Holy Cross Monastery, West Park, NY
Br. Robert James Magliula, OHC
Later, as a people in exile, without priest or king, it was the corporate acts of listening and obeying that created and shaped a community. The authority of the prophet was not bound by the existence of the political or religious structures that were destroyed in the chaos of the exile. The charismatic power of the prophet was an antidote to the hopelessness and despair of a people who had lost their nation. This text promises the people that God’s ongoing care for them is found in the simple fact of God’s word. God is to be found in the word uttered by the prophet. By learning to trust God’s word, the people learn to trust God.
Jesus speaks and is that Word in
today’s gospel. Mark, more than any other Gospel writer, emphasizes Jesus’
miraculous power to heal. Of the eighteen miracles he records, thirteen have to
do with healing, and four of those are exorcisms. Jesus goes to the synagogue to
teach by healing. His gospel is a healing word and action. Mark wants to show
that Jesus’ action is embedded in his word. His word is effective and powerful.
It liberates from the forces of evil and makes humanity whole. No oppressive
power will withstand his power. He teaches with an authority having to do with
seeing justice served. All the people are amazed and perplexed in the face of
this authority. This new teaching is not about information, but transformation.
I think that on a personal and national level, we are poised for the
possibility of transformation, even now in the midst of the crying and
convulsing of an exorcism.
Jesus’ new teaching, held up by
Paul in the epistle, is a timely word for us to hear as we attempt to move
forward. Eating meat sacrificed to idols hardly seems a pressing issue for 21st
century Christians, but it was in Corinth. The Corinthian church was a divided
community. It had a wealthy, well-educated, sophisticated element who believed
that Christians should be free to eat meat offered to idols since idols were
not real, and there is only one God. The social life of the upper class
revolved around frequent banquets and celebrations held in dining spaces
connected to temples. They also purchased meat there for their own homes. Ordinary,
less educated working people, whose incomes allowed little meat in their diets,
and whose previous lives were tied to those temples, were also part of that community.
Paul agrees with the first group, as far as Christians being free from the Law,
but he does not take their side. He makes the point that knowledge without
love, puffs up the individual, while wise and knowing love builds up the community.
People who obsessively devote themselves to their own knowledge turn their
devotion away from God, and in so doing they do not acquire true knowledge of
God. The answer to this arrogance, in Paul’s view, is loving God in our
neighbor.
At the heart of Paul’s message is a
particular understanding of Christian freedom. Freedom is not the right to do
as one wishes. Christian freedom is grounded in love---God’s love for us in
Jesus Christ. In Christian life we become responsible for one another. That is
central to what it means to be “in Christ.” For that reason, in any conflict, relationships
are as important an element in decision making and behavior as are the facts of
the case. Paul comes down hard on those who justify their behavior on the basis
of theological arguments alone, even when he agrees with those arguments. If
necessary, he says, he will become a vegetarian rather than harm those who
would be hurt by him eating this meat. Paul wants them and us to know that
being certain of what is right or wrong, appropriate or inappropriate, is not
sufficient in itself, even if one’s position is correct. Love is greater than
knowledge, particularly with the weaker ones among us. When we hurt others, we
hurt Christ himself because we cause pain in his body, the Church. We are
called to show reconciling love, and that has direct bearing on what we do and
how we do it. Paul calls for unity and holiness together. Unity is easy if you
don’t care about holiness. Holiness is easy if you don’t care about unity. The
trick is to have both of them together. That’s what Paul is advocating. We are
free to become Christ in the world to the same extent that we recognize the
Christ in others, especially the last and the least. In the final analysis, it
is about loyalty to Christ.
This raises questions for us about what practices we condone or condemn in relation to the cultures of secularism, materialism, and nationalism. How do we act prophetically and maintain appropriate relations in a divided society? Do we view Christ as one who teaches us to build a wall to protect the Christian community or as one who is himself the bridge to neighbors of different faiths and traditions? What is the relationship between individual freedom and the responsibility for a community’s health. Radical individualism, a hallmark of American culture, undermines community. Our Presiding Bishop, earlier this month in a moment of national crisis, asked “Who shall we be?’” He went on to say:
I want to submit that the way of love that leads to beloved community is the only way of hope for humanity. Consider the alternative. The alternative is chaos, not community. The alternative is the abyss of anarchy, of chaos, of hatred, of bigotry, of violence, and that alternative is unthinkable. We have seen nightmarish visions of that alternative.
Weighed down by pandemic fatigue
and anxiety, we may feel stuck in our inability to muster the energy it will
take to meet the task. Beatrice Bruteau reminds us that our deepest truth is
our union with God. It is the root of our reality, and from which optimism is
derived. She writes:
I believe this radical optimism is the good news of the gospel and I propose that we take it seriously. . . Optimism, like pessimism, tends to be a self-justifying outlook. The more pessimistic you are, the more you are likely to fail and thus justify your pessimism. And similarly, the more optimistic you are, the more apt you are to succeed and justify your optimism. However, my optimism is not merely pragmatic. I also believe that it is ultimately, metaphysically, true because of its being radical optimism, coming from the root of our being, securely held in the Absolute Being. [1]
Radical optimism and active hope are the keys to giving us the strength, faith, and courage to face the difficult realities that have been unveiled. Pray for our fractured and divided nation. Pray for those who share your political convictions, and for those who don’t. Pray for justice for those who live at the margins of society, and for those who by virtue of race, ethnicity, and sexual identity have been denied the fullness of opportunity and life in America. Pray, trusting in the one God who holds us all.
+Amen.
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