Monday, June 19, 2017

Credit. Correction. Connection (Corpus Christi) (2017-06-18)

Sunday June 18, 2017 /    Corpus Christi

Title: “Credit. Correction. Connection”

[__01__]   What rolls and scrolls visually and vertically on the screen at the end of a movie (film) in the cinema (theater) are the CREDITS, the closing CREDITS.
          Reading the CREDITS, we can find out who the DIRECTOR, THE PRODUCER, the WRITERS were. We can find out who played what part. We can also be well informed when it comes time for the Academy Awards and the Oscars and the announcements of winners in obscure categories are made.
          What are the CREDITS? What is the importance of the CREDITS ?

[__02_]   This Sunday, the Feast of Corpus Christi – we see Jesus – front and center and in dialogue with some of the most informed ---- and opinionated -- judges and viewers of his day, the scribes and Pharisees. They are listening to what he says, but not hearing him completely when he says “I am the bread of life; I am the bread that came down from heaven.”
          Some will see him as an actor, a pretender, an impostor, an impersonator.  This gets him into great trouble.
 [__03__]    What I would like to touch on here are
►CREDIT►CORRECTION. ►CONNECTION.

What does  it mean for you and me to follow Jesus, to love God, to love our neighbor, and to love and pray for  our fathers on Father’s Day.
          I will not take the full 2-hour video/film to talk about all that.

[__04.01__]    CREDIT.  As Jesus himself is being discredited (rejected) by some, he is also trying to share his credit – his merit and strength – with us. He is teaching us to love.
          As Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI (B16) wrote, this credit claimed by Jesus is controversial.
Jesus, then, is not simply a teacher delivering a lesson or prophet delivering the news. He is the lesson personified. He is the News, he Good News[1] Or, in this  cinematic metaphor, Jesus as  Savior is the actor, the director, the movie, and the script all-in-one.
            He is the Word made flesh (John 1:14)
          Through Jesus, we learn not  only that God loves, that  one of God’s attributes  is love, but that God is love. God is love personified.
          And,  isn’t this the path for a mother or father  to follow, the path to which they are called. That is, whether family life brings sorrows or joys, a child needs a love. And, a father and mother endeavor  not only to deliver “love” as though it is one of several menu options but simply to be love. This love may take  different forms. It may even be resisted.  It may not be “credited”, but it remains love.
[__04.02__]   Also, “credit” is something we take that but we share. We spend it on others, do we not?  Financially and spiritually …
          My calling is also to praise God, to thank God and credit God and others in my life.
          We practice this and view this in others. On the playing field, or  in a school play – or at work  we give credit to our teammates, coaches.
          And, among the futbolistas, the soccer players of FIFA, CONCACAF, the EuroCup, the World  Cup, it seems the average Catholic midfielder or striker gives outstanding credit to  God as he blesses himself after scoring a GOAL (!).
          In this regard, credits are not something we watch and wait for, but something to give and share.
 [__05__]    CORRECTION.
In our relationship with God and with each other, we are called to recognize that our faults are not times to collapse but they may be times to rest and to recover.
          CORRECTIONS are part of our faith journey.
          Here, I do not simply mean self-correction. I know how to correct myself. I prefer to correct my own errors before anyone knows bout it.
          Can I accept correction from God or from another person? This is a challenge, but it also draws us closer to God and to the other person.
          And, we benefit by asking in prayer for direction and correction, about what we are doing …rather than rushing to the closing credits and looking for our names.
          On Father’s Day, we might also give  thanks not only for the  things we wanted to receive or wanted to hear from our fathers. Shall we not also give thanks for the things we needed to hear, for their guidance, their correction.
          Simply by listening to one’s father, we give them tons of credit.

[__06__]    The CREDIT and CORRECTION reminds us of our CONNECTION.
          How we are joined to each other.
          And Jesus lays down his life for us, and teaches us to do the same so that we can share his credit, accept correction and grow closer in our connections in love of God and love of neighbor.

 [__fin__]  



[1] Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth, New York: Image, 2007, p. 105.

No comments:

Post a Comment