Tag Archives: reflection

Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen

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Click here for today’s Scripture readings.

Ex 20:1-17
1 Cor 1:22-25
Jn 2:13-25

The gospel for today can be a bit shocking. We see Jesus in a bit of a rage. He was disgusted with the way the religious authorities allowed the sacred space of the temple, the house of God, to be turned into market place for the selling of animals and the changing of money. Jesus takes it upon himself to clean up the temple and return it to what it is meant to be, a house of prayer and praise.

The final words of today’s gospel are interesting. We’re told that during his stay in Jerusalem many believed in him because of his miracles but Jesus knew them all and did not trust himself to them, he himself knew what was in the human spirit. He knew what was in the human spirit because that human spirit was in him. Scripture tells us that God sent his son to the world not to condemn the world but to embrace the world, to embrace the human condition. St. Paul insists that Jesus became as we all are and that he was capable of feeling our weaknesses because he too was tempted in every way that we are though he did not sin. Paul tells us that Jesus has been through temptation and so he is able to help others who are tempted.

In my first year in the seminary we had to study Greek. Our teacher came to class one day and told us he was reading one of the Greek Fathers of the Church who claimed that Jesus never laughed. Because he was God Jesus knew everything, nothing surprised him, and nothing caught him off guard. When we say something ‘breaks us up’ we are surprised by an event, a remark and we laugh. According to this Greek Father this never happened to Jesus, he was never broken up, nothing surprised him because he knew all that was going to happen. He never laughed. He was always in control because he was the Son of God. This was known as “High Christology.” It is a theology that denies the human experiences of Jesus.

Maybe in our troubled prayers we are tempted to say to Jesus – you don’t know how it feels; you don’t know what it is like to be depressed, frightened, and confused. You don’t know what it is like to wonder if it is all worthwhile. You don’t know what it is like to be cheated on; you don’t know what it is like to struggle with sexuality. You don’t know what it is like to face the reality of cancer. You don’t know what it is like to realize your memory is failing bit by bit each day. You don’t know how it feels when you’ve spent years working for a degree and can’t get a job. You just don’t know.

But remember the old spiritual, “Nobody knows the troubles I’ve seen, nobody knows but Jesus?” This is true Christology. There is a saying,’ nothing that is human is alien to Jesus.”

Jesus knew the love and loyalty of family. He experienced the joys of close friendships. He enjoyed a good meal, a wedding banquet. He knew the satisfaction of hard work. He marveled at the beauty of creation. He knew the value of peace and quiet and spending time in prayer. He rejoiced in his God given gifts, his ability to preach the word of God, his wonderful God given gifts to heal both body and soul and call people back from death itself. His prayer was,” I thank you Father, Lord of heaven and earth.’

Jesus grieved at the death of his father Joseph and other members of his extended family. He wept at the death of his dear friend Lazarus. He wept over the city of Jerusalem because it did not know; it did not appreciate who he was and what he offered them. Jesus was dismissed as a nobody from nowhere. He was frustrated at the inability of his closest friends to get what he was trying to say. He tired of the squabbles among his apostles as to who would be number one. In his final days he was stung by the betrayal of Judas, saddened by the denial of Peter and the scattering of those closest to him. He was falsely accused and unjustly convicted and sentenced to death. On the cross Jesus felt the absence of God in his time of struggle.

Nothing that is human is alien to Jesus.

Every Sunday we pray for those whose pains are known only to themselves – themselves and God. Each one of us brings to this Mass some pain, some concern, and some anxiety. There can be times when we are certain Jesus has no idea what we are going through. Not so. Nothing that is human is alien to Jesus. Hold on to that truth and trust in his great love for you and trust his promise,” I am with you always.”

There is a medieval saying: every act of Christ is a teaching for us (Omnis Christi actio nostra est instructio). Christ’s life and actions, as they are set out in the Gospels, are our best help for seeing how to live our lives well. Our best instruction manual is Christ himself.

- Father Paul Cusack, C.P. is the pastor of St. Gabriel Passionist Parish in Toronto, Canada.

 

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Forgive Us As We Forgive

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Click here for today’s Scripture readings.

Dn 9:4b-10
Lk 6:36-38

Taken together, today’s readings can serve as a commentary on the fifth petition of the Lord’s Prayer: “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.”  In the passage from the Book of Daniel, the speaker pleads with God for forgiveness.  He does so out of a deep sense of guilt, especially communal guilt. He prays as one deeply implicated in the sinfulness of a people who have been traitors to their God. He makes no excuses, cites no extenuating circumstances, but simply acknowledges: “We have sinned, been wicked and done evil.”  The pray-er bases hope purely on the mercy and compassion of the Lord.

In the Gospel, Jesus reiterates his teaching on the conditions that will allow that compassion to be exercised.  Forgiveness will be granted, not in relation to the seriousness of the sin, but in relation to the sinner’s willingness to imitate the Divine compassion: “Pardon and you will be pardoned.” The ending of the exhortation suggests that God can hardly wait to pour good things on the one who accepts the challenge.  “Good measure pressed down, shaken together, running over, will they pour into the fold of your garment.”

Forgiveness, we know, is not easy either for individuals or for societies.  Moreover, it is imperative to distinguish it from condoning evil, when real evil has been done.  It helps to begin the process, as the speaker in the Book of Daniel does, by acknowledging our own sinfulness and that of our own society.  Let us pray for humble, contrite hearts, so that we may experience the fulfillment of another petition: “Thy Will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

- Sister Mary O’Brien, C.P is a member of the Passionist Sisters’ Community in Union City, NJ.




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Ash Wednesday

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Click here for today’s Scripture readings.

Joel 2: 12-18
2 Corinthians 5: 20- 6:2
Matthew 6: 1-6, 16-18

The liturgy for this day is one of the oldest in the Roman Catholic calendar.  Throughout the season of Lent the Diocese of Rome has, since the 4th Century, celebrated each daily Mass at a different site within the city.  The season of Lent formally begins with the reception of ashes by the Pope at the Church of Saint Sabina.  Saint Sabina, a noblewoman connected to the Imperial Family, was converted by her lady-in-waiting.  When discovered to be a Christian, she submitted to a martyr’s death.  Like Saint Anastasia, at whose Church the ashes were blessed and distributed before Mass, Saint Sabina represented the Church as Mother who calls her children to receive the grace of God through the forgiveness of sins.  This noble lady represents the Church’s public character.  Like a good mother, she makes two requests:  make a good beginning to the season of Lent and persevere in what you have been taught.  Since 1970, the Church in Rome no longer gathers at the Basilica of Saint Anastasia.  The ceremonies are conducted entirely at Saint Sabina now.

Today’s three readings pivot on the same theme to provide us with different aspects of the concept of repentance.  The prophet Joel is mandated to instruct the people to public acts of penance and forgiveness.  Every social group of his time, from the royal family, the high priestly families and indeed, every family including widows and orphans, is asked to fast, to weep and to mourn for public sins.  The prayer is:  “Spare, O Lord, your people and make not your heritage a reproach with other nations ruling over them.”  We are informed by the prophet that the Lord was moved to compassion by the public cry from the congregation.  In the words of Cardinal Johannes Willebrands:  “If you want something of God, you must ask it.”

The encouragement of Saint Paul in the New Testament reading is the urgency of the issue of repentance.  “Now is the acceptable time…Now is the day of salvation.”  In commenting on the text of today’s celebration, the famous liturgical scholar of the 20th Century, Doctor Pius Parsch claims the reality of that urgency.  Prayer, fasting and generosity – the three themes of Lent – reveal to each individual “the soul’s greatest enemy” is ego-mania.

Today’s Gospel, taken from the Sermon on the Mount, encourages us to withdraw to the room of our inner self and pray these prayers in private.  Jesus addresses God as Father and, even more so, as “your Father” who sees in secret and who knows the difference between the look of your face and the look of your heart.  Transparency is a matter of public behavior, but it is only authentic if it is inspired by private motivation.

- Father Jerome Vereb, C.P.

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