Saturday of the Third Week of Easter
Readings for Saturday of the 3rd Week of Easter

First Published: Saturday, May 06, 2006

You've got to be kidding!

Reflection:

Many of the disciples of Jesus who were listening said, This saying is hard; who can accept it?

Just so you know, I am not ignoring the importance of what Peter is doing in the story form the Acts of the Apostles, its just that the Eucharistic discourse is so intense in the Gospel of John and so central to our belief I need to talk to myself about this.

I dont know how many times I have said it; Christianity has got to be the most difficult faith to follow that exists. Look what we are asked to believe:

We believe in One God (OK we're good with most other world religions so far) who created all things, including us.
That one God, while unified in spirit has three persons, The Father, His only begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, the gift the Son left his people on Pentecost and how that is possible is a complete mystery. (We just lost most of the rest of the world religions there.)
We believe that God sent his Son (which is somehow part of him) to us so we might know his great love for us, and he sent him into the world, born a true man (and also true God) from the womb of a Virgin, who, by the way, remained a virgin after childbirth. (Pure physical logic is now screaming Its impossible for a woman to become pregnant with out the biological help of a male. And how can God be man completely?)
It gets better we believe this God/Man Son of God, born of a Virgin, completely transforms the teachings of the Hebrews, of whom he, in his human persona, is part. He knows he is going to be killed by these people he loves and came to save. They find him subversive and one of his own closest friends betrays him. That same night, the Son of God engages in one of the holy Hebrew rituals and performs a miracle by changing the bread and wine into his own body and blood, converting the whole ritual into a sacrifice prescribed by God under the same Hebrew rules, where he (this Son of God) is the sacrificial victim! (Logic itself rejects this, Physics rejects this. It is the most difficult precept to grasp in our faith.)
These people he came to save kill him. (Thats not too bad, pretty consistent with human nature). But then, after they kill him, he comes back from the dead! (Actually there are other faiths who believe in reincarnation but thats not what happened here.) He did not come back as Ghost or Spirit He came back in the form he had as a man but somehow changed. His disciples saw the wounds he had received, they ate with him. That is not a ghost.(Paranormal investigators would throw up their hands and walk away.)
We believe that this action was all done so we might be raised up on the last day. (most modern religions do think there is an afterlife so we are back to believing like most others. Its all the stuff between One God and Heaven they would think was crazy.)

I know I have made it sound rather flippant, but I was trying to present what we believe as a non-Christian might see the tenants of our faith. Not only is what we believe difficult but the discipline required by the Catholic Church is the most rigid and its focus most mystic of all the Christian denominations.

You who are faithful to this rule are to be commended. But, it is important that you follow these beliefs not out of habit or strictly out of tradition (My mother and father went to Mass every Sunday so I will too.) but out of your own belief and faith that what God asks of us is constant worship and that as often as possible we should, as a community, come together and share his greatest gift, the gift of himself. We should do this with awe and reverence because what we do is holy in and of itself. Pax