Breaking the Word

Monday, July 21, 2008

Monday in the 16th Week of Ordinary Time (II)
Question and Answer

Readings: Micah 6:1-4, 6-8; Psalms 50:5-6, 8-9, 16bc-17, 21 and 23; Mark 12:38-42
Picture: CC bertrudestein

Let’s imagine for a moment that you’re in a classroom teaching a group of students, and someone asks a question. How do you feel? How might you respond? I suppose the response will depend very much, among other things, on the question itself. For, as most of us know well, there are questions and there are questions. There are, for example, truly genuine questions – those that are sincerely asked with a view to finding out more. The responsible teacher will probably respond to such by trying one’s best to give an answer, even if it may take time and effort. Then, of course, there are questions that are more of a distraction than a help. These may be asked simply as a means of showing off, or to put the teacher on the spot, or, worse, even as a means of resisting the truth. If such is the case, the experienced teacher will probably try to respond in a way that helps the questioner face the truth, or, at least, to prevent the class from being distracted.

In each of our Mass readings today, God is teaching a lesson in repentance. And questions are being asked. The people in the first reading want to know: With what gifts shall I come into the Lord’s presence…? The scribes and Pharisees in the gospel ask Jesus if he could show them a sign to convince them that he is indeed to be believed. How genuine are these questions? In the gospel, Jesus sees through the hypocrisy of his interrogators. He knows that they are not really interested in a sign. For hasn’t he already performed enough miracles to demonstrate the power of his teaching? Seasoned teacher that he is, Jesus refuses to be distracted by the unreasonable request. In the first reading too, God responds to the people’s question by emphasizing that what is good has (already) been explained to you… They already know what is required of them: act justly, love tenderly, and walk humbly with your God. Like the Pharisees in the gospel, it is not so much more head-knowledge that is required as much as a softening of the heart.

As such, the focus in both readings is less on presenting new teaching than it is on inviting the listeners to first remember what God has done for God’s people in the past. I brought you out of the land of Egypt, I rescued you from the house of slavery… The next step is to highlight the fact that what God has done in the past, God is continuing to do in the present: when Jonah preached (the people of Nineveh) repented; and there is something greater than Jonah here… The ball is then placed firmly in the people’s court. How willing are they to allow themselves to remember, to be moved, and to repent?

And what of us? Doesn’t God continue to do for us today, what God did for the people in the time of Micah and of Jesus? Isn’t God continuing to invite us to remember God’s marvelous deeds for us in the past, to recognize the Divine presence in our lives in the present, so as to allow God more firmly to occupy the center of our hearts both now and ever after? Isn’t this process of remembering and repentance what we’re about in this celebration of the Eucharist?

But what is our response to God’s teaching?

What kinds of questions are we asking today?

1 comment:

AnonymousTue Jul 22, 05:58:00 pm GMT+8
Your commentary today brings me back to the times when your response to our queries was the epitome of humility. Instead of providing answers you would address us (the class) and made this observation - the collective wisdom in this room is greater than mine.
Somehow I know that you sense that some of the questions raised are in the category of Question for Question sake. Others are for clarification and genuine seeking.
There is another category which is the 'silly' question raised so that others may benefit from your sharing. Sometimes the motive is the Ah Q variety - since no one wants to be seen to be ignorant.
In the picture you have selected, I chuckle to myself knowing that it is not the custom to be butt naked and be ridiculed which affected not this innocent child.
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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