Sunday, August 18, 2013

Being Baptized Like Jesus

20th Sunday in Ordinary Time


The Jesus we meet in today’s gospel is not a comforting Jesus.  And we, his followers, need to listen up to what this Jesus has to say to us. 

He speaks about having to undergo a baptism and how anxious he is that he be baptized.  Here Jesus is not talking about the rather polite baptism ceremony we have developed.  Rather, in talking about being baptized, he is using the standard imagery of his day to talk about being overwhelmed by circumstances.  The image of baptism conveys drowning in water.  Today we might talk of being water-boarded by life.  And Jesus is saying this has to happen to him – that he wants it to happen to him.  He must undergo this drowning.  Here Jesus is referring to his passion and death.  He is speaking of the dying that must happen for new life to come. 

And we who follow Jesus must be baptized with the same baptism as Jesus.  Somehow we must undergo a dying for new life to come forth in us.  Something has to die in us for newness to happen.  In sacramental baptism – by undergoing the water – we rehearse for the kind of dying there needs to be in our lives if we are to come to new life with Jesus.  And baptism strangely names this dying a grace – a gift from our good God. 

What will drown and die – what must die – are the false foundations we have chosen to build our lives upon.  Our grace will be re-learning the basics in life.  What once gave us security no longer will.  A grace!  There will be painful confusion.  Old certainties and orthodoxies will falter.  Also a grace!  And all that must happen – all these graces must be given – for the gospel to grab us and give us new, abundant life. 

The Jesus we meet in today’s gospel is not a comforting Jesus.  And we, his followers, need to listen up to what this Jesus has to say to us.  He speaks of not bringing comfort and peace – but stinging fire and divisive confrontation.  He wants to battle and burn away our lies about life – our violence in life – and our injustices to the living.  Jesus brings a Spirit capable of changing our world radically, even at the cost of dividing people and causing them to confront each other.  He wants and works for a revolution deeper than our politics and economies.  It is a revolution of conscience, a revolution in awareness he calls “the Kingdom of God” – the kingdom where God’s own love comes down to earth through how we actually treat one another.  Also a grace – not a cheap grace – costly grace: to live God’s own grace here on earth – here in North Carolina – here in Charlotte – here in our parish. 

It is the same Spirit at work in the un-comforting words of Pope Francis.  Let us listen up to what he is saying to us.

…we must recognize that the majority of men and women of our time continue to live daily in situations of insecurity, with dire consequences.  …fear and desperation grip the hearts of many people, even in the so-called rich countries; the joy of life is diminishing; indecency and violence are on the rise; poverty is becoming more and more evident.  People have to struggle to live and, frequently, to live in an undignified way.  One cause of this situation, in my opinion, is in our relationship with money, and our acceptance of its power over ourselves and our society.  …there is need for financial reform along ethical lines that would produce an economic reform to benefit everyone.  This would require a courageous change of attitude on the part of political leaders.  …Money has to serve, not rule.

Pope Francis repeats the call of Jesus.  To restore joy to people’s lives – to diminish their fears – to promote human dignity – are these not wonderful graces given to those who follow Jesus and who pray with Jesus that God’s kingdom come down to earth in how we live and work together?  What will it mean for each of us to say yes to these graces? 

Jesus and Francis leave us with a question to think on this week.  What is my relationship with money?  Does it rule in my life or does it serve?

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday, August 11, 2013

Our Greatest Fear

19th Sunday in Ordinary Time


Our readings speak about fear and moving beyond fear.  The first reading recalled the Jewish experience of being slaves in Egypt.  Like all slaves, they knew fear.  They knew the fear of being oppressed – of having no say at all about your life – the fear of having only the most dismal life ahead of you.  Yet they moved beyond fear – as they came to recognize the power of God releasing them from every bondage.  God can do that!  They moved beyond fear by moving through it. 

The second reading from the Letter to the Hebrews reminded us that Abraham and Sarah had their fears.  They feared leaving their home to live among strangers.  They feared bringing new life into the world at their advanced age; they were old people afraid of a new life.  But they too moved beyond their fear and learned to become risk-takers.  God can do that!  Daring to risk moved them beyond fear by moving them through it. 

In the gospel Jesus begins by repeating something he so often said to his disciples: “Do not be afraid!”  The most repeated words in the whole Bible!  Jesus does not want his disciples to live in fear.  He wants us to move beyond our fears – especially the fears that keep us at a distance from one another.  Like our fear of commitment – and our fear of not being accepted.  These fears keep us from risking to invest ourselves in the lives of others.  They isolate us.  Our loneliness comes from these fears. 

There’s an underlying fear we have to address.  It’s our fear of dying.  We are disciples of Jesus – and we are afraid of death.  Jesus feared death.  He sweated and shivered as he moved deliberately toward his death.  But our fear of death makes us run from its inevitable reality.  We avoid talk of death.  Even at home in our families – fear isolates us into a dumb silence before death and dying. 

Into our dumb silence Jesus, our Risen Lord, yells: “Do not be afraid!  Do not be afraid even of death!”  From the far side of death Jesus, the Resurrected One, assures us: We never just die.  Rather – we die into new life.  In our dying there is always a birthing.  When you think of it, in childbirth a woman loses her child by giving it birth.  God always gives us new life. 

Christians call this dying into new life the Paschal Mystery.  It’s the basic truth we see in the life and death of Jesus.  And it’s the truth we can see in our own lives.  A man was dying of cancer.  He was a big, tough guy – welder.  He was not dying easily.  In intense pain, his body wasting away, he still refused to die.  He lay there clinging to life.  One day his eldest son sat by the bedside, watching his dad’s suffering.  He squeezed his hand and said: “Dad, die for God’s sake!  Let go!  It’s got to be better there than here.”  Almost immediately his dad became calm and within minutes he died. 

The words his son spoke were paschal words, Christ’s words, words that trust God enough to be able to die into Him – knowing that new life – deeper, fuller life will be born in the dying. 

Let us learn such trust.  This is true Christian faith – the faith that overcomes the world.  It is just such faith that frees us from fear and allows us to live and even to die in gratitude.