Message of mercy and faith

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today remind us that an encounter with Christ is a move beyond doctrines and dogmas to experience.

Jericho to Jerusalem

In the Letter of Paul to the Galatians, he is addressing the attempt of Jewish Christian missionaries to subject the people to adherence to Jewish Law and customs.

* [1:6–10] In place of the usual thanksgiving (see note on Rom 1:8), Paul, with little to be thankful for in the Galatian situation, expresses amazement at the way his converts are deserting the gospel of Christ for a perverted message. He reasserts the one gospel he has preached (Gal 1:7–9) and begins to defend himself (Gal 1:10).

A legal authority questions Jesus about the main tenets of the Law in the passage from the Gospel of Luke.

* [10:25–37] In response to a question from a Jewish legal expert about inheriting eternal life, Jesus illustrates the superiority of love over legalism through the story of the good Samaritan. The law of love proclaimed in the “Sermon on the Plain” (Lk 6:27–36) is exemplified by one whom the legal expert would have considered ritually impure (see Jn 4:9). Moreover, the identity of the “neighbor” requested by the legal expert (Lk 10:29) turns out to be a Samaritan, the enemy of the Jew (see note on Lk 9:52).

Christian converts from the Essene Community have been suggested as likely advocates of continued practice of their Jewish customs. Jesus is likely to have passed very close to Qumran, near Jericho, on his way to Jerusalem.

In regards to the Essene Community, we do know that Qumran served as a study site for the Essenes, a Jewish sect existing in Jesus's day. Located at the edge of the Judea Wilderness, Qumran was an isolated community. The Essenes could live out their beliefs in separation from other corrupt priests in Jerusalem. Not far from Qumran, the oases of Jericho and En Gedi provided desert homes for other ancient people. The Dead Sea was also nearby, with the land of Moab easily visible on its eastern shore.....and as Jesus traveled at one point past Jericho on his way to Jerusalem, he would have come EXCEPTIONALLY CLOSE to Qumran again

Tom Purcell offers a prayer today is for the gift of empathy and selflessness, for the strength to let go of our possessions, our safety, our concerns, our selfishness, so we can see everyone we encounter as our neighbor, as did the Samaritan, and to soothe their hurts in whatever way we can.

Lord, it seems like the more I become aware of what I have to lose, the more afraid I am to help the victims I see.  I sometimes put my safety and protecting my possessions ahead of the needs of the hurting people I encounter. I don’t always engage them with the empathy that you ask of me, and I am not always interested in helping them address what hurts them.

Don Schwager asks what Jesus' story tells us about true love for one's neighbor.

First, we must be willing to help even if others brought trouble on themselves through their own fault or negligence. Second, our love and concern to help others in need must be practical. Good intentions and showing pity, or emphathizing with others, are not enough. And lastly, our love for others must be as wide and as inclusive as God's love. God excludes no one from his care and concern. God's love is unconditional. So we must be ready to do good to others for their sake, just as God is good to us.

The Word Among Us Meditation on Luke 10:25-37 shares that the answer to overcoming our divisions is not just in seeing people differently; it’s in treating them differently.

Jesus’ parable forced his hearers to put a face and a heart on a member of a despised group. That’s always the first step in undoing prejudice and bias: to view people not as “categories” or “labels” but as individuals created in the image and likeness of God. When we do this, we often discover that our assumptions about a person are way off base.

Friar Jude Winkler, OFM Conv, provides background on the Jewish Christians in Galatian territory. Paul connects his revelation on the road to Damascus to the intervention of an angel in the reception of the Law from God by Moses. Friar Jude connects the heart, soul, strength and mind of Jesus statement of the 1st Commandment to our present day situation.

Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, shares that in meditation, we move beyond doctrines and dogmas to inner experience. When we are faithful to meditation, we quickly overcome the illusion that our correct thinking, or thinking more about something, can ever get me there.

Alongside all our knowing must be the equal and remaining “knowing that I do not know.” That’s why the classic schools of prayer spoke of both kataphatic knowing—through images and words—and apophatic knowing—through silence, symbols, and beyond words. Apophatic knowing is the empty space around the words, allowing God to fill in all the gaps in an “unspeakable” way. The apophatic way of knowing was largely lost to the West by the time of the Reformation in the 16th century, and Western Christianity has suffered because of it. We wanted to match the new rationalism with what felt like solid knowing, and we mimicked the secular mind instead of what Paul calls “knowing spiritual things in a spiritual way” (1 Corinthians 2:13). We lost the unique access point of the mystics, the poets, artists, and saints (who usually did not even know they were using this alternative consciousness).

Fr Richard summarizes that strangely enough, this unknowing is a new kind of understanding. We do have a word for it: the old word faith. Faith is a kind of knowing that doesn’t need to know for certain and yet doesn’t dismiss knowledge either. We act in faith and experience the image of God in our neighbours.

References

(n.d.). Galatians chapter 1 - United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Retrieved October 8, 2018, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/galatians/1
(n.d.). Luke 10:25-37. Retrieved October 8, 2018, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/luke/luke10.htm
(2013, April 2). Barnabas the Levite: Is it significant that Paul learned from a .... Retrieved October 8, 2018, from https://www.christianforums.com/threads/barnabas-the-levite-is-it-significant-that-paul-learned-from-a-liturgical-priest.7735979/
(n.d.). Creighton U Daily Reflections .... Retrieved October 8, 2018, from http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/daily.html
(n.d.). Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved October 8, 2018, from https://dailyscripture.servantsoftheword.org/
(n.d.). Daily Meditations Archives - Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved October 8, 2018, from https://cac.org/category/daily-meditations/
(n.d.). 27th Week in Ordinary Time - Mass Readings and Catholic Daily .... Retrieved October 8, 2018, from https://wau.org/meditations/
(n.d.). Daily Meditations Archives - Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved October 8, 2018, from https://cac.org/category/daily-meditations/