Weekly Reflection 032507AD

Sunday, March 25, 2007AD

Fifth Sunday of Lent

She’s Not Mary Magdalene

In the movie, “Passion of the Christ” a flashback depicts Jesus’ defending the woman taken in adultery. Unfortunately, the movie says that the woman was Mary Magdalene. This misidentification goes back to the days of St Gregory the Great (590 – 604 AD). It has taken years for people to try to clarify the misidentification; unfortunately, the movie which was a “must-see” for many adult Catholics re-introduced the error widely once again.

The memorable story which constitutes our Gospel today appears in John 8. However, for years, biblical scholars have felt that this Gospel would be more appropriate to the Gospel of Luke (which is the Gospel that we hear from this liturgical year.)

There are two salient reasons for feeling this Gospel was really divinely inspired in St Luke. First, the clear championing of the woman hints at Luke’s preferences in depicting Jesus. Jesus appears again and again as the One Who prefers those looked down upon by Meditterrean culture as the special objects of God’s amazing love. Such people include the following: the rejected, the old left behind, the lepers, the shepherds, the Samaritans, the poor, the sinners and women.

The woman, today, represents several of these categories in today’s Gospel. Male dominated Jewish society sees her as a criminal, a sinful woman, who deserves punishment for upsetting the good order of society. (Did you ever wonder about the man in this story?) The picture portrays cultural values that are stacked in favor of some and opposed to others.

Jesus cuts through the blindness of such boundaries by establishing the Kingdom of God, viz., God’s New World Order“.

Second, Jesus believes that when some view others as bad, that does not automatically make the viewers good. The very fact that the crowd was going to stone the woman, they were indicating that, through a violent action, a society can purge itself of evildoers, thus maintaining its societal purity. (Some states in our country still go through this ritual periodically to purge themselves of evildoers (who are frequently poor and non-white)). These days, when our nation ranks with China, Saudi Arabia and Iraq as the nations who execute most, USA Catholics should pause to think

Jesus understands then, as well as now, that not only individuals, but more importantly, groups (of any size) buy into a self-righteousness that tends to identify another or others as bad and hence, dehumanized. Ordinary folks do that all the time with negative feelings about others. Groups, cultures and even countries do the same thing all the time as well. When you label others as deviant for any reason, you tend to de-humanize them. When you de-humanize them, you do not feel the obligation to treat them the same way that you treat others who are in your (so human & perfect ) camp.

People, groups, ethnic and racial and religious entities, as well as nations can learn a valuable caveat from Jesus in this very beautiful Gospel story. Jesus wants us to treat everyone as God sees us – all in-group, all flawed, all-loved. 032507AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 031807AD

Sunday, March 18, 2007AD

4^th Sunday of Lent

Laetare (Rejoice) Sunday

You Name It!!

One crucial way of trying to understand what Jesus is saying in His parables is through ascertaining the audience to whom He is speaking. The scribes and Pharisees who resent Jesus’ table fellowship with tax collectors and sinners are the audience in this one.

Jesus is at His “right brain” best today as the Master Storyteller in what many have considered His greatest and most evocative parable for 2000 years. However, what is the name of the parable? After two Millennia, people still debate it. The usual title has been the “Prodigal Son”, the son who demanded his portion of his father’s “stuff” (That is what the word means in Greek!) Another title has been suggested that it was the “Merciful Father” who is really the subject of the parable. Still another sees the “Elder Brother” as the subject. A fourth one sees the title as the “Parable of the Dysfunctional Family.”

Since the audience is usually the tip off about where Jesus is going with His parables, the target seems to have been those who resented Jesus’ outreach to those people who are not (good) like us. Their attitude is in the attitude of the elder brother. He did what he was supposed to do. He was the good son. He did not ask for his share of the “stuff” before his father’s death. What a good young man the father had for his older son?

However, things might not always be as they seem. When the younger son comes home, the father breaks all conventional guidelines by running out to meet him (possibly to protect the returnee from hostile villagers who knew the story.) The father gives him back his place in the family and throws a block party for the return. (How else would a fatted calf be eaten in days before refrigeration?)

However, the father has to go out of the house a second time when the older, obedient son gets resentful of the father, his brother and the entire scene. By his refusal to enter the block party, the older brother has insulted his father and his guests. (The returning brother is not even on the table for discussion.) This family was more dysfunctional than anyone imagined.

What do you think should be the name of the parable? There are those who say that all of us have a little of both brothers in us as well as a little of the father (through the Holy Spirit). Therefore, Jesus is indirectly asking His audience, then and now, who is the real subject of the parable.

So many feel that religion is about making sure that we do not murder, commit adultery, steal, lie or say bad words. Actually, common sense is enough to teach that it is not good for anyone to do any of the above. After all, the Golden Rule appears in all major religion.

The Catholic religion is aimed at the Gospel message of Jesus. In the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, 2/3 of Jesus’ teachings are about how people should get along with each other, using Christ Jesus as our Archetype, Paradigm, Exemplar. How do we handle situations, in our own lives, like the one that Jesus describes today? How we would behave indicates what we would call the parable. 400 years ago, William Shakespeare (possibly a Catholic, it is thought) wrote “To err is human, to forgive, divine”. Our religion is an adult religion. There are some things that kids cannot figure out on their own. Once again, values are caught, not taught. 031807AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 031107AD

Sunday, March 11, 2007AD

Third Sunday of Lent

Things Happen

Several years ago, Rabbi Harold Kushner wrote a book entitled, When Bad Things Happen to Good People.

It was a best seller and the rabbi went on the speaking circuit because of the poignancy of the book. In the two examples, today, people suffered as a result of Pilate’s arbitrary conduct as well as the misfortune of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Pontius Pilate was not a nice person. Although there is no record of this event mentioned elsewhere, there are several accounts of arbitrary treatment meted out by the famous Procurator of Judea. Pilate was fired from his job around the year 36AD for rough solutions to several problems. The misfortune of the folks beneath the walls of the Tower of Siloam is another sad example of the capricious reality that we call everyday living. One never knows what’s next. Jesus was not saying that the unfortunate victims in the Temple or at the Tower of Siloam were deserving of what they got. Rather, He says that we must be prepared for bad things to occur, because, surprise, they do from time to time. Bad things are part of life. Still, life is the greatest good. “The gift of God comes to us revealed and hidden in and as our lives.”

We hear the famous reading today in Exodus 3, where God calls Moses up the holy mountain. When Moses asks God’s Name, the reply is YHWH, translated in countless ways. Still, YHWH is both the God of Life and the God of Now. God inspires fascination and awe, viz., (Fear of the Lord, the beginning of Wisdom).

The balance between fascination and awe reminds us to maintain a balance in our attitude to life. Some Corinthian Christians were presuming that God was easy-going and going to give them a pass on how they lived. St Paul needed to correct this notion.

In the Gospel, Jesus reminds us that life can get tough, through violence and/or misfortune. Therefore, all of us need to maintain vigilance and never become complacent with “come day, go day” routines. More, Jesus reminds us that God, indeed, calls us to take our time in this world seriously and, when necessary, to snap out of our myopia and to get a new life’s view. Thank God, God is patient with us, but, God still comes to us revealed as and in our lives. God lives in me now; I live in God now. How does the Divine Indwelling affect my existence as I try to live my life daily?

Our Lenten readings this Sunday remind us that it was unfortunate to have been the victim of Pilate and it was unfortunate to be in the wrong place at the wrong time (near the Tower of Siloam.) However, it is more unfortunate to presume that YHWH, God of Life and God of Love, Father of Christ Jesus, is a pushover. Lent is meant to be a yearly reminder that life and faith are not luxury items. They are both gifts; all of God’s gifts make demands upon us. What happens next is up to the Grace of God and our response thereto. 031107AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 030407AD

Sunday, March 4, 2007AD

Second Sunday of Lent

Listen to Him

According to a tradition in the Church, Jesus revealed His Glory to Peter, James and John in this experience which we call the Transfiguration. After St Peter made his profession of faith in Jesus as the Messiah, Jesus’ message moves in another direction as He teaches His disciples, then and now (that’s us). Do we listen to Him?

St Luke describes Jesus throughout the Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles (which St Luke also wrote) as a prophet, viz., one through whom God speaks, one who sees and describes Reality as God sees it. Therefore, it is appropriate that Jesus appear with Moses and Elijah, both consummate prophets, in the Hebrew tradition. However, after the two disappear, the Voice of God says to Peter, James and John, “This is My Beloved Son, My Chosen One. Listen to Him.”

Jesus has just taught any who would listen a way of life that is radically different than any that we might hear from conventional wisdom, so disabled by Collective Attention Deficit Disorder (CADD). “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. What profit is there for one to gain the whole world yet lose or forfeit himself?” This Jesus, the Prophet par excellence, proclaims a vision of human living that flies in the face of much of Western Civilization.

Moses and Elijah speak with Jesus about the Exodus that Jesus is soon to experience. Any first century Jew and/or Christian would catch the significance of the term that St Luke used in his account. For everyone, the process involves an emptying out and a transformation. We need to let some things go so that other things can come to be.

Moses wrote in the Book of Deuteronomy that in the future YHWH would raise up a Prophet like Moses, to whom the people must listen. (Dt 18 18) St Luke clearly names Jesus the Prophet in the sermons which appear in the Acts of the Apostles.

The strange event of the Transfiguration indicates that Jesus’ Message about the Exodus is stark. Still, it is a Gospel of Hope as Jesus appears in anticipated Easter glory.

However, the Voice of God said, “Listen to Him”. 40 years ago, Simon and Garfunkel sang about , “People who were hearing without listening.” During Lent, it is important for us to set aside moments amid the cacophony of life to both hear what Jesus says and listen in silence to what we hear. Amid a manic, middle class, media-driven, mass market, materialistic, manipulated culture, it is even more difficult now to Listen to Him. Think about setting aside 10 minutes a day to slow down and sit in solitude, silence. Think about checking the Bible readings of the day, which you can get off our parish website on a daily basis. Say the Rosary or whatever suits you and your family to show that you really believe that Lent is a different time of the year.

Say the Prayer of St Francis five times a day for peace in your world. Make Friday evenings a family night with a meatless meal and Mass and Stations of the Cross here. Just go and sit in church, any church, and look at the Lord and let the Lord look at you. Lent is about doing yourself a favor and listening to Jesus even when He tells us what we might not want to hear. 030407AD jfq