Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

June 16, 2013

2 Samuel 12:7-10, 13; Psalm 32; Galatians 2:16, 19-21; Luke 7:36-8:3

The prophet Nathan recounts to King David the many ways the Lord God blessed him despite his sinfulness. David answers in the best way a sinner can – in honest humility. He owns up to his sins. The sinful woman, who bathes the feet of Jesus with tears and perfumed oil while he dines at a leading Pharisee’s house, is fully aware of the attitudes of the townspeople towards her. She does not let her shame stop her from acting in love.

Since Vatican II, we are developing a maturing view towards our sinfulness. We haven’t arrived yet. We know the days of laundry lists of sins we used to bring to confessions are over because that was never an accurate, intelligent view of what was sinful. The church is moving towards greater wisdom. We also have a more complicated sense of sinfulness when we realize we are part of structural systems where we have little control or influence on our own. We are caught in an adolescent middle between trivial sin (I had an angry thought or I had a sexual feeling) and social, impersonal sin (I belong to a company that supports environmental destruction and I need this job.) To complicate matters, we belong to a church whose leadership we do not trust because of the humanity of priests and bishops. The long and short of it is that we do very little to acknowledge our sinfulness.

Roger Haight, S.J. has been doing some groundbreaking work on giving the Spiritual Exercises to groups of inter-faith university students who call themselves ‘seekers.’ They do not closely identify with any religious institution and are still drawn to find the transcendent. They do not possess a sense of sin the way Christians once did and their sense of morality is based on ways of being kind and good to one another. For them, sin is for those who are in relationship with a defined “God” and they seek for that ‘something’ that will define the divine for them.

A reason that individual Catholics struggle with ideas of sin is that they have not sufficiently defined sin for themselves. If you don’t know what sin is, you can’t be culpable. Church leaders give some guidelines, but the consequences of sin are not as clear-cut in the old days: ‘You would go to hell if you missed Mass on Sundays.’ The long-held authority of the priest as judge and jury of one’s sins has been largely rejected by many who believe they need only to tell Jesus Christ about their moral failings. In the meantime, many wallow because they realize something is out of balance and don’t know what to do about it, while others put themselves in the place of Christ who is able to render appropriate judgments.   

As Jesuit, from the graces of the Spiritual Exercises, realizes that he is a loved sinner. Of course, he places himself before Christ who reveals his sinfulness to him, but the Jesuit doesn’t remain in the sin. God grants so much mercy that the Jesuit knows the emphasis is on the adjective (loved) that describes God’s action. It creates grounded humility. A Jesuit is a vulnerable man who stands before God and realizes all the goodness he receives is God’s gift.  This love changes his life and enables him to mediate God’s brand of forgiveness.

The woman in the Gospel touched the feet of Jesus with her hair and hands, yet we refrain from coming into contact with anyone we consider a sinner. We isolate them and are reluctant to speak with them. We would never let their sin touch us – because in our estimation we are more righteous than they, but the sinful woman is able to touch the feet and the heart of Jesus, which changes everything in the way he deals with her and others like her. He sees her humility and integrity because she knows she violates society’s standards, but she still wants to do what is good and right. He knows she struggles with shame and the judgments of others, but he still sees what is good and holy within her. His acceptance redeems her. His example encourages us to let the sin of others touch us so that they and we can be redeemed.

Great love emerges when one deals compassionately with sin. King David acknowledged his terrible actions and was remorseful. His sins taught him how to be concerned for the welfare of others. The sinful woman, in all humility, did not let her sin stop her from being gracious to Jesus. The Pharisees were given a real example of accepting a sinner and letting their understanding become enlarged. I hope they took advantage of their lesson; I hope we can learn from this story too.

The last lines of the Gospel are most enlightening. Jesus, after journeying with the Twelve and some women who were cured, takes quality time to enjoy their company. It is a rare time in which we see a break in the action, but Jesus wastes time with his friends because he likes them. Surely, he learned more of their stories and they listened to the each other’s. They were reconciled to one another. Once we are reconciled, we simply want to waste time with our newfound friends and enjoy hearing stories of redemption. This is where the church is at its best: when we simply want to be with one another. We are more alike than we think because we are all fundamentally sinners for whom new life has been stirred into us by the surprisingly merciful graciousness of God.  

Themes for this Week’s Masses

First Reading: Paul and Timothy appeal to the people to live according to the grace of God, which means that we cause no one to stumble in anything and that no fault be found with our ministry. Paul upholds Macedonia as an example of a community that went through a severe test of affliction and abounded in joy. In their poverty, a wealth of generosity overflowed. Christ gave us an example of becoming poor although he was rich so that through his poverty, we might become rich. Like the Macedonians, we are to sow greatly so that we can reap bountifully for God loves a cheerful giver. Paul then holds himself up as an example because he preached the Gospel without charge to show the integrity of his work. He warns them to beware of those who preach a different gospel and charge them for it. He tells them of his history of suffering to ensure that they heard the proper gospel because fourteen years earlier he met the risen Lord. He boasts about this man Jesus who was taken up to heaven. If he is to boast, he will only boast of the Lord, but the Lord gave him a thorn in the flesh (his Jewish adversaries) to keep him weak, for when he is weak, he is strong.

Gospel: Jesus turns Jewish law upside-down when he tells people to offer no resistance to those who are evil. Though the world might be unfair, we are free to choose to act with goodness. He increases the intensity of our moral lives by telling us that we are to love our enemies as a proof of our love for God. Those are not easy words to hear. We are not to be motivated by external influences, but concerned only about our reward from God. Therefore all our good actions are not to be seen by the publics, but are visible to God’s heart. Even when we pray, we are to do it in secret because it is no one else’s business. Jesus then gives them a fine Jewish prayer that sums up one’s life in God. He warns us against hoarding good things because treasures are to be shared. The eye is the lamp of the body that tells us whether the whole person is sound. The eye reveals the recesses of the soul.

Saints of the Week

June 21: Aloysius Gonzaga, S.J., priest (1568-1591), gave up a great inheritance to join the Jesuits in 1585 in his dreams of going to the missions. However, when a plague hit Rome, Gonzaga served the sick and dying in hospitals where he contracted the plague and died within three months. He is a patron saint of youth.

June 22: Paulinus of Nola, bishop (353-431) was a prominent lawyer who married a Spaniard and was baptized. Their infant son died while in Spain. He became a priest and was sent to Nola, near Naples, where he lived a semi-monastic life and helped the poor and pilgrims.

June 22: John Fisher, bishop and martyr (1469-1535) taught theology at Cambridge University and became the University Chancellor and bishop of Rochester. Fisher defended the queen against Henry VIII who wanted the marriage annulled. Fisher refused to sign the Act of Succession. When the Pope made Fisher a cardinal, the angry king beheaded him.

June 22: Thomas More, martyr (1478-1535) was a gifted lawyer, Member of Parliament, scholar, and public official. He was reluctant to serve Cardinal Woolsey at court and he resigned after he opposed the king’s Act of Succession, which would allow him to divorce his wife. He was imprisoned and eventually beheaded.

This Week in Jesuit History

·      Jun 16, 1675. St Margaret Mary Alacoque received her great revelation about devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

·      Jun 17, 1900. The martyrdom at Wuyi, China, of Blesseds Modeste Andlauer and Remy Asore, slain during the Boxer Rebellion.

·      Jun 18, 1804. Fr. John Roothan, a future general of the Society, left his native Holland at the age of seventeen to join the Society in White Russia.

·      Jun 19, 1558. The opening of the First General Congregation, nearly two years after the death of Ignatius. It was summoned by Fr. Lainez, the Vicar General. Some trouble arose from the fact that Fr. Bobadilla thought himself entitled to some share in the governance. Pope Paul IV ordered that the Institute of the Society should be strictly adhered to.

·      Jun 20, 1626. The martyrdom in Nagasaki, Japan, of Blesseds Francis Pacheco, John Baptist Zola, Vincent Caun, Balthasar De Torres, Michael Tozo, Gaspar Sadamatzu, John Kinsaco, Paul Xinsuki, and Peter Rinscei.

·      Jun 21, 1591. The death of St Aloysius Gonzaga, who died from the plague, which he caught while attending the sick.

·      Jun 22, 1611. The first arrival of the Jesuit fathers in Canada, sent there at the request of Henry IV of France.