The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today challenge us to contemplate our path as Christians as counter cultural along which we have Words of the Spirit to guide us.
Guide along the Way
The reading from the Book of the Prophet Daniel describes Belshazzar’s Feast and the writing on the wall for his kingdom.
* [5:26–28] Daniel interprets these three terms by a play on the words: MENE, connected with the verb meaning to number; TEKEL, with the verb meaning to weigh; PERES, with the verb meaning to divide. There is also a play on the last term with the word for Persians.1
The response from the Book of Daniel is from the Prayer of Azariah.
* [3:24–90] These verses are additions to the Aramaic text of Daniel, translated from the Greek form of the book. They were probably first composed in Hebrew or Aramaic, but are no longer extant in the original language. The Roman Catholic Church has always regarded them as part of the canonical Scriptures.2
In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus reveals the support from the Spirit in the coming persecution.
* [21:15] A wisdom in speaking: literally, “a mouth and wisdom.”3
Julie Kalkowski comments that it was easy for her to judge the King’s actions all those years ago. Just because we have the power and the ability to do something, doesn’t mean we have the right to do so. How do we remember to whom we belong, so our actions don’t go “beyond the pale”?
Due to circumstances of my birth, I don’t need God the way many of the people I work with do. When your life mostly works, it’s easier to forget about God on a day-to-day basis. To help me remember God’s goodness in my life and to whom I belong to on this day before Thanksgiving (in the U.S.), I am going to take stock and remember in gratitude all the blessings God has showered on me and my loved ones. After that I will endeavor to emulate G.K. Chesterton who, in striving to take nothing for granted, wrote: " …everything received in gratitude; everything passed on with grace."4
Don Schwager quotes “The faithful Christian is recognized by belief in the resurrection of the body,” by Saint Augustine of Hippo, 354-430 A.D.
"We should have no doubt that our mortal flesh also will rise again at the end of the world... This is the Christian faith. This is the Catholic faith. This is the apostolic faith. Believe Christ when he says, 'Not a hair of your head shall perish' Putting aside all unbelief, consider how valuable you are. How can our Redeemer despise any person when he cannot despise a hair of that person's head? How are we going to doubt that he intends to give eternal life to our soul and body? He took on a soul and body in which to die for us, which he laid down for us when he died and which he took up again that we might not fear death." (excerpt from Sermon 214.11-12)5
Friar Jude Winkler connects the interpretation given during Belshazzar’s Feast to the decline of the Seleucid Empire in the first century BCE. We pay the price required of change in our conversion as followers of Christ. Friar Jude suggests that without experiencing some persecution in our lives, we may not be Christian enough.
The Franciscan Media article on Saint Andrew Dung-Lac and Companions comments that Christianity came to Vietnam through the Portuguese. Jesuits opened the first permanent mission at Da Nang in 1615. They ministered to Japanese Catholics who had been driven from Japan. The last of the martyrs were 17 laypersons, one of them a 9-year-old, executed in 1862. By 1954, there were over a million Catholics—about seven percent of the population—in the north. Buddhists represented about 60 percent. Persistent persecution forced some 670,000 Catholics to abandon lands, homes and possessions and flee to the south. In 1964, there were still 833,000 Catholics in the north, but many were in prison. In the south, Catholics were enjoying the first decade of religious freedom in centuries, their numbers swelled by refugees.
It may help people who associate Vietnam only with a 20th-century war to realize that the cross has long been a part of the lives of the people of that country. Even as some people ask again the unanswered questions about United States involvement and disengagement, the faith rooted in Vietnam’s soil proves hardier than the forces that willed to destroy it.7
Words from Psalm 90 mark a significant milestone in my Life.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, describes Carl Jung’s concept of the shadow and how it is present in Jesus’ teachings. The ego wants to eliminate all humiliating or negative information in order to “look good” at all costs. Jesus calls this self an “actor,” a word he uses fifteen times in Matthew’s Gospel, though it is usually translated from the Greek as “hypocrite.” The ego wants to keep us tied to easy and acceptable levels of knowledge. It does not want us going down into the “personal unconscious” or, in Jung’s term, our “shadow self.” The shadow includes all those things about ourselves that we don’t want to see, are not yet ready to see, and don’t want others to see. We try to hide or deny this shadow, most especially from ourselves.
Note that Jesus does not just praise good moral behavior and criticize immoral behavior, as a lesser teacher might. Instead, he talks about something caught in the eye. He knows that if we see rightly, our actions and behaviors will eventually take care of themselves. God wastes nothing and includes everything. The God of the Bible is best known for transmuting and transforming our shadow selves into our own more perfect good. God brings us—often through failure—from unconsciousness to ever-deeper consciousness and conscience. I doubt if there is any other way. All the rest is mere self-validation.8
The lifelong journey following Jesus invites us to accept the Cross as essential to our transformation and fullness of Life.
References
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