Showing posts with label Scripture. Show all posts

Friday, February 13, 2015

TOB: What is meant by "beginning"?

Time for the Family 2/13/2015 , , , , , , No comments :
We continue here our explorations into St. John Paul II’s series of Wednesday Catecheses, which eventually became known as Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body (TOB, for short). To see other posts on this topic, click here.

As I said in my first post on TOB, my aim in this series has been and will be to highlight some less commonly written about aspects of the Wednesday Catecheses. One, I think, is that the entirety of TOB is scriptural exegesis. Indeed, we could describe John Paul II’s Man and Woman He Created Them as an incredibly in-depth and rich exegesis on the Gospel passages in Matthew and Mark that describe the encounter Christ has with the Pharisees in which they ask him about divorce. The late pope starts with the Gospels and only turns to the Genesis accounts in light of Christ’s words. This is, first of all, an indication of how we should be reading all of Scripture all of the time—in and through the Word that is Jesus Christ. This is perhaps John Paul II’s first lesson in his Wednesday Catecheses, albeit an implicit one.

Let’s then, as the saint did, look at this passage in Matthew (19:3-8):
Some Pharisees came to him, and to test him they asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause?” He answered, “Have you not read that the one who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.” They said to him, “Why then did Moses command us to give a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her?” He said to them, “It was because you were so hard-hearted that Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.

Let’s also look at the first comment John Paul II makes on this passage: “Christ does not accept the discussion on the level which his interlocutors try to introduce it.” This is also a key aspect of John Paul II’s writings, though again one which I think is often passed over—that is, John Paul II is communicating a method here: we cannot accept the given framework (of a problem, of a discussion, of a culture) if it is not given in the fullness of what is true, good and beautiful. In a word: we must reject that which does not come from God.
 
"The Birth of Christ" by Henri Fantin Latour is in the Public Domain
But is Christ’s response to the Pharisees a simple rejection? I would say no. What Christ rejects is the hardness of their hearts, the sinfulness of Israel, but he does not reject Israel outright. What he does is go back to “the beginning,” a beginning that Israel knows well, and to Scriptures that the Pharisees know and must acknowledge to be true. This is not, then, a simple reference; it is a directive: go back to the Scriptures and try to understand and read with faith.

Many times in the Gospels we encounter this phrase about Jesus: “He spoke with authority.” What does this mean? Surely it conveys something more than tone of voice, and we also know that Christ did not go around proclaiming he was the Son of God in so many words. Rather, this authority comes from Christ himself; he radiates understanding of the Scriptures, and has since he was a child: “all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers” (Lk 2:47). He is no Pharisee but rather lives the Scriptures from the inside out, as it were. And this living of the Scriptures is palpable in his presence and the way he speaks about the Word of God.

Thus, when Christ tells the Pharisees, “from the beginning it was not so” in distinction from the Law of Moses, he is also signaling that a return to the beginning is possible in a way that has not before been available to man. By rejecting the Pharisees’ question and pointing to the beginning, Christ is helping us to see that through him man can regain his original disposition in front of God, the world, and his fellow man.

This, I must emphasize, is more than a moral or juridical issue: Christ is not simply an example to us, showing us we can live more holy lives, nor does he inject us with some spiritual strength so that we finally have the endurance to stay with our spouses. Rather, this is on the level of being, on the ontological level. Christ is the beginning—John’s Gospel does not start the way it does accidentally. Man is created in Christ’s image and likeness. Therefore, the incarnation of the Son brings the beginning back to us: it is a re-creation of man, again in Christ’s image, again in his likeness. Christ has the authority to speak of such things to the Pharisees because he is the authority, the Word made flesh, who makes it possible for all of man to again become Adam, albeit in a way greater than even the first Adam could have ever imagined.


This comes, however, with implications for our lives. Hardness of heart is no longer an excuse. The beginning has been given to us again, in a way we could not anticipate. Therefore, John Paul II helps us to see, we must reject all frameworks other than that of Christ himself, and live in the authority of the Word once more. This is man’s true beginning, and it is one he never leaves behind.


Friday, January 9, 2015

Marriage's Scripture Jackpot

Time for the Family 1/09/2015 , , , , , , , No comments :



About five years ago I was at my niece’s birthday party and I had a wonderful, although brief, conversation with one of the fathers of my niece’s friends.  He was not a Catholic, but I was fairly sure he was Christian.  He asked what I did, so I shared that I was a graduate student studying Catholic theology, specifically marriage and the family.  He seemed genuinely interested and asked a specific question that I do not recall in detail, but sparked a genuine conversation, short as it was. 

You see, his question prompted me to succinctly share for undoubtedly the first time in my life that, “as Catholics we believe that if we lose our capacity to understand the richness of marriage we’ll lose our capacity to receive the love that God demonstrates for his children all throughout Sacred Scripture.”  He exclaimed, “Wow, that’s fascinating.  I’ve never thought about it like that before.”   After that, his child needed him,  so our conversation could not continue, but the exchange has stuck with me because it was an illuminating experience.  It gave me a taste of how sharing the mind of my Mother was indeed not an imposition of dogma on someone, rather, it was an invitation into truth that had the potential to magnify his or her joy in life.

I suspect that if we had more time to converse he would have liked to have known a scripture reference for my bold claim.  So, for all the anonymous-playground-birthday-party-acquaintance dads out there, here you go: take a look at Matthew 18-19.

Matthew 18:1-4: You must understand what it is that children reveal about the kingdom.  You cannot learn from children if you are not around them.  Where is the best place for children to come from and teach adults in close proximity?  Marriage and family life!   
Charamelody, "33:365 Devotion" is licensed under CC by NC 2.0

5-6: all children come with a “built in” belief in God.  Being the cause of another person’s loss of belief in God is a serious matter, just as nurturing it is.  Where can faith, hope and love best be nurtured?  Marriage and family life!

7-9: [a decidedly modern interpretation] pornography is easily available in our contemporary culture, but if it is your stash/search history/DVD as a parent that leads your child into the addiction you will be particularly accountable for your actions.  Where can a generation of innocent hearts be cultivated so that they can readily see God?  Marriage and family life!

10-14: The Father does not take any of his children for granted and he tires of neither new life nor  preserving/restoring “old” life.  Where do lives begin and end?  Marriage and family life!

15-20: By definition, marriage binds two spouses together so that they can safely beget a third in their children.  Where is the privileged dwelling place of the Word made flesh?  Joseph’s and Mary’s marriage and family life!     

21-22: God’s upper limit on forgiveness is infinite.  Where ought to be the first classroom of this for the Christian spouse/parent/child?  Marriage and family life!

23-35: If you pray the Our Father and receive God’s forgiveness then you must pass it along too.  Where is this unending proving ground going to be established in our lives?  Marriage and family life! 

Matthew 19:1-2: because no one can do the above on their own God will provide the healing through the waters of baptism and the other sacraments.  Where do infants and converts come from?  Marriage and family life!

3-9: divorce has no place in God’s plan for men and women.  It is a consequence of sin and now that Christ has come and given us access to the Father we now also have access to God’s original plan for marriage to be indissoluble.  Where does one learn the lessons that circumcise the heart and turn it from stone to flesh?  Where does one taste undying love or love unaffected by changing emotions?  Marriage and family life! 

10-12: Yikes, indissoluble marriage is not even attractive to fallen man.  So where does one learn God’s full plan for humanity which includes the possibility of forgoing the good of marriage in this life for a walk with the Lord that is more directly conformed to his example of being poor, chaste [celibate] and obedient?  Marriage and family life! 

13-15: Again, it is stressed, Jesus wants to encounter children.  Where do we encounter children in the most life changing way?  Marriage and family life!

16-22: Earthly possessions and God are vying for the same real estate of our hearts.  You cannot serve both simultaneously, you have to choose one.  What context can most powerfully teach us that we will be OK even if we do not have a Coach purse, Ray Ban glasses, 7 series BMW and Rolex watch?  Marriage and family life!   

23-30: Rely on God for your salvation and the pathway to it.  We all come from families and hopefully married parents, why not hit the pause button on life and see which route God is calling you back to himself if you do not know already: marriage and family life or celibacy [which is a fruitful sacrifice because it is giving up the profound good of marriage]?    

I see a theme and I think you might too. Scripture is a “jackpot” when it comes to understanding marriage because our Mother, the church, always begins there as well. Therefore in sharing what she knows to be true, we also share the truths of Scripture, even if we don't quote it directly.

Won’t you share your own jackpot of Scripture on marriage and family life? 

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