Author Archives: Jessamyn Anderson

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…)

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 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…)

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 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 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 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 Chris P.

In his essay Jesus in Galilee: Proclaiming the Reign of God, Robert Ludwig details the role of parables in Jesus’ proclamation of the kingdom of God.  He makes it clear that Jesus’ parables, whether in word or deed, “…are stories that shatter the deep structure of our accepted world, removing our defenses and making us vulnerable to God.  It is only in such experiences that God can touch us, and it is only in such moments that God’s reign truly takes hold (Ludwig, p. 16).”  Parables call us to conversion, to transformation, whereby we come to see the kingdom of God before us.  I must say that I feel I have been very blessed throughout my life, which can be a scary thought, so I have a hard time coming up with a “shattering” event.  I guess the excitement is yet to come.  There are two occasions though where the way I put the world came undone.  The first happened as a sophomore in high school and the second as a college student preparing to enter religious life, both played a vital role in my understanding of God and in his call to the vocation which I know live.  In this essay, I will focus on the experience during my sophomore.

Brother Ted was a “young” Brother and this automatically made him cool.  By the way, I had no idea what a Brother was until meeting the Brothers at my high school and even then it took a while to understand who they were and what exactly they did.  Anyway, I do not remember my first impression of Br. Ted and do not even remember seeing him around my freshman year.  It was during my sophomore year that Br. Ted really made an impression on me.

As a sophomore, I was looking for my “niche” in high school.  I had been very involved in activities and sports throughout middle school and so not to have done much my freshman year was a bit disappointing.  Then I heard about a campus organization called Lasallian Youth.  All I knew about it is that it involved doing service work.  So there I went some random September day and signed up for a Saturday service project.  I remember arriving to the campus at 7 am on Saturday not knowing exactly what to expect or who to expect.  I roamed the campus and at some point I heard “Chris?”  It was Brother Ted.  I think it was the first time we formally met.  A few more students arrived and off we went to the Catholic Worker.  We finished the service project and there I was stuck without a ride home, and Brother offered to take me home.  He dropped me off and I felt so thrilled to have gone on this service project.  Looking back, this service project was the invitation to become involved in Lasallian Youth, which eventually became the passageway to becoming extremely involved on campus.  For the next few months, I must have been like glue on Brother Ted, I just admired the guy, and I wanted to be like him.  I felt at home in Lasallian Youth, I got to travel to various service projects and gatherings with other schools.  Eventually, because of Lasallian Youth I was invited by the school to attend a leadership workshop, travel to Mexico to build a house for the poor, and travel to World Youth Day in Rome.  God was very present to me throughout these moments and in the person of Brother Ted.  I felt like God would always be there, since Br. Ted was always there. (more…)

by Victor P.

It was a warm Saturday in May.  The kind of day that makes one forget about the recently concluded Chicago winter.  I was working that afternoon as a high school baseball umpire for a local high school.  Neither team was particularly good, nor was there any prospect of post-season playoff success.  Nonetheless, I went about my avocation with my usual attention to detail, and as much professionalism as my $45.00 pay check could encourage.

As the last inning began, the home team coach called to the visiting team coach and asked him to meet at home plate.  He motioned for my partner and me to meet there as well and the four of us had a conversation.  The home team coach asked for our indulgence.  It seemed he had promised the “bat boy” that he could have one “official” at bat in a high school varsity baseball game.  The coach explained that the bat boy was mentally retarded, and when the game was officially over and the last, real official out recorded, he wanted to bring the bat boy out for his at bat.  He asked us to “stay in character” and give the boy an authentic experience.  The coach went on to explain that he would personally pitch to the bat boy so the opposing team’s pitcher wouldn’t have to worry about what to do.

I saw the visiting team coach return to his bench and call a quick team meeting to explain the situation.  My partner and I looked at each other and we both just rolled our eyes.  We weren’t getting paid enough to be part of this charade, and furthermore, I wanted to go home. I was tired.

After the last out was recorded, I heard the home team coach yell, “Jimmy, get a helmet on, I want you to pinch hit!”  Jimmy looked back at the coach through thick, Coke-bottle eyeglasses and said, “For real coach!”  “Yep, get in there,” was the reply.

Jimmy came up to the plate wearing a mismatched striped t-shirt and plaid pants.  He had on black socks and tennis shoes and a helmet that was far too big for his head.  I’m no mental health expert, but it was clear that Jimmy was mentally challenged.  The coach stood about half-way between the pitcher’s mound and home plate and softly tossed the ball underhand to Jimmy.  He swung and missed, strike one.  Again, strike two.  Finally, on his third swing, Jimmy hit the ball about four feet.  Everybody yelled, “RUN!” (more…)

by Mary K.

I read with interest, Dr. Robert Ludwig’s essay titled, “Jesus in Galilee: Proclaiming the Reign of God” for I gained new insights into reading, “digesting,” and learning about the reign of God through Jesus’ use of parable.  I am an example of one who thought of the parables as inspiring stories, example tales or exhortations on behalf of Jesus to inspire his disciples that a new reign was not only coming, it was here.  Yet, what I learned was that it was Jesus’ intent to shake up the complacent and predictable world in Galilee in the 20s c.e. in order to encourage surrender to God rather than to remain entrapped in the ego-centeredness of our human nature in which we believe that if we live our lives in a prescribed manner, we can manipulate events to our liking; that is, to play God.

In my faith journey which includes a late-in-life vocation as a religious sister, I can see that I have been “parabled” several times in my life.  A case in point was a long faith struggle which included my return to the Catholic Church after many years of separation.  The basis of the separation was anger—with my parents, God, the world—yet mixed with that anger was an egotistical belief that I was smart enough to handle life on my own.  I figured that if God would not give me what I wanted, then I didn’t need God.  I duped myself into thinking (for years!) that I was free when in truth gained from twenty-twenty hindsight, I was drifting.

In my late thirties, I made tentative moves to deepen my relationship with God by occasionally stopping by a Catholic Church on my way home from work.  I didn’t participate in Mass or any prayer service; I just sat and talked to God.  I went to a book store and bought a Bible and began to read passages again. This was frustrating because every time I did this, usually in the evenings, I would come down with severe headaches.  I would stop this practice for days or weeks and then I would start again. I would argue in my mind that these stories (gospels) were all well and good, but what was God trying to tell me at my age (and worldliness) about the direction I should go?  I had arguments with God in my head and even though I got headaches, I would come back to the Bible and stubbornly study.  About a year later, I was sitting in St. Dominic Church in San Francisco hunched forward with my arms on my knees and my head resting on my arms.  I was sick of these headaches and was asking God to relieve me of this obsession of reading Scripture which only resulted in head pain.  At one point there was silence in my head.  I then began to weep and laugh at the same time.  I lifted my head, looked up at the sunlit crucifix about the altar and declared out loud, “Okay! I give up!  Come on in.”

It was only a few minutes later when my tears began to cease that I realized that my headache had left me. (more…)