Today’s Gospel Story (Luke 14:1, 7-14) is a reminder not to be impressed with our self-importance, which is pretty much how the majority report sees it. The minority report is of its nature very personal and can say many things to many people, at times so personal that there are no words. It’s each of us letting the Spirit guide us to an awareness in our own particular circumstances.
The Alleluia Verse sets a good tone for hearing the Gospel Story: “Take my yoke upon you, says the Lord, and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart.” We can live being meek and humble of heart only from a position of strength, which is the reality of Abba’s grace in which we live. As we see this happening in our daily living, we come to a new experience of Abba in us, and often unexpectedly, in others. It is my choice how serious I want to be about following Jesus and letting him show me how he wants me to live. Taking on his yoke is my willingness to be led and to know Jesus in my everyday living. I can choose whether I want to keep learning and growing in my awareness of Jesus in my life, or keep controlling and feeling satisfied that I have all the answers I need.
This learning is not about facts and information. It is letting myself be led to see things differently. It is the learning we do in relationships, when we spend quality time with others. Jesus invites us to spend time with him and get to know him. He already knows us, loves us, and wants to spend time with us, something we learn if we take the chance and try. We do this best with our prayer practice that leads us to spend time with Jesus, Abba, Spirit.
We process the Gospel through the filter of whatever is going on in our life. For many of us this is the tragic school shooting in Minneapolis, and also how the government is dealing with people whose immigration status may or may not be questionable. These are emotional issues on all sides. This all seems to be a reflection of the 1930’s in Europe, Chile in the 70’s, and Archbishop Romero’s El Salvador experience in the 1980’s. This is our reality where we are called to live the Gospel in its entirety. So what now? The easy way is to point fingers and blame others, which does nothing worthwhile, and just keeps generating anger and violence. When I choose to take his yoke upon me, I enter an open ended relationship with Jesus, with Abba, that impacts my whole life in unexpected ways. Knowing all the right things and having all the appropriate answers is much overrated. There is a kind of thrill as I go through my days ready to be surprised and not needing to know.
Jesus tells us to welcome “the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind” in other words, the people I don’t like for whatever reason, usually because they make me feel uncomfortable in some way. They may be showing me something about myself that I don’t want to recognize. In so many ways we are instruments of grace for each other. People, especially those I don’t want to care about, or that I find annoying, are instruments of grace for me. I need to live this, and not just talk about it. Abba is speaking to me in everyone I meet, in every situation I’m in, in everything that happens. His love happens when we simply help each other carry our burdens. Sometimes it is just a matter of being nice to other folks, a simple smile, which these days can say and do a lot.
The Gospels continually remind us of the importance of people, all people. We tend to categorize and judge people in terms of how they make us feel, whether or not they agree with us, and so on. Jesus didn’t do that. He calls us to follow him, to wear his yoke, become meek and humble of heart, something which is not too popular especially these days. He asks us to see our Abba’s goodness in everybody we meet, especially those who, for whatever reason, are considered outcasts, unworthy, intrinsically disordered, without papers, etc. Yet, as we look around us today, we see the opposite happening, Often this way of dealing with people is alleged to be done in the name of Jesus, who never did anything even close to this. And so yet again, Abba, what are you asking me/us to do to live your goodness in our everyday living? There is so much suffering all around us, and perhaps in us, that needs our gifts..
From time to time things may happen that offer a whole new “understanding” of Abba being real in my life, a wholly new experience, if I am willing to let this happen. This might be a new and different understanding of the yoke Jesus talks about, an unexpected way of knowing Abba that often goes beyond our ability to describe. Perhaps there are situations we used to fear at one time but that we now welcome and even enjoy. So begins a continual journey of letting go. It might be frightening when I am used to answers that are safe and comforting, and am being asked to let go and trust. We come to an awareness of the beauty and depth of ordinary every day living. We meet amazing people whose journeys seem different from ours, but who in their own way radiate the same goodness that we are all a part of. The safety of having answers becomes less important than the thrill of questioning, the excitement of unexpected newness.
Current events, and personal journeys, may lead us to realize that Jesus’ yoke includes hope, one of the theological virtues along with faith and charity. Hope does not mean things will turn out as we want them to. It is more that we will begin to know Abba happening in us in unexpected ways, and, in our living relationship in grace, we will “change” to meet whatever is coming. We are never in any way alone. We are part of “Someone” much bigger than ourselves, and this “Someone” is goodness itself. This leads us to a journey of welcoming the newness of the unknown with a sense of joy and peace, really which the world does not, and cannot, understand. Just sayin . . .