HerbEly

Putting One's Own Corpus on the Line - updated

    As we get into the biblical readings for the Feast of Corpus Christi  (May 29, 2016) - the Body (and Blood) of Jesus Christ, there are a number of meanings for the word “body”. I can barely begin to list them, much less write about the many subtle and profound theological discourses on each. We have:

 

• The physical body of Jesus, crucified and changed by the resurrection.

• The bread and wine  as body (1 Cor 11:23-26),  subject to multiple interpretations by Catholic, Lutheran, Calvinist and other traditions. The tragedy is that what should be source of unity is a cause for division among us.

• Somehow we are all members of one body Eph 3:6  and as such are part of the body of Christ is this world. In this we may be able to regain some of the unity lost by our differences in understanding the Eucharist.

    It is in this last sense, being the body of Christ on earth that we can reflect on the words “for you” in 1 Cor 11:24.What does it mean to say “…my body that is for you.”? Knowing the story of Jesus’ death and resurrection we can only read this as his giving up his body in the crucifixion. As his body is for us, our bodies can be for others. There are many ways in which we put our bodies on the line for those that we love. Husbands and wives give up their bodies every day for one another. They do this in many ways caring for one another in sickness and health and in good times and bad. Mothers give up their bodies in pregnancy and childcare. Fathers give up their bodies in many less direct ways, often working to the point of endangering their physical and emotional health. Soldiers, sailors, police and fire officers are willing to give up their very lives for others. Professionals that they are, they train to minimize the risks that they knowingly accept in order to serve others 

    On Monday we celebrate Mary’s Visitation to Elizabeth (Luke 1:39-56). 

Mary put her body in the service of her cousin during those last months of her pregnancy.

St. Francis de Sales once wrote to a young person who seemed to be wishing for a highly dramatic and heroic way of putting his body on the line – through martyrdom. His words were to the effect that we should turn our attention to the sacrifices that are in front of us and do them cheerfully, lovingly and willingly. Good words.

We do have daily opportunities to put them into practice. We can restore Christian unity in many ways that, at first glance may seem of little significance. In attending college and high school reunions we are putting ourselves in position (both physically and emotionally) to renew the love that we have for one another.

            What better way to celebrate the feast of the Body of Christ than to renew our dedication t serving one another and the community at large? 

    (The lectionary repeats in three cycles. I wrote this on Corpus Christi 6 years ago. Maybe I'll repeat it again in three years. Maybe I'll live up to it by then.)

 

God Delights in Us

Trinity Sunday provides a challenge to homilists They must say something about the scripture readings, expound on this great mystery, and stay within reasonable time limits. (Note: the lectionary readings repeat in a three year cycle. This is my reflection from 2013 with an updated link to the readings for May 22, 2016)

It is tempting to take the first reading (Prv 8:22-31) and equate wisdom with a Person of the Trinity and attribute to it a feminine gender. Somehow it never quite works even though the scripture has abundant mother and feminine images of God.

I prefer to focus on this text from Proverbs:

"When the Lord established the heavens I was there,

...

and I was his delight day by day,

playing before him all the while,

playing on the surface of his earth;

and I found delight in the human race."

Somehow playfulness is intrinsic to the relationships within the Trinity. We have a God who finds delight in us. Deo Gratias.

Pentecost: Spotlight on the Corporate Dimension

    Reflections for this Pentecost Sunday (May 15, 2016) in light of the film Spotlight let me back to my posting from 2013:

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    We come to Pentecost Sunday (May 19th), the end of the Easter season and fulfillment of the promise related on Ascension Sunday. At the vigil Mass on Saturday the first reading (Gen 11:1-9) tells us of the corporate effort to build the tower of Babel. This was a corporate effort to gain prestige and power. It is contrasted with the first reading for Sunday (Acts 2: 1-11) in which the Spirit comes to the Apostles when they are gathered as a body. The story of Babel is a story of a single people split into groups and speaking different languages. After Pentecost the apostles go out speaking many languages. Instead of fragmenting humanity, the languages are given in order to unify it in a single body, the Church. Even though the Spirit comes to individuals it comes to them when assembled as a body. There is a corporate dimension to Pentecost.

    Back in 2006 I was fascinated with the idea of corporate spirituality and wrote this:

Institutions provide much of the resources with which we can provide service and exercise our creativity. Institutional culture also set the context for our work. A culture maybe healthy or dysfunctional. Cultures can be both dysfunctional and in denial for long periods of time. Businesses, being subject to market forces, are likely to pay the price for denial relatively quickly. Government agencies, subject only to James Madison’s constitutional system of divided powers, can survive a bit longer. My church, subject neither to market forces or citizens empowered by the vote, can maintain dysfunctional cultural patterns for centuries.

 I’ve not gone quite as far as Walter Wink in suggesting that the Powers of this world are spiritual entities (Eph 6:11-13).  I would agree that corporate culture is a spiritual reality – at least in the sense that team spirit is a reality.

One of the essential tasks of workplace spirituality is to positively influence corporate culture, challenging it if we must.

I've never been able to clearly state the connections between corporate spirituality and just how the Spirit strengthens us as a body. These connections are real and we bear a responsibility to the organizations to which we belong and to our employers. Part of our responsibility is to work to see that the   corporate ethic is healthy and dedicated to service. If it isn't, we will need the help of the Spirit to correct the corporate spirits of this world. 

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In the film, the Boston Globe also acknowledges that the newspaper had failed to investigate early reports of abuse by priests. Institutional failure can occur at many levels. Corporate ethics are not just the responsibility leaders, or church leaders. We are all empowered by the Spirit and responsible for working to see that institutions run properly.

Ascension: a Hopeful Closing to the Season of Easter

The Ascension scriptures for this Sunday (May 8, 2916) are a message of hope. At the end of our first reading (Acts 1:1-11) two men (the same who appeared at the tomb?) find the apostles standing looking at the sky:

“Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky? This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven.”

 It is easy to understand why the stood there, disoriented and confused. Christ, who had been with them, charges them to go out and be witnesses and then rises into the sky. They did not yet understand that they would be given the power to become witnesses. Nor did they seem to realize that the fact that Jesus ascended in bodily flesh was also a promise that they also would ascend. The Ascension gives all of us hope: we will be witnesses and we, also, will escape death. 

The lectionary reinforces this message of hope with St. Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians (1:17-23):

“May the eyes of your hearts be enlightened, that you may know what is the hope that belongs to his call, what are the riches of glory in his inheritance among the holy ones, and what is the surpassing greatness of his power for us who believe, in accord with the exercise of his great might:…”