Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Most of you know about my trip home last month to take care of my father. You also know that the doctors advised him against any intervention because his heart was too diseased. Being so far away from home makes it a little difficult for both my parents and I. When I returned from India, I made it a point to make a conscious surrender of this situation to God. But I underestimated my anxiety and the other night it played out in a dream. I dreamt that my mother and I were at the hospital and on the way to the doctor’s chamber my dad collapsed and died. I woke up with tears rolling down my cheeks and thanked God that this was just a nightmare. So I sat down again, and made another conscious surrender of the situation to God. I know that God has it all worked out but sometimes as a human person I struggle to live life from God’s perspective.
Today’s readings offer us great lessons for life. For this purpose, it is very important to understand today’s first reading from the book of Wisdom. It is really strange that the book of wisdom should have something to say about the Exodus event. Nevertheless, it tries to deal with a puzzling question. Were the struggles related to the Exodus event necessary? So much blood shed, so much violence, so many struggles – were they all really necessary? Was God playing favorites when God acted on behalf of the Israelites and destroyed their enemies without mercy? Wisdom answers the question by saying that the Exodus event and the misfortunes of the Egyptians should be not interpreted as God’s ruthlessness or favoritism toward the Israelites, but rather, as events needed by Israel to learn important lessons in life. The defeat of Egypt was meant to teach Israel the virtues necessary to live as the people of God. Here is the point that the author is trying to make – that the Exodus event was really Israel’s class room. The Exodus event was meant to teach Israel to live with God’s perspective.
Today’s three practical implications: The second reading from the letter to the Hebrews and the gospel reading from Luke give us three perspectives. Let us call this the Christian perspectives from which a Christian must live his or her life.
1.First, Like Abraham, Christian life must be lived in faith. By faith, the author of the letter to the Hebrews is not referring to the diluted meaning of faith i.e., mere belief in a higher being. Faith is defined as “the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen.” (Heb 11:1-2). Faith is living life from the divine perspective. Faith is living human life from God’s point of view. What does this mean for me? It means that if I believe that God had called me to ministry in Dayton, then God will take care of my father. If there are struggles in my life today, it is because God is giving me the lessons of life. After all, did not Jesus face the same struggles? Each one of us here has faced or is facing some difficult situation. How does all this make sense? Just as the Exodus event makes sense, just as the death and resurrection of Jesus make sense, our struggle-filled life does make sense if we look at them from God’s perspective; if we look at them as lessons for life. “Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen.” A Christian perspective specifically means that we live life with God’s vision.
1.Second, in the first half of the gospel reading, God calls us to be vigilant. I am reminded of a metaphor that G. K Chesterton used. Chesterton gives the example of little children playing soccer on a small field. At the edge of this field on all four sides is a cliff. The children play but they play rather unsafely. Now imagine that someone puts a fence on all four sides in such a way that no one can fall off the cliff. That would make the children safer, the game more enjoyable and life a little more secure. In the same way that fences provided safety, the Scriptures and the teachings of the church provide us safety nets. As we navigate through life, its uncertainties and its pleasures, Christ is inviting us to live life with the certainty of God’s will. When Jesus asks us to be vigilant, he is asking us to remain within the confines of God’s will made known to us through Jesus. God has made God’s will known and to live life within the boundary of God’s will is to live life with the assurance of salvation.
2.Third, through the parable of the faithful and prudent servant in the second half of the gospel, Jesus tells his followers that we must live prudent lives. In the Catholic tradition, along with fortitude, justice and temperance, prudence is one of the cardinal virtues. The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines prudence as the virtue that “disposes practical reason to discern our true good in very circumstance and to choose the right means of achieving it.” It says “the prudent person looks where he is going,” (CCC 1806) even in the midst of a struggle-filled life. According to Jesus, a prudent person is one “who the master will on arrival find doing” what the Master has willed him to do. This is the crucial difference between the prudent person and an imprudent person. The prudent person does not allow life to happen to him/her; a prudent person makes life happen. A prudent person has a vision, a goal in life that leads him/her to the Master’s table.
Our Eucharist every Sunday is a banquet at which the Master and we participate. Let this coming week be such that we can come back to this banquet next week and the Master can say to us, “Well done, my faithful and prudent steward.” Amen.
- Fr. Satish Joseph