Breaking the Word

Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Wednesday After Epiphany
It’s About Heart

Readings: 1 John 4:11-18; Psalm 72:1-2, 10, 12-13; Matthew 6:45-52

Yesterday we compared the coming of Christ to the cracking of a joke. We know we get it only when we are moved by amazement to love as Jesus loves. But, as is always the case when we delve into the realm of mystery, there is something more to be said, isn’t there? While the experience of Christ’s coming might very well feel as pleasant as that of listening to a side-splitting story, it can also evoke other feelings that are not as welcome. Consider the experience of the various characters in the Christmas story. What was the Virgin Mary’s first reaction to the angel’s greeting? What was Joseph’s reaction to the news of Mary’s pregnancy? What was Herod’s reaction to the advent of the Magi?

Perhaps amazement was part of the mix of emotions these people experienced. But wasn’t there also a significant amount of fear and distress? And isn’t this reaction understandable given the significance of what was happening? Once the innocent little life was conceived, he would unsettle the lives of all those with whom he came into contact. The Virgin had to become a mother… The honorable carpenter, a father to a child not his own… The ruler, a subject of a greater King… As was the experience of the disciples in the gospel of today, Christ’s coming can often disturb as much as it can console.

Even so, don’t we feel some discomfort at hearing the names of Mary, Joseph and Herod mentioned in the same breath? For, although all three may have been distressed in the beginning, only the king chooses to remain a captive to his own fear. Like the disciples in the gospel, he fails or refuses to grasp the significance of what is happening. He chooses to rely on his own resources in dealing with the terrors of the night. He hardens his own heart and arranges for the slaughter of the innocents. In contrast, even in their distress, Mary and Joseph remain open to the promptings of God, who reassures them as Jesus does the disciples in the gospel. Take courage, it is I, do not be afraid! And because their hearts remain soft and vulnerable, they experience the truth of the words in the first reading: there is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear…

Indeed, Christ’s coming is not always a pleasant experience, at least not initially. Like that ghostly specter in today’s gospel, Christ can often choose to intrude into the calm of our daily existence in various unsettling ways. And a fearful reaction is probably as unavoidable for us as it was for the disciples. What is possible, and necessary, is that we keep the communication channels open. We need to keep bringing our concerns to the Lord, to keep listening to his words of reassurance, to allow his perfect love to cast out our fear. But for this to happen we need to let him replace our hearts of stone with hearts of flesh.

What is our reaction to Christ’s coming today?

3 comments:

AnonymousThu Jan 10, 07:55:00 am GMT+8
The Gospel account of the birth of Jesus speaks of fear and distress. When Mary heard that she had been chosen to be the Mother of the Savior, Mary was distressed until the archangel Gabriel told her that the Child was to be the Messiah. The shepherds trembled in fear when the angels appeared to them announcing the Birth, only to have their fear overcome by the re-assurance of the angels that the Child is to be the Messiah. Openness to God in our distress enables us to accept un-settling events in our lives.

Jesus said: "I have come to set the world on fire and how I wish it were burning already". Lord, purify our faith with your divine fire but never let us lose heart no matter how tough the going.
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AnonymousFri Jan 11, 10:25:00 am GMT+8
Hi Chris!

I hope you had a great break over Christmas, and that the New Year will be one which brings you an abundance of God's blessings and presence. Can I share something with you? It's from today's Mass. I am in praise of God working in you as you minister to so many through your blog. I don't have the courage to begin anything as ambitious as this. I hope that you continue to respond to God's invitation to be creative in reaching out to his people.

Yours in Christ
Luke

Friday after Epiphany

Would you touch someone with Aids? I suppose, if you were well protected enough, and knew that you would not contract the disease, you might. And with lots of reservation too. In this gospel passage, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched this man who was ‘covered with leprosy’. That’s a strong image. I believe that adjectives are used in the Gospels with a purpose, and not just accidentally. To be “covered” with any sickness is to be fully immersed with it, until the person is so identified with the illness. That he or she no longer has a name, and the only identity is that he is a leper. Nothing else.

And yet, Jesus reaches out, stretches out his hand to touch him. Was Jesus’ ability to do this because he could identify with the leper? Not that Jesus was a leper, but perhaps, in a way, Jesus too was covered. Not with leprosy, but with love. With compassion. In a way, he was so covered in love and compassion that he was identified as love. John tells us that God is love, and because Jesus is God, Jesus too, is love. His identity is so lost in his love. I’m just wondering if that was what allowed love to touch leper, and in so doing, it allowed Jesus to touch the man.

Maybe some of us are like that leper. Not covered with leprosy, but maybe covered with other things that ostracise and expel us from community – things like anger, or hatred, or unforgiveness, or bitterness. Maybe even our fears. And we identify so much with these that they almost take away our own identity, causing others to see us as not as George, or Mary, or Leonard, but that angry one, that hateful person, or that bitter and revengeful woman. If this is so, and it’s a painful admission if we admit it, then we must dare to be like that leper and walk up to Jesus. Who knew what covered him, and dare to move out of that exiled place and say “if you want to, heal me”, and let Jesus stretch out that healing hand to touch you. But that is only if you want to be touched. Touched by the one and his hand that is covered with love, covered with compassion. To help us to uncover what lies hidden inside, discovering God’s great love for us, and recovering our original dignity as God’s beloved. And after that, like that leper, go back to the community a healed person.
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AnonymousFri Jan 11, 05:58:00 pm GMT+8
Thanks Fr. Luke for your sharing. You have so aptly described how the leper has lost his identity and even the Bible remembers him only as the leper.

Thinking about it, it is quite prevalent in our society when sometimes our nicknames cloud our identity. People start to address us by our nicknames, in public when it is an endearing nickname, but in private when it is not.

Good time to start at the beginning of the year to reflect on my baggages and whether they have clouded my identity. And then to seek to be healed by our Lord.

Hmmmhhh.... maybe I should also check if I have any nicknames that I am not aware of.
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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