Faith

Michael Pacher – The Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence. 1480

The first comedians ‘roast’- Feast of St Lawrence, Deacon and Martyr – John 12: 24-26

The setting of today’s reading is Palm Sunday (John12: 12) and these are the opening words of His Palm Sunday ‘homily’ preached to His disciples. Interestingly, He is the author of the text, He is the subject of the text and it is in Him that we find our context.

The plot to kill Jesus has already been set in motion in chapter 11 and snowballs into killing all those around Him who in any way increase the strength of His popularity, including Lazarus (12:10). Clearly it was the growing popularity of the mission of Jesus that threatened the foundations of Pharisaic beliefs. 

Their fear of losing this battle is confirmed in the scripture text that precedes the Gospel of today (12: 19), for right before their eyes they  see and confess that the “world has gone after Him (Jesus).” The message of Jesus had certainly spread like wild fire, enough to attract ‘some Greeks’ who had come to worship during the Passover festival. These ‘God fearing’ Gentiles, clearly have been drawn to the Jewish festivities, yet hearing the message of Jesus, they now seek Him and not the temple.

The Good News that Jesus came to preach, was principally to the Jews, but it soon began to captivate the beliefs of the Gentiles too. The Early Church had to struggle through this phase. Should the mission of Jesus be limited only to the Jews and the demands of its traditional customs?  It was the Jewish ritual of circumcision, demanded of the Gentile converts, which created divisions between St Paul on one hand and the apostles on the other.

The first council of Jerusalem which took place around the year 50 AD, recorded in Acts 15 and the second chapter of Paul’s letter to the Galatians, debated precisely this issue necessitated by St Paul’s mission to the Gentiles. The Church had a rapidly growing Gentile following over a smaller Jewish leadership who sought to make the acceptance of Judaic rituals a prerequisite to becoming a Christian.

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Faith

The underdog- Wednesday, 18th week in ordinary time- Matthew 15: 21-28

Hammering this Gospel passage home is not going to be that easy; you got to suss this one out. Jesus seems to have lost His empathy and perhaps this is the only narrative where, at first, He denies help to someone in need. So was Jesus just having a bad hair day after His run-in with the Pharisees in verse 1- 9?

You got to let the muddied waters of hatred between the Jews and Gentiles settle on this one a bit, to see why Jesus initially said what He did. Matthew calls the woman a Canaanite and this already indicates a deep seated historical animosity which Mark does not use; he calls her a Syro-Phonecian (Mark 7:24-30) a far more acceptable term of address.

Jesus, for some unexplained reason withdraws from Galilee and walks into the sea coast region, North West of Palestine, into Tyre and Sidon. The people of this land, which Israel conquered under Joshua, were considered pagans by the Jews. Many of the Canaanites had been pushed northward into Phoenicia when the Hebrews invaded the territory. The hatred was mutual and understandable.

When Matthew wrote the Gospel, he was writing to a Jewish audience who had a deep respect for the law, the tradition. They would certainly be intrigued if not offended by the actions of Jesus who willingly strayed and led His disciples into pagan land. While Matthew’s Gospel is not entirely hostile to the Gentiles, it most certainly keeps the door ajar for them to come on board.

Jesus thus ignores the woman’s cry for mercy; a cry not for herself but for her daughter who is tormented by a devil. It is plausible to assume that the fame of Jesus which had spread far and wide, reached the districts of this Phoenician neighbourhood. The woman, albeit a foreigner, identifies Him physically but also hails Him in messianic terms; she calls Him the Son of David.

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Faith

The perfect storm- Tuesday, 18th week in ordinary time- Memorial of St Dominic, Priest- Matthew 14: 22- 36

One of the earliest symbols of Christianity was the boat. This symbol stood for the Church tossed on the sea of disbelief, worldliness and persecution, but finally reaching safe harbour with its cargo of human souls.

This symbol had its origins in narratives such as the Gospel of today. Having fishermen as disciples, familiar with the sea, made it easier for Jesus to gain access to one of these many boats. It is these boats that He used as a pulpit as He spoke to the crowds on the beach, or as He crisscrossed the Galilean Sea.

Make no mistake; the Galilean Sea for all its idyllic beauty had the potential to become a fisherman’s nightmare, enough to wreck the nerves of experienced fishermen such as Jesus’ disciples. The Gospel records the condition of the sea on this occasion as ‘basanizo’, translated as ‘tortured or harassed’. Matthew narrates two such tempestuous incidents; in Chapter 8:23-27 and here in 14:22-36.

There is a marked difference in the two texts. In the former text, Jesus is in the boat; here He is not; He comes walking to them. In the first there is a storm, here the wind and waves were against them. In the first they feared for their lives; here they are terrified because they think they see a ghost. It is the ‘little faith’ of the disciples that is in question in the first incident; now it is Peter’s little faith that is under the scanner.

This information overload needs no interpretation for Matthew’s community. They lived in the throes of persecution from within and everywhere, and the meaning was quite clear. At stake was the question of Jesus’ claim that He was the Son of God, a claim rejected by the Jews both at Jesus’ time and during the time Matthew wrote the Gospel. Then there was also the reality of their ‘little faith’ that was tossed about as a consequence of their isolation from the Jewish community into no man’s land.

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Faith

Is there really nothing? Monday, 18th Week in ordinary time- Matthew 14: 13-21

There can never really be nothing to give. Perhaps what we mean is there is nothing in our surplus bag to give, which still indicates that we have something.  The disciples have hit the panic button for Jesus has withdrawn by boat to a deserted place followed by large crowds and the sun was dipping its head over another Galilean horizon.

Jesus was in mourning; He had just lost his cousin, John the Baptist, in a grisly death as a ‘pleasure prize’ at Herod’s birthday party. Jesus perhaps longed to be by himself but the crowds followed Him incessantly.  His teaching of the Sermon on the Mount had made a deep impact on them.  Jesus suspends His own need to grieve because He grieves over the situation His people are. Scripture tells us that He is moved by compassion and spends the entire day curing the sick.

While scripture also tells us that there were five thousand men that day, scholars tell us that this number added to women and children would have brought the head count to a whopping twenty thousand. It is understandable why the disciples panicked. This was after all a deserted place and food by itself was a scarce commodity under Roman rule. The people of the land could barely eke out a living, perhaps prompting Jesus to pray for ‘our daily bread.’

What the disciples had truly forgotten was the power of God in a deserted place (to say the least).  The Greek word for ‘deserted’ (eremos) is the same used in the Bible for the ‘wildernesses’.  By now the light of faith should have begun to flicker in the minds of the disciples.  Surely they should have recalled the compassion of God who in the wilderness had provided manna for his people. Or the feeding of widow of Zarephath by Elijah or Elisha who fed one hundred people.  But they did not; they simply panicked like most of us in a difficult situation.

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Art/ Heritage

THE CALL OF THE MOUNT: ‘The Transfiguration’ by Titian

‘In his paintings, the anatomist finds form; the colourist, colour; the thinker, thought and the saint, sanctity’

Welcome to the world of Titian! Tiziano Vecelli (anglicized as Titian) is one of the greatest painters of the Venetian school of high Renaissance art. Born in the Republic of Venice (1488 -90), his vivid application of colour had a profound influence on the artistic world. Versatile in nature, he was equally adept with landscape, portrait, mythological and religious subjects. For his magnanimous contribution he is regarded as ‘the sun amongst small stars.’

The increasing freedom of his brushstroke and his deft ability to grasp personality can be noted in today’s painting. Hearkening the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 17, verses 1 – 13, the painting enlivens the scene of the Transfiguration of Christ. A motif of metamorphosis, it encounters the glorious splendour of Jesus.

The scene is set on a mount, a symbol of the manifestation of God (theophany). Without rendering detail to the surroundings, Titian’s brush hits the climax. He captures the moment when ‘a bright cloud covered them in a shadow and a voice from the cloud said “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased. Listen to Him.” On hearing the voice the disciples fell to the ground full of fear.’

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