Faith

When Jesus did not ‘sign- in’ -Monday- 16th week in ordinary time -Matthew 12: 38-42

Like a well-constructed iced cake; hypocrisy comes layered with flattery and lies. The Pharisees and scribes could well conduct many such successful mater classes, for they had perfected the art of hypocrisy. The reality was that they had no love lost for Jesus, even though they approached Him with honorific titles. Chapter twelve of Matthew’s Gospel is a well laid out expose of their web of deceit.

Jesus cuts to the chase and rips through the flattery of the Pharisees. They want a sign and before He turns down their ‘request’, He calls them “evil and adulterous”. Take a moment to let that sink in. Often we read the Gospels like a story book with some amount of detachment from the characters. Rather, imagine yourself standing in the crowd when Jesus said that to the Pharisees. There must have been a gasp of horror; He shamed the religious leaders in public.

Jesus does not mince words, for He was no diplomat. He was the straight talking Son of God who came to do the will of His Father and He did it with great courage. Make no mistake; this tender and compassionate “Rabbi” had no qualms in standing up to a morally bankrupt establishment. No wonder the Pharisees and scribes set trap after trap for Him.

So what might simply be lost to us is the evil behind the intention of asking for a sign. They ask for something that they have already had ten of. Jesus in Chapter eight and nine has worked ten fantastic signs and yet they want another one.  Would the descent of the angels satisfy their need for proof? I doubt it! Their intention was not to see the wonder of God but to trap the Son of God.

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Art/ Heritage

  • Sleeping Beauty? : ‘The Wheat and the Tares’ by Abraham Bloemaert
    Liturgical art is a visual expression of the profound imagery of the liturgy and faith. In
    today’s painting we encounter the second of the seven parables from the Gospel of Matthew.
    The word ‘parable’ is derived from the Greek word ‘parabole’ which signifies placing things
    on parallel for comparison. Jesus often used local imagery for the latter. This imagery springs
    to life through the brush of the artist.
    Abraham Bloemaert treated the subject of the Parable of the weeds more than once during the
    course of his long career. The painting in consideration was possibly painted at a later stage in
    his art life. But what was his journey through art like?
    Bloemaert was born in a Catholic family in 1566 in Southern Netherlands. The year was
    marked with turmoil. The lion of the 17 provinces was torn between the Dutch Holland and
    the Spanish Flanders. The Protestant insurgency and iconoclasm claimed violence all over the
    southern provinces. Churches were sacked, stained glasses crushed, images destroyed.
    Bloemaert’s father was a sculptor and an engineer. He moved north to Utrecht, an ancient
    bishopric near Amsterdam. Thus Utrecht formed the hub of Bloemaert’s career.
    The scene of today’s painting is a country landscape. Its premier scene captures the siesta
    moment of today’s Gospel: ‘While everyone was asleep his enemy came and sowed weeds all
    through the wheat and then went off.’
    Allegorically the painting is divided into two halves: the before and the after. To the left,
    occupying most of the foreground is a group of nude and semi-nude servants asleep in sundry
    positions. They seem tricked into an ambiguous slumber. The labourers and the manager lie
    intoxicated. The mother and her baby lull amid breastfeed. The horse dozes off. The rake, the
    plough and the drafting marker await employment. They repose within a dilapidated barn.
    Strewn roots signal woe.
    Sneaking down the soiled ramp is the trickster. His left hand holds onto a fabric sling while
    his right hand sows malice. He seeds not wheat but tares. These resemble wheat grains but
    function as a soporific poison. The rogue snorts, ‘Sleep well fellas while I get done with my
    job!’ The outstretched wings of the scoundrel and his tagging team of flying fowls are
    indicative of the passage of the Sower; ‘some seeds fell along the footpath and the birds came
    and ate them.’
    A little hunting will bring us to the climax of the parable. Time travels from the foreground to
    the background. Across the green fields of wheat and weed is poised a stone structured
    mansion. At its entrance stand three roughly sketched figures. One of them carries a bundle.
    As apparent, it is harvest time. The mansion belongs to the owner who commands his
    servants to blaze off the bale of tares in his barn. It is intriguing how the nest of slumber
    marks an end to the scandal of the immoral. Good conquers evil.
    Fashioned in the mannerist mode of art, Bloemaert visually narrates the parable. The restless
    light effects, the strong contrast, the colour gamut, the graceful posing of the figures animate
    the sequence. However, it is more than a narration. It is a statement, nay, an assertion against
    iconoclasm. It expresses liturgical art as a window to the spiritual world. It takes us on a
    journey beyond the creation unto the Creator to comprehend His parables, His teachings and
    His will.
  • The Archdiocesan Heritage Museum is open from Tuesday to Sunday from 9am to 5pm.
    For a guided tour please contact 022 – 29271557

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Faith

Mary, Mary quite contrary- Feast of St Mary of Magdala John 20:1-2, 11-18

‘Chauvinistic hermeneutics’, that’s what one theologian called the interpretation of the scriptures with regards to Mary of Magdala. The poor woman only stood by the cross of Jesus while He was crucified; unfortunately her name has been crucified by countless preachers as a prostitute or adulterer.

How did we get to this? The problem begins with a faulty reading of scripture coupled with ‘unadulterated’ chauvinism.  Luke 7:37 talks about a woman in the city who was a sinner, who washes the feet of Jesus with her tears and wipes them with her hair; there is no mention of her as a prostitute.

This narrative is followed immediately by another narrative which refers to Mary of Magdala from whom seven daemons had been cast out. That’s all it took, two texts, one following the next. The two texts were fused and just like that, Mary of Magdala was thrown into a brothel.

The view got Papal sanction when in 591 Pope Gregory XIV lumped in this unnamed sinner with another Mary—Mary of Bethany, Martha and Lazarus’ sister. Scripture scholarship had not progressed as much as it has today. Examine the evidence that the Pope had to guide him, and you can see clearly why this belief was falsely held.

Mary (Greek form of the name Miriam) came from Magdala which was located along the Sea of Galilee near Tiberias. The city was wealthy and known for its prosperous fisheries. It also had a reputation for prostitution. The Talmud, derived from the word Magdalene, the expression “curling women’s hair”, came to indicate the hair dress style of an “adulteress”. It was after the siege of Jerusalem that this city was destroyed by the Romans, both because it participated in the Jewish revolt and because it was known for its moral depravity.

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Faith

Cornfield controversies- Friday, 15th week in ordinary time- Matthew 12: 1-8

The relationship between Jesus and the Pharisees reaches a flashpoint in chapter twelve; so much so that by verse fourteen they have made up their mind to “destroy Him”. Jesus had no axe to grind against the Pharisees, He just came so that all would do the will of His Father in heaven (verse 50), and that included the Pharisees.

Somehow the Pharisees saw His presence as a threat to their beliefs and way of life. Jesus saw their practice of the faith as a yoke enslaving people.  Jesus was not anti-Torah or anti-Sabbath; He just challenged their interpretations of the Sabbath when it evolved into nothing more than “mountains hanging by a hair, for there is very little scripture and more rules” (JBC).

Ironically the Old Testament, especially the First five books of the Law, have just one thing to say about the Sabbath; keep it holy (Exodus 20: 8- 11). The Rabbis seemed unhappy with such a basic law and found it necessary to specify thirty nine actions as forbidden on the Sabbath. Amongst them were reaping, winnowing, threshing and preparing a meal. But every law has an exception and this was no different. Humanitarian grounds exempted one from these actions on the Sabbath. Saving a life took precedence over keeping the law.

The narrative in today’s Gospel takes place on the Sabbath. Jesus and His disciples walked down the thin narrow strips between the cornfields, which were considered a right of way and it is there that hunger pangs kick in; it is here that the controversy takes root.

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Faith

When a burden is light- Thursday, 15th week in ordinary time- Matthew 11: 28-30

In His prayer of thanksgiving, Jesus expressed His gratitude to His loving Abba for revealing the mysteries to the simple, and hiding it from those who claimed to be intellectual. But Jesus did more than make a prayer of thanksgiving. He told us what the revelation was – that He has been handed all things by the Father and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal.

Now that the secret is out of the bag, Jesus takes this revelation one step ahead. Having told us the revelation, He now wants us to participate in it; to become one with this mission of the Father and the Son.

There is an intimacy in this whole pericope. Jesus is so intimate in His prayer with the Father and now is so intimate with the disciples. The invitation is filled with tenderness; “come to me”, says Jesus. Jesus speaks as the personification of wisdom. You can touch the feminine characteristics of Jesus, the giver of rest and comfort, like a mother to her tired children (References from the JBC).

Jesus is making one more attempt to win over His detractors. His invitation is to give rest to all, the Pharisees included. But as we know, they reject His offer. They will continue to relentlessly attack Him in chapters 11 and 12, and finally bring judgment upon themselves, when they blaspheme against the Holy Spirit (Verse 32).

At first, these verses seem to confuse us. Jesus invites us – we who are overburdened and He promises rest. However, it seems like we are not to be entirely free for He then wants us to shoulder His yoke. Its sounds a bit unfair; I trade in my burdens only to share Jesus’.

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