HerbEly

Cutting a Covenant - updated for 2015

    The Genesis (15:5-18) reading from the second Sunday of Lent, strikes 21st century readers as bizarre. Taken in the context of the procedure for reaching agreements, it isn’t just bizarre, it is stunning. In the ancient middle East, an agreement was sealed by cutting a sacrificial animal in half. Both parties to the agreement walked between the halves, symbolizing a willingness to be torn apart if they should break the agreement. In Genesis 15, Abraham cuts apart five animals and places each half on the ground. Then:

 When the sun had set and it was dark, there appeared a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch, which passed between those pieces. It was on that occasion that the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying: “To your descendants I give this land, from the Wadi of Egypt to the Great River, the Euphrates.”

    It is not Abraham that passes between the pieces. The flaming torch symbolizes that the  Lord himself makes the covenant. This image should not strike us a bizarre. It should stun us. God has bound himself to Abraham and his seed. By baptism, we are children of Abraham. The Lord has bound himsef to us. What more can we ask?

    As most of us have learned, breaking agreements - or even straining them - is painful. Restoring them sometimes beyond our power. By the end of lent we will learn the cost of restoring the covenant and that it has been done for us.

    February 17, 2015 has gotten a little busy. I'm updating the link and republishing this for this week's reflection.

Temptations in the Desert and Msgr. Michael's "3Ps"

Reposting this again this year.

Posted this on Feb. 15, 2005. It will still work as a reflection on the gospel for the First Sunday of Lent.

An old Zen story tells of a contest between two Zen masters over which one was most enlightened. (Just as in Christianity, enlightenment, an overwhelming spiritual experience, brings only a limited degree of perfection.) The second Zen master won the contest when he announced “I eat (only) when I’m hungry, sleep when I’m tired and drink when I’m thirsty." To be enlightened, the story says, is to be so in touch with one’s body and emotions that one’s appetites are under conscious control. To be more fully enlightened is to eat, not out of habit, but in response to genuine bodily hunger. An enlightened person need not have anxiety interfere with sleep. Many Buddhists will credit Jesus with being enlightened. Yet we read in Sunday’s gospel that he was hungry and did not eat. Why?

Here I am, Lord. Send Somebody Else

    The readings for the Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Feb 10th) move to the next phase of Jesus' public ministry: his call of the disciples (Luke 5:1-11). The first reading describes the call of Isaiah (Is 6:1-8)

"Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?” “Here I am,” I said; “send me!”

    On occasion, when faced with a task I did not want to do, I've said that my translation says "send somebody else!" The problem, of course is that, for some tasks, there isn't anybody else. Wishing for somebody else, or something else to do, is only an atempt to escape responsibility.  St. Francis de Sales once wrote a young woman who wished to go to Africa and do great things for Christ. He admonished her to avoid wishing for great things but to willingly turn to the task at hand. We often wish to avoid responsibility by thinking of other tasks, more glorious or more exciting. The tasks in front of us may be great. They may be seemingly small ones. In any case they are ours and it is no use asking the Lord to send somebody else. Sometimes "small jobs" are more important that we realize.

    Just as Isaiah and the apostles did, we need to ask only to know God's will for us today and the power to carry it out.

"Love is Patient…." "You Talking to ME?"

On the Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Feb. 4) we will hear St. Paul's beautiful passage on the nature of love (1 Cor 12:31-13:13)

Love is patient, love is kind.

It is not jealous, it is not pompous,

It is not inflated, it is not rude,

it does not seek its own interests,

it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury,

it does not rejoice over wrongdoing

but rejoices with the truth.

It bears all things, believes all things,

hopes all things, endures all things.

 

In the previous two chapters Paul had reprimanded the Corinthians for entertaining factions and for rowdy behavior during the eucharist. He used the image of the human body to illustrate the danger of factions to the churchly body.  The Corinthians must have taken this portion of the letter as a challenge, or maybe a rebuke for their previous squabbling.

 Six years ago, it happened that David and Katherine were visiting and announced their engagement. As the second reader at Mass, it was my privilege to proclaim this text. I could not help but be aware of my own shortcomings and of the hope that St. Paul would inspire of all us to make progress, if not perfection, in love.