Homily first and then some photos from the retreat house at Gloucester.
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Is 8:23-9:3
Ps 27:1,4,13-14
1 Cor 1:10-13,17
Mt 4:12-23
In the essay introducing the Book of Isaiah, the Jewish Study Bible notes: "Isaiah is perhaps the best-loved of the
prophetic books. It is cited more than
any other prophetic text in rabbinic literature." One can say something similar about the role
of Isaiah in the Catholic Church. The
challenge over the centuries
(Isaiah lived in the last half of the 8th century B.C.) is
the meaning of the text. Was Isaiah
speaking of Christ? Was he speaking of
someone or something else entirely?
One's religious biases, prayer, and contemplation will determine one's
answer in part. Biblical scholars are
all over the place on this one.
In the commentary from the same source, on the verses just
read, there is an interesting explanation of the name Isaiah. "Semitic names often consist of
sentences that describe God; thus the name Isaiah in Hebrew means, "The
Lord saves." The commentary goes on
to explain why Isaiah used the past tense in the verses. Recall we heard:
"The people who
have walked in darkness,
have seen a great
light;
upon those who dwelt
in the land of gloom
a light has shone.
You have brought them
abundant joy
and great
rejoicing."
One way to look at the use of the past tense in verses that
the Church understands as speaking of Christ is what is called "the
prophetic past." Remember, these
verses of Isaiah were written approximately 800 years before Jesus' birth. How then could Isaiah have been speaking of
Christ? Using the past tense to describe
the future is one of the ways.
The prophetic past predicts future events using the past
tense because those events are already as good as done. The prophetic past tense is rooted in the
faith and hope that what we ask of the Lord, and what the Lord has promised, is
as good as done, even if the present is not as we would want it to be, even if
the present bears no resemblance to what God has promised.
Paul was not happy with the Corinthians when he wrote his
first letter to them. He was writing about
abuses that had found their way into the Church at Corinth. Paul discusses these abuses from chapter one
through chapter six of his letter. The
abuses included: divisions among the faithful, a case of incest, lawsuits among
Christians, and sins against chastity. Not
too much different from today.
"I urge you . . . in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
that all of you agree in what you say . . . that you be united in the same mind
and the same purpose."
In writing this Paul is not suggesting that Christians
cannot disagree on earthly affairs: politics, gun control, or the Patriots vs.
the Jets are fair game for disagreement.
Paul is referring to the unity of the Church. He is referring in particular to unity in
understanding the foundational dogmas of the Church. The kind of sectarianism against which he
railed: I belong to Cephas, I belong to Paul, is a sectarianism that implies
different understandings of Christ. This is dangerous and divisive. Alas, we have to contend with it daily.
Matthew's Gospel recounts the calling of the apostles. The story is simple on the surface. It is
terrifying in its implications when one parses out the meaning of being called
by God.
In Xavier Leon-Dufour's Dictionary
of Biblical Theology one finds the following: "A calling supposes a change in being
since God's call catches a man at his ordinary work, interrupts him in the
midst of his friends, and involves him in a project known to God alone." That description certainly fits the Gospel
just proclaimed and what we know transpired after the apostles accepted Jesus'
summons.
There they were, Peter, Andrew, James and John, working as
fisherman. Hauling in the nets, perhaps
grumbling a bit about the quality of the catch. Their backs were sore. Their
fingers ached. They were probably cold and wet. And then they heard Jesus: "Come
after me." Come follow me. "And I will make you fishers of
men." That last is not a very
specific job description. And so it is
for us. When we accept Jesus' call to
us, we are beginning a project that doesn't have a very detailed job
description, . . . if it has any. But it
was through this kind of call that Jesus surrounded himself first, with the
apostles and then, as we will hear in Gospel narratives throughout the year,
others who were called to be disciples.
Some accepted in the spirit of the apostles: immediately and without equivocation. Others rejected the call. Others rejected the invitation to follow
Christ, sometimes for the flimsiest of excuses.
To be called by Christ is to be called into His
mission. This call is mediated by the
Church not by one's own whims and desires of the 'I-don't-need-a-Church-to-tell-me-how-to-follow-Jesus'
variety. Or the cafeteria variety, 'I
can accept that Jesus was the Christ but I really can't believe that stuff
about the real presence.' The Church is
not perfect. At times it has to deal
with the kind of sectarianism decried by Paul. It is, after all, a Church made up entirely of
sinners. However, it is what has come
down through the millennia preaching the salvation found in Christ.
Our own prayer for today should be taken directly from the
responsorial psalm:
"One thing I ask of the Lord,
this I seek:
to dwell in the house of the Lord
all the days of my life,
that I may gaze on the loveliness of the Lord
and contemplate his Temple"
Sit with that prayer.
Meditate on those images. They will yield much fruit.
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I enjoy taking photos that explore shape, color, texture and so on while filling the frame. I had to make an unplanned trip to the retreat house at Gloucester (where the novices are making their long retreat at the moment) to pick up some things for a Jesuit who had become ill. There was time to wander around the grounds. Autumn is, and will always be, my favorite time of the year. The first two photos explore shape, color and so on. That is my definition of photographic fun.
I enjoy taking photos that explore shape, color, texture and so on while filling the frame. I had to make an unplanned trip to the retreat house at Gloucester (where the novices are making their long retreat at the moment) to pick up some things for a Jesuit who had become ill. There was time to wander around the grounds. Autumn is, and will always be, my favorite time of the year. The first two photos explore shape, color and so on. That is my definition of photographic fun.
The first is a ceramic Jesuit seal mounted on a stone wall in the middle of a trellis.
The next is strips of cloth and ribbon on a wall-hanging in the house. The vibrant colors caught my eye. The beige stone in the background is an interesting contrast.
The two chairs that look out onto Brace's Rock are frequently occupied by silent retreatants. Sometimes they are writing in their journals.
There are Adirondack chairs scattered all over the property. Lovely to look at they can be a challenge to get out of, particularly for the elderly or those with any sort of lower-body weakness.
I hope to get up there one of these days when the temps are not so low as to possibly damage the camera.
+Fr. Jack, SJ, MD
