The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today invite us to find peace in trusting in our relationship with Christ to guide our lives in resonance with the Will of God.
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| Beside still waters |
The reading from the Prophet Jeremiah tells how Hananiah opposes Jeremiah and dies.
I am sending you from the face of the earth; this very year you shall die, because you have preached rebellion against the LORD.1
Psalm 119 proclaims the glories of God’s Law.
* [] 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. Several expected elements do not appear in the Psalm: Mount Sinai with its story of God’s revelation and gift to Israel of instruction and commandments, the Temple and other institutions related to revelation and laws (frequent in other Psalms). The Psalm is fascinated with God’s word directing and guiding human life. The poem is an acrostic; its twenty-two stanzas (of eight verses each) are in the order of the Hebrew alphabet. Each of the eight verses within a stanza begins with the same letter. Each verse contains one word for “instruction.” The translation here given attempts to translate each Hebrew word for “instruction” with the same English word. There are, however, nine words for “instruction,” not eight, so the principle of a different word for “instruction” in each verse cannot be maintained with perfect consistency. The nine words for “instruction” in the translation are: law, statute, commandment, precept, testimony, word, judgment, way, and promise. 2
In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus walks on the water and heals the sick in Gennesaret.
* [–] The disciples, laboring against the turbulent sea, are saved by Jesus. For his power over the waters, see note on . Here that power is expressed also by his walking on the sea (; cf. ; ). Matthew has inserted into the Marcan story (–) material that belongs to his special traditions on Peter (–)3
Tom Purcell shares faith to him means a belief firmly held and upon which we feel compelled to act in a manner that is consistent with the belief.
As Christians we believe in the salvific power of the resurrection, the admonitions from Jesus about how to live our lives, the exponential power of love of others versus love of self. We strive to help rather than hurt, to heal rather than injure, to share rather than hoard. We believe that by following these examples we will create the Kingdom of God on earth, and result in a better tomorrow, even if we are not alive to enjoy the results ourselves.4
The Word Among Us Meditation on Jeremiah 28:1-17 comments that when we avoid dealing with our sins, we make things worse. When we close our ears to everything but the outcome we want, we cut ourselves off from the healing and renewal God wants to give us.
The Lord always has more for us. And because he has so much for us, he is always calling us to change, to align ourselves a little more closely with him. So take a moment to reflect on what God is calling you to do. Are you listening to the prophets of the world who tell you everything is fine? Or are you heeding the call to repentance so that you can experience the freedom God wants to give you?
“Lord, I want to be at peace. Help me to turn to you more deeply so that I can experience even more freedom!”5
Friar Jude Winkler fleshes out the conflict between Hananiah and Jeremiah and the symbol of the yoke. The siege of Jerusalem in 589 BCE led to the exile of many people of Judah in 587 BCE. Friar Jude is reminded by the experience of Peter in the Gospel that we need to take risks.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, comments that throughout the ages, mystics have kept alive the awareness of our union with God and thus with everything. What some now call creation spirituality or the holistic Gospel was voiced long ago by the Desert Fathers and Mothers in Africa, some Eastern Orthodox Fathers, ancient Celts, many of the Rhineland mystics, and of course Francis of Assisi. He is sorry to say that many women mystics were not even noticed. Julian of Norwich (c. 1343–c. 1416) and Hildegard of Bingen (1098–1179) would be two major exceptions, though even they have often been overlooked.
Hildegard wrote in her famous book Scivias: “You understand so little of what is around you because you do not use what is within you.” [1] This is key to understanding Hildegard. Without using the word, Hildegard recognized that the human person is a microcosm with a natural affinity for or resonance with the macrocosm, which many of us would call God. We are each “whole” and yet part of a larger Whole. Our little world reflects the big world. Resonance is the key word here, and contemplation is the key practice. Contemplation is the end of all loneliness because it erases the separateness between the observer and the observed, allowing us to resonate with what is right in front of us.
Hildegard spoke often of viriditas, the greening of things from within, analogous to what we now call photosynthesis. She saw that there was a readiness in plants to receive the sun and to transform its light and warmth into energy and life. She recognized that there is an inherent connection between the Divine Presence and the physical world. This Creator-to-created connection translates into inner energy that is the soul and seed of every thing, an inner voice calling us to “become who you are; become all that you are.” This is our life wish or “whole-making instinct.”6
Our faith is trust in Providence as we journey in our mission, inspired by apostles and disciples who teach us by their lives.
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