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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.

Sixth Sunday of Easter 'A'

Sunday April 27, 2008

I Will Be With You

“I was a revolutionary when I was young, and all my prayers to God were, ‘Lord, give me the energy to change the world.’”

“As I approached middle age, and realized that half my life was gone without my changing one solitary soul, I changed my prayer. ‘Lord,’ I prayed, ‘give me the grace to change all those with whom I come into contact—just my family, my friends—then I shall be satisfied.’”

“Now that I am an old man and my days are numbered, my one prayer is, ‘Lord, give me the grace to change myself.’ If I had prayed for this from the very beginning, I should not have wasted my life.”

This bit of wisdom from a Sufi sage surely speaks volumes about my life trajectory and I hope I’m not presumptuous in suggesting that I am not alone in this admission or confession.

For several weeks since Easter, the Scriptures have been guiding us along three tracks in our preparation for the Feast of Pentecost that will be celebrated just two weeks from today.

The Acts of the Apostles continues to describe the earliest experience of Christianity as it emerged from the womb-tomb in Jerusalem and spread west to the Roman Empire and east to Asia Minor. There are strong similarities between the Gospel of St. Luke and the Acts of the Apostles, which accounts for the assumption by biblical scholars that the author of Luke’s gospel is also the author of the Acts of the Apostles. Luke’s description of Jesus in his gospel parallels his description of the early Church as it attempted to define and identify itself by the teachings of Jesus. The living Word of God in Christ could not be contained; it spread like fire—the fire of the Holy Spirit.

The apostles and disciples of Jesus had to grapple with their identity not only as individuals but also as a living organism, which only later took shape as an institution and came to be known as the Church, the Body of Christ.

The First Letter of Peter is an early catechism that describes the implications of what it means to be baptized into Christ, to be reborn in the Holy Spirit. It describes what we committed ourselves to when we renewed our baptismal vows on Easter. In fact, each year we need consider again as if for the first time what it means to be a Christian.

The Gospel of John records for us the core teachings of Jesus: what he meant by the words, “I am the bread of life”—the living bread— and how he fed his disciples with the bread of his life and how he led his disciples as “the Good Shepherd.” Over the last two weeks, John presents the last will and testament of Jesus at his final meal. “Do not let your hearts be troubled,”—not to worry, I’ll be be with you. Today we listen to his promise that he will not leave us orphans but will send an ‘advocate’ that will enable us to see Jesus in a new light and this Spirit will abide with us in such a way that we will know who we are as and what we are called to be as individuals and as a church in an ever changing world. Though our core identity as disciples of Christ may not change, we will come to understand it more clearly and understand too how to respond to the challenges that face us every day.

It is in the nature of us humans in the development of our ego, to identify ourselves by defining what we are not and by conquering anyone or anything that does not conform to our will. In the words of psychologist and author, Rollo May, we have an inherently strong will to power!

During adolescence, we experience a shocking setback in the discovery that the world is not ours to control and is not going to cave in to our demand for attention. As often as we demand conformity to our agenda, the world will go about its business as usual, ignoring our petty claims.

At some point we arrive at what we’ve known all along, that our identity is intimately and ultimately discovered in the depths of our inner self where we connect with God.

It is for this reason that we must go to our ‘blue zone’ often—our quiet space, our deepest self where God lives so to speak, to that place where truth prevails and integrity reigns, where justice and mercy meet. Only then can we recognize God’s face in nature and God’s voice in the prophets and priests of old and in parents, teachers and preachers in the present.

Although it is true, the disciples went forth from Jerusalem to “baptize all nations;” it was Jesus’ primary mandate that they first come to know the God who loved them into life and to proclaim the universal and indiscriminate love of God to everyone else. This is a little different from demanding that the world conform to their agenda. It was a subtle command that they first come to know God and succumb to God’s will, as did Jesus. It was in that surrender that they would mirror in their own life, the image of Christ.

Baptism is the doorway and the initial surrender and an expression of our willingness to give up our identity in order to put on Christ. Most of us who were baptized as infants didn’t have a clue and so we had to be confirmed at a later date but even then, most of us were still neophytes in the faith as we continued to search for our true identity as Christians.

Jesus himself had to search for his identity. It was not until three years before he died that his identity and his mission became clear but even then he needed the reassurance of others. “Peter, who do people say I am? Peter, who do you say that I am?” To which Peter responded, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Jesus’ entire life and ministry was not to control but to empower. The Church today needs to be especially attentive to the message of Jesus lest it slip back into medieval triumphalism with its emphasis on pomp and pageantry and the externals of worldly power.

At the final meal, he washed the feet of the apostles and when Peter protested he chastised him saying, “Peter, unless I wash your feet, you can have no place in my Father’s kingdom, “ giving evidence that his mission was not about power but about service. At this penultimate moment, as it were, before his death he came to know his full identity as Son of God. “Into your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit” was the total surrender of God to God. It was in his powerlessness that he came to know his strength as ‘Son of God.’

Each of us as a member of this living organism we call ‘Church,’ the Body of Christ, must take to heart the words of Scripture, “Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you and accounting for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and reverence. Keep your conscience clear…. for it is better to suffer for doing good than to suffer for doing evil.”

Before we preach to the world as Church, we must preach to ourselves and allow the Word of God to penetrate every fiber of our being as individuals and as a Church. After he washed their feet, Jesus said to his apostles, “As I have done for you, you must do for one anther…. [For] the servant is not greater than the master.”

“They who have kept my commandments [summarized in the great commandment to love God and neighbor] are those who love me; and I will not leave you as orphans but will come to you and will live in you.”

To believe is to live fully in Christ and to live fully in Christ is to have hope and that hope will not leave us disappointed.