Faith

I am- Thursday, 5th Week of Lent – John 8:51-59

Quite clearly, the Jews seem to have lost it. Now they have nothing concrete to accuse Jesus of, so they call Him a Samaritan (8:48) and claim that He is possessed.  Previously in the same chapter they insinuated that He was of illegitimate birth. But nothing stops Jesus from declaring who He is, the great “I am”.  To the twenty first century mind, “I am” sounds like conjugation in grammar. Not to a Jew.

Notice that Jesus does not say, ‘before Abraham was, I was’ He says, “Before Abraham was, I AM.” The first Jew to hear these words was Moses. In Exodus 3: 14, God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM”; Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, I AM has sent me to you.'”  The Jews, listening to Jesus proclaim these words, knew right away that Jesus was claiming to be God.

Any one claiming to bear the divine name of God would incur only one punishment; death by stoning. This was the punishment for blasphemy and it is no wonder that they pick up stones to throw at Him.

John’s gospel is the only one to have the ‘I am ‘statements of Jesus; seven of them. This is John’s presentation of Jesus. The “I am” statements in the Fourth Gospel make known Jesus as the source of life and abundant grace; they signal the very presence of God.

Contrast these statements to the ‘I am NOT’ statements of John the Baptist in the beginning of the same gospel (1:20, 21, 27 and 3:28) John confesses, “I am not the Messiah, I am not Elijah, I am not worthy to untie the thongs of His sandals etc. John was clear who he was not. Jesus is clear who He is.

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Art/ Heritage

PICTURING THE PASSION: ‘Christ Carrying the Cross’ by El Greco (1577 – 1587)

The best understood symbol of Christianity is undoubtedly the Cross; a dead tree on which was hung the Saviour who brought life to the world. With life, the cross also provided an identity to Christians and a hope to faith. El Greco, through his painting ‘Christ carrying the cross’ magnifies the essence of this identity and hope. He rejects all theatrical skills in order to evoke an attentive soul to the profound beauty found in Christ and His Cross.

Born in Crete in 1541, Domenikos Theotokopoulos, nicknamed ‘El Greco’ (the Greek), was a man with a vision of embodying a higher realm of spirit within the mortal realm of the soul.  Although initially trained as an icon painter, he soon transformed himself from the flat symbolic world to master the dynamic elements of the Renaissance.

His approach was also influenced by the characteristics of his time. Europe, during El Greco’s age, was in a state of religious upheaval. The Reformation, in full swing, had triggered a series of events, including the Council of Trent (1545 – 1563). Inorder to cleanse the Church of its evils, the Council devised decrees that had an impact on all the facets of life.

The execution of this rectified religion and faith required instruction and education.  The best way to communicate to the illiterate was undoubtedly through art. Paintings served as mediums of not only information but also visual contemplation that aimed to stimulate imagination and spirituality. In keeping with the tenets of the Counter Reformation, El Greco’s art achieves precisely that.

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Faith

Catching the bull by its tail-Wednesday, 5th Week of Lent –  John 8:31- 42

So this is a classic case of catching the bull by its tail. The result is obvious; you get bull shit! Not a great way to begin a gospel reflection but it makes the silliness of the Jews quite evident. Jesus is doing some straight talk; the Jews are on an emotional trip to nowhere.

It is for this reason, that by the time we arrive at the end of Chapter 8, it becomes obvious that the two have divergent paths of thinking. Jesus will finally utter the great words, “Before Abraham was, I AM” and with one swift move will declare to the Jews that HE IS GOD.  The Jews will hear a blasphemer and pick stones to kill Him.

In yesterday’s pericope, Jesus reached a point of frustration when He said to the Jews, “why do I speak to you at all?” But hardly has He finished venting His frustrations at their lack of understanding, than He gives them one more shot and tries convincing them, all over again. It’s amazing how the Lord never gives up on us!

The invitation of Jesus is to those who wish to ‘truly be His disciples’. It is an invitation to ‘remain in His word, ‘a word of truth, that will set one free.’ It is God’s word that will preserve us from the bondage of sin. Remember how Jesus battled satan in the desert? He did so by using the ‘word’ against the lies of satan.

Sin ‘enslaves’ us, period! And enslavement to sin deprives us of our ‘permanent place’ in the house of God. But Jesus, the sinless one, has a place there for everyone (Verse 35). It is Jesus who desires to set us free from satan and welcomes us into ‘His house’.  What keeps us away from making that shift, is the ‘I’ of ego. The same ‘I’ that is found as the central alphabet in the word SIN.

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Faith

 

Listening or Hearing? 5th Week of Lent- Tuesday- John 8: 21-30

The frustration is pouring out and this time it’s not the Jews. Yup! It’s Jesus. His exact words are, “why do I speak to you at all?” (I kid you not, those are His exact words). Maybe its not a statement of frustration as much as it is of judgement, and if so, what’s got Him all riled up?

Jesus is in the treasury of the temple and has declared Himself to be ‘the light of the world’ to the Jews who were quite evidently, spiritually blind. This blindness is manifested in their line of questioning, “where is your Father?” This will prompt Jesus to clearly indicate that He is the Son of the Heavenly Father and that ‘He is from above and they are from below.’

Did they get the point? Absolutely not! So they carry on with their mindless three and four word questions; ‘Who are you’?, ‘Where is your Father?’ ‘Is he going to kill himself?’ In response to these questions Jesus makes some extraordinarily explosive statements. In verse 23 He repeats those controversial ‘I am statements’, which end with judgement; if they don’t believe that He is ‘I am’ then they will die in their sin of disbelief. Jesus simply declared Himself to be God.

Seriously you wonder, why did they not stone Him? That is answered in verse 20, ‘his hour had not yet come.’ So we now have the context of this pericope; let’s look at the ‘take away’ from the text. In the gospel of John, the sin of the Jews is their unbelief. He says this clearly in 16:9, “About sin, because they do not believe in me.” 

Belief is the matter of the heart and here in lays the problem. The Jews had long closed their hearts to the words of Jesus and so they ended up hearing and not listening. What the difference? Have you ever had a loved one say to you, “you’re not listening to me”; only to find you repeating their words in a triumphant, “you were wrong, look I repeated your words.” Yet the person making the accusation is right, while you are ‘technically’ right but obviously wrong.

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Faith

Louder than words- Encapsulating the life of St Joseph, the Just – Feast of St Joseph – Luke 2: 41- 51

So are all Joseph’s dreamers? Well the Bible presents us with another dreamer, this time in the New Testament and he is the foster father of Jesus. St Joseph’s dreams don’t require any interpretation like the ones in Zechariah or Daniel. His dreams are straightforward though their execution called for obedience; and obey he did.

So I often wonder why we don’t make much of St Joseph. For some reason we have made him the third person of the Holy Family and often the least acknowledged for his role. Joseph, like Mary also said yes! Yes to a socially interpreted scandalous marriage, yes to being homeless, yes to being a refugee, yes to being a foster father and this last one being a tough one. Joseph said YES; and yet there are no hymns that I know that sing of his ‘fiat.’(From the Latin, “let it be done”)

The gospel of today speaks of another lost son, not prodigal, but lost all the same. Jesus in a very theological sense was not lost, He was where He should be, ‘in his Father’s house’; but his parents most certainly though they had lost him. 

Luke is the only gospel that gives us a story from Jesus’ childhood. This precocious little twelve year old most certainly gave Mary and Joseph a three day fright. The first words that Jesus spoke in the New Testament, are recorded in this narrative; “Why were you searching for me, did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”

Make no mistake, for all the love my parents have for me, that statement coupled with three days of insane stressful searching would have earned me a good thrashing. And yet I presume Joseph and Mary were silent and not angry. How often perhaps, in His childhood, had Jesus said things that only solicited puzzled glances from Mary and Joseph? 

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