Living as Disciples

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today challenge us to apply the instructions in the Scriptures to our actions in relationship with others today.

Shelter and Care

The reading from the Letter to the Ephesians offers household instructions for children and parents, and slaves and masters. Psalm 145 praises the greatness and the goodness of God.

* [Psalm 145] A hymn in acrostic form; every verse begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Acrostic poems usually do not develop ideas but consist rather of loosely connected statements. The singer invites all to praise God (Ps 145:1–3, 21). The “works of God” make God present and invite human praise (Ps 145:4–7); they climax in a confession (Ps 145:8–9). God’s mighty acts show forth divine kingship (Ps 145:10–20), a major theme in the literature of early Judaism and in Christianity. (Psalms, PSALM 145, n.d.)

In the Gospel of Luke, we are called to enter through the Narrow Door.

* [13:22–30] These sayings of Jesus follow in Luke upon the parables of the kingdom (Lk 13:18–21) and stress that great effort is required for entrance into the kingdom (Lk 13:24) and that there is an urgency to accept the present opportunity to enter because the narrow door will not remain open indefinitely (Lk 13:25). Lying behind the sayings is the rejection of Jesus and his message by his Jewish contemporaries (Lk 13:26) whose places at table in the kingdom will be taken by Gentiles from the four corners of the world (Lk 13:29). Those called last (the Gentiles) will precede those to whom the invitation to enter was first extended (the Jews). See also Lk 14:15–24. (Luke, CHAPTER 13, n.d.)

Eileen Wirth (2002) comments that adult life has a lot in common with grade school.  Today’s readings should make us question how we view life’s winners and losers and how best to use our own gifts.

We need to remember the source of our gifts and be filled with humble gratitude for them.  Above all, we need to use them to help those clustered at the end of the line.  Otherwise, we may find ourselves like me on that horrible grade school playground - chosen last when it really counts. (Wirth, n.d.)

Don Schwager quotes “To enter the narrow door,” by Cyril of Alexandria (376-444 AD).

"'Wide is the door, and broad the way that brings down many to destruction.' What are we to understand by its broadness? ...A stubborn mind will not bow to the yoke of the law [the commandments of God]. This life is cursed and relaxed in all carelessness. Thrusting from it the divine law and completely unmindful of the sacred commandments, wealth, vices, scorn, pride and the empty imagination of earthly pride spring from it. Those who would enter in by the narrow door must withdraw from all these things, be with Christ and keep the festival with him."(excerpt from COMMENTARY ON LUKE, HOMILY 99) (Schwager, n.d.)

The Word Among Us Meditation on Luke 13:22-30 asks why, then, does Jesus say that we must “strive” to enter the narrow gate and that “many . . . will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough” (Luke 13:24)? Because while only Jesus can save us, walking in his ways every day can be difficult. It means obeying Jesus’ commandments and loving our neighbor as he loves us. As we all know, this often requires sacrifice and self-denial. No wonder so many people choose the wide and easy road!

But we can persevere because Jesus not only welcomes us through the narrow gate; he walks with us and gives us his grace each day. We don’t have to rely only on our own strength; Jesus is there to help us with every decision we make to love, to sacrifice, and to obey.

Today, imagine Jesus welcoming you to walk with him through the narrow gate. He already knows all your struggles and failings, and he knows you can’t achieve salvation on your own. Trust that he will be your constant traveling companion on the road you have chosen and will give you all the grace and mercy you need each day to follow him.

“Jesus, thank you for being my Savior. I trust that you will give me everything I need to follow you today.” (Meditation on Luke 13:22-30, n.d.)

Friar Jude Winkler comments on the standard Stoic teaching about the behaviour of fathers toward children and slaves to masters and the introduction of Christian justice to the norms of the culture. Perhaps we understand the message of Christ better over time from our anthropology and we need to rephrase instructions to match practice today. Friar Jude warns that Catholic presumption of acceptance is dangerous when we are not Catholic in practice.

Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, notes that in a recent pastoral letter, Archbishop John Wester of Santa Fe called for a conversation toward nuclear disarmament. He rooted his invitation in Jesus’ teachings.

In the Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5–7), Jesus commanded us to be peacemakers and to love our enemies, saying: “Blessed are the peacemakers, they will be called the sons and daughters of God” (5:9). “You have heard it said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth’ but I say to you: ‘offer no violent resistance to one who does evil’” (5:38–39). “You have heard it said, ‘Love your countrymen and hate your enemies.’ But I say love your enemies and pray for your persecutors, then you will be sons and daughters of the God who lets the sun rise on the good and the bad and the rain to fall on the just and the unjust” (5:43–45). In these teachings, Jesus says that God is a peacemaker, and since we are God’s sons and daughters, we are peacemakers too, not warmakers. He says that God practices universal nonviolent love, and since we are the sons and daughters of the God of universal nonviolent love, we practice universal nonviolent love, too. There are no exceptions, no justifications for warfare, and no “just war theory.”

Many would question these teachings as naïve, impractical, and idealistic. But as the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote so well about this call to love our enemies, “Jesus is not an impractical idealist: he is the practical realist.” [1] Dr. King also stated:

Far from being the pious injunction of a Utopian dreamer, the command to love one’s enemy is an absolute necessity for our survival. Love even for enemies is the key to the solution of the problems of our world. [2] (Rohr, 2022)

We are gifted with the Spirit of Truth and Love as we work to live as disciples of Jesus.

References

Ephesians, CHAPTER 6. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved October 26, 2022, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/ephesians/6?1 

Luke, CHAPTER 13. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved October 26, 2022, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/luke/13?22 

Meditation on Luke 13:22-30. (n.d.). The Word Among Us: Homepage. Retrieved October 26, 2022, from https://wau.org/meditations/2022/10/26/520745/ 

Psalms, PSALM 145. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved October 26, 2022, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/145?0 

Rohr, R. (2022, October 26). God Is a Peacemaker — Center for Action and Contemplation. Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved October 26, 2022, from https://cac.org/daily-meditations/god-is-a-peacemaker-2022-10-26/ 

Schwager, D. (n.d.). Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations – Daily Scripture ... Retrieved October 26, 2022, from https://www.dailyscripture.net/daily-meditation/?ds_year=2022&date=oct26 

Wirth, E. (n.d.). Creighton U. Daily Reflection. Online Ministries. Retrieved October 26, 2022, from https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/102622.html 

Harvest of Healing

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today invite us to contemplate the teaching of God that we need to share in a heart connection with the people in our lives.

Making connection

The reading from the Prophet Isaiah proclaims that God shall help us to understand his teaching clearly.

* [30:20] Teacher: God, who in the past made the people blind and deaf through the prophetic message (6:9–10) and who in his anger hid his face from the house of Jacob (8:17), shall in the future help them to understand his teaching clearly (cf. Jer 31:34).1

Psalm 147 is praise for God’s care for Jerusalem.

* [Psalm 147] The hymn is divided into three sections by the calls to praise in Ps 147:1, 7, 12. The first section praises the powerful creator who restores exiled Judah (Ps 147:1–6); the second section, the creator who provides food to animals and human beings; the third and climactic section exhorts the holy city to recognize it has been re-created and made the place of disclosure for God’s word, a word as life-giving as water.2

In the Gospel of Matthew we hear the harvest is great but the labourers few. The Twelve Apostles are given a mission to heal and proclaim the Kingdom.

 * [9:37–38] This Q saying (see Lk 10:2) is only imperfectly related to this context. It presupposes that only God (the master of the harvest) can take the initiative in sending out preachers of the gospel, whereas in Matthew’s setting it leads into Mt 10 where Jesus does so.3

Larry Hopp shares that the scriptures today provide solid direction for those times when we catch ourselves feeling abandoned and hopeless.

It is hard to miss this stark example, this directive.  Rather than focusing on our trials, we have the responsibility of seeking Jesus’ eyes and ears, to notice those He has placed in our lives.  To see their hurts and to actually do something about them. We know that Jesus’ care and love will always be with us throughout every moment of our lives.  Jesus clearly reminds us that we are to extend this care and love to those we encounter each and every day. We need to take this directive seriously – as the harvest is indeed abundant in today’s world.  How will you choose to answer this call? 4 

Don Schwager quotes “In remembrance of heavenly life,” by Bede the Venerable, 672-735 A.D.

"Why should the lunar reckoning be calculated from the noontide hours, seeing that the moon had not yet been placed in the heavens or gone forth over the earth? On the contrary, none of the feast days of the law began and ended at noon or in the afternoon, but all did so in the evening. Or else perchance it is because sinful Adam was reproached by the Lord 'in the cool of the afternoon' (Genesis 3:8) and thrust out from the joys of Paradise. In remembrance of that heavenly life which we changed for the tribulation of this world, the change of the moon, which imitates our toil by its everlasting waxing and waning, ought specifically to be observed at the hour in which we began our exile. In this way every day we may be reminded by the hour of the moon's changing of that verse, 'a fool changes as the moon' (Sirach 27:11) while the wise man 'shall live as long as the sun' (Psalm 72:5), and that we may sigh more ardently for that life, supremely blessed in eternal peace, when 'the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days.' Indeed, because (as it is written) 'from the moon is the sign of the feast day' (Sirach 43:7), and just as the first light of the moon was shed upon the world at eventide, so in the law it is compulsory that every feast day begin in the evening and end in the evening (see Exodus 12:18). (excerpt from THE RECKONING OF TIME 3.43)5 

Friar Jude Winkler explains the images of food and instruction in Isaiah. The work of a converted Pharisee may be seen in the Kingdom phrase in the Gospel. Friar Jude reminds us that the Kingdom resides in the person of Jesus.

Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, shares a practice for bringing our attention to our heart and considering our connection with other hearts.

In the wonderful little book by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, the Little Prince discovers inner power when the tamed fox shares a secret with these evocative words: “One sees clearly only with the heart. Anything essential is invisible to the eyes.” [2] Spirituality invites us to look with a different pair of eyes, beyond what Thomas Merton called “the shadow and the disguise” [3] of things until we can know them in their connectedness and wholeness. The nondual or mystical mind fully experiences and learns to love limited ordinary things and peeks through the clouds to glimpse infinite and seemingly invisible things. The contemplative mind “knows spiritual things in a spiritual way” (1 Corinthians 2:13). [4]6

Our Advent spiritual practice is preparation to open our hearts to others.

References

1	(n.d.). Isaiah, chapter 30 - United States Conference. Retrieved December 7, 2019, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/isaiah/
2	(n.d.). Psalms, chapter 147 - United States Conference. Retrieved December 7, 2019, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/psalms/147
3	(n.d.). Matthew, chapter 9 - United States Conference. Retrieved December 7, 2019, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/matthew/9
4	(n.d.). Daily Reflections - OnlineMinistries .... Retrieved December 7, 2019, from https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/daily.html
5	(n.d.). Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved December 7, 2019, from https://dailyscripture.servantsoftheword.org/
6	(n.d.). Darkness: Weekly Summary — Center for Action and .... Retrieved December 7, 2019, from https://cac.org/darkness-weekly-summary-2019-12-07/