The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today resonate with our sense, in these pandemic times, of longing for the joy and comfort of communal gatherings and celebrations, even as we are reminded of our tendency to underestimate the role of some individuals in our growth and life.
Celebrating family and individual value
The reading from the Book of Leviticus defines appointed Festivals and offering of first fruits.
* [23:1–44] This is paralleled by another calendar from the Priestly tradition, in Nm 28–29. Non-Priestly resumes of festal and holy observances are found in Ex 23:10–17; 34:18–24 and Dt 16:1–17.1
Psalm 81 voices God’s appeal to stubborn Israel.
* [Psalm 81] At a pilgrimage feast, probably harvest in the fall, the people assemble in the Temple in accord with the Sinai ordinances (Ps 81:2–6). They hear a divine word (mediated by a Temple speaker) telling how God rescued them from slavery in Egypt (Ps 81:7–9), gave them the fundamental commandment of fidelity (Ps 81:9–11), which would bring punishment if they refused to obey (Ps 81:12–13). But if Israel repents, God will be with them once again, bestowing protection and fertility (Ps 81:14–16).2
In the Gospel of Matthew, the rejection of Jesus at Nazareth is revealed.
* [13:54–58] After the Sermon on the Mount the crowds are in admiring astonishment at Jesus’ teaching (Mt 7:28); here the astonishment is of those who take offense at him. Familiarity with his background and family leads them to regard him as pretentious. Matthew modifies his Marcan source (Mk 6:1–6). Jesus is not the carpenter but the carpenter’s son (Mt 13:55), “and among his own kin” is omitted (Mt 13:57), he did not work many mighty deeds in face of such unbelief (Mt 13:58) rather than the Marcan “…he was not able to perform any mighty deed there” (Mt 6:5), and there is no mention of his amazement at his townspeople’s lack of faith.3
Tom Quinn concludes that it seems that our tendency is to discount the words of a person who is well-known and seemingly equal to us. The ability to listen and to discern the truth, and to be open to positive change in our lives is necessary for growth in faith, prayer, and in our daily lives. The incentive for this may come from unexpected sources. So many people and occasions may convey God’s message each day.
We need humility to realize that we can all help each other to become stronger, and informed in our faith. Teilhard de Chardin, S.J., in his book, Hymn of the Universe, touched this point when he wrote, “ ...when we learn to break through the dividing walls of our egoism and raise ourselves up to an entirely new perspective, so that habitually and in a practical fashion, we fix our gaze on the universal realities.”4
Don Schwager quotes “Few miracles done because of their unbelief,“ by Origen of Alexandria (185-254 AD).
"It seems to me that the production of miracles is similar in some ways to the case of physical things. Cultivation is not sufficient to produce a harvest of fruits unless the soil, or rather the atmosphere, cooperates to this end. And the atmosphere of itself is not sufficient to produce a harvest without cultivation. The one who providentially orders creation did not design things to spring up from the earth without cultivation. Only in the first instance did he do so when he said, 'Let the earth bring forth vegetation, with the seed sowing according to its kind and according to its likeness' (Genesis 1:11). It is just this way in regard to the production of miracles. The complete work resulting in a healing is not displayed without those being healed exercising faith. Faith, of whatever quality it might be, does not produce a healing without divine power.' (excerpt from the COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 10.19)5
Friar Jude Winkler shares insights into the feasts and festivals prescribed in Leviticus. Christians hold different understandings of the brothers and sisters of Jesus, as cousins, full siblings, and half siblings. Friar Jude shares the experience of seeing the flaws in those close that may inhibit our appreciation of their good qualities.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, tells of an encounter with a mystic, one of the ex-abbots had been a recluse, a hermit’s hermit, for years, when he was on retreat in Thomas Merton’s Kentucky hermitage, who stressed to him that God is not ‘out there.’ Barbara Holmes understands mysticism as the “putting together” of our own divided lives, providing hope for oppressed people and people everywhere and of all times. She calls it “cosmic rebirthing”.
Cosmic rebirthing requires a reclamation of everyday mysticism. . . . I was born into a family of shamans, root workers, and healers. These women and men saw beyond the veil and mediated the realms of life after life. They knew how to cure you of what ailed you, spiritually and in the natural world. The mystics that I knew could get a prayer through, birth a baby, and bring you a message or warning from the other side. They were amazing and sometimes a little bit scary. . . Mysticism reminds us that the boundaries between this life and the life beyond are permeable, and that our power is not seeded in what is bestowed by politicians and society, but to everyone willing and ready to recognize the moves of an active Holy Spirit. . . . By being receptive to the things that we don’t understand, we fling open the center of our being to the mysteries of the Divine. [2]7
Our growth to fullness of life is enriched by celebrating our relationship with God in community and our attention to the prompting of the Spirit to accept love and wisdom from those close to us.
References
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