RCL - Epiphany 3 A - 27 Jan 2008

Holy Cross Monastery, West Park, NY
Br. Daniel Ludik, n/OHC
RCL - Epiphany 3 A - Sunday 27 January 2008

Isaiah 9:1-4
1 Corinthians 1:10-18
Matthew 4:12-23


When I was growing up in Namibia, my family, like most Namibians, would spend the December holidays at the coast. My father, having been an avid angler, made sure that everyone in the family had fishing tackle so that we could enjoy his hobby with him. We were supposed to be on holiday, but were chased out of bed at all hours of the night to get to the good fishing spots before it was too warm, or the fish had moved on, or whatever the reason was, but he usually knew, at least he thought he did. And there is no denying the thrill of actually hooking a fish and reeling it in.

So, while reading the gospel of today, and how Simon, Andrew, James and John just let go of the nets to follow Jesus, I saw my father’s reaction in my mind’s eye should some of us have done the same thing with our fishing tackle, especially if some unknown young man just happened to pass by and told us to follow him and fish for people! I mean, if those reels fell in the sand it would take hours to clean the cogs. Of course, I would not have been the one to just drop my things to follow this man. He would have had to have his ducks in a neat row to convince me to just drop everything and follow him. But, what I did not know then, was that I was hooked anyway, I was just too anaesthetized to feel it and it took many years for the anesthesia to wear off, but thank God it did!

I wonder what went through Zebedee’s mind when his sons and Simon and Andrew just upped and left.

How did Jesus manage to convince them so easily to follow him? What else did he say that the scriptures do not tell us? Did the four of them know something else that convinced them? I do not know the answer to this, but they were hooked and chose to follow him.

They exercised the amazing gift of choice that God had given us.

I often wonder though why God has given us free choice. Choices are so easy to make, however the difficult part is to live with the consequences of our choices.

Did our four intrepid disciples have any idea of the consequences of their choice to follow Jesus? Like many of us, I am sure, I have bought into the tradition of a smiling, blue-eyed Jesus holding a soft doe-eyed lamb in his arms, and you see the picture as if through some kind of haze. Well, I have become convinced that this is just public relations! This is not it at all!

What I see now is a cross that was made very roughly and it is full of splinters and it is uneven, which means it is very awkward to carry. Yet, what this does not mean is that following Christ is hardship. NO, what it means is that we have to face reality as it is and to live the life that we have. And Christ is always there to share in the load. It is up to us to allow him to help us.

I think one of the consequences of their choice to follow Jesus that the first disciples could not foresee, was the divisions in the church that they were instrumental in founding. If we look at the exasperation with which Paul writes about the disunity in the Church he could have been writing of the Church of today. Christ died for us on the cross, so that we can be one body in him, yet we have lost that focus. How can we attain peace and unity in the world when the church cannot get its act together? Yes, at least not everywhere is a war zone as was the case in Northern Ireland, but is violence necessarily physical and bloody?

How did it come about that we have lost sight of the Cross?

Randy has a T-shirt with a logo that says something to the effect of:

The time for action has long gone past and now is the time for senseless bickering.

Would this be the scenario that Chloe described to Paul in Corinthians? The division that there was in the Church of the day? Why does senseless bickering seem to be such a major part of our lives today as well? What are we trying to avoid or deny?

Are we trying to deny the cross?

As Paul explicitly says in Corinthians: “For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to proclaim the Gospel, and not with eloquent wisdom, so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its power. For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.”

Paul is very clear when he calls us back to the essence of the church: the Cross and in whose name we have been baptized.

The promise as given in Isaiah of a new light that has dawned is fulfilled in the folly of the cross, and there will be no gloom for those who were in anguish. God fulfills his promise and manifests his incredible love and compassion.

What will we do when we truly love? How far will be willing to go?

Part of my family’s folklore is a story my mother told of when she was a young bride on the family farm in the south of Namibia. The neighbor’s daughter and one of the Nama workers on the farm fell in love with each other. For those who do not know, Namas are indigenous people of southern Namibia and North Western South Africa and they are closely related to the San or Bushmen. Anyway, the father tried everything in his power to break up this affair; he whipped them, he chased the man from the farm at gunpoint, and when he returned to be with the woman he loved, he was shot at and nearly killed. The two eventually eloped and the rest of their lives remains a mystery. What did happen, though, was that this example of love was the starting point of my mother’s conversion to a life of full inclusiveness against some very daunting odds.

How much more should the image of God‘s Son on the Cross be an impetus to all Christians for conversion and a desire for unity in the church?

Amen

RCL - Epiphany A - 06 Jan 2008

Holy Cross Monastery, West Park, NY
Br. Lary Pierce, OHC
RCL - Epiphany A - Sunday 06 January 2008

Isaiah 60:1-6
Ephesians 3:1-12
Matthew 2:1-12

Today is the feast of the Epiphany. An Epiphany is a showing forth or a manifestation. Today we celebrate God’s showing forth God’s glory to the whole world, not just to Bethlehem or to Israel. To many the story of the Three Wise Men is just a myth. If you belong to the Joseph Campbell School of Theology, myths are pretty important in that they teach great truths. One of the commentators I read said that only an artist could effectively teach the meaning of this story, and I expect that each of us has seen many great paintings of the Adoration of the Magi. The question this brings up for me is where have I seen paintings in which the glory of God has shown forth.

I have seen many of them. I think that paintings can teach great truths and, they can elucidate great mysteries. To illustrate this I remember two paintings from Mt. Calvary. Both of them are by nineteenth century Mexican artists. One of them hangs in the galleria. It is a symbolic representation of the Godhead. It contains four faces arranged in a diamond shaped pattern. They are the Father, with a beard, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; the fourth face, at the bottom of the diamond is the Virgin Mary. They all have the same face. I find it a strange and interesting painting. The second used to be in the refectory picture depicts a Capuchin friar adoring a mystical vision of the Virgin and Child. Again, they all have the same face. I think the teaching here has to do with the spiritual identity of God and the believer, that is the reality of the image and likeness of God in the soul of the believer. These are images that invite a good deal of meditation.

Today’s gospel reminds me of an art show I once attended in Toronto. I worked at St. Mathias’ Church. Br. Richard Vaggione was the priest in charge. A well known artist was a member of that parish. She didn’t come to church much, maybe two or three times a year, and I do not remember her name; let’s call her “Jane.” Jane did in her own way love St. Mathias; she said it was just like a little English country church. I remember one pleasant summer day she came to the Church bazaar a donated a bunch of posters she had made for a movie. She said, “I suppose these will be more valuable if I sign them.” She did, and I bought one for ten or twenty dollars. I had in my room for a long time. I think I left it at Mt. Calvary when I left there in 1994.

Jane was the first woman to have a retrospective art show at the Ontario Art Gallery. She asked Richard to bless the show before it opened. I wanted to see the show so I asked Richard if I could come along and he had me to carry the Holy Water bucket for aspurges. As we entered the art gallery he remarked that the blessing would take care of any demonic element that might be present. One of the first pictures we saw was a sort of comic strip which displayed Jane and her boy friend being very naughty. There were lots of paintings. One of them was of Hildegard of Bingen. It was an impressionistic sort of painting which showed Hildegard peering through a lot of greenery. Interestingly the Hildegard’s face was Jane’s face, the same one as in the comic strip. The third picture I remember showed the Flight of the Holy Family to Egypt. Joseph on foot leads a donkey on which Mary holding the infant Jesus is seated. There is an angel over head guiding and protecting the Holy Family on their journey. The angel has Jane’s face. I think that Jane was saying something about the image and likeness of God in her inner being. Maybe Jane Identified with Hildegard of Bingen. Maybe she saw herself as an angel guardian of the Holy Family. I think the glory of God glowed in her art. They say that all great art is ambiguous.

So what does this have to do with the Magi? I think that each of us is a Magus. Sometimes I think that God gives me the wisdom to see God’s glory shining forth in creation. I saw God’s glory shining in Jane, in her paintings, and in her asking Richard to bless her show. I see God’s glory right here in our monastery. I see it in our ministry of hospitality, especially to people who come here the busy, crowded cities nearby. I see it in Jim’s work with the homeless, in Bernard’s spiritual direction, in Randy’s bookstore and in his chili. I think that each of us is one of the Magi or a journey which takes us far from home to our true home, which is God.

One more profound truth of this myth, if it is a myth, is that in the course of our journey each of us encounters evil, just as the Magi encountered Herod the Great. Herod was just about as evil as human beings get. One Roman wit remarked after he rather be Herod’s pig than his son. Herod killed at least three of his sons. The thought was that since at least officially Herod did not eat pork, he might not kill his pig. Be like the Magi, when you encounter evil, recognize it; do not change course. Follow your star to see the glory of God, then heed God’s warning; go home a different way. I think that God does speak through myths and through art, and sometimes the message is not mysterious at all.