What is the one thing you are lacking?
A man approached Jesus seeking to know what he must, “do to inherit eternal life” (Mk 10:17). Jesus shared that following the commandments, such as: do not kill, commit adultery, steal or bear false witness; do not defraud, but do honor his father and mother (cf. Mk 10:19), would be a good place to start. The man affirmed that he had followed them all. I can see the eyebrows of Jesus raise and his mouth curl into a smile as he realizes the sincerity of the man kneeling before him. The disciples recognized that look and held their breath.
Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, “You are lacking one thing. Go, sell what you have, and give to [the] poor and you will have treasure in heaven; then come and follow me” (Mk 10:21).
Jesus was not admonishing or condemning the man, he was loving him, and invited him to take the next step to fulfill the deepest desire we all have, which is to be one with God and one another. Yet, instead of embracing the invitation, the man was crestfallen. He had followed the prescriptions of Torah all his life, he felt he was blessed by God with the gift of having many material goods, but in the end it was those possessions that had enslaved him. He genuinely came seeking eternal life, and Jesus gave him just what he sought, and even more by giving him the opportunity to be one of his disciples, but he could not give up the one thing he was lacking.
The heart of the commandments is to help us to be freed from that which enslaves us, so that we can put God and each other first and foremost in our lives. This is what we all have been created for, as St. Augustine himself realized when he wrote, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you” (St Augustine, Confessions).
May we return to this scene from Mark 10:17-31 today, and recall the image of the disciples and Jesus watching the rich man walk away sad. Slowly, we observe that they turn their eyes of invitation toward us. A bit hesitant, maybe, we too ask Jesus, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” What are we holding onto that is keeping us from giving ourselves completely to Jesus? Jesus looks at us, holds our gaze in his and loves us. Jesus then says, “You are lacking one thing…” What does he say next? What is our response?
————————————
Painting – close up of “Jesus and the Rich Young Ruler” – 1889, by Heinrich Hofmann
Link for the Mass readings for Sunday, October 14, 2018: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/101418.cfm
Radiating Christ – Blessed John Cardinal Newman
The Prayer of John Cardinal Newman
Radiating Christ
Dear Lord, help me to spread Thy fragrance everywhere I go. Flood my soul with Thy spirit and life. Penetrate and possess my whole being so utterly that all my life may only be a radiance of Thine.
Shine through me and be so in me that every soul I come in contact with may feel Thy presence in my soul. Let them look up and see no longer me but only Thee, O Lord!
Stay with me, and then I shall begin to shine as thou shinest; so to shine as to be a light to others. The Light O Lord will be all from Thee; none of it will be mine; It will be Thou, shining on others through me.
Let me thus praise Thee in the way Thou dost love best, by shining on those around me. Let me preach thee without preaching, not by words but by example, by the catching force, the sympathetic influence of what I do, the evident fullness of the love my heart bears to thee!
Hearing God’s word and observing it in our lives
While Jesus was speaking, a woman from the crowd called out and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that carried you and the breasts at which you nursed.” He replied, “Rather, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it” (Lk 11:27-28).
The woman’s comment directed to Jesus in today’s reading is certainly better than the charge leveled against him yesterday that he was healing by the power of Beelzebul, yet even this complement is still off the mark. What made Mary truly blessed was her fiat, her yes, to being willing to participate in the incarnation; conceiving, carrying to term, and giving birth to the Son of God. Then continuing to hear the word of God and observing it through the rest of her life. Mary is the model disciple.
Jesus is, in clarifying the woman who called out, helping her, those present, and us today to a keep proper perspective regarding living under the kingdom or reign of God. God is to be sovereign, primary, first and foremost. We need to be careful not to put any “thing” or any “one” before God. Even today we need to be careful not to make Mary into a goddess. We honor Mary and the saints, we invoke their intercession for assistance as we do family and friends with us now, but we do not adore them, as we do with God. Mary points us to her Son, not to herself. She is like the moon that radiates the light of the sun. This is the point of discipleship.
As blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman articulates so well in his prayer, “Radiating Christ”, the goal of the disciple of Jesus is to come to that point where others may look up at us and “see no longer me, but only Thee, O Lord!” How do we do that? We place ourselves in a posture of humility, of prayer, of being willing to hear the word of God, observe it, and then act upon it and serve him through serving one another. This means we need to slow down, resist the urge to accomplish and just get something done. Sometimes when I am reading by breviary, I will catch myself just reading the psalms, the readings, and the prayers, to get them done, instead of letting the words pierce my heart, convict me, and call me to conform my life to Jesus. Prayer then becomes a function instead of an encounter with the living God. I will stop myself and begin again.
To hear God’s word, we must stop and listen. This can happen in the events of our daily lives as well, when we are attentive. It is resisting the temptation to walk around or away from someone who is homeless, and instead share a few moments, a few dollars, some food, and to even ask their name. Is this uncomfortable, yes, challenging, yes. But the Word of God calls us out beyond our comfort zones, and to be there for others.
Again think of Mary, who, from the beginning experienced suffering with Jesus. She conceived Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit. What a gift, but at the same time what a trial! How was she going to explain this to Joseph, her betrothed! Simeon’s prophecy at Jesus’ dedication in the temple ended with the words to Mary, “and you yourself a sword will pierce” (cf Luke 2:25-35). We can trace Mary’s sorrows, and continued faithfulness as “she pondered these things in her heart” (cf Luke 2:19) throughout her life from raising Jesus, to being present during his public ministry where she saw him rejected in their hometown of Nazareth, the questions and accusations hurled at him, up to his arrest, scourging, and crucifixion.
In hearing and observing the words of Jesus, we cannot help but to be transformed. May we too, like Mary, ponder the life events of Jesus, turn to him in our trials, challenges, and experiences of injustice. Instead of being weighed down or buried by them, may we be yoked to Jesus, so we can persevere and become stronger, so to experience a joy and a peace that surpasses all understanding, a fulfillment that is beyond comprehension.
From this place of union with Jesus, may love replace our fears, prejudices, and pride, so we have the courage to be present, to provide aid and comfort to those he sends us to minister to. May we say yes, as did Mary, and so allow the Son of God to dwell within us, in the very depths of our souls, such that our thoughts, words, and actions, all reflect Jesus to others.
Photo: Last year’s Mass celebrating the 100th anniversary of visitation of Our Lady of Fatima with our St Peter family.
Link for the Mass readings for Saturday, October 13, 2018: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/101318.cfm
Trust in Jesus and call upon his name.
When Jesus had driven out a demon, some of the crowd said: “By the power of Beelzebul, the prince of demons, he drives out demons”(Lk 11:15).
There are consistent acts present during Jesus’ ministry. The Gospels show him teaching, preaching, healing, and exorcising demons. Many will accept that Jesus preached and taught, some might even agree that he healed, but there are many who might dismiss that he exorcised demons. The person in today’s passage did not scoff at the fact that Jesus dispelled a demon, but emphasized that he did so through the power of Satan. Jesus corrected him with simple logic by stating that, “if Satan is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand?”
This Gospel passage expresses the reality of the culture and beliefs of their time. Were, and are, all illnesses caused by demons? Most likely no. But to dismiss demons all together, we do so at our own peril. There is a spiritual reality as well as a physical reality. Demons are fallen angels. They fell because they chose to follow Satan, the archangel, Lucifer, instead of God. The term śāṭan is Hebrew and is found in both the Old and New Testaments. There are some English equivalents depending on how it is used. Most commonly śāṭan can be translated as accuser, slanderer, or adversary. Clearly, Satan is one who opposes the will of God and the demons are his minions who support him in that effort.
Satan and his demons roam the world seeking to sow division, to do us harm, as well as seeking the ruin of souls. Their power lies in false truths, temptations of apparent goods, deception, and condemnation. Although it is important to acknowledge that they exist, we need not fear them; for no demon, nor Satan himself, can possess or harm us against our will. The weakest Christian can overpower any negative spiritual influence, because we have access to the name of Jesus. In invoking the name of Jesus, the powers of evil have no sway. We can take strength in James instruction from his letter, “So submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7).
Condemnation is one of the devil’s worst attacks. First we are tempted, and then when we fall, the hammer of accusation and slander comes down to invoke shame. We are not to feel guilty regarding our misdeeds or sins. Instead we are to have a healthy sense of guilt. The difference is that when we walk around moping in a cloud of feeling guilty and berating ourselves for how awful we are, we keep the focus on our self and sink deeper into our own morass of self pity. When we embrace a sense of guilt, we are clear to acknowledge when we have sinned. With humility we admit that sin, come to a place of contrition – truly being sorry, then seek confession, absolution, forgiveness and reconciliation.
Satan, demons, and evil are realities in this world. God did not create evil. All that God created he created good. Evil is a deprivation, a twisting, and distortion of the good. The angelic beings he created good also with free will like us, and yet some turned away. Demons distort their original purpose as messengers of God. We need not be paranoid, just aware. We need to develop spiritual discipline, we need to discern spiritual influences, from our guardian angels, as well as fallen angels, and build our relationship with Jesus, knowing that we are God’s children and under his care and protection.
We need to resist any thought that says we are not worthy of being in relationship with God, that our sin is too great, or that it is too late to repent. God loves us more than we can ever mess up, more than we can ever imagine. Be strong and stout hearted, be not afraid. Whenever you feel threatened, anxious, tempted, self critical beyond a healthy sense of guilt, or fearful, just call on Jesus, speak his name, he is our great deliverer.
One of the most powerful weapons against evil is music, a reflection for another time! But for now here is a quote from the chorus of “Trust in Jesus”, track 5, from Third Day’s album, Move, as well as the You Tube link. A good song to carry with you throughout the day!
Trust in Jesus
My great Deliverer
My strong Defender
The Son of God
I trust in Jesus
Blessed Redeemer
My Lord forever
The Holy One, the Holy One
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2ZzULDM-XM
Painting of St Faustina’s vision of the Divine Mercy by Eugeniusz Kazimirowski
Link for the Mass reading for Friday, October 12, 2018: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/101218.cfm
Knock in prayer and the door will be opened to you.
“And I tell you, ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened” (Lk 11:9).
There is a challenge to prayer and that is our pride and self-centered stance. We can be frustrated in prayer because when we do make the time to pray, we feel or think that nothing is happening or has happened. We may pray for a specific petition for our self, or for a particular intention for another and felt, or thought, that there was not an answer from God. One may pray a sincere, seemingly selfless prayer for a loved one, a child, a spouse, a friend, to be healed and the person still dies. They may be deeply hurt because they did what Jesus said; they asked, they pleaded and begged, but felt they did not receive the healing; that which they sought for, was not given and, instead what they found was nothing but pain and heartache from the loss; they knocked until their knuckles were raw and experienced no one on the other side.
Our attitude and orientation to prayer matters. When we sincerely turn our heart and mind to God in prayer, something happens between us and God, though it may be beyond our cognitive grasp to understand or our sensory awareness to experience. There may indeed be emotional high’s and consolations experienced in prayer, but if seeking those is the primary motivation for prayer we will find ourselves more frustrated than not. There may also be lows in prayer, dryness, even desolations, and even feeling God’s absence are also possible. Emotions are fleeting and not a good barometer when measuring the effectiveness for prayer.
Another big misconception is when we pray to God as if he were a gumball machine. It may seem a silly analogy, but how many of us really do pray and only pray that way, and when we do not receive the specific thing we asked for, at the specific time specified, when we wanted and as we wanted, we brood and think God doesn’t care or does not, in fact, even exist. We may even slip into the barter posture. God if you grant me this, I will do that. If we are only open to receive what we want on our terms, again we are setting ourselves up for frustration.
The primary orientation, the primary foundation of prayer is that of accepting an invitation to be in relationship with God. Our very desire to pray, of turning our hearts and minds to God, is an answer to him who reaches out to us. The answer to what or who we ask, seek, and knock is found at the end of the Gospel reading for today: “If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him” (Lk 11:13)?
God knows what is best for us, he sees our potential, he wants us to experience joy and be fulfilled. How can we best live our lives in this world to attain that reality? We do so by receiving the Holy Spirit. Who is the Holy Spirit? The infinite, communal love expressed between God the Father and God the Son. Our goal in prayer is to enter into God’s reality of infinite Love. Through building a relationship with God, participating in his very life, we come to see the truth of empty promises, apparent goods, substitutes to fill our emptiness and faulty defense mechanisms that we have been utilizing as guideposts to merely survive and get through life.
In aligning ourselves with the Holy Spirit, we can then begin to conform our lives to that which is True, that which is Good, and that which is Beautiful. Our true barometer of whether something is happening in prayer or not, is if our life is changing. Are we beginning to bear the fruits of the Holy Spirit in our lives which are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control (cf. Galatians 5:22-23)?
Why may God not appear to answer a prayer for our healing or for a loved one with a chronic condition or one who had to be taken too soon? I do not know. But we need to resist running from the pain of loss and be willing to trust that God has not abandoned us but is with us as we spend time in prayer. Our tears can then become a healing salve, a doorway into the open arms and embrace of Jesus who awaits us in the depth of our grief and pain. Our loved ones who have died have not come to an end, but have experienced a new beginning with our loving God and Father, which we may get a foretaste of when we become still enough. There have been many who have been graced by after death encounters.
Ultimately, what we ask, what we seek, and what we knock for when we pray is to be loved, to belong, to be a part of something, someone greater than ourselves. We have been created as a living, craving hunger and desire to be one with God and one another. This is true for the atheist and the mystic alike. We have been created to be loved and to love.
The Holy Spirit, the love shared between the Father and the Son, is the gift of prayer that is open to us all. He is the answer to our prayer, though sometimes to be aware, takes perseverance. It may not be that God is not answering, but that we are not listening, or not hearing, or needing time to mature, to send our roots deeper into the depth of our soul. We may be needing time to heal or to build trust; to receive, and recognize his presence, his answer, his guidance. It may also be that sometimes God answers us with silence.
Photo credit from pixabay.com praying hands
Link for the Mass readings for Thursday, October 11, 2018: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/101118.cfm
Our Father, lead us into your presence.
Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he had finished, one of his disciples said to him,”Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples” (Lk 11:1).
Jesus’ response to the disciple’s question is what we typically call the Lord’s Prayer or the Our Father. The longer and more common version are paralleled in Matthew 6:9-13. The Lord’s Prayer provides for us two basic ways to pray this prayer: as a rote prayer and as a model of prayer.
Rote prayers are those prayers that we memorize word for word. The value in rote prayer is that when we have memorized them, it gives us a good starting point for prayer. How many times do we sit down to pray and not even know where to begin? Starting with the Our Father shows us a way to lift our hearts and mind to God in prayer. Also, during times of stress, anxiety, or trial, having rote prayers at the ready, when we are not able to focus our mind, gives us a natural rhythm that we can access and slow ourselves down. The more we can then be mindful of the words we are saying, adding slow and deep breathes, matched with their familiarity, will assist us in bringing a calm and collected manner which we have experienced in the past having prayed these prayers over and over before during less anxious times. It is a calm alternative to feeding a mental storm that seeks to undo us.
Rote prayers are also beneficial when we pray with others. When we gather for worship or fellowship, or with two or more, praying the Lord’s Prayer is a wonderful place to begin. This is where we can pray together no matter the age gap with one voice. This is the same prayer that the Apostles prayed, all the saints as well as Christians throughout the ages up until this day.
I have fond memories of my grandfather leading us in the Our Father before Sunday meals, Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, or Easter dinners. When I pray the Our Father, I can often hear his voice, his laugh, how he called me Sergie. As I type these words, I can feel him with me and I could write on and on with the memories flooding in, let loose just from reciting the first few words, “Our Father, who art in heaven…”!
Even with a minimalist approach, just saying the words without being attentive to them, can bring some solace. There are worse things we could be saying without thinking. Though the Our Father can also draw us deeper. The practice of praying the Our Father we can apply easily to other rote prayers, like the Hail Mary, Come Holy Spirit, the Jesus Prayer and many others.
The Lord’s Prayer with its root in Sacred Scripture, can also be a key to open the door to a deeper communion with God. As a model of prayer, we pray the prayer slowly, then stop at a word or phrase and then speak freely. Here are a few examples. “Our Father, thank you for this moment that we have to spend together.” From there we can enter into a conversation with God, as we would with our parent, sharing the joys as well as the struggles we are going through. This could take two or twenty minutes or more and we have only recited two words!
“Hallowed be thy name. God you are holy, majestic, so beyond my understanding. How can you be so distant from me, yet you know me better than I know myself?” Again, from there we just enter into a dialogue. We can then, with the first or second phrase go into prayers of petition, bringing our needs before our loving Father. We can offer prayers of intercession, praying for the needs of others with the Holy One who is Love. We can also continue our conversation or just quietly pause and rest silently in the loving presence of our God and Father. We can continue to take each part of the prayer and do the same, there are infinite possibilities to explore.
I invite you today to pray the Our Father as if for the first time, slowly embracing each word. Another opportunity is to allow memories to emerge from times praying this prayer with others. Maybe reach out beyond yourself and pray the Our Father imagining yourself sitting next to Jesus, or someone living in another state, or country, or who has left this physical plane of existence, like my grandfather, that we know and is now where we too will be. Pray the Our Father with someone you seek to forgive or seek forgiveness from, pray for reconciliation and healing.
Create a quiet place for yourself with a picture, a cross or crucifix, a candle, rosary beads, pictures of those you would like to be closer to, whatever sacramental object helps you to turn your heart and mind to God in prayer, then take a deep breathe, say, “Our Father,” and let God happen!
Photo: My maternal grandfather, Bernard Morcus, just about to lead us in the Our Father before a Thanksgiving meal.
Link for the Mass readings for Wednesday, October 10, 2018: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/101018.cfm
May we choose Jesus over anxiety.
“Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her” (Lk 10:41-42).
Many deacons get to enjoy fuller and more in depth discussions regarding this reading than do priests, as many of us are married and the greater majority of priests are not. My wife JoAnn and I have had a few spirited exchanges on this Gospel each time it arises. A possible reason is that at first reading it may appear that Jesus is not showing any empathy and regard for not only Martha’s gift of hospitality, but also all the work she is doing while all the men are sitting around listening to Jesus with Mary doing the same, and who is left to do all the work – Martha.
It is not only deacon’s wives who carry extra weight and burdens in support on the home front to allow their husbands the time to serve, (Just the time it takes for me to write this daily post is less time I am spending with JoAnn or less time that I have to devote to the needs of our home) but many wives who are full time homemakers, run in home businesses, or carry a job outside the home, as well as caring for the children, overseeing the bills, the day to day grind, find themselves at times, rightly so, underappreciated, undervalued, and not respected for all they do.
To all husbands reading this, WE definitely can to do a better job of being present, more patient, respectful and attentive to our wives and be more of an equal partner in our journey. All of us, female or male, could also be better served if we follow this pattern of attention and priority: God is to be first, then our vocation to marriage and family must come second, then work, then our vocation.
With that said, I do not believe that Jesus was disregarding Martha. Especially in the Gospel of Luke, there are many instances in which Jesus empowers women so far beyond the cultural reality of the time period. We read this account from our twenty first century mind set. Contextually, the men sitting at the teacher’s feet in a different room, the women cooking and most times eating separately was commonplace for those in the first century AD. The only person out of step was Mary.
This could provide a possible consideration at the root of Martha’s anxiety. It may not have been so much that Mary wasn’t helping in the kitchen, but because she was breaking the social norm of sitting with the men. When Martha calls Jesus to redirect Mary, she probably expects him to support her plea. Yet, Jesus acknowledges that “Mary has chosen the better part” of sitting and having her primary focus be on him and addresses Martha from the perspective that she is anxious about many things. I can visualize Martha being taken aback at first, but slowly seeing the muscles in her face relax, and then taking her apron and throwing it off to the side and then sitting down next to Mary.
You may or may not agree, but there is consistent evidence that beyond the Twelve, Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, were Jesus’ closest friends. When Jesus came four days after the death of Lazarus, it was Martha who came out to Jesus, not Mary, and in that exchange, it was Martha who made the claim that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God (cf Jn 11:27). She would not have had this insight, the same as Peter, who Jesus said only knew this through the revelation of the Holy Spirit, if she was still holding a grudge over the dinner.
Also, Jesus who had compassion on the 4,000 and the 5,000 such that he fed them all with a few loaves and fish, would he not have compassion on Martha? Jesus also washed his disciples feet at the last supper, would he not step up to assist with the meal, the clean up, would he leave Martha hanging? Ultimately, this is speculation as we don’t know, but we need to read the sayings and actions of Jesus in the full context of the whole of Scripture, not just one pericope.
Today’s reaction and push back from this scene is not so much a reflection on Jesus, but how poorly men have emulated Jesus in our interactions with women. When women are guided from Scripture to honor their husbands, that is only the half of it. Men are also commanded to honor their wives as Jesus does the Church. Women of all ages, young and old and everywhere in between, are human beings created in the image and likeness of God. No one has the right to demean, disparage, devalue, or exploit any woman. Instead, they are to be appreciated, heard, respected, understood, and valued.
And let us not forget the vocation of single women, who were instrumental in the beginnings of the Church and continue to be so today! By all accounts, I believe Martha and Mary were single women. They were close friends with Jesus, that is no small thing. The gift of the Church, and when we are at our best, is when we recognize the gifts, contributions, and value of each of our members, men and women alike. When we embrace the diversity in our midst and empower one another.
Let us meditate on this image today: Martha, Mary, and the other disciples present, sitting in communion, Jesus as their primary focus. They are learning directly from him how to live as contemplatives in action. When we recognize that we are anxious about many things, let us not take out our anxiety out on one another, but come and sit at the feet of Jesus, breathe slowly, let the anxiety dissipate, seek his guidance, and begin again. Let us be sure to tell those in our realm of influence that we love them. Jesus is to be first and foremost in our life. May we not criticize and judge one another but: “Encourage one another while it is still today” (Hebrews 3:13).
May we also pray today for those individuals and families who are anxious about many things because they or a family member may be: contemplating an abortion, are homeless, struggling with an addiction, living in an abusive situation or recovering from abuse, in fear that one or more of their family members may be deported, and/or recovering from the affects of natural disasters.
May we also pray for those who suffer everyday concerned that a family member may not make it home because they are serving in the military, as police officers, firefighters, or EMT’s. May we also pray for the thousands of refugees, migrants, and immigrants throughout the world who would love to find themselves in a kitchen with a home, instead of wondering if they will have enough food to eat or if they or their children will live to see another day.
Photo: accessed from http://www.soulshepherding.org/2012/06/prevent-burnout-be-a-mary-nated-martha/
Mass Readings for Tuesday, October 9, 2018: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/100918.cfm
Go and show mercy.
“And who is my neighbor” (Luke 10:29)?
This question of the scholar of the law lines up with Peter’s question: “Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him. As many as seven times” (Mt 18:21)? Both the scholar and Peter knew the letter of the law, but sought justification in following a minimalist approach to putting the law into practice. Jesus invites us to a deeper appreciation of the purpose of the divine law of God and that is to uphold the dignity of the person. Laws can be certainly unjust, and a mere following of the law for the law’s sake can wreak havoc on the human person.
Jesus made this point when he was challenged for even thinking that he would heal someone on the Sabbath when he said: “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” (Mk 2:27). Time and again Jesus calls us to have the courage to resist keeping others at arm’s length. He calls us to be understanding, to take time to listen and be present to, as well as accompany those we encounter. Jesus calls us to be people of integrity. The Samaritan did just that.
The Jericho road was known for attacks, much like the survivor received who was left for dead. The priest and Levite may not have stopped to help because they might have thought the man was faking and this was a trap, or in the time they took to care for the man those that harmed him could have returned to abuse them. Each of them could just have been indifferent to the need of the person rationalizing that this man brought this attack upon himself. We don’t know the reason they continued on, but what we do know is that they did not stop to help. We do know that the Samaritan did.
When Jesus asked who was the neighbor to the man robbed and beaten, the scholar said, “The one who treated him with mercy.” The scholar could not bring himself to say the Samaritan, as the Jews and Samaritans had a long standing agreement of mutual loathing. Just remember a few days back when we read how Jesus sought hospitality from a Samaritan home, did not receive the invitation, and James and John were quick to want to implore God to send fire to destroy them.
What is being lost and what fuels much of our polarization in our present interaction with one another, is that we are forgetting the basic ground of truth, that each human being is created in the image and likeness of God. The starting point of any discussion must be a mutual agreement to respect the dignity of the person first and foremost. Why is the unborn allowed to die? One reason could be because the starting point is the right to choose, not that from the moment of conception there is a human being that is unique from the mother and father, who has begun to strive to actualize his or her potential. The only difference is he or she is only smaller and more vulnerable than we.
Why have parents and children, fleeing from violence and seeking a better life, been separated from their parents, why are these children still detained in tent camps for violating a misdemeanor? Why are children who have been born in this country, though their parents came here through unorthodox means being threated with deportation for their parents and themselves? They are not looked upon as human beings in need of our help, they are looked upon as illegal. How can someone, how can a person be illegal? They can’t, unless we label them so. This same stance is true also for refugees fleeing from war torn regions being refused entry. They are stopped from doing so because they are not looked upon as human beings who have suffered unimaginable traumas, but painted with the broad brush of being labeled as terrorists, radical Muslims, or just Muslims
How is it that children and women who are survivors of abuse are not believed when they muster the courage to come forward, and when, statistically, they are telling the truth ninety-one to ninety five percent of the time? The abusers are protected because they have access, they have power, and support who will seek to protect them or the institution they are a part of. The survivor is not the priority, not a person with dignity, but an annoyance, a problem that needs to go away, go back into the shadows.
How is it that oil corporations seeking to lay pipe lines that threaten clean water resources have more rights than indigenous peoples, how is it that opening up dialogue with the LGBT community considered inappropriate for those who have felt like they have been treated like dirt by the Church, and how is it that people of color who have been humiliated, profiled, and lost their life for nothing other than the color of their skin not have a right to protest and are labeled unpatriotic? Because in each of these cases, each are labeled and made out to be something less than human.
May we make some time to read today’s Gospel, the account of the Good Samaritan, prayerfully and slowly. It is important to us that we remember each and every person is our neighbor, a human being with dignity. In speaking to the US Bishops in his 2015 visit Pope Francis said: “And yet we are promoters of the culture of encounter. We are living sacraments of the embrace between God’s riches and our poverty.” Too many human beings feel and have experienced being abused, belittled, demeaned, dehumanized, unheard, lost, and afraid in our country.
Jesus invites us and gives us the power to love God with our whole mind, heart, and strength, AND to love our neighbor as ourselves. Who then is our neighbor? Human beings created in the image and likeness of God. Will we whip out the statutes and law codes, wrap ourselves in the flag; will we, like the priest or the Levite just walk on the other side of the road, indifferent or afraid; will we dig in our heels and embrace our fear and prejudices; or will we have the courage to encounter and walk with one another? The scholar said the neighbor was the one who showed mercy, the Samaritan, the perceived enemy. Jesus’ response to him and to us this day is to: “Go and do likewise.”
Painting: The Good Samaritan by Amy Watts
Link for Mass readings for Monday, October 8, 2018: http://usccb.org/bible/readings/100818.cfm
