Displaying items by tag: Celebrating At Home

Many people struggle with a name for God. For some, ‘Father’ is fine. For others, the image of God as Father evokes traumatic memories of their childhood experience of pain, suffering, neglect and even abuse.
Alternatively, some prefer terms like, ‘Creator’, ‘Redeemer’, and ‘Sanctifier’. But these terms describe functions, not persons, and they seem to lack the warmth and intimacy that we intuitively feel marks our relationship with God.
In today’s Gospel, one of the disciples, having seen Jesus at prayer, asks him to teach them. The prayer that Jesus teaches them is probably very close what he, himself, prayed.
The prayer has none of the formality of those used in Temple and Synagogue worship. Instead, it begins with a more informal, warm and intimate addressing of God as ‘Abba’ - not as formal as ‘Father’ and not as childish as ‘Daddy’, but somewhere in between.
However we choose to name God, the term we use needs to have the same sense as ‘Abba’ had for Jesus. The disciples also live in the same warm and intimate relationship which God and Jesus share. And it is out of this relationship as members of God’s household that Jesus teaches them to pray.
The focus of the prayer is initially on God alone (‘may your name be held holy’), then moves to what the world needs (‘your kingdom come’), then to what the disciples need (sustenance, forgiveness and rescue from trial, persecution and temptation).
A community which prays this prayer recognises its privileged closeness to God. But it also recognises that the hospitality of God calls the whole human race into this same closeness experienced as the coming of the Kingdom.
The shamelessly persistent knocking on a friend’s door is an encouragement not to be afraid to continually ask God for what we need to live as members of the kingdom. God will not fail to share God’s life and love through the gift of the Holy Spirit.
If human beings, as flawed as we are, know how to give good things to our children, then how much more will the loving and gracious God give the gift of the Holy Spirit to those who ask? The Holy Spirit who is the bond of love between God, Jesus and us - the Holy Spirit who helps us sense and experience that we are deeply enfolded in God’s love, care and concern.

Preparing food for a special occasion or a valued guest can be a daunting task. These days, it can also be filled with all sorts of traps as food preferences continue to change and various allergies appear.
In the story which Luke tells in this Gospel, it is obvious that Martha has gone to a great deal of trouble to welcome and provide for Jesus, the guest.
Pre-occupied with the serving and annoyed with Mary passively sitting at Jesus’ feet, Martha’s anxiety gets the better of her and she asks Jesus to intervene. In a way, Martha is like a well-intentioned host who prepares a full dinner of roast meat only to find that the guest is vegetarian! Perhaps true hospitality might have found that out before the meal was prepared. Perhaps true hospitality might have thought about what the guest has to offer, not only about what the host wants to provide.
So often in the Gospels the initial roles in a story get reversed. In this Gospel it seems that Jesus, the guest, has something to offer that Martha overlooks, but Mary recognises. Jesus becomes the host. And it is he who ends up doing the ‘feeding’, not Martha.
And, what of Mary? Apparently lost in listening to Jesus and oblivious to Martha’s need for help? It seems all wrong to us that Jesus praises her for choosing ‘the better part’. Jesus refuses to send Mary back to the kitchen. His reply can also be read as an invitation for Martha to leave her lavish preparations and to join them.
True hospitality for the disciple lies in getting to know and spending time with the Guest.
The position of this story in Luke’s Gospel, sandwiched between the parable of the Good Samaritan (the ideal disciple) and Jesus’ teaching about prayer, could suggest that both are needed – deep attention to the Word of God and robust action: hearing and doing the Word.
It could also suggest that hearing the Word comes first, followed by doing the Word in works of service. It may also suggest the importance of paying attention to making the right choice at any given moment – not to be so caught up in doing even good works that we forget to nourish our relationship with Jesus.
What it does clearly show, however, is that both men and women are called to discipleship.
Mary, the more marginalised figure in the story, offers the kind of hospitality that Jesus wants in a disciple: an open and listening heart.

Pope Francis said society creates “an adjective culture” that prefers to immediately label people as good or bad. Jesus, he said, breaks the mentality that separates, excludes, isolates and belittles the person.
A good example of what the pope said is found in the parable in today’s Gospel. The very fact that we know the story as, ‘The Good Samaritan’ seems to imply that he is the exception, that most Samaritans are ‘bad’. That’s certainly how Jesus’ audience would have viewed Samaritans.
Ideas of hospitality, welcoming the stranger and caring for those in need held a very high place in Jewish scriptures, spirituality and practice. The practise of these virtues was long recognised as responding to the Word (God’s Law) placed in the believer’s heart. That is, acting after God’s own heart.
Asking who is my neighbour (who is ’in’ or ‘out’) is the wrong question according to Jesus. Rather, one should ask, “How should a member of God’s chosen people act?” In the parable it is not a member of the Chosen People who acts after God’s heart, but an outsider, a Samaritan. It is he who shows how a member of God’s people should act towards those in need. He does not ask, “Who is my neighbour”; he shows himself to be a neighbour and a person after God’s own heart by the lavish way he helps the man in need.
This is ‘loving with all one’s heart’. Can we go and do the same?

On the road to Jerusalem, Jesus teaches the disciples the meaning of ‘following’ him. Part of that following is the proclamation of the Kingdom - drawing attention to the reign of God in the world and in its peoples.
There is a sense of simplicity and urgency as Jesus commissions the seventy-two to spread the Good News of God’s involvement in human life. The Gospel, of course, is not about an historical 72 people being sent out. It is about the mission of every disciple of Jesus. Spreading the message of the Gospel is always to be done in a non-threatening way – by winning over hearts and minds through good example and good living. It is best accomplished by making oneself vulnerable and keeping oneself focussed on the mission rather than on comfort. Real rejoicing is not to be had in the conversion of great numbers of people, but in knowing that one has done the word and the will of God.
Disciples can’t afford to be weighed down by too many things or lost in idle conversation (gossip). They are to be bearers of the peace of God - a peace which heals, strengthens, soothes, frees and restores. Difficulties will be encountered, but the disciples will not be overcome.
That is the cause for the rejoicing sung about in the first reading from the prophet Isaiah. God is at work among his people like a nurturing mother and a flowing river bringing nourishment, peace, comfort and delight. People flourish when the presence of God is recognised and welcomed.
May that presence be always seen and felt in us.