The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today invite us to contemplate the signs of the Jesus Presence in the world around us and in the creativity of artists.
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| Signs in Nature |
The reading from the Book of Wisdom points to the foolishness of missing the Creator in our observation of Nature.
* [13:1–9] The author holds a relatively benign view of the efforts of the philosophers to come to know God from various natural phenomena. This is not a question of proving the existence of God in scholastic style. The author thinks that the beauty and might of the world should have pointed by analogy (v. 5) to the Maker. Instead, those “in ignorance of God” remained fixed on the elements (v. 2, three named, along with the stars). His Greek counterparts are not totally blameless; they should have gone further and acknowledged the creator of nature’s wonders (vv. 4–5). Cf. Rom 1:18–23; Acts 17:27–28.1
Psalm 19 proclaims the regular functioning of the heavens inform human beings 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
Jesus describes the sudden intrusion of the Day of the Son of Man into our lives in the Gospel of Luke.
* [17:20–37] To the question of the Pharisees about the time of the coming of God’s kingdom, Jesus replies that the kingdom is among you (Lk 17:20–21). The emphasis has thus been shifted from an imminent observable coming of the kingdom to something that is already present in Jesus’ preaching and healing ministry. Luke has also appended further traditional sayings of Jesus about the unpredictable suddenness of the day of the Son of Man, and assures his readers that in spite of the delay of that day (Lk 12:45), it will bring judgment unexpectedly on those who do not continue to be vigilant.3
Mark Latta comments that our times today might seem like Noah’s time where everyone seems distracted, distanced from God, unable to concentrate on what is important.
Luke’s admonition is not centered on our activities of life but on our lack of attentiveness to what we are doing and what God is doing within us. Saint Ignatius in the Spiritual Exercises asks us to seek an inner freedom from disordered attachments in order to be open to God’s unconditional love for us—and to the movements of the Holy Spirit within us to guide our actions and activities.4
Don Schwager quotes “Those working in the field are sowing the Word of God,” by Ambrose of Milan, 339-397 A.D.
"'He that will be on the housetop, do not let him go down. He that will be in the field, do not let him turn back.' How may I understand what is the field unless Jesus himself teaches me? He says, 'No one putting his hand to the plough (plow) and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God' (Luke 9:62). The lazy person sits in the farmhouse, but the industrious person plants in the field. The weak are at the fireplace, but the strong are at the plough. The smell of a field is good, because the smell of Jacob is the smell of a full field (Genesis 27:27). A field is full of flowers. It is full of different fruits. Plough your field if you want to be sent to the kingdom of God. Let your field flower, fruitful with good rewards. Let there be a fruitful vine on the sides of your house and young olive plants around your table (Psalm 127:3). Already aware of its fertility, let your soul, sown with the Word of God and tilled by spiritual farming, say to Christ, 'Come, my brother, let us go out into the field' (Song of Solomon 7:11). Let him reply, 'I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride. I have gathered my vintage of myrrh' (Song of Solomon 5:1). What is better than the vintage of faith, by which the fruit of the resurrection is stored and the spring of eternal rejoicing is watered?" (excerpt from EXPOSITION OF THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 8.43.27)5
The Word Among Us Meditation on Luke 17:26-37 is concerned that listening to reports of bad news, worrying about what might go wrong in our families, fear for our health—all those things can pull us down into a swamp of worry and apprehension. The more we focus on our anxious thoughts, the deeper we can sink.
Where do you see anxiety dragging you down? The next time you feel like you’re drowning in the quicksand of worry, try to relax and focus on Jesus and his plans for you today. His first coming launched a revolution of love and mercy. It built a solid foundation that can keep you from drowning. What’s even better, this solid foundation will grow ever stronger with every act of faith and trust you make.6
Friar Jude Winkler describes how the Greek philosophers were caught up in the power and beauty of Creation yet lacked the human wisdom to find God as Creator. Jesus Resurrection was initially interpreted as a sign of the imminent end of the world. Friar Jude observes how the concept of “rapture” may be connected to the apparent lack of rhyme or reason in the timing of our death.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, ponders how there must be a way to be both here and in the depth of here. Jesus is here. Christ is the depth of here. This is the essence of incarnation and the gift of contemplation.
We must learn to love and enjoy things as they are, in their depth, in their soul, and in their fullness. Contemplation is the “second gaze,” through which we see something in its particularity and yet also in a much larger frame. We know it by the joy it gives, which is far greater than anything it does for us in terms of money, power, or success. In its various forms, art provides this incarnational and contemplative insight.
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| Sculpture of St. Francis of Assisi, artist unknown, Upper Church in the Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi, Assisi, Italy; photo by K505/Shutterstock. |
Instead of looking upward as is usual, he gazes reverently and longingly downward—into the earth—where the Spirit is enmeshed with the earth. Francis understood that the Holy Spirit had in fact descended; she is forever and first of all here! There are many artists who inherently understand incarnation. They see art as a major transposition of sacred place from there to here.7
We ponder the mysteries of the universe and invoke the Spirit to connect us to the truth, beauty, and goodness that we forget is incarnate in our immediate surroundings.
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