Called to Healing

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today challenge us to examine our need for healing of our attitudes towards others and our response to act in support of others in need.

Support for Healing

The reading from the Prophet Amos relates the Fourth Vision of The Summer Fruit.

* [8:5] Ephah: see note on Is 5:10. (Amos, CHAPTER 8 | USCCB, n.d.)

Psalm 119 praises The Glories of God’s Law.

* [Psalm 119] This Psalm, the longest by far in the Psalter, praises God for giving such splendid laws and instruction for people to live by. The author glorifies and thanks God for the Torah, prays for protection from sinners enraged by others’ fidelity to the law, laments the cost of obedience, delights in the law’s consolations, begs for wisdom to understand the precepts, and asks for the rewards of keeping them. (Psalms, PSALM 119 | USCCB, n.d.)

The Gospel of Matthew proclaims the Calling of Matthew.

* [9:9] A man named Matthew: Mark names this tax collector Levi (Mk 2:14). No such name appears in the four lists of the twelve who were the closest companions of Jesus (Mt 10:2–4; Mk 3:16–19; Lk 6:14–16; Acts 1:13 [eleven, because of the defection of Judas Iscariot]), whereas all four list a Matthew, designated in Mt 10:3 as “the tax collector.” The evangelist may have changed the “Levi” of his source to Matthew so that this man, whose call is given special notice, like that of the first four disciples (Mt 4:18–22), might be included among the twelve. Another reason for the change may be that the disciple Matthew was the source of traditions peculiar to the church for which the evangelist was writing.

* [9:10] His house: it is not clear whether his refers to Jesus or Matthew. Tax collectors: see note on Mt 5:46. Table association with such persons would cause ritual impurity. (Matthew, CHAPTER 9 | USCCB, n.d.)

Edward Morse comments that serving the god of self-love is common in our times, too. We regularly see self-love adherents bragging about their successes.  It can seem like you are missing out for not joining their merry band and living according to their self-love terms.

We cannot live by bread alone – by material gains and all the fleshly comforts they can bring.  We need God in our lives and the collective experiences of life together in the Church in order to truly flourish.

Christian people need to remind one another of this truth.  Apart from the strength, guidance, and encouragement that comes from the Church and our fellow pilgrims who are on the journey with us, we are prone to follow the god of self-love.  If we are serious about flourishing, we need to commit to regular fellowship and participation in the sacraments, which illuminate the reality of God and his love and mercy for us, as well as our need for God’s love and mercy. (Morse, n.d.)

Don Schwager quotes “Matthew did not delay when called by Jesus,” by Chromatius (died 406 AD).

"The Lord, about to give salvation to all sinners believing in him, willingly chose Matthew the former publican. The gift of his esteem for Matthew stands as an example for our salvation. Every sinner must be chosen by God and can receive the grace of eternal salvation if one is not without a religious mind and a devout heart. So Matthew was chosen willingly by God. And though he is immersed in worldly affairs, because of his sincere religious devotion he is judged worthy to be called forth by the Lord ("Follow me"), who by virtue of his divine nature knows the hidden recesses of the heart. From what follows, we know that Matthew was accepted by the Lord not by reason of his status but of his faith and devotion. As soon as the Lord says to him, "Follow me," he does not linger or delay, but thereupon "he arose and followed him." (excerpt from TRACTATE ON MATTHEW 45.1)

[Note: Chromatius was an early Christian scholar and bishop of Aquileia, Italy. He was a close friend of John Chrysostom and Jerome. He died in 406 AD. Jerome described him as a "most learned and most holy man."] (Schwager, n.d.)

The Word Among Us Meditation on Matthew 9:9-13 comments that we can learn a lot from Jesus’ approach to people! Everyone we meet is our brother or sister. Everyone was made by God to know him in this life and live with him forever in heaven. We follow Jesus’ example. He gained peoples’ trust by loving them and treating them with respect. He acknowledged where they were in their lives, and he invited them into his kingdom.

Treating people with respect is a lot more challenging than dismissing the ones we see as different or difficult. In fact, following Jesus’ example will require that we put aside the subtle—or not-so-subtle—judgments we hold so that we can show his love to other people. It will call us to consider how Jesus viewed the people everyone else shunned and to ask him to help us see them with his eyes. And that’s always something he’s ready to do in us.

So think about who the “tax collectors and sinners” in your life might be. How can you “eat with them” and, like Jesus, bring the kingdom of God into their lives?

“Lord, I want to see other people the way you see them. Help me to show your love to everyone I meet today.” (Meditation on Matthew 9:9-13, n.d.)

Friar Jude Winkler explains the techniques suggested by Amos that were used by the rich to cheat the poor and serve as the background for the prophet to declare a judgement from God to cease to guide them. Jesus recognized the brokenness and needs of the tax collectors for healing. Friar Jude reminds us that the Pharisees avoided contact with sinners in fear of the contagion of sin.

Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, describes how practicing contemplation moves us beyond dualistic thinking. 

The contemplative, nondual mind is not saying, “Everything is beautiful,” even when it’s not. However, we may come to “Everything is still beautiful” by contemplatively facing the conflict between how reality is and how we wish it could be. We must face dualistic problems, name good and evil, and differentiate between right and wrong. We can’t be naive about evil, but if we stay focused on this duality, we’ll become unlovable, judgmental, dismissive people. I’ve witnessed this pattern in myself. We must eventually find a bigger field, a wider frame, which we call nondual thinking.  

Jesus doesn’t hesitate to name good and evil and to show evil as a serious matter. Jesus often speaks in dualistic images; for example, “You cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24). He draws a stark line between the sheep and the goats, the good and the wicked (Matthew 25:31–46). Yet Jesus overcomes these dualisms by what we would call the contemplative mind. We must be honest about what the goats fail to do, but we can’t become hateful, nor do we need to punish them. We keep going deeper until we can also love them, as Jesus did. (Rohr, n.d.)

We contemplate the need for healing in our environment and invoke the Holy Spirit to assist our healing through our action to recognize and address the brokenness of others. 

References

Amos, CHAPTER 8 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved July 5, 2024, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/amos/8?4 

Matthew, CHAPTER 9 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved July 5, 2024, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/matthew/9?9 

Meditation on Matthew 9:9-13. (n.d.). The Word Among Us: Homepage. Retrieved July 5, 2024, from https://wau.org/meditations/2024/07/05/1016676/ 

Morse, E. (n.d.). Daily Reflection Of Creighton University's Online Ministries. OnlineMinistries. Retrieved July 5, 2024, from https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/070524.htm 

Psalms, PSALM 119 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved July 5, 2024, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/119?2 

Rohr, R. (n.d.). Daily Meditations — Center for Action and Contemplation. Balancing Heart and Action. Retrieved July 5, 2024, from https://cac.org/daily-meditations/balancing-heart-and-action/ 

Schwager, D. (n.d.). I Desire Mercy - Not Sacrifice. Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations – Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved July 5, 2024, from https://www.dailyscripture.net/daily-meditation/?ds_year=2024&date=jul5 

Living the Plan

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today challenge us to be open to the plan of God for our journey.

Living the Plan

The reading from the Book of Genesis describes the Brothers’ First Journey to Egypt.

* [42:1–38] The first journey of the brothers to Egypt. Its cause is famine, which was also the reason Abraham and Sarah undertook their dangerous journey to Egypt. The brothers bow to Joseph in v. 6, which fulfills Joseph’s dream in 37:5–11. Endowed with wisdom, Joseph begins a process of instruction or “discipline” for his brothers that eventually forces them to recognize the enormity of their sin against him and the family. He controls their experience of the first journey with the result that the second journey in chaps. 43–44 leads to full acknowledgment and reconciliation. (Genesis, CHAPTER 42, n.d.)

Psalm 33 is the Greatness and Goodness of God

* [Psalm 33] A hymn in which the just are invited (Ps 33:1–3) to praise God, who by a mere word (Ps 33:4–5) created the three-tiered universe of the heavens, the cosmic waters, and the earth (Ps 33:6–9). Human words, in contrast, effect nothing (Ps 33:10–11). The greatness of human beings consists in God’s choosing them as a special people and their faithful response (Ps 33:12–22). (Psalms, PSALM 33, n.d.)

In the Gospel of Matthew the Twelve Apostles are named and the Mission of the Twelve outlined.

* [10:1] His twelve disciples: although, unlike Mark (Mk 3:13–14) and Luke (Lk 6:12–16), Matthew has no story of Jesus’ choosing the Twelve, he assumes that the group is known to the reader. The earliest New Testament text to speak of it is 1 Cor 15:5. The number probably is meant to recall the twelve tribes of Israel and implies Jesus’ authority to call all Israel into the kingdom. While Luke (Lk 6:13) and probably Mark (Mk 4:10, 34) distinguish between the Twelve and a larger group also termed disciples, Matthew tends to identify the disciples and the Twelve. Authority…every illness: activities the same as those of Jesus; see Mt 4:23; Mt 9:35; 10:8. The Twelve also share in his proclamation of the kingdom (Mt 10:7). But although he teaches (Mt 4:23; 7:28; 9:35), they do not. Their commission to teach comes only after Jesus’ resurrection, after they have been fully instructed by him (Mt 28:20).

* [10:2–4] Here, for the only time in Matthew, the Twelve are designated apostles. The word “apostle” means “one who is sent,” and therefore fits the situation here described. In the Pauline letters, the place where the term occurs most frequently in the New Testament, it means primarily one who has seen the risen Lord and has been commissioned to proclaim the resurrection. With slight variants in Luke and Acts, the names of those who belong to this group are the same in the four lists given in the New Testament (see note on Mt 9:9). Cananean: this represents an Aramaic word meaning “zealot.” The meaning of that designation is unclear (see note on Lk 6:15). (Matthew, CHAPTER 10, n.d.)

Eileen Burke-Sullivan comments that all Scripture rightly understood and interpreted by God’s grace leads us to Jesus, and the loving desire of the Father for our lives. Just as the first reading is about the people of God in the Old Testament made present through the twelve sons of Jacob, the Gospel names the twelve Disciples of Jesus who share the Good News of God’s plan for the whole world in the New Testament community.  Like Joseph, their task is to feed a world that is hungry for bread to sustain human life, and hungry for the Bread of Life and the Will of God to sustain their joy and hope.

As I prayed with these texts for today’s liturgy I was challenged to consider that in God’s hands all things will bring the peace, joy and grace that will fulfill my deepest longings – even the challenges, humiliations and sources of suffering.  In the Joseph story of Genesis, the Biblical author makes clear to us that even bad things that God does not directly will for us, can become grace as God “writes straight with crooked lines.” Forgiveness flows from a willingness to see the supporting hand of God in all things and to be grateful.  When we are filled with gratitude we cannot harbor ill will or jealousy toward others.

“Lord, let your mercy be on us, as we place our trust in You.”  Ps 33.22 (Burke, 2023)

Don Schwager quotes “Jesus empowers his disciples to act in his name,” by John Chrysostom (347-407 AD).

" If the Spirit had not yet been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified, how then did the disciples cast out the unclean spirits? They did this by his own command, by the Son's authority.2 Note the careful timing of their mission. They were not sent out at the beginning of their walk with him. They were not sent out until they had sufficiently benefited by following him daily. It was only after they had seen the dead raised, the sea rebuked, devils expelled, the legs of a paralytic brought to life, sins remitted, lepers cleansed, and had received a sufficient proof of his power both by deeds and words - only then did he send them out. And he did not send them out unprepared to do dangerous deeds, for as yet there was no danger in Palestine. They had only to stand against verbal abuse. However, Jesus still warned them of larger perils to come, preparing them for what was future." (excerpt from THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW, HOMILY 32.3) (Schwager, n.d.)

The Word Among Us Meditation on Matthew 10:1-7 comments that as Jesus gathered his apostles and gave them authority, he helped them see that they were not going out on their own power. He would be working through them.

Take a moment now to imagine that Jesus is sending you out. Let him know how you are feeling. Tell him if you feel ill-equipped. Tell him if you feel reluctant to take the first step and if you are anxious about being rejected. Bring it all to him. Then listen to what he might say to you. He might remind you of a particular Scripture: My light is in you. Don’t keep it hidden (Matthew 5:16). You are mine (Isaiah 43:1). He might bring to your mind a time when he blessed you with peace or healing. He might convince you that he is with you.

So don’t be afraid when an opportunity to share your faith arises. Remember that Jesus has called you, just as he called the Twelve, to proclaim God’s kingdom in your midst. He has given you a share in his own authority. Take courage and go!

“Jesus, I believe you have called me. I’m ready to go, Lord. Be with me.” (Meditation on Matthew 10:1-7, 2023)

Friar Jude Winkler’s track was not found today.

Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, finds the foundation for his teaching that everything belongs in the crucifixion itself.

The demand for the perfect is the enemy of the possible good. Be peace and do justice, but let’s not expect perfection in ourselves or the world. Perfectionism contributes to intolerance and judgmentalism and makes ordinary love largely impossible. Jesus was an absolute realist, patient with the ordinary, the broken, the weak, and those who failed. Following him is not a “salvation scheme” or a means of creating some ideal social order as much as it is a vocation to share the fate of God for the life of the world, and to love the way that God loves—which we cannot do by ourselves. 

The doctrine, folly, and image of the cross is the great clarifier and truth-speaker for all human history. We can rightly speak of being “saved” by it. Jesus crucified and resurrected is the whole pattern revealed, named, effected, and promised. Jesus did not come to found a separate or new religion as much as he came to present a universal message of vulnerability and foundational unity that is necessary for all religions, the human soul, and history itself to survive. Thus, Christians can rightly call Jesus “the savior of the world” (John 4:42), but no longer in the competitive and imperialistic way that they have usually presented him. By very definition, vulnerability and unity do not compete or dominate. The cosmic Christ is no threat to anything but separateness, illusion, domination, and the imperial ego. (Rohr, n.d.)

We seek the guidance of the Spirit as we respond to Jesus' invitation to present love, compassion, mercy, and acceptance to those we encounter on our Way.

References

Burke, E. (2023, July 12). Creighton U. Daily Reflection. Online Ministries. Retrieved July 12, 2023, from https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/071223.html 

Genesis, CHAPTER 42. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved July 12, 2023, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/genesis/42 

Matthew, CHAPTER 10. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved July 12, 2023, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/matthew/10?1 

Meditation on Matthew 10:1-7. (2023, July 12). The Word Among Us. Retrieved July 12, 2023, from https://wau.org/meditations/2023/07/12/732255/ 

Psalms, PSALM 33. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved July 12, 2023, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/33?2 

Rohr, R. (n.d.). God is Found in All Things. CAC Daily Meditations 2023. Retrieved July 12, 2023, from https://cac.org/daily-meditations/god-is-found-in-all-things-2023-07-12/ 

Schwager, D. (n.d.). Jesus Gives His Disciples Authority to Heal and Set Free. Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations – Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved July 12, 2023, from https://www.dailyscripture.net/daily-meditation/?ds_year=2023&date=jul12