THE GOD GROAN

Quote for Today - December 20,  2012

"God is an unutterable sigh, planted in the depths of the soul."

"Gott ist ein unaussprechlichter Seufzer, im Grunde der Seele gelegen."

Johann Paul Friedrich Richter [1763-1825] - German Romantic writer

Painting on top: Johann Paul Friedrich Richter

Check out 2 Corinthians 5: 1-5.  Then check out Romans 8: 26-27.  Johan's father was am organist who became a pastor. Did he hear his dad preach from these texts?

THE LORD BE WITH  YOU 

“The Lord be with you!”

Isn’t that a sweet blessing?

We say it at Mass - but not

on the street - yet I have

heard grandmothers saying,

“God be with you on your

way back to college. Drive

carefully now. Drive carefully!”

And I heard someone singing

in the parking lot on their way

to their car after Mass, “O come.

o come, Emmanuel.” It was one

of those many simple graces

that God gives at times - simply

to show: “The Lord is with us!”

© Andy Costello Reflections, 2012

THE  POOR

Quote for Today - December 19, 2012

"A decent provision for the poor is the true test of civilization."

Samuel Johnson, Boswell's Life of, 1772

CONSUBSTANTIAL

INTRODUCTION

This will be a short homily for December 18^th  - because it’s going to complicated and confusing. The topic is Jesus as God - and Jesus as equal with the Holy Spirit to and with the Father. How could anyone explain the Trinity? We find it difficult to explain ourselves and our relationships with each other.

The title of my homily is, “Consubstantial.”

Last year - for the First Sunday of Advent -  the Nicean Creed which is the usual Creed for Sunday Mass - changed in its wording from “one in being with the Father” to “consubstantial with the Father.”

Some in the Church didn’t think “one in being with the Father” was an exact translation from the Latin text’s words “consubstantialem Patri” - which is a translation from the original Greek text of the Nicene Creed of the year 325. The Greek word that early church leaders and theologians came up with was “homoousios”. The first part of the word - that is, “homo” - means “same”. The second part of that word “ousia” means in English “being” or “essence” - but when you translate that second word “ousia” into Latin with the word “substantia” you have grabbed a word that has material overtones as well.  When we say “substance” we think stuff.  The new translators want us to think “being” or “essence”.

All these words have long, long, long, long histories.

It took the Catholic Church - East and West - till the year 325 at the Council of Nicea to develop and then declare Christ is one with the Father - one in being with the Father - of the same Substance of the Father. In other words, Jesus is God.

Further councils stressed the equality of the Holy Spirit in this Trinity.

Further councils stressed the humanity as well as the divinity of Christ.

TODAY’S GOSPEL

Today’s gospel text from Matthew 1: 18-25 was written before 110 A.D. and probably around 80 to 90 A.D. It  is key in all the arguments for the next 300 to 500 years.  Matthew is very clear in pointing out that Mary become pregnant by the Holy Spirit - without Joseph.

But Matthew wants to continue stressing as he did with yesterday’s genealogy that Jesus is of the lineage of David and that comes through David - to Joseph - who adopts - or takes on very courageously the calling that Mary had received from God.

CONCLUSION

So those who translated the creed into English in the 1970’s - chose “one in Being with the Father.”  Those who did the new translation chose “consubstantial” - substantial having a different meaning than our word “substantial” - and the different documents that came out said for us to try to explain all this. 

Each time we have the creed at Mass - like Sundays - we can use the Nicean or the Apostles creed. I’ve done both - sometimes to avoid the word "consubstantial".  

However, the Apostles Creed has the phrase, “he descended into hell” and that doesn’t mean “hell” the way we understand “hell”. It’s into the deeper areas after death where all the dead are pictured. I’m sure that confuses people as well. At least that’s what I believe.  Enough already. 

What was he talking about?

HATRED

Quote for Today - December 18, 2012

"If you want to be miserable, HATE someone."

Anonymous

Questions:

Do you agree with that statement about hatred?

Have you ever hated anyone?  What happened next?

Have you ever unhated?  How did that icy fence come down between you and the other?

ALIVE  ON  THE  EDGE

Quote for Today - December 17, 2012

"We are always attracted to the edges of what we are, out by the edges where it's a little raw and nervy."

E.L. Doctorow, in the Los Angeles Times, April 5, 1989


Questions:

Always?

If we stop being attracted to the edges of what we are, does that mean we're dying?

Who can better tell us what we are: ourselves or others?

If we can name what we are like, name what is a little raw and nervy?

Picture: 

Mohawk Men Working on a Skyscraper - found on line.

HOW DOES IT HAPPEN?

How does it happen when we die?

Do we all move in a crowd towards God?

Thomas Merton pictured crowds of people

like prisoners or displaced people being

moved from station to station from far

countries - all those people who died this

night from all around the world. He

pictured Hemingway - walking that walk -

shuffling those steps - after he shot himself.

How does it happen? What happens next?

Do all these little kids crowd

around Adam Lanza and hold him till he

lets go of whatever it was that killed him

and them. I don’t know how all this

horrible stuff happens. Like everyone

I don’t know how someone could kill a child

or anyone else, including themselves.

How does it happen? How, God, how?

© Andy Costello, Reflections, 2012

   AN ELEGY FOR ERNEST HEMINGWAY

Now for the first time on the night of your death

your name is mentioned in convents, ne cadas in

obscurum.

Now with a true bell your story becomes final. 
Now men in monasteries, men of requiems,

familiar with the dead, include you in their offices.

You just stand anonymous among thousands, 
waiting in the dark at great stations 
on the edge of countries known to prayer alone, 
where fires are not merciless, we hope, 
and not without end.

You pass briefly through our midst. 
Your books and writings 
have not been consulted. 
Our prayers are pro defuncto N.

Yet some look up, as though 
among a crowd of prisoners

or displaced persons, they recognized 

a friend once known in a far country. 

For these the sun also rose 

after a forgotten war 
upon an idiom you made great. 

They have not forgotten you. 

In their silence you are still famous, 
no ritual shade.

How slowly this bell tolls in a monastery tower 
for a whole age, and for the quick death 
of an unready self!

For with one shot the whole hunt is ended!

- Thomas Merton ©