The Little Friar

The church is dark as we enter just a few small flickering candles dancing on the windowsills keeping the Vigil so it is hard to see you huddled, as we are, in what seems the gloaming which it isn't because the dawn is coming with its soft light accompanied by birdsong to dance through the open door (shouldn't every church door stand open always?) and fill the long windows with flames allowing us, now in the Easter light, to see each other to see you, my sisters, my brothers as you dance in the aisles and listen to the story of the one who has called us here and given us life, and each other as we pass the bread of heaven and share what was split by the Lamb who was slain He is risen, you say and we respond as the day has now arrived He is risen indeed

Matthias Grünewald's Isenheim Altarpiece , 1512-1516. You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless , Christ died for the ungodly .  Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die.  But God demonstrates his own love for us in this:  While we were still sinners, Christ died for us . Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him! For if, while we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!   Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned -- To be sure, sin was in the world before the law w...

Prof Canon Stanley Hauerwas (one of my profs from seminary) on preaching:

As we walk into the Triduum today, it's appropriate to take a look back over Lent.  What did I learn over the past 40 days?  What did I give up and what cross did I bear? Well, I gave up detours. The Lord, in the Gospel, explains in what His new commandment consists.  He says in St Matthew:  "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.'  But I say to you, love your enemies ... pray for those who persecute you."   No doubt, we don't have any enemies in Carmel, but there are feelings.  One feels attracted to this Sister, whereas with regard to another, one would make a long detour in order to avoid meeting her.  And so, without knowing it, she becomes the subject of persecution.  Well, Jesus is telling me that it is this Sister who must be loved ... In this passage from St Therese of Lisieux's Story of a Soul , she describes how we often take "detours" around the annoying and unlikable peop...

I've been thinking a good deal lately about the satan.  A friend and I have been engaging in some conversation about her own life -- particularly, how the accusations and insults that were hurled at her throughout her life, have become the very things she deeply believe about herself.  And it's been an ongoing part of that conversation about the role that the satan plays in those sorts of accusations. I thought this morning of this passage from Luke 10. The seventy-two returned with joy and said, "Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name." Jesus replied, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven." What might his passage mean? I think it's important to focus on the Hebrew word הַשָּׂטָן ( ha-satan ) -- accuser.  So what might it mean that our accuser has "fallen from heaven"? "I saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning", Jesus tells us. I think it's important to notice right off the bat that the satan isn...

I tend to resist those theological anthropologies such as are enshrined in the original version of " Alas, And Did My Savior Bleed ".  You know the sorts.  It makes all the rounds during Lent: Would he devote that sacred head   for such a worm as I ? The popularity of this sort of theological anthropology is reflecting in the likes of nonetheless than CS Lewis : Whenever we find that our religious life is making us feel that we are good -- above all, that we are better than someone else -- I think we may be sure that we are being acted on, not by God, but by the devil.  The real test of being in the presence of God is that you either forget about yourself altogether or see yourself as a small, dirty object. It's derived, of course, from Augustine (in Catholic circles) or Calvin (in Protestant circles).  What I find so difficult about it, though, is that it begins in the wrong place.  I think anthropology should begin in Jesus Christ, not in Ada...

With the election of Francis I, there's been a good deal of talk about "humility" in the news.  That word -- humility -- conjures up notions of self-esteem (or, rather, lack thereof) as the principal definition.  For lots of folks, humility is short-hand for thinking less of one's self.  This is a problem, especially for women in our culture.  It's yet another way of controlling and manipulating folks into submission (often assumed to be a negative thing).  So is there a way to define humility in such a way so as to remove the power-plays and manipulation while promoting something (what the Bible calls "edification")?  I think there is.  First, I want to call attention to a little known work that is going to inform how I proceed here.  Tex Sample's White Soul is one of those books that has received less attention from serious theology types.  And that's an impoverishment of our work.  I grew up listening to country music.  E...

The oldest gospel we have, the gospel of Mark, ends in the most curious of ways : When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus' body.  Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb and they asked each other, "Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?" But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away.  As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed. "Don't be alarmed", he said.  "You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified.  He has risen!  He is not here.  See the place where they laid him.  But go, tell his disciples and Peter, 'He is going ahead of you into Galilee.  There you will see him, just as he told you.'" Trembling and bewildered, the ...

The prophetic tradition proclaims that God desires "holiness, not sacrifice".  For most of us, though, holiness carries with it a number of responses, particularly psychological.  Most of us see holiness as exclusionary, that holiness calls for a withdrawal from the world. The basic claim I want to make:  Holiness is a means toward an end, not an end in itself.  Holiness is a bit of missional equipment, a missional tool.  What sort of tool? I take my cue here from Jesus, how he frames the relationship between holiness and mission in his High Priestly Prayer in John: My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.  They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.   Sanctify them by the truth ; your word is truth.  As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world .  For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified (John 17.15-19. emphasis added).   T...

I'm reminded today of Henri Nouwen's Selfless Way of Christ .  The little book contrasts the cultural push for "upward mobility" with Christ's example of "downward mobility".  Nouwen's description of the lure of upward mobility and how we work to support its mythology in our culture: We are taught to conceive of development in terms of an ongoing increase in human potential.  Growing up means becoming healthier, stronger, more intelligent, more mature, and more productive.  Consequently we hide those who do not affirm this myth of progress, such as the elderly, prisoners, and those with mental disabilities.  In our society, we consider the upward move the obvious one while treating the poor cases who cannot keep up as sad misfits, people who have deviated from the normal line of progress. In contrast to this upward progress, Nouwen points to the downward mobility of Christ: The story of our salvation stands radically over and against the philoso...

With the election of Francis I to the papal office, I want to set out a renewed vision of what the papal office might be into the 21st century. First, some background on why this revision is necessary. Calls against the corruption of the institution of the Church -- in light of the sex abuse scandals that currently rock the Church worldwide (most prominently in America and in Ireland , but I'm doubtless have existed elsewhere) -- have been made by several of my friends.  They rightly point out that those who harbor and aid abusers of power are, themselves, guilty of fracturing the unity of the Church and the holiness of Christ's Body, so they deserve to be handed over to the temporal authorities for responsibilities that arise from those actions.  I can't hide from the fact that the power of Caesar's sword has been exercised by the Church throughout history -- not just here and now (in the sex abuse scandals) but also throughout the world (in silencing theolo...

After yesterday's reflection on Gutierrez's On Job , on "disinterested religion", I want to return to the book once more.  Today, though, I want to focus on the contrast between two different theological methods:  The method of Job vs the method of Job's friends. After experiencing loss and physical affliction Job is visited by three friends -- Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar -- who, after sitting with Job for seven days, try to speak words of comfort to him. These friends are largely unsuccessful in this task.  Job eventually calls them "sorry comforters" (16.2) and God eventually condemns their words. Why did the words of Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar go so wrong? Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar largely engage Job in a theological debate.  Perhaps nothing more needs to be said.  Is theological debate of any help to those who are suffering?  Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar should have continued to sit with Job, silently and in solidarity with him.  The ...

Thanks to one of my theological mentors ( Fred Herzog ), one of the first books I read in seminary was Gustavo Gutierrez's On Job:  God-Talk and the Suffering of the Innocent .  Gutierrez, of course, is one of the key figures in liberation theology.  On Job is one of those books that's often neglected in theological circles, but it's an amazing work.  I haven't read the book for a number of years, but I want to focus on something that's at the heart of a critique of Christian life in America -- particularly of the "prosperity gospel" likes of someone like Joel Osteen . A puzzle about the book of Job is the nature of the wager between the satan and God.  According to Gutierrez the wager sets up the basic question behind the Book of Job, what the book is all about. So what's the wager all about?  What is the basic question the Book of Job is trying to ask and answer? According to Gutierrez the Book of Job, and the issue behind the wager, is about t...

I can't count the number of times that this sort of meme makes it way around the internet: Of course, it could just as easily be something along these lines: What these memes share in common is an idea that 27% of Americans share :  The poor are lazy, and a good many of them are drug-users. The poor are often blamed for their lot.  They are lazy, undisciplined, and lacking in work ethic.  "Work ethic" here is a dispositional and character trait.  A thing intrinsic to the person.  (Or, worse, that the character of the poor in question is one of low moral standing.)  Those of us who paid attention in psychology, though, know about the fundamental attribution error .   The fundamental attribution error is how we tend to revert to characterological, trait-based, personality-driven, and dispositional factors in explaining behavior.  For example, I might look at your work ethic and conclude that you are lazy .  The problem is i...

John Brennan has recently been confirmed as CIA Director, and the swearing-in ceremony is fraught with symbolism .  Good intentions, no doubt.  Except the 1787 draft of the Constitution has no Bill of Rights; the Bill of Rights were ratified separately from the main body of the Constitution and so were not added to the Constitution until 1791.  Which means that in a time in which people are very concerned about the danger of due process violations in American military and intelligence operations, after having been grilled on these issues in his confirmation, Brennan had himself sworn in on a draft of the Constitution with no provision for protecting due process. On the other side, to get through his confirmation, Senator Rand Paul had to stop his filibuster.  OK, so the filibuster thing -- a symbolic gesture in which the big issue was violation of due process protections against US citizens -- was really just to make sure that the President's powers wer...

I find it hard to be cynical.  Not because I'm an optimist, but because I'm hopeful.  (There's a difference.) Cynicism seems to be the air we breathe these days.  So it's hard not to be cynical.  But there is nothing wise, or even likeable about cynicism.  Cynicism, in fact, is a bit like smoking.  You may think it looks cool but it's really bad for you -- and worse still, it's really bad for everyone around you.  For the cynic, a better world is a little too hard to imagine, and therefore not worth doing anything towards.  What's worse is that cynicism pretends to be your friend, by warning you against the harsh realities of going up against the world.  It's almost as if it's saying, "but I don't want you to get hurt".  But making the world better is a contact sport.  We don't tell rugby players not to go into a scrum because the other team want the ball, do we? This is part of the problem with our modern cynicism:...