If there is a common theme running through Tom McMahon's commentary today it is an exploration of how our understanding of Jesus has changed. How did Jesus end up being placed on a pedestal removed from the reality of who he really was? Collectively, we seem to be on a quest to go back and rescue the real Jesus from the unreal expectations that have submerged him over the centuries.

Thoughts somewhat connected to the worldwide scandal of clerical abuse...or are they?

Let me open today with a message of hope that I received from John Greenleaf, carried on a chat list out of Philadelphia, USA. I rejoice in such wisdom and meaningfulness. We need to focus on the rebuilding of the Body of Christ, a genuine universal church. Such is our ongoing futuristic work.

John writes:

Liberty Leading the People (Fr: La Liberté guidant le peuple) is a painting by Eugène Delacroix commemorating the July Revolution of 1830, which toppled Charles X. A woman personifying Liberty leads the people forward over the bodies of the fallen, holding the tricolore flag of the French Revolution in one hand and brandishing a bayonetted musket with the other. Click image to enlarge.

"The Roman Catholic Church needs a French Revolution. The revelations about clerical sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church continue to explode like an Icelandic volcano, spreading ashes of dismay, disgust and anger across the globe ... and all knowledgeable observers agree that we still see just the tip of the iceberg ... When the Roman Empire in the West collapsed, the Church of Rome wed its structure in sickness and in health. The Bishop of Rome clothed himself in imperial grandeur; and arrogance, domination, and self-preservation replaced the Gospel values of compassion, humility, and ministry to the oppressed." John Greenleaf, Another Voice anothervoice-greenleaf.org

Tom comments:

I ponder if that revolution John Greenleaf calls for is not already underway under the title of Vatican Two. John's choice of the French Revolution intrigues me. It was a peoples' uprising wherein monarchial heads literally rolled. It's long standing logo, a woman with gun climbing over the barricade is powerfully symbolic and current.

In contrast the American Revolution is more a business — a money making/avoid taxation revolt with a prolonged legacy seen in the 1860's Civil War and Civil Rights movements of the 1960's-70's struggle for the simple peoples' rights. Cardinal Christoph Schonborn of Austria, aware that his priests have been more protective of clergy has appointed an ever-increasing number of lay persons, especially women, to investigate abuse cases. Today's religious institutional revolt is propelled by educated people on the fringe, slowly and surely reaching the rank and file, pew-person.

Back in pre-gospel times in the rough and tumble port city of Corinth, Paul the Apostle offered cheer and good news to early followers of Jesus. In the midst of what looks like chaos, Paul centers on love as a lasting and meaningful experience (1 Corinthians Chap 13). You know his words that without love (which surely entails forgiveness) all else is a tinkling cymbal. Paul introduced to the troubled people of Corinth the ever-enduring way of Jesus. Today The Catholic people need the calming words of the Christ aka anointed one by God, which really means set apart by people as personal redeemer to bring peace to humankind. (My [Tom's] personal life has been redeemed by following the way of Jesus. ) In my lifetime governments and people majorities have endorsed endless wars to settle disputes. The Jesus way, always present, has not been popular. I bother myself daily that I am so little involved in peace movements

For the two last Sundays I attended at the First Congregational Church [United Church of Christ] presentations by Thomas Sheehan, Professor of the Catholic Experience at Stanford University. Tom first offered on the Changing Paradigm of Jesus, a Jesus-to-Christ type of appreciating the human native Palestinian who became divine and super after the resurrection. Tom's second session was on the Resurrection and the disjointed developmental progression of concepts taken from Paul and the four Gospels that describe the risen Lord's new life.

I complimented Tom Sheehan on his brilliant approach, a much needed "getting to know Jesus" as we move from a Middle Ages picture of a Jesus elevated above human nature to a modern use of the Way of Jesus, the once reformer of Judaism. We best be careful lest we fall back into ancient Donatism, a teaching that Jesus was a phantom illusion without a human body. The Donatist teachings were condemned, the 325 ce Nicene Creed taking Donatism to task when it proclaims "suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried " … all human body experiences. Jesus was a definite human being and his modern spirit (aka the Holy Spirit) works only through and in human beings. The Middle Ages making of the superman Jesus rendered his teachings valueless. I have called Jesus "the new kid on the block", rising for the tenth hundred time from the grave-trap of imperial Rome and I hope at age 81 for a number of more years to continue to spread his good news. I have contended since 1975 that each community of believers writes its own gospel account of how Jesus comes to life in their midst.

At daily and Sunday mass I recommend the words should be as follows: "Jesus has died; Christ has risen and Jesus will come again and again as the Christ." Jesus is historical, long dead and I'm not sure 'buried'. People made a Christ of him attributing this to their God. The historical Jesus rises again and again in every follower who takes seriously her/his commitment to the way of Jesus. Editor Brian, this is the church you are looking for in your Sunday Forum and your question: "What is the vision of a vibrant Catholicism you would like to see?" Cheers for you forum people who have so wonderfully contributed. Future church is mobilizing to see who Jesus is.

The example of Jim McEntee...

Dedication for James McEntee [Click image to enlarge]

Recently I attended a civic ceremony dedicating a PEACE MEMORIAL to the memory and work of James P. McEntee Sr. Jim was a simple person from Sacred Heart Parish in Oakland, Ca. Jim's Mom travelled 60 miles by train to bring homemade Irish bread to my ordination reception in 1954; we priests of that era owed everything to our parents — faith, morals, fundamental concepts of living and relationships. Jim, a priest and Ann, a nun, gave a home to three abandoned children. (I sat next to one of them at the Peace memorial dedication.) Roman authorities had a conniption … and the short story is that Jim and Ann married, eventually to have a family of seven. I enjoy telling the story of the archbishop forbidding Jim to go back to the parish once Jim had informed him of his forth coming marriage. Jim, the ever obedient Catholic, stayed away, going back on Sunday afternoon to retrieve his clothes. Three Mexican families were waiting for the long overdue baptism of their kids, the pastor dead drunk asleep in the rectory. Jim donned his cassock and welcomed the ninos and ninas into the family of God. For the next 40 years Jim was known as 'Padre Santiago' for his social justice work among a diverse community. Sikhs, a woman Rabbi, a Baptist minister, along with representatives of diverse religious and political communities offered prayers of thanks for Jim and his work. At least twenty politicians, representing the U.S. Congress as well as State and City offered their connection and praise for the work of the deceased, all claiming part in his unique ability to bring difficult people and matters to a negotiation table for peaceful resolve. I commented to one's of Jim's long standing friends and mutual peers of our seminary days that it was not so much Jim-the-person who was being memorialized but Jim-the-work which will be held as a sacred model for generations to come. I dread to call James McEntee a Christian doing Christian work … he was that, an exemplary Catholic and a service priest for all humankind. Jim went beyond institutional religious bounds, a human Jesus figure who was all things to all humankind with no reference to gender, sexual orientation, religious preference, or political choice. Jim McEntee was a man with a mission of peace for all.

I am a man inundated with the sewer water of a broken dam of ugly clerical information and I choose to bypass the anecdotal incidents, hoping to be part of the effort to rebuild the Body of Christ — a human church if you wish that is universal in scope with the Creator God as our common Father. I offer these words in hope of our common building effort. Jesus knew evil would be a mysterious factor of human life. I know that I will be part of that evil and will encounter evil all the days of my life. I can work every precious day to eliminate evil primarily from my own life and work to promote the healing mission of the historical human Jewish Jesus who respected and loved all of his Father's creation.

p.s. I will return to appreciating the clerical tragedy of our time, hopeful for a healing solution.

Tom in San Jose. Ca. (10/05/2010)

©2010 Tom McMahon

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