Breaking the Word

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Wednesday in the 21st Week of Ordinary Time (I)
Memorial of the Beheading of John the Baptist
Fork in the Road

Readings: 1 Thessalonians 2:9-13; Psalm 139: 7-12; Mark 6:17-29

Not only does today’s feast bring us to a fork in the road, it also helps us to examine the terrain of the two different paths that stretch out before us. On the one hand we have the path walked by Herod and his companions. On the other, we have the road traversed by John the Baptist and Paul, the same road that Paul encourages the Thessalonians to take in the first reading today when he asks them to live a life worthy of God.

A cursory glance at these two paths presents us with both differences and similarities. The differences are stark. On the surface, Herod and friends seem to have made the better choice. They enjoy power and wealth. Theirs is a luxurious life filled with much feasting and dancing and making merry. In contrast, we heard yesterday of the various hardships suffered by Paul as a result of his ministry. And today, we find John the Baptist languishing in prison and then beheaded for speaking out in the cause of right. The difference is clear: the first road is easy walk, but the second is hard and treacherous.

In addition, there seem to be similarities as well. For isn’t it obvious that those on both paths are people of great passion? The apparent zest for life demonstrated by Herod and his friends seems similar to the passion with which John the Baptist preached in the wilderness, and that animated the ministry of Paul.

However, our perspective on the two roads changes radically when we view them through the eyes of faith in Christ. For it is only through this faith that our celebration today has any meaning. It is only through faith that we can truly celebrate the beheaded even as we might pity the one who ordered the beheading. It is only through faith that we can see the truth of what Jesus tells us in the Sermon on the Mount: Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction, and those who enter through it are many. How narrow the gate and constricted the road that leads to life. And those who find it are few (Matt 7:13-14 (NAB)).

It is only through faith that we can see more clearly how this might be so: how the narrow road might lead to life and glory, even as the broad and easy one ends in death and destruction. The difference lies in the quality of passion. Herod and companions are passionate about nothing else beyond the narrow circle of the self and its many cravings. We see in the gospel, for example, how it is Herod’s passion for his own reputation – as much as it is Herodias’ concern with hers – that leads to the death of a just man. Theirs is a passion that forever remains rooted in selfishness. It ends in destruction.

In contrast, the passion of John the Baptist, and of Paul, is born of an experience of the prior compassion of God who, in Christ, calls all to share the glory of his kingdom. Having heeded this divine call they, in their turn, are moved to minister compassionately to those who are suffering, even to the extent of laying down their own lives. Isn’t this life-giving passion in compassion the very thing we are celebrating today? Isn’t this the very path that fascinates Herod, even as he fails to muster enough courage to take it? Isn’t this the same road that we are continually being encouraged to take, however tempting the alternative might be?

Where do we encounter this fork in the road today? Which path will we take?

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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

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

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