The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today invite us to meditate on the transformation we have witnessed in our lives as we have responded to the prompting of the Holy Spirit.
Fullness in Life
The reading from the First Letter of Peter proclaims a call to holy living.
* [1:14–16] The ignorance here referred to (1 Pt 1:14) was their former lack of knowledge of God, leading inevitably to godless conduct. Holiness (1 Pt 1:15–16), on the contrary, is the result of their call to the knowledge and love of God.1
Psalm 98 praises the Judge of the World.
* [Psalm 98] A hymn, similar to Ps 96, extolling God for Israel’s victory (Ps 98:1–3). All nations (Ps 98:4–6) and even inanimate nature (Ps 98:7–8) are summoned to welcome God’s coming to rule over the world (Ps 98:9).2
In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus' encounter with the Rich Man concludes with the declaration that the first will be last.
This is how by leaving one’s home and family and giving away one’s material goods one enters a new family in which there are far more mothers, brothers, sisters; where one home is replaced by many homes offering their warmth and hospitality, offering a home from home. This is a reality which, unfortunately, has not been realised among many Christians who live their daily lives in the rat race for acquisition characteristic of our modern societies and who believe that what they cannot get by their own efforts they will never come to enjoy.3
Molly Mattingly comments that Peter witnessed the Crucifixion, the Resurrection, the Ascension, and the martyrdom of his friends. Peter writes telling other followers, “Everything we have been told by prophets in the past and everything we have witnessed points to this: it is worth it. Stop acting like you did before you wanted to know God; act like you want to know God by following Christ’s example.”
Many of us are probably fasting from something during Lent. It will probably not be on the scale of Peter leaving behind his family and livelihood, or Jesus freely giving his life for us. But what might Peter’s words offer us today, as we begin this season? Perhaps encouragement echoing through the centuries that if we give or fast from a desire to know God better, our small sacrifices will be worth it. We are called to holiness and the example of Christ, as members of the body of Christ.4
Don Schwager quotes “The spiritual sense of leaving the family,” by Clement of Alexandria, 150-215 A.D.
"Do not let this passage trouble you. Put it side by side with the still harder saying Jesus delivered in another place in the words, 'Whoever hates not father, and mother, and children, and his own life besides, cannot be my disciple' (Luke 14:26). Note that the God of peace, who exhorts us to love our enemies, does not arbitrarily require us literally to hate or abandon those dearest to us. But if we are to love our enemies, it must be in accordance with right reason that, by analogy we should also love our nearest relatives... But insofar as one's father, or son, or brother, becomes for you a hindrance to faith or an impediment to godly life, one should then not collude with that temptation. Attend to the spiritual, rather than the fleshly, meaning of the command." (excerpt from SALVATION OF THE RICH MAN 22.13)5
The Word Among Us Meditation on 1 Peter 1:10-16 urges us to think of times when we made it through a difficult situation or felt God’s love and mercy deeply. Remember the gift of an unexpected friendship or a sudden inspiration for a complex or tricky problem. These are all personal experiences of God’s grace and favor.
Let these experiences help you set a firm foundation for your faith. You know that the fullness of grace will come when you see Jesus face-to-face. But in the meantime, you can still trust in God’s faithfulness and his love for you. That’s an “anchor of the soul” that will never fail (Hebrews 6:19). “Father, thank you for all the blessings you’ve already poured into my life. Help me to place my hope entirely on the grace that you have yet to reveal to me.”6
Friar Jude Winkler comments on Peter’s teaching about Providence and our obedience to live holy as possible lives. The passage from Mark is not the “prosperity gospel.” Friar Jude reminds us that St Francis of Assisi is the model of receiving full blessings through surrender of his possessions.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, introduces Paula D'Arcy who shares that her familiar default was to rely on old voices and experiences—on the mind’s many concepts and ideas. Yet the force of love that sustains life is not a concept, and there are not a set of holy conditions to attain. As she opened her heart, love moved through the pain and slowly changed her sight.
But the mind could not bring me where I needed to go. It was a long while before I turned in a different direction and began to look within. Eventually I saw that the seeds of a greater journey are waiting in everything and I understood that, when the time is right—when we are finally willing to meet “what is” and stop insisting on our own version of life real change and transformation become possible.7
Transformation, the fruit of our relationship with Christ, opens us to appreciate the Grace that invites us to fullness of life.
References
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