Lessons for the coming days

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This coming Sunday is the 19th Sunday, Year C. In yesterday’s post we noted that there was a Lukan passage “skipped over” in the Sunday gospel readings. The passage formed a nice bridge between “what matters to God” and “readiness.” Our gospel text picks up the theme of “preparedness” as it is sounded from the beginning of the text: “Gird your loins and light your lamps” Here the motif is raised through the use of two metaphors for readiness. The first—literally, “let your loins be girded”—borrows language from instruction to Israel regarding the Passover (Exod 12:11); they were to eat with “loins girded”—that is, with their long robes belted up in order to free the feet for action.

One also wonders if we are to call to mind more details of the Passover reference. The Passover meal was prepared without any trace of leaven (e.g., Exod 12:8), suggesting a further connection with Jesus’ opening remarks in v 1 of this same chapter. There he instructed his disciples to watch out for the “leaven of the Pharisees.” As we have seen, this “leaven” is manifest in the Pharisees’ fundamental misunderstanding of God’s purpose, their incapacity to discern the authentic meaning of the Scriptures and, therefore, their inability to present anything other than the impression of piety. Continuing to use the Pharisees as a foil against which to sketch the nature of genuine faithfulness to God, Luke now adds that the Pharisaic mind-set that must be avoided is represented in a lack of vigilance and preparedness for the redemptive coming of God.

As Joel Green notes [560] “The second metaphor is also one of readiness, but draws more deeply on the imagery of light and darkness manifest in the Lukan narrative more pervasively. Accordingly, disciples are to identify with “the dawn from on high … [who] will give light to those who sit in darkness” (1:78–79), ready for service in the conquest of darkness, the power of Satan (Acts 26:18). The sort of alertness Jesus counsels is not understood best as a set of activities but rather as a state of mind and heart. Disciples are to be the kind of people who are always on the alert.”

Image credit: G Corrigan | CANVA | CC-0

The End of One’s Rope

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In the first reading for today, it seems as though Moses has reached “the end of his rope.” We encounter one of Moses’ most raw and human moments—bordering on what may seem like a “pity party,” but is really a profound leadership crisis. A leadership that Moses was likely unprepared for and had to grow into the role. There was no mentor, no role model. He had been asked to do God’s work to free the Israelites from slavery. At this point, his encounters with Pharaoh are over and he has led the people from Egypt into the wilderness. The thrill of their freedom has worn thin and they begin complaining—again—particularly about food. They’re tired of the manna and cry out for meat.

“The riffraff among them were so greedy for meat that even the Israelites lamented again, ‘If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we used to eat without cost in Egypt, and the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic.'” (Nb 11:4-5; the reading leaves out the first part of v.4)

The nostalgia for Egypt is ironic—they remember the food but not the slavery. The people’s constant complaining and lack of gratitude push him to the edge – Moses is overwhelmed

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A Bridge between Lessons

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This coming Sunday in the 19th Sunday in Lectionary Cycle C. Our Sunday gospel follows after the Parable of the Rich Fool (18th Sunday in Ordinary Time; Luke 12:13-21). Unfortunately, the passage in between (vv.22-34) is not used for a Sunday gospel – yet it carries an important context for our passage and serves as a bridge between the lesson of the rich fool and our text which seems to speak of the second coming of the Son of Man and the judgment that awaits.

22 He said to (his) disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life and what you will eat, or about your body and what you will wear. 23 For life is more than food and the body more than clothing. 24 Notice the ravens: they do not sow or reap; they have neither storehouse nor barn, yet God feeds them. How much more important are you than birds! 25 Can any of you by worrying add a moment to your lifespan? 26 If even the smallest things are beyond your control, why are you anxious about the rest? 27 Notice how the flowers grow. They do not toil or spin. But I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of them. 28 If God so clothes the grass in the field that grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow, will he not much more provide for you, O you of little faith? 29 As for you, do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, and do not worry anymore. 30 All the nations of the world seek for these things, and your Father knows that you need them. 31 Instead, seek his kingdom, and these other things will be given you besides. 32 Do not be afraid any longer, little flock, for your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom. 33 Sell your belongings and give alms. Provide money bags for yourselves that do not wear out, an inexhaustible treasure in heaven that no thief can reach nor moth destroy. 34 For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.  (Luke 12:22-24)

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The Things We Store Away

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The Rich Fool of our parable gets a bad rap.  Compared to other parables, there is no wrongdoing, no theft, inflating invoices, skimming off the top, no taking advantage of workers in the vineyard. Maybe he is just preparing for his retirement where he and his family can finally rest and relax, – and sure, eat, drink, and be merry. His goals seem similar to our own concerns with our savings and retirement plans.

Let’s be honest if you or I had a bumper crop like the Rich Fool we would be figuring out ways to store and preserve our good fortune. Maybe not the way in which the Rich Fool does.  Hopefully we would thank God for his harvest, from his fields, via his rains. Hopefully we would not consume and possess things indiscriminately, relentlessly grabbing for all that we can, hoping to insulate ourselves from our insecurities and our fears.  Those are the concerns of this life, but what about eternal life?

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Needs, Wants and Vanity

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The writer Patricia Datchuck Sánchez offers a great insight in her commentary on this week’s readings:

In an effort to lead her young charges on an exploration of their values, a second grade teacher gave the following assignment to her class. Take a large piece of poster paper or cardboard and draw a line down the center. On the left side of the paper, write “Needs”; on the right side, put “Wants”. Then, either draw or cut pictures out of old magazines, which illustrate your needs and wants. A few days later, when the assignment was due, the classroom was filled with colorful and candid reminders of the materialistic matrix within which Christianity is challenged to make an impact. Little fingers and small hands had cut out images of video game systems, giant-screen color televisions, ten-speed bicycles, as well as ice-cream sundaes, cookies and a large assortment of candies. Unfortunately, many of these pictures were posted on the side of the poster labeled, “Needs”! Obviously the teacher had her work cut out for her. To distinguish needs from wants and then to discern true needs from false and frivolous ones is no easy task; it is, in fact, a lifelong process which requires continued evaluation. Had the same assignment been given to a classroom of adolescents or to a group of adults, would the results have been different? Or would the pictures simply have reflected the tastes and appetites of older people for sports cars, designer and name brand clothing, speed boats, luxurious homes, and the life-styles of the rich and famous. Would the more mature person also have skewed the line between needs and wants?

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The Parable of the Poor Rich Man

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This coming Sunday is the 18th Sunday of Ordinary Time. The parable is not  unique to Jesus – consider this passage from Sirach 11:18-19

18 A man may become rich through a miser’s life, and this is his allotted reward: 19 When he says: “I have found rest, now I will feast on my possessions,” He does not know how long it will be till he dies and leaves them to others. 

It is possible Jesus’ parable finds its roots in Sirach even if it is not directly dependent upon it. The parable stands within the Wisdom tradition of Israel in which it is held that having or seeking wealth can be a person’s downfall (cf. Ps 49:1-20; Sir 31:1-11 – as well as outside the canon of Scripture in 1 Enoch 97:8-10; 98:3).

The parable warns against covetousness (12:15) and greed (12:21), set with the larger framework of the dispute over inheritance and a series of sayings concerning anxiety over the necessities of daily life, such as foot and clothing (12:22-31). The immediate context is the dispute and the declaration by Jesus that the measure of a person’s life does not consist of the abundance of his or her possessions.

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A Medal of Honor

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As World War II in the Pacific moved into 1944 the submarines of the U.S. Navy continued to extract a heavy toll on Japanese merchant shipping as an increasing number of Balao-class submarines entered service in the Pacific. At the same time, the Pacific submarines, now having sufficient numbers, began to patrol in “submarine groups” – receiving the inevitable nickname, “Wolf Pack.”

On this day in history (1944) A submarine group attacked a Japanese convoy near Bashi Channel south of Formosa, sinking four ships and damaging three others. During the operation, the submarine Parche (SS-384) engaged in a daring predawn surface attack against the convoy, torpedoing four ships. Despite the flames from the burning convoy ships illuminating Parche and drawing fire from the convoy’s escorts, Commander Lawson P. “Red” Ramage Naval Academy Class of 1931) aggressively attacked the enemy shipping. What ensured was a melee by any measure – and unseen in submarine warfare before or since.

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Where Heaven and Earth Meet

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In the first reading today (from Exodus 40) we hear of the “Dwelling” or the “tent of meeting” also known as the Tabernacle. It was a “portable” sanctuary used by the Israelites during their 40 years of wandering in the wilderness – portable in the way a large meeting tent can be erected, taken down and transported. It was not a small tent.

Exodus 36, 37, 38 and 39 that describe in full detail how the actual construction of the tabernacle took place during the time of Moses. It is a part of the Bible when readers quickly start turning pages to “get back to the action” of Exodus. But let us pause for a moment and consider the Dwelling that is detailed extensively in the Book of Exodus.

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A Word About Greed

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This coming Sunday is the 18th Sunday of Ordinary Time.  “Take care to guard against all greed” The text uses two verbs (horate & phylassesthe) in the present tense imperatives, i.e., continual action, in other words “continually take care” and “continually guard yourself from.”  Perhaps this is a Lucan warning that the human condition is akin to alcoholics and their desire for alcohol, we are never cured of our greediness. We are always in recovery; always in need to watch out for and to guard ourselves from this evil power in our lives.

The word phylassesthe is rooted in the word pleonexias (definitions from Lowe & Nida’s Greek-English Lexicon)

  1. “A strong desire to acquire more and more material possessions or to possess more things than other people have, all irrespective of need.” The word is usually translated with greed, avarice, or covetousness.
  2. “taking advantage of someone, usually as the result of a motivation of greed.” The word is usually translated with exploitation.
  3. When pleonexia is used in the Septuagint it is always for the Hebrew word betsac which carries the idea of “unjust, illegal, dishonest or evil gain”. It is similar to the “plunder” one gains through violence.
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