NT Wright and the Tree of Jesse

I finished NT Wrights book Paul: A Fresh Perspective earlier this month and liked the way he ended the book. He talks about how we can understand the Bible better when we understand it as a five act play that is yet to be finished. The first act is creation itself. The second is the fall. The third act is the story of Israel BC. The fourth is when Jesus walked upon the earth culminating in his death and resurrection. We live in the fifth act which began on Easter! The opening scene is Pentecost – the giving of the Holy Spirit.

Part of playing our part in this story in the 21^st century is understanding the play itself. We must understand the story that we live in and then of course we must be open to God’s spirit working through us, his Church. Wright believes that we can do this through building a new culture today - one that takes into account “the reconstruction of the self.” Contrary to popular belief, our being is not centered on ourselves. With Paul, there is a “new way of being human, a way that is rooted, through baptism, in the Messiah, or more particularly in the love of the one God revealed in him. If anyone is in Christ – new creation!” So, our personal motto to remember is not “Cogito ergo sum” – I think, therefore I am, but “‘Amor, ergo sum’ – I am loved, therefore I am.”

Second, we must reconstruct our ways of knowing. With Paul, “the basic Christian mode of knowing is love. In love, the person who is loving is simultaneously affirming the Otherness of that which is loved and their own deep involvement with that Other.”

Third, we must reconstruct the great story.

The grand narrative of modernity, of progress and Enlightenment, has run out of steam in most areas, though still not, alas in western imperialism. With it, all grand narratives have been seen as exploitative, as power-plays, as attempts to snatch the high ground and rule other stories out of consideration. But, once more, the story which Paul tells, and equally importantly the story he lived out day by day, is a story not of great power but of love.

So, Wright reminds us of that story of God’s faithfulness to us and ultimately his great love for us through these passages of Scripture –

“Jesus is Lord, and at his name every knee shall bow.’

“The whole creation shall be set free from its bondage to decay and share the freedom of the glory of God’s children.”

“God will be all in all.”

And so, as advent will begin soon and we’ll be waiting in anticipation for the Christ Child to be born – LOVE HIMSELF! – I thought that it might be neat to begin a new family tradition (at home and on this page) of creating a “Jesse Tree.” For those of you who don’t know, the idea is to look through history (specifically Acts 1 to 3 from the great play) to the coming of Christ, as we prepare for Christmas, by reading Scripture that builds up to it. I’ll post the readings every day during advent along with a piece of art that in some way illustrates the passage. I wanted for the art to be found in Paris so I went on a search through the Louvre for the art that I will post. However, while I found an abundance of art portraying David, Mary and John the Baptist, I had a hard time finding Old Testament art and so I may have to pull from the web for a few of the pieces. I hope that you enjoy preparing for Christmas with us as we remember the story of Christ the King and ultimately, our own story!

To see our tree of Jesse, click here.

God's Face like a countenance beaming forth from the darkness: in order to see it we throw everything we possess into the fire - the world, our joys, our hopes. The flame leaps forth, consumes it all, and in its glow the beloved Face lights up. But the flame dies down, and we feed it with what little remains to us: honor, success, our will, the intellect, our temperament, finally our very self: absume et suspice - "take and receive." This is not simple self-giving but, increasingly, the knowledge that I am being taken, that I must surrender. Grace is everything: the moment of God's appearing; grace also every sacrifice the fire snatches from me.

The Grain of Wheat: Aphorisms
by Hans Urs von Balthasar

Saint Elizabeth of Hungary

Chris was just reading to me a section from an article on Christology about how Mary's humility is directly linked to her being "lifted up" by divine grace. Looking over the church calendar this month, I couldn't help but notice all of the women who are honored in November. One of the women died 1800 years ago and then another just 150 years ago. Some of them were queens and princesses and another an orphan and two were martyrs. What can I learn from these great women of faith, what light do they shed on how to be a great woman?

Today we remember St. Elizabeth of Hungary who lived for just twenty-four years! In Steinbeck's translation of The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Nights, Merlin tells King Arthur that "Greatness lives in one who triumphs equally over defeat and victory." Elizabeth surely did that! For in her life she was given great riches but also great poverty, luxuries but also great hardships. And in her life, it was not her own greatness that shined through, but Christ who lived in her, who had already triumphed in great victory over sin and death.

Elizabeth was a princess. Her parents were the king and queen of Hungary. At four she had to leave her family to live with her future husband's family, as was the practice at that time and at just fourteen, she was married to her husband, Louis who was duke of Thuringia in Germany. She was passionately in love with her husband. Seeing her devotion to God, he always encouraged her in her faith. While she was dutches she opened up a hospital for the poor and a soup kitchen.

Rose Philippine Duchesne

While her husband loved her and was kind to her, her in-laws were not. And when Louis died when she was twenty Elizabeth and her three children were evicted from their home. They lived in poverty. Yet Elizabeth was not embittered by her predicament. When her father, the king of Hungary, found out about her state, he had Elizabeth's lands restored to her. Yet, after securing her children's welfare, she chose to continue to live in poverty. She lived in a room in the hospital she had founded and cared for the sick and lepers.

Tomorrow, on the 18th, is the memorial of Rose Philippine Duchesne who came from France to America as a missionary to serve the Native Americans.

Saint Cecilia's memorial is on the 22nd of November. She was a very devoted Christian, bringing many to faith in Christ including her husband. After her husband was martyred, Cecilia was also sent for. It is said, that even up to the moment of her death she sang to the God. Because of that, she is the patron of music.

Saint Cecilia

Yesterday was the memorial day of St. Margaret of Scotland and St. Gertrude. Even though she was the daughter of an English Prince, St. Margaret grew up in Hungary during the time of King Andrew I, who was a Christian. Her family then moved back to England but after her father's death, her mother wished to move back to the continent. Setting out on a ship, they were blown off course, and ended up in Scotland. They sought the aid of the king of Scotland, Malcolm III. Margaret ended up marrying Malcolm. To this day, the place where she landed is known as St. Margaret's Hope. Margaret served orphans and the poor every day and went to Mass to worship God every evening. She was known for her work on religious reform and she encouraged both her husband and her children in this way. Saint Gertrude the Great lived just a few hundred years after St. Margaret in the 13th century. Unlike Margaret, she herself is thought to have been an orphan. As a young girl she came to a monastery and was educated there. She loved theology and literature and eventually embraced the Lord in faith. She became a Benedictine nun and today is known for her book Herald of God's Loving Kindness as well as her Spiritual Exercises.

St. Margaret with her husband King Malcolm III

The memorial of my soon-coming niece, Tula's patron saint, Catherine of Alexandria will be at the very end of the month. Catherine was born in Alexandria to parents that were pagan just three hundred years after the death of Christ. She became a Christian as a teenager and is said to have tried to convince the emperor at that time that the persecution of Christians was wrong. While his wife was converted, Emperor Maxentius still had Catherine thrown into prison. After leading several prisoners to Christ, she was killed.

The really neat thing about each of these women is how different they are. They each sought after sacrifice in their own way whether it was in giving to the poor, sacrificing a married life for a single life consecrated to prayer and physical children for spiritual children, or through sacrificing their very life for the love of Christ! And as Mary says in the Magnificat, "he hath exalted the humble" and as in the beatitudes, "the meek shall inherit the earth." So now, all these years later, we honor these women and we are given another peek into the way things really are in the Kingdom of God! So next time you ask yourself what it means to be a woman, just look at God's "masterpieces" the saints for an illustration!

Here is a picture of Saint Catherine of Alexandria, painted by Caravaggio:

Connecting the dots ....

between the apostle Paul and Our Lady of Victories. 

One of the key messages of NT Wright’s book Paul: A Fresh Perspective is that God did not only mean to save his chosen people, but also through them, to bring about restoration to the whole world! From the moment that evil entered the world in Genesis, God made a covenant with his people, saying that he would make things right. Through following the Torah, the Israelites could bring about this kind of restoration, but the Israelites became part of the problem, by falling into idolatry themselves, just like the other pagan nations! God stayed true to the promise to Israel and to Abraham, but he did the unexpected. After sending his Son to perfectly fulfill the law, he opened up the family to the Gentiles as well. Being God’s chosen people no longer was about your ethnic origin – or about being circumcised or fulfilling other commands found in the Torah. It was about faith. Paul wasn’t taking part in a grace /good works debate like those in the late middle ages but rather a Gentile/Jew debate. So we have to read Scripture through Paul’s context first. And just as in the beginning, with this new chosen people God means for the restoration of His kingdom to come about. We are to be made new through the workings of the Holy Spirit by becoming like Christ. And through the same power that raised Jesus from the dead working in us, God will bring about the redemption of the world!

So, what does this have to do with Our Lady of Victories (the name of our church, honoring the Virgin Mary)? In Romans, Paul says that “if only we suffer with him (Christ)” then we will also “be glorified with him.” I think that our church is a physical manifestation of Mary sharing in the glory of God. One of the amazing things about our church is that there are 37,000 ex-votos (“fulfilled vows) in recognition of Mary before the Lord and his people over the past two hundred years in thanks for her offering up prayers to God on their behalf. Many of them are wonderfully miraculous! Just like Bathsheba would sit next to King Solomon and consequently had influence on him (I Kings 2:19), Mary sits in the new Kingdom with her Son, King Jesus and can intercede on our behalf! Of course, Jesus doesn’t need Mary to tell Him our petitions, but God has always desired to work through his people to bring about restoration. And I find myself realizing, what a big picture of God’s grace! How beyond imagining, that God give us this! When you walk into this church and see God’s power to raise up the humble as he does with Jesus’s mother, then you touch and see God’s grace. It becomes 3-D! It’s a matter of our being carried up into His love so that we love one another and truly bear one another’s burdens. Where God’s people are obedient to Him and his will is done, there his Kingdom comes! And the “new commandment” is that we “love one another” (I John).



Ex-votos thanking Jesus for answered prayers and Mary and Joseph for praying on their behalf.



Right before St. Therese died, she said that she felt her mission was just about to begin! Therese spoke of what attracted her to heaven – “It is Love. To love, to be loved and to return to earth to win love for our Love … I feel that my mission is about to begin, my mission to make God loved as I love Him, to teach souls my little way.”

Both Mary and St. Therese are examples of God working through his chosen people to bring about the restoration of His Kingdom! And so when we see Our Lady of Victories, dedicated to Mary or The Basilica of St. Therese in Lisieux, we are looking at the kingdom of God on Earth. In these churches we honor (not worship!) Mary and St. Therese and by that we honor God himself because we see through them, his grace in action! Sometimes I think I get caught up in seeing things too much on this side of death. If a basilica were built for me, right now, I’m sure it would go to my head! I’d think I was pretty great. But then I remember that Mary and St. Therese have gone through the passage of death to new life. They are perfect. For them it’s all about Jesus so they can handle having churches made in their honor. And God doesn’t mind it just like a parent doesn’t feel jealous when their child is praised. It is all a reflection on the Father because he is the one that has formed them into his new creation!

Here are some pictures from our church of ex-votos given in recognition of Mary as she shares in God’s work of building his kingdom! They are examples of Gods’ Kingdom piercing through into this world already.

And so we live in an "in-between" time. Christ has come to make all things new and he has given us a deposit of what is to come in the future - namely, the Holy Spirit! But we are in transition. In the greatest sense the victory has been won. Christ fulfilled the Torah and he overcame death! Yet things have yet to be made right. The Holy Spirit does that. Just like in Narnia when the earth begins to thaw from the long winter brought by the White Witch and spring comes, the Holy Spirit brings life to this world. Through this he continues to show how King Jesus overcame death and decay! And the Holy Spirit bears this fruit, this fruit of the new covenant, of the new kingdom, through the seeds he plants through baptism and fosters in his people through the sacraments! He works throughout history to make things right. Paul says in his first letter to the Thessalonians: "For what is our hope or joy or crown to boast of in the presence of our Lord Jesus at his coming if not you yourselves? For you are our glory and joy." (2, 19-20) And in his letter to the Philippians in 4,1 he says: "therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown."  And so Paul holds up in the last day Christ  - but HOW does he do it?  Paul's "crown" in heaven is nothing other than the work he has done on earth because that work has been the Holy Spirit working in him. Paul's glory is Christ, and this glory is also Paul's and the Church's because Christ lives in him through the Holy Spirit. Christ gives Paul, Mary, Therese and all of the saints (including you and me!) the grace to be like him, to be lifted up too, to wear a crown that will never pass away. And so for us to lift up those whom Christ lifts up is to lift up Christ himself!

"The meek shall inherit the earth ..." Thoughts on Thérèse of Lisieux and The Lord of the Rings

“What does St. Thérèse of Lisieux and Frodo Baggins have in common?”

 


Chris and I just finished our annual watching of The Lord of the Rings and I think one of the things that Tolkien really captured in his books (and in the film) is how the small players, play just as important of a role as the great. Aragorn, Legolos, Gandalf …. They all are extremely gifted. Compared to them, the hobbits seem not only small, but simple. They haven’t been out of the shire – They haven’t experienced what Aragorn has experienced or have the wisdom, knowledge or power that Gandalf possesses.


Being surrounded by academics, especially academics that work in Theology, it sometimes can be hard to make sense of how these extremely smart, extremely gifted theologians/philosophers can be dealing with the same questions and truths about God that the normal person is confronting. I’ve sat in at some of the conferences Chris goes to and it’s like their speaking a different language! And so you think, how can the simple truths of God’s kingdom be so complex if it was meant for the most simple? And so that is where I think the characters in The Lord of the Rings are very helpful. You can see how giftedness (which includes not only skill with a sword, but intelligence) can be used for great good like in the case of Gandalf or great bad, like in the case of the white wizard, gone bad, Saruman. And while the big players like Aragorn and Legolos are fighting great battles, the hobbits, in a more simple way, are making the same strides, if not greater in winning the victories!


It helps me to think of God’s truths as the lines of a cookie-cutter. From straight on, you just see the outline of what the cookie will be. But if you turn it on its side, you see that there is depth to the cookie cutter. The lines of the cookie cutter, from this other perspective have a greater depth (and this is where the metaphor ends) because those depths are more like cliffs … cliffs that go down and down for eternity! God’s truths are beyond deep! While Gandalf might be dealing in the cliffs of truth, Frodo and Sam may have just as much of an understanding of God’s wisdom in seeing straight on the picture that the cookie cutter makes.


A real life example of this is the modern day saint Thérèse of Lisieux. Thérèse died of tuberculosis in 1897 when she was just twenty-four. She spent most of her life in the town she had grown up in and was raised by her two older sisters. She entered the Carmalite convent in Lisieux when she was just 15. Yet, she has become one of the Doctors of the Church! She is often called “the little flower” and she is most well known for her “little way,” of following Jesus. It’s simple; she just put herself in the place of a child and did whatever he commanded her. She willed His will to be the way of her life and so she let go of any of her own desires, making her only desire – His desires. She wrote of being God’s “plaything.” She wanted to offer herself to the Child Jesus, not to be used as “a valuable toy children are content to look at but dare not touch, but to use me as a little ball of no value which he could throw on the ground, push with His foot, pierce, leave in a corner, or press to His heart if it pleased Him.” More than desiring to feel valued or to get her own way, Therese desired for Jesus to be pleased, no matter what cost that came to her. Her desire for Him was greater than her desire for herself. From St. Thérèse of Lisieux’s autobiography, The Story of a Soul:


“I wanted to find an elevator which would raise me to Jesus, for I am too small to climb the rough stairway of perfection. I searched, then in the Scriptures for some sign of this elevator, the object of my desires, and I read these words coming from the mouth of Eternal Wisdom:


‘Whoever is a LITTLE ONE, let him come to me.’” (Proverbs 9:4)


and


‘As one whom a mother caresses, so will I comfort you; you shall be carried at the breasts, and upon the knees they shall caress you.’


Ah, never did words more tender and more melodious come to give joy to my soul. The elevator which must raise me to heaven is Your arms, O Jesus! And for this I had no need to grow up, but rather I had to remain little and become this more and more.”


“Now abandonment alone guides me. I have no other compass! I can no longer ask for anything with fervor except the accomplishment of God’s will in my soul without any creature being able to set obstacles in the way. I can speak these words of the Spiritual Canticle of St. John of the Cross:


… After I have known it


LOVE works so in me


That whether things go well or badly


Love turns them to one sweetness


Transforming the soul in ITSELF.”


This Thursday Chris and I will be going on a pilgrimage with our church to Lisieux - so more on Thérèse will be coming soon!