The Risen Christ: A Cosmic VisionRenowned spiritual writer Father Ed Hays has written volumes of prayers and prayer-stories that hit at the heart of where we live. In one such prayer from his Prayers for a Planetary Pilgrim, he begins by offering a quotation from a Native American Omaha Indian:Father, a needy one stands before you.I that sing am that one.He then places that idea into stark relief by situating it within our contemporary American ethic:O Blessed One,I take great pride in my independence,that by my work and effort I can supply all my needs........So it is difficult for meto stand or kneel before youand admit my poverty. --Edward Hays Prayers for a Planetary Pilgrim, p. 198Perhaps our current economic crisis and the looming flu pandemic may make it easier to embrace the mantel of humility, but the normal American response is to see ourselves as masters of the universe! Yet today the Scriptures offer us images of weakness, frailty, imperfection, vulnerability. We recoil at the suggestion that we are “sheep” or “children.” We are not impressed by a “stone rejected.” Our culture doesn't quite resonate with those images. We are self-sufficient, in control, "numero uno." Our history is riddled with symbols of our "buying power" or our “military strength.” We don’t settle for “second best.”
If you’ve been keeping track of the Hubble spacecraft as it probes the outer reaches of the universe, you may have heard the amazing evidence that now dates this universe upwards of fifteen billion years! Scientists have ventured that our earth is somewhat a "newcomer" to the Universe Story. Best estimates are that our solar system is only five billion years old!Dominican theologian Cletus Wessels found these figures hard to grasp, so he put this fifteen billion year story into the framework of one year! Using that analogy he concludes that human life would have begun on December 31 at 11:59 p.m. and 39 seconds! Obviously we are not in charge! --Cletus Wessels, OP The Holy Web :Church and the New Universe Story, p.35 I offer these mind-boggling data in the light of the Scriptures today that offer a counter-cultural vision. We are being asked to see ourselves, our world, our universe through the eyes of the Risen Christ, who has a cosmic vision of a new creation of peace and justice. With this vision we come to see the world--not just this planet, but the entire universe--as a com-unity, literally “the state of being one.” We treasure others as we treasure our very selves; we are all one in the Risen Christ.The greatest obstacle to this vision is our inability to acknowledge our humanity. In the very beginning of human history Adam and Eve thought that they could be in control through the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In to our own day we are enveloped by distorted values of financial power, rabid consumerism, and personal greed. Our inability to acknowledge that we are not in control, that we are in fact needy, bars us from the vision of the Risen Christ--the cosmic vision of this Easter Season. Our faith requires that we begin from the proposition that we are vulnerable, dependent. If we are not, what need is there for God? For community? The very foundation of our faith is that without the power of the Risen Lord our true human potential could never be realized. Such a faith will impact our ability to treat ourselves, other people, material possessions, even the earth as a com-unity.This Easter Season beckons us to celebrate our dependence on the Risen Christ and this community of faith. Perhaps an image offered by the ancient Native American culture may help--a culture in which an artisan first knelt and prayed for permission to remove clay from the earth to fashion a bowl. This was a culture in which the chief's prayer was everyone's prayer: FATHER, A NEEDY ONE STANDS BEFORE YOU,I THAT SING AM THE ONE.So on this Good Shepherd Sunday we begin with that premise, and we turn to our God with the conclusion of Fr. Hays’ prayer: O Blessed One,Help me to become a blessed beggarwho can stand tall beside the truththat I am indeed needy.Gift me this day with the understandingthat there is no shamein being a dependent child of yours.Help me to realize, as did St. Paul,that in my weakness lies my greatest strength........O Holy Parent, like a small child,I come to you, needy, not ashamed.