The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today invite us to contemplate the anxiety that sometimes accompanies the love that we have for each other.
The reading, chosen by the USCCB, from the Book of Lamentations describes the Lord’s Wrath and Zion’s Ruin.
* [2:1–22] This chapter continues to move between the voice of the poet (vv. 1–20) and that of personified Zion (vv. 20–22). The persona of the poet, first portrayed in chap. 1 as a detached observer recounting both the desolation as well as the sins of the city, becomes in this chapter an advocate for Zion in her appeal to the Lord and never once mentions her sins. (Lamentations, CHAPTER 2, n.d.)
The reading, chosen by the CCCB, is from Isaiah 61.9-11 and declares the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations.
Psalm 74 is a plea for help in times of national humiliation.
* [Psalm 74] A communal lament sung when the enemy invaded the Temple; it would be especially appropriate at the destruction of Jerusalem in 587 B.C. Israel’s God is urged to look upon the ruined sanctuary and remember the congregation who worshiped there (Ps 74:1–11). People and sanctuary are bound together; an attack on Zion is an attack on Israel. In the second half of the poem, the community brings before God the story of their origins—their creation (Ps 74:12–17)—in order to move God to reenact that deed of creation now. Will God allow a lesser power to destroy the divine project (Ps 74:18–23)? (Psalms, PSALM 74, n.d.)
In the Gospel of Luke, Mary and Joseph find the boy Jesus in the Temple.
* [2:41–52] This story’s concern with an incident from Jesus’ youth is unique in the canonical gospel tradition. It presents Jesus in the role of the faithful Jewish boy, raised in the traditions of Israel, and fulfilling all that the law requires. With this episode, the infancy narrative ends just as it began, in the setting of the Jerusalem temple. (Luke, CHAPTER 2, n.d.)
Eileen Burke-Sullivan comments that Mary had to discern, to think about and pray about this event (along with others) to begin to understand something of what the Angel Gabriel had said to her about who Jesus was and is. So must the whole Church ponder in our hearts what it is that Jesus is asking of us through the signs of the times. Through the confusions and conflicts of our day. Through the divisions and distortions of certitude that have been too easy at other times in Christian life. How do we know how to love God, which is the central work of the Church, and the dilemma of our day? To love means to know and follow the Divine Will – which is EVER NEW and constantly revealed anew in the signs of the times?
We can be faithful only by discerning God’s desire and seeking to follow it at whatever personal cost. To do that we must ponder in our hearts, prayerfully listening and weighing events, attentively guided by the Spirit discovering anew what God’s Will is for each of us and for all of us together. Mary stands today as the perfect expression of the Church – attentive, loving, patient, occasionally confused, sometimes anxious, but eager to be faithful to the love she has been given. As members of Christ’s Body, the Church, we ponder with Mary all these things in our hearts and act as faithfully as we can in love. (Creighton U. Daily Reflection, n.d.)
The Word Among Us Meditation on Luke 2:41-51 notes that we know how anxiety, if left unchecked, can lead to sin. It can give way to angry outbursts; it can make us fold in on ourselves and begin mistrusting people; it can make us think that God doesn’t care about us, so why should we care about him? Surely Mary was tempted in these ways, but she never gave in. She didn’t belittle or upbraid Jesus when she found him. She didn’t harbor bitterness against him. And she didn’t lose her temper when he offered what might have seemed at first like a disrespectful response. Mary did the one thing God wants each of us to try to do when anxiety looms: she “kept all these things in her heart” (Luke 2:51).
As she is in so many other ways, Mary is our model for how to respond when anxiety threatens to overwhelm us. We may not have pure, immaculate hearts like hers, but we can still try to refocus our attention on the Lord and his love. We can still bring our anxieties to our heavenly Father and ask him to help us make sense of them. And there, in the sanctuary of our hearts, we can find Jesus again. “Immaculate Mary, help me keep my heart as peaceful as yours was." (Meditation on Luke 2:41-51, n.d.)
Friar Jude Winkler comments that the images of mourning from Lamentations parallel the image of Mary who shared in the wound of Jesus. Of the two infancy narratives in Luke and Matthew, the teenage Jesus in the Temple only appears in Luke. Friar Jude notes how Jesus does what he is supposed to do in his culture from age twelve to thirty.
Rev. Daniel E. Pilarczyk comments that the Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary commemorates the love of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus. Love is not the same as affection or liking somebody. Love means reaching out for the well- being of another--means to do good for another.
When we say that Mary loves us we’re speaking about her determination to do what is good for us, to lead us where Jesus wants us to go. Mary loves us because Jesus loves us and wants to bring us to salvation. She loves us when we have sinned and need to be brought back into the embrace of Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners. Keep loving us! Keep bringing us closer to the Lord. (Sharing the Word for June 25, 2022, 2022)
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, comments that Buddhist author Valerie Mason-John encourages us to remain emotionally sober by practicing a detox of the heart, allowing ourselves to experience waves of emotion and let them go.
If we are to detox our hearts, build up our heart muscles, and become happier, we must cultivate mindfulness in everything we do. . . . With the presence of awareness we can see there is no need to hold on to or push away our thoughts, feelings, and emotions. They will come and go of their own accord. If we push them away or cling to them they will stay in our hearts and accumulate. Similarly, if we allow our thoughts to be like clouds in the sky, they will pass. Even the dark, heavy clouds eventually pass. (Rohr, n.d.)
We seek the enlightenment of the Spirit for times when our loving concern for those close to us may generate confusion and distress.
References
Creighton U. Daily Reflection. (n.d.). Online Ministries. Retrieved June 25, 2022, from https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/062522.html
Lamentations, CHAPTER 2. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved June 25, 2022, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/lamentations/2?2
Luke, CHAPTER 2. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved June 25, 2022, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/luke/2?41
Meditation on Luke 2:41-51. (n.d.). The Word Among Us: Homepage. Retrieved June 25, 2022, from https://wau.org/meditations/2022/06/25/419978/
Psalms, PSALM 74. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved June 25, 2022, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/74?1
Rohr, R. (n.d.). Emotional Sobriety: Weekly Summary. Daily Meditations Archive: 2022. Retrieved June 25, 2022, from https://cac.org/daily-meditations/emotional-sobriety-weekly-summary-2022-06-25/
Sharing the Word for June 25, 2022. (2022, June 25). Franciscan Media. Retrieved June 25, 2022, from https://www.franciscanmedia.org/sharing-the-word/sharing-the-word-for-june-25-2022
No comments:
Post a Comment