Personal Note on Posting Timeline
No Scripture Study Session on Sunday, February 10, 2013. I will be attending the baptism of Cormik, our fourth grandchild, second son of Julia and John.
Preview: The Basic Context of the Human History and our Life within Human History as Dynamic and Developing
Over the previous week [01/28 – 02/02/2013] I had been struggling to create a context that would help us to understand both the narrative of the Wooing of Rebekah and the “Gun Control” issue that seemed to dominate our conversation over the past several weeks. I shared the fruit of that reflection with the group and now with all who visit this website.
First, all of us who gather are Christians. It seems obvious that what is unique about being a Christian, no matter our tradition, is being a follower of Jesus Christ. Despite this obvious fact, we often do not seem to be conscious of the uniqueness and centrality of that following, discipleship. It is his life, death, resurrection, and return that is THE context. Since Jesus was born into time his context can be located in the context of the created universe in which He and we live our lives.
Fr. Bernard Lonergan, S.J., in his work, Insight, presented an understanding of the order or design of this universe which he argues is explanatory. Based on his thought I presented the three dynamics principles of actual human history as we both experience it and participate in it. Whether we know it or not, understand it or not, I think there are three principles operating in all of human history:
- PROGRESS
- DECLINE and
- REDEMPTION
These three principles are at work in each of us individually and all of us collectively. Although we may not all agree on WHAT is progress in our own life, the life of our community, the life of our nation, or the life of our world; we would agree that progress does occur. The same can be said of decline; again we may not agree on WHAT is decline but that decline occurs seems to be beyond dispute. Finally, Redemption is the very meaning of Jesus’s life but that redemption occurs in life seems as well to be beyond dispute; perhaps not everywhere and not all the time but it does occur.
To get things going, I offered a couple of concrete examples. I began with an example from our Declaration of Independence issued on July 4, 1776. The opening sentence of the 2nd paragraph reads, ”We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, …” The phrase “all men are created equal” from hindsight was more vision than reality. Its narrow confine of propertied white males over time was to be broken and as the meaning of the phrase expanded to include “all” was viewed as progress by most of us Americans.
In this presentation I argued that it is up to each of us individually and all of us collectively to arrive at WHAT progress is, WHAT decline is, at WHAT redemption is, in the concrete of our individual life, the life of our community, the life of our nation, the life of our world. But to do that is to question, without the question, the likelihood is greatly diminished.
I argued further, using another example, that we cannot understand the Kingdom of God, the central message of Jesus, to mean the United States of America. That doesn’t mean we can’t argue that our form of government is better than another. But to make our government or any government No. 1 is a form of idolatry.
What seems central to me is Christ’s identification with the poor, the marginalized; I was hungry, I was thirsty … whatever you did to these the least of my brothers and sisters, you did to me. At the center of Christ’s life though was his death and the Father’s response in raising him from the dead. This event in Christ is the very principle of redemption. In this event, death the ultimate evil, was converted, changed, into life eternal.
At this point and for the next forty minutes or so, we had a wonderful flow of conversations. I offer a taste of that flow.
Rosemarie felt strongly that we can see Christ in others. I pointed out her believe is true but more has to be said. At present there are 7 billion human beings and perhaps 2 billion are Christian. So Christians might see Christ in the other but they are a minority. Thus most human beings today do not see Christ in the other. All of us though do good and do bad, not just Christians. On the other hand, we believe that the Holy Spirit is in every human person who ever has, is, or will live. It is obvious though that not everyone has or perhaps will come to believe in Jesus the Christ.
Ken reflected on a fundamental question he posed. What is the basis of our decisions? What guides us drives to make the decisions that we make? He thought that we are more or less convinced that we are right and are afraid when we are challenged that we might be wrong. Fear stops us from moving outside of our box. [I hope this captures the essence of what Ken had to say because I thought his comments were both heartfelt and on target.]
The point I made to Ken is that he is aware of this back and forth that goes on inside of him and that awareness itself is a gift as well as a burden. He can’t rest …
Ken observed that there are internal and external changes. He wondered aloud why am I like I am? Why can’t I change. I suggested that St. Paul prayed that God would relieve him of a personal problem.
In the ensuing conversation, I had commented that I’ve been trying most of my life to change; often with little success. Mark though that many people simply don’t want to change, let alone try every day to change.
Rosemarie pointed out that although she agrees with change there are some things that are unchanging. Although I tend to agree with what Rosemarie said, the issue is in the detail, what things? As an example, I brought up again the expression of Faryl from a week ago, “closed minded politically correct.” Well “politically correct” is a general world that holds a host of actual words and behaviors. The first example that came to mind was the conflict over Christmas Greetings. Do we say Merry Christmas, or Happy Holidays? Well for me, I’m not interested in making the United States Christian. My challenge is living a Christian life. Greetings don’t seem all that important to me. I don’t believe such cultural realities are the unchanging basis of Christian faith or practice.
Heber pointed out that each of these the three principles involve change; progress involves change, decline is a change; and so too is redemption. He doesn’t want to change unless he can see that the change is for the better. This sounded to me like a healthy conservatism. To change for the sake of change might seem frivolous. To stand pat for the sake of standing pat though might suffer from the same flaw.
Tina brought forward a changing and challenging situation at work which raised a fundamental question for her. Again the very fact that she questions made the situation real to her; whereas another staff member might not know what all the fuss is about. For that staff member the situation is not the same as it is for Tina. That’s life in the concrete.
Eventually we were to talk about marriage, divorce, church membership, receiving communion, moral relativism, etc. If you weren’t there, you missed a great exchange. If you are interested, you can add to this website your own issues, questions, comments.
I will comment on the Wooing of Rebekah passage in my next post.