Breaking the Word

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Tuesday in the 6th Week of Easter
Memorial of St. Catherine of Siena, Virgin and Doctor
Parting’s Sweet Sorrow

Readings: Acts 16:22-34; Psalm 138:1-2ab, 2cde-3, 7c-8; John 16:5-11
Pictures: CC lanier67

It is better for you that I go…

Whatever Shakespeare might have written about parting being such sweet sorrow, it does seem that, for the disciples in today’s gospel, to whom Jesus has been bidding farewell, it is the pain of parting that is much more keenly felt. As Jesus observes concerning them: grief has filled your hearts. It is probably not difficult for us to empathize with the disciples. Saying goodbye to a loved one is never easy, especially not if the parting is painfully premature. And those of us who have grown attached to our Lord will also know how painful it can be when he occasionally chooses to let us feel the weight of his absence. What do we do during these times? How do we cope?

Even as we might be tempted to sink too deeply into depression, perhaps we might learn to heed the Lord’s call to consider carefully where he is going. At first, this might seem a cruel sadomasochistic joke. Of course we know where he is going! We are quite aware of the horror towards which he is walking. Are such considerations not more likely to further shatter our already broken hearts? Are they not more likely to paralyze us with even greater fears of the terrors of the night?

And yet, we mustn’t forget what the gospels tell us about the soldier who stood guard at Jesus’ execution: When the centurion who stood facing him saw how he breathed his last he said, "Truly this man was the Son of God!" (Mark 15:39). Quite amazingly, it is precisely in witnessing the terrible suffering and humiliating death of Christ that the centurion comes to profess what even the apostles hadn’t yet quite fully grasped.

Isn’t this also what we find in the first reading today? What is it that moves the jailer to accept baptism, himself and all his family? Is it really the fearsome might of the earthquake that shook the jail and loosened the prisoners’ chains? Or is it not rather the quiet power of the faith that enabled Paul and Silas to remain in their cell even when they had already been set free? Although Peter and Silas may, at first, seem to be doing the opposite of what Jesus does in the gospel – they stay, but Jesus goes – they are actually imitating their Master in their willingness to embrace the pain and ignominy of the Cross. And the powerful effects of their actions are seen in the jailer’s conversion. It is in witnessing their willingness to go to Calvary that the jailer’s heart is moved.

It is better for you that I go…

Here we see something that the saint we are commemorating today knew well. As we prayed in the opening prayer, in meditating on the sufferings of your Son and in serving your Church, St. Catherine was filled with the fervor of your love…

It is better for you that I go…

How is the Lord inviting us to meditate more deeply and to identify more closely with his going today?

1 comment:

AnonymousWed Apr 30, 11:31:00 am GMT+8
For a moment, I feel rather puzzled. How to center one's life on a God who says, "It's better for you that I go"?

Yes, the Holy Spirit will come, etc. Still, if I lived in that time, I think I'd very much prefer the physical presence of our Lord. Then it became a little clearer: Whether in going or staying (or anything else), the disciples (and we) are called to imitate Him in embracing the pain and ignominy of the Cross.

However, while I understand this well enough with my mind, I'm not sure that I'll be ready to do this with all my heart. Also, how to tell whether the Spirit is calling one to go or stay? Just choose the one with greater potential for pain? :-p

By the way, this morning, I'm especially moved to read of the responses to a raging fire that razed the Chapel and Common Center in John Michael Talbot's monastery to the ground on April 28. JMT actually blogged about it, sharing photos and thoughts that "God is stripping us back to what is really essential to our way of life... we may have lost some buildings, but He will make us stronger for going through this together."
ReplyDelete
Replies

Add comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

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