Morality and Relativisim, Being Relative, or Relational?

RELATIVISM?  BEING RELATIVE?  or... RELATIONAL ?

There is much being said in the Catholic Church and society on the issues of Relativism.  Specifically in the context of morality and moral teaching this is a passionate issue.    Relativism,  according to Wikipedia,  "is the concept that points of view have no absolute truth or validity, having only relative, subjective value according to differences in perception and consideration."   This can be a conflict-fraught perception especially when applied to the moral teachings of the church.  It is a danger many Christians feel must be battled, especially when applied to issues such as birth control, abortion, homosexuality or other struggles mired in conflict.  It is considered a part of the cause as to why many people are leaving what they perceive as "organized religion" for the allegedly freer paths of "spirituality".   It essentially denies any validity or possibility of absolute truth being an unchanging value upon which society, families or individuals can base their lives.
The fruits of this popular concept are evident in the assumed subjective freedom of our western culture.  Yet in many ways the attempted denial of truth and values has not brought freedom but a culture where anxiety, fear, strife, discord are pandemic.

But when relativism is rejected it results, very often, in very real issues, knowledge, people, being rejected as well.  While the words "reject the sin, not the sinner" are glibly said it is a practice rarely seen. 

Discussions seeking to bring the Gospel, the message and place of the Church into a relative place for those alienated are often quickly dismissed as being an embrace of the evils of relativism.  As a result many in the Church fail to understand or care when the teachings, the message, worship or liturgy steeped in traditions of years gone by not only alienates but turns people away.  It also tends to fuel rejection when morals and values are arbitrarily chosen.  Two men kissing is seen as a serious offense by many who would then embrace  greed or the quick use of guns and violence.  If anything it is often seen to be a badge of heroic faith and virtue of NOT to giving way to the evil of the times.

As a result many souls are floundering in the wake of these two conflicting courses.  Many families, many people are finding their relationships with each other and with God being torn apart by these two perceptions.  Can there be an alternative?

In the Gospel Jesus frequently was caught between the forces of this ancient conflict.  In the temptation in the wilderness Christ Himself wrestled with Satan, evil and interpretation when, repeatedly the enemy challenged doesn't it say?????  God will give his angels to watch over you???
Later Jesus would face the conflicts of divorce, adultery, judgment of others, greed.  Yet as Christ responded He gave the Church, His followers a better way.  He brings us to realize it is about much more than just intellectual moral absolutes, traditions and teachings.   It is about much more than one religious group's interpretations of Scripture or moral values.  It IS about NOT being relativistic, one way or the other but about relating.  Jesus made clear He is the way the TRUTH and the life.  He makes clear that we all are invited to GROW in our relationship, with Him, with the TRUTH and that HE, the Truth will lead us into freedom of spirit and soul.  And lest we rush to presume we, only, have and know this way and truth HE makes clear he is the shepherd of many diverse flocks.  Christ also made clear, we do not have all the answers.  The  Church has often rushed to the role of Guardians of Truth while forgetting God has given us the Holy Spirit to LEAD us into the truth.  The understanding of the church and world, centuries ago, was very concrete about the world being flat....until the eternal journey of truth was remembered.  (John 14:1-12, John 8;32, 38 & 10:16, John 16)
Christ was not focused on philosophical applications and labyrinths as He related to people.  He accepted souls, where they were and from there, led and leads the willing into the truth, the embrace of His arms that sets us free.  An embrace profoundly needed, relevant and true.

Lent ~ Discoveries of Prayer

  Mass Readings Second Sunday of Lent

Second Sunday of Lent
16 March 2014
Homily ~ Cyber Version

Lent ~ Discoveries of Prayer

How many of us, during the day or before coming into the church checked to see if there was any emails or text messages that perhaps we were expecting?   We are a people who have come to expect others to be messaging us, in some shape or form.

Now, how many of us, during the week, or perhaps coming to Mass, walking into the church expect to hear from God?  Maybe we think God is too busy.   Maybe we think God has no need or great desire to speak to me.  Or perhaps we are afraid of what God may ask or speak about.  Are we afraid of those discoveries to be made in prayer.

God does long to speak to our hearts and lives.   Christ, present in the readings of Scripture this day clearly expresses accounts and examples of how, this powerful season of Lent, we can grow in discoveries of prayer, of God, of ourselves.

Prayer ~ Talking to God:  For many we understand prayer as “saying our prayers”, i.e., talking to God.  With faith and blessing we say the rosary, the Our Father, or the Stations of the Cross.  We tell God of our needs and hopefully our thanksgivings.  In our    Gospel reading we see Peter, James and John taken by our Lord, to the Mount of Transfiguration.  There Peter seems to understand this is a time and place for prayer.  And he starts talking, a lot.  Our Heavenly Father, hearing Peter’s chatter, interrupts.   This brings us to ask..does God need to interrupt our prayers to get a word in edgewise?  It shows us what we miss by failing to listen, by not watching...Him.  How often do we come to a moment, time or place of prayer, rattle off what our intentions are and then rush on without really looking to God or hearing a reply?

Prayer ~ Watching & Listening:  We are, as disciples of Christ are called to follow Him.  To watch and listen, to His way, His Will,  His purposes.  We see this relationship illustrated in the roles acted out in such dramas as Downtown Abbey.  The footmen, the butler, ladies maids are all and always attentive to their masters.  They tend to their tasks often with no verbal direction from their lord and his household.   They watch and they listen.   Sadly in our prayer life we miss this grace, profoundly and often tragically.
In our Old Testament reading we witness God speaking to Abram, telling him to follow His guidance to the promised land.  In that era of primitive faith Abram knew how, knew to..watch and listen for God.  Times have changed. God has not.  As it was in Abram’s day, as it was that day on the Mount of Transfiguration, God yearns for our attention.  And it is in that faith, the listening in the silence that we learn to hear God speaking, in the Scriptures, in creation, in and through the fullness of His Eucharistic Body and His Body of we we are.

Prayer ~ Responding to God:  It is as we seek to watch and listen, as we share our hearts  of hope or wounds that Jesus calls us to respond to Him.   God the Father, speaking in the cloud clearly spoke to the disciples, “Listen To Him”. The first words Jesus spoke after that command were simple and clear:  “Rise and do not be afraid”.  As God called the early disciples to rise from their fears, as God called Abram to rise from his earthly securities so God calls each of us, to rise, from our fears and follow Him to discover the promises of His Kingdom,  this season of Lent and for all eternity.
It is in our watching and listening that the response of our lives becomes the real Amen.

Discovery, Design, Destiny

From: www.facebook.com/pilgrimpathways

Cyber-version of homily for Second Sunday of Ordinary Time

19 January 2014

Mass Readings 2nd Sunday of Ordinary Time:

http://usccb.org/bible/readings/011914.cfm

DISCOVERY,  DESTINY,   DESIGN

Have you ever thought you knew someone and then discovered there was far more there 
than you may have first thought.  Or, perhaps even more important, have you ever thought you knew, you understood yourself?  And then  (with either delight or dismay, you discovered, again, there was far more “you” than you had realized?

Our Bible readings, this start of Ordinary Time, all share insights and experiences where this process of discovery is taking place.  And it is in the ordinary, not just the extra-ordinary times and places of life these discoveries occur.   We can learn that we all are created for this very journey of life.  It is a journey of DISCOVERY as we learn we each are DESIGNED by our Creator-Savior for a DESTINY of God’s will and purpose.

This discovery process is illustrated in our Old Testament reading and the Gospel.  In the book of Isaiah we observe the prophet, as he listens to God in his heart, discovers that he was planned by God.  Even in his mother’s womb God well knew the hopes, paths and destiny for which this human soul was made.  Isaiah is not an exception.  Careful listening to God and hearing of His word will show that each soul is designed by God for a life of fulfillment, blessing and yes, trials.  Isaiah reminds us that as we pray the refrain from our Psalm, “Here I am Lord; I come to do your will” that we discover that with God nothing in our life is wasted or that we are a mistake in His eyes.  We discover that our own very distinct heart is called to love God, and others, as no other soul can.

It is in our Gospel we see the process of discovery as John the Baptist, in obedience baptizing Jesus, grows in his discovery of who is this Christ.  John the Baptist had “known” Jesus at least to some degree.  From the pre-natal encounter when Mary came to Elizabeth after the Annunciation, to probable encounters at the large family gatherings John and Jesus must have known each other to some degree even as cousins.  But it would not be until that destined day in the river Jordan that John truly discovered whom his cousin truly is, and, in that process discover and understand his own design, his own destiny more clearly.
Both of these events help us understand the message of St. Paul  we read in his letter to the Corinthian faithful, to all the faithful.  He writes, how, by the will of God, we have been sanctified, that is set apart IN Christ Jesus, called to be holy.  Christians these many years later are often tempted to place this sanctification to some time after death, to those saints with which we pray.  But Paul is writing, not in a future tense nor to a group of people known for their apparent sanctity.  The faithful in the city of Corinth were, a flock fraught with human failure, ignorance, failing and sin.  Although they faithfully loved their Savior and God they were deeply flawed.   But that did not diminish or negate their design or destiny IN CHRIST.  St Paul (himself profoundly human) was very clear they were set apart, designed by and  for God there in the midst of their very human ordinary lives.  They were created to proclaim, by lives of the forgiven and mercy-filled, the exquisite beauty of holiness found in Christ and His Kingdom.  

It is in that same letter Paul wrote ( I Corinthians 13) , it is in the life of the prophet Isaiah and in John the Baptist we Discover another aspect of our Destiny for which we are Designed.  We are created, redeemed, set apart, to discover and share the boundless power and beauty of love. 

As we begin another year, as we enter into the ordinary times of life may we journey with the hope and anticipation that regardless of what may lie ahead, that in Christ we may Discover our Design and grow in the Destiny of His holy love.

The Leper

Cosimo Rosselli The Healing of the Leper (detail, Cappella Sistina, Vatican, 1481-82

The Leper
Lk. 5:12-16

Known only as the ‘the leper’,
outcast within the town.

With eyes from his marred face,
he watched all those around.

He saw the men at work,
strong, with muscles bold.

He saw the mothers back holding,
their children, with stares so cold.

He saw the friends, the lovers,
their smiles, their warm embrace,

and watching them to touch,
made within his heart to ache.

Known only as the leper,
outcast within the town,

touched only by the scorn,
where fear and hate abound,

his leper’s wealth abundant,
his lonely tears surround.

Until the day He came.
Jesus was in the town.

And when his eyes did see Him,
from his face marred and scared,

he fell, the hated leper,
before Him,  to hope, he dared.

Faith’s desperate plea escaped him,
for cleansing did he make.

At least, for words, of mercy
within his heart to place.

Amazed saw he then,
Love’s hand for him to reach...

Amazed. then in awe,
His touch, His cleansing, His peace.

Then within his heart
the words he longed to hear,

I will, be clean, and go.
 Love’s healing touch to show.