Breaking the Word: 07/01/2020

Sunday, July 26, 2020

Charism of Choice

Solemnity of St Ignatius of Loyola

Priest & Founder of the Society of Jesus

Readings: Jeremiah 20:7-9; Psalm 34; 1 Corinthians 10:31-11:1; Luke 14:25-33

My dear friends, if I were to tell you that you are very important to me, how would you know whether or not I’m telling you the truth? I’m not sure, but I believe Covid-19 has actually helped some of us discover the answer to this question. For example, when a young couple is forced by safe-distancing regulations to choose no more than twenty people to invite to their wedding, their friends and relatives discover rather quickly, don’t they, just how important they are. Isn’t this a more reliable indicator of the things we consider more important, the people we hold more dear? Not so much what we say, but how we choose, especially when we are forced by circumstances to do so.

Perhaps this is what Jesus is getting at in the gospel, when he says that, to be a true follower of his, one must go so far as to hate not just the closest members of one’s family, but even life itself. The point is not that I must detest the very people I’m supposed to love. After all, the scriptures tell us that God is love (1 Jn 4:8). But rather, in the event that I have to choose between the Lord and anyone or anything else, my choice must be the Lord. The Lord must be the single most important reality in my life. More important than life itself.

Isn’t this the experience of Jeremiah, in the first reading? Called by God to preach an unpopular message to the people, the prophet remains faithful to his mission, even though it results in him being laughed at and persecuted and thrown into prison. By choosing in this way – by choosing God over his own popularity and wellbeing – Jeremiah gives us a reliable indicator that he lives his life just as the second reading says we should. He does everything for the glory of God. Or, in other words, he truly worships God alone.

And it’s no surprise that these readings are chosen for this feast. For it was St Ignatius’ particular gift, not just to live in this way, but also to help others do the same. To choose God above all else. Truly to worship God alone.

I’m reminded of these lines by novelist, David Foster Wallace: There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship…. If you worship money and things… then you will never have enough, never feel you have enough…. Worship your body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly. And when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally plant you…. Worship power, you will end up feeling weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to numb you to your own fear. Worship your intellect, being seen as smart, you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out…

Sisters and brothers, if our choices do indeed indicate what’s truly important to us, then what or who is most important to you? What or whom do you worship, today?

Sunday, July 19, 2020

Meaning in the Mess

16th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)

Readings: Wisdom 12:13,16-19; Psalm 85(86):5-6,9-10,15-16; Romans 8:26-27; Matthew 13:24-30

Picture: cc Jason Wun

My dear friends, imagine for a moment that you’re visiting someone’s house for the first time, and you find that the whole place is in a big mess. How do you feel? What do you think? Speaking for myself, I think even though I may try very hard not to judge, it’s quite likely that I’ll find it difficult to resist drawing certain not so charitable conclusions about those who live in that house, or about its owner. Maybe these people are untidy, or careless, or just plain lazy…

But what if it’s not just any single family’s house that is messy, but the whole wide world? How do I feel, for example, over these days and months, as people everywhere continue to suffer the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic? The poor much more than the well-off. What crosses my mind when I hear about some global leaders squabbling for political gain, instead of working together for the common good? What conclusions do I draw, not just about my world, but also about the One whom we Christians believe created it? Is our common earthly home hopelessly lost? Is God simply too callous or cruel, too vindictive or incompetent, to do anything?

My dear friends, if you’ve ever struggled to find meaning amid the madness of our world, if the messiness of life ever upsets your peace of mind, then perhaps you’ll be happy to know that today’s Mass readings offer us some guidance. For what do we find in the parable of the weeds and the wheat if not a very messy situation? And notice how this situation is intended to be a description not just of any untidy home, not even of the secular world. The distasteful sight of a wheat field overgrown with weeds is meant to signify nothing less than the current condition of the Kingdom of heaven itself.

In presenting us with this surprising image, what the Lord is perhaps teaching us is how to look at the often heartbreaking condition of our world, and to recognise there the workings of God. The subtle activity of the same powerful yet gentle and merciful God described in the first reading. A God who cares for every thing, who governs us with great lenience, teaching us how we too must be kindly to others.

Nor is the extent of God’s power limited to simply tolerating the weeds of sinfulness, in order to allow time for the seeds of virtue to sprout and to grow. For, as the gospel of John reminds us (12:24), in the person of Jesus, God actually enters into the field of our world, actually becomes a grain of wheat, which falls into the earth and dies, so as to bear the precious fruit of our salvation.

Even more, the second reading tells us that, in the person of the Spirit, God enters also into the chaotic and contradictory desires of our own often divided hearts, helping us to pray honestly and effectively, in a way that truly expresses the very mind of God.

Sisters and brothers, when you gaze at the messy sight of our troubled world, what do you see, how do you feel, what will you do today?

Sunday, July 12, 2020

The Power to Be Ugly

15th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)

Readings: Isaiah 55:10-11; Psalm 64(65):10-14; Romans 8:18-23; Matthew 13:1-23

Picture: cc marco

My dear friends, do you know what it’s like to be an ugly duckling? To feel as though there’s something wrong with you, simply because you don’t look like those around you, or because you have different attitudes and values, different hopes and priorities than they do? It’s not easy. Even if you may have been told that someday, in the distant future, you will grow up into a beautiful swan, it’s still not easy to accept your apparent ugliness now, in the present. Indeed, the temptation can be very great for someone in this position to do whatever it takes simply to fit in. Even to submit to plastic surgery of some kind. To deny, disguise, or deform oneself.

I wonder if this kind of experience is something like what we find in the second reading today… From the beginning till now, St Paul writes, the entire creation… has been groaning in one great act of giving birth; and not only creation, but all of us who possess the first-fruits of the Spirit, we too groan inwardly as we wait for our bodies to be set free. To groan together with the rest of creation, because we have not yet reached our true destiny. Have not yet become the beautiful swan that God intends us to become. Have not yet attained the full measure of justice and peace and joy that characterises the Kingdom of God.

To embrace the role of an ugly duckling. Feeling painfully out of place in a world that values superficial pleasures and passing comforts, often at the expense of human dignity and solidarity, of mercy and compassion. To groan for the coming of God’s Kingdom in all its fullness, and to do so not just with one’s voice, but also in one’s actions. Through the choices we make everyday, as individuals and families, as a society and as a church. Choices about what we watch or read, or buy or eat. Choices about whom we choose to interact with, or allow our hearts to be moved by… Yes, and also the choice of which candidate to support in an election…

It is not easy to groan in this way. The temptation is great to be silent and simply to blend in. And yet, the willingness to be different, perhaps even detested – the ability to groan – is also what distinguishes the two groups of people to whom Jesus speaks in the gospel today. On one side, there are the crowds, who flock enthusiastically to the Lord, but ultimately neither understand nor heed his urgent call to conversion. On the other side, are the disciples who, for all their shortcomings, persevere in following Jesus. And from him they receive the power that is described so beautifully in the first reading. The power of the rain and the snow, which come down from the heavens and do not return without watering the earth, making it yield and giving growth…

The power to groan and to grow towards the glory of God. This is what sets apart the true disciples of Christ. They are the ones who receive the seed of God’s Word in rich soil, and yield a harvest through their suffering, their willingness to embrace the difficult role of a baby swan in a world of ducks.

What shall we do to welcome and to wield this gentle yet insistent power in our world today?

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