Skip to main content

Above All

I did some sample RCIA teaching last night for some friends. I happened to mention in a humorous way that I still had a favorite Bible verse or theme, if you will, and that that was still OK even though we are Catholic. My theme verse is Romans 5:8: "But God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us." The way this is worded in the main teaches me that Christ didn't wait around for us to clean ourselves up, or to be religiously acceptable, or appear to have it all together. Rather, he saw us in our very worst moments, and said, "I will die for that person." It's quite dense theologically, the entire chapter, but it is a meditation on the willingness of Christ to do his redeeming work in the face of the worst we could do to him, and the worst we can do to each other, and to ourselves.

In any case, a lot of good Christian people get around to knocking popular worship songs for being too individualistic, or too much "Jesus is my boyfriend" in their orientation. I need to push back against that a little bit, because if receiving Jesus is not personal and individual, then Jesus will never be received. Moreover, it is a plain fact of the revealed truth that Jesus died for us personally. One worship song, "Above All," puts it this way:

Crucified, laid behind a stone
You lived to die, rejected and alone
Like a rose, trampled on the ground
You took the fall
And thought of me
Above all

--
If I am not mistaken, Isaiah 52:10 says in some version, "he shall see his offspring; they shall prolong his days." Let me connect it to those momentous verses in Hebrews 12: "the joy set before him" is us. St. Paul says in paraphrase somewhere, "I no longer live for myself, but for Christ, who loved me, and gave himself for me." And in Romans, St. Paul says, "He who did not spare His own Son, will he not also graciously give us all things?" Many other examples can be found. The point is, if we denigrate the Lord's desire for each one of us, in service to some other cause, perhaps combating the excessive individualism of some elements of religion in America today, we miss what God has himself said.

Frankly, some of us are so desperate to hate ourselves as some sort of pious exercise, that we'll ignore large portions of Scripture in order to succeed. It was love that drove Jesus to the cross, not mere toleration. Maybe we can't recognize love, or accept it, because we haven't received enough of it. I don't know. In any case, I'm here to help.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My Thoughts On The Harrison Butker Commencement Speech

Update: I read the whole thing. I’m sorry, but what a weirdo. I thought you [Tom Darrow, of Denver, CO] made a trenchant case for why lockdowns are bad, and I definitely appreciated it. But a graduation speech is *not* the place for that. Secondly, this is an august event. It always is. I would never address the President of the United States in this manner. Never. Even the previous president, though he deserves it, if anyone does. Thirdly, the affirmations of Catholic identity should be more general. He has no authority to propound with specificity on all matters of great consequence. It has all the hallmarks of a culture war broadside, and again, a layman shouldn’t speak like this. The respect and reverence due the clergy is *always due,* even if they are weak, and outright wrong. We just don’t brush them aside like corrupt Mafia dons, to make a point. Fourthly, I don’t know where anyone gets the idea that the TLM is how God demands to be worshipped. The Church doesn’t teach that. ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Dear Alyse

 Today, you’re 35. Or at least you would be, in this place. You probably know this, but we’re OK. Not great, but OK. We know you wouldn’t want us moping around and weeping all the time. We try not to. Actually, I guess part of the problem is that you didn’t know how much we loved you. And that you didn’t know how to love yourself. I hope you have gotten to Love by now. Not a place, but fills everything in every way. I’m not Him, but he probably said, “Dear daughter/sister, you have been terribly hard on yourself. Rest now, and be at peace.” Anyway, teaching is going well, and I tell the kids all about you. They all say you are pretty. I usually can keep the boys from saying something gross for a few seconds. Mom and I are going to the game tonight. And like 6 more times, before I go back to South Carolina. I have seen Nicky twice, but I myself haven’t seen your younger kids. Bob took pictures of the day we said goodbye, and we did a family picture at the Abbey. I literally almost a...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Friend I Once Had, And The Dogmatic Principle

 I once had a friend, a dear friend, who helped me with personal care needs in college. Reformed Presbyterian to the core. When I was a Reformed Presbyterian, I visited their church many times. We were close. I still consider his siblings my friends. (And siblings in the Lord.) Nevertheless, when I began to consider the claims of the Catholic Church to be the Church Christ founded, he took me out to breakfast. He implied--but never quite stated--that we would not be brothers, if I sought full communion with the Catholic Church. That came true; a couple years later, I called him on his birthday, as I'd done every year for close to ten of them. He didn't recognize my number, and it was the most strained, awkward phone call I have ever had. We haven't spoken since. We were close enough that I attended the rehearsal dinner for his wedding. His wife's uncle is a Catholic priest. I remember reading a blog post of theirs, that early in their relationship, she told him of the p...
Post a Comment
Read more