News from Sophia Christi

Some of you have been at the Pride Festival all or most of the day.  And many of us will be staffing the booth tomorrow and marching in the Parade.  Though a lot of people pass by our booth without a glance, many stop to talk.  Some are just curious but others have questions.  Some have been hurt by the church they grew up in, while others are alienated from church and religion generally.

We play a vital role of welcome and solidarity, affirming everyone we meet as a beloved family member in the larger community of God.  It doesn’t matter who they are, how they’re dressed, what their background is.  We smile, hand out candy and brochures, invite them to sign the email list, and just try to let them know there are Catholics who stand with them in the fight for recognition and justice.  Every year we do this on Father’s Day weekend.  This year it is also Trinity Sunday, a feast most Christians meet with a hefty yawn! (more…)

In his November apostolic letter, Evangelii Gaudium, Joy of the Gospel, Pope Francis wrote “Today everything comes under the laws of competition and the survival of the fittest, where the powerful feed upon the powerless.  As a consequence, masses of people find themselves excluded and marginalized: without work, without possibilities, without any means of escape.  Human beings are themselves considered consumer goods to be used and then discarded.”  Pope Francis could be delivering a homily on today’s Gospel. (more…)

Out of the agonizing events of Good Friday, Easter blossoms from the tomb, not like a bursting flare of fireworks but slowly, awakening minds and hearts to the shocking revelation that Jesus, having died, is now ALIVE.

“We ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead,” Peter says.  “I have seen the Lord,” says Mary.

Everything in Christianity is anchored in recognition of the resurrected Jesus, the Christ of faith.

When Mary first encounters Jesus in the garden she is still traumatized by the events surrounding his execution the day before.  She is in shock, disoriented in her grief, and searching for his body which she believes to have been stolen.  Her attention is focused in the past, in the scenes of his humiliation and death, in the memories of his life and her experiences with him.  It’s what we all do in the face of loss as we struggle to get our bearings, wrestle with despair and collapse in the anguish of wrenched hearts, minds and lives.  But when Jesus says her name, she turns from the past to the present moment and recognizes the one she has been so urgently seeking.  He is standing right there before her. (more…)

“Morning after morning, God awakens me to hear as disciples do,” says Isaiah.  “God opens my ears.”

How DO disciples hear?  How do they hear the story of the Passion?  It is possible to become so fixated on Jesus’ torturous suffering that those details are allowed to conceal the orchestrated oppression and torture of everyday people in our world today.  Even more common is the tendency to listen to these events as part of Christian history without letting the deeper message of Jesus’ example really sink in. (more…)

Just yesterday I listened briefly to a news clip from the Huffington Post of a young Baptist minister in AZ.  He was preaching from the first letter of Paul to Timothy—a letter ascribed to Paul, though most scholars agree it was not written by Paul.  This young man was telling his congregation that women must be silent in the church.  He went so far as to say that women aren’t allowed to say ‘amen’ in his church because ‘amen’ is an affirmation of truth, and women can only RECEIVE truth, not affirm it.  Women are to simply listen and receive the teachings from their minister or their husband.  They must never teach, preach or lead MEN in any way!!

Contrast this position with what you heard last week in Jesus’ conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well.  She engaged Jesus in a complex theological discussion which led her to not only believe in him, but to EVANGELIZE her entire village!

What this Arizona pastor is telling his congregation is adamantly opposed to Jesus’ inclusive ministry.  It is a patently un-Christian message built on a misogynistic belief system.  If anything is pure heresy—THIS is. (more…)

In many Native American tribes the vision quest was a traditional rite of passage.  Young people were ‘tested’ by sending them into the wilderness alone to discover their identity and their life’s direction.  They fasted and prayed to attune themselves to the world of Spirit.  The quest prepared them to assume adult responsibilities in the tribe according to their unique gifts, gifts revealed during their time in the wilderness.

The vision quest is a helpful lens for understanding what Jesus is going through as he launches into the wilderness immediately after his Baptism.  He, too, is being TESTED.  The Greek word here means both “tempted” and “tested.”  He, too, is fasting and praying, attuning himself to Spirit as he prepares to fully take on his identity and his life-path as ‘the Beloved Son of God, in whom God is ‘well pleased’.

Jesus’ experience of being TESTED mirrors our own in ways we may not see at first glance.  As a human being Jesus also has an ego, that part of who we are that wants to be in full control of our personal universe, wants to be the ‘god’ of our little world.      The TEST for the ego is to recognize that IT is not God, and to accept that it isn’t God’s will that the small ‘self’ should be in control.  The TEST is for that little self to take a back seat and learn to let God work through its small prism of selfhood so that God’s light, love and joy can enter the world.  (more…)

Do any of you remember the TV series “Joan of Arcadia?”  Though it was nominated for many awards (and won a few), it lasted for just two seasons (2003-2005) before going off the air.  The central character was a typical 16-year old girl, Joan Girardi, who had unusual conversations with a wide range of people all of whom introduced themselves to her as God.  They/God gave her tasks that often made no sense to her but ended up helping someone in a very important way.

The theme song of the series was “What if God was one of us?”: “What if God was one of us?” Just a slob like one of us? Just a stranger on the bus tryin’ to make his way home?”

Forgive me if this seems irreverent, but in the beginning of today’s Gospel Jesus appears to be “just a slob like one of us.”  The early Church was actually embarrassed by today’s Gospel passage for this very reason.  Jesus submitted himself for baptism by John in the Jordan which seemed to portray him as a sinner, just another slob in the Galilean countryside.

Jesus was supposed to be sinless, so why did he respond to John’s call for repentance and request baptism?  This question troubled the early Church, and scholars debated the question for centuries.  In fact Matthew adds the verse about John attempting to discourage Jesus from being baptized in order to deal with this uneasiness.  And Jesus’ words to John indicate that his baptism is a matter of justice—there’s a reason—it’s the right thing to do.  God wants it this way.  And this, too, is Matthew’s addition in order to reign in the unsettling theological questions Jesus’ baptism raised. He identifies with the slobs along the river, and his ministry begins there. (more…)

In 2007, Sr. Louise Lears was present for the ordination of two women in St. Louis.  She had been a coordinator of religious education for the arch-diocese as well as a member of the pastoral team in her parish.  The archbishop of St. Louis at the time, Raymond Burke, immediately banned her from receiving the sacraments as well as from doing any form of ministry within the archdiocese unless she repented her “sin” of participating in the ordination.

On the Sunday following Burke’s disciplinary action, Sr. Louise went to Mass at her parish to be with her community.  She wasn’t planning to receive communion, just needed to be with those she loved.  Her sister and 85-year-old mother were with her.  When it came time for communion her mother stood and told Louise to follow her.  Louise didn’t question her mother, simply stood and remained at her side.   When Louise’s mother received the bread she broke it, turned and gave it to her daughter.

After seeing this, Louise’s sister did the same.  Many of the parishioners, once they realized what was happening, broke a piece of their bread and gave it to Louise.  In the end Louise’s hands were filled with fragments of the Eucharist.

When Mass ended, and the family gathered at the back of the church, Louise’s mother said to her, “I was the first person to feed you, and I will feed you now.”  (more…)