God, Murdered and Risen
God is alive.
After his resurrection
Jesus went about proving that he
had risen from the dead, and was alive.
The liturgy of Easter Week abounds with that proof. //On Easter Monday the women, running from the tomb, are suddenly faced with the risen Christ who
wishes them peace (Mt 28:8-15). //On Tuesday he appears to Mary Magdalene who
thinks he's the gardener (Jn 20:11-18).
//On Wednesday the downcast disciples come upon Jesus, as they journey
to Emmaus, and at the last moment they recognize him in the breaking of the
bread (Lk 24:13-35). //On Friday Jesus
appears to the Apostles who are fishing without much luck, and when he bids
them cast the net on the right side, they make a stunning catch of fish (Jn
21:1-14). //In today's gospel too (same one for last Thursday) Jesus appears to
the disciples and invites them to touch his hands and feet, and then he downs a fish for them. The point: “Ghosts don’t eat fish” (Jn
24:35-48
For fifty days Jesus went
about this business of poof. Then, almost as though he were tired out, he
ascended to the right hand of the Father, where he now rests up from all his
labors. That marks the end of
miraculous proof but not the end of proof itself. Before leaving he
commissioned us saying, "You, who say that you are my friends and that you
love me, now you take over. Go into whole world and preach the gospel –
preach the good news that I am not dead.”
(killed
by hi-tech)
In the sixties and seventies there rose a school of theologians whose bottom-line was: God is dead because God, ”the author of life,” has been killed, murdered (Acts 3:15). The Death-of-God theology was a fad that died rather quickly, but not before scoring a few good points. //Some claimed God is dead because our words about God have killed God; they have become meaningless, trite, misleading, inadequate, etc. //Others maintained that God is dead because our technology has killed God. We don’t need God anymore. With our hi-tech, we can now do for ourselves everything we used to expect God to do for us, and even more.
(killed by
inhumanity)
Even more plausible
were those theologians who made the
point that the unspeakable inhumanity of humans towards each other has effectively
killed God -- “the author of
life.” They had in mind the GULAG, a
net work of prisons that stretched across the whole expanse of the former
soviet Union, which incarcerated as
many as 14-20 million people at one time. They had in mind the Nazi concentration camps of Auschwitz,
Buchenwald, Dachau, Babi Yar -- in
which was concentrated the most incredible inhumanity of all times. <<We recall the words of Elie Wiesel, the
most famous of all concentration camp survivors: “Never shall I
forget that night, the first night in camp which has turned my life into one
long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed. … Never shall I forget
those moments which murdered my God <<and my soul and turned my
dreams to dust. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to
live as long as God himself. Never>>.” (Night by Elie Weisel).
Then add to all that -- the unspeakable atrocities of the second half of the twentieth century: //the bombing of the World Trade Center in New York City and of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City; //the school massacres, especially the one in Littleton, Colorado; //the beheading of a black man as he was being dragged by white men behind their truck in Jasper, Texas; //the beating to a pulp of Mat Sheppard, the gay student from Wyoming State U., by two skinheads who tied him to a wooden fence out in the country and left him to die there bathed in his own tears and blood. Out of that huge heap of inhumanity, there arises a stark question which no longer asks “Where is God?” This question asks, “Is God at all?” <<Out of that immense heap piled as high as the corpses of Auschwitz rises Nietche’s famous cry: “God is dead.” >>
(Killed by the
“religious”)
To that great heap of
God-killers, who put “the author of
life to death,” must be added also the extreme religious right (not the
religious right but the extreme religious right). Their God is always in hot pursuit of the
“politically correct.” Or their God
is always bashing away at someone; at Mat
Sheppard’s funeral the extreme religious right carried its signs: “God hates
fags.” “God buries gays in hell.” Or their God is always excluding someone.
Some years ago the religious leader of one of the mainstream Protestants
denominations made the incredible
assertion on TV that God does not hear the prayers of Jews because they do not
ask for anything in Jesus’ name! No wonder one of those Death-of-God
theologians wrote a book in those days entitled, Your God’s too Small for
Me.
Conquest at dawn
It’s the “religious” (not
the irreligious) who effectively roll a stone before the tomb of Jesus and
block the exit for him. For over twenty
years now my dog and I have headed for the lake at early dawn. In that long span
of time, you acquire some smarts along
the way. Just last Sunday before Mass, Simeon and I were on our way. It was just before the sun was
coming out of Lake Michigan (6 a.m. at this time of the year). I heard a call
from the lake side of the street, beckoning
me to come over. I went across, and there were four young people there.
They introduced themselves and greeted me in a rather lovey-dovey sort of way;
it was almost a little too “thick.” But
anyway, I said to my self at first, “Oh this is a welcome change from the
rudeness or the crudeness or the just plain zilch that you sometimes get from
young people.” After politely shaking hands
and introducing themselves, one of them extended an invitation to me, saying, “You’re welcome to stay on with us, and greet with
us the rising sun.” With those words, I immediately knew what they were
all about. (I had gone through
this before.)
They were out to give witness to me that Jesus is alive and well. Now that’s not
always as innocent as it looks. It’s
not always as simple and pure as it sounds. Before you know they’re asking you,
“Is Jesus your personal savior?” or “Are you saved?” Before you know it,
they’re telling you, “You won’t get it if you don’t ask for it in Jesus name!”
Before you know it, they’re breathing scripture texts into your face, like “No
one comes to the Father except through
me” ((Jn 14:6). I usually end up
fighting with those people. The fight is
all about being approached as a job to be (a conversion to be made) instead of
as a human being to be loved. I resents being a potential feather in someone’s cap or notch in someone’s belt.
In the past I have tried to tone them down by
telling them I am a priest. It doesn’t impress them at all. It only makes
matters worst. They say to you, “Oh we are not talking about ‘that stuff.’ We’re talking about being ‘
born-again.’” At the end of the day, I
always tell them something
that’s a bit cryptic, a conundrum for them to crack open. I say to them: “All you’re interested in is my love for Jesus,
but not Jesus’ love for me.” It’s
cryptic, I know, but think it over; the distinction is immense: “All
you’re interested in is spreading the world’s love of Jesus (that’s
called conquest), but not Jesus’ love of the world (that’s called the
Gospel -- the Good News).
You get smarter with the
years. This time I didn’t fight, because nothing ever comes of it. I simply
excused myself by saying, “No. I can’t stay; I have an appointment.” Which, indeed, I did: Mass here at Old St. Mary’s.
A
lady without guile
It
made me think, though, about the 20ieth
century’s most powerful witness that
God is not dead but is alive and well. I
say it without fear of challenge:
her name is Mother Theresa of India. Her love was utterly simple and
pure. She never had conquest in mind.
She picked up hundred and even thousands of dying people off the streets
of Calcutta, and not one of the did she approach as a job to be done (a
conversion to be made), but simply and purely as a human being to beloved. Into
none of their faces did she ever breath
one single Christian scripture. Who knows if she ever poured even one drop of baptismal water over any one of
their heads. << She simply and purely kissed them all and sent them all
off to eternity healed. Healed of their terrible self-image imposed on them by
an uncaring and (mind you) “religious” society that walked right by them as
they lay dying in the streets. She simply and purely kissed them all, and they
all died healed, because they all died believing,
perhaps for the first time in their lives, that they were human beings. That
little lady rolled away the huge stone that
the preceding century dumped before the entrance to Jesus’ tomb.>>
(Victory
on the road to Jericho)
No one so effectively kills God for us, and blocks the exit of Jesus’ tomb as do the so-called “religious.” How well Jesus made that point when he crafted for us that Mother of All Parables: the Good Samaritan. “Once upon a time a man was going from Jerusalem to Jericho and was waylaid by robber, beaten to a pulp, and was left half-dead. Along came two “religious” people, one a Jewish priest and the other a Jewish levite; neither stopped to pour the oil of compassion into the poor man’s wounds. Both went on their selfish ways. Finally along came an “irreligious” Samaritan, who is “racially impure,” and who worships on the “wrong mountain” (Jn 4:19). He stopped and poured the oil of compassion into the poor man’s wounds, then gently hoisted him on his beast of burden and carried him off to the nearest inn. There he dug deeply into his pocket, and pulled out the cost of caring for an unfortunate brother.”
On that road to Jericho that day, just as on the road to Calcutta, there were two casualties: first there was a human being left dying by the wayside. And secondly there was God murdered by "religious" people who went on their selfish way. But, praise God, on the road to Jericho and Calcutta there was also resurrection and victory: the murdered God was raised from the dead by a good Samaritan and also by a little whisper of a lady called Mother Theresa. And the both of them powerfully extend to us their utterly pure and simple invitation, ”to stay on, and to greet with them the rising sun.