The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today remind us of the gift of the Spirit through which we conquer our fears and are motivated to follow Christ in our action.
Solidarity in action
The reading from the Letter to the Ephesians declares we have obtained an inheritance.
* [1:13] Sealed: by God, in baptism; cf. Eph 4:30; 2 Cor 1:22.* [1:14] First installment: down payment by God on full salvation, as at 2 Cor 1:22.1
Psalm 33 praises the greatness and goodness of God.
* [Psalm 33] A hymn in which the just are invited (Ps 33:1–3) to praise God, who by a mere word (Ps 33:4–5) created the three-tiered universe of the heavens, the cosmic waters, and the earth (Ps 33:6–9). Human words, in contrast, effect nothing (Ps 33:10–11). The greatness of human beings consists in God’s choosing them as a special people and their faithful response (Ps 33:12–22).2
In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus issues a warning against hypocrisy and offers an exhortation to fearless confession.
* [12:2–9] Luke presents a collection of sayings of Jesus exhorting his followers to acknowledge him and his mission fearlessly and assuring them of God’s protection even in times of persecution. They are paralleled in Mt 10:26–33.3
Tamora Whitney teaches World Literature, including Candide. When Candide asks about the religion of El Dorado, the priest says that of course they have a religion – it consists of thanking God constantly for everything they have been given. And he seems confused about the question – what else could a religion be?
We should sing our thanks and praise to God, with a harp or lyre, or just our voices. I used to be a music minister. I really miss singing at Mass. I really miss going to Mass. I still sing at my house when I’m watching Mass on my tv, but I still miss it. And I love the song by Dan Schutte that is based on the psalm for today, “Like Cedars they Shall Stand.” It says, “I will greet the Lord with my song, I will sing of the ways of the Lord” and goes on, “To thank him for his love at dawn his faithfulness through night.” 4
Don Schwager quotes “Comfort for those who doubt God's providence in Christ,” by Cyril of Alexandria (376-444 AD).
"To bestow yet another means of comfort on our minds, he forcibly added that five sparrows are scarcely perhaps worth a penny, and yet God does not forget even one of them. He also said that the separate hairs of your head are all numbered. Consider how great care he takes of those that love him. The Preserver of the universe extends his aid to things so worthless and descends to the smallest animals. How can he forget those who love him, especially when he takes so great care of them? He condescends to visit them, to know exactly each particular of their state, and even how many are the hairs of their heads... Let us not doubt that with a rich hand he will give his grace to those who love him. He will not permit us to fall into temptation. If, by his wise purpose he permits us to be taken in the snare in order that we may gain glory by suffering, he will most assuredly grant us the power to bear it." (excerpt from COMMENTARY ON LUKE, HOMILY 87)5
The Word Among Us Meditation on Ephesians 1:11-14 invites us to take this phrase apart. What does it mean to live for the praise of God’s glory?
St. Irenaeus once said that “the glory of God is man fully alive.” By that he meant that we are fully alive when we become what God intended for us, people who live in Christ and who radiate his life to those around us. When that happens, people notice. They see not just us but Christ in us. And that’s how we give praise to God’s glory.6
Friar Jude Winkler explains how the Spirit is teaching us what we always wanted to hear. Hypocrisy can lead to our fall. Friar Jude reminds us that Reconciliation is a foretaste of heaven.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, comments that both Jesus and Paul radically reframe the human situation and invite us to live a vulnerable human life in communal solidarity with both sin and salvation.
Humans often end up doing evil by thinking they can and must eliminate all evil, instead of holding it, suffering it themselves, and learning from it, as Jesus does on the cross. This ironically gives us the active compassion we need to work for social change. My acceptance of a cruciform world mirrors my ability to accept a cruciform me. God has created a world where there is no technique or magical method for purity or perfection. Forgiving love is the only way out and the only final answer is God’s infinite Love and our ability to endlessly draw upon it.7
Adrian Pabst, head of the School of Politics and International Relations at the University of Kent, and a New Statesman contributing writer, comments that mindful of our fractured world, Pope Francis ( in third encyclical “Fratelli tutti” ) calls for a fairer sharing of resources, care for nature, and compassion for migrants.
The pope’s intervention is vital for the left as it tries to regain popular trust. Mindful of our fractured world, he calls for a more just sharing of the world’s resources, care for our common home of nature – the subject of his previous encyclical (“Laudato Si”) – and compassion for migrants. Linking greater economic justice and ecological balance to social fairness will help the left to renew its ethical traditions anchored in the common good, beyond utilitarian or rights-based models. The left will also appreciate his unequivocal condemnation of Christians who are apologists of xenophobia, racism and ethnocentric atavism.8
Meditation on our “little sins” may, with the help of the Spirit, awaken our understanding of our call to be in fraternity with all who live with the reality of corporate sin.
References
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