Change!

January 26, 2014
3^rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

 

Isaiah 8,23-9, 3 / 1Cor 1, 10-13, 17 / Mt 4, 12-23

 

This entire year we will be reading the Gospel of Matthew at our Sunday liturgies.  Matthew’s gospel is the longest of the four gospels, and one of the things it wants to do is present Jesus to us as a prophet.  But, what is a prophet?  Our first answer might be to say a prophet is someone who predicts the future.  To prophesy is to predict – to foretell what’s going to happen.  But that is not the biblical understanding of prophet and prophecy.  According to that understanding, a prophet stands before people and points to the presence of God among them.  The prophet announces God’s powerfully acting presence in our world and then urges us to join in with God’s work – to join in with God’s working presence among us.

In the Hebrew scriptures the prophet is always a kind of cheeky challenger taking on the religious establishment.  Whereas priests might urge people to more devotion and religious ceremonies, the prophet announces God’s real presence and work go beyond our safe sanctuaries and into our streets, homes and workplaces.  God’s grandeur is to be experienced in unlikely people and places.  What we think God-less, the prophet calls God-filled.  The prophet is controversial, unsettling – embarrassing.  He rarely lives a peaceful life or lets others live their lives peacefully.  For Matthew, Jesus is The Prophet – the prophet pointing to God’s presence in the world in an absolutely reliable way.  Jesus calls that powerful presence among us “the Kingdom of God”.  The “Kingdom” is where he finds God’s working clearly, unmistakably present in our midst.

Today’s gospel shows Jesus beginning his ministry as a prophet.  His first word – to all and to us – is “Change!”  “Change your life!”  And with that he is announcing God’s presence.  God’s work is our change.  God’s work is our lives being changed.  The change that Jesus announces is deep – very deep.  The Greek word Jesus uses for “change” is metanoia.  And that kind of change means a radical re-thinking and re-understanding – a radical re-valuing of life.  That’s God at work – both within us and among us: changing our perspective, changing our take on things.  We then start to understand what it is to really be alive.

To be alive – to be fully human – comes to mean:  being full of compassion –being compassionate as God our Father is compassionate: bringing mercy, help, support to those in need.  The change, the metanoia God is bringing about is truly something joyful.  It cleanses our hearts of the narrow, selfish interests that so diminish our daily lives.  It frees us from things we do not need and frees us for people who do need us.

Our God-worked change, our metanoia, our conversion begins when we discover that the truly important thing is not figuring out how to earn more money – but how to be more human.  Not how to get something – but how to become ourselves – how to become our fully human, compassionate selves.  That’s the Kingdom of God Jesus declares is coming upon us.

The Kingdom of God is God’s work and it is our change.  Jesus, our prophet, is pointing to God’s clear, unmistakable presence among us in an absolutely reliable way.  And he calls us to join in with God’s work.  He invites us to become part and partner in our own wonderful transformation.  He calls us to become his disciples.

“Follow me”, he says to us.  And together we will heal our sisters and brothers from everything that destroys and degrades their humanity.  Change!  Change your life!  And become my Church on earth!  Change!  Change your life!  And become God’s Kingdom come down to earth!  Change!

 

Fr. Pat Earl, SJ

 

 

The Living Jesus

January 19, 2014
2^nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

 

Isaiah 49, 3,5-6 / 1Cor 1, 1-3 / John 1, 29-34

 

The decorations are gone.  The crib is gone.  We have celebrated Christmas and Epiphany.  We have left behind the babe in the manger.  Now we are coming to meet the adult Jesus.  Liturgically we call this Ordinary Time – meaning we are focusing on Jesus’ everyday, unspectacular presence and ministry among us now.  Ordinary Time is a searching time when we look to find the Living Jesus among us here and now – not the Jesus of mere memory – but the Jesus of real presence who brings us grace and peace.

So Ordinary Time can be an exciting time.  In our first reading from the prophet Isaiah we hear this can be a time when we actually see God’s radiant glory being revealed among us.  For us as Christians this is the powerful presence of the Living Jesus.  But how – how do we search for and find Jesus’ real presence?  What are we to look for?

John the Baptist found Jesus.  He recognized him to be what he called “God’s lamb who leads us out of our sinfulness”.  But what did John actually see in Jesus?  What was he looking for?  John the Baptist can help us learn what to look for, as we search for the Living Jesus.

John’s testimony gets very interesting.  At the same time he is testifying to who Jesus is, he also tells us he did not know who he was.  Twice he tells us: “I did not know who he truly was.”  The only thing he sees in Jesus – and the only thing that really matters to John – is that he sees and senses God’s Spirit resting in Jesus.

So if we are going to find the Living Jesus, we have to look for the presence of God’s Spirit.  Traditionally, along with St. Paul, the Church has taught we can actually recognize the presence of God’s Spirit in what are called “the fruits of the Holy Spirit”.  Where God’s Spirit is present, this is what we see:  love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  But these things do not exist all by themselves.  Joy can only be found in joyful people and so too with love, peace and all the other signs of God’s Spirit.

We find God’s Spirit in people.  And that is where we find the Living Jesus.  The Living Jesus is people – is us.  That’s why we call the people who bring love, joy, peace into the world the Body of Christ.

We are recognizably the Living Jesus when we – like God’s Lamb – help people out of their sinfulness by being generously and gently loving to them.

There’s a woman – a poet who recalls having the very same experience as John the Baptist.  She recognized the Living Jesus, God’s Spirit resting in a person.  And this is how Alice Walker describes her experience of a minister in a little church in Oakland, California.  This is what she found in the minister.  Listen to her words.

…a Spirit that “helps us to love one another – to shed our fears of unworthiness – to shed our habits of self-hatefulness – to shed our greed to be accepted as something other than what we are.  …a Spirit helping us to see that so many of us “are starving for the sight of something Real – dying for the sound of something True.”  …a Spirit praying within each of us so we may “know that nothing stops a lie like being yourself.”

I would like to meet that minister in Oakland.  During this Ordinary Time we are called to search out and find the Living Jesus.  He will be found within each of us.  He will be found in people – in our families and friends.

But he will also be found – and this is so important for us to realize – the Living Jesus will also be found in those we call stranger – in those we call immigrant and undocumented – and even in those we call enemy.  We will just have to learn to admit as John the Baptist did: “I did not know who he truly was.”  It will be in just this way that the Living Jesus, God’s Lamb, will be leading us out of our sinful, dark world and into the bright world of his real presence – his real presence in each one of us.

Fr. Pat Earl, SJ

 

Baptized: Being Blessed and Becoming a Blessing

January 12, 2014
The Baptism of the Lord

Is 42, 1-4,5-7 / Acts 10, 34-38 / Mt 3, 13-17

 

With this feast of the Baptism of the Lord we conclude our celebration of the Christmas season.  We say good-bye to the babe in the manger and hello to the young adult Jesus – now baptized and about to begin his ministry among us.  As we return to ordinary life and ordinary things, the Church asks us now to stand with Jesus, to join him in mission, to become his disciple.

It’s a dramatic scene that Matthew describes in today’s gospel.  “The heavens were opened,” he says.  And he explains to us what that means.  God’s Spirit – God’s powerful presence is experienced as descending gently, dove-like.  God’s presence is coming and becoming down to earth.  “The heavens opening” means God is no longer experienced as residing in some faraway heaven.  Rather, Jesus experiences himself as where God really wants to be and dwell.  “You are my beloved child in whom I delight.”  That’s the experience Jesus now has of God.  God is now saying to him: “I will now live and love through you.”

For Jesus his baptism meant being blessed by God.   And it also meant being called to become a blessing for other people.  His mission – his passion – will be to live out of his core experience of God delighting in him.  In the Christian tradition that’s what we call “soul” – our core blessedness – God’s dwelling in us.  As baptized, Jesus lives out of his soul – out of his core loveliness.

Jesus’ mission – his continuing ministry among us even now – is to share with us the blessing of his own baptism.  It is to call us back to our souls – back to our blessedness – back to our core loveliness – and then for us, like Jesus, to live out of our souls, out of our blessedness, out of our loveliness.  We are to share our souls, ourselves, our blessedness with others.  They too are to come to experience God’s delight in them and God’s dwelling with them.  We are called – with Jesus – to give back to people their souls – to give them back their God-given blessedness and beauty.

In telling us the story of Jesus’ mission, the gospels also tell us what our mission in life should look like.  Jesus feels he is sent to others – not to condemn, destroy or curse – but to heal, build up and bless.  The Spirit of God will lead him to enhance and improve life and to rid the world of evil spirits – to put behind us all those ways by which we harm, enslave and dehumanize one another.  The early Christians summarized Jesus’ life and mission by saying: he was anointed by God with the Holy Spirit…, spent his life doing good and healing all those oppressed by evil, because God was with him.  [Acts 10, 38]

Standing with Jesus in our baptism, we too are sent to others to heal, build up and bless.  Anointed like Jesus, we are to spend our lives doing good, healing the oppressed because God is with us.

Let us not dilute our baptism by stepping away from following Jesus as disciples.  We do that when we limit ourselves to being just churchgoers.  The God we see in Jesus is mainly interested in how we relate to people who are suffering.  This God yearns to live in the world and love the world through us.  That’s what our baptism is for.  It sends us into the world to live and love like Jesus.  We are baptized to do mission in the world – not just to come to church – not just to be a dutiful churchgoer.

Let us make our own what Pope Francis said in his World Youth Day homily in Rio.  Lord, where do you send us to bring your love and mercy to others?  There are no borders, no limits: you send us to everyone.  Help us not to be afraid to go and to bring the Gospel into every area of life.  You seek all, and you want everyone to feel the warmth of your mercy and love.

 

Fr. Pat Earl, SJ

 

 

 

The Epiphany of the Lord

January 5, 2014

The Epiphany of the Lord                             

 

With this feast of Epiphany we come to the heart of the Christmas season.  Not December 25^th but today gives us the reason for the season.  Epiphany explains Christmas.

The word, “Epiphany”, means to shine upon.  It means making clear and plain what had been hidden.  On Christmas there’s an explosion of light.  The Eternal Word of God appears in the flesh – in a babe found in a feeding trough.  Epiphany tells us what this explosion of light shines upon – what it reveals and makes clear.  The Magi represent genuine seekers for the truth from every age and culture.  So what does the Christmas light shine upon so seekers can truly see.  What basic truth becomes plain and clear to these seekers as they look on the babe in the manger?

An early Church father, Peter Chrysologus, tells us the Magi see “man in God and God in man.”  The light of Christmas shines on human flesh – on the babe’s and on our own flesh.  What the Christmas light makes clear is that the human – Jesus and people like you and me – we all are the way God makes himself present.  The “Epiphany” – the great and shining clarification – is that God chose to express himself in Jesus and now chooses to continue to express his life and love through us.

Judaism and the writings of the rabbis offer us a rich heritage to help us understand our lives as Christians.  The following parable comes from that ancient wisdom.  A rabbi posed this question to his students: “How can you tell when the night has ended and the day is beginning to dawn?”  A student answered: “When you can see an animal in the distance and tell whether it is a sheep or a goat.”  “No”, the rabbi quickly replied.  Then all the students spoke up: “Well then, how can you tell when the night has ended and the day is beginning?”  And the rabbi answered in this way: “It is when you can look into the face of another and see that they are your brother and sister.  If you cannot do this, then no matter what time it is, for you it is still night.”

That’s the beautiful truth Judaism has given us as Christians.  Our rabbi – and we’ll call him by his Jewish name – our rabbi, Jeshuah bar Josef , Jesus son of Joseph – would add this: You can tell when the night has ended and when the day that I dream of is dawning – when you can look into one another’s faces and there see Immanuel – there see God-with-us – there see God’s own presence in human flesh.  I dream of the shining dawn when you can look at one another and there see the living Christ – there see me.  Our rabbi would quote to us the words of the prophet Isaiah: “the glory of the Lord shines upon you.  …Raise your eyes and look!  …you shall be radiant at what you see.”  The feast of Epiphany celebrates this dream Jesus has for us and for all people:  people – just people – are God’s holy home.

As Epiphany clarifies Christmas, it also challenges us.  It wants to disturb us – because it tells us plainly that God’s presence can only be entered – can only be recognized in and through the way we live our lives.  It is not the stuff of greeting card sentimentality nor the fluff of polite spirituality.  God’s presence is the stuff of our real lives.  As the poet, Gerard Manley Hopkins describes it, God’s presence does not come to coo but rather comes with work (for us) to do.  “Work for us to do” – that is always to do the work of Jesus – to follow after him by doing the work of his mercy.  Directly and plainly, Epiphany calls us to become disciples of Jesus.

Fr. Pat Earl, SJ