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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.

Third Sunday in Ordinary Time 'B'

Saturday January 21, 2012

Where the rubber meets the road.

It’s still my favorite story of all times and all seasons., Victor Hugo’s timeless Les Miserables.

Jean 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. But this was not always his greatest attribute. 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. Put to music by Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schonberg, it is even more dramatic and powerful.

Drama softens hardened hearts and moves even the most 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 arrogance that controls 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 at the beginning of this third week in ordinary time, three dramatic readings. The first is 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 lived within the ordinary circumstances of life.

But could we not cite other heroes in real time who have allowed themselves to be drawn into the circle of Jesus’ disciples, people who travel to foreign lands not with weapons but with healing tools to rebuild what warriors have destroyed? I’m thinking of movements and projects such as ‘Africa Surgery’, ‘Healing the Children’, ‘From houses to Homes’, or human rights activists and social service workers making God’s presence felt here in our own country.

Jonah was a reluctant prophet whose judgment of pagan Nineveh the Baghdad of Assyria was inconsistent with God’s opinion that they were worthy of onversion.

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

The ‘kindom’ of God is our destiny and everything 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 disciples, ordinary men, were invited to abandon fish, fare and family for a noble purpose — the pursuit of justice, love and peace, with Jesus leading the way. This was not a repudiation of marriage or family but the extension of that commitment 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, 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 life rooted in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

It’s not likely that a walk through Nineveh 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, it 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 they are not usually lasting.

Far more effective in today’s world 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 the love of the God we cannot see, we will become conduits of God’s grace for those we can see. 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.