20th Sunday of Ordinary Time - August 14, 2021

We are living in a very unique time in history, one which will be explored, examined and recounted for many, many generations.  

We ourselves have looked back into our history.

We have looked at the 1918 flu and other pandemic events, to gleen what we could from the learnings of those times.

Such I am convinced will be the case for us as well, when future generations look back at us and how we lived through these days…

I wonder what they will find?

People in our future will look back, examine our decisions, find the mistakes we have made, ponder what was happening, politically, socially, economically and spiritually in order to try to understand why we have made the decisions that we have in the midst of this pandemic.  

Some conclusions are no doubtedly going to be 100% right on the mark.  

And countless others will be further from the truth than one could ever imagine.  

It would be very interesting to be  100 years old into our future and see what is being said.

Such is the case with the feast we celebrate today.  

The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, was was dogmatically defined in the Roman Catholic Church,  by Pope Pius XII on 1 November 1950, in the apostolic constitution Munificentissimus Deus by exercising papal infallibility.^[5] 

The reasons for Pope Pius XII, invoking Papal Infallibility and defining as Dogma that Mary was assumed into heaven body and soul has been contemplated, pondered and critiqued by many generations.

I find myself in agreement with the Old Catholic Church position, that this “Dogma” did not need to be defined as such.  Rather, that Mary and her role in history and in faith can be much richer, if we would choose to live in the mystery of God’s action in our world, rather than in the false narrative of our perceived certitude.

If we look closely at the Church’s choice for the Gospel to celebrate this feast, I think we will find an amazing fact.

The woman from the crowd was convinced in the holiness of the mother of Jesus…Jesus was convinced of the holiness of all who pondered, prayed, lived and  acted on what they believed God was inviting them to be.

Are we willing to live in the mystery of the incarnate God?  Or do we believe that what we do, what we decide, what we follow and how, has to be perfect to be pleasing to the God of our understanding.   

Is there only “One” right way?  

Is there only “The”  way?  

As human beings, especially 21^st Century, self-perceived intelligent human beings, we love certitude!

We love science, and it’s measurable results and predictable outcomes.

But maybe this pandemic has a lesson for us to learn and to live…that just when we may think we have things figured out…just when we believe that we have it “under control”, that we know, the Covid virus has once again proven…the predictable outcome may not be quite so accurate as we have imagined it to be!

Contrary to our most seeming logic, lawyers will tell us, that the most unreliable witness to a crime is an eye witness….because every person experiences every encounter differently…the very same experience…touches us in different ways, based on our lived experience and our situation.

I believe the older we get, the more we live the wiser we become, I believe the same can be said about our experience of God.

I have had the wonderful opportunity over the past several years to be a member of small faith group that has been living, reading, discussing and praying over numerous books, some novels, some journals, some thoughtful reflections…..we most recently finished the study of a book by the author, preacher, teacher, and spiritual leader, Paula D’Arcy…the book entitled: Gift of the Red Bird.  I would highly recommend it for anyone.

 

In it she shares:

“The wilderness taught me that wherever we live, by whatever name we were taught to call the Divine, we all have the hunger.  But we have grown afraid of the hunger and afraid of the other names by which God is known.  We cling never more tenaciously than to the small path and “religious” vision that is our own—and we require the entire universe to see it that same exact way.  Our human arrogance.  Finally, God contained.  Except that God is found in abandonment, and not in fear!”

What does it mean to really hear the Word of God and obey it?  

We would love to have certitude in the answer to that question…

I don’t believe there is one answer, one path, one way that can be universally applied to all…

And it doesn’t appear that Jesus says it has to be universally heard or understood in the exact same way…

But just that it be heard and obeyed…not feared

Every one of us has the Divine within us, and that Divine will be activated in its own way as it encounters the Word and the World.  

The question remains for us to struggle with…to understand…to discern and to live.