Once at the Margins

Today’s Feast of St. James recalls once more that Jesus chose fishermen as he began to form a network around him. Modern folk, unlike Jesus’ contemporaries, may not wonder that he did. Rachel Lu wonders and asked, Why? One of her phrases, “lives at the margins,” caused an additional wondering: Do not Christians discover their true identity “at the margins?”

Why did Christ choose a fisherman? https://t.co/3EAyY6MBiK

— America Magazine (@americamag) July 25, 2020

The Other Contagion

Suffering can evoke love; great suffering, great love. In the third article in the “Living Beyond the Crisis”  series Jesuit Federico Lombardi notes, “In this time of great suffering some people know they are called by professional, religious or personal vocation to put their lives at risk for others.” One backdrop for his reflection was the suffering of 11 September 2001.

The third article in our series “Living Beyond the Crisis” which explores the example of doctors, nurses, priests, and those who give of themselves in service to the sick. #coronavirus https://t.co/SMZetn0aTO

— Vatican News (@VaticanNews) May 8, 2020

[Father Lombardi authored the first and second in the series]

“Recent Surge”

An increase in the number of Jesuit priests in America is attributed to the “Pope Francis effect.” The Province Express, an electronic newsletter of the Jesuit Australian Province, passed along that recent statistic yesterday.

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Wiki-image of Francis at Angelus by Christoph Wagener CC BY-SA 3.0

A TV-Character and a Biblical Prophet

Sometimes people notice commentary after an event that was intended to be noticed beforehand. U.S. Catholic Blog posted a thought-and-prayer-starter last Friday. It sought to help readers think about the mission of Prophet Amos and their mission as baptized prophets. Because the post—entitled “Where are the prophets?”—is more about the present than the past it can be read this week and beyond.

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Wiki-image Papyrus Book of Amos PD-US

Commitment

Many millennials fear it, concludes someone who assists them discern a calling to a life dedicated to the Church and its mission. This Atlantic post looks at millennials making those life-choices and why. Human testimony is supplemented by graphs and even a digital revelation: “It’s like Match.com, but for religious communities.”

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Wiki-image by Flodiho of Marktkirche St. Jacobi CC BY-SA 3.0.

"Strange Thing"

Recently ordained Jesuit Paul Lickteig wrote, “Vocation is a strange thing.” His reflection on his vocation leaves out no one while he shares his particular circumstances at HuffPost.

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Wiki-image by Hash Milhan of landscape in Peradeniya used by CC BY 2.0.

Description → Analysis

In an engaging way NYT columnist David Brooks described U.S. society and where it could be in his 2012 The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and Achievement. He embeds facts within the story of a couple as children and as adults. His books points to possibilities, suggested by his subtitle.

Published just days later, Richard Sennet offered an analysis relating to some of what Mr. Brooks described. Of Mr. Sennet’s Together: The Rituals, Pleasures and Politics of Cooperation. In ThinkingFaith John Battle wrote

that it sounds as if it should provide a handy manual of how to proceed. This book, however, is far more challenging than that; Sennett provides a deep critique of the way our societies are developing in the twenty-first century. Sennett’s starting point is his assertion that modern society is actively de-skilling people in practising cooperation: ‘...We are losing the skills of cooperation needed to make a complex society work.’ ...‘Cooperation oils the machinery of getting things done and sharing with others can make up for what we may individually lack. Cooperation is embedded in our genes but cannot remain stuck in routine behaviour, it needs to be deepened and developed.’

One reader suggested on Amazon.com that Mr. Sennet’s volume needs a workbook. Many “far more challenging” analyses of this sort often do. Perhaps Mr. Sennet or someone else will provide one. Read Mr. Battle’s review.

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Wiki-image by Anna Bauer of many-to-many wiki used by CC BY-SA 3.0.

Sunday word, 29 Apr 2012

Love Creates and Sends
Easter Sunday4 (29 Apr 2012)
Ac 4.8-12; Ps 118; 1Jn 3.1-2; Jn 10. 11-18

Homily of Fr. Paul Panaretos, S.J.

The imagery of shepherd and Jesus’ self-designation as the good shepherd invite us to consider Jesus as our anchor for each of us personally as well as for the church. A word about our Shepherd, and a word about us.

As good shepherd Jesus is more than a guide. Jesus offers us the life he shares with his Father. We heard him remind us that he is this life’s cornerstone and foundation: This is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own. What you and I name as resurrection is the measure of God’s love for Jesus, the son; and through him all humans. 

God’s resurrection-love for Jesus widens the meaning of shepherd. By calling himself the good shepherd, Jesus was not merely speaking in human terms. His self-designation means he is the truly perfect guide and model of living and loving: Freely I lay down my life in order to take it up again. He desired all sharers in his life and love may come to know God, whom he called his dear Father.

Jesus reshaped shepherd to mean giver of divine life and not in any random way. Jesus shares his risen life with each of us as if each of us was the sole person in the universe. By his Spirit, the energy of his risen life, Jesus joins us to himself with intimate knowledge: I know mine and mine know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. In Jesus we become children of God. 

Far from belittling, children is an endearing term. Unlike the word sheep, children suggests our future is to grow in our identity as beloved by Jesus, who is beloved by God. That well describes the Easter mystery’s dynamic. To grow in our identity as beloved by Jesus also is the lifelong mission of each of us. The word the church uses for our mission is “vocation.”

Pope Benedict this year has focused vocation this way: Vocations are experiences of “the Gift of the Love of God.”1 God’s love is universal. Our limitations make its universal aspect easy to overlook. Loving all people into being, God invites humans with a universal call to holiness.2 It is the vocation of all the baptized. We seek to infuse with “religious values” all our “earthly activities.”³ 

Vocation has a particular dimension, too. It applies to each one’s life path: single; married; men and women in consecrated life, who take vows of chastity, poverty and obedience; as well as clergy. All of us are to “stimulate our concern for cultivating this [earth]” on our pilgrimage to the “new earth” awaiting us.4

Praying for vocations is at once universal: that all baptized into our risen Messiah and Lord may become more generous children of God, whose lives witness to the new life our risen Messiah has won for us. Praying for vocations is also particular: that each person will faithfully live as God has created each of us. Praying for vocations also requests God to grace young people to preach the message of our Good Shepherd by lives as consecrated religious or to preach it in word and sacrament so “that all the activities of the faithful will be bathed in the light of the gospel.”5

In your daily 15 minutes with Jesus this week

• Allow yourself to feel recreated by our triune God.
• Ask your patron saint to present you to Jesus.
• Consider your life as it has been, as it is and as you desire it to be; then entrust your life to Jesus and ask him to consecrate it to his service and glory.
• Ask Jesus to enlighten your mind and heart so your personal vocation may invite others to respond to the divine energy risen Jesus reveals in his church.
• Close saying slowly the Lord’s Prayer, which helps us appreciate better what we are sent into the world to do each day.

Link to this homily’s Spiritual Exercise

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1. His Message on the occasion of the 49th World Day of Prayer for Vocations.
2. The title of Chapter 5 of the Decree on the Church (Lumen gentium) of the Second Vatican Council. The chapter devoted itself to following Jesus in daily life.
3. The Second Vatican Council’s Pastoral Constitution on the Church, 43.
4. Ibid., 39.
5. Ibid., 43.

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Wiki-images by Bwag of a Good Shepherd statue and by Nheyob of Assumption Chapel mosaic are used by CC BY-SA 3.0.