Pentecost 2012


I always find it interesting to look at the verses that are omitted in the lectionary Gospel reading.  As you will have realized if you looked at the verses listed in your Missal and Missalettes, there are at least 11 verses missing.  This discussion starter is based on today’s reading including the omitted verses.

For me, the Gospel of John provides a lens through which to view the words and actions of Jesus in other parts of Scripture.  In the Gospels of the previous weeks, we have been told to love one another and to abide in God’s love and that we are Christ’s own if we follow his commandment.  Further, that he asks this of us not as a Master but as a friend. In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells us that following him will cost us for a time; that love will cost us for a time.  Jesus also tells us that when he is no longer physically here, we will not be alone because the Spirit of Truth is being sent to guide us.

The previous readings emphasize: love- as Jesus’ commandment and love- as the way to follow Jesus.  With today’s Gospel introduces the theme, Truth “as revealed” will be enhanced with Truth as “ongoing revelation”.

In this reading, abiding in God’s love, on the one hand and acting out of fear or hatred, on the other, are grounded in the recognition or non-recognition of God.  They are positive and negative sides of the same truth: the recognition that God is Love (and abundant life giving). 

He tells us that following his path of love may result in being excluded, expelled, rejected, and persecuted even to death.  Those who do this may be motivated by hatred, fear and even a belief that they are operating out of authority, truth and faithfulness to God.  However, God’s love is unconditional and to preach, teach or act otherwise, is to not know, to use John’s words “the Father” or the Son.  Jesus doesn’t tell us these things so that we can condemn but rather so that we can take heart and not be discouraged in following him when things look bleak, when others “put us out of the synagogue”.

He tells us these thing so that we can remember─ to use the prophet Micah’s clear and concise words─ that we are to “do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with our God”.  This is the way of love and it is also a truth.  I say a truth because Jesus tells us that there is more truth to come and that the Holy Spirit will guide us in God’s truth.  Through the Holy Spirit, God’s ongoing revelation is activated and active.

If we are full of ourselves and certain that we have the whole truth, where in us can the Spirit work?  We have to ask God to empty us of all the ways we try to separate ourselves from God, others and ourselves, of all that causes us to think that we are less than or better than others.  Conversely, we have to ask the Holy Spirit to carve out a space in us in which set God’s outpouring love aflame in us, so that we can love as God’s loves, as Jesus asks us to love, unconditionally.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Homily on Mark 6:14-29 - for July 15, 2012

Image
God’s Voice Will Not Be Silenced Speaking Truth to Power This reading tells me that there are consequences to speaking truth to power, often deadly consequences.   But, God’s voice will not be silenced.    We are told that John spoke against King Herod’s marriage to his brother’s wife, Herodias.   Herodias was not too pleased about this negative publicity.   So she bides her time.   She uses Herod’s hastily spoken promise to her daughter to silence John once and for all. But God’s voice will not be silenced.   We are told in the stories just before this that Jesus was rejected in his own home town of Nazareth.   Jesus left Nazareth but he was not deterred by this rejection.   He sent the twelve out two by two and Jesus and his disciples carried on God’s call to repentance when John no longer could.   Speaking truth to power continues to have devastating consequences.   In 2004, I went on a women’s del...
Read more

7 July 2013 – 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Image
Shared Homily Starter First Reading: Isaiah 66.10-14 Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 62 Second Reading: Galatians 6:14-18 Gospel: Luke 10.1-12, [13-16], 17-20 Today’s gospel is about evangelization.   The word, “evangelization” has become, for many of us, a word that sends up red flags.   This is because, unfortunately, for almost two millennia, evangelization has been used more as a weapon than as an invitation to follow Christ’s example of peace and love.   Let’s examine evangelization from Jesus’ perspective.   He knows there are plenty of people out there who would be open to hearing the Good News.   He also knows that there are plenty who don’t want to hear it.   But Jesus sends out his disciples like lambs into a sea of wolves.   We live in a culture of ravenous consumption and accumulation.   We seek to accumulate more and more money, more and more power and more and more ad nauseam.   The more we have, the more we wan...
Read more

24TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

Image
15 September 2013 – Shared Homily Starter First Reading: Exodus 32.7-11, 13-14 Second Reading: 1 Timothy 1.12-17 Gospel: Luke 15.1-32 When I pondered this week’s readings, a theme began to emerge.   Before I delve into the theme, I’d like you to consider a quote from Thomas Berry.   He said, “[O]ne of the basic difficulties of the modern West is its division into a secular scientific community, which is concerned with creative energies, and a religious community, which is concerned with redemptive energies.   So concerned are we with redemptive healing that once healed, we look only to be more healed.   We seldom get to our functional role within the creative intentions of the universe” (Berry 1988:25). When I considered this and looked at the readings again, I saw that what we need to be is not only co-creators but co-redemptors.   For example, in our first reading, have God’s promises to Noah and to Abraham been committed to forgetfu...
Read more