Lectio
Divina:*
Meditatio:
“…blessed is anyone who takes no offence at me ….”
(Matthew 11:6)
Commentary (1,162 words):
On this, the third Sunday of Advent, we are moving closer to
that great feast of the Saviour’s birthday. However, the warnings of John the
Baptist gave way to a new phase in our history of salvation. Now,
the focus turns towards the cousin of John. In terms of the Gospel story we
skip forward from John at the river Jordan preaching, warning, baptising and
clearing the way for someone who is to come to John who is in prison awaiting
trial and, presumably, execution.
The Gospel of Matthew places a strong emphasis on the Messiah (or the Christ). This emphasis would not have been lost on his Jewish audience since the transition from a baptism with water and prophecy as with Elijah must now, decisively, give way to a new baptism in the Spirit and a new definitive revelation of God. All of history leads to this event, this era, this teaching, this prophecy. It was no longer just a question of Jesus the extraordinary and ordinary cousin of John but it was a matter of Jesus Christ the ‘he-who-saves’ (Jeshua in Aramaic) and the Christ or Messiah (Christou in Greek).
There is no evidence, on the occasion of his arrest, that
Jesus organised a protest or a petition to have his cousin released. News of
what was happening outside the prison got through to John. He had
his networks and supporters and, so, he sent messengers to be sure to be sure
about who Jesus really was and what his goal was. The author of
Matthew may have been laying it on for the Jewish Christians for whom he wrote
in case there were any doubts about the relative importance of Jesus the
Messiah and John the Baptiser.
John surely knew Jesus to some considerable degree. After
all, their mothers were closely bonded from at least the time of their
pregnancies. John had even leapt in his mother’s womb when Mary,
carrying Jesus, greeted John’s mother, Elizabeth. As they grew up
(and they were, of course, of the same age) did John wonder who this cousin,
Jesus, really was? At the end of Jesus’ life (the last 10% of his
total life span, we might say) something extraordinary started to emerge in
Galilee where Jesus commenced his ministry. Down south in Judea a whole
‘movement’ had been generated around John the Baptist. The two ‘movements’ were
about to be joined up. Something new was about to happen.
In his reply to John, Jesus spells out what is happening in
verse 5:
the blind receive their sight,
the lame walk,
the lepers are cleansed,
the deaf hear,
the dead are raised, and
the poor have good news brought to them
This very much echoes Luke’s account of the announcement of
Jesus ministry (Luke
4:18-19)
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.
Here lies the test for us listening to these gospel texts
year after year. When we gather in His name or when we witness, together, are
the ‘blind’ given sight as a result? Do the ‘lame’ walk? Are
‘lepers’ healed? Are the ‘dead’ raised to new life? Does
our message and the way we live set others free let alone on fire? Are the
poor, marginalised and oppressed set free? Does it make any difference? Who are
the ‘blind’, the ‘lame’, the ‘deaf’, the ‘dead’ anyway? Could we be counted
among these already?
Sometimes, church-going folk worry and fret a lot over the
decline in ‘religious practice’. Particular concern is expressed
about the free-fall in ‘vocations’ (at least in the post-modern, post-truth,
post-industrial, post-Christian, post-anything world). Particular
concerns are also expressed about the sharply ageing profile of church
congregations in many places and denominations (some more than others). What’s
going on? The answers, just like the reasons, are complex and
many-faceted. Various zealous returns to ‘orthodoxy’, ‘discipline’,
‘evangelisation/catechisation’ and a host of local innovations do not seem to
be able to turn the tide let alone arrest it – at least in the economically
prosperous parts of the world. Religion is dead and countries like
Ireland are just aligning with this new post-faith world, so it is claimed by
many among the de-churched or the non-churched. Is ‘religion’ really dead in
this part of the world? And what is ‘religion’ anyway? Might it be
helpful to raise two questions at this stage of what seems like terminal
decline in the fortunes of many mainstream Christian Churches in Ireland (and I
am sure the same could be applied elsewhere):
Does Christianity need to be rediscovered and re-presented
in today’s world as an invitation to relationship, meaning, trust and growth?
(people have not given up searching for ways of life).
Would a truly radical and heart-full return to Orthopraxis release
a wave of energy and life that would be so credible, authentic, attractive and
new that many are drawn in?
Oratio
Collect
of the Word for this Sunday (Church of Ireland)
Almighty God, Give us grace to cast
away the works of darkness and to put on the armour of light now in the time of
this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to us in great humility; that
on the last day when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge the
living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who is alive
and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
Footnotes
* These readings are
taken from the Sunday lectionary used in most Catholic churches. The source
is BibleGateway.com: A searchable
online Bible in over 150 versions and 50 languages (using the New
Revised Standard Version - anglicised catholic edition). Psalms in this Blog
are numbered according to the Hebrew (Masoretic) text with the Greek
Septuagint/Vulgate numbering in parenthesis where applicable.
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