Deliver Us from Evil

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary, today, resonate with our experience of seeking consolation and protection in the words of the Lord’s Prayer.

 

Weeds and Wheat together

The reading from the First Letter of John reminds us that God Is Light and Christ is Our Advocate.

* [1:5–7] Light is to be understood here as truth and goodness; darkness here is error and depravity (cf. Jn 3:19–21; 17:17; Eph 5:8). To walk in light or darkness is to live according to truth or error, not merely intellectual but moral as well. Fellowship with God and with one another consists in a life according to the truth as found in God and in Christ. * [1:8–10] Denial of the condition of sin is self-deception and even contradictory of divine revelation; there is also the continual possibility of sin’s recurrence. Forgiveness and deliverance from sin through Christ are assured through acknowledgment of them and repentance.1

 

Psalm 124 is a thanksgiving for Israel’s Deliverance.

* [Psalm 124] A thanksgiving which teaches that Israel’s very existence is owed to God who rescues them. In the first part Israel’s enemies are compared to the mythic sea dragon (Ps 124:2b–3a; cf. Jer 51:34) and Flood (Ps 124:3b–5; cf. Is 51:9–10). The Psalm heightens the malice of human enemies by linking them to the primordial enemies of God’s creation. Israel is a bird freed from the trapper’s snare (Ps 124:6–8)—freed originally from Pharaoh and now from the current danger.2

 

The Gospel of Matthew relates the escape to Egypt of the Holy Family and the Massacre of the infants of Bethlehem.

* [2:13] Flee to Egypt: Egypt was a traditional place of refuge for those fleeing from danger in Palestine (see 1 Kgs 11:40; Jer 26:21), but the main reason why the child is to be taken to Egypt is that he may relive the Exodus experience of Israel.3

 

Eileen Burke-Sullivan comments that St. Ignatius Loyola offers us an analogy to consider who and what the innocents of our day are. Those who stand under the banner of hatred and death; of power and security; of possession and destruction are those who are not innocent. Submission to the limits of being human – even to death itself – means to stand under the banner of the God who so loved us that He sent his only begotten Son into our company to show us how to be authentically human.

Who are the innocents today?  Those who stand under the banner of God’s mercy and do not grasp for what is not ours, equality with God. “But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, then we have fellowship with one another, and the Blood of his Son Jesus cleanses us from all sin.”   Innocents today will care for creation – even at the cost of our personal wealth.  Innocents today are those who see brothers and sisters in every voice and color of other humans.  Innocents today protect the vulnerable from the harm of those who hate innocents and are afraid of powerlessness.  Innocents speak the truth, live justly and simply.  For this, innocents today will die, under some Herod somewhere to lives in terror of the power of love.4 

Don Schwager quotes “The first martyrs of Christ,” by Chromatius (died 406 AD).

"In Bethlehem therefore all the babies were slain. These innocents who died then on Christ's behalf became the first martyrs of Christ. David refers to them when he says, 'From the mouths of nursing babies you have perfected praise because of your enemies, that you might bring ruin to the enemy' (Psalm 8:2). ... For in this persecution even tiny infants and nursing babies were killed on Christ's behalf and attained to the consummate praise of martyrs. Meanwhile the wicked king Herod was destroyed, he who had usurped the realm to defend himself against the king of the heavens. Thus it is that those blessed babes have deservedly lasted beyond others. They were the first who were worthy to die on Christ's behalf."(excerpt from TRACTATE ON MATTHEW 6.2)5  

The Word Among Us Meditation on Matthew 2:13-18 comments that while Jesus’ death and resurrection was a victory over the powers of evil, the final battle won’t be won until he comes again to establish his heavenly kingdom on earth. The sad truth is that until that day comes, we will still experience suffering and loss. We may even face sorrow as deep as the mothers’ grief in today’s Gospel (Matthew 2:18).

But let us not become discouraged by today’s Gospel reading, especially not after the joy of Christmas Day. God loves his creation more than we could ever imagine, and he will not let Satan destroy it. That’s why our Father went to such extreme lengths to save us—by sending his very own Son into the world to become one of us. In the end, evil will be defeated once and for all, and what began with Jesus’ birth will culminate in the glorious kingdom of God reigning over the whole earth! “Father, may your kingdom come, may your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”6 

Friar Jude Winkler explores the dualistic nature of the First Letter of John and the difference between the theology of expiation and Jesus' demonstration of God’s Love in the Gospel of John. Correction of a calendar error places Jesus' birth at 5-6 BCE, and Herod’s death at 4 BCE. Friar Jude reminds us of the terror wrought by Herod, who may have had 50 Thousand people executed.

 

Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, encourages us to find the wisdom revealed in the paradoxical nature of reality. Fr Richard believes that what we all need is wisdom. He is very disappointed that we in the Church have passed on so little wisdom. Often the only thing we’ve taught people is to think that they’re right—or that they’re wrong. We’ve either mandated things or forbidden them. But we haven’t helped people to enter upon the narrow and dangerous path of true wisdom. On wisdom’s path we take the risk of making mistakes. On this path we take the risk of being wrong. That’s how wisdom is gained.

Jesus came to teach us the way of wisdom. He brought us a message that offers to liberate us from both the lies of the world and the lies lodged in ourselves. The words of the Gospel create an alternative consciousness, solid ground on which we can really stand, free from every social order and from every ideology. Jesus called this new foundation the Reign of God, and he said it is something that takes place in this world and yet will never be completed in this world. This is where faith comes in. It is so rare to find ourselves trusting not in the systems and -isms of this world, but standing at a place where we offer our bit of salt, leaven, and light. It seems so harmless, and, even then, we have no security that we’re really right. This means that we have to stand in an inconspicuous, mysterious place, a place where we’re not sure that we’re sure, where we are comfortable knowing that we do not know very much at all.7 

As we anticipate the coming of God’s Kingdom in our prayer, we seek openness to the wisdom of living in accord with the Will of God.

 

References

1	(n.d.). 1 John, CHAPTER 1 | USCCB. Retrieved December 28, 2021, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/1john/1
2	(n.d.). Psalms, PSALM 124 | USCCB. Retrieved December 28, 2021, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/124
3	(n.d.). Matthew, CHAPTER 2 | USCCB. Retrieved December 28, 2021, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/matthew/2
4	(n.d.). Creighton U Daily Reflections - Online Ministries. Retrieved December 28, 2021, from https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/122821.html
5	(n.d.). Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved December 28, 2021, from https://www.dailyscripture.net/daily-meditation/?ds_year=2021&date=dec28
6	(n.d.). The Word Among Us: Homepage. Retrieved December 28, 2021, from https://wau.org/meditations/2021/12/28/277788/
7	(n.d.). Daily Meditations Archive: 2021 - Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved December 28, 2021, from https://cac.org/praying-for-wisdom-2021-12-28/

Witness to the Word

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today, the Feast of Saint John, Apostle and evangelist, challenge us to grow in fellowship and experience the tension between the limited appreciation of life in Western culture and the Christian reality of the Word made flesh in Jesus.

The Word of Life

The reading from the First Letter of John testifies to the humanity of the Word of Life.

* [1:1–4] There is a striking parallel to the prologue of the gospel of John (Jn 1:1–18), but the emphasis here is not on the preexistent Word but rather on the apostles’ witness to the incarnation of life by their experience of the historical Jesus. He is the Word of life (1 Jn 1:1; cf. Jn 1:4), the eternal life that was with the Father and was made visible (1 Jn 1:2; cf. Jn 1:14), and was heard, seen, looked upon, and touched by the apostles. The purpose of their teaching is to share that life, called fellowship…with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ, with those who receive their witness (1 Jn 1:3; Jn 1:14, 16).1 

Psalm 97 praises the Glory of God’s Reign.

* [Psalm 97] The hymn begins with God appearing in a storm, a traditional picture of some ancient Near Eastern gods (Ps 97:1–6); cf. Ps 18:8–16; Mi 1:3–4; Heb 3:3–15. Israel rejoices in the overthrowing of idol worshipers and their gods (Ps 97:7–9) and the rewarding of the faithful righteous (Ps 97:10–12).2

 

In the Gospel of John, human emotion and mystical experience surround the Resurrection of Jesus.

* [20:1–10] The story of the empty tomb is found in both the Matthean and the Lucan traditions; John’s version seems to be a fusion of the two.3

 

Eileen Wirth started a Bible reading exercise partially to see if she could plow through the Old Testament as she sought to discover if she really was a Christian.

By reading the entire Bible, I came to see that John and the other evangelists could not possibly have invented Jesus. There is simply no other comparable figure in history or literature. He was a real man from a certain time, place, and culture but his divine message is universal and universally demanding. Christians of every generation and culture can apply it to their circumstances. Reading the whole Bible made me a Christian in fact as well as name. Now the challenge is to live like one!4 

Don Schwager quotes “The Word of Life was seen and touched,” by Severus of Antioch (488-538 AD).

"Given that this same John also said, 'No one has ever seen God' (John 1:18, 1 John 1:4:12), how can he assure us that the living Word of Life has been seen and touched? It is clear that it was in his incarnate and human form that he was visible and touchable. What was not true of him by nature became true of him in that way, for he is one and the same indivisible Word, both visible and invisible, and without diminishing in either respect he became touchable in both his divine-human nature. For he worked his miracles in his divinity and suffered for us in his humanity." (excerpt from CATENA)5

 

The Word Among Us Meditation on 1 John 1:1-4 comments that the Greek word for fellowship, koinonia, means participation in a life and a mission that knits people closely together. St. John, whose feast we celebrate today, knew how important this koinonia was because he had experienced it firsthand, both with the other apostles and with Jesus himself.

Fellowship is a gift that God wants all of us to experience and to share with other people. So on his feast day, honor St. John by finding one small way to deepen your experience of fellowship with someone. Tell that person you are praying for them, or reach out to thank a friend who has supported you in the past. Jesus came to give us an abundant life—and that includes walking together with fellow travelers on the road to heaven! “Jesus, show me ways I can experience deeper fellowship with someone you have placed in my life.”6 

Peter Edmonds SJ, a member of the Jesuit community in Stamford Hill, North London, guides us through the evangelist’s unique narrative and encourages us to read the whole of this ‘religious classic’ for ourselves.

It is fitting that we read this gospel during Lent and Easter when we are at our best spiritually. It took time before this gospel was accepted in early Christianity. It was regarded as a dangerous gospel, to be handled with care, because it carried two main risks. It could lead to a neglect of the humanity of Christ, as if the divine Jesus was only pretending to be human. This is known as the heresy of Docetism. It could also lead disciples to claim they could not sin, because they have already undergone judgement in their encounters with the Christ whose glory they have seen. This is known as Gnosticism. These issues are addressed in the Letters of John, which are probably to be dated after the gospel. This writer ‘declared to you what we have seen and heard’ (1 John 1:3) and warned that ‘if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves’ (1 John 1:8). A true classic is a text to which we can return again and again, and always discover something new. Rarely indeed will we pick up the fourth gospel and not learn something fresh about the story, the theology and the drama which it contains. It was surely sound instinct and wisdom that led the Church from earliest times to adopt this gospel as its favourite pedagogical means to introduce the profound mysteries celebrated each year during Lent and Easter.7 

Friar Jude Wikler sees the contrast between the prologue in the Gospel of John and  the prologue in the First Letter of John as balancing Jesus' Divinity and humanity to counter Gnostic spiritual ideas. The Beloved Disciple is compelled by Love in the race to the tomb, yet Love yields to authority to allow Peter to enter first. Friar Jude suggests the Gospel shows a Beloved Disciple who sees and believes through Love and Peter who keeps the Commandments.

 

Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, names some of the realities that have been “unveiled” in recent decades, as well as a reconciling path forward. Neither conservatives nor liberals are willing to carry the burden of living tentatively in a passing and imperfect world. So the contemporary choice offered most of us living in the West is between unstable correctness (liberals) and stable illusion (conservatives)! What a choice! It has little to do with real transformation in either case, because in each case we have manufactured our own false stability.

The Gospel accepts the essentially tragic nature of human existence; it is willing to bear the contradictions that are imprinted on all of reality. It will always be the road less traveled. Let’s call it “unstable stability!” But for some reason, it is the only real stability, because it is a truthful map of reality, and it is always the truth that sets us free. It is contact with Reality that finally heals us. And contemplation, quite simply, is meeting reality in its most simple, immediate, and paradoxical forms. It is the resolving of those seeming contradictions that characterizes the mystics, the saints, the prophets, and all those who pray. This liberation, this ability to hold the paradoxical nature of reality, liberates us from and for. It is the ultimate agreement to participate in the only world there is. True participation in paradox liberates us from our own control towers and for the compelling and overarching vision of the Reign of God—where there are no liberals or conservatives. Here, the paradoxes—life and death, success and failure, loyalty to what is and risk for what needs to be—do not fight with one another, but lie in an endless embrace. We must penetrate behind them—into the infinite mystery that holds all things together.8

 

The exploration of the Word made Flesh in the Gospel of John is an opportunity to be guided by the Spirit to a greater Reality than our culture of concrete facts permits.

 

References

1	(n.d.). 1 John, CHAPTER 1 | USCCB. Retrieved December 27, 2021, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/1john/1
2	(n.d.). Psalms, PSALM 97 | USCCB - Daily Readings. Retrieved December 27, 2021, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/97
3	(n.d.). John, CHAPTER 20 | USCCB. Retrieved December 27, 2021, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/john/20
4	(n.d.). Creighton U Daily Reflections - Online Ministries. Retrieved December 27, 2021, from https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/122721.html
5	(n.d.). Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved December 27, 2021, from https://www.dailyscripture.net/daily-meditation/?ds_year=2021&date=dec27
6	(n.d.). Mass Readings and Catholic Daily Meditations for December 27, 2021. Retrieved December 27, 2021, from https://wau.org/meditations/2021/12/27/277220/
7	(2014, March 21). Story, theology and drama in the Gospel of John | Thinking Faith. Retrieved December 27, 2021, from https://www.thinkingfaith.org/articles/story-theology-and-drama-gospel-john
8	(n.d.). Daily Meditations Archive: 2021 - Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved December 27, 2021, from https://cac.org/kneeling-before-the-mystery-2021-12-27/