Breaking the Word

Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Wednesday in the 3rd Week of Easter
The Joy is in The Rain

Readings: Acts 8:1b-8; Psalm 66:1-3a, 4-5, 6-7a; John 6:35-40
Picture: CC carf

Every cloud has a silver lining… This is perhaps the first thought that comes to mind as we listen to the readings at Mass today. We are well aware, of course, that we remain in the exuberance of Easter. How can we forget, when we find this joyful shout in the response to the psalm: Let all the earth cry out to God with joy… And yet, we cannot help but notice that the first reading begins with these ominous words: there broke out a severe persecution of the Church in Jerusalem, and all were scattered… Even so, the same reading ends on an unexpectedly lighthearted note. Forced dispersal results in wider dissemination of the gospel, even to Samaria. And there was great joy in that city. From behind the terrible thundercloud of persecution peeps the silver lining of growth in fervor and in number.

But we might perhaps reflect still a little further, question a little deeper. Is it enough for us to remain with the image of a tiny silver lining around every ominous cloud? Is that truly the full extent of our Easter joy? When our ears are deafened by loud peals of thunder, when our eyes are blinded by bright flashes of lightning, or our homes inundated by torrential sheets of rain, is our comfort only to be found after we have weathered the storm? Does our joy come only after the rains have ceased and we have managed to catch sight of the sun shyly peeping out from behind the stubborn clouds that remain?

Or is there not something more to the gift of faith that we spoke of in the opening prayer? As a result of Christ’s Passion, Death and Resurrection, is it not rather the case that even in the midst of the storm, however terrible and torrential it may be, we are never abandoned. Rather than waiting desperately to catch sight of a silver lining, is it not rather the case that, because of Christ, every cloud is now shot through with silver? This doesn’t mean, of course, that we will not have occasion to suffer, and even to make a loud lament, as the Christians of Jerusalem do in the first reading. What it does mean is that even in the midst of our pain, Christ can yet be found. For as he himself tells us in the gospel, this is the will of the one who sent me, that I should not lose anything of what he gave me, but that I should raise it up on the last day…

Isn’t this the all but unbelievable mystery that we are celebrating, and into which we are continually immersing ourselves in this Easter season? Isn’t this the crux of the tremendous deeds of God that we earlier acclaimed in the responsorial psalm, that God has changed the sea into dry land, and that the joy is in the rain?

How are being invited to enter more fully into this joy today?

3 comments:

AnonymousWed Apr 09, 06:10:00 pm GMT+8
If we were to take a reading of what rain means, one has only to visit the Middle East. Over there, where water is scarce, thunder and lightning are rare occasions when the parched earth is granted temporary relief.
Some of us are so soaked in affluence and abundance in tropical Asia that we often fail to appreciate that we must also sometimes experience drought to feel the sheer ecstasy of these precious raindrops on our face, when the clouds burst. Our existence mirror this vicissitude of life.
This takes me to the axiom showers of blessings when God provides us with abundance. Sun and Rain are co-existent and both are needed to sustain life. So too with joy and suffering. When it rains, we know the value of the redemptive power that this presents; and we remain faithful knowing that He will not allow us to endure beyond our capacity to suffer.
Like all struggling disciples, we are partners with nature, living out God's loving act of Creation.
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Fr ChrisWed Apr 09, 06:52:00 pm GMT+8
Was just reminded of this song by Medical Mission Sister, Miriam Therese Winter...

"Joy is Like the Rain"

I saw raindrops on my window
Joy is like the rain
Laughter runs across my pain
Slips away and comes again
Joy is like the rain.
I saw clouds upon a mountain
Joy is like the cloud
Sometimes silver sometimes grey
Always sun not far away
Joy is like the cloud.
I saw raindrops on the river
Joy is like the rain
Bit by bit the river grows
Till all at once it overflows
Joy is like the rain
Joy is like the rain.
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AnonymousWed Apr 09, 07:17:00 pm GMT+8
Thank you, Fr Chris. The photo is so full of joy and you've put it all beautifully. This is like a breath of fresh air!
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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