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Daily Scripture

+ 7th Week of Easter

We are to be consecrated in truth.

Readings: Acts 20:28-38 Psalm 88:29-30, 33-36 John 17:11b-19

Consecrate them in the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world. And I consecrate myself for them, so that they may also be consecrated in truth. [John 17:18-19]

Read the Gospel very slowly and if possible, out loud and if necessary, three times! Although John’s literary style is quite complex, the farewell prayer of Jesus is as powerful as is Paul’s farewell message in Acts.

It is not likely that these passages are the actual words of Paul and Jesus. They are compositions that Luke and John or whoever wrote in their name and are based on the oral tradition of the sayings of Jesus and the preaching of Paul. They were written in the style of farewell addresses of prominent leaders of their times in order to win the attention of early believers to whom the message of truth was entrusted.

The ‘truth’ that is being proclaimed is not from a catechism nor is it a defined doctrine or dogma. It is the core truth about the God who spoke through the prophets and then through Jesus about the universality of God’s love.

During this time of immediate preparation for Pentecost, we are invited to think about our own responsibility to pass on the ‘truth’ of God’s goodness entrusted to us in Christ and how we are to live that truth in our daily lives, each in our own unique way. No one of us can do this alone and so we much join hands literally and figuratively within the community of believers everywhere.

To live the ‘truth’ is to live in the Spirit of Jesus Christ the fruits of which are charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, moderation, self-control, reverence, etc. I’m sure you memorized these ‘fruits of the Holy Spirit.’

These are the true ‘marks’ of our authenticity as believers.

First Sunday of Advent 'A'

Saturday November 27, 2010

No time like the present!

Sunday liturgy is intended to provide a framework for us both as individuals and as a community as we go about our weekly tasks and carry out our responsibilities as productive members of society. Productive does not necessarily mean that must be active every minute of the day 7.24. On the contrary, to live our vocation means that we need ‘pocket time’ every day, a respite away from the daily routine so that we can think through and reflect on what it means to be an authentic follower of Jesus in a complex world. In short, the liturgy provides a window that enables us to catch the rhythm of the divine through the rhythm of the seasons so that we adapt God’s rhythm iin our individual and collective response to life local and global.

In the wake of the events of September 11, there were preachers who took advantage of the attacks to suggest that they were only indicators of dire things to come. They went further in assigning responsibility, at least in part, to the secularism that has dominated our American culture for a generation or two, as if to suggest that God was behind this Armageddon-like experience as a stern warning to teach a lesson. Fortunately, saner minds and words of wisdom prevailed from most pulpits, whatever the religious tradition. They served as a corrective to extreme interpretations of already extreme events.

God is a vindicator not a vindictive warrior. Apocalyptic events have occurred throughout the course of human history and although even Biblical writers have sometimes assigned dire meanings to them and even viewed them as retribution for unfaithfulness, there are also correctives among the biblical preachers themselves such as that of Isaiah in his magnificent oratorio this morning. I might paraphrase his message in this way:

“The days are coming
when God’s mountain will become the most prominent
of all the mountains,
And all the nations will come to the mountain
to listen to the wisdom of God.
God speaks words of peace not of vengeance or retribution.
As devastating as the strife may be
God’s way will become known
and all the people will listen and walk in his path
and war-makers will put down their weapons
and till the soil once more;
there will be enough of everything for everyone.
There will be no more war
because God’s light will illumine the minds and hearts of all people!”

Of course this is a vision of a time yet to come; a vision that energized the people of Israel and which continues to energize people of faith in cataclysmic times. The literary critic, Hugh Kenner wrote: “Whoever can give his people better stories than the ones they live by is like the priest in whose hand common bread and wine become capable of feeding the very soul.”

Saint Paul echoes Isaiah’s theme connecting it with the recognition that in fact the ‘Day of the Lord’ is immanent. Again, a paraphrase:

“Do you know what time it is?
It is the time of our salvation!
Wake up! Wake up!
It’s time to get up;
the day has finally arrived,
God is in our midst
God’s redemptive plan will not be thwarted,
so live as if it were tomorrow.
Live as if the night were day
Faith will make that possible.
Clothe yourselves in Christ
and change your way of life
or rather, let the word of Christ, rich as it is,
take root in your mind and heart
and you will see how your life will change
and you will also see what an impact your life will have on others.”

Most of us think we are awake—at least after the second cup of coffee! Mohammed had another opinion. He said that our usual state is sleep and when we die, we awaken. I suppose that is the eastern way of saying that we live in a stupor most of the time.

Long before Mohammed, Plato said that we are living in a cave, seeing only shadows of reality. But when we go into the light, we see things as they really are. However, Paul is saying much more. We don’t have to die or even leave the comfort of our cave to be in touch with reality. All we have to do is wake up to the grace that is already present within us. Advent is the nudge we need.

Nowhere in his writings is Paul more excited than in the passage we just heard. No yearning for the “good ole days” in Paul’s message. There is no time like the present!

At first glance or reading, Matthew’s gospel seems a bit more threatening. But remember the rainbow at the end of the story of the flood; God promised Noah that he would never resort to such devastation again. Of course Noah’s story and other ‘flood stories’ were tools of the ancient writers to call the people to conversion. It was never God’s intent to drown anyone. Jesus epitomized hope in the midst of despair. Matthew was writing in apocalyptic times after the fall of Jerusalem and its devastating effects on both Jews and Christians. Jesus’ words were uncomplicated. They were nothing more than a wake-up call and a plea to look beyond the present time to a new day. But it was more than a call to look; it was and is a call to act; a challenge to change and to take responsibility for implementing the vision of hope.

Recall that there are two kinds of time: chronological and what is called kairos, or the time of opportunity. The scriptures are suggesting again that the time IS opportune—now. Don’t wait for the next news report or even the next preacher.

As mature Christians, we know in our hearts what God is asking of us as individuals and as a community. We wouldn’t be here if we didn’t. We just need reinforcement in our commitment to live our Christian vocation more conscientiously and with greater integrity; to put on the Christ we received at baptism; to live as people of hope in the expectation that God’s wisdom will eventually prevail if we live the wisdom of God or rather if we allow the wisdom of God to take hold in our minds and hearts now.

God will do the rest!