Beauty and holiness
Today’s readings: Deuteronomy 4, 32-34; 39-40; Romans 8, 14-17; Matthew 28, 16-20.
The worst opposite to belief in God is not atheism but idolatry. The temptation of idolatry is inherent to religion and I would say connatural to it. From religion it is so easy to sink in idolatry, and the antidote to idolatry is true worship.
Worship is the foremost characteristic that should distinguish those who believe from those who do not, or rather from those who are staunchly religious.
It is not morality, or tradition, or whatever, but worship that keeps religion and faith alive. Worship means believing with one’s whole heart that “the Lord is God indeed”, letting ourselves be “moved by the Spirit” to cry out “Abba, Father”.
It was to worship the true God that God’s people were brought out of Egypt. It was worship of the Lord of creation that continued to distinguish God’s people from other peoples. It was praise of the Holy One of Israel that gave Israel an identity. Israel learned, even the hard way, to worship the one whose power they experienced.
On this Trinity Sunday, what we are invited to is not an intellectual debate, but to enter into the mystery that has revealed itself in time and space. God, to use an ancient Hebrew imagery, is like ashes that look as if they are spent but which glow bright and radiate heat when blown upon.
Trinity is not the result of abstract metaphysical speculation or explanation. It is the naming of a mystery we can only approach with wonder, in the same way that Moses approached the burning bush feeling overwhelmed by the vision. Israel preferred a more distant God. But God was for them a God of unrelenting intimacy.
The heart of our confession this Sunday that God is Triune is the Church’s insistence that the God we worship as Father, Son and Holy Spirit is Israel’s God.
Like Israel, who suffered slavery and experienced the exodus, we are invited to learn that God is there but cannot be known in Himself. Like Israel in its longing to reach out for God in times dark and bright, we have learned that our language is never adequate to exhaust the mystery it is trying to express.
This acknowledgment of God being the Holy One and the only One worthy of worship is a most difficult issue in our culture today. We’ve entered into endless theological disquisitions on who God is and how better to define the idea.
We’ve gone so far, according to reason narrowly understood, as to kill the idea that there is a God after all. We fail to distinguish clearly between God and ourselves, between the Creator and the creatures.
We’ve come of age to such an extent that we feel in no way overwhelmed, and speaking of mystery and vision sounds purely mythological. That is secularisation at its best. We’ve become too down to earth to make time to speak of the beyond.
On the other hand, what we are tempted with in religion is precisely to turn the gift of praise into a possession. But to make God a thing at our disposal is the subtlest form of idolatry.
God is closer to us than we are to ourselves, and the God we believe in was capable of even making His home among us while remaining God.
That is basically what the Trinity means: We worship a God who does not exist only for Himself. He is the Almighty, but He is almighty in mercy; He is the Lord, but also a loving Lord; He is our eternal king but also a brother in time.
Trinity, therefore, as Stanley Hauerwas writes, is not a doctrine that is an ‘add on’ to the essentials of the Christian faith. The mystery we celebrate revolves around ourselves to reveal to us more who we are than who God is. In His mystery is revealed our mystery.
In this manner, the story of creation and redemption continues thanks to the power of the Spirit of truth, empowering us all to bring the beauty of holiness to a world in need both of beauty and of holiness.
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Pule' Carmel
Jul 14th 2012, 18:13
"We’ve come of age to such an extent that we feel in no way overwhelmed, and speaking of mystery and vision sounds purely mythological. That is secularisation at its best. We’ve become too down to earth to make time to speak of the beyond."
There must be something wrong with me as, I am so continuously being overwhelmed by the fact that I wake up after a night's sleep, There are so many millions of parts in my old body, that I just wonder how I wake up rather not wake up. And if that does not over whelm me enough, all I have to do is to try and understand my grand son. I am continuously being overwhelmed how such a young baby at ten months can engage the world as he does.
And if that is not enough, all I do is to walk by a flower as I have no time left to see the rest of the universe. When I walk alone looking around me, I have no time for worship, as appreciation and trying to reduce my ignorance takes most of my time. Worship seems to be an excuse for not wanting to work hard to lower our clumsiness and our ignorance, it is a full time job for me, knowing what remains to appreciate let alone to understand. Worship is an undertaking that requires the least effort when we have some free time to occupy and like unconditional love, it could be a sickness, or a cure for it!
When it comes to loving someone, True love needs the greatest efforts to sustain, and yet "Love" to others is simply " effortless pleasures!" Sometimes I relate most popular religions with the latter phenomena, worshiping is rather effortless as compared to trying to occupy yourself with undersatnding what overwhelms you. The trouble with many people is that they are not sensitive enough to the depths of reality and try to overwhelm themselves is other " lands of hope!" I believe our universe is enough to keep us on our toes for new discoveries and we shall never understand it with our limited brains.minds so why dare to believe and formulate a replacement more difficult to understand than our universe. I believe there is some human pride to project an intelligence more than those who are mere mortals and stick to understanding the complexity of existing realities rather than others which has no solutions, but some pretend to understand them to feel superior to others and their superiority is proportional to the supernatural that they assume! The human mind is so complex. It is often said that the man at a factory who feels he has little succcess at a factory will walk over to another voluntary club which he makes up with similar groups of personnel and he volunteers to be president of the club, to gain some importance which he does not feel at the factory where he earns a living. He even gets worshiped in his new surroundings. There are so many curious sects who follow such group behavious some go into ridiculous situations even killing their own offsprings as sacrifies to the entity they worship. When it comes to such worship, people start asking questions about their state of mind. I often do this asking when I see people in malta walking with chains around their feet and also being so adamant to break my eardrums to please their Gods with fireworks. I can wait for such people to change thier ideas and be introduced to some work ethics which will make Malta as an Independent country earn a better living for our children, rather than influencing children is some of the new values including worshipiing, modern electronics and sitting for to long believing that the computor will solve all thier problems.
Luca Mule Stagno
Jun 8th 2012, 12:14
"It was to worship the true God that God’s people were brought out of Egypt."
I thought it was the needless deaths of innocent first born children and the devastation of livestock. Also, never happened. There are no historical or archaeological records of this supposed event.
"We’ve come of age to such an extent that we feel in no way overwhelmed, and speaking of mystery and vision sounds purely mythological."
Have you ever contemplated the true scope of the universe? Have you not marveled upon looking at the night sky thinking that the light hitting your eyes began long before your species was born and that its source may be long dead? There is wonder and awe in understanding that is greater than that of mystery and flights of fancy.
Even more, I feel awe when I see how far we have come as a species. When I think of the advances made by science in just the last century, I feel an awe in the human spirit. When I hear of the brave, noble, kind, or otherwise good acts of those around the world, I am often overwhelmed.
This entire article is hilariously old hat apologetics. The apologetic of dodging the issue. Of begging questions, poisoning wells, arguing from authority, and special pleading.
Mr Joseph Huber
Jun 4th 2012, 15:49
What makes secularists cringe is just rubbished away isn't so Mr Grima? Man can appease himself by claiming that religion has failed, conveniently mixing the wood for the trees because modern society fails to understand or, rather conveniently refuses to recognise, the clear distinction between religion and those who are 'supposedly' practising it.
Charles Grima
Jun 4th 2012, 14:14
Yeah, as if a mere mortal man can understand all the above....
Take a look at the festi, for idolatry....
Religion has failed.
Mr Emanuel Farrugia
Jun 3rd 2012, 10:56
The Call of Discipleship
The eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
What if it meant that we were to take Jesus’ call to bring healing to the sick, justice to oppressed, housing to the homeless, relief to the poor, to all nations? Surely the Good News, that Gospel, is one to spread and share among the nations. Jesus told us: Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. We as Christians know that the best way to teach is by being a living example. It is a more difficult task then simply scouting for candidates for baptism, and it is more rewarding. Jesus has extended to us the challenge of Christian living and he has offered to help.
He says teach them to observe all that I have commanded. Jesus is committing us here to discipleship in a radical way.
Gracious God, Grant us wisdom, and grant us courage as we face them in faith, together, with your grace.
Emanuel Farrugia [TARXIEN] former student Faculty of Theology UOM
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