Faith

Let our words be few – Saturday, 12th week in ordinary time – Matthew 8:5-17

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Chapters 8 and 9 of the Gospel of Matthew is composed of ten miracle stories punctuated by three teachings on discipleship. The first of these teachings on discipleship would have been the text of the Gospel for Monday, the 3rd of July but that day is the feast of St Thomas the Apostle of India and a special set of readings will be proclaimed on that day. If you want to read a teaching on the first of these teachings on discipleship in the Gospel of Matthew, you can simply click this link. https://www.pottypadre.com/serving-or-self-serving-monday-13th-week-in-ordinary-time-matthew-818-22/

For now, we will look at the second and third miracle narrative found in Chapter 8 which form the Gospel text of today. On descending the Mount where he gave a long sermon spanning three chapters, Jesus encountered a leper whom he healed. He now arrives at Capernaum. Capernaum is where Jesus is going to set up his ‘head quarters’ for most of his ministry. This is where he will teach the bread of life discourse. This is where he works many miracles. This is where many disciples will abandon him; they will find his teaching too hard to follow.

On entering Capernaum, Jesus is approached by a centurion. The very word centurion tells us that he had a hundred men under his command. This was a civil servant with some respectable rank. Yet, like the leper in the previous narrative he too is humble. James 4:10 reminds us to ‘humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, for He will exalt us.’

This man of rank and stature loses all composure before Jesus. His need ironically, is not for himself but for a servant in his household. He cannot bear the ‘distress’ of his servant brought about by paralysis. The centurion does not ask Jesus for a healing, he does not ask Jesus to come to his house and lay his hands on his servant. While he may not have said the obvious, his presence before the Lord was clearly and indication of his need. Think about it, we too need to just go to the Lord, let our words be few for the Lord knows our need. He has seen our heart.

Jesus’ response was startling. He offers to come to the centurion’s house. No self-respecting Rabbi would ever go to the house of Gentile. The very act would defile him. Jesus did not come to encourage silly and nonsensical social niceties that this world practices, even today. He came to save all and that included the Gentiles.

What transpires next has become the stuff of legends. We immortalise the lines of Arnold Schwarzenegger in the movie terminator when he said, “I’ll be back,” or the words, “Elvis has left the building.” Here is a line that has become the core of faith in the Catholic world; words spoken by a believer who technically was not a Christian, not a Jew but a man of deep faith. “Lord I am not worthy to have you under my roof but only say the word and my servant will be healed.” This line, with a tweak at the end, has been placed in the liturgy of the Eucharist as the words of faith that we profess before we receive our Lord in Holy Communion.

Jesus’ acclamation of the centurion’s faith was as surprising as the words of the centurion. Jesu said, “Nowhere in Israel have I found such faith.” Remember that Matthew is writing to a Jewish Christian audience and most of the while he keeps in mind the Jewish sensibilities. In quoting the words of Jesus, in which he suggests that it will not be the Jew but the Gentiles of faith who would be seated with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and even more in suggesting that the ‘heirs (read Jews) would be thrown into the outer darkness,” Jesus was setting himself on a warpath with the Jewish religious establishment.

While we focus on the miracle or on the faith of the centurion we should also sit up and pay attention to the words of Christ. Heaven is not the prerogative of the Christian only. Christ never came only for the Christian; he came for all and all who accept his words and live it will find a place at the table of grace. So don’t be surprised if you are asked to get up and offer your seat to a Hindu in heaven.

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Faith

A leap of the leaper -Friday, 12th week in ordinary time – Matthew 8:1- 4

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We have just concluded the first of Matthew’s five discourses. The Sermon on the Mount which spanned three chapters, five to seven, gives way to ten miracles and three calls to discipleship. These miracle stories stacked one after the other by St Matthew are not presented to us as merely a collection of miracle narratives but are given to us for contemplation; the Messiah of the word (Chapters 5-7) is also the Messiah of the deed. The Messiahship of Jesus, having been experienced with ‘authority,’ is now backed by deeds that can only be done by one who has such authority.

The first of these ten miracles concern a leper. Right away this narrative would make a good Jew of the first century recoil in horror. If there was one disease that was abhorred by any Jew or for that matter any citizen of the Roman empire, it was leprosy. Such was the fear of this disease that even a skin ailment would send you packing off to a leper’s colony well outside the village limits with several dehumanizing and demeaning social rules to follow. These rules then got a religious sanction for one had to get a certification of healing not from a doctor but from the priest no less. (Leviticus 13:45)

Jesus has come down from the Mount where he has preached love, forgiveness, kindness and every conceivable act of goodness. ‘Great crowds’ accompany him and perhaps hidden in that crowd, his shame rapped under layers of clothes to avoid detection, was this leper. Once again, this may not have been Hansen’s disease but just a skin ailment.

Desperation gives you perspective. Desperation makes you single minded. When in desperation, the property we have been fighting for, the career move we have been angling at, the friend we hoped would be our soul mate; none of these matter. When in desperation we seek just the one solution that would restore our life back to what it once was. In the Gospel of today, we are not told the social status of the leper nor his name. We just know that he is a man and we are told of his medical condition. But in all this we are also told of the humility with which he approaches our Lord.

Desperation often gives way to anger and frustration leaving us bitter and not better. Here was a man who wanted to be not just better but healed completely. What is amazing is his approach to a matter laden with social stigma. His humility is what the Gospel calls us to imitate, “if you choose, you can make we clean,” he says to Our Lord.

Leaving healing to God, is what we ought to do. Why are some of us, devout as we may be, holy as we may be, never healed? Jesus in the Gospels tells us that our healing is not for ourselves but to bring glory to God. Look at this man with leprosy, there was no demand or any pressure from him. He had heard Jesus speak of love and now in love he asks for what could have been turned down by the Lord. Note also the single-mindedness of his request. As I said, when we are desperate, life in all its reality, becomes the focus of our asking and all this man wants right now is just to be clean.

On a more reflective note, many of us also suffer from spiritual uncleanliness. Like leprosy, it ought to disgust us but sadly we may have grown used to living in our ‘sin colony.’ Today, make an effort to take your uncleanness to the Lord with the same words of the leper, “Lord, if you choose, you can make me clean.” This humility is necessary, for we are aware of how often we have tried to battle a particular sin that has shamed us when we enter the presence of the Lord’s house. We have promised the Lord that we would shun this sin but the sin has persisted. Today, try Jesus, try the words of a leper…. “if you choose Lord,” and hear his say to you, “I choose.”

 

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Solemnity of St Peter and St Paul

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Today we celebrate the solemnity of the ‘big guns’ of the catholic faith. Peter to whom Our Lord gave the keys of the kingdom of heaven and Paul who became the apostle to the Gentiles. The English word apostle is derived from the Greek ‘apostolos’, or ‘a person sent.’

To be sent indicates a mission of sorts; something is entrusted and results are obviously expected. Peter was entrusted, as an apostle, to tend to the Church, “whatever you bind will be considered bound and what evert you lose will be considered loosed.” This is was tremendous power in the hands of a man who also had deep flaws. Peter denied the Lord and wanted to deny the Lord of his plan for the salvation of the world by suggesting that he not embrace the cross. Peter was more often the ‘loose cannon’ who felt compelled to say something or the other, out of turn and out of place. In good jest, I have often referred to him as the patron of ‘spontaneous prayer.’

Paul was no different; having consented to the death of the proto martyr of the Church, St Stephen, he set out to Damascus to drag men, women and children to a kangaroo court in Jerusalem and all because they professed Christ as their saviour.

God did not choose perfect men or women. He chose people flawed as they were but encouraged them to achieve the best. He did not give them some small irrelevant tasks in his ministry as a testing to see if they were capable. He gave his ‘flawed’ disciples the biggest tasks in ministry; to be in charge of his Church and to be the apostle to the Gentiles. Did they fail, yes and perhaps several times but they were recognized as saints not because of who they were but because they entrusted their ‘flawed lives’ to the care of the one who is truly capable.

The solemnity of St Peter and Paul is a reminder to all of us that Christ has entrusted not just any task but his very Church, at his Ascension, to each of us; “go make disciples” he said. We too have received the mandate to go out, to be sent out, to be apostles. The Catholic Church cannot grow with an hour of worship on a Sunday at mass; an obligation fulfilled, a tick mark in our weekly scheduled. Each Sunday the priest, in the name of Christ dismisses us with the words, “ite missa est” which translates as ‘you are dismissed;’ dismissed to proclaim the Gospel and yet that dismissal is taken callously by most of the billion Catholics who profess the faith. I say this confidently because the results are there in the open.

The Solemnity of St Peter and Paul is also a reminder to us that God does not need perfect men and women. Often there are some who make the Church the whipping boy of their personal frustrations. They expect the clergy and religious to be ‘models’ of perfection that they themselves would not dare emulate. While the clergy and religious must be open to constructive criticism (which sadly is not the case always); the attitude of the laity cannot be shoot and scoot especially when they use social media to vent their frustrations.

The Church is perfect, for it is the mystical body of Our Lord; her members though, both clergy and laity do have flaws. But if Christ could reinstate Peter to “feeding his sheep” in spite of his triple denial in the hour he most wanted Peter to stand by him and if Christ could call a person who was a persecutor of his Church, then, who are we to deny or even more hinder the calling of Christ? The Church needs apostles, people to be sent out and that sending out is not limited to the ordained ministry.

On this Solemnity, let us pray for the Peters’ and Petras’, Pauls’ and Paulinas’ and that go out in his name, flawed as they may be but knowing they have been called and sent to walk in this great apostolic tradition of saints who proclaim.

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Speaking God’s word and not our will – Wednesday, 12th Week in ordinary time – Matthew 7:15-20

Do not judge a book by its cover is a maxim we wished we often took seriously. So often, we have been taken in by what seems attractive and interesting from the outside only to realise that all that glitters is not gold. Jesus seems to subscribe to this belief when it comes to the Christian preacher and teacher.

When Matthew was piecing together the Sermon on the Mount, his community of followers faced excommunication from the Jews as well as a threat from false teachers within the community. These ‘false prophets,’ whom he makes reference to again in 7:22; 24:5, 24 are perhaps apostate Christian leaders who have great charismatic gifts of prophecy; a gift that was perhaps being used to mislead people. It is these leaders, who have appropriated the tile of ‘prophets,’ that this passage is aimed at.

Jesus did not ask his disciples to condemn these ‘false prophets’ for he has clearly asked us not to judge; but Our Lord certainly asks us to be cautious in our approach to such men and women when he uses the word ‘beware’. Too many of the faithful are led astray because they have not done due diligence in matters of the faith and have been swept away by a whim and a fancy.

Look for the results of the Holy Spirit in their lives says Jesus; look at their fruits. While the immediate reaction of the reader would be to begin associating this text with a priest or a religious or some charismatic preacher, the same yard stick must be applied to every baptised who by virtue of his or her baptism is a prophet, priest and king. If our lives were to evaluated as children of God, would fruit be found in our lives or would there be only leaves? Would our lives match the faith we profess?

Having said that, this text must also be applied in greater measure to those of us who hold and teach the Catholic faith, especially those in leadership role. Do we walk the talk? Is our life incongruous with the words we preach. Those who profess the faith as teachers must reflect that very faith in the manner of their living. While no one is perfect, stiving to that perfection of Our Lord in a spirit of humility, is what we ought to see. An arrogant priest does not reflect the heart of the good shepherd.

While the manner of life is important, one also should pay attention to the content of the teaching. This is something that has been watered down time and time again by populist teachers and those who work for monetary gain. Preachers of the prosperity Gospel are known to have an eye on your wallet rather than their eyes on God. While a labourer deserves his wages he is not entitled to a personal private jet at the expense of his congregants.

Even more, the Gospel is in danger when it is watered down to please the itchy ears of congregants who ‘pay’ to hear a version of the Gospel that keeps them comforted, permitting them to carry on living a life of immoral behaviour while yet sitting in the pew on a Sunday with a comforted conscience; thanks, in large measure to the preacher.

Finally, one ought to pay attention to the effect of the teaching of preachers. When Christ is proclaimed, it touches the lives of those who listen. True faith is not a flash in the pan nor a good feeling after a Sunday homily. An effective preacher is not one who focuses on the manner and style of speaking but whose words cut through the heart bringing about conversion. A preacher who drives men and women to the confessional is the one who has the heart of God.

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A hard road that leads to a narrow gate – Tuesday, 12th week in ordinary time – Matthew 7:6,12-14

Today’s Gospel has three teachings woven together. The Sermon on the Mount comprises of several teachings of Jesus meant for his disciples. The Gospel writer Matthew, weaves these teachings to form a tapestry of faithful discipleship and yet not all have the clarity we would most certainly desire; verse six being a case in point.

The disciple is asked not to ‘give’ what is holy to dogs and not to ‘throw’ their pearls before swine. Clearly, while the disposition of the Christian must always be towards the good of others there are somethings that must not be given or cast away carelessly for the receiver is not ready for it especially if what is being offered is ‘holy’ or ‘precious.’

While one will never be clear in what sense this verse was meant to be understood, one can safely apply it to the faith. While the Gospel must be proclaimed, the Gospel must not be cheapened. All religious faiths profess holiness. The Christian faith is different from other faiths. Like it or not, if you are a Christian, then Jesus is the only way, the only truth and the only life. There is salvation in no other name except the name of Jesus. While this may sound arrogant to the sensibilities of other religions it is core and central to the Christian faith. Perhaps not all are ready to receive our Lord as their only saviour. When he is worshipped as one among many or even ‘primacy over equals’ we end up diluting the faith and what is ‘holy’ is given to ‘dogs.’ (Read this in the context of the scripture text; other faiths are not being denigrated as dogs)

Understanding this text further; as much as we desire to give our children the best, we hold back for a reason or a time. An encyclopedia in the hand of toddler may be our desire to impart knowledge but to the child it is good only to be torn into shreds. The sacraments of Holy Communion and Confirmation are essential components of the ‘entrance sacraments’ into the Christian faith but they are differed to an age of reason. There is a reason why civil law sets age criteria for driving a motor vehicle or for getting married. A good thing given at the wrong time or in the wrong hands is disastrous for both the giver and receiver.

In today’s Gospel, Christ also gives the disciples two more teachings to be contemplated for themselves. The first of these is known across faiths as the ‘golden rule.’ Many have interpreted this teaching, “do to others as you would have them do to you,’ as the law of reciprocal love or ‘a you scratch my back and I will return the favour’. But that would be looking at the teaching of Christ very narrowly especially since this would never augur well in the larger context of Jesus’s teachings.

The Christian disciple is called to do good; this is the crux. Each one of us live to be loved, to be thought well off and to be cared for. Imagine a world where one would do all the above to every human being and while one would expect reciprocity, love itself is its reward. This teaching to do good to others does not limit love, it encourages it. It is not an attempt to set a minimum limit but an attempt to ensure that goodness is spread.

Finally, Jesus exhorts the disciple to enter through the narrow gate. He is asking the disciple to make the tough choices, the honest choices, the choices that take us to heaven. We live in a culture of bigger the better and more the merrier. Christ asks us to defy that culture by making choices that few would make. He clearly says that the road he asks us to take is ‘hard’ and the ‘gate’ is narrow; but it is this narrow gate and this hard road that leads to ‘life’ and few find it.

Making one’s way through a narrow passage demands concentration and perseverance. It means avoiding the distractions of broader and more attractive pathways. However, narrowing down the many distractions and temptations that we encounter throughout our lives leads us to the height and the breadth and the depth of God.

N.B – Your comments are encouraged. It is your little way of spreading the Gospel by sharing your thoughts

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