Staying hopeful

2nd Sunday of Lent | Gen 15:5-12, 17-18; Luke 9:28-36

Are you the type of person who sees the a glass as half empty or as half full? I have to admit that often I can be “glass half empty” kind of person. Although we usually cannot control whether we are naturally a more optimistic or pessimistic type of person, we all want to develop a more hopeful perspective on life. Hope is, after all, a virtue. It is important to be able to hope that, in the end, God is taking care of us and that all will turn out well. Having this hope can sometimes be tough because of setbacks in our health, relationships or job. It can be hard to be hopeful when we see the negative news of hatred, oppression and violence. Being hopeful can be hard. Today’s readings remind us of two truths that can help us to be more hopeful.

Truth #1: God will never turn his back on us.

In the first reading, we heard about the famous covenant that God makes with Abraham in Genesis 15. This reading - particularly the part about cutting up all those animals - can seem strange and difficult to comprehend. To make sense of this reading, it is important to understand something about how covenants were made at this time. Today, when two parties get together to make a contract, each party commits to a list of points that they will uphold. The contract is then formalized by some kind of ceremony, for example, a piece of paper is signed. In the Ancient Near East, a similar process was followed in making a covenant. First, each party would promise to do something. Second, there was a ceremony to ratify the covenant. Instead of signing a piece of paper, the two parties would split an animal in two parts and then each party would walk through the animal. This was highly symbolic. By walking through the carcass, each party would, in essence, be declaring to the other “let me be like this torn apart animal if I break my side of the agreement”. With this in mind, the significance of the covenant of God with Abraham comes into clearer view. In particular, we see that the covenant is unidirectional. Only God promises something to Abraham (land and descendants). Only God, in the form of a flame, passes through the carcasses. Abraham promises nothing and does not pass through the animals. The unidirectional nature of this covenant, which is one of the foundational covenants in the Old Testament is highly significant. It shows us that regardless of what we human beings do, God will never abandon us. He will always and forever be faithful. Considering this is a source of hope.

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Truth #2: Jesus has given us a glimpse of the ending and it’s a happy one!

In the Gospel today, we heard the account of the Transfiguration in the Gospel of Luke (9:28-36). The Transfiguration can be understood as a kind of preview to Jesus’ resurrection. The event comes at a critical juncture in the Gospel as Jesus begins his long journey towards Jerusalem where he will suffer and die. The Transfiguration is meant to strengthen Jesus and his followers as they begin this journey of suffering. The Transfiguration is a glimpse of the end of the story: the glorious Resurrection of Jesus. A preview to how the story ends is meant to provide hope in the darkness of Jesus’ passion and death. It is similar to some hikes I have been on. Sometimes, in a tiring hike up a steep mountain, there will be a viewpoint along the way. At this viewpoint, you can catch a glimpse of how great the vista will be at the end of the hike. This preview of the end gives encouragement to continue trudging up the mountain! In our lives, God gives us some moments of Transfiguration. These are times when we can experience in a special way the love and goodness of God. This might happen at a time of retreat, at Mass, when we are in nature or when we are celebrating with family and friends. Just like the Transfiguration is a preview to the Resurrection, these moments in our life are previews to the goodness that lies in store for us. Especially when times are difficult, it is important to remember these transfiguration moments in our life. Considering these can be a source of hope.

Although being a more naturally optimistic or pessimistic person may be outside our control, trying to cultivate a more hopeful attitude is something that we can work on. The next time you feel a lack of hope in your life, it might be helpful to do to things: 1) Recall the truth that God is always faithful; and 2) remind yourself of some Transfiguration moment in your life.

Loving our enemies

7th Sunday Ordinary Time, year C | Lk 6:27-38

If you can, try to think of someone who is your enemy. This could be someone who has done something to hurt you in the past. Maybe this is a family member or coworker that you simply cannot stand. It might be someone who you harbour strong negative feelings towards. Although we may not like to admit it, I think that we all have enemies in our life. Now, when you consider your enemy or enemies, what do you think and feel when you hear Jesus telling you in the Gospel today to “love your enemy”? No problem, right?!

The idea of loving our enemies can seem like an extremely difficult or even impossible task. Perhaps part of the reason why this is the case is that we misunderstand what Jesus means by “love”. When you consider movies, books and songs, how is the idea of love often portrayed? Often, when we think of the word “love”, we might think of some kind of emotion. Someone we love is an individual who we have strong positive feelings towards. People we love are those who we enjoy spending time with. If love is some kind of emotion, then loving our enemies is probably an impossible task. We all have been hurt, some of us greatly, by some individuals. How can Jesus possibly be asking us to have strong positive emotions towards someone who has hurt us or who is hurting us? How could Jesus possibly expect that we would enjoy to be around such people?

When Jesus is asking us to love our enemies, he is calling us to something much deeper than an emotional response. In Greek language and culture, there were several words used to describe “love”: eros, philia and agape. Eros was the word used to describe romantic love. Philia was the word used for love between friends. Agape was the term that describes unconditional, self sacrificial love. When Jesus tells us to love our enemies in the Gospel, the Greek word used is agape. Jesus, therefore, is not calling us to have love for our enemies in the emotional sense of the term. St. Thomas Aquinas well described the love that Jesus calls us to. He said that love is “willing the good of another”. Love, therefore, is not primarily about feeling a particular way about someone, but is about taking positive action on behalf of someone. In the Gospel, Jesus describes the positive actions that express our love for an enemy. We can do good for our enemy. We can bless our enemy, hoping that they find some good in their life. We can pray for our enemy, asking God to help them to experience what is good. When Jesus asks us to love our enemy, he is not telling us to have a positive emotional feeling towards those who harm us. Jesus is asking us to will the good of our enemy, praying that they find good and perhaps even performing some action that brings some goodness into their life.

The kind of love Jesus calls us to have towards our enemies, a love in action, is in some ways easier and in some ways harder than when we consider the prospect of having love in the emotional sense of the term towards our enemy. It is easier because emotional responses are often outside our control. It is not possible to force ourselves to have good and positive feelings towards those that harm us. Although we cannot force ourselves to feel a certain we, we can take actions that will bring good into the life of our enemies. This of course, is in some ways more difficult than simply having a good feeling towards someone. In the lives of the saints, we see some incredible examples of people who have loved their enemies by performing actions to bring goodness into their lives. We can think, for example of the St. Patrick who lived in the 5th century. When he was 6, St. Patrick was kidnapped by Irish pirates and brought from his home in Britain to Ireland. There he served as a slave for several years before he was able to escape and return home. Those who kidnapped Patrick and forced him to live as a slave could certainly be considered his enemies. Some years later, however, after Patrick was ordained a priest, he decided to return to Ireland and serve the people there as a missionary. He chose to bring the ultimate goodness - Jesus - into the lives of his enemies. This saint shows us in an extreme way the way Jesus calls us to love our enemies by taking some action that brings good into the life of our enemies.

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Try again to call to mind one of your enemies, someone who has harmed you. How might Jesus be calling you to love this individual? Remember that Jesus is not asking us to feel warm feelings towards this person. What action can you take to bring goodness into the life of your enemy? When other ways of bringing goodness into the life of our enemies seem too difficult, a great place to start is by saying a prayer for them.

Should the Church focus only on "spiritual matters"?

6th Sunday of OT, year C | Lk 6:20-26

Some individuals, whether they are Catholic or not, resent it when the Church gets involved in social, economic and political issues, trying to bring about changes. The Church, they argue, should focus on “spiritual matters”. Implicit in this way of thinking is the idea that social, economic and political issues are not spiritual matters. Is this the case?

The Gospel - literally, the “Good News” - that the Church is called to proclaim was always meant to be a call for social, economic and political change. This is particularly evident in the Gospel of Luke. There, we find a message calling for an inversion of the current order. This is succinctly conveyed in Mary’s Magnificat. With the coming of Jesus, those on the bottom of society - the poor and outcasts - are to be raised up, while those on the top of society - the rich and powerful - are to be brought down. This inversion is to be connected to people's’ concrete lives. At the time of Jesus, there was great social inequality. A great deal of wealth was concentrated in the hands of a few. Those who were poor were approximately 90% of the population. Although these poor people normally fared better than the desperately poor today, their existence was difficult and precarious. The poor in rural areas were generally subsistence farmers struggling to survive on inadequate land. The poor in urban areas could be even worse off. Jesus, being a tradesman, was certainly not one of the rich and powerful. He was not, however, among the poorest in society. One scholar, J. P. Meier, explains that if he were living today in the North America, Jesus would be a “blue collar worker in the lower-middle-class”. Jesus’ message was meant to address the inequality in his society. It was meant to be good news for the poor and oppressed, and divine judgement against the wealthy and prosperous who failed to help the needy.

Cosimo Rosselli [Public domain]

In the beatitudes that we heard in the Gospel today from Luke, the message of social, economic and political inversion comes across very clearly. It is interesting to note how Matthew’s and Luke’s accounts of the beatitudes differ. Although the Gospels are rooted in historical happenings, we know that they should not be understood as a blow-by-blow account of everything Jesus said and did. The evangelists were not following Jesus around with quill and parchment recording everything like some modern reporter. Rather, each evangelist shaped the traditions that he received in order to convey a brilliant theological message. The beatitudes are a great example of this. In the Gospel of Matthew, we find an emphasis on the spiritual and religious aspect of the beatitudes. For example, the poor are described as being “poor in spirit”. This modifier, “in spirit”, is not found in Luke. Luke directs his beatitudes at the materially poor, hungry and oppressed. It is these people who Jesus declares to be blessed. They are raised up while the rich, satisfied and socially acceptable are brought down. Jesus directs a series of woes against members of this group who do not use their privileged position to come to the aid of the needy. These woes are absent from Matthew’s version of the beatitudes, which is further evidence that Luke seeks to highlight a message of social and economic inversion in his telling of the beatitudes.

Following the Gospel, the Church today strives to raise up the poor and oppressed while calling on the wealthy and prosperous to recognize their duty to put their resources at the service of the needy. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that the mission and resources of the Church should be particularly directed toward those in the most need (CCC 2448). The Church has a “preferential option for the poor”. Pope Francis has been highlighting this in a wonderful way by calling for the Church to care for those on the peripheries. He has modelled how to do this. As Pope, he regularly visits prisons, homeless shelters and places where refugees are kept as they await entry into Europe (e.g. Lampedusa). Further, he has called on politicians and other leaders to enact laws and programs that better care for the poor and marginalized. Pope Francis is reminding us that although Jesus beautiful beatitudes are meant to console, they are also supposed to be unsettling as they compel us to take action on behalf of the poor and oppressed.

At the heart of Luke’s Gospel is a call for an inversion in the social status quo. This comes across clearly in the beatitudes with its “blessings” and “woes”. Those who are on the bottom are to be raised up and those on the top are to be brought down.  To those who say that the Church should focus only on “spiritual matters”, we have to respond that issues of political, economic and social injustice are in fact spiritual matters.