It’s worthwhile to bear in mind that I “process” the gospel stories through what is going on in my life when I hear or read them. There is a lot going on these days that today’s Gospel Story can speak to if I let it. Today’s Story reminds me that the Gospel, how Jesus lived and asks me to live, is about people. And these days is especially about alienation and the hurt that affects us all. There is a lot of pain that shows itself in anger all around me, and perhaps, even in me. The daily headlines show ever more instances of systems hurting the people they are supposed to help. That is the reality I see. Then there are the health issues with their own perspective. What to do with it all? Yes, Abba.
Jesus begins today’s Gospel Story (Luke 6:27-38) by saying, “To you who hear, I say”, a gift in these troubling times. He is giving me the choice to hear or not, so I can choose how I want to react. My question is am I really hearing, or just playing at it? Everything he is saying in this Story is about how he is asking me to live with the people in my everyday life. While some examples might be a bit extreme for my life now, they certainly are an opportunity for me to look at my relationships. He is talking to me about my daily living, not about how others are living. This can get unpleasant if I don’t remember that we are in this together. It is worth remembering that as nasty and perhaps painful as our current situation is, Jesus is still asking me to to hear, to listen, to believe, to act. Just how, though, is something I find out from my alone time with him. While my relation with Jesus, with Abba, with the Spirit, is personal, it is never private. It always involves everybody in my life, however they are in my life.
For many the notion of “salvation” is a “me and Jesus” affair that happens in the next life after we die. But salvation is not me and Jesus, but me, everybody in my life, and Jesus. We are all “saved” together, growing into the fulness for which we are being created, both in this life and the next, and we are all in this together. And in stories like today’s, Jesus shows us how to live now, because our now is important for us and for everybody in our life.
The Gospel Stories are about ordinary people, us, created in the image of what we have come to know as the Trinity, which is relationship. We are created to live in relationships. It is in and through our relationships that we come to know ourselves and who we are. We feel our fullest selves when we are in relationships, even the difficult ones. Each of our relationships shows us something about ourselves, who we are, things we do not like about ourselves, maybe even who we don’t want to be, offering us the opportunity to change, to grow. I cannot decide that any one is “unworthy” of my attention or openness. No one can decide who people are or are not, who is acceptable, who can or cannot have the privilege of serving. This is not an easy place to be. Living in relationships requires a profound trust that each of us is part of something much bigger. For us this something is a Someone
You say “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you”. You begin with these profound words, “To you who hear, I say”. These words remind me that you are speaking to me, and to everybody, really, if I choose to be open and listen, and continually question what they are saying to me, what they mean for me. Wandering and wondering is important, good, even necessary. If ever I am sure I have the answer, then I do not have the answer. You don’t tell me to know. You ask me to trust and go where it takes me. “Stop judging and you will not be judged. Stop condemning and you will not be condemned.”
Over the years I’ve been involved in a number of youth retreat programs that had an impact on the folks involved, both youth and adults. The common theme today seems to be the good feelings that happened back then with the retreats, and wanting to get back to how folks felt then. Seems like focus is on the past without openness to the grace of the present moment. The good feelings we get from retreats and such are an invitation to grow, and to be open to our ongoing conversion to living the gospel in our here and now. There’s nothing wrong with feelings, but the Gospel is about loving service, the cross, unpopular positions on controversial issues, ongoing conversion in our life moving us to live and act as Jesus did, assuming personal responsibility for our choices, and an openness to the Spirit showing us what it means for us to live as Jesus’ disciples here and now. For some, a sensitive issue.
My faith leads me to believe that you are in everything. I have no idea how, but this I believe. My prayer has been that I welcome everything that comes into my life today because it is of you. And you are with me as I try to deal with it all. Nothing in the Story makes any sense with how things are happening these days, yet, “To you who hear, I say” is quite an invitation, an act of trust on your part. I can choose to hear you or to go my own way. I ask the grace to hear and go where your Spirit takes me. People on all sides of the issues are hurting, and some are hurting so bad that the only way they can deal with their hurt is to inflict it on others. May I hear, and not accuse, judge, or blame, just accept what is and go where it takes me, because it is of you. This is about you with your hurting people on all sides of the issues. Can I be part of living your healing? “For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you”. It is kinda like walking slack on an infantry patrol in an unknown and dangerous area with you walking point. These days a lot is very personal and I’m trying to understand it. I believe you are in it all as I try to deal with it. I am not alone. Is there something you are saying that I’m not getting? “For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you.” Hmmm. A lot to ponder here, prayerfully.
Just now saw this: “’God is not what you think … or even what you believe, because God is a word unspoken, a thought unthought, a belief unbelieved. So if you wish to know this God, practice wonder, do what is good and cultivate silence … the rest will follow.’ — Meister Eckhart.” Hmmm. To you who hear – -? Just sayin . . .