Breaking the Word

Thursday, July 31, 2008

Thursday in the 17th Week of Ordinary Time (II)
Memorial of St. Ignatius of Loyola
Made In…

Readings: Jeremiah 18:1-6; Psalms 146:1b-2, 3-4, 5-6ab; Matthew 13:47-53
Picture: CC cambodia4kidsorg

Just recently, I happened to read an article written by an American, who tells of how he once addressed a letter of complaint to a department store for selling goods that were made in the People’s Republic of China. His objection was that, in doing so, the store was actually condoning and even supporting the many human rights abuses perpetrated by the government of that country. I mention this neither to make a judgment on the American in question nor on the PRC. What I find interesting is how the former should have been so conscientious in checking the manufacturing labels on the products that he was buying. He had formed a certain opinion about what he did and did not want, and he was careful to accept only those products that met his requirements, rejecting the rest.

I wonder if this is something like what we find happening in Jesus’ description of the kingdom of heaven in today’s gospel. At the end of time the angels will appear and separate the wicked from the just… The question that comes to mind is: in making that final separation, what will angels be looking for? Obviously they will consider the fruits of each one’s actions. They will accept the just and reject the wicked. But how will they distinguish the one from the other? Is there perhaps a manufacturer’s label, a stamp of quality that they will be looking out for?

The first reading offers us some insight into this by using a similar manufacturing analogy. As the clay is in the potter’s hand, so you are in mine… In our relationship with God, God intends to be the potter, and for us to be the clay that submits obediently to God’s molding hand. The process may be long and arduous, but when the pot of our lives is finally complete, it can proudly bear the stamp of its divine manufacturer: made in the furnace of the Kingdom by the hands of the Eternal King.

But there will, on the other hand, also be those among us who might wish to go it on our own, or who prefer to be molded by other hands. These pots will end up being fashioned according to a different style. They will come to bear a different stamp. Made in… Yet, however beautiful and stylish may be the finished product, and however smooth and painless may have been the manufacturing process, the crucial question for us to consider is the extent to which this label will find acceptance by the angels when they go shopping on the last day?

If this image of the end of time is even somewhat accurate, then we may well need to examine closely our priorities and our ways of proceeding. We will wish to avoid hankering after things like earthly success and worldly pleasure, and instead be concerned with learning to submit to the hands of the divine potter. In the well-known phrase of St. Ignatius of Loyola, we will be concerned with finding God in all things. How else to find acceptance in the Lord’s kingdom? How else to be welcomed into the Father’s household?

Whose stamp, whose label, are we letting ourselves be marked with today?

4 comments:

AnonymousThu Jul 31, 08:09:00 am GMT+8
I always thought (rightly or wrongly) that, at the end of time, the angels will have an easy time separating the wheat from the chaff. Why? Because, in my simple human reckoning,

(a) anything not of God stings the heavenly beings as corrosive substances sting us.
(b) anything fake is instantly obvious to them. I may not be able to tell the difference between a 24k diamond and a piece of shiny rock, but not the angels.
(c) People in creative endeavors (e.g. artists, sculptors, music composers) always sign off their pieces of work. When my time comes for the angels to scrutinize me, I sure hope that they find some trace of YHWH's signature in me.

Let us remember the Jesuits (postulants, novices, brothers, priests) in Singapore / Malaysia / Brunei today, and pray God's continued guidance and blessings in their vocation and ministry.

St Ignatius of Loyola, pray for us.
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AnonymousThu Jul 31, 10:01:00 am GMT+8
Two things came to mind about branding or labelling, which is an expensive exercise for product differentiation. It makes to reference to source.
When Japan began its manufacturing base and engaged in reverse engineering, they create a small locality aptly named as USA, as distinct from U.S.A. The exported products were channelled through this port and carried the label 'Made in USA'. Today, they are in the forefront of forward engineering.
We also read in the S.T. today about counterfeit goods. They carry the prestigeous label but are not made in accordance to original designer specification. They come into the category of illicit goods.
Aren't we all a bit fake and a little genuine throughout our lives? There are moments when doubts begin to seep in about who we really are?
Know oneself first before we can really get to know the Creator - we often pretend to be who we are not! Pray that I will constantly be aware of what I have become.
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liturgyThu Jul 31, 12:26:00 pm GMT+8
What a cool site
You might be interested in mine.
Here's my reflection
http://www.liturgy.co.nz/blog/ignatius-of-loyola/47
Let me know if you link to the site
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AnonymousThu Jul 31, 01:44:00 pm GMT+8
Belated happy ordination anniversary, Fr Chris. Just found out that it was yesterday! And you'll preaching at the Church of St Ignatius tonight, on the feast day of this great saint! Looking forward to that.

As for the stamp/label, maybe mine will read:

"Made by the Heavenly Father
Salvaged by the Obedient Son
Renewed by the Spirit of Love & Truth"
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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