Thursday of the Second Week of Easter

I have been reading Karen Armstrong’s recent book, The Case for God, and pondering her history of religion. It is a dense and complicated story, especially as we struggle to define the relationship of science and religion, philosophy and theology, the natural and supernatural sciences. In the past – a long time ago -- the Church enjoyed the genius of a Saint Augustine or Saint Thomas Aquinas to explain it all to us.  One bishop suggested that another great scholar may be among us today, but still in diapers! In the meanwhile, we reflect, discuss, pray and prepare the soil for his or her contribution.

In today’s reading from the Gospel according to Saint John, Jesus says of the natural and supernatural:

The one who comes from above is above all.
The one who is of the earth is earthly and speaks of earthly things.
But the one who comes from heaven is above all.
He testifies to what he has seen and heard,
but no one accepts his testimony.

As I understand this passage, Jesus comes from the Truth; he is an apostle from God to our reality. No one owns the truth; not scientists, technicians, pollsters, or politicians. And religion should speak of it more often with silence than words. As Saint Francis never said but should have said, “Preach always and, when necessary, use words.”

Jesus speaks in words but we do not understand what he is saying because we cling to our narrow definitions. Jesus’ truth may be as obtuse as the mystery of incarnation or transubstantiation. But it is more often the truth about our daily life. He may say, “This cancer is fatal,” but I will not hear it. Or he might say, “This relationship is forbidden.” and I will not be willing to cut it off. The truth might whisper to my heart, “You can hope and wish and prefer but you cannot control.” and yet I will struggle for mastery of people and situations.

My concerns are mired in “earth,” not the sweet Mother Earth who receives all blessings from God, but the sinful, concupiscent earth of my desires.

Inspired by our faith and thirsty for Truth. we gaze upon Christ Crucified. In this third chapter of Saint John, we have heard, “And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up…” The mystics insist that all blessings flow from that sacred tree:

Gaze upon him, consider him, contemplate him, as you desire to imitate him. If you suffer with him, you shall rejoice with him; if you die with him on the cross of tribulation, you shall possess heavenly mansions in the splendor of the saints, and in the Book of Life your name shall be called glorious.” Saint Clare of Assisi

I will certainly be interested to hear what today’s diapered child will tell us forty years from now, in a new synthesis of faith and science, but in the meanwhile I will contemplate Jesus and the curative powers he has given to us with the medical arts.