1. --
Lanie LeBlanc OP
2. --
Carol & Dennis Keller
3. --
Brian Gleeson CP
4. --
Paul O'Reilly SJ
5. -- About the
Yoke Carol and Dennis
6. -- (Your
reflection can be here!)
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1.
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Sun. 14 A
In our Gospel account from Mathew, we hear Jesus say,
"Come to me all you who labor and are burdened and I will
give you rest." I don't know anyone who doesn't fit that
figurative description or need rest, do you? That one
sentence has become a kind of mantra for me personally these
last few weeks since many things are more stressful than
ever in my household.
So do we who fit that category just line up and wait our
turn? It may feel that way, that the waiting line is
interminable, slow moving, and never ending. Jesus's inbox
or request line or ticket distribution center, however,
finds each of us first in line and gives an automatic and
instant reply that says "right now".
Jesus's arms are already open and the instructions are
already there. He says, "Take my yoke upon you and learn
from me... and you will find rest for yourselves". Oh, oh,
our turn!
Can we do one more thing? Well, we can if it is to take
Jesus's yoke upon ourselves. That yoke begins with finding
the time to sit with Jesus a bit in prayer and learn .
What Jesus teaches is applicable to all of us and each of
us in our own unique situation. In these times, whatever you
situation is, that teaching includes Jesus's reminder to
trust in the Lord's care for us. We must then act according
to God's ways and not for personal gain, and also care for
one another.
Focusing on just those few parts of Jesus's "little
instruction book" removes quite a bit of my "burden". I
can't do it all, but I can be caring and loving, a little
bit at a time. I can take on that yoke so my burden will
lighten.
I pray you can also. Let us pray together that soon and
very soon, we will all rejoice and shout for joy. We all
need peace in our lands and in our hearts!
Blessings,
Dr. Lanie
LeBlanc OP
Southern
Dominican Laity
lanie@leblanc.one
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2.
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Fourteenth Sunday of Ordered Time July 5 2020
Zechariah 9:9-10; Responsorial Psalm 145; Romans
8:9 & 11-13; Gospel Acclamation Matthew 11:25; Matthew
11:25-30
The readings this Sunday seem to focus on the wonderful
circumstances of the Kingdom of Heaven. Zechariah’s prophecy
speaks of the Messiah coming to Jerusalem as a King of peace
and prosperity. At his coming, war would cease and the world
would come together in harmony. The Messiah’s influence
would be a dominion of leadership focusing on the common
good of all nations – from sea to sea and from the great
river to the ends of the earth. Every person would benefit
from this common good.
The gospel is a statement of Jesus which describes life
how living would be if we listened to his Words and take to
heart his message. His wisdom and instruction come from God
his Father and are true. God cannot lie. The way he
preaches, teaches, heals the sick, and restores the maimed
to wholeness makes our life’s work sweet. The yoke placed on
our shoulders is no burden, the cross we receive is light
and manageable.
Paul’s letter to the Romans insists we have God dwelling
within us. We are infused with God’s Spirit. Because of that
indwelling, even our bodies have life. These three readings
are hope filled, filled with blessings, and would appear out
of touch with reality. Our Responsorial Psalm is how we
react to the good news: "I will praise your name forever, my
King and my God."
Who experiences such sweetness? Whose burden is light?
What yoke placed on our shoulders as responsibility for
families, for neighbors, for the nation, for the world is
easy? If we listen with pious ears which end in veneration
in place of action, we will fail to discover the meaning of
these readings. We will have lost a life changing message.
Zechariah was a prophet around the year 520 before
Christ, following the release from the Babylonian Captivity.
The nation had returned to Jerusalem to discover the city in
utter ruin. The glory of Jerusalem, the Temple on the
highest point in Jerusalem, was destroyed – only its
foundation remained. The area of the nation was reduced to
about twenty square miles. Those Jews who escaped death and
capture did not welcome those returning. There were other
nations who saw these returning Jews easy pickings for
raiding and looting parties. Oh, yes, the Samaritans to the
north were more than willing to help rebuild. But the
distrust against what the Jews considered a mongrel nation
prevented the Jews from accepting their help. It was an
awfully difficult time for these people. Where was hope?
What could they accomplish when odds against success were so
great? Why should they consider rebuilding the Temple
against such odds? Wasn’t that rebuilding an empty
concession to religion? Zechariah’s insists God must be
central to their efforts. That is why his prophecy insisted
the Temple be rebuilt. It would be the symbol and the
reality of God present with his chosen people. Without God’s
presence their efforts would fail.
This chapter eleven in Matthew’s gospel follows the
missionary efforts of the disciples described in chapter 10.
The chapter begins with John the Baptist sending Jesus the
question. "Are you the one who is to come?" Jesus answered
the question by pointing out what he was doing: the blind
see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear,
the dead are returned to life, and the hear good news. These
actions of Jesus are the signs the prophets said would be
signs of the Messiah. John had his answer – or was it John’s
intention that his disciples had their answer?
As chapter eleven continues, Jesus evaluates his success.
Even though he preached God’s word, even though he healed
the sick, even though he revealed God as the God of loving
kindness, even so, the cities in which he preached rejected
his teaching and his messiahship. They didn’t so much
actively reject the message as they killed it with
indifference. They were looking for something else in their
Messiah. Their indifference would bring them to destruction
in this life and in the life to come.
Just as Zechariah’s message was a message of hope
centered on the presence of God within the hearts and minds
of the nation, so also Jesus insists he is the presence of
God among the people. This time of Jesus has similarity to
Zechariah’s time. Rome occupied the nation, suppressed
dissent with quick and murderous violence. Pilate’s reign
was particularly violent. At one point there was a massive
crucifixion of two thousand rebels carried out along the
main road to Jerusalem as a warning to any who would rebel
against Rome’s occupation and taxation. In all this, the
Sadducees and the Priestly class sought collaboration with
Rome to continue their way of life. The Sadducees were the
wealth who owned the means of production and marketing. The
Priestly class pandered to the occupiers because they feared
their rituals, their way of life, and their control over the
people would be lost. Roman worship of the Emperor would be
installed in the Temple and they would lose their place and
religion. Both these parties had a lot to lose if a Messiah
came along ruining the balance with Rome. Pharisees were the
academics who searched the Law of Moses and applied what
they believed to be the will of God to every bit and piece
of human living. They were prideful. They believed they had
all the answers. They believed there was nothing they had
not already considered or anything that might happen they
couldn’t control. It was a dark time for the nation.
Leadership had forfeited responsibility in honor of a status
quo that benefitted the wealthy, the influential, and those
with the power of religion. There just wasn’t any need for a
Messiah! Those with wealth, those with some power, those
with education and knowledge were satisfied.
To all these persons, in chapter eleven of Matthew’s
gospel, Jesus says wake up. That is the context of this
Sunday’s gospel. "I give praise to you, Father, Lord of
heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things
from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to
little ones." Why are the little ones the recipients of the
revelation of God and who God is for them? Why not the
proud, the powerful, the wealthy? Couldn’t their influence
and resources do more to spread the Kingdom of Heaven than
the tradesmen, the herders, the farmers, the shopkeepers,
the civil servants, and day laborers? It is not that Jesus
rejects those in power, those of wealth, those of wisdom and
understanding. It is that the little ones are those who know
they need help to live well. It is those little ones who
lack the means to cover over the desires of their hearts for
fullness of life which comes only by way of a relationship
with their creator. Personal indifference to the necessity
of God in life is fueled by accumulation, by access to
power, by narrow-minded wisdom, by admiration of the crowds.
Who needs God’s presence when the noise and trappings of
worldly values fills the void in human hearts? That
indifference to his words and his works is the cause of
great sadness in the person of Jesus. Remember the scene of
Jesus looking over the city of Jerusalem as he rode the foal
of the ass into the city before his death. He wept, "How
often I would have collected you under my wings as does a
mother hen, but you would not have me." Zechariah foretold
Jesus’ ride into the city in this Sunday’s reading.
We live in troubled times. We are threatened with a
highly contagious virus that attacks the infirm and the
aged. Some of our civil leadership wants to wish it away.
Yet in the world, our nation of tremendous resources and
science had the worst record controlling the virus. There
seems to be a common lack of resolve to protect one another.
Many leaders and many average citizens consider this plague
the problem of others. How contrary to the teachings and
works of Jesus. His healings and miracles always, always,
always had the effect of drawing together persons into
community. Infirmity, handicap, and mental illness made
persons outcasts, rejects of society’s social, economic, and
cultural energies. In Jesus’ healings, persons were enabled
to participate in community. God is a community of three. If
we wish to live God’s life in eternity, then we must be
members of God’s community. That is the life of God, that is
the presence of the Spirit that Paul writes about in this
Sunday’s Epistle.
Not one of us ever has the right to deny life to any
other person. The death of the unborn is as abhorrent as the
untimely death of an octogenarian because of failures of
society, governance, and culture. If Catholics, if
Christians claim to be Pro-Life, then the life of every
person is sacred or the life of no person is sacred.
We live in troubled times. Jesus insists his way, his
burden rests easily on our shoulders. It is light and sweet
because it is energized by love of God and love of neighbor.
We cannot be indifferent to the pain of others. We should
heed the advice of scientists in this time of pandemic.
Wearing a mask to contain the virus is a simple gesture of
concern for one another. How can this be allowed to be a
source of division at a time when solidarity is essential?
If Jesus’ message of the Kingdom of Heaven is ignored, how
dare we consider ourselves followers of the Way? It is time
to wake up the sleeping giant that resides in our hearts. It
is faith in the God who loves us that drives us to be one.
It is the faith within our hearts that rejects those who
divide us, those who choose to rob us of the lightness and
sweetness of the yoke Jesus extends to us. Let us pray for a
new awakening so that we become what it is God has planned
for us.
Carol &
Dennis Keller
dkeller002@nc.rr.com
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3.
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IMITATING THE COMPASSION OF JESUS: 14TH SUNDAY A
One of the most wonderful things about the person of
Jesus, has been and continues to be, his special love for
ordinary people, for people like us. It comes out in two
beautiful statements that he makes in the gospel today. The
first is in his prayer to God: ‘I bless you, Father, Lord of
heaven and earth, for hiding these things from the learned
and the clever and revealing them to mere children.’ The
second is in his Invitation: ‘Come to me, all you who labour
and are overburdened and I will give you rest. Shoulder my
yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart,
and you will find rest for your souls. Yes, my yoke is easy
and my burden light.’
What leads him to make these statements? He has just
completed a tour of the towns and villages of Galilee. In
each of them he has been preaching that God is King of the
world, and so people must know, love and serve God as the
Lord and Ruler of their lives. On many occasions too, he has
made the kingdom of God happen, by curing sick people and
setting them free from their handicaps and disabilities. But
it’s only the ordinary, everyday people who have appreciated
his efforts, accepted his message and started to follow him.
The educated and the clever have simply closed their minds
and hearts to his message, and walked away with their noses
in the air.
For the sake of understanding and developing our own
personal relationship with Christ, it will be worth delving
into his relationship with the ones Jesus often referred to
as ‘the poor’ and ‘the little ones’. They are the same ones
whom the high and mighty Pharisees called ‘sinners’ or ‘the
rabble who know nothing of the law’. Today we might refer to
them as ‘the oppressed’, ‘the outsiders’, or ‘the
strugglers’.
In the gospels, the term ‘poor’ does not refer only to
those who are economically deprived, even though it does
include them. In the first place, they were those who had to
beg for a living. Beggars included those sick and disabled
persons who were not well enough to work and who had no
relative to support them. Of course, in that society there
were no hospitals, no pensions, and no emergency payments.
The blind, the deaf and dumb, the lame, the cripples, and
the lepers, then, were generally beggars.
The economically poor included the day-labourers who were
often without work, the peasants who worked on the farms of
wealthy landowners, and those who were slaves. Then there
were the widows and the orphans, who had no way of earning a
living and no one to provide for them. They were dependent
on occasional handouts from the Temple treasury.
On the whole, the suffering of the poor was not
destitution and starvation except during a war or famine.
They were sometimes hungry and thirsty, but unlike millions
today, they seldom starved. Their principal suffering was
the embarrassment and shame that went with being totally
dependent upon others. As the steward in the parable says:
‘I would be too ashamed to beg’ (Lk 16:3). They found
themselves at the bottom of the social ladder, with no
prestige, no power, and no respect. They were social
outcasts, and left to feel that their lives were without
dignity, meaningless, helpless and hopeless.
People of the middle class (the educated and the
law-abiding, such as the scribes and Pharisees), treated
them as low-class scum, and called them ‘sinners’. The
educated ones, those who knew the Scriptures backwards, put
the label ‘sinners’ too, on any who had sinful or unclean
professions, e.g. prostitutes, tax collectors, robbers,
herdsmen or gamblers. Others called ‘sinners’ included those
who did not pay their tithes (one tenth of their income) to
the priests, those who did not rest on the sabbath (the
Jewish Saturday), and those who were careless about keeping
the laws and customs concerning foods and ritual purity. So,
these so-called ‘sinners’ felt terrible frustration, shame,
guilt, anxiety and misery. They did not even have the
consolation of feeling that they were in God’s good books.
The educated ones, those who ‘ought to know’, kept telling
them that they were displeasing to God.
But Jesus was different, strikingly different. As a
carpenter, he was from the middle class himself and not one
of the poor and oppressed. But he mixed socially with even
the poorest of the poor. He even got the nick-name ‘the
friend of sinners’. In a nutshell Jesus became an outcast by
choice.
Why did he do this? What would make a middle-class man
talk to beggars and mix socially with the poor? What would
make a man who was a prophet, a spokesperson for God, mix
with those who neither knew the fine print of the law nor
kept it? The answer comes across very clearly in the
gospels: COMPASSION!
Over and over again the gospels say this kind of thing:
‘When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had
compassion for them and cured their sick’ (Mt 14:14). ‘When
he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they
were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd’
(Mt 9:36). The plight and tears of the widow of Nain touched
his heart to the core: ‘Don’t cry,’ he says to her, before
bringing her son back to life (Lk7:13-15). He was moved with
compassion at the plight of a leper begging for help (Mk
4:41), for two blind men sitting at the side of a road
begging (Mt 20:30-34), and for a crowd of people with
nothing to eat (Mk 8:2 par). In each case he responds to
their sufferings with the power and love, the compassion and
care of God.
All through the gospels, even when the word is not used,
we sense the surge of compassion rising in the heart of
Jesus. ‘Don’t cry,’ he says, ‘Don’t worry’, ‘Don’t be
afraid’ (e.g. Mk5:36; 6:50; Mt 6:25-34). He was not moved by
the grandeur and beauty of the great Temple buildings (Mk
13:1-2), but by the generosity of a poor widow who put her
last cent into the Temple treasury (Mk 12:41-44). When
everyone else around him was jumping for joy at the raising
of Jairus’s daughter to life, Jesus was concerned that she
should be given something to eat (Mk 5:42-43).
His compassion was the most human and humane thing about
Jesus. It’s the most human and humane thing about us as
well. The Australian poet Adam Lindsay Gordon once wrote:
‘Life is mostly froth and bubble. Two things stand like
stone, kindness in another’s trouble, courage in our own!’
So, whose side are we on? On the side of Jesus, the side of
compassion, kindness, help, healing, and mercy? Or on the
side of the scribes and Pharisees of this world - fierce,
fault-finding, harsh, critical, and merciless? Will we take
our cue from their cruel, harsh, and insensitive judgments
of others? Or will we take our inspiration from what we have
seen in Jesus, and from the Invitation he reissues to us
today: ‘Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened
and I will give you rest?’
"Brian
Gleeson CP" <bgleesoncp@gmail.com>
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4.
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Year A: 14th Sunday of Ordinary Time.
"I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and of earth,
for hiding these things from the learned and the clever and
revealing them to mere children."
I have a friend – a good and holy Jesuit who is also a
world-renowned Biblical expert. I’ll call him Fr John Smith.
And his particular expertise is in Biblical languages – he
is supposed to know many of the languages which existed in
Palestine in Old Testament times - which is not bad at his
current age of 92!
But, to tell you the truth, he is also an excruciatingly
boring teacher. And not all of his students could really
believe that such a boring teacher could really be such a
brilliant scholar. So, one day, his students decided to put
him to the test. They got together and went down into the
basement of the library. And there, amidst rows and rows of
dusty shelves that clearly nobody had looked at for years,
they found a copy of a document in Ancient Assyrian – at
least that’s what it said on the cover. So, they took it out
of its cover and, at his next lecture, Fr Smith found it
waiting for him on the lectern – obviously a challenge. He
picked it up, looked at it for a few moments, then read out
a few lines, translating the text into English as he went
along. His students were suitably impressed. And then he
said, "Yes, it is Old Assyrian, but rather late Old Assyrian
and not very good style. If you look on the next shelf above
where you found this, fourth scroll from the right, you will
find a much better piece." And with that he went on with his
lecture, having earned his students’ undying respect – even
if not their total attention.
However, when he came to teach me, he was 79. He told me
that – three years previously – at age 76 – he had had the
revelation of his life. It is one of the rules of St
Ignatius that all of his men should, at least once a year,
spend some time teaching "unlettered children". Fr Smith had
decided to fulfil this obligation by conducting a Sunday
school class for 15 year olds. He was very nervous about
this because he knew he was a very boring teacher and he was
not sure how he was going to get on. So he gave them a
passage to read and think about and it happened to be the
parable of the Prodigal Son. And then he started teaching
them about it: about the significance of the journey of the
prodigal son to a far country; its relationship to
population movements in Ancient Palestine and some
interesting parallels between Jesus’ manner of telling
parables and the ancient Jewish tradition of "midrash" – the
way in which the scriptures are augmented and amplified by
rabbis to meet the practical circumstances of the modern
believer.
Within about 15 minutes, three of the children were
asleep and the rest were obviously bored silly. So, he
stopped talking and, not sure what to do next, he asked if
anyone else had anything they wanted to say. And a few
people talked a little bit but didn’t say anything very much
and then there was a long pause.
But he noticed one girl with very red eyes as if she was
about to cry. And she seemed to be half wanting to say
something and half too shy. So he asked her to speak. She
was reluctant, but he encouraged her. And then she began to
speak about how this passage reminded her of her father
beating her and her mother. And how reading and praying over
this passage made her realise that she had another father
who is in heaven. And how this made her feel loved and
cherished – really loved properly – for the first time since
she could remember.
When she had finished speaking, nobody said anything for
a very long time. And then they all prayed together. And
John suddenly realised that, although he had given his
entire adult life to the study of Scripture, he had actually
completely missed the point. Scripture is not the study of
ancient texts for what they tell us about the ancient near
East, although that can be important and even interesting –
if you’re that way inclined. But Scripture is the living
encounter with God, whose Son came among us to bring us the
Church. And it was his disciples who left behind these
documents which the Church gathered together and called the
Bible – through which we too can know what it was like to
meet God on earth. And so, every day, Father John Smith of
the Society of Jesus makes this prayer:
"I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and of earth, for
hiding these things from the learned and the clever and
revealing them to (and through) mere children."
Let us stand and profess our Faith in God who reveals
Himself to us.
Paul
O’Reilly, SJ <fatbaldnproud@opalityone.net>
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5.
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The Yoke
There is an ancient legend about Jesus before his public
ministry. He was a carpenter in Nazareth till he moved to
near the Sea of Galilee. The legend states that Jesus was
really a talented carpenter (not necessarily because of his
divinity but because he had a great master in Joseph who
taught him from his experience). In those days when a farmer
broke in a new ox to power field work the farmer would bring
the oxen into a carpenter to shape and fit a yoke for that
specific ox. In this way the yoke would be sweet and light
for the ox and not gall or irritate hide or impede that ox’s
pulling power. The legend states that Jesus was much sought
after as a crafter of yokes. One commentator insists that
the sign over Jesus’ shop was "My yokes are light and
sweet". From this experience Jesus was able to apply the
notion of a well fit yoke to what it meant to follow in the
way of his teaching, his healing, and his liberation of the
human spirits of those who followed his way. Good story, but
really difficult to prove.
This Sunday, if we’re not careful, we’ll think this is
one of those stories – in both the Hebrew Scripture reading
and in the Gospel – that is sweet and easy to swallow. In
this sense both stories are sweet in a saccharine sort of
way and offer us no challenge. In the context of both
readings, we should realize both were experienced in a world
of terror, distrust, disenfranchisement, and a type of
slavery that robbed persons of their Spirits – Platonists
and Neo-Platonists would insist we should call the "Spirit"
our "soul". (I have an aversion to that as when we speak of
"soul" we often place it as the only valuable part of our
humanity, decrying the body as something of evil that when
we finish our lives we’re very happy to discard. This runs
contrary to faith in the resurrection of the body we say we
believe when we recite the Creed.)
In our current time, that enslavement of Spirit has come
to the attention of those of us who try to see beyond the
shouting of the news and realize that we can enslave persons
without the use of physical chains. It’s most interesting
that all of the Hebrew Scriptures and the Gospel era have
freedom as the center of their teaching about what it means
to be human, especially as it relates to God’s interventions
on our behalf. We think of freedom very often as being free
of obligation. That’s pretty much bogus. Obligations,
responsibilities and accountability that are freely accepted
and embraced when done so with the energy of love for other
and in that love for others in the love of God is actually
freedom. That’s difficult for most to comprehend – it seems
to be a matter of aging that allows us to get to
understanding that freedom and how it provides us with the
energy, the vitality, and the desire to grow in letting go
of ego, self-fulfilling efforts in favor of appreciation of
others and the satisfaction of their needs.
But it certainly takes a lot of time and a lot of
suffering, and a lot of just growing up to realize this. I
think it’s the Pennsylvania Dutch whose saying applies: Too
soon old, too late smart.
Carol and
Dennis (with Charlie editing)
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6.
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Volume 2 is for you. Your thoughts, reflections,
and insights on the next Sundays readings can influence the
preaching you hear. Send them to
preacherexchange@att.net. Deadline is
Wednesday Noon. Include your Name, and Email Address.
-- Fr. John
