[1]"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."
I wasn’t to sure how the congregation was going to respond to me standing tall to recite the Pledge of Allegiance in the parish environment. If it would have been a government building or sports event many would pop to, hand over their hearts and join in.
Modified three times over the last 62 years, in its current version, it has communicated been our national vision statement and expresses our national identity since 1954. The original pledge, written in August 1892 by the socialist minister Francis Bellamy. Bellamy’s vision was that his more generic pledge would be used by citizens in any country.[2]
For the United States, the Pledge has become both a patriotic oath and a public prayer. It expresses our national values for which so many have given their lives in its’ defense. Yet it is not without controversy. Many question whether we truly live the values professed and question, with our house so divided against itself, how long our nation will be able to stand in the current atmosphere of division between races, gender, and politics.
To fully understand this disharmony, we must go back to the Garden of Eden.
The story of the fall of Adam and Eve, what we call “original sin”. This is the place that we, as Catholics, often get stuck. But we have to realize, this was not the only original human experience. In Saint John Paul II’s Theology of the Body, he discusses the original human experiences that “are always at the root of every human experience … Indeed, they are so interwoven with the ordinary things of life that we generally do not realize their extraordinary character.” (TOB
11:1)
According to
Saint John Paul, three experiences in particular define the human person in the
state of innocence: solitude, unity, and nakedness.
- In Original Solitude man is alone (Gen 2:18) because he is the only bodily creature made in God’s image and likeness. As he names the animals, he also discovers his own name, his own identity.
- In Original Unity God creates woman (Gen 2:21-22). Both are alone in the world, they both are different from the animals, both are called to live in a covenant of love.
- In Original Nakedness "the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed" (Gen 2:25). This is precisely the key to understanding God’s original plan for human life according to Saint John Paul.
“Jesus came to restore creation to the purity of its origins.”(CCC 2336).
The Gospel story sets Jesus’ family in comparison to influential religious leaders. Both groups express an inability to understand who Jesus really is. The religious authorities conclude he is possessed by Satan. His family assumes he has lost his sanity. At the time, these diagnoses were roughly equivalent to each other.
The scene underscores how those who presumably were in great positions to make sense of Jesus still were not immediately able to see him as God’s agent. As Jesus announced and re-inaugurated God’s intentions for human flourishing, many could not overcome the disorienting character of his message. Even close relatives and religious insiders were bewildered by what he said, which threatened to disrupt so many aspects of human society.[4] They couldn’t see past the ways things were in their present time, religious disciplines and power structures.
Jesus’ words prompt us to consider the relationship in the human family and what it means to know, and do, God’s will. To undo sins’ work of disrupting relationships, relationships with our immediate family, parish & local communities, but most of all our relationship with God himself. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians calls us to “look not to what is seen but to what is unseen; for what is seen is transitory, [I couldn’t help but think, as I was driving the other morning, it was a beautiful morning. Sun shining, the bright green Spring foliage, the cars, the buildings. Yet it hit me, it’s all temporary. Buildings will decay, we’ll eventually have to replace the broken-down car, even our bodies will eventually fail.] but what is unseen is eternal.”(2 Cor 4:18)
Participating in Jesus’ reconciling mercy and receiving His body and blood, soul and divinity, moves us closer to opening our eyes and heart, to discovering/rediscovering our true identity in God’s original vision for the human experience. His vision is that of an unashamed love and communion.
[1] New American Bible, Saint Joseph Edition ©
1986. Scriptures: Genesis 3:9-15; 2
Corinthians 4:13-5:1; Mark 3:20-35.
[2] The Pledge of Allegiance.
UShistory.org. http://www.ushistory.org/documents/pledge.htm
[3] Theology of the Body for
beginners by Christopher West © 2004, 2009.
Ascension Press, West Chester, PA
[4] THE BLOG 06/06/2012,
Updated Dec 06, 2017. “Mark 3:20-35: What Makes a Family?” by Matthew L.
Skinner. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/matthew-l-skinner/mark-3-20-35-what-makes-a-family_b_1573923.html
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