September 28, 2003

Numbers 11:25-29 + James 5:1-6 + Mark 9:38-43,45,47,48

Joshua, prompted by that nameless tattle-tale young man of the first reading is really the center of things today. He faces a challenge we must all face sooner or later. And Moses is up for the task.

Joshua doesn’t get it, just like John in the Gospel. What does not fit into his head, into his idea of how things ought to be

must be corrected. So, like Joshua running to Moses, John runs to Jesus. And Jesus, true to his Old Testament roots, and the Jesus of Mark’s Gospel formed in the image of Moses responds with the same challenge.

That “Spirit” which is the presence of God experienced is not contained, controlled or defined by human imposed limits. It is poured out all over this earth, and those who have received it are not necessarily those in this church. The prophetic, if that is what we are, will be the first to recognize that, point to the Spirit, and affirm the truth of that Spirit’s presence.

“Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets” says Moses to Joshua. And in Jesus Christ his wish or command has come to pass. We are, by Baptism, a Prophetic people: a Prophetic Church.

That gift of Prophecy has nothing to do with predicting the future –

that business has nothing to do with true “Prophecy.” That stuff is a foolish distraction and distortion of the prophet’s gift and role in the community’s life. The “Prophet” in the midst of a community of believers is the one who points to the presence of God,

the action of God; and serves as a reminder in the midst of a community that it is God who is the source of all things and the center of all.

We are a Prophetic people, a prophetic church. We do not presume for one moment that we have exclusive possession of God, or that God has no others besides us precisely because we are prophetic and can see God elsewhere. As an Apostolic Church we continue the mission of the apostles acting in the place of Jesus Christ to reveal the presence of God in all creation.

We see, acknowledge, and honor the presence of God in the poor;

and our compassion and response to the poor bears witness to the Spirit they possess and the Spirit that helps us see in them the truth of God’s presence. It is why our works of Charity, and specifically right now, our commitment to Catholic Charities becomes one measure among others of our gift of prophecy, because the poor are the presence of God, and our ignoring of them ignores God.

The poor, like the sick among us, sometimes in their suffering

fail to remember how close they are to God and God to them.

Our response, respect, honor, and care bear witness to our prophetic gift. For this reason, today, the sick among us will be anointed because they are holy, because in their sickness, they are sacramental signs of God’s presence, a God who has identified with the week, the frail, the suffering, the sick, and those who are avoided and abandoned.

This truth is the heart of the church’s teaching about the sick and the poor. These are not ignored, forgotten, nor avoided by a people who are prophetic. The prophet who sees the presence of God sees that presence in them and calls and works and cries out for justice, healing, and relief of their suffering. Those of you who will come forward in a moment are a gift to us you are a sacrament holy, filled with the Spirit, and precious in God’s sight. Not alone in your suffering and weakness, God is with you, in you, breathing the promise of healing in ever-lasting life. When you wonder “why” you bear this day’s suffering, know that it is to reveal the presence of God among us: a God who is no stranger to suffering. Those of us whose sufferings are so few and so little today, are called by the Word of God to draw near to the presence of the Holy One in our midst. With profound respect and honor just as we cherish the Blessed Sacrament among us, we must cherish and revere the poor and the sick, for they too are the presence of God in

September 21, 2003

Wisdom 2:12,17-20 + James 3:16-4.3 + Mark 9:30-37

There is a reason for Christian people to assemble week after week before an image of Christ crucified. The earliest of our sisters and brothers did not do so. They had no need of that image. They lived with it in their memory of Jesus and their own experience. They knew nothing of success or greatness. In fact, to become one with others who followed “The Way” of Jesus meant that they would lose whatever success or greatness they had. The cross does not appear until much later when those who followed “The Way” began to assimilate the trappings and measure greatness by their ability to imitate imperial power. At that point, the cross appears. They needed it, lest they think that greatness and goodness in God’s sight had anything to do with their power, their accomplishments, and their resources. And the cross is still there because we need it too,

a constant and in-your-face reminder that our image of and our definition of greatness is in constant need of revision in light of what we know to be true from what God has taught us through Jesus Christ.

We come into this place week after week to be reminded

that we follow a messiah who suffers instead of producing spectacular victories. We want divine strength to fix our messy and difficult lives, but what we get is the cross. We want nations subdued under our feet rather than our own prostrate before the One who is truly just. Power and might, success and victory are not the ingredients of greatness among those who have taken Jesus Christ as the Way of their lives. Jesus did not die for the sake of glory. He did not suffer and accept his defeat because he thought it would make him successful. He did it because it was good and right. The goal was not victory or glory. It was to make a new and lasting covenant in which sin is forgiven, reconciliation accomplished,

and eternal life made available to all. I believe that he was just as surprised on Easter morning as those guards when the stone rolled away. He did not suffer to gain heaven, but to be faithful. His was a life of service and goodness, obedience and fidelity; and He lived that way because it was the right way not because he thought it would get him something. He hung out with people who had nothing to offer him. Grasping at greatness or serving others because it will make us great is the wrong path. It is not the Way of Jesus.

This Gospel proclaimed with Old Testament Wisdom before it urges us to think again about greatness. The true disciple of Jesus Christ is not necessarily a “winner”, flawless, or perfect in any way. The true disciple never thinks that winning is everything, and true disciples do not define themselves or measure their worth by what they have accomplished, bought, sold, or saved. They are not found in the company of people who can do them favors

We sit before the cross again today, a week after the Feast of the Holy Cross, and we are both cautioned and comforted by the Word of God: Cautioned lest we think that greatness has something to do with us, Comforted lest we forget that the Son of God was alone,

abandoned, rejected, misunderstood, and used by those who wanted what he could give them, but wanted nothing to do with him.

Greatness then, in the light of this Gospel may well require that we surrender “greatness” as our ancestors in faith had to do in order to do what is good and right. It may also mean that in the light of this Gospel, we surrender the comfort of pretending we are not great enough and abandon the excuse that we need to have more of anything before we can really serve and walk in the Way of Jesus.

If we do not embrace this Gospel Wisdom, then we are doomed to spend all our days in one great ambitious, competitive, anxious squabble about who is the greatest.

September 7, 2003

Isaiah 35:4-7 + James 2:1-5 + Mark 7:31-37

There is a word used only once in the Jewish scriptures and once in the Christian scriptures. We hear it today in Isaiah and in Mark.

With those readings as a pair, we can hardly fail to miss the point.

The word is translated differently in Isaiah and in Mark, but in the original language, it is the same. Isaiah says: “then the tongue of the mute will sing.” Mark says: “He spoke plainly.” What we are drawn to see today in our feast upon this Word has something to do with breaking the silence and being heard. The miracle story is not as much about a deaf man as it is a sign that God’s dominion is at hand. It’s not about a deaf man and Jesus. It is about signs that we belong in the Kingdom of God.

What this Word and the Church does today is bring us before Jesus just as the people of the Gospel Story brought that deaf man.

We stand before Christ Jesus deaf and silent. We do not hear. We do not hear truthfully, and so our speech is unintelligible, or we do not speak the truth. Sometimes it is not so much that our ears are closed as it is the selective attention, we have perfected. Yet in this world there are so many voices and there is so much noise leaving us overwhelmed and confused. And in this world there is always the option of listening to the voice of self-interest; of hearing what serves our self-worth; and all of that leaves us silent. Standing before Christ Jesus today, we hear him say: “BE OPEN.”

His command speaks more to our mind and heart than to our ears.

Minds closed to the truth of Gospel values leave us dumb and able speak. And when we are silent, the poor and voiceless that grow in numbers around us have no hope at all. To minds, lives, and hearts closed to others, Christ says: “BE OPEN. Speak for the voiceless when they are jobless and homeless, because voters only vote for what protects themselves. Speak for the Immigrant who know not the language that asks for a share in the wealth of the earth. Speak for honesty and a limit on wealth in a day when deceit is the standard operating procedure in business for the sake of profit.

Speak the whole truth about the common good in a day when half-truth is offered by governments for the sake of private interest. Speak of the ugliness of war in a day when it is managed and concealed to look like a game on prime-time TV.

Open to God’s voice we can stand before this world bearing witness to the power, the truth, and the love of that Voice. If we know the touch of the risen Christ before whom we stand in this place, we will confront the growing suffering of humanity\ and confront the principalities and powers that block the Holy Way of God. Open to God’s voice we shall hear hope in desolation. Open to God’s voice we shall hear comfort in sorrow and sadness. Open to God’s voice we shall hear “I Am with You.” in fear. Open to God’s voice, we shall know what to say in the face of injustice.

Those who live in the Dominion of God have new ways of evaluating what is good and who is important. Their agenda is Jesus Christ who made the needs of others his own mission. His true  disciples shall ask for his healing touch today because they cannot risk being deaf to the overtures of God who invites us to be open.