Landmarks to Liberation

11th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)

Readings: Exodus 19: 2-6; Psalm 99 (100): 2-3, 5; Romans 5: 6-11; Matthew 9: 36-10: 8

Picture: By Beth Macdonald on Unsplash

My dear friends, have you ever given someone directions before? How did you do it? Very likely, landmarks were used, right? At the T-junction, turn left… At the petrol station, turn right… And notice how, each time a landmark is recognised, there’s an action to perform. Turn left… Turn right… Similarly, landmarks are what we find in our scriptures today. The first reading refers to places like Rephidim and Sinai and Egypt. But more important than these physical locations is the spiritual landmark they represent. To recognise it, we need to recall what happens to the Israelites at each place.

In Egypt, they are oppressed and can’t break free. At Rephidim, they have no water to quench their thirst. Yet each time, in their helplessness, God rescues them. God frees them from the Egyptians, and makes water flow from the rock. Helplessness and rescue. This is the first landmark. And as with any set of directions, once a landmark is recognised, there’s an action to perform. So at Sinai, God invites the people to obey God’s voice and hold fast to God’s covenant. To trust and submit to God. This is what the Israelites are asked to do at the first landmark. And not just the Israelites, but we Christians as well. For God has rescued us too. As St Paul reminds us, we were still helpless when… Christ died for (sinners)… Like the Israelites, we have good reason to trust and to surrender our lives to the Lord.

But that’s not all. There’s also a second landmark. We find a hint of it already in the first reading, when God tells the Israelites they will be a kingdom of priests. For priests are consecrated not just for God, but also for other people. This second landmark is recognised by the twin experiences in the gospel. First, the compassion of Jesus at the sight of the crowds, because they are harassed and dejected. According to another translation (NRSV), they are harassed and helpless. And second, we have the call that Jesus issues to the Twelve, telling them to go and proclaim that the kingdom of heaven is close at hand… Compassion and call. This is the second landmark. And once it is recognised, the appropriate response is to commit and to serve, to proclaim and to heal. To truly become God’s consecrated priests to the harassed and helpless crowds among whom we live.

Helplessness and rescue, compassion and call. These are the landmarks on the spiritual path from oppression to freedom. A timely reminder for us, even as we hear of the tragic sinking of yet another boat in the Mediterranean, overloaded with desperate people seeking better lives, including many children. Nor do we have to look that far to uncover oppression. According to the philosopher Byung-Chul Han, this digital society in which we live actually trains us to oppress ourselves. According to him, ours is an achievement society that makes us exploit ourselves until we collapse. We develop auto-aggressive traits that often lead to suicide…

Sisters and brothers, in our helplessness, Christ has set us free. How is he calling us now to help one another recognise and follow the landmarks along the way to true freedom?