Upon Me

Upon Me

January 27, 2013

Third Sunday in Ordinary Time C

By Rev. Joe McCloskey, SJ

“Today is holy to the LORD your God.   Do not be sad, and do not weep”— for all the people were weeping as they heard the words of the law.   He said further: “Go, eat rich foods and drink sweet drinks, and allot portions to those who had nothing prepared; for today is holy to our LORD.   Do not be saddened this day, for rejoicing in the LORD must be your strength!”  Nehemiah 8:9b-10

But God has so constructed the body as to give greater honor to a part that is without it, so that there may be no division in the body, but that the parts may have the same concern for one another.  If [one] part suffers, all the parts suffer with it; if one part is honored, all the parts share its joy.  1 Corinthians 12:24b-26

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.”  Rolling up the scroll, he handed it back to the attendant and sat down, and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him.  He said to them, “Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.”  Luke 4:18-21

Piety

I recently listened to a talk on piety as part of a small group in a Kairos retreat for juniors and seniors in High School.  Piety confuses people because being pious and piety are too different things.  Pious gets a bum rap because it is too often seen as an external of life.  How I hold my hands or bow my head or kneel up straight are not what piety is all about.  My notion of piety is the historical relationship with Christ that anyone has.  It flows out of the strength of the relationship to Christ.  How much Christ I  am willing to let into my life is its makeup.  The putting on of the mind and trying to live the heart of Christ is how much we love Christ.  It is the desire of oneness that gives reality to Piety in a person’s heart.  Piety answers the question “What was I doing for Christ?” in my life.  Love goes toward oneness with the beloved.  Love brings one to the fullness of their Christian life.  Piety does have an external to it because I say with my deeds how much I love Christ.  Jesus in our Gospel of today goes into the synagogue and shares who he sees himself to be.  He reads from the scroll of Isaiah and claims what he reads as the truth of himself.  “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.” Love is healing and love does not play favorites.  It reaches out to those who need  one without reservation.  Our Piety is how we love Christ in each other. 

Study

Scripture and people are the best sources for Christ in our lives.  When we read the scripture we can put ourselves into Christ and see the world through his eyes.  Scripture allows us to discover how many ways we already think and act the same way he does.  It is a wonderful moment when we are able to see each other with the eyes of Christ.  It is the heart that it is the source of the recognition of Christ in each other.  The Christ of our heart is attracted to the Christ of the hearts of each other.  There are so many gifts of the spirit and each gift fits into the body of Christ such wise that the Christ of the Mystical Body would not be Christ without all of us.  That is why our work is cut out for us.  How to discover Christ in people who do not like us is to discover what is likeable in another by Christ.  Prayer is the best source of the energy of love to get over whatever bothers us about another. 

Action

We are not all prophets.  We are not all teachers.  We do not all have the chance of doing mighty deeds.  It is in our recognition of the good each other does that we recognize the Christ that would love in all of us.  When we all do our part, it is possible to recognize each other’s gifts.  The mystical body of Christ comes alive in the empowering that happens when encouragement brings to the fore what each of us is capable of doing with love.  Wherever there is love God is there.  Action is the sharing of our gifts with the oneness that is the reality of the Mystical Body of Christ we all become when our love is shared by freely giving of ourselves to each other.