Question 2: While no interpretation can capture Jesus' full identity, which one of the portrayals of Jesus described in (Roger) Haight's chapter (prophet, teacher, healer, or liberator) seems most credible to you and most relevant to the American context today? Why?

Thesis: It seems to me that the most relevant portrayal of Jesus today remains one of the earliest used of Jesus in the identity of the earliest Christians- “soteros”/savior.

I would have to say that I was a bit disappointed by Haight’s portrayals of Jesus and found them to be lacking.  This was good because, in my own bias of being a teacher, I was ready to select Jesus as teacher.  What I found, however, was a description of Jesus as more a member of the “Tea Party” movement, especially given the description of the “Cynic,” which I admit this was a novel description for me.  Perhaps given the context in which we find ourselves as a nation today this may be the most apt and relevant portrayal.

The portrayal, however that I find most relevant is that of Jesus as Savior or Liberator.  At a person’s most fundamental level, I believe there is a need for salvation or even better stated- liberation.  Currently the human person is tethered to so many things and to so many activities, counter to those of faith that s/he is barely able to concentrate on that which is essential for salvation, namely (as stated in the Rite of Baptism) living the practice of the faith by loving God and neighbor.  In discussing the portrayal of Jesus as Savior or Liberator I realize that Haight is presenting an eschatological model.  In the end that is what is most relevant, that the human person is concerned with her/his salvation and liberation from that which is of this world.  Unless there is an understanding by the person of being so dependent and attached to the things of this world there may be little hope for a true recognition of he who is integral to our salvation, the God who is revealed as Jesus.  Even in the earliest identification of one Christian to another in using the symbol of the fish, or icqus, the sigma stood for “soteros” or savior, as in Jesus Christ, God, Son, Savior.  It would seem that from the earliest this was an integral identity of Christ.  Although the liberation which is described is at a more structural level, I think one needs to be liberated internally first to then be able to be a true disciple and cooperate in the saving ministry of liberating others, especially those oppressed by the current situation of our nation. 

Annunciation of the Lord

Join me as I celebrate the Solemnity of the Annunciation on Catholic TV.  The Mass was from Friday, March 25th.
Annunciation of the Lord

The Annunciation/Incarnation

This past Friday was March 25th, if you're somewhat astute you'll realize that it is 9 months until Christmas.  In the Catholic Church we celebrate the Solemnity of the Annunciation on this date.  The following is the story of the Annunciation by the angel Gabriel to Mary from the the Lucan Infancy Narrative (Luke Chapter 1: 26-38):

 In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth,

to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary.

And coming to her, he said, "Hail, favored one! The Lord is with you."

But she was greatly troubled at what was said and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.

Then the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.

Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus.

He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father,

and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end."

But Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?" 

And the angel said to her in reply, "The holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.

And behold, Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren;

for nothing will be impossible for God."

Mary said, "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word." Then the angel departed from her. 

I like to (and think as a Church we should) refer to the day as the Feast of the Incarnation.  We often pray for the "Cherishing and Protection of human life from the moment of conception until natural death."  The implication of the plea makes it obvious that we are, first and foremost., pro-life and that we believe life begins at the moment of conception in the womb.  It doesn't take much to realize that the Annunciation then is the celebration of that moment when God took on the human form of our flesh in what we call and proclaim our belief as the Incarnation.  It is such a solemn belief and we accept it with such profound reverence that when we proclaim it in the Nicene-Constantinople creed on Christmas and this Solemnity we genuflect at the words "by the power of the Holy Spirit He (Jesus) was born of the Virgin Mary and became man," and otherwise bow.

The Incarnation, Msgr. Anthony A. LaFemina, Copyright © 2000

At Saint Anthony Parish we've come up with a group in favor of life called the Incarnation Group.  For the Anunciation/Incarnation we came up with a way to remember, which was to join narrow baby blue and pink ribbons to a wider white one, making a loop and pinning it on to our clothes.  The white represents innocence and sanctity of life and the blue and pink ribbons are for the infant boys and girls never born.  The group made over 600 ribbons that we distributed with the adjoining Icon, created by Msgr. Anthony LaFemina, to the parishioners.  To read more about the Icon link to the following web page: http://wf-f.org/03-1-IconExpl.html.  It was also great to have celebrated the Mass of the Annunciation on Catholic TV and explain the work of the Incarnation Group.  It would be great if, in addition to doing something as the Catholics of our nation, we did more than just march on Washington on the anniversary of the Supreme Court Roe v. Wade decision in January and pray for life as we celebrate the Month of the Rosary in October that we proclaim from every corner of the world where Mass is celebrated that as we commemorate the Annunciation/Incarnation we defend, proclaim and challenge the Innocence, Dignity, Sanctity and Protection of all Human life from the Moment of Conception!  Our Lady of the Annunciation.  Pray for us.
The following is a painting by Henry Ossawa Tanner, son of a Minister, who painted and drew many religious figures.  The painting was on display during an exhibit at the M.H. de Young Museum in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park.  I was living in California at the time and was privileged to have seen the original.  It's one of my favorite depictions of the Annunciation.

Tanner, Henry Ossawa
The Annunciation
1898
Oil on canvas
57 x 71 1/2 in. (144.78 x 181.61 cm)
Philadelphia Museum of Art

Question: In spite of the difficulties in recovering the historical Jesus, why do most contemporary theologians believe that grasping a basic knowledge of Jesus’ life is decisive for Christology?

Thesis: Without a basic knowledge of Jesus, rooted in history, Christianity and its adherents run the risk of following, not only a faith, but a person based on mere legend and fantasy.

Unfortunately it is often this Jesus based on the simple piety of the faithful that is more often than not encountered in their praxis and their prayer.  At best it is a “faith divorced from history” (Wright, p. 16) which puts them in the attic rather than the dungeon.  Often times in the practice of preaching to the faithful I have fond the need and the desire to inform them that there is a historical Jesus.  When it comes to matters that are sensitive to their faith, whether or not Jesus said something, which they have clung to for most of their lives, there is much resistance.  If on the other hand if the fact is something new to them it is welcomed as a means to help them understand the Lord better.  For instance using the same event, Jesus calming the waters and the storm of Lake Genessaret, can be viewed as something quite far-fetched.  If on the other hand there is evidence available (as occurred to me first-hand) that the waters, at any given moment can be stirred up because of the wind sweeping across the plains of Galilee, and in another moment stop because the wind has died down, the story becomes that much more real and palatable.  The current events give credence to the historical stories of some miracles and put them in a context for acceptance if not belief. 

            Again the story of the feeding of the multitudes is given a much better understanding after having visited the place of the miracle.  I am told that one should not disparage the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes by explaining away that perhaps the miracle was that Jesus opened the minds and hearts of those present to be generous with the food they had obtained at market.  With the self-centeredness and ego of some people it is not hard to imagine the miracle it took to make them generous.  In addition looking at the same place where the sermon took place it is also not hard to imagine why Matthew, writing to a Jewish community would place Jesus at the top of the hill looking down as it were from a mountain.  In Luke, having no tradition of God speaking from on high he would describe, as if looking across rather than down from the peak of the Mount of Beatitudes or looking up from the sea as a plain and not a mount. 

            All of this is to reiterate what Rausch states when he says that the “object of faith … must always be the Christ of Faith” (Rausch, p. 12) and not the “historical Jesus.” “But that faith must be rooted in the Jesus of history, lest it become a mere mythologization of the founder of Christianity.” (Rausch p. 12)  

So here goes...

What follows now is the series of reflections from the course on Christology.  When class ended for vacation some fellow classmates asked what I was doing for break.  I replied that class was my break.  Inasmuch as I usually rush around to get things done prior to leaving for class or rush around after class making up for the time I was at class, it really is a break to get away from things of the parish and the rectory and spend some time for lecture, discussion and especially contact with people I would otherwise not have met.  And so it really is a break from the usual day-to-day.
Our class reflections follow the same pattern.  In the previous class we're given a question upon which to reflect.  From those reflections we produce a one page paper.  What follows are my reflections on these questions.  I'll post the "Question" as the Title and then add in my response.  If this is a disaster we can blame Neto, the professor.  Naturally I jest, I thank him for his recommendation that I share my writings with others.  He probably didn't have all this in mind though.

What to post?

The first question is actually why am I blogging?  I don't know.  Perhaps just because it's there.  I certainly don't think I have anything earth shattering to say.  Nor do I think that everything I do is worthy of a blog.  We did lose one of our pets at the rectory recently.  Why is that worthy of this blog?  Well it's because Maga was a special cat.  Even her name refers to the Magi; merely because she was adopted from a shelter by my predecessor on January 6th, the Feast of the Epiphany.  I assumed ownership (or is it parenthood as she was adopted) when I became pastor here, not very easy since I already had Tobey (a topic for another blog post.)  Maga was a great friend of all who came to the rectory, from overnight guests to visitors at the door.  She had an usual, or rather atypical, feline friendliness.  Her style was to greet anyone and everyone.  I think deep down she thought they might feed her some treats.  She was rather obese.  The poor thing had developed stones in her bladder, which we noticed just a few weeks ago.  What to do?  Should we just let her live out her life, as she would in the wild, or do something to alleviate her pain?  We did the latter.  Normally she would have come out of the surgery and recovered soon, even in spite of the 80 stones removed.  What we didn't realize is that she was losing blood and became anemic.  While I might have been able to justify the surgery it was harder to do so for a transfusion that would have been upwards of $1,000 dollars.  You can't just get feline blood at a blood bank for cats.  Eventually the combination of complications arising from the illness were alas, too much for her to bear.  Fr. Cristiano and I visited her a couple of days before she passed to confer with Dr. Katia, her very loving veterinarian.  She is survived by the four priests living here, a very caring housekeeper, parish secretary, the Director of Religious Education, a special friend and Tobey, her feline rectory mate.  As have I only known her for the past three years so have they known each other.  I really didn't think they were very fond of each other, but now I think he is really missing her.  He walks around the house as if looking for something and has taken up a rather strange meow in the evening.  The other night he found a mouse, something he hadn't done in a very long time.  Maybe he's afraid the same unknown end might come to him if he doesn't contribute to his living.  Maybe he is just missing Maga.

No I didn't begin this blog to write about our pets but it has been a start.  As I write you'll probably hear more about Tobey and the other priests in the rectory, Fr. Jim who is the parochial vicar; Fr. Cristiano who is from Brazil and is here studying toward a Doctorate and Fr. Leonel who is from Portugal and is also studying.  I'm sure you'll also read more about the others who work here at the parish.

I had thought that these initial posts would be of reflection papers for a course that I am auditing at Boston College, School of Theology and Ministry.  It's been 15 years since I was ordained and so I thought it wouldn't hurt to take some classes and do some reading concerning ministry.  The first class is Christology.  Who knew that by now the time I returned to studies that there would be a Third Quest for the Historical Jesus.  Each week for the course there is a reflection paper.  Although they are not required as I am an auditor, I thought it best to avail myself of the opportunity to write and thereby make myself delve deeper into the assigned readings.  On one of the papers the professor wrote that he hoped I was sharing the papers with others, hence the birth of this blog.  You can be the judge, just don't be the grader!  They will follow soon...