Monthly Archives: September 2013

"The poor are the priveleged masters of our knowledge of God…": 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time (C)

22 Sunday Sep 2013

Posted by in humility, knowledge of God, poor

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“The poor are privileged masters of our knowledge of God; their fragility and their simplicity expose our selfishness, our false certainties, our claims of self-sufficiency and guide us to the experience of the closeness and tenderness of God, to receive his love in our life, his mercy of Father who takes care of us, all of us, with discretion and patient trust.”  (Pope Francis) 

It is an intriguing parable that our Lord gives us this Sunday (Lk. 16:1-13).  This dishonest steward is clearly not a child of the Kingdom in his actions but rather a “child of this world” as our Lord indicates.  Our Lord is not holding him up as a role model but rather highlighting his shrewdness as a way of prodding us to reflect on our own salvation.  Are we just as shrewd, are we just as determined about living our discipleship, living in hopes of the Kingdom of God as this steward is about securing a place to land after his fast approaching termination of employment?  The steward knew what was coming so he devoted all of capabilities and all of his faculties to make sure he did not end up either digging ditches or begging! 

Let’s be honest.  How often do we just coast along when it comes to the matters of faith?  It’s enough to go to Church once a week.  It’s enough to say a prayer every now and then.  It’s enough to give a little something to charity.  It’s enough to be a nice person.  “It’s enough…” – the professed creed of a minimal approach to faith!  “I believe” gives way to “It’s enough…” – a common profession in our day.  Christ will not settle for “It’s enough…”  Christ wants belief because only in belief is life and the Kingdom found!  Christ wants us to have “true wealth”!  Not necessarily silver and gold and the good things that this world affords but the true wealth that endures – relationship with God himself and the joy and salvation which can only come from that!   

How might we gain this “true wealth”?  Where might we find it?  The parable points the way.  The steward went to the debtors and dealt generously with them.  He had them cut the amount that they owed the master.  Debtors are those “in debt”.  They owe.  They stand in need.  Generosity toward “debtors” is generosity toward the poor and the needy.  They are the ones who cannot pay and the ones who stand in need.  Generosity toward debtors saves our lives and our future – individually and collectively.    

But someone might say, “It was the master’s wealth to begin with!  The steward never had a claim on it.  How can we give generously of that which we do not ourselves own?”  What one thing do we have that has not been given us by God?  Did we give ourselves life?  Did we give ourselves creation, air to breathe, water to drink?  Did we give ourselves the intelligence to acquire knowledge and gain skill?  Did we give ourselves the lives of our loved ones and our friends that we hold dear?  Can we determine even the length of our own days?  All is gift!  We never had nor ever will have an honest claim on it!  We are all debtors and God’s gratuitousness exceeds all of our limits!  We can give of the master’s wealth because God is generous. 

“The poor are privileged masters of our knowledge of God; their fragility and their simplicity expose our selfishness, our false certainties, our claims of self-sufficiency and guide us to the experience of the closeness and tenderness of God, to receive his love in our life, his mercy of Father who takes care of us, all of us, with discretion and patient trust.”  

Being a Christian is not about being a hero.  Christ was not a superhero nor were the original apostles and disciples nor any of the saints.  God has no need for superheroes.  Being a Christian means learning the honest truth that it is indeed more blessed to give than to receive.  What does this mean?  It means that when we honestly encounter the poor we are “blessed” by coming face-to-face with the truth of who we are and who God is.  We are blessed when the illusion of our selfishness, false certainties and self-sufficiency is held up to the light of reality. 

“The poor are the privileged masters of our knowledge of God…”   

Hating for Jesus: Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time (C)

08 Sunday Sep 2013

Posted by in cross, discipleship, following Jesus

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Courtroom scene from “Amistad”
The film “Amistad” is based on the true story of a Spanish slave ship that ends up washing ashore in New England after the slaves kidnapped from Africa were able to mutiny and take control of the ship.  The United States of America had just been established as a country and therefore was quite weak on the international scene.  The plight of these slaves becomes a political hot potato and a legal battle as the current presidential administration would like to send them back to Spain and not rock the boat with the Spanish monarchy while others are fighting for their freedom.  “Are these men free and if not, who do they belong to?” becomes the primary question. 
To help ensure that it gets its way the president’s administration sees to it that a young, up-and-coming judge is assigned to the case.  The president’s man on the case makes it known to the judge (who happens to be a Catholic) that if he finds in favor of Spain and in support of the Administration then his career is set.  For a young judge and a Catholic in Protestant New England this is his ticket!  The case begins and as things progress you begin to notice that the conscience of the young judge is prodding him to the point where you see him enter a church the night before the final judgment is to be given in the case.  He walks in, blesses himself with holy water and goes to knell in prayer before a crucifix.  The next day, to a packed courtroom, the judge finds in favor of the slaves, thus ensuring their freedom and return to Africa.  The president’s man stares at the judge and walks out of the courtroom.  By siding with the slaves the judge knows he had destroyed his career and all his aspirations but he knows it was the right thing to do.  
It is a serious thing to follow Christ and it should not be entered into lightly because to follow Christ means to go where he has gone and it means to embrace the cross just as he embraced it.  This is why our Lord in today’s gospel (Lk. 14:25-33) gives us the image of the builder and the king contemplating battle.  Both men had to truly consider and calculate out what they were contemplating.  It is a serious thing to follow Christ. 
In many ways to follow Christ means to break with how one has lived in the past, how one has lived relationships and how one has gone about all facets of one’s life.  This is why our Lord gives us these very powerful and stark words of “hating” ones mother and father, brother and sister in order to truly follow him.  The power of the word means that everything, every part of one’s life must be re-oriented by and toward one’s relationship with Christ.  Nothing can be left out or hidden away.  But to follow Christ never leads to anything but more life and more love.  As one turns to Christ in his or her life, one is able to love family, neighbor and even the stranger in a deeper and more authentic way.  
The judge giving his verdict
The judge in the story of Amistad witnesses this graced dynamic of truly following Christ.  Just as he comes to “hate” what others have promised him – the success and the power, even probably everything he had worked for and aspired to up until that moment – he is able to know an authentic joy in doing that which was the right thing to do.  He gained a joy that no one could ever take away and he gained new brothers and sisters in the freed African slaves!  
Paul in his letter (Philemon 1:9-10, 12-17) is calling Philemon to the same graced dynamic on behalf of the newly baptized, runaway slave Onesimus.  According to the law of the time Philemon was perfectly in his rights to have Onesimus killed but Paul is saying that now through Christ things are different and he is inviting Philemon to “hate” the old ways of retribution and violence and now recognize how everything must be oriented toward Christ and turned toward Christ in his life.  …Perhaps this is why he was away from you for a while, that you might have him back forever, no longer as a slave but more than a slave, a brother, beloved especially to me, but even more so to you, as a man and in the Lord.  So if you regard me as a partner, welcome him as you would me. 
It is a truly serious thing to follow Christ.  In fact, it is the most serious thing one can ever do.  All things which separate us from Christ must be “hated” so true life in all of its depth and breadth might be found and known.

Syria and Peace

07 Saturday Sep 2013

Posted by in Culture of Encounter, dialogue, encounter, peace, President Obama, Syria

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In each of the four gospels we have the account of Jesus at the end of his earthly ministry in the garden of Gethsemane when the crowd comes to arrest him.  We are given the scene of one of his disciples either preparing to draw a sword and defend Jesus against the encircling mob or actually drawing the sword and severing the ear of a servant who was present.  John’s gospel specifically identifies the zealous disciple as Simon Peter. 

For our purposes here it is helpful to reflect on Matthew’s account.  

While he was still speaking, Judas came, one of the twelve, and with him a great crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests and the elders of the people.  Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, “The one I shall kiss is the man; seize him.”  And he came up to Jesus at once and said, “Hail, Master!”  And he kissed him.  Jesus said to him, “Friend, why are you here?”  Then they came up and laid hands on Jesus and seized him.  And behold, one of those who were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his sword, and struck the slave of the high priest, and cut off his ear.  Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place: for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.” 

This disciple (whether it was Peter or not, I cannot say) was not a bad man.  He had a love for Jesus.  He did not want to see Jesus hurt nor an injustice toward Jesus committed.  He wanted to defend the master and teacher who had done nothing but preach God’s love and mercy and the coming of the Kingdom.  His motives were honest, yet from our Lord’s reaction we can see that his action fell short of the mark and he did not yet fully understand what the Lord was about.   

Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place: for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.” 

Our Lord, even as he faced his own death, shows us that there is another way; that we do not have to give in to the sad and tired logic of violence, war and retribution.  In Christ and in the in-breaking of God’s Kingdom there is the ever new possibility of peace, restored relationship, honest encounter and even friendship.  As Pope Francis, a disciple of Christ Jesus, recently said in his Angelus message, “War never brings peace.  War begets war!  Violence begets violence! … Peace is a treasure of all humanity!”  Jesus reveals to us that there is truly another way – there is an ever-new logic of dialogue and encounter.   

We have all been witnessing the increasingly brutal cycle of violence in Syria.  All of us have been horrified by the gratuitous loss of life and the new revelation of the apparent use of chemical weapons by government forces.  We all want to “do something” to stop this horror.  No person, honest in his or her humanity, can deny that this is just plain wrong and evil.  

President Obama and the members of Congress (like that disciple in the garden of Gethsemane) are good people.  They are good people who want to “do something” to end the violence that is ripping Syria apart.  But more violence is not the answer that is needed at this moment.  A different way is needed and the gospel points out this way. 

Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place: for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.”  

There is another way and we need to give this other way a chance!  The work of diplomacy, negotiation, humanitarian aid and dialogue is neither a sign of weakness nor a form of isolationism.  Dialogue is the furthest thing from isolationism – it is the willingness to truly seek out and encounter the “other” wherever and whoever he or she might be.  The way of encounter acknowledges that we share a common humanity with shared hopes and dreams!  The way of violence denies a common humanity.  Violence and resorting to the mechanism of violence to achieve ones goal is, in fact, the true isolationism.  It is, in essence, stating, in very stark ways, “My way or no way!”  It is also (and I believe that this is at play in the current situation) a way of assuaging ones tranquility and sense of having “done something” while not really having to encounter the other because when we encounter we might ourselves have to change.  The thought of bombing Syria can be likened to the decision that the only way to solve the domestic abuse situation next door (which everyone in the neighborhood is painfully aware of) is to throw some hand grenades through the front window!  What is the priority here?  Is it the good of the Syrian people and the country of Syria or is it our own peace of mind?  True encounter demands that the good of people always comes first, even above our own sense of tranquility.    

Violence begets violence.  War begets more war.  God calls us to a new way.  When we were lost in sin and turned away from God; God came to encounter us, God came to seek out our friendship.  Peace belongs to everyone and is ever possible because when we had turned our backs on God, God came to us in peace.  This is the “serene and sure vision” of religion that must be brought to our world and brought to all people, including those good people who out of a desire to “do something” would draw the sword.  How often must we draw the sword?  How many times?  When will it end?   

At the Meeting of Prayer for Peace in Sarajevo (September 11, 2012) Professor Andrea Riccardi – founder of the Community of Sant’Egidio – offered these words.  (The “serene and sure vision”, I would hold, is the vision of Christ in the garden of Gethsemane and it is what we have to give to the world and it is a vision our world desperately needs.) 

Let us look at the future without fear!  Let us prepare the future in friendliness among peoples.  Let us look at the future without being paralyzed by past fears!  We need courage and hope to prepare a future of life together in peace.  Let us forfeit all prejudices, the preaching of hatred.  We can build the future, educating women, men, the youth to peace: for only peace is holy, and living together reveals the will of God and the equality of all people.  Equality that is rooted in God himself.  For whoever kills a man, but also whoever hates or despises a human being, strikes God himself!  Religions can be foreseeing.  We can convey a new conviction to everyone, a conviction developed in contact with the sorrows of many and the experience of peoples: war is evil, violence can never be justified in God’s name.  Dialogue can help resolve insurmountable problems.  We have a serene and sure vision: it is an ancient and very new vision.  We are a reference point – the spirit of Assisi is – in the plurality of our religions: a reference point of peace. 

Before we rush to “do something”, before we rush to bomb Syria, let us spend some time with our Lord in the garden of Gethsemane and let us learn his way. 

This is what Isaiah, son of Amoz, saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
In days to come,
The mountain of the LORD’s house
shall be established as the highest mountain
and raised above the hills.
All nations shall stream toward it.
many peoples shall come and say:
“Come, let us go up to the LORD’s mountain,
to the house of the God of Jacob,
that he may instruct us in his ways,
and we may walk in his paths.”
For from Zion shall go forth instruction,
and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
He shall judge between the nations,
and set terms for many peoples.
They shall beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks;
One nation shall not raise the sword against another,
nor shall they train for war again.
House of Jacob, come,
let us walk in the light of the LORD!  (Is. 2:1-5)