Breaking the Word: Learning By Contrasts

Sunday, April 10, 2022

Learning By Contrasts

Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion (C)

Readings: Luke 19:28-40; Isaiah 50:4-7; Psalm 21(22):8-9,17-20,23-24; Philippians 2:6-11; Luke 23:1-49

[At the Entrance:] My dear friends, as we enter this holiest week of the church’s liturgical year, the gospel reading we’ve just heard begins by telling us that Jesus went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem… We all know, of course, why Jesus goes up to Jerusalem. As we heard earlier, he goes there to accomplish his Passion and Resurrection, to save us and the rest of the world. But why does he go on ahead? Why not stay in the middle, or follow from behind? The prayer that we will offer shortly, at the sanctuary, gives us a good indication why. The prayer tells us that Jesus goes to Jerusalem also to offer us an example of humility and a lesson of patient suffering. It is to offer us an example to follow, and a lesson to learn, that the Lord goes on ahead of us. So let us follow him closely on his journey to Jerusalem, and let us pay careful attention to all that he has to teach us…

[At the Ambo:] My dear friends, does anyone here still remember a game called three of these things belong together? It’s often played on that popular children’s show, Sesame Street. In the game, children are shown four objects, out of which they have to pick the one that doesn’t belong. What the game demonstrates is that effective learning often happens by considering contrasts.

Similarly, the scriptures today help us to learn more effectively the lesson that Jesus teaches in Holy Week, by offering us three contrasts. The first is between the colt that Jesus rides into Jerusalem, and the cock that alerts Peter to his own denial. On the one hand, by riding that young donkey, Jesus shows his courage in steadfastly walking the Way of the Cross right to the end. Throughout the journey, he offers no resistance, but empties himself. And he is able to do this, because he draws strength from his heavenly Father, as we see him doing at Gethsemane. In contrast, Peter fails to persevere, because he relies on his own meagre resources.

The second contrast is between the kingdom, about which Jesus preaches, and the kiss, by which Judas betrays his Lord. In his farewell speech at the Last Supper, we see just how authentic is Jesus’ care and concern for others. He goes to the Cross, not just to claim a kingdom for himself, but also to confer that same kingdom on his disciples, on you and me. In contrast, the kiss that Judas offers is not just an act of hostility, but one disguised as friendship. The kiss not only betrays the one who receives it, it also uncovers the self-centredness and hypocrisy of the one who offers it.

Finally, we see a third contrast between the sword, which Jesus tells his disciples to prepare, and the sleep that overcomes them. It’s puzzling, isn’t it, to see how Jesus tells his disciples to prepare a sword, and yet seems unhappy when they make use of it? Perhaps the sword that Jesus means is really a metaphorical one. Not a literal weapon of steel, but that sharpness of insight, that enables the Lord to pierce the dark night of sin and deception enveloping the world. That clarity of perception that allows him to penetrate Peter’s hollow show of heroism, and Judas’ deceptive display of affection. In contrast, the disciples avoid facing the painful reality of their Master’s suffering, by allowing themselves to be overcome by sleep. Similarly, both Pilate and Herod are, in a sense, asleep as well. Both refuse to wake up to the truth of the Lord’s innocence. Pilate is made drowsy by moral cowardice, and Herod by apathy and self-indulgence.

So colt and cock, kingdom and kiss, sword and sleep. Three striking contrasts that speak to us respectively of the importance of courage, and care, and clarity. Courage: to persevere in doing what is right. Care: to place the interests of the common good before one’s own. And clarity: to recognise and stand on the side of truth. As in that game from Sesame Street, these three qualities belong together. They characterise Jesus, and all those who belong to him. They enable Christians to stand out as witnesses to the Light, in a world often still engulfed in Darkness.

Sisters and brothers, as we accompany the Lord to Jerusalem this week, what must we do to beg for and accept these same gifts, so that we may truly belong to him, and to no other?

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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, April 10, 2022

Learning By Contrasts

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