Third Sunday of Easter (Year B)

Mersey Leven Catholic Parish

Parish Priest: Fr Mike Delaney mob: 0417 279 437;

email: mdelaney@netspace.net.au

Assistant Priest: Fr Alexander Obiorah

Mob: 0447 478 297;

email: alexchuksobi@yahoo.co.uk

Postal Address: PO Box 362, Devonport 7310

Parish Office: 90 Stewart Street, Devonport 7310 

Office Hours:  Tuesday, Wednesday,Thursday 10am-3pm

Office Phone: 6424 2783 Fax: 6423 5160 

Email: mlcathparish-dsl@keypoint.com.au 

FaceBook: Mersey Leven Catholic Parish

Weekly Newsletter: mlcathparish.blogspot.com.au

Weekly Homily Podcast: podomatic.com/mikedelaney

Parish Mass Times: mlcpmasstimes.blogspot.com.au

Parish Magazine:  mlcathparishnewsletter.blogspot.com.au

Secretary: Annie Davies/Anne Fisher

Pastoral Council Chair:  Mary Davies

Archdiocesan Website: www.hobart.catholic.org.au for news, information and details of other Parishes.

Weekday Masses 21^st – 25^th April, 2015        

Monday:        9:30am - Ulverstone
Tuesday:       9:30am - Penguin                         

Wednesday:  9:30am - Latrobe  

Thursday:     12noon - Devonport                       

Friday:          9:30am - Ulverstone

Saturday:      9:00am - Ulverstone, Devonport (Anzac Day)  

                             

Next Weekend 25^th & 26^th April, 2015

Saturday Vigil:  6:00pm Penguin & Devonport

Sunday Mass:    8:30am Port Sorell

                        9:00am Ulverstone

                      10:30am Devonport

                      11:00am Sheffield LWC

                        5:00pm Latrobe  

Eucharistic Adoration:

Devonport:  Every Friday 10am - 12noon, concluding with Stations of the Cross and Angelus

Devonport:  Benediction with Adoration - first Friday of each month.

Prayer Groups:

Charismatic Renewal – Devonport Emmaus House Thursdays commencing 7.30pm

Christian Meditation - Devonport, Emmaus House Wednesdays 7pm.

                    

Ministry Rosters 25^th & 26^th April 2015

Devonport:

Readers Vigil: M Kelly, B Paul, R Baker 10.30am:  E Petts, K Douglas

Ministers of Communion: Vigil: M Heazlewood, B & J Suckling,

G Lee-Archer, M Kelly, T Muir

10.30am: G Taylor, M Sherriff, T & S Ryan,

M & B Peters

Cleaners 24^th April: K.S.C. 1^st May: M.W.C.

Piety Shop 25^th April: R McBain 

26^th April: P Piccolo 

Flowers: M Knight, B Naiker

Ulverstone:

Reader: B O’Rourke

  Ministers of Communion: M Murray, J Pisarskis

Cleaners: M McKenzie, M Singh, N Pearce Flowers: E Beard 

Hospitality: B O’Rourke

   

Penguin:

Greeters: J & T Kiely   Commentator:  M Kenney Readers:  M & D Hiscutt

Procession: Kiely Family Ministers of Communion: J Barker, S Ewing

Liturgy:  Penguin Setting Up: E Nickols Care of Church: J & T Kiely

Port Sorell:

Readers:  V Duff, G Duff Ministers of Communion: D Leaman, L Post Clean/ Flowers /Prepare K Hampton

Latrobe:

Reader:  P Cotterell  Ministers of Communion: I Campbell, M Mackey Procession: J Hyde & Co Music: Hermie & Co

                       

Your prayers are asked for the sick: Fr Terry Southerwood, 

Sr Gwen Dooley ssj, Declan Banim, Terry McKenna, 

Robert Windebank, Marlene Mary Xuereb, Reg Hinkley, 

Adrian Brennan, Kath Smith & …

Let us pray for those who have died recently: 

Sr Patricia McNeil, Jim Keegan, Dorothy Ross, Leith Cowley, Millie McCulloch, Betty Weeks, Ted Parsons, Stephen Kelly, Ron Ackerly,   Fr Ray Wells, Bill Parker,  Peter Bolster, Victoria Obiorah and Joseph Girdauskas.

Let us pray for those whose anniversary occurs about this time:

15^th – 21^st April

Valma Lowry, Sandy Cowling, Geraldine Harris, Kate Morris, Ray Breen, Terrence McCarthy, Molly Dunphy, Stephen Gibbons, Wilma Bacchin, Andrew Smith and Marie Nichols. Also Paul Banim.

May they rest in peace

Readings This Week; Third Sunday of Easter

First Reading: Acts 3:13-15. 17-19

     

Responsorial Psalm:  (R.) Lord, let your face shine on us.

Second Reading: 1 John 2:1-5

                              

Gospel Acclamation: 

Alleluia, alleluia! Lord Jesus, make your word plain to us: make our hearts burn with love when you speak. Alleluia!

Gospel: Luke 24:35-48

PREGO REFLECTION ON TODAY'S GOSPEL: 

I try to come to some quiet and stillness in the presence of my risen Lord. Slowly, I read the gospel passage ... I may want to let it take shape in my imagination.

As I listen to the two disciples who have returned from Emmaus, what do I think and feel about what I am hearing?

When Jesus appears, what is in my mind and heart . . . as he stands before me ... wishes me “Peace” ... shows me his wounds ... eats some fish ... explains the Scriptures ... makes me his witness? Gently, I notice my reactions...and talk with Jesus about them.

I ponder: in what way might I be a witness? I share with Jesus and I take time to listen for what he has to say to me.

I end my prayer slowly, with thanks.

Readings Next Week: Fourth Sunday of Easter

First Reading: Acts 4:8-12 Second Reading: 1 John 3:1-2 

Gospel:  John 10:11-18

 

Mersey Leven Catholic Community would like to wish Fr Alexander

a Happy belated 40^th Birthday on Friday 10^th April. 

We pray the following;

May our God bless you today and each day that follows.

May you hear his voice, follow His footsteps, be comforted by His care

and live in His grace now and forever

Amen.

WEEKLY RAMBLINGS:

Fr Alexander leaves to return to his home to prepare for the funeral of his mother this Monday (20^th April) and he will be away for 7 weeks, returning for the weekend of 13/14^th June – we support him with our prayers on his travel and especially when he arrives to be with his family. His mother’s funeral will be celebrated on Monday 18^th May at 10am (Nigerian time) which translates to be 7pm here so we will celebrate a Requiem Mass here at that time at Our Lady of Lourdes so that we will be praying for the repose of her soul at the same time as her family and friends gather for the funeral Mass.

During Fr Alex’s absence Fr Balasundaram (presently appointed to the Cathedral) will help out on the first three weekends and Archbishop Adrian will help out on the last four weeks – obviously the roster for which weekend Mass I celebrate and some of the weekday Masses might need to be adjusted because of my commitments, however I will try to keep any changes to a minimum.

There will be two introductory sessions for the ReFrame Program – one on Monday 27^th at 7pm and the second on Wednesday 29^th at 11am. Both sessions will be held in the Parish House and anyone is welcome to come and join in this program.

A reminder that the next Open House will be held at Sacred Heart Ulverstone in the Community Room on Friday, 1^st May commencing at 7pm. As usual there is an open invitation to all parishioners to join us on that night – food and wine are provided but feel free to bring any other food or drink you desire.

I would like to congratulate Declan and Agnes Banim on their 57^th Wedding Anniversary on Monday 20^th April. Mass will be celebrated at Sacred Heart Church at 9:30am followed by light refreshments in the Community Room. All parishioners are warmly invited to attend and asked to bring a plate of food to share. May God Bless you both on this special occasion.

Until next week, please take care on the roads and in your homes.

 

SACRAMENTAL PROGRAM:

We continue to pray for the children as they prepare for Confirmation and First Eucharist.

Loving God,

Pour out your blessing upon our children

that, during this time of Sacramental preparation,

they may grow closer to you, and come to know your special love for them.

May this time of preparation

for the sacraments of Reconciliation, Confirmation and Eucharist

be a time of blessing for our families and our community.

Unite us all in your great love

Amen

ST VINCENT DE PAUL FUNDRAISER:

All welcome to come along and support St Vincent De Paul fundraising at CMAX Devonport to view the movie Boychoir starring Dustin Hoffman on Thursday 23^rd April. Cost $20 which includes drinks, nibbles and a lucky door prize. Starting at 6:15pm with the movie at 7pm. All proceeds to go towards help for the less fortunate in our community. For more information please contact Jill Di Pietro 0400 113 573 or Sally Riley 0400 386 313.

KNIGHTS OF THE SOUTHERN CROSS:

Monthly meeting Sunday 26th April Sacred Heart Church Community Room, commencing with a shared tea at 6pm. All men welcome.

MACKILLOP HILL SPIRITUALITY CENTRE

Spirituality in the Coffee Shoppe.   

Monday 27th April    10.30am – 12 noon

Come along…share your issues and enjoy a lively discussion over morning tea! Phone: 6428:3095        Email: mackillophill.forth@sosj.org.au

SAVE THE DATE:

Mothers Day Luncheon at MacKillop Hill, Forth on Friday 8th May. More information next week!

FOOTY POINTS MARGIN TICKETS:

Round 2 – Carlton won by 69 points. Winners; Pat Edwards,               Marlene Singh, Dennis Clarke.

                     Don’t forget to buy a ticket today – only $2.00 each. 

      

Thursday Nights - OLOL Hall, Devonport.

 Eyes down 7.30pm!

23^rd April Callers  -  Tony Ryan & Bruce Peters.

Evangelii Gaudium

“Any church community, if it thinks it can comfortably go its own way without creative concern and effective co-operation in helping the poor to live with dignity and reaching out to everyone, will also risk breaking down, however much it may talk about social issues or criticise governments. It will easily drift into a spiritual worldliness camouflaged by religious practices, unproductive meetings and empty talk.”

-        Par 207  from Evangelii Gaudium, Pope Francis, Nov. 24, 2013

Saint of the Week – St George (April 23)

If Mary Magdalene were the victim of misunderstanding, George is the object of a vast amount of imagination. There is every reason to believe that he was a real martyr who suffered at Lydda in Palestine, probably before the time of Constantine. The Church adheres to his memory, but not to the legends surrounding his life.

That he was willing to pay the supreme price to follow Christ is what the Church believes. And it is enough.

The story of George's slaying the dragon, rescuing the king's daughter and converting Libya is a 12th-century Italian fable. George was a favourite patron saint of crusaders, as well as of Eastern soldiers in earlier times. He is a patron saint of England, Portugal, Germany, Aragon, Catalonia, Genoa and Venice. 

Words of Wisdom – St Pope John Paul II

“Stupidity is also a gift of God, but one mustn’t misuse it.”

____________________________________________

PRINCIPLES FOR INTERFAITH DIALOGUE AND INTERFAITH ATTITUDES

by Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI. The original can be found at http://ronrolheiser.com/principles-for-interfaith-dialogue-and-interfaith-attitudes/#.VTA89fmUeNE

We live inside a world and inside religions that are too given to disrespect and violence. Virtually every newscast today documents the prevalence of disrespect and violence done in the name of religion, disrespect done for the sake of God (strange as that expression may seem). Invariably those acting in this way see their actions as sacral, justified by sacred cause. 

And, if history is to be believed, it has always been so. No religion, Christianity no less than any other, has been innocent. Every one of the great religions of the world has been, at various times, both persecuted and persecutor.  So this begs the question: What are some fundamental principles we are asked to live out apposite our relationship to other faiths, irrespective our particular faith?

What’s best in each of our traditions would suggest these ten principles:

1.      All that is good, true, and beautiful comes from one and the same author, God. Nothing that is true, irrespective of its particular religious or secular cloak, may be seen as opposed to true faith and religion.

2.      God wills the salvation of all people, equally, without discrimination. God has no favorites. All people have access to God and to God’s Spirit, and the whole of humankind has never lacked for divine providence. Moreover each religion is to reject nothing that is true and holy in other religions.

3.      No one religion or denomination has the full and whole truth. God is both infinite and ineffable. For this reason, by definition, God cannot be captured adequately in human concepts and human language. Thus, while our knowledge of God may be true, it is always only partial. God can be truly known, but God cannot be adequately thought.

4.      All faiths and all religions are journeying towards the fullness of truth. No one religion or denomination may consider its truth complete, something to permanently rest within; rather it must see it as a starting point from which to journey. Moreover, as various religions (and denominations and sectarian groups within those religions) we need to feel secure enough within our own “home” so as to acknowledge the truth and beauty that is expressed in other “homes”. We need to accept (and, I suggest, be pleased) that there are other lives within which the faith is written in a different language.

5.      Diversity within religions is a richness, willed by God. God does not just wish our unity; God also blesses our diversity which helps reveal the stunning over-abundance within God.  Religious diversity is the cause of much tension, but that diversity and the struggle to overcome it will contribute strongly to the richness of our eventual unity.

6.      God is “scattered” in world religions. Anything that is positive within a religion expresses something of God and contributes to divine revelation. Hence, seen from this aspect, the various religions of the world all help to make God known.

7.      Each person must account for his or her faith on the basis of his or her own conscience. Each of us must take responsibility for our own faith and salvation.

8.      Intentionally all the great world religions interpenetrate each other (and, for a Christian, that means that they interpenetrate the mystery of Christ). A genuine faith knows that God is solicitous for everyone and that God’s spirit blows freely and therefore it strives to relate itself to the intentionality of other religions and to other denominations and sectarian groups within its own religion.

9.      A simple external, historical connection to any religion is less important than achieving a personal relationship, ideally of intimacy, with God. What God wants most deeply from us, irrespective of our religion, is not a religious practice but a personal relationship that transforms our lives so as to radiate God’s goodness, truth, and beauty more clearly.

10.   Within our lives and within our relationship to other religions, respect, graciousness, and charity must trump all other considerations. This does not mean that all religions are equal and that faith can be reduced to its lowest common denominator, but it does mean that what lies deepest inside of every sincere faith are these fundamentals: respect, graciousness, and charity.

Throughout history, great thinkers have grappled with the problem of the one and the many. And, consciously or unconsciously, all of us also struggle with that tension between the one and the many, the relationship between unity and diversity; but perhaps this not so much a problem as it is a richness that reflects the over-abundance of God and our human struggle to grasp that over-abundance.  Perhaps the issue of religious diversity might be described in this way:

Different peoples, one earth

Different beliefs, one God

Different languages, one heart

Different failings, one law of gravity

Different energies, one Spirit

Different scriptures, one Word

Different forms of worship, one desire

Different histories, one destiny

Different disciplines, one aim

Different approaches, one road


Different faiths – one Mother, one Father, one earth, one sky, one beginning, one end.

____________________________________

PAUL

Taken from a series of emails posted by Fr Richard Rohr posted from 6th April 2015

Paul as Non-dual Teacher 

Meeting the Risen Christ on the road to Damascus changed everything for Paul. He experienced the great paradox that the crucified Jesus was in fact alive! And he, a "sinner," was in fact chosen and beloved. This pushed Paul from the usual either/or, dualistic thinking to both/and, mystical thinking. The truth in paradoxical language lies neither in the affirmation nor in the denial of either side, but precisely in the resolution of the tug of war between the two. The German philosopher Hegel called this process thesis, antithesis, synthesis. The human mind usually works on the logical principle of contradiction, according to which a proposition cannot be both true and false at the same time. Yet that is exactly what higher truths invariably undo (e.g., God is both one and three, Jesus is both human and divine, bread and wine are both matter and Spirit). Unfortunately, since the Reformation and the Enlightenment, we Western, educated people have lost touch with paradoxical, mystical, or contemplative thinking. We've wasted five centuries taking sides! 

Not only did Paul's way of thinking change, his way of being in the world was also transformed. Suddenly the persecutor--and possibly murderer--of Christians is the "chosen vessel" of Christ, chosen and sent "to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel" (Acts 9:15). This overcomes the strict line between good and bad, between evil and virtue. The paradox has been overcome in Paul's very person. He now knows that he is both sinner and saint, as we too must trust. These two seeming contradictions don't cancel one another out. Once the conflict has been overcome in you, and you realize you are a living paradox and so is everyone else, you begin to see life in a truly spiritual way.

Perhaps this is why Paul loves to teach dialectically. He presents two seemingly opposing ideas, such as weakness and strength, flesh and spirit, law and grace, faith and works, Jew and Greek, male and female. Normal dualistic thinking usually takes one side and dismisses the other, stopping there. Paul is the first clear successor to Jesus as a non-dual teacher. He forces you onto the horns of the dilemma and thus invites you to wrestle with the paradox. If you stay with him in the full struggle, you'll see he eventually brings reconciliation on a higher level, beyond the conflict that he himself first illustrates. Many readers stay with the conflict and then dislike Paul. We will go much further this week, I hope.

Adapted from Great Themes of Paul: Life as Participation, disc 6 (CD); and A New Way of Seeing . . . A New Way of Being: Jesus and Paul (MP3 download); and St. Paul: The Misunderstood Mystic (MP3 download)

The Body of Christ 

The first of Paul's dialectics that I want to point out is the philosophical problem of the one and the many. How do you reconcile the seemingly endless diversity and any final or true unity between the many things in the universe? I am convinced that only the mystical and non-dual mind can equally honor the individual and the whole at the same time.

Paul resolves this paradox through his doctrine of the Body of Christ: "For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ" (1 Corinthians 12:12). He goes on to illustrate his point by saying that some members are an eye, some a foot, some a hand. I, Richard, am just a mouth. You too are a part of the body of Christ. The only way you are going to really respect your own and others' full and divine character is by recognizing we all participate in one overarching unity.

This leads Paul to a very concrete missionary strategy of building living communities which can produce a visible and believable message. (This is quite different from the post-Protestant regression into mere individual salvation.) Paul is a collective, corporate thinker, who creates corporate audio-visual aids to spread the message. Yet for centuries we've interpreted his message as if he is speaking about individuals. This has made Paul seem more like a mere moralist rather than the mystic he is. Mystics tend to see things in wholes, we get preoccupied with the parts--and never get beyond that.

Paul seems to think, and I agree with him, that corporate evil can only be overcome or confronted with corporate good. Paul uses primitive yet very powerful words for the negative side of corporations, institutions, and nations--in various translations: "thrones, dominations, principalities, and powers" (Colossians 1:16). These are not "bad angels" as much as collective evil attitudes. However, because they are so widely shared, they no longer look like evil. Paul is pointing to the mass consciousness or collective cultural moods that control us, things we can't see when we're inside of them. And, because of this, and the way we are programmed to think, the powers and principalities are hard to resist.

For instance, I've never heard a single sermon on the tenth commandment--"Thou shalt not covet . . . anything that is thy neighbor's" (Exodus 20:17)--because coveting goods is the only game in town. It's called capitalism, consumerism, and advertising! It would be downright un-American to criticize any of these. In Paul's thinking, those big cultural blindnesses can only be overcome by a group of people living and affirming and supporting one another in an alternative lifestyle. The individual can hardly live an alternative consciousness by himself or herself. The pressure to conform is too great, and the eyes (and words) to see it are just not there. It is no surprise that the word "non-violence" did not come into usage till the early 20th century.

Adapted from Great Themes of Paul: Life as Participation, disc 9 (CD);

and St. Paul: The Misunderstood Mystic (MP3 download)

You Cannot Get There, You Can Only Be There 

For Paul, community is the living organism that communicates the Gospel message. Paul, like Jesus, wants to change culture, not just send people away to a far off heaven! If Christ's cosmic message doesn't take form in a concrete group of people then, as far as Paul is concerned, it is an unbelievable message. An autonomous Christian is as impossible as an independent arm or leg. It will never work. Arms and legs exist only as parts. 

Believers exist as parts of the whole, the Body of Christ. Their very existence is the state that Paul calls love. Their existence is love. When Paul says "without love I am nothing" (1 Corinthians 13:2), he implies that he is inside of another Being who is Love. We train for this by loving real, live people. For Paul, this is what he means by Christ: the participatory mystery of Jesus continued through space and time in us!

Paul sees what we eventually call the "communion of saints" as alive, real, and operative in this world. I like to call it an "energy field" created by all those who share various parts of Christ. "Salvation" is something we can participate in right here and now. No one individual is adequate to the task, yet we said they could be. No wonder so many people have either inflated or negative self-images. The paradox, of course, is that many who go to church today are not at all in the love energy field, and many who do not belong to church at all fully exemplify it!

When Paul addresses his letters to "the saints," he is clearly not speaking of our later Roman idea of canonized saints. He is speaking of the people who make up his living communities and who are participating in this shared life of love in this world.

Paul does not make heroes of individuals, but as members of the Body they "shine like stars" as "perfect children of God among a deceitful and underhanded brood" (Philippians 2:15). Following directly from Jesus, Paul sees his small communities as an adequate "leaven" by which God will eventually change the whole debauched Roman Empire. Talk about patience and confidence!

Adapted from Great Themes of Paul: Life as Participation, disc 9 (CD); and St. Paul: The Misunderstood Mystic (MP3 download)

The Body of Transformation 

Paul often uses physical language to describe spiritual states, as if they have a bodily aspect. Both sin and salvation are corporate concepts beginning with Israel itself. Modern science and neurology seem to be confirming this deep intuition. Paul specifically teaches the marriage of body and spirit through the Eucharist and community, both of which are called "The Body of Christ." As we come to understand gravitational, electro-magnetic, and quantum fields, the disjunction between matter and energy breaks down. Einstein himself said that matter and energy are "convertible concepts." 

Try on these three Pauline concepts of Body, and see if they match your own experience: 

1.    The Body of Sin and Death (Romans 7:23-24): Paul points to the very real power of negative/death energy operating with material, measurable manifestations. Hate hangs out with hate and creates more hate. This body is also called "the false self" by Merton, "the flesh" and "the powers and principalities" by Paul, "the ego" by Freud, and "the devil" by most world religions. You cannot be naïve about the "Body of Sin and Death" or it will swallow you up without your awareness. The notion of a devil or evil spirit is a psychologically helpful way to speak of this and take it seriously (though your image of the devil doesn't have to be a horned creature with a tail!). To clarify: 1) the false self and ego are not in and of themselves evil; they are needed for healthy development and for our basic survival. They simply are not our true, full, authentic self; 2) by "flesh," Paul does not mean the human body. Both of these concepts will be explored in greater depth in Friday's meditation. 

2.    The Body of the Crucified (Philippians 3:8-12): Paul uses many expressions to describe those who are suffering inside the cauldron of transformation--either those who suffer various forms of persecution or those who live in solidarity with them. In the suffering state there is great potential for a real shift into our full nature and our True Self. If the suffering people of the world see God in their pain, they are actually in a common soul and material "body" of understanding for one another. The poor, prisoners, immigrants, homeless, addicts, and those who are marginalized or hurting often have a natural empathy and sympathy for one another. They know something together that the rest of us do not know. Baptism is supposed to be an initiation into sympathy and solidarity with this "body," but I'm afraid it seldom is (see Romans 6:3-4).

The "body of the crucified" is a brilliant psychological and spiritual understanding, pointing us away from the impossible burden of individualism. The weight of guilt, shame, and sin is far too much for the individual to bear. Thus we carry the mystery "in the Body," or "in Christ"--"Making up in our own body what still has to be undergone by Christ for the sake of the larger body, which we call the church" (Colossians 1:24).

3.    The Body of the Risen One (1 Corinthians 15:35-56): Paul refers to "carrying the weight of eternal glory, which is out of all proportion" to "the suffering that trained us for it" (2 Corinthians 4:17). Again he uses a physical metaphor to describe the state of those who have come out on the other side initiated and transformed. The "body" concept realizes that the individual person cannot carry the weight of glory any more than he or she can carry the "burden of sin." Both sin and salvation are dealt with in one "lump sum," as is described in

The Cloud of Unknowing. The shared corporate mystery sustains the fragile individual. The transformed body is meant to be the positive and healing atmosphere of the church--and sometimes it is--but often it is also "enjoyed" in a gathering of joyful and altruistic people working for a common cause. 

This honest recognition is at the core of deep church satisfaction when church is done right and at the core of deep church dissatisfaction when it is not a loving, positive environment.

Adapted from Great Themes of Paul: Life as Participation, disc 5 and insert (CD)

The Folly of the Cross 

Another dialectic that Paul presents is the perennial conflict of conservative and liberal. In his day, his own people, the Jews, became the stand-in for pious, law-abiding conservatives; the Greeks became his metaphor for intellectuals, cultural critics, and what we would call liberals. Paul sees the Jews trying to create order in the world by obedience to law and tribe. The Greeks try to create order by reason, understanding, logic, and education. 

Paul insists that neither of them can finally succeed because they do not have the ability to "incorporate the negative," which will always be present. He recognizes that the greatest enemy of ordinary daily goodness and joy is not imperfection, but the demand for some supposed perfection or order. There seems to be a dark side to almost everything; all things are subject to "the powers and principalities." Only the unitive or non-dual mind can accept this and not panic, but, in fact, grow because of it and grow beyond it.

Neither the liberal pattern nor the conservative pattern can deal with disorder and misery in any form. Paul believes that Jesus has revealed the only response that works. The revelation of the cross, he says, makes you indestructible, because it says there is a way through all absurdity and tragedy, and that way is precisely through accepting and even using absurdity and tragedy as part of God's unfathomable agenda. If you internalize the mystery of the cross, you won't fall into cynicism, failure, bitterness, or skepticism. The cross gives you a precise and profound way through the dark side of life and through all disappointments.

Paul allows both conservatives and liberals to define wisdom in their own ways, yet he dares to call both of them inadequate and finally wrong because he believes that such worldviews will eventually fail people. "God has shown up human wisdom as folly" on the cross (1Corinthians 1:21), and this is "an obstacle that the Jews [his own people] cannot get over," and which the Gentiles or pagans think is simple "foolishness" (1:23). 

For Paul, the code words for non-dual thinking, or true wisdom, are "foolishness" and "folly." He says, in effect, "My thinking is foolishness to you, isn't it?" It does not make sense unless you have confronted the mystery of the cross. Suffering, the "folly of the cross," breaks down the dualistic mind. Why? Because on the cross, God took the worst thing, the killing of the God-man, and made it into the best thing, the very redemption of the world. The compassionate holding of essential meaninglessness or tragedy, as Jesus does on the cross, is the final and triumphant resolution of all the dualisms and dichotomies that we face in our own lives. We are thus "saved by the cross"!

Adapted from Eager to Love: The Alternative Way of Francis of Assisi, pp. 73-75;

and A New Way of Seeing . . . A New Way of Being: Jesus and Paul (MP3 download);

and In the Footsteps of St. Paul (published by Franciscan Media)

Flesh and Spirit 

The dialectic that we probably struggle with the most is the one Paul creates between flesh and spirit. If I could change one word Paul uses, which so many people have struggled with, I would change the word sarx, translated "flesh" in most contemporary languages. John's Gospel uses this same word, sarx, in a positive way: "The Word became flesh" (John 1:14). But somehow we've come to associate Paul's usage negatively with the human body. 

I don't think Paul ever intended for people to feel that their bodies are bad. After all, God took on a human body in Jesus! Paul does not use the word soma, which literally means "body." He is trying to introduce another idea and unfortunately uses a word that has caused untold confusion in Christian history. The closest alternative translation we could use might be the word "ego" or even the Freudian word "id." I think what Paul means by sarx is the trapped self, the small self, the partial self, or what Merton called the false self. Basically, spirit is the whole self, the Christ self that we fall into by grace. We are saved by a larger mystery in which we can only participate as one abiding member. The problem is not between body and spirit; it's between part and whole. 

Paul never really reconciles this dichotomy because he defines flesh and spirit as opposites in both Romans and Galatians. If you read one chapter of Galatians or one chapter of Romans, you'll probably think, "Well, I've got to get out of the flesh in order to get into the spirit. But I don't know how to get out of the flesh!" That's because "flesh" in modern language sounds like embodiment. In fact, what most of us hear is sex. I want to say as strongly as I can, that's not what Paul is talking about! Paul uses the word sarx to talk about the separate self, the partial self, the entrapped self, the false self. It's the self that is trying to define itself apart from the Spirit, apart from the Big Self. It's you apart from God, the tiny self that you think you are, who takes yourself far too seriously and who is always needy and wanting something else. It's the self that is characterized by scarcity and fragility--and well it should be, because it's illusory and passing. This small self doesn't really exist in God's eyes as anything substantial or real. It's nothing but a construct of your own mind.

To easily get beyond this confusion, just substitute the word ego every time you hear Paul use the word flesh. It will get you out of this dead-end, false, and dualistic ping-pong game between body and spirit. The problem is not that you have a body; the problem is that you think you are separate from others. And then that fragile separate self tries to make itself superior besides. It will never work.

Adapted from Jesus as Liberator/Paul as Liberator (MP3 download);

and St. Paul: The Misunderstood Mystic (MP3 download);

and Great Themes of Paul: Life as Participation, disc 4 (CD)

(to be continued next week)