Don't Look Back

Gospel: Luke 9: 57-62

"No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God."

So much of our lives is looking in the rearview mirror.  We perseverate on our past sins, not trusting in God's mercy and creating despair for ourselves.  We hold grudges across the years, creating endless strife with others and within ourselves.  We long to live in another time - 1962, 1952, 1342 - imagining ourselves in other ages, other costumes to the neglect of the needs of our own times and the people in our own lives.  

The image of an ancient plowman is instructive for us, one still relevant today.  The person at the plow cannot look backwards; they must look ever forwards or disaster befalls both the crops and the one driving the plow.  The same is true in our spiritual lives.  We hit obstacles we did not see because we were not looking in the right place.  We create disasters for ourselves and others because our attention was in the past and not in the present.  

The spiritual life is a pilgrimage, and in such a journey there is only one direction to go - forward.  A pilgrimage never goes backwards.  The pilgrim is about the end goal - the kingdom of heaven - and the present moment of the journey.  The pilgrim is about helping others along the journey as well - not encouraging them to go backwards, but always encouraging others forward.  The goal is ahead of us, not behind us.   

Of Feasts and Focus

Gospel: John 1: 47-51

In today's Gospel Jesus tells Nathaniel he will see angels attending to the Son of Man, and yet in John's Gospel not a single appearance of an angel occurs.  The other Gospels note the presence of angels throughout the infancy narratives and at the empty tomb.  These three angels - Michael, Raphael, and Gabriel - are mentioned in various places in the scriptures, fulfilling important roles of being messengers and intercessors.  

Today's feast has a fractured history.  Each angel had a separate feast day until they were merged together in recent times, this date being chosen as it is the anniversary of the dedication of an ancient basilica to St. Michael.  If one still follows the calendar of 1962 the feasts of this day and many others are not the same as the normative calendar of the Church.  Never before in the history of the Western Church has this been the case in the Roman Rite.

All of this should not distract us from our fundamental task of following the Lord Jesus, to discover him as Nathaniel did in an ordinary encounter under a tree or in a myriad of other ways in life.  It is to accept the invitation of Jesus to follow him along the Way where angels tread alongside unawares.  We need not look for them or obsess at finding their presence among us.  It is enough to know they are there, walking with us on the way to the reign of God. 

Ignoring the Message

Gospel: Luke 9: 46-50

Jesus has repeatedly told the disciples that he will be arrested and executed by the religious leaders and worldly powers.  He states quite clearly that to be the Messiah of God is to serve others and to suffer.  Naturally the disciples respond by arguing about who is the most important among them, who has the authority and power.  Jesus again has to rebuke them, reminding them that service to others is the criterion of importance in the kingdom of God.

No sooner does Jesus finish that lesson to the disciples that they come upon someone healing and showing mercy to others in Jesus' name, and they want to rebuke this man because he is not part of their club.  Once again Jesus has to rebuke them, for they are more interested in exercising control and power over others than they are in extending mercy to others.  Despite the repeated rebukes and the example Jesus provides, the disciples continue to ignore the message.  

It should come as no surprise when this dynamic of ignoring these lessons of Jesus continue unabated from that time to the present.  When apologetics about primacy, authority, and membership take precedent over the mission of mercy to which Jesus calls us, we repeat this Gospel scene again and again.  The Lord's rebuke echoes to this very day, inviting us back to the mission to heal others, liberate people from their demons, and nourish them at table.