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Daily Scripture

+ 33rd Week in Ordinary Time

Keep hope alive!

Readings: Revelation 5:1-10 Psalm 149:1-6, 9 Luke 19:41-44

_As Jesus drew near Jerusalem, he saw the city and wept over it, saying, “if this day you only knew what makes for peace – but now it is hidden from your eyes.” [Luke 19:41]

In Christian liturgy and literature, he Church has often been referred to as “the new Jerusalem” and heaven as “the new and eternal Jerusalem.” I think it’s a good simile. If you have ever been to the old section of Jerusalem, you surely would have noted the appropriateness of this comparison. Ancient Jerusalem is still very much in evidence if not literally, surely in its ambiance. A walk from the site of the ancient praetorium to Calvary – now well within the city limits – will surely give you a sense of what it may have been like when Jesus made that last fateful journey.

Today Jerusalem is truly an international city and bears within its womb and walls, the extremes of every race and religion. Jews still narrate the story of the great exodus and Christians break the bread of Eucharist while Islamic temples broadcast their ancient chants from minarets that echo through the streets in the wee hours of the morning.

This is the city over which Jesus wept not because it did not make him king but because it did not recognize its day of visitation, that is to say, its moment of opportunity. In reading a passage such as this, we need to put away preconceived notions about our understanding of Jesus’ messianic role in the light of its Christological evolution in Christian teaching today. Jesus was not about establishing new religious structures but about announcing the universality of God’s love – for Jews and gentiles, male and female, of every race and nation.

Would it be accurate to state that Jesus is weeping not just over Jerusalem but over our war torn world? And yet one cannot fail to see signs of hope on the horizon. Bernard Lonergan, Carol Rahner and Carl Jung support this very Christian notion that it is in our moments of deepest despair that a new wisdom emerges leading to a common vision of a new world in which love and respect overcome evil and injustice. Is it possible that in the midst of the turmoil in which our world seems enmeshed people of good can bring that vision to reality not through confrontation but through collaboration?

Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time 'C'

Sunday July 29, 2007

“Welcome. Please listen to the voicemail prompt”

“Hello! You have reached the voice mail box of Father Lasch. At the sound of the tone, please speak your name and phone number slowly and clearly before you start your message. It will be helpful if you repeat you name an phone number at the conclusion of your message, spelling your name if necessary—slowly and clearly Thank you.”

How many callers do you think are attentive to this prompt? My current estimate is 5%! Not infrequently, I receive a message like this. “Hi. It’s Mary or John. I’m calling to speak with you about …” and then a minute or two later, “Oh, yes, my phone number is 817-365-4378!” spoken with the speed of lightening! I have listened to some messages five times before getting it straight. My being a bit dyslexic doesn’t help. But to be fair and balanced, I must indict myself in this regard. When I make a phone call, more often than not, I am so concerned about the clarity and brevity of my own message I fail to observe my own protocol.

This observation has applications to other ordinary daily conversational exchanges that are more often monologues on the part of one person or the other. Extroverts tend not to be good listeners; but neither are introverts in their own comfort zone. And once again, in the interest of fairness and balance, I find it difficult to listen to someone without rehearsing mentally what ‘I’ want to say.

The readings for this weekend require not only a listening hear but an attentive heart. In fact, someone has said that the ears of an attentive mind and a sensitive heart are far more important than the ears attached to the head because these internal faculties enable us to “hear” more than what is being said or read.

At first shot, the message seems to be about persistence and perseverance in prayer. In fact, it is more about the persistence of God than of Abraham. He really didn’t need to assure God that he was worthy of God’s favor or, on the other hand, confess his unworthiness in order to win God’s attention and favor.

Although he held God in ‘awe,’ Abraham was not afraid of God. The biblical word for ‘fear’ is properly translated as ‘awe’ or deep reverence’ rather than ‘fear.’ The author of the Book of Genesis last week and this week has been attempting to demonstrate God’s endless patience, mercy, and compassion. “Oh, do not let the Lord be angry if I speak just once more. Suppose ten are found there. The Lord answered, ‘For the sake of ten I will not destroy it.’” This is all hyperbole—a sort of biblical cartoon, if you will.

What would it be like if Pope Benedict were to pray in the manner of Abraham, “Lord, if there are even ten innocent children in that country, the site of the ancient garden of paradise where the Tigris and Euphrates meet in Iraq, will you destroy the whole nation for the sake of the ten?” What might the Lord reply? Is not the compassionate God of Abraham the same as the God of Isaac, Jacob, Jesus and our God? The message is not about our need to bargain with God but about the incomparable compassion of the God of all ages; the God who ultimately instilled this compassion in the person of Jesus who in fact embodied the Spirit of God, Jesus the obedient one, i.e., the one who “listened” attentively to the heartbeat of God deep within his being and responded to every situation in a manner consonant with God’s will and God’s love. God want intimacy with humanity. This is amply demonstrated through God’s incarnational love for humanity in Christ.

It was not surprising then that as John the Baptist and other religious leaders taught their disciples to pray, Jesus would be asked by his disciples to do the same.

The prayer is intimate and immediate and deals with the present. “Our Father, you are holy; let your dominion be honored and respected today… Give us the sustenance we need to get through the day!” Forgive us now and help us to be forgiving toward others; do not let us be tried beyond our endurance.”

Jesus prayed in his native Aramaic. Spoken Hebrew had died out about three hundred years before Jesus.

The words of the Our Father are among the most quoted in English and in the languages of Europe. But there is more to their prayer that the English or Latin or another other western language are able to convey. It was a prayer that truly ‘engaged’ Jesus with the mystery of God. The Lord’s Prayer in Aramaic contains the hidden wisdom of Jesus. They are a lens into his thinking and into his mystical thought. The Lord’s prayer helps us to create our own sacred space as we pray and to consecrate our day and our life to God, and dedicate ourselves to holiness and a healthy self, a healthy “I am.” As we become conscious of our breathing as we pray, we reconnect with God as the source of life within the context of nature and the entire cosmos.

The example given by Jesus in the ensuing parable again seems to be about perseverance and persistence but in reality it is about intimacy with God. Friends can wake one another up in the middle of the night and when they ask for fish, they are not going to receive a snake; when they ask for bread, they are not going to receive a stone. Get the point? God wants us to have everything we need for life’s journey. More than this, God wants us to be filled with the same spirit that filled Jesus. Indeed, God wants us to be his other self too.

Author and spiritual mentor, Neil Douglas klotz in his excellent retreat entitled “Original Prayer – Teachings and Meditations on the Aramaic Words of Jesus” offers this alternative translation that is faithful to the core of the Lord’s Prayer:

O Breathing Life, your Name shines everywhere!

Release a space to plant your Presence here.

Envision your “I Can” now.

Embody your desire in every light and form.

Grow through us this moment’s bread and wisdom.

Until the knots of failure binding us,

as we release the strands we hold of others faults.

Help us not forget our Source,

yet free us from not being in the present.

From you arises every vision, power, and song,

from gathering to gathering.

Amen: may our future actions grow from here!

[Sounds True, PO Box 8010, Boulder Co 80306 www.soundstrue.com]

So, if you are hearing what I’m hearings, the message is about the persistence of God’s love and the greatness of our call to become like God in Christ. Prayer than is more a disposition of mind, heart, and soul rather than a pattern of words and or a series of petitions. It is the attentive listening and acceptance of all that God wants for us. Nothing less!

May that same Spirit that beats in the heart of Jesus’ reign in your minds and hearts today and always that others may come to know the faithfulness of God.