Aphorism of the Day, January 31, 2021
It is one thing to say God is beyond words, and while one is doing that one is using the words, "God is beyond words." So one deconstructs oneself even while uttering this. Another way to express what we might call mystery and mysticism is to admit that having Language or Words means that words always refer to things which are not words and so words seem to be the threshold between words and what words are referring or pointing too. And if we think that we can escape "words," we need to admit that the entire context of of being here or there is already pre-coded by language. By language, we reflect reflexively upon the language experience of humanity. One needs to be careful about thinking one has "escaped" language while language is omni-present in pre-coding our human existence.
Aphorism of the Day, January 30, 2021
The way to read the Gospels is to discern the presentations of liturgical practice, teaching, and doctrines of the early church in the narratives about Jesus. The Gospels represent a later stage than say the writings of Paul, of a more institutionalized organization which arrived at the genre of the Gospel to embed the undergirding Christian practices in various phases and places of Christian communities.
Paul Aphorism of the Day, January 29, 2021
The main issue in life is the know the relationship between one's inner life with one's outer life to be characterized with such designations as love, creativity, fellowship and the like. When one's interior life is so confused that it prevents such outcomes in our exterior life, one realizes that the taming of the interior is required. The interior might be known as a very wild place because of early childhood trauma causing dissociative disorders or the brain chemistry may be chronically unable to allow interior peace. It could be that Jesus as a people whisperer, was able to appeal to the Me Underneath Everything In My Body, and resurrect the image of God within. And the result is to know a profound Peace which can begin to heal all of the scars that have plowed deep grooves in one's memories which have determined the hurtful practices of one's life.
Aphorism of the Day, January 28, 2021
The Gospel literary function of the exorcisms of Jesus is to present him as triumphant over principalities and powers in the cosmic battle of God versus Satan, who is seen in the salvation story, as one who is given permissive freedom to cause havoc in the world. Jesus, is seen as the hero to face the one who creates havoc in the exterior world but also in the interior world of people who can be continuously threatened by the accusing voices and misappropriated desire which leads to addiction/possession by unworthy compulsive forces. Jesus as the Risen Christ/Holy Spirit is the Higher Power to give people freedom from addiction and "possession" due to warped desire.
Aphorism of the Day, January 27, 2021
In classifying mental health disorders, that is the behaviors which seem to indicate an interior disordered life, with disordered being defined by community standards of appropriate public behaviors, some of the Gospel communities had the diagnosis of "unclean spirit," or "demons," to define the disorders of the persons who were disturbing the community norms for how to interact and behave. Some can view Jesus as a "demon zapper" bringing instant soundness of mind to people. Certainly, we wish we had access to a pan-healing demon zapper to instantly cure all of the varieties of mental health disorders which trouble us today in our world. One can also understand the exorcism stories as post-Pauline wisdom instantiation of the spiritual life being against the disorienting "diabols" inside of each person which contribute to the inability to peacefully unite our inner lives with how we manifest our outer lives in word and behaviors. We know that "healing" of any sort is never "final" since our bodies still have death as a teleological event. Our bodily and mental lives are going through continuous states of relative health and unwellness. If we appropriate Jesus simplistically and literally as a superhero demon zapper, it can perpetuate the untruth that "complete" health is a static state that one achieves, rather than the truth of life including varieties of states of health/disease in the progression of time.
Aphorism of the Day, January 26, 2021
One can use themes of "medical anthropology" to analyze the presentation of people who had degrees of severe mental health disorders. Exorcisms of "unclean" spirits by the people whisperer Jesus are included in the synoptic Gospels, but not in the Gospel of John. Does this mean that in the context for the writing and editing of John's Gospel, exorcisms had become an "unfamiliar or unacceptable" spiritual mental health "treatment?"
Aphorism of the Day, January 25, 2021
In a public health system which had as a diagnosis as condition as "unclean spirit," one would be regarded as persona non grata, especially at public gather of worship. Jesus, people whisperer, was able to turn one designated as having an "unclean spirit," into one who had the unclean removed. It is always good to get a Public Health system negative label on oneself removed.
Aphorism of the Day, January 24, 2021
The call of Christ might come in the form of creative advance in one's life which does not just involve one own benefit but the benefit of others. The call of Christ happens when we check our egos at the doors for the benefit of other people in our world to be able to experience and share good news for their lives.
Aphorism of the Day, January 23, 2021
A call of Christ is both event and and a way of life. You can have the call of Christ as a way of life without having dramatic Damascus Road calling "events."
Aphorism of the Day, January 22, 2021
It could be that Peter, Andrew, James, and John were thrilled to be delivered from the "tedium" of commercial fishing as their daytime jobs. The call of Jesus gave them the impetus to "leave" the family business whose gifts were perhaps untapped by simply throwing the net and hoping for a catch to sell. The call of Christ can provide a way out of the drudgery of what one might be stuck in.
Aphorism of the Day, January 21, 2021
Sometimes a vocation or a call is reduced to a specific religious ministry or vacation. This can end up in the neglect of the general call to be upon a holistic path of transformation, a continual repentance, in the renewing of one's mind.
Aphorism of the Day, January 20, 2021
Jonah is a story about a man who was called to do something that he did not want to do because it was way outside of his comfort zone and required that he live beyond his own limited "exceptionalism." Jonah believe in the exceptionalism of his Torah based identity and why would God offer that benefit to the foreigners of Ninevah? The lesson is that God calls us beyond our own biases because of God is love, and such love is for everyone, meaning we owe the best of love to everyone.
Aphorism of the Day, January 19, 2021
Can you imagine St. Peter before he was crucified in Rome thinking, "Wow, I've come a long way from tending nets on the Sea of Galilee?"
Aphorism of the Day, January 18, 2021
The call of Christ made fishermen public speakers and travelers to places far beyond the shores of the Sea of Galilee. The call of Christ is a spiritual awakening which holistically changes ones entire life in manifold ways. It really can be a "life make- over."
Aphorism of the Day, January 17, 2021
Sometimes the "call" to do things get over-valued in light the the always already call to "general" virtue like love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, and kindness. The manifestations of such virtues are always specific in situational deeds and so they are not theoretical. Let no one think that they don't have a call.
Aphorism of the Day, January 16, 2021
In church history, the emphasis upon "heroic" calls of the remembered saints has covered up the importance of the quotidian call for everyone to be kind. Paul wrote that one could be heroic and yet miss out on the most important thing, love.
Aphorism of the Day, January 15, 2021
The words of the call of Jesus were: "Follow me." If one wants to do an analysis of one's values, one should ask, "who am I following?" The authorities whom we privilege reveal the ones whom we are following, both politically and spiritually. Whose teachings have caught one's attention as being worthy of making one a devoted follower? If one can answer that honestly, one knows the nature of one's calling in life, and how one is constituted toward the actions determined by one's values.
Aphorism of the Day, January 14, 2021
Often when studying the call of God from the Gospel stories, we focus on the first and initial call. An initial call is only one event in time; what about the necessary continuity of the call because a call is only an introduction when "people start speaking." The continual relationship in time as a continuing call is more important than one mere milestone.
Aphorism of the Day, January 13, 2021
Historically, the notion of a call from God or a "vocation" became seen as pertaining mostly to the clergy and the religious of monastic communities. Call and vocation came to regarded as something heroic based upon what one had to give up from "normal" pedestrian life to respond to the harder requirements of the call to poverty, obedience and chastity. One of the results of the liturgical movement was the recovery of the "lay apostolate" and the recognition that the baptismal calling is an equal grace-filled calling that results in different articulations of that equal call of God. Epiphany is a season of highlighting the call of God, really to everyone, based upon the inside job of the image of God being within everyone. Everyone has the call, but not everyone realizes and actualizes the call. Very few are struck to the ground with Damascus road call experiences, many are realize the call in a beautiful sunset or a sleeping baby.
Aphorism of the Day, January 12, 2021
The season of Epiphany includes the theme of the call of God. The Gospel provides "call stories" about how the disciples came to follow Jesus. One's call involves the dynamic of projecting our love on mentors and ideals that are icons of who we want to be in the future to surpass ourselves in excellence. When we find traces in people and words of what we are not yet, the "call" happens as a lure to our transformation.
Aphorism of the Day, January 11, 2021
Nathaniel was amazed that Jesus saw him from a distance when he was under a fig tree. What message do we send from a far when there is no one intentionally "watching" us? Are we sending the "kindness of strangers" message when no one is looking?
Aphorism of the Day, January 10, 2021
Baptism might be understood as a "rite of passage," signifying the interaction of a person within a community as the acknowledgment of the baptized becoming coded passively and actively with the "grace markings" of the community's best practices, namely, being loved by God, forgiven, set on a path of the repentance and learning to love one's neighbor as one's self. Such grace markings comprise the social ontological change which happens to the baptized. The baptized and the community of the baptized are different after the baptism because each has surpassed their former states of becoming.
Aphorism of the Day, January 9, 2021
Some are used to presenting baptismal grace as sort of causatively and mechanically attached to a "water rite" in the church. Why not see baptism as an event of reconnection of the original grace of creation which never has left the world with new discoveries of it in time? In wanting to put God's grace "in control" of church bodies, we can reduce grace to canon law and church administration.
Aphorism of the Day, January 8, 2021
One can view baptism as a time specific causative occasion when grace moves upon the baptized, or one can see baptism as an individual in community event when the realization of the goodness grace of creation is re-realized by the community as a manifestation of the prevenient grace of values of the social ontology of the community being imprinted again in an actualizing event of inculcating the future church.
Aphorism of the Day, January 7, 2021
When a baby enters the world, we can say that such a little being is an "unfinished" being. There are many events to look forward to in the becoming more "finished" as a person, as a mature person. What does being finished or mature mean? With the community of faith, it means growing to be more Christ-like, and this growth process never ends. Baptism, no matter when it happens, carries with it the "community social programming values:" love God and neighbor as oneself and respect the dignity of every human person. These are the values of being "more finished" in our lives. Baptism is an important confirming graceful gateway into these sublime and totally worthy teleological values.
Aphorism of the Day, January 6, 2021
Baptism in its essence is the acceptance between a person, the fellowship and God of a covenant of identity. In this identity one is saying, "I belong to God in Christ, and I belong with the fellowship of those who confess the same." Together the baptized and his or her fellowship are hearing the voice of God say, "You are my beloved children, with you I am well pleased." This is the event of esteem for the fellowship of Christ.
Aphorism of the Day, January 5, 2021
As we practice baptism, it is a covenant ceremony, an initiation event signifying that one is undergoing a process of mystification, sanctification in the belief that Christ is is in one as the hope that one is being propelled to surpass oneself in excellence in a very open future. There is nothing superstitious about the rite itself even as it does posses the ingredients of how the social ontology of the church functions. In community, one becomes different through baptism by virtue of the baptismal meanings beginning to constitute how one understands one's own identity and how others understand one's identity. A difference between the baptism of Jesus and ours is this: Jesus was baptized as an expression of his full solidarity/union with humanity, the significant hominization of the divine. We are baptized to celebrate the possibility of progressing in divinization/godliness to grow in the God-identity aspect of our lives.
Aphorism of the Day, January 4, 2021
Kenosis is how the "emptying of God into Jesus" is poetically described. The Plenitude of Everything that Is has reductive representation is what is most excellent in human form. Christians have a hard time dealing with Christ as the Cosmic unlimited being and Jesus as the one who accepted all of the limitations of living in his particular context and setting, even as he did it with superb excellence. Kenosis is expressed as "solidarity" with human life and one of the human things people of faith were doing during the time of Jesus was to get baptized by John the Baptist. Jesus too was baptized by John as an act that is understood as another occasion of kenosis in the life of the eternal Christ-Word in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.
Aphorism of the Day, January 3, 2021
To treat the star of Bethlehem as an actual "drone hovering star," is to miss the metaphorical meaning of the wisdom story of the early church regarding the validity of God-experience of "foreigners."
Aphorism of the Day, January 2, 2021
The magi story includes a "drone" star, that is, a star that can move and hover like a God-directed drone. It is the divine GPS before there was GPS. The magi were representative of Gentiles in story form of God-fearing seekers who like the Psalmist found that the heavens "declare the glory of God," in a general way, but that glory can lead one to the birth site within oneself of the Christ nature. Incredible how so many have sacrificed the mystagogy of the early church to assert that such an event could have been empirically verified, assuming the early church mystics did not know the difference between poetry and commonsense.
Aphorism of the Day, January 1, 2021
It is good year to lean how to be magical magi. In magic, one does not seek outside intervention; one manages the focus on quick changing referential frames of foreground and background to direct the eye to what one wants others to "see" and "not see." As maturing people in emotional intelligence, learning to direct intentional focus is part of the magic of managing life. We can let the overwhelming reality of the bad and evil, like the pandemic dictate our behaviors, or we can with artistic rhetorical finesse "see" other things that can inspire behaviors of faith based upon the yet unseen outcomes of hope.
