Equality, freedom and respect

Cycle C - Ordinary Time 3

FIRST READING: Nehemiah 8: 2-4; 5-6; 8-10. Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could hear with understanding, on the first day of the seven month. And he read from it facing the square before the Water Gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law. And Ezra the scribe stood on a wooden pulpit which they had made for the purpose. And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people; for he was above all the people; and when he opened it all the people stood. And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God; and all the people answered, “Amen, Amen,” lifting up their hands; and they bowed their heads and worshipped the Lord with their faces to the ground. And the Levites read from the book, from the law of God, clearly; and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading. And Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, “This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn or weep.” For all the people wept when they heard the words of the law. Then he said to them, “Go your way, eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions to him for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord; and do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

SECOND READING: 1 Corinthians 12:12-30. Just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit. For the body does not consist of one member but of many, if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part to the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the organs in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single organ, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, the parts of the body which seem to be weaker are indispensable, and those parts of the body which we think less honorable we invest with the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so adjusted the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior part, that there may be no discord in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. And God has appointed in the Church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, then healers, helpers, administrators, speakers in various kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret?

GOSPEL: Luke 1: 1-4; 4: 14-21. Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things which have been accomplished among us, just as they were delivered to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word, it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, that you may know the truth concerning the things of which you have been informed. Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee, and a report concerning him went out through all the surrounding country. And he taught in their synagogue, being glorified by all. And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up; and he went to the synagogue, as his custom was, on the sabbath day. And he stood up to read; and there was given to him the book of the prophet Isaiah. He opened the book and found the place where it was written: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” And he closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant, and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

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When the Jews returned from the Babylonian exile in 538 BCE, one of the first acts was to reconstruct or restore the political system which had been initiated by Moses seven centuries previously. As the first reading narrates, this was done by renewing the Covenant which had been made between God and the people on Mount Sinai. This was basically a covenant of love, which, in political terms, intended to engender a profound sense of equality, freedom and respect of each individual. By time, however, this ‘Law of Moses’ became more and more understood and perceived in mere juridical terms, and, what’s worse, in terms of power, especially by churchmen (represented in today’s text by Ezra) and politicians (represented by Nehemiah).

To steer clear of such a dangerous and destructive interpretation, alongside the first reading we have Paul’s words to the Corinthians. In a stroke of genius, Paul evokes the image of the human body to explain in simple words the fundamental principles of a political system that upholds equality, freedom and respect of each individual. Paul was quite aware that most social, political and economic systems do not come close to such an image. Nevertheless, it is this model which he maintains to be according to God’s plan and will.

 An important part of Jesus’ mission was to summon humankind to this model. For this reason, Luke presents the inaugural moment of Jesus’ undertaking by having him assume as his own Isaiah’s amazing words of liberation. While explicitly announcing his ‘good news to the poor’, Jesus implicitly denounces all social, political and economic systems which violate equality, freedom and respect of each individual.

The God of small things

Cycle C – Advent 4

FIRST READING: Michah 5: 1-4. Thus says the Lord: You, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days. Therefore he shall give them up until the time when she who is in travail has brought forth; then the rest of his brethren shall return to the people of Israel. And he shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth. And this shall be peace.

SECOND READING: Hebrews 10: 5-10. When Christ came into the world, he said, “Sacrifices and offerings thou hast not desired, but a body hast thou prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings thou hast taken no pleasure. Then I said, ‘Lo, I have come to do thy will, O God,’ as it is written of me in the roll of the book.” When he said above, “Thou has neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to the law), then he added, “Lo, I have come to do thy will.” He abolishes the first in order to establish the second. And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

GOSPEL: Luke 1: 39-45. Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a city of Judah, and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!” And why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” For behold, when the voice of your greeting came to my ears, the babe in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.

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Back in 1997 my eye was caught by a title of a novel written by Indian-born Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things (HarperCollins, New York). I immediately bought the book because, within its folds, I had expected to find some kind of exploration of what the title seemed to promise. Instead, I was given a story of child marriages in India and, of course, as might be expected, later forbidden loves. Despite the novel’s merit on other counts, in this I had been disappointed: it said very little about the ‘small things’ with which God seems to be so captivated. At least, that’s what the Bible proclaims.

I see ‘small’ people all the time around me – poor people in obscure villages, children growing up in the inner city, single parents struggling to make it, prisoners, refugees, landless farmers, illegal immigrants, women, disoriented young people, vagrants, the elderly, those caught up in war, people struggling to make a living ... The world seems to be full of them: people without names; without a history; without respect and, sometimes, recognition from the ‘big’ ones who play the game of powerful politics. Nonetheless, they are God’s dearest treasures.

Jesus himself had been ‘small’. This is what had been proclaimed by the prophet Michah in the second half of the 8th-century during the time of the ‘big’ kings of Israel: the great ruler of Israel, the great one of old, the great liberator, the great provider, the majestic, the great peace-maker ... shall be small, just like his small birth-town of Bethlehem (the former Ephrathah; today’s Beit Lehem), which belonged to the smallest of Judah’s clans.

‘Small’, also, was Mary, Jesus’ mother, and ‘small’ were Zechariah and Elizabeth, just as ‘small’ was the latter’s village in the south-west hills of Jerusalem (today’s Ain Karem), 50 miles away from Beit Lehem, and ‘small’ was their home, as the evangelist suggests.

These texts are all permeated with a picture of smallness, of unimportance, or triviality, of insignificance, of minor people, towns and actions. This is in perfect concord with the depiction of smallness in the whole of the Bible. And yet, it is precisely this smallness, as the Pauline writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews proclaims, which makes real difference; which effectively “abolishes” the ‘big’ and powerful; which “sanctifies” the ‘small’ through Jesus “once for all”.

Indeed, God is the God of small things.

Jesus our hope

Cycle C – The Immaculate Conception

FIRST READING: Genesis 3: 9-15, 20 – After Adam had eaten of the tree, the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said, “I heard the sound of thee in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.” He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” The man said, “The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent beguiled me, and I ate.” The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all cattle, and above all wild animals; upon your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; it shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise its heel.” The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.

SECOND READING: Ephesians 1: 3-6, 11-12 – Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. He destined us in love to be his sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace which he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.

GOSPEL: Luke 1: 26-38 – The angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you!” But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and considered in her mind what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of his kingdom there will be no end.” And Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I have no husband?” And the angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. And behold, your kinswoman Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For with God nothing will be impossible.” And Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.

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Mary is not a goddess, much less God. Mary is not a redeemer, much less the Redeemer or the Mediator of salvation. Some really go over the top. Mary, like all of us, is part of Jesus’ community; one amongst all, even if the most excellent.

The story of Adam and Eve is just a story. It never happened. It is a story with a moral, and a very important one at that. It reminds us that life on earth is a conflict which we all have to undertake. This conflict is against all those who are in opposition and go up against any community living, preferring to disunite us in order to manipulate us and exploit us. This hostility is basically against equality, freedom and fraternity. It is what we have to put up with because of people’s greed and lust for power.

 We are called to love, as Paul reminds us, and love is not about greed or power; it is about regarding everyone on an equal footing, respecting everyone’s freedom of thought and action, and endeavouring to build up the community amongst all human beings.

 Jesus, the ‘great’ one, is the way to this new creation. His coming into this world through the womb of Mary is what gives credence to our faith, reason to our hope, and joy to our love.