Alberic Jacovone OSB
|
Return to Articles and Reflections |
YEAR C
SIXTH SUNDAY - 11.2.07
Jer 17,5-8; 1 Cor 15,12.16-20; Lk 6,17.20-26
You learn to trust only when you hurt
The
essence of Christian faith. For the next 3 Sundays we read Luke’s Gospel, Chapt.6. In it,
there’s Luke’s version of Jesus’ ‘Great Sermon on Beatitudes’.
(Matthew presents it as ‘Sermon of the Mount’). Luke presents the central
message of Christianity & Jesus’ own Mission statement & at the same
time reveals his inner conviction about the central wisdom of Christian faith,
namely that we learn to love & to trust only when we submit to God &
oppose arrogance & injustice: & this will always involve compassionate
hurt. This deep conviction Luke shares with St. Paul, who in many places &
in 1st Corinthians chap. 2 says to his converts: I preached to you the mystery
of God, not in lofty wisdom or clever words, but only through Jesus Christ &
him crucified.... Christian wisdom is not the popular human wisdom of our age..
but God’s own wisdom which is hidden in Christ & Christ now lives in
you... As we read prayerfully Luke Chapter 6, let’s notice how he carefully
sets the scene to impress on us Jesus’ authority & a great sense of
urgency: “he went to the mountain to pray - prayed all night long. - At
day-break - he called all his disciples - from them he chose 12 - &
called them Apostles”. Ask yourself: Why go to a mountain? - Why pray &
for so long? - Why call everyone at daybreak? - why appoint exactly 12 Apostles?
Where in the Bible someone has done these same things?... Luke is keen to tell
us -readers of his time & all time- who Jesus is & what plan is he
fulfilling that had been foretold in the Bible. Jesus is the long awaited
Messiah, Son of the Most High & Risen Lord. He now fulfils God’s promise
& starts a ‘New Israel & a New Age’.
The
logic & spirit of the Beatitudes. In Luke’s Gospel, the Great Sermon is not a loose collection of
scattered sayings of Jesus. On the contrary, it’s a brand new legislation
carefully structured in sequels of 4 lines each, called ‘quatrains’. It’s
meant to redefine & replace the Jewish Tradition of the Elders (Alakah). As
Luke sees it, Jesus’ New Code of Conduct was promulgated from the Mountain
just as the Old Law was from Mount Sinai. It is not an adaptation nor an improvement on the Law of Moses, which we
now are free to take or leave. It is a fundamental option & a test - a
challenge & a choice - &
even an imperative which now cannot be avoided. The logic & spirit of the
Beatitudes has its own mind set. It’s as if Luke says: choose the kind of
person you want to be. In the society & the community you live, you will
easily identify many personality types & life-styles: there’s the
“know-all” & the “Mr. fix-it” who tell everyone how to live &
how to die; there are the “movers & shakers”, schemers &
manipulators, whingers & resentful, the spiteful & arrogant, the
terrorists & destroyers: these are people who at the end of the day use
& abuse others to impose themselves... But in the Beatitudes, Jesus proposes
a life- style & a logic, which are based on putting others first, feeling
compassionate towards the less privileged & those who are unjustly
treated,... - always hurting with those who are hurting, & living out an
overall realization that God’s compassionate love for all, is not
acknowledged. Luke says to us: caught as we all are in the web of destructive
& conflicting life-styles, let’s choose & follow the logic hidden in
Jesus & him crucified: never destroy - resist evil - alleviate suffering,
(mindful of Jesus saying: I was hungry & thirsty & a stranger...&
you helped me!) - work for justice. Sadly, for all Christians in the past &
now there was & is the temptation of hardening our hearts & turning our
love for God & Neighbour, into negative, destructive & power-hungry
drive to impose us on others.
______________________________________