Faith

Business as usual? Monday within the Easter Octave – Acts 2:14,22-23/Matthew 28:8-15

Read also  https://www.pottypadre.com/the-words-of-peter-yet-the-voice-of-god/ based on the first reading. 

The Easter narrative in the Gospel of Mark and Matthew are brief; just thirteen and fifteen verses. Compare that to Luke and John, which tell us so much more. The Gospel of today, taken from Matthew’s Gospel, first tells us of the attitude that Easter could have on us. It could bring about belief or disbelief. It then goes on to tell us of the acts that are fuelled by those attitudes; it tells us of two sets of instructions; that of the Lord to the women and then those of the Chief priest to the soldiers.

Jesus encounters the women in their panic and fear. The angel (verse 5) sensing his dramatic entry, tells the women not to fear but obviously even the soft voice of this angel could not stop their hearts from pumping furiously. The Lord, on encountering the women reminds them once again not ‘to be afraid.’ The Easter proclamation is one that gives all those who are afraid, whatever that fear may be, the gift of peace in the storm. So, stop the fear, the Lord is near!

But the encounter with the women was also ‘sudden.’ God does not give notice of his planned visits. He breaks into our lives ‘suddenly;’ perhaps at a parish mission, in moments of prayer or perhaps when we are rushing like the women were. He breaks into our world ‘suddenly’ but also with a ‘greeting.’ Scripture tells us that on encountering the women he greets them. Think about it, the first Easter Greeting was not spoken to commemorate an event, the first Easter Greeting was made by the one who caused the event. I wonder what that first Easter greeting was? Was it just a hello? Was it a good morning? Was it a Praise the Lord or did the Lord say, “Happy Easter?” I think it does not matter what he said, what matters is that we recognise that he was the first one to greet us all on Easter Sunday.

The Lord then gave the women a message and this message comes as a surprise to those who read deeper into this text. The Lord asked the women to ‘go and tell his brothers to go to Galilee, where they will see him.’ This line struck me very powerfully because I recognized in this text the first message of forgiveness after the resurrection. Forgiveness was central to the life of Jesus; so much so that one of his last words on the cross was, “father forgive them.” Now, after the resurrection the first act is one of forgiveness even though he does not say it explicitly.

Let’s put this in perspective. He addresses his disciples as “brothers.” These are the same “brothers” who a page and a day earlier denied him, betrayed him and fled from him. Imagine you and me speaking of those who abandoned us in the moment of our need. I am certain that “brothers” would not be the first words that we might use; a confession would be required to ease the burden of guilt that would result from the greeting we would have for those who betrayed and denied us. Yet, Jesus calls them ‘brothers’, making his first act after the resurrection one of love and forgiveness. Easter calls us to peace but it also calls us to forgiveness.

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Faith

The power of his love – Wednesday, Isaiah 50 :4-9a/ Matthew 26:14-25

Read also https://www.pottypadre.com/judas-second-last-sin/ based on the Gospel of today

Tomorrow, we step in to the Sacred Tridum but for today the first reading presents us with the third Song of the Servant of Yahweh. The fourth and last Song will be read during the liturgy of Good Friday. (We have focused on the first two this week)

The Third Servant Song of Isaiah was written almost six hundred years before the events of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem and the Passion that followed. But it is almost as if Isaiah, one of Israel’s greatest prophets was standing in Jerusalem, witnessing what happened to Jesus and describing it in his wonderfully poetic language. “The Lord GOD has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious, I did not turn backward. I gave my back to those who struck me, and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard; I did not hide my face from insult and spitting.”

Jesus is the obedient son the of father. He was obedient unto death on a cross. The same may not be said entirely of us and the same could not be said of the nation of Israel that rejected him. In his pain, he will speak love and forgiveness and Isaiah reminds us of those words which are alluded to Christ, “he has given me a disciples tongue so that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word.”

Jesus spoke comfort from the cross, not once but seven times and while some were spoken of himself or to his father, there were words to us that were meant to bring comfort; words to sustain the weary. It is truly a great soul, who even in their suffering can think of the comfort and care of others around. Jesus with his ‘disciples tongue’ teaches even while he hangs on the cross.

The reading of today, anticipating the suffering of Christ on Good Friday, reminds us that Jesus, for our sake, submits to insults and beatings. The Servant makes no resistance to his attackers. He will not meet violence with violence. He does not choose to retaliate for to do so would be to bring himself down to the level of his attackers.

Jesus offers his back for a beating, something given only to criminals. It requires great inner strength not to respond in kind to such provocation. But when it is undergone with dignity, it is the attacker who seems small. It must be made very clear that this is not weakness, but a sign of great inner strength and peace.

We could reflect today on how we respond to criticisms, statements about us we regard as unfair or untrue. Are we prone to a physical or verbal violent response? Even if we do not respond externally, do we allow statements and events to turn us into cauldrons of anger, hatred, anxiety and tension?

As Holy Week unfolds before us, we are called by God to remember, to re-live in the best way we can, the story of Jesus’ Passion, crucifixion and death. We are invited to get into the depths of it all with Jesus; to feel how deep is His emotional pain, even if we can only imagine the breadth of His physical pain. Because we cannot know the power of His sacrifice unless we really know the suffering cost of it.

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Faith

To raise and restore – Tuesday of Holy Week – Isaiah 49:1-6/John 13:21-33,36-38

Read also https://www.pottypadre.com/deserters-betrayers-deniers-all-the-kings-men/ based on the Gospel of today.

Chapters 42-53 of the book of Isaiah contain four Servant Songs. The first of these songs (42:1-4) that we read at mass yesterday, tells of the call of the Servant to “bring justice to the nations” (42:1). Today we read the second Song of the Servant of Yahweh. This song of the servant (49:1-6), further defines the Servant’s mission. The Servant is “to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the people of Israel” (49:6a). Furthermore, God says, “I will also give you for a light to the nations, that you may be my salvation to the end of the earth” (49:6b). The prophet speaks in words that apply very suitably to Jesus. In Christian tradition we have come to apply these words to Jesus, the servant who suffered for us. Jesus has been called from all eternity to do this work of salvation. He is a “sharp-edged sword” and a “polished arrow”.

What can we draw this Holy Week from this text? It was God the father who called Jesus his son to mission; a mission of servant leadership. There is clarity of mission and purpose in this call. Jesus is called and given the tools necessary for our salvation. He is the sharp sword. The words of Jesus have power that can cut through the heart of any sinner. He is the polished arrow hidden in the Father’s quiver to be used at the appropriate time. (My hour has not yet come)

Yet there must have been times when the heart of our saviour reflected the words of the Prophet Isaiah, “I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity.” The death of Jesus on the cross may have seemed so futile. He lived for others, he died for others but this life and death seemed to have no effect on Caiaphas, on Pilate, on Judas, on the Sanhedrin, on those who cried crucify him, on those who spat at him and mocked him, on the bad thief, on the Romans and the list goes on.

YET his death was not in vain. Jesus came to bring back ‘Jacob’ and ‘Israel’. John 1:12 tells us that to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God. The Holy Week is a time when we stand with Jacob and Israel, a time for restoration a time for redemption.

The text of today also focuses on another human reality. There is a tendency to give up when faced with constant attack in the face of good. Christ too faced this animosity all the while. The ones who attacked him were the religious leaders of his time, the big guns of the Jewish nation and not some small time Jewish columnist writing in the Jerusalem Post. So, one understands when on wishes to give up when the heart and soul of a person is attacked for doing good.

Christ came to call us to share in his humanity and divinity. We have to fight our human nature that sucks us into failure, into sin, into defeat. We have to push ourselves like Jesus to work for his kingdom. The reward for the labourer is not a holiday in Tahiti but rather the reward for the labourer is more work. (Matthew 13:12).

When our human frailty causes us to feel discouraged by the negativity that surrounds us, assure yourself that you are “called by God before you were born and named in your mother’s” womb by God himself to be his servant; words from today’s reading. This is not some frivolous task that God has handed to you but indeed a holy mandate to “raise and restore”

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Faith

Make me a servant – Monday of the Holy Week – Isaiah 42:1-7/ John 12:1-11

Read also https://www.pottypadre.com/there-is-something-about-marymary-of-bethany/ based on the Gospel of today.

Today we have the first of the four Songs of the Servant of Yahweh taken from the prophet Isaiah. Together, they describe the finest qualities of Israel and her great leaders. Today’s song, describes a ‘chosen one’ like Moses, David, and all Israel. As the Servant, he fulfils the role of Davidic king and prophet. Christians have typically seen ‘the servant’ as associated with Jesus; his life and ministry, but especially his death and resurrection.

In order to understand this text, we need to look at what has happened so far. God delivered his people from bondage in Egypt, made a covenant with them, and brought them to the promised land. They became a nation and built a temple for the Lord. For centuries they saw military victories and defeats under kings and generals. They strayed from God’s covenant but prophets called them back. Then, in the sixth century BCE, the unthinkable happened. The Babylonians defeated Israel.

The kingdom of Judah finds itself in exile with the temple in ruins and kingship at an end. Zion in all its splendour has been diminished, and some of the Judahites are forced exiles in the foreign land of Babylonia. The Babylonians destroyed the temple, plundered Israel’s treasure and livelihoods, took them into bondage, and marched them back to the gates of Babylon in chains, prompting “By the rivers of Babylon there we sat down and there we wept when we remembered Zion” (Psalm 137:1). The Babylonian victory over Israel was absolute. This was utter, complete devastation of the political, social, economic and religious life God’s people had known for centuries. Without a temple and a Davidic leader, the future of the people was in great peril. They need assurance, assistance, and a new vision.

How could the Mighty Deliverer allow this to happen? Had God abandoned them? Why had he removed access to the temple and to the land he had given them? Were they still God’s people? Was God still God? Now that they were in exile they could only conclude that God had withdrawn favour and allowed the Babylonians to punish them for their sins and disobedience.

Into this difficult political and religious situation, the prophet introduces a servant figure. God speaks to the pain of the exiles and promises to send a servant who will bring justice, and not to Israel only but to all nations. God will place His spirit upon this servant so that the servant is able to bring forth justice to the nations, to be a light, to open blind eyes and bring out prisoners. The prophet reminds the people who God is and how God works. He draws their attention from this particular, historical moment, to the larger purposes of God.

For us Christians, Jesus is the Messiah who has inaugurated the New Covenant by his suffering and death. We will see that more clearly when we read more of the Suffering Servant during Holy Week.

As we begin Holy Week, we are reminded that this work of God’s servant, which we also are, has to go on through us. We are not here this week just to be spectators, even grateful spectators. We are to be part of the work which the Paschal Mystery inaugurated. We, too, are to be servants, ready, if necessary, to suffer as Jesus did for the sake of our brothers and sisters. 

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A revelation and an expectation – Thursday, 5th Week of Lent – Genesis 17:3-9/ John 8:51-59

Read also https://www.pottypadre.com/i-am-2/ on the Gospel of today.

Abram was 75 years old when he left Haran (Genesis 12:4). He was 86 years old when the son Ishmael was born of Hagar, the servant girl (Genesis 16:15-16). He had waited some 25 years for the fulfilment of God’s promise to give a son through Sarai. It had been some 13 years since his last recorded word from God. That is a lot of trusting and a lot of patience. It is no wonder that ‘Abraham’ is called the father of faith.

Abram’s story began with his call. When God called Abram to leave his father’s house and go to a land that God would show him (12:1), God promised, “I will make of you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great. You will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you. All of the families of the earth will be blessed in you” (12:2-3). The covenant in chapter 17, from which our first reading is taken, expands on that promise that God made earlier.

In chapter 17 God tells Abram what was expected of him. It was first revelation and then expectation. God reveals himself as El Shaddai (God Almighty). He then states his expectation, that Abram ‘walk before him’ and is blameless. The word blameless literally means “whole.” God wanted all of Abram, a total commitment.

God also reminded Abram that he had not forgotten the covenant he made with him. Though it had been some 25 years since the promise was first made, and though it may have seemed to Abram that God had forgotten his covenant, God didn’t forget anything. Abram was becoming a great man of faith, but you don’t make a great man of faith overnight. It takes years of God’s work in them, years of almost mundane trusting in God, perhaps interrupted with a few spectacular encounters with God.

Ironically, while God had made a covenant with Abram, his very name seemed like a cruel joke. Ab means “father.” Abram means ‘father of many’ and yet this was a hard name to bear for a man who was the father of none. So when God renews his covenant with Abram he changes his name to Abraham which means father of many nations; ‘ab-hamon’. It was almost crazy for a childless man to have such a name. We need to remember that, for the ancients, a name did not merely indicate a person or thing, rather it made a thing what it was, and a change of name meant a change of destiny. But God clearly had a promise for Abraham and Gods delays are not his denials.

In almost every dimension, God made the long-delayed promise to Abraham greater. Never before had God specifically said that multiple nations would come from Abraham (a singular nation was promised in Genesis 12:2). Never before had God specifically said that kings would descend from Abraham.

Abraham and his descendants are called to ratify this covenant, and on their part, they are to keep the covenant by their total allegiance to their one and only God. Abraham, as the Gospel indicates, is regarded as the father of all God’s people. As Matthew’s genealogy indicates, he is the ancestor of Jesus and in Jesus we find the complete fulfilment of the promises made long ago. We read in today’s Gospel, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to think that he would see my Day; he saw it and was glad.”

The covenant made between Abraham and God is both sealed and renewed in Jesus Christ. And through Jesus, people everywhere become, in a special way, children of God. Let us rejoice in having God as our Father and Jesus as our brother. We do so by the way we live our lives.

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