Breaking the Word

Monday, September 03, 2007

Monday in the 22nd Week of Ordinary Time (I)
Memorial of St. Gregory the Great, Pope and Doctor of the Church
The Poverty that Accepts Good News

Readings: 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; Psalms 96:1 and 3, 4-5, 11-12, 13; Luke 4:16-30

Do you want the good news first or the bad news? We’ve probably heard this question being asked either of us or of others. Whichever way it’s answered the obvious implication is that it’s easier to receive the good news than the bad. The only question is whether you wish to do the easy thing first or the difficult. But is it really that easy to accept good news? Not if today’s readings are anything to go by.

We notice that words of consolation are spoken in both readings. To the Thessalonians, Paul shares an insight into the glorious fate that awaits all those who have died in Jesus. So that instead of despairing, those left behind should comfort one another with the thought that they will all finally be reunited and will stay with the lord forever. Likewise, to the Nazarenes in the gospel, Jesus proclaims a moving passage from the prophet Isaiah (61:1ff.), one that offers good news to the poor, news of how God will free all from the bondage of sin and death, news of the Lord’s year of favour, when God will forgive all and accept all into God’s kingdom. And this proclamation comes to its climax when, after the reading, Jesus says: this text is being fulfilled today…

We don’t know for sure how Paul’s message was received. But the gospel makes it clear that Jesus’ words infuriated his listeners so much that they actually tried to kill him. Why was it so difficult for the Nazarenes to receive Jesus’ message, to accept the good news of God’s acceptance of them? Obviously, Jesus’ familiarity seems to have presented a problem. Could such an ordinary person, whose background they all knew, really be God’s messenger? Even so, it does seem that the Nazarenes would probably still have accepted Jesus if he had chosen to play by their rules, if he had spoken only about things that they wished to hear. But Jesus did otherwise. He chose instead to scandalize his listeners by speaking of a God who accepts all, Jew and Gentile alike. No special treatment for the people of Israel, let alone for the fellow townsfolk of Jesus. Aren’t these the things that made the good news so difficult to accept? Not only was the messenger too ordinary, but the scope of the message itself was also too shockingly wide to be true.

Is it any easier for us to accept the good news of Christ? Not just the good news of what God has done for us in the past or will do in the future, but also especially what God is doing today? Don’t God’s chosen messengers often seem too ordinary to be authentic? And isn’t the message of God’s merciful and compassionate acceptance of all people often too radical to accept? Could God really welcome that problematic relative, or that unreasonable boss? To receive such good news is hard. For it necessitates that we learn to accept not only the sinfulness of others, but also our own. It requires that we be ready to revise our opinions, surrender our prejudices. It means that we have to learn, in some sense, to be poor. For it is to such as these that the good news is addressed.

Which do you prefer, the good news or the bad?

2 comments:

Jacqueline (Jacquie) WebbMon Sept 03, 03:38:00 pm GMT+8
The good news... that God loves a problematic relative... that has given me food for thought. Having a hard time with a relative but if God loves him, so must I, at least in wishing him well and that God continues to bless him
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AnonymousTue Sept 04, 05:15:00 am GMT+8
I prefer the good news, as I like to look on the bright side. But that being said, times when I get bad news or when things are going rough for me is when I need God more and when I get through the difficulty, praise and thank Him for his goodness. I'm too happy and/or busy when it's good news to remember to thank God.. not good.
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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