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Daily Scripture

+ 23rd Week in Ordinary Time – Labor Day

“All work and no play make Jack a dull boy.”

Lord, give success to the work of our hands. [Ps 90:17]

I believe I first heard that quote about all work and no play in the 3rd grade at Bayley Grammar School. Sr. Paulita, SC was the teacher. She had a stock of quotes from ancient sages and current commentators. Of course anything we memorize in elementary school will remain with us for life!

As with every axiom, there is both an element of truth as well as an exaggeration of truth. This is the reason we often refer to axioms as ‘truisms.’

On this Labor Day, 2010, many folks will not be taking a weekend at the shore because the kids are already back in school. Others can’t take a holiday because they need to work. Others will not be celebrating Labor Day this year because they have no work today or tomorrow.

The optimum for any able-bodied person is to be in a situation in which work is play. These are the blessed few among us for whom ‘work’ is only an extension of their play. This doesn’t mean they are playing at work. It means rather that they are able to use their most creative talents and abilities for a greater good, not just for their own personal enjoyment.

Whatever one’s employment, Catholic social doctrine has always stood strongly for the ‘right to work’ and for the ‘right to a just wage.’

The jobless rate in the private sector continues rise but alas, all too slowly while the politicking and debate over bailouts continues. The large crowds at malls do not tell the whole story. People are looking but not everyone is buying. Gainful employment for everyone has become the great equalizer. It means that those who have will need to give more and those who have not will have less to give until the economy stabilizes.

‘Lord, direct all our actions by your holy inspiration and carry them on by your gracious assistance so that every prayer and work of our may begin in you and through you be happily completed. Amen.’

Second Sunday in Ordinary Time 'C'

Sunday January 17, 2010

What better time than now?

Despite the arrangement of Isaiah’s prophecy using marriage as a metaphor for Yahweh’s ‘engagement’ to Israel in the first reading, John’s story about the miraculous change of water into wine is not really about a wedding feast or about married life. It’s not about magic either. Jesus was not a magician. It is the first of seven of John’s ‘signs’ or miracle stories that he uses to flesh out the identity of Jesus as the living ‘word’ of God and Messiah.

Miracles stories about miracle workers were common in those times. We westerners need to be cautious about slipping into an excessive literalism that distorts the meaning of the message. The gospel writers took their cue from their Old Testament ancestors who also wrote dramatic stories about heroes whom they deemed to be ‘sons of God,’ messianic figures sent to interrupt the world order or to initiate a new order under God’s dominion. The evangelists and other New Testament authors view these messianic figures as prototypes and the ancient oracles as divine prophecies that were brought to fulfillment in Christ. That’s why they use similar inspired myths and metaphors in their narratives about Jesus.

Remember, the Bible is not documentary history or a journalistic account. It is faith history. Its underlying truths are clothed in sacred myths and metaphors and yes, mysteries that challenge the capacity of the human mind to completely understand. A myth is not a fable but an attempt to explain the inexplicable. Theologians seek understanding of the mysterious God and often get bogged down in details. Poets and artists pursue a relationship with the God they have already discovered at the core of their being. I reckon poets and artist know God more intimately than theologians.

John was more a mystic than a theologian. His literary style is very different from the synoptic gospels – Matthew, Mark and Luke. Their accounts begin with the historical Jesus. John begins his gospel with the Jesus as the eternal word. In the beginning was the word and the word was with God, and the word was God. [Prologue of St. John]

This story at Cana is not recorded in the other gospels. This miracle is his way of introducing a new age and a new era. The miracle was not so much about the transformation of water as it was about the transformation of our lives in Christ. John baptized with water of repentance. The water for the ancient rite of purification becomes the wine of new life in Christ. John the evangelist wants to tell us not just that Jesus turned water into wine on one occasion but that whenever he comes into our lives and into our room, he brings a new quality, which is like turning water into wine.

When humanity yearned for an experience of God with skin, Jesus appeared on the scene. Jesus is the image of God, the one who epitomizes everything that we can become. It is our destiny to live in God.

This God-life within us can penetrate and permeate our lives as it did the life of Jesus and lead to a new vision and a new beginning. Living in the consciousness of God’s life can only move us to a greater consciousness of God’s presence in all humanity, indeed, in all creation.

As I watched the devastation effects of the recent earthquake in I asked with many how could God allow such destruction? We can easily become sidetracked with futile debates from the left and from the right; from Pat Robertson and Rush Limbaugh to Richard Dawkins and still not come up with an adequate explanation why bad things happen to good people, speaking of which, Harold Kushner, author of When Bad Things Happen To Good People has published a recent book entitled, Conquering Fear – Living Boldly in an Uncertain World. In Chapter Three, “God Was Not in the Hurricane” is particularly germane to recent natural catastrophes. Earthquakes are acts of nature not of God but the outpouring of hearts and hands-on aid from the United States and from every corner of the globe is truly an act of God. There have been miraculous rescues but the greatest miracle could be the beginning of a new nation.

So we look to the first letter of Paul to the Corinthians for examples of how the living Word of God in Christ is fleshed out in the hearts and hands of people who live in God and through the power of the Holy Spirit leave the comfort of their homes and hearth to bring help to the helpless and hope to the hopeless.

Can we dare dream of what impact the gifts of the Spirit can have on the world order? On the world of politics, on the world economy? On the Church? To deny it is to deny the very ground of our being. Therefore, as God partners with us, we will partner with one another in Christ; as God stretches for us, we will stretch for one another with the help of the Spirit; as God struggles with us, we will struggle with one another without losing our grip or giving into despair; as God dies for us in Christ, we will die for one another in faithfulness to life and love.

Today is the first day of the rest of our lives. God is still changing water into wine through many hands in many lands and there will be plenty of wine for everyone.