Faith

The river of life- Tuesday, 4th Week of Lent – Ezekiel 47:1-9,12/ John 5: 1-16

Read also https://www.pottypadre.com/crippling-faith/ based on the Gospel of today. Simply click on the link above.

This text of today is certainly difficult to understand if you have no background to the Prophet Ezekiel. The passage is about a vision of hope given to the prophet Ezekiel who lived in exile for 25 years in Babylon (40:1). The temple in Jerusalem had been devastated because of the idolatrous sins of God’s people and as a result they were taken into exile and scattered, while the rest were living in their own ruined land.

For the people in exile and those back home, it seemed that there was no hope and no future. At this point, Ezekiel saw a series of visions. In his earlier vision, he saw abominations in the temple and the glory of Yahweh departing from the temple (Ch.8-11). But in his final vision (Ch. 40-48), Ezekiel sees a vision of a new temple. He witnesses the glory of the Lord returning to fill his temple (43:1-12). Ezekiel’s vision zooms out even further to describe the new city and land (Ch. 47-48). The new temple is in the very centre of this new city.

Today’s passage describes a marvellous river flowing from the temple to bring life and healing to the land. Ironically, in all of its recorded history, Jerusalem never had such a river. There were streams and springs, but never a rich, mighty river, and never one flowing from this part of the city. Jerusalem is the only great city of the ancient world that wasn’t located on a river, and in the east, a dependable water supply is essential for life and for defense

So, what is the point of Ezekiel’s vision for us today? Simply this, it reveals God’s heart for a broken world and testifies about the Gospel of Jesus. God wants us to know his heart and to give us a river of life that flows out to heal our broken hearts and our violent world. So, the hope that Ezekiel shared is that in this semi-arid geography of Israel, a river like this will be both a blessing and a miracle. It will bring life, growth, vitality, refreshment, hope, and security.

The last word of God for each of us is not destruction but new life in Jesus.

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Louder than words-  Solemnity of St Joseph – Luke 2: 41- 51

So are all Joseph’s dreamers? Well the Bible presents us with another dreamer, this time in the New Testament and he is the foster father of Jesus. St Joseph’s dreams don’t require any interpretation like the ones in Zechariah or Daniel. His dreams are straightforward though their execution called for obedience; and obey he did.

So I often wonder why we don’t make much of St Joseph. For some reason we have made him the third person of the Holy Family and often the least acknowledged for his role. Joseph, like Mary also said yes! Yes to a socially interpreted scandalous marriage, yes to being homeless, yes to being a refugee, yes to being a foster father and this last one being a tough one. Joseph said YES; and yet there are no hymns that I know that sing of his ‘fiat.’(From the Latin, “let it be done”)

The gospel of today speaks of another lost son, not prodigal, but lost all the same. Jesus in a very theological sense was not lost, He was where He should be, ‘in his Father’s house’; but his parents most certainly though they had lost him. 

Luke is the only gospel that gives us a story from Jesus’ childhood. This precocious little twelve year old most certainly gave Mary and Joseph a three day fright. The first words that Jesus spoke in the New Testament, are recorded in this narrative; “Why were you searching for me, did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”

Make no mistake, for all the love my parents have for me, that statement coupled with three days of insane stressful searching would have earned me a good thrashing. And yet I presume Joseph and Mary were silent and not angry. How often perhaps, in His childhood, had Jesus said things that only solicited puzzled glances from Mary and Joseph? 

But on this occasion, something must have happened in the heart of this ever invisible but dutiful father.  St Joseph, who played his role as foster father to perfection, is now told the inevitable; that Jesus was in ‘His Father’s house’.  ‘Father’, no longer refers to Joseph, his foster-father, a title by which the boy Jesus lovingly called Joseph.  Now that word ‘Father’, refers to God. Luke makes the new meaning very clear, emphasizing that Jesus, a fully human teenage boy, is also the Son of God and fully divine. And while his heart must have tugged, Joseph let’s go, pondering all this in his heart.

He is a good man, this one; a devoted and obedient servant of God.  His yes was more than a yes to ‘the divine call’. He said yes to his human calling too. He was that just and hardworking carpenter who provided for his family. He was the devoted servant of God, who though was not required, made the trip to Jerusalem every year for the Passover. He traversed hill and mountain on foot, making a week long journey to Jerusalem with Mary. He not only strived to do what was right but to do it the right way when he took Mary home to be his wife. He accepted the role of refugee in Egypt fleeing from a tyrant who wanted to murder his son.  He is the silent one of the gospel, you never hear his words, NOT ONCE, but you see his actions and boy do they speak far louder than words!

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Repentance from the heart – Saturday, third week of Lent – Hosea 6:1-6/Luke18:9-14

Read also https://www.pottypadre.com/when-sinners-go-marching-in/ based on the Gospel of today. Simply click the link above.

Religious cultic expressions are but a manifestation of faith in one’s heart. Yet cultic expressions can also be hollow and meaningless when performed perfunctorily. The altars of the temple of Jerusalem and those in Samaria never ran out of blood. Sacrifice of every animal drenched the altars and yet every act in the temple had clearly become another activity and prayer an empty show of piety.

In order to truly understand this text, you need to read Chapter five of the book of Hosea
In it, Yahweh describes the judgment that is about to befall Israel and Judah. Ephraim or Israel (the northern kingdom) will stumble, and Judah (the southern kingdom) will stumble with them (5:5). They will seek Yahweh, but will not find him (5:6).

What was the cause of God’s wrath? At this point of time, Assyria in the north east, was the reigning superpower. Situated along the rivers Tigris and Euphrates in modern day Iraq, this nation had begun to expand its borders westward. To counter them, Israel (the northern kingdom) formed an alliance with Syria to resist Assyria, resulting in conflict with Judah (the southern kingdom), which allied itself to Assyria. Now brothers will fight brother with ungodly nations as their allies. This was what came to be known as the Syro-Ephramitic war which took place in the years 735-733 BC. The long and short of this episode was that Assyria conquered Israel and exiled most of its people.

God has clearly turned his face from his people. Hosea 5:15 a text that ushers in the reading of today is a pronouncement of judgment by Yahweh on Israel and Judah. Yahweh described himself as a lion, who has ravaged Ephraim and Judah (5:14). Now he will return to his place, his lair, where he will await his repentant people. There will be no more wooing, no more cajoling. They will have to come to Yahweh; Yahweh is through coming to them!

While it seems like there is an inclination on the part of Israel to turn back to Yahweh, the text of today reveals the shallow repentance of a people ‘torn down’ and ‘struck down’ (6:1). They desire mercy and showers of blessing in return for their shallow display of repentance. Yet while there is a cry to turn back to God there is not a word of acknowledgment of their sins.

It is for this reason that Yahweh’s anger is roused. Like a frustrated father with an errant child he asks, “what shall I do with you Ephraim and Judah?” It seems the neither the carrot not the stick has worked and God has had no option but to judge his people and punish them. Too often we harp on the mercy of God without facing the reality of personal repentance. Mercy is  a gift that only comes with true repentance.

In the text of today, Yahweh rejects the meaningless acts of repentance by Israel. In verse six, reiterating what he will say to the prophets, he makes clear his desire for steadfast love and not empty sacrifices (6:6) God desires that we know his ways and commandments and not merely every right turn in the liturgy. Empty liturgical gestures such as the empty sacrifices of the people if Israel are like the ‘morning cloud’ that disappears when the sun rises. These temporary gestures of empty repentance have brought about the words of harsh judgment on Ephraim.

This is what we see criticized in today’s Gospel too. And, for us, it is not the Masses we attend, or the prayers we say that count most, but the genuine love of God shown by the way we live our lives and the way we relate to the people around us.

Our prayer must flow out of such a lifestyle and, at the same time, bring about such a way of living.

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God does not just deal with our heart, he heals our heart – Friday, 3rd Week of Lent – Hosea 14:2-9/Mark 12:28-34

Read also https://www.pottypadre.com/hate-in-a-holy-week/ based on the Gospel of today. Simply click on the link.

We tend to make up with people we hurt by offering them a gift; a ‘peace offering’ of sorts. Yet that is not what God desired from the people of Israel. God did not want their burnt offerings and trinkets of two candles and one garland. What he wanted was for them to say the right words to him; words of repentance for the years of disloyalty and backsliding.

Hosea’s ministry began in 760 BC and ended approximately in 720 B.C. shortly before the Assyrian conquest of Israel. He began his ministry when Jeroboam II was king of the Northern kingdom which consisted of ten tribes. Jeroboam I, was the first king of a divided Israel. It was he who led a popular revolt against the high taxation of Rehoboam, son of Solomon (1 Kings 12). This split the nation into two parts. Rehoboam ruled the nation of Judah with Jerusalem as its capital in the south and Jeroboam ruled Israel in the north with Samaria as its capital

Hosea’s ministered in the northern kingdom of Israel in the days of Jeroboam II. From a political and economic standpoint Jeroboam II was a successful and Israel prospered politically and materially under his reign. Yet from a spiritual and moral standpoint, this was a time of significant spiritual and moral decay. As a result of their political success the people just didn’t look to the Lord the way that they should. The seeds of idolatry, spiritual failure, and moral corruption sown in days of Jeroboam II produced a tragic harvest in the following years when they were taken into exile.

Turning to God is never easy especially when you have forgotten how to say you are sorry. Hosea knows that God does not desire another bull to be slaughtered as yet another meaningless gesture of the people’s repentance; this time they need to say sorry and mean it. But years of living in sin does not only make us loose our way, it makes us loose our voice.

In the reading of today, Hosea prompts the people to say the right words. “Do you need help?” the prophet seems to ask. “Are you out of practice in talking with God, or just out of practice in telling the truth when you do?” So, Hosea the prophet became a coach, giving them the words that they needed to speak; words spoken from the heart that would please God.

At the heart of these words of repentance is the admittance of guilt. Israel had trusted in the power of its alliances with Assyria rather than trust in God. Israel had fashioned idols that they had created with their hands. These idols they called “their gods.” It is for these sins that God at the start of this book, orphaned his people.

While the Prophet Hosea makes for very difficult reading because of its overt condemnatory message to a sinful nation, that tone and tenor changes as the Prophet winds down in chapter 14. The heart of God has melted. This time his heart has melted not with a bull burnt on an altar but with a humble contrite heart that speaks through words.

The heart of God not only melts it is molten with love. God makes promises to a perpetually faltering people. He says, “I will heal” “I will be like the dew.” God does not make conditions but rather promises that he will heal.

It’s interesting that God wants to heal not just deal with our heart. But he is clear what he wants to heal. He desires to heal our disloyalty, our backsliding. Even more, he promises to love us freely for he is no longer angry with Israel

However, in returning to the Lord, Israel must come back on God’s terms, not their own; the same must be said of us. When Christ called the tax collectors and sinners, he called them to repentance. It is the sinner that followed Christ and not that Christ followed the sinner. Israel his to come back to God but on his terms.

While the text of today may bring us consolation it also demands a commitment on our part. God who desires to forgive the sinner demands that the sin be abandoned. The Samaritan woman set down her pot and with it she set down her sin. Matthew left the tax collectors office; Zacchaeus returned the money he defrauded…. God cannot bless sin but he definitely desires to redeem the sinner.

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Truth has perished – Thursday, 3rd week of Lent – Jeremiah 7:23-28/ Luke 11:14-23

Read also https://www.pottypadre.com/but-i-only-stole-a-pencil/ based on the Gospel of today. Simply click the link.

In school, the one day I dreaded was ‘open day.’ To those unfamiliar with Indian education systems, this was the Armageddon for students like me. I was never a bright student. To make matters worse, a traumatising math teacher had made it clear that ‘duffers’ like me would not succeed. Open day was the day when parents were called to school to meet the teacher and the report card was then presented. It was the day I always felt the smallest for my report card revealed many red lines under each grade; in short, I had not made the grade.

God is no traumatising math teacher. Quite the contrary, God was the merciful father to his errant children, Israel; he was the loving husband to an adulterous wife that prostituted herself to every nation and a shepherd to a wandering flock of sheep. Yet in the face of much love, Israel fared miserably. ‘Open day’ had dawned for the people of God and it could not have been worse for Israel. Her report card is spelt out in today’s first reading.

God is scathing in his remarks. He holds back no punches and lays every card on the table. Israel has failed miserably. She has fared ‘worse than her ancestors and is stiff knecked. She is disobedient, stubborn, evil, does not listen, follows her own counsel and had not progressed; she has moved backwards and not forwards.’ (7:24)

What has brought on all of this? Why have the people fared miserably? Chapter 7 to chapter 20 of the prophet Jeremiah takes place during the reign of King Jehoiakim (609-598) who reigned for eleven-years. Just 12 years after the death of King Jehoiakim the people of Judah will be taken into exile.

After the death of Josiah in 609 BC, his son Jehoahaz rules for three months before he is taken prisoner by Pharaoh Nico who defeated his father, Josiah in battle. Pharoah Nico now places his Jehoahaz’s brother on the throne and changes his name to Jehoiakim. While his father, Josiah, brought about great reforms in the religious life of Judah, these reforms seem to have been dependent on his own personal actions and beliefs and did not seem to have penetrated the people’s spirit who continued with their idolatrous worship.

The passage of today reflects the religious and moral state of Judah during the first five years of Jehoiakim’s eleven-year rule. The people have gone back to idol worship and disowned Yahweh. Yet there seems to be an apparent boast from the people, a false hope that has become part of their belief system; nothing could harm them as long as they had the temple.

God’s final word to the people through the prophet are words of great frustration. Jeremiah is told that while he is to speak, he will not be listened to. While he is to call, he will not be answered. Hence forever, this is a nation is to be called a disobedient nation, one that did not obey the voice of the Lord their God and did not accept discipline; truth has perished. (7:28)

May these words never be said of us when we stand before the throne of grace to be presented with our own report card.

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