Refection

As we near the end of the liturgical year, we start to hear the messages we need at the end of things. Jesus is preparing us to enter Paradise, but our understanding falls  short of God’s way. The feast metaphor, in favour of the outcasts, and the rejection of those who had believed themselves the ones worthy can be profoundly troubling to those of us who believe and are working hard to be faithful.

As we near the end of the liturgical year, we start to hear the messages we need at the end of things. Jesus is preparing us to enter Paradise, but our understanding falls  short of God’s way. The feast metaphor, in favour of the outcasts, and the rejection of those who had believed themselves the ones worthy can be profoundly troubling to those of us who believe and are working hard to be faithful.

If you asked somebody to do something and they didn’t do it, you might give them a second chance. If they failed to do it the second, your patience might stretched bit. You just might ask them a third time. But if they failed the third time, you would definitely give up on them. Thankfully, our ways not God’s ways. God clearly has more patience with us than we have with ourselves and each other.

Abundant Life is both Belief and Right Action 

Most of us find it easier to talk about doing the right thing than actually to do it, and the readings affirm we are not alone in this tension! Being human makes us dependent on God’s mercy, as we are just as capable of vice as we are of virtue. Right here, in the midst of our humanity, Jesus asks us to be people who live faithfully and who are humble enough to turn around and choose again when we get it wrong. If we want abundant life, it is not a one-time decision and then a get-out-of-jail-free card. It is a lifetime of choosing the good, and choosing again when we fail.

We are called to be people who pursue deep faithfulness in living with integrity and virtue. There are two parts to this work.

First, we need to be mindful of ourselves, being attentive to keeping our hearts open and tender, yet watching for our own temptations and sins against love and the Commandments. If we have not checked our own sinfulness and aren’t open to being corrected by others, then we need to start there.

Jesus reached the shores of the Sea of Galilee, and he went up into the hills. He sat there, and large crowds came to him bringing the lame, the crippled, the blind, the dumb and many others; these they put down at his feet, and he cured them. The crowds were astonished to see the dumb speaking, the cripples whole again, the lame walking and the blind with their sight, and they praised the God of Israel.

“Treasure in the Field is a theological reflection on the theme of God’s love
in our lives. Though Robert Krieg examines the biblical material with a
critical eye, his solid explanations are addressed to the non-specialist. He
reinforces the relevance of the biblical message for today by relating it to
examples from contemporary literature. In this way, he has successfully
teased out both the literal and the spiritual meanings of the word of God.”

We can be confident because the Word of God is a creative word, destined to become the “full grain in the ear” (v. 28). This Word, if accepted, certainly bears fruit, for God Himself makes it sprout and grow in ways that we cannot always verify or understand. (cf. v. 27). All this tells us that it is always God, it is always God who makes his Kingdom grow. That is why we fervently pray “thy Kingdom come”. It is He who makes it grow. Man is his humble collaborator, who contemplates and rejoices in divine creative action and waits patiently for its fruits.

The journey of the disciple of Jesus is to go beyond [the limits] to bring this good news. But there is another pathway for the disciple of Jesus: the inner journey, the path within, the path of the disciple who seeks the Lord every day, through prayer, in meditation. If the disciple does not continuously seek God in this way, the Gospel that he takes to others will be weak, watered down – a Gospel with no strength. If a disciple is not journeying to serve, there’s no reason for the journey. If his life is not for service, there is no point in living the Christian life [it: non serve, per vivere, come Cristiano]. But the true disciple is called to service to the other: “service to Jesus in the sick, the imprisoned, the hungry, those with no shirt on their back. Jesus wants this of us because He is to be found in them: “Service to Christ in others.”(Santa Marta, 11 June 2015)