God of Loving Initiative

Monday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time C-2

Entrance Antiphon Cf. Ps 105 (104):3-4 Let the hearts that seek the Lord rejoice; turn to the Lord and his strength; constantly seek his face.

Collect Almighty ever-living God, increase our faith, hope and charity, and make us love what you command, so that we may merit what you promise. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Scripture today: Ephesians 4:32-5:8; Psalm 1; Luke 13:10-17

On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, Woman, you are set free from your infirmity. Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God. Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue ruler said to the people, There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath. The Lord answered him, You hypocrites! Doesn't each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her? When he said this, all his opponents were humiliated, but the people were delighted with all the wonderful things he was doing. (Luke 13:10-17)

God of Loving Initiative There is a famous incident in the Scriptures when the prophet Elijah arranged a showdown on Mount Carmel with the religion and the prophets of Baal (2 Kings 18). The four hundred prophets of Baal gathered in the presence of Elijah and prepared their sacrifice. It was to be a competition. They were to call on their gods, and Elijah would call on the Lord. The god that consumed the sacrifice prepared for him would be counted as the God of the people. The devotees of Baal called and called. It reached noon, and still nothing had happened to their sacrifice. Midday passed and the result was the same. Finally it was the turn of Elijah. He uttered his calm and confident prayer, and the fire of the Lord descended and consumed his sacrifice. I like to think of the appeals of the prophets of Baal as indicative of the notion of the divine that — outside the context of Revelation — has usually been prevalent. The divine has seemed distant to man, distant and withdrawn. The divine has to be roused, besieged with prayers, lengthy and wordy declamations, and much noise. The divine seems to be content in its own realm once it has initiated the course of the world, and it leaves the world to lesser beings. In very many primal religions the high god departs from the scene once the world is launched. What I am saying is that in general, while often the divine is regarded as and called a “Father” (such as the All-father of the south-east Australian aborigines) he is not viewed as taking initiatives of love. He is not expected to be actively and concretely concerned for man’s plight and welfare. He must be awakened, or else left in his remote abode, while lesser gods are supplicated. This religious assumption may be the effect of the very course of the world on man’s religious imagination. The world seems to many to be unfriendly and menacing. In the modern age of the secular mind, there seems to be little reason to set aside the assumption that a real and friendly god is a figment of the imagination. At bottom, Reality seems to be at best indifferent to man. Love is ultimately a luxury, an accident.

In our Gospel today, our Lord acts in a way that is fundamentally counter to this assumption. Unasked, he takes the initiative in answering the pain and plight of man. We read that on one Sabbath when our Lord was teaching in a Synagogue, “a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all.” Let us imagine that woman as a sad symbol of the world, the work of God’s hands. How deformed it had become since he had made it, when he gazed upon it and saw that it was good. There she stands, a daughter of Eve, bent and crippled “by a spirit” for many years. The world is sad and suffering, and is infested by many enemies. The garden has been attacked and despoiled, and man suffers from generation to generation, with sin at the root of his troubles. What is to be expected of the Maker? As Pope Benedict XVI often said, the Maker of the world has a human face, and that face is Jesus Christ. He is the Revelation of the Father, the Image of the invisible God. As we see him think, speak and act, so we are granted a true knowledge of the unseen God. What does our Lord do? He sees the unfortunate woman and he acts. His initiative is one of love, power showing itself in mercy. “When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, Woman, you are set free from your infirmity. Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God” (Luke 13:10-17). This particular action is not the only way Jesus Christ acted in the face of evil and suffering, but it is, I suggest, symbolic of the character of his actions. His entire life is one of active and concerned love, a love that takes the initiative in the face of evil. The true God is not withdrawn from the world and unconcerned for man’s plight. In fact, he has revealed that man’s deepest and worst plight is his sinful state, and it is this which takes him to his final destruction. But God has taken the initiative, and in his Son Jesus Christ has taken upon himself the sickness and deformation that grips the world. He has expiated for man’s sin at incalculable cost to himself, and has blown it out of the way.

The God of Elijah is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is his very own Son, united to him in the Holy Spirit. The triune God is a God of love, of loving and merciful initiative, of love that can be counted on for mercy and aid. We can depend on him for his care, most especially in our greatest challenge, which is our combat with the sin into which we have been all born. We must win this combat and emerge the victor. This we can do by relying on the love of our divine and ever-faithful Champion. Let us never fail in confidence in him!

(E.J.Tyler)

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A Second Reflection: (Ephesians 4:32-5:8)

Christian Purity It scarcely needs mentioning that for very many years now it has been observed how sexually permissive our western culture is. Most people would have at least some sense of the evil and sinfulness of sexual promiscuity, but I am also sure that the consciences of many would be seriously dulled in this matter. Consider St Paul's harsh strictures in his letter to the Ephesians in chapter 4: 32-5: 8. "For you can be quite certain that nobody who actually indulges in fornication or impurity or promiscuity — which is worshipping a false god — can inherit anything of the kingdom of God. Do not let anyone deceive you with empty arguments: it is for this loose living that God's anger comes down on those who rebel against him." St Paul in these words makes it clear that we are speaking of mortal sin that will exclude the unrepentant person from Heaven. He also says that "Among you there must be not even a mention of fornication or impurity in any of its forms, or promiscuity: this would hardly become the saints!" And he goes on to tell us what he means: "There must be no coarseness, or salacious talk and jokes — all this is wrong for you: raise your voices in thanksgiving instead." Obviously St Paul is speaking of such talk conducted in a way as to be occasions of sin, being clearly contrary to the Christ-like life the Christian is called to live. "You were darkness once, but now you are light in the Lord; be like children of the light."

Let every Catholic Christian be a shining beacon of Christian purity in the modern world.

(E.J.Tyler)

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