Containing the Holy

Gospel
Matthew 13:54-58

Jesus came to his native place and taught the people in their synagogue. They were astonished and said, “Where did this man get such wisdom and mighty deeds? Is he not the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother named Mary and his brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas? Are not his sisters all with us? Where did this man get all this?” And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and in his own house.” And he did not work many mighty deeds there because of their lack of faith.

This same sentiment/scandal over the complete ordinariness of Jesus appears in all four gospel in some form. It connects well with the Feast of St Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits. The Jesuit motto that sticks with me is Find God in All Things.  Jesus' home-town folks can't imagine a world where the holy can get so particular and ordinary; the son of a carpenter no less.

They took offense. They were scandalized. This indicates to me that the notion of what is holy, wise, and of God, is something they were very certain they understood. The prerequisite to having a God in All Things attitude  is an openness to a God of surprises. I'll listen today for that certainty that binds up the expansiveness of what is holy and full of grace. I'll try to be a bit more Jesuit this day.

St Ignatius of Loyola, pray for me!

Where the Holy Dwells

Thursday of Week 17
Exodus 40:16-21, 34-38

The Exodus story continues to unfold. Moses is building a tent to perfection at God's direction. A sacred space to house the tablets. The veil, the cloud, and the light signal this sacred place...a Holy of Holies. The struggle to move from many Gods to one couldn't have been a quick cultural shift. The residue of the many was in every gust of wind, or storm, or fire. Perhaps after the golden calf incident the Israelites needed a singular place of focus...monotheistic training wheels.

With the incarnation the Holy of Holies is once again everywhere. But it is the one God, always and everywhere; even and especially in the cries of the poor. I wonder if my struggle to see  God's presence in what appears godforsaken in my world is my "Israelite" back up position?  The memory of the joy of seeing God in all things keeps me plugging away...trying to conform myself to Christ. But reminders are good. The Israelites needed the Holy Tent. I need Sacraments, sacramentals, community, prayer.  I need a regular rhythm of calling to mind my place in the unfolding story on the incarnation.  I need church. 

Addendum:
St Peter Chrysologus, Bishop
Chrysologus means "golden speech."  He was known for his short sermons...I will adopt his patronage for the Aquinas Institute Cohort 14!

On Being Martha-Prone

Wednesday of Week 17 in Ordinary Time
SAINT MARTHA

There are two choices today for the Gospel text, John 11 has Martha saying "if only you had been here, my brother would not have died" and in Luke 10 Jesus says "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things."  I haven't  met a character in the Gospels who speaks to my weaknesses like Martha does.

Battling the myth of control is certainly a post modern constant. Nowhere is it more evident than in the hospital where there is a pervasive belief that healing is only a pharmacological script away. As a healthy, wealthy, white, American, that myth is ever present. Martha puts it on Jesus...if only. 

It's the Lukan Martha I truly love. Mostly because I think Jesus comes down a little hard on her.  I interpret the story as a caution against the "martyr syndrome."  If I find joy in all the hospitable doing that I do, then I best not complain or draw attention to my doing over against another's being.  AND, in honest self reflection, I admit that it is easier to be about the doing as a way of hiding from the being.

St. Martha (and Mary), pray for me.

Wailing and Gnashing of Teeth

Tuesday of Week 17 in Ordinary Time

Mathew's fond of this phrase, using it five times. Me...not so much.  It's always in reference to the final judgement.  I get caught between the gnashing of teeth in fiery Gehenna and the psalmist's refrain: The Lord is Kind and Merciful...slow to anger, rich in kindness. What I need to hear from these judgement texts is that it all matters. The how of my living is fraught with consequence.

It's  a balancing act to avoid becoming paralyzed by scrupulosity on the one hand and throwing in the towel because the world is in such need, on the other.

I will seek to find that balance. And I'll add joy and humor...certain gifts of the Holy Spirit.
But I'm seriously counting on the kind and merciful!  Seriously!

On Forgetfulness and Idolatry

Today the Church continues in Exodus with the story of impatience and the Golden Calf (with the blessing of Aaron no less). Psalm 106 reflects on that sin of the people:
They forgot the God who saved them.

I've been thinking about the problem of forgetfulness. I'm thinking that it is the side effects that are so dangerous. In middle school science I remember learning that "nature abhors a vacuum". So when I forget how God has been present, active and saving in my life, a space opens up. It seems true to experience that if I'm not attentive that is the space that gets filled with idolatry. It takes the form of slipping into gossipy conversation or maybe a heightened desire for that which, just days ago, I judged value-less.

I live close to an old Methodist church where the bells ring three times a day. When I'm home the auditory cue causes me pause. Something that simple can break into my daily life and wordlessly prompt a remembering. Cues, be they auditory, olfactory, or visual might just be the aide I need. Time for some creative cue  pondering...

A God of Super-Abundance

17th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Today we begin to read from John 6...The Bread of Life Discourse. The scene is set. It echoes Moses, with the mountain, the manna, and the Passover. As I listened to the Gospel this morning I heard the bit about the grass and found myself wondering. It recalls psalm 23 but at first blush it seemed an extraneous detail.

He makes me lie down in green pastures...
I shall not want...

This God of Abundance draws our attention to what is lush and green and cool and comfortable. Lie down and remember. Remember that whenever clenched fists are relaxed to open there is abundance. Even leftovers!  There is Passover, and Exodus, and liberation. The lad must have offered what he had to Andrew. His childlikeness was open to super-abundance. Jesus seems to imitate the boy's offering. The crowd is taken up and takes on this attitude of sharing.

I shall not want...what will never satisfy.  There is never enough of what never satisfies. There is always plenty of that which facilitates life and joy and communion.

Of Seeds and Hermits

Friday of Week 16 in Ordinary Time
Feast of St Charbel Makhlouf
Matthew 13:18-23

Sometimes I get intrigued by the feast day of saints I've never heard of. Today we are remembering Charbel, who was drawn to the ascetic life in imitation of the desert fathers. The part of the story that attracts me is how many were drawn to seek him out in his hermitage in the desert...for counsel and confession. What an interesting form of celebrity. 

Matthew gives us the parable of the Sower. I identify with the seed falling in the rocks. I wonder if unrootedness isn't at the root (pun intended) of the angst that ebbs and flows into my living. The hermit went out into the desert to tend to his rootedness in the Lord. And the beauty of that healthy and fruitful life was attractive to many. He was a celebrity from the ground up. 

What fascinates me?  What attracts me and allures me?  Is it the beauty of something deep-seeded?  Or skin deep?  What attraction do I offer the world?

May I eat and drink deeply of the Word of Life
May I be watered and pruned and rooted in the richness of God. 

Eyes and Ears of the Heart

Matthew 13:10-17

But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. Amen, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and hear what you hear but did not hear it.

I recognize another parenting move. Name the gifts and blessings, so obvious to the wise elders. And call the children into themselves. Help them to grow into their own blessedness.

I'm often awed by people who have that gift of attention that makes me feel like I'm the only person in the world, that my worries and cares are vital and important. Jesus attends in that way to the disciples. He attends that way to me. But I need the ears and eyes of my heart to widen my gaze and be drawn toward the God who knows me better than I know myself.

O Lord, it is your tender and patient voice I open the ears of my heart to hear. Reveal to me, O Lord, the path I don't see...the one marked with my name.

MM - Imitate Her

(I got ahead of myself yesterday---vacation will do that...I think I'll just stay ahead for now;)

Feast of St Mary Magdalen
Wednesday of Week 16 in Ordinary Time

Three of the four gospels mention Mary of Magdala (MM) as witness to the crucifixion times three; Matthew, Mark, and John. She is witness to the burial times two; Matthew and Mark. She is one of the first to the empty tomb in all four gospel...THE first according to John. And she is one of the first to witness the resurrection in Matthew and THE first in John.

Luke's is the only gospel that mentions MM in the ministerial life of Jesus:
And the twelve were with him, and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod's steward, and Susanna and many others, who provided for them out of their means" 
Luke 8:1-3

So instead of remembering her incredible faith and steadfastness or how she bankrolled the enterprise from the start, the western tradition chose just part of this passage to interpret MM. In a certainly deliberate way, and unlike the East which reveres and honors MM's apostleship, the western tradition made her a prostitute.

All storytelling involves interpretation...and embellishment. I wonder who I turn into prostitutes?  I wonder whose excellence I diminish?  And then there is the question of Why?

For truth in our storytelling---St Mary Magdalen, pray for us!

S-T-R-E-T-C-H

Matthew 16:46-50
Tuesday of Week 16 in Ordinary Time

And stretching out his hands toward his disciples, he said,
Here are my mother and my brothers and sisters. 

Compared to Mark's version of the "Who is my family?" passage, which has Jesus' family questioning his very sanity, Matthew's is nice and polite. He doesn't need a stark contrast to make his point. But it does lose some punch.

As I get older I find myself more and more attached to persons, places, and things. A kind of romantic nostalgia settles over me. I suppose that's my way of coping with how quickly time is unfolding in this life.   But if I can have a gospel attitude...an attitude that even loosens notions as bedrock as "family", maybe I can travel a bit more lightly through this life. Maybe my time won't be burdened by lugging all that nostalgia around with me.

Sunday liturgy really helps. Communion is the sacrament of the ONE body. That's more tightly knit than any notions of family I hold dear.  I still hold them dear...but in Jesus style I s-t-r-e-t-c-h and try to loosen my grip on some of my luggings.

Gathering and Scattering

16th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Jeremiah 23:1-6
Psalm 23
Mark 6:30-34

There seems to be a theme of gathering and scattering going on in today's readings. The scattering is deliberate and with purpose for the disciples who are returning home from their evangelical treks. For the people Jeremiah is referring to, and the crowds keen on following Jesus, not so.

I sometimes catch myself saying "I feel so scattered."  And I mean that I am aimless and even slightly disoriented. I feel like a sheep without a shepherd.  As I get older this becomes more in focus and at the same time more of a trap. As I get older and my elders are fewer I assume the role of shepherd. I need a shepherd too lest that 'scattering' become pathological.  I'm counting on "wisdom years";)  I pray I do my part to till the soil.

The Lord is my shepherd!
May I be gathered in the Lord!

I Hope. I Hope. I Hope.

Friday of Week 15 in Ordinary Time

Exodus 11:10  
This is how you are to eat it: 
with your loins girt, sandals on your feet, and your staff in hand

Matthew12:1-8  
For the Son of Man is Lord of the sabbath.

And...Psalm 116

In the Psalm there is a cup,  loosening of bonds, and walking without stumbling.  All the readings point me to reflect on the life of the sojourner and on how that life is sustained and nourished.  I remember singing Psalm 116 a few years ago at Eucharist and thinking, I want that song at my funeral.  I want it because it is the hope I hold for my journey.  I hope to take the cup of life.  I hope to take it all my days with gusto.  I hope to take it no matter what's inside.  I hope to make a fair and joyful return to the Lord with the whole of my life.  I hope to call on God's name in good times and in bad.  I hope to be set free from all that keeps me from loving God and neighbor.  I hope.  I hope.  I hope.

Psalm 116 here (but there is a 5 second commercial;)

Elusive Wisdom…Elusive Rest

Thursday of Week 15 in Ordinary Time
Matthew 11:28-30

Jesus said:
"Come to me,
all you who labor and are burdened,
and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,
for I am meek and humble of heart;
and you will find rest for yourselves.
For my yoke is easy,
and my burden light."

Yoke…Labor…Rest, these words echo the wisdom tradition in the scriptures and so point the seeker of wisdom to the person of Jesus.  Wisdom is not the reward of burdens carried well by the strong and the brilliant.   The "Who" question is again answered.  Who gets to receive this revelation of Jesus?  Those infants (11:25), and those the Son chooses (11:27).  

I often hear myself saying things like "If I can just get through------then----"  It evidences how I think in terms of burden and benefit.  And so my burden is mine to be endured alone lest I give away some of my future benefit!  But that is not Jesus-logic.  No.  Burdens are burdens, not equations.  They are not fairly distributed.  My quest for learning wisdom and finding rest will be served by sharing both my burdens and my benefits out of humility and meekness.  

The question is then:  Can I let myself be so liberated?

Embracing My Burning Bush

Feast of St. Bonaventure, Bishop, Doctor
Wednesday of Week 15

Today the lectionary gives us Exodus 3:1-6, 9-12, The Burning Bush.  I have to put away my Cecil B. DeMille image and remember the Moses story to this point.  A self-described "alien in a foreign land"; he was a bit homeless.  Born of one woman, raised by another, and then adopted by yet another, I can feel his un-groundedness.  

This is the Bible's inaugural prophetic commissioning story.  Many more follow.  Isaiah, Jeremiah, Jonah, to start.  And then there is Mary at the annunciation.  God meets the unlikely candidate where he/she is, there is questioning, and eventually the call of God and human cooperation (reluctant as it may be) work together for the good.

The Bible tells this type of story, I think, because its true, and confirmed in human experience.  Human persons are not puppets on strings.  There is always a dance; a call and response between creature and creator.  I have a prophetic commissioning as I was baptized "priest, prophet, and king!"  Is my burning bush a bit like my restless heart?  Is it both magnetically attracting me and frightening me at the same time?  Trusting in God's confidence in me…that's tough…especially if God thinks I can bring a WHOLE people out of slavery!

May the direction of my prophetic commissioning be evident and embraced!

…and a quick nod to St. Bonaventure.  At the time of St. Bonaventure the Franciscans were still a pesky force for reform in the church with their obvious poverty and disdain for institutional rigamarole.  And yet Bonaventure still fit in to the church's structure as theologian (and friend of St Thomas),  and Bishop.  That's what the church needs, I think.  More persons who can stand among and between, speaking wisdom and prudence…the antithesis of an ideologue.  St. Bonaventure pray for us!

Jesus…All Worked Up!

Tuesday of Week 15 in Ordinary Time
Matthew 11:20-24

This is when it is good to have a lectionary.  Without it I would skip over these parts where Jesus is angry and threatening.  But "fully human" has to include angry and threatening!  Smoldering below this tension is Matthew's growing theme of rejection that builds to the cross.  

I think Jesus' mood ought to hit me close to home.  Even if I would rather have Jesus just love me all the time…which of course he does but not in an easy, sweet and cuddly way.  What seems to make Jesus get all worked up is that for all his wonder-working, he's not getting quite the intended response…repentance.  

What do I do with good news?  What happens to me when I witness God's power breaking in on my life and surroundings?  Do I just stop at awe and wonder thinking how blessed I am to witness such goodness?  Or do I let it change me?  Do I let it draw me in so that I become a participant in the goodness?  Repentance is an acknowledgement that I cannot stay the same after an experience of awe and wonder.  

This is really hard.  This is why communities of faith with prodding liturgical calendars and well rounded worship are so important.  Praise.  Petition.  Lament.  Confession.  I need it all in various doses at various times…I just might not realize it.

Create in me a clean heart, O God.  psalm 51
...And help me be open to becoming someone new and improved!

Have a Stick and Shake the Dust

Mark 6:7-13
15th Sunday in Ordinary Time

What I hear from the Marcan Jesus:  You are going to get tired.  So don't waste any energy.

The staff seems like pretty basic travel gear for one who travels by foot.  It supports and protects.  And it also forewarns that the missionaries will get tired.  This weariness helps me understand the shake the dust part.

It invites a reflection.  What happens when I don't shake off the dust?   What happens when I take the failure on; when I arrogantly believe that if I just say or do the next right thing, then I won't have to move on?  Do I stay...in a conversation, an argument, a relationship...determined by sheer stubbornness and force of will to make it all work out in my favor?  What then are the future consequences?  Do I forfeit the encounter lying just around the corner…full of openness and potential?  

Maybe there is some sassiness in this shaking…but the lesson for me is to be a careful steward of my time and energy.  Fruitfulness is what the missionary disciples are about.  It is tiring.  Lean on a stick, or a friend, or a stranger.  And shake the dust as a way toward fruitfulness…and flourishing…and joy.

Who knows, that next encounter might be when:

Kindness and truth shall meet;
Justice and peace shall kiss,
Truth shall spring out of the earth,
and justice shall look down from heaven.  Psalm 85

Lord, don't let me thwart that meeting!

Feast of St. Benedict - Having Nothing to Add

Benedictine Wisdom - Quotations to stir heart and mind.

COMPILED BY RICHARD A. KAUFFMAN, December 29, 2008

THERE ARE TIMES when good words are to be left unsaid out of esteem for silence.
The Rule of St. Benedict 6:2

LANGUAGE IS A GIFT that can be used thoughtfully or thoughtlessly, humbly or proudly. Someone constantly aware of the presence of God will know when and how to speak.
Columba Stewart, Prayer and Community: The Benedictine Tradition

WHAT is not possible to us by nature, let us ask the Lord to supply by the help of his grace.
The Rule of St. Benedict Prologue 41

SPIRITUALITY without a prayer life is no spirituality at all, and it will not last beyond the first defeats. Prayer is an opening of the self so that the Word of God can break in and make us new. Prayer unmasks. Prayer converts. Prayer impels. Prayer sustains us on the way. Pray for the grace it will take to continue what you would like to quit.
Joan Chittister, In a High Spiritual Season

ALL GUESTS who present themselves are to be welcomed as Christ, for he himself will say: "I was a stranger and you welcomed me" (Matt. 25:35).
The Rule of St. Benedict 53:1

IF WE COULD genuinely practice Benedict's brand of hospitality, welcoming each guest to our churches as the visitation of Christ, it might transform our guests as well as us. Instead of making the other into my image, I am invited to see the other as one who is made in God's image and for whom Jesus Christ died.
Dennis Okholm, Monk Habits for Everyday People

WHAT PAGE, what passage of the inspired books of the Old and New Testaments is not the truest of guides for human life?
The Rule of St. Benedict 73:3

WE NEED, as St. Benedict insisted, to read whole books of Scripture from beginning to end, quietly working our way through a Gospel or an Old Testament prophet, willing to be surprised, resisting the temptation to exercise total control over what we read.
Michael Casey, Wisdom from the Monastery

DAY BY DAY remind yourself that you are going to die.
The Rule of St. Benedict 4:47

AWARENESS of mortality exerts a unique power to focus the mind and heart on essentials.
Columba Stewart, Prayer and Community: The Benedictine Tradition

LOOK FORWARD to holy Easter with joy and spiritual longing.
The Rule of St. Benedict 49:7

[W]E WILL ALWAYS be something of an exile in the present world. As lovely as it may be, it's not our final home, and worshiping God in spirit and truth always leaves us aware that there is more than what meets the eye.
Justin DuVall, from Praying with the Benedictines

It's Gonna Hurt

Friday of Week 14 in Ordinary Time
Matthew 10:16-23

Behold, I am sending you like sheep in the midst of wolves;

so be wise* as serpents and innocent** as doves.   Matthew 10:16

I am reminded of the many times I had to pull splinters out of my children's feet or fingers.  The preface was always "Now this is going to hurt…"  There is that same kind of "truthtelling" in today's Gospel.  And also in the unfolding of the liturgical calendar as the church remembers and celebrates the lives of many martyrs for whom intense suffering was the cost of their discipleship.

I wonder this day what the cost of discipleship looks like in my life.  What is the currency it trades in?  It isn't my physical life…like the martyrs.  That's clear…so far anyway.  Is it time?  Attention?  Careful and thoughtful stewardship?  Relationships?

Or maybe it is my life, the whole of it...and maybe that scares the ---- out of me.

It is the combination of serpent-like shrewdness and dove-like innocence that the gospel proposes as antidotes for my reluctance and fear in the face of my wolves.  Grant it, please, in increasing amounts!  

other translations:
*shrewd, cunning, prudent
**simple, harmless, guileless

Spending Peace

Thursday of Week 14 in Ordinary Time
Feast day of many Martyrs

As you enter a house, wish it peace.  

If the house is worthy; let your peace come upon it; 

if not, let your peace return to you.  Matthew 10:13

There are two things that strike me this morning.  The first is the fluidness of the wishing; the passiveness of the letting.  And the second, is that the text doesn't say "take your gift of peace back!" 

There is this calm about letting the peace come and letting it return.  It strikes me hard that it is best that I not try to discern worthiness ahead of time.  That would interrupt the letting it come part.  But I do that all the time as if my store of peace is scarce.  

As I type I see my own faulty logic…it's not my store!  And if I take it back in reaction to a perceived ungraciousness, I'm very liable to transform that peace into resentment…in effect spoiling its nutritive power.  And that, subverts the second.

My mantra for today:  It's your peace, Lord.  It's your peace.

The Full Import of Being Named

Matthew 10:1-7 - Wednesday Week 14

The theme of Israel as the missionfield of Jesus and the twelve is important to Matthew's story.  In 9:36 he uses the descriptor "sheep without a shepherd" a common Hebrew Testament metaphor.  Now it is the "twelve" that underscores the theme…Israel as twelve tribes.  Twelve is a powerful word.  It most certainly had conjuring power to its intended audience…something lost on me even if I read about it in a commentary.  

But the twelve also have names.  It's not just any twelve, but a particular twelve.  I'm believing that the fact of the names, the fact of the particularity and specificity, is more important than their actual names (something that the gospels don't agree on anyway).  With names come persons.

My baptism is the sacrament of my being named…particularly and specifically.  My body, named Cindy, is incorporated and sent.  And my life, then, participates in the continual working out of the Incarnation.  God's choice to bodily enter the human condition, as messy as that has proven to be, is the source of being called by name and called into mission.

A person is someone with a mission.
In the fullest sense a person is someone through whom the Word comes into the world.

The twelve are named and sent.
I too, named and sent.
Today…another day to move along that fullness spectrum!

Psalm 47:11 Today's Entrance Antiphon
Your praise, O God, like your name, reaches the ends of the earth 
(but not without some incarnational help;) 

My Perennial Wrestling Partner - Tuesday Week 14

Genesis 32:23-33

I was challenged this morning to re-think my typical understanding of the Jacob wrestling with the Angel text.  And it worked.  Jacob has been a "hot-mess" so far in the story.  He lies, cheats and steals.  The big question seems to be about WHO Jacob is really wrestling with.  He has a number of characters from his past who would be likely candidates.  But here he is, frightened out of his mind that brother Esau is going to blow him and everything he loves (or if not loves at least owns) to bits.  Then this wrestling occurs.  Nothing like panic to cause an identity crisis.  I forget that the title of this passage is a title…not part of sacred scripture at all.  In actuality the only person who purports that the wrestling opponent is divine is Jacob…the ego-maniac!  Who do I wrestle with?  Most often myself.  The wrestling itself is a sign of my own inner conflict.  To the extent that I see that wrestling through to a conclusion…to that degree...I am quite broken open.  

What happens to Jacob after this wrestling?  His big, bad fears…his big, bad enemy…turns out to be a real brother.  It is like the bogey-man in the closet.  Where is God in this story?  Perhaps on both sides…breaking down Jacob's hot-mess of a person and warming Esau's heart to forgive.  Grace abounds in-between.

Today, I'll surely find myself a la Jacob or a la Esau…either way I hope to be surprised by grace!

(click here for the food for thought I had for breakfast related to this Genesis text thanks to John C. Holbert;)

THAT woman, again, only different - Monday, Week 14 Matthew 9:18-26

Go here to see A Girl Restored to Life and a Woman Healed side by side as they are told in the three synoptics.

If I had to vote on the revelatory power of the three versions, Mark would win, hands down.  Matthew's is boring by comparison.  It is as if Mark is writing a dramatic play to be acted out on stage and Matthew is writing a catechism.  The crowd is missing in Matthew.  The woman's identity (see post of Sunday, June 28) is missing.  The simultaneous recognition of the healing by the woman and Jesus is missing.  The smart-mouthed disciples are missing.  What's left is a healing and a resuscitation.

Matthew is deliberate about his editorial practices.  It seems he doesn't want to get sidetracked by dramatic details.  The essential thing is faith.  And as these healings unfold Jesus' fame grows and the decision to accept or reject becomes more sharply focused.

I need characters.  I want to place myself in the scene.  I think that is why the stories of the saints are rich to me.  Today is also the Feast of St. Maria Goretti, Virgin, Martyr. She and my grandmother were from the same tiny town, Corinaldo, Italy.  And the story is that Maria babysat for my grandmother when she was a baby (or was it the other way around?).  What I remember is that Maria's story was part of the family story, and together we read about her, watched the campy movie, and called upon her intercession. 

Maybe that is the disciple's role...
to become a decent-enough…if not quite exemplary…
character in the story of the People of God…

St. Maria Goretti, and that "Bad-Ass-Faith-Filled" woman with a hemorrhage,
Pray for me!

The Subtleties of Translation - 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Mark 6:1-6

This is the "A prophet is not without honor except in his native place" pericope.
Many were astonished by Jesus' teaching in the synagogue.  After that there is a string of where, what, who, how questions about this Jesus and then the crowd is all of the sudden scandalized!

The word translated as astonished (or amazed in the NIV and astounded in the NRSV) is difficult to capture.  If the context influences the meaning then we need to pay attention to this crowd gathering again.  And the crowd in the Gospels has some unique characteristics.  It is a Gospel word; not used much in the Hebrew Scriptures.  There is such drama in the fickleness of this astonished crowd that I wonder what exactly this astonishment is made of.  Can astonishment be a negative…like infuriated, maybe?*  Or intrigued or mesmerized?

If the gathering crowd of people are really more like an amorphous and unstable mob, then it makes a lot of sense that Jesus is very careful around them.  In Mark, when these crowds get a little heated he asks everyone to keep quiet and he finds a quieter place to get away from it all.  He knows what crowds do…they switch from Hosanna to Crucify Him with one pointed finger.

A different take on verses 2-3:

Who the H--- does this guy think he is…
all full of himself.
All I can say is I don't trust him
and I don't trust the source of his tricks.
He's that weird kid who has been a Momma's boy all his life
And a simple carpenter's son at that!
There is something fishy about him.

And then, well, he can only heal of few sick folks in his home town, which from a Gospel perspective is not much.  The physical healing is no where near as important as the spiritual.  The most astounding thing is what forgiveness and reconciliation can bring about in the lives of individuals and communities.  

Mob versus Communion…two very different forms of gathering… 

links that fed my pondering:
* leftbehindandlovingit.blogspot.com/2012/07/mission-grounded-in-rejection.html
for interesting perspectives on translation 
waysofreadingthebible.blogspot.com for thoughts on the crowd in the the Gospels

Saturday July 4, Week 13 - Cloaks and Wineskins, New and Old

Matthew 9:14-17

As I read today's gospel text it was a sort of Jeopardy experience.  The answer is the parable of the cloth and the wineskins, "No one patches an old cloak with a piece of unshrunken cloth, for its fullness pulls away from the cloak and the tear gets worse.  People do not put new wine in old wineskins.  Otherwise the skins burst, the wine spills out, and the skins are ruined.  Rather, they pour new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved."  Now what's the question!

A few verses earlier we hear the pharisees and the disciples of John in attack mode as they want to know how eating with sinners and tax collectors, and not making a show of one's fasting practices, could ever be appropriate religious practice.  In verse 13 there is the reference to Hosea 6:6 about God's preference for mercy over sacrifice.  Unlike the Marcan parallel, Matthew adds the bit about preservation.  So, the question is how to move forward in such a way that the old (Judaism)and the new (following this man Jesus) are able to bless each other and offer something new that will grow in faith, hope and love.  AND, this is to happen in fidelity to what has gone before.  Not an easy task.  And we are still at this.  The parable is a start.

I still concern myself with what the "religious life" ought to look like.  Which I suppose is fairly benign as long as it doesn't get in the way of mercy.  But it does get in the way...doesn't it?  I think so...

ASIDE:  The Genesis reading today is about Jacob stealing Esau's identity!  The only thing I can say is Genesis is no Disney flick!  Rewards for bad behavior abound!  Again, I just love that centuries of editor's never felt the need to make this all nice.  Literary critic, Andrew McKenna, said something like "Biblical literature understands us better than we understand ourselves.  Our challenge is to approach these texts in such a way as to close the gap between their superior understanding of us and our inferior understanding of ourselves."  This text needs more than a blog entry to contribute to that narrowing;)  This blogger has more study to do...

Friday, July 3rd - Feast of St Thomas, Apostle - Ephesians 2:19-22

Ephesians is all about unity.  Jews, Gentiles, uncircumcised, haunted past…whatever it was, it all stands within the grasp of the one true God Jesus came to reveal.

The motif is that of a building; a household of God with a firm foundation and one very key stone that holds everything in place.  This key stone, capstone, cornerstone is Christ.  This household continues to grow in service to the Lord and so becomes a "dwelling place of God in the Spirit."

This word dwelling is weighty for me.  Just saying it real slowly makes me throw open my arms in a kind of "bring it all on" gesture.  My sensibility hears the word dwell, and adds in, with, and among.   It captures a necessary engagement in the life exchange of a community.  I have lots of dwelling places.  Places where I am in, with and among.  They all don't have Christ as capstone.  In fact, I'm pretty sure that only one of them has been consciously attempting for it to be so.  The big picture of Ephesians, and all the unity talk, means that wherever I find myself dwelling…well it is God's.  God is there wanting no part of my life to be unfit for the Holy Spirit's dwelling.

Thanks be to God.

The NON Sacrifice of Isaac - Thursday Week 13

Confession again.  This text has never made sense to me as a story of Abraham's faith.  It makes beautiful sense…revelatory sense...as a story about the challenges in discerning the authentic voice of God.

God doesn't change.  But hopefully we do.  The scriptures tell the unfolding story of the human race and her growing relationship to the God who brought us to being and who calls us to communion. So, we have been at this for a long time!  And this long time is full of baby steps.  They look like baby steps to us in the 21st century but a long long time ago it took a powerful amount of openness to hear,

"Abraham, Abraham, I know you're stuck believing like the whole world around you believes, that I want you to sacrifice your son…that that is what I am hungry for…but…"

In a moment of openness to the One God who doesn't change, Abraham was able to hear that his only son's life, the miraculously conceived son that has been the subject of much of Genesis to this point, that his life is not on God's most wanted list.

That's as far as it went.  The ram was there.  The ram will do...for now. Later on it will be Hosea who will reveal that a "contrite heart" is the sacrifice that God longs for.

I love how the  biblical narrative doesn't cover up our slowness; how it's pretty honest about our past behaviors.  It is the inspired story about us and our coming to know the one true God.  It is not particularly neat and tidy.

What/who am I hearing?  Is it God, my culture, my ego?  What is it that I am so sure that God is saying, and might it be this time's child sacrifice?  It may likely be something that is such a given…like child-sacrifice in Abraham's time…something that might take an attacking ram to dislodge.

God of Peace and non-violence
Grant me a spirit of discernment
That is not afraid to look at "givens"
A spirit keen on moving toward your likeness
For this I pray
Amen

Wednesday of Week 13 in Ordinary Time --- Arriving at Prayer with Psalm 34

I admit that Genesis has been a little exhausting, and today's Matthean version of the Demoniac episode isn't as interesting and colorful as Mark's or Luke's, so today it is Psalm 34...a great start to any day!

Psalm 34 seems to fit so perfectly with this bit of reflection I came across last night by Abraham Joshua Heschel:

It is good that there are words sanctified by ages of worship, 

by the honesty and love of generations.  

If it were left to ourselves, 

who would know what word is right 
to be offered as praise in the sight of God 
or which of our perishable thoughts worthy of entering eternity?  

On the other hand, one might ask:  

Why should we follow the liturgy?  

Should we not say, one ought to pray when one is ready to pray?

The time to pray is all the time.  

There is always an opportunity to disclose the holy, 

but when we fail to seize it, 

there are definite moments in the liturgical order of the day, 

there are words in the liturgical order of our speech to remind us.  

These words are like mountain peaks pointing to the unfathomable.  Ascending their trails we arrive at prayer.  

from "Man's Quest for God" 1954

That must have been what happened to Mary when she erupted in the Magnificat which echoes parts of Psalm 34.  At her joy, her body reached for words, "sanctified by the honesty and love of generations," and her particular culling of those words and phrases, fell together as both new and ancient.

Today, I think I will surrender and let the words grasp my being.

The Lord hears the cry of the poor.  Blessed be the Lord.

I will bless the Lord at all times, with praise ever in my mouth.

Let my soul glory in the Lord, who will hear the cry of the poor.

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Let the lowly hear and be glad: the Lord listens to their pleas;

and to hearts broken God is near, who will hear the cry of the poor.

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Every spirit crushed God will save; will be ransom for their lives;

will be safe shelter for their fears, and will hear the cry of the poor.

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We proclaim your greatness, O God, your praise ever in our mouth;

every face brightened in your light, for you hear the cry of the poor.