Faith

When God shared a secret  – Wednesday, 15th week in ordinary time –  Mt 11:25-27

The gospel of today is both a prayer and a cry of jubilation in the face of rejection. Jesus has bewailed the fate of Capernaum, Bethsaida and Chorazin, not merely for their lack of faith but their unwillingness to transform and repent. In this, they failed and the ground for tragedy is laid.

In the face of their incredulity, Jesus breaks into a public prayer of praise.  Although the prayer begins with and in a typical Jewish blessing formula, He goes on to make it a very intimate. Here as in so many places we see Jesus breaking out into prayer publically. He was not afraid or ashamed to pray.  Five times in three verses He will call His out to His Father, Abba, proclaiming His closeness to the Father.

What is at the heart of this prayer and why does Jesus make it? Verses 25 and 27 consist of the prayer itself and are a ‘thanksgiving for revelation’. Verse 27 reveals the contents of that revelation and what we will read in tomorrow gospel is the invitation that stems from this revelation.

The prayer is a thanksgiving for the revelation that the Father has shared. This revelation however has been screened and hidden from those like the Pharisees who continue to live in their arrogance of wisdom.  Yet it is those who are uneducated, who seem to grasp the mysteries of the kingdom.

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Faith

Commission or Omission?  – Tuesday, 15th week in ordinary time – Mt 11:20-24

 The mission discourse is now behind us and the next two chapters before the next discourse, the ‘parable discourse’, comprise of a series of incidences where Jesus is rejected.  All through chapters eleven and twelve, we will constantly encounter the rejection of Jesus by His generation.

A reading of verses 16-19 gives us a clear understanding of the rejection Jesus faced. Nothing He does seems to make the people happy. They won’t dance when the flute is played, they won’t mourn when the dirge is sung.  For that matter, the life of John the Baptist was too austere for them and the life of Jesus was too debaucherous. It seemed like they wanted an omelette but did not want to break eggs.

So, early into the ‘rejection passages’, Jesus decides to set the record straight and He intends to do it first with His own. His condemnation is not without justification. It is within the walls of these three contemporary cities, situated on the northwest shore of Galilee, that He worked some amazing miracles.

Not only did He work great miracles here but verse twenty tells us that He had worked ‘most of His deeds of power here’. These are cities that Jesus and His disciples were familiar with. Capernaum was Jesus’ ministerial base. Peter came from Capernaum and Jesus worked as many as seven great miracles here. Bethsaida was the home of Andrew and Philip, to say nothing of the great miracle where Jesus had fed thousands. Yet belief is hard to come by and so condemnation from Jesus is swift and harsh.

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Faith

Thinking things through Monday, 15th week in ordinary time- Mt 10:34-11:1

If Jesus was a salesman in the modern world, He would have surely lost His job. The art of waxing eloquent was certainly not his forte.  One would have thought that Jesus would have at least made the mission discourse exciting, an adventure filled trip to lure more people to the cause. Instead He promised a hard trek down some dusty roads. The challenges He presented would effectively drive away any prospective disciple.

Just when it sounds like it can’t get any worse, Jesus drops another bombshell. He says He has not come to bring peace to the earth but the sword. Rather strange words from the very one who came to be the ‘Prince of peace’ and who called peacemakers, blessed.

Lest we misunderstand the Lord, His intention is not to bring about bloodshed. The regrettable side effect of the Gospel is division, resulting from the uncompromising proclamation of the kingdom. The mission discourse clearly outlines the great challenges that the disciple must face in taking the Good News to the world along with the side effects it brings.  For Jesus, this is moment when decisions have to be made. We are with Him in mission or we are not.

Perhaps we have misunderstood the call to discipleship and understood it glibly. The very word disciple is drawn from the Greek word mathētḗs, from where we get the word math.  So, discipleship is the mental effort needed to think something through.  This is why Jesus will say, “If you wish to be my disciple.” He wants us to think it through before we say yes to mission, for the challenges are not easy.

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Faith

Into hell for a heavenly cause- Saturday, 14th Week in ordinary time – Mt 10:24-33

 The last part of the mission discourse highlights the courage that the apostles need to have. Jesus has clearly spelt out what He expects from his apostles and what they are to expect when they go out in His name. Jesus however, does not leave his apostles abandoned in the face of vengeful religious bigots.  He wants them to be unafraid knowing that He is with them.

Fear is good! It’s foolish to be fearless in the face of a tiger. Only a stupid man would treat a wild tiger like he would treat a domesticated cat.  Fear helps us to be cautious and take precautions, lest we throw ourselves in harm’s way.

However, fear that constantly paralyzes us is harmful. I presume when Jesus says, “do not worry, and do not fear” He is calling his disciples to place their trust in Him. If His eye is on the sparrow, insignificant as this bird may seem, then how much more is His eye on us?

St Matthew clearly understood the dangers his infant community faced from the Jews. The Early Christians had faced persecutions that ranged from flogging to death.  The ‘them’ of verse twenty six was clear; Matthew knew who the adversaries were and the pain and persecution they could unleash. He wants his community to be prepared, yet not paralyzed, by what they are to encounter.

To this infant community, Matthew has words of courage. It is for this reason that four times in this brief passage he assures his listeners not to be afraid. He is reiterating a message to bring assurance and He backs it up with an example. If two sparrows, the cheapest life in the market, has not missed God’s eye, how much will He not care for His chosen ones?

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Art/ Heritage

QUATREFOIL: The Inspiration of St. Matthew by Caravaggio (1602)

 The word ‘Gospel’ represents a record of Christ deeds and His life. It is equivalent to the Greek word ‘euangelion’ which translates as ‘good news’. The origins of this word can be traced to the Romans who designated the date of Caesar’s birth as ‘euangelion’ (good news) for the whole world. The four evangelists to announce the Good News of Christ in the Bible are Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

Inspired by the Revelation of St. John the Evangelist (4: 6 – 7) and the visions of Ezekiel (1: 5 -14), the Early Christian artist often depicted each gospel writer with a winged figure. Although subject to varied interpretation, St. Jerome envisioned the man (Matthew) as a representative of the Incarnation, the lion (Mark) a representative of the Resurrection, the bull (Luke) a representative of the Passion and the eagle (John) as a representative of the Ascension.

In this series titled ‘Quatrefoil’ through art and its interpretation we will explore the lives of the Gospel writers and their sources of inspiration.

The first painting in consideration is titled ‘The Inspiration of St. Matthew’. Executed by the great Italian Baroque painter Caravaggio, this work of art was commissioned by Cardinal Contarelli for the Chapel bearing his name in the Church of San Luigi dei Francesi in Rome.

True to Caravaggio’s style, the painting is devoid of detail. No landscape, no architecture, no bystanders. Caravaggio strips out the non-essentials to draw us to the heart of moment. His monumental protagonists are life-like. They include: the evangelist Matthew, the divine angel and of course Caravaggio’s secret player – LIGHT.

The room is gripped in absolute darkness. One can almost picture the saint pacing the room, storming heavens, seeking inspiration and wisdom. As the night falls still, in swoops the angel accompanied by a mysterious light that illuminates the unseen. The descending angel’s body creates a curve which progresses in the opposite direction through the figure of the saint, thus giving the composition a serpentine movement.

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