THIRTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

27 JUNE 2021

 

          Today’s Gospel follows the Gospel from last Sunday.  Jesus and his disciples had been caught in one of those violent storms on the Sea of Galilee coming from the Golan Heights.  The disciples woke Jesus from his deep sleep in the stern of the boat.  They asked why he did not care that they were perishing.  He immediately rebuked the storm, as he had rebuked demons.  He calmed the sea, as he had calmed those who had been possessed by demons.  In this action, he revealed to them that he is the Son of God.  But he also rebuked them for their fear.  It was their fear that caused them to lose faith.

            Jesus and his disciples now reach the other shore of the Sea.  Jairus, an important and well-known synagogue official, expresses his faith that Jesus can cure his twelve-year-old daughter, who is at the point of death.  As Jesus goes with him, a large crowd presses upon him.  They are obviously curious about what he will do.  In that crowd is an unnamed woman from the lower class.  She has been suffering from a painful flow of blood for twelve years.  Even worse, that flow of blood has made her ritually unclean and unable to conceive a child.  Isolated from everyone who avoids her ritual uncleanliness, she is literally a walking dead person.  Showing incredible faith in Jesus, she reaches out to touch his clothes.  She is healed immediately, but is startled when Jesus asks who touched him.  Instead of scolding her for performing an unclean ritual act of touching him, he praises her for her faith and tells her to go in peace.

            When Jesus reaches the house of Jairus, he finds that his daughter has died.  The crowd laughs at him for saying that she is sleeping.  But he ignores them and enters the house with Peter, James, and John.  Just as his true nature will be revealed to them in the Transfiguration, he reveals that he is the Son of God by ignoring the purity laws and touches the dead girl and brings her back to life.  Even though they are astounded by these miracles, they will not fully grasp God’s love until the Father will raise Jesus from the dead.

            We often think that hate is the opposite of love.  However, the Gospels remind us that fear keeps us from responding to the love of God in faith.  Fear of drowning kept the disciples from trusting that Jesus was present to them in the midst of the raging storm.  Fear sets in when this unnamed woman is asked to reveal that she had dared to touch Jesus.  Fear causes those mourning the death of Jairus’ daughter to lose faith that Jesus could save her.

            Jesus says these same words to us.  We often waver in our faith when we are overtaken by fear.  Saint Paul addresses a fear that many of us have about embracing stewardship as a way of life.  He writes to the Church of Corinth, whose members are blessed with many material blessings.  He argues that their surplus of treasure can compensate for the needs of others.  He asks them to be generous to the gracious act he is undertaking.  His gracious act involves taking up a collection for the Church of Jerusalem, both impoverished and persecuted.  He reminds them that the Macedonians had been extremely generous, despite their limited amount of wealth.  He tells them that the reason for giving is rooted in the incredible gift of Jesus Christ, whose gracious act caused him to empty himself of being rich to be poor, taking on our human nature.

We can be hesitant to give ourselves as stewards of time, talent, and treasure, because we fear that giving away those realities will deplete all we have.  Like the woman afflicted with the hemorrhage, we can approach Jesus with the confidence that he will provide for our needs.  Like Jairus, we can trust that the one who raised his daughter can raise us from death through his resurrection.  Like the disciples in the boat, we can learn that the Lord is with us in the roughest of times, inviting us to imitate his calm confidence in the love of his Father. 

 

TWELFTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

20 JUNE 2021

 

          The Book of Job is an extended parable that addresses the mystery of human suffering.  At the beginning of the Book, God brags to Satan about Job’s faithfulness.  Satan responds, “Of course he is a faithful servant.  He has everything – good health, a large family, and great wealth.  Take those away, and let’s see how faithful he is.”  God allows Satan to take away everything.  Job loses his family, his wealth, and his health.  His wife leaves him, advising him to curse God and die.  Then his three friends arrive to “comfort” him.  Convinced that human suffering is a punishment for sin, they urge him to admit his sinfulness and accept this punishment.  Even though Job is a sinner, he senses that this solution is too simple.  Job is hardly patient and complains bitterly throughout the entire book.  But he never abandons his faith in God.  Finally, God addresses him and asks a series of rhetorical questions.  Our first reading gives one of those questions.  God asks Job if he understands the mystery of creation.  Like a loving parent, God delivers creation from the womb and wraps the created world in swaddling bands as a gift.

            The Book of Job does not give a definitive answer to the mystery of human suffering.  But just as Job does not understand why God allows people to suffer, neither can he understand God’s creative and beautiful love.  God addresses Job out of the storm.  God dwells in the whirlwinds and tempests of life.  God had been present to Job in the midst of his terrible storm.

            In today’s Gospel, Jesus is asleep in the stern of the boat.  Violent squalls happen on the Sea of Galilee, as strong winds from the Golan Heights cause dangerous waves.  Jesus remains asleep in the midst of this storm.  The disciples wake him and ask, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”  When he awakens, he rebukes the wind just as he has been rebuking demons.  He demands that the sea be quiet and still, as he has demanded the demons to be quiet.  At his command, the wind ceases, and there is a great calm.  He reveals himself as the Son of God.

            Jesus is present to his disciples in the midst of their dangerous storm, as God has been present to Job in his storms.  He remains peaceful and assured in the face of terror, death, and destruction.  He will maintain that same attitude when he is betrayed and crucified as a common criminal.  He will trust in his Father’s power to raise him from the dead.  He is warning his disciples that they too will be tossed about in the boat that will become the Church.  They will need to be steadfast in their faith.  They will need to trust him in all times and circumstances.

            As his disciples today, we are crossing the sea of life in the “Barque of Peter,” as the Church is sometimes called.  This Barque has been threatened by storms for centuries.  We are just emerging from two of those storms – the clergy sexual abuse scandal and the pandemic.  As individuals, each of us crosses our own bodies of water as we transition from one situation in life to another.  We who are fathers can speak of the transitions we have made to let go of our own needs to be more attentive to the needs of those who depend on us.  We also know the violent storms that have threatened us in these transitions.  Today’s Gospel answers the question of whether the Lord is present in those difficult times.  The answer is “yes.”

            Saint Paul assures the Corinthians that he can face violent opposition because the love of Christ impels him.  That same love of Christ impels us, holds us together, helps us to hold fast to our faith in the most violent of times, and allows us to press forward.  Saint Teresa of Avila expresses her trust that the Lord is present in the midst of the many storms in her life in the sixteenth century.  She replaces turbulence and unknowing with stillness.  “Let nothing disturb you.  Let nothing upset you.  Everything changes.  God alone is unchanging.  With patience all things are possible.  Whoever has God lacks nothing.  God alone is enough.”

 

THE MOST HOLY BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST

6 JUNE 2021

 

On the final night of their captivity in Egypt, Moses had instructed his people to slaughter a lamb and eat its roasted flesh, along with cups of wine, bitter herbs, and other symbolic foods.  The ritual eating of this lamb prepared them for their Passover from slavery in Egypt to freedom in the Land promised by God to their ancestors.  Then he told them to smear its blood on the lintels of their homes.  The angel of death passed over their homes.  The blood signified that these inhabitants belonged to the family of God.  In today’s first reading from the Book of Exodus, Moses seals the Covenant between God and his Chosen People at Mount Sinai.  He splashes the blood of the sacrificed bulls on the Altar.  They are now his blood family.  Then he sprinkles the blood on the people, signifying their blood relationship with one another.  (For those of you who cringed at Deacon Lou’s enthusiastic sprinkling of Holy Water during the Easter Season, you should be glad that you were not at Mount Sinai!)

            On the final night of his earthly life, Jesus instructs his disciples to prepare the Passover meal in an upper room reserved for them.  As the meal progresses, Jesus deepens the meaning of the ancient Passover ritual.  He will become the Passover Lamb, sacrificed out of love.  He will give his body, his entire self, as an active remembrance of freeing his people from slavery to sin and death to freedom in the kingdom of God.  He will seal the New Covenant with his blood, forming a family bonded by the blood that speaks of his life.

            We are his blood family in our world today.  Whenever the Lord invites us to eat his Body and drink his Blood at Mass, he is renewing his commitment to us.  He freely gives himself to us in the Eucharist, even though none of us deserves it.

            As his blood family, we renew our commitment to the Lord Jesus.  In sending the two disciples into Jerusalem to arrange for the Passover Meal, he tells them to meet a man carrying a water jar.  Men never carried water jars in the ancient world.  That was the task of women.  This detail is important.  In the Incarnation, Jesus had entered the ordinary water of our humanity to draw us into his divinity.  When we receive the ordinary bread and wine that has been transformed into his Body and Blood, we embrace our commitment to him who has committed himself to us.  We open ourselves to be transformed into his divinity.

As his blood family, we celebrate our commitment to one another.  At Mount Sinai, the people responded to Moses by answering, “All that the Lord has said, we will heed and do.”  Reflecting on those words, Saint Augustine explained that Holy Communion is both a gift and a task.  “’The Body of Christ,’ you are told, and you answer ‘Amen.’  Be members then of the Body of Christ so that your Amen may be true!  Why is this mystery accomplished with bread? … Consider that the bread is not made of one grain, but of many.  During the time of exorcism (before Baptism), you were, so to say, in the mill.  When you were baptized, you were wetted with water.  Then the Holy Spirit came into you like the fire that bakes the dough.  Be then what you see and receive what you are.”

On this Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, we reflect on the mystery of the Eucharist, which is the source and summit of our lives of faith.  Through our baptisms, the Lord has formed us from many different grains into one Body.  Nourished by his real presence in the Eucharist, we are given the task of renewing the blood bonds with the Lord and with each other.  Nourished by the Eucharist, we can bring new life to our parish, damaged by the pandemic in this last year and a half.