Third Sunday in Ordinary Time 'B'

Sunday January 25, 2009

There’s still time!

Theater is an enduring vehicle for the expression and appreciation of life’s deepest mysteries. Drama or comedy acted out in rhythmic tones or staged simply in spoken words and dialogue has the power to open the mind, touch the soul and raise the spirit to heights unknown.

Although author and playwright Victor Hugo was criticized in his time for “vanity of character and shallowness of mind,” his devotion to the good, the beautiful and the true was admired as “instinctive and sincere.” “Les Miserables” is permeated with his unquenchable belief in the potential for good in the human soul. The major theme in the play — the struggle between good and evil in the soul of one man played out in the socio-political realities of the French revolution — is carefully interwoven and immortalized in the imagination of the audience.

Valjean is a simple character driven by “caritas,” an active, outgoing animating love for others. He helps the prostitute, Fantine. He protects his workers and gives constantly to the poor. In his melodramatic conversion, in his promise to Fantine and in his unparalleled commitment to protect Cosette, he confronts the power of hell and dies in the arms of Cosette at peace with himself and with his God. It’s a touching scene that melts even the most hardened heart and moves a witness to tears. The musical version is even more dramatic and powerful.

Indeed, drama softens hardened hearts and moves the disengaged to action. It also has the power to expose the reality of evil that lays beneath the veneer of the self-possessed and the arrogant that claim jurisdiction over the lives of others as if it were possible to unseat the eternal God or dismiss his universal embrace of humanity.

We have before us this weekend, three dramatic readings — the first a biblical cartoon, excessive in its humor, the second an urgent appeal excessive in its demands and the third a gracious invitation excessive in its naiveté. Yet all of the readings have the potential to move us to a new level of understanding of the kingdom of God and the beauty of discipleship in Christ.

But could we not cite other personalities alive in real time who have allowed themselves to be drawn into the circle of Jesus’ disciples such as Tom Johnson who travels to Sierra Leone every year to assist the indigent to get surgical attention or Joe Collins who builds homes in Guatemala—“From houses to Homes,” or human rights attorney John Sifton whose efforts in Afghanistan and Pakistan have made a difference in the lives of many. But there are many other unsung heroes and heroines who are making a difference in Rwanda, Sudan, and in so many places here in our own country—human rights activists and social service workers making God’s presence felt.

We are all ordinary people who come weekly to this table of God’s word to listen to the demands of divine wisdom and to the table of Eucharist to be transformed as a community into the living body of Christ through the bread blessed and broken for humanity.

As I mentioned earlier, the book of Jonah is a biblical cartoon. You really need to read the entire four chapters of this short humorous didactic novel against the backdrop of the narrow nationalism of post-exilic Judaism.

Jonah was a reluctant prophet whose judgment of pagan Nineveh –the Baghdad of Assyria and now known as Mosel in northern Iraq—was inconsistent with God’s opinion, which favored their conversion.

The letter of Paul demanding complete abandonment of the world including marriage and the attachment to any human emotion is indeed an overstatement to make the point that nothing should cloud the pursuit of eternal values and eternal goals. Paul of course, was writing in the conviction that Christ’s second coming was imminent.

The ‘kindom’ of God is our destiny and all else must be subordinated to that end. Paradoxically, it is the pursuit of God’s glory that brings happiness on this earth and lasting beatitude in heaven. To think and act like God is the very reason for our existence. “God made me to know him, to love him and to show forth his goodness in this life and to be happy with God forever in next.” [Baltimore Catechism] It’s a definition that still works for old and young.

The Gospel is no respecter of personal desire or of a “business as usual” attitude of mind. The disciples – ordinary men—were invited to abandon fish, fare and family for a more noble purpose — the pursuit of justice, love and peace, with Jesus leading the way. This would require the willingness to embrace all humanity as one family.

Though our life stories are surely less dramatic than that of Valjean, or Jonah or Paul or any of the Apostles, yet we are challenged to broaden the context of our daily routine and open up to the fullness of God’s grace in our lives wherever we live, whatever our call or career. There is a standing invitation to do so. Our acceptance will move us from protectionist spirituality to a more outgoing all-embracing Gospel oriented life.

It’s not likely that a walk through Nineveh or Mosel or New York or Chicago or Morristown crying out “Forty days more and this town will be destroyed” will change the hearts of anyone. In fact, such a statement might well result in a free ride to the psychiatric unit at the nearest hospital. Massive conversions don’t happen that way except in evangelical tents or stadiums but these are not usually lasting.

Far more effective in today’s world I think, is a more subtle approach that arouses the curiosity of onlookers about our indefatigable pursuit of justice and goodness in the ordinary affairs of life. Actions still do speak louder than words.

If we are caught up in Christ by the love of the God we cannot see, we will become conduits of God’s grace for others whatever our call and career. In fact, our unique vocation is lived in and through our marriage, our job, our public and private political life and our volunteer service. That’s where the rubber meets the road.

Ask RCIA candidates why they made the decision to become a Catholic and I suspect they will tell you because of one other person of faith and action who touched their lives in a unique way.

The implications or an ordinary life lived extraordinarily well can be dramatic and our response can have a significant impact on local and global issues.

There’s still time to get the lead out and get moving.

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