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PAGE 5—April 19,1973
God—
The Lord!
BY BROHTER JAMES P. CLIFTON, C.F.X.
According to Saint John’s gospel, Jesus at the Last Supper
performed one of the most significant actions of his life. He
began the meal by washing the feet of his disciples as a sign of
the service they were to show one another and as an ideal for all
Christians. His words on that occasion were just as noteworthy:
“You address me as ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord’, and fittingly enough,
for that is what I am” (13,13).
Indeed he was Lord-master of the sea and storm, of human
disease and even of life and death. His presence and words
inspired fear and awe. He acted with an authority he claimed to
have from the heavenly Father. Men, even the most powerful
and influential, came under his judgment and criticism. These
were undeniably the traits of a lord.
At the same time, however, he was kind, self-effacing and
considerate. He loved men and women with a tenderness that
was often reciprocated. He wept at the death of a friend. People
from all strata of society were attracted to him. With patience
and understanding he instructed his followers in the meaning of
his mission and invited them to share in it.
What kind of a lord and master was this Jesus? Nothing less
than divine. And it is in terms of this revelation that Christians
must understand God’s dominion over the world and over men.
Even in the Old Testament God revealed himself as kind,
gracious and loving. But above all, he was a saving Lord. In no
way was this a diminution of his power; it was rather an
indication of the uniqueness of his lordship.
Unlike men who used power and authority to instill fear
and coerce service, and often in an arbitrary and self-serving
fashion, God ruled in order to benefit and save men. His
dominion was meant to elicit devotion and love.
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“INDEED, HE WAS LORD -- master of the sea and storm, of human disease and even of life and death.”
(NC Photo by Thomas N. Lorsung)
Ship bobs on rough water during storm on Lake Michigan.
(All Articles On This Page Copyrighted 1973 by N.C. News Service)
[Know Y our F aith j
God Is Lord and Master of All
The tendency very often is to think of God as lord only in so
far as he manifests his power, providence and majesty, for
example, in creation and in extraordinary events of history. This
certainly is one side of his lordship, but a side that really does
not distinguish him from the other gods men believe in. It is
really only the basis of the more important feature of our God’s
dominion-his loving intent to save mankind.
At the present time, it is unquestionably difficult for men to
recognize the lordship of God. Those happenings of nature and
events of history that in other times were easily attributed to
him are now explained by so many other causes. His church
even is subject to these same explanations. But more important,
men appear to be ruled and enslaved by all kinds of masters,
within and outside themselves - masters that leave no room for
a saving God.
It is in such situations that men have always been invited to
acknowledge the one Lord. For it has likewise always been
evident that the lords of this world ultimately diminish and even
sometimes destroy men.
God offers a dominion that frees men from tyrannical and
destructive forces. Such a dominion gives men full freedom to
grow, to hope and to love. But God does not force his saving
dominion on men; he will not have reluctant servants. Only
those who freely choose to do so may call him “Lord”.
BY FATHER CARL J. PFEIFER. S.J.
“The law is that the closer one is to good seeing, the closer he
is to God.” These suprising words appear in an article entitled
“Religion 1968” written by Ralph Hattersley, a photographer,
for POPULAR PHOTOGRAPHY magazine. I found his words so
challenging that I developed a workshop on “Photography and
Religious Education” which I recently conducted with religion
teachers in Los Angeles.
Hattersley’s opinion at first seems unusual. What does good
seeing have to do with closeness to God? What does
photography have to do with religion? What does seeing have to
do with religious education?
As I explored these questions I found that other
prominent photographers shared Hattersley’s thoughts. Minor
White speaks of photography as a form of prayer, a visual way
of understanding the invisible and wordless. Alfred Stieglitz
described photography as Making visible the invisible.”
Because of its striking capacity to reveal the invisible in the
visible, photography and other good art is very close to religion.
The visual has a unique role in religious education because as
experience has long suggested, “seeing” is closely related to
“believing,” and catechesis aims at more mature believing. For
most of us who feel more comfortable with words in religion
class, it is worth reflecting on the experience of these
BY FATHER QUENTIN QUESNELL, S.J.
God is Lord. “Lord” means the one who has the ownership
and the power. Everything belongs to God. Everything and
everyone is under his control.
Biblical faith sees everything that happens coming from God’s
hands. So when the Israelites saw the Red Sea close over
contemporary photographers who find in their art an approach
to God.
Good art of any kind, including good photography, is a
marvelous means of enabling people to look more sensitively,
more appreciatively at the world about them. Good photos, for
example, can help people discover how extraordinary the
ordinary reality really is.
The artist helps us look more carefully, more respectfully, at
life. He has the ability of stopping us short so that we catch
sight of dimensions of life that we normally fail to notice. Such
seeing, which has more to do with mind and heart than 20/20
vision, is itself close to faith.
St. Paul, who maintained that “faith comes through hearing”
(Rom 10:17) also pointed out that faith comes through seeing.
Earlier in the same letter to the Christians at Rome Paul writes:
“Since the creation of the world, invisible realities, God’s
eternal power and divinity, have become visible, recognized
through the things he has made” (Rom 1:20). Learning to see
the world more sensitively is a step toward faith because the
invisible God can be recognized in the visible world.
The relationship between sensitive seeing and faith is so close
that seeing can often be a more effective approach to faith than
hearing. Back in the fourth century one of the Church’s greatest
catechists, St. Cyril of Jerusalem, told his catechumens that
“faith by seeing is stronger than faith by hearing.” Once they
Pharoah’s Egyptian armies, they shouted and danced their
victory song to the Lord. “Shout to the Lord! He has
conquered!” God was Lord of all, and He had given them the
victory.
At the same time, they knew how to apply the same principle
even when they themselves were on the losing side. Then they
the Visible
had seen, then words would help them interpret what they have
seen. Word and visual, hearing and seeing, complement each
other in catechesis.
Throughout the entire Judaeo-Christian tradition, the
recognition of God’s presence in the visible creation is a central
part of the believer’s experience. The marvelous Chapter 42 in
the Book of Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) catalogues some of the
wonderful things man can see that reveal the creative presence
of God, the Lord of nature and of history: sun, moon and stars;
rainbows and clouds; mountains and valleys; water, snow, ice,
and fire; birds, animals, and fish of many shapes and colors. In
the middle of his list the writer pauses in wonder: “How
beautiful are all his works! . . . can one ever see enough of their
splendor?” (Sir 42:23-25).
Because we believe that God is Lord of all, “creator of all
things visible and invisible,” we believe that his invisible
presence is discernible in what we can see. Whatever helps one
see better-more sensitively, appreciatively, reverently-can help
one catch sight of God with us.
Photography and art are valuable parts of the religious
education process leading to more mature faith, because they
are eminently suited to help us see better. If Hattersley and St.
Paul are correct in thinking that good seeing is an avenue to
discovering God, we can well pray with the blind man of the
Gospel: “I want to see” (Mk 10:15;51).
concluded that it was because the Lord had wnated to test them
or to punish them or to bring them to repentance for their sins.
In every case, the point remained that God was the Lord. He
was the one who could do whatever He wanted. Nothing ever
happened without His knowledge and consent.
God was “the Lord of hosts”-that is, master of mighty
armies in countless numbers. He controlled all destinies of all
creatures. He was the ruler of all others who called themselves
kings or lords. “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is the ONE
Lord.” “The Lord rules, let the earth rejoice.”
This biblical insight is still true today. God is not just the one
who started things off by creating the world. He remains in
control, with power over all that He has made. He knows all,
and nothing happens without His permission.
t
This truth contains many mysteries, and some people turn it
into a collection of puzzles: Can God do anything, even
contradictions? If God rules all, how can our choices and
actions be free? If God is really all-powerful, why is there sin
and evil in the world?
The Bible does not give that kind of information or solve
those puzzles in theory. It simply repeats the basic facts and
calls us to a decision based on those facts. The facts and the
decision are both summed up in an especially powerful way this
week in the Scripture selections about the suffering and death
of Jesus.
The betrayal of Jesus, the mockery of a trial they gave him,
the false and lying condemnation, the cruel execution they
inflicted upon him were among the greatest crimes in the
history of the human race. Many, many sins on the part of
many people had to come together to accomplish the passion
and death of Christ.
But nothing in all this escaped God’s control. God saw it all
and permitted it, and through it he was working out our
salvation.
God: Invisible Lord of
Parish First Communion?
Family or
BY FATHER JOSEPH M. CHAMPLIN
Belen in Spanish means Bethlehem. A place in New Mexico
carries that name and a parish as well. Our Lady of Belen in
Belen was founded 180 years ago and the old structure there
which has served so many for so long soon will give way to a
new church building.
However, in that setting rich with its heritage of the past, a
very fresh, very contemporary approach to First Communion is
in operation this year and the initial feedback seems entirely
positive.
Servite Father Gabriel Weber (the O.F.M.s staff this parish)
before coming to Belen spent “a wonderful year of study in
Berkeley” and during that period “caught up on a lot of reading
I always wanted to do.” He picked up imaginative ideas in the
process and began organizing the religious education program at
Our Lady of Belen (735 children, 70 adult teachers, aides and
helpers) along lines suggested by current experts.
The First Communion class, which involves over 150 boys
and girls, follows detailed recommendations developed by
well-known Christiane Brusselmans and Brian Haggerty in their
text entitled: “We Celebrate the Eucharist.” Nine key words or
phrases summarize this series and form themes for a like number
of monthly sessions which explain them. “Giving thanks,
celebrating, listening, sharing a meal, caring, enjoying^ life,
belonging, making peace, going forth to do God’s work.” The
presentations and projects, of course, speak not only to the
children, but to parents as well.
On a Sunday afternoon each month, parents gather in the
church hall for an explanation (through films, lectures,
filmstrips, group discussion) of the designated theme and how
to convey this notion to the young ones. In addition, instructors
and participants plan a Mass for the following Sunday at 12:30
which will center around that particular theme. At the same
time, ensuing classroom instruction and parent-child home
study reinforces what has been covered in the weekend meeting.
Two examples illustrate the effectiveness of this approach.
The first theme-belonging-seeks to communicate truths
connected with Baptism: our membership in God’s family, our
entrance into the Christian community, our initiation through
First Communion into a more mature position within Jesus’
Church.
Prior to the Mass, each family prepared a nametag for the
child. Then after the homily, catechists read the names of boys
and girls in their classes. Following this announcement, every
candidate came to the sanctuary and handed his or her
identification badge to the priest. Names represent ourselves and
thus through this simple ritual gesture the children were
manifesting a willingness to become members of God’s family
and, more immediately, to enroll in the First Communion class.
Despite the size and group nature of that Sunday Mass
presentation, the action of giving one’s tag seemed to make this
euchuristic celebration personal to each of the boys and girls.
One young lady told her mother she felt “the whole ceremony
was just for me.”
The second month’s liturgy contained a double theme:
“Sunday is the Lord’s Day. Come let us celebrate.” and “Christ
is the Light.” Children arrived for the Eucharist with a paper
candle pinned to their clothing. Nametags from the previous
service had been mounted on a board and placed in the
sanctuary. There, also, were magnificent banners which had
been fashioned by mothers of students in the class illustrating
the themes.
After the homily, all the candidates moved out into the
center aisle and sang: “This is my little light of joy. I’m gonna
let it shine all over the world and nobody is going to blow it
out.”
At Christmas, one of the nuns who teaches in this program
received an unusually large number of beautiful candles as gifts.
Father Gabriel wonders if there was a connection here. He also
wonders if the impact of this monthly, community, class
liturgical celebration will not mean the end of “Family First
Communions.” A good question.
There are many plus values in the practice whereby children
receive First Holy Communion with the parents whenever
ready. But we can easily produce balancing arguments in favor
of a “Parish First Communion” with all the class present.
Perhaps the solution need not be in the either/or category. It
seems to me a combination of both makes good sense and the
efforts at Belen open up a few avenues for bringing this about.
He could have stopped it. “Don’t you know that I could ask
my Father and he would give me here and now more than
twelve legions of angels?” Jesus said at the moment he was
arrested. He answered Pilate’s boast about holding power of life
and death: “You would not have any power over me if it had
not been given to you from above.”
Many men sinned to bring about the murder of Jesus. But the
Bible still insists that God forsaw it, the prophets had foretold
it, and in that sense it “had to be.” “The Son of Man must be
delivered into the hands of sinners.” “Did not the Christ have to
suffer these things, and so enter into his glory?”
It was according to God’s plan. “The cup which my Father
has given me, shall I not drink it?”
So in our lives. When inescapable, inexplicable evil and
suffering come upon us, no matter how terrible they are, no
matter how much of human malice lies behind them, no matter
to what" extent we even brought them all upon ourselves,
whatever has happened could not have happened without God’s
knowledge and permission. He knows what we are suffering, but
he also knows how much we can bear. He will not let us fall
beneath our burden.
Above all, he knows how to turn the evil into good-for us
and for others. We are in strong hands, for he is the Lord. That
infinite strength is in the service of infinite love. We are safe in
saying with Jesus, “Not my will but thine be done,” and
“Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.”