A COMMON DESTINY

Jeremiah 20:7-9; Romans 12:1-2; Matthew 16:21-27

It was pitch dark in the cemetery. The whole atmosphere was filled with agony, anger and loss. It was the funeral of David, a young man in his early twenties. He wanted to have a feel of the sea during a storm. He went to the seashore along with his father and two of his nieces. He stood at the shore with his back facing the sea. Just then a huge wave engulfed him and took him into the sea never to be seen any more. His father knew to swim. Yet, he was helpless, because the sea was rough and stormy. His heart broke when he saw his promising son die before his own eyes. This loss was too much for the father to bear up with. He cried aloud at the cemetery. He poured out his anger to God and said: “God is also dead for me”!

When we look back into the tragedies that we have faced in our own lives, we can understand the bitterness of David’s father towards God.

• When we lose our loved ones

• When we encounter betrayals and loss of friendship

• When we feel discouraged, depressed and disillusioned 

• When we face struggles and sufferings 

• When we are fighting with our own fears and insecurities

• When we are denied our human rights and human dignity

• When our houses, properties and lives are destroyed just for being a Christian 

It is quite natural that we turn our anger and frustration to God and long to run away from the crude realities of life to a place of safety and security.

The first reading taken from the book of prophet Jeremiah mirrors the experiences of our lives. He was called to be a prophet at a very young age. God promised to be with him at every situation of his life. He took up his mission trusting God’s words. He prophesied to the people of Judah. They were indifferent to his message. They plotted against him and tortured him. Jeremiah was frustrated in his mission. He cried to God: “You have enticed me O Lord . . . You overpowered me and you prevailed. I have become an object of laughter . . . Everyone mocks me”. Despite this struggle Jeremiah was not able to restrain himself, for he experienced a fire burning deep within him, urging him to move on with courage. God’s promise: “They will fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you, for I am with you . . . to deliver you” (Jeremiah 1:19), gave him the strength to continue his prophetic journey.  

Jesus also participated in the common destiny of the prophets and persons of goodwill who proclaimed God’s message to the world. Therefore, Jesus offered a different and challenging message to his disciples. He enabled and empowered his disciples to face suffering and death with courage. In the preceding passage which we heard last week, Peter pronounced his personal verdict that Jesus was the Messiah the Son of the living God. Jesus appreciated Peter for this, he affirmed Peter in his ministry of Leadership and he entrusted him with the authority to bind and to lose.

Peter, in spite of pronouncing his verdict, did not really understand the deeper meaning and significance of Jesus being the Messiah. Peter cannot be blamed either. He was a man of his times. He shared the common expectations of his people. The people expected a political Messiah who would liberate them from the forceful occupation of the Romans. Therefore, when Jesus said that he would be put to death by the orthodox Jewish leaders, it was too much for Peter to understand and accept. He thought that Jesus was suicidal and he let loose his impulses and said: “God forbid Lord, no such thing will ever happen to you”. Jesus was shocked at the reaction of Peter and said: “Get behind me Satan”. The situation opened up the way for Jesus to instruct his disciple on the true meaning of discipleship. As a leader Jesus did not offer empty promises. He made his demands clear to his disciples. Every disciple must take up his cross and follow him. They must lose their life in order to find it. They must not exchange their lives for anything less worthwhile.

Jesus did not ask his disciples anything more than what he himself faced in his life. He had his share in the cup of suffering.

• His life was sought after by the king, while still an infant

• He had to face hard decisions as he grew up in life

• His message of love and forgiveness was misunderstood and misinterpreted.

• He was looked upon as a rebel and a revolutionary

• Every miracle that he performed was seen with an eye of suspicion

• He had to give up all his securities to proclaim God’s Kingdom

• Finally, he had to struggle to accept death on the cross as part of God’s plan for him.

Jesus faced rejection, pain, suffering, loss, and death like any one of us. He accepted struggles and suffering with indomitable faith that everything was a perfect part of God’s plan for him.

A pastor was once explaining the Stations of the Cross to a group of small children. When they came to the fourth Station where Jesus meets his mother on the road to Calvary, the pastor explained that even though Jesus and his mother could not talk to each other, yet the Mother and Son spoke with their eyes. “What do you think they said to each other?” asked the pastor. The children gave different answers. One little girl suggested that Mary must have said, “This is unfair.” Another kid suggested that she would have said, “Why should we drink from this chalice of suffering?” Finally, a little girl raised her feeble hand and said: “Father, I know what our Blessed Mother told Jesus. She said to him, ‘Keep on going, Jesus! Just keep on going”. Why would a mother encourage her only son to go forward to be slaughtered like a lamb?

Mary believed in the impossible and looked beyond the obvious. Mary saw life through the eyes and heart of Jesus. She knew for certain that she was favoured by God, but this did not immune her from the struggles and sufferings of life. She had to face the dark side of life like any one of us. It was her faith in the presence and activity of God that gave her the inner courage to face challenges in life. We can recall a few examples.

• It was her faith that enabled her to see her son as Emmanuel while Herod saw him as a threat to the throne.

• It was her faith that gave her the strength to see the prophet in the preacher while the scribes and Pharisees saw him as a rebel.

• It was her faith that empowered her to see the Saviour in the young man carrying the cross while the common people saw him as a criminal.

• It was her faith that strengthened her to look at the Redeemer in the dead corpse hanging on the cross, while the masses saw him as a defeated master.

• It was her faith that kept her together with the disciples to experience the resurrection of her son while the leaders celebrated the death of a revolutionary.

As Christians, all of us share a common destiny with Jesus, with Mary, with the disciples and with millions and millions of people who fight for justice and peace; who resist oppression and violence; who speak and live the truth; who are murdered for being Christians; who proclaim that nothing can replace the precious gift of life. The only source of strength in our common destiny is the standing promise of Jesus: “Do not be afraid. I am with you always!”

Prayer

Abba Father, give us the courage and inner strength to see our sufferings and struggles through your eyes. May we, like Jesus be a source of redemption for the world.

In Jesus’ Name we pray!

Amen!

RESERVED FOR GOD

Ezek 37:21-28; Psalm Jer 31:10, 11-12 abcd, 13; Jn 11:45-56

Ezekiel is a temple priest and an inspired prophet, who was deported to Babylon in 597 BC along with others after the destruction of the city of Jerusalem. He was a fellow exile among his own people. His prophesies pointed to the sins and transgressions of the people. He insisted that the exilic situation was their own making and not a punishment inflicted by Yahweh. The situation gave Ezekiel an opportunity to proclaim his prophetic word as well as to perform symbolic actions that enabled the people to reflect on their sinful condition. His messages offered them a sense of hope. It is in this context, the vision of the valley of dry bones takes on a spiritual meaning. It is within the power of the Spirit of God to restore the dry bones back to life. In continuation with the vision of the dry bones, Yahweh instructs Ezekiel to perform a symbolic act of two sticks. The two sticks represents the two kingdoms – the southern kingdom of Judah and the northern kingdom of Israel. Ezekiel joined the two sticks as instructed by Yahweh.

Ezekiel’s symbolic act signified that Yahweh himself would take the initiative to merge the two kingdoms by his own hand (Ezek 37:19). Yahweh would uproot the people from the foreign nations and establish them again in the Promised Land. Consequently, there would be one king and one united kingdom. The people would also be cleansed of their idolatry, apostasy, sins and transgressions. Finally, God would renew the covenantal relationship with his people: “Then they shall be my people, and I will be their God” (Ezek 37:23). Further, Yahweh assured the people of four promises: first, the promise of a secure and everlasting homeland; second, the promise of an everlasting king from the lineage of David to shepherd his people; third, the promise of an everlasting covenant of peace and blessing; and fourth, the promise of an everlasting presence of Yahweh in his sanctuary. The intention behind these four promises is to demonstrate to the nations that Yahweh sanctifies the people of Israel, that is, the people of Israel are reserved for Yahweh alone.

In God’s design, Jesus is God’s chosen servant, who would initiate the process of gathering of all peoples. Jesus and his cross would bring about the communion desired by God as effectively prophesied by Caiaphas, who was the high priest during the time of Jesus. The context of his prophesy was the plot of the Jewish leaders to kill Jesus. The miracle of Lazarus coming back to life drew a few Jews to Jesus, who had witnessed the miracle along with Mary. A few of the Jews reported the miracle to the Jewish leaders, who were disturbed at the impact of Jesus on the common people. They were not able to tolerate any person who would claim to be a Messiah and possessed the power to work miracles. Messianic claims would evoke the sense of patriotism and nationalism among the Jews, causing a riot that would disturb the delicate balance between Rome and the local political and religious authorities. Therefore, Caiaphas suggested that Jesus should be put to death, because it was better for one man to die than the whole nation to perish. The prophetic pronouncement of Caiaphas had a double effect. It evoked memories of the courageous Maccabean martyrs who died for the nation as well as predicted the universal salvific effect of Christ’s death on the cross. Jesus, for the time being, moved away from Jerusalem into the wilderness with his disciples. However, he will return back to Jerusalem and embrace a violent death at the appointed ‘hour’. This hour would bring about the glorification of God and Jesus, the gift of the Holy Spirit and the gathering of those who believe that he is the ‘sent one’ of God.  

Prayer

Abba Father, may we have faith to believe in your presence despite the violence that surrounds us and move forward with courage to create a harmonious world.          

In Jesus’ Name we pray!

GIFT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

2 Sam 7:4-5a, 12-14a, 16; Psalm 89:2-3, 4-5, 27, 29;

Rom 4:13, 16-18, 22; Matt 1:16, 18-21, 24a

The Feast of St. Joseph offers us sufficient encouragement to live out our Christian faith in the face of conflicts, political oppressions and baffling confusions. It assures each of us that our faith lived out in obedience to God’s will would be fruitful and life-giving. It inspires us to live out our calling, which is unique to each one of us, with the guidance and empowerment of the Holy Spirit.

The themes of Liberation, Promise and Covenant are reflected in all the stories, narratives, and experiences recorded, both, in the Old Testament and the New Testament. The first reading taken from the Second Book of Samuel presents the Promise of God to David through Nathan that the royal throne of David would be established forever through an heir. In the Gospel narrative, Joseph is addressed as the “Son of David” by the angel in his dream. In Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus Christ, it is chronicled that it was through Joseph, the husband of Mary, that Jesus was born, who is called Christ” (Matt 1:2-16). St. Joseph, therefore, is a medium through whom God’s promise to David was fulfilled.

In the Gospel, Matthew records that Joseph was a righteous man. In the context of the Bible, calling a person righteous is the best and highest honour a person can receive. Righteousness signifies being faithful to the demands of covenant relationship to the core. In a way, it is imaging God in the concrete situations of life, for God is always righteous and faithful. In the second reading, St. Paul declares that righteousness is born of faith (Rom 4:13). Therefore, Joseph stands out as an excellent model of faith. In fact, both, Joseph and Mary made an identical act of faith. Mary accepted to be the virgin mother of the Messiah and believed that the Son to be born is conceived of the Holy Spirit. Joseph accepted Mary as his wife because he believed that the child conceived in the womb of his wife was through the power of the Holy Spirit. In their act of faith, Joseph and Mary lived out their own specific calling to share in the mystery of salvation, which was accomplished by Jesus, the Messiah, through the power of the Holy Spirit.

The righteousness of Joseph was born of faith, and his obedience was a spontaneous expression of his faith and total confidence in God. The Gospel narrative points out that Joseph did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him to do: he took Mary as his wife and named his son Jesus. This was just a beginning of a journey of faith, marked with the need for constant and prayerful discernment. We shall reflect on three outstanding characteristics of Joseph to discern how he was obedient in faith. First, he was a dreamer, second, he was a migrant, and third, he was a lover, the beloved of Mary and Jesus.

Joseph the Dreamer

Marcus J Borg and John Dominic Crossan in their book, The First Christmas, point out that the birth of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew revolves around five dreams through which divine interventions and instructions are communicated. Four out of the five dreams are for Joseph. All the four dreams are life-impacting. The first dream was to accept Mary as his wife, the second dream was to flee to Egypt, the third dream was to come back to the land of Israel and the fourth dream was to change his domestic location to the district  of Galilee. In a world that is suffering from ‘trust deficit’ it is very difficult to imagine and accept how one could make responsible and life-changing decisions based on dreams. This points to a deeper and intuitive level of consciousness, which is being totally immersed in the presence of God. It was his total confidence in the presence of God that gave Joseph the inner certainty to follow his dreams.

Joseph the Migrant

Herod was the Pharaoh of Jesus’ time. His love for power and the fear of threat to his throne, which is engrained in every ruler, was beyond proportions. This, together with the political oppression of the Romans, the complacent attitude of the religious authorities and the plight of the peoples at the margins, created a very depressing environment for the common people to which Joseph, Mary and Jesus belonged to. In such an oppressive situation, the flight to Egypt would have been a very instinctive and intuitive response of Joseph to protect Mary and Jesus. The misery and suffering of the migrants was no better then, than what it is today. Yet, it was only through faith that Joseph survived the ordeal in a strange land among strange people, which would have evoked memories of being slaves in Egypt as well as God’s mighty liberating power.

Joseph the Lover

It is love that flows from an expansive and generous heart, which will take extra efforts to understand the purpose, the vocation, and the mission of a life partner. This magnanimous love, focused on the other, will provide sufficient space for the partner to follow her or his own dream. Therefore, Joseph as a lover strikes a delicate balance between being a guardian and a guide. It is love embedded in the heart of Joseph that allowed Mary and Jesus to follow the path designed by God for them.

In being a dreamer, a migrant and a lover, St. Joseph stands as a model of obedient faith. The learning experiences we can gather from St. Joseph is first, to listen to the voice of God even when we are surrounded by deafening sounds and compulsive distractions. Second, to come out of our complacency in the face of oppressive forces and to be in solidarity with those who resist oppression. Third, to learn to create an ambience and to provide space for others to carry out their mission. In this way, all of us could collaborate with the mysterious plan of God in establishing the Reign of God here on earth.

Prayer

Abba Father, we thank you for the gift of St. Joseph to the Church. May we like St. Joseph allow your customized plan to unfold in the different contours of our life.

In Jesus Name we pray!