The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today caution us about being narrowly focused on self satisfaction.
 |
| Welcoming community |
The reading from the Letter to the Romans declares the power of the Gospel to make visible the guilt of humankind while warning of punishment of idolaters.
* [1:24] In order to expose the depth of humanity’s rebellion against the Creator, God handed them over to impurity through the lusts of their hearts. Instead of curbing people’s evil interests, God abandoned them to self-indulgence, thereby removing the facade of apparent conformity to the divine will. Subsequently Paul will show that the Mosaic law produces the same effect; cf. Rom 5:20; 7:13–24. The divine judgment expressed here is related to the theme of hardness of heart described in Rom 9:17–18.1
Psalm 19 points to nature where we are informed of the Creator’s power and wisdom.
* [19:4] No speech, no words: the regular functioning of the heavens and the alternation of day and night inform human beings without words of the creator’s power and wisdom.2
In the Gospel of Luke Jesus denounces Pharisees and scholars of the Law for hypocrisy.
* [11:37–54] This denunciation of the Pharisees (Lk 11:39–44) and the scholars of the law (Lk 11:45–52) is set by Luke in the context of Jesus’ dining at the home of a Pharisee. Controversies with or reprimands of Pharisees are regularly set by Luke within the context of Jesus’ eating with Pharisees (see Lk 5:29–39; 7:36–50; 14:1–24). A different compilation of similar sayings is found in Mt 23 (see also notes there).3
Angela Maynard has watched others be harmed by the actions of people who seem to have a clean exterior. These self-proclaimed Christians may be acting so that others perceive them to be upstanding, successful leaders while there is incredible damage to others as a result of the self- serving motives behind their actions.
Today is the Feast of St. Teresa of Avila. She was a remarkable early leader of the Church. She reminds us of what our priority should be:
"The surest way to determine whether one possesses the love of God is to see whether he or she loves his or her neighbor. These two loves are never separated. Rest assured, the more you progress in love of neighbor the more your love of God will increase." ~ Teresa of Avila4
Don Schwager quotes “Acts of mercy are examples of almsgiving,” by Saint Augustine of Hippo, 354-430 A.D.
"What our Lord says, 'Give alms, and behold, all things are clean to you,' applies to all useful acts of mercy. It does not apply just to the one who gives food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, clothing to the naked, hospitality to the wayfarer or refuge to the fugitive. It also applies to one who visits the sick and the prisoner, redeems the captive, bears the burdens of the weak, leads the blind, comforts the sorrowful, heals the sick, shows the erring the right way, gives advice to the perplexed, and does whatever is needful for the needy. Not only does this person give alms, but the person who forgives the trespasser also gives alms as well. He is also a giver of alms who, by blows or other discipline, corrects and restrains those under his command. At the same time he forgives from the heart the sin by which he has been wronged or offended or prays that it be forgiven the offender. Such a person gives alms not only because he forgives and prays but also because he rebukes and administers corrective punishment, since in this he shows mercy... There are many kinds of alms. When we do them, we are helped in receiving forgiveness of our own sins." (excerpt from ENCHIRIDION 19.72)5
The Word Among Us Meditation on Romans 1:16-25 comments that Paul wrote that the wrath of God is being revealed. (Romans 1:18) But so too is the mercy of God. So too is the love of God. So too is his tender compassion for every person trapped in sin.
One thing is clear: Talk of God’s wrath emphasizes how very real, and serious, sin is. Sin divides us from each other. It separates us from God. It causes rivalry and enmity. It causes us to dwell in wrath and resentment and fear and shame. Sin is serious enough, in fact, that Jesus had to go to the cross to defeat it.6
Friar Jude Winkler notes that Paul addresses the Christians in Rome who have Jewish and Gentile origins. The rabbinic maxim “As the sin so the punishment” is resonant with Paul’s words. Friar Jude reminds us to be careful that religious practice is only external in our lives.
A Post from Franciscan Media notes that Saint Teresa of Avila, Saint of the Day for October 15, was born before the Protestant Reformation and died almost 20 years after the closing of the Council of Trent.
Like Jesus, she was a mystery of paradoxes: wise, yet practical; intelligent, yet much in tune with her experience; a mystic, yet an energetic reformer; a holy woman, a womanly woman… Her writings, especially the Way of Perfection and The Interior Castle, have helped generations of believers… In 1970, the Church gave her the title she had long held in the popular mind: Doctor of the Church. She and St. Catherine of Siena were the first women so honored. Ours is a time of turmoil, a time of reform, and a time of liberation. Modern women have in Teresa a challenging example. Promoters of renewal, promoters of prayer, all have in Teresa a woman to reckon with, one whom they can admire and imitate.7
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, comments that people like us read the Bible from the vantage point of our privilege and comfort and screen out those parts that threaten us. [People who have been marginalized] tell us that the basic viewpoint of the biblical writers is that of victims, those who have been cruelly used by society, the poor and oppressed. . . . Consequently, when they hear the Bible offering hope and liberation to the oppressed of the ancient world, they hear hope and liberation being offered to them as the oppressed of the contemporary world. If God sided with the oppressed back then, they believe God continues to side with the oppressed here and now.
Swiss theologian Karl Barth described . . . [as] “The Strange New World Within the Bible.” [2] . . . When [Barth] approached the Bible, every bit of spiritual and mental equipment he brought to the task was shattered by that “strange new world” and that as a result he had to begin looking at both the Bible and his own world in a new way. . . .
Christians make the initially bizarre gamble that “the strange new world within the Bible” is a more accurate view of the world than our own and that we have to modify our views as a result. This means engaging in dialogue with the Bible—bringing our questions to it, hearing its questions to us, examining our answers in its light, and taking its answers very seriously, particularly when they conflict with our own, which will be most of the time. . . .
We must be in dialogue not only with the Bible but also with Christians in other parts of the world who read the Bible in a very different way . . . [especially] Christians . . . who are generally poor and powerless, victims of political and social and economic structures . . . that oppress them on all levels of their lives, while those same structures support and enrich us. . . .8
Our self serving tendencies are often hidden behind misunderstanding of our privileged place in the world from which the Gospel calls us to act with preference for the marginalized in society.
References
No comments:
Post a Comment