POST-TRUTH WORLD MUST AFFECT BELIEVERS

I listened to an interview of an older couple with no children. They listed their fears of the future. “Who would speak up for them if weare neglected?” And the husband added: “And we are very afraid that we could be scammed.”

 

He speaks the fear that so many of us have. It is not only the poor who are using social media to steal from you, but also some veery well-educated, well -rained people with substantial incomes already who are out there to take from the innocent and ttrusting seniors.

 

If you get a new phone call or an e-mail, you become suspicious. To protect yourself you hang up! And then you share this experience with your coffee-friends and they upload you with more scam stories that you are prepared to listen to.

 

This sense of being weary affects so many other areas of our life and society. Who can I trust is telling me the truth?

 

It also affects our practice of religious faith. What is the truth? What is of divine revelation?

Whose life can I believe?

 

In all this turmoil and confusion there is some light. Our situation today challenges each person, “Are you authentic? Is your life a living witness to the life and mystery of Jesus Christ? “

 

So many of the people we associate with are wonderful humana beings with very solid values. Many of these people practice a sense of justice which works towards equality and respect for all human beings. These are such wonderful secular people. 

 

But where is the mystery of God in their lives? And they will turn around and challenge so many of their neighbors who identify as a Christian, “But can I see in your life a touch of the Gospel of Jesus Christ? Are you putting into practice what you claim to believe in?

 

This puts us back into the life of the first Christians. They were an illegal religion. But they stood out in a world of steep social inequality, (the majority of the first Christiain were  either poor or were slaves) by their concern for one another. The pagan neighbors noticed there was a very big difference in these people who claim to follow Jesus.

 

We must return to becoming a faith community that evangelizes. We seek to bring people to believe and share in the very life of Jesus Christ. Call everyone to the Christian life; a life of conversion and growing in the  mystery of Jesus Christ.

 

Many traditional Christians in all our churches are confused by this, but we need to walk with them to recover  the sense that our first task is to call people of believe and walk in the way of Jesus (i.e., gospel living).

 

 

 

 

TRUMP SAYS “ WEAK POPE.”

Today we are right in the middle of an international controversy. Donald Trump has reacted to Pope Leo’s condemnation of the war in Iran with the dismissive, He’s a ‘weak pope.’

 

People and governments  (who are very careful not to criticize other leaders )have reacted strongly demanding an apology. Trump refuses to back down. 

 

Now, this controversy has effects on all of us, believers and non-believers alike.

What truth must be spoken at this moment? What does this mean for the way that we live our lives?

 

At this very moment (Tuesday morning) Pope Leo is in Algeria which is almost totally  of the Moslem  religion. This visit is clearly an effort to build bridges and new understanding between the Moslems and Christians. 

 

Pope Leo has made it very clear that he will continue to teach about building peace and rejecting war-making. He will not back down from Trump.

 

But this is where all individual Christiains must also ask themselves: “How firmly dow I believe in peace making and how well do I reject war-making? This is a moment when we have to identify and claim our own standing on war and peace.  This crisis in th lives of individual believers and local churches is a very good thing. There is no room to be wishy-washy. 

 

Christianity nhas always had a difficult time justifying war. We came up centuries ago with the ‘just war’ theory. A country could go to war to defend itself from an unjust aggressor.

 

Wars always have a multitude of purposes (and many purposes downright nefarious). 

 

Christians must speak out clearly about the unjust war. We are living in this right now: Putin’s invasion of the Ukraine. The Ukraine has mineral wealth, huge agricultural wealth and a ice-free port in the South. Why wouldn’t Putin was to steal this wealth from the Ukraine?

 

What is the purpose of the invasion of Iran during these last five weeks?

 

I hope that Pope Leo continues to speak loudly about the evils of this war and continue to prod both sides toward laying down their weapons. The little people of the world continue to suffer as a result of these wars. 

 

But may the voice of Pope Leo always encourage and empower the ordinary Christiain person to rediscover the power of the peace of Christ and the mission toward peace that he has given to his disciples.

 

This ois a time a peace-making, bridge building and making it clear how evil this war actually is. 

WE ARE EASTER PEOPLE

There is a weak side to our interpretation and practice of our Christian faith. In Western Christianity (Catholic and Protestant) the emphasis has been so strongly on the suffering and sacrifice of Jesus. But the resurrection was almost an afterthought.

 

As good example of this would be the devotion to the Stations of the Cross. They finished with the burial of Jesus. Then what?  There is an unbalance here.

 

Now, with serious study of the Jesus story in the New Testament we are very conscious that the resurrection of Jesus  is the revelation that we need to be living today.  As we lived through the terrible tragedy of the Last Supper and Good Friday, we must walk with the breakthrough of God in the resurrection of Jesus.

 

This is the revelation and the outpouring of the very Son of God to us. The great mystery of our salvation, in Jesus, is being given to us in our own time and place. Jesus rose from the dead on a very specific night, but now the mystery of the resurrection must happen in us. Jesus must be lived and revealed in each believer. The resurrection is a present, a daily event. 

 

The mission of Jesus was to make present the great love and mercy of God toward humanity. Now, the resurrection of Jesus must happen in each one of us aa se try to bring respect to the life of each human being. This is so important as this time when so many people feel devalued because they are different from the majority of people who hold power in this culture. The resurrection of Jesus means living the life of the resurrected Jesus in our valuing of everyone, no matter how different they may be from the majority of people. 

 

As Jesus came to bring healing to the lives of broken people, so now, the resurrected Jesus living and moving within us moves us to bring healing to others.  At this point we go back to our roots. Very early on (actually about a hundred years after the death of  Jesus) it became very clear that Christians do not have any distinctive dress, nor any food retractions. The only sign that will identify them will be the good deeds towards others. 

 

Living the resurrection means living a life of care and concern, especially for those who are wounded or excluded. The opportunity to do good is right around each and everyone of us. 

 

We have a long way to go but these fifty day of Easter provide many opportunities to explore how we can live out the resurrection of Jesus Christ.