Keynotes for October 2007

October 7, 2007
Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

Habakkuk1:2-3;2:2-4
2Timothy1:6-8,13-14
Luke17:5-10

The eternal life that Jesus offers us is not for the fainthearted. That message comes through loud and clear as we ponder today's readings. Potential hardships in our future sometimes loom large and menacing; we scarcely know how to muster the courage to face them. We might even hear our own inner voices echoing the very sentiments of the prophet Habakkuk.

I cry out to you, "Violence!"
but you do not intervene.
Why do you let me see ruin;
why must I look at misery?
Destruction and violence are before me,
there is strife, and clamorous discord.

So how did God make Habakkuk stalwart amid these threats of destruction? God urged him to press onward, to capture the triumphant vision. He bade Habakkuk to write the vision on pocket size tablets for an ever-present reminder. As soldiers still do today, he was to carry it into his fray as a memento of the cause for which he stood, like a photo of someone he loved or a laminated prayer.The vision will see its fulfillment and not disappoint, promises our Lord. So we must likewise be vigilant toward the perils that lurk in our everyday lives and surround our own souls. Such trials and afflictions can come with an insidious, soul-wrenching intensity, some even moreso than when our government issues a terrorist warning. If sufferings of such severity can overtake us in this earthly life, then what might we be in for beyond the grave?

There are times when, in the face of some overwhelming ordeal, we become weak-kneed. Paul sensed that his companion, Timothy, found it hard to get through such occasions, and so he counselled the younger man:

For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice
but rather of power and love and self-control.
So do not be ashamed of your testimony to our Lord. . .
But bear your share of hardship for the gospel,
with the strength that comes from God.

Timothy no doubt witnessed firsthand many of the squabbles that Paul got himself into. When it would dawn on him that they had plunged into more than they bargained for, the queasy moments of panic would set it. But then Paul's bracing reassurances would steel him for the next wave of turmoil. Discipleship under Paul meant schooling in hard knocks.

A classic example of the intrepid warrior is found in Shakespeare's King Henry V. In his oration before the battle of Agincourt the king throws down a gauntlet:

Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host,
That he which hath no stomach to this fight,
Let him depart.

The troops are enmassed, the onslaught is imminent, so quitters are dismissed before hand. Is this not the same challenge we are hearing from Jesus? We have already committed to following him. As registered members of his church, we already march in his legions, fully equipped and qualified. But the struggle ahead can at any time turn vehement and brutal. That poses the question: do you and I have stomach enough for this fight? The apostles in today's scene naively strike the poses of gung-ho rookies when they boldly approach Jesus and ask him to increase their faith. Jesus, on the other hand, would first have them (and us) aspire to the rank of unprofitable servant. He wants us to complete basic training by doing all that we are commanded. He insists that we fulfill our conscription requirements, that we look for no favors, no medals, no exceptional recognition. Simply put, Jesus wants stouthearted men, sturdy, reliable and drilled for whatever engagement they must encounter. When we emerge on the far side, one hundred percent prepared for eternity, then we shall have our assurrances that we did not flinch from the tasks set before us, that we did not shrink from any challenge. Then we shall stand in full dress parade and proudly report to the Lord himself:

We are unprofitable servants,
we have done what we were obliged to do.

October 14, 2007
Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time

2Kings5:14-17
2Timothy2:8-13
Luke17:11-19

Man's praise for God is everywhere to be found. It appears in festive celebrations, on public monuments, among the sacramental rituals and especially in the Mass. Millions of devotional books are loaded with prayers of praise. But is this a two way street? We may wonder, how much does God for His part praise us humans? Father Gerard Manley Hopkins provides an insight when he writes,

From all that might be said of Christ's character I single out one
point and beg you to notice that. He loved to praise, he loved to
reward. He knew what was in man, he best knew man's faults,
and yet he was the warmest in their praise. When he worked a
miracle he would grace it with "Thy faith hath saved thee," that
it might almost seem the receiver's work, not his.
from A Hopkins Reader 1953, quoted in Magnificat, Sept. '07, p125.

Father Hopkins cites the examples of Nathaniel, the sons of Zebedee, John the Baptist, Peter and Magdelene. And this is exactly how Jesus treated the tenth leper. For having followed Jesus' instructions to the letter, the leper was praised almost as if he had worked the miracle on himself. The other nine missed an opportunity. Did they perhaps presume upon some favored status? Did they regard themselves as peers to a fellow Judean, who, because he possessed extraordinary powers owed them a share in it? Upon finding themselves cleansed, did they still go and show themselves to the priest, or did they ignore Jesus directive? The tenth leper alone was granted a full reward, for his having shown a full measure of gratitude.

Naaman the Syrian had a similar experience. Today's chapter in The Book of Kings tells us that Naaman, when seeking a cure for his skin disease, felt insulted at first because the prophet Elisha did not come out in person to greet him but instead sent a servant. Yet as the indignant Naaman turns to leave, his own servants persuade him to bathe in the Jordan River, where
His flesh became again like the flesh of a little child
and he was clean of his leprosy.

Naaman instantly acknowledges the powr of Elisha's God. He wants to do more. When his offer of a gift is refused, he discovers, in effect, that the Lord has favored him a second time. Drawing on his ingenuity as he heads back to Syria, he decides to create a site for holy ground. With two loads of Israeli soil he sets up a pad where he can sustain his worship of the one true God. The Lord approves of this response without question. This plan has no implications of the receiver being relieved of an obligation, which a gift accepted might have implied. In acquiescing to this unorthodox worship from an outsider, God unreservedly condones Naaman.

Now, what about St. Paul? Does God ever express praise for Paul? His second letter to Timothy may not contain salient examples, but in it we see that Paul accepts his very chains and imprisonment as signs of God's approbation. "I bear with everything for the sake of those who are chosen," he says, "so that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus." Paul has made vicarious suffering a part of his life; he knows where he stands with the Lord. He exudes a confidence that his every word and deed--yea, the whole manner of conducting his life--has the Lord's implicit endorsement. Paul expresses his certainty of God's affirmation when he addressses these last lines of the chapter to his young, impressionable reader:

But the Lord stood by me and gave me strength,
so that through me the proclamation might be completed
and all the Gentiles might hear it.
And I was rescued from the lion's mouth.

Without a deep conviction of God's backing he would not have had the boldness to predict: The Lord will rescue me from every evil threat,
and will bring me safe to his heavenly kingdom. (2Timothy3:17-18)

In doling out praise for us humans, God has a delicate job on his hands. We may wonder why He does not lavish it upon us directly, continuously, abundantly, openly and according to our preferences. What we forget is that we ourselves are fickle beings, too easily misguided--confused--overwhelmed, often thrown off balance and in a trice upset. For this reason God in His eagerness to commend, laud or extol, must approach us in ways that are discreet, unanticipated and disguised. Its a kind of transposition of the meaning in Matthew6:18: And your Father will repay you with what is hidden.(6:18). God's praise for each of us is better off as a one-on-one, private matter, no less than ours of Him should be conventional and public. Yes, we do note that the one returning leper is quite loud and demonstrative as he falls at Jesus' feet. But then to him as an individual comes that unexpected gift, which we now realize, is whatever God chooses and nobody else's business.

October 21, 2007
Twenty Nineth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Exodus17:8-13
2Timothy3:14-4:2
Luke18:1-8

At the end of the Cursillo weekend, the spiritual director places a small crucifix in the hands of each new cursillista and says, "Christ is counting on you." Now that's a rather astounding Declaration of Reliance, given the fact that Jesus at the end of today's gospel raises the question, "But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?" During his sojourn on earth he must have wondered at times how much of the faith he implanted among mankind would take root. Would it grow and spread and be handed down to future generations? Or would it fade, die out, and disappear? We today, looking back on a long line of apostles, martyrs, Church fathers and saints, might shrug and deny that such doubts ever crossed Jesus' mind. But now that the mantle is on OUR shoulders, does it ever occur to us that the whole tradition could be in jeopardy? Just as it was possible for our predecessors to fail, so the likelihood still exists that we, too, might not come through. Welcome to this Sunday's topic: Perseverance in faith: how to get it, how to handle it, how to pass it on.

The widow in the gospel parable who continues to badger the dishonest judge offers us a first lesson in persistence. She knows what it takes to wear him down. And Jesus sets him forth as an example of the human tendency to relent out of self protection. But God, we discover, is a far cry from a faulty judge. What is it that I want so bad that I will keep asking God for, passionately, compulsively,incessantly? What I learn is that God is not irritable. He is impervious to being rubbed raw by pestering, aggravation, beleagerment, cajoling, dunning, intimidation, and vexation. We cannot make Him give in by getting Him "fed up," because He is our God of perpetual listening and infinite patience. Will He be slow to answer? No, Jesus says He will see to it that justice is done speedily. God cannot get enough of our praying always. Just because we are prone to exhaustion, we should not presume that God gets tired. Just because we ourselves lose patience and become exasperated, we cannot presume that God does the same.

How to handle the faith one is charged with and persevere with it is exhibited by Aaron and Hur, in the passage from Exodus. We must look for the signs of God's responses. With these two the answers were pretty much automatic. Whenever they kept Moses' arms raised, Joshua had the better of the fight; when Moses dropped his arms from fatigue, Amalek had the better of the fight. Yet with us the signs are not always so clear cut, for our God does not operate with Pavlovian predictability. He does not submit to the classical conditioning of obedience school, nor does He ever want to subject us to anything like that. He delights in placing an array of options before us, and He exults in our freedom to choose, so long as we fiercely eyeball Him and keep coming at Him. I witness Aaron and Hur's perseverance Sunday after Sunday, as congregations around the globe recite in unison the articles of the Nicene Creed. And what great diversity of battles they implore the Lord to win for them.

As for the passing of perseverance on to our children and grandchildren, our best instrument is the same one Paul used, the sacred Scriptures. Compare what the Scriptures amounted to in Paul's day to what they have become in our day. Proliferation perhaps, but hopefully not dilution. "For teaching, for refutation, for correction and for training," their effectiveness still comes through undiminished. With the Holy Spirit's power behind them they still have the full force of imparting to us the wisdom for salvation. Today as in their earliest times they make competent those who belong to God, and equip them for every good work. Each of us who feels a duty to pass along the tradition must return to their pages religiously, day after day, and become steeped in the messages that are spoken therein. So that by what we do, and the way we do it, (much more than by what we say,) we can deliver the gift of perseverance to our progeny. It is we, the living today, who must have the hope and resolve that when Jesus does return to earth he will find the same deposit of faith that he gave to his apostles.
So shall my word be that goes forth out of my mouth;

it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish
that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing
whereto I sent it. Isaiah55:11
Isaiah's prophecy is fulfilled by OUR actions, each time that we respond to the Lord who is counting on us.

October 28, 2007
Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Sirach35:12-14,16-18
2Timothy4:6-8,16-18
Luke18:9-14

If the hypocrisies we harbor are to be replaced by personal authenticity, by what transition must this happen? Hypocrisy, says the dictionary, is the feigning of beliefs, feelings or virtues that one does not hold or possess. In today's gospel passage Jesus does not actually call the Pharisee a hypocrite; he merely singles him out as an example. But by deliberately setting him up in contrast to the diffident tax collector, Jesus was focusing on "those who were convinced of their own righteousness and despised everyone else." So says the evangelist Luke. And today's readings do, indeed, set forth some directives as to how we might discover and perfect the authentic selves that God made us to be. Coming in the wake of Jesus' parable they might read something like this: 1. Study the tax collector. 2.Listen to the prophet Sirach. 3 Examine the motives of Paul. 4. Be cautioned by the Pharisee's conduct.

1. From the tax collector we learn that, in order to acknowledge our place before God, it is necessary to enter God's presence --but in a manner that is not prominent socially. Raising one's eyes to heaven and beating one's breast are acceptable signs of contrition. But the prayer, "O God, be merciful to me, a sinner," said with all the sincerity your heart can muster, is obligatory. From this very simple act of repentance the tax collector prompted Jesus to render the verdict: "I tell you, the latter went home justified." So, safe to say, what serves as a first step toward authenticity? The showing of a contrite heart.

Authenticity means holding fast to principles of one's own, building character out of convictions independently arrived at and acted upon. Authenticity is proven when you become who you were meant to be. It is ratified by a consistently genuine behavior. Your authentic self is conferred upon you by the higher power who created that self. Your authenticity is neither self-invented nor borrowed; it is that uniqueness of your individuality implanted in you by the Father. Through your experience of the Father in a myriad of ways it is made a part of your self consciousness. Your ability to "author" anything has to germinate and eventually grow out of a relationship with the One who has authored you. You do not truly know who your are, what potentials you have, or how you shall accomplish what is set before you until you first know the Father. This is what happened to most of the individuals in the gospel narratives when they encountered Jesus. For them and for us, the dawning of true self-awareness begins with, "O God, be merciful to me, a sinner."

2.Thereafter commences an everlasting relationship. Sirach describes how God and the soul come to dialogue back and forth. He says,

The one who serves God willingly is heard,
his petition reaches the heavens.

Not just the cries of the poor, weak and oppressed, not merely the pleadings of widows and orphans, but our prayers--we who regard ourselves as lowly-- these prayers pierce through the clouds and cause God, as it were, to respond. At every turn in the ongoing conversation some slight alteration reveals a facet of our soul's origin and corrects it on course to its destiny. Through a growth in the Lord's presence and through discourse with Him our genuine selves are revealed.

3.During his many journeys of criss-crossing the lands of the Mediterranean, Paul found much evidence of how the Lord stood by him and gave him strength. His intent in this letter to Timothy is to show the younger disciple how confident he is in the reward that awaits him. He also assures Timothy that it is o.k. to evaluate one's own performance at the end of one's career. From all the pain, hardship and tragedy of his life Paul has garnered an authentic self, for now he knows himself in and through his master, Jesus. Having started off as a Pharisee, Paul became acquainted with the inner workings of hypocrisy in his early training. Thus he was equipped to steer Timothy and ourselves away from the snares of hypocrisy. He might contend that this was a stage of development wherein the esteem of men and human respect were the highest goals of which a person of that calling could know. Faking it seemed the most effective way of attaining these goals. Fasting and paying tithes are praiseworthy activities, as the avoidance of greed, dishonesty and adultery surely are.

4.Yet even these means remain subject to nuances of the disingenuous, until we are ready to admit that, in God's eyes, we are lowly, poor and helpless. We amount to nothing, in that we have done nothing to merit recognition or reward. The steps to authenticity, therefore, consist in sorrow for our sins, our ongoing dialogue with the Lord, our coming, through experience of Christ's sufferings time and again, to know who we are, and our resolve to take up for our brothers and sisters even at a cost to ourselves. The discerning of moral superiority has to be left exclusively to God, for He alone is in the position of judge. Once I submit to the Lord and He finishes me into my authentic self, then all these things will become apparent to me.

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