2022/04/04

33. The Vocation of Mary and Joseph

Jesus encouraged mainly his male disciples to become "eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven."¹ It is because men's bodies are designed to be able to control their sexual impulses. The male body has a function whereby old sperm is absorbed into the body to replenish it with new sperm. As male external genitalia is also used as a urethra, some may think that sperm, like urine, must be expelled once it is filled up, but the idea is an illusion. On the other hand, the number of eggs is determined when a woman is a foetus in her mother's womb, and no new eggs are produced after birth. An egg matures in a grown woman's body and comes out into the fallopian tubes. If the egg does not meet any sperm and does not become a fertilised egg, it is expelled from her body together with a part of the uterus which peels off with bleeding. Ovulation, in which a mature egg is released, happens independently of the woman's will. At this time, she undergoes a few days of estrus. So, God specially prepared Mary so that she would carry his only begotten Son. The Holy Spirit came upon her, and the power of the Most High overshadowed her.² It meant that her body became "like an angel." Jesus must have had an image of his mother in mind when he replied to the Sadducees: "They can no longer die, for they are like angels; and they are the children of God because they are the ones who will rise" (Luke 20:36). The Gospel accounts show that Jesus, who was the first to rise from the dead, was seemingly no different from an ordinary person. As Mary was likewise, no one, let alone herself, would have realised what had happened to her. That is why Jesus responded to the woman, "Rather, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it" (Luke 11:28) when she said aloud, "Blessed is the womb that carried you and the breasts at which you nursed" (Luke 11:27), and also addressed his mother as "Woman."³ Considering all these things, we can imagine that Joseph, who took Mary and her unborn child Jesus into his home following the angel's instruction and became Jesus' earthly father, witnessed extremely rare childbirth in Bethlehem. It must have been like the scene in which Jesus has risen, leaving an empty tomb behind. Joseph saw it all and realised everything; he feared God and lived his whole life as "a eunuch who has made himself a eunuch for the sake of the kingdom of heaven," even though he did not know it. The life choices of Mary and Joseph opened up to Christians the possibility of receiving the life of a new man and a new woman.

References: 1. Matthew 19:12, 2. Luke 1:35, 3. John 2:4, 19:26

Maria K. M. 

 2022/03/28

32. Peter's "Blessedness"

As I wrote in the previous article, Jesus' question and Peter's answer are linked to the Revelation of John by "blessedness" of Jesus' words, "Blessed are you," and get connected to a new space. There are seven "blessedness"¹ in Revelation, and six of them contain reasons for being blessed. However, only the fourth "blessedness" does not give any reason, as follows: "Then the angel said to me, 'Write this: Blessed are those who have been called to the wedding feast of the Lamb.' And he said to me, 'These words are true; they come from God'" (Revelation 19:9). The wedding feast of the Lamb is Jesus' last Passover supper. At that table, the Apostles ate and drank what the bread and wine had been made the body and blood of Christ by the word of Jesus, and thereby they had the experience of union with him. Even today, the flow of the Mass goes towards the Eucharist, which makes us experience the union that the Apostles had. At the last stage of the Mass, the priest shows the consecrated bread and wine and invites the faithful into union with the Eucharist, chanting, "Blessed are those called to the supper of the Lamb." Here, the faithful before Jesus, who is present in the Eucharist, is forced to give a testimony of who he is, like Peter before Jesus' question, "But who do you say that I am?"(Matthew 16:15). "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God" (Matthew 16:16), Peter replied. And Jesus responds, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father" (Matt 16:17). Peter's words of reply were "blessed," which were guaranteed by the Father in heaven, and "these words are true; they come from God." So, the faithful before the Eucharist testifies with Peter's confession of faith that is blessed. Jesus went on to say. "I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" (Matt 16:19). When the keys to the kingdom of heaven open the doors of heaven² with the words of starting of the Mass, a new space emerges in which the heavenly Mass and the earthly Mass are united. Therefore, the fifth "blessedness" explains the blessedness of the one who shares in the first resurrection. "They will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for [the] thousand years" (Revelation 20:6). "The thousand years" signifies the time of the earthly Mass, connected with the eternity of the Kingdom of Heaven. The congregation who attends the earthly Mass, which is connected to the heavenly Mass where large crowds praise God, receives the blessings of dismissal imparted by the heavenly priests and the earthly priests. The earthly priests, who have accomplished, so to speak, the second mystery of the Incarnation by the Holy Spirit, send the faithful who received the body and blood of Christ, hoping that they will accomplish the third mystery of the Incarnation and return to the Mass. Then, with the priest's words announcing the ending of the Mass and the reply of thanksgiving, the connection with the heavenly Mass is loosed.

References: 1. Revelation ①1:3, ②14:13, ③16:15, ④19:9, ⑤20:6, ⑥22:7, ⑦22:14, 2. Revelation 3:20　

Maria K. M.

 2022/03/21

31. "My Church" of Jesus

In the previous article, we discussed how the ''my church'' of Jesus came into being as three Marys. Jesus mentioned the ''my church'' when he taught his disciples on what foundation he would build it. Jesus first asked his disciples, "But who do you say that I am?"(Matthew 16:15). Peter replied, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God" (Matthew 16:16). Because Jesus said, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it" (Matt. 16:17-18), the ''my church'' of Jesus is to be built on the words of Peter's reply so to speak. Therefore, the church, established on his words as its foundation, must also have the words. If we think about it, the words Peter replied are a combination of the message of the angel who appeared to Joseph in his dream for the first time, "He will save his people from their sins" (Matthew 1:21), and the message of the angel given to Mary: "Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God" (Luke 1:35). Thus, the Holy Family can be taken as a model for the ''my church'' of Jesus. Because Jesus was God, the Holy Family that received Jesus as a son had been prepared in the likeness of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, of whom Jesus spoke. It is also why the ''my church'' of Jesus was born as the three Marys. In addition, as Jesus said, ''Blessed,'' Jesus' question and Peter's answer are to be connected to the new space in linkage with the Book of Revelation. In our age, in which online communities and organisations that are connected to each other worldwide are everyday things, if the ''my church'' of Jesus appears in the likeness of God, modelled on the Holy Family, it will provide us with the chance to make the biblical world real and to inject the image of God into the highly information-oriented society. The ''my church'' of Jesus, who draws all people on the cross, plays a significant role in being a community where visitors can see and experience God in reality. If so, Christians will be aware that they need to form themselves towards the new role Jesus has brought for the new men and women. We will continue this theme in the next issue.

Maria K. M.

 2022/03/14

30. The Three Marys

The four Gospels each tell the last words of Jesus on the cross. However, examining their contents, we notice that these words can be arranged in chronological order as follows: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Matt 27:46; Mark 15:34) → "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit" (Luke 23:46) → "It is finished" (John 19:30). It is as if the authors had written their Gospels with an arrangement towards the event, "It is finished." On the cross, Jesus was waiting for the Father to draw the parties to formalise the new covenant¹ he had presented to the Apostles the night before because no one can come to Jesus unless the Father draws him.² Amid his suffering, Jesus' pleading cry, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" is superseded by the words, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit", like when Jesus had prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane. Soon, the people, drawn by the Father, gathered by the cross. Individuals identifiable here are Mary, the mother of Jesus, Mary, the wife of Clopas, Mary Magdalene and the "beloved disciple."³ This disciple is John the Apostle, judging from other accounts in the Gospels. Jesus tied Mary, his mother, and John the Apostle, standing by the cross, by a parent-child bond. And from that hour, John the Apostle took Jesus' mother into his home. This action made the Apostle the legitimate heir to the authority of Jesus’ mother, who had undertaken the Mystery of the Incarnation.⁴ The other two Marys, who witnessed the whole course of the events, became witnesses to this fact. At the same time, together with Jesus’ mother and the Apostle, they bore witness to the Mystery of the Cross being finished. "It is finished" signifies the conclusion of the new covenant and the fulfilment of the prophecy.⁵ The Mystery of the Incarnation brought about the Holy Family with Mary's consent and by Joseph's taking her into his home. The Mystery of the Cross brought the "my church" (Matthew 16:18) into being with the consent of Mary, the mother of Jesus, and by the Apostle’s taking her into his home from that hour. Because the name of the Apostle is concealed here, we can say that the "my church" was born as the three Marys. The blood and water that flowed from Jesus' side fell on them, purifying them and becoming the sign by which danger would pass over them.⁶ The Holy Spirit would descend upon the "my church" thus protected.

Reference: 1. Matthew 26:28, Mark 14:24, Luke 22:20, 2. John 6:44, 3. John 19:25-26, 4. this blog #18, 5. Jeremiah 31:31-34, 6. Exodus 12:1-7

Maria K. M.　

 2022/03/07

29. The Apostles

Let us continue our previous discussion. When the Pharisees asked Jesus why Moses had commanded people to give a certificate of divorce and to put their wife away, he replied, "For your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so" (Matthew 19:8). The fact that divorce was of Moses' discretion tells us that marriage was a human-made social institution in which the difficulties of the relationship between a man and a woman were already embedded.¹ Jesus was sent to the earth carrying the new role for the new men and women, who would directly receive the work of God's creation. So, he advised his disciples, "There are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. He who is able to receive this, let him receive it."² As appears in the Acts of the Apostles,³ at that time, there were men called eunuchs who willingly risked their lives to castrate themselves to obtain an advantageous position and serve the king, the harem and so on. However, since Jesus was the only one who knew what was the "kingdom of heaven" at this time, "eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven" was referring to Jesus himself. Jesus requested his disciples to follow in the footsteps of their master and become eunuchs without castration. For the Apostles, who were men among the disciples, the parable of those who were willing to be castrated to enter government office must have been sobering. We know that they accepted to follow their master for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven because, at the last supper, Jesus reported to the Father, "They have kept thy word" (John 17:6). He asked the Father to unite them with the Holy Spirit, just as he and the Father were one, for them who would remain in the world.⁴ The Apostles, to whom Jesus gave the authority to forgive sins after his resurrection, were to bear the role of producing the Body and Blood of Christ by the Holy Spirit who had descended. Jesus, the Word, was born into the world as a male with divine maternity. It is because the Father is God the father, whereas the Word is God the mother, as it is written, "all things were made through him" (John 1:3).⁵ The Holy Spirit descends with divine maternity as Jesus' representative. Jesus chose male disciples like himself and named them Apostles so that the Holy Spirit, who does not have his own body, could bear witness to Jesus,⁶ who is a man of divine maternity. For they, who have been with Jesus from the beginning, also bear witness as helpers of the Holy Spirit.⁷ Jesus gave the new men a new role of the helper of the Holy Spirit who has divine maternity.

Reference 1. this blog #27, 2. Matthew 19:12 (the Japanese translation of the Bible does not adopt the translation 'eunuch' here.), 3. Acts 8:26-39, 4. John 17:11, 5. John 1:1-4, this blog #26, 6. John 15:26, 7. John 15:27

Maria K. M.　 

 2022/02/28

28. The Fictional Gates

In the divorce debate with the Pharisees, Jesus said quoting Genesis: "Have you not read that from the beginning the Creator 'made them male and female' and said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, no human being must separate" (Matthew 19:4-6). People keep the reproductive activity of being joined by intercourse which is common to many other creatures. At this point, the sperm and egg become a fertilised egg, that is, one flesh. This process is common to humans and other living things. However, Jesus repeatedly emphasised its "oneness" because a particular event only for human beings is after the process. As Genesis 2 describes, other creatures become the living by spontaneously repeating the process by which God formed living things from the earth for the first time. But, for the human fertilised egg, unlikely any other living thing, God breathes the breath of life into it at conception, and it finally becomes a human. For humans to become the likeness of God, God, woman, and man give each other their lives. This fact is the true meaning of "what God has joined together," and it gives gravity to his command: "no human being must separate." And it is the starting point from which all people share the truth that God is Father and Mother to man. The Gospels of Matthew and Mark insert a scene where, after this dialogue between Jesus and the Pharisees, people bring their children to Jesus to ask him to lay his hands on them and pray. For adults who have forgotten they used to be a child, the truth that God is the father and mother to man is a matter of far away. So, the disciples, when looking at the children approaching, found a contradiction within themselves because they clearly saw the reality that they were separating themselves from God. To cover it up, they shared the fiction that children were unworthy to come to Jesus and rebuked the people who had brought their children. When Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, "Let the children come to me; do not prevent them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these" (Mark 10:14). Jesus made them face the reality of God so that they might become awakened from their fiction. People see many gates in the fiction they made. But none of them can lead them to reality. Only the Word of God can break through their fiction and bring them to the reality of God.

Maria K. M.

 2022/02/21

27. The First Illusion

Last time we concluded God is the father and mother to man. So, replacing the word "father and mother" in the text of Genesis 2:24, which was our topic last time, with "God," we find the text foretold that man's first act of reproduction would begin apart from God: "That is why a man leaves his God and clings to his wife, and the two of them become one body." We will examine this issue to find out why the Bible gives such notice. Genesis reads, "The LORD God then built the rib that he had taken from the man into a woman. When he brought her to the man, the man said: 'This one, at last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; This one shall be called "woman," for out of man this one has been taken'" (Genesis 2:22-23). The words of the "man" do not match the narrative here. So, this statement indicates that the accidental information¹ occurred when humankind became plural and that an illusion developed in the "man." The woman is not the "flesh of flesh" of the "man", even though the "bone of his bones." Moreover, even though the text already said that God made "a woman," the "man" decided to name her "woman" himself. And he called himself a man and said the woman was taken out of man. When an illusion develops in a person, a contradiction arises, then it becomes a burden in the realm of his consciousness. To cover it up, he creates fiction, and when people share it, "the work of man" happens. The man must have found his words contradictory as he interacted with the woman. He invented the fiction that "she was the mother of all the living" (Genesis 3:20) and justified his position by newly giving a name to the woman. But this act, as if he became God, was the direct cause of his expulsion from the Garden of Eden. According to Genesis, it was not until they were expelled from the Garden after this happening that the man had intercourse with his wife. Literally in this way, "the man left God" and clung to his wife. Together with the expulsion from the Garden of Eden, the fact that human reproductive activity, which had been given for the same purpose as that of other animals, took place apart from God gives rise to a profound sense of loneliness on a visceral level in us. The relationship between man and woman had difficulties from the beginning.

Reference: 1. this blog #4

Maria K. M.