Let the Blogging Begin!
Greetings, everyone! As part of our new website, we’re going to have blogs from staff members. I’m going to start the ball rolling here with several reflections I’ve written on various topics. Some are very formational; some are me thinking too much, as I tend to do, but please check them out and comment all you want!
Enjoy!
Paul
What is it about emptiness? Lent 2010
What is it about emptiness?For a while now, I have been intrigued—emotionally touched in a mysterious way—by emptiness. Whether it’s an empty room in a house, just a floor and walls and a window to let light in, an empty field on the side of the road, unplowed, untouched, or white space on a page, emptiness speaks to me.
Those of you who have seen my office know that there isn’t much in it. I like my desk clear, and the tables around me empty of papers and things. In all honesty, I have trouble thinking when there’s clutter around. It’s freeing, isn’t it, to be unconfined by things and thoughts? To be free to dream.
The Great Equalizer: An Advent Reflection
Advent 2009.It’s Advent.
Supposedly a time of peace and hope, it’s also the time when the media bombards us with consumerist propaganda—“Buy this! You need this!” they say. These voices remind of one of my favorite lines from Assassin’s Creed II, a video game that I just finished playing. In the background of the gameplay, shopkeepers shout something like, “I have things you don’t even know you need!” This, among many other lines, humorously and sarcastically captures an element of contemporary culture that pervades the Advent experience—and simultaneously contradicts everything that Advent is all about.
What is this season about? We hear things all the time—watch…wait…be prepared…the light is coming…prepare the way of the Lord…make room for Jesus in your heart—but what do these things mean? At tonight’s liturgy—the liturgy of the Second Sunday of Advent—two elements of the readings struck me hard.
God is Like a Slug
Seriously. Bear with me, now.
Meet Sluggo the Slug. One night, Sluggo packs his slug suitcase and decides to go on a slug journey across the back patio. Being a slug, he thinks it’s quite the expedition, but really it’s just a quick jaunt across the pavement.
Sluggo has a point of origin, from which he begins his journey. And he has a point of arrival, where his journey ends. Everywhere in between, he leaves a trail of thick slime—sticky, gooey stuff—the evidence of Sluggo’s very existence, the telltale sign that “Sluggo Wuz Here,” which he secretes as he goes from his origin to his destination.
And that’s where Sluggo is like God.
Fully Human, Fully Divine – A Little Ditty on the Paschal Mystery
This blog was written around Holy Week, 2009.Delving Into Full Humanity
It’s easy to forget that Jesus was human. Really human. Fully human. Movies so often portray Jesus as a stoic, serious, overly dramatic man who stands apart from the rest of humanity, a sort of ultra-non-conformist who has little to do with the real experience of human life. These cinematic portrayals present a Jesus who is more a divine being in human form—someone ultimately conscious of his own divinity—than someone who actually lived the hurts, sorrows, fears, temptations, joys, and intimate moments that we experience. As we approach the great liturgies of the Triduum, which extensively celebrate the fullness of the Paschal Mystery, it occurs to me that the truest, deepest understanding of the Paschal Mystery lies in first understanding—as much as we can—that Jesus was indeed fully human and fully divine.
Another Conversation, Another Reflection… This Time on the Nature of the Trinity
After the conversation with my creationist friend, I entered into another conversation with a second friend and colleague. This reflection is born of the second conversation (and directly connected to the first…). Originally written March 19, 2009.In the last note, I theorized that if God is love and love inherently creates, creation is the inevitable product God’s perfect love. If the very existence of God/love makes creation inevitable and “true love” is love freely given (no strings attached), sin is an inevitable eventuality. And since God desires nothing but the perfect union (all things being subjected to him and returning to the state of perfect love in which they were created per Corinthians), the existence of the Christ is also inevitable.
Some might say that I’m on the edge of Arianism here, that calling the Christ “inevitable” means that Christ did not exist with the Father and Spirit in the beginning. But this isn’t what I’m saying. For, all of these events “happened,” which isn’t the right word (but I don’t think there is a word that describes what I mean) “simultaneously.” Read the rest of this entry »
A Little (or not-so-little) Theosophical-Cosmological Reflection on Creation
This post was originally written in December of 2008. It’s a little long, but the real meat comes about halfway through, at “God is love.”Today, I had a very interesting conversation with a friend and colleague about the three-fold Creationism-Intelligent Design-Evolutionism debate. We discussed the two sides at some length, and at one point he asked me, “So, if you believe God was involved in creation but don’t call yourself a Creationist, what do you believe?” It took me a few minutes to really process the question and formulate a response, but I eventually reached a conclusion that is perhaps a “both-and” reply to the question of God’s role as creator and the validity of scientific discovery, both of which I think are wholly valid.
Read the rest of this entry »
Love, Miracles, Faith, and an Aunt: A Reflection On Mark 6:45-52
I originally wrote this on January 8, 2009, for the Feast of the Epiphany, a few months after my Aunt Cheryl died after a long bout with cancer.Today is the Wednesday after Epiphany. In the daily Mass readings this week, we have heard stories of Jesus’ manifestation as the Christ, the Messiah. Yesterday, we heard Mark’s account of the feeding of the 5,000; today’s Gospel begins where yesterday’s ended and details the familiar story of Jesus walking on water. I’ve read and heard this story—even this account of the story—many times before, but it has never struck me as it did tonight.
Mark’s version of the story contains some details that Matthew and John lack (and lacks some details that the others contain). It was these details, found in two characteristically concise Markan sentences, which struck me tonight. The passage begins, “After the five thousand had eaten and were satisfied, Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and precede him to the other side toward Bethsaida…” Alone, Jesus dismisses the crowd and prays on a nearby mountain. The standard setup. Then, strong winds toss the disciples’ boat about, and Jesus walks toward them on the water. The standard plot.