Breaking the Word: Starting With The One in The Mirror

Sunday, November 26, 2023

Starting With The One in The Mirror

Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ,

King of the Universe

Readings: Ezekiel 34: 11-12, 15-17; Psalm 22 (23): 1-3a, 5-6; 1 Corinthians 15: 20-26, 28; Matthew 25: 31-46

Picture: By Edgar Pereira on Unsplash

My dear friends, do the words Man in the Mirror ring a bell for you? Those of us of a certain age may recognise them as the title of an old song sung by the late Michael Jackson. The song offers a simple recipe for changing the world by first changing oneself: I'm starting with the man in the mirror. I'm asking him to change his ways…. If you wanna make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and then make a change… Sounds simple, but far from easy to follow. Is it even true? And, if it is true, how are we to change ourselves? I believe these are among the questions our scriptures help us ponder on this final Sunday of our liturgical year.

To start, the second reading tells us that, at the end of time, the Crucified and Risen Christ will come and change the whole of creation in a full and final way. By first subjecting everything to himself as King, destroying all his enemies, including death itself, and then handing over his kingdom to his heavenly Father, so that God may be all in all. The other readings describe a similar process of universal change by using the image of a shepherd. When Christ comes in his glory, he will act like a shepherd in at least two ways.

First, like a shepherd calling and tending his sheep, Christ the King will gather to himself all who belong to him. Taking special care of those who are confused and lost, oppressed and neglected, helpless and hurting. Not just respectable Catholics like us, who enjoy the fresh pastures and restful waters of the Eucharist, even as we walk in the dark valley of an increasingly uncertain and dangerous world. Christ gathers even those who do not consider themselves his disciples. Isn’t this what we find in the gospel, where the Son of Man assembles not just Christians, but all the nations?

Second, like a shepherd separating sheep from goats, Christ will judge between those who do belong to him, and those who do not. The former he will lead to eternal life. The latter he will send to eternal punishment. But how does one become a sheep? Again the answer is simple, but not easy to follow. To become a sheep, one must walk the narrow path of change that Jesus himself walked. The path of mercy shown to those most in need. I was hungry and you gave me food… a stranger and you made me welcome… The same path that led the Lord of the Universe to become poor, to make us rich (2 Cor 8:9). And all who walk this path, do not just serve Christ. They can also somehow be nourished by him. Just as we are nourished, whenever we serve at his Eucharistic table.

Isn’t this what we celebrate today? The consoling belief that Christ will eventually transform this troubled world of ours–burdened by so much war and conflict, deception and greed–into the truth and freedom, the peace and justice of God’s kingdom. Our part is to join this process, by starting with the one we see in the mirror. By nudging him (or her) to change his (often self-centred) ways.

Sisters and brothers, on this final Sunday of our church’s year, how shall we help one another to truly submit to change, so as to better receive the King of the Universe whenever he comes?

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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, November 26, 2023

Starting With The One in The Mirror

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