The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today nudge us to ponder the Presence of the Spirit in our times of despair and disappointment.
In the reading from the Book of Job, he curses the day he was born.
* [3:1] His day: that is, the day of his birth.
* [3:17] There: in death.
* [3:23] Hemmed in: contrast the same verb as used in 1:10. (Job, CHAPTER 3, n.d.)
Psalm 88 is a prayer for help in despondency.
* [Psalm 88] A lament in which the psalmist prays for rescue from the alienation of approaching death. Each of the three stanzas begins with a call to God (Ps 88:2, 10, 14) and complains of the death that separates one from God. The tone is persistently grim. (Psalms, PSALM 88, n.d.)
In the Gospel of Luke a Samaritan village refuses to receive Jesus.
* [9:51–55] Just as the Galilean ministry began with a rejection of Jesus in his hometown, so too the travel narrative begins with the rejection of him by Samaritans. In this episode Jesus disassociates himself from the attitude expressed by his disciples that those who reject him are to be punished severely. The story alludes to 2 Kgs 1:10, 12 where the prophet Elijah takes the course of action Jesus rejects, and Jesus thereby rejects the identification of himself with Elijah. (Luke, CHAPTER 9, n.d.)
Carol Zuegner suggests that instead of being overwhelmed, maybe we need to take a different path. This is not to say we don’t face real problems. Difficult, if not impossible choices. Life events and people that wear us down. Sometimes we need professional help. We can still ask God to help. He is there. He is with us and loves us when we are overwhelmed and when we are feeling good.
Let me take a deep breath and breathe in gratitude instead of resentment. Can I try a different prayer? Can I center myself and listen for God?
Today also is the memorial of St. Vincent de Paul, known for his compassion, humility and generosity. The society founded in his name seeks to continue St. Vincent de Paul’s work of relationship and service to those in need. I can see some of that work in my own community with thrift stores and other services. My prayer today is to listen for God. And to ask God and St. Vincent de Paul to help me find a way to live out that work of relationship and service to those in need. (Zuegner, 2022)
Don Schwager quotes “Jesus gave power and authority to his apostles,” by Cyril of Alexandria (376-444 AD).
"It would be false to affirm that our Savior did not know what was about to happen, because he knows all things. He knew, of course, that the Samaritans would not receive his messengers. There can be no doubt of this. Why then did he command them to go before him? It was his custom to benefit diligently the holy apostles in every possible way, and because of this, it was his practice sometimes to test them... What was the purpose of this occurrence? He was going up to Jerusalem, as the time of his passion was already drawing near. He was about to endure the scorn of the Jews. He was about to be destroyed by the scribes and Pharisees and to suffer those things that they inflicted upon him when they went to accomplish all of violence and wicked boldness. He did not want them to be offended when they saw him suffering. He also wanted them to be patient and not to complain greatly, although people would treat them rudely. He, so to speak, made the Samaritans' hatred a preparatory exercise in the matter. They had not received the messengers... For their benefit, he rebuked the disciples and gently restrained the sharpness of their wrath, not permitting them to grumble violently against those who sinned. He rather persuaded them to be patient and to cherish a mind that is unmovable by anything like this."(excerpt from COMMENTARY ON LUKE, HOMILY 56) (Schwager, n.d.)
The Word Among Us Meditation on Luke 9:51-56 comments that there are times when following God’s will seems to be difficult if not impossible.
So how do you become more determined to accomplish something God wants, especially when you don’t want to do it or don’t know how you will do it? You can start by being honest with the Lord. Share your struggle. Then ask him to help you see the situation through his eyes. Ask him to give you his mercy and compassion, both for the people involved and for yourself. Finally, ask—and keep asking—for the grace to be as resolute as Jesus was and to desire his will more than your own. This prayer always pleases the Lord.
You will still struggle, as Jesus did in Gethsemane. You might also stumble from time to time. But don’t let it deter you. Just get up and try once again to follow your Savior, who set his face toward Jerusalem just so that he could one day call you his own.
“Jesus, grant me the grace and determination to do your will.” (Meditation on Luke 9:51-56, n.d.)
Friar Jude Winkler comments on how Job lost all while suffering physically. He asks if it is OK to argue with God. Often, in Jewish history, serving Him means we have to wrestle with Him. Friar Jude notes the different attitude of Jesus to the heretical Jews of Samaria of not excluding them, allowing Him to see they were doing the best they could in circumstances that were not entirely their fault.
Franciscan Media shares that Saint Vincent de Paul established confraternities of charity for the spiritual and physical relief of the poor and sick of each parish. From these, with the help of Saint Louise de Marillac, came the Daughters of Charity, “whose convent is the sickroom, whose chapel is the parish church, whose cloister is the streets of the city.” He organized the rich women of Paris to collect funds for his missionary projects, founded several hospitals, collected relief funds for the victims of war, and ransomed over 1,200 galley slaves from North Africa. He was zealous in conducting retreats for clergy at a time when there was great laxity, abuse, and ignorance among them. He was a pioneer in clerical training and was instrumental in establishing seminaries.
The Church is for all God’s children, rich and poor, peasants and scholars, the sophisticated and the simple. But obviously the greatest concern of the Church must be for those who need the most help—those made helpless by sickness, poverty, ignorance, or cruelty. Vincent de Paul is a particularly appropriate patron for all Christians today, when hunger has become starvation, and the high living of the rich stands in more and more glaring contrast to the physical and moral degradation in which many of God’s children are forced to live. (Saint Vincent De Paul, n.d.)
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, reflects on the paradoxical relationship between weakness and strength. Paul says he experienced God telling him, “My grace is sufficient for you. Power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9). But the philosophy of the United States of America is that power is made perfect in more power. Just try to get powerful: more guns, more weapons, more wars, more influence, more billionaires. Everybody’s trying to get higher, trying to get up, up, up. While Jesus, surprise of surprises, is going down.
The experience of powerlessness is where we all must begin, and Alcoholics Anonymous is honest and humble enough to state this, just as Jesus himself always went where the pain was. Wherever there was human suffering, Jesus was concerned about it and sought to heal it in the very moment of encounter. It is both rather amazing and very sad that we pushed it all off into a future reward system for those who were “worthy”—as if any of us are.
Is it this human pain that we fear? Powerlessness, the state of being shipwrecked, is an experience we all share anyway, if we are sincere, but Bill Wilson (1895–1971), co-founder of AA, discovered we are not very good at that either. He called it “denial.” It seems we are not that free to be honest, or even aware, because most of our wounds are buried in the unconscious. So, it is absolutely essential that we find a spirituality that reaches to that hidden level. If not, nothing really changes. (Rohr, 2022)
We struggle with the paradox of peace in accepting Jesus' Presence to us as we encounter difficulties on our journey.
References
Job, CHAPTER 3. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved September 27, 2022, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/job/3?1
Luke, CHAPTER 9. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved September 27, 2022, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/luke/9?51
Meditation on Luke 9:51-56. (n.d.). The Word Among Us: Homepage. Retrieved September 27, 2022, from https://wau.org/meditations/2022/09/27/497113/
Psalms, PSALM 88. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved September 27, 2022, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/88?2
Rohr, R. (2022, September 27). Strength in Weakness — Center for Action and Contemplation. Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved September 27, 2022, from https://cac.org/daily-meditations/strength-in-weakness-2022-09-27/
Saint Vincent de Paul. (n.d.). Franciscan Media. Retrieved September 27, 2022, from https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/saint-vincent-de-paul
Schwager, D. (n.d.). Jesus' Face Was Set toward Jerusalem. Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations – Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved September 27, 2022, from https://www.dailyscripture.net/daily-meditation/?ds_year=2022&date=sep27
Zuegner, C. (2022, September 27). Creighton U. Daily Reflection. Online Ministries. Retrieved September 27, 2022, from https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/092722.html
No comments:
Post a Comment