Friday, October 06, 2017

Daily word, 06 Oct 17

Twenty-sixth Friday of the Year (06 Oct 2017)
Homily of Fr. Paul Panaretos, S.J. on Disposition Days Retreat
We of Prayer
Prophets called people to return to God and God’s ways when people had wandered from God and God’s ways. To wander from God was not new. The cycle of wandering and return existed at Israel’s beginning: breaking relationship with God; consequences; repentance; return to the relationship. Scripture preserves moments of this cycle. Prophet Baruch assisted Prophet Jeremiah during the time leading to the exile of the population of Judah to Babylon. Baruch’s correspondence sought to offer clarity to the exiles in their anguish. Baruch also sought to comfort and encourage the exiled people.

We heard Baruch give voice to the repentance moment: we today are flushed with shame, we people of Judah and citizens of Jerusalem…we, with our kings and rulers and priests and prophets, and with our ancestors, have sinned in the Lord’s sight and disobeyed the Lord. We have neither heeded the voice of the Lord, our God, nor followed the precepts which the Lord set before us.

The responsibility for wandering from God is plural: we, our, us: we are flushed with remorse; we with our rulers, priests…prophets, and…our ancestors; we have…not followed what the Lord gave us. We, our, us glowed on the page as I read. I pondered why I noticed their gleam: perhaps North American individualism affects me more than I care to admit. Many peoples—Israel in scripture is one—identify themselves as we before they identify themselves as I. Conscious of I before we may well be why many North Americans grasp at much and care less about others God creates—humans and the earth itself.

Even individuals among we-thinking peoples are tempted to prefer and think I, me, mine. Individuals can group with that mind. Jesus lamented that entire cities rejected God’s desire; their citizens refused to want what God wanted: abundant life1 for all.

Does my observation hold any value for us making individually directed silent retreats? I think a signal value exists: approach your prayer, imagine it as we—God and I. Bill reminded us that prayer is mutual; Yvonne encouraged us to let God show us ourselves and tell us who we are. Ignatius encouraged that we chat with those who enter our prayer: Jesus; his Abba; his mother; his Spirit; other sainted people—of the church and in our lives. Praying as we helps us notice that God has been and is nearer to us than our breathing.2 Praying as we lets us return to our triune God and abide together more closely.

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  1. Jn. 10.10.
  2. Acts 17.25.
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Wiki-image Prophet Baruch PD-US

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