This is our High School Graduate, Natasha Terrell who was graduated from Cypress Lake High School on 5/17/14. Natasha achieved almost a 4 point average in her last year and over a 3 point overall. She is now accepted into Florida Gulf Coast University and will begin there in August of 2014. She is eagerly looking forward to her college studies and hopes to get a BS in Nursing and become a neonatal nurse someday.  She says that her hope is for a career where she “can do her part to make things better”. She is an inspiration to her family and peers. Whatever her career choices may be we know that she will do well and give her best to her studies and her profession. Natasha is also working part time as a cashier at McDonalds to help with her expenses. While she will live in the dorm so she has plenty of time to study she will still be able to join us at Good  Shepherd on Sundays.

Natasha says that she is thankful to God for her loving family,especially her Mom and Grandma, and for her church and all the supportive people there, like Judy Alves, Dr. Joe Cudjoe, and her Pastors. Her goals for this school year are to do well at college and to “gain a better connection with God.” For her future she prays that she will ” be able to help others, to take care of my family, and that financially and spiritually I will be able to give back”.  She hopes for “peace and positivity” in her family and in the world. We join her in these wonderful prayers.

These are some things that she learned this year. She is sharing quotes from UrbanMinistries Inteen Magazine that our Older Teen Class uses: “Asking for help is not a sign of weakness, but rather a mark of wisdom”. “God makes sure we have all the people we need to help us, but it’s our own fault (and loss) if we do not rely on them”. “Focus and be the best you can be”. And, quoting Rev. Will Hall who is explaining Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s’ book  Strength To Love, “Live out love. Give life your best and take advantage of every opportunity that will make you better.Remember that love transforms people.  Love is not love if there is no transformation.”  Rev. Hall also suggested that teens can show love by smiling, giving sacrificially, saying kind words and assisting others in need. They can also  defend someone in need, give hope, share, put pride aside, forgive and give someone a genuine compliment”. Natasha and her classmates at Good Shepherd work at putting love into practice. And here is our genuine compliment for Natasha-“Job well done”!

Natasha, May our loving God be with you in all of your next steps!

With Love and prayers for Natasha, our other graduates and all of our youth,

Rev. Dr. Judy Lee and Rev Judy Beaumont, ARCWP Good Shepherd Pastors

In this Picture she is with her little cousins Gir’riyah, Gir’Niyah and Gir’ Kiyah Battles, five year old triplets who have “graduated” from Kindergarten and will begin First Grade next year.While they did wear red caps and gowns at a ceremony, they said that when they get big like Natasha they will graduate High /school and wear a blue cap and gown!  We congratulate the triplets and Natasha’s siblings and cousin, Jakein and Jakeriyah Maybin and Keion Lewis who  were “graduated” from Elementary to Middle School. They too are looking forward to that blue cap and gown.

Here we present two homilies of the feast day of St. Peter and St. Paul.  Rev. Beverly Bingle  and Rev. Judy Lee, both Roman Catholic Women Priests share their reflections on this day. With somewhat different emphasis they compliment each other in content and present a  well-rounded theme for the day: we are church now!

Art Work by Mary Theresa Streck, ARCWP

 

Rev. Judy Lee’s  Homily: A Celebration of Peter, Paul and Mary-and James too! Sun June 29,2014

Opening Prayer–Our loving God, today we celebrate the beginnings of the church and the chief Apostles Peter, Paul and Mary of Magdala, James and others under whose leadership the church was solidly planted to grow throughout the centuries. We pray that we may give ourselves wholly to tending and growing the church that they planted, re-freshed and em-powered by Your most Holy Spirit so that the church may be living, vital and new in our time. Grant this through Jesus your Beloved who lives with you and the Holy Spirit, one God forevermore. Amen.

Acts 12:1-11  Peter is imprisoned and rescued as the people pray fervently

Psalm 34 R. O taste and see that God is good!-The poor cried out and God heard

2 Timothy 4:6-8, 17,18    Paul’s life has been poured out and he is finishing the race

ALLELUIA “Mary…Go to my brothers and sisters and tell them ‘I am returning to my Abba and your Abba, to my God and your God….and she told them…” (John20:17-18)ALLELUIA

The Gospel according to Matthew 16: 13-19   “On bedrock like this I will build my community”

A few years back there was a wonderful folk singing group called Peter, Paul and Mary.  You may remember them singing “If I had a Hammer, I’d hammer out justice… I’d hammer out the love between my brothers and my sisters all over this world.”  The energetic blending and harmony of the male and female voices was their hallmark. Peter and Paul were nothing without Mary. I wish the church knew this! For today again we have a feast day for Peter and Paul and not even a mention of Mary of Magdala who was every bit the leader and authority they were. Partly she is omitted because she is a woman and partly she is omitted because she taught some of Jesus’ less well known teachings that were in conflict, it seems, with the party line, the accepted doctrine of the church after the 4^th century and the Council of Nicea.  James, the brother of Jesus who headed the church in Jerusalem and was actually thereby senior to Peter is also not mentioned.   And without him the Judaic base of Christianity is in danger of minimization and loss. We have to remember that the winners of debates, doctrinal and otherwise, write the final story. Yet, the Spirit still speaks and the story is still being written.

Today the church celebrates the Apostles who planted the seeds that grew into the living church over the centuries. We celebrate Peter, whom Jesus loved and chose for a special role despite his “thickness” and “hard-headedness”. We know that in Aramaic “Kepa” (stone) is an insulting term meaning “stupid”. (George Lamsa, Idioms in the Bible Explained…1985, pp.93-94). Jesus, in his love for Peter, turned the negative nickname into a positive by saying that Peter would be a bedrock in building the church. (We remember that Christ is the living Cornerstone that we build upon).  Peter, with all of his faults gave his all, facing jail, persecution and martyrdom for the church. Paul was an equally unlikely choice of leader. He persecuted Christians, but his life was turned around when he encountered Jesus and became the church’s greatest missionary. Paul then poured out his life “like a libation” for the Gospel suffering imprisonment and martyrdom as Peter did.

Like now, there was conflict in the early church. Peter had conflicts with Paul and also with James, the brother of Jesus who headed the church in Jerusalem. James is not mentioned in our readings but we honor him and our Judaic roots this day. Nor is Mary of Magdala mentioned, but Peter and his brother Andrew struggled with Mary’s leadership and teachings while Levi defended her authority according to the Gospel of Mary written early in the second century. Esther De Boer, 2005 and Karen King, 2007 point out that scholars accept Mary as an Apostle to the Apostles and a strong church leader, prophet and teacher in the early church. Once again Christ chose an unusual leader, a woman whose name was all too easily written out of history, one who was completely transformed by Jesus and taken into his confidence.  Today we honor her leadership along with that of James, Paul and Peter and all female and male leaders of the early church, especially those whose names have been written out of history while their contributions live on.  We honor all women and men and youth whose love has been poured out to build the church and spread the Gospel. This includes all of us, for we now are the living stones that build today’s church. Amen.

Rev. Dr. Judy Lee, ARCWP

Pastor Good Shepherd Inclusive Catholic Community of Fort Myers, Florida

Rev. Beverly Bingle’s Homily: 

Today’s readings,
and our celebration of the solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul,
show us the beginning of a long history of missing Jesus’ point.
Who is a disciple?
Who is an apostle, the one sent, the one commissioned?
Who are the Chosen?
Nearly two thousand years of history and politics
have led us to understand Matthew’s Gospel in specific ways,
and those ways are not always what Jesus had in mind.
_____________________________________
The scholars of the Jesus Seminar observe
that the conversation in Matthew that is today’s Gospel
is not a conversation that Jesus would have started.
Instead, they say, it was a common way for the early writers
to communicate a disciple’s “confessional statement”—
an individual’s assertion of belief
that served as a kind of credential of authenticity in the church.
The New Jerome Biblical Commentary—
the standard Catholic reference book—
sees Matthew 17-19 as revelatory
of the varying opinions of the early Christians
as they struggled with questions
about who held authority in the post-Easter church
and who had the commission to leadership.
Matthew’s Gospel gives the authority and commission to Peter.
Our reading today from the Acts of the Apostles
also shows authority for Peter
through the prison break story, the credential that
“God really did send an angel to rescue me,”
Our second reading from the letter to Timothy, however,
shows authority for Paul, when he claims that
“Christ stood by my side and gave me strength.
So that through me the proclamation might be completed
and all the nations might hear the Gospel.”
Using the same type of story,
the Gospel of Thomas gives authority to James,
and Galatians gives authority to Paul.
________________________________________
Two other details in the Gospel passage reflect the power struggle
that was going on among members of the early communities.
Scholars say that the pun on “petra” and rock
asserts Peter’s primary position in Matthew’s community,
not any intention by Jesus to start a church.
Scholars also point out
that the “binding” and “loosing” were rabbinical terms
that refer to the authority to pass on teaching,
not the power to forgive sin.
_____________________________________
History has developed two teachings from this Gospel
that bear closer examination:
the primacy of the Pope
and the power of the confessional.
Both of these teachings ignore other scriptures
that shed different light on what Jesus was really about.
________________________________________
First, the primacy of the Pope:
Jesus was a Jew, and he never stopped being a Jew.
He did not found a church.
The first apostles and the first disciples were also Jewish.
They did not found a church.
The Gospel of Matthew was written for Greek-speaking Jews
who followed the Way of Jesus.
Historical events, political upheavals,
and religious arguments over the centuries
brought about the assertion
that today’s Gospel references to Peter
as the “rock upon which I will build my church”
and “the keys of the kingdom”
mean that Jesus founded a church
with Peter as the first Pope.
But that’s not what Jesus said.
________________________________________
Second, the power to forgive sin in confession.
In Matthew’s Chapter 6, Jesus is wasn’t just talking to the apostles,
not just talking to the disciples.
When he says we are to forgive each other’s sins,
he’s talking to the crowds, to everyone.
In the early Christian community people forgave each other’s sins.
Over time, though, forgiveness developed into a personal
rather than social process,
and eventually the rule was laid down by the hierarchy
that only priests could administer the sacrament.
But that’s not what Jesus said.
________________________________________
Part of what makes Pope Francis so attractive is his pastoral nature
and his willingness to look at things
through the signs of the times.
In April, for example, he told the Pontifical Biblical Institute that
“There is a past and there is a present.
There are the roots of faith:
the memories of the Apostles and the Martyrs;
and there is the ecclesial ‘today,’
the current path of this Church which presides over charity,
the service of unity and universality.
All this must not be taken for granted!”
Francis is realistic.
Our Church today is where it is.
And, good as it is,
good (and bad) as it has been over the centuries,
it needs to sift through the signs of our times
and examine them in light of the bedrock of Jesus’ teachings.
_____________________________________
And what is the bedrock of Jesus’ teaching?
He didn’t say to start a church.
He said to love one another.
He didn’t say to set up rules for forgiveness.
He said to forgive one another.
And Jesus’ teaching tells us the answer
to those questions we started with:
Who is a disciple?
Who is an apostle,
the one sent, commissioned to spread the Good News?
Who are the Chosen?
It’s the crowds.
It’s the anawim, the poor and oppressed.
It’s the people at City Hall and the people at Claver House.
It’s us.

Rev. Dr. Beverly Bingle                                                                                                                            It’s us-we are church!

 

—

On this Sunday we remember Jesus’ gift of himself . Jesus gave himself in radical love. This meant long exhausting days surrounded and pursued by people in need of teaching and healing, challenging the shortcomings of  established religion, and spending short nights with not enough sleep, body broken, blood poured out for all of humanity in the way he lived his life and in his death. Compassion for the poor and outcast especially moved him. He was on fire for them and against injustice. He asked the same of those who would follow him (Matthew 25). He gave it all so we could know and feel to the core of our very beings the meaning of “love one another”. Indeed on this special Sunday we are filled with thanksgiving and love for Jesus the Christ who gave it all.

In the Eucharist, the feast of thanksgiving and Holy Communion, we partake of the Body of Christ in all of its forms. We believe in the mystery of Christ- on the Table in the bread and wine, at the Table and all around the Table. Our readings of the day say that God nourished God’s people in the wilderness by providing a special substance called manna (Deuteronomy 8). God  feeds God’s people on the finest wheat (Psalm 47). The Epistle reading says: “The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because the loaf of bread is one, we , though many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf” (I Cor. 10-16-170.)   We are nourished by his real presence in the bread and wine and in the people of God. The Sacrament is on the altar, yes, but in every one of us as we are the Body of Christ-we are the Sacrament of Christ’s love in the world.  Most especially as we serve the poor and broken we know exhaustion and challenge as Jesus did, and we also see the face of Christ everywhere, being served and serving with us. We know a little of what it meant to be bread for the world as Jesus was (John 6:51-58). We know how this Bread gives us life now and forever and how we can leave no one behind as we share this life giving Bread.

Some of these thoughts are from my book Come By Here: Church with the Poor, AmericaStarBooks.com,2010,now available in Spanish as well.    The reason I include this citation is that the stories of the lives of those served and serving with us as we ministered to the homeless and poor outside in the streets and inside in our church house illuminate the essence of the body of Christ broken, yet whole.

Here is the Corpus Christi reflection of another street minister, Rev. James Patrick Hall an Episcopal priest serving the homeless in Tulsa, Oklahoma:

” Today is the Feast of Corpus Christi, and I would dearly love to join a Procession in the streets, attend a High Mass, with clouds of incense and deep throated choirs intoning “Humbly I adore thee, Verity unseen”….but…

Today is also the day we have our Church on the street here in Tulsa, Thursday Night Light, and as much as I love the ancient worship of our Church, I love being with my street Church even more.

So, as I thought about this, I realized there will be no conflict; Christ is most truly Present in the people gathered tonight. I will see as Colossians 1:27 says, a great mystery; Christ Present in His people gathered.

In this great Communion of the Street, I can bow before Christ and confess Ave Verum Corpus Christi (Hail True Body of Christ) !

Colossians 1:27 To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

‘Humbly I adore Thee, Verity unseen,
Who Thy glory hiddest ’neath these shadows mean;
Lo, to Thee surrendered, my whole heart is bowed…'”

Precious Body, Precious Blood, Precious Jesus, we, your people love you and remember. Grant us the strength to follow you and to be nourished by your love as we bring the Bread of Life to the world. Amen

Pastor Judy Lee, ARCWP

Good Shepherd Inclusive Catholic Community

Fort Myers, Florida

 

 

LET US ALL JOIN IN PRAYER WITH THEM

 

LCWR Joins Iraqi Sisters in a Call for Prayer

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

[Silver Spring, MD] Facing imminent danger, the leader of the Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine of Sienna in Mosul, Iraq has called her sisters throughout Iraq to a time of intense prayer and retreat to beg God for the protection of the Iraqi people, especially the minority Christian community.

The Iraqi Christian community has steadily declined from approximately 1.3 million in 2003 to less than 300,000 today.  Recent statements from Christian leaders have indicated that it is unlikely there are any Christians remaining in Mosul today.

The Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) in the United States calls upon people of all denominations in the world community to join the Iraqi Sisters in a moment of prayer on Thursday, June 19 at 6 PM (in your time zone) to pray for an end to the violence and the protection of minority Christians in Iraq.

“We are living in extreme times. Christianity has been present in Iraq from biblical times, but at this point Christians are in grave danger and being forced out of this land or face martyrdom. The Dominican Sisters remain committed to accompanying their people regardless of the consequences,” said LCWR president Sister Carol Zinn, SSJ.

The Iraqi Christian Sisters are all Iraqi nationals and ministers in healthcare, social services, and education.  In fact, the Iraqi Dominican sisters started the first Montessori school in the country. The Sisters serve all people, Christians and Muslims, in their ministry.

As the Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine continue their days of intense prayer, they ask that people throughout the world join them on June 19, believing that this intensification of global prayer can make a difference.

“We believe that prayer has the power to change the course of events in Iraq,” Sister Carol noted. “We stand with our sisters and brothers who courageously remain with the people they serve and will join with them in prayer for as long and as often as it takes until the violence ceases.”

About LCWR: The Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) is an association of the leaders of congregations of Catholic women religious in the United States. The conference has more than 1400 members, who represent more than 80 percent of the approximately 51,600 women religious in the United States. Founded in 1956, the conference assists its members to collaboratively carry out their service of leadership to further the mission of the Gospel in today’s world.

Contact:
Sister Annmarie Sanders, IHM — LCWR Director of Communications
asanders@lcwr.org
301-588-4955 (office)
301-672-3043 (cell)

###

 

• Copyright © Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR)

 

The following is a Reflection that our Youth Leader Efe Jane Cudjoe offered on Pentecost Sunday. I love the way she see the face of God and God’s spirit working in communities throughout the world that she encountered in her Semester Abroad on three continents. The Congregation gave her a rousing round of applause and Amens after she shared this last Sunday. My own comment was that I don’t have far to look for the younger generations of women priests in the making!. Efe is with us again for the summer shepherding our youth on special trips and educational outings. We are so blessed to have her with us again.

Pastor Judy Lee,ARCWP   

God’s Love Manifested Everywhere

by Efe Jane Cudjoe                     

I honestly can’t express how happy I am to have safely returned from my journey and I would like to thank you all for your continual prayers and support.  I would like to share with you all just a little bit about my experience and some of the things that I have learned.  But you will have to forgive me for reading a bit of something that I have written, because in attempting to retell my experiences, it is still very hard for me at times to concisely and coherently express some of my feelings.

I began my study-abroad journey on January 25^th of this year.  Before beginning the multi-country journey to Vietnam, South Africa and Brazil, I had a very, very cold two-week orientation in Washington D.C.

During this time, I had the opportunity to explore our nation’s capital and to speak with various program directors.  And it was these same program directors who often stated that the experience that I was about to have would not only have a lasting impact on my life, but also give me a different outlook on many things.  And although in the moment I may not have appreciated these words as much as I should have, now that I have been given the opportunity to reflect I can honestly say that this journey did.  It not only restored my faith in humanity despite all of the corruption, wars and brutality that plague our world, but it also strengthened my spiritual connection to God as I saw God’s love manifested in very different individuals facing very different issues in very different countries.

So I would like to start with Vietnam.  Vietnam, I can truly say that priory to entering the country I really did not know too much about it and had also been given a very one-sided view from history classes recounting the Vietnam War and its aftermath.

But what I did find, from my experience, was that quite contrary to popular belief with the the United States, I was not walking into a country with hearts and homes still buzzing with hostility toward Americans and still living in  experiences and histories of the past.  Instead I walked into the home of Phuong and Victor who welcomed me who they referred to as their daughter.  I immediately felt at home as they embraced me with kind hearts despite some apparent societal, language, and even physical differences.

From the communal dinners that we shared with all members of the family  – a true manifestation of what Jesus’ idea of what a supper should be with all members of a family or a community coming together to spend time together and enjoy the presence of one another.  To the playful laughter of a five-year old girl dancing around her classroom in the peace village, although she and her classmates were suffering from severe physical malformations, likely the result of agent orange.  Agent Orange, a pesticide used by the British and U.S. militaries during the Vietnam War in an attempt to strip the land of its food resources.  A sort of food toxin that still has lasting impacts.

But it was in these communal family dinners and in the laugh, love and warmth exuded from this young girl that despite her daily obstacles she was still happy to be alive and joyously running around that I saw a physical representation of God’s love, presence and ability.  But, before I knew it, my time in Vietnam was over and I was on my way to South Africa.

South Africa.  When I first arrived in Zwelethembe in South Africa, I was greeted by at least twenty-five five-year olds that were running around the area.  They just looked at me, and saw my skin is similar to their own and asked me , “Are you xhosa?” Xhosa referring to the majority of the people that lived in the township that I would be studying in for two weeks.  A township in which some regions amidst the lack of running water, formal housing, and food still worked to maintain a sense of community.  A township in which my host mother, Mama Eunice, was not only recovering from a recent life-threatening health issue but also trying to provide for members even though she could not work because of her illness.  And even given everything that she had recently gone through she would still prepare a plate for children in the neighborhood that would come to our door pleading for food.  I was so grateful for her giving spirit, kindness and joy and I was also able to see the presence of God in each of her gentle actions.

Now finally to Brazil.  At this point in the journey I had been traveling for over three months.  I began my time in the middle of the Atlantic forest near a small town called Barradoturvo.  This region was said to be one of the poorest regions in the country.  Largely because the people chose to live off the lad and use the natural gifts that they believe they had been provided by God.  During my time there, I learned so much from members of the local community.  For example, Pedro, who was known as the regions wise elder stated to us that there were many things that can be learned by our eyes but they are invisible to our eyes because we are not aware of them.  As we become more aware of things we are then capable of seeing them.  A statement that I think can certainly be extended to the love and presence of God.  His wise words and warm spirit are something that I will certainly never forget.  With the largest smile on his face he also once stated that “when it comes to being poor there are two things: one is to be poor and one is to have no money.  Yes, yes it’s true I may have no money and day in and day out life can be hard, but to call me poor – no, no I won’t stand for it.  I am surrounded by nature, my beautiful wife, and all other wonderful gifts of God.  I am healthy and I am living happily and for that I have all the riches in the world.  You know, we all have so many riches; we just have to open our eyes, ears, and hearts to begin recognizing them.”  Each of the stories and words of advice he shared with me were truly inspiring.

So I know that I have been speaking for a while but I would like to end by leaving you all with a term that I continually heard in South Africa, that really stuck with me.  And it’s Ubuntu -we are who we are because of other people.   I would also like to extend this in saying we are who we are not only because of other people but most importantly because of the love, the hope, the determination and the kind will that others have shown us.  (I am blessed with) the kind will and love of two very special pastors who have made it their mission to continue working toward a better tomorrow and the love of a community that is inclusive of all.

 

As I think about the nature of God for Trinity Sunday I am reminded of listening to two of my young adult parishioners try to describe their parents. Each one harbored many complex feelings toward their parents and neither had the slightest notion that the parents had histories separate from themselves. They had no idea that that their parents had thoughts, feelings, problems, hopes,fears, dreams, strengths and weaknesses. Neither knew the parent at all- only how the parent had fallen short of their expectations. I remembered how woefully long it took me to really know my own mother and to love and value her as the priceless treasure she was.  I then thought is that what we do with God-simply make God a product of our projections without trying to find out who God really is?

There are two things that enable me to speak but only with the greatest humility on this Sunday when the church offers an understanding of what God is like.  The first is the experience of God- in- relation in my own life and in the lives of those I serve; and the second is simply appreciation of the vastness of the nature of God, a vastness that I can nowhere near comprehend. I dare not speak at all except for seeing and knowing what God has done as revealed through human imperfections in the Scriptures and as revealed daily in  our lives.  I know this God-in-relation to me and to all of creation. I see and hear God in the lives of those who truly cast their cares upon God and trust God for everything, especially those who are poor in the goods of this world.

Last Tuesday, In our worship group with homeless and formerly homeless men and women Nathaniel said “I know God is with me and that God loves me because there was a time that I was locked up inside myself and not able to find a way out to do something about being homeless and hungry and so I stayed that way for over five years. I stayed that way until I listened to and felt the message of love that the people of the Good Shepherd brought to the park. I felt loved and let God in. Soon after that I did what I had to do and got everything I needed.”  Several of those gathered echoed his story. Lauretta said dramatically, “listen, listen to our stories, how can anyone who listens not believe in God and in God’s Christ?”

                                                                                                                                                                                 Our Tuesday Worship Circle

For those who depend on God for life, “believe in” is not an abstract exercise like believing in a dogma or doctrine, it is believing in a person who loves them and who will do anything for them- it is more like when a parent says to a child or one friend or lover says to another: “I believe in you”.  It is of the heart not the head. It inspires and motivates to emulate.  When I grew up poor I witnessed daily miracles of unmet needs being met by God and through people and I see it again now with our people. When I had to face cancer and major surgery in early 2013 an abstraction of God would not do, the love I experienced through those surrounding me with prayers and caring, and experiencing God being there with me especially at night got me through it.  What I needed to see most after eight days in a hospital room with no view outside was evidences of God’s creation. My gloom lifted as soon as I saw green grass and trees, birds and sky and my pets-for that is how I experience God-through others and through creation.  As I continue to face other scary health threats, it is God’s love and presence that gets me through it. I have a pretty good head, but it is my heart that knows.

And so is the meaning of the Gospel of the day John 3:16-  to believe in(love and follow) Jesus brings life now and forever-it is a release from death in all its myriad forms, as Nathaniel said.  When I first moved to Florida 16 years ago my neighbor was a woman who lived alone and had an inoperable brain cancer. She told me that she loved the Buffalo Bills football games and saw a John 3:16 sign held up in the bleachers. She asked me what it meant. I shared God’s love with her because of that sign. We talked about her cancer and her fears, and that God is with her always. This brought her comfort and she realized that she was not alone anymore. Over time we also spoke of reaching out to her estranged children and relatives and she did.

The words we use to explain God are inadequate. Our first reading from Exodus 34 says that God is a God of compassion and mercy-and we see what that looks like in the life of Jesus the Christ while we examine our own lives to see how far the acorn fell from the tree!  In 2 Corinthians 13:11-13 we are blessed with the grace of Christ Jesus, the love of God and the friendship of the Holy Spirit- and how blessed we truly are to experience this relational God. Yet we also learn that God is “immanent and transcendent”. What does that really mean?  Here is the explanation of one author J.I. Packer in Knowing God. 

(Please note that I have changed the word “Him” in relation to God throughout this writing where I quote others for now it is accepted that women and men both reflect the image of God and God is our loving Mother as well as our loving Father. Also in the Scriptures the Spirit of God in original languages is clearly a feminine face of God.  As this language was translated and God was referred to only as “Him” we lost the balanced view of God with feminine and masculine qualities thus diminishing our understanding of God. See for example Elizabeth A. Johnson, Truly our Sister: A Theology of Mary in the Communion of Saints, Continuum, 2009.  So below I substitute God for Him and Father/Mother for Father.)

Packer says:

“God’s transcendent nature strives to keep God distant and remote from God’s creation both in space and time, yet on the other hand, God’s immanent nature works to draw God near to God’s creation and to sustain the universe. God’s love for God’s creation is so great that we see God’s immanence overshadowing God’s transcendence. This becomes clear in God’s incarnate Son, Jesus Christ, as Christ… draws all humanity back into a close, personal relationship. We see God not only choosing to draw near to God’s creation but to personally come into the hearts and minds of God’s people through the indwelling power God’s Holy Spirit. This is the miracle of God’s transcendence.”

God is transcendent -“more” and “beyond”- beyond our greatest understanding yet not “above us” in the sense of removed from us.  ALL we can understand of the cosmos does not begin to touch who God is, and yet God is right next to and within us at the same time as close as breath.  This is part of the Mystery of God that we seek to name and know for ourselves. We cannot put God in a big God-box for we can not know the fullness of God’s being. I thank God for that Mystery that we know only in part.

Fr. John Foley, scholar at  St.Louis University, sees knowing the triune God as a “Story of Love”.“What is the Holy Trinity and why do we dedicate a big Sunday to it?I know a story that might help.Once upon a time, in fact once upon many thousand times, God the (Father/Mother) invited the people of the earth to a lasting and loving relationship. Look at the Old Testament: “I want to be your God and I want you to be my people. My love for you is tender and precious. Won’t you love me in return?” In many ways people understood and entered into the agreement. Abraham, Isaac, Moses, Elisha, Elijah, just to begin the list. But we humans keep choosing things closer to hand, like money and honors and such—barns full of them. Our refusal of God’s love became widespread. How did God react to such rejections? With hurt and disappointment for sure. My people, what have I done to you? How have I offended you? Answer me. For your sake I scourged your captors and their first-born sons, but you brought your scourges down on me! My people, answer me (from “The Reproaches” on Good Friday)! No answer. So eventually the Father/Mother tried a new and quite brilliant way. “I will show them what true love looks like. Since I am all love and nothing but love, I will go out to them utterly, as love does. I will become one of them. I will live humanity to its depths, and they will see love in its full truth.” So a human called Jesus was born. He grew up. He told the people to love God above all things and their neighbors as themselves. He was the very heart of God, the heart made flesh. One with the Father but different as well. Two persons in one God. Human beings had been hurt and betrayed, of course, forced to live with their own mixed-up motives, selfishness and greed. Love gets lost in such a world. So Jesus-God plunged far into our ocean of cruelty and loss, dove all the way to down to death. His job was to carry all this back to the source of everything, the Father/Mother. The disciples knew about only two parts of God, Jesus and his Abba/Amma. So before he left, he said the following to them (I am paraphrasing): Philip and the rest of you, if you know me, you know the Father/Mother. And after I go back to the Father/Mother, I will remain within you. I will make a home in you by sending the Holy Spirit. This Comforter will be the very love that I and the Father/Mother have for each other! He was talking of course about the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit—a real being that snuggles close within our souls if we let it. This Spirit of love is graceful and deep and comforting, like a blanket in winter cold. And that is the story. Alright, maybe it is less clear than we would like. Really it is just the story of our lives with God and each other. It is the Trinity! Let us celebrate!” John Foley S. J. YES, let us celebrate that through love and relationship and creation we have some understanding of God, but more, that we are loved by the God who created the Universe,the cosmos,  tends it like a Mother/Father and Creator, tends the created; and that we have a living example of what God is like in ways we can understand through knowing the love and self-emptying of Jesus the Christ who stood with the poorest and most outcast, the stranger and the sick, as for inclusion and justice; and that the Holy Spirit of our living God is with us, among us and in us now and forevermore. It is not original with me, but another preacher suggested that we can understand the Trinity-the three-in-one God as: Loving, Loved and Love. God’s active creating is loving; Christ’s example of love lets us know that we are loved; and the Holy Spirit is Love within us and motivating us. Loving, Loved, Love, AMEN! And a Blessed Father’s Day to all of our fathers, brothers, uncles, cousins and friends! Rev. Dr. Judy Lee, ARCWP Pastor The Good Shepherd Inclusive Catholic Community of Fort Myers, Florida