Fourth Sunday of Lent 2014

Fourth Sunday in Lent A 

30 March 2014

José Enrique Ruiz de Galaretta S.J.

THEMES AND CONTEXT

THE FIRST BOOK OF SAMUEL

This text of the First book of Samuel

Falls within the tradition of the divine choice of the least worthy in the eyes of men. The problem is to find a new king, for Saul has proved himself unworthy and has been rejected by the Lord. The prophet Samuel is searching for the one chosen by God, who happens to be the last, the least appreciated of all. God’s choice is never made by taking into account the merits of the man. This is a theme constantly found in Scripture. Paul will develop this theme at length in the first chapter of the first letter to the Corinthians.

THE LETTER TO THE EPHESIANS

The theme of light is developed. Before you were darkness, now you are light. The text develops a beautiful symbolism: you were darkness, your works were works of blind people, they were sterile. The light exposes what is sterile, unclean. Now you are enlightened by the light of Christ. Earlier you were asleep, now you have awakened to the light.

THE MAN BORN BLIND

This is the second of the great “SIGNS” of the Gospel of John brought together in these Sundays of Lent. Last Sunday the sign was Water. Today it is light. Not only the light that shines in the sky, the sun, but the light that is born in man, which draws one out of darkness. Let us pause to analyze the story of John.

1. We are dealing with a story of an event that took place, made use of by the evangelist for catechetical purposes. Jesus cured blind people (Mark 8 & 10, Luke 11 & 18, Matthew 9,12,15,20,21). This is one of the stories, the only story of a blind man recorded by John. The healing is briefly told. John, with a perfect sense of drama, uses this healing to show the progression of the men of good will towards the light, which is to accept Jesus, and the regression of the “just”, who are increasingly plunged into their blindness, preferring their own ideas on God, to the Word itself.

2. Above all, the miracle takes the form of a sign. On the whole, it shows Jesus as a prophet, confirmed by the signs. Together with this they are concrete signs: Jesus is light, and the healing with water. They are symbols of baptism. This story was used in the primitive Church in the preparation and the scrutinizes before baptism, and baptism itself was presented as enlightenment, getting out of darkness to come to the light of Christ, who is life and fertility. There is a beautiful phrase of Saint Augustine: “This bind man stands for the human race. If blindness is the lack of faith, enlightenment is faith..(The blind man) washes his eyes in the pool of Siloe, which means “The One Sent”: that is, he receives the light of Christ.”

3. The story is placed in the usual dynamics of John, of opposition of pharisaic “orthodoxy” to Jesus. Jesus is considered a sinner, because he breaks the Sabbath rest. Hence he cannot come from God. So then this is a  story in which Jesus “provokes” legality. There was no immediate need for a cure. Hence the story is written from the perspective of the Passion and of the Cross, as the height of the blindness caused by the darkness that rejects the light.

In the story there is an allusion to the threat that those who follow Jesus would be expelled from the synagogue. Beside the fact that this would help us to date the text during or shortly after the official expulsion of Jewish Christians (around the year 90), there is included here the extension of the persecution to the followers of Jesus.(“If they have done it to me...you too.” “A time is coming when anyone who persecutes you will believe he is giving glory to God.”  “Happy are those who suffer persecution for justice...”).

4. All this shows us one of the fundamental core ideas of the Gospel of John. Jesus is not rejected only – nor chiefly- by “the world”, that is, by worldly ways of living. There is a still more disquieting rejection on the part of religious people, “the just”. Jesus is received with delight by “sinners”, those who are conscious of their insufficiency, those who know they are sinners, those who are looking to be freed by God from their condition of sinners, a  burden to them, and from which they cannot free themselves. Jesus is regarded with suspicion and finally rejected by those who thought of themselves as just, those who fulfilled the law. And it is true, they did fulfill it. But they are blind: they do not know that they do not have any merit, and what they have is a gift of God for them to help their brethren, and nevertheless they have made of their “virtue” a reason for arrogance and believe that God is in debt to them, unlike their sinful brethren. This leads us to the theme of the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican, of which we spoke in the thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time.

R E F L E C T I O N

God is Water for the journey through the desert. God is Light to help us walk without stumbling. We are continuing on the wonderful world of symbols with which the Bible and the Gospels speak to us – so marvelously – of God. The symbol of light comes from the beginning, from the book of Genesis. The first word of God that appears in the Bible is :God is light and order. With God reality can be seen; without God, all is darkness and chaos. Exodus continues to make use of the symbol: God guides the people, like a pillar of fire. And it goes on being developed in the Prophets, especially in Isaiah: “The people who walked in the darkness saw a great light.” “Arise, Jerusalem, for your light is coming.” John takes up this thread from the prologue to his Gospel.

In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 

The light shines in the darkness,

 but the darkness has not understood  it.

The true light that gives light to every man

was coming into the world.

He was in the world,

 and though the world was made through him,

the world did not recognize him. 

He came to that which was his own,

 but his own did not receive him.  

This is the drama that makes up the inner train of thought of the Gospel of John. Jesus, the light of God which shines in the darkness, and men close themselves to the light, in an inexplicable mystery.

This theme supposes a deeper entry

Into the theme of sin and God. God is light, but we shut ourselves off from the light, and that is the essence of sin.

GOD IS LIGHT

Quite often we understand God as someone added on to reality, as if there existed things, events, the ordinary tasks of our lives  and...besides, religion, the faith, God. It’s all the other way around: there exists one Reality, and we are in it in the dark, trying to grasp it only with our senses and our reason. And with them we  see very little, we  proceed blindly, we stumble, we lose our way. God is the light that helps us not to live blindly. With God we understand things, life, work, death...

All this clarifies still more the notion of “sin” in the Gospel: a blunder for lack of light. We have insisted too much on judicial aspects of sin: obedience, guilt. And too little in factual objective aspects: disorientation, error, stumbling for lack of light. We have insisted too much on the condition of freedom of the human being: I am able to choose and when I choose apart from God, against the law of God, I do so by exercising my freedom in a culpable manner. The Gospel does not consider us free, responsible persons, but slaves of sin: and God does not judge free and responsible persons, but helps blind slaves, to see better and free themselves from their chains.

Gospel means GOOD NEWS PRECISELY FOR THIS REASON: It brings us light to live properly, it informs us about who God is, it frees us from that judicial stance, brings light about God and about the human being: a wonderful news: we can see, we can journey, and God is our light.

SIN IS TO BLOCK OUT THE LIGHT

This second theme of the  reading of the man born blind is  more moving and chilling. Enclosed in the cave of the world, in the dark subterranean labyrinth of making sense of life, the light of Jesus shines out, and everything is illumined with joy and hope...but some shut their eyes, return to the shadows, reject the light...And these are not “the  sinners” but the “just”. It is the most dramatic argument of the Gospels, when John says that “the darkness did not receive him”, he came to his own and his own did not receive him.”

Why did they not receive him? It is quite clear historically: Jesus does not fulfill messianic expectations , does not promote political liberation, he is not interested in having Jerusalem made the centre of the world, he does not back the interests of the priestly class...Politically and economically speaking, Jesus is of no use to them.

 To go deeper along this line of thought, Jesus strips religious leaders of all power. Leaders are there to serve; pastors have no purpose beyond seeing to it that the herd of sheep live well; there are no sacred intermediaries between God and the heart of man. It is the very idea of religion that is at stake. The leaders of Israel saw very clearly that Jesus was a most serious danger. The temple loses leadership, Jerusalem will not be a holy city, the priest will not control the mysteries... It’s inevitable that they will reject Jesus, understandable that they will do away with him from their midst.

  Going a little deeper into this attitude, we see that it comes from the fact that they have taken possession of the Word of God for their own benefit. They have put God at their service: God is used so that the people of Israel can be greater than other nations, that the priests can be greater than the faithful, so that the learned control the faith of the people. They have taken possession of God for their own benefit. And when the light of God is shone on them they appear naked and filthy... There are only two options: wash themselves in the new Water, use the light to change...or block the light, try to stamp it out... or try again to gain possession of it and confine it to again make use of it.

In the crude language  of the recently cured blind man an unbearable light shines for the leaders, the priests and the learned: they have no option but to expel him from the synagogue...and to persecute Jesus. The discussion of Jesus with them is dramatic. It is reflected at the end of this gospel: Jesus said: For this I came into the world so that those who do not see, see; and those who see remain blind.”

The Pharisees who were with him heard this and asked him: “Are we too also blind?” Jesus answered: If you weren’t blind, you would not have sin; but, since you say you see, your sin remains.”

FOR OUR PRAYER

1. Let us read the story of John, very slowly, savoring each detail. As we read it see the hand of John as he tells it to us. John was there, he saw the healing. John sees and believes. And he transmits faith relating what he saw and believed. Read the Gospel with the eyes of John, believing in Jesus, accepting the challenge of believing in Him, ready to accept the Light even though it hurts the darkness in us. John has understood that Jesus breaks the Law, which is “something else”. Contemplate in Jesus the effort of the love of God to save. Renew faith in Him, accept him as the light of life. Accept that God is like what Jesus shows him to be. Make an act of trust in God, my Savior.

We make ourselves present at the scene, we mix with the people, we join one of the groups. Which one? Do I feel relieved, enthusiastic about what Jesus does and says? Do I feel frightened, tempted to reject him, as if the light of Jesus were a danger to the kind of life I lead?

2. The Salt of the earth, the light of the world... that’s you all: let them see your deeds and recognize the Father. A wonderful summary of the meaning of our lives: to make the Kingdom shine out, that it should be clearly seen  and attractive. In our own lives we have enjoyed the company of people who have given us much light. It is our vocation. It is not what we say but what we do that can give a little light to this society.

3. During these days the assassination of Bishop Oscar Romero completes thirty years, which was celebrated with champagne the day he died. His assassins still rule the very country they continue to crucify. They are an existing example of the fierce resistance of the darkness to the light:”they preferred the darkness for their works were evil.”

Neither the assassination of Romero nor that of Ellacuria and his companions, men and women, nor of so many others has been officially recognized as martyrdom, but it doesn’t matter: the spiritual sense of the people of God has canonized them. They did so while they lived and they continue to do it. They do not need to tell us from above what light is and what darkness is all about. Thank God, we have eyes.

PSALM 27

The Lord is my Light and my Salvation, whom shall I fear.

  

The psalmist expresses faith in God, Way and Word, and in symbols appropriate to his times points out the dangers of life, his trust in God and his longing for Him. 

3rd Sunday Lent 2014 by Galarreta sj

THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT A

THEMES AND CONTEXT

EXODUS 17:3-7

José Galarreta S.J.

This fragment is one of many in which the people of Israel, journeying through the desert find themselves without water and violently protest against Moses, all the while longing for Egypt,  the land of their slavery. Moses goes before the Lord and draws water from the rock for the people. But the deepest meaning  is found in the final phrase. Israel asks:”Is the  Lord in the midst of us or not?” This is the fundamental question of the man of Faith, of one who has put his faith in God, but is always tempted to give up half way.

THE TEXT OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS

The message of this text, complex as are all those of Paul, is clear: the hope of the children of God is founded on Jesus, on the death of Jesus, the proof that God loves us. The relation of God with human beings is love: the love shown in Jesus. The Spirit makes Jesus, the presence of the love of God, capable of going all the way, even to death. And this fact is the foundation of our faith. If the first text ended asking: Is the Lord in our midst or not? Paul finds the answer in Jesus, in the fact that we see the presence of God in our midst.

THE TEXT OF JOHN 

It is one of the most beautiful and famous texts of the Gospel of John. The marvelous staging of the scene, the development of the dialogue, the many details that place the story perfectly in its setting...Far more important to us, however, is its meaning. Jesus is the living water. They may seem to be stories, they very probably narrate details that took place, but they are above all treatises of theology.

The event most likely happened, the details capture the atmosphere perfectly in all its details. Jesus’s passing through Samaria on the way to Jerusalem is not mentioned in any other gospel, but it is not impossible: the well could be that “of Jaco”, even though it’s location of Sychar has caused discussions. The text also reflects perfectly the religious position of the Samaritans with regard to the Jews.

   On this story John builds his “Theology of Living Water”. It would seem to be an invitation to speak of baptism; the text, however, has a much wider baptismal implication. Water is taken in a more biblical meaning, as appears in the Book of Exodus, exactly as we see it in the first reading today. It doesn’t mean to submerge oneself, to wash oneself, but “to “drink”. In this sense, the text throws light on baptism, because there we begin to drink the water of Jesus.

On these three Sundays of Lent (3^rd, 4^th, and 5^th), we are going to read three narratives of the fourth Gospel. Today we read the one of the Samaritan woman, the theme of which is “the living water”. On the Fourth Sunday it is the man born blind, whose theme is “light”. The fifth Sunday is the resurrection of Lazarus, the theme of which is “Life”. The three are perfect symbols of Jesus and through him, of God.

R E F L E C T I O N

Jesus and the Samaritan woman: a world full of surprises. Jesus is tired and thirsty, and he cannot draw water because the well is deep. Our faith is not founded on Jesus as a magician, free of getting tired and weaknesses. We will never tire of insisting too much on the fact that we believe in that man.

Jesus speaks with a woman, with a Samaritan woman, and moreover with a woman of bad repute. Even his disciples are surprised. But take into account that he is a doctor, he has come to heal, to save, he has to be where the sick are. Wonderful picture of God. Jesus is least interested in the Temple, in external acts of worship; he is interested in seeing the woman setting her life right. Jesus dreams of saving the whole world: but he needs help. This fact defines our mission: do you want to help God  to see his children live as children? Yes, that of Jesus is different.

LIVING WATER

What water is to normal life, Jesus is to human life. Jesus is Water, Jesus is the Word, Jesus is the one who gives the Spirit. Jesus is not a well where one goes occasionally to drink water. He is a fountain of the spirit: he who drinks from Jesus is a fountain. He himself feels gushing from within him/herself the water that wells out to eternal life, and does not thirst any more for any other kind of water, because Jesus quenches the thirst for all other things.

It is important we acquire the way of speaking of the Bible. We always function through concepts, and we want to comprehend reality  through them with precision and clarity. But we are speaking of God and the whole Bible and the Gospels speak of him through images. And what marvelous images they are! The major part of our organism is water. We cannot live without water. Thirst is the greatest agony. To find water in the desert is an incredible miracle. That is what God means in our lives, that is the Gospel. It would be wonderful to be able to say without being surprised, “let’s go to drink from the Gospel of Mark.”

  

All these symbols express very well the condition of being human, someone who needs food, light and water... to walk the road. It’s once more confirmation of the image of God Jesus gives us. We prefer using other terms: Eternal, Creator, Judge... But Jesus uses terms within our reach: water, light, life, bread, shepherd, door, doctor, father. All of them underline the same tendency: Jesus presents God as an ally, in the same terms as the most ancient Revelation. Man has to walk a road. God is his best help on the road. The Word of Jesus is the best light, water, bread for the road, God is the shepherd and the doctor. We are used to addressing God by saying “My God”. We even say:”Father”. It would be wonderful if it wouldn’t sound strange to call upon him saying: “Oh my Water!”

When the Samaritan woman understands that Jesus is offering her more than water from the well, she immediately changes over to raising customary religious problems that Jesus isn’t interested in: the Messiah, the temple of Jerusalem or the one on Garizim... But all that isn’t the water of Jesus. The water of Jesus is in that true worshipers adore in spirit and in truth. And this is not limited to saying that there must be true worship in the temple by a surrender of the spirit to God, but that there must be true worship that downplays the temple and changes all life into worship.

This “novelty of Jesus” had already been sown in the Old Testament, and Jesus himself quotes the saying of the prophet Hosea “I want mercy and not sacrifices.” But it is in Jesus that it appears most powerfully and in its most radical meaning. God is not in the temple, like a lord living in a palace. He is everywhere and above all in all his children, all human beings’; that’s where we must serve God. Temples and religious places have been for religions places to enclose gods, besides whom there are no others. Hence, for traditional religious concepts there is a difference between the sacred and the profane. With Jesus, this difference disappears, because there in nothing profane. Further still, if life is not sacred, the temple is profane, because it is useless.

A final reflection uniting the two themes we have proposed. The world needs water, it is thirsty. It is thirsty for physical water, for physical bread, for physical housing, and it is thirsty for Living Water, to know God, to know who he is, which is his home. This is the sacred space for those who follow Jesus, this is their worship, this is the Word of which they are the bearers. Too often have we thought that to take the Word to the nations is to preach religion to them. This is all a caricature, a belittling of the The Word. The Word is not our words: The Word is Jesus, a different way of living, a new way of relating to others, a new relationship to God. All this is explained in words, but is only transmitted through deeds. It’s the reason why water appears again in the last “parable”, the final judgment. In it what has value is separated from what is worthless not by what has been preached, nor by juridical belonging to the Church, but by the best of all the phrases that anyone can understand:

“Because I was thirsty and you gave me to drink.”

The fact is that Jesus changes everything: our relationship with God, the Living Water: our relationship with the others, with those with whom we have to share our Water, the very concept of religion, which is the water that makes the life of human beings fertile.

“IS THE LORD IN OUR MIDST OR IS HE NOT?”

This doubt of the people of Israel is perhaps also ours. Where is your God? In a world filled with so much misery and so much evil, where is God? One needs a very strong faith to continue to speak of a God father of all, to continue to assert that he exists, that he knows what’s happening, that he loves us... Why does he continue to allow so much evil his children endure? Jesus has not explained to us the reason for this. Jesus has told us what the Father wants to do, and that he needs us to do it. Jesus has not spoken of the Creator, neither has he explained why the Father allows each one of our hairs to fall, and also allows so much evil. But certainly Jesus has told us that in this desert, the Water, the light, the salt, the bread ... is the Word of God. This is our faith. And it is not easy to communicate it. But it is a mission we have been entrusted with. To offer water in the desert. To be water in the desert. This would take us back to “you are the salt...” 

Christ is the proof of all this. Our faith in the divinity of Jesus is going to be put to the test on seeing his humanity. To see him suffer and die is a scandal. Can such a thing happen to God? “If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” The same thing happens to us on seeing the cross of so many crucified people on earth. It’s the strongest challenge to our faith. If, after the cross, we continue to believe in God, it’s because we know that precisely on that account he did not come down from the cross...Our faith is in a crucified Jesus, that is: we believe in the love of God, in spite of evil in the world, in spite of the desert, because we have seen Jesus give his life for us, for sinful men, simply because we need to believe in love, in spite of the fact that we see evil, hatred. Perhaps for that reason we do not have the Risen Christ as a symbol, but of Jesus crucified. Remember the perfect saying of John 3,16: “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,” endorsed by Paul in his letter to the Romans 8,32  “God, who did not even keep back his only Son, but offered him for us all!”

I KNOW WHOM I HAVE TRUSTED

The Israelites kept asking in the desert: “Is the Lord in our midst? Is  he or is he not?” It’s the fundamental question of faith? Can I trust? Is all this true? We read the story of the Samaritan woman and from our hearts the fountain of faith in Jesus flows. I can certainly trust this One. There is no Teacher like this, no Word like this, , no Religion like this. If this is who God is, this is Water for my life, this is what I can trust, put my faith in. 

FOR OUR PRAYER

1. A simple way of praying is to re-read the passage from John. Everyone of his words can lift our spirit. Repeat the reading, very slowly, stop at words, savor them, allow them to penetrate your spirit.

Jesus and the Samaritan woman. It’s a whole new world. Jesus is tired and thirsty, and he cannot draw water. This is the man we believe in. Jesus speaks to heretics, with a woman of doubtful morals, Jesus saves all he comes into touch with. Jesus does not speak of external worship nor of petty differences between forms of worship.

And how wonderfully well  Jesus handles the conversation! From the thirst of the body to the need for God, from the pseudo-religious talk on useless topics, to the most serious point of his message, the  urgent need for conversion.

2. The disciples surprise Jesus dreaming of the salvation of the world.

Jesus is dreaming of quenching the thirst of the whole world; the whole world is thirsty, the harvest is ready, and there is need of laborers for so much work. Jesus has no thirst for any of the things for which we thirst so much. Whoever drinks of the water Jesus gives no longer wants any other; whoever finds the treasure of the Kingdom no longer wants any other wealth.

Let us contemplate this scene. We are seated next to Him, and we regard the world, so full of men, women, and children, being born, needing things, suffering, dying, needing Water from God without knowing it. Dream with Jesus of the salvation of the world, in the happiness of all people. Listen to Jesus who says: Look at the fields glistening golden with the harvest. The harvest is great, but the laborers are few.

You lack one thing: come, follow me. Come with me, I will make you fishers of men.

As the Father sent me, so I send you

3. And so, we too are surprised : we speak to God to have him solve our problems and we find ourselves faced with an unexpected answer: Do you want to help me save?

4. Prayer of petition for our desert. Ask God for water for our lives. Ask the Father confidently, beginning with all our needs, knowing that He hears me, knowing that he will give it to me, making an act of faith in that he knows all that I need and that he gives me even more. And I think him.

MY WORDS FOR YOU

Psalm 42-43

An exiled priest longs for his priestly duty in the temple, yearns for the House of the Lord:

As a deer longs for running streams, so my soul yearns for You, my God.

3rd Sunday of Lent 2014

HOMILIES - THE THIRD WEEK OF LENT - SUNDAY Download This Homily March 23, 2014 Third Sunday of Lent Exodus 17:3-7; Psalm 95:1-2, 6-9; Romans 5:1-2, 5-8 John 4:5-42 or 4:5-15, 19-26, 39-42 Daily Mass Readings - Audio Thirst for Living Water Jesus has spoken to us today, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to complete His work." Not only was the food of Jesus to do the Divine Will of our Heavenly Father, but it was also to complete His work and to persevere to the very end. The Words of Jesus echo our present short-term perseverance. Entering the third week in Lenten Season, we are making every effort to persevere in our effort to do the will of God preparing ourselves through our fasting, penances and prayers. By the grace of God thereby we shall achieve the fullness of our discipleship so that we may be one with Jesus as He is one with the Father. Today may be termed as the Sunday of readings on water. First Reading from the Book of Exodus was a prophetic picture of what was to come through Jesus Christ. It consists of one of the three events found in the Old Testament that speak of people thirsting for water. The first event took place in Mirah where Moses turned bitter water into sweet water. The second event, the one that was read today, took place at Rephidim. Being without water, Moses was commanded by God to take the elders with him and to strike the rock with the staff bringing water out of the rock. The third event took place at Kadesh in the Book of Numbers where once more Moses was commanded by God to assemble the congregation and to command the rock before their eyes to yield its water. As biblical history tells us, Moses struck the rock twice and disobeyed the Lord and he was punished by not allowing him to enter the Promised Land. Today's Second Reading informs us that God's love was poured into our hearts by the power of the Holy Spirit that has been given to us through Christ. The Divine love of God assures salvation to those who are justified. Having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through peace with God, our reconciliation replaces our alienation that was caused by the disobedience of Adam. We obtained our peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ alone because "there is only one Mediator between God and humankind" in the Divine Plan of Salvation. Today's Gospel Reading echoes the First Reading. Jesus thirsts and asks a woman of Samaria for water. After much questioning and arguments, the woman undergoes the process of conversion enabling her to carry home the living water instead of water from the well. What followed was a conversion after Jesus revealed her the hidden secrets of her sinful life.             Jesus further revealed to her a great mystery: "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem… But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth." Since God is Spirit the believers must worship God in "spirit and truth," that is, in the truth as taught by the Spirit who guides and teaches. The woman returned to the city, leaving behind her water jar. For she had no more need for it because she had come to the source of living water. Once in the city, the woman invited the people to come and see Jesus who told her everything that she had done. Her words echoed the words of Philip to Nathanael, "We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote." In the meantime, the disciples were urging Jesus to eat some food. To this Jesus answered, "I have food to eat that you do not know about.” It is obvious that the disciples did not understand the full meaning of what Jesus was saying. The words of Jesus summed up His entire career. He came to do the will of His Father who sent Him, even to death on the Cross. In Jesus was found perfect obedience, to the last drop of blood. From today's readings, we are reminded that as children of God, as members of the Body of Christ, we too have been called to do the Divine Will of He who has called us to share in the life-giving Spirit through faith in Jesus and the Sacraments. As Jesus was called to complete His work, we too are called to complete our calling through our perseverance in the living faith. To persevere necessitates our ongoing reception of the Sacraments of Confession after due conversion of heart and the Holy Eucharist as the means of maintaining our righteousness before the Lord God and our intimacy and communion with Him and the entire community. Our relationship with the Lord is the water of our lives which is essential for our well being and the source of our joy and the strength to do His Will. Without the Lord we would wither away like dried leaves in the desert and with Him we have life in abundance as the water gushing out even from the hard rock. Today’s reading gives us the messages of insufficiency of material things, implacability of human desire and the need for authentic love expressed in doing the will of God through our daily lives. The need of water is quite natural and common to everyone signifying that our role is very simple as compared to the abundance of grace we are going to receive from the Lord. Meeting Jesus and discovering him as our Savior is a gift of God. He thirsts for each and every one of us and always in search of us. Even if we fail to recognize him, he understands us and demands from us only simple things like water since his yoke is easy and burden is light. However, he opens to us the fountains of grace and vitality coming from God that wells up to life eternal.   Dr. John Ollukaran CMI

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Towards a More Meaningful Lent

Towards a More Meaningful Lent

Subhash Anand

43subhash@gmail.com

           

            Soon we will begin the holy season of Lent. In all spheres of our life―secular and religious, real growth is not possible without evaluation. This, in turn, is not possible without taking time out and reflecting on what we are doing.  During Lent we observe some special practices. What exactly is the goal of our Lenten observances? Is what we have been traditionally doing during Lent really effective? Are they truly helping us to attain the goal we have placed before ourselves? During Lent Many make sure they do not miss the Sunday Mass, and some even attend Mass on weekdays. Many abstain from non-vegetarian food, alcohol and tobacco during Lent. They do so in a spirit of penance. Some others, especially religious trained in earlier formation houses, fast every Friday and pray with hands stretched out. Some even scourge themselves. Many Catholics participate in the Way of the Cross and recite the family rosary more regularly.

            Lent calls us to metanoia. This word is made up of the prefix meta, which has many meaning. At times it suggests change, ‘metamorphosis’ (= transformation, transmutation. The word nous means mind. Hence, metanoia means a different way of looking at life. This is real conversion. Most of us plan our life, and sometimes even want to plan the life of others. Conversion means looking at our life and the life of others the way God looks at it. Then the desire to know and do God’s will become our main concern not merely during Lent, but all through our life. This is exactly what we are asking for when we say the Lord’s Prayer: “Your will be done on earth as in heaven.” We need to be more attentive to what we say in our prayers. God reveals his will to us through Jesus. Jesus gives us only one command: “Love one another as I have loved you.” That is the essence of Christian life. All else is totally secondary. Hence all our Lenten observances―Eucharist, devotions, penance―must make us more sensitive and concerned for others, especially the poor. In fact this is exactly what the prophets, the conscience-keepers of Israel, tell us.

            Our Sunday observance has its roots in the Old Testament Sabbath. The full significance of the Sabbath is revealed when we read two important texts concerning it.

Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labour, and do all your work; but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God; in it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your manservant, or your maidservant, or your cattle, or the sojourner who is within your gates; for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it (Ex 20. 8-11).

Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the LORD your God commanded you. Six days you shall labour, and do all your work; but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God; in it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, or your manservant, or your maidservant, or your ox, or your ass, or any of your cattle, or the sojourner who is within your gates, that your manservant and your maidservant may rest as well as you. You shall remember that you were a servant in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out thence with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day (Deut 5.12-15).

There are two important features that need to be noted.

            1) Both the texts do not make any reference to worship or cult. There is no obligation to attend some liturgical service. The struggle to bring about a just society is the true worship of God. 2) Two reasons are given why the Sabbath needs to be observed. After six days of work God rested. Hence we all are called to rest.           The Israelites were slaves in Egypt and Yahweh liberated them from bonded labour. It is this liberating act of God that explains why both the texts spell out fully the obligation to rest: not only the Israelites who were working, but also their sons, daughters, men-servants, maids, cattle and even the sojourner living with them must be given rest. In Egypt the Israelites worked all the days of the week, and their masters rested whenever they wanted. The Israelites may be tempted to imitate their former masters. If they do so they will not be Yahweh’s people. The text explicitly mentions women: daughters and maids. A patriarchal society tends to treat women as secondary citizens. The Sabbath is the celebration of a society where all are equal, all are respected. The Sabbath is a symbol of justice. The celebration of the Sabbath is just not one part of our struggle to bring about a truly free society. It sums up what that society ought to be: without justice all other virtues lose their significance, and our freedom becomes monstrous. The more we get institutionalized, the more we cultify the prophetic vision of Jesus: cult tends to displace justice.

The centrality of justice for the observance of Sabbath becomes clear also from the teaching of the prophets. Even a sojourner or a eunuch, who keeps the Sabbath, will be taken by Yahweh into His holy temple on His holy mountain (Is 56.2-7). On the other hand, if the Israelites profane the Sabbath, then Jerusalem will be destroyed (Jer 17.19-27). When there is injustice, then the Sabbath and all the cultic activities of Israel become a ‘burden’ for God, which He cannot endure, which He hates. The incense in the temple begins to stink, and God turns a deaf year to the prayer of His people (Is 1.12-15; Amos 5.21-23). He admonishes them:  “Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; defend the fatherless, plead for the widow” (Is 1.16-17).

No prophet brings out the disastrous consequences of neglecting the Sabbath and the inseparable call to justice as does Amos. God threatens those who violate His law:

Hear this, you who trample upon the needy, and bring the poor of the land to an end, saying, “When will the new moon be over, that we may sell grain? And the Sabbath, that we may offer wheat for sale, that we may make the ephah small and the shekel great, and deal deceitfully with false balances, that we may buy the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, and sell the refuse of the wheat?”

I will make the sun go down at noon, and darken the earth in broad daylight. I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; I will bring sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness on every head; I will make it like the mourning for an only son, and the end of it like a bitter day.

Behold, the days are coming when I will send a famine on the land; not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD. They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the LORD, but they shall not find it. (8.4-6, 10-12)

When Israel neglects the Sabbath and the concomitant obligation of justice, then its liturgy becomes totally futile, nay a source of pain and suffering. Then her people will not get to hear the Word of the Lord, however much they may want it. All the sermons of bishops and priests will be empty. The people will continue to get stones instead of bread (Mt 9.7). If Israel cannot hear the Word of God, then it can by no means preach it. It has no reason to exist. This is also true of the New Israel.

            Justice is a central concern of the Old Testament, especially with the prophets since they were sent to call Israel to repentance. We have seen how through Isaiah and Amos Yahweh rejects the fasting and cultic practices of Israel due to their infidelity. He demands that they practice justice instead (Is 1.17; Amos 5.24). Yahweh’s insistence on justice is most visible in the first song of the Servant of Yahweh. He has a mission to all nations. Yahweh tells us three times that His Servant will bring justice to all (42.1, 3, 4). The God of the Old Testament has a preferential love for the poor and the oppressed. Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth, sums up his life and mission in the manifesto he presented in the synagogue of his village (Lk 4.18-19):

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.

The quotation in Lk 4.18-19 is taken from Is 61.1-2, except the words in bold, which are from 58.6. Why did Luke complicate his account of an event which otherwise seems to be so simple?

            In Ch 58, Yahweh pronounces judgement on people who oppress others and still try to give the impression of being pious:

Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure,

  and oppress all your workers...

Is not this the fast that I choose?

 to loose the bonds of wickedness,

 to undo the thongs of the yoke,

 to let the oppressed go free,

 and to break every yoke?” (vv 3b, 6).

The prophet explicitly mentions those who oppress their workers. In bringing the two texts together, Luke wants to make it clear that the people whom Jesus has come to set free are not merely sinners (spiritual oppression) but also the victims of different forms of injustice (social oppression). Had he not done this, he would not have been proclaiming the Kingdom of His Father. Had he not done this, he would not have been crucified, and then there would be no Church, and the question of celebrating a jubilee or the Eucharist would not arise at all.

            Many of us employ other people either in our institutions or homes. Do we deal with them with respect? Are we sensitive to their dignity as children the one Father? Do we pay them an equitable salary? Do we after some time of service make them permanent? Even our daily paid workers deserve the day of rest for which God created the Sabbath. It should be holiday with pay. Then they and we will celebrate the Lord’s day as a holy day―not by going to the Church, but by reaching out to our neighbour. Without justice there is no love neighbour. Without love of neighbour our participation in the Eucharist and other pious exercises and all our penance do not serve any purpose.

            Lent is not a season, but an attitude that ought to guide us all through the year: concern for our neighbour is the is highest worship, and the self-denial that is called for in loving others is the greatest penance. As a result of consumerism, all of us―bishops, priests, religious and laity―are spending a lot money on  costly celebrations, glamorous buildings, and non-productive meetings―be they academic or administrative. In a way we cannot blame the laity. They are following their supposedly religious leaders. In a country, where so many do not get the bare minimum even after putting in hard work, this waste is unacceptable. Some quote Jesus: “Let her alone, let her keep it for the day of my burial. The poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me” (Jn 12.7-8). I wish these people too were being prepared for their burial. When we spend money on ourselves without real need, we are insulting the poor whom God has chosen (James 2.5-6).

            Jesus also tells us that our liturgy will not be acceptable if we are not reconciled with our sisters and brothers: “So if you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift” 5.23-24). This is true of all our prayers, pious practices and corporal penance will not be acceptable to his Abba if we do not forgive sisters and brothers. “And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against any one; so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses” (Mk 11.25). We remind ourselves of this insistence of Jesus every time we pray as he taught us: “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who have sinned against us” (Mt 6.12). Sometimes it is not easy to forgive. We may harbour resentment and ill will for days, weeks, and months. When we forgive others we die to ourselves, and we share in the saving death of Jesus. Lent is an invitation to be reconciled first with our neighbour, and then will our God.

            The text in Lk 4.19 has the words “and recovering of sight to the blind.” A change of heart comes through enlightenment. This explains why in our land there is so much insistence on darshana: the ability to see. It was because he was enlightened that Siddhartha became Buddha―the enlightened one. Much before he joined Ignatius Loyola and his band, Francis Borgia was in touch with him. On one occasion he wrote to his spiritual guide, seeking his permission to undertake fasting. Ignatius wrote back: “Do not fast. Instead study theology.” That was a brilliant piece of advice, given by the first General of the Society of Jesus to the future General, by one saint to another. The Jesuits have been in the forefront of the growth of the Church since their foundation. If they were suppressed, it was because like Jesus, to whose company they belong, they took up the cause of the poor and antagonize the rich and the powerful. Without theology we end up by being fundamentalists. I regret to say many adult Catholics and even religious women―in spite of all their formation―have not gone beyond the catechism they learnt for their First Communion.

            I have spent thirty-five on the staff of two major seminaries. I have served as visiting faculty in other major seminaries and scholasticates. I have been a resource person for a gathering of bishops and priest-representatives of the Agra ecclesiastical province (1993), of the Hindi-speaking dioceses (1980), and for a CBCI meeting (1988). I have preached retreats to over a hundred groups of priests; conducted theology seminars and formation programmes for priests serving in ‘missions’ and parishes, seminary staff and young priests; and assisted major seminary staff in evaluating their performance. Thus I have met members of the clergy across the country. What is very disturbing is that many priests and bishops whose knowledge of theology is inadequate for meaningful ministry today. What is still worse, they are not prepared to admit that intellectually they need updating. Let me give you one example.

            At the 1988 CBCI meeting, I was so put off by the discussion of the bishops. Many had not really come prepared, and most were not competent to handle the issues they were discussing. I was feeling horribly humiliated: these are our leaders! One auxiliary bishop―a late vocation, and who had been the rector of major city in a very modernised part of India―had the courage to say: “Bishops, let us be more serious, otherwise people will laugh at us.” After the meeting that I told Archbishop Casimir, S.J.: “The next time you have a CBCI meeting, please organize a seminar for the bishops on the topic you plan to discuss at the meeting.” He replied: “Subhash, the bishops who do not need that seminar will come, but the bishops who really need it, will not turn up.” If what another Jesuit, Cardinal Carlo Martini said: “the Church is 200 years behind time,” is true―and I am convinced it is―then it is primarily due to bishops and priests who do not know enough of theology. Without theology the Church just cannot move ahead. Doing some serious reading will be a real Lenten observance for all of us, but very especially for bishops and priests. It will broaden our horizon, and contribute towards our conversion, our metanoia.