Martyr-dumb

A little discourse on martyrdom in general, in honor of John the Baptist's beheading.

I remember back in my grad school days studying the cult of the martyrs and wondering "what gives?" Why is there this fascination by the early Christians with the idea... wait no.... the experience of giving themselves away to God by dying for Him?

The most egregious example I read about at the time was Ignatius of Antioch. I really liked the guy----- after all, one of dissertation study questions was dedicated to him. But, come on now, he was more than a little "over the top" about dying for the Faith.

One of his most famous sayings is this:

"I am the wheat of God,

ground fine by the lions' teeth

to become the pure bread of Christ"

Alright, I admit it. I was dumb, martyr-dumb. This sounded strange to me.

It took me almost 10 years of living this Catholic life to get the serious (and unavoidable!)connection between the Eucharist, the concept of martyrdom, and the daily death to self we are all called to undergo.

Now that I "get it" I understand how intertwined our own everyday sufferings (and the greatest suffering- martyrdom) are with the suffering and death of our Lord. No wonder Jesus had to ask Saul of Tarsus, "Why are you persecuting me?"

From the moment he hung on the Cross, Christ has been gathering up what we experience in this life and making it fodder to transform us into fit subjects for the next life. Paul himself recognized this throughout his ministry.

The remindesr are sprinkled here and there throughout the Pauline corpus. Suffice it to mention one- Colossians 1:24-27

Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake,

and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking

in the afflictions of Christ on behalf of his body,

which is the church,
of which I am a minister in accordance

with God's stewardship given to me to bring to completion

for you the word of God,
the mystery hidden from ages and from generations past.

But now it has been manifested to his holy ones,

to whom God chose to make known the riches of the glory

of this mystery among the Gentiles;

it is Christ in you, the hope for glory.

Ah-ha! This passage always used to bother me as a Protestant- waddaya mean? isn't Christ's suffering ENOUGH?

Now it begins to make sense.... Identity with Christ takes up our lives into His divine life... that IS the Church... that is what the East calls the mystery, or we in the West the sacrament of God's presence.

Cool.

the 500 Hats of Batholomew Apostle

Not much is known about the Apostle Batholomew, whose feast day it is today. He was called under the name Nathaniel and brought to Jesus by Philip, as recorded in the gospel of John chapter 1. Beyond that, not much is known about him except that he went as a missionary to India and there died a martyr's death.

Whenever we celebrate an apostle's feast I think of Paul's description of his apostolic life, which forms part of the Office of Readings propers for apostolic feasts. I always marvel at how varied Paul's life was, and how he was led (forced?) by his position to become all things to all people. Out of pastoral concern, he wanted to lead as many people as he could to Christ. A true Shepherd and spiritual Father.

1 Corinthians 4:9-16

For as I see it, God has exhibited us apostles as the last of all, like people sentenced to death, since we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels and human beings alike. 10 We are fools on Christ's account, but you are wise in Christ; we are weak, but you are strong; you are held in honor, but we in disrepute.

11 To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are poorly clad and roughly treated, we wander about homeless 12 And we toil, working with our own hands. When ridiculed, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; 13 when slandered, we respond gently. We have become like the world's rubbish, the scum of all, to this very moment. 14 I am writing you this not to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children. 15 Even if you should have countless guides to Christ, yet you do not have many fathers, for I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. 16 Therefore, I urge you, be imitators of me.

As it was with Paul, so it is with the successors of these apostles. Our bishops (at least the ones I have seen close up) are men who labor night and day to make sure that all the people under their care can have the opportunity to understand and accept the love that God has for them.

As with Paul, it makes for a hard life. These men who don the mitres wear so very many hats.

Shepherd.
Teacher.
Reconciler.
Administrator.
Intercessor.

With all of these various hats to wear, they need our prayers. In honor of St Bartholomew and all the apostles, pray for your bishop(s) today.

Authority in the Church: Hierarchy Happens v.1.2

I have been hearing and seeing lots of moaning and whining recently both in some local parishes and on the Internet about the evils of hierarchy, almost always opposing hierarchy to "gospel values." Besides being untruthful about historical Christianity, such posturing is positively harmful. It leaves one with the false impression that somehow the hierarchy of the Church is immaterial to or not positively related to the grace which Christ came to pour out upon all humanity.

On this eve of the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart I want to say again that the Heart of our Lord burns with love for all people. Out of this great love he has given us His Church, leaders and laity together. Those who attempt to drive a wedge between leaders and laity run the grave risk of, to use an old fashioned term (1 Timothy 1:19) "making shipwreck of their faith."

Here is a re-post of an article I wrote concerning hierarchy in January.

I totally missed posting on the Feast of St. Paul's Conversion or its minor next-day companion, the Feast of Saints Timothy and Titus.

I have two personal observations here.

First, Church hierarchy is biblical.

Long ago I worked for both Msgr Jerome Quinn (St. Paul Seminary) and Father Jerry Neyrey (University of Notre Dame). Both scholars were heavily involved in Pauline and Post-Pauline Biblical studies. So, I learned a lot about the development of lines of authority in the ancient church.

Speaking sociologically, at the time the apostle Paul died, the Church's leadership had already begun the long curving turn away from being a band of poor itnerant preachers. By the time the Pastoral Epistles were collated, long before the end of the first century, prosperous householders led settled clusters of stable communities. What we see in the New Testament and Apostolic Fathers confirms this developmental arc.

The Pastoral Epistles and hence Paul's young proteges Timothy and Titus are two of the hinges on which this development turns. Paul has left these two younger men in charge of communties which he himself had helped found. His chosen metaphor for the Church, "Household of God" about says it all. They are to appoint as leaders good householders, able to rule their own families as they do God's Church.

From my own study I've come to the conclusion that while it did take some time for the external structures of authority to grow up, there seems to be no doubt that from the earliest days there was a nucleus of authoritative leadership in the Church. The author of the Fourth Gospel as much as says so when he has Jesus convey His Own power to remit sin and to teach authoritative truth to the Apostles.

So, I really don't buy into the modern pre-suppositions that somehow the Apostolic Church was an egalitarian group of believers who practiced democracy and that the Church then "descended" into a heirarchical authoritarian mess as it grew in numbers, power and influence.

If I did have a bumper sticker on my car it would probably read "Heirarchy Happens." Wherever two or three are gathered together, there will always be someone who leads and others who follow. So, get over it.

Second point, I work in the Catholic Church, with and among its local and regional leadership. I have been given the opportunity to observe firsthand how this episcopal heirarchy actually functions, with its threefold order of Bishop. Priest and Deacon.

To be honest, the system does have its problems, or, as we're taught to say here in Minnesota "issues." We can all laugh and cry together over "church stories" about how this cleric or that leader displayed massive insensitivity or gross stupidity.

However, I have to admit that despite its inadequacies, the Church's leadership does try to and often does end up being a gift given by Christ to the Body of His baptized believers. For all its foibles, the Church hierarchy points beyond itself to a deeper truth and greater goal for which it exists. Hierarchy does not exist for itself. Like Christ, and like all of His spiritual gifts and charisms, leadership is given for the good of the other.

As Hans Urs von Balthasar states (The Christian State of Life, p.12):

"Christ's primary intention was not to form a hierarchy, but to win men to that personal following of himself that leads to the reconciliation of the world with God by a renunciatory, even crucified, love: with him, they are to be "the light of the world."