Year B 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Readings: Job 7,1-4.6-7; Ps 147,1-6; 1 Cor 9,16-19.22-23; Mk 1,29-39

Today’s readings give us snapshots from life’s photo album. In these readings we see three related dimensions of human existence: the harshness of life, Jesus relieving us of life’s harshness, and the disciple sharing the Good News of Jesus’ healing and salvation.

In today’s first reading from the Book of Job, we take a cold, hard look at human life, at the problem of suffering, at life’s harshness, and its brevity. Because it was written before the advent of Jesus Christ, Job’s story is not the final word on suffering and is, therefore, incomplete in its conclusions. However, this ancient story resonates down through the ages to our own time. It finds resonance with us because we have experienced disappointment and suffering at different times in our lives. For too many people sorrow to constitutes the whole of life. When people suffer in the manner described by Job, our life becomes drudgery (Jb 7,1), happy memories tend to get swallowed up and any hope of a brighter future grows dim. At such times there is a temptation to despair, to no longer view suffering as an ordeal that will pass. Rather, suffering appears to be one’s permanent fate. Such a view of life, along with life’s shortness, is expressed in such contemporary sayings as "Life is hard and then you die."

Jesus knows the harshness of human life because he is one of us. As the author of the Letter to the Hebrews writes, "we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin" (Heb 4,15). Furthermore, because Jesus loves each one of us, he sees our hurt and is touched by our suffering. This week’s Gospel picks up right where last week’s Gospel, in which we read about Jesus healing the man with an unclean spirit not only on the Sabbath, but in the synagogue, leaves off. Our Gospel today follows Jesus from the synagogue to "the house of Simon and Andrew" (Mk 1,29). Once in the house Jesus continues his ministry of healing by healing Simon’s mother-in-law who "lay sick with a fever" (Mk 1,30-31). In Mark’s account of this particular healing he uses two words that merit closer attention. The first is the Greek word egeiro and the second is the Greek word diakoneo, from which we derive the word deacon.

Egeiro means "to raise up" (Mk 1,31). What is significant about the appearance of the word in this context is that it is typically used to refer to Christ’s resurrection. Therefore, it is indicative of Jesus raising her- and us- from the sickness and death, about which Job laments, to new life. Diakoneo, or service, is what Simon’s mother-in-law does in response to being healed by Jesus. We read, "Then the fever left her and she waited on them" (Mk 1,31). The word "waited" is the English translation of diakoneo, which denotes much more than traditional women’s domestic work. It connotes ministry or service within the community. So, this nameless woman provides for us a model response to our encounter with Jesus Christ.

After sundown, which brings the end of the Sabbath, "all who were ill or possessed by demons" were brought to him. In fact, "the whole town was gathered at the door." Jesus "cured many who were sick . . . and drove out many demons" ((Mk 1,34). He then went from Capernaum to "the nearby villages" to preach. He went into their synagogues throughout the whole of Galilee, preaching and driving out demons ((Mk 1,38-39). In all of this Jesus establishes his authority over the forces of evil and death. We learn that the appropriate response for one delivered by Jesus’ saving power is ministry to others.

Job, like all of us at times- is overcome by the evil he encounters. In our modern technological age we daily encounter the evil that happens everywhere in our world. The evening news often seems like the bad news. But the Good News of today’s Gospel is that Jesus is not so overcome. On the contrary, through his life, death, and resurrection, he has overcome the world (Jn 16,33). His healing frees us from diseases of both body and spirit. Of course, we know that Jesus did not come only for the people of his own time. He is present to people of all times and of every place. His healing power is present for us in the Church until the end of time. He is present most concretely in the sacraments. Too often our initial reaction to encountering serious evil is to think that here we cannot be the followers of Christ. However, it is precisely where we encounter evil that we must follow Christ most closely. We alone cannot remove all the loneliness and fear; we cannot make a fever go away with a simple action, as Christ could. Yet, like St. Paul, by virtue of our decision to follow Christ, a commitment we make at baptism and for which we are strengthened in confirmation, we have made our choice. By choosing to follow Christ, we willing accept the responsibility of sharing the good news with others. All who choose to follow Jesus say with Paul "an obligation has been imposed on me" (1 Cor 9,16).

In today’s Psalm response we "Praise the Lord, who heals the brokenhearted" (Ps 147,3). May we who’s hearts have been mended by the gentle, healing touch of the Savior bring our new life to others daily in all our encounters be it in our homes, at work, at school, or right here in our parish. We receive new life from Christ continually, especially in and the through the eucharist. Christ meets us in all the sacraments. When we are overtaken by evil and fall into sin, rejecting the wholeness and life offered us by our Lord, we are reconciled in confession. When we are physically ill we have recourse to the sacrament of anointing.

Faith is our loving response to God’s loving and unceasing reaching-out to us. The Holy Father in his first encyclical, Deus Caritas Est, sums up our Christian vocation, modeled for us so well in today’s readings. Pope Benedict writes that those of us who have come to faith in Christ "have come to believe in God’s love." "Being Christian," he writes, "is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction." Since it is God who first loved us, "love is now no longer a mere 'command'; it is the response to the gift of love with which God draws near to us" (DCE, 1). By giving this same gift in all of our relationships, we bring God to others. May we do this, like St. Paul, "all for the sake of the gospel" (1 Cor 9,23).

Year B 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Readings: Job 38,1.8-11; Ps 107,23-31; 2 Cor 5,14-17; Mk 4,35-41

Images of raging waters and turbulent seas are found frequently throughout the Old Testament. We need only recall the stories of creation, the great flood, and the exodus to see this. Among the cultures of the ancient Near East the stormy sea symbolized the forces of chaos in the world. In the wakes of the Indian Ocean tsunami and last summer’s hurricanes, we know that even in our own day the sea’s untamable waves are beyond human control. It was over the invincible power of the waters that the psalmists and prophets exalted God’s omnipotence. We find an example of this in today’s psalm in which the LORD raises “up a storm wind” only to rescue the mariners by turning it into “a gentle breeze.” In the story of creation, the unrivaled sovereignty of God is on display when God creates the earth and causes his spirit to sweep “over the face of the waters” bringing forth life. His power over the chaos of the seas is elsewhere on display in Genesis when God, to use Job’s words from our first reading, “shuts in the sea with doors” (Jb 38,8) by separating the waters from the dry land (Gen 1,1.6-7). Though fearsome and often menacing, the roaring seas pose no threat to God, who is their creator and master.

The storm represents far more than a retelling of what occurred on a particular night over 2,000 years ago. The storm is both a terrifying natural event and a metaphor for the overwhelming difficulties that we experience collectively and individually on our voyage to true discipleship. In both cases Jesus is in our midst urging us to greater faith, to greater trust, to further abandon ourselves to God. Yet, just like the disciples in the boat, many of us have yet to discover through our own experience that Jesus is the one “whom even wind and sea obey” (Mk 4,41). In the psalm the sailors, beset by a storm and being tossed up to the heaven and sinking to the depths, cry out to the LORD in their distress (Ps 107,26-28).

Most of us, at one point or another in our lives, perhaps at multiple times, have uttered urgent words to God, like those shouted by the disciples in the boat: Lord, “do you not care that [I am] perishing,” suffering, failing, grieving, or hurting? It is a pious platitude merely to say that Jesus is with us in the midst of life’s storms. Or, that he is especially near to us when we are hurting, suffering, and downtrodden. Nonetheless, both these statements are true. But the only way to make them real is through experience. It is certainly not enough to believe the truthfulness of these pious propositions; we must know the person who asks us to put all our trust in him in order to know whether he is, in fact, trustworthy. In order to trust Jesus Christ consistently we must pray to him so that we come to know him. We must also get to know some of his friends, our brothers and sisters in faith, both those we sit surrounded by here today in church, as well as those who have gone before us. Having saints for companions and intercessors is an indispensable means of knowing our Lord better, as are daily prayer and scripture study. It is only through prayer, scripture study, Eucharistic fellowship, and constantly entrusting ourselves to his loving care through concrete acts that we really come to know our Savior. It is only by knowing him intimately that we come to know just how he works in all the various circumstances of our lives.

In addition to this good news, it is also comforting to know that there is a limit to suffering, our own suffering and that of the whole world. The set limit to which God decrees “Thus far shall you come but no farther” (Jb 38,11), is Divine Mercy. The boundary of this limit, the door behind which the sea of evil and suffering are damned, is the Cross. “Brothers and sisters,” St. Paul writes to us no less than to the Corinthian Christians of the first century, “The love of Christ impels us, once we have come to the conviction that one died for all . . . so that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised” (2 Cor 5,15). Living for others means dying to ourselves. In order to live for others, we must love them. Loving another means making ourselves vulnerable, subjecting ourselves to rejection and disappointment, it means relinquishing control without ceasing to care. Conversely, it is the failure to love God and our neighbor, as Christ taught us, that causes human evil in the world.

In reflecting on our readings today, it must be remarked that is through water that God deigns to save us. The Rite of Baptism speaks powerfully of this sacramental reality when, during the rite, the minister blesses the water of the font saying:

“At the very dawn of creation your Spirit breathed on the waters, making them the wellspring of all holiness.

“The waters of the great flood you made a sign of the waters of baptism, that
make an end of sin and a new beginning of goodness.

“Through the waters of the Red Sea you led Israel out of slavery, to be an image
of God’s holy people, set free from sin by baptism.

“We ask you, Father, with your Son to send the Holy Spirit upon the water of this
font. May all who are buried with Christ in the death of baptism rise also with him
to newness of life” (Rite of Baptism for Children, pg 36-7).

In his graciousness, made most manifest in and through the sacraments, God washes away our sin and restores us to his favor. Through Christ he releases us from the prison of our selfishness to the freedom of loving others. It is on this voyage of liberation that Jesus Christ gives us passage and beckons us, as he did his disciples, “Let us cross to the other side” (Mk 4,35). On our way Jesus calms the stormy waters of life, which are for us a wellspring of holiness. My dear brothers and sisters it is God working through our struggles, trials, and failures that we die to ourselves, bury what is dead, and rise to new life. Having already been redeemed, it is through this on-going process that we are sanctified, that is, made holy. This is how we become new creations in Christ, that is, beloved sons and daughters of our Father in heaven who awaits our arrival home on the far shore. Like those rescued from the abyss in our psalm, or the relieved disciples in the boat, may we rejoice when our Savior brings us to our “desired haven” (Ps 107,30).

St. Mary Magdalene- Madeleine- Myrrophore-Isapostole

I just returned from giving a tag-team lecture on St. Mary Magdalene, the patron saint of our cathedral and of our diocese- Salt Lake City. Hers is such a fascinating story. At first glance the scriptural evidence of her seems slim. First, there is Luke chapter 8 verses 2-3, which reads: "1 and some women who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, 3 Joanna, the wife of Herod's steward Chuza, Susanna, and many others who provided for them out of their resources.." This is the only passage that refers to her apart from the passion and resurrection narratives found in all four canonical Gospels. Two samples are found in Mark's Gospel, both in chapter 16.

Since chapter 16 of Mark's Gospel was added onto, only one of these is found in the original- chapter 16 (verses 1-8) which reads: "1 When the sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. 2 And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. 3 They had been saying to one another, "Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?" 4 When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back. 5 As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed. 6 But he said to them, "Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him. 7 But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you." 8 So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid." Then, the addition, which appears to be a variant taken from St. Luke's Gospel because it refers to the casting of seven demons: "9 Now after he rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons. 10 She went out and told those who had been with him, while they were mourning and weeping. 11 But when they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they would not believe it. 12 After this he appeared in another form to two of them, as they were walking into the country. 13 And they went back and told the rest, but they did not believe them." Of course, there are the parallel passages in the three other Gospels that attest to her being the first witness of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

What is clear from this is that Mary of Magdala, a town near Tiberius, was the first witness of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. As such, she has rightly been designated "apostle to the Apostles." Her story has been conflated with a couple of other stories in the Gospels (Luke 7,36-50 and John 12,1-3). Because of these conflations, which began among the Latin Fathers and culminated with the preaching of St Gergory the Great, Mary Magdalen, the only one of Jesus' women disciples not named with reference to a man, but to her city, gets confused with Mary of Bethany, sister of Martha and Lazarus, and the sinful woman, likely a prostitute, who enters the house of Simon the Pharisee and anoints Jesus' head with oil and washes his feet with her tears.

Of course there are the different "traditions," which amount to legends about St. Mary Magdalene from the East and the West that she went to Rome, preached to the emperor Tiberius and, as a result, Pontius Pilate was exiled to Gaul where he committed suicide. Or, that, along with St, John the Evangelist and Mary, the Mother of God, she went to Ephesus. Or, in the Western tradition, sticking with the conflations, she, along with Martha and Lazarus and other companions, went to Provence, landing in what is today Marsellies, not a bad place if you're going to France.

As in all things, there is the gnostic Mary kissed by Jesus and in the breath exchanged in a kiss, Christ imparting to her knowledge - . The Gospel of Philip, the Gospel of Mary, not, as misnamed on the link "The Gospel According to St. Mary Magdalene." But the gnostics are just as untrue to the historical witness of her and subsequent tradition, both East and West.

She is truly the myrrh-bearer and isapostole (equal-to-the apostles). A follower and supporter of the earthly ministry of Jesus. We celebrate her solemenity this Sunday. we implore her assistance.

Memento Mori

Death is the horizon against which we live our lives. Whenever we look out over our future, we see this horizon and quickly focus on that which is nearer. For many life consists in not much more than avoiding this reality. But faith invites us live and engage this mystery. Having completed my fortieth year last Fall, I have become more acutely aware of how quickly time passes. Therefore, I have become more concerned about I spend my time. Currently, I am trying to be less busy so that I am more free to live my priorities. My single biggest stumbling block to this is my ministry, which I do in addition to my regular job and raising a family. These priorities were made all the more clear this morning when I learned at 7:09 am that my maternal grandmother had passed away at the age of 90. While I was typing this I received another phone call informing me that one of my brother deacons passed away this morning as well.

I remember as a young man in my mid-teens wishing life would hurry up and happen. As a man in middle age I sometimes have the desparate desire to slow life down. The ancient hymn Dies Irae is a sobering, yet hopeful reminder of what is important.

Dies Irae
1 Day of wrath and terror looming!Heaven and earth to ash consuming, David's word and Sibyl's truth foredooming!
2 What horror must invade the mind, when the approaching judge shall find, and sift the deeds of all mankind.
3 The trumpet casts a wondrous sound,through the tombs of all around, making them the throne surround.
4 Death is struck and nature quaking, all creation is awaking, to its judge an answer making.
5 The written book shall be brought forth, in which is contained allfrom which the world is to be judged.
6 So when the Judge shall sit, whatever is hidden shall be seen,nothing shall remain unpunished.
7 What am I, wretched one, to say,What protector implore, when (even) a just person will scarcely be confident?
8 King of awesome majesty, you who save gratuitously those to be saved, save me, fount of pity.
9 Remember, gracious Jesus, that I am the cause of your journey; do not let me be lost on that day.
10 Seeking me, you sat exhausted;you redeemed me by undergoing the Cross; let so much toil not be in vain.
11 Just judge of vengeance, grant the gift of forgiveness, before the day of reckoning'.
12 I groan, as one guilty; my face is red with shame; spare, O God, a supplicant.
13 You who forgave Mary, and heard the plea of the thief have given hope to me also.
14 My prayers are unworthy; but you, the Good, show me favour, that I may not be consumed by eternal fire.
15 Grant me a place among the sheep, and separate me from the goats, placing me at your right hand.
16 When the accursed are silenced, sentenced to piercing flames, call me with the blessed.
17 Suppliant and bowing, I beg, heart contrite like ash: Have a care for my end.
18 Tearful that day, on which will rise from ashes guilty man for judgement.
So have mercy, O God, on this man.
19 Compassionate Lord Jesus, grant them rest. Amen.

How Occasional?

I'm back almost a year later posting again. I have re-named my weblog from its original. Now that I have decided to take up blogging with fervor, I am making a few changes. One change will be that comments will be moderated. So, please don't spam me with your comments. If I were interested in antique cars or other stuff, I am capable of finding what I want on my own. Constructive, even critical, comments are welcome as long they foster genuine dialogue, are temperate and not profane.

The focus on my blog will not change, but within the realm of theology, pastoral practice, preaching, history, philosophy, politics I will range more widely. One feature of my blog will be my homilies, which I will post here. I also want to put up some notes for classes I teach and comment on what I am reading. I am looking forward to this endeavor made easier by my acquisition of a laptop computer and home DSL.

Science & Theology

I have been tremendously busy this past week or so. Busy-ness explains why I haven't posted in awhile. It is a glorious Sunday morning here in SLC. The light is beginning to look like Fall due to the Northern movement of the Sun. The colors look clearer and crisper as we move into Indian Summer. All-in-all a good day to worship our Creator.

On that note (that of a Creator), I offer this link God's Chance Creation to an article by Jesuit Fr George Coyne, the astrophysicist quoted by John Allen in his 22 July column, published in the English Catholic newsweekly The Tablet . Fr Coyne's article demonstrates even further the necessity for theologians and scientists, especially those sharing the same faith, to dialogue. Theology is by its very nature a synthetic (i.e., multi-disciplinary) undertaking. Taking account of consensus views among natural, physical, and social scientists is necessary for a credible theology. If theology has "raw data" with which to work it is revelation. However, revelation, as a form of communication (i.e., a communicator, a message, and one to whom it is communicated), always stands in need of interpretation if it is to be understood. If revelation is interpreted in such a way that it either refuses to take account of "what scientists tell us" , or is articulated in a way that it cannot account for or accommodate such information, it is simply bad theology and erroneous interpretation. There is, of course, a lot more to be written on the matter. As the great French theologian of the last century, Henri de Lubac, pointed out "grace builds on nature." This axiom seems a good starting point for an ever more meaningful dialogue between theology and science.

John F. Haught, a theologian at Georgetown University, is a leader in this dialogue both in the U.S. and internationally. He has written two books that are worthy of note and highly recommended for anybody interested in faith perspectives on evolution: "God After Darwin: A Theology of Evolution" and "Deeper Than Darwin: The Prospect for Religion in the Age of Evolution."


More soon . . .

Didactic Dialogue on God II

Christian Believer: Faith is not based exclusively on personal experience. Once someone has an experience of faith, s/he seeks to make sense of this experience. To give it an interpretation, as it were. Language plays no small role in this interpretative quest to make sense of one's personal experience. Is an experience less real because it is personal? Subjectivist is not having personal experiences. Subjectivism is saying that one is the cause of all of one's own experiences and that self-generated experiences are our only experience- which makes any further investigation ridiculous. As a phenomenon, personal experiences are quite universal insofar as we all have them.

Dialogue Partner: "You had me with the first sentence. Faith is not based exclusively on personal experience. But then you lost me when you went on to support the 'figuring out' as based on experience. Once someone has an experience of faith, s/he seeks to make sense of this experience.

Christian Believer: One has to interpret one's personal (i.e., unique) experiences. In seeking to interpret this personal experience one begins to look outward- to interpret and to some degree verify one's faith experience. It is verified insofar as we realize that other people have such experiences too. We interpret by reflecting on our own experiences in light of the experiences of others, usually religious communities. Such reflection gives us a language, a lexicon with which to communicate the meaning of our experience. Our faith experience (our UR experience) is analogous to raw data. As with raw data obtained through experimentation and observation, the need to verify and interpret arises. Verification and interpretation are the only ways to make our experiences which, in many instances, are quite ambiguous meaningful. Language (narratives, meta-narratives, poetry, music, etc.) is what gives meaning to our experiences. By giving meaning to our experiences, our experiences are not subjective. In other words, we want and need to get them "out there" in some kind of objective, or more precisely inter- subjective, form. This is true for many reasons, but chief among these reasons is our desire for our experiences to be meaningful to ourselves. This cannot occur without others. After all, to paraphrase John Donne's "no man is an island", one person in no person.

Dialogue Partner: "I understand. Thanks. So we agree that it begins with experience? And to be clear, we're talking about experience of what is interpreted as the divine - and not simply 'experience', as in walking, breathing, changing the bed sheets..."

Christian Believer: Yes, it does begin with experience. Science begins with experience. What I experience can in no way be seen as not real. This is where the crass atheist gets confused. Perhaps the atheist has had no such experience. Or, if s/he has had such experiences, it is attributed to the enchilada sauce. But even blaming red chilis is to interpret the experience. How can the chili-blaming atheist be absolutely certain that it was not the Absolute seeking to break though her/his consciousness? You write: "We're talking about experience of what is interpreted as the divine - and not simply 'experience', as in walking, breathing, changing the bed sheets..." It depends. Some people don't divide up experience in that way. Our dear brother Thich Nhat Hahn, for instance, makes no such distinction nor did my beloved Pater Tom [Merton]. You're correct, however, most people do. In the case of people who make such divisions between divine experiences and the daily grind as it were, the answer to your implied question is "Yes."

Dialogue Partner: "Yes but it is still experiencing the divine, whether that comes in the form of a white light, burning bush or walk along the seashore. I was opposing it to experience that one does NOT link to the divine."

Christian Believer: Thanks for the clarifications. You are correct in that by my writing faith is not exclusively a personal experience, I was not "actually disagreeing as it would have seemed". I also agree when you write: "it is still experiencing the divine, whether . . ." Faith is complex. Faith begins with experience on a personal, even intimate, level. I am not certain it can be called faith (in Christian terms anyway- the actus fidei) until it is given expression and begins to acquire meaning. What sets me off in this discussion is when what I can only call crass, boiler-plate atheists insist that believers must provide them (the atheists) with empirical proof for the existence of God. It seems so obvious that belief in God begins on the level of personal experience. As I have written, personal experience, while certainly conditioned by our biology, culture, family, upbringing, experience, etc., is no less real for it being my experience. However, I cannot be content to just leave it at the level of ambiguous personal experience. This is where I seek to make sense of my personal experience and conform it to reality (i.e., what is known). Many people short-circuit this process because complexity is just too much for them, extremism and fundamentalism are the results.

Dialogue Partner: "As I was discussing with somebody else recently, *IS* the proof one can offer for belief, since empiricism is based on one's personal experience. However, I know what you're talking about and it *IS* annoying. Not for the reasons some would have, that I/we are too fragile to discusser entertain challenges to faith, but because those challenges are rooted in broad-brush, ignorant prejudice. Those challenges only workif one clings to those prejudices. We've all countered them and they've all been ignored. We've all said, 'But what you're fighting against, isn't what I believe, so either reform your argument or concede it's limitations" - and eachtime, the mighty intelligence of those who claim strength of analyticcapabilities, withers in a stunning silence. Attacking those who believe because they're afraid of death? Theyneed a cookie cutter faith that lets them live on? That's not me.That's not you. But the assertion continues....causeit....works....for the person making it. Attacking those who have experiences and can't prove them in a courtof law? Well do you have experiences that you can't prove in a courtof law? Again: silence. Because to address this issue....makes theargument evaporate. But the assertion continues....causeit....works....for the person making it. So either they're not intelligent enough to recognize this (and theyignore it because they don't see they've been bested by their ownargument) or they *DO* understand it's message and ignore it becauseignoring it allows for and feeds their need to continue theirposition. But you know what they say about someone who puts a lot of energyinto fighting something. J. Edgar Hoover comes to mind....

Me: Exactly, empirical data is sense data. As sense data it is perceived by a human perceptual apparatus and, hence, by human beings. In a word, it is experienced. In the realm of science, such experiences are described, written up and submitted for peer review. Ideally, in the case of a claimed scientific breakthrough, the write-up is such that peers can repeat the experiment and have the same experience. This inter-subjectivity is taken as verification of the results (assuming the repeat of the experiment replicated the initial results predicted). Sense data is always already interpreted, otherwise how do does one make sense of a red object? Gestalt is indicative of the almost imperceptible distinction between brain(i.e., physical organ) and mind (i.e., the synthesizing function innate to (most) human beings). Of course, in assigning meaning to the red object, we can and sometimes are mistaken. As a Christian who believes in resurrection, death is still the horizon against which I live my life and beyond which I cannot see. I want to live my life in such a way that whether there is an after-life or not, whether or not there is heaven or a hell, it will have been a good life. This desire, which is constitutive of who I am, is but one very convincing proof of the transcendent nature of human existence.

Christian Believer: To cut some critics some slack, referring back to writing: "It seems so obvious that belief in God begins on the level of personal experience." As I have written, personal experience, while certainly conditioned by our biology, culture, family, upbringing, experience, etc., is no less real for it being my experience. When people write about the tendency of Western peoples' failure to understand that there is a difference between one's understanding of the Absolute (even communal understandings) and the Absolute, he is quite convincing. I would be interested in pursuing this line of reasoning. Why? Because such failures do cause violence and smug self- satisfaction of the kind all too prevalent today in Bush's United States. It pains me to no end that so many of my fellow Christians fall for this kind un-Christian distortion of the faith. So, this seems to me a valuable avenue of discussion. I offer the Parable of the Four Blind Men Who Met an Elephant Four blind men met an elephant. "The first touched its feet and said, 'This is a building with Doric columns.' The second touched its trunk and said, 'This is a snake.' The third felt its belly and and said, 'This is the dried skin of a lion.' The last man felt its ears and said, 'This is a leaf of a palm tree.' They began to argue and finally to fight for their truth which left no room for the other man's truth." Edward Schillebeeckx, OP God the Future of Man, Sheed & Ward, 1968, pg. 66

Finally, "How can the chili-blaming atheist be absolutely certain that it was not the Absolute seeking to break though her/his consciousness?" If the answer is because there is no Absolute, no ground of existence, nothing beyond what I can see, hear, touch, taste, or smell, the chili-blaming atheist is guilty of the fallacy of begging the question. In other words, the answer is based on a pre- supposition, not empirical data (i.e., seeing, hearing, smelling, touching, tasting). If not based on empirical evidence, this undermines her/his demand for such evidence on behalf of those who believe. In other words, a priori atheism is not defensible on its own empirical principles.