The Feast of Saint Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons

Saint Irenaeus served as the bishop of Lugdum (now Lyons), a Celtic city in Cisalpine Gaul, named for Lug the chief god of the Celtic pantheon.

Irenaeus was born c. 130 CE and died c. 202. His leadership in the Church took place during a time commonly referred to as the Apostolic Era. He was an acolyte of Polycarp, the bishop of Smyrna, a Greek city in Anatolia (modern Turkey), who was himself acquainted with the apostle John, making him only three steps removed from the life and ministry of Jesus. He was a martyr of the Church, though the details of his martyrdom are unknown.

Irenaeus was a prolific writer; his surviving works demonstrate a deep commitment to the unity of Christian doctrine. He was among the first of the Ante-Nicene theologians to argue for the doctrine of apostolic succession, positing that a bishop of the church, and through the bishop all of the priests that he ordains, should stand in an unbroken line of succession that goes back to the first apostles, who were the disciples of Jesus. And he was ardently opposed to heterodox sects like the so-called Gnostics that were prominent in his day.

What is most important in Irenaeus’ work is something referred to as the Irenaean Theodicy.

Theodicy is the specific field of theological study devoted to understanding the problem of evil, and its ultimate resolution by God.

The Irenaean Theodicy was the leading doctrine in the church for three-hundred years; from the time that Christians were a persecuted minority, through the transformation of Christianity into the Imperial church. The Irenaean cosmology and the metaphysics that supported it were preeminent until late fifth and early sixth century when they were supplanted by Saint Augustine’s sacramental theology and its reliance on the novel doctrine of original sin, after which Saint Augustine’s teaching became normative, and still holds sway throughout the Christendom today.

 Augustine taught that creation was made perfect and without blemish, and subsequent to creation the fall into sin occurred, teaching that the inclination toward sin, corruption and depravity comes out of nowhere and nothing, resulting in a degree of chaos and disorder which completely separates the created order from God.

Irenaeus did not deny the fall, though he posited that the world is not wholly fallen. He understood the reality of sin, but he taught that creation, including the fall, takes place within God, and that God is in the fallen world.

His argument was for unity, making it so that the fall (as we understand it) is not an irreparable breach that requires supernatural or divine power to overcome it; he put forward the notion that God’s plan for the resolution of evil is to slowly draw all things to God’s self and that this takes place within the context of the natural order, according to the specific nature which God has relegated to all things and being.

For Irenaeus the perfection of the created order is a process of assimilation, which he calls recapitulation, imagining that each individual-being is on a journey, coming closer to the divine over-time, and that our imperfections fall away as we approach the eternal, a process which culminates in the atonement, at which point we become one with God

Irenaeus’ theology, which was never condemned, provides a strong theological grounding for a theology of universal salvation, the teaching of which has been my mission since I first discovered that I had something to say on the matter.

Thanks to the work of Irenaeus eighteen-hundred years ago, this hopeful theology has persisted as a teaching of the church…though only among a minority of believers.

The Feast of Saint John the Baptist, A Homily

John, born in darkness

bore witness to the light

 

A faint spark in the deep night

 

He saw the light and felt its warmth

            preaching by the river

eating honey in the wild 

he baptized Jesus

who showed him the way

 

John, man of the desert

herald and prophet

repentant…angelic

 

The way is not in stillness or silence, John taught us

The way is found through service, love and humility

 

John…was comforted by Sophia

Ruha…washed him in living flame

while Salome danced for her father

and the soldiers came for his head

 

John lived by the Jordan

he was not perplexed by his fate

he had turned once toward the divine

and was not tempted to turn away  

 

From the Gospel According to Mark

A Homily – The Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)

First Reading – Job 38:1,8-11

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 106(107):23-26,28-32

Second Reading – 2 Corinthians 5:14-17

Gospel Acclamation – Ephesians 1:17, 18

Alternative Acclamation – Luke 7:16

The Gospel According to Mark 4:35 – 41

 

(NJB)

 

Listen!

 The sentiment expressed in today’s reading from Job is misguided.

 God, the creator of the universe, God does not intervene in the lives of human beings, God is not capricious or vindictive. God made us and all that is free from divine coercion…and yet, in the end, all things move toward the same end.

 Let us affirm our trust in God; God is not a partisan, and God is good.

 Consider the teaching of the apostle. Paul is mistaken about the meaning of Jesus’ death.

 Jesus was not crucified in order to raise all people to eternal life. His death was a political murder, a rather ordinary tragedy in the age he lived. Jesus went to his death willingly so that the lives of his companions might be spared and to avoid further bloodshed among the people who followed him, both of which would have certainly followed if he had resisted.

 By accepting his death his demonstrated his faith in God, not only in God’s plan for him, but in God’s plan for all people. Jesus encouraged his people to keep that same faith, to live in that place of trust, wherein we are free from our concerns, from life’s fears, even the hunger of the flesh; this is the way. Along the way we experience freedom as a foretaste of what life in the heavenly garden was meant to be.

 Remember.

 Our salvation is the work of God, it is accomplished in and through Christ; the work began as the introduction to John’s gospel explains, in the first moment of creation.

 The fall, whatever it might have been, happens subsequent to and in the context of God’s saving work. Jesus revealed the truth of it, and has entrusted all future generations of those who aim to follow him along the way with the task of sharing that Good news.

 Know this!

 You are reconciled to God; there is no debt to pay. Allow the burden of the fear of sin, and God’s judgement, to fall away from you.

 Be glad.

 It was always God’s plan that we fall and rise together, as one, because we are one.

 Consider the life of Jesus, and God; whom he called papa.

 Is God glorious?

 Yes, God is the creator of the universe. And yet God’s greatest glory is not in the raw power of the creator, but in relationship to us as a loving parent.

 There is hope in the knowledge of God, extend the hopes you have for yourself and those you love to everyone, even those you do not love; this is the way that leads to God.

 If you think that God has promised riches and glories to be the inheritance of the saints; remember Jesus’ teaching that the first will be last and the last will be first, and that divine riches are not counted in gold and silver and precious things.

 Be mindful of the miracle narrative.

 In the gospels magic and miracle making, wonder working and acts of power are equivalent to, perhaps greater than the works of the prophets of old.

 However, none of the authors of Luke’s Gospel met Jesus. At least half a century had passed from the time of Jesus’ death, to the time that Luke’s Gospel was written, and by that Palestine (Judea and Samaria) were completely under Roman control. The temple had destroyed, Jerusalem was in ruins and its population scattered across the Empire in the second great Diaspora.

 There were no witnesses the raising of the widow’s son. No one to give the story of the reaction of the crowd. The story itself is a fabrication, pure mythology, it never happened, but it became a part of the tradition and has been handed down as evidence that Jesus was a man of great compassion and great power.

 In raising the dead at Nain, the authors of Luke assert the principle that widow should not be left alone with no husband, and no son to protect her. The resurrection of the widow’s son is a metaphor not a miracle, meaning that in place of the woman’s son the Church will take up the familial obligations, protect and look after her.

 This is the role of the Church; we are meant to be caretakers and guardians of the meek. That we could create such an enduring institution is the miracle, because its mission is in contradistinction to the common way of life, which would have forced the widow out into the margins of society.

 Be mindful.

 God is not a sorcerer, God does not violate the laws of nature; not once, not ever. If we are going to accept such stories as part of the Gospel we must find a way of reading them that rules out the supernatural…because there is no such thing as magic.

 Consider the Gospel reading for today another example of pure mythology…another metaphor, this time the gospel writers intended to cast Jesus in the role of the Roman Jupiter or Jove, the Mesopotamian Marduk or Zeus of the Helenes…they depict him as kings of the gods like the pagan peoples do, one who commands the wind and waves, the lightning and thunder…such representations are idolatrous and should be set aside.

 

First Reading – Job 38:1,8-11

From the Heart of the Tempest the Lord Gives Job His Answer

He said:

Who pent up the sea behind closed doors when it leapt tumultuous out of the womb, when I wrapped it in a robe of mist and made black clouds its swaddling bands; when I marked the bounds it was not to cross and made it fast with a bolted gate?

Come thus far, I said, and no farther:

here your proud waves shall break.

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 106(107):23-26,28-32

Let Them Thank the Lord For His love, For the Wonders He Does For Men.

Alleluia.

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,

  for his kindness is for ever.

Let them say this, the people the Lord has redeemed,

  those whom he rescued from their enemies

  whom he gathered together from all lands,

  from east and west, from the north and the south.

They wandered through desert and wilderness,

  they could find no way to a city they could dwell in.

Their souls were weary within them,

  weary from hunger and thirst.

They cried to the Lord in their trouble

  and he rescued them from their distress.

He set them on the right path

  towards a city they could dwell in.

Let them give thanks to the Lord for his kindness,

  for the wonders he works for men:

the Lord, who feeds hungry creatures

  and gives water to the thirsty to drink.

They sat in the darkness and shadow of death,

  imprisoned in chains and in misery,

because they had rebelled against the words of God

  and spurned the counsels of the Most High.

He wore out their hearts with labour:

  they were weak, there was no-one to help.

They cried to the Lord in their trouble

  and he rescued them from their distress.

He led them out of the darkness and shadow of death,

  he shattered their chains.

Let them give thanks to the Lord for his kindness,

  for the wonders he works for men:

the Lord, who shatters doors of bronze,

  who breaks bars of iron.

The people were sick because they transgressed,

  afflicted because of their sins.

All food was distasteful to them,

  they were on the verge of death.

They cried to the Lord in their trouble

  and he rescued them from their distress.

He sent forth his word and healed them,

  delivered them from their ruin.

Let them give thanks to the Lord for his kindness,

  for the wonders he works for men:

Let them offer a sacrifice of praise

  and proclaim his works with rejoicing.

Those who go down to the sea in ships,

  those who trade across the great waters –

they have seen the works of the Lord,

  the wonders he performs in the deep.

He spoke, and a storm arose,

  and the waves of the sea rose up.

They rose up as far as the heavens

  and descended down to the depths:

the sailors’ hearts melted from fear,

  they staggered and reeled like drunkards,

  terror drove them out of their minds.

But they cried to the Lord in their trouble

  and he rescued them from their distress.

He turned the storm into a breeze

  and silenced the waves.

They rejoiced at the ending of the storm

  and he led them to the port that they wanted.

Let them give thanks to the Lord for his kindness,

  for the wonders he works for men:

let them exalt him in the assembly of the people,

  give him praise in the council of the elders.

The Lord has turned rivers into wilderness,

  he has made well-watered lands into desert,

  fruitful ground into salty waste

  because of the evil of those who dwelt there.

But he has made wilderness into ponds,

  deserts into the sources of rivers,

he has called together the hungry

  and they have founded a city to dwell in.

They have sowed the fields, planted the vines;

  they grow and harvest their produce.

He has blessed them and they have multiplied;

  he does not let their cattle decrease.

But those others became few and oppressed

  through trouble, evil, and sorrow.

He poured his contempt on their princes

  and set them to wander the trackless waste.

But the poor he has saved from their poverty

  and their families grow numerous as sheep.

The upright shall see, and be glad,

  and all wickedness shall block up its mouth.

Whoever is wise will remember these things

  and understand the mercies of the Lord.

Alleluia!

 

Second Reading – 2 Corinthians 5:14-17

We Do Not Judge Anyone by the Standards of the Flesh

The love of Christ overwhelms us when we reflect that if one man has died for all, then all men should be dead; and the reason he died for all was so that living men should live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised to life for them.

  From now onwards, therefore, we do not judge anyone by the standards of the flesh. Even if we did once know Christ in the flesh, that is not how we know him now. And for anyone who is in Christ, there is a new creation; the old creation has gone, and now the new one is here.

 

Gospel Acclamation – Ephesians 1:17, 18

Alleluia, alleluia!

May the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ enlighten the eyes of our mind, so that we can see what hope his call holds for us.

Alleluia!

 

Alternative Acclamation – Luke 7:16

Alleluia, alleluia!

A great prophet has appeared among us; God has visited his people.

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to Mark 4:35 – 41

'Even the Wind and the Sea Obey Him'

With the coming of evening, Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Let us cross over to the other side.’ And leaving the crowd behind they took him, just as he was, in the boat; and there were other boats with him. Then it began to blow a gale and the waves were breaking into the boat so that it was almost swamped. But he was in the stern, his head on the cushion, asleep. They woke him and said to him, ‘Master, do you not care? We are going down!’ And he woke up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, ‘Quiet now! Be calm!’ And the wind dropped, and all was calm again. Then he said to them, ‘Why are you so frightened? How is it that you have no faith?’ They were filled with awe and said to one another, ‘Who can this be? Even the wind and the sea obey him.’

 

The Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)

Saint Romuald of Ravenna - An Ordinary Man

Today we celebrate the life of Romuald, a saint of Ravenna.

I lift up his memory for one reason in particular, which is this: he was a realist and encouraged a sense of realism among his followers, especially as it attaches to religious zeal.

Romuald was an outspoken critic of the way in which the lives of Catholic saints were written about and disseminated. He could not tolerate the popular tradition of hagiography, a genre of literature replete with embellishment, fantasmagoria and pure fiction. He called out these articles of propaganda for the lies they were (and are).

His criticism of the tradition merits our respect.

Romuald belonged to an aristocratic family. He lived between the mid-tenth and early eleventh centuries CE, and he was the founder of the Camaldolese order, in the Benedictine tradition.

Romuald was wild in his youth. It is said that he had given himself over to the sins of the flesh, but later, as a hermit, he breathed new life into eremitical and aesthetic monasticism.

History reports that Romuald founded and or reformed many monastic institutions, though not all of his work was successful. Through the promulgation of his rule he encouraged monks under his care to lead solitary lives, engaged in mediation and the interior reflection on the self.

He was interested in the process of a person’s inner thoughts, encouraging his followers to watch and be mindful of theirs as if they were watching fish in a stream.

In this way Romuald’s ministry was akin to that of a Zen master.

Romuald was heavily influenced by the Orthodox practice of hesychasm, known in the west as quietism, a traditional (though controversial) mode of deep-meditation, much like the meditative practice of Buddhist monks in the Himalayas and Japan.

Today we celebrate the man, Romuald of Ravenna for his service to the truth, which is the Spirit of God.

We tell no lies about him, he was an ordinary, though interesting man.

A Homily – The Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)

First Reading – Ezekiel 17:22-24

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 91(92):2-3,13-16

Second Reading – 2 Corinthians 5:6-10

Gospel Acclamation – John 15:15

The Gospel According to Mark 4:26-34 ©

 

(NJB)

 

Listen!

This reading from Ezekial conveys a message of hope. It is a prophecy for the whole of creation inasmuch as it is a prophecy for Israel.

Understand this.

It can be difficult to separate the particular from the universal, but that is what we are called to do when we engage this text. When Ezekial suggests that God is active in the world, causing one thing or another to happen according a divine plan…he is in error. God, the creator of the universe, God does not intervene in our affairs.  

God made us, and all that is free from coercion.

Nevertheless, he points to God’s purpose in creation, expressing the profound hope the entirety of what is, moves according to the divine plan.

The reading concludes with a classic trope, depicting God as one who reverses the fortunes of the proud and lifts up the lowly. Do not take this to mean that God acts with the capriciousness of a tyrant. God is not a king or a lord; rather, God is a friend and the parent of us all.

We should not interpret this motif as meaning, God will do as God wills in regard the lofty and the lowly, but that all things and beings, great and small, exist within the universe of God’s concerns.

Be mindful.

It is good to give thanks to the creator, and express gratitude for God’s mercy.

God is merciful to all.

God shows mercy to those who have God’s name upon their lips, and to those who speak no word of God at all. God shows mercy even to those who curse God.

Divine mercy has no limits.

If you sing praises to God in recognition of God’s good work in creation, know that among God’s good work are all of those who quarrel with God...and the church.

Know this.

God does not have any favorite children, nor does God love one person more than any other.

Know that there is no guarantee the just will flourish, and no guarantee that the unjust will perish. God only promises to right all wrongs and to do so with justice as tempered by mercy and love.

The works of the wicked will pass away, as will the works of the just, and the wicked themselves will be reborn as servants of God; as brothers and sisters to all…this is the hope expressed in the gospel.

Consider the words of the apostle, and do not be led astray.

Remember the name Immanuel; Remember that God is with us, there is no place we can go where we are not in God presence.

Trust in this and let your confidence in God blossom from there.

Understand this.

The apostle allowed his dualistic view of the world to shape his faith, rather than his faith to shape his view of the world, which would have allowed him to dispense with dualism.

Though he should not be faulted for his world view, it is one he inherited from his cultural milieu, nevertheless we have a duty to challenge him on it.

Know this.

We are not on trial here, Jesus is not a lawyer and God does not sit before us as a judge.

What we may expect from the God at the end of our lives here on earth is grace, we are called to have hope in God’s love and to expect healing; for God knows what we suffer here, just as God knows the secrets of our hearts.

God knew these from the beginning and God said that it was good.

Be mindful.

The greatest commandment is love, love is the whole of the law.

To follow Jesus in the way we must one another and to give of ourselves to one another.

The love that we are called to is not the love we call desire, though to desire and be desired is an experience of great joy. We are called to move past the love we have for family and friends, because to love in that way is only a short extension of the love we have for ourselves, insofar as we see ourselves in the faces of our mothers and fathers, we see our ambitions as tied to the ambitions of our friends…we are called to love with greater dynamism than that.

We are called to love to the point of selflessness, to love even those who work against us, we are called to love our enemies, to forgive those who have hurt us and done us harm, to feed the stranger and protect them…we are called to do o in emulation of the divine.

Jesus taught with parables, he used analogy and metaphor, not because he wanted to keep the truth from people, or because he wanted to cloak the secrets of the universe in mystery, but because the subjects he spoke to: God and the nature of reality, are inherently mysterious in and of themselves.

Remember.

God comes to us as a friend, a brother, a sister, a parent.

God is a gardener, and the fullness of God exists in each seed that is sewn, as in the bush when it is grown; from sewing to harvest it is one and the same thing.

Understand this.

The gospels are replete with propaganda, their authors wrote from a place of vanity suggesting that they themselves were given special teaching by Jesus. They want you to believe something about them and their relationship to Jesus that is not true. Even with their privileged position as the people who were closest to Jesus while he lived, they were unable to understand the crucifixion, both before or after his arrest and trial. It was Judas, Iscariot, one of the twelve, who sold him out, and in the aftermath the other eleven abandoned him, leaving only his mother and a handful women to remain by his side.

They never understood his mission, though they could have, if they had been able to set aside their vanity and listen for awhile.

First Reading – Ezekiel 17:22-24

I Will Plant a Shoot on the High Mountain of Israel

The Lord says this:

‘From the top of the cedar, from the highest branch I will take a shoot and plant it myself on a very high mountain.

I will plant it on the high mountain of Israel.

It will sprout branches and bear fruit, and become a noble cedar.

Every kind of bird will live beneath it, every winged creature rest in the shade of its branches.

And every tree of the field will learn that I, the Lord, am the one who stunts tall trees and makes the low ones grow, who withers green trees and makes the withered green.

I, the Lord, have spoken, and I will do it.’

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 91(92):2-3,13-16

Praise of God, the Creator

Lord, We Proclaim Your Love in the Morning and Your Truth in the Watches of the Night.

It is good to praise the Lord,

  and to sing psalms to your name, O Most High,

to proclaim your mercy in the morning

  and your faithfulness by night;

on the ten-stringed lyre and the harp,

  with songs upon the lyre.

For you give me joy, Lord, in your creation:

  I rejoice in the work of your hands.

How great are your works, O Lord,

  how immeasurably deep your thoughts.

The fool does not hear,

  the slow-witted do not understand.

When the wicked sprout up like grass,

  and the doers of evil are in full bloom,

it will come to nothing, for they will perish for ever and ever;

  but you, Lord, are the Highest eternally.

For behold, Lord, your enemies, how your enemies will perish,

  how wrongdoers will be scattered.

You will give me strength as the wild oxen have;

  I have been anointed with the purest oil.

I will look down upon my enemies,

  and hear the plans of those who plot evil against me.

The just will flourish like the palm tree,

  grow tall like the cedar of Lebanon.

They will be planted in the house of the Lord;

  in the courts of our God they will flourish.

They will bear fruit even when old,

  fresh and luxuriant through all their days.

They will proclaim how just is the Lord, my refuge,

  for in him there is no unrighteousness.

 

Second Reading – 2 Corinthians 5:6-10

We Want to be Exiled from the Body and Make Our Home with the Lord

We are always full of confidence when we remember that to live in the body means to be exiled from the Lord, going as we do by faith and not by sight – we are full of confidence, I say, and actually want to be exiled from the body and make our home with the Lord. Whether we are living in the body or exiled from it, we are intent on pleasing him. For all the truth about us will be brought out in the law court of Christ, and each of us will get what he deserves for the things he did in the body, good or bad.

 

Gospel Acclamation – John 15:15

Alleluia, alleluia!

I call you friends, says the Lord, because I have made known to you everything I have learnt from my Father.

Alleluia!

 

Alternatively:

Alleluia, alleluia!

The seed is the word of God, Christ the sower; whoever finds this seed will remain for ever.

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to Mark 4:26-34 ©

The Kingdom of God is a Mustard Seed Growing into the Biggest Shrub of All

Jesus said to the crowds: ‘This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man throws seed on the land. Night and day, while he sleeps, when he is awake, the seed is sprouting and growing; how, he does not know. Of its own accord the land produces first the shoot, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. And when the crop is ready, he loses no time: he starts to reap because the harvest has come.’

He also said, ‘What can we say the kingdom of God is like? What parable can we find for it? It is like a mustard seed which at the time of its sowing in the soil is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet once it is sown it grows into the biggest shrub of them all and puts out big branches so that the birds of the air can shelter in its shade.’

Using many parables like these, he spoke the word to them, so far as they were capable of understanding it. He would not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything to his disciples when they were alone.

 

The Gospel According to Mark 4:26-34 ©