HerbEly

"Even if His Mind fail, be considerate of him." - Revisited again

Posted this in 2010 for the Feast of the Holy Family which occurs this year on December 28. I'm no longer taking Tae Kwon Do, but I still like the post. We are grateful for a visit from our entire family and bless our friends.

December 26, 2010

"Even if his mind fail, be considerate of him."

Sirach 3:2-6, taken from the readings for Sunday (the Feast of the Holy Family):

My son, take care of your father when he is old; grieve him not as long as he lives. Even if his mind fail, be considerate of him; revile him not all the days of his life; kindness to a father will not be forgotten,firmly planted against the debt of your sins —a house raised in justice to you.

A few decades ago I was mildly amused by:  "Even if his mind fail be considerate." Now that I'm older I feel differently. My mind and body are still reasonably sound. I'm still able to do Tae Kwon Do - even if I'm occasionally befuddled by the complicated memory sequences devised by Kyosah-nim Rick. there. Even so, I'm comforted by Sirach 3:12-16:

"Whoever honors his father atones for sins, and preserves himself from them.
When he prays, he is heard; he stores up riches who reveres his mother.
Whoever honors his father is gladdened by children, and, when he prays, is heard.
Whoever reveres his father will live a long life; he who obeys his father brings comfort to his mother."

Imperfect as my honoring was, we are gladdened by children and our prayers have been heard. The task of honoring our parents is not done, even though they have gone to their rewards. We can continue to honor them by the ways in which we live.

Letter to Charlottesville Daily Progress
Thankful for peaceful use of nukes
Posted 8 hours ago

The Daily Progress and the Richmond Times-Dispatch deserve credit for putting the story on Russian warheads onto the front page for Dec. 17 (“Nuclear option: Russian warheads powered Dominion”).

Conversion of highly enriched uranium intended for missiles into fuel for U.S. nuclear power plants is astounding. Those of us who remember the Cuban missile crisis would have regarded this development as a near miracle and an answer to many prayers.

While the editors might not have realized it, this story is appropriate for Christmas. Recall the text of Isaiah 2:4: “He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.”

Through intense diplomatic effort, the United States and Russia have beaten warheads into nuclear fuel rods. Thousands of soldiers no longer train to launch missiles.

The world is still a dangerous place. Even though the frequency of war has declined over the past century, we still long for the day when “Nation will not take up the sword against nation….”

On this Christmas we should pause and give thanks. The uranium for those 19,000 warheads will power cities instead of obliterating them.

Herbert Ely

Charlottesville

Christmass Double-Binds

As we come into the holidays, it seems we all experience tension and time-pressure. A brief reflection on the scripture readings for the 4th Sunday of Advent(Dec 22) offers some perspective. In The Mystery of Christ: the Liturgy as Spiritual Experience Thomas Keating writes about the tensions facing John the Baptist, Mary and Joseph. Each of them was faced with a “double-bind” - a conflict between their expectation of what God would do and what God asked of them. Each postponed a decision, seeking further guidance. Each received an answer. In the gospel for Sunday Joseph had expected to become a husband and start a family, only to learn that Mary was already pregnant by someone else. In his conflict Joseph  heard the angel saying: Mary 

“…will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” 

I can imagine that Joseph swallowed hard and when he

 “  …awoke, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took his wife into his home.”

As we look at the upcoming holidays, most of us experience some tension because we sense that life will not go as we have planned. Thomas Keating’s insight is that it is in this tension,  and our acceptance of it, that the Lord will come. As we wait in tension we can look to John, Mary, and Joseph and wait in hope for our answer.

John the Baptist in a Double-Bind

The gospel for the third Sunday in Advent (Dec 15) shows in a double-bind. On the one hand he has baptized Jesus and seen the spirit  of God descend on him. John staked his life and reputation on advocating for Jesus. On the other hand, Jesus’ preaching and actions do not seem to be the kind of Messiah John expected. Jesus ate and drank in public with sinners. He befriended prostitutes and did not observe the customery fasts. Troubled, John sends his disciples to Jesus to ask:

“Are you the one who is to come,

or should we look for another?” (Mt. 11:3)

Jesus answer is in our first reading for Sunday (Is 35:1-6a, 10)

Then will the eyes of the blind be opened,

the ears of the deaf be cleared;

then will the lame leap like a stag,

then the tongue of the mute will sing

John’s doubts are answered.

 A double-bind can be a spur to spiritual growth. In The Mystery of Christ: the Liturgy as a Spiritual Experience, Thomas Keating suggests that the double-bind is sometimes designed to free us from the last vestiges of our cultural conditioning, including our religious conditioning. We have these experiences more frequently than we imagine. Whenever we have made up our mind what God is going to do, we are letting ourselves in for a surprise - or maybe a shock. God’s ways, we are reminded, are not our ways. Giving up our expectations opens the door to a deeper faith.

It would be easier if we could recognize the double binds before, rather than after, we experience them.

I recommend the Mystery of Christ. Read it during the liturgical year and you will gain deeper insight into the meaning of the scriptures.

 

An End to Evil? Not the Way we Expect it.

As we approach the 2nd Sunday of Advent (December 8), I find myself returning to an ongoing conversation with a former colleague. The conversation turns on the existence of evil and suffering in the world. The scripture readings for this Sunday address this question.

In our first reading I find that Isaiah looked forward to a time when suffering and evil would end:

“Then the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb,

and the leopard shall lie down with the kid;

the calf and the young lion shall browse together,

with a little child to guide them.

The cow and the bear shall be neighbors,

together their young shall rest;

the lion shall eat hay like the ox.

The baby shall play by the cobra’s den,

and the child lay his hand on the adder’s lair.

There shall be no harm or ruin on all my holy mountain;

for the earth shall be filled with knowledge of the LORD,

as water covers the sea.” (Is 11:6-9)

While we hope for an end to predatory animals and natural disasters, this is not yet a reality. In our second reading St. Paul urges us to work towards that day:

“May the God of endurance and encouragement 

grant you to think in harmony with one another, 

in keeping with Christ Jesus, 

that with one accord you may with one voice 

glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Rom 15:5-6)

Then in the Gospel (Mt. 3:1-12) we hear John the Baptist speaking with urgency. The time is coming.

“Prepare the way of the Lord,

make straight his paths.”

The challenge then - and now - was that the coming Kingdom would be different. With Isaiah we can look forward to a time when the Lion and the lamb will dwell in peace with each other and natural disasters will be no more. We expect a warrior King enforcing peace among nations. How else can it happen? Yet John issued a warning to all those whose preconceptions of the Kingdom blinded them to Jesus message. John urges us not to be caught in the same trap.