Episode 2.4: Jesus on ski break

Church of St. Valentine, Nauders, Austria, at dusk.

Two weeks have gone by since my last class, but luckily that’s ok because we have three weeks off now, for two weeks of school break and then Ash Wednesday. What school break, you might ask? Did you not just get back from Christmas break? Yes! It’s “Sportferien,” a special two week winter break in February so everyone can go skiing! We had not taken that particular plunge until now, but decided to go skiing for the very first time as a family this year. So far we’re halfway through our ski week in Nauders, Austria. We grownups have made it through our three days of ski lessons, with resulting sore knees (his) and painful blisters (mine) and not quite the skills required to graduate from the bunny hills to the chair lifts (sigh). The kids seem to be faring better – two more days of lessons to go – but I’m not sure they’re going to want to see another ski boot for a while either. Swiss integration on this front is clearly going to be a multi-year project.

On top of the sore feet I have finally caught the dreaded cold/flu that has been going around, an excellent excuse to sit in the apartment and write. Our last class was a flurry of information and handouts about Jesus and the early churches and the core functions of church. One of the handouts was entitled “The Critical Question,” and expanded on Mark 8:27-30. Here is my inexact translation – credit on the handout is given to Lothar Zenetti:

“Obviously the apostles were there at the very beginning, and their answers weren’t perfect. A little sketchy, even, if we might be forgiven for saying so. Surely it would be ok to expand them a little, based on what we know now? 

“Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way he asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say that I am?’ And they answered him, ‘John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets. In any case they think you’re a very important person. They say: Jesus, he was truly a great man, a model for us all. A teacher of humanity, like Socrates for example, or Goethe or Ghandi. Some say you are a great social reformer…one person called you a revolutionary of love!’ 

“He asked them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Peter answered him (and it was obvious that he’d studied his theology thoroughly), ‘you are, as the Church teaches – rejecting all fallacies and simplifications especially towards a facile unity with God with reference especially to the councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon – the second person of the Holy Trinity, the Son of the Father, the holy Word, who from the beginning shared existence with God, but in Maria’s time came to fulfilment in human form, so that God and man might exist together – each unadulterated but inseparable – and be recognized and worshiped as fully God and fully human.’ 

Simon Peter was a little out of breath by the time he got all this out, but it was a brilliant answer. Jesus may have even smiled a little. In any case he sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him.”

My theological English is not up to a great translation of Peter's revised answer but you get the idea. I think this is supposed to be poking a bit of fun at the knots that the Church ties itself into when trying to explain Jesus. (I'm not always a good detector of German humor, but according to Wikipedia, Lothar Zenetti was awarded the Humor in der Kirche prize in 1995 by the Diocese of Limburg. So, there. And you thought they only did stinky cheese.) But at the same time, he makes a serious point – Peter’s actual biblical answer, “You are the Messiah” surely doesn’t have the same connotations for 21^st century first-world humans as it did for 1^st century Jews? We got a homework assignment: write out our own answer to the question, “Who do you say that I am?” and read it aloud during the next class. 

I’ve been thinking about this a lot, and feeling rather stupid. I don't have a ready answer. I try not to say anything, if I can help it. I know people who proudly call Jesus their personal Lord and Saviour. I know others who trust that the Catholic Church is the one true Church and that the theological definition of Christ that has developed over the centuries is as close to the Truth as our human minds can grasp. Still others are in the he-was-a-great-guy-but-not-God camp. And there are those who believe all religion is evil. Whatever the position, so many people seem completely convinced of their own point of view, and as I am chronically unsure of my own, I feel really uncomfortable about any sort of evangelization.

But. I've had this poster on my wall since college, a photo collage by Scott Mutter in which a cathedral aisle is transformed into a city street and the banner in the cathedral reads "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Matthew 28:19). I'm not sure that Jesus meant that everyone on earth had to become Christian, but he was pretty clearly not telling me to work out the meaning of life and keep it to myself. I need to explain to my kids why we're going to church, and why our church has an an extremely large and lifelike crucifix on one wall. Sometimes I find myself in a group where I am the only representative of my church, or the only Catholic, or the only religious person. Or I decide that I need to write a blog about theology class.  

So here's my best answer. Jesus, you are the Son of God. And you came to give us an important message: you are not an only child. You are the son of God, I am a daughter of God, all 7.5 billion of us on this planet are children of God. We are loveable. We are capable of great love. To follow you is to honor the God in ourselves and in others and in all of creation. 

There's much more, of course. There's the mystery of the Incarnation and there's the Passion and the Resurrection and the early churches and the Catholic church and the saints and the Reformation and the Enlightenment and globalization and postmodernism. There's my chronic uncertainty, is this the message Jesus actually brought, or just my wishful simplification of it? 

Speaking of multi-year projects...

onwards!