January 27, 2013

Bulletin January 27, 2013

3^rd Sunday in Ordinary Time C

Nehemiah 8:2-6, 8-10; 1 Corinthians 12:12-30; Luke 1:1-4, 4:14-20
As I sit here thinking of Jesus’ words, I envisioned the scene that is all around me with the difficulties in our country, the world, our church not to mention the difficulties I’m having in being a follower of Jesus. What was it like when Jesus was given the scroll from the prophet Isaiah? He obviously hadn't prepared His ‘sermon’ ahead of time; but when the words of Isaiah were presented, He knew where He would go and what words He would use to describe His mission. Luke, by saying “…the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to Him”…implies that what Jesus will talk about is the future, announcing something is coming. All eyes are on Him and He lays His cards on the table…He interprets His role as the ‘Isaiah servant’…the ‘anointed one’ who has been prophesized. There is no doubt what He is talking about: God’s promise of the One who will save the world…the waiting is over. No longer will there be predictions; the Messiah is now present and this is what is going to happen…Jesus uses the words of Isaiah to explain what that will be.
The time is different now…I’m living in a different setting…the world has changed but the times echo the same urgency and I like so many, many others are asking ‘when will it happen?...when will the Lord turn things around? When will our world stop the violence and the ‘looking out for self interests and see the ‘each person is my brother and sister’ and my caring for them is my part in redemption. Or maybe the question that is more precise: ‘when will I listen to what the Lord has taught, and realize that I have been ‘anointed’ to change the area of the world where God has placed me?’ OR do I just want to wait for the amazing ‘wave of the wand’ and let God do the changing? But why did God create me? What did He call me to be? I am to be Jesus…am I doing it?
So often I feel that others are relying on me to be ‘doing the doing’ or that the ‘message from God is for the ordained or the religious minded.’ Then with my retreat work and spiritual direction I see so beautifully that so many just want to ‘know the divine’ and what they are to do. The message from God is for each and every person.
It’s up to me to share and help each person to realize that God constantly is calling each individual He created. He is calling me and each person: to bring ‘glad tidings’…words of comfort and support and encouragement and love to the ‘poor’ which means those who are in need right in my daily world. He calls me and each to be aware that the devil wants to ‘enslave’ us…and Jesus has set us free…love is free. He calls me and each person to show people God by how I live and act…and as St. Francis of Assisi says, “And sometimes use words.” This is God’s world and He has placed me here deliberately…a world that Jesus redeemed and my role and each person’s role is to live the redeemed life. So the question is now: what am I doing about it? Am I waiting or acting? What do I need from the Spirit to be aware of my gifts and bring them to all in need? How does this happen? How do I become aware that God has a role for ‘little old me’… you are My beloved son/daughter and I need you to be Me? Somehow God breaks into each life and lets each one know, ‘they are loved’. When this happens, the big question comes, ‘then what should then be done; I’m just a ‘me’; a simple, alone me? The following article is from John Shea, a theologian, author and storyteller, in The Relentless Widow, Luke, Year C. He tells us how this happens, “…a person may have a profound awareness of communion with ultimate reality. This awareness may be triggered by nature, by the death of a parent, by the birth of a child, by the love of a woman or a man, by quest for scientific truth, by compassionate protest on behalf of the poor and oppressed, etc. In and through these events and activities, God’s love breaks into consciousness and grasps a person. But this depth awareness is fleeting. Ordinary consciousness, not the Source, but of work, family, finances, etc., returns. How will the Spirit of this religious experience be courted and pursued? Will the person test out its meaning with other ideas? Will sacred books be consulted? If they are, chances are the experience will grow in significance. The meaning and implications of the experience will be deepened. The Spirit of the experience wants this to happen, but the person must cooperate…there is another way, a backward way, so to speak of deepening spiritual knowledge…a movement from the secular to the sacred…He quotes an article from Michael Novak who brings out an example from the business world. “I know from talking to and corresponding with business people that many have never been asked whether they regard what they do a calling. They don’t think about themselves that way. That has not been the language of the business schools, the economics textbooks, or the secularized public speech of our time…But most of them, they say, do start mulling the idea of calling once it is raised. Some confess that they could think of what they do as a calling, even if they have not. That would not be much of a reach from what they have already been doing. It’s just one of those things that, so far, few people say.”

Sometimes the business world is viewed as ‘all for the good of the company.’ This could be possible but so often it is lopsided; people in the world work because they have the gifts and talents for it and because it contributes in some way to the common good. Novak shows how this could give a sense of fulfillment. “…But fulfillment of what? Not exactly a standing order that we place ourselves. We didn’t give ourselves the personality, talents, or longings we were born with. When we fulfill these---these gifts from beyond ourselves—it is like fulfilling something we were meant to do. It is a sense of having uncovered our personal destiny, sense of having been able to contribute something worthwhile to the common public life, something what would not have been there without us—and , more than that, something we were good at and enjoyed.” And then the wonderful conclusion of John Shea: “Perhaps as we searched out meaningful work, we were responding to a call deep within us a call that comes with the very fact of our being alive.” This really is God…calling; so I reflect on:

• Can I remember a time when God’s word penetrated into my being?
• Do I give God’s ‘word’ a chance to make a home in me?
• Do I ever find it difficult to put my faith into words? What might make me feel more comfortable with expressing my faith?

Sacred Space 2013 says,

“Jesus’ good news is that we are all loved unconditionally by God, no ifs, no buts…When I accept this, and truly believe and live by it, I gain true freedom and a new insight into the ways God works in our lives.”