Category Archives: Essays

Translations Linguistics and Hermeneutics

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Today we explore the effects of translations, linguistics and hermeneutics have on our human condition which we will call our psychological well-being, as well as on our God given divine nature. Before we get started, let’s agree that this is an exploration of discovery, not a treatise on the truth. As created creatures we can only hear the truth, we cannot speak the truth. The truth is the word of God spoken to our ancestors since the beginning of time and made known to us by Christ Jesus presence among us and the Spirit He left with us. We can, however, discern, contemplate, and understand through the powers given to us this simple idea: if we choose our words carefully they can point to the truth.

By all accounts, the New Testament is a translation of the original scriptures which was then translated into  modern languages. Each of these translations tried to capture the original meaning and intention of our Triune God’s words. The same can be said about the Old Testament. However, the Old Testament was written in Hebrew or Aramaic. Now that Israel has resurrected Hebrew and made it their national language, along with all the contemporary discoveries in the Caves of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls, some of today’s Old Testament appears very close to the original writings. Still, there is the struggle to translate the Hebrew into todays’ languages. So, linguistics certainly plays a pivotal role as we work to understand the Bible.

More important than the words we use is the interpretation we apply to those words and phrases. More than read the Bible, we study the meaning of the Bible to discover the timeless truths ever present in the pages. This is what scholars call hermeneutics, which are the principals and standard used to interpret the original content. The practical application of this process is called exegesis, extracting the original content from the context in order to understand the original meaning.

One other point I would like the reader to consider, is the lens we are looking through as we read the Bible. If we are skeptics, we may be reading the Bible to find out what’s wrong with it. Perhaps our doubts and questions may hinder an honest examination. If we are believers, whether we are Catholics, Protestants, or any other contemporary Christians, this will influence our interpretation because of our background and what we consider accepted knowledge.

There is also an overarching aspect which in my opinion does not get enough attention. As Jesus told Peter, you are thinking as man thinks, not as God thinks. This idea broadcasts itself into our own world view, which is to say, the working model we use to understand and explain our world and how we see ourselves in it. So, like Peter, are we looking for definitive answers? Is clarity a priority? Does our narrative need to be like a documentary, portraying science, and evidence as key components? Or have we put knowing the Triune God rightly ahead of knowing about the Triune God?

I can say with a great deal of confidence, that there are many facets in anyone’s world view. However, the Bible seems to point to an even bigger idea, one that incorporates the concept of this and that and this also. More than the definition and description we get from reading Holy Scripture, there is also the experience. Just as a good novel can transport the reader into another world, so too, with each reading of Scripture we may be transported into a different realm of understanding . Many say this is the mystery of the Bible, that on each reading something different is experienced. That the words seem to come alive, teaching, comforting, and presenting a vision. A vision which is written in our hearts, yet we experience it as if it were just discovered.

Instinctively, we all realize no one is so compartmentalized that they can simply switch seamlessly from one world view to another, or accurately depict and describe each facet within a world view. Everyone brings their own subjective bias with them wherever they go, which is a good thing, something we might call character, personality, or temperament. What I am suggesting is we might combine linguistics, hermeneutics, and the experience of the Bible into a different way of experiencing the Bible. We might actively move the emphasis away from the human condition with its psychological complications and complexities, more toward our spiritual nature with its abstractions and reflections. So, to this end, I would like you to consider several words and phrases which might help us reach a more metaphysical experience. Again, rest assured, I am not trying or suggesting changing the Bible, I am as Matthew Kelly so famously said, rediscovering the Bible.

One more lead in thought, I am relying on a model. Think of it as a construct, a way of storing, organizing, and presenting my thoughts. Everyone has one and uses it, consciously or unconsciously; we have a world view which works for each of us. We have a model because we need a model, it’s an underlying principle. The big picture model for me is form and content. I think definition and description reflect the formative and experience reflects the transformative, which can be seen as the worldly and the divine. As I have said many times, if my model is mostly complete, working as it should, then I will be able to assimilate content from other models into mine, given the content is reflective of ideas which point to our Lord and God. For me, dialogue should be a give and take about a form and about shared content, without passing judgement on who is right or wrong. Growth is the expansion of an individual’s model, making it more complete, cohesive, and understandable in everyday language. Inconsistencies can always be identified and corrected enriching everyone’s experience, unifying and nurturing all those participating in the arena; we might call this evangelization.   

Rather than start with an exercise on definition and description, I would like to begin with a practical example. From the Collect of October 26, 2020 we read: “Almighty ever-living God, increase our faith, hope and charity, and make us love what you command, so that we may merit what you promise.” Moving the focus from the words which seem to indicate an appeal to the worldly as we ask God to “make us” do something so we might be good enough for what He promises. I suggest, we focus on our own internal disposition so we will be ready to accept His words, gifts, and promises. The interpretation of the reading for this purpose could read as follows: Almighty ever-living God, increase our faith, hope and charity, and lead us in love to your commandments, so that we may remain grateful and thankful for your promises.

Now, what follows is an explanation of words and phrases which might help the reader move more smoothly away from the definitive and more focused on the infinite.

Let’s consider the word reward. Everyday language tells us, a reward is something given in return for performing an action. This is the standard idea of cause and effect. In theology the merit promised by God is a reward because the human being is physically free either to resist or co-operate with divine grace. Even in the theological sense, I see the cause and effect; make the right choice and get something in return. Perhaps there is a third way to interpret the word reward. Christ Jesus makes it quite clear we can’t earn our way into heaven. St. Paul and St. James certainly preached this principal. So, if we can’t earn our way to heaven, then going to heaven isn’t really a reward. Thinking or considering going to heaven as a reward sets up the  cause-and-effect structure within our psychological human condition. As theology tells us, this can be a good thing because in our human condition we want to have the right disposition, which is being in the right frame of mind to see, accept and receive God’s grace. At the same time, thinking of your actions for your own designated result puts you in the equation, and limits the effectiveness of the Holy Spirit by confining the Spirit to the limits of your imagination or your envisioned ideals based on your worldly experience. If you want something you’ve never had, you have to do something you’ve never done. What would this third way of interpreting to word reward look like?

Let’s consider going to heaven not as a reward, but as a benefit. We are all God’s children; He is our inheritance. By virtue of our very existence, we are all pre-destined to go to heaven. None of us know how He will get us there, but all of us are going with Him anyway. St. Augustine said, “God loves each of us as if we were the only one to love.” Clearly this is how we are all equal in the eyes of the Lord, however, not all equal in the worldly realm of people and ideas. We all have the same opportunity, a free will choice to be His followers and believers, or we can write our own script. So, think of our benefit of going to heaven in terms of working for a large corporation. We all work in the same building. We all have access to the same insurance plan. We can participate in the 401-K retirement strategy if we choose. We all get the same paid holidays. Obviously, we don’t have the same job, make the same salary, or command the same prestige, we do share the same benefits.

Again, we have been told and taught time and time again, you can’t earn your way to heaven. So, in a world of everyday deeds, there are none of them which propel us to His heavenly realm. It is our disposition to receive God’s grace, and by His mercy in the face of our failures, we follow Him into His heavenly realm. Having this idea in our model, the reciprocal also holds. We do not sin our way into Hell. We don’t invoke God’s wrath for our sins any more than we invoke God’s grace for our support of the Church, which are our good deeds. We are not punished for our transgressions. Certainly, our sins and transgressions lead us away from right worship, away from a well-formed conscience, and away from the internal disposition to accept God’s love.  The Lord is more than ready to forgive us, we are the ones who condemn ourselves. Jesus said all souls can be forgiven, the only sin which will not be forgiven, is the sin against the Holy Spirit. In the hour of our death the Lord will come to us, just as the moment of our acceptance we receive the gift of grace, the glory of goodness, and redemption through mercy, we can also be the one who denies the Spirit and refuses the gifts.

Conventional wisdom, Holy Scripture both old and new, and a barrel of commentary ink, tell us we should seek the Lord. Rightfully so, we should turn our attention to the Lord, to actively seek Him, and to improve ourselves. All of this strengthens our psychological well-being, helps fine tune our philosophical world view, and aligns our disposition toward His graciousness. However, this is not the pathway to the Lord, it is simply the on ramp to the pathway. This seeking is a conventional exercise which emphasizes the importance of our own disposition. By applying ourselves to a purposeful enquiry, by spending time in prayer and contemplation, we open ourselves to the Lord and the gifts He brings. Charisms are gifts given to the Church through individuals who have received them realizing they aren’t theirs to keep until they have been given away. So, what does our model tell us? We can’t seek a gift, we can’t find a gift, we can only receive a gift. It’s not our pursuits which brings the gifts, indeed in some instances our own efforts impede the process by demanding the Lord gift us in ways we can understand, instead of us discovering the impossible. Seek and you shall receive is a glimpse of the worldly, not an insight into the divine. What we think we know can ruin what we don’t know. We seek God not to find Him, rather to receive Him.

Most people are looking for definitive answers. Two choices are always nice, it’s either one or the other. One problem with this type of thinking is it leads to fundamentalism, which is one view from one perspective, and not much room for growth. Another problem is from the outset there isn’t much room for imagination or new ideas or a general openness to any other possibilities. Finally, I would also like to suggest, this “one or the other” approach, is all too ready to accept what seems to be obvious, what tends to support common clichés, and dismisses in-depth questioning as irrelevant.

So, common knowledge tells us, it’s either love or hate; not so. You are no more born with hate than you are with racism. Both ideas are emulated from the societies in which we live. If you as the reader want to use this either-or approach, ask yourself, why would you hate anyone? The word of the Lord is written on our hearts and this word is love, why would you make room for hate? I suggest when you read the word “hate” in scripture you interpret it as “love less”.  Consider this, it’s not love or hate, it’s love or fear. You don’t hate the other person; you are afraid of the other. You are afraid of what they might do and more importantly, you are afraid of what you might have to do, because of their actions.

We can examine these worldly concepts in terms of the infinite because there is a finite aspect of God, which exists in this distinctive reality He created. Why finite: because God cannot deny Himself, by His own Nature and through His worldly creation, He is God. God cannot be evil. Evil is the absence of God. God cannot sin, sin is turning away from God; God cannot turn away from Himself. God cannot lie. There are no circumstances, no contingencies in which God would misdirect or misinform us for our own good. God cannot punish. He can cure and heal, He can re-align, He can rehabilitate, He can discipline but He cannot punish. In our worldly view we may see what is unfolding as punishment, however, seen as justice points to the truth. I think what commentary has tried to do over millennium, and rightfully so, is to tie the worldly to the transcendent in order to present a more homogeneous view of man in his man kindness. However, this can have the effect of deluding both the formative and transformative. I am suggesting a cleaner separation done at our and for our convenience, so a closer examination is possible. Just as we discussed the word reward, the word wrath should get the same consideration. Biblically, we can see wrath as His love for us made manifest through our sin, however, for me this becomes a rationale not the truth. Again, God is beyond our world view, however, our world view should be consistent with an expression of His Nature, and any world view which truly reflects God will be consistent with His Nature. Scripture tells us God’s Mercy and Justice, sun and rain, reign down on sinners and saints alike; all receive, not all accept.

Why contrast good and evil? In these terms, good is the goodness of the Lord, evil is the absence of this goodness, not the opposite of it. Why compare belief with disbelief? We as believers are confronted not with belief or disbelief, for us, it is either belief or disobedience. The foundation for this idea can be found in Genesis 3:11; “You have eaten, then, from the  tree of which I had forbidden you to eat.”

There are other words the biblical authors used to appeal to our psychological identity and to create a “need to know”. Examine the word secret. We know there are no secrets, the Lord doesn’t keep secrets. All that He is, is made known to us through His words and deeds. Our Bible is unique in all the spiritual writings in that it is a story of how God seeks us and reveals Himself to us. From the beginning of biblical times, it was God who sought out Abram, bestowed on him His blessings and sent him into the world to proclaim God to all the nations. God’s intention was never to be hidden. Examine this Entrance Antiphon. “The Lord will come and he will not delay. He will illumine what is hidden in darkness and reveal himself to all the nations.” Doesn’t this mean: The Lord will come and he will not delay. He will illuminate our world and our lives as He reveals Himself to all the nations.  

We as twenty first century believers have a broadened view of the Church as it developed over time. Through scholastic disciplines and intellectual pursuits, we can better understand our endeavor to create an internal disposition ready to receive our Lord with His gifts, blessings, and love for each of us. We acknowledge this point of view in the metaphor of looking through the incense as it rises from the altar carrying our prayers to heaven. Sweet and appealing to the senses, another facet of beauty, yet distracting and disruptive at the same time.

There are many metaphors which might come to mind and need to be explored. Consider the idea of seeing God face to face. Through all of recorded history, gods have been depicted in some physical form or another. Yet, in our heart of hearts we know God has no gender, no physical form or perhaps better said, He has any form He wills to assume. Countless persons who describe their  near-death experience report seeing a light. What’s interesting is the description of the light, its attributes, and its physical form. In my witness of my father’s particular judgement, the Lord appeared as the brilliance of a mountain of white light and I must say, I would no more look directly at it as I would stare at the sun. Doesn’t the idea of seeing God face to face simply try to capture the profound presence of the Lord, experienced in an unimaginable way?

Next, let’s consider the word sacrifice. Is sacrificial love in harmony with the teachings of the Church? Did our Lord, Jesus Christ sacrifice His life for us? Does Holy Scriptures teach us to be imitators of Christ? Are we made in His image and likeness? Certainly, we have heard the homilies, read the commentary; we hear the voice in our conscience saying it’s better to give than receive. Of all the commandments which speak to the truth, isn’t love your neighbor as you love yourself the greatest and simplest instruction on how to live with each other and in each other. As parents and children of parents, as brothers and sisters, friends, colleagues, allies, strangers on the street and souls in distress all over the world, hasn’t our sacrificial love reached out to all. The answer must certainly be, yes. And so, it is, but is it the only answer?

Bishop Barron tells us, Love is willing the good of the other for the sake of the other. He tells us, the Almighty Father doesn’t just love, He is Love. Our Father wills the very existence of the universe, with, through and in love, from second to second, in every aspect and respect. Our Father knows all, sees all, and uses all for our greater glory, for our greatest good. He knows for sure and for certain what is and what will be. So, for us, too, love is a conscious decision, a willful act, grounded in heart and mind. The difference being, we don’t know for sure and for certain what will be. Christ’s death on the Cross was a willful act with a purposeful end. He is the cause and the effect. Not so with us, we do not know the effect, cannot see the result. By thinking we can know the result, we put ourselves into the equation and have introduced the question of quality and quantity. Doesn’t this sound egocentric? Now, not only have we decided to act for the greatest good, we are also deciding on the cost and the results, something which we cannot know. However, we can apply the God standard and ask ourselves are we acting out of love, humility and appealing to everyone’s best interest and highest ideals; this we can do. We cannot sacrifice, we can make the best decision, and we can leave everything in God’s goodness. So, I suggest we think of sacrifice as an outflowing of love. Love as a stand-alone goodness and merit, detached from any considerations, calculations, or conclusions.  

G.K. Chesterton said, “Paradox is the truth standing on its head to get attention.” So, let’s admit we cannot sacrifice; we can be in this moment receiving the gift of Grace. We can remove the obstacles in our hearts and watch Christ’s goodness flow out of us into the waiting world, a world in great need. I offer you this; before we act, before we give of our time and resources, before any whisper or hint or glimmer of goodness, we receive the suffering of this world. Yes, in a world where suffering has no value, where suffering is avoided at any cost, we embrace it, we smother it, we accept it willingly and thankfully, because in the suffering lies strength. The strength and courage to lean on the Cross. The strength and courage which brings the endurance and peace at the end of the day. I’m not suggesting we suffer for ourselves, not suggesting we suffer for others and certainly not suggesting we suffer for the sake of suffering. I am suggesting where Christ gives Divine Mercy, we show self-giving love and earthly compassion. For us, as humans, we cannot sacrifice, we can show an outpouring of love.  If sacrifice is an outpouring of love for the other, then nothing is lost, and everything is gain.

So, this is what I have discovered. We are all mystics, each of us has a personal relationship with the Lord, as we come to understand He is more than our Lord. Each of us has a model we use, a world view which defines how we make our observations and draw our conclusions. Since our vision is the same, which is finding our path to Heaven, the model is less important than the vision. What is important about our model is it is consistent, without contradictions and perhaps most importantly, it will not lead us into sinful behavior and the exercise of it in our daily lives will not cause others to stumble. If these few pages were written succinctly and the reader has kept an open mind, then the conclusion should be obvious; there is no conclusion there is only constant conversion. 

In Time

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  Contemporary believers certainly realize the Bible was not written to us; it was written for us. We have never lived a sacrificial temple life, few of us have grown up on a farm and none of us are from a primarily agrarian society. So, it’s no wonder we often have difficulties drawing parallels between what was spoken thousands of years ago, to what’s happening in our modern technology driven culture and society of today.

  I would like to take a moment and unpack Mark 7:1-13, our reading from February 9th.  Jesus is talking with the Pharisees and their entourage, the skeptics in the crowd, as well as those standing in the presence of the Lord. As usual the Pharisees can’t see through their human condition, what they called the traditions of the elders. Jesus, on the other hand, sees through their world view straight to the heart of the matter. He invokes Isaiah as He warns them against putting themselves ahead of God as they teach their “human precepts” as if they were God’s doctrine. Jesus clearly tells them, “You disregard God’s commandment but cling to human tradition.” A clear result of the ‘fall’ as witnessed in His time and in the tragedy of today’s society where the priorities of God, family, community, and career has been replaced with what is simply good for me is the best there is. The parallel can be drawn from the central idea of how the first century Jews neglected their responsibilities to their parents by shifting the support to some greater good. This same example can be seen in our societies today, as parents are warehoused in facilities for their own good, as the children who are parents of children attend to more important duties. This is just one facet of a multidimensional dilemma. As Jesus said Himself, “And you do many such things.”

  Today’s consequence of this ‘me first’ world view and those who have succumb and subscribe to it, is a world where individuals have garnished for themselves huge quantities of money, their god, literally tens of billions, and in some cases hundreds of billions of dollars. They have extracted this money from our economy while others languish in sorrow and poverty. Jesus’ contemporary example of how the inconsistencies of the human condition, what He referred to as the traditions of their time, distorted and deluded the divine Word of God given to the peoples and more particularly, the Jews of the time. He was showing them how the written words of God, delivered to them through Moses as the Ten Commandments, were corrupted by man as they created the god man made. We too, in our ego driven world have created many gods for our own gain. Is it any wonder Albert Einstein made the astute observation that the most powerful force in the universe is “compound interest.” This simple logic leads me to believe, that things will get worse before they get worse. At least the pagan of biblical times put their gods before themselves, not so in our times, nothing is more important than what is convenient at the moment, not even life itself.

  Perhaps we should consider Jesus’ example of how the first century Zionist skirted the duties to their parents under the watchful and approving eye of the powers in charge. This surely is an example they could recognize since it was being lived out in their time and place. We, as twenty-first century Christians understand that Christ Jesus was not bound by time or space. The very notion that He died for our sins is not a rhetorical statement or a symbolic feel-good idea. For Him, everything which had ever happened, everything which was happening, everything that would ever happen, and everything that would never happen, was all happening at the same time. He could see in each of us, the thoughtless sins of our youth, the manipulations and ambitious jousting as we positioned ourselves for personal profits, the transgressions great and small which turned us away from right worship interrupting the free flow of His grace. We know He spoke those words to the Pharisees so long ago, but perhaps what was breaking His heart were the words written in our time. Just maybe He was seeing how we put ourselves ahead of God, just as Adam and Eve had done, just as the Pharisees were doing. Just maybe, He was reading the words of our Supreme Court, which are “At the heart of liberty is the right to define one’s own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life.” We know He was speaking to the Pharisees in ways they could understand just as He is speaking to us in ways we can understand.

Beyond World View Revisited

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                                                               Beyond World View Revisited

God reveals Himself to us in ways we can understand.  If you accept God’s Mercy, you won’t have to worry about His Justice. These might seem like incompatible statements, unrelated and disjointed, however, look closely.

It is true now, as it was for the Old Testament congregations. Much of what the prophets, rabbis, and priest taught, inspired by the Holy Spirit, was centered on projecting the peoples’ humanity onto God’s divinity. What was said was filtered through their worldly experiences, tailored for cause and effect, and like the parables in the New Testament, the analogies and metaphors used were directed at the audiences of their times. Today we might see these projections, these points of views as models, one being our created nature or one being our human condition. It might make sense to you to look at your own world view through lenses, one being spiritual or one being psychological. Obviously, there is an endless combination of faceted views, what we might call our “world view” uniting emotion, reason, logic, moral principles, experience, personal commitment, and my all-time ego driven favorite, fulfilling my wants and desires which I think will lead me to a rich and rewarding life. If the underlying objective is to have a rich and rewarding life, and I think it is, then we should consider the paradox of beginning from different points of view, taking different paths, and ending up in the same place. So, how does this idea broadcast itself into our lives. Is it true, that everything we do is a prelude into a deeper and more meaningful faith?  

Believing the Old Testament commandments were written on stone for the sake of God’s new nation and Christ Jesus’ New Testament teachings were drawn out of our hearts for the sake of His Father’s Kingdom. What follows is one of those paths to a rich and rewarding life beginning in our human condition and striding into our created nature.

I believe, catechesis comes first, and evangelization follows. I am referencing my own world view, which directs me to know God in a devotional way, accept His teachings, and follow the path He has for me, so I might spread His word in an inspirational way to others as they journey along their path. The cliché tells us we can’t give away what we don’t have. One step further tells me I can’t keep what He has given me until I give it away. So, you see that knowing Him is more important than knowing about Him, on the other hand, knowing about Him can lead to a deeper way of knowing Him. Let’s consider what we know.

Scripture teaches in Timothy, “If you are unfaithful to God, God remains faithful to you, because God cannot deny Himself.” This leads me to the simple notion that God has a nature in His divinity and a condition in His manifestation in this distinctive reality He created. Using definition, description and experience as a guide going forward, let’s look at God as both infinite and finite.

The definition begins simply by saying, I am man, my name is A. J. He is God, His name is Lord God. The definition quickly blends into the description, by acknowledging God as creator, by His word, He said what would be and it was. By divine and worldly attributes, we piece together a definition and description which leads us to knowing more about God, so we can better know God. We come to know that God is all powerful, there is nothing in His creation which is beyond His command. There is nothing in our lives He cannot do for us; nothing lies outside the parameters of His miracles. We understand He is not in His creation; He is the Creator not a player. We see His reflection in everything there is, however, said another way, He is not these things, He made these things. Now that we have made the observations and drawn the conclusions, we can appreciate many different levels of cognition, information, and knowledge,  coming to know more about God. It should be said at this point, that yes, Jesus did come into this world, it’s true. However, He was in the world, not of it. We, as created creatures, are both of the world as an assembly of contingencies, and in the world as an expression of His divinity, which is the plan and purpose He has for us. Understanding the definition and description as foundational and formational, we are better equipped to experience the experience of knowing God.

Let’s pause here for a moment. If we are considering knowing God as an experience, then our world view of knowing about God, by necessity should be big enough to include and contain any creditably faceted world view which truly reflects God. If knowing God is based on, yet beyond, any such world view, then,  through prayer, meditation, discernment, and contemplation any particular world view will be able to be assimilated or perhaps better said, be absorbed into our world view. I offer you this, as that foundational world view. God cannot create a God greater that Himself.  This is a rhetorical statement which does not point to any limitation of God, it actually points to His majesty. There is nothing greater than God, He is greater than the sum of infinity; there is not a condition where there is God and something more. Could God create a rock so heavy He could not pick it up?  Of course not, again another rhetorical statement, not limiting God but demonstrating His authority and command over all of His creation. However, there is a finite aspect of God, which is in this distinctive reality He created. Why finite: because God cannot deny Himself, by His own Nature and through His own creation, He is God. God cannot be evil. Evil is the absence of God. God cannot sin, sin is turning away from God; God cannot turn away from Himself. God cannot lie. There are no circumstances, no contingencies in which God would misdirect or misinform us for our own good. God cannot punish. He can cure and heal, He can re-align, He can rehabilitate, He can discipline but He cannot punish. Again, God is beyond our world view, however, our world view should be consistent with an expression of His Nature, and any world view which truly reflects God will be consistent with His Nature. Scripture tells us, God’s Mercy and Justice, sun and rain, reign down on sinners and saints alike; all receive, not all accept.

Let’s continue the description of this broad-based world view by considering scripture again. In Exodus 34: 6-7, we see God passing in front of Moses, describing Himself as He proclaims, “The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.” This passage establishes God, in His own words, by name and identity. The Nation of Israel reflects the Old Testament, and in the emerging Greek world the theology, philosophy, spirituality, and psychology are bound together in an apparently seamless system. For the Greeks, philosophy was a way of life. For the Jews, theology was the center, and all worldly endeavors were products of this central theme. This mind set allows a free interchange between the man God made and the God man made. Mysticism and spirituality co-exist and compliment the psychological world view, philosophy, history, and natural sciences of the era. On the surface, this homogeneous model satisfies both knowing about God and knowing God. However, it does force fit God into the worldly mind set of the times, and limits God to the often-demeaning confines of man’s imagination. It’s no wonder Jesus admonishes Peter, telling him he is thinking as man would think, not as God thinks. And again, in Job, we see God being all virtues, and all virtues being God in His singularity. In the same manner as God is in all places and in all times at the same time, whereas man is witnessing each virtue and each place in his own time seen through man’s plurality. Exodus continues by describing many of the magnificent virtues of God, along with a warning targeted at the psychological world view of man, that man should be careful, as with all fathers, God has a limit to His patience and His anger will eventually be provoked. Again, blending this homogeneous model into man’s understanding of how God might appeal to man in a way man could comprehend. And to this point, “might” for man in his humanity means, could be; whereas God’s “might” is for sure and for certain.

Now, considering Exodus again, let’s unpack the troublesome phrase, “Yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished.”  On first reading it appears God will do the punishing. However, on closer examination we find, it is God who allows the iniquity of the father to be visited on the children and grandchildren, it is not God’s punishment, it is the consequences of the father’s bad behavior. Furthermore, these consequences, these reflections of wrong worship, this turning away from God is “visited” on the children, implying a coming and going. It’s not a curse, not an affliction or punishment from God. We see in Kings, that some sons recognized the dilemmas created and perpetrated on the Nation of Israel by their fathers and turned away from their father’s wicked ways, while others influenced and guided by these travesties acted worse than their fathers. For me, this is nothing more than the calamities of original sin, the reflection of the fall permeating into the lives of the present. There are many discussions which follows from and through this train of thought. One being the sins we contract and the sins we commit. One being the power of prayer and how it is elemental to life on the earth. There are visions of hope, founded on love and trust, as well as heart break in a seemingly endless maze of confusion in an ego driven world.

If you, the reader, can agree that we are not the early first century Zionist waiting for the coming of our Lord and there is a world view which does incorporate knowing God as we journey from the formative to the transformative, that we can truly bring definition and description into the realm of experience, then the next best question is why and how are we different from these early Zionists? The answer is transubstantiation. Now I’m sure you realize that if my model is a good one, and it is working the way it should, then there is more than one good answer. After all good questions make better answers than good answers make. So, let’s look at one facet, transubstantiation.

The Church knows that nothing says formative to transformative better than transubstantiation. The mystery of bread and wine turning into the body and blood has baffled and delighted Christian since the Passover Night on the eve of His Passion. Certainly, the real presence of Christ Jesus is the sum and summit of the Church, the pillar and foundation, the beginning and the end, along with many other definitions and descriptions. I am suggesting this is all that needs to be said, and that there is something more to be said. Christ Jesus not only changes the bread and wine, He changes everything. He entered the world, and nothing will ever be the same. Consider the formative aspects of the Mass. We hear His words as the Lector reads scripture. We see the Host as the priest raises Christ before the congregation. We reach out and touch Christ as the Eucharistic Minister places our Lord in our hands. Now think about this, there are several inert gases, such as, helium, argon, and neon to name a few, which do not combine with any other element. It’s possible that at any given moment we are actually breathing the same elements, the exact same elements which passed through Christ Jesus’ lungs. He entered the world and changed everything. His transfiguration put an end to the discussion concerning the immortality of the soul, a heavenly realm of resurrected bodies and the covenant relationship of the Father with the Son and the faithfulness of the Trinity and the created creatures. He was baptized in the Jordan River not only showing us the model, procedure, and purpose of baptism, also changing the water in the river forever more into Holy Water, forever changed. He died on the Cross for all of mankind, so that we could live in a new world, one where Justice has been and is forever served. This is more than a sum zero equation. It is an acquittal not a pardon; there are no equal parts, because there are no parts. This answers the “why” we are different than the early Zionists, now we look at the “how”.

We have the benefit of 2000 years plowing the same field. The early patriarchs of the Church, through their inspirational and devotional genius paved the way for countless saints, fathers, and doctors of the Church to lead us into the shadow of His providence. We draw strength from the blood of the martyrs; we rest in the loving arms of our Holy Mother, and we rejoice in the sacraments of Church life.  And more, we are children in the twenty first century, seekers looking beyond our world view and praying in unison with the billions of Catholics who have come before us. We separate our fields of study into disciplines each with their own definitions and descriptions within their areas of concern. We have united these disciplines into spheres encompassing far ranging influences so we can correlate geography and topography with anthropology, history, and theology in order to better understand the evolving mind of man. We have more than shifted the paradigm, more than arranged the elements or reconfigured the components. We introduced new ingredients, trumpeted new discoveries, changed the ways information is gathered and stored, and then theorized how things really are based on new observations and conclusions. In some cases, the words we commonly use can’t describe what we have found, so we have invented new words to better capture what we now know. In some cases, the words we choose can be a trigger to shift our minds from how we used to think, into what we now consider plausible, creditable, helpful, advantageous, and even inspiring. All of these formative elements are only precursors to our Lord God, who always was, who is and who will forever be. It is in the eternal now we find ourselves living in the presence of the Lord. In this moment there is no separation of the formative and transformative, any more than there is any difference between intuition and self-realization. In this moment, our lives become His plan and purpose for us beyond our own world view. Our life becomes authentic, we look beyond our unique life history, into our unique life experiences. These experiences lead us out of the world around us and into a world of empathy and sympathy. In this moment, the door opens in our minds, we understand what St. Augustine meant when he said,” God loves each one of us as if there were only one of us to love.” Is it any wonder, in the stillness of the moment or the clamor of the world, that God’s message and His mercy are given to us an undeniable expression of what we need to hear, clear and truthful? This is God telling us what we can understand and inspiring us to a deeper understanding , at least pointing us in a different direction, prompting us to ask questions and seek His answers.

I asked, you the reader, how this idea broadcasts itself into our lives and is it true, that everything we do is a prelude into a deeper and more meaningful faith? In part, I suggest this as an answer. We accept. We accept we are created creatures. We accept He has predestined our journey into His Kingdom. We accept we don’t know how He will get us there, but we are going with Him anyway. We accept, it is not our place to judge ourselves or others. It is not a matter of what is right or wrong, what is beautiful, good, or true; it is a matter of what is complete or incomplete. It is up to each of us to examine our model, our world view and ask is it consistent with healthy psychology and solid philosophy and with the gifts and blessings given to us through His Grace and Goodness. It is up to me to ask my neighbor if his world view is consistent in the same manner, complete in a healthy psychological way and consistent with the teachings of Christ Jesus. I am not suggesting we should be tolerant, I am suggesting we should be respectful realizing everything we have done is preparing us for everything unfolding in our lives just as everything our neighbor is doing is another step in his journey into a deeper and more meaningful way of knowing God.

Modeling the formative to the transformative, using definition and description as the formative and experience as the transformative, leads me to this conclusion; God’s love is like light passing through a prism….what we see on the other side is mercy, compassion, kindness, all the goodness of all the virtues….yet it is still love…just as the colors through the prism is still light…. Blessings for all of us   AJ

Beyond World View

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God reveals Himself to us in ways we can understand.  If you accept God’s Mercy, you won’t have to worry about His Justice. These might seem like incompatible statements, unrelated and disjointed, however, look closely.

This is true now, as it was for the Old Testament congregations. Much of what the prophets taught was centered on projecting the peoples’ humanity onto God’s divinity. What was said was filtered through their worldly experiences, tailored for cause and effect, and like the parables in the New Testament, the analogies and metaphors used were directed at the first century audiences. Today we might see these two statements as models, one being our human condition, or one being our created nature. It might make sense to you to look at your world view through lenses, one being spiritual or one being psychological. Obviously, there is an endless combination of faceted views, what we might call our “world view” uniting emotion, reason, logic, moral principles, experience, personal commitment, and my all-time ego driven favorite, fulfilling my wants and desires which I think will lead me to a rich and rewarding life. If the underlying objective is to have a rich and rewarding life, and I think it is, then we should consider the paradox of beginning from different points of view, taking different paths, and ending up in the same place.  

I believe, catechesis comes first, and evangelization follows. I am referencing my own world view, which directs me to know God in a devotional way, accept His teachings, and follow the path He has for me, so I might spread His word in an inspirational way to others, as they journey along their path. The cliché tells us we can’t give away what we don’t have. One step further tells me I can’t keep what He has given me until I give it away. So, you see that knowing Him is more important than knowing about Him, on the other hand, knowing about Him can lead to a deeper way of knowing Him. Let’s consider what we know.

Scripture teaches in Timothy, “If you are unfaithful to God, God remains faithful to you, because God cannot deny Himself.” This leads me to the simple notion that God has a nature in His divinity and a condition in His manifestation in this distinctive reality He created. Using definition, description and experience as a guide going forward, let’s look at God as both infinite and finite.

The definition begins simply by saying, I am man, my name is A. J. He is God, His name is Lord God. The definition quickly blends into the description, by acknowledging God as creator, by His word, He said what would be and it was. By divine and worldly attributes, we piece together a definition and description which leads us to knowing more about God, so we can better know God. We come to know that God is all powerful, there is nothing in His creation which is beyond His command. There is nothing in our lives He cannot do for us; nothing lies outside the parameters of His miracles. We understand He is not in His creation; He is the Creator not a player. We see His reflection in everything there is, however, said another way, He is not these things, He made these things. Now that we have made the observations and drawn the conclusions, we can appreciate many different levels of cognition, information, and knowledge,  coming to know more about God. It should be said at this point, that yes, Jesus did come into this world, it’s true. However, He was in the world, not of it. We, as created creatures, are both of the world as an assembly of contingencies, and in the world as an expression of His divinity, which is the plan and purpose He has for us. Understanding the definition and description as foundational and formational, we are better equipped to experience the experience of knowing God.

Let’s pause here for a moment. If we are considering knowing God as an experience, then our world view of knowing about God, by necessity should be big enough to include and contain any creditably faceted world view which truly reflects God. If knowing God is based on, yet beyond, any such world view, then,  through prayer, meditation, discernment, and contemplation any particular world view will be able to be assimilated or perhaps better said, be absorbed into our world view. I offer you this, as that foundational world view. God cannot create a God greater that Himself.  This is a rhetorical statement which does not point to any limitation of God, it actually points to His majesty. There is nothing greater than God, He is greater than the sum of infinity; there is not a condition where there is God and something more. Could God create a rock so heavy He could not pick it up?  Of course not, again another rhetorical statement, not limiting God but demonstrating His authority and command over all of His creation. However, there is a finite aspect of God, which is in this distinctive reality He created. Why finite: because God cannot deny Himself, by His own Nature and through His own creation, He is God. God cannot be evil. Evil is the absence of God. God cannot sin, sin is turning away from God; God cannot turn away from Himself. God cannot lie. There are no circumstances, no contingencies in which God would misdirect or misinform us for our own good. God cannot punish. He can cure and heal, He can re-align, He can rehabilitate, He can discipline but He cannot punish. Again, God is beyond our world view, however, our world view should be consistent with an expression of His Nature, and any world view which truly reflects God will be consistent with His Nature. Scripture tells us, God’s Mercy and Justice, sun and rain, reign down on sinners and saints alike; all receive, not all accept.

Let’s continue the description of this broad-based world view by considering scripture again. In Exodus 34: 6-7, we see God passing in front of Moses, describing Himself as He proclaims, “The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.” This passage establishes God, in His own words, by name and identity. The Nation of Israel reflects the Old Testament, and in the emerging Greek world the theology, philosophy, spirituality, and psychology are bound together in an apparently seamless system. For the Greeks, philosophy was a way of life. For the Jews, theology was the center and all worldly endeavors were products of this central theme. This mind set allows a free interchange between the man God made and the God man made. Mysticism and spirituality co-exist and compliment the psychological world view, philosophy, history, and natural sciences of the era. On the surface, this homogeneous model satisfies both knowing about God and knowing God. However, it does force fit God into the worldly mind set of the times, and limits God to the often-demeaning confines of man’s imagination. It’s no wonder Jesus admonishes Peter, telling him he is thinking as man would think, not as God thinks. And again, in Job, we see God being all virtues and all virtues being God in His singularity. In the same manner as God is in all places and in all times at the same time, whereas man is witnessing each virtue and each place in his own time seen through man’s plurality. This passage continues by describing many of the magnificent virtues of God, along with a warning targeted at the psychological world view of man, that man should be careful, as with all fathers, God has a limit to His patience and His anger will eventually be provoked. Again, blending this homogeneous model into man’s understanding of how God might appeal to man in a way man could comprehend. And to this point, “might” for man in his humanity means, could be; whereas God’s “might” is for sure and for certain.

Now, let’s unpack the troublesome phrase, “Yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished.”  On first reading it appears God will do the punishing. However, on closer examination we find, it is God who allows the iniquity of the father to be visited on the children and grandchildren, it is not God’s punishment, it is the consequences of the father’s bad behavior. Furthermore, these consequences, these reflections of wrong worship, this turning away from God is “visited” on the children, implying a coming and going. It’s not a curse, not an affliction or punishment from God. We see in Kings, that some sons recognized the dilemmas created and perpetrated on the Nation of Israel by their fathers and turned away from their father’s wicked ways, while others influenced and guided by these travesties acted worse than their fathers. For me this is nothing more than the calamities of original sin, the reflection of the fall permeating into the lives of the present. There are many discussions which follows from and through this train of thought. One being the sins we contract and the sins we commit. One being the power of prayer and how it is elemental to life on the earth. There are visions of hope, founded on love and trust, as well as, heart break in a seemingly endless maze of confusion in an ego driven world.

If you, the reader, can agree that we are not the early first century Zionist waiting for the coming of our Lord and there is a world view which does incorporate knowing God as we journey from the formative to the transformative, that we can truly bring definition and description into the realm of experience, then the next best question is why and how are we different from these early Zionists? The answer is transubstantiation. Now I’m sure you realize that if my model is a good one, and it is working the way it should, then there is more than one good answer. After all good questions make better answers than good answers make. So, let’s look at one facet, transubstantiation.

The Church knows that nothing says formative to transformative better than transubstantiation. The mystery of bread and wine turning into the body and blood has baffled and delighted Christian since the Passover Night on the eve of His Passion. Certainly, the real presence of Christ Jesus is the sum and summit of the Church, the pillar and foundation, the beginning and the end, along with a host of other definitions and descriptions. I am suggesting this is all that needs to be said, and that there is something more to be said. Christ Jesus not only changes the bread and wine, He changes everything. He entered the world, and nothing will ever be the same. Consider the formative aspects of the Mass. We hear His words as the Lector reads scripture. We see the Host as the priest raises Christ before the congregation. We reach out and touch Christ as the Eucharistic Minister places our Lord in our hands. Now think about this, there are several inert gases, such as, helium, argon, and neon to name a few, which do not combine with any other element. It’s possible that at any given moment we are actually breathing the same elements, the exact same elements which passed through Christ Jesus’ lungs. He entered the world and changed everything. His transfiguration put an end to the discussion concerning the immortality of the soul, a heavenly realm of resurrected bodies and the covenant relationship of the Father with the Son and the faithfulness of the Trinity and the created creatures. He was baptized in the Jordan River not only showing us the model, procedure, and purpose of baptism, also changing the water in the river forever more into Holy Water, forever changed. He died on the Cross for all of mankind, so that we could live in a new world, one where Justice has been and is forever served. This is more than a sum zero equation. It is an acquittal not a pardon; there are no equal parts, because there are no parts. This answers the “why” we are different than the early Zionists, now we look at the “how”.

We have the benefit of 2000 years plowing the same field. The early patriarchs of the Church, through their inspirational and devotional genius paved the way for countless saints, fathers, and doctors of the Church to lead us into the shadow of His providence. We draw strength from the blood of the martyrs; we rest in the loving arms of our Holy Mother, and we rejoice in the sacraments of Church life.  And more, we are children in the twenty first century, seekers looking beyond our world view and praying in unison with the billions of Catholics who have come before us. We separate our fields of study into disciplines each with their own definitions and descriptions within their areas of concern. We have united these disciplines into spheres encompassing far ranging influences so we can correlate geography and topography with anthropology, history, and theology in order to better understand the evolving mind of man. We have more than shifted the paradigm, more than arranged the elements or reconfigured the components. We introduced new ingredients, trumpeted new discoveries, changed the ways information is gathered and stored, and then theorized how things really are based on new observations and conclusions. In some cases, the words we commonly use can’t describe what we have found, so we have invented new words to better capture what we now know. In some cases, the words we choose can be a trigger to shift our minds from how we used to think, into what we now consider plausible, creditable, helpful, advantageous, and even inspiring. All of these formative elements are only precursors to our Lord God, who always was, who is and who will forever be. It is in the eternal now we find ourselves living in the presence of the Lord. In this moment there is no separation of the formative and transformative, any more than there is any difference between intuition and self-realization. In this moment, our lives become His plan and purpose for us beyond our own world view. Our life becomes authentic, we look beyond our unique life history, into our unique life experiences. These experiences lead us out of the world around us and into a world of empathy and sympathy. In this moment, the door opens in our minds, we understand what St. Augustine meant when he said,” God loves each one of us as if there were only one of us to love.” Is it any wonder, in the stillness of the moment or the clamor of the world, that God’s message and His mercy are given to us an undeniable expression of what we need to hear, clear and truthful? This is God telling us what we can understand and inspiring us to a deeper understanding , at least pointing us in a different direction, prompting us to ask questions and seek His answers.

Modeling the formative to the transformative, using definition and description as the formative and experience as the transformative, leads me to this conclusion; God’s love is like light passing through a prism….what we see on the other side is mercy, compassion, kindness, all the goodness of all the virtues….yet it is still light…just as God’s love is still love.        Blessings for all of us   AJ