old and under. In reality, in such a small, obscure village, there were probably "only" between 6 to 20 children massacred. Even one would have been too many!

In reading of The Holy Children in Fr. John Julian's wonderful collection, Stars In A Dark World, I learned something fascinating that I'd not known before. He says: "In medieval England the feast of Holy Innocents often involved the reign of the “Boy Bishop” who had been elected from among the cathedral choristers and vested as a bishop. It is said that the practice was suggested by the appearance of the boy Jesus in the Temple, discussing with the elders. The tradition had it that at First Vespers (i.e., on the eve) of Holy Innocents during the singing of the phrase in the Magnificat – 'he hath put down the mighty from their thrones' the real bishop symbolically stepped down from his throne and took a place in choir, and on the phrase 'and hath exalted the humble and meek' the chosen boy bishop rose and took the bishop’s seat. The boy bishop then ruled the Cathedral for twenty-four hours: he censed all the altars, performed all the Divine Offices, and preached. He processed around the city, giving his blessing and gift tokens to all. There is every evidence that this was not an instance for horseplay or the ridiculing of clergy, but was treated rather in good spirits and was widely popular. Henry VIII abolished the custom in 1542, but Queen Mary revived it in 1552, and it was finally eradicated by Elizabeth I – but it has been revived in several Anglican cathedrals in England and America in the 20th century." What fun that would be today in this country, given the fact that we also have women bishops!

I leave you with this poem by Louise Darcy, originally published many years ago in Home Life:

TO UNDERSTAND A CHILD

To understand a child is to begin

A journey through a land of mystery.

To help another being to unfold,

And yet to leave its seeking spirit free.

Impatience is a detour on the path

And loss of temper is a desert place

Where understanding for a while is gone

Until there is an honest search for grace.

There must be putting of the self aside,

A deep humility that ever waits

To guard and guide, to stop and listen well,

A mother love that never hesitates

To show itself no matter what the hour,

That gains its inner strength from God's own power.

Jesus' BFF

Woodeene Koenig-Bricker, in her 365 Saints, speaks of how we put our friends "in echelons": 1st tier - "the people we love and who love us no matter what we do". 2nd tier - close friends. 3rd tier - "friendly acquaintances".

The Scriptures seem to point to John the Apostle/Evangelist as belonging to the first group of Jesus' friends. In modern lingo we'd call him a BFF ("best friend forever") of Jesus. John is often called "the beloved disciple" or "the disciple whom Jesus loved".  Even Simon Peter, the head honcho among the Twelve, motions to John at the Last Supper to ask Jesus who's going to betray Jesus.

John's Gospel relates that at that Last Supper Jesus said: "No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends...I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father..." Take a minute to think about the implications of that statement for you and me. We already know, as Paul Harvey used to say, "the rest of the story". Jesus indeed did lay down his life, shedding his very life's blood, for all of us. Seems to me that that qualifies each and every one of us as definite BFF's of Jesus! So much so, that if he, for one second, stopped loving us we'd vanish into nothingness.

Thanks be to God, in this Christmastide especially, for our friendship with Emmanuel, God with us!