Breaking the Word: Fishing in The Waters of Chaos

Sunday, August 13, 2023

Fishing in The Waters of Chaos

19th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)

Readings: 1 Kings 19:9, 11-13; Psalm 84 (85):9-14; Romans 9:1-5; Matthew 14:22-33

Picture: By Rio Lecatompessy on Unsplash

Give someone a fish, and we feed him for a day… My dear friends, what’s the line that comes after this? Many of us know it, right? Give someone a fish, and we feed him for a day; teach someone to fish, and we feed her for a lifetime. This familiar saying compares two complementary responses to hunger. The first meets the urgent need, by providing food. The second addresses the longer term lack, by offering formation. Giving a fish, and teaching to fish. Food and formation. This saying is often used in the context of caring for empty bellies growling for bread. But doesn’t it also apply to hungry hearts searching for God? Which is what we find in our scriptures today.

In the gospel, Jesus makes the disciples go on ahead without him. As a result, they are left to battle a heavy sea on their own. And Jesus himself is also facing a heavy sea of his own. For he has only recently been rejected by the people of his hometown (13:53-58), and then received disturbing news that John the Baptist has been beheaded (14:1-12). It’s really not a good time for prophets. Which is also the case in the first reading, where Elijah is fleeing for his life, because the queen wants to kill him. And isn’t Paul also in a difficult situation in the second reading? He experiences deep anguish, at the thought that his fellow Israelites might be cut off from Christ.

In each of our readings today, we find people threatened by the waters of chaos. People searching for meaning. People hungrily asking, where is our God? And, as in that saying, the readings show us two ways of responding. On the one hand, when the disciples are fearful because they mistake Jesus for a ghost, the Lord immediately reassures them. Courage! It is I! Do not be afraid. And when Peter begins to sink, and cries for help, Jesus rescues him at once.

In contrast, for Elijah and Jesus, the ability to find God in a time of trouble, to walk on the waters of chaos, comes only after a period of fishing. A process consisting of three parts. The first is prayerful solitude. One is led to withdraw, up the mountain of God, and into the cave of the heart. Then, one patiently sifts through the various voices resounding in one’s consciousness. Voices that may feel as insistent as a mighty wind, or a terrifying earthquake, or devastating fire. But after these have been allowed to pass, it becomes possible to hear yet another sound. A voice that speaks of peace. Bringing with it the clarity and courage one needs, to take a persevering step with renewed faith and trust in God.

Prayerful solitude, patient sifting, and perseverance in stepping out. This is how Elijah and Jesus seek and find God in times of trouble. This is how they each walk on the waters of chaos. Offering us the formation we need to do the same. Formation we can receive here in this Eucharist, as well as beyond. Both as individuals, and also as Church.

Sisters and brothers, much as we may prefer to be given a fish to fill our hungry hearts, how might we also help each other to receive the formation that God is offering us today?

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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

Sunday, August 13, 2023

Fishing in The Waters of Chaos

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