The mood switches as we turn to Luke. Here we meet again John the Baptizer, but now getting some sense of his strong message. We are reminded that discipleship has a cost. The haunting figure of John the Baptizer now stands in our midst, leading us to ask: “What then shall we do?” His response still rings true (a message to be affirmed by Jesus): generous care for those in need, fairness in business practice, no violence. Advent themes suddenly present us with profound social, economic and political challenges. Issues of global poverty and hunger, corporate corruption, and national policies of war and nuclear arms become gospel concerns.
In the end all you can do is chuckle, really; he probably can't help himself.
Update:
And if chuckling won't do, you can always fisk, which Dale Price does in this excellent post:
To be blunt, the overarching dreadfulness of the essay is mind-blowing. Milk-jug absent from the commentary are such traditional concepts as repentence and preparation for the Advent of the Lord, which, of course, are the focal points of the season for those not allergic to the Church as it existed in 1962. To give you a brief flavor of the problem: there are three dutiful references to "God's Reign" in the essay, but zero to "repentance/repent." As in zilch.
...
(3) Christ Without a Cross.
Fr. Overberg hates atonement. Hates it.
God's not about atonement. Not even in the Gospel of John:
John’s Gospel does not see Jesus’ life and death as atonement or ransom. There is instead emphasis on friendship, intimacy, mutuality, service, faithful love—revealing God’s desire and gift for the full flourishing of humanity, or in other words, salvation.
!
Here's the part where I am compelled to ask--"Don't you have to be fatuous somewhere else?"
Yeah, sure--if you ignore all of the "lamb of God" references, Jewish sacrificial allusions and every other signal of the atoning mission of Christ which bubbles up from the text. Of course --pay no attention to the creative theologian behind the curtain! Or: "Don't believe your lying eyes--I have tenure!"
Go read it all.
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10 comments:
You know, on the one hand I'm inclined to chuckle at this reduction of Jesus' ministry to vague social justice blathering, but on the other I just feel saddened that so many Catholics - lay and priest alike - feel compelled to reduce Christ into the hippy dude.
Of course what Overberg said is not particularly wrong. These are all important elements of what we should be doing (if broadly oversimplified and neutered of any realy impact), but there seems to be so many who think the principal - if not sole purpose - of our faith is social justice. Nothing of fighting sin, nothing of the more "meaty" message of Christ. We have such a rich religion full of meaning, and yet the progressives are in a tizzy to boil away all the meat and reduce it to vague, sentimental fluff.
I would say more - much more - about how I have witnessed this firsthand at my own parish, but I'd better leave it alone for right now.
You nailed it, Paul. What offends is the reduction of such a rich, potent Gospel to a collection of cheap slogans and materialist bromides. What a shame.
Another glass of watered down skim milk for the brothers and sisters in the Lord.
And we wonder why our faith fails to thrive.
You know, the more I ponder the missive from Fr. Overberg, the angrier I get. It's dreadful, to be blunt. Awful all over. Putrid.
One--one--oblique reference to conversion (no reference to or what from, natch), and none whatsoever to the second advent of the Lord. It's a soothing call to cheap-grace, cost-free discipleship.
Salvation is "God's desire and gift for the full flourishing of humanity"? WTH?
Did I mention that this was awful?
What is scary is how easily a "devotional" like this can lead one to self-righteousness. The focus is all on the evil of others (such as the Bush Administration or corporate execs), without a focus on the evil that we ourselves commit - the only evil that we have the power (through grace) to actually overcome.
these kinds of "theologians" are truly wolves in sheep's clothing. they claim to be christian but their hearts are as christian as a buddhist. Jesus to them is just this nice guy who told everyone to love one another. nothing more. they're too chicken shit to say Jesus is not God.
Son #3 had Overberg last year in his freshman year at XU. He hated the class. Three quarters of the way through the semester, Overberg stopped him on his way out:
"D, I'm concerned about you."
"Why? My grades are good in here."
"Yes, but I don't think you're getting anything out of my class."
To which our D. replied," Oh, I'm definitely getting something out of your class. It's just not what *you* want me to get out of it."
Son #2, a senior, and his roommates merely tolerate what passes for theology there, as do many of the other students on campus. Our prayer is that some day the faculty will wake up and realize this. These are pretty intelligent kids who know what they have to do to make the grade, but aren't fooled one bit.
In the end all you can do is chuckle, really; he probably can't help himself.
Actually, that's exactly what I did when I read that paragraph. The contrast between the haunting figure of John the Baptist, and the conclusion of "No violence!" was just bizarre -- as I'm sure the headless John would agree.
My three sons anon:
Why send your kids there?
Francis nailed it. There is a progressive philosphy to find all fault without rather than within, as if we're all immaculately created but ruined by bad government.
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