The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today offer an opportunity to contemplate the need for patience to allow the events of our lives to fall in their proper place.
Contemplation site
The reading from Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians describes the Ministry of the Apostles.
“Thus should one regard us: as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.”1
Psalm 37 is an exhortation to patience and trust.
* [Psalm 37] The Psalm responds to the problem of evil, which the Old Testament often expresses as a question: why do the wicked prosper and the good suffer? The Psalm answers that the situation is only temporary. God will reverse things, rewarding the good and punishing the wicked here on earth. The perspective is concrete and earthbound: people’s very actions place them among the ranks of the good or wicked. Each group or “way” has its own inherent dynamism—eventual frustration for the wicked, eventual reward for the just. The Psalm is an acrostic, i.e., each section begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Each section has its own imagery and logic.2
In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus addresses the question of fasting.
* [5:39] The old is good: this saying is meant to be ironic and offers an explanation for the rejection by some of the new wine that Jesus offers: satisfaction with old forms will prevent one from sampling the new.3
Today’s Gospel reminds John Shea, S.J. of the importance of stretching.
Sometimes fasting is appropriate. Sometimes feasting is appropriate. We need to discern when to be flexible and when we need to stay the course. When we feel close to God, when we feel peace, joy and consolation, then we recognize the right thing to do and we want to do it. When we feel distant from God, when we feel desolation, then we may need to fast and pray. During these moments of confusion, we turn to God. We ask God to break open our hearts, stretching and expanding our hearts so we can better love God and others.4
Don Schwager quotes “Christ will send you wise men and scribes,” by Clement of Alexandria, 150-215 A.D.
"A scribe is one who, through continual reading of the Old and New Testaments, has laid up for himself a storehouse of knowledge. Thus Christ blesses those who have gathered in themselves the education both of the law and of the gospel, so as to 'bring forth from their treasure things both new and old.' And Christ compares such people with a scribe, just as in another place he says, 'I will send you wise men and scribes' (Matthew 23:34)"(excerpt from FRAGMENT 172)5
The Word Among Us Meditation today is on Luke 5:33-39. Friar Jude Winkler discusses Paul as a stewart judged by the Spirit of God. The ritual of fasting during times of mourning is highlighted in the Gospel. Friar Jude reminds us of the Jewish tradition of not mixing.
Cynthia Bourgeault describes how, in contemplation, and with our genuine intention and attention, our True Self is revealed, present to the Presence of God.
Through meditation [like Centering Prayer] it gradually becomes ingrained in us that “losing one’s life,” regardless of the action that may ultimately be required of us in the outer world, entails first and foremost a passage from our ordinary awareness to our spiritual one, because only at this deeper level of non-fearbased, wholistic perception will we be able to understand what is actually required of us.6
In our patient prayer, we attend to the promptings of the Spirit.
References
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