HOMELESS JESUS

 

Sunday's Gospel Reading is about choices. More importantly, it is about choosing God’s Kingdom over the Kingdom of Rome. It is--at its most fundamental--about taking sides with those whose only hope is God and rejecting Pax Romana, its paterfamilias, its peace based on war, its systems of patronage. 

Foxes having holes and birds having nests allude to the imperial family and its domain-- the basic hierarchical unit of society--that provided food, clothing, shelter, safety, security, and honor. Those who follow the "Homeless Jesus" are members of a different household: God’s oikos where widows, orphans, and refugees are the most privileged and where even the most unwelcome is always welcome. Yes, even beggars. 

Burial rites are again part of the rituals and obligations of the imperial family. Going and proclaiming good news to the poor, release to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind; letting the oppressed go free, and proclaiming the year of the Lord’s favor--God's jubilee of justice--takes priority.

Anyone who has put a hand to the plow knows that looking back is unacceptable. The one who has decided to become a farmer in the Kingdom of God but yearns to go back to farming for the Kingdom of Rome, the complete opposite direction, is not fit to follow Jesus. 

The challenge of the song we learned in Sunday School is true. "I have decided to follow Jesus... No turning back!" 

Donald Trump and those who believe that following Jesus of Nazareth is easy, rewarding, and will bring us closer to heaven are following the wrong Jesus. 

*art, "Homeless Jesus," sculpture by Timothy Schamlz (at King's University College, Ontario), image from vanderbilt divinity library digital archives.

MY NAME IS LEGION. FOR WE ARE MANY!

 

We learn early in school that the family is the basic unit of society. The familia, with the father as its head, goes back to the Ancient Romans. The father had absolute power over everyone in his family. Absolute meant exactly that: the father can disown, sell, even kill his children. For many fathers in Antiquity, children were property. Possessions. 

For the Ancient Romans, the emperor was the father of all fathers. For the emperor, occupied peoples and nations were property. Possessions.

Jesus's exorcism reminds us, especially those among us who are fathers, that people are not property nor possessions. Especially not our children. And if we think they are, then we need an exorcism. Among fathers who badly need an exorcism are those who disown or turn their backs on their children. 

We know how it starts: a child displays different, deviant, disruptive behavior: a boy who loves playing with Barbie dolls; a girl who plays with toy cars; embarrassing tantrums in public places, especially in church; unwelcomed, anti-social behavior; attempts at correcting all these based on church and society’s normative, purity, and morality laws. And then we start naming these, putting labels like “Alanganin,” “Retarded,” “Abnormal,” and, worse, “Demon-Possessed.” The labels stick. The labels are gossiped about. And they hurt.

The man from Gerasa in our text was a man from the city. Yet, when he encountered Jesus, he was homeless, living among the tombs outside of the city, bruised from self-inflicted wounds, and naked. He had been bound with chains, kept under guard, but he would break free, and flee into the desert. People were afraid of him at the beginning of the narrative. They were still afraid of him at the end of the story.  I dare say the first person to fear him was his father.

When Jesus heals lepers, he tells them to show themselves to the priests because in Antiquity priests, not doctors, diagnosed leprosy. In today’s text, Jesus tells the man from Gerasa to “go home and tell them what the Lord has done for you.” In other words: “Go back home to your father who turned his back on you and tell him what the Lord has done!”

My friends, professionals who study D.I.D. or dissociative identity disorder (multiple personality disorder as it was wrongly called in the earlier days) have studied this text as well as the Levite’s Concubine in the book of Judges to bring light on D.I.D. in conversation with anthropologists who study altered states of consciousness. There are people who love to escape by basking in the moonlight, stargazing, or, for a handful, actually going to the moon or outer space. There are people who escape to the oceans, to the unexplored mysteries beneath our feet. Then there are those who, in order to protect themselves, in order to survive, escape into the vast recesses of the mind. Let us never forget: the brain is a three-pound universe. Estimates put the number of people with D.I.D. at 1-3% of the population. 

Jesus asked the man, “What is your name?” He said, “Legion. For we are many.”  

There are also many daughters and sons who are grateful to God for their fathers, their grandfathers, living and those who have gone ahead. There are also many sons and daughters estranged from their fathers. And then there are sons and daughters who have D.I.D. most probably because of their fathers. They are survivors. And they are legion.

Jesus’s exorcism reminds us, especially those among us who are fathers, that people are not property nor possessions. Especially not our children. Each one is created in God’s image. Each one is a gift. Each one, our pride and joy. And each one has a name uniquely their own. 

*Art, "Jesus, the Gerasene, and the Unclean Spirits" by James Tissot (1836-1902), from the Art in Christian Tradition (a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library).

IMAGINE THE TRINITY

 

June 15 is Trinity Sunday, and many homilies will focus on explaining a mystery.

This "mystery" was discussed, debated, and formulated around the 4th century by mostly privileged, propertied, and powerful Christian men. It is no wonder that if you ask people to imagine the Trinity, most will conjure up three male figures--usually all white! The doctrine has been retrojected into biblical texts, including Sunday's Gospel Reading. 

Many of us grew up with centuries-old, androcentric doctrines that make our heads hurt. Many of us grew up with doctrines that do not make sense; that create walls instead of bridges; that separate people instead of bringing them together; that make our faiths, our beliefs, our skin color, our sexual orientation, our class, our way of life sinful, less human, and outright wrong!

There are those--quoting scripture no less--who sincerely proclaim that all rulers--including tyrants, dictators, and children of tyrants and dictators--are God's chosen. Even Senator Ronald "Bato" Dela Rosa declared recently that he is guided by the Holy Spirit. Then there are those who insist that the Bible is their exclusive "land title" and have killed, dispossessed, disenfranchised, and displaced peoples in its name. 

June 15 is Trinity Sunday, and many homilies will focus on explaining a mystery. Maybe some homilies will focus on the female imagery for the divine. Sunday's lection may challenge us to imagine the Spirit as a woman, giving birth, nursing her children. 

Friends, maybe Sunday's lection challenges us to imagine God beyond the boxes, even the texts, we have created to contain God. Maybe the Trinity is a fellowship of nursing mothers, a family of sisters, a discipleship of equals, a circle of life. 

Maybe it is better to imagine God as a "they" instead of a "she" or a "he" or a "s/he." 

*Art, "Trinity" by Kelly Latimore (2016). Available from the Vanderbilt Divinity Library Art Galleries.

WHERE IS GOD?

 

Philip's request to Jesus resonates with what many among us long for: "Show us the Father and we will be satisfied!" Some ask this question in the comforts of their armchairs inside their air-conditioned offices. Tens of millions ask this as they struggle to survive from one day to the next. Where is God?

One seventh of one year's income from the richest 2,000 billionaires on earth can eradicate poverty while 25,000 people from the poorest countries, 40% of them children, starve to death every single day. Where is God?

The world's richest countries spend close to 2 trillion US dollars a year on weapons of mass destruction while the United Nations report that less than a third of that amount can provide food, water, basic education, health care, and decent housing for the poorest nations. Where is God?

The Ministry of Health in Gaza reports that over 54,000 Palestinians, a third being children, have been killed by the State of Israel's war machine since October 7, 2023. Where is God?

Jesus tells Philip over and over to believe. Believe in the words. If these are not enough, believe in the works. Believe in love!

Those of us who call ourselves Christian must embody the basic tenet of our faith: incarnation. Love in the flesh. So, where is God? Among us. Between us. One of us. Many times, a stranger... Anywhere and everywhere we experience goodness wrestling free from evil, where we find hope being triumphant over despair, where we encounter faith stronger than fear, where we see love chosen over indifference, where we experience life rising up in the midst of death. Even from under the rubble.

Love in the flesh. God is there.

*Photo of Gaza (from The New York Times)

JESUS PRAYS FOR US

 

There are those among us who grew up in Christian communities that taught "all prayers need to end with 'in Jesus's name'". There are those among us who grew up in churches that had regular prayer meetings and 24-hour prayer chains or prayer warriors. I am sure some of us have experienced falling asleep while we were praying.

Sunday's lection is part of what scholars call Jesus’s Farewell Discourse (chapters 14-17). Jesus knows he will be separated from his friends very soon. Imagine a line, a boundary, a threshold that Jesus had to cross, alone. A line his friends could not cross--not yet.

What does Jesus do? He prays for his friends. He also prays for those who will believe because of his friends. Jesus prays for us! More importantly, he lifts all of us in his prayer to God. He asks God three times in his prayer.

I believe most of us read our Bibles and pray every day. Many of us pray several times a day. There are those among us who pray without ceasing. Oftentimes, our long prayers are often only about ourselves. There are also those who pray for those whose only hope is God. Then there are those, in these trying times, who need to cross lines, boundaries, and thresholds who need our prayers.

In all of these, we pray to God. We ask. We beg. We cry. We plead. We are the ones praying.

Thus, many among us miss a key point of our Gospel Reading. Jesus is praying for his friends and for us--not for himself. He prays for his loved ones when he, a man slated for execution by the state, has every reason to pray for himself!

In the midst of hopelessness and despair when we are most vulnerable and alone, we are not the only ones praying; Jesus lifts us in prayer.

Good news indeed! JESUS. PRAYS. FOR. US!


*art, "The Ascension," JESUS MAFA, 1973 (Cameroon), from the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives.

THE MATMAN RISES

 

Sunday's Gospel Reading from John 5 reminds me of Linus Van Pelt and his security blanket. Linus's relationship with his blanket started on June 1, 1954! (Our clan has had a love affair with Charles Schulz's Peanuts that now span three generations. We even have a cousin named Linus!)

The man in the narrative has had a relationship with his mat almost four decades; 38 years to be exact! Note that the narrative begins with the man lying ill on his mat and ends with the man made well, standing up, and walking with his mat. (Structural exegetes will have a field day dealing with this pericope!)

I am pretty sure that many people asked Schulz to do a strip where Linus eventually lets go of his security blanket. I am also pretty sure that many people probably expected Jesus to tell the man to let go of his mat. In sickness and in heallth, even Jesus celebrated the man's special bond with his mat.

One person's junk is another one's treasure. We all have "mats" that we hold dear, that accompany us through the highs and lows of our lives, that make us feel safe, secure, at "home."

Dear Friends, many among us have been lying on our mats, feeling terribly ill, since the May 12th Midterm Elections. More of us have been paralyzed by the disheartening indifference of so many on the ongoing genocide in Gaza... Soon, we will hear a still small voice, whispering: "Stand up, take your mat, and walk!"

THE 25% REVOLUTION

Most of us were taught the 50% plus one formula. We call this the "Majority Rule." Those in power use the term "Silent Majority" (popularized by Richard Nixon in 1969) to describe the large groups of people who quietly support them and their policies, in contrast to the "Vocal Minority" of protesters.

History and research show us a totally different reality. A committed minority, relentless and dedicated, needs to reach 25% of the population to reverse the majority viewpoint. This committed minority, relentless and dedicated, by modeling behavior--repeatedly and consistently--eventually leads the rest to copy such behavior.

Dear Friends, do not forget this. Ever. Tradition tells us the Jesus Movement began with Twelve. Sunday's Gospel Reading reminds us of the behavior that eventually changed the world: love for others, especially the least, the lost, the last, and the left out. Loving the way Jesus loved.

Bonifacio had 30,000 Katipuneros. Each one of them ready and willing to die for our Motherland. Each one believing that love for country is the same as love for God. Each one loving as Jesus did.

Monday's midterm elections served as a showcase of solidarity and volunteerism on the ground, a concrete expression of the youth sector's protest vote, and a testament to the masses' collective quest for genuine transformation.

As I write this, Kiko Pangilinan has over 15 million votes. Heidi Mendoza has over 8 million. Teddy Casino has 4.6 million while many among the Makabayan candidates have around 4 million each!

Again, a committed minority, relentless and dedicated, loving as Jesus did, needs to reach 25% of the population to reverse the majority viewpoint.

Friends, the 25% Revolution is slowly but surely unfolding! Monday's elections is but one of the signs of this unfolding. Change is in the air.

We are almost there!



*The 25% Revolution—How Big Does a Minority Have to Be to Reshape Society? [The Scientific American]
**Political scientists argue that Bam Aquino is the biggest beneficiary of the youth sector's protest vote and the ongoing rift between the Marcos and Duterte camps.