Breaking the Word

Monday, May 26, 2008

Monday in the 8th Week of Ordinary Time (II)
Memorial of St. Philip Neri, Priest
The Furnace of Divine Possibility

Readings: 1 Peter 1:3-9; Psalms 111:1-2, 5-6, 9 and 10c; Mark 10:17-27
Picture: CC Uiruriamu

Today’s Straits Times carries a picture of a man in a wheelchair struggling up a very steep slope. The image may, at first, evoke sympathy for the poor paraplegic, until you realize that it’s part of an advertisement for a local university, and is meant to illustrate the institution’s desire and ability to help its students achieve the impossible. At that point, the feelings change. Sympathy is replaced by admiration.

Perhaps something of the same dynamic is intended by our readings today. The image that is first presented to us is that of a fearsome fiery furnace, representing all the terrible trials and tribulations that we might have to encounter on life’s journey. The negative feelings evoked by such an image, especially when we connect it with our own experiences of suffering, will likely be varied: pain, sadness, anger, resentment…

But, like that wheelchair warrior from today’s paper, the furnace needs to be seen as part of a larger whole. It’s deeper significance comes to light especially when it’s placed against the background of the gospel reading, where we find the moving account of Jesus’ call of the rich young man. Notice the substance and motivation of the call. Although Jesus seems, at first, to be sadistically beckoning the young man to a life of hardship and deprivation, the invitation is really a generous offer of fullness of life. And Jesus’ motivation is made quite explicit in the reading’s description of how he looked at the young man and loved him. But, in spite of all this, the call remains too difficult for the young man to take up, precisely because he is so rich. Even so, all is not lost. The passage ends on a hopeful note. For men it is impossible, but not for God…

It is against this background of a powerful divine response to human impossibility that the fearsome furnace is situated. The fires of the furnace are the effective means by which God renders the impossible possible. For, as the first reading tells us, the furnace serves only to purify the gold of our heart’s deepest desires. The heat of our sufferings can help to burn away our inordinate attachment to our riches, in whatever forms these might take. The impurities are stripped away, leaving behind the pure gold of a heart humble and submissive to the will of God, a heart that is able, finally, to hear and heed the call of Christ to follow him unto the fullness of life. In the fearsome fiery furnace, human impossibilities are rendered divinely doable.

Seen against this wider context, perhaps the feelings evoked in us by the furnace might change. It may not happen today or tomorrow. But perhaps, as we heed the advice in the first reading and continually ask God for the grace to see the searing heat of our present sufferings in the brilliant light of eternal glory, we might gradually come to accept God’s gifts of courage and strength, so as to heed the call of Christ.

What feelings does the furnace evoke in you today?

2 comments:

AnonymousMon May 26, 03:16:00 pm GMT+8
What feelings does the furnace evoke in you today?

Fear! Dread! Why me? BUT if God really says it's good for me (or it's His will), I'll pray that He'll stay close to me while I give it my best and my all.

By the way, my Serendipity Bible has a few very interesting questions on the gospel passage today: “How does the rich young man’s question (v.17: “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”) compare with what Jesus had just taught about the kingdom (v.15: “accept the kingdom of God like a child”)? What was his assumption about how one gains the kingdom? What is Jesus trying to drive home by responding to the way the man addressed him? (v.19-21: “You know the commandments… You are lacking in one thing. Go, sell what you have and give to the poor… then come, follow me.”)
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AnonymousMon May 26, 04:12:00 pm GMT+8
Worms, blood, hearts pierced with thorns, fiery furnace... what next?

No wonder St Teresa of Avila said to God, “If this is how you treat those who love you, no wonder you have so few friends!”
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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