Monthly Archives: July 2010

by Lynn M.

Can you identify a situation or circumstance in your life when the way you put the world together came undone? When significant and important meaning seemed to disappear? Dr. Ludwig warned us that this week’s assignment is hard! What is hard is deciding which life event to choose and revisiting times in my life that were painful!

In class, we discussed how in parables our polarities come undone. Our human mind divides people and things into categories but those categories are ours not God’s! (Ludwig) So how does Jesus shake us up? “Jesus told the crowds all these things in parables; without a parable he told them nothing.” (Matthew 13:34 NRSV) What does he want from us? Jesus wants conversion and healing!

Married at age 23 in the Catholic Church to my husband of age 29, what did I think about marriage as a young woman? I came from a long line of Roman Catholics, and marriage was a lifelong commitment and in marriage you had children. I thought I would grow old with my spouse, “until death do us part”! There were no divorces in our family’s legacy as far as I was aware. My parents, who married after only knowing each other 49 days, were working class people with five children. Their marriage was troubled but divorce would never be an option and that was one message I learned clearly throughout my childhood. (more…)

by Lisa H.

Jesus used parables in his ministry to turn “fundamental presuppositions and assumptions upside down” (Ludwig, 4). Sometimes we too have to be knocked over the head and shoved out of familiar territory with a truth so opposed to our usual thinking that we can’t believe it could be true, but on the other hand, we just can’t ignore it no matter how hard we try (Ludwig, 4-6).  Just as Jesus challenged his followers to understand the reign of God through parables, we too can be “parabled.”

“Parabled” by a Priest

I arrived at Kunsan Air Base, South Korea in May 2004 to be in charge of the base infrastructure commanding about 1200 people. As I settled in, I breathed a sigh of relief and felt the wrench of worry simultaneously. It was only after much discussion and preparation that I had left my husband and 16-year old daughter in San Antonio for this unaccompanied assignment. My husband was an alcoholic and had been for our 18 years of marriage. He’d had his bad times, dry spells, resolutions, and bouts with counselors. When I announced my selection for this Korean tour, he seemed to “improve,” planning for a job and stepping up to manage the household.

I believe that marriage is for life, a covenant and a sacrament before God. I believe that marriage takes work. I thought staying with my alcoholic husband through the throes of his “disease” was “the right thing to do.” I believed God that wanted me to carry my cross—the heavier, the better. I worked hard to keep things together and I was loyal to the secret “elephant in the parlor” to a fault. I was the breadwinner, strategic planner, and “single” parent. Meanwhile, I was “substituting” the daily chaos and instability of my home life for the order, discipline and accomplishment of my life’s vocation as a military officer.

By November, he was hallucinating and hospitalized. On January 6th, I prayed to God for a sign—what was I supposed to do? On the 7th, he was arrested for a DUI in exactly the spot where 10 months prior my brother had died in a biking accident—not the revelation I was looking for. (more…)

by Stephen D.

When asked the question of this assignment, “Have you ever been parabled?”, I soon realized that it didn’t take long for me to question of myself, “Where do I begin?” Reflecting back, there have been so many instances in my life, it seems, from which I can derive a parable. In order for this realization to have occurred, I understand the value of paying close attention to the lessons I have learned in life and moving past the knee-jerk rejection of “conversion and healing” (Essay #2, Ludwig, p. 3) with which I – more often than not – assumed in the midst of the respective event.

Though I have a number of Prodigal Son-type personal parables that I could relate here, I felt led to share one different and distinct episode in my life that, using Dr. Ludwig’s description, “creates contradiction within a given situation and thus challenges the fundamental principle of reconciliation” (ibid, p.4). This parable comes from a decision I made in a former management position I held, where I had oversight of twenty employees. In managing such a large group, solutions to the personnel challenges that arise range widely from simple, common sense decisions to multi-faceted, complex analysis and judgments, which rarely, if ever, please all of the employees all of the time.

In this situation, an employee, Angela (a pseudonym), came to me requesting a few days off, in order to find a new babysitter for her young daughter. Evidently, the person who had provided this service abruptly quit, and Angela, being a single mother, did not have anyone who could provide interim care on such short notice. Though the request was simple enough, the dilemma for me was that Angela had a habit – and a poor reputation among her co-workers – for calling off work excessively. At the point Angela made her request to me for time off, she had exhausted all of her sick time for the year. Because the group I managed was a client service center, whenever there was an unexpected absence, there was more stress placed on the other employees to cover the workload. Therefore, Angela’s excessive absences not only reflected poorly on her employee performance record, they caused the other employees to direct their increasing frustration towards me. (more…)

by Kellina B.

It was around noon on Sunday in January, 2004 and I was sitting in my car in the Dominick’s parking lot waiting for my mom to bring out her groceries.  My cell phone rang and it was Br. R. from the high school where I taught Theology.  His voice was serious and he said that he had some bad news, our student, Mario Gonzalez died in a gang related shooting that morning.  Mario was shooting at someone in a car and missed, that same car ran him over and then shot and killed him. He was not an innocent victim, he initiated this act of violence, he was ready and willing to die for his gang and he did.

Mario, was a fourteen year old freshman at HTHS.  He was very intelligent, was doing very well in his classes and the teachers and students alike really enjoyed being in his company.  He was such a positive and charismatic young man.  As a teacher I could count on him to answer a question or get a conversation started and there wasn’t a freshman girl who didn’t have a crush on him.  He has so much going for him, why would he do such a stupid an irresponsible thing?

Like the vast majority of the students I taught, Mario was in a gang, and a very active member. His father, mother, uncles and cousins were all involved so this was an easy progression for him.  In school, the students, including Mario did a very good job of keeping gang-life outside of the classroom, it was kind of an unwritten rule that the students had, to keep that aspect out of the school, they didn’t need their gangs to keep them safe inside HTHS and for the most part I think the students were relieved they didn’t need to “represent” all the time, they could take a break from it during the class day. As their teacher, a white upper middle class woman, I was very disconnected from that part of their lives.  I assumed it was just part of the culture they belonged to and never addressed in Theology class. If I ignored it, it didn’t exist. (more…)

Catechetical Ministry with the Elderly

My interest lies in working with the elderly population. I explored how one works in adult catechetical ministry with an older population. “Young old” is a term that is now being applied to people between the ages of 65-75, with a “fourth age” referring to the oldest old, (those over 75.) What gifts and challenges would such an age group give to catechesis, and how can we access them? If the parish is indeed the center where Christian community is formed, how can a parish setting contribute to the catechetical ministry of these age cohorts?

The National Directory of Catechesis (2005) projects that by 2030 about 70 million Americans (20% of population) will be 75 years or older. My reading of the catechetical documents reveals a focus on working in tandem with the elderly. We need to join with them in building multi-faceted approaches that foster spiritualities full of hope.

Fr. Berard Marthlar outlines the scope of adult catechesis:

1) helps adults evaluate sociological and cultural changes in society in the light of faith;

2) helps them address religious and moral questions of today’s world, and find ways to live in that world;

3) assists adults in developing “rational foundations” that move them beyond fundamentalism;

4) encourages them to take responsibility for the church’s mission and to give Christian witness in society.

Pope John Paul II’s Letter to the Elderly (1999) provides helpful program design insights and ideas for including and honoring the elderly by “welcoming them, helping them and making good use of their qualities.” John Paul stresses the need to respect and love the elderly, helping them understand their vital roles in society.

Expanding that agenda, the U. S. Catholic Bishops pastoral message, Growing Older within the Faith Community (Blessings of Age, 1999) looks at pastoral care with the aging and states the need to anchor the aging experience firmly within a community of faith. We help “older persons” stay connected to the community by:

1) affirming their dignity, as older people are providers, not just recipients of pastoral care;

2) inviting older persons to identify their pastoral needs and decide how they are met;

3) remembering that pastoral approaches need to be diverse and inclusive;

4) focusing on mutual support and friendship that connect elders with one another and the rest of the faith community;

5) advocating and assisting development of community resources for older persons.

The Catholic Church sees catechesis in service to discipleship, assisting decisions and commitments in light of the Gospel and the Reign of God. In the richness of their lives, older persons have much to give to Church and society. This population particularly can help all of us transform the big and little events of our lives into lessons of wisdom.

C) 2010 by Susann Ozuk, MAPS, who is enrolled in the Master of Divinity program at Loyola University Chicago IPS. She is a administrative staff member of the Institute of Pastoral Studies.

by Cathy H.

Symbol in the Theology of Karl Rahner and Psychology of C.G. Jung

In his essay, The Theology of the Symbol, Karl Rahner explores the question of what it means when we speak of the symbol in the theology of devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ. To approach the question, Rahner offers an ontology of symbolic reality in general that leads him to a theology of the symbol, “of the appearance and the expression, of self-presence in that which has been constituted as the other.” [1] For Christians, Jesus Christ is the primary symbol of meaning and the mystery of the Trinity lies at the background of all ontological considerations of the meaning of being.[2]

In Memories, Dreams, Reflections, an autobiography written towards the end of his life, Carl Jung looks at the question of the relationship of the symbolism of the unconscious to Christianity as well as to other religions. In his work with ancient alchemical and Gnostic texts, Jung’s “attempt to bring analytical psychology into relation with Christianity ultimately led to the question of Christ as a psychological figure.”[3] In this paper, I will look at Rahner’s theology of symbol in relation to Jung’s psychology of symbol and attempt to reconcile the empirical, analytical psychology of Jung, who was Christian, with the transcendental theology of Karl Rahner.

Rahner’s own attempt to reconcile the tension between the categorical and the transcendental can be brought into play here as an example of how the reconciliation is possible, whether or not we accept the “fundamental option” of saying yes or no to God’s gratuitous offer of grace. Whether we start by descending into the depths of the psyche or by ascending to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, both movements of descending and ascending need to be included in a discussion of the theories of symbols of Rahner and Jung. (more…)

by Allison R.

Jesus once asked his disciples who they said that he was, which I believe was also a question about who they, the disciples, were.  They could not know who he was until they had some idea who they were.  The Episcopal priest Barbara Brown Taylor says that she often asks catechumens and students to describe how they think Jesus could be both fully human and fully divine at the same time.  What they usually describe, she says, is a sort of divine laminating process.  Jesus’ divinity is snugly encased under a layer of human flesh and blood.  It almost never occurs to people, Taylor says, that to be fully one is to be fully the other.

This is very much in line with Karl Rahner’s theology of who Christ is.  In general, we speak of either Christology “from below” or “from above.”  Ascending Christology is one that starts with the historical Jesus, and descending Christology starts with the church’s dogma.  It is easy enough to choose one or the other, depending on, among other things, our political feelings and opinions about the church.  In fact, Rahner would probably say that it is too easy.  Without an understanding of Christ as both fully human and fully divine, and not in the sense of that laminating process that Taylor describes, Christology would be almost meaningless.

It seems counterintuitive to say that the more human Christ was, the more divine he was, but that is indeed what Rahner says.  Rahner was so deeply a theologian of the everyday world that this idea, Christ as fully divine and fully human, must have some important bearing on how we live out our lives.  What is it?  They key seems to lie in Rahner’s ideas about freedom, and about authenticity. (more…)

by Allison R.

Not long ago, Caravaggio’s painting of the Supper at Emmaus was on display at the Art Institute.  It is, at least to me, one of the most beautiful paintings in the world, because of the great truth in it.  The disciples are reacting in astonishment to the risen Jesus as Jesus lifts his hand to bless the bread and the wine, while an innkeeper looks on in bewilderment.  Jesus is looking down, and smiling a little, but very sadly.  This is not surprising, since the next line of this story in Luke’s Gospel is one of the saddest things I have ever read.  It says, “Their eyes were opened, and they knew him, and he vanished from their sight.”

The writer of the Gospel strings these three movements breathlessly into one sentence, or at least most of the English translations do.  Their eyes were opened, they knew him, and he vanished.  As I once heard an old gentleman at my church observe with disgust about the preacher of a very short sermon, “He was over before he got started.”

But why?  Why does he always seem to leave just when we start to recognize him?  Why, in another story, wouldn’t he let Mary Magdalene touch him or cling to him just when she seemed to need it the most?  Why does it so often seem to be true that he is gone just when we need him the most?  If he gets lost in our daily lives at times, isn’t it because he sometimes seems all too easy to lose? (more…)

by Ryan Hoffman

Introduction

Karl Rahner was without doubt one of the most influential contemporary theologians in Catholicism. Karen Kilby writes of Rahner:

In the 1950s he was on the margins, his orthodoxy questioned, his work censored; in the 1960s he suddenly was at the centre of things, a theological expert at the Second Vatican Council, and, in almost all accounts but his own, one of the shaping influences upon it (p. xv).[1]

The set of essays contained here seeks to illuminate these ‘shaping influences’ by treating Rahner’s theology of the human person and Jesus Christ. It will not be an exhaustive treatment of such topics; I acknowledge more could be said about Rahner’s theology, the connections he makes and the conclusions he draws. I know, too, that the implications of his work have been immense, informing ecclesiology, Trinity, Grace, and beyond. Even so, as a student of Rahner, I will surface my own syntheses of these key Rahner constructs and discuss their relevance today. In doing so, following Rahner’s lead, I will use predominately masculine language. I intend no disrespect to women; I use his language for clarity’s sake. Rahner, if he were writing today, would likely utilize more inclusive language, a move I support.

Rahner in Review: Christian Anthropology

Karl Rahner’s approach to the question of what it means to be human is foundational in his theology. How are we to understand human potential? Where, and in what form, does the divine dialogue with humanity? It is no accident that Rahner starts with the human and traces other theological constructs (e.g., God) from this starting point. Understanding Rahner’s Christian Anthropology is essential in theologizing about his concepts of God, Christ, Trinity, and more. As such, I start here too. (more…)