Messy Christian discipleship - Sunday's reading reflection

Each one of the readings today shows us one thing very clearly.  Discipleship is just plain messy.

Whether it be the little tiff between Elijah and Elisha in the first reading, St. Paul's warning against the Christians "biting and devouring" of each other in second reading, or the train wreck of events in the Gospel, we see that without a doubt, Christian discipleship is never black and white. 

Let's take these examples in the Gospel one-at-a-time.  First we have two of the closest disciples to Jesus, James and John, being overzealous and threatening to kill the Samaritans.  Here's the text.

When the disciples James and John saw this they asked,“Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heavento consume them?” Jesus turned and rebuked them.

Just as Christian disciples can be lukewarm, so also they can be overzealous, "rigid" as Pope Francis recently said.  In this way, the Pope said, they fail to be Christian any longer.

The next example we have are those who are quick to speak but fail to act.  They make a commitment to discipleship without even being called.  As the saying goes, "when the going gets tough, the tough get going."  But not in their case.  When discipleship becomes uncomfortable or difficult, as it inevitably does, they run away.

“I will follow you wherever you go.” 

The next group are the would-be disciples Jesus calls, but they have other things to do first.  Discipleship for them is not a top priority.

And to another he said, “Follow me.” But he replied, “Lord, let me go first and bury my father.” 

The next example of how messy Christian discipleship can be comes from those who are well-intentioned, good people but who cannot make a commitment to the Lord because they allow other people and things to pull them away.  In other words, their attachment to others keeps them from attaching to the Lord.

And another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but first let me say farewell to my family at home.”

All of this, remember, is in the context of the whole Gospel that is not presented in the Sunday reading for today.  If one were to pick up the Bible they would see what follows this chapter in Luke.  After the Transfiguration, Jesus comes down from the mountain and is immediately confronted with complaints about how his disciples are ineffective.  

I begged your disciples to cast it out but they could not.”  Jesus said in reply, “O faithless and perverse generation, how long will I be with you and endure you?”

Not only can we disciples be ineffective at carrying out the Lord's commands, but we may not even understand them at all.  Though we may think we know God's will (a risky claim at best), we may later realize we can't even begin to understand the ways of the Lord.  See this example, following chronologically in the Gospel.  Jesus says to his disciples,

“Pay attention to what I am telling you. The Son of Man is to be handed over to men.”  But they did not understand this saying; its meaning was hidden from them so that they should not understand it, and they were afraid to ask him about this saying.

And finally, where does St. Paul find the reason to say what he says in the second reading.  From the same experience Jesus himself had of his disciples. It is awfully difficult to witness to Christianity when Christ's disciples are fighting amongst themselves.  Know that the unChristian way we Christians treat one another today is nothing new.  Following the Gospel chronologically again, we hear, 

An argument arose among the disciples about which of them was the greatest.

We Christians really are something else.  Thank God for his patience and mercy this Sunday.  The truth is clear.  But as the Gospel shows us, knowing the truth and living it are two very different realities.  Try to recognize we need God's patience and mercy because Christian discipleship has many shades of gray.  It's just plain messy.

Reminder ringtones - Tomorrow's reading reflection

Thank God for smart phones where we can set for ourselves reminders with different ringtones to grab our attention.  In the old days it used to be a string tied around the finger.  By the 1990's, "yellow-stickies" became the modus operandi, being stuck to doors, mirrors, windows, computer screens and even dashboards.  Yeah, thank God we have ways to remind ourselves of what should be priorities.  Why?  Because we so easily forget. -even those things which are so important that we take the time to create a visual reminder such as a string, sticky-note or iPhone calendar reminder.

This is what we see in the first reading.  We hear, "When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said: 'I am God the Almighty.  Walk in my presence and be blameless.'”  In today's lingo you could almost hear Abram thinking, "Really?  Again with this?  I know you're God and I must walk in your presence and be blameless.  You've told me this a thousand times."  In fact, God had been leading Abram since he began his pilgrimage out of Ur.  God promised him offspring and lands.  And then he does so again when Ishmael is conceived with Hagar and Abram is 85.  Now we see Abram at 99, fourteen years later!  Still, no son.  Still no descendents other than the wild ass of a man (Ishmael) who is currently 13 and probably a wild ass of a teenager.

God says to Abram about Sarai, yet again, "I will bless her, and I will give you a son by her."  Abram had heard this before.  But, he needed a reminder! -just like he needed a reminder that God is God and that he must walk in his presence and be blameless.  We see Abram's faith and familiarity with God, as well as his humanity, because we hear, "Abraham [he was renamed in v.5] prostrated himself and laughed as he said to himself, 'Can a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old?  Or can Sarah give birth at ninety?'”  

As we know, the answer was yes.  Isaac was born one year later, more than twenty-five years after God first  promised Abraham descendents.  The promise was to be fulfilled, eventually.  But Abraham needed reminders along the way.  And so do we.  God is God.  We are not.  He loves us.  

Relax, and walk in his ways the best you can.

Abram's sandcastle - Tomorrow's reading reflection

"And everyone who listens to these words of mine but does not act on them will be like a fool who built his house on sand."

It's awfully easy to take matters into our own hands.  When what we want isn't coming to us when we want it, we're tempted to jump in and make things happen.  That, is building on sand.  

We see it clearly with Abram and Sarai in the first reading.  God's word is spoken and they listen to it but do not act on it.  Instead, when their timeline isn't met, they take matters into their own hands and Sarai convinces Abram to have intercourse with her maidservant.  "And everyone who listens to these words of mine but does not act on them will be like a fool who built his house on sand."

All hell breaks loose in Abram's house.  After Hagar runs away and then returns, she bears a son of whom the angel of the Lord says, "This one shall be a wild ass of a man, his hand against everyone, and everyone’s hand against him; In opposition to all his kin shall he encamp." I'm sure that is just what Hagar wanted to hear in her exodus.  Just as she wanted to hear the angel tell her to return and submit humbly to Hagar's abusive treatment.  Yet she hears the word of the Lord and acts upon it.  Thus, she builds on stone.

Eventually Abram and Sarai would build on stone but not without more mistakes, more sandcastles.  We are quick to judge others and some of us are quick to judge ourselves.  Let the Lord be the judge.  You, focus on not taking matters into your own hands and thus building on sand.  Listen to the word of God and act on it.  Build your life upon the Rock of Christ.

Email petitions to Pope with just a click for World Youth Day Mass

Pope Francis and the Shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida are making it easy for Catholics, and anyone for that matter, to send in petitions that will be placed in special books to be put at the altar where Pope Francis will celebrate Mass when he travels to Brazil for World Youth Day.  Our friends at CNA have created a direct link from their article reporting this story.  You can read the entire article here.  To go directly to the website collecting the petitions, click here.  Side note: You'll have to use google translate, an option usually provided for you at the top of the page browser in order to understand the instructions and required fields.

Good fruit, bad fruit, same tree? - Tomorrow's reading reflection

"A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a rotten tree bear good fruit."

Once I saw a tree whose apples looked crisp and full, at the top.  But the lower hanging branches still clung to apples that had not yet dropped or been picked.  These apples were just past ripe and were beginning to soften and brown.  Insects had penetrated the apples at the bottom and left some of the apples pockmarked.  

Yet both sets of apples were from the same tree.  Bad fruit.  Good fruit.  Same tree.

So too with Abram in the first reading.  God picked him to lead his people and promised him the nations because of his faith.  He was a good tree.  Because of his impatience, however, he took matters into his own hands by sleeping with his wife's maidservant.  The action immediately created negative consequences, though the goal of offspring was accomplished.  The negative consequences created division, hatred and worsened, continuing down through the generations.  Bad fruit.

In the reading for today, however, God makes a covenant promise with Abram.  By putting his faith again in God's word, he recommitted himself to the Lord.  And as we hear, God "credited it to him as an act of righteousness".  Good fruit.

Same tree.   Bad fruit.  Good fruit.

I bet we're not all that different.  We're good people who produce good fruit.  But at times, we put too much faith in ourselves and our fruit, clinging to our mature apples for too long.  And then they become rotten.

Seek progress, not perfection.  Jesus never says anything about producing perfect fruit.  Just... good fruit.

Dogs and swine - Tomorrow's reading reflection

“Do not give what is holy to dogs, or throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample them underfoot, and turn and tear you to pieces."

It seems hard to believe that Jesus would use such harsh words when talking to his disciples.  What did he really mean?  Did he really use the words dogs and swine to describe, what in his time, were considered Gentiles?  The NABRE (New American Bible Revised Edition) gives the following helpful note:

[7:6] Dogs and swine were Jewish terms of contempt for Gentiles. This saying may originally have derived from a Jewish Christian community opposed to preaching the gospel (what is holy, pearls) to Gentiles. In the light of Mt 28:19 that can hardly be Matthew’s meaning. He may have taken the saying as applying to a Christian dealing with an obstinately impenitent fellow Christian (Mt 18:17). [Bold mine]

Have you ever had this experience yourself?  In humility you may know that what you are saying is right but someone else refuses to listen to you.  This is often the case in families as Jesus himself says in another place. "A prophet is not without honor, except in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house."   (Mk 6:4)  The case of arguing with an obstinately impenitent person seems less rare these days as relativism continues to extend its tentacles.  

What Jesus may have been saying is similar to what he said to his disciples about preaching the Gospel in towns that do not welcome them.  "Shake the dust from your feet," he tells them.  In other words, propose the Gospel and the truth in charity, and if the person refuses to hear you, walk away.  There is no point arguing with a fool.

Is fool a strong word?  Maybe not.  Jesus, who of course was familiar with the Psalm and Proverbs, may have been "importing" wisdom from the same.  Here are a few Old Testament verses that may help us to understand why Jesus said what he said.

Do not speak in the hearing of fools;

they will despise the wisdom of your words. (Prv 23:9)

Whoever corrects the arrogant earns insults;

and whoever reproves the wicked incurs opprobrium.

Do not reprove the arrogant, lest they hate you;

reprove the wise, and they will love you. (Prv 9:7-8)

A fool takes no pleasure in understanding,

but only in expressing his opinion. (Prv 18:2)

Answer not a fool according to his folly,

lest you be like him yourself. (Prv 26:4)