Holy Longing

Section Internet Links	Interpreting the Author	Complementing the Author	Back to Index
Jock. Interpreting the Author. Rolheiser has said he will tell us what he considers to be Christian Spirituality. He begins with Christ. How natural. How suitable. Chapter 4. Christ as the Basis. "Christ has no body now but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours. Yours are the eyes through which Christ's compassion must look out on the world. Yours are the feet with which He is to go about doing good. Yours are the hands with which He is to bless us now." ... John Shea The Centrality of Christ. That we measure time by Jesus birth is for the author, recognition of his importance. His use of BC and AD is a measure of that idea of centrality. It is regarded a more tolerant format to refer to time as CE and BCE, meaning Common Era. For Christians, he says, Jesus "is the center of everything: our meaning, our hope, our self-understanding, our church lives, our theologies, and our spiritualities. He is also the guide for our discipleship." p73. In this book, Rolheiser makes action central to spirituality so now he says this means Jesus wants not admiration from us, but imitation. He uses an unusual phrase for this "undergoing Jesus" and says this "must be the center of any Christian spirituality." Again, we note his affirming claim, not a gentle affirmation, but "must be the center". This is either a tautology or an intolerance. I think the author is so focused on instruction to us towards establishing our Christian practice, that it is not intolerance, but redundant just circular language, and we must continue to tune these details out in order to hear what he has to say. The following statement he makes could well be the central summary of this book. "Undergoing Jesus must be the center of any Christian spirituality. Within Christian spirituality, long before we speak of anything else (church, dogmas, commandments, even admonitions to love and justice), we must speak about Jesus, the person and the energy that undergirds everthing else; after all, everything else is merely a branch. Jesus is the vine, the blood, the pulse, and the heart." (p74). The Concept of the Incarnation - "The Word Made Flesh." Rolheiser will make use primarily of the Gospel of John to discover his Jesus. As other studies have shown, the Gospel of John was the last of the gospels and written in a context outside of a now destroyed Jerusalem - very much more Greek than Jewish..In this regard, there is much difference among Christians over the both understandings of the Jesus of History and the Imitation of Jesus he earlier refered to. He makes a wonderful point in conclusion here - that we must not think incarnation ancient history, it is ongoing and real. The Hermeneutical Key - "Giving Skin to God." This most difficult bit of theology Rolheiser says has the purpose of making God reachable and comprehensible to such an extent as to allow relationship to have meaning. This replacing the idea of God as unreachable and unspeakable. It is something shocking. And the Eucharist is a means of connecting the ongoing availability of God to us in the mystery of Jesus incarnating God. And we are to take this "body of Christ" image to understand it to create and define the "body of believers" which is ourselves. We are the body of Christ. This is another of his absolutes. "...God's presence in the world today depends very much upon us. We have to keep God present in the world in the same way as Jesus did. We have to become, as Teresa of Avila so simply put it, God's physical hands, feet, mouthpiece, and heart in this world." (p80) The Difference Between a Christian and a Theist. A huge difference says Rolheiser both in theology and in spirituality. Because simply, a Christian believes in a God on earth, not a God in the heavens. Chapter 5. Consequqnces of the Incarnation for Spirituality "Preach the word of God wherever you go, even use words, if necessary." ... Francis of Assisi For Understanding How We Should Pray. Mathew says "Ask, and you shall receive." So why does it appear otherwise? Rolheiser says we have lots of stock answers here, but says CS Lewis has the beest answer - that we should be thankful for the prayers not answered! Again, the author reminds us that "God's power is now partially dependent upon human action." We need to change ourselves not wish for change elsewhere. We are responsible ourselves then to answer prayer. In another of his aphorisms, he says "Our prayer needs our flesh to back it up." For Understanding How We Should Seek Reconciliation and Healing. Rolheiser notes the "motif of physical touch is everywhere present in Jesus' ministry." (p85). Touching has all the more power, because now as then, we do not wish to touch the "unclean". But when we ourselves are the "unclean" and are touched by others in this same sense of their being the hands of Christ, we are touched indeed. So the pattern is laid out for us. This is how "healing and reconcilation work in our world." Reconciliation and the Forgiveness of Sins... This point is a difference between Catholics and Protestants, Rolheiser says what we agree on here is that we are forgiven "through contact with Christ's body, that is, the Eucharist and the community." and again, "We can forgive each other's sins; not we, but the power of Christ within us." Binding and Loosing ... How he wonders do we continue to have such influence when life separates us from those we love? Prayer and the intent of prayer he says continue this connection. "Your touch is Christ's touch. When you love someone, unless that someone actively rejects your love and forgiveness, she or he is sustained in salvation. And this is true even beyond death." (p89) Anointing Each Other for Death ... From the story of Mary anointing Jesus feet, he draws the meaning of the Catholic Sacrament of the Sick where a ritual of anointing with oil has been very meaningful for many over time. A Few Concluding Notes in Response to Some Obvious Objections. This is too good to be true some say. Good point says he. And what about the Catholic Sacrament of Confession. It is again the power of reconciliation. It is not he says at root the priest that forgives, but still the sacrament is meaningful for many. Its power is that of the women of the bible story touching Jesus garment. "Person-to-person exchange completes something very important and it is part of one organic movement toward full reconciliation, peace, and maturity. Explicit confession is to the sacrament of reconciliation what an explicit apology is to healing." (p93) For Understanding Guidance. We are to look to the example of Paul for guidance from God above and community below. Rolheiser notes we are generally pretty willing to follow the will of God if can but discern it, but are seldom willing to accept the will of the community. These 2 voices are complementary. For Understanding Community. "God calls us" Rolheiser says, "to walk in discipleship not alone but in a group." (p96). He draws our attention to the greek language of the New Testament and says that the word body in this context, is not some ideal, pretty, clean sort of body, but a body that gets sick and makes mistakes and dies. We are called to action in and amongst the flawed communities of earth. "Part of the very essence of Christianity is to be together in a concrete community, with all the real human faults that are there and the tensions that this will bring us. Spirituality, for a Christian, can never be an individualistic quest, the pursuit of God outside of community, family, and church. The God of the incarnation tells us that anyone who says hat he or she loves an invisible God in heaven and is unwilling to deal with a visible neighbor on earth is a liar since no one can love a God who cannot be seen if he or she cannot love a neighbor who can be seen." (p99) For Understanding Relgious Experience. "The God of the Incarnation," he says, "is more domestic than monastic." It is "the flow of life in a family." We should "seek God, first of all, within ordinary life." For Understanind Mission. A reminder here that Father Rolheiser is head of the Oblates, a missionary order here in Canada. He sees our task "to radiate the compassion and love of God, as manifest in Jesus, in our faces and our actions." (p102). He expands quite poetically on this image of seeing our character in our faces, and suggests to us, our spirituality should be evident on our faces. For Understanding How We Remain in Contact with Our Loved Ones After Their Deaths. A last difference with the theists - from poetic generality to the example of Jesus resurrection. When we honour what they honoured, we remain in contact with them. When we are selfish, we dishonour them and their memory grows distant. "Every good person shapes the infinite life and compassion of God in a unique way. When that person dies, we must seek him or her among the living. Thus, if we want a loved one's presence we must seek him or her out in what was most distinctively him or her, in terms of love, faith, and virtue. ... That is how a Christian searches for his or her loved ones after they have died." (p106) The Heart of Spirituality for a Christian. "I will be with you all days, even to the end of the world." This means we cannot get rid of him. "Spirituality, as we have already said, is not a law to ge ogberyed, gbut a presence to be seized, undergone, and given flesh to."
Wayne. Complementing the Author. So far in our spirituality series with Ron Rolheiser, we have dealt with spirituality in general. At this point, beginning the second half of this course, we zero in on Christianity in particular. Rolheiser attempts to write for a broad swath of Christians, and not only for his Catholic readers. We will have to see how well he does that for us. Giving Skin To God Rolheiser is concerned that our spirituality be grounded in something specific, because spirituality in general has no staying power. He is also of the view, and I agree, that even though there may be other paths than the Christian way to God, those of us who are Christian need to explore and come to know more fully that specific path, while at the same time we may expose ourselves to the spiritual influences of others. I discovered in my sojourn through Native spirituality that there were dimensions of truth to be found there that I had not realized, to that point, in Christianity. I believe that Christianity, from the beginning, has always been eclectic. That means it has always sought to discern God's truth wherever it could be found. And so, we owe a great debt to Judaism, for much of the founding and on-going contribution of spiritual meaning which emanates from our parental faith. We can also learn from traditional native spirituality. Wherever Christianity goes, it tends to pick up truths and meanings from other faith traditions, often to shore up and expand its own key teachings and patterns of spiritual experience, As Christianity encompassed Europe during the first 1,000 years of its history, it drew unto itself a great deal from the pagans. ³Pagan' originally meant ³those who live in the hinterland or the countryside.' Christianity owes much to paganism, because many of the great meanings of our faith, like the term incarnation, have roots in other pre- or para- Christian religious traditions. What usually happens, to make such themes more Christianly palatable, is to baptize what was once a separate image or belief and make it our own. I am sure that will continue to happen. Tom Harpur is coming out this spring with a new book entitled The Pagan Christ. In it, he says that some of the primary doctrinal images and themes of Christianity (like the incarnation of a god into the human experience) comes to us originally from the Egyptians. Frankly, I donOt find that shocking. In fact, I think it quite exciting to consider and contemplate such things. What makes me uncomfortable is not the source or origin of a truth, but the stark reality that, all too often, after Christianity ³borrowed' meanings from others, we had a great need to try to destroy those sources and to deny that we were becoming to anyone for them. Somehow, it seems, that deep within the Christian psyche, there has been a compulsion to demonstrate the exclusivity of that faith. It is the need for exclusivity and the arrogance accompanying it that I find most unsettling. But what I find very exciting is that there are mythical cycles and structures from many sources in human history that help us Christians to better understand - to broaden and deepen - the Christian myth. And so I would repeat what I have said in previous classes. We need to re-mythologize, not de-mythologize our Christian story. In so-doing we will find important links with many other great faith traditions that have mythological truths at their core. To me that subject holds much promise for future interfaith dialogue. Through the stories of gods becoming human, or more specifically in our case, God becoming Jesus, we ³put skin to the Divine.' That which is distant and majestic become close to us and intimate. Christ as the Basis For Christian Spirituality Jesus, as John Shea says, is not a law to be obeyed or a model to be imitated, but a presence to be seized and acted upon... Within Christian spirituality, long before we speak of anything else, we must speak about Jesus (elaborate upon this point). We speak of the mystery of the incarnation, because it is not something that can be described adequately in human language (elaborate on this point). Read and discuss the humility and exaltation of God in this mystical act from: Philippians 2: 5-11 The Humbled and Exalted Christ 5. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, 6. who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7. but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. 8. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. 9. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, 10. that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, 11. and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. The Difference Between A Christian and a Theist Rolheiser helps us to gain a better understanding of Spong and his debunking of theism with these words: What difference does it make whether one believes in Christ or whether one simple believes in God? What does Christ add to God? What does being Christian add to theism? (Or I could add) what does being Christian do to replace the need for theism? The difference is huge, not just in theology, but especially in spirituality - the way we are called to live out our faith. A theist believes in God. A Christian believes in God (but, I would add, in not the same kind of God). A Christian believes in a God that is incarnate... one who is physically present on this earth inside of human beings... The Christian God has a physical body on earth... This truth colours every aspect of how we relate to God and to each other (page 81). The Consequences of the Incarnation for Spirituality For Understanding: 1. How we should pray God's power is now partially dependent on human action (page 83). 2. How we should seek reconciliation and healing Your touch is Christ's touch, and it happens best in and through community (page 89). 3. For understanding guidance The language of God is the experience God writes into our lives... God does not speak to us through seances... or in extraordinary mystical visions... When we look for God's guidance, these voices on earth much complement the voice from heaven (page 93). 4. For understanding community God calls us to walk in discipleship, not alone, but in a group... the flawed body of believers here on earth (pages 96-98). Christian spirituality is as much about dealing with each other as it is about dealing with God. (page 99). 5. Religious experience Christian spirituality is about taking part in the ordinary give and take of relationships, in the flow of God's life (page 101). 6. Mission Preach the Gospel. If necessary, use words (Mother Teresa). Our mission is to form our own faces in the correct way (page 103). 7. How we remain in contact with our loved ones after their deaths: By giving concrete expression in our lives to those virtues and qualities which they best incarnated. (page 104). Every good person shapes the infinite life and compassion of God in a unique way (page 106). The Heart of Spirituality for a Christian We help Jesus carry the incarnation forward (page 107). Questions: 1. What are your views of the Christian teaching that Jesus is the most complete expression of God made known to humans? 2. Do you believe that the teaching of the incarnation is a helpful way of explaining how God (or a god) became (can become) human? **

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