Happy Fathers’ Day to everyone reading this who has fathered physically, or in other ways the children of this world–thanks for all you do! We need you to keep doing it! (:

My friends, the feast of Corpus Christi can be a day that either leaves us “settled” in religious reverie or “unsettled” as we consider its true meaning, which is really all about taking it to the next level.  Let me explain.

Corpus Christi, Latin for “Body of Christ” has been, in the past, all about worshipping the body and blood of the human Jesus as we receive him in communion.  I think for too long, many in the Catholic church have been satisfied to simply “worship” this mystery and leave it at that, when really this feast calls us to so much more.

As we know, Jesus was always shaking things up, stretching his followers to be more, see more, understand more, see their lives as “gift” given to share, to make life better for all. Let’s look at what exegetes have to say.

Diane Bergant, scripture scholar, states that “blood symbolized life itself”—that the significance of the cup of wine is not in its material substance, but in its incorporation of the partakers in the blood of Christ—in other words, the sharing of it with the community is where the true goodness/the benefit lies. So, if the feast of Corpus Christi leaves us “settled” in simply, worshipping the body and blood, then perhaps we have missed the point of this feast.  Jesus never asked us to worship him in the elements of bread and wine, but to care for his body in the world.

Exegetes continue, breaking bread with someone was looked at in the time of Jesus as a sign of forming community with them.  Jesus raised that to a new level in saying that sharing Eucharistic bread forms us into the body of Christ.

In other words, when we eat regular food, we incorporate that food into our very selves.  The opposite is true with the Eucharist, Bergant says.  When we partake of Eucharistic bread; we are transformed into Eucharistic bread, meaning—we become Jesus’ body for the world.  This is important, let me repeat that!  So, you see, this is indeed another level—receiving communion is not just between us and God, but us—God (think Jesus) and our world. Receiving communion is a community action for the larger community.

In the Gospel from John, Bergant tells us that “flesh and blood,” on a literal level, was a common way of characterizing a human being—when applied to Jesus, speaking of Jesus’ flesh and blood is our proclamation of faith in the incarnation—the fact that Jesus became one of us to have a human experience, thus telling us how much we are loved by our God—that God in Jesus would go to that extent to make sure that we creatures know how important we are to the Creator.  Jesus became one of us, flesh and blood through his entire life; not just when he gave us communion, but when we make conscious efforts to live as Jesus did for our world!

I think it would be good for us to try and put ourselves at Jesus’ last supper with his family and friends and really attempt to tap into all that was going on for him, in his humanity, all that was before him in his journey to be Christ.  Most of us can only really get our heads around the human component—Jesus’ earthly family, his friends, his disciples.  What was he truly thinking, feeling when he said, “Whenever you share this meal, the simple elements of bread and wine, think of me!”  Remember, if you can, that when you take these elements, simple gifts from the earth; they are in effect my life-blood—my body, all that I have taught you, all that I have given you, by way of example, by way of my life among you.  When you take all of this in and let it change your life, you do become my body—given to you that you then can continue my work in the world.

And friends, this is why Jesus could truly say, “You will do greater things than I!”  He truly believed and trusted that his family and friends, his followers would continue his work in the world.

That’s where all of us come in.  We can’t let what we do here at Mass end here—this is only the beginning.  The only real purpose for the Eucharist, in the end, is that it be a launching pad for all that comes next.  We are strengthened here by the love that the Eucharist signifies to go forth into our daily lives and make a difference.

This past weekend, as you know, Robert and I travelled to Cape Girardeau, Missouri for a family wedding. Our nephew, Matthew, my brother’s son married Amy.  It was a wonderful family event, filled with joy for the new couple, wishes of love and all good for them, times to share what is going on in the individual lives of extended family members and promises to continue the love and communication, the life and fun that we all experienced at this event.

Just as Jesus, our brother, knew such events in his earthly life among us; he brought his very best to his last supper with all those he most cared about.  On some level, that is what I felt our family brought to this event last weekend.  For all that hasn’t gone right in my family of origin—on this weekend; we were willing to set that aside and be family in all the ways that we could. To me this is what Eucharist is all about!

When we do this my friends, within our families, within our city, on a national level to make our country better for all, on a global level for our world, we are truly Jesus’ body and blood in the world—and it all begins here each time we celebrate the Mass. Let it be so! Amen? Amen!

 

Dear Friends, 

Pastor Dick Dahl has given us another wonderful homily this past weekend in my absence–enjoy! -Pastor Kathy

Today we come together to worship, but not to worship a deity on a mountain top or above the clouds, not a deity separated from us in another realm of existence, but rather the all encompassing and sustaining Mystery, beyond our wildest dreams and yet at the same time intimately within and around us, the Mystery of the Holy Trinity manifested in all of creation.

The reality of this belief is not immediately apparent. It appears as nonsense to some. But, as Gary Zukav writes in his book which is an overview of the new physics, “Nonsense is nonsense only when we have not yet found the point of view from which it makes sense.”

In my last homily here I noted Barbara Fiand’s words that we often say we are created in God’s image, but we usually create God in our image. We don’t usually go to the extremes that the Greeks and Romans of classical times did. They imaginatively peopled their concept of heaven with gods who depicted their own rivalries and conflicts. Nevertheless, we have often described God in human terms. And how could we not? How else can we relate to a Mystery that encompasses and sustains all that is, except through words and concepts that describe what we experience. But, as the semanticist, Alfred Korzybski put it, “The map is not the territory.” Or, as the physicist Fritjof Capra has written, “Because our representation of reality is so much easier to grasp than reality itself, we tend to confuse the two and to take our concepts and symbols for reality.”

As Christians, we believe that this Mystery has come to our aid–by somehow becoming one with us, by taking on human existence in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. In this human form the all enveloping Mystery made itself known. Jesus then chose the human image of a parent when he told his followers to call the Mystery “Father” or even “Daddy” (Abba) as he himself did. As a result, I think we have less difficulty relating to God as a Parent or God as  Son, than we do as Spirit, even Holy Spirit. At least we stopped using the word “ghost.”

Why do we worship the Divine Mystery as Trinity? Jesus never used the word. Nor do we find it in the Scriptures. But it comes naturally from Jesus’ words. At the last supper with his friends, he told them, “I came from the Father and have come into the world.” He prayed, “Father, all I have is yours and all you have is mine.” He describes a dynamic relationship he has with his Father–and also with each and everyone of us.

But Jesus also said that he and the Father would come to us as Holy Spirit. Symbols are used to help us grasp this aspect of the Mystery—a strong wind, tongues of fire, a white dove, or the one Jesus used, the Paraclete, the Helper. Symbols help us, but they can also trap us into absurdities.

The Mystery in which we exist and which we worship is not three gods or “two men and a bird,” as one person put it, but a dynamic outpouring of Living Love, an intimate and dynamic relationship of Love. Fr. Richard Rohr points out that relationship is the deepest characteristic of God. In relationship we enter Mystery. Now “love” is something we can relate to, as is “relationship,” even though each is also a projection of human experience.

Ironically, the scientific discoveries during the past century reveal that nothing in the quantum world exists in isolation but also only in relationship. And instead of a static, mechanistic world, quantum physics reveals an unbelievably dynamic universe. If we believe that the Mystery we worship as God is the source of all creation, then it’s makes sense that creation reflects its Creator—that it should mirror on-going, creative Relationship.

Francis of Assisi called the world “our cloister.” Francis saw nature as the mirror of God. Father Rohr, himself a Franciscan, writes that this mirroring flows naturally back and forth from the natural world to the soul. He writes, “One has to sit for a while, observe it, love it without trying to rearrange it by thinking you can fully understand it.” He goes on, “This combination of observation along with love—without resistance, judgment, analysis or labeling—is the best description of contemplation I can give.”

We live each day caught up in the Mysterious Relationship we call Trinity. The Holy Spirit enables us to find the manifestation of God in nature, in our neighbor, in the Eucharist. Barbara Fiand observes, “One feels at ease in moments of presence, enveloped by the good.”  She adds, “The life of Jesus was the ‘presencing’ of God. Our lives are called to be that as well.”

I want to conclude with the following thoughts from Father Rohr:

The followers of Francis of Assisi believe thatJesus did not come to change the mind of God about humanity. It didn’t need changing. God has inherently loved what God created from the moment God created. No, Jesus came to change the mind of humanity about God. This sets everything on an utterly positive foundation. Rather than being an ogre, God is Love. Rather than being sinners in the hands of an angry God, we are inherently and forever loved by God, no matter what we do or don’t do. God does not love us because we are good; God loves us because God is good. We can be good because we draw upon such an Infinite Source.

Modern science is helping us recognize that the physical universe is fundamentally different than it appears. Reality defies what common sense seems to tell us. In a similar way the Mystery of the Holy Trinity seems to defy common sense, yet the Holy Spirit reveals it to us as real.

Only loving relationships transform lives. God acts in us, ever flows through us, energizes us, and can never be separated from us. Francis of Assisi understood the entire circle of life has a Great Lover at the center of it all, the Triune Mystery that we worship today.

Friends, today with the feast of Pentecost, we officially end the Easter Season.  Now, even though that is true, I hesitate to use the word “end” because I don’t want us to get the notion that we can now coast.  What Pentecost really signals is a beginning.

   Just as in our Mass each week—we purposely don’t say, “The Mass is ended, go in peace” as in previous times, as that signals, we are done for this week! No, we say, the Mass is ended, or this part is over—“Let our service either begin or continue!”

Jesus’ sending of the Spirit was always meant to give us strength for the service that continues; the Mass is for “revving” us up!  Pentecost signals the end of the “strength-building” (for now), 50 days (the Greek meaning of Pentecost)—to the time of going out, sharing so completely what we have been so graciously given.

This past week, the Winona Interfaith Council, of which I am a member, worked and put out a letter that shows our commitment as a group of religious people from all different faith backgrounds to stand in solidarity with our Muslim sisters and brothers in the most recent attack on them in Portland, Oregon.

Our faith in Jesus of Nazareth, or Buddha, or the Great Spirit, or in the tenets of the Ba’hai faith, whatever it might be, calls us to be about action and in each manifestation of belief; we are showing a different aspect of the face of God! We cannot say we believe and not act!  I see this action in present day as the same as what happened on that first Pentecost recorded in Acts—people from all places heard what those first followers of Jesus had to say, “in their own tongue.”  This happened because the message was big enough, inclusive enough, for all of them, in the Spirit.

Friends, this is what we as Pentecostal people have to realize too—Jesus, the Christ includes us all as we spoke of last Sunday.  Part of our letter of solidarity includes the teachings of our prophets which clearly show how we are more alike than we are different.  Any church rhetoric that states that in order to be saved, one has to believe “all the tenets of our faith” are clearly not being led by the Spirit of that first Pentecost!  We look to Jesus’ own prayer the night before he died, “That all may be one” for evidence of this.

Some 9+ years ago on Pentecost Sunday, we at All Are One were celebrating the first Mass after my ordination—it was May 11, 2008 that year, a bit earlier than today. We could truly say that was a “Pentecostal moment”—just as Jesus’ young band were being “birthed” into the world of Palestine, All Are One was being “birthed” too into our community of Winona, MN.   Coincidence?  I don’t think so! The Spirit can do in us what we cannot do alone!

Pentecost is one of the real times of celebration that the Church gives us—Joan Chittister calls these “firework moments.”  They are times that call us to go deeper, such as Christmas and Easter and recall what these holy times in our faith really mean—times when our God moved in mighty ways among us in the person of Jesus and his Spirit. Pentecost, Joan goes on to say, “Is a time of holy hilarity when the Church points again and again to the empty tomb.”

Let’s reflect on “holy hilarity” for a bit.  Jesus, in his earthly life was always doing something in his earthly life that hadn’t been done before.  He shows us truly how we are to live.  Our world often gives us the message—stick to home, don’t get involved—it’s easier that way—we are the best—let’s be great again, us over everyone else.  The trouble with this kind of thinking is that it is contrary to everything that Jesus ever taught!  I think “holy hilarity” is a good way to think about what the Spirit does in our world, calling us to new beginnings.  The Church (hierarchy) says “no” to women priests–RCWP (Roman Catholic Women Priest)s and other groups say “yes,” in the Spirit and move forward in that same Spirit.

The new beginning that Jesus’ Spirit calls forth from each of us is about living passionately.  It has been said, “Passion is the heartbeat of life.”  In this we get the sense that living passionately is about living fully—we can’t let ourselves become stagnant—Pentecost calls us a be ALIVE, not just breathing!   A passionate person is not lukewarm.  As followers of Jesus, lukewarm is the last thing we want to be—the book of Revelation tells us that the lukewarm, neither hot nor cold that is, are fit for nothing but to be spit out of the mouth of God (Rev. 3: 15-16)!

A story I’ve shared with you before from Joan Chittister that bears repeating is of a seeker who went to the monastery to gain enlightenment.  After much prayer, nothing seemed to happen.  Preparing to leave, the disappointed seeker asked the master,  “Why has my stay yielded no fruit?”  “Could it be because you lacked the courage to shake the tree,” asked the master kindly?

On this feast of Pentecost, it is good for us to spend some moments trying to get our heads and hearts around what happened to these first followers of Jesus—the manifestation of the resurrection, however that was experienced, followed by the coming of the Spirit, the very Breath of God upon them!

Scripture scholar, Diane Bergant tells us that what these first followers experienced was a theophany or an “experience of God.”  These phenomena— the tongues of fire, the violent wind blowing, the speaking in and understanding of foreign tongues were all manifestations that accompanied such a heavenly vision, as Scripture tells us.  These phenomena can be likened to God speaking to Moses through a burning bush or to Job through a whirlwind. Something marvelous had indeed happened!

So what did all of this signal for them?  For us, also baptized and confirmed in the Spirit as followers of Jesus, the Christ?  For them, it called for courage to go out and boldly proclaim the message of love, unity and care that Jesus proclaimed so boldly concerning his Abba God.  I believe it calls each of us to a passionate walk with our brother Jesus—it calls us to get angry when we see people in positions of power, whether in Church or State, abusing that power for their own advancement when it was actually given for others, to make our world better.  It calls us to look lovingly on our beautiful earth and to do all we can to protect it for the use and enjoyment of generations to come.  It calls us to slow down, now, to see the beauty that the month of June gives us in the explosion of growth and color all around.   Joan Chittister speaks well of the beauty all around us and suggests that “flowers confront us with our responsibility for beauty.”  Do we bring beauty into our world through our actions, our speech, our very thoughts?

Pentecost is about being touched with the very Spirit of God to be our absolute best selves, always striving to show forth the divine that lives within each of us. Being our best selves, striving for that, means that we must, absolutely must, be accepting of all that come to our table and here I mean not only our table at All Are One, but the universal table of the Church. We must invite everyone to be part of this universal community and not wait until they believe as we do, but in the diversity that Paul speaks of to the Corinthians today—we will look with honor and privilege upon the gifts of all to show us the greater, grander face of God.  That is why I am a part of the Winona Interfaith Coalition because their vision is all about how much we share and how little divides us.

One of the aspects of Pentecost that we are all called to in this celebration is to remember that the gifts each of us is given are not ultimately for us, but for the building up of the kin-dom of our brother Jesus. Pentecost calls us to shake things up a bit—to be people of passion, fully alive and fully about love.  Pentecost calls us my friends to be prophets—to see visions and to dream dreams (Acts 2:17).  May God bless us all as we truly contemplate the Spirit’s indwelling within us and begin to join more fully in her work of renewing the face of the earth!  Amen? Amen!