Breaking the Word

Monday, June 09, 2008

Monday in the 10th Week of Ordinary Time (II)
Feast in Famine

Readings: 1 Kings 17:1-6; Psalms 121:1bc-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8; Matthew 5:1-12
Picture: CC babasteve

Christ come quickly there’s danger at the door;
poverty aplenty, hearts gone wild with war.
There’s hunger in the city and famine on the plain.
Come Lord Jesus, the light is dying,
the night keeps crying.
Come Lord Jesus.

These words from an old hymn are what come first to mind as we listen to the Mass readings for today. For, in both passages, the action takes place against a similar background. In the first reading, the prophet Elijah pronounces a condition of drought leading to famine. There shall neither be dew nor rain in these years… This dire situation is a consequence of idolatry. Led by their king, Ahab, the people have turned away from the Lord their God, and chosen instead to worship the storm god Baal. Anxious to ensure fertile fields and timely seasonal showers, they have thrown in their lot with a pagan deity. As a consequence, to show that he alone is the master of all creation, the One True God shuts up the heavens and sends no rain. The gospel hints at a similar context when it begins by telling us that upon seeing the crowds, Jesus went up the hill. The teaching that Jesus then goes on to offer is a response to what he sees with his own eyes: a mass of confused and dejected people, laboring under a drought of divine grace, thirsting for the word of God.

There’s hunger in the city and famine on the plain…

Don’t these words also describe the situation in our world today, if not literally, then at least figuratively? Even in those rare cities in which poverty does not rear its ugly head, is there not often a tendency towards idolatry that results in a famine of the word of God? In place of Baal, do we not have our own idols of choice? We might think, for example, of science and technology, or economics and finance. Of course, these things are not bad in themselves, just as fertile fields and seasonal showers were blessings for the people of Elijah’s day. But havoc is wreaked when created realities are raised to the status of deity, when people’s taste-buds are dulled to the point that they can appreciate only what this material world has to offer.

There’s hunger in the city and famine on the plain…

Into this situation of drought, God’s Wisdom descends like welcome rain. The same teaching that Jesus offers verbally, Elijah presents in action. To the spiritual starvation that prevails, even in the midst of material plenty, both in the city and on the plain, God responds by instructing Elijah to go out into the country, just as Jesus goes up the Mount of Beatitudes. From these respective places of contrast, Elijah and Jesus present God’s antidote to the poison of idolatry. Against the anxious acquisition of wealth and the unceasing search for self-sufficiency, they preach a counter-cultural message of the blessing to be found in spiritual poverty and total dependence on divine providence. I have ordered the ravens to bring you food… How happy are the poor in spirit… To the competition and conflict that inevitably arises from a possessive clinging to resources of all kinds, Elijah and Jesus offer an alternative vision of peace and right relationship, a vision powerful enough to inspire tireless effort, even in the face of persecution. Happy the merciful… Happy the peacemakers…

In the midst of the hunger that prevails in our cities, and the famine in our plains, how is our God inviting us to bear witness to the Beatitudes today?

2 comments:

AnonymousMon Jun 09, 06:58:00 pm GMT+8
Was having tea with an old friend in a library just now, discussing how many people can be so driven by self-preservation, personal gain or loss, etc. that they lose sight of their true vocation (e.g. as educators) and end up making a mess of their own work, other people's jobs, and the quality of service provided (e.g. to the students).

My friend, an agnostic, has expressed disgust at the behavior of certain Christian colleagues at work. I wish we could all be more aware of our spiritual poverty, and hunger and thirst for righteousness, mercy and peace much more than personal / material gain. Just claiming to be followers of Christ is simply not enough.
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AnonymousWed Jun 11, 12:52:00 pm GMT+8
I remember the hymn: the tune is playing out in my mind right now :)

There’ll be hunger in the city, famine on the plain and frustration and confusion among the nations if the astronomical oil and high food prices do not abate. Not in recent recorded history has something of this scale afflicted the world, brought about by a confluence of constricted oil supply, turmoil in the financial markets, and dismal food harvests. Add to this cocktail human greed and avarice, and the deadly brew is ready for humanity to drink from.

Sometimes I wish the instant retribution of God during the time of Elijah would play out in this day and age, but then I, too, would be at the receiving end :)

I realised - often painfully - that it is in dire times that I began to really depend on divine providence. It is an uncomfortable feeling to say the least; the heart believes but the mind has its doubts. And yet, in truth, if this is The One True Living God who has carved us on the palm of His Hand, what better alternative have we than to stick it out with Him? There is, after all, no other.

Come, LORD Jesus ...
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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