Breaking the Word

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Thursday in the 8th Week of Ordinary Time (II)
New Sight New Life

Readings: 1 Peter 2:2-5, 9-12; Psalms 100:2, 3, 4, 5; Mark 10:46-52
Picture: CC Melting Mama

It’s no coincidence that a day after reflecting upon the image of dazed disciples on the road to Jerusalem, blinded and transfixed by the brilliance of the Word-Made-Flesh, we are told about the healing of the blind Bartimaeus. For we may well remember that this is not the first blind man whose sight Jesus restores. The blind man of Bethsaida was the first. Together, these two miracles serve to bracket the crucial middle section of Mark’s gospel, the part where Jesus speaks repeatedly to his clueless disciples about his impending Passion. But they don’t get it. Unlike the blind men who are restored to sight, they remain incapable of seeing Jesus for who he really is, what he really stands for, and what it means to follow him.

The contrast between blindness and sight is significant. Before Bartimaeus receives his sight, he remains pitifully stranded by the side of the road. Like the deer we spoke about yesterday, he is unable to move even to save his own life. In like manner, although the disciples enjoy physical sight and seem already to be accompanying Jesus along the way, their spiritual blindness renders them incapable of truly being his disciples. As is clear from the request of James and John and the reactions of the other ten apostles, they remain stuck in worldly perspectives, mired in earthly desires. Allow us to sit one at your right hand and the other at your left in your glory. They are unable to appreciate the great mystery that the Son of Man has to suffer and so enter into his glory. They are incapable of being true disciples.

But we are told that upon receiving his sight, Bartimaeus followed Jesus on the road. Having received the grace to appreciate the deeper and awesome significance of the Word-Made-Flesh, Bartimaeus is able to become a true disciple. And the first reading highlights for us something of what this entails by bringing to mind several images. First, new sight implies new birth. And just as newborn babies require special food, so do new disciples need to ensure that they continually nourish themselves with the spiritual honesty modeled for us by Jesus himself. Next, new sight also implies new affiliations. New sight leads disciples to associate themselves ever more closely to Christ so as to become living stones making a spiritual house. And finally, new sight also leads to a new identity and mission. You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a consecrated nation, a people set apart to sing the praises of God who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

New birth and new building, new identity and new mission: all these follow from the new sight that Jesus brings. Together, they constitute a whole new way of life. But to enjoy this newness, we must first realize the extent of our blindness. We must first acknowledge the different ways in which we remain stranded along the road, dazed and transfixed by the brilliant scandal of a God who deigns to suffer. And, like Bartimaeus, we must receive the courage to cry out with all our might, even when other voices might seek to silence us. We need continually to beg the only One who can save us: Master, let me see again… Grant me new sight that I might live a new life in you…

How might we continue to do this today?

2 comments:

AnonymousThu May 29, 03:12:00 pm GMT+8
How are we to realize the extent of our blindness? In the Johari Window theory, we could only know that much. Otherwise, our blind spots wouldn't be called blind spots, wouldn't they? And most people won't choose to give direct criticisms to others, would they?

Hmmm... Maybe we need to ask friends, relatives, guides, students, customers, etc. to tell us our faults. Tactfully, I hope! Probably we also need pray to the Lord that He will reveal to us our hidden faults. And in Ignatian tradition, at the end of each day, to review what has happened in the day and examine our conscience. This threefold discipline is not easy to keep up though.
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AnonymousMon Jun 02, 09:43:00 am GMT+8
There is probably an unintended irony here. The key message in this post and the previous post (Dazed By the Headlights) seems to be that the disciples remain incapable of seeing Jesus for who he really is, what he really stands for, and what it means to follow him. Personally, I find myself having problems trying to grasp the message and questions properly. It's only upon repeated readings that this came out strong and clear.

That the disciples experienced amazement, fear AND paralysis as they followed Jesus on the way to Jerusalem, where he said he will be condemned, scourged, and put to death (last Wed readings, Mark 10:32-34).

"We must first acknowledge the different ways in which we remain stranded along the road, dazed and transfixed by the brilliant scandal of a God who deigns to suffer."

Once we realize who Jesus really is (Son of God and Prince of Peace), what he really stands for (Love & Truth, Death & Resurrection), and what it means to follow him (to be ready to love & suffer as he has loved & suffered, even to the point of death on a cross, and that it's in dying that we are born again), I wonder how many of us are filled with enthusiasm and raring to imitate him and share in his suffering?

So then, it takes time/effort (wisdom from above?) to know Jesus, and more ... to realize that we are dazed and transfixed by this brilliant scandal, and even more ... to know just what keeps us "stranded along the the road", and what would "unfreeze" and get us going on the way.
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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