Breaking the Word

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Tuesday in the 7th Week of Easter

Final Farewell

Readings: Acts 20:17-27; Psalm 68:10-11, 20-21; John 17:1-11a

Today we listen to the farewell speeches of two different men. One is a tentmaker, the other a carpenter. One has traveled far and wide across Asia Minor and now speaks at a place called Miletus. The other has moved only within the narrow confines of ancient Palestine and now speaks in the city of Jerusalem. One addresses what is probably a largely gentile audience, the other has been speaking to fellow Jews and now prays to his Father in heaven. These are two different men, speaking at different times and places, to different groups of people.

Yet, the content of what they have to say is strikingly similar. Both are bidding their final farewell. And in so doing, both offer a summary of what their lives have been about, of what they have stood and fought for. Still, even though they are both speaking about themselves, the central place in their respective accounts is occupied by Someone else. For his part, Paul states his earnest desire: that when I finish my race I have carried out the mission the Lord Jesus gave me… to bear witness to the Good News of God’s grace. And as far as his audience – the Ephesians – are concerned, his conscience is clear in having without faltering put before you the whole of God’s purpose. Clearly, it is God’s grace and God’s purpose that has been and continues to be the driving force in Paul’s life. The same can be said of Jesus. I have glorified you on earth and finished the work that you gave me to do. Both Paul and Jesus have allowed their lives to revolve solely around the will of God. Indeed, this is the poignant reason why they are bidding their farewells. One will make his way to Rome, to imprisonment and decapitation. The other will be made to climb a hill outside Jerusalem where he will shed his life-blood on a cross. The sacrifice of one will imitate and make known that of the other. For it is through this Other’s sacrifice that the fruit of eternal life will be borne for all. And eternal life is this: to know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

Two very different men. Two very similar lives. And this is only to be expected. For one is the follower and the other the Master. The first is a Christian. The second is the Christ.

And what of us? When the time comes for us to bid our final farewell, what will we be speaking of?

1 comment:

AnonymousWed May 23, 08:33:00 am GMT+8
When Fr Reid passed on in February this year, I wept buckets. Unabashedly. It was strange for several reasons. Firstly, I had prepared myself for that day years ago. Secondly, I am convinced that he had gone to his eternal reward - and we should be happy for him. Thirdly, like many others, I was a beneficiary of the friendship and holiness of the priest and so should be thankful for that. So why the unrestrained mourning?

Farewells are always hard and final farewells the hardest. It is a natural human emotion because those near and dear and familiar are no longer physically present with us. The truth of the matter is that nothing in the material world stays forever. All creation moves on - Paul to his mission and Jesus to His destiny. To both Paul and Jesus, there was a higher, more cogent calling that they must heed. Surely, at a human level, like those that they were leaving behind, they must have wrestled with the desire to stay and the urge to move on.

When it is time for me to bid my final farewell, I can only beg God for forgiveness for the things that I should have said or done but didn't.
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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