Fourth Sunday Ordinary Time Year B - Being the face of God

 

FOURTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME (B)
Sunday, January 30, 2012 –  Called to be the face of God

Lectionary #        Deut. 18. 15-20; Ps: 95; 1 Corinthians 7: 32-35; Mark 1: 21-28

 

In the gospels Jesus is given a number of titles, rabbi, Messiah, King, Prophet, Shepherd, Son of God, Holy One of God, High Priest and many others.

Three of them were applied to us at our baptism. We may not remember it, but when you were baptized you were anointed with the words: As Christ was anointed Priest, Prophet, and King, so may you live always as a member of his body, sharing everlasting life.

What do these words mean for me?

First, as King Jesus’ role is to ensure we are kept safe and secure from all the troubles and temptations of the world. So, Jesus is with us, giving us the grace to overcome temptation and avoid sinning.  

Second, as priest Jesus’ role is to sanctify us and act as a mediator between God and us. When we pray to God we do so in Jesus’ name. Jesus makes it possible for us to speak with God.  

Third, as a prophet Jesus’ role is to speak the word of God giving us insight into our journey of faith. When we read and listen to scripture, we are making Jesus present in a real way. For this reason, the Apostle John described Jesus in his gospel, as the word of God.

All three titles, priest, prophet and king are summed up in Mark’s gospel where we are told Jesus spoke with authority and even had power over unclean spirits. This is one of the few passages where Jesus is essentially silent. He only says seven words, “Be silent, and come out of him!”

The point Mark is making is that Jesus, who is the face of God his Father. comes to us, to sanctify us, to receive our prayers and keep us safe. In other words, we are not alone. God is with us. God is with us.

Let me share with you a story about a grandfather – perhaps one that I know.

A few years ago, a grandfather heard his grandson crying. As he entered the room where his grandson had been placed earlier by his mother in a play pen, his grandson immediately stopped crying. With a big smile he said, Pa! Pa! Just as the grandfather was getting ready to pick him up, the child’s mother bolted into the room and exclaimed – now you stay there until you know how to behave – reminding the child why he had been relegated to the playpen in the first place.

Grandpa stopped dead in his tracks. Knowing that rescuing his grandson from the playpen was not an option; yet his grandsons’ distress beckoned him to do something.  Rejecting the idea of leaving the child alone and dismissing the notion of just sitting next to the play pen and reading a story to him, grandpa climbed into the playpen and sat with his grandson.

This little action on Grandpa’s part expresses his love for his grandson knows no bounds; it is an example of how God’s love comes to us; a love that is extended even to people who are imprisoned by their choices and especially to those who feel neglected, abandoned and in need.

As we were anointed to live always as a member of Jesus’ body, then we are expected to be the face of God to others. We need to climb into the playpens of life and sit with those who are lost, forgotten, suffering and in need.

If we do this – we too will earn the title prophet – and perhaps even the holy one of God. 

 

What is truth?

 

As I write this post people in Georgia are casting their votes for two Senate seats. From a political perspective, this run-off election will make a difference for the newly elected Biden administration. For example, if the Republicans hold the Senate, they can block legislation Democrats hope to pass and protect some of President Trump’s deregulation and possibly begin a congressional investigation into Hunter Biden’s financial dealings. For the Democrats, however, winning control of the Senate, allows them to decide which bills come up for a vote, make judicial nominations, and pass many tax and spending measures on items, such as climate and healthcare.

It is also a crucial election, since once again the American people are choosing truth over lies. This is not to say that one political party prefers lies over truth. All political parties twist the truth to some degree. What is at stake here is democracy. As Mary Beard, a distinguished British academic, argued in one of her articles on political spin, a democratic vote swayed by lies is not democracy. By the time this post is read by anyone, the Georgian election will have been decided. I wonder whether anyone will ask whether those who cast their votes did so based on accurate information, political spin or belief in outright lies. I ask this since authentic democracy is more than casting a vote. Democracy is compromised when voters make decisions based on false premises. The need for accurate information in a democracy raises the question that Pontius Pilate asked Jesus: What is truth? In a democracy it is accurate to acknowledge that party loyalties, campaign themes, clever advertising and political spin are factors that will influence the way we vote. It is correct that most voters are aware of political spin and accept the way truth can be shaped to support one parties position on a matter. The danger, of course, is when outright lies form the basis of information to guide a voter.

Now President Donald Trump is not a candidate in this run-off election in Georgia, but his rallies in support of the Republican candidates have largely been variations on his claim that the November 3rd election was rigged against him. Despite numerous recounts and court challenges which have disproved Trump’s claim that the Presidential election was rigged, he has continued to repeat this fact. Sadly, he has repeated this claim so often, especially in his rallies in Georgia, for some it sounds like a settled fact. But as Franklin Roosevelt warned the American people, “Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth.”  

Now I am not here to complain about President Trump nor am I seeking to dismiss his entire record, but I am worried how outright lies that shaped his political strategies might become the norm.  As Fox News host Neil Cavuto complained in his 2018 commentary directed to President Trump: "How can you drain the swamp if you're the one who keeps muddying the waters?" What I am interested in is how lies shape our own responses. When Pilate asked, what is truth, he did so in response to Jesus’ claim that he came into the world to testify to the truth. As a Christian, and I would think this would apply to any human person, truth does matter. I say this even though it can be successfully argued that truthful statements are often flawed and compromised, it should never give us an excuse to purposely lie. When the German philosopher, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz proposed that God did not make the best of all possible universes, he understood our planet. His remarks acknowledge that the world we live is not perfect. We know, as history has demonstrated, that we exist in a world steeped in compromise, betrayal, dysfunction and abuse. Nevertheless, I believe those who choose the truth will find freedom. However, as the 20th President James Garfield once said: “The truth will set you free, but first it will make you miserable.”

When Jesus said he came to testify to the truth, he is telling us that only those who are pure of heart can see the world accurately. Now, don’t dismiss this idea as a simple religious idea, it is not. Purity of heart is more than one of the eight beatitudes. It is, rather, a necessary condition in order to see clearly in every way, whether it is religiously, politically, morally or scientifically. This means avoid looking at issues from our built-in biases. As a Christians, this means I should not hastily dismiss scientists, academics, and technological experts who disagree with scripture. Listening to what they have to say is not dismissing the truth proclaimed in scripture. Rather it is acknowledging that God, who is the source of all truth, gives us both the bible and the findings of various scientist, academics and even politicians. But, at the same time, be wary of those who claim to have all the answers, particularly when their truth touches questions of health, morality, meaning of life and happiness. Pure of heart are those who seek the truth beyond their narrow perspectives; it means choosing the path of truth which begins by opening our eyes to all the possibilities.  The choice can be a source of great pain and misery for those who seek it, but as Barrack Obama offered: “If you’re walking down the right path and you’re willing to keep walking, eventually you’ll make progress.”

 

Take another road

They left for their own country by another road

The Solemn Feast of the Epiphany came early this year, January 3, 2021. The manger we have set up in our home and in our parishes now display the three wise men or magi. The Christmas scene is complete.

A reflection that many of us have done, beginning as early as childhood, is placing each of the figures in their special location. The infant Jesus, of course, is at the cent re surrounded by Mary and Joseph, some lambs and likely a cow. Occasionally some other figures have been added, such as toy figures from some movie or comic strip. If you have done this, don’t worry whether it was sacrilegious or not; it wasn’t. What you or your children were doing was expressing the truth of the incarnation, God came for all humankind and all creation.

As we have set up these mangers or possibly stopped to look at them, we may have paused and thought of the birth of Christ. Pope Francis in his 2019 Apostolic Letter, Admirabile Signum, suggested we set up the Christmas crèche in our homes and parishes it helps us to relive the history of what took place in Bethlehem. Although the Gospels remain our source for understanding and reflecting on that event, at “the same time, its portrayal in the crèche helps us to imagine the scene. It touches our hearts and makes us enter into salvation history as contemporaries of an event that is living and real in a broad gamut of historical and cultural contexts.”

Later he invites us to reflect on the scene and each of the figures. While his insightful description provides some interesting insights into this biblical scene, he encourages all of us to let our own imagination bring to life this historical event the birth of Christ and those who witnessed it.

As Saint Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus, suggested in his second method of imagining: Place yourself fully within a story from the Gospels. Become onlooker-participants and give full rein to our imagination. For example, as Ignatius describes in the Spiritual Exercises, second week, “imagine the labours of the journey to Bethlehem, the struggles of finding a shelter, the poverty, the thirst, the hunger, the cold, the insults that meet the arrival of God-with-us.”

This year what I did was to reflect on each character. For example, the one shepherd that came with my set, I thought how the message of an angel must have impacted his life. Here is a person, whose occupation leaves him living on the fringes of society. Now, he is invited to stand in the presence of Jesus, the son of God.

Then last line of the gospel for the Epiphany ends with the following words: “they left for their own country by another road.” In other words, these wise men from the East could no longer follow the life-path they had pursued before. Standing in the presence of the infant Jesus, everything changed. Knowing that God is with us and that we are with him, changes the way we see ourselves, the choices we make, the life we lead and even the paths we take. 

 As Pope Francis concluded in the his Apostolic letter: “Like Saint Francis, may we open our hearts to this simple grace, so that from our wonderment a humble prayer may arise: a prayer of thanksgiving to God, who wished to share with us his all, and thus never to leave us alone.”