Faith

The Good News verses the fake new- Friday, 14th of week in ordinary time- Matthew 10:16-23

We are in the second of the five discourses of Matthew and I am making an artificial separation in chapter ten for the sake of study. We are in the second of the three part missionary discourse.  The first part was the commission to mission, now we are in the consequence of a mission and tomorrow we will look at the courage to mission.

My dear friend, the late Fr Larry Pereira, always said that Christianity is not for ‘namby-pambies’. The word has more than just a nice ring to it for it conveys a truth. It is dangerous when we propagate personal devotions to Christ over the tougher message of the Gospel.

Let me give you an example and please don’t get me wrong, I have no disrespect for the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus or any other devotion. I grew up with this devotion and still have devotion but this devotion has always been portrayed as ‘sweet’, ‘merciful’ and for ‘namby-pambies’. I have yet to hear, on the feast day, a homily that challenges us to follow the Lord’s heart of justice, suffering in mission or one that confronts evil. Somehow the devotion has always been presented as ‘sweet’.

If we are truly to follow the heart and mind of Jesus then the road is narrow and less trodden. The Gospel of today is a fine example of what a Christian is called to. Perhaps in some parts of the world or country, we don’t experience what is described in today’s Gospel; the flogging, hatred, being put to death and the terror of having to flee your home. But that means one of the two things; either we don’t live in that part of the world where this happens or we don’t go out in mission in our part of the ‘safe’ world.

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Faith

A Plate for Peter- Thursday- 14th week in ordinary time- Matthew 10: 7-15

The first part of the mission discourse focuses on the call or commissioning to mission. Interestingly the apostles are ‘sent’ to preach the good news but what they will experience and have to accept, is that the good news comes with a lot of bad news .  Jesus is emphatic; the call to mission has no rose garden along with the sunshine.

The mission of the apostles is clear; proclaim the good news, cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers and cast out demons.  This is a very powerful mandate. Imagine the excitement in a little village when the apostles raised someone from the dead.  All of a sudden these twelve ordinary men would be viewed with great awe, reverence and honour. They would be sought after for their amazing gifts.

Jesus is aware what this power can do and so He cautions His apostles. He wants them to go out armed in faith and not to put their trust in material objects. In travelling light, they are dependent on God and not on their possessions.

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The march of the unqualified- Wednesday, 14th Week in ordinary time – Matthew 10: 1-7

With this pericope we walk right into the second of the five discourses found in Matthew. This one is often referred to as the ‘mission discourse’.

Jesus is not a solo artist, though He could be. Strictly speaking, He does not need us. His invitation to share in His ministry should thus be seen as a privilege, for we share now in His ministry. Chapter ten elaborates that invitation. There is a call, there are consequences and then there is the courage needed to live that call.

Though Jesus has many disciples, He narrows them down to twelve, calling them apostles. The very word apostle means, ‘one who is sent’. The twelve are now emissaries with real power. While the mission discourse is primarily to the apostles, it is not limited only to them.

But the mission of Jesus in Matthews’s Gospel is not to all. Remember that Matthew is communicating to a predominantly Jewish Christian audience. His principal focus is to them, the ‘lost sheep of the house of Israel’ and while Jesus is not closed to the evangelization of the Samaritans and the Gentiles, His purpose is principally to the ‘lost sheep of Israel’.

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A Church of labourers, not supervisors- Tuesday, 14th week in ordinary time- Matthew 9: 32- 38

After having preached the great Sermon on the Mount, Jesus works ten miracles in chapters eight and nine. Today’s gospel covers the last of these miracles and leads us to the second of the five discourses in Matthew’s Gospel – the ‘mission discourse’ that is found in chapter ten.

In order to grasp every pericope, we need to set them in the author’s literary context and the larger historical context. The gospel of Matthew is written in the midst of great hostility towards the community of Matthew by the Jewish authorities. Having excommunicated the Jewish Christians from all synagogue services, they now bay for their blood. This hostility towards the disciples and Jesus, is reflected in the Gospel of Matthew.

So, it is no wonder that they see the healing of the mute demoniac as the work of the ‘ruler of demons’. Their tinted glasses of prejudice prevent them from seeing that which the people saw, a  sight like ‘never been seen in Israel before’.

Matthew ends this literary section by highlighting the compassion of Jesus and contrasting it with the legalism of the Jewish authorities.  Matthew uses these transitional verses not only to introduce the magnitude of the mission, but also to highlight the compassion of the ‘Lord of the harvest.’  What He preached on the Sermon on the Mount in words, He lives in the plains in deeds.

In the face of such authentic living, the disciples are charged to go and do likewise. Jesus is relentless in His mission and sets the bar high for the disciples. We are told that He went through ALL the cities and villages, teaching, proclaiming and curing, for He was moved with compassion by the woes of a shepherdless flock.

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Is 12 the new 13? – Monday, 14th Week in ordinary time- Matthew 9: 18-26

The gospel of today is also found in Mark 5: 21-43 and Luke 8: 40-56 and put together with Matthew reveal layers of interesting detail.  When seen together (the meaning of Synoptic) we know that the synagogue officials name was Jarius whose twelve year old daughter was raised from the dead and that a woman, suffering with a haemorrhage for twelve years, was cured.

Interestingly, the gospel of Nicodemus, an apocryphal gospel, also known as the Acts of Pilate (Πράξεις Πιλάτου), mentions the name of the haemorrhaging woman as Bernice. Eusebius of Caesarea, a Greek historian of Christianity, an exegete, and Christian polemicist mentions that the woman was a gentile from Caesarea Philippi.

So is there some magic to the number twelve? None whatsoever unless you also believe there is a curse in the number thirteen. While Jarius was ‘blessed’ with a daughter for twelve years, the woman was ‘cursed’ with a bleeding for twelve years. So rather than looking for solace in numbers, Jarius and the woman chose to look to the Lord, with eyes of faith.

Interestingly the interaction with the dead girl and the woman with the haemorrhage would have rendered Jesus ritually unclean. A pious Jew would think twice before touching a dead person. Remember the priest and the Levite who walked past the man beaten and left for dead in the parable of the ‘Good Samaritan’? Their ‘heartless’ actions were perhaps a reaction to the fact that they were on their way to Jerusalem. To touch a potentially dead man would only involve more ceremonial cleansing. They followed the maxim, be safe rather than sorry, and walked on. Sensitivity was lost to ceremonials.

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