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Daily Scripture

+ 20th Week in Ordinary Time

I’ll do it myself.

Readings: Ezekiel 34:1-11 Psalm 23:1-6 Matthew 20:1-16

Therefore, shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: because my shepherds did not look after my sheep, but pastured themselves and did not pasture my sheep, I will claim my sheep from them and put a stop to their shepherding my sheep. I will save my sheep, that they may no longer be food for their mouths. [Ezekiel 34:10]

There is much talk about a vocation shortage—fewer young men entering the seminary and fewer still persevering to ordination. Not withstanding some notable exceptions this has resulted in the lowering of standards for ordination. Moreover, priests and candidates for the priesthood are being ‘imported’ from other countries whose needs are as urgent as ours.

The prevailing accent seems to be on the need to have a sufficient number of priests to ‘say Mass’ and provide for the sacramental needs of the faithful. But surely in the light of the Second Vatican Council, priests need to be more than presiders at Mass and providers of the sacraments, as important as are these roles.

The earliest experience of the Church can be instructive in this regard. The notion of presbyter provided the early church with presiders for worship and leaders for base communities. Celibacy was not an issue and there was no clerical caste. The gifts of the faithful were recognized in such a manner that men and women, married and single fulfilled the spiritual needs of the community including the sacramental needs.

Notwithstanding the inadequacy of the notion of shepherding people (sheeple?) the need remains for qualified men and women to minister to the needs of the community.

Ezekiel warned the priests and assured the people of Israel that God would find away to pasture his people.

Ezekiel’s words need to be taken to heart again and in fact we already see that God is indeed providing a way through the action of the Holy Spirit in the lives of men and women, married and single, who are tending to the needs of the faithful.

Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time 'C'

Sunday July 15, 2007

The Rule of Love

As many Broadway plays that I have attended in my life, I do not ever recall leaving the theater without carrying the rhythm of the music or heartbeat of the play with me. ‘Les Mes’ was the best in this regard. The last time I saw that play I could see and feel the spit spray that accompanied the plosives from the lips of the players. I suppose it is the combination of staging and choreography that draws the audience into the music and drama of a good play even in a large theater.

On another occasion several, I had the opportunity to attend a small theater production of “1776”, or I should say, “participate” in that production at the Black River Theater in Chester. It accommodates only a few more than one hundred spectators. The audience is inches away from the players and the action. In that setting, we spectators could not help but catch the spirit and live the experience of the continental congress as it struggled with the decision whether or not declare itself for independence. At one point, I recall wondering if this time around, the members of congress would vote differently, undoing the original decision and revising the course of history! That’s how involved I became in the repartee and debate, such as it was.

The thought also crossed my mind that such a setting would be perfect for a more vibrant celebration of the Eucharist. It is ironic that the little playhouse in Chester was formerly a church. In that setting the biblical drama would come to life and enable members of the congregation to become full participants rather then mere spectators in a drama that demands our involvement. Although this has not become a reality in most Catholic worship spaces, this is what the “fathers” of the Second Vatican Council envisioned for the celebration of Roman Catholic worship. The Bible is a living book. The proclamation of the Word of God is intended to be proclaimed and understood in a living language in order to make present the wisdom of God in such a way as the Word becomes a rule of life, drawing into it, all that are attentive.

The celebration of the Eucharist is not a pageant but an action drama in which participants become what they celebrate. Our Jewish ancestors had it right and still do when they gather for the Seder that ritualizes the event of the exodus and Passover. The telling of the story — the Haggadah — and the sharing in the meal: the motzah, the wine, the bitter herbs and the lamb, draw the participants not only into the ritual but also into the Passover event so much so that they are transformed again into the remnant of the ancient covenanted people, a covenant that an authority no less that St. Paul states was never revoked. [Romans 11] This is what makes our observant Jewish sisters and brothers so protective of their heritage and so strong in their advocacy for a just recognition of their covenanted relationship with God despite unfortunate inferences to the contrary in the restored Latin Mass.

The farewell address of Moses recorded in the Book of Deuteronomy is a kind of liturgical homily urging the Jewish people to return to a radical and reciprocal relationship with God. This portion of Deuteronomy was probably written during the Babylonian Exile. It reinforces the notion that biblical justice is based on love of God and evidenced by love of others, especially widows, orphans, the marginalized and the oppressed. The law was the heart of ancient Israel. It was not merely a code of conduct, but an interior disposition of the soul. Moses asserted that it was not the ‘book’ of the law, but the LIVING WORD that was near. “It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will go up to heaven for us, and get it for us so that we may hear it and observe it?’ Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will cross to the other side of the sea for us, and get it for us so that we may hear it and observe it?’ No, the word is very near to you; it is in your mouth and in your heart for you to observe.” In essence, the presence of Yahweh was a sacramental presence— a presence that reached the depth of the human heart. The response expected of the people was nothing less than total observance that would in turn give them the freedom for which they so yearned. They were expected to “get into the action” of God’s word, to feel the spray of God’s plosives, as it were.

But, like us, the Jews of old didn’t get it right. The impact of Yahweh’s words through the lips of Moses dissipated and so Paul in his letter to the Colossians identifies Jesus as the counterpart of God’s ancient Word, God’s wisdom personified, the agent of a new creation, the fullness of divine love in human form. For us, he is center stage of all creation and of the redemptive process, and those who know him become like him, leaving the “theater,” as it were, with his heartbeat, living the rhythm of his life. One cannot be “in Christ” and still reject God’s love or hate one’s neighbor.

To demonstrate this more clearly, Luke dramatizes Jesus’ teaching through the parable of the Good Samaritan. The story is not about the rejection of the Jews and the holiness of the Samaritan. They were hardly paragons of virtue. It was about the immediacy of the universal call to charity. The expected order in the story would have the priest, the Levite and an Israelite, corresponding to the hierarchical social structure so that Jewish listeners would at least be able to identify with someone in the line of passers-by other an their enemy. Could they identify with the priest? No. He was not exemplary. How about the Levite? No. He too ignored the plight of the victim. How could they identify with the Samaritan, their mortal enemy? There was no one left with whom to identify but the half dead victim in which case, they would have to ask themselves the question, “Is it better to die than to be saved by one’s mortal enemy?” The parable is suggesting a new world order in which there are no insiders or outsiders. The Samaritan was a living example of biblical justice. All are equal in the eyes of God. All are deserving of the same love that God gives to all people.

Recent talk of other traditions as ‘defective’ is misleading and offensive. The mind and heart of God has been and will continue to be revealed in the heavens and on the earth, in all things visible and invisible, and in mysterious ways in other traditions despite claims to the contrary. Ultimately God speaks to each of us in unique ways deep within the core of our being and no matter what the threat, there is no authority on earth that may invade the sanctuary of the human heart where God dwells and where God speaks the loudest.

This is heavy stuff but and we will never comprehend it merely by theologizing about it. We need to get into the story, into the play. We need to be in the theater not as spectators but as full participants in the mystery of human life. We have to live love and express it in charity.

I think Jose de Vinck said it well in his brief treatise on love:

“The truth of life is not a matter of self-perfection nor a lonely road to personal salvation, but a headlong plunge into the turmoil of complex reality, a loss of selfishness in the seething ocean of the joys and sorrows, births and deaths, victories and defeats of the mass of humanity struggling toward its final and complete fulfillment. Yes, we still live in an imperfect, suffering, hurting world. No amount of love will ever do away with the pains of rebuke, frustration, ingratitude, misunderstanding, malice or plain stupidity. But the difference is that, with love in our hearts, these miseries will no longer be overwhelming. We will have learned to swim in the moving, salty, treacherous but exalting sea of humanity, to love it in spite of everything. And if we ever do come to perfect wisdom, we will love it because of everything, for we will be able to see the striving behind the sin, frustrated hope behind despair, failures of love behind acts of malice, and infinite mercy covering them all. “