The Church as Pilgrim
Church, Sacraments, and Liturgy
February 24, 2015
I am having a
difficult time reading the assignments for this week. My high school girl
friend, Anne, is paralyzed from her nose down to her toes. She communicates
with her eyes and the use of an alphabet chart. She can hear and is cognitively
functional. The medical experts have explored diagnoses of myasthenia gravis
and botulism following a trip she took to Brazil to visit John of God, a
spiritual healer of whom I am not aware. I have since researched his “ministry”
and am confounded by the thought that my friend travelled so far to have been
struck with some unknown illness that has rendered her immobile. I am
questioning God’s relationship with the world and his creation. I believed that
God is all-powerful, all knowing and all loving. I am no longer sure that “He”
is all-powerful. It is more important right now for me to believe that God is
with us in our suffering; Jesus did not pull Himself down from the cross. There
are circumstances that happen in life that are not understandable. I am drawn
to the little girl asking Pope Francis to explain why there is suffering among
the most vulnerable in the world. I believe that God created all with the
desire for Him. I accept that I need God in my life. Now I wonder if God needs me/us.
Thinking about whether God needs me changes my relationship with Him. Will the
Kingdom of God only be realized when we all acknowledge that God needs us? Is
that the only way the Kingdom is realized? Is God the most vulnerable speck on
Earth that needs to be held and nurtured? Is the most vulnerable the most
powerful? Is that what the paradigm shift of thinking of the first shall be
last and the last shall be first about? Will the Body of Christ ever be whole
until all care and nurture and “sync” their prayers and actions with the
feelings and life situations of others who hold the divine within (Sockey, 98)?
Sockey writes that “[w]e are to be spiritually bonded to one another, with
Christ as our head” (99). Our prayer and Samaritan actions bond with that of
others to communicate the hope and trust reflected in the Christian Church that
nothing else matters once we believe that “God created us. He redeemed us. He
promises eternal life” (Sockey 99).
Persevering in
faith in the midst of suffering is an intellectual challenge. With the grace of
God, I ask that my intellect rest, suspend reality and embrace the mystery of
my catholic life through hope and trust in God’s mercy and love of His
creation.
Laura,
ReplyDeleteFrom a sermon I recently wrote on Mark 1:21-28. It's a bit lengthy, but I hope it gives some meaning to you in this difficult time.
Rev. Doctor William Willimon, an American theologian and bishop in the United Methodist Church tells this story. After his son died when his car plummeted into Boston Harbor, the great preacher William Sloane Coffin preached his most memorable sermon in which he said: When a person dies, there are many things that can be said, and at least one thing that should never be said. The night after Alex died; a woman came by carrying quiches. She shook her head, saying sadly, “I just don’t understand the will of God.” Instantly Rev. Coffin swarmed all over her. “I’ll say you don’t understand, lady! Do you think it was the will of God that Alex never fixed that lousy windshield wiper, that he was probably driving too fast in a storm? Do you think it is God’s will that there are no streetlights along that stretch of road?”
Rev. Coffin went on to say that “nothing so infuriates me as the incapacity of intelligent people to get it through their heads that God doesn’t go around with his finger on triggers, his fist around knives, his hands on steering wheels. God is dead set against all unnatural deaths and people beset by illness. The one thing that should never be said when someone dies or is struck by a debilitating disease is, “It is the will of God. My own consolation lies in knowing that it was not the will of God that Alex died; but when the waves closed over the sinking car, God’s heart was the first of all our hearts to break.”
We are finite, mortal creatures. And when we hurt, we weep. Our hearts break. You should never love anything, much less anyone, if you’re not prepared to risk the pain of loss. So to say “God loves” is also to claim that God risks loving us and therefore must weep over our losses, because those losses are God’s too. Where was God when Alex died? Well, where was God when Alex was born? Where was God each step of Alex’s life? There, with Alex, in love.
How do we know this? If the greatest of minds have pondered the “Why, God?” and have come up short, how could we know this? We know it through gospel stories like the one today where Jesus enters into human life, showing up at worship where people bring their burdens and confusion and cares. We know it because God shows up in the person of Jesus to bring healing to a man possessed. We know it through our own experience even if that healing never occurs.
When we suffer, we want to get out of it and away from it as soon as we can. Jesus indicates that God is different from us in that God seems to seek out the sufferers. God tends to wade into the suffering of others and suffer himself. That is very good news indeed. For it means that when we suffer, God suffers with us. When we cry out, “My God, why have you forsaken me?” it’s there, right there, we see God with us.
Where is God? Where there are crosses, where there are burdens, where there is pain and suffering, there is God. God didn’t stay trapped in heavenly glory but rather in the person of Jesus came and confronted and squared off with the worst evil the world could give. He did this for us and he continues to do this for us, to be with us. Author Tim Keller wrote, “Suffering is unbearable if you aren’t certain that God is for you and with you.” In our times of suffering, our faith should always remind us that God does indeed show up.
From one human being to another, I love you and pray that God stays with you during this time of trial and suffering. -Glen