The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today challenge us to contemplate change in our actions to bring peace and healing by focusing on managing the anger that needs to be replaced by love in our relationship with those with whom we disagree.
Dealing with Healing
The reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah advises our attention to Divine guidance. ‘This is the way; walk in it.’
* [30:20] Teacher: God, who in the past made the people blind and deaf through the prophetic message (6:9–10) and who in his anger hid his face from the house of Jacob (8:17), shall in the future help them to understand his teaching clearly (cf. Jer 31:34).1
Psalm 147 offers praise for God’s care for Jerusalem.
* [Psalm 147] The hymn is divided into three sections by the calls to praise in Ps 147:1, 7, 12. The first section praises the powerful creator who restores exiled Judah (Ps 147:1–6);2
In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus declares the harvest is great but the labourers are few, as He defines the mission of the Twelve.
* [9:37–38] This Q saying (see Lk 10:2) is only imperfectly related to this context. It presupposes that only God (the master of the harvest) can take the initiative in sending out preachers of the gospel, whereas in Matthew’s setting it leads into Mt 10 where Jesus does so.3
Kyle Lierk comments that the mystical Body of Christ that is our global family is a wounded healer. We are surrounded by health care workers who have been serving tirelessly on the front lines for months, mental health professionals who are guiding more and more people back to a place of wholeness, scientists striving to keep us safe while using modern medicine to protect us, ministers offering blessings, rituals, and accompaniment, and loved ones or friends who heal our loneliness, isolation and fear by their presence alone. Jesus comes to us in all of them and whispers (sometimes shouts), “The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Mt.10:7).
As we wait for the Lord this Advent season while also waiting for an end to this pandemic, may we all find solace in knowing that Christ meets us in and through our woundedness. In our waiting and hoping I trust that “from behind, a voice shall sound in your ears: ‘This is the way; walk in it.’” (Is. 30:21)4
Don Schwager quotes “In remembrance of heavenly life,” by Bede the Venerable, 672-735 A.D.
"Why should the lunar reckoning be calculated from the noontide hours, seeing that the moon had not yet been placed in the heavens or gone forth over the earth? On the contrary, none of the feast days of the law began and ended at noon or in the afternoon, but all did so in the evening. Or else perchance it is because sinful Adam was reproached by the Lord 'in the cool of the afternoon' (Genesis 3:8) and thrust out from the joys of Paradise. In remembrance of that heavenly life which we changed for the tribulation of this world, the change of the moon, which imitates our toil by its everlasting waxing and waning, ought specifically to be observed at the hour in which we began our exile. In this way every day we may be reminded by the hour of the moon's changing of that verse, 'a fool changes as the moon' (Sirach 27:11) while the wise man 'shall live as long as the sun' (Psalm 72:5), and that we may sigh more ardently for that life, supremely blessed in eternal peace, when 'the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days.' Indeed, because (as it is written) 'from the moon is the sign of the feast day' (Sirach 43:7), and just as the first light of the moon was shed upon the world at eventide, so in the law it is compulsory that every feast day begin in the evening and end in the evening (see Exodus 12:18). (excerpt from THE RECKONING OF TIME 3.43)5
The Word Among Us Meditation on Matthew 9:35–10:1, 5-8 notes like the Israelites, when we hear the word “kingdom,” we naturally picture earthly domains ruled by powerful leaders. In its fullness, though, the kingdom of heaven is a matter of love because Love Itself reigns over God’s kingdom.
So how do we, who are citizens of the kingdom, reveal this kingdom to the people around us? By imitating Jesus, the One whose love rules his kingdom. By following the example of Jesus, whose heart is moved with compassion (Matthew 9:36). Throughout his ministry, Jesus met the needs of the people he encountered with generosity, kindness, and gentleness. Think of the leper who came to him for healing or the woman caught in adultery whom he refused to condemn (Luke 5:12-13; John 8:1-11). If we want to advance God’s kingdom, we need to ask for the grace to love as Jesus did.6
Friar Jude Winkler describes the restoration of Israel as envisioned by Isaiah. The very Jewish tone of Matthew’s Gospel does contain Gentiles like the Magi. Friar Jude reminds us that those who are saved in the Gospel receive both physical and spiritual healing.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, recalls Brian McLaren’s summary that Christianity began as a revolutionary nonviolent movement promoting a new kind of aliveness on the margins of society. It was a peace movement, a love movement, a joy movement, a justice movement, an integrity movement, an aliveness movement. Teacher Dan Edwards shares the gift that contemplative practice brings to our emotions is awareness, the mental space to confront our emotional state in a safe way. Anger is the dominant emotion for many activists. . . . Anger is not a bad or negative thing; it is actually the fuel that feeds our quest for justice. It is when we let anger lead to hateful actions that we lose its beneficial potential. . . . It is imperative that we realize that often the injustice or wrongdoing isn’t personal but rather a societal ill and will always coexist with the peaceful lives we work hard to live. Practice: Stop, Breathe, Reflect and Respond.
Once I am aware that anger is arising, I stop. I breathe in and out, and I pay attention to my breath, so that I can come back into my body and ground myself. I breathe until the dominate [sic] voices of anger dissipate and my focus rests comfortably on my breath and the current moment. I can now begin to reflect on the situation from a grounded place.7
Our pause to understand anger may be a step that brings healing to tense situations in our relationships with others.
References
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