Breaking the Word: C-P-R

Saturday, December 15, 2018

C-P-R

3rd Sunday of Advent (C) (Gaudete Sunday)

Readings: Zephaniah 3:14-18; Isaiah 12; Philippians 4:4-7; Luke 3:10-18

Video: YouTube D M

Wherever you go, wherever you may wander in your life,

Surely you know, I always wanna be there.

Holding your hand, and standing by to catch you when you fall.

Seeing you through, in everything you do.

Let me be there in your morning. Let me be there in your night.

Let me change whatever's wrong and make it right.

Let me take you through that wonderland

that only two can share.

All I ask you is let me be there.

My dear friends, do any of you still recognise these words? Perhaps some may recall that they are taken from an old song, first recorded by Olivia Newton John, back in 1973. To be honest, I probably wouldn’t be mentioning this song, if this were the 8:15 am Family Mass, or the 12:15 pm Youth Mass. But since this is the Saturday Sunset Mass, I thought these words might have a better chance of being recognised… I may be wrong.

As you know, in the song, someone professes a fervent desire to be with the person he or she loves. To always be there for the beloved. In good times and in bad. In the radiance of the morning, as well as in the darkness of night. And the singer believes that his or her presence has the power to make a difference in the beloved’s life. The power to change whatever’s wrong and make it right. The power to soothe the worried mind, and to console the broken heart. The power to put a skip in one’s step, and a smile on one’s face. The power, in other words, to bring joy and meaning back into one’s life. All the beloved has to do, to receive this gift, is to let the singer in. All I ask you is let me be there… Let me be there…

Of course, the song doesn’t actually tell us how this is done. It assumes that the beloved knows how to let the singer in. The better to enjoy the benefits of the singer’s presence. And yet, isn’t it true that we don’t always know how to do this? How to let others into our lives? Especially if our lives are already so full of many other things… Many other activities and people… Thoughts and feelings… Dreams and ambitions… Frustrations and resentments… Worries and preoccupations… And if I find it so difficult to let another person into my life, how much more difficult it is, when the One asking to be let in is God!

Which is why our prayers and Mass readings for this 3rd Sunday in Advent are so helpful. For, like that old song, our Mass texts also invite us to allow God to be there in our lives. The better to experience the joy that God’s presence brings. Isn’t this the grace we prayed for in the opening prayer just now. We asked God to enable us… to attain the joys of so great a salvation and to celebrate them always…

But how exactly do I do this? How do I let God into my life? Our readings offer us three suggestions. The first reading is addressed to a people living under threat of foreign invasion. A threat probably far more fearsome than the recent incursions on our territorial waters. Serious though they may be. And yet, quite incredibly, these very worried and fearful people are asked to rejoice. To shout for joy. To exult with all your heart… Why? For the Lord is in your midst… you have no more evil to fear… But isn’t this far easier said than done? How can people be expected to rejoice when their hearts are filled to the brim with fear?

The reading shows them how. By giving the people a very moving image to contemplate. To imagine. It is the astonishing portrait of a God, who not only comes close to his people by fighting on their behalf, but even goes so far as to dance for joy over them. The Lord your God is in your midst, a victorious warrior. He will exult for joy over you… he will dance with shouts of joy for you as on a day of festival. Contemplation of a God joyfully dancing over his people. This is how the 1st reading teaches us to rejoice even in the face of fear.

The 2nd reading offers us another suggestion. Here too there is a call to rejoice. I want you to be happy, St Paul tells the Philippians, always happy in the Lord. But how to do this? How to be continually happy, especially when you are burdened by the many anxieties of life? What is Paul’s approach? There is no need to worry, he says, but if there is anything you need, pray for it, asking God for it with prayer and thanksgiving. Engaging in the prayer of petition. This is the 2nd reading’s recipe for joy.

But, lest we be mistaken, it’s important to note that Paul doesn’t quite say that God will give us exactly what we pray for. Instead, he promises us something else. He assures us that, if only we pray for what we need, in a spirit of gratitude for what we have already received, then that peace of God, which is so much greater than we can understand, will guard your hearts and your thoughts, in Christ Jesus. Whether or not we get what we pray for, persistent petition, accompanied by grateful recollection of gifts already received, always gains us a peace that the world cannot give. A peace that then makes possible joy.

Finally, in the gospel, John the Baptist offers us a third suggestion. While the first reading calls us to contemplation, and the second to petition, the gospel teaches us the way of replacement. Replacement of what? First the replacement of selfishness with charity: If anyone has two tunics he must share with the man who has none… Then the replacement of greed with contentment: No intimidation! No extortion! Be content with your pay! And, lastly, the replacement of shortsightedness and misrecognition with patience and hope. I baptise you with water, but someone is coming, someone who is more powerful than I am… and he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and with fire…

Contemplation, petition and replacement. Or, in short, C-P-R. This is the way that our readings offer us for resuscitating our joy. For however full our lives may be with all that might distract us from the true Source of happiness, our loving and merciful God continues to desire to enter into our lives. To be there for us. The better to change our fear and anxiety, our selfishness and sin, into joyful trust in the Lord, the God of our salvation.

Let me be there in your morning. Let me be there in your night.

Let me change whatever's wrong and make it right.

Let me take you through that wonderland

that only two can share.

All I ask you is let me be there.

Brothers and sisters, the Lord’s fervent wish is to enter ever more fully into our lives this Christmas to bless us. Both as individuals and as a worshipping community, what must we do to let him be there for us today?

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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

Saturday, December 15, 2018

C-P-R

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