Reflections By The Bay

Sunday, December 17, 2017

THE FIRST LETTER

OF SAINT PAUL

TO THE THESSALONIANS

INTRODUCTION

The title of my comments for today is, “The First Letter of Saint Paul to the Thessalonians.”

Instead of a homily for this Sunday’s readings for the Third Sunday of Advent [B], I just want to say about 10 things regarding today’s second reading - something about Paul’s First Letter to the Thessalonians - from which we get a section for our second reading: Chapter 5, verses 16-24.

NUMBER OF BOOKS IN THE BIBLE

The Old Testament has 46 books - none of which is a letter. We only get letters in the New Testament. However, there are mention of letters in the Old Testament and parts of letters. Moreover there are in museums and libraries and archives around the world, lots of letters of all sorts from B.C. For example in Egypt there are thousands of Greek letters and parts of letters. Human beings send letters, e-mail, faxes, twitter, etc. etc. to communicate information to each other. [Cf. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary, p. 769 #4.]

The New Testament consists of 27 books. Different from the Old Testament, it has 19 letters. Paul has the most 13, but there are letters from John, Peter, James, Jude.

The Old Testament is in Hebrew. The New Testament is in Greek.

The Catholic Bible - has both the Jewish Scriptures and the Christian Scriptures, These are the so called, Old Testament and New Testament. The Catholic Old Testament has more books than the Protestant and the Jewish Bible's Old Testament. 46 Old Testament and 27 New Testament books was the standard number for the Bible till the Protestant Reformation. Reason: Way back before Christ the Jews in Alexandria - which was Greek speaking for starters - chose more books to be in the Bible than the Hebrew Collection in Israel. Broadly speaking that Greek text from Alexandria was translated into Latin and it became the so called Vulgate. At the time of the Protestant Reformation the King James folks chose the Hebrew text to translate into English and the Roman Catholics chose the Greek and then the Latin Vulgate text.

COMING UP WITH THE BEST COMMON TEXT

A goal in the last 150 or so years among Christians was to come up with the best Greek text as opposed to force a text to say something that would support a theological position. Catholic and main stream Protestant communities have for the most part come up with an agreed upon Greek text. Within this century some believe Jews, Catholics and Protestants will have come up with an agreed upon common Hebrew Text.

In time - mistakes were made in copying the scriptures for the next generation - that is before the printing press. Scholars by studying all the texts that they could look at - as well as texts that quote the bible - can come up with an agreed upon common text. Then we work together to come up with the best translations - into the various languages. Translations differ because of different styles and word selections.

As already mentioned the New Testament has 21 letters. The rest of the New Testament is the 4 gospels, Mathew, Mark, Luke and John. Then there is the Acts of the Apostles and the Book of Revelation.

OLDEST NEW TESTAMENT DOCUMENT

The oldest New Testament document is Paul’s First Letter to the Thessalonians. That’s some 20 years earlier than Mark, the earliest of the Gospels.

LETTER AND EPISTLE

Scholars like to make a distinction between a letter and an epistle. I heard this after we finished our scripture studies. A letter is more like a personal letter we would write. An epistle is more polished, more worked out, more like an essay or a magazine article than a letter.

I would put Hebrews in this category. It’s been called a letter - but if it’s a letter, it’s certainly a different kind of letter than the other New Testament documents. I was taught it’s more a sermon - a long sermon. Others say that James and a few others are more epistles than letters. [Cf. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary, p. 771, #16.]

FORMATS FOR LETTERS

Letters have formats. Then there are business letters, love letters, personal letters, etc. etc. etc.

We put an address or letter head on top of some letters. Then we put the date. Then we put Dear John or Mary or whoever.

Then we give the purpose of the letter or what have you.

My sister Mary recently handed me a plastic bag of all my letters home from the seminary. I looked at them. They are all almost the same. “Dear Mom and Dad, How are you. I am fine. Hope you are fine as well. Weather is cold. We had 6 inches of snow. All is well. Your loving son, Andy.”

We were told we had to write home every week. Recently a marine told me said that they were handed a post card every week and told to write home.

I don’t know if they offer guided tours of the U.S. Military Archives in Carlisle Pa, but that would be interesting.

Well, New Testament times letters had a different format.

NAME

TO WHOM

ADD CO-SENDERS AND WRITERS.

GREETINGS: GRACE AND PEACE....

A WISH

A THANKSGIVING

A COMPLAINT

AN URGING

A CONCLUSION AND FINAL BLESSING

SOMETIMES A PRAYER OR A HYMN IS PUT INTO THE LETTER.

OFTEN THERE WERE SOME EXHORTATIONS OR NAGGING.

Letters were self written, dictated, given to someone else to compose but with the content from the author, or have given to someone else to even come up with the content. [Cf. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary, p. 771, #19.]

Letters were also cut and paste at times.

13 letters are attributed to Paul - but there are arguments about that - based on research. Computers catch plagiarism in term papers in college - so we know now, this section of an ancient letter could not have been written by the person who wrote another section of that same letter.

CHAPTER AND VERSE

The Old Testament has 929 chapters and the New Testament has 260 chapters. In other words the Bible is 2/3 Jewish Scriptures and 1/3 Christian Scriptures.

As you know chapter and verse were not put into the Bible till way after the Bible was together.

Chapters were put in by the Archbishop of Canterbury around 1227.

Verses for the Jewish OT were put in by Rabbi Nathan around 1448.

Verses for the New Testament were put in by Robert Estienne in 1555.

CHERRY PICK

Some people start reading the Bible from page 1, Genesis 1: 1 - which begins “In the beginning” - Hebrew for Genesis and go from there.

I suggest you do a book at a time - starting with the Letters - and I would always suggest the Letter of James. If something in there, doesn’t grab you, forget it.

Or just play Bible Bingo, just turn to a page and read and ponder.

Or read the scripture readings in the Missalette for the Sunday. Today’s reading from 1^st Thessalonians might get you praying about prayer, joy, gratitude, don’t quench the Spirit, test everything, do good and avoid evil.

Pick - like at a smorgasbord. Pick and choose and pick and chew and then digest.

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION

Many Bibles have color maps.

Check them out.

Study where places are and who’s from where, and all that.

For example, Thessalonica is a port city north of modern Greece. It was also on a main Roman Road across the Balkans. It was founded in 315 BC by Cassander - one of Alexander the Great’s generals - who named the city after his wife, the half-sister of Alexander. It had a synagogue, something Paul looked for while traveling, but the Christian community there were mostly Gentiles.

CONCLUSION

The catholic approach is that we don’t take the Bible literally. It’s a library with all kinds of different types of literature.

So we don’t take some of the types of literature in the Bible literally, just as we don’t take little kids books literally. Snakes and donkeys talk, but in real life they don’t, but the stories have great messages. Be careful of snakes in the grass.

There’s a lot more that all of the above - besides how to interpret the Bible. There are different translations, geography, customs, but that’s enough for a start.

Do self-study. Take courses. Deacon Tony Norcio gave a short course here. So too Father Joe Krastel. There is a bible study group at St. John Neumann on Monday night and I think Monday morning. Check out google and go from there.

December 17, 2017

SURPRISES

Do you really want a straight,

flat highway from here to there?

Do you want life to be that easy?

Think about the consequences.

No mountains. No valleys. No twists

and turns. No snow. No ice. No winter.

Okay, you’ll accept some surprises.

Okay, you’ll accept bumps and potholes.

But you won’t accept accidents or tie-ups. Sorry.

Saturday, December 16, 2017

December 16, 2017

FEET

Feet - as necessary - as important as hands….

Feet - washed by Jesus, who had the same

experience of having his feet washed and

then dried by a woman’s hair. "Oooh nice!"

Feet - taking us everywhere along the

roads of our Palestine and the streets of our

Jericho and Jerusalem - and sometimes

we wish we could walk on water….

Feet - sometimes we’re unaware of our feet.

We stub our toes. And sometimes we’re

unaware of those who do the footwork

in our life: mail carriers, nurses, police….

Feet - sometimes we feel nailed down -
like Jesus on the cross. We're stuck, feeling
abandoned - and we can't walk away.
We can only say, "Father forgive them...."

Friday, December 15, 2017

December 15, 2017

FROZEN TUNDRA TURF

Hard, cold, cemetery earth,

especially in winter wind,

makes the resurrection so

much easier to believe.

Who would want to spend

earth’s eternity underground

surrounded by cement, ashes,

decaying casket and bone?

Who wouldn’t want to grab

Christ’s hand and join heaven’s

dance, the Perichoresis, with

Father, Son and Holy Spirit? Amen.

Perichoreis - the ancient Greek

word - that pictures God as the

God of the Dance - harmony,

music and togetherness.

Thursday, December 14, 2017

^{THE DARK NIGHT}

^{OF THE SOUL}

GOSPEL: A READING FROM THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 13: 21-30

After he had said this, Jesus was troubled in spirit and testified, “Very truly I tell you, one of you is going to betray me.”

His disciples stared at one another, at a loss to know which of them he meant.One of them, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was reclining next to him. Simon Peter motioned to this disciple and said, “Ask him which one he means.”

Leaning back against Jesus, he asked him, “Lord, who is it?”

Jesus answered, “It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish.” Then, dipping the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him.

So Jesus told him, “What you are about to do, do quickly.”

But no one at the meal understood why Jesus said this to him.

Since Judas had charge of the money, some thought Jesus was telling him to buy what was needed for the festival, or to give something to the poor. As soon as Judas had taken the bread, he went out. It was night.

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “The Dark Night of the Soul.”

Today is the feast of St. John of the Cross [1542-1591]

He is famous for that phrase: “The Dark Night of the Soul.”

It's the title of his treatise [c.1583] based on his poem: Songs of the Soul Which Rejoices at Having Reached Union with God by the road of Spiritual Negation [c. 1578]

Theologians, poets, psychologists, and spiritual writers often talk about “The Dark Night of the Soul."

Napoleon talked about, “Two o’clock in the morning courage: I mean unprepared courage.” This can be found in the Memories of Napoleon written down by Emmanuel-Auguste-Dieudonne from the island of Saint Helene - where Napoleon was held captive. [Cf. his journal writings from December 4, 5, 1815 - in Las Cases, Memorial de Ste-Helene 1843.

Henry David Thoreau wrote about, "The Three o'clock in the morning courage, which Bonaparte thought was the rarest." That's n Walden [1854] chapter 4, Sounds.

F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote in his book, The Crack Up, "In a real dark night of the soul it is always three o'clock in the morning." [1936]

So in psychology - many times in talking about depression - people feel like they are in a dark night. They can’t sleep or they are sleeping too much.

So in prayer - many people in talking about praying and spirituality - they talk about feeling bored, empty, dry, feeling like they are in a desert or having been deserted by God.

John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila - who knew each other as Carmelites - and friends - often talked about the Dark Night.

A key word one reads is, “Nada!”

They are feeling nothing when they pray - and then bringing that into her spirituality - Teresa will say, “Nada” - let nothing disturb you.

When it comes to God, they feel nothing at times. Nada. They feel like they are in the dark.

GOSPEL

I picked the gospel text I read for today from the gospel of St. John.

I was going to pick just the last 3 words, “It was night” as the reading - but I thought that could be a distraction.

John the Poet - very different from Matthew, Mark and Luke - plays on the theme of sin as darkness.

Judas by his betrayal of Jesus entered into the night - into the dark night of sin - into the dark night of the soul.

When we sin - when we betray our spouse - when we cheat - it’s hard to look the other in the eye. “It is night!” We have eaten, bit in into the sour bread of sin - and we can’t be in communion with each other.

Paul - especially in Romans - talks about sin as darkness.

Thieves wear masks. People going into court hide behind a coat or newspaper.

CONCLUSION

We’re heading for Christmas - the great feast of Light - especially in the Northern Hemisphere - where Christmas comes in the Darkest time of the Year.

Yet isn’t it neat to see so many lights on trees and houses - and in windows - and light in people’s eyes - as they are shopping for gifts to express their love and appreciation for the people in their lives.

December 14, 2017

DARK NIGHT

Dark night,

needing light,

as I maneuvered my way

to the bathroom at 2:30 in the morning.

Dark night,

avoiding the light,

as I danced my way,

away from You, O God, for a thousand nights.

Dark night,

returning to the light,

as I crawled my way,

bruised and broken, back to You, Dark God.

Wednesday, December 13, 2017

FEAST OF SAINT LUCY -
DECEMBER 13 -

PATRON SAINT

OF THOSE WITH BLINDNESS

OR EYE TROUBLES

PRAYER FOR OUR EYES

Lord,

thank you for my eyes.

Help me to see clearly -
especially in seeing the good in others.

Give me healthy eyes

and when my eyes are going bad,

help me to find

the best medical help possible.

Amen.

December 13, 2017

DARK BLUE BOTTLE

It was a dark blue bottle -

holding dark blue wine -

at least that’s what it looked like -

as I looked through the outside

into the inside of the blue bottle.

God, why didn’t you make some
of us with skin of blue - such a

calming color? The blues could

be the peacemakers. They could

be the ones bringing us calm.

Well, God, you didn’t. So we the black

ones, the tan ones, are the ones who

have to make peace with one another,

pouring out our wine and our blood,

so that we can be calm for one another.

Tuesday, December 12, 2017

OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE

At Malvern Pennsylvania Retreat House

Juan Diego, Malvern Pennsylvania

FEAST OF OUR LADY

OF GUADALUPE -

THE NUMBERS

INTRODUCTION

The title of my few thoughts is, “Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe - The Numbers.”

Today, December 12, about 3 million people will go to Tepeyac, Mexico, for the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. It’s a feast day that starts with the first revelations of Mary to Juan Diego, a Christian Native American on December 8^th - going further to December 12, 1531

Around 20 million people make a pilgrimage to Our Lady of Guadalupe Shrine per year.

What about other shrines and other numbers.

Lourdes, France has about 8 million per year. Apparecida, Brazil gets about 6.6 million people per year. Fatima has about 4.5 million per year - this year obviously more - with its 100^th Anniversary.

Guadalupe is the largest and best attended Marian Shrine in the world.

In Hinduism, we have the largest holy place in the world. It’s dedicated to Ayyappan. It’s in Southern India - in the Kerala region - which is also the most Catholic area in India. This shrine gets about 40 to 50 million pilgrims a year. This happens mostly in late December and early January. The key god is Ayyappan - who is a war god and the god of growth. Women in their child bearing years don’t want to go in pilgrimage to this place - because Ayyappan is celibate.

CONVERSATIONS

Start conversations about the holy places you’ve been to.

I haven’t been to Salt Lake City to see the Mormon’s sacred center.

But I’ve been to Israel. If you get the opportunity, if you haven’t already, to to Israel. I did in 2000. I saw Bethlehem, The Lake of Galilee, the place of the Last Supper, Jerusalem, the Jordan, the Dead Sea, the mount of Transfiguration and what have you.

I liked being on the Lake of Galilee the most - because I figured that would be closest to the what a place looked like in the time of Jesus.

I’ve been to various other holy places. I’ve been to Monte Cassino - the key Benedictine place. It’s in Italy, along with Assissi and all the big churches in Rome.

In France, I got to Montmartre and Notre Dame in Paris. But the one shrine I wanted to go to was Chartres Cathedral, 50 miles south and west of Paris. It supposedly has the most beautiful stained glass windows in the world. It has big time history - being the Marian Shrine to visit way before Lourdes.

But I did get to Lourdes which did give me a feel of what it’s like to go on a pilgrimage.

NUMBERS

I have the word “numbers” in my title. I’m sure you heard what a Hajj for a Moslem is. It’s one of the 5 sacred pillars of Islam - to make a sacred pilgrimage in your lifetime to Saudi Arabia and Mecca and to the black stone - that goes way, way back in Moslem History. They got 2.35 million folks there this year.

Parts of the sacred shrine at Mecca have had people breaking off pieces of the sacred stone. During the French Revolution they broke off parts of Chartres - but luckily it was not destroyed.

RELICS

Interestingly Chartres has the supposed garment of Mary. Studies say it’s a legend - but when we went there the tour guide said, that it didn’t make any difference if it was real or whether it was not. The key factor is whether people believed it to be Mary’s cloak. They did.

In Tepyyak, they have the cloak of Juan Diego, which has the image of Mary on it. Like the tilma or cloak of Mary, this too was tried to be destroyed, but no luck.

CONCLUSIONS

Pilgrimages are good.

Our Mary pilgrimages are very Catholic. Mary is very Catholic and Lourdes and Fatima, Guadalupe and Aparacida connect us deeply with Mary.

If you have a chance, go for it.

December 12, 2017

C OR D STUDENT

There are no specific A, B, C, D’s, or F’s

for imagination skills. Well, take that back.

The student with a creative imagination

can come up with a great short story or

poem or work of art or book report.

But in real life - the A, B, C, D, or F person -

who has a good imagination - might be the

one who imagines a new solution for cancer

or a way to do things that were never done

this or that way before. Hire her. Hire him.

Monday, December 11, 2017

THE PARALYSIS

THAT COMES

FROM NOT FORGIVING

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this Second Monday in Advent is, “The Paralysis That Comes from Not Forgiving.”

TODAY’S READINGS

Today’s readings trigger thoughts about what forgiveness and non-forgiveness can do to us.

Today’s gospel from Luke 5:17-26 tells the story of the paralyzed man who was brought to Jesus for healing. The Pharisees and teachers of the law are also there to check out this Jesus. Jesus not only heals this paralyzed man, but he also forgives the man his sins.

The first reading from Isaiah 35:1-10 talks about the earth blooming and blossoming. It also talks about the opposite feeling weak and feeble. God makes the difference.

And that’s the theme of the Gospel as well.

So we have here a clear comparison: being paralyzed or being free to blossom.

PARALYSIS

Let me begin by talking about being paralyzed by not forgiving.

When we don’t or won’t forgive - we can become stuck.

When we’re angry, it’s often because we won’t forgive.

Keep your eye on your hands when you’re angry. Often they have become fists. Often they have become hard. And it’s hard to shake hands with fists.

In fact, tightened hands, fist shaped and sculpted in a closed position, can bring us feelings of physical pain, arthritis like, in our hands.

THEY ARE OUT THERE

Every once and a while, we find out, someone is angry with us.

Often we don’t know it, but they know it.

When they see us or spot us, we trigger repeat feelings of anger in others.

As priest I have experienced this.

Sometimes it’s me they are angry with. Sometimes it’s priests in general.

This collar - the priestly collar - a white plastic collar - against the black of a black shirt - has the power to trigger memories and anger in others. A little tiny piece of white plastic can have big time power. [Show white plastic collar.]

Some priest might have yelled at someone. Some priest said, “No” to someone - who wanted a funeral at a certain date - but the priest said he couldn’t do it. Someone wanted to talk to a priest in a one priest parish and the secretary who answered the phone said that it was the priest’s day off - and he would call tomorrow. The caller gets furious and screams, “The hell with the Catholic Church.”

I have two relatives right now who have stopped going to church - one because of a priest who brought up homosexuals and abortion in every sermon - over and over and over again; the other because their bishop got accused of protecting priests who abused children.

A lot of damage and a lot of anger has come from the sexual abuse of people by priests. Check out the numbers of church drop outs from the Church in Ireland.

FORMS OF FORGIVENESS

Forgiveness is the call.

Forgiveness needs a lot more than words.

It starts with communication. It calls for turning the other cheek. It calls for checking things out. It calls for money at times. It calls for counseling. It calls for time. Sometimes timing is everything. Forgiveness calls for honesty. It calls for acknowledgement. It calls for grace. It calls for the Holy Spirit.

And it calls for the person who is hurting - to do what it takes - to heal. Otherwise paralysis can continue.

CHRIST ON FORGIVENESS

I’ve heard a lot of babbling about God from people.

I’ve heard a lot of babbling about people from other people.

Sometimes I say, “I have to think about what I just heard.” Sometimes I make a judgment: “Sounds like sloppy thinking to me.” Sometimes I say, “There’s more to this situation than indicated.”

So I choose the word “babbling” carefully - because I’m implying that a lot of talk calls from clarification and communication and when it’s sloppy talk it’s babbling.

For starters, Christianity has a lot to offer our world about the mystery of forgiveness.

Jesus said to forgive 70 times 7 times. Jesus said, “Put down the stones. Let him or her without sin cast the first stone.” Jesus said on the cross, “Father forgive them for they don’t know what they are doing.”

I’d add, “They don’t know why they are doing what they are doing.”

BOOK: IT DIDN’T START WITH YOU

I could conclude here, but let me mention a book that can trigger stuff about anger and lack of forgiveness. The book gets into the issue of where our personal patterns of how we do life come from.

There’s a book out there by Mark Wolynn that states, “It Didn’t Start With You.”

I haven’t finished the book yet, but statements and anecdotes in the book about forgiveness has got me to bring the themes from that book into the issue of forgiveness. I believe that it’s worth thinking about.

I’ve also read positive and negative criticism about some of the comments, thoughts, positions in the book. Some say it's too repetitive. Someone said take it off the shelf in Barnes and Noble and just read the first two chapters. Others say that the theories advance need more history and back-up.

The book can get us thinking about how much we are like our parents and grandparents and great grandparents.

Question: How do we measure how much impact our grandparents have on what we do today.

I heard long before this book the statement, “If you want to change someone, change their grandmother.”

I also heard that a therapist in a big city said: “If you want to do therapy for someone, you have to work with the whole street.”

In the meanwhile each of us needs to take responsibility for our own behaviors and talk to others about our parents and grandparents, etc. etc. etc. and get a handle on why we are the way we are.

CONCLUSION

Pray to be a forgiver in hopes our spirit infiltrates our family system.

Pray to be a forgiver and see if we become more flexible and less paralyzed in our destructive thinking and behaviors.

In the meanwhile, please learn to laugh. Don’t forget the old Chinese advice: “If you want to get even with someone, buy a drum for each of their kids.”