The victory of the powerless

Cycle C – Easter 3

FIRST READING: Acts 5: 27-32; 40-41. The high priest questioned the Apostles, saying, “We strictly charged you not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and you intend to bring this man’s blood upon us.” But Peter and the Apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised Jesus whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Saviour, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him.” The council charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonour for the name.

SECOND READING: Revelation 5: 11-14. I, John, looked, and heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honour and glory and blessing!” And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all therein, saying “To him who sits upon the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honour and glory and might for ever and ever!” And the four living creatures said, “Amen!” and the elders fell down and worshipped.

GOSPEL: John 21: 1-19. Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias; and he revealed himself in this way. Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples were together. Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We will go with you.” They went out and got into the boat; but that night they caught nothing. Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the beach; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to them, “Children, have you any fish?” They answered him, “No.” He said to them, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in, for the quantity of fish. That disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his clothes, for he was stripped for work, and sprang into the sea. But the other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, but about a hundred yards off.
            When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire there, with fish lying on it, and bread. Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.” So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, a hundred and fifty-three of them; and although there were so many, the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” Now none of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord. Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and so with the fish. This was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.

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The apostles’ famous declaration that “must obey God rather than men” comprises a principle which inspired all sorts of dissent from, and resistance to, the pressures of authoritarian power. It still does today. The early Christian community brought together countless people who were powerless and dispossessed. The confluence was considered to be a threat to the powerful, both civil and religious, who responded with hostility, hatred, violence and sometimes death. This dynamic has been repeated innumerable times throughout the centuries, and continues to do so unto this day. The response of the community of the powerless, Christian or not, has repeatedly been analogous to that of the apostles: a choice to withhold to the principles of justice and peace.

John, with his characteristic language, declares such communities to be the victors over the powers that be despite the unbelievable sufferings they, like Jesus and the apostles, endure and suffer. With their dissent and resistance, the powerless, though apparently weak, set up through their union a formidable challenge to the powerful forces of evil.

These communities were, and still are, made up of the excluded. This much is suggested in today’s gospel. After a whole night fishing in vain (presumably on the left-hand side of their boat), the apostles heeded Jesus’ instruction to “cast the net on the right side”, where, he assured them, they would surely “find some fish”. The left-right allusion is an indirect reference to the geography of the Sea of Tiberias (the Roman name for the Lake of Galilee). On the left of the lake (on the West bank) was Galilee, the territory of the Jews (Tetrarchy of Herod); on the right was Trachonitis (Tetrarchy of Herod’s brother, Philip), a land populated mostly by non-Jews. In other words, the first Christian communities considered it the express will of Jesus that they turn their evangelical attention from the Jews (the included), amongst whom they had no or little success, to the Gentiles (the excluded), amongst whom converts or believers were numerous.

Are the poor ‘us’ or ‘they’?

Cycle C - Lent 5

FIRST READING: Isaiah 43:16-21. Thus says the Lord, who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters, who brings forth chariot and horse, army and warrior; they lie down, they cannot rise, they are extinguished, quenched like a wick; “Remember not the former things, nor consider, the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. The wild beasts will honour me, the jackals and the ostriches; for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people, the people whom I formed for myself that they might declare my praise.”

SECOND READING: Philippians 3: 8-14. I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, based on law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith; that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that if possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brethren, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

GOSPEL: John 8: 1-11. Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Early in the morning he came again to the temple; all the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. The Scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery and placing her in the midst they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such. What do you say about her?” This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” And once more he bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. But when they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the eldest, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus looked up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and do not sin again.”

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In today’s gospel, Jesus forges a unique understanding with the adulteress without having even spoken to each other. He had been doing his own thing when the whole incident happened. Though he was taken unawares, his presence of mind had been complete. We detect no hesitation on his part. He instinctively knew on which side of the wall he stands. The poor woman had been all alone when the episode began. Although she speaks very little—merely three words—the moment Jesus began to speek, she too promptly understood that an understanding had been established between her and he whom she addressed as the Lord. Though worlds apart, they communicated on an equal level: the level of the powerless. The moment is of astounding beauty, a moment of deep and genuine solidarity. The powerless, the poor, the dispossesses—whatever one chooses to call them—are effectively hated by the self-righteous. Jesus is not part of such hate.

The ‘communion of the powerless’ is what a perceptive Isaiah would not hesitate to call “a new thing”, “a way in the wilderness”, a “river in the desert”. For this is how the prophet envisioned the new social and political order which God dreamed of establishing on earth. Drawing on the image of water—the life-giving element which, throughout the whole of Holy Scripture, symbolises the Holy Spirit—he proclaims that the water which destroys the powerful is the same which shall nourish and support the powerless (those considered to be “wild beasts”, “jackals” and “ostriches”). While the former shall despair and perish, the latter “will honour” the Lord, for the Lord shall “give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert”.

Paul shows himself to be prepared to consider the ‘communion of the powerful’ to be “a loss”, and “refuse”, in comparison to “knowing Christ Jesus my Lord”. Unless each one of us, beginning with me, come to consider the poor not as ‘them’ but as ‘us’, than our justification is mere self-righteousness. We can only “gain Christ and be found in him ... through faith in Christ”, and through “the righteousness from God”. It is only by “sharing his sufferings” when in solidarity with the poor, being rejected and hated by the powerful and “becoming like him in his death”, that it is at all possible to be Church and “attain the resurrection from the dead”.