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Daily Scripture

+ 21st Week in Ordinary Time

Every day is a gift and a blessing.

Readings: I Corinthians 1:1-9 Psalm 145:2-7 Matthew 24:42-51

I give thanks to my god always on your account for the grace of God bestowed on you in Christ Jesus, that in him you were enriched in every way, with all discourse and all knowledge, so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gifts as you wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.” [I Cor 1:4-5, 7]

My mother used to say that every day is a gift and a blessing—an opportunity for grace indeed, many graces.

I suppose it’s all according to one’s perspective. The greatest challenge in life is to find something to be thankful for every day. This is particularly difficult during stressful times and certainly during illness of one kind or another.

I think I may have shared difference between a hermit and a nightclub performer. The hermit wakes up at dawn and says, “Thank you, God!” The nightclub entertainer wakes up at noon and says, “Good God, morning?”

There is so much going on in the world at large and in our own particular worlds to bring anxiety and stress. It’s hard work to maintain balance. An active spiritual life based on the confidence that nothing can happen today that can defeat us if we are grounded in the belief that God’s presence is abiding but it’s difficult and sometimes terrifying to let go.

I still remember the first time I road my two-wheeler bike without my dad holding on to the seat. We started off—I, confident that he hand was firmly attached to the seat. I had ridden almost a full block before I realized that he had let go and there I was, gliding down the street. It’s that way with God. We just need to remain conscious that God’s ‘hand’ is not a crutch but that God’s grace within us is real.

Some days it seems as if we are starting all over again.

20th Sunday in Ordinary Time C

Sunday August 19, 2007

We are surrounded by so great crowd of witnesses.

But who are they? for what do they stand? and where do we stand?

These are not the kind of readings we like to hear during the ‘dog days’ of August. We are still in ‘Ordinary Time’ getting ready for the ‘last flling’ before summer ends, but the readings are far from ordinary. In fact they seem to conjure up the names of all prophets who went against the grain of the season, upsetting the flow of the status quo of the political and religious establishments of their times to say nothing of the emotional and spiritual wellbeing of the individual members of the societies in which they lived.

Primary among those who are be named as heroes of another age is Jeremiah whose testimony has condemned him forthrightly even if unjustly. Because of his candor Jeremiah got into deep wells, stuck in mud, and suffered isolation from mainstream thinking that happens to preachers and prophets who speak out of turn. Though initially sympathetic to his message and relieved by his ‘ransom’ from the well, it is possible that upon careful study, we might have been among those who would have preferred him cast into the well or shall we state less crassly, at least to have him silenced and cloistered for a bit of counsel and rest until he get his head together.

Ironically, Jeremiah was a reluctant prophet. “I know now not how to speak; I am too young,” the Lord answered me, say not, “I am too young.” To whomever I send you, you shall go; whatever I command you out shall speak. Have no fear before them, because I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord.. See I place my words in your mouth! This day I set you over nations and over kingdoms, to root up and to tear down to destroy and to demolish to build and to plant.”

These are words of assurance and confirmation of the fact that Jeremiah was not speaking on his own authority or even using his own words but on higher authority.

The situation was dire. Babylon was about to overtake Jerusalem and Jeremiah was in effect calling the takeover part of God’s plan suggesting that any attempt to avert this would be tantamount to a rebellion against God.

He charged that the take over was the result of Judah’s internal rebellion against God by the leadership and the exploitaton of the powerful against the poor. He made no bones about his proclamation, parading through the city with a yoke around his neck as symbol of the yoke that was soon to be placed upon the nation by Babylon. I suppose in the eyes of many he was making a fool of himself.

Can you imagine the outrage not only in King Zedekiah but also among his advisers, insult upon insult. Though he was from a priestly caste, they felt they had no choice but to dispose of him so he was handed over to the military guard and cast into an empty cistern where it was hoped he would die and his unpopular message would be silenced.

But Jeremiah never gave up faith and thanks to the intercession of a foreign court, he lived to tell his story and speak for God again though in the end, he succumbed to his ultimate fate.

Jeremiah was one of many in a long line of Old Testament prophetic voices from whom contemporary Christian disciples can take heart in the face of adversity when the going gets rough times.

And here is a list of some of the names closer to our own era:

Thomas More, Joan of Arc, Mohandas Gandhi, Maximilan Kolbe, Teihard de Chardin, Dorothy Day, Oscar Romero, Martin Luther King, Ita Ford, Maura Clark, Dorothy Kazel and Jean Donovan. All of them died in the service of Christ, some among them as martyrs.

But there are others still living who speak to power and pay the heavy price of silence or isolation that in some respects is more painful that martyrdom.

Sr. Helen Prejean will not allow us to forget the unjust “justice” called capital punishment. Bishop Tom Gumbleton continues to question the authenticity of the Church’s witness to the world and more recently has joined the ranks of those seeking greater accountability from his brother bishops for the pastoral administration of the Church.

Victims’ advocate, Fr. Tom Doyle continues to be a strong voice in the wilderness on the issue of Church accountability and the sexual abuse crisis.

What is your reaction to any or all of the above? How do you read their ‘prophecy?’ Nice people but a bit misquided?

Do we write them off as eccentrics? or as people born for another time—but not out time?

The Gospel is shocking to the ears of civilized people and despite the fact that it is employing a wide use of hyperbole; it is apparently describing what was actually happening in the early church experience. However, this text is out of synch with all the other texts and teachings of Jesus Christ. Is this really the way Christ wanted his followers to deal with their differences?

Several years ago Bishop Joseph Bernardine, cardinal archbishop of Chicago proposed a forum wherein theologians and proponents of disparate opinions in the Church might gather periodically to dialogue on a level playing ground to dialogue and synthesize the core of truth in each opinion and thus come to some common ground of understanding.

He was roundly criticized by some of his peers and even condemned. it was not long after that when he was accused of sexual about by a young man who later recanted and at whose death bed the Cardinal offered Mass. Shortly after that the Cardinal himself succumbed to cancer and now stands as testimony of faith.

It often happens that prophecies are not authenticated or validated until long after the death of their proponents. Perhaps this is just another oxymoron of life.

But then again, perhaps our Church is being challenged to make a difference this time.

Priest sociologist and founder of the National Parish Life Center in New York many years ago Father Phil Murnion was one of the inspirations behind ‘Common Ground’. He himself having contracted terminal cancer Bill whispered these three words as he drew his last breath: “Dialogue, dialogue, dialogue.”