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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.

Twenty-Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time 'C'

Sunday September 16, 2007

It’s time for us to come home!

Despite the passage of time, the grieving of the survivors of the victims of 9.11 continues. In the aftermath of fallen towers the cracking of the invisible walls of security haunt us as we grapple with a unique war with many sides but few of us bearing the brunt of raw violence day after day.

And in our church, we seem to be engaged in a tug of war with no winners and no scriptwriters to satisfy the aspirations of all. Some want to go back to the good old days with clear definitions and to a language that freezes truth. Others feel the pull of another spirit that speaks a language of the heart, a language perhaps too quick to compromise on long held values that touch the very core of life. Only the simplistic are able to carve out solutions of paper mache. There can be no lasting solution without laborious dialogue and the sacrifice of more than a few sacred cows.

Among the texts assigned for this weekend, we come upon the parable of the Prodigal Son. Luke is the only evangelist to record the story for our telling. Although he might have been a Greek-speaking Jew, Luke was a man who knew the healing Jesus and through him came to know God as a ‘prodigal’ Father who wants nothing more than healing for the sinner.

This is the key for me. This story and the continuing stresses of modern life seem to be calling us home — to this table and to whatever table we call the ‘family table.’

We all desperately want to be at home with ourselves and with all those people we call family — some of them our biological family; others who have become family over the years because of the values we hold in common or if not the values we hold, at least because of a bond of friendship that somehow enables us to override our differences with the undying belief that we want what is best for one another. Momentary breeches are not always indicators of the absence of love but rather signs of the frailty of human nature and of the fragile spirit that does not always respond with the magnanimity required by divine love.

And so we have come to this table this morning because we want to be at home with our God. We are in a safe place at this table and we understand that although we all come from different tables and do not know one another intimately, there is a high level of trust here because somehow our God has searched us out from the dark stairwells of falling towers and smoky tunnels of life that lead nowhere; calling us from the quagmire of battle fields into the light of a new day. We see now only a glimmer of light, but it is enough to get us to the next step or the next stop. We discover at this table that although there are indeed lessons to be learned from life experiences, we must take advantage of this table and this time to listen with our hearts as well as with our ears so that we might find meaning beyond life’s mistakes and disappointments. We need to be very attentive to one another because it is in that exchange of feelings that the ruptures resulting from sin can and will be healed but not without God’s intervention.

Some of us may identify with the prodigal son. Been there, done that. Have gone out on our own to do our own thing, and do it our own way, squandering our gifts, using others for our own gain, thinking we had all the answers to life’s mysteries, building towers if not of steel, of personal gain that we thought would guarantee our ultimate success. Then in a moment, we acknowledge the absurdity of our pursuits and something within us screams, “I want to go home!” Not to go back, mind you — we can never go back. Going home means moving forward to a family table where we can feel safe, and despite our differences, respected for who we are.

Some of us may harbor the thoughts of the older brother. Perhaps we’ve never left the table or have never wandered from family or friends or squandered our time or talent in a vain effort to be successful or powerful. But in the face of the absurdity of self-righteousness, we come to discover that life is a risk wherever we stand and it is not enough to keep ourselves safe from harm. We need to reach out and welcome wayfarers and those who lose their way even those who lose their way through their own fault. Love can be tough but tough love often works miracles.

But all of us are called to be the ‘prodigal’ father epitomized in the Gospel. He is the one who guides without controlling, who corrects without criticizing, who loves without counting the cost.

For many of us 9/11 plunged us to a level of our souls where we have never been before. And the fragile insecurity that we still experience attempting the reconcile opposing forces and still live in accordance with the dictates of our conscience moves us to risk entering places we’ve never been before—learning new lessons that impact on the way we’ve always done things and calling us to new ways and means.

In the face absurdity, some of us say and do absurd things. But it is important to continue to speak and act as long as we listen before we speak and think before we act. There may be a part of us that wants to tune out, to stop digging at all the details of life’s traumas, tragedies, incongruities and differences. It may not matter what we say. We are often in the midst of absurd realities. No one has the magic formula to confront the absurd, but there can be no compromise with evil; evildoers must be held accountable but we cannot forget that the God of Israel and the God of Islam is the God of Jesus and that tyranny of any kind does not render justice nor will vengeance bring peace.

We need to be home and at home with one another. We are fragile pilgrims attempting to be anchors for those whose hurt is greater than ours.

The most important issues facing us as a nation and as a church are moral, spiritual and pastoral. All of us desperately need healing in these difficult times and the only way for this to happen is for all parties to come to the table to air their wounds and hurts without rancor. Going to war is not a lasting solution. Bashing Bush and bishops will not work if for no other reason than that it is not the ‘way of the Lord.’

The gospel for this weekend is indeed a strong reminder of the compassionate God whom we all worship, the God who is father and mother to us all; the God whose son, Jesus, demonstrated for us in very concrete ways how we can make life work for the good of all.

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