Gospel Reflection 20070923
In the eyes of the people of his time, Jesus was no winner.
Who wins and who loses always seems to require scorekeeping. To the people of his time, Jesus looked as if he was beaten down in death. The crucifixion was the final buzzer. But as Jesus had taught over and over, death was never the winner; death is not final. Redemption happens! Redemption is the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus and your chance to share in it, no matter what your life circumstances are. Redemption is offered by God so that you might fulfill your purpose in life as a Christian. Redemption means to identify what is scarred, broken and in need of healing in your life. It means to bring these experiences to Jesus and to allow him to mold you into a new creation, to teach you a new way to live.
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Act Shrewdly for the benefit of God
September 23, 2007
Twenty-Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Gospel
Lk 16:1-13
Jesus said to his disciples,
“A rich man had a steward
who was reported to him for squandering his property.
He summoned him and said,
‘What is this I hear about you?
Prepare a full account of your stewardship,
because you can no longer be my steward.’
The steward said to himself, ‘What shall I do,
now that my master is taking the position of steward away from me?
I am not strong enough to dig and I am ashamed to beg.
I know what I shall do so that,
when I am removed from the stewardship,
they may welcome me into their homes.’
He called in his master’s debtors one by one.
To the first he said,
‘How much do you owe my master?’
He replied, ‘One hundred measures of olive oil.’
He said to him, ‘Here is your promissory note.
Sit down and quickly write one for fifty.’
Then to another the steward said, ‘And you, how much do you owe?’
He replied, ‘One hundred kors of wheat.’
The steward said to him, ‘Here is your promissory note;
write one for eighty.’
And the master commended that dishonest steward for acting shrewdly.
“For the children of this world
are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation
than are the children of light.
I tell you, make friends for yourselves with dishonest wealth,
so that when it fails, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.
The person who is trustworthy in very small matters
is also trustworthy in great ones;
and the person who is dishonest in very small matters
is also dishonest in great ones.
If, therefore, you are not trustworthy with dishonest wealth,
who will trust you with true wealth?
If you are not trustworthy with what belongs to another,
who will give you what is yours?
No servant can serve two masters.
He will either hate one and love the other,
or be devoted to one and despise the other.
You cannot serve both God and mammon.”
To say one thing and to do the opposite must be the hardest moral strife existing for the human heart to bear. To live with two faces is indeed the most restless state of any soul. This disappointing experience rips the ethical peace in the two-faced individual. The source of this moral defeat is that they commit to one thing, but postpone the well awaited actions and results of their freely chosen commitments. Having two faces is a suspicion factory for human relationships. Nevertheless Jesus in this parable leaves the back door open to the stubborn hearted. There is a real redeeming mechanism in place that our Lord finds, as a worthy solution, to the fate of this insincere steward. The steward, on learning that his time is limited, craftily conjures up long lasting friendships with everyone he was supposed to be doing business with from the start. The master praises the tactic used by the fired steward. The master even studies the prudence and creativity of this current enemy so as to teach the oncoming stewards how to deal with customers and vendors. This unlimited dedication in crunch times could be very useful and quite glorious, especially when it is performed by reliable stewards. What good could be truly achieved! There seems to appear a great blessedness when a steward implements, on one hand, fruit-provoking skills like kindness and prudence, deals intelligently and does more in less time. On the other hand, he communes with the wishes and desires of the master. How do I see this in my life? In my relationship with Christ and his Church, does there really appear a great blessedness in possessing a love for God and then consciously putting into practice many skills, talents and gifts solely for God’s glory and the establishment of his Kingdom? Does everything, ranging from conducting a family activity to receiving a phone call in the office or going to a party, have this unifying drive for God’s glory and the establishment of his Kingdom?
An angel appears at a faculty meeting and tells the dean that he has come to reward him for his years of devoted service. He was asked to choose one of three blessings: either infinite wealth, or infinite fame or infinite wisdom. Without hesitation, the dean asks for infinite wisdom. “You got it!” says the angel, and disappears. All heads turn toward the dean, who sits glowing in the aura of wisdom. Finally one of his colleagues whispers, “Say something.” The dean looks at them and says, “I should have taken the money.”
Wisdom, in the sense of being smart or shrewd as we see in today’s parable of the dishonest servant, is not an end in itself. One can be smart and use one’s smartness to do mean things. Many con artists and terrorists are smart people who use their smartness to create unhappiness in the world. Today’s parable challenges us to be smart in the pursuit of the kingdom of God just as godless people are smart in their pursuit of selfish goals and ambitions. Jesus uses the example of a smart manager in his master’s business to teach us the need to be smart in the Lord’s service. We are challenged to imitate the manager’s shrewdness, not his dishonesty. “The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly” (Luke 16:8).
Why did the master who had made up his mind to fire the manager now commend him? Probably the manager had been running his master’s business in a drab, routine and lifeless manner devoid of creativity and imagination. As a result the business was failing, so the master decides it is time to fire him: “Give me an accounting of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer” (verse 2). The manager is facing a real danger of being dismissed from service. He knows the seriousness of the situation. He is not kidding himself. He knows exactly how helpless he is out there. He says to himself, “What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg” (verse 3). He knows he is in a very difficult and precarious situation. He scratches his head and comes up with this ingenious plan to safeguard his future. The master praises him because if the manager had been using such smart thinking in the daily running of the business he would have made a much more successful manager rather than a failure.
The parable challenges us all to be smart managers. Me a manager, you say? Yes, we are all called to be managers. God has entrusted the whole of His creation into our hands as His managers. Jesus Christ, in addition, entrusts the kingdom of God – the kingdom of love, justice and peace – into our hands as his managers. World peace and harmony, and the renewal of all things in Christ, are the business of us all, collectively and individually. Jesus calls it the kingdom of God. Our business as followers of Christ, non-ordained as well as ordained believers, is to help bring about the kingdom of God starting from our own selves. We have all been given the necessary resources to do this. We have been equipped with the truth of faith, we have been empowered by the Holy Spirit who dwells in our hearts, and we have been given time. Sooner or later we shall all be called upon to render an account of how we have invested and managed these resources.
Events in our world show that we live in difficult and precarious times, like the manager in the parable. The manager faced squarely the truth of his helplessness and vulnerability and did something about it. Why do we keep on telling ourselves the lie that we are safe and secure and that nothing can ever happen to us? We do not have to wait, like the dishonest servant, for a last minute display of smartness to fix our eternal concerns. The time to be smart is now. The smart manager used what he could not keep to get what he needed so badly, friendship with his business associates. We should likewise invest all our temporal and spiritual resources to gain the only thing that matters in the end: the kingdom of God.
Jesus attacks neither riches nor the rich. Instead, in calling his followers to prefer absolutely nothing to himself, he is teaching everyone, rich and poor, how to put in order their relationship with money.
There are no pockets in a shroud. This commonsense observation tells us something of what Jesus teaches, although he goes much further. If you live your life for money’s sake, you are a fool, because, in the end, money will abandon you. You cannot even guarantee that it will go to those to whom you bequeath it. Like fire and water, money can be a good servant, but is always an exacting task-master. Which it is to be, depends on you. In the end, you can blame neither economic structures nor your life’s circumstances for the way you personally deal with money. As with all created things, money, too, must be obtained and administered in the freedom of the truth. Honesty, prudence and generosity ought to mark the Christian’s dealings with money. Sometimes this seems impossible, given the prevailing pressures to cheat, steal and accumulate wealth. But unless we commit ourselves, on a personal, family and Church basis, to use money for the glory of God, we will fail to respond to the radical call of Jesus and thus fail to witness to His supremacy in the world. By using money for the glory of God, I do not mean give it all away, unless you are called to do so in the state of life you follow. I mean rather to dispense it with the wisdom of the Gospel, not with calculating greed. If you are married, you cannot give it away unless you have first fulfilled your family obligations, both present and future. If you are single and plan to get married, you must seek to find a balance between saving for the future and fulfilling your Christian obligation of almsgiving. If you are elderly, you need to ensure your security, yet be willing to be realistic about what that actually means for you and for others. Those of us in religious life, depending on our circumstances, should, percentage wise, be more generous in giving our actual possessions away. At local, national and international levels, creative ways must be found to strike a balance between the demands of social justice, on the one hand, and, on the other, measures which will stimulate economic growth. The aim of all this is not money, but the promotion of the human dignity of every human being. This is God’s desire and God’s glory for humanity in its use of mammon.
But all of us, without exception, must make it our task, not only to consult financial advisors, but to administer our earthly goods in accordance with the will and wisdom of the Lord: you cannot serve both God and money. If you keep your financial concerns out of the reach of your life of faith, you are not going to be able to administer your goods according to the counsel of the Holy Spirit.
Apart from its obvious meaning of being free from the idolatry of money, this teaching of Jesus also contains another, deeper truth. Every human being is by definition a servant. Recall the words of St. Paul: Jesus emptied Himself, and assumed the condition of a servant, that is, he became man. Service is constitutive of humanity. Any human person will serve someone or something. Service is not the antithesis of freedom, but the highest expression of it, since true service is born of true love. We need freely to give our freedom, for that is what it seeks to be truly liberated. Otherwise we become inhuman; indeed, the one who uses his freedom only for himself, or gives it to something less than human, loses his freedom, and his humanity, in doing so. The question is not whether we are servants or whether we are free, but how we live our freedom in service. Jesus teaches us that if we freely serve something which ought to be at our service, be it money or earthly power or any other thing sought for its own sake, then we will end up hating him: if money is your master, Jesus is your enemy. Money as master will abuse you until you die, then it will leave you deprived of itself and all that it promised, and also deprived of God. If you serve the Lord your God above and before all else, then money will become a tool at your service to gain riches in the sight of God, that is the precious treasures of charity and truth.
Undue attachment to money is surely akin to addiction. Just as living to drink becomes the alcoholic’s whole concern, so living to make money for money’s sake takes possession of a person. Everything in their lives can become subtly, and not so subtly, oriented to making themselves richer. The very thought of an extra (and positive) zero on their bank statement fills them with a scrooge-like delight. For them, there is nothing more satisfying than a quick buck. Irrespective of what it means to their poverty-stricken brothers and sisters, the important thing is that the value of their investments goes up! Personal relationships are cultivated or broken off on the basis of whether or not someone can be used to make more money. Old-fashioned comics would portray such people with dollar-signs in their eyes, and, if we could see into their dreams, they might make scrooge look like St. Francis of Assisi. How must their hearts appear in the eyes of God? What is the problem with such people? Is it their money or their bank accounts or any of their possessions? No, because all such things are of themselves without any moral relevance. Is it the fact that they are rich? No, because a poor person can also be obsessed with making money. The problem is their spiritual, moral and psychological disposition, which, like the sclerotic liver of the alcoholic, decays with every further act of gain, at any price. Indeed, of the two, the alcoholic may be the better off because, while he might well be totally unable to help himself, the one who has sold himself to money has probably invested more of his freedom into its service.
The person who is trustworthy in very small matters is also trustworthy in great. Jesus tells us that, from the perspective of the Gospel, money is a very small matter. If you are not trustworthy with dishonest wealth, he asks, who will trust you with true wealth? Dishonest wealth means here false wealth, that is money, as opposed to true wealth, that is the charity of God. If you trust money, your well-being and independence are illusory: in this sense, for the money addict, all money is really counterfeit. We all know we depend on one another, but money can lead you to think you depend on no-one, not even on God. Even giving to charity becomes a favor you do for God, not the grateful fulfillment of your duty as a child of God and a brother or sister to the poor. True wealth could be summed up in the words Jesus uses elsewhere: seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all other things will be given you as well. If you cannot be trusted to develop a healthy attitude to money, how can you be trusted to welcome with sincerity the Kingdom and the righteousness of God?
It should also be said that, if the abuse of money can cause the sin of idolatry to weave its way into the fabric of the soul, abuse of the spiritual gifts given by God will lead to even greater consequences. Indeed, the abuse of material gifts most likely presupposes the abuse of spiritual gifts. The spiritual gifts are given to be developed and used for God’s glory, for one’s salvation and for the growth of the Church and of humanity. If you waste your intelligence through laziness, people will say: what a waste! But are we so quick to lament when someone does not use the grace of their baptism or marriage?
The Lord gives us all these gifts, both material and spiritual, that we might live with grateful hearts, trusting in Him for all that we might yet need. But, let me ask an even more solemn question: what is any gift in comparison with the Giver? God’s gifts are not given so that then, in childish arrogance, we bid Him goodbye and live happily ever after! Every gift, even the most precious, is but a sign of the gift of Himself which He also offers us. We use those gifts in the world and in the Church to build up a civilization of love ready to welcome the coming of His Kingdom: but the gifts are not ends in themselves. We are not baptized for our own sake only, nor married for our own pleasure and convenience, nor given gifts of mind, memory and imagination just to build up another Tower of Babel. All we have and all we are must be focused, directed, propelled towards the Lord who comes. Mammon is for man, but man is for God, so mammon too must be used to serve God in the world, if it is to be used aright, and if we are to be judged as trustworthy in very small matters.
Brothers and sisters: it is urgent that we learn evermore deeply to pray, and to bring the entirety of our lives and activities to God. Do not say you have no time when you see how much time you waste in banalities. Keeping alive the flame of the memory of the living God in your lives is essential to avoid being consumed by idolatry, be it money or any other thing. You will not be able to trade a place in heaven for your stock-market shares.
Christ became poor in suffering and in death that we might become rich in resurrection. Let not money harden your heart to the unspeakable generosity of the Lord and thus, ironically, to rob you of the only wealth which can take you beyond the grave.
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St. Padre Pio da Pietrelcina
(1887-1968)
In one of the largest such ceremonies in history, Pope John Paul II canonized Padre Pio of Pietrelcina on June 16, 2002. It was the 45th canonization ceremony in Pope John Paul's pontificate. More than 300,000 people braved blistering heat as they filled St. Peter's Square and nearby streets. They heard the Holy Father praise the new saint for his prayer and charity. "This is the most concrete synthesis of Padre Pio's teaching," said the pope. He also stressed Padre Pio's witness to the power of suffering. If accepted with love, the Holy Father stressed, such suffering can lead to "a privileged path of sanctity."
Many people have turned to the Italian Capuchin Franciscan to intercede with God on their behalf; among them was the future Pope John Paul II. In 1962, when he was still an archbishop in Poland, he wrote to Padre Pio and asked him to pray for a Polish woman with throat cancer. Within two weeks, she had been cured of her life-threatening disease.
Born Francesco Forgione, Padre Pio grew up in a family of farmers in southern Italy. Twice (1898-1903 and 1910-17) his father worked in Jamaica, New York, to provide the family income.
At the age of 15, Francesco joined the Capuchins and took the name of Pio. He was ordained in 1910 and was drafted during World War I. After he was discovered to have tuberculosis, he was discharged. In 1917 he was assigned to the friary in San Giovanni Rotondo, 75 miles from the city of Bari on the Adriatic.
On September 20, 1918, as he was making his thanksgiving after Mass, Padre Pio had a vision of Jesus. When the vision ended, he had the stigmata in his hands, feet and side.
Life became more complicated after that. Medical doctors, Church authorities and curiosity seekers came to see Padre Pio. In 1924 and again in 1931, the authenticity of the stigmata was questioned; Padre Pio was not permitted to celebrate Mass publicly or to hear confessions. He did not complain of these decisions, which were soon reversed. However, he wrote no letters after 1924. His only other writing, a pamphlet on the agony of Jesus, was done before 1924.
Padre Pio rarely left the friary after he received the stigmata, but busloads of people soon began coming to see him. Each morning after a 5 a.m. Mass in a crowded church, he heard confessions until noon. He took a mid-morning break to bless the sick and all who came to see him. Every afternoon he also heard confessions. In time his confessional ministry would take 10 hours a day; penitents had to take a number so that the situation could be handled. Many of them have said that Padre Pio knew details of their lives that they had never mentioned.
Padre Pio saw Jesus in all the sick and suffering. At his urging, a fine hospital was built on nearby Mount Gargano. The idea arose in 1940; a committee began to collect money. Ground was broken in 1946. Building the hospital was a technical wonder because of the difficulty of getting water there and of hauling up the building supplies. This "House for the Alleviation of Suffering" has 350 beds.
A number of people have reported cures they believe were received through the intercession of Padre Pio. Those who assisted at his Masses came away edified; several curiosity seekers were deeply moved. Like St. Francis, Padre Pio sometimes had his habit torn or cut by souvenir hunters.
One of Padre Pio's sufferings was that unscrupulous people several times circulated prophecies that they claimed originated from him. He never made prophecies about world events and never gave an opinion on matters that he felt belonged to Church authorities to decide. He died on September 23, 1968, and was beatified in 1999.
Comment:
At Padre Pio's canonization Mass in 2002, Pope John Paul II referred to that day's Gospel (Matthew 11:25-30) and said: "The Gospel image of 'yoke' evokes the many trials that the humble Capuchin of San Giovanni Rotondo endured. Today we contemplate in him how sweet is the 'yoke' of Christ and indeed how light the burden are whenever someone carries these with faithful love. The life and mission of Padre Pio testify that difficulties and sorrows, if accepted with love, transform themselves into a privileged journey of holiness, which opens the person toward a greater good, known only to the Lord."
Quote:
"The life of a Christian is nothing but a perpetual struggle against self; there is no flowering of the soul to the beauty of its perfection except at the price of pain" (saying of Padre Pio).
Gospel Reflection 20070916
Jesus seemed to get along best with those whom polite, officially O.K. society regarded as scum and outcasts.
God loves everyone—equally. God respects the dignity and worth of each person. Christians are called to channel and extend that love and respect to all people, "regardless of race, color, creed or national origin," or sexual orientation too.
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The Prodigal Son - A parable of challenge and judgment to anyone who lacks mercy
September 16, 2007
Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Gospel
Lk 15:1-32
Tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to listen to Jesus,
but the Pharisees and scribes began to complain, saying,
“This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
So to them he addressed this parable.
“What man among you having a hundred sheep and losing one of them
would not leave the ninety-nine in the desert
and go after the lost one until he finds it?
And when he does find it,
he sets it on his shoulders with great joy
and, upon his arrival home,
he calls together his friends and neighbors and says to them,
‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’
I tell you, in just the same way
there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents
than over ninety-nine righteous people
who have no need of repentance.
“Or what woman having ten coins and losing one
would not light a lamp and sweep the house,
searching carefully until she finds it?
And when she does find it,
she calls together her friends and neighbors
and says to them,
‘Rejoice with me because I have found the coin that I lost.’
In just the same way, I tell you,
there will be rejoicing among the angels of God
over one sinner who repents.”
Then he said,
“A man had two sons, and the younger son said to his father,
‘Father give me the share of your estate that should come to me.’
So the father divided the property between them.
After a few days, the younger son collected all his belongings
and set off to a distant country
where he squandered his inheritance on a life of dissipation.
When he had freely spent everything,
a severe famine struck that country,
and he found himself in dire need.
So he hired himself out to one of the local citizens
who sent him to his farm to tend the swine.
And he longed to eat his fill of the pods on which the swine fed,
but nobody gave him any.
Coming to his senses he thought,
‘How many of my father’s hired workers
have more than enough food to eat,
but here am I, dying from hunger.
I shall get up and go to my father and I shall say to him,
“Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.
I no longer deserve to be called your son;
treat me as you would treat one of your hired workers.”’
So he got up and went back to his father.
While he was still a long way off,
his father caught sight of him,
and was filled with compassion.
He ran to his son, embraced him and kissed him.
His son said to him,
‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you;
I no longer deserve to be called your son.’
But his father ordered his servants,
‘Quickly bring the finest robe and put it on him;
put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.
Take the fattened calf and slaughter it.
Then let us celebrate with a feast,
because this son of mine was dead, and has come to life again;
he was lost, and has been found.’
Then the celebration began.
Now the older son had been out in the field
and, on his way back, as he neared the house,
he heard the sound of music and dancing.
He called one of the servants and asked what this might mean.
The servant said to him,
‘Your brother has returned
and your father has slaughtered the fattened calf
because he has him back safe and sound.’
He became angry,
and when he refused to enter the house,
his father came out and pleaded with him.
He said to his father in reply,
‘Look, all these years I served you
and not once did I disobey your orders;
yet you never gave me even a young goat to feast on with my friends. But when your son returns,
who swallowed up your property with prostitutes,
for him you slaughter the fattened calf.’
He said to him,
‘My son, you are here with me always;
everything I have is yours.
But now we must celebrate and rejoice,
because your brother was dead and has come to life again;
he was lost and has been found.’”
After going through the story of the Prodigal Son, a Sunday school teacher asked the kids, “At the end of the story who is it that ended up in the worst situation?” One of the kids shot up her hands and answered, “The fatted cow.” The animal-loving child was certainly correct, but the answer the teacher probably expected was “The elder son.”
There are three main characters in the Parable of the Prodigal Son: the father, the younger son, and the elder son. The younger son is a volatile, impatient, easily bored, ready-to-try-everything teenager. He collects his inheritance, goes abroad to see the world, and squanders his birthright in loose living. He represents every sinner. In sin we squander our human and divine birthright and in the end we are no better than in the beginning. Sin promises us a life of happiness, satisfaction and excitement but in the end all we get out of it is misery, wretchedness, dissatisfaction, depression, and a loss of the sense of personal dignity that belongs to us as God’s children. The good news is that no matter how deeply the sinner sinks into sin, there is always a still, silent inner voice within us inviting us to come back to our Father’s house where true freedom and satisfaction is to be found.
Then there is the father who is so loving that he lets his rascally son have whatever he wanted. In fact we can say he even spoils the boy. We have this image of God as a very stern, demanding father who is always ready to whip us into line. This is very far from the image of God we have in this parable. Here God is presented as a tender loving father who is easy on his children, and who is always ready to forgive, no matter what. If this is how God relates to us, then we can see that God possesses the tender-loving quality of mother as well as the tough-loving quality of father.
And finally there is the elder son who is introduced towards the end of the story. If you want to describe the elder son by one word you would call him a gentleman. He is a man of honor, solid, hard-working, consistent, disciplined, and sober — a perfect gentleman. In the elder son we see the virtues, as well as the vices, of middle class morality. What are the vices of middle class morality? Arrogance, better-than-thou attitude, intolerance toward those who do not meet up to our standards, insensitivity and a spirit of unforgiveness. The elder son exhibits these vices in the way he refuses to welcome his lost and found brother, his father’s explanation and invitation notwithstanding. He must have his pound of flesh. For him it is a matter of justice, but for God that is nothing but self-centeredness and unwillingness to forgive.
The first son syndrome is very much alive among us. Do you remember the execution on February 3, 1998 of Karla Faye Tucker? Karla was, to all appearances, a repentant murderer. At the moment of her execution there were two groups of people outside the Texas state prison in Huntsville: a group protesting her execution, who were there praying for her, and a group demanding her execution, who were there cheering and jeering as she was hanged. The praying group was calling for love and mercy and the cheering group was calling for justice. The parable of the Prodigal Son reminds us today that for God love and compassion takes precedence over blind justice.
We often confuse Puritanism for Christianity. To be puritanical is to be scrupulously demanding in religious conduct and morals. For such a person the number one virtue is discipline. To be a Christian, on the other hand, is to profess and live according to the example and teaching of Christ. Here the primary virtue is love and compassion. As Christians we believe in a God of love and compassion. Jesus was a man of love of compassion both in his teachings and in his dealings with others. The challenge for us Christians today is to be people of love and compassion, to be like the prodigal father in the parable and not like the uncompromising elder son in a world full of prodigal sons and daughters.
Suppose for a minute, that you have just died and gone to heaven. That possibility sounds great, after all our lives are supposed to be lived in such manner that we do get there. That is what our faith tells us. Yes, heaven and eternal reward with God is our reward for living faithfully. And we think we did live that way most of the time. But, much to your surprise, your dismay, the first people you run into are Adolph Hitler and Joseph Stalin. How did they get here you wonder even aloud! How could God do this to men who lived so faithlessly? How could God make them equal to me? Surely they could not have repented. Really, how would you feel if they made it to heaven along with you?
And, they may have made it, for we do not know what sort of repentance, what prodigal return on each of their parts might have happened in their dying moments. Would you want to be in heaven with them? Isn't that possibility presented in today's scriptures? But, but... we might object to God, only to finally have to realize that God is so good and so loving and so forgiving that this is possible.
If we look at the Gospel parable we find the story of a son who basically says you are dead, Father, so give me my share of the inheritance. Yes, to demand ones share while ones father was still alive was tantamount to saying that to me you are dead. It says, God may have left you alive, father, but I want you out of the way. I want to do my own thing with everything that is mine.
Only when he finds himself lower than a pig does the son awaken and realize a need to come and ask forgiveness. Something in his very gut says I am wrong. I need forgiveness. I need to know I am loved, even if my status with my father cannot be regained.
So, he comes home, his father loves him into new life.
And along comes his older brother. This brother is proud that he has never strayed like his younger brother. He has never tried to act like his father did not matter. He sees himself as having never sinned like his brother has. Yet, he seems to have followed the rules and to have done all of the necessary actions, but without loving the one for whom he is doing them. He cannot see that he was loved all along. And he cannot let himself love someone who has sinned in a manner different from his own way of sinning… In fact the faithful brother cannot see that following the rules without a sense of living lovingly is a sin.
The Gospel explains in simple middle eastern terms just how much God desires to save all, how God truly finds that no one is expendable, not one lost sheep, not one lost part of a married woman's identity, not the son who wandered off to the wilderness to find his way, not the son who lost his way at in the wilderness of his own bitterness while being loved at home. And yet, we find Jesus having to explain to the Pharisees exactly the fact that it is those who have sinned, that God comes to save. We find Jesus having to explain that all have sinned and all are to be saved.
The story of the brothers and the loving nature of God should hit close to home for every one of us. We are likely both brothers at different times. There are times when we walk away from the Father, walk away from life in Jesus, going our own way. Some wander from family or the Church for a long time before finding they are missing being loved. There are times when we live the rules of family or of Church without a sense of life in them, perhaps even to the point of being scrupulous. We sometimes do it with a great sense of pride.
Which way is worse? The elder brother's way seems to say I love God I love the Church because I do everything right. The younger brother says I don't need God or family, but after a while of wandering he comes to recognize that he has left love behind and needs it badly.
As long as either can be prodigal, either can meet that shameless ever giving father who comes running to meet us and welcome us home, showering us with love. The example of the father is there for us to grow into as the way we treat one another.
We should all pray for the grace to love the other even if he or she sins differently from me; and the grace to know enough to come running to the forgiving God who welcomes us in either case.
Have you ever been in a group listening to a joke being told? You know: at work, with your family, here at Church? And, when the person gives the punch line, everyone laughs or grins; but you didn't get it. You smile awkwardly as you try to figure out why everyone is laughing out loud. Somewhere/somehow you didn't grasp some detail that was central to the twist that made the story funny. You quickly go over it again and again in your mind to try to see what little thing you must have missed.
It's almost like an ice cream company years ago whose slogan was "it's the subtle little difference that makes all the difference." They claimed that there was some secret in their ice cream formula that, no matter how apparently similar it was to other ice creams, there was the slightest difference that made ALL the difference in the flavor of their ice cream.
And, that is precisely what Jesus' parables are. They are about details and they are intended to inspire an 'aha' in a hearer. Each has a punch line, a very subtle twist, which requires attention to details or you won't 'get' Jesus' teaching or challenge.
So it is today. We have heard these parables of forgiveness so many times that we may have missed Jesus' real point. In fact, is it even proper to call them parables of 'forgiveness'? Let's read the opening verses again: "Tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to listen to Jesus, but the Pharisees and scribes began to complain, saying, 'This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.' So, to them he addressed this parable."
The "them" to whom Jesus addresses the parables are the complainers, the leaders and people who don't want sinners to have a place in Jesus' life and ministry. The parable is NOT a word to sinners about God's mercy; it is a parable of challenge and judgment to anyone who lacks mercy. The images of a shepherd seeking his one lost sheep, the woman searching for her one lost coin, the father welcoming back the promiscuous son are all meant to challenge these religious leaders out of their righteousness, their unwillingness to accept a God whose mercy and hospitality extends to all peoples in all times.
From the earliest experience of Israel in the desert in our first reading, through the amazing mercy that Paul acknowledges in the second reading, God has always been first and foremost a God of mercy, a God of patience, a God who seeks out the lost. How then, Jesus demands of the leaders of his time, do you dare to create a God of your rules, your narrowness, your elitism, and ignore the true God of all Jewish and Christian history?
For us, then, today becomes a Sunday of self-reflection. If you or I have been or am now in sin, God's mercy is seeking me, searching for my deepest soul, with a love that is wild beyond imagining, ready to receive and welcome no less than Jesus welcomed sinners in his time. If, however, you or I are leading lights of the Church, the examination must be about our hospitality or lack thereof to those 'outside' our system. No matter how wise and true and accurate our teaching, our moral laws, our Church norms, we must be people of mercy and welcome as we offer them.
FOCUS STATEMENT When we fail as disciples, we need to remember God’s love is complete, unconditional, and beyond our comprehension. God’s forgiveness is always available.
For the past three months the Gospel readings have directed our focus on how the “good disciple” of Jesus Christ lives out their lives.
· We have heard that the good disciple like Christ needs to set their eyes on their journey, to their Jerusalem, and stay focused on their true mission in life.
· We have heard that God calls the good disciple to love him totally, with all their heart, all their being, with all their strength.
· We have heard that the good disciple should treat everyone as their neighbor, with love, care, and compassion.
· We have heard that the good disciple is not afraid any longer, for the Father is pleased to give them the kingdom and so they should store up their treasure in heaven and not be concerned with treasure here on earth.
· We have heard about Mary, the prime example of the good disciple, who was rewarded with being assumed into heaven for her total life of committed devotion to God’s will.
· We have heard that Jesus expects the world to be set on fire, and the good disciple in following him will experience being divided from those who are not as committed to him.
· We have heard that we cannot be his disciple if we are not willing to forsake our families, our own life, or not carry our cross for his sake.
We have been led through the scriptures and encouraged to due the right thing and receive God’s blessings for being the “good disciple”.
And so my question to you today is, how have you done these past three months?
· Has anybody here stayed totally focused on God and their call to follow Jesus?
· Has anybody here lived their life in total love of God, with all their heart, all their being, with all their strength?
· Has anybody here treated everybody you’ve met with love, care, and compassion?
· Has anybody here been afraid of God, or doubted a little, or been working harder to store up treasure in their 401K than storing up treasure in heaven?
· Has anybody here backed off a little in following Jesus because they didn’t want to cause division or strife in a relationship?
· Has anybody here put themselves, or anything or anybody else ahead of following Jesus in their lives?
I don’t think we have to search to hard or look too long to recognize that each of us has failed in some way in being the “good disciple”.
We can be tempted to be depressed, despondent, or give up trying to be the “good disciple” Jesus calls each of us to be. In today’s Gospel we are given insight into the divine logic of forgiveness. Only a foolish shepherd would leave 99 good sheep to find one lost sheep. Only a foolish person would spend hours and needed energy to find a small coin of little worth. And only a foolish parent would welcome back a child who rejected them and their heritage, wasted the parents fortune, and came back only because they were hungry and had no more money to continue living a dissolute life.
But that is what God does for us. That is how God treats us. That is what makes us full of hope. That is what we need to remember. Let us realize like the prodigal son, when we have messed up badly, we only need to return to God’s house, our home, to receive the full and unconditional love and forgiveness of our Father in heaven.
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St. John Chrysostom
(d. 407)
The ambiguity and intrigue surrounding John, the great preacher (his name means "golden-mouthed") from Antioch, are characteristic of the life of any great man in a capital city. Brought to Constantinople after a dozen years of priestly service in Syria, John found himself the reluctant victim of an imperial ruse to make him bishop in the greatest city of the empire. Ascetic, unimposing but dignified, and troubled by stomach ailments from his desert days as a monk, John began his episcopate under the cloud of imperial politics.
If his body was weak, his tongue was powerful. The content of his sermons, his exegesis of Scripture, were never without a point. Sometimes the point stung the high and mighty. Some sermons lasted up to two hours.
His life-style at the imperial court was not appreciated by some courtiers. He offered a modest table to episcopal sycophants hanging around for imperial and ecclesiastical favors. John deplored the court protocol that accorded him precedence before the highest state officials. He would not be a kept man.
His zeal led him to decisive action. Bishops who bribed their way into their office were deposed. Many of his sermons called for concrete steps to share wealth with the poor. The rich did not appreciate hearing from John that private property existed because of Adam's fall from grace any more than married men liked to hear that they were bound to marital fidelity just as much as their wives. When it came to justice and charity, John acknowledged no double standards.
Aloof, energetic, outspoken, especially when he became excited in the pulpit, John was a sure target for criticism and personal trouble. He was accused of gorging himself secretly on rich wines and fine foods. His faithfulness as spiritual director to the rich widow, Olympia, provoked much gossip attempting to prove him a hypocrite where wealth and chastity were concerned. His action taken against unworthy bishops in Asia Minor was viewed by other ecclesiastics as a greedy, uncanonical extension of his authority.
Two prominent personages who personally undertook to discredit John were Theophilus, Archbishop of Alexandria, and Empress Eudoxia. Theophilus feared the growth in importance of the Bishop of Constantinople and took occasion to charge John with fostering heresy. Theophilus and other angered bishops were supported by Eudoxia. The empress resented his sermons contrasting gospel values with the excesses of imperial court life. Whether intended or not, sermons mentioning the lurid Jezebel and impious Herodias were associated with the empress, who finally did manage to have John exiled. He died in exile in 407.
Comment:
John Chrysostom's preaching, by word and example, exemplifies the role of the prophet to comfort the disturbed and to disturb the comfortable. For his honesty and courage he paid the price of a turbulent ministry as bishop, personal vilification and exile.
Quote:
Bishops "should set forth the ways by which are to be solved very grave questions concerning the ownership, increase and just distribution of material goods, peace and war, and brotherly relations among all people" (Decree on the Pastoral Office of Bishops, 12).
Gospel Reflection 20070909
The Holy Spirit changes you, gives you strength and courage and faith.
The Holy Spirit is like air or electricity. You can't see those things, but you can see and feel what they do. The Holy Spirit is a living presence in our lives—just like our heartbeat and pulse—that helps us in whatever we do. It gives us a "reality check," a wake-up call, a boost of creativity or insight or energy or patience or inspiration—whatever we need, whether we know we need it or not.
God's plans for you go beyond your own plans.
Despite your ideas of what you want to do with your life, the Holy Spirit might take you where you least expect to go. An inspiration might come along when you're not looking or asking for it. It may even come when you don't want it! God has something more for you in mind. The Holy Spirit opens your eyes to this "something more" and may take you where you think you do not want to go. But you will be surprised. The Holy Spirit will encourage and strengthen you. It will take the gifts you were given and help you use them to share with others and build a better world.
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The Spiritual Struggle to follow Jesus 100%
September 9, 2007
Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time
Gospel
Lk 14:25-33
Great crowds were traveling with Jesus,
and he turned and addressed them,
“If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother,
wife and children, brothers and sisters,
and even his own life,
he cannot be my disciple.
Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me
cannot be my disciple.
Which of you wishing to construct a tower
does not first sit down and calculate the cost
to see if there is enough for its completion?
Otherwise, after laying the foundation
and finding himself unable to finish the work
the onlookers should laugh at him and say,
‘This one began to build but did not have the resources to finish.’
Or what king marching into battle would not first sit down
and decide whether with ten thousand troops
he can successfully oppose another king
advancing upon him with twenty thousand troops?
But if not, while he is still far away,
he will send a delegation to ask for peace terms.
In the same way,
anyone of you who does not renounce all his possessions
cannot be my disciple.”
Jesus tells me that the greatest commandments are to love God above all else and to love my neighbor as myself. Why then does he ask me to “hate” so many lovable people and things? Perhaps the better expression is to “renounce”. Jesus asks me to love only one thing -- rather, one person -- absolutely. Only God should be the absolute center of my life. All other loves come after and are at the service of this supreme love.
We know the old commandment, “Honor your father and your mother” (Exodus 20:12). We know the new commandment of Jesus, “Love one another; even as I have loved you” (John 13:34). And we come here today and we hear these words of Jesus: “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26). How can we reconcile these seemingly contradictory demands? How can we “hate” those we are supposed to love? And, more importantly, why?
The paradox of hating those we love was dramatized in a most fascinating way on Saturday, September 8, 2001 in the women’s finals of the US Open tennis tournament in Flushing, New York. For the first time in the history of the tournament, the world watched a sportive and emotional roller coaster as two sisters who love themselves so much that they live in the same house and share the same hotel room fought each other. Could you imagine what was going on in the minds of Venus and Serena Williams as they battled and slugged it out against each other, suspending their love for each other and at least temporarily “hating” each other? They had to “hate” each other because the one was standing in the way of the other becoming the world champion. The one was an obstacle to the realization of the other’s dream to wear the world crown. And so they had to hate and fight each other.
Venus won. But she did not do her usual victory leap and celebratory display. Instead she ran to the net, put an arm around her defeated junior sister’s shoulder and said, “I love you.” Why did she say that? Because the game is over now and her sister is no longer an obstacle in the way of her victory. She said, in other words, “I am sorry, but I had to do it: I had to fight you so hard, I had to “hate” you because you were standing in my way. But I still love you.” That was a rare example of hating those we love, and from it we can learn much about the injunction to “hate” our loved ones.
Ordinarily Venus loves Serena, except when Serena becomes an obstacle that could prevent her from realizing her ambition to win the crown. Similarly we are to love our parents and siblings and spouses, and indeed everyone else, except when they become obstacles in our bid to win the crown of eternal life. The crown of heavenly glory that the Father gives us is worth much more than the ephemeral crown that Venus won on that day. So we should be prepared to wage an uncompromising war to see that no person or thing stands in our way to make us lose the crown. Possessions constitute a formidable obstacle in many people’s bid for the crown of salvation. That is why Jesus concludes today’s gospel with these words: “So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions” (v. 33).
Jesus implies that to be his disciple is to relativize every other thing in life: family or wealth, prosperity or health, pleasure or fame. He means that on the list of our goals and priorities in life, attaining the kingdom of God must come first and then everything else will follow. It is a matter of life and death. And the examples he gives to illustrate the seriousness of his teaching come from the field of war.
The first illustration in the Gospel reading is that of the man who intends to build a tower. The tower in the ancient world was basically a strategic structure for the defense of the city in time of war. The second illustration in the Gospel reading is that of the king marching out to war. Notice that the king has only 10,000 troops whereas the enemy has 20,000. Identifying ourselves with the king in the parable, we can see that the enemy outnumbers us two to one. “For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12). We are bound to fail unless we appeal to a stronger king to come to our assistance. And that powerful king, the King of kings, is none other than God Himself.
Today’s gospel, therefore, shows us how absolute and how radical are the demands of discipleship. Following Jesus is much harder than winning the US Open. The good news is that Jesus recognizes our human weaknesses: we are 10,000 strong and the enemy is 20,000. It is, therefore, an invitation for us to have recourse to God, for without God we can do nothing.
Part of the American Dream is the ability to "strike it rich." In our not too distant past such strikes were made by hard work, prudent spending, and the will power to save. For the more adventurous, the work ethic is replaced by the fever of speculation on the stock market.
However, many have found that the market also obeys the law of gravity — what goes up must come down. Today's entrepreneurial urges lead in another direction, namely, write a best seller and appear on the talk shows. Subjects abound: how to lose weight; get a promotion; survive the corporate jungle; and above all, how to workout so as to look tall, tan, and terrific.
But there is a subject that is a sure fire success, namely, a how-to book which helps one manage one's interpersonal life. Interpersonal technique books abound. We don't seem to get enough of them. Maybe part of the reason is that we Americans are more comfortable with our work than with our fellows. Whatever the reason, 'one on one' is big business.
The Gospel reading speaks about some very delicate forms of human relationships. And I am not that sure there would be much of a market for such biblical wisdom. For example: Jesus says to the crowd, "If anyone comes to me without turning his back on his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters, indeed his very self, he cannot be my follower."
For the modern mind these words might seem like some kind of Freudian quest for self-development and independence. Maybe Jesus is laying the groundwork for some of our present day notions of family life: superficial encounter of the briefest kind. Family members have to assert their rights and claim their space. Naturally this can cause conflict. However, if we are to be healthy individuals we must stake our claims. Of course Jesus is advocating no such thing. Jesus is much more radical than today's so-called radical approaches to family and interpersonal relationships. Jesus is saying that it is important to be friends with ourselves and love our parents, children, and spouse. However, and this however is crucial, human relationships, no matter how intense, long lasting, loving, or meaningful, are not of ultimate importance.
There is only one who is worthy of our total concern. And that One is Jesus the Christ. In fact, it is only by being ultimately concerned in Him that our concern about self, others, and world takes on significance. For without Jesus our concern often becomes a form of domination, control, and manipulation. Jesus never spoke in 'how-to' terms or advocated techniques in order to pull strings and win friends. Our loving and caring are human, and reflect the divine, to the extent that we 'care and not care. ' Only Jesus is ultimate. Only Jesus saves.
In an age which wants to pull its own strings, look out for number one, and protect individual rights, Jesus seems awfully strange. The words of Wisdom seem appropriate: "When things are in heaven who can search them out?" But the wisdom of Jesus is not only in heaven. His counsel touches our very lives.
For more than 10 weeks now we have been walking with Jesus as He makes His way to Jerusalem. It is there, in the holy city, that He will lay down His life for the salvation of the world. Each Sunday, as we hear the continuous proclamation of the Gospel of St. Luke, we are invited to join Jesus and His disciples in their pilgrimage. In the course of the journey Jesus tells His disciples – and us – the meaning of authentic discipleship. By means of parables and direct teachings we come to see the qualities and expectations of a disciple of Christ.
Let’s recall some of those teachings:
The disciple of Christ must make a firm and irrevocable decision to be with Jesus. (No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God.)
The disciple must rely completely on God. (Carry no money bag, no sack, no sandals…)
The disciple must practice charity toward his neighbor. (Parable of the Good Samaritan)
The disciple is one who listens attentively to the voice of God. (Mary has chosen the better part…)
The disciple is a person of faithful and persevering prayer. (Ask and you will receive; seek and you will find…)
The list could easily continue, but now we should listen carefully to what the Master has to say in today’s Gospel passage. St. Luke tells us that Jesus and His disciples have been joined by great crowds. To them Jesus now reveals the cost of true discipleship:
“If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.”
“Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.”
“…anyone of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple.”
If we are at all tempted to romanticize the gift of discipleship, these words of the Lord ought to dispel any such notions. Living the Gospel means total and absolute surrender to God, valuing nothing or no one more than sharing by grace in the very life, death and resurrection of Jesus.
How are we to understand these teachings? How is it possible to be so completely devoted to another that this devotion surpasses all loves and relationships of this world? All of this is so contrary to the logic and inclinations that we as human beings have. How to explain all this?
Jesus calls forth from His disciples the same love, the same obedience, the same single-hearted dedication that He has for His Father. In other words, the authentic disciple must imitate Christ Himself. Our experience shows us that we are capable of the kind of total sacrifice that Jesus demands of us. Think for a moment of the self-sacrificing love of spouses for each other, of parents for their children. This gives us an idea of the kind of complete gift of self that is demanded of the disciple. One cannot be a part-time or sometimes disciple. We cannot follow Jesus only when it is convenient and does not demand too very much from us.
If this is what true Christian discipleship demands, who can possibly answer the call? Which of us has it within himself to value God and the things of God above even our own families? Ahead of power, success, money – even life itself? None of us does. We can respond to this call to discipleship only by the grace of the same God who calls us. It is when we rely on our own resources that we quickly discover just how incapable we are. It is when we open ourselves to the grace of God in our lives that we discover just how powerful we are. This is what St. Paul reveals to us when he says: “Power is made perfect in weakness.”
Jesus’ parables of the farmer building his tower and the king setting out to do battle illustrate the foolishness of setting about accomplishing a task that is doomed to failure. We simply cannot be the kind of disciple that Jesus demands unless we rely completely on divine grace. With God nothing is impossible, not even the renunciation of everything that this world has to offer so that we might follow Christ perfectly.
I think this is the harshest Gospel passage there is! “Unless you hate you father, your mother, your wife, your children, your property, and even your own life, you cannot be my disciple!” I would much rather meditate on that gentle passage from Matthew, chapter 11, where Jesus says, “Learn of me, for I am meek and humble of heart. My yoke is easy and my burden is light.” But this! Is this Gospel, if “Gospel” means “Good News”?
Are you ready to give up your job? Your boyfriend? Your wife? To follow Jesus!? But just how far can one go? And how far is God going to push me? Do I have the strength to do what is humanly impossible? No, I do not have it.
However, I remember the story of a little girl who did not have it, but when she needed it, she got it. Perhaps you are familiar with the story of Cory Ten Boom, a little girl living in the Netherlands during the Second World War. The Nazis had overrun Holland. There were a lot of Jews in Holland at that time. Some, knowing what it means to be disciples of Jesus, undertook to hide Jews who were being rounded up by the Nazis and shipped of to prison. And, as we now know, to more than prison; it meant death for most of them. These Christians heard the call to protect those who were being persecuted. Cory’s father heard the call. He explained to Cory what it meant – how they were taking a risk, and that they it was very possible that they would get caught, and they themselves could well be thrown into prison. Or executed. And little Cory, who was about 10 or 11 years old, said to her father, “I don’t think I have the strength or the courage to go through with this.”
Cory’s father sat her down and told her the truth: “You do not have the strength now. But do you remember when I used to put you on the train to go visit your grandparents? You traveled all alone. I put you on the train, and you didn’t have a ticket. But just before the train pulled out, and just before I left your side, I would always give you the ticket. When the time came, Then you had what you needed. Well, that’s the way it is here. When the time comes, God will give us whatever is we need. And so Cory was encouraged.
As a matter of fact, they were caught. And they did get hauled off to prison. The family was split up in the process. Her daddy and all the rest of her family disappeared. We assume that each of them was given the strength they needed for the situation they were in. But as a matter of fact, the only one to survive the ordeal, and to live to the end of the war, was Cory. All they others disappeared forever. We do have the testimony of Cory, who wrote a book about it, that she did get from God the strength she needed to carry her through her ordeal. And to do a lot of spiritual growth in the process.
“…. Father, and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, even one’s own life….” Yes. Jesus was obviously not talking about hate, but, in typical Hebraic fashion, He was talking about the ability to prefer something else over and above the things that we naturally hold very dear to ourselves.
Frankly, it is not humanly possible to do these things. But God is beyond what is humanly possible.
In our times it is said that some two billion people carry the name of Christian.
The motives for Jesus’ great following are, however, far from clear. Some did and do indeed follow Him in faith; they are really prepared to surrender themselves to Him for His own sake. But many sought and seek Him for their own sake. In the past, but also today, He is sought out for His miraculous powers, especially to heal bodies and psyches. Today, He is sought out to justify consciences and world-views, to supply nice feelings and soothing words, to fulfill the psycho-social need for a credible hero figure. People can follow Jesus to manipulate Him.
But Jesus sees right through our would-be manipulations; nor does He, in the words of the pop psychology book, indulge in the “games people play.” He is not impressed by numbers, applause or wealth. When it comes to relating with us, Jesus has one simple rule: prefer absolutely nothing and no-one to Me. This rule is not at all reasonable or fair, it violates every code of human rights you can think of, it defies negotiation and compromise; it goes against the grain of almost every instinct of our humanity. It is total and absolute, without exception, without excuse, radical and subversive; it makes no separation between one dimension of life and another; it does not accommodate at all our notions of privacy or publicity; it is neither apologetic nor subject to appeal; it respects neither the claims of reason, nor the seductions of culture nor the vicissitudes of history; it holds true for every human being, be they Pope or pauper, friend or foe; death itself cannot exempt the human person from that rule. This claim of Jesus Christ thus appears as madness in the eyes of the pseudo-sophisticated. Yet, it is a dramatic, almost desperate, statement of the wisdom of God who knows that the human heart can find fulfillment only in the person of Jesus Christ. The desperation and drama are couched in deliberately outrageous terms: “If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. … Anyone of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple.” No matter how much we want to soften these words, they remain scandalous, they shock, they raise profound feelings of resistance and resentment, they outrage.
Do we realize what Jesus is asking? It is not difficult to imagine how that great crowd of people following Him reacted. As they said of Him when He once spoke of eating His flesh, “this is intolerable language: who can accept it?” Today we might be tempted to rationalize what He asks of us by describing His words as mere “rhetoric” or symbolism. Yet, to do so could signal a rejection of the real demand of Jesus. If Jesus puts Himself before mother and father, whom we are told in the fourth commandment to obey, or before wife and children, to whom we must be faithful in obedience to at least the sixth commandment, or our own life, which we must protect in fulfillment of the fifth commandment, what on earth can He be claiming? Is He not abrogating those commandments? Is He not exalting hatred? Surely the only answer can be the first commandment: I am the Lord your God, you must have no other god before me. The answer is also the second commandment: take not my name in vain, that is, do not invoke me as God and then abuse my Name to back up your own lies. The answer is also the third commandment: keep holy the Sabbath day, that is worship me faithfully before you give your time and love and reverence to anyone else. Put simply, in turning to the crowds with such outrageous and radical language, Jesus is saying to them: do not follow me as men follow one another, even in their families; follow me as God, for that is Who I Am. Jesus is proclaiming His divinity. He demands, for He deserves, our first, last and greatest love. For the disciple of Jesus, the Son of God made man is the hub of the wheel around which all our other relationships must rotate, the great sea into which all the rivers of our loves must flow.
We should never let either family or friends separate us from Christ, from following Him and doing His will. For in the day that we do, we have put human ties before God. Parents or offspring who impede one another’s fidelity to Christ are, to that degree, failing in their vocation as family. No human relationship can claim honor or loyalty if it deliberately dishonors loyalty to Jesus. Indeed, says Jesus, we must, in this sense, hate it lest it destroy us. Without Jesus we don’t know how to love anyway, beyond a merely human affection. In the power and in the logic of His love will we alone be able to love our family members with the deepest and truest love of which we are capable. To believe in Jesus costs us not less than everything, but all that is renounced for His sake will be repaid a hundred times over; if, however, we prefer absolutely anyone or anything to Him, then that too will cost us everything, but with nothing in return.
Clearly, we must all grow into this total self-surrender, and Jesus Himself is the first to see that. We all experience the spiritual struggle to follow Him one hundred percent. What is important is that we rouse ourselves daily to aim for that one hundred percent; there will be frustration and tension, failure and a sense of distance from Jesus. But, if we do not try to justify our evil, and rise from every fall in confession and hope, we will be winning the battle. The longest journey begins with a small step, and most often all our effort is needed just to do that. An army is made up of individual troops; a tower is built with single stones. Perfect love for Christ grows with every little act of love done with a sincere heart. The words of Jesus are not intended to discourage us, and even less to break up our relationships. They are intended to set out the horizon, the hope, the goal to which we are called and at which, some fine day, we will arrive in persevering freedom and in merciful grace.
In the meantime, however, we cannot dilute who Christ is to suit our own agendas or comfort zones; we cannot emasculate the Gospel in a policy of appeasement to a culture which does not realize how close it is to losing its soul. It is by our faithful, daily witness to Christ that we can best serve our culture, by recognizing the power of Christ’s supremacy in the most humble and in the most grandiose of circumstances. Our institutions and strategies as Church keep their Gospel meaning only insofar as they remain faithful to Christ. Otherwise we pride ourselves on mere social achievements and as just one more player in the social arena. For example, what use is a Christian school, university or hospital if its Christian identity and inspiration are compromised beyond recognition? It might well be a prestigious educational or welfare institution in the eyes of some public evaluation system; it might even do a great deal of good from the health, employment or educational point of view. But if it is not a living example of the absolute supremacy of Christ; if it does not exalt the power of Christ to transform hearts and minds in the freedom of His truth; if the religious and moral living, at least of those who direct it, do not foster a radical preference for Christ, or if its mission statement and norms of functioning are not embedded in the teaching of Christ’s Church: then the word Christian is at best nostalgic, and at worst might be a cynical abuse of the name as a front to draw in numbers and make money. It is a half finished tower, derelict in its witness and, if we are intellectually honest, deserving of scorn for its failure to live up to its mission.
Prefer absolutely nothing to the love of Christ, then all will go well with you. Be at least spiritually detached from all your possessions and then the One who gave you them will Himself be your portion. Plant all the loves of your heart in the Heart of Christ; and if Christ’s Heart rejects them, do not cling to them, lest you find yourself uprooted from His Heart. Jesus summons all that is in each of us to love Him and to worship Him above all things. Do not miss your rendezvous with the “great crowds” who follow Jesus into eternity. Do not ignore the call to the passionate generosity of the communion of saints.
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St. Thomas of Villanova
(1488-1555)
St. Thomas was from Castile in Spain and received his surname from the town where he was raised. He received a superior education at the University of Alcala and became a popular professor of philosophy there.
After joining the Augustinian friars at Salamanca he was ordained and resumed his teaching, despite a continuing absentmindedness and poor memory. He became prior and then provincial of the friars, sending the first Augustinians to the New World. He was nominated by the emperor to the archbishopric of Granada, but refused. When the see again became vacant he was pressured to accept. The money his cathedral chapter gave him to furnish his house was given to a hospital instead. His explanation to them was that "our Lord will be better served by your money being spent on the poor in the hospital. What does a poor friar like myself want with furniture?"
He wore the same habit that he had received in the novitiate, mending it himself. The canons and domestics were ashamed of him, but they could not convince him to change. Several hundred poor came to Thomas's door each morning and received a meal, wine and money. When criticized because he was at times being taken advantage of, he replied, "If there are people who refuse to work, that is for the governor and the police to deal with. My duty is to assist and relieve those who come to my door." He took in orphans and paid his servants for every deserted child they brought to him. He encouraged the wealthy to imitate his example and be richer in mercy and charity than they were in earthly possessions.
Criticized because he refused to be harsh or swift in correcting sinners, he said, "Let him (the complainer) inquire whether St. Augustine and St. John Chrysostom used anathemas and excommunication to stop the drunkenness and blasphemy which were so common among the people under their care."
As he lay dying, Thomas commanded that all the money he possessed be distributed to the poor. His material goods were to be given to the rector of his college. Mass was being said in his presence when after Communion he breathed his last, reciting the words: "Into your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit."
Thomas of Villanova was already called in his lifetime "the almsgiver" and "the father of the poor." He was canonized in 1658.
Comment:
The absent-minded professor is a stock comic figure. This absent-minded professor earned even more derisive laughs with his determined shabbiness and his willingness to let the poor who flocked to his door take advantage of him. He embarrassed his peers, but Jesus was enormously pleased with him. We are often tempted to tend our image in others' eyes without paying sufficient attention about how we look to Christ. Thomas still urges us to rethink our priorities.
Gospel Reflection 20070902
God is big enough to deal with your questions.
Be open with God! Questions can shake us up, especially when they concern things that are important to us. In the end, faith is about your relationship with God. If you can't take your questions to God in prayer, then you may be avoiding the one experience of dialogue that can be the most fruitful.
Sometimes it may be difficult to find God in prayer, but the effort is worth it. God is there and wants to find you.
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Christ, the Demanding Guest
September 2, 2007
Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time
Gospel
Lk 14:1, 7-14
On a Sabbath Jesus went to dine
at the home of one of the leading Pharisees,
and the people there were observing him carefully.
He told a parable to those who had been invited,
noticing how they were choosing the places of honor at the table.
“When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet,
do not recline at table in the place of honor.
A more distinguished guest than you may have been invited by him,
and the host who invited both of you may approach you and say,
‘Give your place to this man,’
and then you would proceed with embarrassment
to take the lowest place.
Rather, when you are invited,
go and take the lowest place
so that when the host comes to you he may say,
‘My friend, move up to a higher position.’
Then you will enjoy the esteem of your companions at the table.
For every one who exalts himself will be humbled,
but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Then he said to the host who invited him,
“When you hold a lunch or a dinner,
do not invite your friends or your brothers
or your relatives or your wealthy neighbors,
in case they may invite you back and you have repayment.
Rather, when you hold a banquet,
invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind;
blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you.
For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”
Christianity isn’t comfortable. We have to be ready to discover that we are not as holy and good as we thought we were. Humility is an essential virtue for any true Christian.
What if Jesus was to come back today? Think about it. What an impact it would have? If you could, wouldn’t you want to be there? To sit at his right or his left. To dine with him. Or perhaps you would want to be furthest away from him because you don’t think you are worthy. Because you are a sinner.
Well, I must confess that I am a sinner too.
Today we see that Jesus loves those who are lowly. That is those who are low because of their sin, not because society says they are not worthy. Jesus has come to invite all those who are willing to truly examine themselves and to know who they are to join him at a wonderful banquet.
A story is told of an event that happened in a church that was located right off the entrance to a small college. The pastor and elders of the congregation seemed to lament the fact that with all of the students, the faculty and even visitors to the campus, participation at Sunday worship never varied, actually there seemed to be a decline. A study was commissioned and revealed that people not attending the church viewed the congregation as “stuffy” and uninviting.
One Sunday the service was well underway when the door opened with a loud creak. Everyone’s head turned to see a young man enter who obviously did not belong. His hair was long and stringy…he wore cut-offs and a short-sleeved shirt…he had multiple tattoos on his arms and legs…he looked rough and unkempt. He was obviously a student at the school. His presence in the church caused a great amount of tension.
He walked slowly, hesitantly down the center aisle looking for a place to sit but no one would move over to make room in a pew. His presence interrupted the service. He completed his walk not finding a place to sit, so he sat down on the floor at the foot of the sanctuary.
People were shocked. Won’t someone do something? Certainly this person should be dealt with immediately. Then the congregation heard the familiar sound of an elder walking slowly down the aisle toward the miscreant. He was the most respected person in the congregation; he was dressed in his dark blue three-piece suit, he walked with a slight limp and had to use a cane. He slowly made his way down the aisle, each step punctuated with the faint click of the cane tapping the marble floor.
He finally got to where the young man was sitting and everyone thought now this individual will get what he deserves. The Elder handed his cane to someone in the front pew and leaned over grasping the shoulder of the man sitting on the floor, he eased himself down next to him to join him in worship.
The minister regaining his composure, commented that they just witnessed the gospel alive in their midst.
There is an immediate tension in today’s gospel. On the surface invitations like the one Jesus received are typically given to equals, people of the same status or position in the community. The obvious meaning is that all whom the host has invited will certainly return the invitation. Jesus presence then indicates that he is highly regarded in this circle of professionals.
As our gospel begins though, there is a direct reference that all things are not as they appear. The host and guests were “watching” Jesus closely. The implication used in the text is one of hostility. They hoped to catch him in a shortcoming of some sort. After all Jesus did have a reputation of not following accepted practices while dining. What would he do to shock them today?
Jesus is watching as well. He is observant of who has been invited. And he is watching their behavior as they try to position themselves for a better seat at the table. It should come as no surprise that he would comment on what he sees. Yet, it is in his comments that he becomes the host inviting everyone into his Father’s kingdom.
On the surface it appears that Jesus’ comments suggest that guests should be shrewd in positioning themselves at a dinner. He tells them; Always take the lower seat…and don’t sit at the appropriate place…always sit in the lesser place…otherwise how will you be honored when you are invited to a greater position. It’s almost as if he is inviting the guests to fake humility.
Perhaps for some this is exactly what they wanted to hear. But in reality is he is talking about changing a way of living. Everyone who heard him (including us) are invited to sit with people who are on the margins of society…be willing to listen to them…to feel what they are experiencing…defend…or…assist where possible. Isn’t this what Jesus did?
Jesus also challenges the host to invite those who cannot possibly repay the kindness. Throw open the doors to your home…invite impartially and your feast will be wonderful. If you only invite those who can repay, they will say to each other… “He only invited us because we are to return the gesture,” in this manner there is no feast…there is no celebration. After all, who among us are worthy of the Father’s invitation? We can do nothing to deserve or repay his invitation. Yet it is through God’s love that we are always invited…always welcomed.
Jesus challenges us:
· Do we judge those who we come in contact?
· Do we place restrictions on who is welcomed?
· Do we act in calculating ways in order to gain some advantage later?
Our response is to take the time necessary to walk the “aisles” of our life and be willing to sit on the floor to worship…to praise God.
And then, we can look at our actions and joyfully witness the gospel alive in our midst.
Imagine the meal at this leading Pharisee's house being televised. Already there has been a build up in press reports that Jesus, the central character of this TV program, may say something controversial or do something extraordinary. Any would-be audience will be in a position "having watched him closely" to give their considered opinion on how Jesus performed. Well, we don't happen to have any TV footage of the occasion, slides or sound recordings. What we have is a record of the event given us by Luke in his Gospel today.
For all we know Jesus could have been a regular visitor to this Pharisee's house. Was this just another visit, another simple meal managed without too much controversy? No. Jesus was going to be watched closely. Before ever he talked about people putting themselves second, lowering themselves, he had just done that very thing already, by becoming like one of us human beings. God's Son will cause something of a religious earthquake; any dormant plates on which traditional religions rested upon until now would experience a series of shock waves. Christ's words and actions while touching the core of established religion and new religion alike would not end there: His mission on earth would now run its course effecting a change in every human heart. He will be God-with-us; He will not judge by appearances instead He will see into people's hearts (1 Samuel 16: 7).
During the visit to the home of this leading Pharisee He will point out to all present how their lives are to be truly disposed to God. Jesus will be grateful to be entertained by His host and fellow guests if only all kinds of people are made welcome and they are not selective in their choice of seating. By now, perhaps, certain members of that TV audience, if they have not already switched channels, may very well be ready to do so; the holy one of God is beginning to look into their hearts, and they can feel it. It is becoming a little disturbing; there may be murmurings from certain folk: like, 'I will invite whom I like,' or, 'I will sit wherever I like at my friend's house; after all I am as good as the next person.'
Of course we are all equal in God's sight. It is always good to know that I am loved by God and so are all people irrespective of who they are. It is also good to know that God creates no barriers between Himself and people; it is people who create obstacles between themselves and God. Our words and actions can include or exclude at a whim people we meet in our everyday life. We even do that in our thoughts by thinking bad or good of certain people.
Often we can think of people in terms of cost and reward: can I afford to spend my time and energy on people whom I am in a position to help? There is a reward for caring about other people; this is something that Jesus makes very clear: those who care for the least thought of in our community will join the virtuous when the resurrection of the dead happens (v. 14).
Have you ever had to eat humble pie? We usually have to do that when we have acted as if we know something, or led people to believe that we were capable of something, only to find out later, in the sight of many others, that we could not live up to our billing. Eating humble pie is forced on us by being humiliated in public and living with the consequences. The humility that is spoken of in the scriptures this weekend is voluntarily taken on by one who follows in the footsteps of Jesus.
Imagine the daily task of a mother or father who is raising children. They are constantly faced with decisions about the maturity of their children. How can they as parents give life day by day to their sons and daughters? Letting their children shine, many times brighter than the parents, and rejoicing in the success and taking a back seat. Humbly accepting a lower place in the attention of others for the sake of building up their children.
Imagine the daily task of the married couple who tries each day to keep their commitment fresh and alive. With the daily hurts and loneliness, even in the midst of marriage, each partner has to choose to set aside some of his or her immediate wants for the sake of the other partner. When life doesn't come up with the same results as what they had dreamed the future would be like. Chosen humility calls the partners to set aside their own wants for the sake of the other.
Chosen humility is a great thought but do we ever really choose it freely? Is humility one of those "religious" terms that we say is great but the living out is so much more difficult to choose? The specific gospel example is one that most of us would never choose. Plan a banquet and then invite those you do not know? Throw a party for those who are poor and downtrodden? Pick out the people in your life with whom you have the greatest distance and invite them to your house for a good time? If we are honest, most of us have never done that and never would! When we have a party, we invite our friends. When we plan a dinner, we are hospitable to those who are the same to us or who can make a connection in business for us. Why would we waste our time with those who have no connection, with the poor, with the sick and suffering? Wouldn't it take the fun out of the evening? Wouldn't it be more trouble than it was worth?
Before we dismiss the gospel teaching on chosen humility as crazy or out-dated, let's reflect about some of our own experiences. If you take some time and sort through your memories, you can come up with a time when you did do what the gospel is suggesting. There has been a time when you did choose humility! There are those who pull on our time and energy all the time. Sometimes we keep them at bay and sometimes we say yes to their requests. When we have said yes and decided to embrace them with our time and presence, we have been surprised.
I think we all know that we can help people. We all know that you kind of feel good after you have done something like that. But what about the hidden gift? That gift is the growing awareness that poverty, hunger, disease or any other circumstance in life does not have the power to make us different than others. We are all one. We are all brothers and sisters. This hidden gift of ministry, the one that each of us receives when we choose to love and be humble, is stored in our hearts. It is especially helpful when we battle our own loneliness. And each of us does battle loneliness! When we are sick and feeling alone, when we are misunderstood and feeling alone, when we are made fun of or abused and feeling alone, this hidden gift of ministry becomes our saving grace. It reminds us that we are not alone. No matter what seems to separate us from others, the real truth is that we are one. We are the hands and the heart and the face of God to each other. Why not choose humility if it has such long lasting grace?
The theme and lesson of the Gospel is obvious. We are to be humble. But if we stop there, it is like eating our dinner in one bite. We may get some nourishment but the shock to our system or its inability to digest so much at once will minimize the full effect that a good meal can have upon us. So let us take a few moments to chew on this lesson one bite at a time and savor each one. Let us take the time so each morsel can have its full effect on our system.
The word “humility” comes from the Latin word “humus” which means ground. So one who is humble is grounded. Specifically, they are grounded in reality. That is why we must be careful and avoid false humility – of being falsely grounded in perceived reality. This is really not as easy as it might seem. Even if we are open to knowing true reality, and pursue it, we can be led astray by others, our culture, or history in believing a less than true or accurate or honest reality. This is the third time Jesus has been invited to dinner in Luke’s gospel, and it is the third time he has taken the opportunity to challenge, or correct the host, their guests, or both. This time he cautions the guests about their jockeying for a “place of honor”. His warning is clearly aimed at preventing them from buying into a false perception of their honor or position. Humility here would be the awareness of who they really are in relationship with the other guests. His caution includes the condition that one may not always know the true reality and it would be wiser to not assume you know it. His warning to the host is aimed at helping the host see that to invite only those who can help you or do something for you is also a false perception of reality. Here Jesus is calling the host, and us, to put everything into its proper context. As the gospel ended several weeks ago, “thus it will be for all who store up treasure for themselves but are not rich in what matters to God:” If we are truly seeing things as they really are, including ourselves and our place in things, we would be acting very differently. Can we be humble enough to accept our error, or misconceptions of reality, and be open to letting Jesus show us the Way, the Truth, and the Life that will lead us to happiness, fulfillment, joy, and eternal life?
In truth, most if not all the problems of our lives, and our times, can be traced to our misperceptions of reality. From our earliest days of consciousness, our mind is trying to perceive reality. We misread, misjudge, or are just misinformed about so many things. Yet this is what we use to make our conscious and subconscious decisions about everything in life. Now here you might start thinking you are an exception. But - IN REALITY – we all suffer from this problem because its part of the human condition. The core attitudes or perspective of the world, and ourselves were formed before we turned seven years old. Therefore they were developed when we didn’t have the full and refined use of our reasoning. We developed an immature and unreasoned outlook toward things that we carried with us as we matured, and this is where the virtue of Humility is critical. Without humility we cannot be open to change, or to learning the full reality around us. Without humility we will use the immature attitudes and outlooks we developed in early childhood. This is what many spiritual writers refer to as the false self. It is the self we have created. It is the self we believe ourselves to be and how we try to make the world fit to our perception of this false reality. This is what Paul refers to as the “old self” that dies when we unite with Jesus Christ. This is what Jesus tries to teach and show his disciples and us in the Gospels.
To be humble is to recognize reality, acknowledge reality, accept reality, and live in accordance with that reality. It is reality- that we can’t do that without God’s help.
Of the virtues of the Christian life, humility is certainly among the most difficult for our human nature to accept. Charity, hope and faith, even forgiveness and patience, are all virtues for which we can more or less see good reason. They all somehow leave us in control of things. But humility just rubs us up the wrong way – when, that is, we are the ones who must be humble. It’s all right, indeed it is expected, that others be humble in our presence! To be humble is effectively to lose control; it lets others be, it cherishes that others be better, be more and have more than ourselves. Being humble can thus appear to be a kind of weakness; some might even perceive it as a lack of true self-respect or personal dignity. In a world where self-assertion and self-exaltation are expected, humility disconcerts. In a vision in which the vindication of “my rights and freedoms” seems at times to ignore the fulfillment of duty and the utter gratuity of God’s gifts, humility might even be perceived as counter-cultural and as resignation to man’s tendency to exploit the weak.
Yet, it was in humility that Christ came to us; it is still in humility that He comes to us on the pages of a book we call the Bible, or in the least of our brethren. The fact that God is humble illustrates why religious living and social living cannot be artificially separated, for the humility of God judges the arrogance, both subtle and blatant, present in human society. As Jesus signals to us in the Gospel, humility is a basic ground-rule of how we compare ourselves to others, and of how we are to relate to one another, for it is fundamental to God’s way of dealing with us. Both the guest and the host are admonished to be humble. One might extend this image and say: the one who takes social initiatives (the host) and the one who is the object of them (the guest) must be humble. We can then apply humility to almost any category of life: the one who sells and the one who buys; the one who governs and the one who is governed; the one who makes the laws, and the one who keeps them; the one who judges and the one who is judged; the parent and the child; the doctor and the patient; the teacher and the pupil. Had Jesus found Himself in any situation other than a dinner, He would undoubtedly have applied His teaching on humility to that situation, because humility is a Christian universal, transcendent as a virtue, yet immanent and particular in every circumstance. If denied in one circumstance, it obscures the transcendent virtue; if present in any circumstance, the light of the transcendent shines through it. That is why the truly humble will be loved more than the giver of many gifts. As was the case with Mary, the dignity of the humble will be magnified eternally. The mighty of this world will be scattered in the conceit of their heart.
Humility comes from the Latin word “humus” meaning “earth”. The humble in this sense is then said to mean the one who is the lowest because they put themselves under the feet of everyone else. This notion is certainly not pleasing; it may also not be the most accurate. Humility is not about demeaning oneself; it is not the baptism of the inferiority complex. Nor is it therefore a question of denying one’s own dignity, giftedness or accomplishments. Humility is more aptly interpreted as “being grounded”, “being earthed”, having a firm foundation in the truth, living and thinking, not in arrogant fantasy, but in the beauty of the truth. Far from denying who one really is, humility is the virtue which expresses and strengthens who one really is, who others really are, who God really is. Again, however, who one is, is not something conferred upon one by the fashions and fads of the time. Clearly, we live in time and space, and so we become aware of ourselves through the places we go and have been, as well as in the times and seasons in which we have lived. But both time and space are passing, from our perspective and from God’s. If we are who we are only because of the time we live and the places we have been, then we too are passing, and so is God. But that contradicts our deepest human experience, and it contradicts the Word of God. It is not so much that we pass through time as that time passes through us. We come from eternity and we are destined for it. In the midst of time and space, we are the living signs of God’s own eternity. Indeed, He gives us time and space so that we can discover the eternal dignity of who we are, thank Him for it and return ourselves to Him. Death itself, because of Christ, is only a step from time to eternity, from space to heaven, and it too will pass. Who we now are, therefore, cannot be explained fully by the circumstances of our lives, but by the inner truth of our relationship to God and to one another. That is why the denial of God is such a tragedy: the one who truly believes that he or she finds their final value in mundane activities or in themselves as they are in this world, is living a very deep crisis of identity, no matter how well they cover it up, in good faith or in bad. They do not really know who they are or who anyone else is. The truth of human existence, the ground of human existence, the humility of human existence is that we are living gifts of the eternal power and love of the Trinity; humble living is to accept that truth and to live all things, times, seasons and places in the power and in the love of God.
When an athlete prepares to perform, he knows he must develop attitude and focus; without these, his performance will be poor. Humility is like the attitude and the focus we need to perform. What is it we perform? The only actions we can perform that are ultimately worth anything, that will lead us along the race-track to God, that will win us the prize of the Resurrection, are the actions of true charity. We live to love with the love of God; at the end of the day, we will be judged on and by charity. Humility enables us to live in charity, because it enables us to be grounded in the truth, to remember whence we have come and whither we run. As focus and attitude are for the athlete, so humility will energize us; it will render us agile in love; humility frees us from the encumbrances of a false understanding of self, of others, of God; it calls the bluff of deceptive and arrogant living. Some people, also, alas, in public discourse, speak as if their very limited perspective on things is the key to the understanding of history. Others will deny in good faith that they do any such thing, but then will proceed to live as though they do. Despite the lessons of history, we are continually reinventing the wheel. Of course, we must invent new things, foster progress in respect for human dignity, justice and peace, and also in science and technology. But we need to keep our sense of perspective! What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, yet to lose his real self? All our efforts and progress, in whatever field, require the humility, the attitude and the focus, the perspective of the final destiny of the world. To say this is neither idealistic, nor impractical nor “Neanderthal”; it is the very essence of realism and practicality to keep in mind the purpose of what one is doing in the context of the whole. If God is our destiny, then how can we keep a straight face and proceed in the opposite direction by undertaking projects and initiatives which fly in the face of the will of God, that is, the humility of the truth? People say they want to see ahead, prepare for future generations. Yes, of course, those are splendid statements of principle and every human being should embrace them; but is it not shortsighted, or even blind, then to enact programs which are incompatible with the final end of mankind and thus prejudicial to those same future generations? Surely, it is this which is not realistic! It is immaterial who would lead us down the blind path, and under what banner or label they stand. Christ pleads with us to keep our eyes open to the horizon of God’s humility, to the perspective which must ultimately give direction to all other directions, unless we want them to end in ruin.
In all of his parables on virtue, Jesus is ultimately speaking about Himself. As a guest, He came to the table of humanity, and took the lowest seat, the Cross, from which no man invited Him to take a higher seat. Only the Father did that when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right-hand. As host, Jesus now invites, not those who think they can pay Him back (astonishing though it may be, some people do actually think this way), but the poor, the crippled, the lame … And who are these people? We are - if we have the humility to admit it! We all limp our way in the life of virtue, for who can say he is without sin? We are all poor, for who will not see the grave and return naked to the earth from which he came? If we do not want to accept these burning, indeed humiliating, truths, then we will never know humility, we will never have the right attitude and focus to run the race of charity. We will live an illusion and die in our own arrogance. Without humility, we cannot be pleasing to God. Without charity we cannot live with God.
Humility brings us peace, for it teaches us not to pretend anything, but to welcome and cherish everything we have been given. Applying to humility what someone once said about joy, it is not so much a question of having or being what you want, as it is of wanting what you have and who you are. The more humble one is, the greater confidence and peace one will have in oneself; such a one is not afraid of being stolen from himself, and so can freely give himself. That is why the Son of God could empty Himself and humble Himself to the point of accepting death on a Cross. He humbled Himself, but the Father exalted Him, exalted His humility, as He did Mary’s. Our life is not about clinging to things; it is not even about clinging to who we are. If self-emptying is God’s way for Himself, then it cannot be any different for us. We will find ourselves only when we let ourselves go, give up our own personal version of fascism towards ourselves. For when we surrender all, then we are free to receive all; when we die, then we live; when we are truly humble, then we are truly great, not in the eyes of any man, but in the eyes of God. To paraphrase the words of the Scottish poet, Rabbie Burns, “Oh that we could see ourselves as God sees us!” Therein lies true humility.
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Sts. Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus
The actions of these two influential Jewish leaders give insight into the charismatic power of Jesus and his teachings—and the risks that could be involved in following him.
Joseph was a respected, wealthy civic leader who had become a disciple of Jesus. Following the death of Jesus, Joseph obtained Jesus' body from Pilate, wrapped it in fine linen and buried it. For these reasons Joseph is considered the patron saint of funeral directors and pallbearers. More important is the courage Joseph showed in asking Pilate for Jesus' body. Jesus was a condemned criminal who had been publicly executed. According to some legends, Joseph was punished and imprisoned for such a bold act.
Nicodemus was a Pharisee and, like Joseph, an important first-century Jew. We know from John's Gospel that Nicodemus went to Jesus at night—secretly—to better understand his teachings about the kingdom. Later, Nicodemus spoke up for Jesus at the time of his arrest and assisted in Jesus' burial. We know little else about Nicodemus.
