Breaking the Word

Thursday, March 06, 2008

Thursday in the 4th Week of Lent
Relying on Referees

Readings: Exodus 32:7-14; Psalm 106:19-20, 21-22, 23; John 5:31-47

It’s quite common for us to rely on someone to speak on our behalf. Often there’s simply no other way to get what we want. Say we’re applying for a job, or for a place in graduate school. Not only do we need to take tests and submit completed application forms testifying to our own qualifications, but we also need to give the names of referees who can vouch for us, people who are willing to stake their reputations on our suitability. No one really gives a second thought to this. It’s just the way things are done. If we wish to get ahead in this world, it’s normal and even necessary to have to rely on another’s testimony.

Which is why, from a certain point of view, it’s really not difficult to understand what Jesus is doing in the gospel today. He is, in effect, submitting an application for acceptance. He implores his listeners, the stubborn Jews of John’s gospel, to believe in him, to accept him as the one sent by the Father, to trust in his power to save. Consider the impressive list of referees on whom Jesus relies. John the Baptist testified to the truth… The works that the Father gave me to accomplish… testify on my behalf… The Father who sent me has testified on my behalf… the Scriptures… testify on my behalf… Moses… wrote about me… Yet, impressive though the list may be, Jesus’ plea falls on deaf ears. His application is rejected outright. His listeners refuse to believe in him.

But here’s where the similarity with our earthly metaphor ends. We submit applications for our own good. In Jesus’ case, however, the referees are invoked not for Jesus’ own sake, but for that of his listeners. I do not accept human testimony, but I say this so that you may be saved. Isn’t this the irony of the situation? In refusing to rely on the testimony of Jesus’ witnesses, his listeners actually exclude themselves from relying upon the testimony that Jesus himself comes to give on their behalf. For that is what Jesus is sent to do. As Moses does in the first reading, Jesus comes to speak on our behalf. He, the Word made flesh and splendor of the Father, comes to vouch for us, to assert on our behalf that humanity is indeed worthy of salvation. In rejecting him, in refusing to accept his referees, we exclude ourselves from relying upon his testimony on our behalf. We default on our application for the only vocation that really counts, a place in the ultimate graduate program in the Father’s kingdom.

And yet, Jesus doesn’t give up. He continues sending out application after application, listing referee after referee. Through the various people and events that he sends into our lives, the Lord continues to offer himself to speak on our behalf. Far beyond his own reputation, he even goes to the extent of laying down his life on the cross, so that we might finally be moved to believe, so that we might turn again and be saved. Isn’t this what we’re preparing to celebrate in these days of Lent, the final and greatest testimony that Jesus offers to us and for us to the Father: his death and rising from the dead?

How are we being invited to accept the Lord’s application and to testify on his behalf today?

2 comments:

AnonymousFri Mar 07, 08:29:00 am GMT+8
Boy, Fr Chris' reflections touch the very core of my job which is to deal with referees all the time. In choosing appropriate referees for an individual, I have to bear in mind the extent to which s/he is familiar with the candidate and/or his work. Then, when I receive the referee's testimony, I have to pensively sieve through the writing to detect any reservations or biases.

Who will be our referee when we stand before God Almighty? True, the hungry, the naked, the homeless, the sick, those in prison ... However, the Ultimate Referee is the One Who is familiar with us (especially our shortcomings) through and through and Who, despite which, attests to the Father on our behalf because we are vindicated by His death and resurrection. He has no reservations about us.
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AnonymousFri Mar 07, 09:30:00 am GMT+8
A recent event testified to the value of referees in helping another person to assess the unknown. A house helper we had asked for and received a letter of reference which came in handy for her when she tendered for another employer.
A testimonial from a reputable college helps my daughter in her application for an overseas internship and possible transfer to a foreign university.
Witnessing, either in an open forum or in written statements, declare what we believe. This sense of mission may not be obvious but it is part of the social fabric of how we live.
When we serve in church ministries, no matter what role we play, we are also testifying to Christ's love. It is how we relate to our individual calling.
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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