Second Sunday in Ordinary Time
Mikhail Kalashnikov died last month at the age of 94. For those of you are not familiar with this name, he is the inventor of the world's most familiar and widely used weapon – the AK 47. Mikhail Kalashnikov spent a lifetime designing and perfecting assault rifles and more than a 100 million Kalashnikovs were been sold. After his death, it was revealed that In May 2012, he wrote a letter to the head of the Russian Orthodox Church. I want to read parts of the letter for you. He says, "I keep having the same unsolved question: if my rifle claimed people's lives, then can it be that I... a Christian and an Orthodox believer, was to blame for their deaths?" "The longer I live," he continues, "the more this question drills itself into my brain and the more I wonder why the Lord allowed man to have the devilish desires of envy, greed and aggression". He also reveals in this letter that he first went into a church at the age of 91 and was later baptized. He signs this letter, “A slave of God, the designer Mikhail Kalashnikov."
This story has gotten engrained in my head. I would like contrast Kalashnikov’s letter with the very first sentence from today’s first reading. Isaiah says, “The LORD said to me: You are my servant, Israel, through whom I show my glory.” And the reading ends with the words, “I will make you a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.” In contrast to the rather regretful tone of Kalashnikov’s letter, I am struck by the very positive vision that God has for every person. I am sure that most of has some regrets in life, but to look at our entire life as a regret… that is not only frightening but scripture tells us that it is also not God’s vision for us.
I want to suggest three points for reflection based on today’s readings:
-
The Lesson of Ordinary Time. Between last Sunday (Feast of the Baptism of Jesus) and the beginning of Lent, we get eight weeks of Ordinary time in our liturgical calendar. The gospel reading during these eight weeks will focus on the ministry of Jesus. We will hear about Jesus preaching, Jesus praying, Jesus calling his disciples, Jesus healing and working miracles, Jesus teaching, Jesus forming disciples, Jesus interacting with sinners, Jesus reconciling people to God, and Jesus attempting to reform Judaism from within. His ministry included calling people to authenticity, to compassion, love and faith in God. That was then and this is now. What does the retelling of the ministry of Jesus mean for us in the Ordinary Time of the liturgical year? I think it means that we consciously commit ourselves one more time to the very same mission of Jesus. If at the end of our life we want to look back at life without regret; if we want to look back at our life with meaning and purpose, and if we want to confident about meeting our Creator, then, for me, my life must mirror the ministry and mission of Jesus. In other words, our life must become the life through which God shows God’s glory.
-
Holiness is also a Mission. The question that emerges in my mind is, “How can my life mirror the ministry and mission of Jesus?” There are numerous ways to think about this. Obviously, we cannot imitate Christ’s life style. He was an itinerant who went about town and villages with a band a followers preaching God’s word. Our life style is different. In this context, may be the second reading can help us. Paul, begins the letter to the Corinthians with two thoughts: First, he says that he is “called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God,” and second, Paul says to his readers that they, “who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, [are] called to be holy….” In other words, one way to mirror the mission and ministry of Jesus is through holiness. Unfortunately, holiness is often misunderstood. We think of a holy person and one who prays for many hours a day, has very little fun, and for most part is very pious. If we take a look the life of Jesus we get a more attractive picture of holiness. For one, he sure had a deep and intimate relationship with God because we find him escaping to deserted places to pray. But then we find him going about towns and villages simply doing good. We find him hanging out with sinners and making God’s love freely available to even the most despicable people in society. We find him entering people homes, dining with them, telling them stories, helping them and giving them hope. He laughed with them, cried with them, got mad at them and yet loved them. In him we find authenticity, compassion, mercy, love, and undaunted faith in God. This too holiness. For us too then, to the extent we authentic, go about doing good, bring hope, show compassion, love those in our lives and on the fringes; and to the extent that all of this emanates from our relationship with God in prayer – to that extent we are answering our call to holiness.
3. Regret or Blessing? Let me return to the scripture passage that I began my homily with. Today’s first reading from Isaiah began with the words, “You are my servant, Israel, through whom I show my glory.” We have only one life to live. This one life and purpose of this one life is given to us by God from the moment of our conception. In fact, Paul would say, that God has chosen us before the foundation of the world. Is there a chance that we might look back at our life and regret that we never seriously discerned God’s purpose? Is there a chance that we never really lived the gospel call? Imagine that at the age of 91 we look back at our lives and our dominant feeling is, regret. And I hope, unlike Kalashnikov, at the end of our lives we can say that our lives showed God’s glory; that we indeed were a light to the nations; that we were God’s salvation to the ends of the earth.
So I suggest today that we take a good look at the life of Jesus. Especially, as we receive Christ in the bread and wine, let our one prayer be that our life may mirror his. Amen.
- Fr. Satish Joseph