It has been said that the greatest addiction that we ALL share is our own thinking.  We are addicted to the way in which we as individuals and cultures think.  The way that we think, the manner in which we process information and experiences that, all of this goes by unchallenged and unquestioned. We don’t even think or consider HOW we think, i.e., the personal and cultural biases that frame our thinking and indeed are engrained in the neural pathways formed in our brains.  To question the way we think could be seen or sensed as a sign of a lack of self-confidence perhaps.  After all, certainty always feels safer, even if it is mostly couched in opinion.  But, is it not worth looking into?

Think of the last time that someone challenged you on something you said, an opinion that you held, or even something that you considered to be absolutely true.  You more than likely felt at least somewhat uncomfortable, perhaps even took offense to the challenge.  If it was done in a particularly uncharitable way, that would have made the offense taken more acute and somehow “justify” the feeling of offense that you have and the reaction that you might have had to it.

Idolatry can be seen as a type of absolutized addiction.  Wow!  Our own thinking, when not “checked” or questioned can become an idol, or a “god” for us.  That may sound radical, but think about the last time (if ever) you considered the possibility that how you receive information, how you interpret experiences that you have might be “set” or determined by everything about you – your personality, your upbringing, your history, your genetics, etc.  This is not meant to relativize or trivialize the personal experiences that we all have in life and in our interactions with each other and the world.  Nor is it meant to undercut the value of the knowledge or way that we perceive, think about, and encounter

life.  Indeed, the appreciation for the diversity of our interpretations and ways of thinking and responding to the world and each other can enhance everything if we begin to recognize them for what they are, rather than hold onto them in blind rigidity.  It takes a little ‘loosening’ up and ‘openness’ to the possibility of being transformed by what is directly in front of us!

The opening line in today’s Gospel (Jn 10:31-42) speaks to this blind rigidity I believe:

“The Jews picked up rocks to stone Jesus”

Jesus had just stated to the crowd that he and the Father are one.  Upon seeing the reaction to this (the picking up rocks to throw at him), Jesus asks the gathered crowd about what they have witnessed in his actions, i.e., his good works.  In fact, he asks them point blank,

“I have shown you many good works from my Father. For which of these are you trying to stone me?”
The Jews answered him, “We are not stoning you for a good work but for blasphemy.
You, a man, are making yourself God.”
Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, ‘You are gods”‘?
If it calls them gods to whom the word of God came,
and Scripture cannot be set aside, can you say that the one
whom the Father has consecrated and sent into the world
blasphemes because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’?

In saying that “you are gods,” Jesus is quoting from Psalm 82.  In one sense Jesus may be saying that anyone who receives God’s address is divine.  But there also may be another side of this mention of “gods.”  Could Jesus be calling into question how the judgments that we make so easily upon situations and people can easily become “gods?”  And to the extent that we blindly hold onto our judgments as unquestionable, our judgments become our idols, and the closer we align our identity with our judgments, we become “gods.”

So, if that can be gleaned as a possibility, then who exactly is making themselves into a “god” in this Gospel passage?  Jesus is talking about a relationship with God His Father, fro

m whom He was sent to share THAT divine/human relationship with all of us.  To be in relationship with God, true relationship, is to be not only fully human, but also to experience the Divine as part of Who we are.  However, this intimate experience of being addressed by God is no small thing.  It calls for an ongoing willingness to be transformed in such a way that the ‘judgements’ we make about life, others, our world, etc. are all interpenetrated with compassionate openness to that which we are ‘judging.’  In other words, to be “one with God,” is not only a theological description of Jesus the Christ, but also an invitation to take advantage of what that means for all of us IN Christ.

The question becomes whether or not we will allow the possibility of realizing that we are NOT just our thoughts and opinions about the world, ourselves, and others.  This kind of messes things up for us in a way because it means that we constantly stand in relation to God and to each other so that we can be transformed and renewed by the encounters that we have with each other and the world.  This is not ‘ungroundedness,’ but more so a grounding that comes from authentically relating to God in and through each other as ‘persons’ in Christ.   Is this another way of describing the body of Christ?

This is no easy task, and there are plenty of ‘stones’ that we must recognize ourselves as rigidly holding onto that not only prevent us from the freedom of ongoing transformative relationships but which we often times hurl at one another, attempting to stone that and those which offend our unquestioned and brittle judgmental (false) self.  Stones themselves are not the problem.  The concern is what or WHO we consider stones and how we interact with these stones.  The stones of judgment are dead and the bluntness of their lifelessness inflict suffering upon those who hurl them as well as those whom they hit.  But, the stones of life – the ones that we lay our head upon and consecrate, as Jacob did when he realized he had encountered God (GN 28: 10-22) -become the solid living presence of relationship that manifests itself in the  “good works” that Jesus mentions in the Gospel:

“…believe the works, so that you may realize and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.”

Life in transformative relationship with God can do nothing else but shine forth in ‘good works,’ authentic interactions, solidarity with each other, open vulnerability, and strength and courage in the Holy Spirit of community.  Is there anything more solid than this? Once we begin to lay our lives upon this solid edifice or grounding in Christ, ‘judgments’ become transformed into endless possibilities for transformation in and through our encounters with each other.  In this way, we can share in the Divine life as consecrated humans.   We are “gods” by participating in the infinite ground of God’s very life shared with us in every moment!  We then are the body of Christ, the Living Christ stones that miraculously flow in the streaming fire of God’s Life!

Peace,
Thomas