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10th Sunday of Ordinary Time

There is a natural instinct in parents to protect their children.

There are rare exceptions to this, and they need be noted.

Our television screens are filled with nightly news clips of Gaza women and men scurrying with the child/children to find shelter.

Or again trains filled with mothers and their children exiting the major cities of Ukraine.

Men and women in the highlands of Papua New Guinea dig with their bare hands.

Mary, and other members of the family thought Jesus had gone mad!

This Sunday’s Gospel has a rawness to it that the inclination is to ignore, or at least skip over the text.

St Mark in his very direct way, pulls up short:

The crowd came together again, so that they could not even eat. When his family heard it, they went out to restrain Jesus, for people were saying, “He has gone out of his mind.” (Mk. 3: 20 -21)

Indeed, the consensus was Jesus was possessed by Beelzebul, the Prince of Demons. [An alternate spelling has Beelzebub which translates as ‘Lord of the Flies’ – note the novel by William Golding.

If we dare remove the verses 22 – 30 from our text, the passage now reads,
“The crowd came together again, so that they could not even eat. When his family heard it, they went out to restrain Jesus, for people were saying, “He has gone out of his mind.” (Mk. 3: 20 -21)

“Then his mother and his brothers came; and standing outside, they sent to him and called him. A crowd was sitting around him; and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, asking for you.” And he replied, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” And looking at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.” (Mk 3: 31 – 34)

Why had his mother and his brothers arrived at the door?

Why were they asking for him?

They had come to restrain him! (v31)

Restrain, similar words from the dictionary include hold back, hinder, restrict.

His family considered he, Jesus, was out of his mind!

Today we commit such persons to psychiatric care and medication.

In a word they had come to take him to the safety of the home!

The struggle I had for many years was to allow Mary to be the woman and mother she was, rather than the woman and mother we have made her out to be.

Mary was a 1stC Jewish woman. She was not made from porcelain or ceramic.

She was not the wrinkle free ‘Virgin at Prayer’ of the artist, Giovanni Battista Salvi da Sassoferrato and others like him.

Mary, and other members of the family thought Jesus had gone mad!

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Body and Blood of Christ

Have you noticed how we use the word Amen like a liturgical full stop?

Many of our prayers, both liturgical and others, end with the word, “through Christ our Lord, AMEN”.

Quite frequently there is a physical shift and relocation – for example the community sits, and activity relocates to the ambo (that is a flash term for the lectern!)

We conclude our Prayers of the Faithful with a concluding AMEN and activity relocates to the Altar.

Frequently a liturgical doxology will conclude with the word, “Through Him, and with Him. AMEN”.

During the Rite of Communion persons approach the minister of Bread or Cup and the following interaction takes place:

“Body of Christ. AMEN”.

“Blood of Christ. AMEN”.

Technically the word AMEN has the meaning of “So be it”.

Beyoncé has a track on her album ‘Cowboy Carter’ with the title AMEN)
Amen has become a liturgical full stop.

I was once in ministry in a parish where for one old lady the full stop had been done away with – at least during the Rite of Communion.

This woman was a Māori kuia, that is an elderly woman of standing.

At the Rite of Communion this woman of age would approach the Minister of Communion and to the invocation “Body of Christ” the kuia would respond, “Nau mai”.

At the invocation, “Blood of Christ”, she would respond in a like manner, “Nau mai.”

Nau mai is a form of greeting and of welcome – as far distant from a full stop as you could possibly get!

Does the Body of Christ we know as Church resemble a full stop, or a welcome.

Body of Christ Nau mai.

Blood of Christ Nau mai.

The illustration is a painting (oil on velvet) with the title ‘Māori Elder’. The artist is Charles McPhee (1910 – 2002).

 

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Trinity Sunday

When one looks at the iconography of Christian art one becomes conscious of the abundant images used by artists to give some expression to the mystery we call the Trinity.

God the Father as an old man, God the Son as a younger man, and God the Holy Spirit as a dove.

God the Son sits at the right of God the Father, and God the Holy Spirit as a dove hovers between the two inevitably with wings outstretched.

So much for three co-equal persons? A dove?)When one looks at the iconography of Christian art one becomes conscious of the abundant images used by artists to give some expression to the mystery we call the Trinity.
God the Father as an old man, God the Son as a younger man, and God the Holy Spirit as a dove.

God the Son sits at the right of God the Father, and God the Holy Spirit as a dove hovers between the two inevitably with wings outstretched.

So much for three co-equal persons? A dove?)

Then at some point the three-leaf clover, known as the shamrock, took over from the triangle – at least the clover leaf had colour.

Each of these images however, is static.

Then, I discovered in the kitchen cupboard an oil known as 3-In-One oil. One oil performing three separate functions. The one oil lubricates, cleans, and prevents rust – functions which might well be Trinitarian.

The nuisance is the admonition to “keep out of reach of children”! Not the best idea when speaking of God!

Speaking of children, there is a toy known as a “fidget spinner.” In production since 2017, the fidget spinner is typically three-lobed and designed to spin on a central axis.

When spun with speed, the three lobes look to be one.

(insert video)

The Cappadocian Fathers of 4th century Turkey, ( St. Gregory of Nyssa, St. Gregory of Nazianzus, and St. Basil of Caesarea)  said: “Whatever is going on in God is a flow, a radical relatedness, a perfect communion between Three — a circle dance of love. And God is not just a dancer; God is the dance itself.”

“Whatever is going on in God is flow”.

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Pentecost

Imagine four people.

Each is given a large glass jar.

Each, in turn, is instructed to return one with water, one with fire, one with earth, and one with wind in their respective jars.

Two return with their jars filled; two however return with their jars empty.

You can capture earth, and you can capture water.

Fire and wind remain elusive.

Yet, these are the two images used by the author of the Acts of Apostles to describe God’s Spirit.

“When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.

“Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.

“They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.

“All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.” (Acts 2: 1 – 4)

Greek philosophy supposed the Universe to comprise four elements: Fire, Water, Earth, and Air.

These are well-known and yet unknown realities.

Of the four elements only earth has fixed shapes; and in the long run, even these shapes are not fixed (remember liquefaction?

A word that was added to many a vocabulary with the occasion of the Christchurch earthquake!)

In Hebrew and Aramaic, scholars tell us, the same word means ‘spirit’, ‘breath’, and ‘wind’. This word is “ruah”.

Fire and wind as earth elements can at times be devastating. We only need remember the horror of bush fires raging and of cyclonic winds.

I, and no doubt others, so want to tame God’s Spirit; to make this Energy acceptable!

In doing so maybe we are attempting to suck God’s life out of God!

It may be time we put our glass jar away and refrain from catching our God! The “elusive one” is not for catching!

The alternative to “catching” is “being caught”.

That is what happened that first Pentecost day – may it continue today!