Breaking the Word: Guarding Against Glitter

Sunday, January 30, 2022

Guarding Against Glitter

4th Sunday in Ordinary Time (C)

Readings: Jeremiah 1:4-5,17-19; Psalm 70 (71): 1-6, 15, 17; 1 Corinthians 12: 31-13: 13; Luke 4:21-30

Picture: cc Jagrap

My dear friends, can you complete this sentence? All that glitters… That’s right! All that glitters… is not gold. And we know what it means. It’s a warning to us about the danger of chasing after shiny things, because not all shiny things are truly valuable. For example, a scammer may show us something shiny… like a job, or a cash prize, or the promise of companionship… and tempt us to give up something valuable in exchange for it. But once we take the bait, we discover that we’ve sacrificed our gold for worthless glitter.

I mention this not just because scams have been so much in the news lately, but also because of our scriptures today. In the gospel, Jesus does something puzzling. At the start of the reading, we’re told that, by preaching in his hometown, the Lord won the approval of all. But instead of happily enjoying this popularity, Jesus provokes his listeners. He makes them so angry that they even try to kill him. Why does he do this?

Isn’t it because the Lord realises that the glitter of popular acclaim is not real gold? Isn’t it because he recognises that their approval of him is born not of a true appreciation for what he is saying, or of who he claims to be, but rather of chauvinism? They are drawn to him simply because they want to claim him as their own. This is Joseph’s son, surely? And perhaps Jesus realises that giving in to their desires would mean compromising his own God-given mission, to bear witness to the truth of God’s love for all people, regardless of family or ethnic or national origin. To be seduced by the shine of popular acclaim, would mean sacrificing the solid gold of his own true identity and mission.

So, instead of encouraging their praise of him, the Lord bravely uncovers their scam, even at great risk to himself. Like Jeremiah before him, Jesus confronts the people with the truth of their prejudice. Not just for his own sake, but also to show them the reality of their hypocrisy, and to offer them the possibility of being set free from their sin.

By acting in this way, Jesus demonstrates in the flesh, what the second reading describes so beautifully in the abstract. Love takes no pleasure in other people’s sins but delights in the truth… Refusing to take pleasure in popularity, the Lord chooses to delight instead in the truth of who he is, and what he is sent to do. And he is able to make this difficult choice, because, by doing so, he is abiding in the Father’s love. Which gives him the strength he needs to face every eventuality, even a painful and shameful death on a cross.

My dear friends, actually, in our world today, there are far more dangerous scams than those that merely rob us of our money. What about those that tempt us with the glitter of popularity, or success, or comfort, only to take from us the gold of our health of body, or peace of mind, or closeness of relationship with family and friends, with nature and God?

Sisters and brothers, what must we do to keep helping one another guard against the glitter that is not gold 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

Sunday, January 30, 2022

Guarding Against Glitter

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