Rich and beloved

The text from psalm 32 in the Roman Catholic Lectionary today contains the phrase ‘thou dost encompass me with deliverance’. This older English offers an opportunity to consider this statement in the light of the desire of the rich man in Mark’s Gospel to move closer to eternal life. The response of Jesus to his request was to ensure him that he is loved and to recognize his journey as one who keeps the commandments. The next step is more than the young man is prepared to take at this time. The desire for deliverance was still on his terms. The Wisdom of Sirach today underlines that fullness of human life is found in the intimate communion with the Divine where forgiveness and mercy are abundant even for those who have failed to endure against the temptations of life oriented towards self and the slavery of our possessions and passions.

Trouble and the lilies of the field

The texts of the Roman Catholic Lectionary for the 8th Sunday in ordinary time explore our relationship with security, fault and our choices in life. The response of the prophet Isaiah to the attention of the Divine for humanity is to compare the attention of God to that of a nursing mother. The prophet suggests that if even the mother can forget her child, God cannot forget each of us. We are concerned about how we are remembered and perceived by others. Father Larry Gillick SJ suggests that we dress to impress and project an image. We may be protecting our inner self from ridicule or rejection. Paul addresses the Corinthians to proclaim that he is judged only by the Lord. He anticipates he will receive ‘commendation from God’ at the conclusion of his temporal service. Is this boasting? Is this the boasting of which Paul proclaims to be “boasting in the Lord”? The evidence from the totality of Paul’s writing is that he firmly credits the Lord working through the indwelling Spirit for all of his accomplishments. The Gospel of Matthew brings out Jesus teaching on the choice of his disciples to be slaves of wealth and the passions of the world or to be slave to the will of God as they strive for the experience of the kingdom of God and the intimacy of those living close to the will of the Father. Jesus asks them to consider the ‘lilies of the field’. It is not the 1963 Oscar winning movie to which he refers, but at this time a re-visit to that film may enlighten our understanding of making choices, attending to priorities and acting with the confidence of Providence and our position as delightful and unforgettable as the child at the breast.

Discernment, Discretion and a mind for thinking

The texts of the Roman Catholic Lectionary today bring some seeds to develop thoughts on the nature of the cognitive gifts which are given by God to humanity. The text from the Book of Sirach enumerates the gifts the Creator left with humanity after the expulsion from Eden. The nature of the thinking relationship with the Divine is presented in different ways. One translation describes the gift as discretion, perhaps the ability to choose, or to value options. Another uses the term discernment as the gift for thinking. This is to discern Good and Evil and or to uncover the vocation to which the Divine is calling us. The mind for thinking may seem strange in a relationship with infinity and eternity in the Divine. One writer has compared the relationship of the Father to Humanity as like that of parents or grandparents. The grandfather does not cause the child to conform to his thinking and ways, even though the argument can be made that he is drawing from decades of lie experience, but the grandparent “delights” in the development of the child as a being who will live the journey as he or she is called to do so. The temporal existence is to live and to live intensely. The discovery of our being through development is the path we are on. The life we have is the gift. We approach the opportunity for intimate relationship with the Divine through our indwelling Spirit as the children described in Mark’s “expecting everything and deserving nothing”.

Friends and Fidelity

The concept of fidelity as the strict observance of promises and duties is not as easy value to integrate into our life style. The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today present some arguments to consider a path of fidelity. The Wisdom of Sirach describes the characteristics of that most valuable gift, a true friend. The passage differentiates between faithful friends who are one in a thousand and those who may sit at your table and disappear when friendship is demanding. The psalmist praised the statutes of the Lord for the great guidance they provide. The discovery, development and the deepening of true friendship is a blessing that may be easier to see to hindsight than as it happens. The declaration of Jesus in the Gospel of Mark about the fidelity expected in marriage has been difficult to achieve in practice. The call or vocation of married life perhaps requires a spiritual discernment by the friends to reassure that the power of a relationship with the Divine is also present in the preparations which the couple makes to be “happy ever after”. This insight from the resonance of the indwelling Spirit with the Spirit of the Divine offers the possibility to embark on a blessed union wherein fidelity is a treasured value and practice. Fidelity is a challenge. Challenge is the path of those seeking intimate life in true infinite relationships.

Temptations to Sin

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today confront a common attitude to sin where we depend on the infinite mercy in our relationship with the Divine to “fix up” those transgressions which we habitually fall into. It is possible that these are areas of addictive behaviour and that we have great difficulty in withdrawing our human self from the temporal pleasure or satisfaction which we deeply enjoy. The debate over the nature of sin is given some benchmarks in the Gospel of Mark today. The so called ‘personal sin’ is often argued to be victimless. The Evangelist echoes Jesus caution that our example not be an obstacle to the intimacy with the Divine sought by others. In education, we often set the disruption of the education of others in the group as the bar which differentiates some disruptive behaviour from some engaged activity. The line from Mark 9:48 “where their worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched” paints an image of desperate consequences of sin. The separation from the intimate contact with the Divine is an expected consequence of turning away from the relationship. The co-existence of Good and Evil is a mystery which requires the diminishing of one as the other increases. Farley Mowatt( No Birds Sang) wrote of his experience in the Italian campaign of WWII using the text from Mark to describe the “hell” of war. The psalmist offers a choice to the wanderer on the spiritual journey to choose the company which feeds the Good of our nature. The wisdom literature of the Book of Sirach reveals the observation of seekers that God is both mercy and wrath. A rabbi, Harold Gushner, commenting on the 23rd psalm suggests that the ‘staff and the rod’ of the Divine are not only necessary but the relationship with humanity requires that God be just and ‘deliver justice’.

Another Exorcist

The texts in the Roman Catholic Lectionary today are related to the gift of wisdom and freedom from demonic forces which oppress and imprison the spirit. When we look at North Africa and the Middle East today we see people moving painfully to freedom from decades of oppression. Surely this movement is one supported by the Spirit of Wisdom described in the Book of Sirach. The hardship of this struggle includes massacre of thousands. The Spirit of Wisdom is walking with them in these terrible times of sacrifice and discipline. Is it strange that the journey of a largely Muslim population to freedom should be a sign, in particular to Christian and Jewish believers, of the continued Presence working to bring joy, peace and salvation to the downtrodden? As the believers bow for daily prayer in the public squares of North Africa and the Middle East we may hear voices calling out to stop them from acting to dispel demonic forces and bringing choice to life. These voice are addressed by the passage from the Gospel of Mark today when the disciples of Jesus called on Him to stop “other exorcists” from acting to bring people to freedom. ‘Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterwards to speak evil of me. Whoever is not against us is for us.’ (Mark 9:39-40).

The Shepherd in the chair

The Temporal Shepherd of such a diverse and distributed flock of members of the Roman Catholic Church is one who must hear the words of the first letter of Peter in the texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary for today. The leadership is by example and not by lording it over those whom the leader guides. We often hear calls that this group must be ostracized, funds must be taken from these people and excommunication is proper for this individual. The call to “bind”, echoing the text of Matthew’s Gospel for today, is often a reference to an offence against “Catholic teaching”. Too often this “teaching” is presented as a duality. This is “right”. The other is “wrong”. Christian teachers, like Franciscan Richard Rohr exhort believers to consider the possibilities and to behave in these issues like the Eternal Shepherd and Divine Teacher, Jesus. The authorities often tried to get Jesus to “take sides”. “Who is my neighbour?”” He who is without sin...” The intimacy with the Divine to which we are invited is described by the psalmist. Psalm 23 brings in six lines an understanding of the Shepherd to which leaders can look for Divine example. The complete surrender to the Divine will puts the leadership by “thy staff and thy rod” in such a way that “I shall dwell in the house of the Lord all my days”.