Memorial of Saint Irenaeus, Bishop and Martyr
Scripture Readings
This week, we continued our long goodbye to our daughter's godfather who is moving to Arizona. He, and we, expected that he'd be on the road by Monday afternoon, just after the movers left with all of his furniture and boxes. But as it turned out, he had more boxes and odds and ends and things to finish here in Dayton, that leaving on Monday was a "no". So he came and stayed with us, and hoped to leave Tuesday. That didn't happen. Wednesday didn't happen either. Finally, Thursday, he cleared away the last few odds and ends and hit the road. He made this observation to us as he was leaving: "It was frustrating to have to stay here when I was very ready to leave. And yet, I also savor the fact that I could spend more time with my godchildren." It was what I might call a "no, but yes" situation - a time when NO, things aren't going the way you planned, but Yes, here's a different opportunity.
It's that kind of no, but yes answer that I'm seeing in today's scriptures, too. In the first reading (Genesis 17:1, 9-10, 15-22), I am struck by God's yes and no. God has already promised, numerous times, that Abraham will be the father of many children. Abraham has his son Ishmael by Hagar, and his presumption has been that Ishmael will be the father of a great nation - but God here says that it is Isaac, son of his ninety-year old wife that will be Abraham's heir.
Then we see Abraham's great love for Ishmael - he pleads Ishmael's case to God, perhaps worried that somehow God will kill Ishmael in favor of Isaac. So God says: "yes, but no". Ishmael, too, will be blessed, but he will not be the father of the same nation as Isaac. No - but also yes.
A similar pattern occurs in the gospel (Matthew 8:1-4). Jesus heals the leper and then admonishes him not to say anything (the no). And yet, he can show himself to the priest, and thereby proclaim that he has been healed (the yes). Saying and showing are two different things here. Jesus has given the leper a kind of "out" - a way to speak about the healing without really speaking. No - but also yes.
"Yes, but no" is one of the ways God speaks to us. How often do we expect things to happen in one particular way - to the point that we are absolutely certain that is what will happen. But God's way, different and mysterious as it is from ours, is to show us something new, a new yes, a new way of approaching a problem or a question.
Today's saint, Irenaeus, might also be called a saint of the "no" and "yes". He is most famous for writing a series of treatises against a group known as the Gnostics. Gnosticism has as many variations as contemporary Christianity has today, but one of the things that may unite all the various forms of gnosticism is their focus on the spiritual world as entirely separate from the physical world, and especially the body. This meant that some gnostic groups practiced extreme fasting; it mean that other gnostic groups had an "anything goes" attitude toward seeking pleasure.
Irenaeus very clearly said, "No" to seeing the body as separate from the spiritual, because God made our bodies and speaks to us using bodily form, even coming to us as a human, Jesus Christ. But Irenaeus also said a partial "yes" to the gnostics, affirming that we could indeed misuse our bodies in ways that wouldn't be Christlike. We can and should enjoy our food and our physicality, but not to the point that we ignore God.
Today, let us remember the times God has said "No, but yes" to us, and let us ask for wisdom to see the new "yesses" God might be speaking to us today.
- Jana Bennet