Stigmata

If I could
I would feel in my own flesh
what he did:
Hands tearing in empathy--
Thirsting for a people too drunk
To realize their drought
Weeping for a people to
Jubilant to feel their sadness

Somehow within his passion
Would be feeling more for those around me
Somehow by looking at them from the cross
Through tears I might see them truly.
Crying that they might be found.

In feeling his isolation
I might understand those distant from God.
I might see more of God from from such a perch
Heat, blood, lonely, breath,
Drowning in the midday sun.

If I could be that,
If I could see there,
Then I would not sin.

The Marriage of Jesus - The Ultimate Oppression

So lately I've been thinking about what it might mean if the DaVainci Code wasn't a work of fiction. What if Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married?

Now, let's try this out in several theological constructs. Imagine if Jesus wasn't divine... imagine if he was just a man. It is clear, even if he were just human, that the gospels portray him as the Messiah. The annointed one of God. Now imagine if this annointed one this Messiah got married. His wife, in this case Mary Magdeline, would be married to teh one who was to reestablish David's Throne and wrest Israel from the hands of it's oppressors. Now... this means, that anytime Mary decided to disagree with her husband, she would be disagreeing with the Messiah, with God's purposes, with Israels salvation. This is not marriage, this is oppression.

Now let's try this out as a Christian. Jesus being both human and divine, one with the Father, and part of the triune God. God, the creator of all things, first creates Mary Magdalene to be Jesus wife. Remembering how far above us God is the very thought of immortal God marrying a mortal human being is almost beastial and/or incestuous. Further, it would almost be like a human being creating a robot to supply their needs.

However, imagine now what it might be like for Jesus and Mary Magdalene in their marriage. In this scenario every time Mary Magdalene disagreed with her husband, every time she got angry with him, she would be committing a sin. Further, anytime she wasn't wanted, Jesus by his almighty power could mirculously silence her or send her away. The difference in power is just too extreme for such a marriage to ever be healthy. Further it paints a rather sickening picture of God creating a woman to satisfy his own needs.

Just a few thoughts...

Ordinary Piety

(Inspired by Vespers a few nights ago... I wanted to write this poem.)

Underneath my robes
I wear blue jeans
Wishing my feet were bare
Wanting to be a Hippy
High Church sensibilities

In my soul, dreadlocks
My words - wings
Maybe a tatoo
Definitely tie dye
Long hair given
Lyrical soul
Chant and Evensong
Guitar Solo

Raging inside me
Another person
Bashing Free
Headed to the altar
Ordinary Piety

Happy Feast Day

So, I am heading back to Minnesota for a wonderful wonderful yearly retreat with my Benedictine Oblate Brothers and Sisters. Once a year I go to Minnesota to pray and spend time at Saint Brigid of Kildare Monastery. If you click the link above you will find a copy of the Abby Banner from Saint Johns abby from Spring of 2001. Look on page 14 and you will find a story detailing the hisotry of Saint Brigids as a Methodist-Benedictine Monastry.

So anyway, next week we will be celebrating the Feast of Saint Benedict and having our yearly retreat. I won't be around computers so I won't be able to blog about it... but still I am very excited. Talk to you guys soon.

Michelangelo

You've Got to Have a Dream

So I'm reading a book called "You've Got to Have a Dream: The Message of the Musical" by Ian Bradley. It makes me ache to be in musical theater again... it has been far far too long.

Anyway, I was taken aback by the thesis of this book so I thought I might present it here for discussion with whomever reads my blog. "My Thesis in this book is that the musical, and especially in the modern musical, has a significant theological content and spiritual dimension and provides for many people an experience which can genuinely described as religious as well as entertaining."

Oddly enough I have very little problem with this thesis because I know musical theater. When you place human existence into musical form it carries a double emotional impact that cannot help but transformative. The thoughs emotions and beliefes are transformed into musical form and are therefore twice as prevalent. Beyond emotion though, musicals grow out of the theological worldviews of their writeres andso even when God is absent from the plot the writers beliefs about God are present in the music and lyrics.

What do you guys think? Don't be afraid to post!!

The Birth of the Imagination...

So a recent thought came to me... Look at this text from Genesis 2:19

Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name.

Creation was brand new and the first thing God asked of Adam, was to delightfully use his creativity. I imagine it in my mind like this. As God show adam everything in the garden he seems to say:

"Conceive Adam, imagine, what is it's name? Tell me what it makes you think of? What symbol, what prescence does it have? Dream Adam, what is it's name."

The birth of humanity is quickly followed by the birth of imagination and creative thought. the song that brought forth stars was still ringing in the universe when God turns to Adam and asks him to imagine. More than that, Adams creative power was sancitifed by God in that, whatever he imagined it would be called, that was it's name.

Now it is up to parents to name their children. The creative capacity continues not just at birth but throughout a child's life as it is up to parents to write upon their children their identity. Parents who take this role seriously dream and write hope into their children. Others fail in doing this and write depair into their lives.

What would we have been had we not fallen? Where would our imagination have taken us? Where would our children be, if we say them with undimmed eyes, and had the capacity to write hope perfectly into their lives?