Breaking the Word

Friday, February 29, 2008

Friday in the 3rd Week of Lent
How Long?

Readings: Hosea 14:2-10; Psalm 81:6c-8a, 8bc-9, 10-11ab, 14 and 17; Mark 12:28-34

It’s a long road to freedom, a winding steep and high.
But when you walk in love with the wind on your wing;
And cover the earth with the songs you sing;
The miles fly by…

So goes an old hymn that we used to sing in church. Indeed, it’s a long road to freedom. Just ask anyone addicted to alcohol or drugs, pornography or sex, gambling or work… And we can probably substitute freedom with many other things, too, things like peace and justice, wisdom and virtue. But how long exactly is the road? That seems to be question that our readings invite us to consider today. How long is the road to the end of poverty and hunger and environmental degradation? How long is the road to the day when people will be able to live together as brothers and sisters? How long is the road to the Kingdom of God?

On the one hand, the road does often seem too long to contemplate without losing hope. Can the distance be any greater than that between the developed and underdeveloped, the conservative and the liberal, the saint and the sinner? But isn’t there also another side to the issue? Recall, for example, the parable that we heard at Mass not too long ago, the story of Lazarus and the rich man. What distance could be longer than that between the rich man’s prosperity and Lazarus’ destitution? And yet, for the rich man at least, the road was as short as the distance to his own front door.

Isn’t this the message of our readings today? Straight are the paths of the Lord, in them the just walk, but sinners stumble in them. The way to the Kingdom is as long and as short as our willingness to repent, to change our ways, to return to the Lord, to center our lives no longer on selfishness but on love. Isn’t this why Jesus is able to tell the scribe that he is not far from the Kingdom of God? As suspicious as he might at first have been of the Lord’s apparently unorthodox teachings and actions, he was willing to recognize truth when he heard it. As long as the road may seem, it is really as short as acknowledging and committing ourselves to following Christ, the Way, the Truth and the Life.

How much further do we have to go today?

3 comments:

AnonymousFri Feb 29, 04:52:00 pm GMT+8
This journey of life takes us along roads that are familiar, lanes that are off the beaten path and through narrow gates that reveal our destiny.
Yet in this trek that we make, we are surrounded by the wonders of creation; flora and fauna that inspires awe and wonder. Lurking behind bushes and trees can be potential dangers posed by snakes, poisonous spiders and the like.
Do we then stay at home, vegetate and ponder over the meaning of our existence or go out and make that challenging foray into the Road Less Traveled? Reward awaits the intrepid when they face the unexpected, alive to all the possibilities that life has to offer. The choice is obvious!
What are we to do when we have unpleasant choices to make when events demand a response at risk to one's own comfort zone? We remember Jesus as the fearless contrarian who turned the world on its head. How can we be more like Him??
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AnonymousSat Mar 01, 09:36:00 pm GMT+8
Fr. Chris - you don't do weekends? Everyday I look forward to your blog and put in a cent and a half worth.
Understand you'll be back to Singapore on March 6, unless the big birdie has been misinformed.
We will be starting the new RCIA journey 08/09 in May. Fondly remember the time you were assigned as our S.D.
Can you provide your email add:?

Moses
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AnonymousMon Mar 03, 08:51:00 am GMT+8
It's a long road to being fit and healthy.
It's a long road to healing.
It's a long road to being understood and understanding.
It's a long road to forgiving and being forgiven
It's a long road to being others-centered
It's a long road to humbling ourselves to enter by the narrow gate.
It's a long road to trusting in Divine Providence.

On the other hand, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
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Breaking News: Easter

The fifty days from Easter Sunday to Pentecost are celebrated in joyful exultation as one feast day, or better as one "great Sunday." These above all others are the days for the singing of the Alleluia. The Sundays of this season rank as the paschal Sundays and, after Easter Sunday itself, are called the Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Sundays of Easter. The period of fifty sacred days ends on Pentecost Sunday. The first eight days of the Easter season make up the octave of Easter and are celebrated as solemnities of the Lord. On the fortieth day after Easter the Ascension is celebrated, except in places where, not being a holyday of obligation, it has been transferred to the Seventh Sunday of Easter (see no. 7).[R4] The weekdays after the Ascension until the Saturday before Pentecost inclusive are a preparation for the coming of the Holy Spirit. ~ General Norms for the Liturgical Year & Calendar, 22-26

From 36th Jesuit General Congregation

It is our union with one another in Christ that testifies to the Good News more powerfully than our competences and abilities.... In our individualistic and competitive age, we should remember that the community plays a very special role since it is a privileged place of apostolic discernment.... The Jesuit community is a concrete space in which we live as friends in the Lord. This life together is always at the service of mission, but because these fraternal bonds proclaim the Gospel, it is itself a mission. –Companions in a Mission of Reconciliation and Justice (CMRJ), nn. 7-9.

With the poor, we can learn what hope and courage mean.... In our communities and apostolates, we hear the call to rediscover hospitality to strangers, to the young, to the poor, and to those who are persecuted. Christ himself teaches us this hospitality. –CMRJ, nn. 15-16.

At the heart of Ignatian spirituality is the transforming encounter with the mercy of God in Christ that moves us to a generous personal response. The experience of the merciful gaze of God on our weakness and sinfulness humbles us and fills us with gratitude, helping us to become compassionate ministers to all.... For us Jesuits, compassion is action, an action discerned together. Yet we know that there is no authentic familiarity with God if we do not allow ourselves to be moved to compassion and action by an encounter with the Christ who is revealed in the suffering, vulnerable faces of people, indeed in the suffering of creation. –CMRJ, nn. 19-20.

(T)he Society must respond more decisively to the Church’s call for a new evangelization, giving special emphasis to ministry to and with the young and with families.... A special gift Jesuits and the Ignatian family have to offer to the Church and her mission of evangelization is Ignatian spirituality, which facilitates the experience of God and can therefore greatly help the process of personal and communal conversion. –CMRJ, nn. 22-23.

In many societies, there is an increased level of conflict and polarization, which often gives rise to violence that is all the more appalling because it is motivated and justified by distorted religious convictions. In such situations, Jesuits, along with all who seek the common good, are called to contribute from their religious-spiritual traditions towards the building of peace, on local and global levels. –CMRJ, n. 28.

Pope Francis has emphasized the fundamental connection between the environmental crisis and the social crisis in which we live today. Poverty, social exclusion, and marginalization are linked with environmental degradation. These are not separate crises but one crisis that is a symptom of something much deeper: the flawed way societies and economies are organised. The current economic system with its predatory orientation discards natural resources as well as people. For this reason, Pope Francis insists that the only adequate solution must be a radical one. The direction of development must be altered if it is to be sustainable. We Jesuits are called to help heal a broken world, promoting a new way of producing and consuming, which puts God’s creation at the center.... The multifaceted challenge of caring for our common home calls for a multifaceted response from the Society. We begin by changing our personal and community lifestyles, adopting behaviour coherent with our desire for reconciliation with creation. – CMRJ, nn. 29-30

From 35th Jesuit General Congregation

From General Congregation 35

By sending us to 'those physical and spiritual places which others do not or have difficulty reaching,' the Pope entrusts to us the task to 'build bridges of understanding and dialogue,' according to the best tradition of the Society, in the diversity of its ministries.
- Decree With Renewed Fervor and Dynamism, n. 6

To be missioned to this work 'at the New Frontiers of our times' always requires that one also be rooted at the very heart of the Church. This tension, specific to the Ignatian charism, opens the way to true creative fidelity.
- Decree With Renewed Fervor and Dynamism, n. 13

In every mission that we carry out, we seek only to be where (Christ) sends us. The grace we receive as Jesuits is to be and to go with him, looking on the world with his eyes, loving it with his heart and entering into its depths with his unending compassion.
- Decree on Identity, n. 15

For ultimately, there is no reality that is only profane for those who know how to look. We must communicate this look and provide a pedagogy inspired by the Spiritual Exercises, that carries people - especially the young - into it.
- Decree on Identity, n. 10

Our ministries of proclamation of the Word and the celebration of the Life of Christ in the sacraments continue to be fundamental for our mission and our lives together as Jesuits.
- Decree on Mission, n. 19

The complexity of the problems we face and the richness of the opportunities offered demand that we engage in building bridges between rich and poor and establishing advocacy links of mutual support between those who hold political power and those who find it difficult to voice their interests. Our intellectual apostolate provides an inestimable help in setting up these bridges, offering us new ways of understanding in depth the mechanism and links among our present problems.
- Decree on Mission, n. 28

Jesuit community is not just for mission, it is itself mission.
- Decree on Mission, n. 41

In this global context it is important to highlight the extraordinary potential represented by our character as an international and multicultural body. Acting consistently with this character can not only enhance the apostolic effectiveness of our work but in a fragmented and divided world it can witness to the reconciliation in solidarity of all the children of God.
- Decree on Mission, n. 43

Faith in Jesus Christ teaches us that self-realization comes from self-giving and that freedom is not so much the power to choose as the power to order our choices toward love. At the same time, love for Jesus Christ and the desire to follow him call us to trusting commitment. Commitment to the Word Incarnate cannot be separated from commitment to the concrete manifestations of the Word that are at the center of our lives, the Church and the Society which exists to serve the Church.
- Decree on Obedience, n. 19