First Sunday of Advent

Dear All, This week we begin a new Liturgical Year. This year it is cycle C as it is designated in the Roman Lectionary. We retell the story about the mysteries of our salvation in history, by following the third Synoptic Gospel, according to Luke. Like in every year we will also read certain passages of the fourth Gospel, according to John, but our featured writer will be the Greek physician and companion of Paul who lived when Jesus walked the earth and writes with the Gentiles as main audience. Of all the authors of the New Testament (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, Peter, James, Jude) he is the only one who is not from Jewish upbringing. He is also the author of the Acts of the Apostles. Every new Liturgical Year begins with the season of Advent, a time of anticipation, time of preparation, getting ready. The word has a Latin root, Adventus (= arrival) meaning a time of waiting for the arrival. On the traditional advent wreath we light the first candle which we call of hope during the First Advent Sunday. We remember and commemorate the arrival of Christ over two thousand years ago, as well as preparing ourselves for Christ’s second coming at the end of times. It also invites us to conceive Christ in the Spirit in our own lives here and now, swell pregnant with the holy seed of God’s grace and stir the womb of our complacency. A time for turning and returning, for straightening the crooked paths in our relationships with our fellow men and women (in German the word “Mitmenschen” denotes humans with whom we share our spaces, the world) and our relationship with God. If I focus on this third invitation, this season of advent may convert from a passive period (of remembrance of God’s first incarnation and waiting for the second coming) into an opportunity to become active in the waiting, by welcoming and befriending the vulnerable, the stranger as well as the desert places in myself.

The Prophet Jeremiah, imprisoned by King Zedekiah, utters words of hope to the people of Israel at times of great despair (587 BC the Temple of Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonian invaders) foretelling the coming of a Savior, the Messiah, as a descendant of the house of David. Christian tradition sees Jesus as the ultimate fulfillment of the prophecy. “The Lord our justice” is our hope and salvation. The apostle Paul, who expected to experience Christ’s second coming during his lifetime, in his letter to the recently converted Thessalonians offers advice about how believers ought to be living their lives in anticipation of such second coming. While Jesus did not come then, nor may be coming during our lifetime, Paul’s advice remains very important, as there is no better time to conduct ourselves in ways pleasing to God. Luke’s Gospel this week paints a scene with vivid colors of what the last times may bring with a terrible storm raging through the first paragraph. The apocalyptic message turns to a momentary brightening of the sky in the second paragraph, yet clouds close in again in the final paragraph. Luke is not just trying to terrify, but offering hope reminding us we don’t have to be among the ones who panic, but stand erect and raise our heads knowing that redemption is at hand. Christ is not just the babe in the manger, but a cosmic Lord whose glory fills us with awe. The complete text of today’s Readings can be found at http://scriptures-my-journey-oflife-andfaith.blogspot.com/2009/11/first-sunday-of-advent.html With God’s Love and Blessings, Rainer

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The Solemnity of Christ the King

Dear All, We have arrived at the end of the Liturgical year. The Feast of Christ the King is quite recent in our two millennia old church. It was established in 1925 in an attempt to counter the rise of modern secularism. The word secularism comes for the Latin “Seculum” meaning earthly creation or world. After the First World War there was a growing sense of the power of humanity to rule itself. God did not seem to be in charge. The world in the midst of an identity crisis was experiencing its own authority crisis. The Church promoted this celebration to present the person of Jesus as “king of the universe”. Hitler, in Germany would see himself as dominator of the world only a few years later and we all know how that ended with the tragedy of the Second World War. In today’s secularism we pray to allow Jesus to be our Servant King in the midst of tension with the many little personal tyrants within us urging for their places of power; like ego, fear, revenge, pleasure, as well as many other struggles for supremacy and control. Allowing His lordship into our lives is what the spiritual life is all about. The First Reading for this Feast is a vision of Daniel written in apocalyptic style (explained in last week’s reflection). Four beasts have been destroyed, that is Babylon (the place of the Jewish captivity around 900 BCE), and the power of God is prepared to be handed over to “a son of man” or a mysterious person who receives true authority and supremacy from the “Ancient One”. Kingship of the known Jewish world had been taken away by kings of foreign origin, but now, the vision is reporting that the Ancient One was returning true heavenly power and glory to a special one, a “son of man” or an anointed for revelation and service of God and God’s people. This will be an everlasting kingdom giving the people of God, including us today, trust and hope. The Second Reading is from the last Book of the Bible, Revelation also known as the Apocalypse, part of the apocalyptic literature mentioned above. In the introduction of the Book, the visionary John offers grace and peace from God who is, who was and who is to come. Then he exclaims that this grace and peace also comes from Jesus Christ, who is the Faithful Witness, the First Born of the Dead and the Ruler of all the Kings of the earth. What is the meaning and application for us? First of all, Jesus is the Faithful Witness who stood before the Jewish Sanhedrin and proclaimed that He was the Messiah. He stood before the Roman King Pilate, and proclaimed the Truth that He, Jesus, was the King. Revelations was written to encourage the Christians of the ancient Roman Empire to stand

up in front of persecution and give witness to Jesus Christ even if they were putting their lives in danger. It also encourages us to stand for the truth, even when the truth may not be popular or is ridiculed by the some. But more subtle than that, it encourages us to stand up for the truth when our personal advancement may be jeopardized, such as, standing up against unethical business practices within the company we work for, or standing up against the character assassination of someone we work with whose job would then be available for us. I am tempted to ask, “why should I suffer when everybody else is advancing by these ‘normal’ business practices?” Yet the answer is straightforward: There is nothing normal for a person created in the image and likeness of God to reject ones spiritual essence for the sake of “momentary” and monetary gain. The early witnesses were told in Revelation “By patient endurance you will survive.” It is infinitely better for us to suffer the injustice of the world than for us to reject our call to stand as witnesses of the God of Truth. We do have in Jesus, the faithful witness, a model that guides us and gives us strength. In this week’s Gospel according to John, Jesus tells the Roman King of the Palestine world at the time, “My kingdom does not belong to this world”. When Pontius Pilate insists in getting confirmation, “So are you a king?”; Jesus replies, “You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice." The early community of John had a strong trust in the truth of who Jesus is. The kingdom of God is already here as Jesus lives within and among us now. But we know also that his presence is obscured by the continued presence of evil in the world. Individuals and institutions are quite far from being aligned with the will of God, resulting in an incomplete kingdom. Though we are inclined to think of the kingdom as still to come: a zone beyond the grave, Christ wants to be our king here and now. The complete text of today’s Readings can be found at http://scriptures-my-journey-oflife-andfaith.blogspot.com/2009/11/solemnity-of-christ-king.html With God’s Love and Blessings, Rainer

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Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time

Dear All, As we come to the last couple of Sundays of the Liturgical year, we start our annual tour through Apocalyptic Biblical literature. Apocalypse comes from the Greek and denotes a Revelation from God. In recent times it often is being referred to end of times (eschatological) predictions. The apocalyptic writings are full of poetry and metaphors. Interpreting the passages literally would be mistake as much as dismissing them as nothing but poetry. The metaphors tell us the truth that Heaven and Earth as we know it may indeed pass away, but not before a final resolution of good triumphing over evil. Biblical apocalypse was written in times of persecution, to encourage the harassed by telling them that their sufferings were not going unnoticed by God, and that they would prevail in the end. Courage, not fear, was being promoted. The First Reading from the last chapter of the Book of Daniel is from the Sixth century BCE during the Babylonian captivity, where Daniel, an Israelite became advisor to King Nebuchadnezzar. While not in this week’s passage, there is one expression from the Prophet Daniel that has made it to our times, ‘seeing the writing on the wall’. In the mid 90’s I sang with the Florida Philharmonic Chorus, Leonard Bernstein’s ChiChester Psalms under the direction of the British Maestro James Judd. It was an incredible experience in five venues in South Florida in front of audiences into the thousands. Though in Hebrew the text referring to Daniel seeing the writing on the wall for the evil to be judged combined with unique orchestral music did not seize to give me goose bumps in each of the seven performances. Well, I went off on a tangent here, didn’t I? Back to the main

thought …. the apocalyptic style is encrypted poetry and scholars continue to try to decode the underlying meanings. Daniel reassures the Israelites during their difficult times that God’s kingdom will prevail in the end and makes one of the early references to the Resurrection and Eternal Peace. The passage from the Gospel according to Mark tells us about the second coming of Christ in a very pictorial way. While early Christians and among them many of the apostles expected it to happen during their life time, we really don’t know when it will happen. The last verse of this week’s passage from Mark, quotes Jesus’ unequivocal statement "But of that day or hour, no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father." Some have referred the prediction of “this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place” as a way of foretelling the individual experience we all may have at the end of our own lives rather than focusing on the eternal validity of Jesus’ teachings (“my words will not pass away”). In essence as we are coming to the end of the liturgical calendar year we remind ourselves about the reality of an end of times, either individually or collectively, in which good does prevail over evil. This is a message of hope, despite all the horrors and atrocities of our times, which are not that different from the horrors of the Babylonian captivity and the persecutions of the early Christians, as well as all the history since then through our days. The complete text of today’s Readings can be found at http://scriptures-my-journey-oflife-andfaith.blogspot.com/2009/11/thirty-third-sunday-in-ordinary-time.html With God’s Love and Blessings, Rainer

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Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time

Dear All, The First Reading is from the passage of the First Book of Kings which inspired best selling Brazilian author Paulo Coelho to write a fiction novel, The Fifth Mountain. A devastating drought was affecting the region short of 3 millennia ago when we encounter a very poor widow on the verge of dying of starvation. The prophet Elijah who had predicted the drought to King Ahab of Israel, asks the widow at the entrance of the city for water and some bread to eat. She was gathering a few sticks to prepare some bread, probably the last in her life, from the final bit of flour and oil in her possession. Elijah asks her to first bake something for him. Widows in the patriarchal structure of society were one of the most vulnerable groups. Poor and with child brought her to the lowest level of the social order, barely above slaves, with no one to ensure her rights and provide for her welfare. The prophet makes a daunting promise in exchange for the first peace of bread on behalf of God: “'The jar of flour shall not go empty, nor the jug of oil run dry” until the end of the famine. On the brink of starvation she places her trust in the words of the prophet and they are fulfilled. A little side note that magnifies the widows faith even more. We read that this happens in Zarephath, a place in Palestine that at the time of the story was in the god’s Baal territory. Baal was the god of storms and fertility. Even there the famine had stricken. It is difficult to imagine how devastated this poor woman must have been. Yet she put her trust in the prophet’s announcement that God will provide even during the famine. And we get treated to one of the miracle stories in the bible about multiplication of food, when we read at the end of the passage that she, her son and Elijah were able to eat for a whole year until the rain came down to the earth, as “the jar of flour did not go empty nor the jug of oil run dry”. The gospel according to Mark talks about another poor widow who at the entrance of the temple gave all she had, two small coins worth a few cents. In this passage the story does not focus on the happy ending, but on the teaching to the disciples (and to us) by Jesus upon observing the giving of the crowd into the treasure in the courtyard of the temple. Jesus states that while in economic terms there were many rich people putting in large sums, they were giving from their surplus wealth. Yet the poor widow gave from her livelihood.

The Lord is setting the bar very high for standards of not thinking about self, but focusing on others. The point of the Gospel is certainly not that we should all seek to become poor widows, but it clearly challenges us to give more than of what is left over. Be it care for others, interest in others as well as monetary support to the needy, wherever we encounter them in our lives. My personal journey on this topic was not easy, yet infinitely rewarding, once I dared to let go. I grew up in an environment where giving, for example to the church, was just a few coins. When we came to the US over twenty years ago, we were challenged with stewardship campaigns and learned about the concept of tithing. Transitioning from an economy where church is funded by government tax money to the US where churches are funded solely by parishioners’ contributions, created great conscience stress at the time. When we finally got around to giving more than a tip to the weekly collection, from moneys that we almost didn’t have at the time, we were blessed a hundred fold with better and more rewarding ways of earnings. This may not be easy, particularly in societies that value personal advancement and satisfaction above all else. Despite it all, we can share our talents with others and we can give our time and energy to schools, hospitals, soup kitchens, church communities and ministries or wherever we are called to. When you come to think about it, sometimes it is even easier to give money than to give ourselves in some of these ways. Fortunately there are many people in our world we can look up to as role models in generosity, like the widows of this week’s passages are. Many parents willingly sacrifice their own interests so that their children have what they need. There are people who work long hours in healthcare facilities to ensure that the needs of patients are being met. Public servants like police and firefighters place themselves at risk in order to ensure our safety. We encounter the ultimate example of unselfish giving in this week’s Second Reading from the Letter to the Hebrews in Jesus who gave his life so that we may have eternal live. The complete text of today’s Readings can be found at http://scriptures-my-journey-oflife-andfaith.blogspot.com/2009/11/thirty-second-sunday-in-ordinary-time.html With God’s Love and Blessings, Rainer

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All Saints

Dear All, This week we celebrate the Solemnity of all Saints, which comes right after Halloween (“Hallow e’en”, evening of All Saints). The Gospel according to Matthew is from the beginning of the Sermon of the Mount (Chapters 5 through 7) in the section referred to as “The Beatitudes”. The opening of the sermon was probably designed to shock the audience as a deliberate inversion of standard values. Jesus talks about a group of people normally thought as unfortunate or unblessable and pronounces them well-off and fortunate (blessed) because of the presence and availability of abundant life in God's kingdom to everyone, regardless of status, circumstances, or condition. Jesus enumerates eight characteristics of people and the benefits each of them renders. As we honor all the Saints that preceded us we may recognize the beatitudes as a foretelling how they were going to be: satisfied when hungering and thirsting for righteousness, comforted when mourning, inheriting timid ones (the meek), mercy showing peacemakers, rejoicing and glad when persecuted. At the same time some of Jesus’ statements about the poor, the mourning, the meek to be declared fortunate, i.e. blessed sound rather daring. I don’t believe that Jesus is praising the powerlessness. I read it as a statement that those free from the illusion of worldly power can find the lasting gifts of happiness. The original Greek source speaks about ‘praos’ that was translated into ‘meek’. Praos means more tan humble and timid, along the lines of becoming tamed (as for a wild animal being domesticated). It could be interpreted as a recommendation to develop the inner strength to manage one's automatic reactions and aversions, suggesting a capacity for going against all natural resentfulness and passion and anger. Some ancient writers saw a parallel as well as a contrast between Moses receiving the Law on Mount Sinai, and Jesus pronouncing the Beatitudes on the Mount of Olives. One of them, Chromatius, during the early fifth century wrote, “When the law was first given on the mountain, the people were forbidden to draw close. But now, as the Lord was teaching on the mountain, no one is forbidden. Rather, all are invited that they may hear, because there is severity in the law and grace in the gospel.” This week’s First Reading from the Book of Revelation is written in apocalyptic style. Apocalypse literally means the

disclosure or revealing of something hidden. It has a Greek-myth root which is quite interesting. Things have been hidden about the sufferings of the early followers of Jesus. Rome, The Beast, has been attacking the Church and persecuting the faithful. This form of literature was popular before the compilation of this book. The prophets of Israel had visions of how things would be especially concerning the exiles. Their theme is centered around hope and trust. The sufferings of the present are leading into a brighter future. Communities under harsh conditions need the encouragements both from within and outside the group. This is where this week’s reading gets its importance and power. There are many symbols within the Book of Revelation (the last book of the Bible) that are not only appropriate for that time, but can also be interpreted for this present age. This week’s passage has a wonderful picture of twelve times twelve thousand people who have endured the persecution and are singing God's praises after it all. All peoples (from every nation, race, people, and tongue) are envisioned as gathered together in profound worship and thanksgiving. The Second Reading is from the same author as the Book of Revelation, the Gospel Author and beloved apostle John. While declaring that we are God’s children now it acknowledges that it has not yet been revealed what it is we shall be. Purity is achieved through hope of becoming like Him. On this Feast of All Saints we recognize the dying and the silent waiting for new life to unfold beyond our sight. In faith we honor all of the saints, ancestors who have preceded us, heroes and heroines of life lived in love and trust. We pray for those who have died and who await the fullness of glory with and in God. We remember all those who have died. We lift up their names in gratitude, entrusting them to the love and mercy of God. And we think about our own destinies and futures, soberly reminded that aging is a progression – not a loss. The complete text of today’s Readings can be found at http://scriptures-my-journey-oflife-and-faith.blogspot.com/ 2009/10/solemnity-of-all-saints_31.html With God’s Love and Blessings, Rainer

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