A PROPHETIC VOCATION

I couldn’t help but wonder about the vocation of the prophet.  We’ve heard three times in one week that the crowds want to stone someone, in particular Jesus.  Jeremiah had second thoughts about the vocation, feeling duped and trapped by God. The vocation also seems to be a particularly lonely one.

Jeremiah finds he just can’t trust “All those who were [his] friends [who] are on the watch for any misstep.” (Jer 20:10) Jesus will soon be abandoned by his friends when they come to finally arrest him.  WHY?

Because Jeremiah and Jesus have faithfully proclaimed the coming of the kingdom of God only to suffer the rejection of those to whom they were sent.  At this point in the Gospel, Jesus is making perfectly clear from where he came, who he is, and the authority by which he performs his works.  In the minds of his opponents, Jesus has blasphemously made himself God (Jn 10:33) which puts stoning back on the table.

For those of us who have chosen to be in full communion with the Church; Baptized into Christ death and resurrection.  Faithfully believe in his real presence and receive his body and blood in communion and are confirmed in the fullness of the faith through confirmation.  We have accepted the vocation of priest, prophet and king.

We are to perform the works of the Father, to continue the mission of Jesus.  We know that this does not mean everything is going to be easy.  We know that so many have been wounded by the Church and struggle to trust Her.  We know that many are casting stones in hopes that our message would just be silenced.  But it just can’t be like that.  It was during such challenges that God heard both the prophet and his Son and yet God does not remove the prophetic mantle from either one, nor does he from us.  Remembering Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane and on Calvary, we see what being the Father’s Son will cost Jesus.  What it will cost us.

The motto of our Gospel proclamations must be, “as we proclaim, we must live.”  If we’re going to preach love, we must live love of all God’s creation.  If we are going to preach the hope of reconciliation, we must live forgiveness.

There is one thing we can rely as we live as out the prophetic vocation of the Church, knowing the road will be full of stones and often lonely, that “the LORD is with [us], like a mighty champion: [our] persecutors will stumble, they will not triumph.” (Jer 20:11)

We are on the brink of Holy Week: We can choose to go through it on autopilot, or we can choose to live the Gospel fully, despite stones and derision.

ANCIENT STONES

 [1]I was a little early to as usual to assist at the 5:00 p.m. vigil Mass and I noticed the long line for the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  So long the sacristan was wondering if the priest was going to be on time for the Mass.  It reminded me of a story about a little boy who was going to confession for the first time.  He enters the confessional, sits down looks at the priest and says, “You first!”

Carl Jung is famous for formulating the concept of the shadow, the portion of our personality which, through the course of our life, is relegated to the darkness of the unconscious.  The shadow goes by many familiar names: the disowned self, the lower self, the dark twin or brother in bible and myth, the double, repressed self, or our alter ego. When we come face-to-face with our darker side, we use metaphors to describe these shadow encounters: meeting our demons, wrestling with the devil, our dark night of the soul, or midlife crisis.”  Although the shadow is an innate part of the human being, the vast majority of us are willfully blind regarding its existence. We try so hard to hide our negative qualities, not only from others but from ourselves.  To do this we often cast the first stone by criticizing or condemning others, when we recognize in them the same faults and destructive tendencies, we’ve worked so hard to bury, all while attempting to maintain our desired image of holiness.[2]

In the Gospel today, we read about a crowd who brings a woman before Jesus citing the Mosaic law requiring that those caught in adultery must be put to death, with stoning being the preferred method.  Now we could talk about the woman’s sin, we could talk about the other adulterous partner not brought before Jesus, we could talk about the crowd’s trickery and the elder’s shadow behaviors, but let’s talk about the stones.  If we read ahead to chapter 9 in the Gospel of John, we would find that after Jesus convinces this crowd to drop their stones and walk away, there’s a different crowd picking up stones again—this time to throw at Jesus!  Then a few years later, after the Resurrection, we hear in the Acts of the Apostles, that another crowd gathers around deacon Stephen—successfully stoning him to death.  Yet there is another type of stone used in the ancient world, the large stone used to seal up a tomb.

We know the story as our Lenten journey has us on the road to Jerusalem, how it’s going to end for Jesus.  We know Jesus will be crucified and die.  We know he will be taken down from the cross and laid in a tomb.  We know the entrance of the tomb will be sealed with a large stone.  Do you know what else is sealed in that tomb?  All of our sins.  The sins of the Prodigal Son.  The sins of the Woman Caught in Adultery.  Your sins and my sins.

When Mary Magdalene was returning to the tomb early Sunday morning, she was worried about who was going to roll that huge stone away for her.  You see: stones, large and small, real or figuratively cast from our shadow self, can be a real problem.  Mary couldn’t have imagined what had happened.  Her dead Savior, now alive—and all our sins, now forgiven—had already burst forth from the tomb.  The large stone that was suppose to keep our Savior and our sins in the tomb forever was no obstacle for God’s plan for our salvation.

As much as we might want to keep our sins locked up, all sealed in the tomb of our hearts, the Resurrection demands that the huge stone we’ve used to seal up our sins in our shadow tomb must be rolled away.  All so that Salvation and Forgiveness and New Life can burst forth.  Only God can roll away the stone at the entrance of our hearts.[3]

In the woman brought before him, Jesus recognized the people he came to save.  She is Israel of yesterday, the prophet Hosea’s wife, the figure of the people covenanted but not always faithful; and she is the Church of today and tomorrow, who Jesus loves and for whom he will sacrifice himself, to release her, to release us from slavery to sin.

St. Paul tells us of his desire to be fully identified with Christ, conscious that he will not achieve this by his own efforts but only by God’s grace and justice.  The new justice to which Paul refers is exercised through a restored relationship that springs from merciful love.[4]  The same merciful love we can experience in the Sacrament of Reconciliation and by being a full and active participant in this worship community and these sacred mysteries, we call the Eucharistic celebration.

We must stop dwelling on past experiences, or we seal our heart to something new God desires for us.  Lent keeps us focused on Jesus and seeing our lives in the light of his mercy.  Forget what lies behind.  Strain forward to the life with Christ that lies ahead.[5]  Let’s let go of our ancient stones to realize God is doing something new with and through us.

---

[1] New American Bible, Saint Joseph Edition © 1986.  Scriptures: Is 43:16-21; Phil 3:8-14; Jn 8:1-11.

[2] Carl Jung and the Shadow: The Hidden Power of Our Dark Side. Academy of Ideas (2015)

[3] Hungry, and You Fed Me: Homilies & Reflections for Cycle C. by Fr. Richard Rohr, O.F.M. © 2012.  Clear Vision Publishing, Manalapan, NJ

[4] Sundays with Jesus, Reflections for the Year of Luke, James DiGiacomo, SJ © 2006.

[5] Living the Word, Year of Luke, by Laurie Brink, O.P. and Paul H. Colloton, O.S.F.S © 2018. World Library Publications.

STICKS & STONES

“Sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me” is a stock response to verbal bullying in school playgrounds throughout the English-speaking world.  It sounds a little antiquated these days and has no doubt been superseded by more streetwise comebacks.  The earliest citation of it I can find is from a March 1862 American periodical, The Christian Recorder: “Remember the old adage, ‘Sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never harm me’.  True courage consists in doing what is right, despite the jeers and sneers of our companions.”  This reference to the expression as an ‘old adage’ in 1862 suggests an earlier coinage.[1]

When we consider our scriptures today, how the wicked talk and plot against the righteous and those who talk about Jesus (Jn 7:12-13) and feel they “know where he is from” (Jn 7:27) we may conclude the phrase was coined by the early Jews.  Who by the way also experienced the reality of the “sticks and stones”.  The Wisdom writings promote the “philosophy” of Judaism as a superior way of life.  It concludes that following Yahweh is the path of wisdom, leading to the rewards of righteousness and immortality.  The writer encourages Jews and gentiles to see the value of Judaism in a time and place where other philosophies challenged the Jewish faith.  Today’s reading contrasts two ways of life: the righteous versus the wicked.

St. Vincent Ferrer, whose memorial we celebrate today, was a Dominican priest born around 1357 in Spain.  He did missionary work all over Europe for 20 years.  Many people in his time compared him to John the Baptist in that Vincent preached repentance and preparation for the coming of Christ’s kingdom.  He, like many prophets and holy men and women, was met with extraordinary successes, murmurings, and hardships.  The Catholic Church in the late 14^th century was seriously split by a schism.  This Western Schism divided Christianity first between two, then among three popes.  The schism eventually ended in Vincent’s lifetime—in large part because of his reconciliation efforts.

The challenge for us, comes back to a matter of choice: to be wise or otherwise. To be wise would be to heed St. Vincent’s efforts and preaching of reconciliation. Reconciling ourselves to God, who sent his only Son to save us from the times we’ve wandered down the path of selfishness and self-righteousness. Wisdom is realizing when we approach and enter into the sacred mystery of the altar; the passion, death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior, there is no question as to his identity as the one who comes from God to offer himself freely for our salvation. Wisdom is acknowledging that the Father and Son is ever present with us in the form of the Spirit, who walks with us in our daily lives, so that when we live our faith fully, we are different, we are counter cultural, we are protected from the sticks and stones of the wickedness of this world.

---

[1] Phrases, sayings, proverb and idioms at The Phrase Finder. Copyright © Gary Martin, 2019.  www.phrases.org.uk