The ashes of Wednesday are gone, and Lent is upon us.
The readings today remind me of movies I first saw in my much younger years: The Ten Commandments, The Agony and the Ecstasy and The Shoes of the Fisherman.
In The Ten Commandments, we see the Red Sea part as Moses, played by Charlton Heston, leads the Israelites out of Egyptian bondage.
In The Agony and the Ecstasy, Rex Harrison plays the 16th Century Pope Julius II, who, mounted on a horse in full armor, prepares to lead his Church into battle.
In The Shoes of the Fisherman, Anthony Quinn plays a 1960s Catholic Archbishop from the Ukraine, who starts out the movie as a prisoner in the Soviet Union, only to be freed in an effort to prevent a nuclear war involving Russia, China and the West. Through a miraculous series of events, he is elected Pope, and saves the day.
After church last Sunday, something prompted me to watch The Shoes of the Fisherman, which in turn, has impacted this Reflection.
More on this movie to follow.
In the Deuteronomy passage, Moses also makes the point that the God who brought the Jews to the “land of milk and honey” is also the God of the Levites and “aliens” who are among them.
The reading from Romans expands on that theme when it says: “For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord to all, and is generous to all who call on him. For, ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’”
God is all inclusive — with NO EXCEPTIONS!
The Gospel recounts Jesus’ 40 days and nights of fasting in the desert after he had been baptized by his cousin John the Baptist, where he heard God say to him: “You are my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
After being tempted in the desert by the Devil to call on God for help and/or work miracles to save himself, Jesus tells the Devil: “It is written, ‘worship the Lord your God, and serve only him;’” and “It is said, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”
After that, the Devil “departed from him until an opportune time;” in other words, even Jesus would not be freed from the Devil’s temptation.
These passages highlight that God is not only the God of Christians, but the God of all; otherwise, our God wouldn’t be THE God.
Thus, God does not see us as good, and the Levites, Greeks, Jews and “aliens” as bad. Rather, we are all God’s children, who Jesus says we should love as ourselves. He teaches that it is our job to do our best to carry out God’s will, not just for us, but for all; to welcome all who come to the door by remaining open to the mystery of God manifest in Jesus’ teaching.
These reading thus suggest that “The Truth” is not only found in a single church or point of view.
But some churches accentuate the differences. Jesus teaches love, service, and tolerance for all.
It’s not easy for us to admit we will occasionally fail in our effort to follow Jesus’ teachings, but for me, making mistakes is how I learn. As I have been repeatedly told: “pain is the touchstone of all spiritual growth!”
Therefore, temptation and God’s grace will be part of all our lives, as it will be for our fellow travelers.
The Church encourages us to use Lent as a time of reflection (aka taking our personal inventory). It’s a time when we can work on putting aside differences and distinctions.
Consider the possibility that The God of our Fathers has mixed us all up on purpose, so we can be made to enter into God’s mystery, rather than clinging to our own self-centered views.
I remember many years ago when it was predicted that the Hubble Telescope would prove lots of our astronomical theories, but when they finally got it working, what it really showed was; vastly MORE! The next morning the headline in the San Francisco Chronicle read: “Experts Discover New Universes.”
That paper had to make plural a word that was already supposed to mean “everything,” in order to begin to describe what they saw. So it is with God, as Jesus teaches us.
The Holy Spirit did not leave Jesus in the desert, so chances are we won’t be abandoned either, if we are able to ask for and accept God’s help. But in asking we are sometimes fearful.
In fact, that fear seems to clarify the power of God’s grace; not to mention my limited ability to recognize what’s really going on in the bigger picture.
Indeed, Jesus’ time in the desert reminds me that our Lenten experience will not likely be easy or pain-free. As he was faced with temptation, so will we be. After all, he was also human, so he knows what we face.
It is a time for us to be honest; expanding our horizons and connecting with others unlike ourselves. Being willing to consider the possibility that God dwells in each soul on the Planet (and possibly beyond) will allow us to choose our path by listening for love, which, it has been said, appears most clearly and often by engaging in compassionate giving.
“The Truth” is that we are all God’s kids, and dwelling on our differences and mistakes is not God’s will for us.
Rather, the solution to all of my problems is found in Jesus’ injunction to love my neighbors as I would have them love me.
To help me stay focused on who is really in charge of my life, I try to remember something I was told many years ago: “If God is your co-pilot, you’re in the wrong seat!”
In order to facilitate my spiritual journey, I also try to remember that forgiveness renews life, by finishing unfinished business, and that it requires me to give up all hope of having a better past; acting as if the best is yet to come.
And as I’ve said in prior Reflections, I have to do ALL indicated footwork even if I don’t want to and/or it doesn’t feel good. I’m just supposed to DO it, as a demonstration of my trust in God, and see what happens!
In conclusion, I come back to the movies: Between Moses and the Red Sea (The Ten Commandments) and today, the Christian Church has prospered, both spiritually and materially. Popes have ridden at the heads of armies into conflict to defend the faith (The Agony and the Ecstasy), and legions of people are still killing each other in the name of God.
In The Shoes of The Fisherman, the close personal assistant to the new Pope is named Fr. Telemond, who is a terminally ill anthropologist and historian, and who is embroiled in a dispute about his writing and teaching, because they are deemed by some in the Vatican hierarchy to be heretical.
Without revealing the whole plot: His accusers construe his writings as saying that evolution is a part of God’s design and, therefore, that “God is the author of sin and evil.” Fr. Telemond replies that he is “revealing a face of Christ we have not seen.”
When put on the spot, Fr. Telemond says that he believes in a “Cosmic Christ,” that is the foundation of an essential goodness in the world, and that gives him hope for mankind.
The Commission ultimately directs that Fr. Telemond remain silent about his beliefs, and the new Pope reluctantly enforces their findings. Fr. Telemond then lovingly refuses to abandon his beliefs, and suddenly dies.
Meanwhile, the new Pope is trying to help avoid a war whose threat is being precipitated by millions of starving people. Thanks to his close relationship with Fr. Telemond, he decides on a plan that puts the “spiritual” before the “material,” and the movie ends with a massive crowd in St. Peter’s Square cheering them on.
I think that there are parts of this 60-year-old movie which parallel today’s challenges in the Church, and suggest that Fr. Telemond’s “Cosmic Christ” may be an example of the abiding and essential “mystery” of God, that will help the Christian Church return to practicing more religiously what Jesus preached.
