Breaking the Word: Divine Habitat

Sunday, May 22, 2016

Divine Habitat

Solemnity of The Most Holy Trinity (C)

Readings: Proverbs 8:22-31; Psalm 8:4-9; Romans 5:1-5; John 16:12-15

Picture: cc Sandia Labs

My dear friends, have you ever heard of Habitat for Humanity? Those who have will know that it’s a non-governmental organisation, an NGO. Whose main activity is to build houses for the poor and needy. According to its website, Habitat envisions a world where everyone has a decent place to live. It seeks to put God’s love into action by bringing people together to build homes, communities, and hope. Home-builders. That’s what they are. Except that they do it not for profit, but for love.

And they do it in a very particular way. They don’t just build houses and hand them out free of charge. Instead, through volunteer labour and donations of money and materials, they help their beneficiary families, whom they call partners, to build their own homes. Habitat then sells these homes to their partners at cost, and financed by affordable, not-for-profit loans. The monthly mortgage payments are in turn used to build more Habitat houses. And the process goes on.

So Habitat plays a triple role. It is, at once, developer and architect and engineer. It conceives the project. It designs the houses. And it provides the tools and materials. But the labour comes from the community. Its beneficiaries and its volunteers. In other words, Habitat builds homes by empowering people.

I wonder if this is not similar to what we are celebrating today. On this solemn feast of the Most Holy Trinity. Today, we celebrate God. Whom we believe to be one in three persons. Father, Son, and Spirit. Which is something we cannot fully understand. But that’s okay. For even if we can’t grasp the Trinity mathematically, our readings give us a good picture of what God is like. How God operates. And what our response to God should be.

In the first reading, we find a description of some of God’s activities at the dawn of creation. Mention is made of the fixing of the heavens. The founding of the earth. The settling of the mountains. The thickening of the clouds. And so on. The impression is given of a busy developer God. A God who appears to have one concern: To construct a home fit for human life. A suitable habitat for humanity. A place where people can survive and thrive. Grow and flourish.

But it’s important for us to see that this home-building project is not just a physical one. For although humanity lives on the earth, this is not exactly our final destination. The earth only provides a conducive setting for us to find our true home. Not on earth. But in God. This is why, the whole reading is focused not so much on the creation of the earth. But on the birth of Wisdom.

As you know, in the Old Testament, the Wisdom of God is a gift, specially prepared by God, for those who strive to live according to God’s wishes. Those who put God first in all things. Such God-fearing people receive the Wisdom of God.Which enables them to find what they are looking for. To find God. To experience God. To make their home in God. Even while still living on this earth. This is God’s purpose. This is God’s vision and mission. From the very beginning. Like Habitat for Humanity, God is a home-builder. God’s plan is to help human beings to live on this earth in ways that will enable them to find and make their home in God.

The other readings show us how this is done. Like any other building project, it involves not just a developer, but also an architect and an engineer. One who draws up the plan. And another who provides the power to execute it. To translate the plan into reality.

In the second reading, St. Paul helps us to better appreciate both the plan and the architect. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, he writes, by faith we are judged righteous and at peace with God, since it is by faith and through Jesus that we have entered this state of grace…

To be judged righteous and at peace with God. To live in a state of grace. Isn’t this what it means to find our home in God? To be able to find peace, even as we struggle to face the challenges of this earthly existence of ours. To be able to glory not just in our triumphs. But also in our defeats. To be able to boast not just about our comforts. But also about our sufferings. Seeing these defeats and sufferings as opportunities to draw closer to the Crucified and Risen Christ. To enter more deeply into the embrace of God. This is what it means to be at home in God. And we do this by following the plan drawn up for us. By imitating the example set for us. By following the way marked out for us. The Way of Christ Jesus our Lord. Who laid down his life out of love for his undeserving friends. Laid down his life out of love for you and for me.

Self-sacrificing love. This is the plan. And Christ is the architect. And no prizes for guessing who the engineer is. In the words of St. Paul, the love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been given to us. It is the Spirit who provides us with the tools and materials, the energy and the motivation, to translate the masterplan of Christ’s Life, Death and Resurrection, into the ordinary reality of our own lives.

This is, of course, not an easy thing to do. For Christ may have given us the plan. But we still have to figure out the exact details for ourselves. Details which are often revealed to us only gradually. In the concrete situations of our daily lives. And it is the Spirit who helps us to do this. Much like how an engineer would oversee the actual construction of a home. As Jesus tells his disciples in the gospel, When the Spirit of truth comes, he will lead you to the complete truth. The Spirit helps us to do what it takes to find and make our home in God.

But, my dear friends, do we really need a God like this? A God who is at once developer and architect and engineer? A home-builder God? After all, we are not homeless, are we? We live in a highly developed country. We belong to a wealthy parish. We all have homes of our own. Some of us even live in mansions fit for a king. And yet, isn’t it true that, however large or comfortable our houses may be, at least from time to time, we still can’t help but feel homeless? However cosy the pillows on which we lay our heads, we still yearn for a warm place to rest our hearts. We thirst for the peace that the world cannot give. We long to make our true home in God, and God alone. A home that we find only when we learn to surrender our hearts and our lives to God. Only when we are willing to reach out to help others to find a home.

I’m reminded of these lines from an old hymn we used to sing:

Lose yourself in me, and you will find yourself.Lose yourself in me, and you will find new life.Lose yourself in me, and you will find yourself.And you will live, yes you will live, in my love…

Sisters and brothers, today we celebrate the Holy Trinity. Father, Son and Spirit. A God who delights in building a habitat for humanity. A true home for you, for me, for all.

What must we do to keep losing ourselves in God today?

1 comment:

AnonymousSun May 22, 11:25:00 am GMT+8
O Lord,
in this life full of distractions (people and situations) that often (subtly) draw me AWAY from YOU;
Keep me ever close to You and lead me always to walk on Your paths - guide me along Your Way.
Grant me O Lord, the courage to dare to enter through the Narrow Doorway (shaped in the form of a cross (+) that leads to You, Life Eternal.

Lead me to Come HOME to you,
For IN YOU, DO I LIVE AND MOVE AND HAVE MY BEING

ONLY IN YOU CAN MY HEART FINDS IT FULL AND COMPLETE REST.

Amen.

Seeing IS Believing
22 May 2016 -Trinity Sunday
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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