Changed community

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today resonate with the theme of change within communities.

Fig 1 Many links to consider

The passage from the Book of Jonah describes the miraculous transformation of the people of Nineveh in response to Jonah’s acceptance of the mission from God to preach to this community.

* [3:9–10] Scripture frequently presents the Lord as repenting (or, changing his mind) of the evil that he threatens; e.g., Gn 6:6–7; Jer 18:8.

In the First Letter to the Corinthians, Paul addresses how they should respond to the compression of time that Jesus Presence has introduced to their lives.

* [7:29–31] The world…is passing away: Paul advises Christians to go about the ordinary activities of life in a manner different from those who are totally immersed in them and unaware of their transitoriness.

The Gospel from Mark tells of the The Call of the First Disciples to abandon their nets and follow Jesus.

* [1:16–20] These verses narrate the call of the first Disciples. See notes on Mt 4:18–22 and Mt 4:20.

Mariana Miller shares her sense of God’s faithfulness to us.

Today, I would like to invite us to reflect on God’s faithfulness to us in his unconditional love that keeps constantly, but gently inviting us towards Godself, the only requirement: “repent, believe and embrace this good news of my unconditional love for you.

Don Schwager notes the role of common people on an uncommon mission, as preached by Eusebius of Caesarea (260/263-340 AD).

"Reflect on the nature and grandeur of the one Almighty God who could associate himself with the poor of the lowly fisherman's class. To use them to carry out God's mission baffles all rationality. For having conceived the intention, which no one ever before had done, of spreading his own commands and teachings to all nations, and of revealing himself as the teacher of the religion of the one Almighty God to all humanity, he thought good to use the most unsophisticated and common people as ministers of his own design. Maybe God just wanted to work in the most unlikely way. For how could inarticulate folk be made able to teach, even if they were appointed teachers to only one person, much less to a multitude? How should those who were themselves without education instruct the nations?... When he had thus called them as his followers, he breathed into them his divine power, and filled them with strength and courage. As God himself he spoke God’s true word to them in his own way, enabling them to do great wonders, and made them pursuers of rational and thinking souls, by empowering them to come after him, saying: 'Come, follow me, and I will make you fish for people' (Mark 1:17, Matthew 4:19). With this empowerment God sent them forth to be workers and teachers of holiness to all the nations, declaring them heralds of his own teaching." (excerpt from PROOF OF THE GOSPEL 3.7)

A reflection from the Theology Of Work Project suggests that we maintain the proper perspective when reading Paul’s advice to the Corinthians. (1 Corinthians 7:29–31).

The proper response to the compression of time is not to cease work­ing but to work differently. The old attitudes toward everyday life and its affairs must be replaced. This brings us back to the paradoxical state­ments in 1 Corinthians 7:29–31. We should buy, yet be as though we have no possessions. We should deal with the world as though not dealing with the world as we know it. That is, we may make use of the things this world has to offer, but we shouldn’t accept the world’s values and principles when they get in the way of God’s kingdom. The things we buy, we should employ for the good of others instead of holding tightly to them. When we bargain in the market, we should seek the good of the person from whom we buy, not just our own interests. In other words, Paul is calling believ­ers to “a radically new understanding of their relationship to the world.

Sean McDonough, a contributor to the TOW Project, places emphasis on creation and new creation as a feature of Christian doctrine since the beginning as he cites Church Father Irenaeus and modern theologians Karl Barth and Thomas Merton.

Francis X. Clooney, S.J. declares that in our time we live in a different world that needs us to take bolder, riskier Christian steps into interreligious learning. We should not expect Barth or Merton to tell us what comes next, in our moment of history.

2008 is a different world; on Wednesday, let us honor the memory of both of them, by taking bolder, riskier Christian steps into interreligious learning, without expecting Barth or Merton to tell us what comes next, in our moment of history.

Time compression is a component of the history shared by Friar Jude Winkler on the mission of Jonah to the hated the Ninevites and their rapid response to the call from God. Jesus calls and the disciples respond immediately. Our call may also be a surprise through unlikely people or events. Friar Jude advises to answer without hesitation.

Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, comments that Jesus was meant to be a game-changer for the human psyche and for religion itself. This is a resonance with minority view Franciscan spirituality as expressed by John Duns Scotus (1266-1308).

For Duns Scotus, the incarnation of God and the redemption of the world could never be a mere mop-up exercise in response to human sinfulness, but had to be the proactive work of God from the very beginning. We were “chosen in Christ before the world was made” (Ephesians 1:4). Our sin could not possibly be the motive for the incarnation—or we were steering the cosmic ship! Only perfect love and divine self-revelation could inspire God to come in human form. God never merely reacts, but supremely and freely acts—out of love. Salvation is much more about at-one-ment from God’s side than any needed atonement from our side. Jesus did not come to change the mind of God about humanity (it did not need changing)! Jesus came to change the mind of humanity about God!

Maria Hayes describes a book by Daniel Horan, OFM, on Thomas Merton, his Franciscan influences and development of the theology of John Duns Scotus.

“Much of the book focuses on the profound ways that Francis, St. Bonaventure, John Duns Scotus, St. Angela of Foligno and others from the Franciscan tradition informed and shaped Merton’s personal life and spiritual writings,” Dan said. “Merton’s most famous idea, ‘The True Self,’ is actually a popularization of John Duns Scotus’s principle of individuation, known as haecceitas. I think this book will be fascinating for those who love both the Franciscan tradition and Merton’s work.”

Patterns of our experience set the stage for our openness to the change in community in which we participate as we continue to live in the compressed time of the Kingdom.