Breaking the Word: Between Power & Parking

Sunday, November 24, 2024

Between Power & Parking

Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe (B)

Readings: Daniel 7:13-14; Psalm 92 (93):1-2, 5; Apocalypse 1:5-8; John 18:33-37

My dear friends, what is the first thing that comes to mind when we hear the word, ruler? Given the feast we’re celebrating today, it’s natural to think of a king or queen, or a boss. Someone who calls the shots, who wields power, and exercises control. But back when I was still in primary school, the word ruler brought to mind something quite different: a slim rectangular piece of wood, or plastic, used to measure distances, and to draw straight lines… A wielder of power, and a measure of straightness. The word ruler actually means both these things. Which reminds me of an experience I sometimes have, after stepping out of a car I’ve just parked. I look down at the lines painted on the road, and realise that my car is very crooked. As the driver of the vehicle, I’m the ruler, the one in control. And yet, my parking skills have just been ruled by those lines, and found to be seriously lacking. Don’t we find something similar in our scriptures today?

In the gospel, it seems quite clear who is calling the shots, who are the ones in control. As governor, Pilate has the power to decide, either to condemn Jesus, or to set him free. And we know that the chief priests are also pulling the strings behind the scenes. Pressuring and manipulating the governor to do what they want. This is how power works in the world. This is what earthly rule looks like. In contrast, Jesus seems utterly power-less. His fate lies in the hands of others.

But isn’t the Lord also ruling in a different sense? By humbly accepting the consequences of preaching the gospel, refusing either to back down or to run away, doesn’t Jesus uncover the injustice of his persecutors? Just as the lines on the road quietly show up the inadequacies of my parking skills, so too does the Lord’s Passion and Death reveal the crookedness of the world around him. Not just of Pilate and the chief priests, but also the crowds they mobilise, as well as the respective institutions and cultures they each represent. Isn’t this why the Lord says, my kingdom is not of this kind? The rule that Jesus exercises before Pilate, is not that of worldly power and control, but of God’s righteousness and truth. By the Lord’s brave witness to the truth, the values of this world are clearly shown to be seriously lacking.

And for those who have the courage to see it, isn’t this lack still very much on display today? When so many continue to suffer the effects of injustice in various forms. Civilians targetted in violent conflicts. Migrants exploited by ruthless human-traffickers. Refugees displaced by ever more intense natural disasters. Ecosystems destroyed by corporate greed. Frail senior citizens still struggling to eke out a living. Promising young people beset with mounting mental health challenges… Faced with these and many other examples of the crookedness of our world, isn’t it easy for us either to cover our eyes in apathy, or to throw up our hands in despair? Yet our scriptures offer us an alternative response.

Both the first and second readings invite us to dare to hope for the dawning of a new day. The coming of a different time. A moment when the two meanings of rule will coincide in a single person. When Jesus, our Crucified and Risen Lord, the faithful witness, and Ruler of the kings of the earth, will finally come in power and glory. And then, like it or not, everyone will see him, and face the final consequences of one’s acceptance or rejection of his kingship.

But that’s not all. While we wait and prepare for the day that’s yet to come, the second reading also reminds us of what Christ has already done for us. What we celebrate at this and at every Mass. Not only has he washed away our sins with his blood, he has also made us a line of kings, priests to serve… God… In other words, like the One whom we profess to follow, we too are called to be rulers. Not in the worldly sense of power and control. But in the Christian sense of bearing witness to righteousness and truth. Through the lives we live, and the values we embody, we are called to keep standing and speaking on the side of the Lord, on the side of truth, on the side of the poor, the vulnerable and voiceless. So that together, and each in our own way, we may all contribute to uncovering and even counteracting the crookedness that still remains within, among, and around us.

Sisters and brothers, in a world where many are often anxiously jostling to occupy the driver’s seat, how is the Lord calling us to become more like lines on the ground, ruling less by power and control, than by righteousness and truth today?

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Breaking News: Ordinary Time

Apart from those seasons having their own distinctive character, thirty-three or thirty-four weeks remain in the yearly cycle that do not celebrate a specific aspect of the mystery of Christ. Rather, especially on the Sundays, they are devoted to the mystery of Christ in all its aspects. This period is known as Ordinary Time. Ordinary Time begins on Monday after the Sunday following 6 January and continues until Tuesday before Ash Wednesday inclusive. It begins again on Monday after Pentecost and ends before Evening Prayer I of the First Sunday of Advent. This is also the reason for the series of liturgical texts found in both the Roman Missal and The Liturgy of the Hours (Vol. III - IV), for Sundays and weekdays in this season. ~ General Norms for the Liturgical Year & Calendar, 43-44

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, November 24, 2024

Between Power & Parking

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