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Posted by on Jan 30, 2022

Called to Action by Love

Called to Action by Love

One theory regarding the universe is that God created everything, set it in motion, and then sat back to watch how history would unfold. In this scenario, God is simply a character like a watchmaker who has a master vision of how all the gears will work together and accomplish the desired outcome – keeping time in a regular rhythm.

God, as we know God, is not a glorified watchmaker. Though there is much we do not know about God and much we only surmise, we do know from the Gospels and from the letters of St. John that God is love. St. Paul goes so far as to say that the most important thing for any of us is love. Underlying all the wonderful gifts God gives to the community are faith, hope, and love. These three gifts from God are all that remain when everything else is taken away. Of these three gifts, “the greatest of these is love.” (1 Cor 13:13)

Since love is so fundamental, it’s important to understand what is meant by the word love. Greek, the language in which the Christian scriptures are written, distinguishes among different forms of love. One is the sensual, bodily love that we see so often on television and in movies – romantic love or passionate love for something or someone. It is known as eros. Another is the affectionate caring between equals, including friends and family. This form of love is called philia. A third is agape, the word used by St. Paul in his first letter to the community in Corinth. The love God has for us is called agape. Agape is also the love of parents for children, or spouses for each other. It assumes a willing of good for the other.

In the readings for the Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, we see examples of love as a call to action. The story of Jeremiah the prophet begins with his call by God to become a prophet. Jeremiah was a young man, probably in his early 20s, when he heard the Lord’s call to become a prophet. (Jer 1:4-5,17-19) Called even before his birth, the Lord chose him to call the people of Israel to faithfulness to the covenant, away from worship of foreign gods. He lived and worked through the rule of three kings and the conquest of Jerusalem by Babylonian forces. He remained in Jerusalem when it was destroyed, still calling the people to worship only the Lord.

Like other prophets, Jeremiah faced much opposition. In fact, he objected to becoming a prophet when he was first called by the Lord because he knew prophets were never well-received. However, the Lord didn’t back down. After telling him about the coming defeat of Israel by Assyria, the Lord promised he would never abandon Jeremiah.

At times it certainly seemed as if the Lord might have abandoned him, but always the Lord supported him in his faithful and courageous witness as he continued to speak out. Though the text doesn’t spell out this thought, it seems that God’s love and care for His people is seen through the call of Jeremiah to remind them of their mutual relationship. God, through Jeremiah, calls them back again and again. Jeremiah’s actions reflect that love for God and for his own nation during times of war and catastrophic defeat.

Jesus too faced opposition as he began his ministry (Lk 4:21-30). Having been awakened to his calling at the Jordan River, he began to preach of God’s love and to heal the sick. In his own village, he read the words of Isaiah regarding the coming of the kingdom of God. When he shared with those who had known him from childhood that he was the one of whom Isaiah spoke, some expressed doubt that it could be true. “Haven’t we known him all his life? Isn’t he the son of Joseph the carpenter?” Jesus did not back down. Instead, he reminded them that prophets are often not appreciated by their own people. In fact, even foreigners sometimes benefited from the help of prophets while the Jewish people were left unaided. Faith is a necessary foundation before help and healing can be received.

Jesus did not back down when challenged. He continued to move forward in his ministry, healing those open to receive it and teaching those open to hear and accept God’s love for them. His response to God’s call was one of loving service to those he met as he traveled through Galilee, Samaria, Judea, and even outside Israel to Tyre and Sidon to the north.

St. Paul makes clear to the people of Corinth that although spiritual gifts are wonderful and can build up the community, the most important things are those that underlie gifts such as tongues, prophecy, and healing. (1 Cor 12:31-13:13) Without love to ground them, all the other gifts are worthless. Love, agape, gives meaning to all. Paul uses verbs in Greek to express what love is and is not. For us, love is the noun and adjectives describe its varied expressions. Nevertheless, it’s useful to think of each as part of an action founded in love. Love is not something that just sits around observing the world. Love must be active. God is love and that love overflows into all of creation. God is active love. As the Body of Christ, we are also called to active love. As we live in this love day by day, we will see ever more clearly God’s presence and God’s presence will be ever more visible in us.

Where will I bring love today? Into what hidden corner will I help God’s love to shine? Will a child smile because I reached out? Will an immigrant find legal help? Will someone hungry get a good meal? Will someone who needs a friendly ear find mine ready to listen? Will a widow receive a note letting her know she is not alone and forgotten? Will someone hear a word of encouragement from me?

Love is a not a static object that can be put on a shelf and admired. Love is active and we are called to action. Together we will move mountains and with God’s help, we’ll remake the earth, beginning with our own little corner of it!

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Posted by on Nov 28, 2021

A Time for Hope and Expectation – The Lord is Coming

A Time for Hope and Expectation – The Lord is Coming

One of the wonderful things about being a mother and grandmother is the chance to read stories to children. So many wonderful stories I have read to children at bedtime and in the car as we were traveling – stories that I would never have even known existed had I remained always in the adult world. Just last night I sat up and re-read the final chapters of The Lightning Thief, by Rick Riordan. It is a story I read with my daughter when it was new. Now my grandson has just finished reading it and I re-read it so I could talk with him about it as he enjoyed it for the first time. (Besides that, it’s a really good story with a lot of unexpected twists and turns that I had long ago forgotten.)

The Lightning Thief is the first of several series of stories that take as their inspiration Greek, Roman, Norse, and Egyptian mythologies – the stories of the gods and their interactions among themselves and with humans. This particular story is about a boy who discovers he is a demi-god whose father is Poseidon, god of the seas. A favorite tool of one of the gods has been stolen and a war is about to break out among them if the tool is not found and returned. Among the gods, it is widely believed that our hero has stolen the tool. The story goes from there as he discovers who he is, what has been stolen, who is believed to have it, where it actually is, and whether it can be recovered in time to prevent the war. A marvelously impossible and improbable quest for a group of children in middle school to engage upon, it is an engrossing story for the reader to share.

This story came to mind this morning as I was thinking about the readings for the First Sunday of Advent. It’s a brand new year for us as Church and once again we hear apocalyptic writings of things that are to come at the end of time. We’ve had a lot of these readings lately. One year ends with them and the new year begins with them.

Why do we have this kind of writing anyway? Why not just state clearly that at some future date the universe will end. At some date each of us will end our lives here. At some point we will meet the Lord. Earthquakes happen. Climate fluctuates over time. Storms come and go, both literally and figuratively. And so forth…

We have these kinds of stories because our understanding of the world is incomplete. Humans have existed for thousands of years, but much of what we know of how the geology, chemistry, physics, psychology, and inter-personal relations behind our daily experience operate has only been uncovered in the last few hundred years. There is still much we don’t know or understand.

As an anthropologist, I turn to a concept that I find helps explain our human use of stories to make sense of what we don’t understand or can’t find words to express. Anthropologists speak of “explanatory systems” that take a physical or social reality and place it within a larger context.

Humans wonder “why” things happen the way they do. Why do we have earthquakes? Why do we have storms? Why is the weather good some days and terrible other days? Why do people care for each other? Why do we have enemies? Why do some people die young? Why do old people spend so much time telling the same stories over and over? In the words of a song originally written by Woody Guthrie and adapted for children by Anne Murray, Why Oh Why, we ask again and again “Why does… Why can’t… Why won’t…” Eventually, the question becomes, “Why won’t you answer my question?” and the response is, “Because I don’t know the answer, Good night, good night.”

We don’t know the answers, so we humans tell stories and sing songs.

In our Judeo-Christian tradition, there is only one God. There are no demi-gods as there are in so many other traditions. Our God speaks through humans. Our God speaks directly to humans. God acts in human history. God loves humans and all of creation so much that God enters into creation as a human being. As a human being, God experiences a complete human life, including the joys and sorrows of life and death with family and friends, unexpected happy surprises, hope, love, suffering, fear, and death.

Yet there are things that happen in our lives and history that are hard to explain. For our ancestors in faith, the answer was clear. God intervened. In times of war, God acted to protect the armies of God’s people. When the people were not faithful to their agreement (the Covenant), God punished them by allowing their enemies to conquer and send them into exile. Yet always, God was there, ready to forgive and bring them back to a good relationship between humans and their God.

The apocalyptic literature read today tells symbolically of this relationship. Jeremiah (33:14-16) recalls the promise God made to King David that a savior would rise from his descendants and do what was right in the land. The country would be secure and the capital city, Jerusalem, site of the temple in which God dwelt in a special way among the people, would become known as “The Lord is our justice.” The people are in exile in Babylon, but the promise is made yet again. There is a reason for hope and expectation of a better future.

Our Gospel story is told by St. Luke, a man who was not part of Jesus’ original circle of friends. Yet Luke (21:25-28, 34-36) has heard and tells the story of Jesus’ description of the coming end of time, when the Son of Man will come on the clouds of heaven. We heard this story from St. Mark two weeks ago. Luke encourages his readers to be awake, vigilant at all times, prayerful for the strength to remain faithful when things are going badly around us. Nations and peoples, and even the physical world itself, will be in disarray, but we can be assured that redemption is at hand. It’s a time for hope and expectation of the coming of the Son of Man – the one who saves us.

The early Christian community expected the second coming of Jesus very soon after the Resurrection. After all, the final reconciliation between humans and God had been achieved through Jesus’ death and resurrection. St. Paul (1 Thes 3:12-4:2) also expected the second coming to be imminent, but in the meanwhile, it was important to live a life of loving care as a community. He reminds the people of Thessalonica to behave themselves! He asks the Lord to increase the love they have for each other and strengthen their hearts, so they will be holy and ready when God comes with all his holy ones.

We too live in difficult times. Our world is filled with strife. We argue over immigration, vaccinations, mask mandates, borders, national sovereignty, taxation, the role of government, and on and on. How do we as a Christian community live in love for and with each other? How do we deal with our brothers and sisters with whom we find ourselves in serious disagreement? How do we find ways to address problems that threaten us all, when we can’t even agree on what has caused them?

I don’t have any easy answers. I’m not sure there are any easy answers. But I know in the depths of my heart that we must continue to respect and love each other. We must care for each other and work to find common ground. We are called as members of Christ’s Body to be one with all the rest of our sisters and brothers, working together to bring the peace of Christ to this world.

Happy New Year. May the Lord’s Peace dwell deep within each of us and shine forth in our lives today and through the year we are just beginning.

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Posted by on Jul 18, 2021

Shepherds – More than those who care for sheep

Shepherds – More than those who care for sheep

Popular imagination is based on the historical lived experience of a people. Religious imagery reflects that experience. So today, the Sixteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, shepherds (and by extension sheep) are showing up in many of the readings. The Hebrew people were descendants of Abram and Sara, a shepherd and his wife from Mesopotamia. They were pastoralists who traveled over a wide area of countryside, seeking the best pastures for their sheep and living from the work of their hands (and feet – with all that walking). God called Abram to a special relationship and promised to be his God through all generations.

When it came time for the Hebrew people to have kings, the second king was David, a shepherd boy chosen by God to be the successor of Saul. In the Hebrew Scriptures, shepherd is a term often applied to the kings of the land. Sometimes the kings were faithful to the Covenant and sometimes they were not. Either way, the prophets spoke of them as shepherds.

Jeremiah (23:1-6) could see that his people and their kingdom were going to fall when faced by the might of Babylon. But the reason for the coming disaster had nothing to do with military might or the skill of generals. Israel had prevailed against all odds in the past. The failure this time would be the result of the failure of the rulers to be true to the Covenant.

Jeremiah speaks of these rulers as shepherds who have misled and scattered the flock of the Lord. They are not caring for the people as they have been called to do. He cries out that the Lord will be faithful, despite the misdeeds of the rulers. He will gather those who are faithful from among the nations to which they have been exiled and appoint new, faithful shepherds to guide and protect his flock.

This prophesy concludes with the messianic promise of a new king from David’s line who will shepherd the people wisely and be known as “The Lord of Justice.”

The Twenty-third Psalm is rightly loved for its promise of the loving care of the Lord who acts as a shepherd for his flock. Not only does the shepherd guide and protect the flock, the shepherd honors those for whom he cares, even in the face of those who would hurt them. Goodness and kindness characterize the care of the shepherd. The sheep, all of us in his care, will dwell in the Lord’s house for years to come.

With the coming of Jesus and the welcoming of Gentiles into the flock of the Lord as well, the divisions between peoples of the world are broken down. (Eph 2:13-18) No longer is anyone to be excluded from the flock of the Lord of Justice. The divisions among the peoples of the world were destroyed by the cross. Through Jesus, we all have access to the Father in one Spirit. The shepherd now has called the sheep from around the world and united us into one flock.

The Gospel this week (Mk 6:30-34) continues last week’s story. Remember that Jesus sent out his followers to heal the sick and call people to repentance, to turn their lives back to God. This week they have returned. Mark calls them apostles now, those who have been sent. Jesus takes time to talk with them about their experience and invites them to take some time to rest, in a deserted place, away from regular life and the crowds of people who kept coming to hear and see him. However, they can’t get away on foot, so they get on the boat and head out onto the Sea of Galilee. Even that doesn’t work. The people see where they are going and walk there themselves, around the shore of the lake. When Jesus and his friends arrive, the crowds are already there.

Did Jesus get angry, get back on the boat and sail away? No. St. Mark tells us, “His heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd.”  He sat down and began to teach them. The shepherd had arrived. The Lord of Justice has come to his people.

Today we are challenged to be good shepherds to those sent to our care. It may be children, spouses, fellow workers, the old or the young, or people we meet on the street. How do we share the love of the Lord of Justice, the shepherd who truly cares for and loves his flock? And then, how do we rest in the green pastures to which that same Lord leads us, so we can be refreshed? Both outreach and times to rest and be renewed are essential.  Summer is a good time for both.

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