"Morning has broken, like the first morning"

"Morning Has Broken," which is our Friday traditio this week, while made popular by Cat Stevens in the early 1970s, was not composed by him. First and foremost, "Morning Has Broken" is a Christian hymn, with words composed by English writer Eleanor Farjeon. It was first published in 1931. The hymn uses a traditional Scottish Gaelic tune called "Bunessan."

I use this hymn a lot when presiding at Morning Prayer when there is no set program, including no predetermined opening hymn. If every going to sleep is a little death, then every awakening is, in a sense, to arise anew, then resurrection is part of our everyday experience, which gives us true hope, thus not relegating us merely to some exercise in wishing. "Morning Has Broken" captures this well, at least it does for me, just as it helps us sing our longing.

Esther Ofarim, a lovely Yemeni Jewish chanteuse, singing this beautiful song, is our traditio today, which here, along the Wasatch Front, after this week's cooling rain (snow in the higher elevations), is glorious. People who try to force me to choose between one beautiful thing and another beautiful thing (I don't believe anything is more both/and than beauty), are engaging in what I can only describe as a form of spiritual fascism.

Verse 3:

Mine is the sunlight, mine is the morning
Born of the one light, eden saw play
Praise with elation, praise every morning
God's recreation of the new day

Trinity Sunday reminds us "God is love"

I am firmly convinced that as Christians our reflections about the nature of God should begin with Jesus Christ, Theanthrōpos ("the God-man"). Any other starting point is defeated from the get-go for its failure to take account of the fullness of God's revelation, which nothing apart from God's becoming incarnate in the Person of Jesus Christ. In 2 Corinthians St. Paul wrote about this. He begins by noting that when Moses came down off the mountain after his direct encounter with the living God he had to veil his face "so that the Israelites could not look intently at the cessation of what was fading" (2 Cor 3:13). Then Christ came. As a result, we are now able to gaze "with unveiled face on the glory of the Lord" even as we "are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as from the Lord who is the Spirit" (2 Cor 3:18).

Of course, there is nothing more Trinitarian than the Eucharist. While the Mass is Trinitarian from beginning to end (beginning and ending by our making the Sign of the Cross), I find the epiclesis to be particularly so: "Make holy, therefore, these gifts, we pray, by sending down your Spirit upon them like the dewfall, so that they may become for us the Body + and Blood of our Lord, Jesus Christ" (Eucharistic Prayer II).

In my view the best and probably most succinct way to define the Most Holy Trinity is "one God in three divine persons." The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, while distinct persons (i.e., distinct and distinguishable One from the Other), all share equally in the divine nature, having such attributes as omniscience, omnipotence, simplicity, infinitude, aeternity, etc. As I never tire of pointing out, the mystery of the Holy Trinity, which is, properly speaking, a mystery of faith (i.e., not knowable by the unaided light of natural reason, but requires revelation to be known), is not somehow trying to get your mind around a gross arithmetical error (i.e., How does 3=1?). The mystery lies in grasping that "God is love" (1 John 4:8.16), which is more experiential than intellectual.

Don't we call the Eucharist the sacramentum caritatis, the sacrament of love? Given the many, many different meanings, under the weight of which the English word "love" gets crushed, it's important to distinguish the kind of love referred to in this passage. The word used in both 1 John 4:8 and 1 John 4:16 is agapé. Most of the time way too much is made by Christian exegetes about the uniqueness of this word. So, sticking with Johannine corpus (and the lectionary), let's turn to John 3:16-17: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him."

Love requires requires a lover and beloved. Love is also profuse, not closed in. Hence, love is fruitful. I think the collect for the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity provides a beautiful way of wrapping up this reflection:

God our Father, who by sending into the world
the Word of truth and the Spirit of sanctification
made known to the human race your wondrous mystery,

grant us, we pray, that in professing the true faith,
we may acknowledge the Trinity of eternal glory
and adore your Unity, powerful in majesty.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, forever and ever. Amen.

"that third way is love, we're going to love you"

Because I have not been posting much lately, it is without hesitation that I post a second time today. What I am posting is the film The Third Way. The run time for the film, without credits, is about 35:50. If nothing else, it gives us the opportunity to hear from several men and women who are homosexual. For me, this reinforced the need to listen and to love without judgment. The Church needs to be a place where we can all come, just as we are and be accepted. God will heal and change what needs healing and changing, our job is to love and to let ourselves be loved (the latter is not as easy as it sounds, at least not for me). If Christians refuse to love like Jesus loves, then who will do it?

It's important to note that the women and men who share their experiences in this film do not reflect the experiences of all men and women who are homosexual. But by sharing they give us the great privilege of listening to their stories. Regardless of sexual dispositions, or pre-dispositions, or whatever, our greatest need, as human beings, is to be loved. This goes to the core of our being, to the imago dei we all bear; we're made from Love and we're made to love. But to experience being loved, we have to see ourselves as lovable (again, not as easy as it sounds). We're not so different. I'll be so bold as to assert what for Christians ought to be commonplace- we're all disordered in some way, probably in some very "deep" way.

Another place I would draw to attention is Sarah and Lindsey's blog A Queer Calling: Reflections on the experiences of a celibate, LGBT, Christian couple. I can't begin to express how grateful I am to them for sharing their views and insights.

UPDATE: To my mind something like this film is merely a starting point, a way of helping a lot of us get over our fear of the other. One can't just watch this short movie and say, "Okay, now I get it," and leave it there. This is true for no other reason than, as I mentioned already, the experiences so generously shared by those featured in the film are not comprehensive. Like any human issue, while grasping some generalities may help, everyone's experience is different. It's safe to say that many homosexual men and women, like Joey in the film, live well-adjusted lives in committed relationships and without the self-destructive behaviors of drug and alcohol abuse. Heaven knows there are plenty of traumatized heterosexual people who engage in self-destructive behaviors and whose relationships are toxic as a result.

In a letter he wrote to Dorothy Day, Pater Tom (Merton) noted

Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy. That is not our business and, in fact, it is nobody's business. What we are asked to do is to love, and this love itself will render both ourselves and our neighbors worthy if anything can

What renders us worthy is the imago dei of which we are all bearers. The divine image, in which each human being is lovingly created, is ineradicable. To use the quote by N.T. Wright, which appears in my masthead at the top of my blog: Amor, ergo sum: I am loved, therefore I am.

"Cause we may not be the young ones very long"

With the unexpected death of actor Rik Mayall this week, I think our traditio needs to be related to one of my all-time favorite television shows, which aired on MTV in the 1980s- The Young Ones. Mayall was one of the show's creators and writers. For those who are unfamiliar with this program, there is plenty you can find on the internet, which will spare me the effort of exhaustively explaining it.

The basic concept is four ostensible and very disparate university students living together in London. Mayall played Rik the thoroughly bourgeois anarcho-socialist who is studying sociology and domestic studies. Rik is a bit of a walking contradiction, who fancies himself "the People's Poet," the voice of his generation, but who absolutely idolizes Cliff Richard, about whom my friend Patrick wrote, "No one rocked a center-part, white man overbite, and bulging crotch pants like Cliff Richard!" In short, Rik is a poseur.

The brilliance of the show was its ham-fisted, silly, highly exaggerated, and frentic nature. Oh, and it was just straight up funny, but certainly with some depth. In addition to The Young Ones theme, our traditio will feature a poem "Cliff," by the People's Poet, and a "Best of Rik" compilation:

Mayall went on to do other things, most particularly The New Statesmen, in which he played a MP, the Right Honorable Alan B'stard. You may read Rik Mayall's obituary in the Telegraph.

Whitsun Embering: Observing Pentecost Ember Week

In the Roman Catholic and Anglican traditions the week between Pentecost and Trinity Sunday is an Ember Week. Historically Christians who belong to these traditions participate in an Ember Week by observing Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday as days of fasting and abstinence. As always, days of fasting and abstinence call for more time in prayer. Rogation and Ember days, while no longer obligatory for Roman Catholics, were not abolished after the Second Vatican Council.

Ember days were uniformly set forth for the Roman Catholic Church at the Council of Clermont in AD 1095, the same council at which Pope Urban II called forth the First Crusade. As a result, there was a Latin mnemonic: Dant Crux, Lucia, Cineres, Charismata Dia/Ut sit in angariâ quarta sequens feria. From this an English mnemonic: Fasting days and Emberings be Lent, Whitsun, Holyrood, and Lucie, "Holyrood" refers to the Feast of the Holy Cross, observed 14 September, and "Whitsun" is Pentecost Sunday. It is the "Whitsun" Embering we have the opportunity to observe this week.

In addition to fasting and prayer, we are encouraged to celebrate (yes, celebrate) the Sacrament of Penance during Ember weeks. The General Instruction of the Roman Missal indicates, "In the drawing up of the Calendar of a nation, the Rogation Days and Ember Days should be indicated (cf. no. 373), as well as the forms and texts for their celebration" (par. 395). Due to all the criticism, often exaggerated and unjust, of the Second Vatican Council when it comes to such matters, I think it is important to note that what the Council Fathers and Venerable Pope Paul VI, who was given the arduous task of the implementing the Council, were seeking was not to abolish these tried and true means of spiritual and ecclesial growth, but to promote spiritual maturity among the faithful not by laying heavy burdens on them, but issuing an invitation.

They sought to promote such growth by lifting the obligatory nature of such practices, including Friday abstinence outside of Lent, which is even now the preferred way of observing each Friday as a penitential day. It bears noting that by stating that something is obligatory, it means that a member of faithful's deliberate failure to do it amounts to committing a sin. As with Friday abstinence outside of Lent, the failure to promote Ember days after the Council has undoubtedly resulted not only in them being little observed, by even very little known about by large numbers of the faithful, including the clergy (who are a subset of faithful, not a group over and above them). Currently there are only two obligatory days of fasting: Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. I remember teaching an adult Sunday school class a number of years ago and trying to make this exact point.

As I was discussing the change in Catholic practice of fasting and abstinence after Vatican II, an older lady in the class stated that she remembered a priest telling her straight up that if you ate meat on Friday and did not repent and confess it you would go to hell. I do not believe that failure, or even refusal, to abstain from meat on Fridays is a damnable offense for a number of reasons, but that's another post (actually a number of previous posts). Fasting, along with prayer and alms-giving, is a spiritual discipline given us by our Lord Himself. Along with prayer and alms-giving, it is one necessary component of any authentic Christian spirituality. I have written on the various ways these disciplines work together to open us to God's grace. In my view, fasting serves what might be described as an integrating function between prayer and alms-giving. I will end with an observation made by James Kushiner (one I run the risk of over-using):

Practicing a "discipline won’t bring you closer to God. Only God can bring you closer to Himself. What the discipline is meant to do is to help you get yourself, your ego, out-of-the-way so you are open to His grace"

I invite you to join me this week, not because you have to, or out of a guilt-ridden sense of obligation, which is foreign to Christianity, but because it is a great opportunity.

Some reflections on Pentecost and the Holy Spirit

Pentecost, which has it origins as the Jewish celebration of God's giving the Law to Moses on Mt. Sinai, is the Christian celebration and commemoration of the Father and the Son sending the Holy Spirit upon the Blessed Mother, the apostles, and other disciples who were assembled together fifty days after Christ's resurrection. We mark this event as the beginning of the Church, which remains, even now, as a Spirit-gathered assembly, or, to use transliterated Greek, ekkleisa. The airburst detonation of the Holy Spirit as recorded in Acts 2 bears more than a passing resemblance to what happened immediately after our Lord was baptized by John in the Jordan, when the Spirit descended on Him in the form of dove, thus anointing Him and confirming His messiahship. In like manner, the Holy Spirit descended upon, formed, and has remained with the Church, thus confirming that She, like Her Bridegroom, is simultaneously human and divine. One final observation along scriptural lines is that just as "a mighty wind" swept "over the waters" (Gen 1:2) at the dawn of creation bringing forth new life, so the Spirit exploding over the gathered disciples brings forth new life. The takeaway here is that, contrary to what many believe, Christians are not fundamentally "people of the book." Christians are the Spirit-filled people of the resurrected and living Lord. As Luke Timothy Johnson wrote in Living Jesus: Learning the Heart of the Gospel- the Spirit is mode of Christ's resurrection presence in us and among us. In other words, the Holy Spirit is the way that Jesus Christ fulfills His promise to always to be with us, to never abandon us.

As the apostle wrote, "we were all given to drink of one Spirit" ( 1 Cor 12:13). The Holy Spirit is God's life-giving breath. Receiving our Lord in communion happens by the power of the Holy Spirit. Being forgiven our sins in confession is effected by the power of the Holy Spirit. Marriages are not just made sacramental, but become sacraments, that is, visible and tangible signs of Christ's presence in and for the world, by the Spirit's power. Too often we take our cue from the world, seeing the gifts of the Spirit only in those who stand out in some way, who are good singers, good preachers, good teachers, gifted painters, able to write well, articulate, good looking, etc. This is to be mislead and often leads to being deceived and results in many leaving the faith. Being drawn this way builds up the egos of the ones who possess these things and usually has bad results.

Pentecost, by István Dorffmaister, 1782

The gifts of the Holy Spirit are wisdom, understanding, knowledge, counsel, fortitude, piety, and fear of the Lord. The fruits these gifts bear in the lives of Spirit-filled people are not necessarily things like speaking in tongues, prophesying, healing, etc., etc. The fruits of the Spirit are laid out by St. Paul in his Letter to the Galatians: "the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control" (5:22-23). While it is possible to utter the words "Jesus is Lord" in an insincere, or even joking and mocking manner, it is impossible to truly profess Him as Lord except by the power of the Holy Spirit. The evidence that Jesus is Lord of your life is your manner of living, whether the Spirit is bearing fruit in you. Jesus said,

By their fruits you will know them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?
Just so, every good tree bears good fruit, and a rotten tree bears bad fruit.
A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a rotten tree bear good fruit.
Every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.
So by their fruits you will know them (Matt 7:16-20)

I want to end with a few stanzas from the Sequence for Mass During the Day on Pentecost, the Veni, Sancte Spiritus:

O most blessed Light divine,
Shine within these hearts of yours,
And our inmost being fill!

Where you are not, we have naught,
Nothing good in deed or thought,
Nothing free from taint of ill.

Heal our wounds, our strength renew;
On our dryness pour your dew;
Wash the stains of guilt away
Bend the stubborn heart and will;
Melt the frozen, warm the chill;
Guide the steps that go astray.

"Got a ticket to my destination"

Another week without posting. Hence, this is my first post for the month of June. I have several things in the works. I decided beforehand not to post much during Easter. I made that decision for no reason other than I knew I would be busy. I have been even busier than anticipated. I spent the past week in Georgia and Alabama. While humid, northern Alabama is lovely. I just arrived home about an hour ago.

Reading Walker Percy's treatment of semiotics in Lost in the Cosmos took me back and moved me ahead. Something good will come of that I am certain.

My own conviction is that semiotics provides an escape from the solipsist prison by its stress on the social origins of language--you have to point to an apple and name it for me before I know there is such a thing--and the existence of a world of apples outside ourselves

Since language is how we, as human beings, access reality, it's a short-to-medium leap from this to, "One person is no person." As a Christian there's no better marker for that than the triune nature of God, which we will celebrate a week from tomorrow.

Ferdinand de Saussure

In honor of my homecoming today, Jack's Mannequin covering Simon & Garfunkel's "Homeward Bound" is our Friday traditio. There's an f-bomb in the pre-song introduction. So, if you're bothered by that you can take a pass:

And each town looks the same to me, the movies and the factories
And ev'ry stranger's face I see reminds me that I long to be,
Homeward bound,