{"id":746,"date":"2013-02-07T17:23:54","date_gmt":"2013-02-07T21:23:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/?p=746"},"modified":"2013-02-07T17:23:54","modified_gmt":"2013-02-07T21:23:54","slug":"var-_gaq-_gaq-_gaq-push_setaccount-ua-25646250-2-_gaq-push_trackpageview-function-var-ga-document-createelementscript-ga-type-textjavascript-ga-21","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/?p=746","title":{"rendered":"<script type=\"text\/javascript\">  var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-25646250-2']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']);  (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text\/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https:\/\/ssl' : 'http:\/\/www') + '.google-analytics.com\/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })();  <\/script>  <\/heat> The Context for our Life &#8211; Held on Sunday, February 3, 2013"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>Personal Note on Posting Timeline<\/b><\/p>\n<p>No Scripture Study Session on Sunday, February 10, 2013.\u00a0 I will be attending the baptism of Cormik, our fourth grandchild, second son of Julia and John.<\/p>\n<p><b>Preview:\u00a0 The Basic Context of the Human History and our Life within Human History as Dynamic and Developing<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Over the previous week [01\/28 \u2013 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 \u201cGun Control\u201d issue that seemed to dominate our conversation over the past several weeks.\u00a0 I shared the fruit of that reflection with the group and now with all who visit this website.<\/p>\n<p>First, all of us who gather are Christians. \u00a0It seems obvious that what is unique about being a Christian, no matter our tradition, is being a follower of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 Despite this obvious fact, we often do not seem to be conscious of the uniqueness and centrality of that following, discipleship.\u00a0 It is his life, death, resurrection, and return that is THE context.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n<p>Fr. Bernard Lonergan, S.J., in his work, <i>Insight<\/i>, presented an understanding of the order or design of this universe which he argues is explanatory.\u00a0 Based on his thought I presented the three dynamics principles of actual human history as we both experience it and participate in it.\u00a0 Whether we know it or not, understand it or not, I think there are three principles operating in all of human history:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>PROGRESS<\/li>\n<li>DECLINE and<\/li>\n<li>REDEMPTION<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These three principles are at work in each of us individually and all of us collectively.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Finally, Redemption is the very meaning of Jesus\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<p>To get things going, I offered a couple of concrete examples. \u00a0I began with an example from our Declaration of Independence issued on July 4, 1776. \u00a0The opening sentence of the 2<sup>nd<\/sup> paragraph reads, \u201dWe hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, \u2026\u201d\u00a0 The phrase \u201call men are created equal\u201d from hindsight was more vision than reality.\u00a0 Its narrow confine of propertied white males over time was to be broken and as the meaning of the phrase expanded to include \u201call\u201d was viewed as progress by most of us Americans.<\/p>\n<p>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. \u00a0But to do that is to question, without the question, the likelihood is greatly diminished.<\/p>\n<p>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.\u00a0 That doesn\u2019t mean we can\u2019t argue that our form of government is better than another.\u00a0 But to make our government or any government No. 1 is a form of idolatry.<\/p>\n<p>What seems central to me is Christ\u2019s identification with the poor, the marginalized; I was hungry, I was thirsty \u2026 whatever you did to these the least of my brothers and sisters, you did to me. \u00a0At the center of Christ&#8217;s life though was his death and the Father&#8217;s response in raising him from the dead. \u00a0This event in Christ is the very principle of redemption. \u00a0In this event, death the ultimate evil, was converted, changed, into life eternal.<\/p>\n<p>At this point and for the next forty minutes or so, we had a wonderful flow of conversations.\u00a0 I offer a taste of that flow.<\/p>\n<p>Rosemarie felt strongly that we can see Christ in others.\u00a0 I pointed out her believe is true but more has to be said.\u00a0 At present there are 7 billion human beings and perhaps 2 billion are Christian.\u00a0 So Christians might see Christ in the other but they are a minority. \u00a0Thus most human beings today do not see Christ in the other.\u00a0 All of us though do good and do bad, not just Christians.\u00a0 On the other hand, we believe that the Holy Spirit is in every human person who ever has, is, or will live.\u00a0 It is obvious though that not everyone has or perhaps will come to believe in Jesus the Christ.<\/p>\n<p>Ken reflected on a fundamental question he posed.\u00a0 What is the basis of our decisions? What guides us drives to make the decisions that we make?\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Fear stops us from moving outside of our box.\u00a0 [I hope this captures the essence of what Ken had to say because I thought his comments were both heartfelt and on target.]<\/p>\n<p>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.\u00a0 He can\u2019t rest \u2026<\/p>\n<p>Ken observed that there are internal and external changes.\u00a0 He wondered aloud why am I like I am? \u00a0Why can&#8217;t I change. \u00a0I suggested that St. Paul prayed that God would relieve him of a personal problem.<\/p>\n<p>In the ensuing conversation, I had commented that I\u2019ve been trying most of my life to change; often with little success.\u00a0 Mark though that many people simply don\u2019t want to change, let alone try every day to change.<\/p>\n<p>Rosemarie pointed out that although she agrees with change there are some things that are unchanging.\u00a0 Although I tend to agree with what Rosemarie said, the issue is in the detail, what things? \u00a0As an example, I brought up again the expression of Faryl from a week ago, \u201cclosed minded politically correct.\u201d\u00a0 Well \u201cpolitically correct\u201d is a general world that holds a host of actual words and behaviors.\u00a0 The first example that came to mind was the conflict over Christmas Greetings.\u00a0 Do we say Merry Christmas, or Happy Holidays?\u00a0 Well for me, I\u2019m not interested in making the United States Christian.\u00a0 My challenge is living a Christian life.\u00a0 Greetings don\u2019t seem all that important to me. \u00a0I don&#8217;t believe such cultural realities are the unchanging basis of Christian faith or practice.<\/p>\n<p>Heber pointed out that each of these the three principles involve change; progress involves change, decline is a change; and so \u00a0too is redemption.\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t want to change unless he can see that the change is for the better.\u00a0 This sounded to me like a healthy conservatism.\u00a0 To change for the sake of change might seem frivolous. \u00a0To stand pat for the sake of standing pat though might suffer from the same flaw.<\/p>\n<p>Tina brought forward a changing and challenging situation at work which raised a fundamental question for her.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 For that staff member the situation is not the same as it is for Tina.\u00a0 That\u2019s life in the concrete.<\/p>\n<p>Eventually we were to talk about marriage, divorce, church membership, receiving communion, moral relativism, etc.\u00a0 If you weren\u2019t there, you missed a great exchange.\u00a0 If you are interested, you can add to this website your own issues, questions, comments.<\/p>\n<p>I will comment on the Wooing of Rebekah passage in my next post.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Personal Note on Posting Timeline No Scripture Study Session on Sunday, February 10, 2013.\u00a0 I will be attending the baptism of Cormik, our fourth grandchild, second son of Julia and John. Preview:\u00a0 The Basic Context of the Human History and &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/?p=746\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[23,15,18],"class_list":["post-746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","tag-gun-control","tag-historical-method","tag-religion-and-culture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=746"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/746\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":749,"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/746\/revisions\/749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}