The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today invite us to adopt a position of humility as we work through some cognitive dissonance arising from our study.
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| Faith and wealth |
In the reading from the Letter of James we are urged to persevere in trial as we work to connect Faith and Wisdom and understand living with poverty or riches.
* [1:9–11] Throughout his letter (see Jas 2:5; 4:10, 13–16; 5:1–6), the author reaffirms the teaching of Jesus that worldly prosperity is not necessarily a sign of God’s favor but can even be a hindrance to proper humility before God (cf. Lk 6:20–25; 12:16–21; 16:19–31).1
Psalm 119 laments the cost of obedience and delights in the law’s consolations.
* [Psalm 119] This Psalm, the longest by far in the Psalter, praises God for giving such splendid laws and instruction for people to live by. The author glorifies and thanks God for the Torah, prays for protection from sinners enraged by others’ fidelity to the law, laments the cost of obedience, delights in the law’s consolations, begs for wisdom to understand the precepts, and asks for the rewards of keeping them.2
Jesus rejects the demand for a sign in the Gospel of Mark.
* [8:11–12] The objection of the Pharisees that Jesus’ miracles are unsatisfactory for proving the arrival of God’s kingdom is comparable to the request of the crowd for a sign in Jn 6:30–31. Jesus’ response shows that a sign originating in human demand will not be provided; cf. Nm 14:11, 22.3
Ronald Fussell comments that when he reads this Gospel passage, he asks, what was the motivation behind the Pharisees’ requests? Was it for a genuine search for truth, or rather, was it warped by a hidden desire to embarrass and trap? And, most important, who is he among the Pharisees? What are his motivations?
I recall those difficult moments in my life when I have asked for a sign myself. After all, faith would seem to be so much easier if we just had some magnificent and dazzling display to confirm what we believe. But, that is never how it works. Our faith will not be strengthened by some spectacular confirmation of God’s presence. Rather, it is strengthened by the personal relationship that we build with Jesus through prayer, and in how we see that relationship come alive in our encounters with others. That is what Jesus wants for us. By seeking Jesus through these means, we will more closely mirror His vision for us in our earthly existence, and our faith will finally be confirmed when we meet with our eternal reward. So, let us avoid the trap of looking for some celestial proof of the presence of God so that we may get to the real work of strengthening our faith through relationships – with Christ and with others – for this is the fertile field in which our faith will grow.4
Don Schwager quotes “Why does this generation seek a sign,” by John Chrysostom (347-407 AD).
"But for what sign from heaven were they asking? Maybe that he should hold back the sun, or curb the moon, or bring down thunderbolts, or change the direction of the wind, or something like that?... In Pharaoh's time there was an enemy from whom deliverance was needed (Exodus 3-15). But for one who comes among friends, there should be no need of such signs." (excerpt from GOSPEL OF ST. MATTHEW, HOMILY 53.3)5
The Word Among Us Meditation on James 1:1-11 comments that we know how hard it can be to persevere, especially in our walk with the Lord. We get tired of fighting temptation. We grow weary of sacrifice. We wonder if God is really hearing our prayers. We don’t know if we can keep loving people who don’t return our love.
We can take our cue from Jesus. He must have grown weary walking from village to village, with nowhere to lay his head. He must have grown tired of being jostled by crowds who wanted only to touch him and be healed. He must have been frustrated by the constant attacks from some of the religious leaders. But he just kept going. Every day was hard and demanding, but the Father gave him the grace to endure—all the way to the end, to his death on the cross.
We too can rely on God’s grace to persevere. His grace doesn’t necessarily mean that things will get easier; sometimes we just have to keep going, as Jesus did. But we can trust that somehow we’ll find the strength we need to keep pressing on. That “somehow,” of course, is the power of God’s grace flowing into us.6
Friar Jude Winkler raises the question of James disagreement with Paul in the light of the practice in Jewish teaching to look at the other side of the story. The teaching of James on riches emphasizes that the lowly are not less before God. Friar Jude identifies two groups, those rejecting, and those confused, who are interacting with Jesus during His ministry.
Eric Jobe offers some thoughts about reconciling Paul and James teaching about Justification.
The Franciscan Media reflection on the saint of the day notes that the time in which the seven Servite founders lived is very easily comparable to the situation in which we find ourselves today. It is “the best of times and the worst of times,” as Dickens once wrote. Some, perhaps many, feel called to a countercultural life, even in religion. All of us are faced in a new and urgent way with the challenge to make our lives decisively centered in Christ.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, admires Cynthia Bourgeault’s unique insights and ability to bring together the ancient wisdom of Christian monasticism and the transformational teachings and practices of spiritual seeker G. I. Gurdjieff (1866–1949). Today she offers a brief explanation of Gurdjieff’s teachings on Three-centered Awareness. Wisdom is a way of knowing that goes beyond one’s mind, one’s rational understanding, and embraces the whole of a person: mind, heart, and body. The intellectual faculty is one way of knowing, to be sure, but it is joined by two additional faculties: the intelligence of the “moving center” and the intelligence of the “emotional center.” These three centers must all be working, and working in harmony, as the first prerequisite to the Wisdom way of knowing.
I’m going to start with the moving center because it’s the one least known in the West, least valued, and least worked with. The moving center basically is about intelligence through movement. It’s the way that our body is able to put its tentacles out and explore and gain information from the world. It’s that whole realm of things that we don’t do directly with our intellectual rational brain but that deeply engage us. We drive a car, ski down a hill, sail a boat. It gets in our bodies. That kind of intelligence, which we mostly underuse, is a huge reservoir of connectivity and information with the world.7
Our perseverance in faith will involve using our mind, heart and body to deepen our experience of Christ and our resolution of dissonance in our understanding.
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