Paul's Letter to the Roxbury

To be honest, as I was listening to the first reading yesterday from Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, I listened about as far as ‘Love is patient . . .’ before my inner SNL cast member started singing and dancing to “What is Love?”, a song made popular to my generation by the SNL skit and eventual movie “Night at the Roxbury” :

“What is love, baby don’t hurt me, don’t hurt me, no more!”

After telling my inner SNL cast member to be quiet, the importance of this reading hit me in a way it has never before. In the past this has just been the reading I assumed I was going to hear at a wedding, explaining the hope that newly married couples have for how they are committing to love one another (certainly noble!). Perhaps married couples treasure this reading so much, because it is the answer to a question they are beginning to ask in this new project of their whole lives, a question which we all ask and all yearn to know the answer to, what is love?

“Baby don’t hurt me!”

In this song, though, the immediate reaction to asking this question is fear. We desire and expect so much from love that the experience of disappointment in the face of this hope can leave us empty, not wanting to look again. And this is not only true for romantic love, but friendships, family, and our desire for a world that generally holds love as the standard for human community. This fear can creep its way into our expectations for how others treat us, how we treat others, and even our concept of who God is in our lives.

St. Paul was writing to a community who needed to be reminded that whatever their place was in the community, their actions needed to be founded on a correct understanding of love. But this reading does not only need to be read in terms of what is expected of us, but in the context of our expectation for being loved. I think today we need to hear this reading and let it form both our love for others and our expectation and search for love. People in our lives are not always going to be able to live up to these expectations for love, but if we understand this reading we can see clearly what is love and what falls short. And perhaps most importantly, we can be confident that God who is Love will not hurt your heart if you open it to Him.

I’m not saying we will get to perfection in our relationships, but I think we can all afford to remind others (in charity!) and be reminded how to love. If we strive for this with the Lord we can answer His call to “Be not afraid” in the face of our search for love.

“Love is patient, love is kind.

It is not jealous, love is not pompous,

it is not inflated, it is not rude,

it does not seek its own interests,

it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury,

it does not rejoice over wrongdoing

but rejoices with the truth.

It bears all things, believes all things,

hopes all things, endures all things.”

-1 Corinthians 13

"Behold, I stand at the door and knock"

        I have often found that conversations later at night lay bare the reality of a subject in a way that no other time of day can. I think perhaps at the end of the day the reality that there are limits to what can be thought or produced in a certain amount of time leave us in a state of stark realism, a leaning into the reality of our finiteness. It just so happens that last night’s conversation was about this finiteness in our Christian reality, in the grand scheme of things the reality of the Cross. What we discovered in this bare conversation about the finite, the Cross, is how seemingly simple it can be to connect the idea of the cross to the experience of our lives, how in ways as simple as giving up something for lent or as complex and difficult as losing a loved one, the cross always has a way of making itself present (even if we don’t fully understand it); life provides plenty of opportunities to lean into this finite reality. 

But the Cross seen in the light of the paschal mystery breaks out of its seeming finiteness into the glory of the Resurrection, the Kingdom, and the promise of everlasting life! When this topic is laid bare before us in the arena of night time conversation, though, what seems to be left is still mystery. Where do we see this reality in daily life?

         We see it only when we are invited to live through the living gifts given to us by Christ: His Church, the Sacraments, and most especially the great Sacrament of unity with the Paschal mystery, the Eucharist.  Our daily participation in the Resurrection, rather than the clarity of the presence of the cross comes in the humble semblance of bread and wine, and Christ’s quiet knocking at the door of our hearts. It is an invitation in the silence, a quiet peace always calling us back to living in a new way the life in which we daily encounter the Cross. May we find in our daily lives this peace and blessing of Christ’s saving presence!

Shaken by Prayer

In today's reading from Acts we hear about the Apostles praying to the Lord for strength, to be filled with the Holy Spirit. And as they pray the place where they stood shook! When I was a kid I remember vividly asking my second grade teacher my first theological question, "Does God always answer your prayers?" Surely I thought this would be impossible, but she said that God does hear everyones prayers and answers them. I remember spending the next few days thinking up crazy scenarios of things for which people could pray: to win the super bowl, a new bike, a million dollars, and surely God would answer their prayers. So I tried it. "Dear Lord, please make me rich, please give me a million dollars. Amen." . . . Nothing happened. I still needed to save my money to go buy baseball cards. "Aha!" I thought, "maybe God doesn't answer them right away, but of course he HAS TO because I prayed it, so one day I will have a million dollars." I am still waiting, and I hate to admit it, but maybe I misunderstood my teacher in second grade. But Jesus says in the Gospel if we only have faith the size of a mustard seed we could move mountains! And today the earth shakes at the prayer of the Apostles! So what does this look like today?
This weekend I had the honor of being present for and serving the Deaconate Ordination of two of my brother seminarians. They have been praying for years about what the Lord is calling them to do with their lives, and on Saturday the Church resoundingly said "Yes, we call you, the Lord calls you, and we will support you in your work serving the Church." These men prostrated themselves before the Bishop and the Altar as we prayed to the Saints to ask the Lord to bless them and give them strength. And as they got up and knelt before the Bishop, their prayers, the prayers of the Church, and the prayers of the saints shook their lives. The imposition of hands shook their identities and the future of the Church!
As I reflect on this ordination, I realize that it is perhaps easy to see the Lord shaking our world in celebrations as grand as the celebration of ordination, or in the celebration of new life in the Church we witnessed on Holy Saturday. But in faith we can witness to the reality of the Resurrection of the Lord shaking our lives this Easter season. This is what the reading from Acts today and all of this Holy Season call us to: to believe in the presence of the risen Lord and to gain some glimpse of how He continually shakes our world and our lives. May our world continue to be shaken by the prayer of the Church and the presence of the Risen Christ. Alleluiah!