St. Thomas the Apostle

It's a shame to be remembered primarily for something that is embarrasing and not particularly flattering. I, for one, would be mortified if the chief thing people remembered about me was as the kid who got an eraser stuck in his nose in the fourth grade. I would hope that people realized that I had moved long past that point andhad done some other things in life that were more noble and enduring.

I wonder if St. Thomas had any clue that he would be forever memorialized by Christians and non-Christians alike as "doubting Thomas." Just as Seinfeld has contributed to mainstream culture such things as "close talker," yada yada yada," and "double-dipping," so Christian tradition has seen to it that "doubting Thomas" has trickled its way over the years into the mainstream of cultural vocabulary. A person who has never stepped into a church or opened a Bible knows about doubting Thomas. But is this completely fair?

I have heard many a piously-motivated and well-meaning preacher blast poor Thomas for his disbelief as if we ourselves would do no such thing if we saw the risen Lord. But perhaps it would give us a new perspective to put ourselves as best we can into the mind of Thomas at that very moment that he saw Jesus.

Imagine the grief you have felt at the loss of a close friend or family member. In some ways, you would do anything to have them back, but on the other hand, you know that deep down you must come to terms with the fact that this person is dead. They had died. They aren't coming back. And if you have been in the midst of a grueling process of grief you know that the rational words of comforters who talk much about our loved one "being in a better place" and "with God now" and other such platitudes provide little to no comfort at all, at least until the inebriating effect of grief begins to wear off. Simply put, promises made to us while we are in a rational state simply don't have much effect upon us when we are in an irrational state. This does not mean that the promise itself is invalid, it simply means that we don't have the capacity to take comfort in such promises until the initial storm surge of grief and pain subsides.

What grief Thomas must have felt. This Jesus whom he had put so much faith in, had travelled with, had given his heart to, had hung his every hope upon, was dead. He died. He was gone. Of course Thomas had heard and believed with the rest of the apostles all of the promises that Jesus had made, included the one about rising from the dead. But how could that be of comfort or rationally grasped at a time like this? To say that he should have been better prepared would be like saying that looking a map or a photo of Niagra falls is proper preparation for an actual jump into the falls.

My guess is that Thomas had just begun to get used to the fact that Jesus was gone and that it was simply too painful to even entertain the notion that this man standing before him could be Jesus. It was too risky to take back hold of someone he had just begun to let go. His problem was not so much that he doubted when he saw Jesus. His problem was that he wasn't with the rest of his brethren when he should have been. His grief he had borne in isolation and without the community of faith. While his brethren comforted one another in their pain and fear, he went at it alone, or at least without them. When individual faith is weak it needs the faith of the community to hold it up, just as Aaron and Joshua held up Moses hands as the Israelites did battle.

Once Thomas encountered Christ in the presence of his brethren, and once the Lord had graciously granted his demand for proof, his response was one that, while not as enduring as "doubting Thomas," has been on the lips of Catholic Christians for centuries during Mass: "My Lord and My God."

Not only did Thomas recognized the man Jesus in the resurrected flesh, he knew him as his Lord and his God. Quite a turn around.

All this is not to exculpate Thomas from his unbelief. He shouldn't have doubted. He should've held on more tightly to promise of his Lord even in the midst of pain and grief. But let us think twice before we hold our own faith to his as superior. We have not only the Holy Spirit in our hearts witnessing to the truth of our Lord's resurrection, we have 2,000 years of unbroken teaching concerning this great mystery. So when our faith is weak, we have this great pillar to lean upon. St Thomas didn't have this. He had himself and a relatively small band of fearful, quivering men.

The vindication of St. Thomas is found not only in his great acclamation of Jesus as Lord and God, but also in what that acclamation drove him to do. Myriad Christians in India look to St Thomas as their patron and founder of their Church, grateful that because he was so gripped by the message of his Lord and his God, he would traverse far across land and sea to bring the life-changing message of Jesus to an exotic land.

St Thomas, pray for us on this day as we honor you, that we may overcome our doubts and as we encounter the risen Lord, say with you, "My Lord and My God."


Everliving God, who didst strengthen thine apostle Thomas with sure and certain faith in thy Son's resurrection: Grant us so perfectly and without doubt to believe in Jesus Christ, our Lord and our God, that our faith may never be found wanting in thy sight; through him who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Holiday Greetings with No Offense!

Not even the ACLU could find a problem with this!

(Not my own creation, I recieved this from a mailing list in which I participate)


Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non-addictive, gender neutral, celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasions and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all.

We also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling, and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2005, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great (not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country or is the only "AMERICA" in the Western Hemisphere), and without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith, or sexual preference of the wishee.
By accepting this greeting, you are accepting these terms: This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for her/himself or others, and is void where prohibited by law, and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher.
This wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year, or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, whichever comes first, and warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher.

Happy Holidays!

Western Europe is still run by Barbarians

Sometimes I think the term "Western Civilization" is an oxymoron. Perhaps you have recently heard as I have that the Netherlands has been practicing outright infanticide on sick babies. They are pushing to have this practice completely sanctioned in that country. Of course this rightly infuriates those who are committed to a culture of life and the sanctity of all life. But so often the discussion is turned to the subject of the value of human life. In other words, does human life have worth? Those who oppose the aforementioned practice and others such as abortion, believe that the more progressive death-mongers (pardon the not-so-irenic term) do not value human life.

Perhaps this isn't the best way to frame the argument.

If we are generous in speculating about the motives of the "other side (which I am usually not)," it must be said that they value human life, too. After all, the argument they present is precisely that human life loses its value after a certain point of insufferable pain, lack of brain activity, or other criteria often included in the overall designation "quality of life." While I certainly have disagreements with this way of reasoning and don't believe that the value of life should be judged on a scale, I have to admit that in their own warped and falacious way the "other side" values life as well. The question isn't whether life is valued or not.

I believe, like so many other issues we face today, that what we're disagreeing about is authority. Christians have long wrestled with the tension between the fact that we are created as free agents, able to choose and make decisions, and the fact that we are creatures under the Lordship of our Creator, whose sovereignty and authority trumps our own in the case of a conflict.

The progressives seem to operate under that assumption that human freedom is unbridled for the most part and that if we can do it, we should do it. Of course, they have their boundries as well, but these boundries are fluid and are usually governed by utilitarian and consequentialist principles rather than concrete, absolute authority.

In issues of life and death, the question we should be asking is this: "Is it right for one human to determine whether or not another human should live or die." Are we overstepping our freedom and encroaching upon divine sovereignty when we take life and death into our own hands, particularly in medical cases where suffering, deformity, or severe retardation is involved? I for one think we are. God is the giver and sustainer of life and He is also the judge of when that life should end. Humans are gloriously created in God's image as free beings but our freedom does not extend to the giving and taking of life as we please. Even if we can come up with the most humane and pragmatic reasons of why a life should be ended, it simply isn't ours to judge. It's like disagreeing with the war in Iraq. We may disagree and have great reasons why we shouldn't be there but the fact of the matter is that it's not our decision. Even more true this is when it comes to issues of life.

Those of us who are pro-life should be so not simply because we believe that human life has value. We should be so because we believe that our freedom as human beings does not extend to the domain of deciding on who should live and die. It's a matter of authority much more than of value.

Of course this point of view raises all kinds of other questions like the ethics of combat and capital punishment, but, as the title of this blog relates, these are the musings of a young priest, one who has many more question than answers. I'm interested to hear some viewpoints on this topic.

Pax,

RED+

What's the Rush?

Well, here I am back in the game after a long hiatus. As I shared with a priest friend recently, I either find that I spend too much time blogging (when I should be working) or no time at all (such as lately). I shall try from now on to find a judicious balance between the two (Oh how very Anglican of me...)


One of the most profound quotes from a movie that I have ever heard comes from Shawshank Redemption. Brooks is an elderly convict who has spent the majority of his life behind bars. His sentence is served and he is released. In a letter from the outside to his former prison mates, he shares how different the world is from before he went to prison. "The world went and got itself in a big damned hurry," he writes.

A big damned hurry indeed.

As the secular juggernaut presses on, we find the practice of beginning Christmas right after thanks giving or even before has crept into the Church. I don't simply mean Protestant churches with no liturgical year. Even churches that foll0w a liturgical calendar with Advent included have been sucked in. Of course, many Protestant churches are at the head of the Christian capitulation to the world's impatient hastening of the Christmas season. I can't find a Christian radio station that isn't playing Christmas music much of the time.

My question is, "what's the big damned hurry?"

Advent is quite frankly a treasure, particulary in these high-pressured and frantic days where the month of Decemeber is primarily a time to get stuck in holiday traffic, wait in line at retail stores, worry about not having enough money to get everyone presents, and any number of situations that create disquietude in the life of the soul.

In Advent, we are given a precious season of four Sundays and the weeks between to hunker down with ourselves and with God and quietly prepare ourselves for the coming of the King of Kings, both in rememberance of the Child and in anticipation of the Risen and Glorified Judge of all men. We are given an opportunity not to be sucked into the secular vortex of panic and frenzy and it is an opportunity unique to Christians. The Orthodox, hardcore as they are, have a forty-day season of preparation that parallels Lent in both duration and rigor. But even with our Lent-lite here in the West, there is an opportunity to raise our level of communion with God, and not just our blood pressure.

But still the rush toward Christmas rolls on, even among those of us in catholic communions that observe this season. I guess it's just part of being American. And yet, the irony of it all is that we rush and hurry toward Christmas and the observance of Christ's first coming, but we seem to be convinced that we have all the time in the world before his second coming. Shouldn't it be the other way around...patiently preparing during Advent for Christmas but eagerly anticipating the coming of our King in glory?

A story is told of Satan sending three young devils to earth to finish their apprentice training. Satan asked them what their strategy would be. The first said "I'll tell men there is no God." Satan replied, "That's no use. Men generally realize that there is a God." The second devil said, "I'll tell men there is no hell." Satan replied, "That's no use either, men generally believe there is a hell for sin and punishment." The third young devil said, "I'll tell men there is no hurry." Satan said, "Go and tell them, and you will ruin them by the thousands."

It's the nature of fallen humanity to completely miss the boat, or to use another expression, to put the emPHAsis on the wrong syLLAble. We hurry toward a largely secularized observance of a holy day for which we are given 3 or 4 weeks to prepare. But we poke along on the path of readiness for the coming of our King and Judge. "He hasn't come back in 2,000 years," we say, "surely he won't be back in my lifetime!"

But he will. Even if he doesn't come to meet us in this life, we will go to meet him at the end of it.

Let's get it right this Advent. Let's use this season to quietly, humbly, and with penitence avoid as best as we can the hurry and rush of the secular juggernaut. But let us use the time also to increase our sense of urgency and haste to prepare in our hearts a mansion for our coming Savior. For all the we don't know about Christ's second coming, we know one thing...he's coming, and we'd better be as ready as we can possibly be.

ALMIGHTY God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armour of light, now in the time of this mortal life, in which thy Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the quick and

dead, we may rise to the life immortal, through him who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, now and ever. Amen.

-The Book of Common Prayer

Peace to you all this Advent season,

RED+

P.S.- For an interesting bit about the history of Advent, go see this. (At least until next week)