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Twenty-First Sunday of Ordinary Time
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When Jesus went into the region of Caesarea Philippi
he asked his disciples, "Who do people say that the Son
of Man is?" They replied, "Some say John the Baptist,
others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the
prophets." He said to them, "But who do you say that I
am?" Simon Peter said in reply, "You are the Messiah,
the Son of the living God." Jesus said to him in reply,
"Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and
blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly
Father. And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon
this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the
netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give
you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind
on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you
loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" (Matt.
15:13-20). |
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Words For The Wind
Dear Friends,
Religion and religions can all too easily get concerned
about correctness, as in which one is the right
religion. Could it be in the nature of
people to want to be right? Could we not be able
to handle uncertainty and ambiguity very well? Is
it that religion being concerned with the spiritual and
the Spirit lends itself to our need for righteousness?
Could being right be the motivating factor for religious
affiliation?
The Gospel reading for this Sunday could suggest that
even Jesus operated with a mind set concerned with
religious correctness. Initially it appears that
He ignores the Gentile woman. After she resists
His rebuff, He seemingly chides her for asking for the
healing of her daughter likewise a Gentile woman.
He uses a terrible analogy that implies that her
daughter is a dog!
The woman takes what could be called abuse and uses it
in her single minded desire to have her daughter healed
and made whole. Finally, He appears to relent
after the text implies that she had the correct or
“right” kind of faith.
Conventional Catholic thinking might consider that the
woman had been converted to the religion of Jesus even
though the text does not say that.
Trying to read the whole Gospel is important, really
important. Picking and choosing our way through
the Gospels lets us be right just about anytime we want
to be right.
In the Gospel of John, you might remember hearing that
Jesus teaches that He only does what He hears from the
Father. At the baptism of Jesus and at the
transfiguration of Jesus God speaks from the sky in a
cloud, but could it be that God speaks from the heart of
this Gentile woman?
I think so, I really do. Jesus hears the voice of
the Father in the call for mercy for the demon afflicted
daughter. Jesus learns something here, He really
does.
Whenever there is a cry for mercy, I believe that it is
the voice of the Father God.
Demons divide and separate people, categorize people,
identify people as outsiders, unclean, incomplete.
Mercy calls for inclusion, wholeness, connectedness,
belonging, making room for the outsider who then is no
longer outside but inside.
Finding faith in a religion is not the same as belonging
to that religion. Faith, real faith, is not about
correctness or righteousness by definition.
Faith is the way that we “lean” into our life, the way
that we go about “doing” our life.
Jesus taught His disciples that they would do greater
things than they had seen. There are and have been
legions of people who have leaned into their lives and
the lives of their children and their parents and
complete and total strangers in response to the cry for
mercy.
I would hope that those of us who try to live and teach
the Catholic faith occasionally give clear evidence that
our faith has brought us to hear the cry for mercy that
echoes all around us.
Peace,
Father Niblick
PS Thanks for your wonderful response to the many cries
for mercy that you have heard here this summer. We
have a wonderfully stocked food pantry this week and
lots of school supplies this week.
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