Sunday word, 25 Oct 15

Allowing Mystery to Embrace

Thirtieth Sunday of the Year B (25 Oct 2015)

Jer 31. 7-9; Ps 126; Hb 5. 1-6; Mk 10. 46-52

Homily of Fr. Paul Panaretos, S.J.

The Letter to the Hebrews is not read often. Major parts of it are read from beginning to end on autumn Sundays every three years. Liturgy does not expose us often to its praise of Jesus as human and divine, crucified and exalted into God’s presence. Hebrews relies on imagery little used by us moderns, especially religious sacrifice and suffering. Sacrifice feels alien to us; suffering we equate with evil. Yet with religious sacrifice and suffering Hebrews portrays Jesus as high priest. In the gospels Jesus said he would suffer.

Our Sundays have been given to Mark’s gospel most of this year. We heard Jesus speak of his suffering: he would suffer before his resurrection; suffering was the way to his resurrection and life in God’s presence. That harmony—that the Jesus of the Letter to the Hebrews is in sync with the Jesus of the gospels—that harmony suggests we try to enter as best we can the mystery of our high priest Jesus, human and divine, crucified and exalted into God’s presence for us.

The Christian truth is that Jesus is our mystery. Does that mean Jesus is far removed from us? No. Think of those we know well. We never have others all figured. We may think we do; then others surprise us by a quality or behavior not in character with the person we know. Every person, even those to whom we are close, is a mystery. So is Jesus. Jesus’ way of being with us and for us is by Holy Spirit. His Spirit surprises often those who open their hearts to Jesus. 

Letting ourselves be embraced by the mystery who is Jesus challenges our active, take-charge and get-it-done selves. Letting ourselves be embraced by the mystery who is Jesus allows Jesus to befriend us, to call us and free us from what warps us and constrains our freedom. It lets us enter his mission. It is easy to move through life in our active, take-charge and get-it-done ways to shape and try to carry out our missions. The Christian vocation seeks to put our energy and our talents at the service of Jesus’ mission. Baptism and Confirmation sustained by the Eucharist gives each of us an active role in Jesus’ mission.

Jesus called everyone to join him. Jesus desired all who joined him use their various talents to extend his gospel. The more we embrace Jesus, our high priest, the more we share his Gospel spirit.¹ Gospel spirit gives mission drive to the Christian way of being in the world.

The personal decision is a daily one: do I want to live by Jesus’ Gospel spirit? Much can blind Christians to our daily decision. Desiring daily to embrace Jesus and welcome his Gospel spirit as fuel for living is our first step to being his witnesses for others and for their salvation.²

Bartimaeus is a good intercessor for us. His begging life could have dulled his desire to see. Bartimaeus knew what he wanted from Jesus; no one could silence him. When Jesus healed him Bartimaeus joined Jesus on Jesus’ way, Jesus’ mission.

Blindness can be inward. My desire to embrace Jesus and welcome his Gospel spirit may be dulled by busy time, distractions, temptation, even sin. Personal praying, communal worship, celebrating the sacraments and staying in tune with the church: those activities fire our desire to know Jesus better as our high priest, our savior who longs for our company and our efforts to extend his gospel.

In your daily 15 minutes with Jesus this week

• Become aware of the Divine Persons embracing you in love.
• Ask Bartimaeus to present you to Jesus.
• Chat with him: praise Jesus for dying and rising for you; thank him for being our high priest—not for honor but to save us for his gospel and life with God.
• Ask Jesus for grace to enkindle your desire to know him more closely. 
• Close by saying slowly the prayer Jesus taught us. It summarizes Jesus’ life, the gospel spirit and the gospel way of living.

Link to this homily’s Spiritual Exercise

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1. Vatican II, Decree on the Apostolate of the Lay Faithful, 2. 
2. Decree on the Apostolate of the Lay Faithful, 2.

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Wiki-images: Jesus giving sight to Bartimaeus PD-US Pilgrim's Way by Oliver Dixon CC BY-SA 2.0

Sunday word, 18 Oct 15

From the Inside

Twenty-ninth Sunday of the Year B (18 Oct 2015)

Is 53. 10-11; Ps 33; Hb 4. 14-16; Mk 10. 35-45

Homily of Fr. Paul Panaretos, S.J.

I used to wonder at the Zebedee’s sons and their re-quest of Jesus, Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask.” They asked without qualification: demand: do for us whatever we ask. I wondered because I never had the courage to demand my teachers respond to me like that. I also wondered because of the response of the other ten: they felt indignant.

I had the notion that the Twelve enjoyed close bonds as they followed Jesus. I equated following Jesus with friendship. In Jesus’ culture following Jesus—or any teacher—did not ensure friendship. One way to visualize it is links: each disciple had a link to Jesus; James and John also had their family link as sons of Zebedee; they were not closely linked to the others. Their question of Jesus linked the other disciples to each other in a way they may have not been united: they felt indignant at James and John. Feelings of anger, resentment, aggravation and displeasure are not lofty motives; they don’t pave friendship’s way.

If we set aside their feelings, we have our experiences of being linked in ways similar to the disciples. In a classroom the instructor may be the only link some students share. Or a supervisor or employer may link fellow employees. Students and employees may be civil, even kind and respectful; but they need not be friends.

That helps us appreciate the disciples. Like them we Christians to look at Jesus. He responded to James and John as he responded to others who sought his help: What do you want me to do for you? Jesus focused on their question not their motives or their pasts. To borrow an image from the Letter to the Hebrews: Jesus knew every person—each of his disciples as well as each of us—from the inside. No condescension in Jesus’ voice at the question of James and John. He felt their desire as well as their weaknesses and insecurity that drove them to seek places of honor near him.

Feeling with us our weaknesses, that is, knowing us from the inside, lets Jesus mediate for us with God in an unmatched way. To mediate was a key role of the high priest. Our high priest gives us confidence to live the pattern of his life. Living the pattern of his life shows others mercy as we have received mercy. That echoes the Letter to the Hebrews. In gospel language, the pattern of Jesus’ life, is selfless serving. In the words of Jesus’ prayer it is to forgive those who trespass against us.

We never cease to grow into the pattern of Jesus, our high priest. Selfless service; forgiving as we have been forgiven; regular prayer and worship: all are goals of Christian living.  Confidence in Jesus, confidence supplied by Jesus is the grace that fuels Christian living. Because Jesus knows us from the inside and loves us especially in our weaker moments asking each day for grace to confidently live the pattern of his life grows to be our joy. 

In your daily 15 minutes with Jesus this week

• Become aware of the Divine Persons embracing you in love.
• Ask James and John to present you to Jesus.
• Chat with him: praise Jesus for dying and rising for you; thank him for sharing our humanity so he may know us from the inside and help us lovingly.
• Ask Jesus for grace to live the pattern of his life with your life.
• Close by saying slowly the prayer Jesus taught us. It teaches us to show to others the mercy Jesus works in us.

Link to this homily’s Spiritual Exercise

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Wiki-images: Jesus traveling PD-US Montserrat crucifix upload PD-US

Sunday word, 11 Oct 15

Setting the Gospel Free

Twenty-eighth Sunday of the Year B (11 Oct 2015)

Wis 7. 7-11; Ps 90; Hb 4. 12-13; Mk 10. 17-30

Homily of Fr. Paul Panaretos, S.J.

Jesus moved about. He met many. Not all were chance meetings. Some sought Jesus. On his way with his disciples to Jerusalem and his cross, Jesus met a rich man who eagerly sought Jesus for advice about being saved. The man did not get what he expected. His disappointment prompted the disciples to ask Jesus, “Who can be saved?” As was his custom, Jesus made the occasion a lesson for his disciples—and us.

The question of the rich man, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” touched convictions about God. Jesus laid bare one conviction in his reply:“Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone.” The conviction is that God is the source of all that is good. Jesus desired the rich man—and us—not confuse doing good with the Source of all that is good. God’s goodness exceeds ours. We do not have the corner on goodness; we even impress on others our real or artificial goodness. began his answer to—God, Jesus reminded the rich man—and us, is the source of goodness.

By doing whatever is good we ally ourselves with the God of Abraham and Sarah, Moses, Miriam and Jesus. By doing whatever is good we put ourselves on God’s side; we don’t manipulate God to our sides. We place ourselves on God’s side when we live the commands God gave us to inherit God’s life. Jesus reminded that individuals are not saved; God saves a community, a people. In his reply to the rich man’s question Jesus rehearsed the commandments concerning humans in relationship with one another. You and I inherit God’s life by how we live with others!

That is a challenge as headlines these days prove. I think we get that like the rich man did. The rest of Jesus’ answer comes less easily: exchange treasure of earth for treasure of heaven. The matter is not simply one of having nothing; rather it is drawing closer and closer to the Source of goodness, life, love and generosity. When we absorb with heart and mind what flows from God—in daily practice of goodness, love and generosity—we follow Jesus; we become his disciples anew each day. Yet to follow Jesus, to be his disciples, does not make us good. Oh, that it were that easy; but it’s not. We contend with distractions and risks as we follow Jesus.

In practice possessions are risks to promoting life, goodness, love and generosity when possessions grip us and manage us. Jesus said we are to manage possessions not be managed by them. To the rich man Jesus put it this way: “Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” To follow Jesus, to be his disciples, does not make us good. Being disciples challenges us to join Jesus in a countercultural move: downward mobility not upward mobility, to use modern language for accepting the cross. This lesson to surrender wealth is a hard blessing for us. 

To surrender wealth does not mean to throw our wealth on the junk heap. Surrender of wealth by love, generosity, concern for others and care for them gradually discloses God’s power: all things, including our entering God’s realm of life, are possible with God!

Two verses, early and late in this gospel selection, are key. Read together they make sharing God’s life nothing short of miraculous; they tame human ambition instead of the gospel Jesus proclaimed. The verses give us access to God’s mercy toward us: “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? ...For human beings it is impossible, but not for God. All things are possible for God!”

Pray with those two verses. When we do and keep them together in mind and heart, they don’t suffocate the wonder of creation around us and of people in our lives. To pray with those verses, to keep them together in our minds and hearts helps us not overreach ourselves or substitute our ambition for God’s merciful power. Instead they help us release the gospel into our lives and the world and not tame it or try to fashion it to our liking.

In your daily 15 minutes with Jesus this week

• Rest in our triune God creating us and giving us creation to make a return of love to our God more easily.
• Ask the disciples, who listened often to Jesus, to present you to him.
• Chat with him: praise Jesus for dying and rising for you; thank him for his gospel, the good news of God’s mercy for us and everyone.
• Ask him for grace to help you continue to be his disciple more in fact than in name.
• Close saying slowly the Lord’s Prayer. It teaches us to show to others the mercy Jesus works in us.

Link to this homily’s Spiritual Exercise

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Wiki-images: Rich Man Went Away PD-US Shortly After Sunrise by Jessie Eastland CC BY-SA 3.0

Sunday word, 04 Oct 15

Jesus’ Partners

Twenty-seventh Sunday of the Year B (04 Oct 2015)

Gn 2. 18-24; Ps 128; Hb 2. 9-11; Mk 10. 2-16

Homily of Fr. Paul Panaretos, S.J.

St. Paul proclaimed Jesus in every way possible. The mystery of marriage even allowed Paul to speak of Messiah Jesus. About the words of Genesis we heard—a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh—the Apostle said, I am speaking about Christ and about the church.¹ Can we hear today’s scripture selections and let them help us welcome Jesus afresh? A way I think we can begins with convictions. Convictions, we may say, are starting points for anyone’s reasoning and acting. So with Jesus and the Pharisees.

The first conviction in the gospel selection is that both Pharisees and Jesus revered God’s word in scripture. A second: Jesus knew God’s desires in creation and in marriage. And: God’s desires in creation shape marriage. The starting point of the Pharisees was something lawful. The starting point for Jesus was God’s desires and intention from the beginning of creation. The two starters are starkly different.

God’s history with God’s people included the unexpected; God regularly reversed things: God brought down rulers from their thrones and exalted those of humble position²—beginning with Pharaoh and in all generations. Yet the Pharisees were not interested in God’s mysterious, loving ways. No interest God be first; no interest in God’s desires; no desire to walk in God’s ways: those and more scripture captured in a phrase, hardness of heart. Jesus, reader of human hearts, attacked the Pharisees for their hardheartedness.

The exchange between Jesus and the Pharisees is not about what is lawful but about God’s heart and God’s ongoing creating each moment. Jesus invites us to see ourselves as the centerpiece of God’s creation. Central to God’s creation shapes us to join our creator; to see each and everyone as heirs of God’s kingdom; to make choices that honor, protect and share the earth, “our common home.”³ Crisply: to partner with God.

The word in Genesis we translate as helper does not mean women are inferior to men. Genesis sought to express that God intended their equality: God took from the side of man what God fashioned into the partner for the man.

Personal differences as well as different functions do not erase equality. Consider leaders. Their functions give them greater responsibility. Leaders are equally human, too. Here both God’s desires and Jesus shine brightly. Our triune God desired in their eternity that the Second Person become a human being to save the human race.⁴ Jesus, leader to our salvation, leads us because his full humanity included experiencing death and the fear it causes each person.

Our creator became our equal to save us! Becoming our equal did not stop Jesus from being our creator. Becoming our equal allows each person to partner with Jesus. Next to Jesus’ Incarnation and redeeming us, becoming equal partner with Jesus is one of the greatest mysteries. Pondering that mystery in whichever state of living is ours welcomes Jesus afresh, renews our interest in God’s desires and graces us to walk more closely with Jesus.

In your daily 15 minutes with Jesus this week

• Rest in our triune God.
• Ask St. Paul and your patron saint to present you to Jesus.
• Chat with him: praise Jesus for dying and rising for you; thank him for joining us completely in our human condition.
  Ask him for grace to walk more closely with him and to share his heart.
• Close saying slowly the Lord’s Prayer. Jesus gave his prayer to shape us as partners with him and his saving work.

Link to this homily’s Spiritual Exercise

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1. Ephesians 5.32.
2. Luke 1.52.
3. Pope Francis’ phrase echoes through his encyclical, Laudato Si.
4. Ignatius of Loyola, Spiritual Exercises [102].