Weekly Reflection 022303AD

Sunday, February 23, 2003AD

Seventh Sunday in Greentime

God (Still) At Work??

More than 500 years before the Birth of the Messiah, Jerusalem experienced one of the nadirs of its long history in their deportation to Babylon. The prophets had warned them of catastrophe if they did not live the Covenant in their dealings with God and one another.

However, something was happening. They knew that they had been warned, so they did not curse God. More, their Babylonian captors had recently been defeated by the upstart Cyrus the Mede. The word was afoot that Cyrus would liberate the exiles to their homeland.

A prophet, called Second Isaiah, appeared whose actual name is lost to us. His words appear in Isaiah 40- 55.

He reminded the people that God is at work in history and that God is the Lord of history. God could use the defeat of one pagan by another pagan to work God’s Will for Israel’s good. All this was on God’s Initative. Something good might happen.

In 1983, the American bishops warned us that we are living in a new moment in human history. They spoke specifically of the development of modern weaponry during the Arms Race between the USA and USSR. (The acronym, MAD, viz., “Mutually Assured Destruction” was coined.) Since 1983, other threats to the evolution of our human family include the following: 1) pollution of the environment, 2) possible nuclear accidents, 3) technological manipulation of human reproduction, even for good reasons, 4) the development of biological and chemical weaponry.

Blessed John XXIII warned that in this sophisticated age of ours,”it is irrational to believe that war is still an apt means of resolving difficulties.” Pope John Paul said, “in the past, we could destroy our enemy’s town; now we can destroy our enemy’s planet.”

The prophet Second Isaiah reminds us that God was the Lord of history. God the Father sanctioned the message with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We ask for the Grace to believe in the Reality of the God of History, the God of Life, the God of Mystery, the God of Jesus Christ, now as ever.

Back in 1983, the American Bishops warned the world of the new moment in human history. They also introduced two other terms in Catholic moral thought. We are asked to maintain a consistent life ethic, that we will be champions of life wherever life is threatened, most particularly the silent and helpless. We are also asked to seek from God the gift of disarmament of our hearts. We are reminded that this gift is an on-going gift, in which we should seek God’s strength in forgoing any words and/or actions of violence in our lives.

As St Paul tells us, “Many are the promises of God, their YES is in Christ Jesus; therefore, the AMEN from us goes through Christ to God.” We ask for the Grace to believe that God is always faithful, still at work, even in 2003 AD. May we behave accordingly. 022303 AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 021603AD

Sunday, February 16, 2003AD

Sixth Sunday in Greentime

Lepers, Here and There

Last week, our daily readings recounted the opening chapters of the Book of Genesis. We heard two pivotal accounts of creation in Genesis 1 and again, in Gen 2. The Creation stories are as relevant today as then.

These stories are told in literary, mythical language. We are not to interpret them as scientific history. We’ll be in trouble fast if we do. Heard that way, there is much to learn.

The human person is the apex of creation. Only after the creation of the person, male and female, does God declare that creation was very good.

We also heard as a responsorial psalm, Psalm 8, which was possibly written by the same inspired author. In Psalm 8, we hear of the human paradox, viz., that, of all God created, the human person is very frail, fragile and insignificant and yet, the human person alone is created in the image and likeness of God. This human paradox is the birthright of all.

All people are created in the image and likeness of God. We should remember this inspired insight when we hear the Gospel healing of the leper in Mark 1. 40-45, today’s Gospel.

According to the erroneous opinion of the time, the leper was somehow responsible for his condition. Whatever, the leper needs to be shunned. According to custom, the leper was a zombie, living dead on the fringes of society. (Write him off.)

Yet, Jesus knew what the Creation story and Psalm 8 meant by the human paradox. YHWH and Jesus of Nazareth see the divine image in the leper. Jesus responds by flaunting convention and touching and healing the leper.

The basic Judaeo-Christian value of the absolute dignity of the human person is the basis of Jesus’ healing today. Hopefully, with and in and through Christ Jesus, this value motivates our thinking and actions.

It is wise to recall that God views all God’s sons and daughters differently than we do. God loves all, not some. God loves even the people whom we can’t stand. Those whom we deem unlovable or hurtful or burdensome, God sees as VIP’s.

This value has to be operative not only on the personal level, but also on the cultural level. According to Pope John Paul, God reminds us to be mindful of the silent and helpless. God wants us to be the voice of the silent and helpless. God loves the ones rejected or burdens to society. God loves lepers. God loves the unborn, the very sick, the very poor, the very forgotten, the very elderly. Jesus wants us to do so as well in thought and actions. Today, the Pope would remind us that God loves Iraqi lepers, Iraqi unborn, Iraqi sick, Iraqi poor, Iraqi forgotten, Iraqi elderly. God wants us to see them as God sees them and to act accordingly.

Sadly ironic, the Garden of Eden was depicted in Mesopotomia (present day Iraq). Events today concerning that locale should remind us of the basic Judaeo-Christian value reinforced by Jesus today. 021603 AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 020903AD

February 9, 2003AD

Fifth Sunday in Greentime

Where Jesus Is, Evil Ain’t

From now until the Sunday before Ash Wednesday, we hear excerpts from the beginning of the Gospel of Mark. The stories constitute the beginning of Jesus’ announcement of the Kingdom of the God of LIfe.

The stories are told in a staccato fashion. The action moves fast. To dramatize the significance of Jesus’ opening salvo against whatever it is that diminishes the quality of human life, St Mark even uses the “historical present”. (Right away, Jesus does this; right away, Jesus does that.”)

We hear the account of Jesus’ cure of St Peter’s mother-in-law, the cure of a leper, the cure of the paralytic lowered through the roof of Jesus’ house. In response, we hear the negative reaction of some. Jesus’ disciples don’t fast as other Jews did. Jesus concludes that vignette by politely telling those shocked that something radically new is happening in the ministry that Jesus is expediting.

Today’s Gospel has several interesting aspects to it. 1) We are told that Jesus entered the house of Simon (Peter) and Andrew. Jesus cures St Peter’s mother-in-law. This tells us that St Peter was a married Pope. In fact, St Paul tells us in 1 Cor 9. 3, that Mrs Peter traveled with her husband on missionary journeys as late as 55 AD!!

2) However, the Gospel passage concludes today with Jesus’ retreat into the deserted place to pray (to YHWH, God the Father) Jesus here shows the necessity of prayer to re-charge His Own batteries. Like us in all things but sin, Jesus was a Man of Prayer. Just as He wants for us, He is both a Person of Prayer and a Person of Action for others. He wants each of us to balance the tension in our lives of prayerful activist or an active pray-er. In the process that He established, Jesus reminds us in essence of the great commandment, love God totally and love one’s neighbor as oneself.

American Catholics are programmed by a culture to be always “on the move”. Silence and solitude are almost viewed as “neurotic” by some. It is important for American Catholics to remember that the Founder of our Religion was an activist who practiced solitude. However, He can also be described as a pray-er who was a person of action. He maintained the balance in His life; so should we.

It is important for us to recall that Jesus asks us to view life through what people called “Gospel lenses”. He wants us to live and behave as He lived and behaved. However we do so will vary from person to person because the existential realities of each of our lives varies. So, in the life of each American Catholic, there must be a balance of prayer and activity. It will be our way of fulfilling, with God’s Help, the great commandment to love God and our neighbor as ourselves.

The use of the word, euthus , “immediately” as well as the historical present, reminds us of the urgency of

imitation of Christ. Where Jesus is, evil ain’t. This Truth continues if we make time and space for Jesus in our lives. 020903 AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 020203AD

Sunday February 2, 2003AD

Presentation of the Lord

A Light for All Nations

Today, we celebrate the Presentation of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Temple, the 40^th day from Christmas. The solemnity recalls the beautiful story of Mary and Joseph’s bringing the Child Jesus “in fulfillment of the Law of the Lord.” to the Temple.

In today’s beautiful Gospel, the Jewish Messiah is greeted by Simeon and Anna, Mr & Ms Israel, par excellence. Simeon represents southern Israelite males; Anna represents northern Israelite females. Together, they welcome the Messiah’s Presentation, but then, Simeon moves forward with something crucial.

Most Catholics are familiar with the account of the Birth of the Messiah as it is presented in the first two chapters of the Gospel of St Luke, whence our Gospel today emerges. However, a prominent theory is that the Canticle of Simeon, known as the Nunc Dimittis, “Now You (can) dismiss”, is actually the culmination of the entire Lucan Infancy Account. (Take a few moments today to re-read the first two chapters of Luke’s Gospel; it will take you ten minutes.)

Simeon, filled with the Holy Spirit, proclaims that Jesus is the God’s Saving Deed, that Simeon has witnessed. Jesus is the light of revelation to the nations (Gentiles), the glory of God’s people, Israel. (Note the order in the canticle, viz., he mentions the Gentiles first.) The Jewish Messiah is the universal Savior of all humanity, not some.

It is important for us to hear this Gospel today. Periodically, in American history, Americans fall into what is called tribalism. It becomes “us” against “them”. It can affect relations with others, whether American Indian, African, Mexican, immigrant in general. It happened during the Nativists Days. (Don’t miss ”Gangs of NY “ ) It happened during what has been called the “Tribal

(19-) Twenties”. (While many in cities were dancing the Charleston in speakeasies, the KKK was on the march in many parts of the nation.) It happened in the Cold War days after World War II. Some feel it is happening again when some classify others as evil. Does that make us automatically good? Caution!

That is why the Canticle of Simeon which we hear and sing today at our liturgy is very pertinent today. Every human person, on whatever continent he or she lives is a child of God, a sister or brother of Jesus Christ and of yourself as well. To think otherwise is a de-humanization. De-humanization, however, is one thing; demonization , another. When we label others as evil, frequently we perceive ourselves as automatically “good”. Important to remember that Jesus teaches all to say “Our Father”.

Simeon’s Canticle, which celebrates the gift of salvation offered to all by the Jewish Messiah, is an important caveat when we are programmed to think of others, different than we, so frequently as evil. 020203 AD jfq