Breaking the Word

Friday, September 07, 2007

Friday in the 22nd Week of Ordinary Time (I)
He Da Man!

Readings: Colossians 1:15-20; Psalms 100:1b-2, 3, 4, 5; Luke 5:33-39

It may just be a sign of having reached a certain age (sort of like when one starts needing reading glasses), but some time ago I began having trouble understanding some modern colloquial usages in the English language. For instance, take the phrase You da man! Or another variation: You da main man! What does it mean? Is it meant to be derogatory or a compliment? According to Wikipedia, while the term the man can be used with both good and bad connotations, in more modern usage, it can be a superlative compliment indicating that the subject is currently standing out amongst his peers even though they have (sic) no special designation or rank...

We preface our reflection today with this brief note on slang, because the phrase in question summarizes very aptly what today's readings are all about. As we have had occasion to note in the past, our daily existence in this world can be filled with much struggle. Whereas we seek tranquility and peace, we often find only pain and suffering. And, especially for us who profess belief in a God who is all-powerful and all-loving, these experiences provoke the painful and angst-filled question: why?! Why does God allow these things to happen? Various answers are possible, answers which can then become the different ways we use to cope with painful reality.

If, for example, we believe that the fault lies in us, that we suffer because we have been bad, then we may cope with the pain by remaining in a perpetual state of guilt. And we may try our best to do things to assuage our guilt, to purify ourselves, to make ourselves more worthy of God's love. Like the scribes and Pharisees of today's gospel, our whole spiritual life can centre around the pious practices -- including prayer and fasting -- that we undertake to achieve this. Or, we may also react by trying not to think too deeply, but just to focus on getting on with our lives, on moving continually from one task to another. Different though they may be, these responses are similar in that, in each of them, the focus remains only on us and on our own efforts.

But our readings today offer a radically different approach. They remind us that to the question why?! God really only offers one answer. Ultimately, for us who are Christian, Jesus is the only adequate response -- God's response -- to all the difficulties that beset us, all the questions that trouble us. For, in the beautiful words of the letter to the Colossians, in him all the fullness was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile all things for him, making peace by the Blood of his cross through him, whether those on earth or those in heaven.

If this is true, then the Christian's first reaction to the questions that this world might provoke in us is to look to Jesus, da man. And can we not but be reminded here of that poignant scene in John 19:5? After Jesus has been scourged and mocked, Pontius Pilate exhorts the onlookers in these words: ecce homo (behold the man!). Are our readings not inviting us to do the same? Do they not invite us, in good times and in bad, to continually gaze upon Jesus, to contemplate his life, death and rising? Instead of letting Jesus be only a peripheral concern in our life, like a piece of scrap sown onto patchwork quilt, are we not being exhorted to acknowledge Jesus as da main man, the bridegroom, the one who makes all things new (see Rev. 21:5)?

How might we continue to allow Jesus to be da man for us 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

Friday, September 07, 2007

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