Two Classes and a Rainy Ray - Perfect!

It's mid afternoon right now and I'm back in my room after Mass and lunch. We had a first session with Fr. John Fuellenbach, SVD today. He is a spiritual director and theologian. We had a two-hour session with him this morning and another 2 hours coming up this afternoon. I have about 6 pages of notes from his talk this morning. I was a bit distracted at Mass trying to figure out how I would present this on the blog. His clever images and diagrams which he drew on the board are a big help to understanding his teaching. But he also has many great short definitions and one-liners that are very revealing. I think I will proceed by just offering some of these and give you the opportunity to just reflect on these yourself. I have a sneaking suspicion that you may hear these ideas live when I get back in homilies and talks. I already decided to purchase his books and get a more thorough exposition of his ideas even though we have him for another 10 hours for the next 3 days. Perfect for a rainy week prediction.

I was joking with Fr. Paul Martin from New Zealand about the blog. My people at home may be confused that I will blog about spiritual things this week, and not just about art work and pasta.

I will start to offer some reflections on this morning's session which was entitled: Following the Lord / Discipleship. I will put bullet points beside my notes. These will have to be filled out later. Use them for some of your own reflection.

Father John Fuellenbach, svd.

The first sense I got from Fr. John is that he truly loves priests and the priesthood. He started his life as a horticulturalist. He thought he would devote his life to flowers. But God called him. Now he devotes his life to the "flowering of faith" as he put it.

• Theology must be: 

                              1. Scientific
                              2. Pastoral
                              3. Spiritual

• Theology must be balanced in real life between human freedom and the Holy Spirit.                       

He said to us, "Go home with a new joy. There is more than administration; there is 'kingdom'".
He spoke of the Prophet Ezekiel who reflects on his own calling by God.

• God raised me up.
• I can hear what God has to say.
• I can understand what God has to say.

Fr. John spoke of being focused on the kingdom. He used an image of a theatrical spotlight. There is a strong central beam which lights up the center, but there is some peripheral light around the sides. For the Christian disciple, the focus must be Trinity - more than simply that God loves, rather God IS love. In the periphery, we have Mary, the saints, the sacraments, and devotions, rosary, pilgrimages, and many other practices. These are important in the periphery because help us and lead us to return to focus on the central beam which is the One, Triune God.

We get it wrong sometimes. We get out of focus and we can get used to it to the point that we can lose the truth. Fr. John told this funny little story.

He enjoyed hanging wallpaper. He heard from his sister in Germany that she had put up a room of wall paper. Sometime later when he was visiting and saw his sister's work, he had to tell her that she put up the paper upside down. His sister commented that she thought something was wrong, wasn't quite sure what it was, but she had gotten used to it. He said that she had come to accept and had become used to the mistake.

The goal of discipleship is JOY.

• The result of union with God who is LOVE is JOY.
• The word JOY is used 352 times in the Bible. 
• The idea, "Do not be afraid" is used 366 times
• In the Gospel of John, the opposite of love is fear.  

WHAT WAS JESUS ABOUT? Christ came for two things.

• For us to have a God experience: The word "Abba" occurs in the New Testament 254 Times. It never appears in the Old Testament which rather speaks of God's "womb-like" love. In Luke 12:49, Jesus says he has come to bring fire. This translated from the Greek "dynamis", (from which coincidentally we get the English word "Dynamite". To be on fire in the mind of the New Testament is to be action oriented, cause change. Doesn't dynamite cause radical change? This God experience also helps us to understand the three fundamental aspects of God.

                      God loves ME unconditionally
                      God forgives ME unconditionally                             
                      God is always with ME - compassion.
                           (from the Latin com = with, and Passio = passage)

           Pope Benedict XVI first encyclical: He says that God does not love, God is love.
                      God is not in our "brain bank", not just stored up in intellect.
                      God is in the heart

           This next section is AMAZING:
                      God looks at us with DELIGHT.
                      Ultimately, we must face God's love.
                      The last judgement is not that we must face God's WRATH;
                             It is that we must face God's LOVE,
                             and maybe know that we have rejected PERFECT LOVE
                             time and time again.
                      You can develop a theology that makes hell as hot as you want;
                             it doesn't matter.
                     As human beings we tend to ingnore and reject negative consequences.
                     We've all heard people say, "There is no hell, Hell is on earth."
                     But when we come to realize as we stand before the perfect love of God,
                             that we have ingnored and rejected perfect love?
                                       That's scary.

• To know the Kingdom of God: Jesus came to bring the kingdom or the reign of God. The phrase "kingdom of God occurs 162 in the New Testament, 92 times on the lips of Jesus.

               Vatican Council I never uses it.
               Vatican Council II uses the kingdom of God 75 times.
                     The vision of Vatican II is that the Church is in the service of the kingdom.
                     The church is not identical with the kingdom.


What is God's Dream for all creation:

• To be infused with the Holy Spirit.
• There is a dynamism:

                 Giving
                 Receiving
                 fullness of life.

• God comes down - we are not pulled up. This is incarnational theology. God pitches his tent among us. He fills us with the spirit - life, love, joy, radiates out to all to be transformed in the image of Him. John 17:22-26. This is not for a few but for all.
• Our task therefore is to preach the right image of God.
• The mission of the Church is dialogue and Christ is the only mediator of all this.

There are two things our culture values which is NOT found in Scripture:

• SUCCESS: The task of the disciple, whether ordained or lay, is not success. It is Faithfulness. Faithfulness to the Christ and his message. My role is not success in programs, or administration, or large numbers. In the eyes of the world and even in the eyes of the apostles until they received the Spirit, Jesus was a complete and utter failure. But he was faithful to the Good News and to the will of the Father.

                What saved the world is defenseless love, not power.
                The early Christians never talked about the cross. It was too painfull.

• Optimism is not talked about in the Bible. Rather, Compassionate love in spite of failure - Christ is risen. Col. 1:27.
• Richard Rohr. "Suffering means you are not in control anymore."
• When Peter cuts off the ear of the high priests servant, Jesus heals him. The message to Peter is, "This is not the way to save the world." What is needed is a defenseless love.
• The disciples did not get this. In Mark, at the death of Jesus, they run, and lock the door and were afraid. Fear is the oposite of love. They were not ready for defenseless love until they are filled with the Spirit.

What did Jesus ask of those who listened to His message.
         "Follow Me"      20 times.
                                 4 times in Mark
                                 6 times in Matthew
                                 5 times in Luke
                                 5 times in John
      This is the fundamental norm of Vatican II: Follow the Lord as He walked.

What did Jesus do for 30 years before his public ministry began. HE lived as a human being. Mary and Joseph taught Jesus how to be human.

As Jesus lived in fellowship with others, so we are called to live in fellowship.
What is Fellowship in Christ?

• It is identity giving. By imitating Christ, we gain our identity as disciples.
• Defines the church as community of disciples.
• Only by following Jesus, can we ever hope to know who he is.

Session 2, 4 - 6PM

How are we as Christian Disciples different from other religions and faiths. (Problem with too many people who have this notion that all religions are the same.)

• Buddhism, Hnduism, and Confucianism: Not religions at all, but philosophies and world views.
• Judaism is a Book Religion
• Islam is a Book Religion.
• Christianity is not a Book Religion: it is a personal experience of another person. The center is not an academic, a teacher, a spiritual guide, but a personal commitment to another person, Jesus Christ.
• For Jews, "Torah" means "Way of Life"
• Jesus says to us, "I am the way of Life,"
• Christianity is fundamentally not a set of laws, it is a living faith. The "book", the New Testament comes out of the lived experience of faith, not the other way round.
• Christianity is not just dogmatic. It is not a system of morality. It is not ascetical or discipline. It is mystical - a personal relationship with a living person.

Fr. John asked us, "Do you know the first and last words of Jesus in the Gospels?"
     I have to admit that I did not know. I know now. Do you?

In John: "What are you looking for"?
      Jesus asks that question other times in the Gospel. He responds to the person with the answers,

• Come and see.
• Come and stay with me
• Remain with me
• Abide with me.

Fr. John told us of a story of a conference in comparitive religions that he participated in. Around a circle were, Jews, Muslims, Budhists, Hindus, and Catholics. The facilitator put a poster on the ground with the word GOD on it. The Muslim immediately stood up and picked up the poster and said this was an insult to God. God is not on the ground. Fr. John told us that it was a perfect lesson in incarnational theology. "God is in your midst" For us as Catholic Christians, there is not problem believing that God is present to us, God is in the world, God is descended to share our humanity. That is the primary difference between Christianity and the rest of the world. And we as Catholics believe even more deeply than many other Christians because we belive that God is truly present in our Sacraments, in our Eucharist, in our pristhood, and in our church. Not in just a symbolic presence, but a real presence to which we can be committed. We can truly share in the love, life, and joy that God is.