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The Good Samaritan: God's Love Made Known

7/10/2016

 
Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C / July 10, 2016
 
Luke 10:25-37
 
Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he said, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the law? What do you read there?” He answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” And he said to him, “You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.” But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.’ Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”
 _______
 
This familiar parable of the Good Samaritan invites us deeply into the world Jesus lived in and which framed his preaching. Here are robbers on the Jericho road, a brutalized traveler, members of the religious elite, a merciful stranger from a despised minority, and an innkeeper with rooms for rent at a nearby crossroads. Jesus’ listeners would have assumed “God’s people” in the story, the priest and Levite, to be the bearers of justice and mercy. But the legal requirements of those times prevented them from approaching the wounded traveler. Blood, when shed outside the Temple, was considered unclean and could prevent a person from entering the Temple for worship or service. The two men were acting justly according to their own code, preserving their ritual cleanliness in order to serve their community. When mercy finally came, it came from an outsider in collaboration with a man of commerce. They responded in the presence of the moment to the person in need.
 
Pope Benedict XVI , in his encyclical Deus Caritas Est, explores the nature of God’s merciful love and the Church’s role as bearers of that love. He acknowledges those who assert the poor need justice socially and politically rather than charity. Their philosophic rejection of charity as a legitimate response to suffering resembles the legalism of the priest and Levite in Jesus’ parable.  Pope Benedict acknowledges that movements for justice are essential, yet he defines the church’s role in supporting these movements is through efforts to foster openness of mind:
 
            "Interior openness to the Catholic dimension of the Church cannot fail to dispose charity workers to work in harmony with other organizations in serving various forms of need, but in a way that respects what is distinctive about the service which Christ requested of his disciples." (Deus Caritas Est, 34)
 
Most importantly, Benedict insists that Caritas—generous, spontaneous, merciful love—will always be necessary for meeting immediate needs in specific situations. God is Love. When we act as agents of love, present in times of need, God is also present in a particular way: God is felt. When we offer gifts of help or healing, we know we must be personally present in our gifts—offering our whole selves into the moments we share with friends, our work, our service to church and community. Faith makes that possible. While it is not always necessary, we should never be ashamed or afraid to speak of the source of our faith. In these situations, we can pray: “Give me the courage to mention the name of Jesus who motivates my actions of love.”
 
It is as though our lives are paintings in progress, each one a masterpiece already paid for by Jesus.  Each of us has only one color to paint with, so we must lend our color to others to make their work whole and receive colors from others.  If someone’s canvas is broken, we help fix it.  If someone lacks a canvas, we help them get one.  When we bring our painting to God when we die, God will judge us by whether our fingerprints and unique color are present on the paintings of others.
 
When we let Jesus give himself to us and align ourselves to him, we see those in need with the eyes of God’s heart and do what is needed to let God be felt.  So we ask ourselves: “Am I available to the people I encounter each day, to my friends, my coworkers, and my family?  Or am I always on my way somewhere preoccupied with the future or the past, with hurry and worry, and all my desires and obligations?
 
We also ask ourselves: “What does this parable have to teach us about the alienation of people in our country?  About the events in Dallas and Orlando, Louisiana and Minnesota—or in our world, France, Germany, Africa—all communities affected by violence, whomever the victims are?  How will we address the systemic issues of racism and mistrust of the “law” that affect our communities in different ways?
 
Jesus challenges us to connect with those who are injured and, like the good Samaritan, stop to tend wounds, to enlist each others’ aid in collaboration as he did with the Innkeeper.  We must reach into our purses and our schedules to share the burden of caring. Like the Samaritan, we must promise to return again to those we encounter, to continue to foster relationships which, by God’s grace, overcome prejudices and boundaries built by fear, so that through our presence God’s love is made known to a world crying out for mercy.
 
Ms. Sally Orcutt, OP

with members of the St. Mary Magdalene Dominican Laity of Raleigh

Come and See

3/13/2016

 
Fifth Sunday of Lent, Cycle A Scrutinies / March 13, 2016

John 11:32-37

When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus began to weep. So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”
________           
​
John 1:39
 
He said to them, “Come and see.”
________
   
Jesus began to weep—this we know because of the oft quoted “shortest verse from the Bible”: “Jesus wept.”  His tears reveal his capacity for human feeling, for attachment to people he loved and grief over their passing, for reflexive distress over the pain of his friends.  We have all felt this way, consumed by a grief which is both deeply personal and a gift for others.   It defines us as individuals even while bringing us fully into the company of other mourners.  We each experience loss in our own way.  This was true for Jesus.
 
When Jesus begins to cry, the people who came to comfort Mary interpret what they see.  Understandably, they assume Jesus is weeping over the death of his friend.  But isn’t it possible that, in that moment, Jesus was also feeling ambivalence over his decision to delay his trip to Bethany for two days?  Perhaps he felt a pang of regret for his failure to rush to his friends’ house and help them.  He may have sensed the pressure of tension in his body because of his decision—his choice to arrive on the third day to demonstrate God’s power by bringing life out of death. 
 
Perhaps there was even another reason Jesus wept.  His tears come as he hears people speak the same words he spoke to his first disciples.  One of these was Andrew, who first proclaimed “We have found the Messiah.” (John 1:43).  The invitation the mourners extend to Jesus to come with them to Lazarus’s tomb echoes this early scene from John’s gospel.  Isn’t it possible that when Jesus hears the people say, “Come and see,” he is moved as much by joy as by grief, by relief and humble awareness that the people have grown to embrace him and the Way he calls them to?  These are his words, his call.  Now he hears them echoed by those who will witness and believe in the resurrection of Lazarus’s life.  Hearing his own words spoken by the people might have encouraged him that, ultimately, they would embrace his own death and Resurrection when the time came, thus receiving the gift of new life for themselves.  Jesus’ tears were tears of love.
 
If we stand with the Jews who were in the crowd that day, confident in the Teacher who gave the blind man sight, we can watch Jesus cry, bent with grief, intensely himself.  We can look at him with amazement and compassion and declare, with the gathered crowd and in our own grieving hearts, “See how he loved us!”
 
Ms. Karen Jessee, OP
with Herb King

The Baptism of the Lord

1/10/2016

 
The Baptism of the Lord / January 10, 2016
 
Luke 3:15-16, 21-22
 
As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, John answered all of them by saying, “I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 
 
Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
_______
 
Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan marks the beginning of his public ministry.  Heralded by John, met with expectation by the people awaiting the Anointed One, Jesus receives his baptism, then enters into prayer.  Out of the silence, God’s voice opens the heavens.  Out of the heavens, the Holy Spirit descends, embodied as a dove.  The moment affirms God’s creative pleasure, God’s Incarnation, and God’s Holy Spirit—all the members of the Trinity.  The Gospel recounts a family story: of the cousins John and Jesus; and of the Father, Son, and Spirit.  What does it tell us about our life as a family in Christ, a vocational community?  What can we learn from Jesus and John about our collective mission?
 
The baptism of John calls for repentance, for a turning away from “things as they are,” to make way for the newness of God.  Jesus doesn’t require baptism, but by it takes his stand against the rigid, shallow, and corrupt religious institutions of his day.  He turns his back on the status quo.  Then, he prays.  While he is caught up in prayer, a visible, animate, sign of the Spirit appears, anointing Jesus in the presence of the people.  God speaks words of affirmation to his Son, pleased with Jesus before Jesus has even begun his ministry, before he has done the first thing!
 
The life of Christian discipleship demands that we, too, turn our backs on the status quo to walk towards the Kingdom and try to bring it to earth.  Like Jesus, we must pray, placing our trust in God as we prepare each day for mission.  We need to keep our eyes open to the presence of the Holy Spirit expressed in the circumstances and the people of our lives.  And, we need words of affirmation to bless us as we offer ourselves to the world.
 
What does this Gospel passage reveal to us as a community of mission?  God is present to us and through us.  God speaks to the Truth, affirming Jesus as his Son, and we speak to the Truth as members of the Order of Preachers.  Just as the community of God is present in this reading—Jesus, God the Father, and the Holy Spirit—we hope to be present to each other.  As a discipleship community we can, and have been, available to each other in a variety of ways.  We continue to meet every month since the friars left Raleigh, despite our grief and any number of possible excuses.  We overturn the status quo by committing to meet in Wilmington once a year in response to Charlotte’s request.  In silence, we hold each other in prayer, honoring the plethora of transitions in the lives of our members: housing relocations, employment changes, and challenges in our family lives.  By our emails, texts, and phone conversations, we offer the affirmation so essential to encouragement, to keeping us faithfully upon the path.
 
In light of this scripture passage, we can ask ourselves, “How can we let God speak to us, through us, to one another?  How responsive are we to each other?”  Let us recognize how much love we demonstrate for each other, how free we are to offer ourselves, authentically, into our family of mission.  As John the Baptist’s life affirms, there is no mission too small, too discrete, to be of value to the Kingdom.  The important thing is to offer ourselves to our mission in a spirit of joy.  Let us be pleased with one another, affirming each other at every turn.  Let us have more joy in our community, where we are, right now.
 
May we continue to listen for God’s voice leading us into mission, for and with each other, to the glory of God. 
 
The St. Mary Magdalene Dominican Laity of Raleigh

What Should We Do?

12/13/2015

 
Third Sunday of Advent, Year C / December 13, 2015
 
Luke 3:10-17
 
And the crowds asked him, “What then should we do?” In reply he said to them, “Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.” Even tax collectors came to be baptized, and they asked him, “Teacher, what should we do?” He said to them, “Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you.” Soldiers also asked him, “And we, what should we do?” He said to them, “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages.”
As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, John answered all of them by saying, “I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
_______
  
John was preaching in the desert, a compelling word which brought all manner of people to him.  We could have been among them—with our American privileges and our jobs, our houses and the graces of family, literacy, and good health.  We would have seen others too: homeless people we see downtown, girls at local abortion clinics, struggling single moms, boys in detention at school, or unemployed, or on drugs, or in jail.  Cops would have been there, and teachers, and health workers.  Garbage collectors and micro-brewers—all asking John, man of God, “What should we do?”
 
John offered a baptism of repentance, an opportunity to turn towards God in a state of renewal, and he offered it for free.  This was critical for those in John’s day who, faced with legal and financial burdens imposed by those in authority, couldn’t afford to offer sacrifice in the Temple and reconcile with God in that way.  For us, as fo
r them, the promise of John is an opportunity requiring nothing but willingness—no voter ID cards, no W2 forms, no annulment papers.
 
“What should we do?,” we ask.  John speaks to us in turn: “Share what you have.  Be satisfied with your lives; be grateful for your good fortune,” and “Don’t be satisfied—because systems are unjust that make comfort possible for some but not for everyone.”  We listen together, hear together these instructions from God’s prophet, spoken to each group and heard by all: seek justice, be grateful.  Those of us who gather around the Word are entrusted to hold each other accountable.  And still, even if we ask, “What should I do?  What is the work You bless for me?,” we may not know what God wants for us until we repent, until we are reconciled with expectation to the One who is coming into the world.
 
In this season of Advent, as we wait for Him, we join Mary in recognizing God uses our lives to bring Christ to earth.  She couldn’t foresee how it would happen for her.  She practically tripped over her “yes” to God—and so can we.  Ever repentant, ever listening, we continue to ask, “What should I do?”  If we want to know, we trip along by God’s grace and discover our unique opportunity to say, “Yes, this I can do.” 
 
Jesus, guide us to your purpose.
 

The St. Mary Magdalene Dominican Laity of Raleigh
​

    Preaching by the St. Mary Magdalene Dominican Laity of Raleigh

    These reflections on scripture emerge from our group listening and praying with Scripture, allowing the Living Word to preach through us. We hope these preachings will encourage you to practice lectio divina with your group and hear what Jesus is saying to and speaking through you as a community.

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