The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today resonate with our experiences of facing major decisions and enduring momentous events.
The reading from the Second Book of Kings describes the situation around Hezekiah’s Prayer.
So Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, broke camp, departed, returned home, and stayed in Nineveh. (2 Kings, CHAPTER 19, n.d.)
Psalm 48 praises the Glory and Strength of Zion.
* [Psalm 48] A Zion hymn, praising the holy city as the invincible dwelling place of God. Unconquerable, it is an apt symbol of God who has defeated all enemies. After seven epithets describing the city (Ps 48:2–3), the Psalm describes the victory by the Divine Warrior over hostile kings (Ps 48:4–8). The second half proclaims the dominion of the God of Zion over all the earth (Ps 48:9–12) and invites pilgrims to announce that God is eternally invincible like Zion itself (Ps 48:13–14). (Psalms, PSALM 48, n.d.)
In the Sermon on the Mount, from the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus teaches about profaning the Holy, the Golden Rule, and the Narrow Gate.
* [7:12] See Lk 6:31. This saying, known since the eighteenth century as the “Golden Rule,” is found in both positive and negative form in pagan and Jewish sources, both earlier and later than the gospel. This is the law and the prophets is an addition probably due to the evangelist. (Matthew, 2020)
Larry Gillick, S.J. is moved by the other verses of today’s Gospel to ponder some, on the “road” and “narrow gate” as an image of the Spiritual Life. It seems that the “road” which leads to destruction is paved with self-expectations, self-satisfying and self-constructing. If it is all about me, then that’s what I get, just an isolated me and a quite negative-me.
The Spiritual Life is not, no! never totally about “me” and my self- improvement. Forget self-improvement. That is the wide road which wanders from side to side getting us nowhere except self-preoccupied spiritual-inferiority. All prayer, devotion, sacraments included, are gifts designed exclusively as experiences of our being prepared to be a creational presence and gift from God to God’s family. Amazing! A “narrow way,” yes, because it is so counter-cultural, so opposed to self- perfection as a spiritual ideal. After we pray, after receiving any of the sacraments, we leave to live; we receive to donate; we say “yes” so as to say “here.” The more I say “yes” to the creation I am, the less I am mine and more your’s. (Creighton U. Daily Reflection, n.d.)
Don Schwager quotes “Unreadiness to receive Godly teaching,” by Augustine of Hippo, 430-543 A.D.
"Now in this precept we are forbidden to give a holy thing to dogs or to cast pearls before swine. We must diligently seek to determine the gravity of these words: holy, pearls, dogs and swine. A holy thing is whatever it would be impious to profane or tear apart. Even a fruitless attempt to do so makes one already guilty of such impiety, though the holy thing may by its very nature remain inviolable and indestructible. Pearls signify all spiritual things that are worthy of being highly prized. Because these things lie hidden in secret, it is as though they were being drawn up from the deep. Because they are found in the wrappings of allegories, it is as though they were contained within shells that have been opened.(1) It is clear therefore that one and the same thing can be called both a holy thing and a pearl. It can be called a holy thing because it ought not to be destroyed and a pearl because it ought not to be despised. One tries to destroy what one does not wish to leave intact. One despises what is deemed worthless, as if beneath him. Hence, whatever is despised is said to be trampled under foot... Thus we may rightly understand that these words (dogs and swine) are now used to designate respectively those who assail the truth and those who resist it." (excerpt from SERMON ON THE MOUNT 2.20.68-69)
(1) The interpretive task is to crack through the shell of the language to its inner spiritual meaning. (Schwager, n.d.)
The Word Among Us Meditation on Matthew 7:6, 12-14 comments that we have all spent time on both of these roads. We are all made in the image of God, and Christ lives in us. We have all received the grace of God, and he continues to pour it out upon us. But at the same time, we are also sinners who are prone to wander onto the wrong path. But instead of thinking of these roads as separate, diverging paths, try picturing them as interconnected. Imagine the broad road as a busy superhighway with numerous exit ramps to the narrow road. Picture those exit signs saying, “This Way to Jesus!”
By contrast, the narrow road was forged by Jesus himself. It’s the road of self-giving, the road of mercy, and the road of humility. It’s the road of the cross. Jesus welcomes anyone who wants to travel that road with him, no matter how long they had been on the other road. It may not be as populated as the broad road. The way in may be challenging. But it’s worth the challenge because this road leads to life—and life eternal. “Jesus, help me to travel the narrow road of life with you.” (Meditation on Matthew 7:6, 12-14, n.d.)
Friar Jude Winkler reviews how Sennacherib had conquered the northern kingdom and planned to attack Jerusalem. Hezekiah is promised God would intervene and a plaque strikes down the invading army. Matthew reminds us that we don't give holy to dogs and the Chalice is not a drinking cup. Friar Jude reminds us that Hillel expressed the Golden Rule and choosing the narrow gate is dying to ourself.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, introduces Buddhist author and speaker Valerie Mason-John who found meditation to be integral to her recovery from addiction. By observing our thoughts and emotions, we can witness how they build on each other through our attachment to repetitive inner stories. Such witnessing begins the process of healthy nonattachment.
Our hearts well up with toxins because we push away our painful feelings. Many of us will do our utmost to push them down. We won’t allow ourselves to stop. Our busy lives don’t seem to give us time to feel our feelings. When we turn toward our experience, we will often find feeling tones or sensations in the body. We turn away from the experience in the body with thoughts and thinking. If we have the courage to face the feeling tone, we will discover there is nothing there, no I or me, just a flow of sensations that may be painful, pleasurable, or neutral. (Rohr, 2020)
The prompting of the Spirit invites us to contemplation to guide our actions in times of distress with love, compassion and mercy.
References
Creighton U. Daily Reflection. (n.d.). Online Ministries. Retrieved June 21, 2022, from https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/062122.html
Matthew. (2020, April 17). USCCB Bible. Retrieved June 21, 2022, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/matthew/7?6
Meditation on Matthew 7:6, 12-14. (n.d.). The Word Among Us: Homepage. Retrieved June 21, 2022, from https://wau.org/meditations/2022/06/21/415268/
Psalms, PSALM 48. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved June 21, 2022, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/48?2
Rohr, R. (2020, April 17). A Mind-Heart Connection. Daily Meditations Archive: 2022. Retrieved June 21, 2022, from https://cac.org/daily-meditations/a-mind-heart-connection-2022-06-21/
Schwager, D. (n.d.). Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations – Daily Scripture ... Retrieved June 21, 2022, from https://www.dailyscripture.net/daily-meditation/?ds_year=2022&date=jun21
2 Kings, CHAPTER 19. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved June 21, 2022, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/2kings/19?9
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