{"id":883,"date":"2015-05-31T05:00:12","date_gmt":"2015-05-31T05:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sjcmetheology.wpengine.com\/?p=883"},"modified":"2015-05-31T05:00:12","modified_gmt":"2015-05-31T05:00:12","slug":"the-new-and-the-return-of-the-new","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.sjcme.edu\/theology\/the-new-and-the-return-of-the-new\/","title":{"rendered":"The New and the Return of the New"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two Sundays for the price of one blog post! Last Sunday was Pentecost Sunday, a feast for the Church to recognize Christ\u2019s ever new call to renewal. The Scripture readings for last Sunday<\/a> present an interconnected web inaugurating a new reality. Like so much in Christianity, Pentecost has its roots in Judaism. The Jewish festival celebrates the Lord\u2019s gift<\/a> of the Torah to Moses. That is why, when the Holy Spirit descends and inspires the Apostles to speak in new tongues, Jews throughout the Diaspora recognize their own languages.<\/p>\n

And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit<\/em>
\n and began to speak in different tongues,<\/em>
\n as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.<\/em><\/p>\n

Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven staying in Jerusalem.<\/em>
\n At this sound, they gathered in a large crowd,<\/em>
\n but they were confused<\/em>
\n because each one heard them speaking in his own language.<\/em>
\n They were astounded, and in amazement they asked,<\/em>
\n \u201cAre not all these people who are speaking Galileans?<\/em>
\n Then how does each of us hear them in his native language?<\/em>
\n We are Parthians, Medes, and Elamites,<\/em>
\n inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia,<\/em>
\n Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia,<\/em>
\n Egypt and the districts of Libya near Cyrene,<\/em>
\n as well as travelers from Rome,<\/em>
\n both Jews and converts to Judaism, Cretans and Arabs,<\/em>
\n yet we hear them speaking in our own tongues<\/em>
\n of the mighty acts of God.<\/em> (Acts 2:4-11)<\/p>\n

Jews and converts, the native and newly-arrived, Parthians, Romans, and Libyans\u2014each heard his own language. What they hear the other readings illuminate<\/a>: the Lord\u2019s spirit sustains the world (Psalm 104), the Mystical Body of Christ (I Cor. 12), the spiritual foundations for new life in Christ (Galatians 6), and Christ\u2019s promise of the Spirit\u2014which proceeds from Him and God the Father\u2014to the Church (John 15 & 20).<\/p>\n

So at one level the Spirit\u2019s presence at Pentecost recalls previous knowledge\u2014God\u2019s omnipresence. Yet Andrew Kim reminds us the list of nations<\/a> in Acts 2 declares a new reality: that God\u2019s other people fall within the divine vision, too. Kim:<\/p>\n

This is the God who transforms those that society deems to be \u201cno people\u201d into a chosen people. This is the God of a universal covenant and a salvation so far reaching and complete that it flows through and beyond the simplistic binaries of human schemes as a great river crushing through straw or a mighty thunder overcoming a guilty silence. This is the God who is author of the human person.<\/p>\n

The \u201cno-people\u201d category is a product of human limitations. In reality, there are God\u2019s people and God\u2019s other people, and even these two categories, I suspect, merge to form a unity the more closely one approaches the divine point of view. Admittedly, the reality of unity remains greatly obfuscated by the conditions of the world. However, this is the fault not of religion, but of sin.<\/p>\n

St. John\u2019s gospel indicates this as well as the new spiritual reality that is the Church. Not merely a collection of people, the Church because of and through the Spirit includes all<\/a>. Therefore, the Church is made ever new because the very notion of its membership\u2014who\u2019s \u201cin\u201d and who is not\u2014the Spirit itself remakes. This inclusivity recognizes differences instead of obliterating them. That is the gift of St. Paul\u2019s message to the Corinthians. We are all parts of Christ\u2019s body and we necessarily do not all do the same thing. Our gifts and talents must be brought to the Church\u2019s service, but it stands to reason that what my colleagues accomplish might differ noticeably from what I can do. Kim\u2019s commentary concludes the point\u2014it is human sinfulness that prevents us from recognizing this intrinsic unity. It is already there\u2014we just cannot yet see it fully. God already does, and thus, as John 20 indicates, the Spirit convey God\u2019s Word to us.<\/p>\n

Yet how might we keep this vision and Scriptural witness before us? Back in my Calvinist days I suppose I would have reiterated some vague point about divine sovereignty: God keeps in faith whom God will. Now a Catholic (since 1992!) I see a much more practical and quite frankly universal way to recall the Spirit\u2019s inclusivity and novelty: the Rosary. Twice a week\u2014Wednesday and Sunday\u2014the Glorious Mysterious are recited. The third of these is\u2026the Descent of the Holy Spirit. Following meditations on the Resurrection (there\u2019s something new!) and the Ascension (wherein Christ leaves the earthly realm), the meditations on Pentecost lend themselves to the consideration of novelty and the Spirit\u2019s invigorating presence. Vatican II and The New Evangelization inspired by the Council demonstrate on the macrocosmic level what the Rosary reiterates at the microcosmic: that the Spirit ever renews, and thus the hum-drum of our daily lives radiate with God\u2019s presence. As one post-Rosary prayer beseeches, that through our Rosary meditations<\/a>: \u201cmay we imitate what they contain and obtain what they promise.\u201d Unity and the spirit of discovery provide the foundations for evangelization and charity.<\/p>\n

This Sunday is the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity Sunday. The Spirit\u2019s persistent call to, and offering of, the new\u2014new ways of speaking, hearing, and acting\u2014finds wonderful expression in Christianity\u2019s most recognizable, yet inscrutable, teaching. Yet, again, the Scriptures make this very clear<\/a>. God can, has, and does speak directly to people He chooses (Deuteronomy 4:32-40). The Psalmist (#33) celebrates both those whom God chooses to be His Own as well as all creation. Through ways general and specific God\u2019s presence and power are made known. In a reference that surely recalls Pentecost Sunday, St. Paul reminds the Romans that through adoption we in Christ\u2019s spirit are God\u2019s children, too (Romans 8:14-17). (Jews, Paul thus implies, remain God\u2019s children, too, thus brushing aside any concerns about possible contradictions between Christian Trinitarianism and Jewish monotheism.)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Stjosemariaescriva\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

St. Josemaria Escriva built Opus Dei around the notion of \u201cdivine filiation<\/a>,\u201d i.e., how recognition that we are God\u2019s children sparks continual conversion\u2026and confidence. The Way #860<\/a><\/em> reads:<\/p>\n

Before God, who is eternal, you are much more a child than, before you, the tiniest toddler.<\/em><\/p>\n

And besides being a child, you are a child of God. \u2014 Don’t forget it.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Don\u2019t forget it<\/em><\/strong>. This echoes Trinity Sunday\u2019s Gospel: Matthew 28: 16-20. The disciples go to and worship Jesus, \u201cbut they doubted\u201d Matthew records. Then:<\/p>\n

Then Jesus approached and said to them,<\/em>
\n “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me.<\/em>
\n Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations,<\/em>
\n baptizing them in the name of the Father,<\/em>
\n and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,<\/em>
\n teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.<\/em>
\n And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t forget…that you are children of God\u2026because 1) I give you an absolutely essential task; and 2) you are not alone. Thus the Church goes forth, inspired and consoled by Christ\u2019s own spirit. Thus Pentecost continues ever anew as the Church goes about its task which, as Pentecost Sunday told us, overcomes the boundaries between them and us. We will not always succeed, but that\u2019s why St. Josemaria reiterated his insight about divine filiation. Just like any good parent, God the Father will never ceases to love the child. It is wise as children, though, to remain close to our Father<\/a>. With the Holy Spirit, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, guiding us, though, how could we do otherwise?<\/p>\n

That the one God exists in three Persons\u2014Father, Son, and Holy Spirit\u2014still inspires faith while confounding the wise. And \u201cwise\u201d in this case could mean anyone who simply refuses to break from conventional thinking. During graduate studies in Nashville, Tennessee, one of my jobs involved unloading delivery trucks. One hard-working guy, an evangelical Protestant, captured several centuries of consternation by recounting a Bible study (on Matthew 28!) he and his wife had attended: \u2018She read \u201cFather, Son, and Holy Spirit\u201d and tells me that\u2019s all one God. But, Jeff, when I read that same passage, that says to me three. Now how can that be?\u201d Facing a fully-loaded truck, I took the easy way out, muttering something like \u201cthat very question has confused people for years.\u201d That isn\u2019t an exaggeration or a lie, but it doesn\u2019t offer much, either. There are many resources for understanding<\/a> the Trinity\u2019s reality. However, at some point almost all attempts fall far short<\/a>. The Trinity\u2014Father, Son, and Spirit\u2014unifies Christianity\u2019s messianic narrative, which with Jesus\u2019 crucifixion and resurrection challenges our rationality, with the past, present, and future. The same God who chose the Jews also became human in Jesus who died and rose again and that same God\u2019s spirit, now shaped by the Incarnation, remains with us now. Thus the Trinity offers the foundations for both theodicy (why bad things happen to good people) and ethics (how we act towards ourselves and others). The Spirit abides with us throughout. Yet grabbing this requires more than mere rational assent. St. Augustine of Canterbury\u2019s dictum still holds true: credo ut intelligam<\/em>\u2014I believe so that I might understand. Sometimes this faith needs something traditional like the Rosary to assist the acquisition of such knowledge.<\/p>\n

Guest blogger Jeffrey Marlett<\/strong> blogs at Spiritual Diabetes<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two Sundays for the price of one blog post! Last Sunday was Pentecost Sunday, a feast for the Church to recognize Christ\u2019s ever new call to renewal. The Scripture readings for last Sunday present an interconnected web inaugurating a new … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,21,23,1],"tags":[210,273,300],"class_list":["post-883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-liturgy","category-saints","category-spirituality","category-uncategorized","tag-pentecost","tag-st-josemaria-escriva","tag-trinity-sunday"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sjcme.edu\/theology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sjcme.edu\/theology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sjcme.edu\/theology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sjcme.edu\/theology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sjcme.edu\/theology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sjcme.edu\/theology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/883\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sjcme.edu\/theology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sjcme.edu\/theology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sjcme.edu\/theology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}