Is Abraham a Template?

 Today I have more of a question than an answer.  In reflecting on the journey of Abraham, I asked myself if we could take Abraham's experience as a template of God's relationship with mankind.  In other words, does God reveal Himself in each person's life at some point, with an invitation to come out of our present situation to "a land which I will show you"?

I have read that faith is always based on an experience of love.  That is, we trust God and follow Him because we have first experienced in some way His absolute love and providence for us.  When we read the story of Abraham, we see not only the call of God to come out of paganism, but the providence of God in delivering Sarah from the harem of Egypt.  Later, we see the power of God on Abraham's behalf as Abraham sets out to deliver his kinsman Lot from the kings of surrounding cities.

In the New Testament Gospel of John, we see the first disciples encounter Jesus as He "sees" them for who they really are -- in their first encounter with them, He sees into their souls.  When He first meets Peter, He says, "You are Simon, son of John. You will be called Cephas (Rock)."  When Jesus first meets Nathanael, He says, "Here is a true Israelite in whom there is nothing false."  "How do you know me?" asks Nathanael.  When Jesus replies that He saw Nathanael before Philip called him, Nathanael immediately recognizes who Jesus is:  "You are the Son of God; You are the king of Israel!"

Thomas Merton says that faith is the knowledge of God that is inseparable from an experience of love (The New Man, p. 71).  Abraham knew Who God Is because of God's love and providence for him.  Peter, Nathanael, Matthew, Mary Magdalene, and the other disciples encountered the personal love of God for them in the Person of Jesus.

So my question is this:  Does each person encounter in some way the revelation of God's love in his or her life?  Karl Rahner, the greatest theologian of the 20th century, asserts that we have encountered God in our lives, whether we recognize it or not.  "O yes," Rahner says, "you have encountered Him."  At this point, I need to re-read Karl Rahner for the 21st Century to recall the background and context for his statement, but I am intrigued with the question:  Is Abraham a template?  Does God reveal Himself to each person in some way?  

The Best Christmas Ever

 It's January 1, almost 4 a.m., and I'm sitting in the dark beside the Christmas tree with its deep red ornaments and scarlet ribbon.  Across the room is my creche set, highlighted with soft green lights and scented with handmade candles sent by my daughter.  It looks and smells like Christmas in this room.  Outside the window, the outdoor lights are still visible, the last ones in my neighborhood.  I had planned to leave them lit until January 6, when I take down the crib set, but I may cave in to social pressure before then.  

I had been traveling for a few weeks after Thanksgiving this year, so I missed most of the Christmas hype in stores and in the media this year.  No "Jingle Bells," no advertisements, no last-minute sales.....  Instead, I was traveling through Thailand and Vietnam, seeing all the Buddhist and Indian shrines, watching people come to worship the Buddha or their ancestors, or the 333 million gods of Hinduism.  And I could not help recalling the magnificent prologue to John's Gospel:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God....and the Word was God....In Him was life, and that life was the light of men.  The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it....The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world....He was in the world and though the world was made by Him, the world did not recognize Him.  Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, he gave the right to become children of God.....No one has ever seen God, but God the only Son, who is at the Father's side, has made Him known.

I returned home two weeks before Christmas, and since the family had all agreed this year to not exchange presents, all I had to do was to put up the Christmas tree and the crib. I had put up the outdoor lights before I left, but did not activate them until my return.  Our holiday get-together was scheduled for the week after Christmas, so the burden of cooking and house cleaning was postponed until then.  I had ordered a meditation book called Welcoming the Christ Child with Padre Pio before I left, so the two weeks before Christmas was a time of relaxation and reflection for me.

By the time Christmas morning arrived, I was welcoming and rejoicing in the Gift of the Light of the World. I knew the Light had come; I was ready to celebrate it!  That night, the opening statement of the news anchor was, "Goodbye Christmas. Hello, Mardi Gras!"  Wait, What?  I thought we were going to celebrate the birth of Christ here.....the Light of the World!  Kawaanza lasts for a week ---- What about Christmas?  It's Over!  No celebration ---- it's over.  The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has never understood it.  The light has come into the world, but men loved the darkness instead.

I realized then how out-of-step it is to live the liturgical year.  Our church will be ablaze with Christmas trees, poinsettias, and lights until Jan. 6 --- the celebration of the Light revealed to the nations (Feast of Epiphany --- the three kings).  And I too will keep my lights and candles lit until then, putting them away reluctantly until next year.  

Sometimes I wonder how God feels about sending His Son into the world, and watching the lights go off the next day:  Christmas is over. Next!

A Voice in the Wilderness

 On this third Sunday of Advent, we read about John the Baptist who identified himself as "a voice crying in the wilderness, make straight the path of the Lord."

And I wonder if all of us, despite our shortcomings and insufficiencies, could at least be "a voice," making clear to others what we have seen and heard of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  Speaking not so much what we "believe" about Jesus, but rather telling of what we have experienced of Him.  I keep going back to Thomas Aquinas saying that man is a "knower," not a thinker.  That is, we know what we have seen, tasted, smelled, and touched more than what we have heard about from others.  

In his first letter, John the Evangelist says, That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched -- this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us.  We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you may have fellowship with us.

It seems to me that people believe in Jesus at some point in their lives because of what they have experienced of Him.  Up to a point, we are Christians because of our culture, our inheritance, or our education.  But if we have not "seen with our eyes, touched with our hands," faith eventually becomes an abstraction non-competitive with the things we "know" for ourselves.

And that is where prayer becomes irreplaceable.  If our early faith has not drawn us to prayer, we have no relationship with God -- and thus we have not experienced His Presence and action in our lives.  And without seeing for ourselves what we have heard from others, we fail to believe and thus to trust. Our faith grows cold for lack of evidence.

C.S.Lewis as an atheist had often heard about belief from his friend Tolkein, but it was not until "the most reluctant convert in all of England" got down on his knees and began to pray that Lewis began to enter into a life-long relationship with God.  And as a result of that relationship, "surprised by joy," Lewis himself became a voice crying out in the wilderness, testifying to what he himself had seen and heard of the Divine.

It was the joy that Lewis experienced, the joy for which he had yearned his entire life, that convinced him of the reality of Christ.  It was what he himself had seen and heard, had touched with his own hands, that he proclaimed to the world.  So with all of us!

Knowing God

Now this is eternal life: that they know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent (Jn. 17:3)

  I have written before about "eternal life," not as a series of unending days, but rather as a kind of vibrancy of life despite all else that human life may offer ---grief, sadness, boredom, poverty, etc.  The "pearl of great price" for which someone may give all that he has is a peace, joy, enthusiasm that over-rides daily vicissitudes.  And this eternal life is the gift of God given to us in Jesus!  It is nothing else but participation in divine life.

So the question today is how do we come to "know" God, the only true God, and Jesus Christ?  St. Thomas Aquinas says that man is a "knower," not a "thinker."  That is, while a great many people like to "think" God, there are a few --- let's hope a great many --- who actually "know" Him.  Over a period of a lifetime, they come to know Him in all the ways the Bible describes Him -- as their Shepherd, as a Shield, and as "the lifter of my head."  They come to know Him as a "rock," and a "hiding place," as Defender and Provider ("Give us this day our daily bread").  Above all, they come to know Him as Jesus revealed Him, as Father -- and Jesus as the Doorway to the Father ("No one comes to the Father but by Me!")

So how do we move from "thinking" God to "knowing" Him?  In this week's (Nov. 12) Sunday homily, Bishop Barron says that God is like a helicopter pilot looking for a place to land in our lives.  He is just waiting for us to clear a space for Him to land, to enter into our lives.  We tend to think that man has been looking for God, whereas God has been looking for us from the beginning.  We do not have to earn anything -- we just have to clear away enough of life's clutter to make an opening for Him to land.  

Usually, it is hardship or difficulty that creates the first space for God to enter --- when we have exhausted our own resources and run out of our own strength.  The moment we finally look up and say, "Help me!" is often the place of entry for God in our lives.  And when we begin to experience His nearness, His help, we begin to know Him.

In the desert of Arabia, the Egyptian slave girl Hagar encountered God.  Twice.  The first time, she had run away from the encampment of Abraham and Sarah because she was being mistreated.  But the angel of the Lord found her in the desert, and God promised her a great increase of descendants, just as He had promised Abraham.  At that time, Hagar gave God a name: You are the God who sees me!  She said, "I have now seen the One who sees me!"  She no longer "thought" about God; she had actually entered into a relationship with "the One who sees me."  She could live with confidence that she was seen and known by the living God.

Hagar's second recorded encounter with God comes in chapter 21 of Genesis, when Abraham sends her away because of conflict between the two women.  This time, "God heard the boy crying," and Hagar herself was sobbing. The angel said, "Do not be afraid, Hagar. God has heard the boy crying."  At that time, God (The One who sees me) provided water in the desert for her and her son.  Though Scripture does not record it, she may now have known God as "The One Who hears me!" (cf. Psalm 34).

If we are more confident that God is looking for a way to enter our lives, we may not have to wait for a disaster to open the door to Him.  Barron recommends 5 minutes a day to simply say, "I believe You want to come into my life!  I open the door now. Please let me know You as the One who sees me, the One who hears me!"

Words That Create

 As Saint Augustine has observed, all of us want a "blessed life," happiness.  We rarely know what it is like or how it will be, but we feel attracted to it.  This is a universal hope, common to men and women of all times and all places.  The expression "eternal life" aims to give a name to this irrepressible longing; it is not an unending succession of days, but an immersion of oneself in the ocean of infinite love, in which time, before and after, no longer exists.  A fullness of life and of joy: it is this that we hope for and await from our being with Christ.  (Pope Benedict XVI, Angelus 2008)

Jesus instructed His disciples:  Whatever house you enter, first say, "Peace be to this household!"  If a son of peace is there, it will remain upon him.  If not, it will return to you. (Luke 10:5)

Now the Hebrew word for "Peace" is Shalom.  However, "Shalom" means so much more than "Peace." When spoken to friends and family, the word includes the intentions for Safety, Welfare, Health, Prosperity, Quiet, Tranquility, Contentment, and Friendship.  This is what Benedict XIV refers to as a "blessed life," happiness, the goal of every man, woman, and child.

In his treatise on the Eucharist (This is My Body),  Bishop Robert Barron points out that there are words that describe or explain ("It's a beautiful sunset!), and there are words that create what they express, such as when an umpire cries, "You're OUT!  In the book of Genesis, we hear that creation occurred through a series of speech-acts.  When God spoke, "LIGHT! BE!" light was.  When He said, "Let the earth bring forth living creatures of every kind," so it happened.  The Divine Word is active, creative, and according to Hebrews 4:12, "sharper than any two-edged sword."  It does what it says!  So when Jesus said, "Peace be to you," it was no idle wish that peace would come to his listeners.  It was rather an active, creating word that accomplished what it said (See Is. 55:10-11).

When Jesus said at the Last Supper, "This is my Body," He did not say, "This is a symbol of My Body." He was not describing or explaining; He was creating.  His words create what they express!  and when we receive what He has created, He brings with Him His own Peace/ Shalom -- the blessed life for which we all hope and pray!  Peace be with you!

Who is God to You?

 I was reading Sirach recently and came across the beginning of Chapter 23, addressed as a prayer to God:  Lord, Father and Master of my life.....  

It helps to know here that the word translated as "Lord" in all of our Bibles is really Yahweh in the Hebrew.  The Jews would not pronounce the Sacred Name, so they inserted the vowels for Adonai (Lord) in their scriptures.  However, the Jewish mind was conditioned to know that "Lord" was code for Yahweh, the Name God gave to Moses.  Our minds have no such conditioning; to me, the appellation "Lord" is more abstract and less personal than Yahweh.  The former is a title; the latter a name, much as the English custom of calling someone "Lord Wentworth" rather than "James." 

So let us begin again with Yahweh, Father and Master of my life.... 

Immediately, this prayer has a different feel to it. Somehow, it feels as if God has immediately drawn closer to us, listening....

I venture to guess that most of us begin our prayers with " O God," followed by our requests, without recognizing or thinking about Who God is, Who is the Person we address in our prayer. And yet....spending some time recognizing the One to Whom we speak adds so much to our prayer and to our relationship with the Divine Being.  For the writer of Sirach, God is "Father and Master of my life," and the prayer thus becomes even more meaningful as he asks to be protected from careless speech that inadvertently harms others.

I have asked people who God is to them, and the first answer is usually "Creator."  or "Lord."  We don't get much beyond that, but then, they are not really in prayer, so the question is not fair in a sense.  Once we assume the attitude of prayer, however, we begin to move into another dimension, and the Holy Spirit comes to our aid, teaching us what to say.  

One of the greatest helps to knowing Who God Is is the Psalms.  For example, Psalm 17 says, To you I call, for you will surely heed me, O God. Turn your ear to me; hear my words. Guard me as the apple of your eye; in the shadow of your wings protect me.  Turning this prayer into recognition of God's Person might look like this:

Yahweh, You are the One who turns your ear to me and hears my words.  You guard me as the apple of your eye and protect me in the shadow of your wings.....Knowing this, I turn to You in my distress.  Help me, O Lord!  

Now, recognizing the One to Whom we pray, we have more confidence that our prayers are heard--- not because of who we are, but because of Who He Is! 

Why the Journey?

 From the time of Abraham, Genesis chapter 12, the pattern of the journey has run throughout Scripture: Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, the Israelites...   And once the Israelites are settled in their own land, they are driven out to another kind of journey --- exile, and eventually the return to Israel.

I have often thought it worthwhile to deeply study the journey of Jacob.  We do not have enough details about Abraham's journey to see what the journey is all about.  But in the case of Jacob, we see daily struggles and questions along the way.  

When Jacob first flees from the anger of his brother Esau, he meets the God of Israel, the God of his fathers, who tells him:  I am the Lord, the God of your fathers Abraham and the God of Isaac.  I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying.  ...All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. I am with you and will watch over you where you go, and I will bring you back to this land.  I will not leave you until I have done what I promised you.

Jacob's response to God's revelation was this:  If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear so that I return safely to my father's house, then the Lord [Yahweh] will be my God.

Jacob's journey is full of pain and struggles.  His father-in-law, Laban, is somewhat of a scoundrel, and Jacob the deceiver learns how painful it is to be deceived himself -- not only in the case of Rachel, but again and again over the next 20 years of deceitfulness on the part of Laban.  Through all of his struggles, however, the Spirit of God guides Jacob to victory.  In the end, he comes to peace/covenant not only with Laban but with his brother Esau, who had been angry enough to kill him at one point.

God renamed Jacob "Israel" because he had prevailed both with God and with man.  Toward the end of his life, Jacob instructs his sons to return to Bethel, where he had first met God, who answered me in my distress and who has been with me wherever I have gone (Gen. 35).

In the book of Jeremiah, God says, For I know the plans I have for you...plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future... You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, and will bring you back from captivity....and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.

Our lives are journies full of fear, of uncertainty, of "enemies" who prevail over us for a time.  But the journey eventually leads us to seek the Lord with all our hearts --- and then we will find Him, the One who makes us prevail with man and with God himself!  We will come to know God, as Jacob did, as the One "who answered me in my distress and who has been with me wherever I have gone!