A paradigm for progress in reconciliation

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today connect spiritual and material feeding and reconciliation in the fullness of God of the Christ Mystery.

Table Hospitality

The Book of the Prophet Isaiah directs that we lavish our food on the hungry.

* [58:6–12] Fasting is not genuine without reforming one’s way of life. A true social morality will ensure prosperity.

In the Gospel from Luke, Levi gave a great banquet for Jesus who called Levi to follow Him.

[5:28] Leaving everything behind: see note on Lk 5:11.

Tamara Whitney shows that Jesus calls the people who are hungry for His word and he gives it.

Dr. Ralph F. Wilson offers a vivid description of Jesus enjoying the people and banquet created by Levi.

Grant MacAskill of the Theology of Work Project notes the hospitality of communal eating and suggests that lunch with colleagues, a jog or workout at the gym, or a shared beverage after work can build deeper relationships with our co-workers.

Interestingly, the hospitality of communal eating is a major part of Jesus’ ministry and suggests a concrete way by which such encounters might be hosted. The hospitality of lunch with colleagues, a jog or workout at the gym, or a shared beverage after work can build deeper relationships with our co-workers. These friendships have lasting value themselves, and through them the Holy Spirit may open the door to a kind of friendship evangelism.This raises a question. If Christians today were to host a meal with colleagues from work, friends from their neighbourhood, and friends from their church, what would they talk about? The Christian faith has much to say about how to be a good worker and how to be a good neighbour. But do Christians know how to speak about them in a common language understandable to their colleagues and neighbours?

Don Schwager reminds us that  when we bless others, especially those who need spiritual as well as physical and material help, God in turn blesses us.

When your neighbor stumbles through sin or ignorance, do you point the finger to criticize or do you lend a helping hand to lift him or her up? The prophet Isaiah tells us that God repays each in kind. When we bless others, especially those who need spiritual as well as physical and material help, God in turn blesses us.

Friar Jude Winkler connects the call of Isaiah to feed and clothe the needy with Sabbath observance. The contagion of sin fear continues today and our strength is in the Body of Christ to be the physician who does not contract the disease.

The paradigm shift modeled by Jesus hospitality resonates with Pope Francis' Amoris Laetitia as a New Paradigm in the Revolution of Mercy as presented by Cardinal Cupich at the Von Hügel Institute.

Pope Francis is tapping into a yearning the Institute is attempting to address, namely the need for a worldview of reality, a catholic - with small c - view, that connects all aspects of knowledge and practice in a differentiated unity, offering a needed corrective in an era when pressures of specialization and commodification have left work and knowledge so fragmented. Von Hügel Institute has given me a chance to take a second look at what Pope Francis is offering in Amoris, for which I thank you. Without a holistic approach to examining the questions of the day, one that connects knowing and practice, we end up with a fragmented and partial way of understanding and knowledge, which limits our practice. What emerges from this re-reading of Amoris is that the Holy Father is offering a revivified hermeneutic that involves a paradigm shift on a number of levels. He does that by connecting tradition and experience, teaching and practice in a way that better responds to the realities people face in their daily lives

Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, offers Alana Levandoski and Julie Ann Stevens creative rendering of  “The Christ Hymn” from Colossians 1:15-20 (Common English Bible) that invites contemplation of The Christ Mystery in which “Because all the fullness of God was pleased to live in him, and he reconciled all things to himself through him”.

The path to reconciliation needed today is through living as disciples of Jesus who engage and learn in hospitable connection with all people.

References


(n.d.). Isaiah 58:6-11. Retrieved February 17, 2018, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/isaiah/isaiah58.htm

(n.d.). Luke, chapter 5 - United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Retrieved February 17, 2018, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/luke/5

(n.d.). #13. Calling Levi the Tax Collector (Luke 5:27-32) -- JesusWalk. Retrieved February 17, 2018, from http://www.jesuswalk.com/lessons/5_27-32.htm
(n.d.). The Calling of Levi (Mark 2:13-17) - Theology of Work. Retrieved February 17, 2018, from https://www.theologyofwork.org/new-testament/mark/kingdom-and-discipleship/the-calling-of-levi-mark-213-17

(n.d.). Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved February 17, 2018, from http://dailyscripture.servantsoftheword.org/

(2018, February 9). Pope Francis' Revolution of Mercy: Amoris Laetitia as a New Paradigm .... Retrieved February 17, 2018, from http://www.lastampa.it/2018/02/09/vaticaninsider/eng/documents/pope-francis-revolution-of-mercy-amoris-laetitia-as-a-new-paradigm-of-catholicity-skMox0lKtoX5szfKH6QgrL/pagina.html

(2017, December 30). 2018 Daily Meditations - Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved February 17, 2018, from https://cac.org/2018-daily-meditations/