The Reproach of Egypt

The Reproach of Egypt – 4^th Sunday of Lent Year C

When I was a child there were many times when I did things I should not have done.  Inevitably my parents would discover my wrongdoing and question me about it.  More often than not I would deny it or lie about it, which only made matters worse.  Why would I deny or lie about something that was clearly known by my parents and undeniable?  I did not want to disappoint them.  I did not want to lose their respect.  The fear of disappointing parents or losing their respect is why most children lie about wrongdoing.  We see this phenomenon throughout salvation history:  Adam and Eve look to blame others for their wrongdoing; Cain denies killing his brother; Joseph’s brothers concoct a great scheme to hide their crime.  As children of God we do not want to disappoint our Heavenly Father, but instead of admitting to it and seeking His mercy we create many elaborate ways to hide this reality.

The slavery of Egypt represents the great reproach of God for the sins of Israel.  Liberation from slavery is the great event of Israel’s history because liberation from the physical slavery of Egypt is the outward sign of their liberation from their sins against God.  And yet throughout their wanderings in the desert the people of Israel continue to long for their captivity in Egypt.  How often did they think that it would be better to be slaves in Egypt than to die of starvation, dehydration, the serpents, and all the other calamities they suffered?  Even though God had removed the reproach of Egypt from the people of Israel, the faith of the people still wandered to other places.

The prodigal son is in many ways the personification of the people of Israel.  The son goes to his father, asking for his inheritance in advance, which essentially means he wants his father dead.  There could be no greater insult to a parent, and yet this is the reality of sin and turning away from God.  In choosing other things we essentially say that we want our heavenly Father dead.  And the son goes off to spend his inheritance on wanton living.  Eventually, the natural consequences of his actions lead to his total impoverishment.  He has relied on his own wits up to this point, and there is no good way out of his predicament.

So the son decides finally to return to his father’s house.  A real act of conversion has taken place within him, and he forms within his mind a scenario whereby he begs mercy from his father.  The son knows that he should not expect mercy.  Most probably his father has already disowned him; that was the natural course of action in those days.  And yet, while he is still a long way from home, the son sees his father searching for him!  How often has God searched the byways for us, but we were not looking for him? 

The father restores this wayward child of his back to the son’s original position in the paternal household.  Naturally someone will object, and sure enough his older brother is indignant at such beneficence on the part of the father.  What about justice?  What about my rights?  So says the older son.  But the older son has nothing to fear – he too is always a part of the father’s house.  Justice dwells secure in God’s house, but mercy must have a place too – and the greater place besides! 

Thus, in this story of the prodigal son we have the complete undoing of the sordid history of the Jewish people to this point.  Brothers once at odds with one another are restored under the household of God.  The cycle of revenge and violence that is such a part of Israel’s history and thought is shattered by the mercy and love of the Father.  We can truly say with Paul in the second reading that we are a new creation.  We are back in Eden and not in Egypt.  The old things have indeed passed away.  For the Lord Jesus has brought the message and example of reconciliation that must now become the fundamental mission for the followers of Jesus.  We cannot return to our old ways of revenge and violence.  We must reject them and be reconciliation and peace in the midst of this world. 

To live this vocation, we must have recourse to God’s aid and guidance at all times.  And so we pray:  “Let us pray, that by growing in love this Lenten season we may bring the peace of Christ to our world.  God our Father, your word, Jesus Christ, spoke peace to a sinful world and brought mankind the gift of reconciliation by the suffering and death he endured.  Teach us, the people who bear his name, to follow the example he gave us; may our faith, hope, and charity turn hatred to love, conflict to peace, death to eternal life.  We ask this through Christ our Lord.  Amen.”

The Prophet and Nonviolence - 4th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year C

The Prophet and Nonviolence – 4^th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year C

Catechesis in the early church focused primarily on discipleship – how we must follow Christ in all aspects of our lives.  Among the many virtues to be imitated was that of nonviolence, exemplified by this instruction from one of the great church fathers:  “We are educated not for war, but for peace.  In war there is need for much equipment, just as self-indulgence craves an abundance.  But peace and love, simple and plain blood sisters, do not need arms nor abundant supplies.  Their nourishment is the Word, the Word whose leadership enlightens and educates, from whom we learn poverty and humility and all that goes with love of freedom and of mankind and of the good.  In a word, through Him, we become like God by a likeness of virtue.”  (St. Clement of Alexandria, Christ the Educator, 1. 12)  The readings today provide us the opportunity to reflect on the virtue of nonviolence.

The prophet Jeremiah was called by God to preach on the threshold of the Babylonian captivity.  Israel was to be subject to a violent takeover and march into exile, the result of their failure to be faithful to  the one true God and the failure of social injustice.  Needless to say, Jeremiah was not exactly popular among the leaders of Israel for pointing out their shortcomings.  Nevertheless, God tells Jeremiah that  the leaders will seek to crush him, but God will overcome them.  Jeremiah was utterly helpless:  he had no recourse to arms and violence.  Only his faithful obedience to God would lead Jeremiah to e protected from the faithless leaders of Israel and the violence about to befall the nation.  The entire prophetic tradition, in fact, longs for the end to violence in their description of the Messianic age:  “They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; one nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again.”  (Isaiah 2: 4)

In the person of Jesus we find the fulfillment of the Messianic expectation of peace and nonviolence.  Jesus teaches us to love our enemies, to turn the other cheek when attacked by violence, and to bless those who persecute us.  He continually rebukes his disciples whenever they seek the recourse of violence, chastising James and John for their desire to draw fire upon the unwelcoming Samaritan town and rejecting Peter’s use of the sword in the garden of Gethsemane.  In the Gospel text today the entire village of Nazareth takes up stones to kill Jesus for his use of the prophetic texts in teaching that God has love for all and not just Israel.  Instead of a violent outcome, Jesus passes through their midst without harm coming to anyone.

The famous thirteenth chapter of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians is often associated with weddings, but in reality Paul intended it as a message to a community deeply divided and at war with itself.  The message is the manifesto of virtue of nonviolence:  love is patient, love is kind; it does not seek its own interests; it bears all things, endures all things.  Violence is the result of impatience, unkindness, the seeking of self-interest.  Violence bears nothing and does not endure anything.  Violence is the ultimate mortal sin against love.  Only the living of Christian love will enable us to overcome the culture of violence that afflicts our nation and our world.

Growing up in the 1970s and 1980’s on the east coast meant regular bomb drills in school.  The menace of nuclear war and the indiscriminate violence of modern weaponry led us to these regular drills of hiding under our desks.  In the midst of this ethos, however, emerged the Solidarity movement in Poland.  While the U.S. was amassing an arsenal of violence to deal with communism, Catholic workers in Poland brought communism to its demise without any recourse to violence.  The general strikes and peaceful sit ins overcame the tyranny of communism and taught the world the way forward in dealing with the culture of violence.  It was a lesson they learned from Jesus the Lord, whose acceptance of the injustice of his death on the cross redeemed the world and taught the world how to reject the notion of responding to violence with violence.  As Pope Benedict XVI recently stated, “But Jesus knows that God’s kingdom is of a completely different kind; it is not built on arms and violence….Jesus does not wish to be defended by arms, but to establish his kingdom not by armed conflict, but by the apparent weakness of life giving love….To be disciples of Jesus, then, means not letting ourselves be allured by the worldly logic of power, but bringing into the world the light of truth and God’s love.  It is a pressing invitation addressed to each and all:  to be converted anew to the kingdom of God, to the leadership of God, of Truth.”  (Homily, November 25, 2012)

As we seek to follow Jesus the Lord in the way of nonviolence, we pray together for the gift of His Spirit.  “Let us pray joining in the praise of the living God, for we are his people.  Father in heaven, from the days of Abraham and Moses until the gathering of your Church in prayer, you have formed a people with the gift of your kingdom.  May we serve you with our every desire and show love for one another even as you have loved us.  Grant this through Christ our Lord.  Amen.”

 

Standardized Testing - 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time Year C

Standardized Testing – 3^rd Sunday in Ordinary Time Year C

Every teacher abhors standardized testing for their students, not  because their jobs are now conditioned upon the success of their students on such tests, but because everyone knows that people learn in different ways, though they are only tested in one way.  The tests do not reflect the diversity of learning styles that exist among human beings:  some are auditory learners, others are visual learners, while others may be tactile or kinesthetic learners.  St. Paul knew this fact two thousand years ago as he catalogued the variety of gifts and talents God gives to people in the life of the Church.  The person who has received the gift of prophecy cannot be judged on the criteria of teaching, any more than the teacher can be measured on the criteria of someone with the gift of tongues. 

And yet there is a universal criteria that does apply to every human person, whether Christian or not.  There is a standardized test for the entire human race at the end of time, and it is not a catechism quiz or a dissertation on dogmatic formulae.  The test is the set of questions offered to the sheep and goats in Matthew 25:  did you feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, shelter the homeless, visit the sick and imprisoned, clothe to the naked, and welcome the stranger?  What is more, the standardized test is an open book test:  we know the questions in advance and we have a lifetime to complete the questions.  And as an open book test we have the Book to consult as a guide to help us complete the questions.

In the first reading the people of Israel rejoice in having the law read to them from the scroll.  This moment recorded in the book of Nehemiah is a watershed moment in the history of Israel and humankind in general.  Prior to this time the law was transmitted orally through memorization, but now Israel has the law recorded on scrolls so they can be accessed by the whole people.  The reading of the scroll is an emotional moment, for we have a plan for living that comes from God.  No other nation on earth has a god that cares for people in the way God does for Israel.  The law enables us to know God’s will and to successfully accomplish the questions for the day of judgment. 

What the people of Israel lacked was an example of someone who perfectly lived the law of God in his or her life.  Kings would come and each one would fail in some way to appropriate the law in their lives.  The prophets came to admonish the leaders and the people to live the law faithfully, but they faced persecution, rejection, and marginalization.  And yet Israel had the courage to include the teachings of the prophets in the official scriptures of her people.  Israel stands as a unique example of a culture and a people who accept and appropriate self-criticism within its history and ethos.

The prophetic tradition brought with it the expectation of a Messiah who would live the law perfectly, and through that example of perfect living would liberate God’s people from every possible form of oppression.  In the Gospel text Jesus announces that this expectation is fulfilled in himself.  The entire ministry of Jesus as recorded in the gospel texts confirms this mission of Jesus.  When John the Baptist tells his disciples to ask Jesus whether he is the one or should they look for another, Jesus replies:  “Tell John what you have seen and heard:  the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the good news preached to them.” 

Jesus proclaimed that he was anointed by the Spirit of the Lord to accomplish this work, and anointing and ministry that we share in baptism and confirmation.  Every Christian has the obligation to carry out this ministry of care and concern for the poor; it is a fundamental component of being a Christian.  To neglect this obligation is to reject the call of Christ, for it is the only standard by which we are measured in the eyes of God.  We all have a variety of gifts and callings within the body of Christ, but they all exist to serve the fundamental Christian vocation of imitating Christ in his mission to the poor and vulnerable. 

As we seek to become more faithful to our mission as followers of Jesus, we need to know His will for us and to see the example of Jesus in the Gospels.  We pray that the knowledge of God’s will and the example of the Lord Jesus will help us in our ministry to others:  “Let us pray, pleading that our vision may overcome our weakness.  Almighty Father, the love you offer always exceeds the furthest expression of our human longing, for you are greater than the human heart.  Direct each thought, each effort of our life, so that the limits of our faith and weaknesses may not obscure the vision of your glory or keep us from the peace you have promised.  We ask this through Christ our Lord.  Amen.”