Breaking the Word

Monday, March 24, 2008

Monday in the Octave of Easter
Story Time

Readings: Acts 2:14, 22-33; Psalm 16:1-2a and 5, 7-8, 9-10, 11; Matthew 28:8-15

It never ceases to amaze me how stories change. In the ministry of accompanying people on retreats, for example, it’s often striking how people begin the retreat with a certain story about themselves and their lives. And then, as the retreat progresses, that same story begins to change in subtle, sometimes even radical, ways, such that the same person leaves the retreat with a different story. It never ceases to amaze me when this happens, when the story changes. And perhaps even more amazing is how the change of the story is concurrent with a change in the person.

We see something similar in the readings today. Just yesterday, the gospel of John presented us with a rather dismal image of Mary of Magdala, desperately searching for the body of Jesus. They have taken the Lord out of the tomb and we don’t know where they have put him. But look what happens in the gospel today. Today, the women are filled with awe and great joy. Today, they meet Jesus and receive new courage. Today, they are sent to convey Jesus’ instructions to the other disciples to meet him in Galilee, the place of earthly ministry. Today, they are given a new story to tell. The Lord lives! He has a new mission for us to fulfill, a new story for us to proclaim! And we hear Peter’s version of this new story in the first reading: God raised this man Jesus to life, and all of us are witnesses to that. Both story and storytellers are radically changed.

But it is especially important to note the direction of these changes. On the part of the storytellers there is a change from anxiety to awe, from sadness to joy. Which effects a concurrent change in the story in the direction of clarity and truth. Indeed, Peter fearlessly proclaims this truth to the point of being blunt. You killed him, he says, but God raised him to life…

As we said, it is important to note the direction of these changes, not least because there is another changing story in our readings today. The chief priests are responsible for this in the latter half of the gospel. But the change they effect is very different from those we have been considering. Here, the story is changed in the direction of falsehood. And if there is a change in those responsible for this new story, it is in the direction of fear and of hardness of heart.

Amazing, isn’t it, how the single event of the resurrection can evoke such different responses, can give rise to such contrasting stories, moving in opposite directions?

As we continue to celebrate the Solemn Feast of Easter, what changes are being effected in us? What stories are we telling? In which direction are we moving?

1 comment:

AnonymousTue Mar 25, 06:11:00 pm GMT+8
Sometimes the Oxymoron 'permanent change' takes on frigthening proportions although we know that change in inevitable. In small doses, it transforms us and the movement is noticeable only when we become aware of the self.
Our lives are mostly filled with sunlight, but when events turn dark, we try to reach for the light. What if we cannot locate the switch, what then? Do we lose our bearings?
Whilst the world around us swirl and events roar past, I am grateful for small changes that will pull together to make me whole, piece by piece.
My belief system and faith informs me that everything happens for a reason. Most times I don't know why. All I need do is trust Him.
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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