As April came to a close we prepared to head north and would not return till the end of June. This was a longer time away for us than any of our previous planned trips.The first thought I had, as the bags,boxes, and the like piled up, was will we ever get all of this “stuff” in the car! We did- or almost all since later I heard June speak of things she would have liked to have had with us – but we ran out of room. We had a clothing problem, how many changes of them would we need, how heavy should they be ? We were ending our stay at the beach in Avalon,New Jersey so we tossed in chairs, a beach umbrella, etc. So there was much to consider and arrange – but fortunately for me June was handling it, so all the problems were solved.
We left in mid morning and made good time so that we were in Hardeville, South Carolina for our overnight stay. On Saturday we traveled all the way to Fredricksburg,Virginia. Our last leg was the toughest due to rain,heavy at times, and a detour off of I-95 but we managed to get to my daughter’s in Yardley, Pennsylvania by noon. We had covered just under 1100 miles and were glad to be getting out of the car.
It is now four weeks later as I write. June and I have been living apart. She lives with Katherine about four miles away while I reside with my daughter Mary, her husband Ron and their three boys, Aidan & Alex age 11,and Owen,who just turned eight. June has been entertaining guests with meals. It is one of the things she really enjoys – cooking. She adamantly states she is happy to do that but no housecleaning! The variety of meals is terrific and the compliments from the guests are well deserved. I hop over for lunch and dinner. I keep busy in between times by reading,painting,walking and occasionally baby sitting the three boys. It is a whole new style of living for both of us and it is taking time to adjust ourselves to it.
In the previous jottings I spoke of mine and June’s dislike for modern art. I received some comments from readers that they feel the same way. Around the same time I received an email pointing me to a webpage that reports all that happened in any year. I went on to the year 1929, the year of my birth, and what to my surprise should I learn: The Museum of Modern Art in New York City, was founded in that year! Over the years I had often kidded that I was born and the stock market collapsed shortly thereafter– making me wary for most of my life from investing in stocks. The web page address is: www.infoplease.com in case you would like to find out what happen the year you were born. I also noted that the Philadelphia A’s won the World Series that year and Notre Dame had a 9-0 season.
Over the last ten years one of the things that has helped me increase my faith has been the reading and studying of the Bible. Through my years of education in Catholic schools from first grade through college there never was a course that I heard or saw that did so. The Bible was always a part of courses like Moral Theology, History of the Church, etc. but not a specific subject of study.We did have readings each Sunday at Mass which were excerpts from the New and Old Testaments. I never heard of a Bible Study in the Catholic church until the year 2000. I had attended an ecumenical meeting at the Holy Family Catholic church with our Pastor and his wife. I was invited shortly after that to attend a “Bible Study” at their church. I had been attending one at the Lutheran Church of the Cross(of which I am a member) and at another church, Faith Covenant Church,but nevertheless I decided to also attend the one at Holy Family. It is usually held in the seasons of Lent or Advent while FCC is all year round. In any case the last ten years I’ve attended such studies. All have increased my knowledge and belief in the “word of God”.
It occurs to me as I write about my increase in Faith, I am overlooking one of the crucial reasons for my coming back to Faith and that is June. After my divorce I lost a great deal of my belief in the practice of any religion. I could blame it on anger etc. but it would not really be the only reason. In any event thanks to June I was brought back to my senses and to the acknowledgement of our true purpose for being. June brought me back to worship and a belief that had gone astray. Since then her encouragement and will certainly have helped me more than even a Bible study.
The reason I got to thinking about my Bible studying experience is that I came across an article by a Theology professor whose thoughts and how they are expressed in writings I liked. He is Luke Timothy Johnson,Professor of the New Testament at Condor School of Theology at Emory University. He was a former Benedicting monk and studied at schools like Yale and other such prominent Theological institues. He is now the father of seven children. I took a course he taught on audio tapes some years ago from the Teaching Company. It was on the “Acts of Paul”. His article was “Homosexuality and the Church”. In my study sessions and in particular, my Via de Christo reunion group, this issue arose often. The Episcopal Church in America brought the issue to the forefront with the appointment of a known homosexual as a Bishop. The covering up of the pedophiles in the Catholic church added another dimension to sexual orientation and the Bible.In these groups there really was never any discussion re the matter. “It was unatural and prohibited by the Bible”. I could never get a citation of where it was so stated. I asked for it and yet there was no reply or if it was, it was vague and uncertain. I sent the reunion group an excerpt from a Gary Wills’ book “What Jesus Meant” in which he described a funeral at a Catholic Church of a homosexual in San Diego. At the funeral there were protesters carrying signs like, “God hates Fags!” I suggested in the note attached to the excerpt,as did Gary Wills, that such conduct was hardly Christian. He further noted that Jesus message was of love and that outcasts were those that he often associated with…like prostitutes, lepers, tax collectors, etc. I got one response out of the seven I sent. It was an explanation that such subjects were not discussed in ‘reunion’ groups!
In the article by Johnson he notes “… the Bible no where speaks positively or even neutrally about same sex love” But even if it did Christianity as actually practiced has never lived in precise accord with Scripture. War is opposed in scripture by Jesus,divorce (even under another name like “annulment”) defies Jesus’ clear prohibition. Then there are those exhortations in Leviticus to stone psychics and put adulterers to death. Johnson then discusses how a literal reading of the Bible is wrong and we need to apply our experience and understanding of God to any difficult passage. He shows how experience and love conquered the Biblical approval of slavery. It was approved in the Bible but is today not in the least considered Christian. “Our situation vis a vis the authority of Scripture is not unlike that of the abolitionist… So how is it that now that the… “authority of scriptural text on slavery and arguments made on their basis appear to all of us as beside the point and deeply wrong” His explanation is that … “human experience of slavery and its horror came home to the popular conscience through personal testimony and direct personal contact” We need to place our trust in the power of the living God.. “to reveal as powerfully through personal experience and testimony as through written texts”. He cites Paul’s 2 Corinthians 3:6: “…our qualification comes from God, who indeed has qualified us as ministers of a new covenant, not of letter but of spirit; for the letter brings death, but the Spirit gives life” (The New American Bible). Professor Johnson notes however that those who base their convictions on experience should not make it a form of cheap “grace” as though whatever “feels good is morally acceptable”. He refers to another example in the New Testament of the Apostles accepting experience – or “God’s direction in human stories”. It was their decision to include Gentiles without requiring them to be circumcised or observe Mosaic law.
One more example, and to me those most appealing, was the story in John of the healing of a blind man on the Sabbath. Christ rejects the notion,existing then that the blindness was caused by any body’s sin. His body,the blind man, “was simply an opportunity for Jesus to show the ‘outward’ sign of God’s presence and power in the world” The Pharisees contend it was done by the devil since God wouldn’t violate the Sabbath. To this the blind man responds: “Whether he is a sinner, I do not know; what I do know is that I was blind and now I can see. Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind,if the man were not from God,he could do nothing.” To which Johnson adds,“The man’s experience and testimony stand against the authorities insistence that God can only act within the framework of righteousness as defined by traditional piety”
*****
We are looking forward to the graduations and a week in Avalon. I’m looking forward even more to having my loving wife back with me. We are constantly reminded that “there’s no place like home” so it is to us even more meaningful the longer we are away! Until next time, Pax Tecum!