Connecting With Zoe

 "I have come that they might have zoe, and have it more abundantly."  (Jesus)

"I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life (zoe)."  (Jesus)

In English, unfortunately, we do not have a way to distinguish between the 2 Greek words for "Life:"  bios and zoe.    Bios, obviously, refers to our biological life or energy.  Zoe refers to vitality, energy, enthusiasm, connectivity, alertness, overflowing......I will give you a spring welling up to eternal life (Jesus to the woman at the well.)

Most of us probably connect the words "eternal life" to the idea of biological life without end  --- with the result that many people consider that heaven and eternity might become boring after a few thousand years! But what if we could read the Gospel with the distinctions that are made in the Greek original between bios and zoe?  I once made a study of these words in the Gospel of John and regret now that I did not make the distinctions in my bible.

At the tomb of Lazarus, Jesus said, "The one who believes in me will never die!"  Quite a statement!

In his book Enchanted by Eternity, William Slattery proposes a future for each human person in a resurrected body in a new heavens and a new earth, connected to God Himself, to one another, and to the earth/nature itself.  According to him, that future can begin now.

When we refer to "God," we tend to think of Him as another object in the universe.  There's plants, there's animals, there's people, and then there's God.  But actually, God is not an object, however exalted; He IS LIFE itself --- and our life is actually participation in HIM!  In Him we live and move and have our very being (Acts 17:28).  In fact, the word enthusiasm literally means "God within"  (en theos).  Whenever we are living our lives with enthusiasm, or participating fully in life/energy, we are connecting to the Source of Life Itself.  

Slattery does not use the term "God" in his book, but rather Creator, Lover, Rescuer ----because that is how we experience God.  "God" is the answer to "what;" Creator, Lover, Rescuer is the answer to "Who."   In Him, all things hold together (Col.1:17) ---- Jesus Christ is the sustaining force of the entire universe --- all creatures, all peoples, all visible and invisible life.

C. S. Lewis once wrote: If you want to get warm, you must stand by the fire; if you want to be wet, you must get into the water. If you want joy, peace, power, eternal life (zoe), you must get close to, or even into the thing that has them.....they are a great fountain of energy and beauty spurting up at the very center of reality. If you are close to it, the spray will wet you; if you are not, you will remain dry. Once a man is united to God, how could he not live forever? Once a man is separated from God, what can he do but wither and die?

Blessed are You, Creator of the Universe......

 Wearing a heart monitor for a couple of weeks revealed that my heart has an extra beat that is exhausting me upon exertion.  I have noticed that walking just a few steps in my neighborhood takes all the energy I have.  But the problem, fortunately, is fixable.  

When I told a friend about the issue, she said, "You would not think an extra heartbeat would be a problem."   And that started me thinking.  About eight years ago, my husband had to have surgery to correct the same problem that had progressed to life-threatening status.  It seems that the top part of the heart was not communicating with the lower part, so that when blood was pumped into the upper half, the lower part of the heart would not empty it with the same rhythm.  (I have not studied the actual process beyond the casual explanation offered by the doctor, so you will have to forgive me any inaccuracies here.)

Anyway, what I was thinking about was the absolute precision and timing of our heartbeats.  The rhythm of our hearts must be exactly measured --- neither too fast nor too slow.  And both halves of our hearts have to communicate precisely with one another.  There is no room for the slightest irregularity!  

It is also pretty amazing to me that mankind is able to correct an irregularity when it does occour -- not only with surgery, but sometimes even with just a small pill.

Along the same lines, I watched an interview recently with a priest who wrote a book called Enchanted with Eternity.  He mentioned that sometime in the past, Christopher Hawkins dismissed the wonder of our planet by saying we were "an insignificant planet on the edge of the universe."  In other words, to Hawkins, there is nothing remarkable at all about our existence or the creation of the world.  Recently, however, scientists have started to comment on just how remarkable indeed is the placement of our earth planet "on the edge of the universe."  It seems that we are situated at the exact spot that allows us to observe the galaxies of the universe.  Any further into the center of the universe, we would not be able to see and to study the elements of space that are now available to our understanding.  The comments of this priest made me marvel once again at the precision of God's creation and the wonders of our world.  I have ordered the book and will share more in-depth comments once I begin reading it.

A traditional Jewish prayer begins with the words, "Blessed are You, Creator of the universe, for you have given us bread to eat and wine to drink....."   Einstein once said, "Any scientist who says he doesn't believe in God is either lying, or he is a very bad scientist."  The more we look at creation and its precision, the more the Creator is revealed to us!

The Word of God

 On one of the opening pages of my bible, I have written the following:

The Word of God is the Pronouncement of God,

The Plan of God,

The Promise of God,

the Provision of God, 

the Purpose of God, and 

the Power of God to accomplish all that it says.

Psalm 119 -- the longest chapter in the bible, by the way --- is a lengthy and profound meditation on the benefits of hearing and embracing the Word of God for oneself and one's own life.  What we refer to as "the Word of God," the Jews called "The Torah."  But for them, as for us, "Torah" meant much more than "law," although it included law and laws.  Psalm 119 gives us a number of synonyms for "law":  statutes, precepts, decrees, commands, word.  Every stanza contains all of these synonyms, as well as the listed benefits of embracing the Torah (Word) of God:

an upright heart, a pure heart, avoidance of sin, rejoicing, delight, renewal of life, strength, freedom, understanding.......

If we want to learn how to pray, it could help to take one or two stanzas a day of this acrostic poem, and embrace it fully.  Only in coming to hear the "pronouncements" of God will we finally experience the plans, the promises, the provision, the purpose and the power of God in our own lives.

Resident Aliens

 I don't know how much longer I can remain silent about our nation's treatment of those the Bible refers to as "resident aliens."  We have just spent over a billion dollars constructing yet another detention center in the desert outside of El Paso, Texas.  Why are we rounding up innocent people who arrived in the United States, like all of our ancesters, hoping for a future and a new start in life?  These people were invited here by the previous administration; their "crime" was accepting the invitation.  Along with them came the criminal element, the drug lords, the sex trafficers, and those who prey on the innocent.  I am not referring to those people in my concern for the poor.

Again and again in the Bible, God warns the nation about discriminating against the "resident aliens" who lived among them: When an alien lives among you in your land, do not mistreat him. The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born.  Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt.  I am the Lord, your God (Lev. 19: 33).

Do not mistreat an alien or oppress him, for you were aliens in Egypt (Exodus 22:21).

The Lord watches over the alien and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but He frustrates the ways of the wicked (ps. 146:9).

Those of us who survived Hurricane Katrina in 2005 know that the "resident aliens" were those who rebuilt and re-roofed our homes, those who stood outside of Home Depot in the hot sun all day waiting for jobs.  These are the people who man our chicken-processing plants, jobs no American thinks is worth taking.  They are the ones who labor in the fields of California, picking vegetables and fruits that grace our tables.  They work for less -than-living wages, love their children, and pray to the saints. 

Why are we persecuting them?  I know they are here illegally; technically, they "broke the law."  But they were invited to do so, and they have, for the most part, lived peaceful lives in this country.  They have been treated as less-than-human by some employers, but still they remained in place, accepting whatever scraps America would throw their way, always grateful for the opportunity to earn a living and feed their families.  

Why are we going after these peaceful people, putting them in detention centers, separating families and terrorizing them?  The Bishop of Los Angeles gave permission for Catholic aliens to miss Mass on Sunday because of their fear of being arrested at church.   Is this a civilized and compassionate way to treat people?  

Growing up and hearing about Hitler's treatment of Jews in Germany, I wondered how the German people could have allowed it to happen.  Now I know they did not sit back in silence; many Germans spoke out and paid the ultimate price.  Others took in and hid the persecuted.  Today, i see history repeating itself in our own country.  I wish I had a voice to cry out: STOP THE CRUELTY.  Our nation will suffer for this crime:  God frustrates the way of the wicked, but He watches over the alien....

We need to stop this madness before it's too late for all of us!

On Saving Our Souls

 If we grow up in church, we hear a lot about "saving our souls," but to my knowledge, almost nothing about our souls themselves.  What, after all, is our "soul"?  

According to traditional teaching, the soul is the immaterial part of us that comprises the heart, the mind, and the will -- the parts of us, actually, that define who we are as persons.  And the part of us that survives death and continues into eternity.  The soul is worth "saving" indeed, for it is who we are now and who we will be forever.

Jesus said, The flesh is weak, but the spirit gives life, and What will a man give in exchange for his soul?

According to the doctrine of Original Sin, we are born into a world without light for the soul --- our minds are darkened, our hearts are hardened, our wills too weak to choose the good and reject the evil.  It is as if we ourselves are the abyss over which the Spirit hovers, the chaos over which the Father speaks: Let there be Light!  And the Word of God  (Light) becomes flesh in our flesh!

Jesus said, I am the Light of the World...those who walk in darkness do not even know what makes them stumble.

Some years ago, I used to enjoy watching reality tv -- the Bachelor, Sister Wives, and especially Looking for Love. Gradually, however, I came to realize that the reason I enjoyed these programs was that, in a way, I was looking down on and making fun of these unfortunate people who continued to get themselves into horrible situations, always leading to misery and suffering.  The viewing audience always knows what the victims themselves cannot see:  This is not going to end well!  Watching these programs is a kind of gladitorial sport -- enjoying seeing people thrown to the lions and being torn apart.  Those who walk in darkness do not even know what makes them stumble.

I stopped watching those programs years ago, but recently found another one called Welcome to Plathville, about a family of eight or nine children who grew up in rural Georgia, homeschooled and somewhat isolated from the destructive influences of the rest of the world.  I began watching what seemed at first to be a wholesome family interacting with one another --- not destroying themselves but just growing up in an innocent way.  As the children matured, they came into contact with other ways of thinking and acting -- not always wholesome, but "normal," according to our culture.  The clash was inevitable.  Darkness fell.

I began to see the Plath Family as all of us --- being sucked into "the world's way" of thinking and acting.  And the suffering it causes, the destructiveness that darkness has on all of us:  suffering, divorce, crushing misery, unhappiness.  I found myself having compassion rather than ridiculing these people--- they are, after all, just like all of us.  We are them! We do not see the danger ahead, and we walk in darkness, without light, without knowledge, until it is too late.

We all need Light; we all need Understanding /Wisdom in this world of darkness, chaos, evil.  Jesus -- the Word of God-- brings Light into our hearts, our minds, our wills.  Without the Light of the World, we cannot "save our souls," and we find ourselves spiraling ever deeper into chaos and suffering.  

As I watch "reality tv," I begin to feel the way God must feel watching us live our lives -- and His compassion in sending the Light of the World into our souls.

Who is Man?

 According to Joseph Ratzinger (Benedict XVI), man is the creature made to be in dialog with God.  I like that definition, for it fits with everything from the first pages of the Bible.  The other creatures -- the sun, the moon and stars, the animals -- were made to be His servants and to show His glory, but man....man was made to be in conversation with his Creator.

In the Babylonian creation myths, man was made to be a servant of the gods, to do the work they did not want to do.  But the Bible has a different viewpoint, that of God walking with Adam in the cool of the evening, discussing the day, seeing Adam's need for companionship, and creating Eve.  Man was made to share his existence with another, ultimately his creator.

That is why Jesus, at the Last Judgment, says, "Depart from Me, you evildoers; I never knew you."  He does not reject them because they are sinners, but because they had no conversation with Him.  When Jesus, the Son of God, emerged to show us the Face of God, He sought out the company of sinners rather than rejecting them.  Even after Peter's denial, Jesus initiated another conversation with him.  After Saul's persecution of Christ's body in the Church, Jesus persued him in deep converation.  Perhaps this is the meaning of the word "conversion"  --- the willingness, finally, to enter into conversation with God.

Jesus says, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock.  To him that opens, I will come in and sup with him, and him with Me."  All He asks of us is to open the door to conversation.  

We Walk by Fairh

 In 2013, I attended a lenten series by Dr. Greg Voll and took some notes, which I have just re-discovered.  This is a little different from my usual ramblings, but as I re-read my notes, I thought it might be interesting to hear from a very respected theologian, who teaches at Notre Dame Seminary.  The following is from those notes:

As humans, we have an innate desire to love and to be loved; to know and to be known; to give ourselves to another and to receive another.  The truth is that we are restless until we rest in God.

How can we know God?  We are finite beings with infinite desires.  We are searching for the Face of God ---and He wants to meet this desire.  God's answer is that He has revealed Himself and has given Himself to mankind.

Jesus is the Perfect Self-Expression of the Father. He reflects all that the Fther is back to the FAther.  God knows Himself in the Son -- union of knowledge; union of love (The Holy Spirit).  Our soul can know and love in the same way that God dies, to share in His life-- the life of the Trinity.

The self-revelation of God is always going to be through the Son under the impulse of the Spirit.  

Every creature reflects the beauty and truth of God.  Humans can see and recognize beauty and truth and render thanksgiving to the Creator.  We receive the world from God's hands and offer it back to God.  But creation reveals God only partially.  He also communicates Himself to man in various ways throughout history.  But in these days he has spoken to us in His Son.  God reveals Himself partially through the prophets, but totally through the Son.

His revelation to man has been a gradual step-by-step revelaton (See Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 53).  By grace, we are caught up to new levels of knowledge and love. Christ's humanity makes God accessible to us.  For God, who commanded light to shine out of darkness, has shone in our hearts, to give enlightenment concerning the knowledge of the glory of God, shining on the face of Christ Jesus (2Cor. 4:6).

Reading the Gospels gives us 4 authentic portraits of Christ and His personality.  The Eucharist gives us the humility of Christ -- to come to us as bread and wine.  He wants to feed us with Himself; He wants to pour Himself into us.

If we want to love and be loved; if we want to know and to be known; if we want to give ourselves to another and to receive another, we want to know God.  And the best way to know God is to begin with reading the Gospels and receiving the Eucharist.  As we open our minds and hearts to Him, He reveals Himself to us more and more -- and in the process, we come to know ourselves to a greater and greater degree.  He shows us what He loves about us, even as the Spirit shines in our hearts to give us a greater love for God Himself.