Month: March 2017

Well what does that mean?

In ancient times chairs were seen as symbols of teaching authority, so for example, in Matthew 23:2, Jesus refers to how the Scribes and Pharisees sit on the chair of Moses. This is a reference to a teaching authority inherited by the religious leaders of the day from the Prophet Moses. Earlier in Matthew’s Gospel, however, certain events happen which essentially strip this authority of meaning.

The first is Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Moses went up a mountain to receive teaching from God and brought it back to the people, hence being the greatest Prophet in Hebrew history, and the source of Jewish teaching authority. Jesus is the New Moses, who sat upon the mountain as God Himself, and taught His disciples – and if you examine what He says in that Sermon, you will see that He corrects numerous misunderstandings of the people in regards to the Law given by Moses, including on subjects like divorce, and murder. Jesus has not replaced the Law here, but He has replaced Moses as the true Lawgiver, and thus as the source of teaching authority.

What else happens in Matthew’s Gospel? Jesus gives authority to others. First to Peter in Matthew 16:18-19, in a specific way as the rock upon which He will found His Church, and then in a more general way to all the Apostles in Matthew 18:18-19. But in Matthew 18 this establishing of authority to bind and loose and to teach follows on the heals of Christ speaking more fully on the role of the Church in authority. Christ establishes it as the final appeal when a dispute arises among believers, if it cannot be settled privately, or with the aid of a few, then believers are to go to the Church, and those who do not listen as to be treated as if they aren’t part of the community of believers.

So Jesus takes the place of Moses, superseding him in authority. He then establishes a Church, which has authority to teach. Next He establishes Peter as the rock upon which it will be built after what we could call the very first infallible statement by a Pope – the confession that Jesus is the Messiah, and the Son of God. Finally He sets up the Apostles as collectively sharing in some of that same authority.

This Feast is a celebration of St. Peter, but even more than that it is a celebration of the blessing of God which has seen fit to give us infallible teachings through the Apostles and their successors the Bishops, both in councils, and in the particular statements of the Popes which fulfill the requirements for infallibility. This is what’s referred to as the Pope speaking “ex cathedra” or “from the chair.” What chair? Peter’s chair. Hence our feast!

St. Valentine appears to have been a Catholic priest in Rome in the time of Emperor Claudius II. He was known for marrying Christian couples and aiding those being persecuted by the emperor. Valentine married them because of his love for God and those couples. They married because of their love for God and for each other. That’s right, Valentine was a man who risked his life to help Christian couples get married. So valued was marriage, and so important and powerful the image of the Triune God which marriage offers to humanity that Valentine put his life on the line to marry these lovers, and they put their lives on the line to get married. Do you know why it was so valued? Why it is so beautiful and powerful? How many today can say that they would marry their spouse if doing so meant possible death? How many priests would risk their lives to aid them? Valentine was eventually caught and imprisoned in Rome. Not content to be idle in prison, he struck up a friendship with the emperor, and then tried to convert him to Christianity. This so enraged Claudius II that he ordered him clubbed, beheaded, and burned. Valentine, whatever else he was, clearly had chutzpah, and would dare anything for his Love.

Indeed, today many people don’t bother with marriage at all. Many aren’t willing to offer their whole selves in marriage, even with so little risk. Others have seen the sky high divorce rate and other issues. They have given up faith in marriage as an institution and any hope that they’ll marry. Yet still we celebrate the feast of St. Valentine. Still we believe in love. Don’t we? Don’t we all deeply desire the kind of love that would die for us? Don’t we all dream of a love so perfect that it would be worth death to dare?

This love has a face, and a Name, and that Name is above all other names: Jesus the Christ. Start with Him, and a relationship with Him, and find out the worlds of love that await.

Third, Ananias is convinced when God tells him Saul is to be an instrument of God in preaching the Gospel, and that he will suffer for His (God’s) name.

Fourth, Ananias goes and finds Saul and heals him.

Let’s think of this in terms of all our journeys of discipleship. Many of us might have a powerful experience of God, an encounter with Jesus Christ where we don’t even know who He is, or what He wants from us at first. And that experience may be so incredible that we can understand St. Paul’s position. St. Paul is physically, literally, blinded by it, but many of us can at least identify with being so focused on it that we can think of nothing else. In one sense, we don’t see anything else but that moment. We certainly don’t see the road ahead. And like St. Paul we can get stuck in that moment praying and waiting for some sign, for someone to show us the next step.

Enter Ananias. Ananias plays a crucial role in Saul becoming St. Paul – he is the one who helps him move past and through his initial conversion into living out his discipleship – into being the great preacher and missionary of the New Testament, and a martyr for Jesus Christ who suffered yet with incandescent joy for God all his life. Without Ananias doing God’s will as one disciple helping another disciple (one he had strong reasons to believe would actually arrest and execute him), we don’t have St. Paul, half the New Testament, etc.

Be someone’s Ananias. Don’t be afraid. Trust the power of the Holy Spirit to change the hearts, minds, and lives of people. If God can convert Saul of Tarsus, He can convert anyone. Let us trust Him and do our part to help disciples BE disciples. As Ananias said, “Saul, my brother, the Lord has sent me […].”

Thus far, all those in Heaven and those on the Earth have reason to bend their knees at the name of Jesus. But what of those under the Earth? St. Paul very intentionally spells out the three places in Hebrew cosmology affected, and they go beyond the lands of the living and into the realm of the dead. We state in the Nicene Creed that Christ descended to the dead. We state in the Apostle’s Creed that He descended into Hell. To the ancient Hebrews, both were Sheol, the abode of the dead. Why do these have cause to bend the knee? Because God’s saving work continues in His preaching and saving the dead, scouring Hell and reaching even to Adam and Eve (to our uttermost beginnings) in His determination to bring salvation to Mankind. In three days He accomplished this, and rose from the dead, to finally ascend to Heaven and rule at the right of God the Father.

It is because of this that the name of Jesus is most holy. It is because of this that we genuflect to Him, and bend the knee to God. It is because of this that at His name demons tremble and angels sing God’s praises.

So happy Feast of the Most Holy Name. May God bless you all this day.

I think it is important to remember because God could have chosen any life for His Son on Earth. Jesus could have provided that Mary be a Queen on Earth, surrounded by pomp and luxury – that Joseph be an Emperor – whatever. Jesus chose to come down not into perfection, polish, or posh. He chose to enter our mess. Our messy little lives that can seem so pointless and empty and dull. It was into this kind of life that He was born, because God has never believed our lives to be pointless, empty, or dull. “I know the plans I have for you, plans for your welfare, and not for your woe, to give you a future of hope,” He says in Jeremiah (29:11). And in being born to us in poverty like us, in times of darkness and doubt like ours, in wretched conditions which most of us would find unbearable – maybe do find unbearable and yet bear – He is saying very simply, “I am with you, always” (Mt. 28:20).

So on this day, in this night, may God bless all our families with the gift of His Son. May Christ be born again in our hearts this Christmastide – that we might love Him as our own, and love one another just a little more. God is with us – our Emmanuel.

So what does it mean? It means simply to be ordered or numbered. This is week number 1 after Christmas, and next Sunday will commence week number 2. The Church marks this time with an ordinal system, and so has called it “Ordinary.” Don’t be deceived, Ordinary time is anything but ordinary.