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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?

Second Sunday in Lent 'A'

Sunday February 17, 2008

We Are Called to Bless!

If we didn’t know the origin of the readings for this weekend, we might attribute them to C. S. Lewis or J.R. Tolkien with a touch of J.K. Rowling’s ‘Harry Potter Series’ here and there. I’m referring to the larger context of the Genesis story before and after Abraham. There is a touch of fantasy throughout. The experience of Abraham surely must have seemed surreal to him and no less to Sarah. Imagine Abraham coming home from the fields telling Sarah, “You’re not going to believe this. Guess what! I just had a vision. God told me we’re to pack our tent and move on!” Matthew’s description of the transfiguration comes close to reverie.

The call of Abraham is neither a newspaper report nor an historical account such as that about an early American hero. But it isn’t just an historical novel either. It’s a faith story, a sacred story, the story of the faith-journey of a man who together with his wife, Sarah, were called by God to give birth to a people, many people, and to form a nation, many nations.

I can relate to this experience, can’t you? Haven’t we all grappled with our life career or vocation. Do you remember your adolescent years when you took your first step out of familiar surroundings? I do. It was scary and exciting at the same time. I wanted to keep one foot in the safety and security of familiar surroundings but I also felt the need to break out. How about when you grappled with your career or when you decided to marry or not to marry? We’ve all been there and done that in one way or another Fear and risk; exhilaration and excitement were all mixed together.

Abraham and Sarah started out, not knowing where they were going, but God was with them and considered their faith an act of goodness and justice. Abraham did indeed become the father of many nations and a blessing to many peoples. Abraham is the father of the Jews and of the Moslems. Abraham and Sarah are our primevil parents in the faith.

Their story is the proto-type of the ‘Jesus Story’ and of our story, our personal faith journey as individuals and our faith journey as a church. We are called to respond to the invitation of God to a journey of faith, to journey in faith—not to be nation-builders but to be the fulfillment of the promise made by God to Abraham and Sarah—to be a people of blessing in a world hungry for hope, the hope that global peace may be achieved through global justice. Such hope may seem a kind of utopian flaw but we must keep hope alive because it is the driving force that makes miracles happen.

Are you a blessing for others? To your family? To your co-workers? Do people say “Here comes Jim! Here comes Mary! What blessings they are!” We all must know people like that. My father was such a person. What a blessing he was to our family! When dad came home from work or when dad arrived on the scene during a crisis, we knew everything would be okay. He made us feel accepted, safe and secure and that all would be well. He listened before he spoke. He helped us to be part of the solution rather than the cause of the problem and when we were the cause of the problem, he didn’t bug us about it for weeks or day or even a day!

It is interesting that the story of Abraham’s call follows the story of Babel and a genealogy of Abraham’s ancestors down to Terah, his father. Despite the lesson of Babel, we fall easily into the trap of futile attempts to build new towers of Babel and so we need to be reminded that our call is not to be gods but to be God-like, to cooperate and collaborate with God in the work of restoring the earth and renewing its people according to the mind and heart of God.

Humanity hasn’t done it all that well. We are slow learners indeed.

Jesus was sent to renew the promise of Abraham and to restore the blessing. He called a group of ordinary people, disciples who knew little about theology and who were not particularly experienced in spirituality either. He said to them, “Come, follow me…” and I will show you a better way. Like Abraham and Sarah, their ancestors in faith, they went with him and discovered that there was more to life than fishing, selling tents, and making money. They received the gift of faith that enabled them to see beyond their human destiny. They discovered another world deep within themselves that became a source of blessing and that empowered them to bless others, moving far beyond their human limitations. This is what it means to father or mother a people. This is what it means to be a ‘priestly people.’

But their life was not free of pain nor were they spared the doubts bordering on despair that plague us now and then. Pride often got in the way and fear made them fall more than once. The story of the transfiguration, like the account of Abraham’s call, is not the description of a scientific phenomenon but the narration of an faith encounter that the disciples experienced through their association with Jesus. If you hang around Jesus long enough, it’s only a matter of time when you will experience his transfiguration and be transformed in the process. Guaranteed!

Yes, fear got the best of them at times as it often gets the best of us and Jesus had to call them back to the mountain as Jesus calls us back to this mountain—the great biblical metaphor for the place where God and humanity touch each other in mind and heart to reassure us that the promise will be fulfilled and the blessing will not be withdrawn or the covenant revoked but it will not be sustained without the sacrifice of love—the emptying of self and taking on the identity of Christ.

Jesus was the example and the exemplar and although his disciples did not completely understand after the trip to the mountain of transfiguration or even after the mount of Calvary, they did come around when the Spirit came to them at Pentecost. This is why the feast of Pentecost is so important for us.

These readings are offered in Lent to enable our catechumens preparing for baptism and candidates for acceptance into full communion with the Church to ponder their call that was confirmed publicly last week in this sanctuary by you and me. They have been reflecting on the promise made to Abraham and fulfilled in Jesus. They have come to appreciate the blessing that comes from the power of living in God’s grace and are now prepared to accept the promise and the blessing fully.

These reading are also chosen for us who use this Lenten season to renew our own faithfulness to our call. In his letter to Timothy, Paul reminds the Christian community and us that faith is a gift that must be accepted and exercised generously. Our call is renewed every day even though we do not know what that day will bring. And even when we fail or fall, we are still invited to the mountain to be reassured that the promise will be fulfilled and all will be well. Guaranteed!

Bless you for being here. Bless you for all your efforts and may you be a blessing to everyone you meet this week.