Saturday 29 June 2013
Saturday 15 June 2013
The Fall of the Proud Pharisee
Yesterday I was in a class at St Mary’s. I was to talk with
the class about the seven deadly sins. Remember them? Pride, Greed, Lust,
Anger, Gluttony, Envy and Sloth. I started by asking why we should be talking
about such negative things when maybe we should just know that God loves us. The
answer came back that we needed to know that we had choices; we needed to know
that bad choices would result in sin and a decrease in our happiness and
freedom. Wow! All of a sudden, looking at sin went from being unhealthy navel
gazing to a serious look at ourselves so that we could move forward as people
of integrity.
St Luke presents us with a story of two people who have been
offered forgiveness. As in many places in Luke’s Gospel, there is a triangular
pattern at play.[i] Simon
does not realise what is happening and remains proud in the denial of his
sinfulness, whereas the woman fully realises and acknowledges what is happening
with deep appreciation. Jesus uses the
whole scene to teach me and you.
It was a great honour to be invited to the distinguished person’s
house, but Simon ‘violates all the rules of hospitality’. [ii]
The Pharisee probably asked Jesus to his house to trap him, after all, since how
many ‘sinful women’ (whatever that means) would be allowed to waltz into the
dining room of a Pharisee who was not allowed to have the slightest contact
with sin. She provides the hospitality the host refused to provide. The trap
was sprung when Jesus allowed this woman to touch him, bathe his feet and dry
them with her hair, something only done to one’s husband.[iii]
The drama increased and Simon’s pride was appeased: If this man was a prophet
he would have rebuked this woman. Therefore Simon had proved that Jesus was a
fraud, or had he?
Jesus is a prophet and he knows that this woman is on the
outer of society, but even more, he can see what is in Simon’s heart, and
brings it out in the parable. Simon is so puffed with pride and wanting to
score points that he can’t see what is in front of his face. His answer
justifies the presence of the woman, yet he still cannot see even his own
sinfulness: So Jesus takes it apart, stage by stage, gently allowing Simon to accept
forgiveness. We are told that the woman accepted forgiveness. We are not told of
Simon’s final reaction.
Simon and the woman both needed forgiveness, they both
needed salvation. Simon did not realise this, and so remained aloof and
superior. The woman has experienced the depths, where she has met God. The
experience has led her to appreciate the total gift of God’s love and its
transformative power. Simon was yet to experience this, and was poorer for it.
I can’t help thinking that it would have been good if Simon
the Pharisee was in that class at St Mary’s listening to the Year Nine students.
In studying the seven deadly sins, those students were being invited to be fearlessly
open and honest in pursuing a life of integrity and justice. Jesus invited the woman and the Pharisee to do
the same, and today he invites you and me to do likewise.
May he find in us
willing and brave followers.
Homily, 16th June 2013 11th Sunday in Ordinary Time OLQP Broome.
[i]
Brendan Byrne, The Hospitality of God: A
Reading of Luke’s Gospel, (St Pauls, 2000), 74
[ii]
Luke Timothy Johnson, The Gospel of Luke,
(Sacra pagina series v.3) (Michael Glazier, 1991) , 129
[iii] Michael
Fallon, The Gospel According to Saint
Luke: An Introductory Commentary (Chevalier, 1997), 153
Friday 14 June 2013
Sunday 9 June 2013
Sustaining Ritual
I have just come back from the races, the first of the 2013
round. It was a fun afternoon seeing a lot of people out enjoying themselves.
Looking around I couldn’t help notice the symbolism and ritual involved with
the races. Men and women doll themselves up for the races, suits, hats,
fascinators and other more unusual garb appear. People drink champagne and become
instant experts at horse anatomy and breeding influences. We all survey the
odds closely, even though most of us have absolutely no idea what we are doing.
It is all ritual: we are put into a
different space, out of our normal zone so that we can experience something new
and interesting within clearly defined boundaries. So it happened, and the
results are predictable: I came home having placed a bet and lost: all is as it
should be!
The Eucharist is our pre-eminent ritual, and as such it
shares some basic elements with the races. It is predictable, since we know
what we are coming to experience and therefore can prepare ourselves
adequately. It is symbolic, and we know that each gesture, each word is loaded
and brings with it salvation history and sacramental reality. It has a purpose
which is to hold us together and to give us life.
At the outset, the miracle of the loaves and fishes may not
seem to be the most natural expression of the Eucharist, but when we consider
that we are talking about ritual, and that Jesus was talking about rituals that
would sustain his people after he had left, the link becomes apparent.
The twelve gathered with Jesus are symbolic of the whole of
Israel; they gathered in a deserted place, symbolic of the Exodus experience;
they sit in groups of fifty, the jubilee number, a cause of rest, refreshment
and celebration; Jesus gives the little he has to heaven, and trusts in God’s
bounty; and finally, after everyone has eaten, there are twelve baskets
leftover, enough for the whole world to eat. Jesus sustains and feed his people
within the context of salvation history.
But that is not all the symbolism. Look at St Paul, who is
reflecting on the experience of the early church. The church had been able to
make the huge leap to realise the link between the Last Supper and the Cross
that is ritually celebrated in the Eucharist.
The Eucharist is our ritual. On this Feast of Corpus Christi
we reflect on it to help us to realise our roots, where we came from, so that
we may see more clearly where we are called to and what we are called to
become.
As we take the bread and wine remember that we are gathered
by Christ as his people on earth. We are part of a long and venerable tradition
of God calling and guiding his chosen people. We are formed and fed by his
Word, as were the Israelites in the wilderness and the five thousand men.
As we bless the gifts, we recall the offering of the meagre yet
staple gifts and bread and wine by Christ. We bring ourselves in all our
poverty.
As we bread the body of Christ at the Lamb of God, we recall
the broken body of Christ on the Cross. We recall the broken body of the Church:
weak, vulnerable and sinful when left to our own devices, but in our weakness
conscious of our dependence on the Father, as Christ was when he stated: into your hands I commend my spirit.
As we share the Eucharistic elements and receive the most
holy Body and Blood of Christ we relive the distribution of the loaves and
fishes from God’s endless bounty to all who allow themselves to be included in
his family, we are included in the resurrection and the power of the Holy
Spirit
.
There is an ancient principle, Lex orandi, lex credendi, ‘the law of prayer is the law of belief’,
or ‘you pray what you believe’. We pray the Eucharist. We are the Body of
Christ, we become what we receive until we are completely at one with our Lord
and God.
Homiloy for the Solemnity of CorpusChristi Year C, 13th June 2013
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