PROVERBial Wisdom

Monday of Week 25 in Ordinary Time

Saint Januarius, Bishop Martyr

(of whom very little is known other than the place of his bones)

Proverbs 3:27-34

Proverbs is kind of like a well-stocked tool box. 

Help folks if they need it.  Just do it.  Don’t promise it for later.

And don’t be quarrelsome just for the heck of it!  People do that! It is like a mode of being!  And just because those noisy and quarrelsome folks seem to get a lot of attention…for goodness sakes don’t envy them for that!

I do those things. 

I have great excuses for putting off the help I claim to joyfully want to provide.

I quarrel over the most ridiculous things.

I envy the attention bad-boys/girls get from time to time.

Open up that toolbox called Proverbs and remember what’s there.  Master those tools…wisdom, understanding, knowledge… and my soul will be alive and well.

Proverbs = Practical;)

A Pot-Full of Charisms

Friday of Week 24 in Ordinary Time

Saints Cornelius and Cyprian

Luke 8:1-3

Today’s short pericope comes on the heels of the story of “That Women”, the one who is comfortable with “public displays of affection,” vis-à-vis the self-absorbed Simon.  Luke is about to return to Mark’s outline with the parable of the sower.  But first…this word from the sponsor;)  This little bit is pure Luke.

Luke once more highlights the role of women in the ministry of Jesus.  It foreshadows the part in Acts when we learn how the community “held all things in common.” Acts 2:44

This is a weighty group of women.  They will witness Jesus’ death (23:49) and burial (23:55).  MM and Joanna will be told of Jesus’ resurrection…they will be the first.

Is Luke reminding us that communities need diversity?  Don’t they need a plethora of gifts and vocations to be a healthy system?  And more specifically, doesn’t every community need men and women who are gifted at drawing out and nurturing the vocation of others?

In thanksgiving for long-term, and gentle prodding friends who “support from their own giftedness” especially from their gift of nurturing and drawing out (8:3).

Plucked-Plucker

Friday of Week 23 in Ordinary Time

Saint Peter Claver

Luke 6:39-42

Because of some of the reading I am doing for a class, this text from Luke pushes me to hone my understanding of Church. 

Can a blind person guide a blind person?

Will they not both fall into a pit?

And later:

Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye,

but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own?

So, what does this have to do with Church?  Well a common understanding of Church, and one I fall back on without paying attention, is to say that Church is a place where people go to share their faith with each other and get pumped about going out and sharing it with others.  But then I think to myself:  How boring!

I like how Rowan Williams puts it:  (Church) is first of all a kind of space cleared by God through Jesus in which people may become what God made them to be, and what we have to do about the Church is not first to organize it as a society but to inhabit it as a climate or a landscape.  It is a place where we can see properly –God, God’s creation, ourselves.

So I don’t come with all the answers.  I bring my splinters and my logs knowing that the gospel, alive in the midst of this church, has the power to pluck out and dislodge.  It is blindness that is in my way.  Blindness is what keeps me from being the person God has in store. 

I’ve been both, plucked and a plucker.  Both are better than falling into a pit;)

Gnōmē or not Gnōmē.

Wednesday of Week 23 in Ordinary Time

1 Corinthians 7:25-31

Luke 6:20-26 (best to extend it to v35)

This pericope from 1 Corinthians is taken from Paul’s long treatise on freedom. (6:12-10:23)  Paul is careful to distinguish his opinion (as important as it is) from that of the Lord.  His advice here is gnōmē, and while it has a certain stick-to-itiveness[1], it is not a command of the Lord. I can admire this relative humility;)

Paul has a strong eschatological conviction, the ‘time is growing short.’ ROM 13:11-12 There are problems in Corinth.  We don’t get to know what they are exactly but only Paul’s response to them.  How do I read Paul here? 

This section from the Lucan Sermon on the Plain is of a different sort.  Not gnōmē. 

Compared to Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount, Luke’s is slim and focused.  It emphasizes a broad ethics. And of course Luke has the added ‘woes.’ The blessings and woes continue Luke’s pattern of reversal which flows from the rejection of Jesus (God’s beloved Son) by the leaders.

I feel addressed by this text.  I may even feel a bit un-dressed. 

You!  Yes, you!  

Reading through v35, it becomes clear that this ethic is so much more than the Golden Rule.  Don’t just do as you would have another (a human being) do for you.  No!  Do as God would do! 

So, if I am receiving my consolation now, and if my belly is full, and if am quick to laugh and praised by many, then I am especially vulnerable to seduction.  Resistance needs prayer.  And action.

The reward for doing as God would do:  the reality of being ‘children of the Most High’ who can imitate in the world the kindness of God toward the world.[2]

PS Related to Luke's Beatitudes I came across this diagram (freelyreceive.org) which I found very interesting:

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[1] Raymond F. Collins, First Corinthians, Sacra Pagina, Volume 7, p 289.

[2] Luke Timothy Johnson, The Gospel of Luke, Sacra Pagina, Volume 3, p 112.

Leave to Follow

Thursday of Week 22 in Ordinary Time

Luke 5:1-11

Luke’s narrative of calling his disciples expands on that provided by Mark.  The characters have a part to play in the drama.  Jesus doesn’t just walk by, call them by name, and they follow.  The would-be disciple’s make a response that flows out of an experience.

Luke situates the calling within the drama of the ‘almost disastrous’ great catch.  Peter objects, we’ve been at this all night but acquiesces, but whatever you say Master. In the aftermath, Peter expresses his awe and humility, I am a sinful man.  Peter says depart, and ends up following.  Good news!  That is just the kind of person Jesus is looking for! 

Peter’s moves echo the first reading about human wisdom being foolishness in the eyes of God.

Calling to mind those times when I moved from objection to acquiescence …or from departing to following, I see a chipping away at my foolishness…small wisdom moves…via humility;)

Always being right doesn’t allow for this.

I’ll try and remember that.