Dear Beloved Parishioners,
So, I just realized I neglected to post the dates and times of our Parish Lenten Services in our bulletin or in my last Missive. (They were listed on the Lenten Resources page that Mrs. Marge Kathalynas had put on the table going in to church.) But seeing that the first one is tonight, I am giving you as much lead time as my feeble brain can…
STATIONS of the CROSS at St. Justin.
TONIGHT, March 4th,
March 25th
April 8th
Each of these will begin at 7:00pm. Deacon Mark Jaeger will be leading them…
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Secondly, 97 SJM parishioners have filled out the online version of the Disciple Maker Index – which represents 15% of our 628 average weekly Mass attendees. Thanks to all who have done so already… And let me say this clearly – this is your biggest chance to have your voice heard in this process, and it is critical in getting an accurate picture of the strength and weaknesses of our St. Justin Martyr parish (and that of other parishes around the Archdiocese) as this process moves forward. Please set aside the 10-15 minutes it will take you to fill out this survey. And a reminder, if you can, please fill out the ONLINE version of the survey, found at this link:
https://portal.catholicleaders.org/d/y3226y
There are paper copies, as well as a bin to collect the completed paper copies, on a table in the gathering space to the right as you leave church..
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So, an early dive into the upcoming Sunday gospel theme (not the actual readings) This reflection comes from the Center for Action and Contemplation, and Fr. Richard Rohr.
The Shadow of Original Sin
Monday, October 25, 2021
Fr. Richard reflects on the negative consequences of Christianity’s emphasis on “original sin.”
The truth of our Original Goodness was sadly complicated when the concept of original sin entered the Christian mind.
This idea was put forth by Augustine in the fifth century but never mentioned in the Bible. We usually taught that human beings were born into “sin” because Adam and Eve “offended God” by eating from the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” As punishment, God cast them out of the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:22–23). We typically think of sin as a matter of personal responsibility and culpability, yet original sin wasn’t something we did at all. It was something that was done to us (“passed down from Adam and Eve”). Evil was a social concept much more than an individual act.
In one way, the doctrine of “original sin” was good and helpful in that it taught us not to be surprised at the frailty and woundedness that we all carry. Just as goodness is inherent and shared, so it seems with evil. And this is, in fact, a very merciful teaching. Knowledge of our shared wound ought to help us to be forgiving and compassionate with ourselves and with one another.
I truly believe that Augustine meant the idea of original sin to be a compassionate one. Yet historically, the teaching of original sin started us off on the wrong foot—with a no instead of a yes, with mistrust instead of trust. We have spent centuries trying to solve the “problem” that we’re told is at the heart of our humanity. But when we start with a problem, we tend never to get beyond that very mind-set.
Over thirty years after the publication of Matthew Fox’s book Original Blessing, author Danielle Shroyer explores the theme further. She writes:
Sin is not the primary thing that is true about us. Before we are anything else, we are made in God’s image, and we are made to reflect that image in the way we live. Before scripture tells us anything else about ourselves, it tells us we are good. I think that’s because that’s the way God intended it. When we ground ourselves in the fact that God created us good, we are capable of confronting all the other things that are true about us, even the difficult things. Love is tremendously healing. [1]
To begin climbing out of the hole of original sin, we must start with a positive and generous cosmic vision. Generosity tends to feed on itself. I have never met a truly compassionate or loving human being who did not have a foundational and even deep trust in the inherent goodness of nature and humanity.
The Christian story line must start with a positive, over-arching vision for humanity and for history, or it will never get beyond the primitive, exclusionary, and fear-based stages of most early human development…
My connection between this meditation and the upcoming Sunday gospel is this – isn’t this ‘fallen nature’ of humanity that original sin hints at exactly what Jesus refutes in his testing by the devil? The devil starts with what is lacking – IF you are the son of God, you will not know the normal privations of life – food/hunger; control over our destiny/power; and human frailty/safety – and invites Jesus to believe in a different definition of what it means to be human. And to each of these testings, Jesus says in effect – I am the Son of God – and I will be hungry, I will not always have power, and I will not always be safe, but I will ALWAYS be loved by my Father. Him alone do I serve and worship.
When, like Jesus, we listen only to the voice of the the Spirit – the one that unites us to our loving God – as our fundamental reality, then an honest appraisal of our human failings is possible, a turning from sin and believing in the Gospel becomes possible, and an ability to be transformed and to transform our world becomes the mission of our life’s journey as a disciple.
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Finally, the song of the day – from a Gregorian chant hymn – Parce Domine. The refrain is roughly translated – “Spare O Lord, spare your people, lest you be angry with us forever…”
Lenten Blessings to one and all,
fr. bill