Many nations will bind themselves to the
LORD on that day. They will be my people and I
will dwell in your midst. Then you shall know that the LORD of hosts has
sent me to you. Zechariah 2:15
“Pay attention to what
I am telling you. The Son of Man is to
be handed over to men.” But they did not
understand this saying; its meaning was hidden from them so that they should
not understand it, and they were afraid to ask him about this saying. Luke 9:44-45
Piety
Jesus, help me to help rebuilding Your Church and Your World
one person at a time. Hide not your
meaning from me. Amen.
Study
For the city to be rebuilt, means only one thing: It has to be destroyed first. This is not a new prophesy. It is rooted throughout the Hebrew
Bible.
However, when Jesus spoke, the
disciples did not know how to translate the scriptures they knew so well from
the literal to the figurative. The
prophets from Isaiah forward all talked about the destruction of the
temple.
However, the prophets also taught in human terms of the
Messiah coming – another message reaffirmed in today’s reading from the Hebrew
Bible. “I am coming to dwell among you.”
But the Jewish people thought in human terms. They were preparing for a King, not the son
of a carpenter and peasant girl. They
were expecting vindication and revenge at the hands of a mighty warrior – a warrior
who would give them military and political victory, not spiritual victory.
Now, they have just figured out who this itinerant preacher
is – the Messiah dwelling among them! As
soon as they gain this pearl of wisdom, Jesus starts talking about his
death. No wonder the meaning was hidden
from them.
Action
Pope Francis is forcing us as Catholics and others of faith
or not to confront the role that religion and spirituality have in our
lives. Some people might not like what
this reveals. Perhaps the meaning is
hidden from them.
Just days after his ground-breaking interview with the Jesuit magazine America,
the world remains abuzz over its implications.
The popular media are pulling out what they think are ground-breaking
terms. New balance. House of Cards.
However, is Francis taking a different
direction or just returning the Church to the direction set out by Jesus – the original
troublemaker?
Words that jump off the page/screen to me are words like “struggle.” And “discernment.” And the image of the Church being the people,
not the hierarchy.
However, just days after this interview hit the newsstands and
conscience of the world, another event took place. Providence College in Rhode Island cancelled a lecture about same-sex marriage.
Does that sound like people are trying to strike a new
balance or just revert to the old, authoritarian ways? Jesus never cared about being seen with the sinners,
or the tax collectors. Yet some of the
leaders of our Church still seem set keeping everything sterile. did not "endorse" sin when he set down with Matthew. He endorsed change. How can we effect any change of heart or mind if we shy away from sitting down and talking with those who disagree with the Church.
Maybe that's why one of my favorite characters in the Good News is Nicodemus. Even though Nicodemus went under the cover of darkness to learn from Jesus, he had the encounter nonetheless -- an encounter which led him to try to open the eyes of the Pharisees. An encounter which also led him to the foot of the cross when the other disciples were in hiding.
Would the elders of Providence College cancelled that encounter, too? I doubt Pope Francis would.
As people start letting the epiphany of Peter sink into our consciousness
and the words of the former Fr. Jorge
Mario Bergoglio take root, it also will take time for reform to take
place. Until then, the meanings remain
hidden.
So now is a perfect
time for us to consider not the ways of others but the ways of ourselves. How can we be the Church we want to see in
others? How can we join ourselves
to the LORD, to become his servants?
For to be rebuilt, not only requires the destruction of the
temple. But then, we must work,
brick-by-brick, stone-by-stone, person-by-person. Starting
with you.
As in Revelation, we may never see the temple. Because if we are the Church, we have no need
for the literal building. “I saw no
temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God almighty and the Lamb. The city had no need
of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gave it light, and its
lamp was the Lamb.” Revelation 21:22-23
The other striking
image of that America interview with Pope Francis is how he reflected on a painting
of the call of Matthew that hangs in the Church of St. Louis of France. Pope Francis says he went there to
contemplate the painting of ‘The Calling of St. Matthew,’ by Caravaggio.
“That finger of Jesus, pointing at Matthew. That’s me. I
feel like him. Like Matthew.” Here the pope becomes determined, as if he had
finally found the image he was looking for: “It is the gesture of Matthew that strikes
me: he holds on to his money as if to say, ‘No, not me! No, this money is
mine.’ Here, this is me, a sinner on whom the Lord has turned his gaze. And
this is what I said when they asked me if I would accept my election as
pontiff.” Then the pope whispers in Latin: “I am a sinner, but I trust in the
infinite mercy and patience of our Lord Jesus Christ, and I accept in a spirit
of penance.”
What is the hidden meaning of that finger when it points to
us? Pay attention to what it is telling
us. Pay attention to what Jesus is
telling us.
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