The sea was stirred up because a strong wind was blowing.
When they had rowed about three or four miles,
they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat,
and they began to be afraid.
But he said to them, “It is I. Do not be afraid.”
Forget everything you ever learned about the English language," a teacher of English said to his freshman class here at Mount Saint Francis, "I will teach you English!" Father John Loftus began by reviewing their spelling, and then taught them to write a sentence, a paragraph, and an essay. By the end of their first year the young seminarians were ready to learn.
Similarly, "Attack therapy," as used in military training, intends to tear down one's faulty self-image and replace it with one ready to join and bond with others in a unit. Recruits learn humility through humiliation.
"Yet the darkness of [human] potentiality is the hotbed of anxiety. There is always more than one path to go, and we are forced be free -- we are free against our will -- and have the audacity to choose, rarely knowing how or why. Our failures glare like flashlights all the way, and what is right lies underground. We are in the minority in the great realm of being, and with a genius for adjustment we frequently seek to join the multitude. We are in the minority within our own nature, and in the agony and battle of passions we often choose to envy the beast. We act as if the animal kingdom were our lost paradise, to which we are trying to return for moments of delight, believing that it is the animal state in which our happiness consists." (Heschel, Man is Not Alone, 1951)
Our gospel today finds the boys out on the Galilean Sea, sinking in a storm and terrified by a ghost. They set out from a familiar summer picnic spot for a more familiar Capernaum, but are caught in chaos and confusion as the night and inclement weather fell on them.
The Lord's teachings that follow this stormy adventure cause even more distress. Many will desert him when they hear they must eat his flesh and drink his blood. Can anyone find meaning, direction, and solace in such a bizarre teaching?
Like Jesus and our belief in his Incarnation, the Eucharist invites us to recognize our divine and animal natures. We are of God; we are of Earth; we belong to both. And, abandoning either, we become confused and distressed. By receiving his body and blood in a sacramental gesture, we embrace both our divinity and humanity. The tension is relieved and the rupture is healed.
Aspiring to worth in God's sight, we no longer envy the beast or suppose our happiness resides in the animal state. Rather, we enjoy breathing this world's air and the breath of God's spiration. We delight in the privilege of being like Jesus, human with all its challenges, disappointments, suffering, pleasure, and privilege.
In trinitarian theology, spiration refers to the action of the Father, who eternally spirates - breathes forth - the Spirit. Could one say that the spiration of Scripture is also an action of the Father through the Spirit? For example, when we breathe, breath (spirit) is not necessarily all that comes out. Our breath can also form a word.... The Father breathes out (spirates) the Word through the Breath (Spirit). THE DIVINE SPIRATION OF SCRIPTURE / A.T.B. McGOWAN, HIGHLAND THEOLOGICAL COLLEGE, DINGWALL
No comments:
Post a Comment
I love to write. This blog helps me to meditate on the Word of God, and I hope to make some contribution to our contemplations of God's Mighty Works.
Ordinarily, I write these reflections two or three weeks in advance of their publication. I do not intend to comment on current events.
I understand many people prefer gender-neutral references to "God." I don't disagree with them but find that language impersonal, unappealing and tasteless. When I refer to "God" I think of the One whom Jesus called "Abba" and "Father", and I would not attempt to improve on Jesus' language.
You're welcome to add a thought or raise a question.