Be careful then how you listen...

“Be careful how you listen,” Jesus tells his disciples, “ because whoever has something will be given more, but whoever has nothing will have taken away from him even the little he thinks he has.”

Jesus explained his parable about the seed, “word of God,” to these disciples  “but to the rest it comes by means of parables, so that they may look and not see, and listen but not understand.”  The Church asserts that Jesus, himself,  is the "Word of God," the seed,  the transforming "Revelation of God" hidden from some, revealed to others.

Be careful then how you listen... lest the devil come and take the message away from you, or the time of testing  come and you just won't care enough to endure; or the worries, riches, and pleasures of life will choke off the revelation's meaning for you so it doesn't bear fruit.  Eventually, of course, “everything that is hidden will be brought to light” but only the wise virgins who listened, cared to bring enough oil and will partake in the wedding feast. The foolish, though they belatedly obtained the needed oil,  will knock too late and be locked out.   Be careful then how you listen, Jesus warns his disciples.

the faith of a foot washer

        In John 12, Mary of Bethany washed the  feet of Jesus and anointed his feet with expensive oil,  presumably in gratitude for having raised her brother Lazarus from the dead.   Jesus, the anointed one-- for that is what the designation "Christ" means--accepts this anointing from her  in anticipation of his death and burial.  In John 13, Jesus washed the feet of his disciples revealing the very intimate nature of God's grace.  He instructed them to do for each other what he had done for them. Those who would share the very life of God would need to incarnate the faith that God has in us,  knowing our sinfulness.    Again in Luke 7,  Jesus said to his host, a Pharisee, “Simon, "Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair... So I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven; hence, she has shown great love.  But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little." He said to her, "Your sins are forgiven." The others at table said to themselves, "Who is this who even forgives sins?"  But he said to the woman "Your faith has saved you; go in peace."

        Jesus had earlier warned his followers that unless their righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees they could not enter the kingdom of heaven.  It was not for lack of prayer, or alms giving, or even following the commandments as they understood them, that the scribes and Pharisees could not enter the kingdom, they took great care to do all those things. They did not lack the abundant  love of God for them. He sent his only son to be their revelation, their teacher.  But they lacked the simple faith of this sinful woman  foot washer,  a faith like that faith which God himself has for us,  a faith in sinners-- that we will change our ways over time with his help. The scribes and Pharisees  firmly believed that prostitutes and tax collectors needed God's forgiveness in a way they did not.  They read the scriptures to fit their on prejudices and purposes, but were not open to hearing what the the scriptures really meant.    Jesus,  in the last chapter of Luke's gospel, shares with a couple disciples on their way to Emmaus what the scriptures meant.  

Healing the Paralytic--A Dilemma Explored

February 13, 2011

Ann,

May I pick your brain on a dilemma that I have long wrestled with in the story of the healing of the paralytic?

Let F = forgiving and H = healing.
Let us assume that doing the easier cannot prove that I can do the harder, only the reverse: if I can do the harder, I can do the easier. Even children in the playground often try to outdo each other in feats and accept this assumption as self-evident.

When Jesus asks the Pharisees which is easier, F or H, we are not told what they answered. We are told only what Jesus says: but to prove to you that I can do F, I’ll do H. Sometimes I think the little word “but” holds the clue as to what the Pharisees said, but I can’t quite figure it out.

Here’s the dilemma (or mine, tiny poor Pharisee that I am):

If F is easier, doing H proves that I can do F, but now I am famous mainly for doing H, the harder, i.e., performing a physical miracle, a variety of the 2 miracles (turning a stone into bread and leaping unharmed from the parapet) I rejected in the desert when tempted by Satan. I have played to the crowd. Another way to put it is: if F is easier, what’s the point of proving F? We normally try only to prove things that are difficult, unless we want to say that F is still difficult but easier than H. If F and H are equally difficult, then Jesus is asking a question impossible to answer.

Baby Hope Rose Brintnal

This is Ignatius' new baby wearing Sr. Charlotte's hand crocheted baby blanket and Anne Joseph's hat. Much love and the prayers of John Paul II accompany this gift. Here's hoping for another miracle Like our Mother Foundress' for baby Reesa in the Philippines.

volunteers

It is all about the prayer

After the man, Adam, had eaten of the tree,
the LORD God called to the man

and asked him, “Where are you?”
He answered, “I heard you in the garden;
but I was afraid, because I was naked,
so I hid myself.”

 

This past couple of months we have been reflecting on The Confessions of St. Augustine.  Augustine, although aware of his sinfulness, does not attempt to hide himself from God like Adam, but rather lays bare his most intimate self.  He does so,  not primarily for his readers, but for God to whom his prayer text is directed.  Augustine permits us to overhear his prayer in the same way that Christ permits us to overhear the prayer of the Pharisee and Tax-collector in Luke.  He writes down his Confessions to the same end that Christ relates his parable —to reveal just how the kingdom is coming about in his time and ours.   It's all about the prayer. 

Augustine begins with, and sustains throughout the confessions, a profound sense of repentance.  The Mass maintains the same attitude, beginning with the Kyrie right through to the reception of communion where we say, "Lord I am not worthy to receive you."  But repentance is not enough. We need hope for the future. God expresses his hope for us  in the incarnation of his son, the Word made flesh. At the heart of the Mass we hear spoken  the marriage vows of Christ with his Church-- “this is my body which will be given up for you” and “this is the cup of my blood, the blood of the new and everlasting covenant. It will be shed for you and for all that sins might be forgiven.”  Those in the congregation who constitute the spouse of Christ,  each in their own way, commits his or her body to this marriage -- sometimes to be born out in martyrdom but mostly to be born out in the everyday crosses and celebrations of life, but always born out in chastity.

the Will of God and the Eucharistic presence

Everything we see and hear and feel is in some way the will of God.    Ah yes, “in some way.”  For “unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it" (Psalm 127:1).  Indeed, to say that God creates the world is to say that God wills the world and so-- it is so. All that we ever know of God is the will of God      (including how much we know that we don't know).

All religious traditions attempt to answer the question, “What does God expect of me and us?” Conversely, to assert that there is no God, is to assert a belief that we are  free from being subject to the will of God.

Christians believe that Jesus is the Word, the revelation of God. They believe that God discloses his will for us in the life, death and teaching