Voice Within

In Matthew's story of the Baptism, it is only Jesus who sees the Spirit and hears God's announcement. It is within him, and there is no one to confirm or share the experience. His faith must be in what he sees and has heard, and so must be stronger. He must trust himself, and his relationship with God. No one can say, "I heard it too and I saw the sign." He is alone with his faith, which if he can let it be is not alone at all.

Beyond Foolishness

Life is not long enough to permit a great deal of foolishness.

Explanations Not Enough

They were excited by his explanation of Scripture. It had a definite appeal and was exhilarating, but not until he broke bread were the disciples of Emaus able to recognize him as the Lord.

Next Steps

She has reason to feel angry, and she does. The question now is whether to continue to feel that way.

Familiarity

Agreeing what was best, all went on with what had always been done. It was not best, but it was familiar. We acted as though they were the same.

Al Welsh

Al Welsh died. I'd always expected he'd be given a Nobel Prize. That he never received one means only that someone overlooked the wonder of him. He could always ask why and what does it mean, and how can I help. He was a complete person, satisfied in himself and in his relation to God. He was, like Jesus, known by those who knew him best as a teacher. He was a learner as well. He was a wonderful man, a very kind and faithful friend.

Suffering is Not a Virtue

I tire of people trying to explain suffering, trying to make it a virtue or give it a value it cannot have. It is a mistake to think it is good, and worse to see it as a sign of election. It is not something for which we should give thanks.

The Meaning of Saying Nothing

We are on good enough terms so that I needn't say over and over what we need and want, and God needn't say he hears and understands. I know he does, and for now we are close enough to say nothing and know it has meaning.

Challenger

All across America, I suppose people are having the same conversation. Reporting on what happened with the kids and what neighbors and relatives had to say. Or else it is about work, who called or cancelled. It seems mundane, and that in a way makes it substantive as well. It keeps things alive and offers continuity.

Not Stepping on the Gas

While its implications are wide-ranging, it is surprising how simple was the confession of faith made by that eunuch to whom Philip brought the Gospel: Jesus is son of God. That was it. It encompassed everything and without it all else he might have said would have been insignificant. Of course, the eunuch's initial act of believing was in the stranger running alongside his car, looking in the window and asking what was going on. Were Philip to have done so, to most of us the answer would have been stepping on the gas.

Afraid of Life

Being afraid of life, he avoided living. He insulated himself against hurting by refusing to feel. He was then unable to love or be loved. He became nothing, albeit a nothing who knew no pain.

Respond Within

In Paul's conversion, others could see the light but the voice was inside him. Maybe it is that things shared with others are sometimes less significant, unless we first respond to what is within, those unique messages spoken to no one else.

Hard Questions

How do we reconcile irreconcilables without losing the integrity and individuality of what they are trying to be?

Harm Done

An awful lot of harm is done by people who begin by saying, "This is for your own good."

Elevating Love

We seem sometimes to ignore, or maybe sublimate, deprecating human love in our attempt to accentuate the divine. It suggests that human love is less than it is, that it cannot stand beside God's. We try to keep it at a distance, in a safe and innocuous place, a place it doesn't belong. That is not as it should be.

Love is, and is meant to be, a very human thing. Loving is an aspect of our definition. It reaches out, taking hold of lover and beloved. It is holy and good in itself, a characteristic shared with God and enlivened in our love of someone else.

It may hurt. It may disappoint. It may also fulfill, and it is less than itself if it exists only between God and us, rather than among us all. It has to be person to person, heart to heart. If not, it is not love, not as love could be.

Naming Love

He feels something and calls it love, but because she cannot respond that feeling must have a different name. Love is not a one-sided thing. It is there only when shared. It is the sharing that makes it real, that makes it itself.

Being Known

Man finds himself when he reveals or discloses himself. He becomes who he is as he makes it know to another. The same may be true of God.

Unity or Conformity

Unity cannot be equated with conformity. The unity of the Church is a oneness of worship and doctrine, but not a complete and unquestioning acceptance, a conformity rejecting the prospect of differences. To require such uniformity as a sign of unity would be to say Paul should have been a circumciser, that John should not have shouted in the desert, that Jesus should have joined the Pharisees. Questioning is questioning, not denial. Differences are signs of life and make progress come about. When it does not challenge itself, when there are no questions to be raised, then the Church is in danger of dying.

Being A Prophet

To be a prophet is to tear the fabric of which we are a part and to say what cannot willingly be heard by those we love. It is a task that should be reluctantly assumed. To want to pursue the role is to not understand its implications. To volunteer is to raise the suspicion of falseness, or foolishness

Being Themselves

People are who they are. Being themselves makes them sacred. Their relationship with God, and with other people, increases the completeness of themselves. They become more of who they had always been. In like manner, they were good to begin with, and become better - more, rather than different.

What is Said

What was said only to Jesus at his Baptism, that he is God's son, is said to the chosen apostles at Transfiguration, and in resurrection it is said to the rest. The circle widens.

Love & Fear

We are not only afraid to love and show concern, we are also threatened by those who would love and express interest in us. Maybe we are afraid we might have to respond.

Busy Being Strong

The president is so busy being strong, he betrays what seems such weakness.

God As Statuary

Most analogies are poor, still I would like to offer another. It is possible (though perhaps not fair) to compare God to a piece of statuary, a work of art that must be seen from many perspectives. Something that must be walked around, looked at from up close and far away, and for a long time and at different times. But most just stand in one place, or else we walk right by. Even when we stop and look we may not feel what it tries to express, but at least we have some idea, a perspective to share with others who have seen it, and in the sharing to understand more.

Paralax, Not Progress

It seems like progress but is only paralax, apparent movement. It is the train passing, not the platform; and it is the world going by him, not he who is on the move.

The Depth of Eternity

We are accustomed to speak of eternal life in terms of an eternity of length, and while that may be so, it is not sufficient to view it only on a horizontal plane. There is also height or depth, a vertical dimension which gives significance to present reality as well as what may yet come.

Madness In All of Us

People can be confused or frightened. They may use sense experience to say what they could not otherwise bear to hear. Their bodies may carry the pain of their minds, and when reality is overwhelming they may retreat to a safer place within, a place we call madness. All people can do all of these things. All can be hurt or afraid, and if some sometimes do so to a greater degree, does it make them sick? It does only if we insist that it does, and then perhaps because we fear they could be us.

Not all of us will be lepers, nor will we develop cancer. But all could be what we call mentally ill, and so we distance ourselves. It is them, we say. They are the different ones. They are sick, and need hospital care and medication. They need to be where we won't see them, or our own reflection in them.

Sometimes they are sick, and sometimes they may benefit from a particular care, but for all they are, they are also us. Their confusion is not so different from our own. To turn their fear into disease is to hope it will stop being what we have felt. We can pretend and we can assign names, but it is only pretense. Our fear of the fear points, rather than to a distinction, to our weakness, our humanity, that most common of bonds.

God's Clarity

We must sometimes assume God's will is the same as our own, that what we consider best is what God also thinks correct. And if this is really not the case, if what we want is not how God would have it, he would do well to make himself a bit more explicit.

Hard to Know

It is sometimes hard to know whether we are seeing the glint of madness or the light of revelation.

Caring About the Outcome

As creator or life-giver, does God not owe more to the process and have greater responsibility for its outcome? He was first to reach, first to offer and first to care, and doesn't caring mean wanting most of all?

Chains

Mr. Williams says chains of gold are chains nonetheless.