Readings: 1 Kings 19-21; Psalm 16, You are my Inheritance, O Lord; Galatians 5, 1, 13-18; Luke 9 51-62.
Thirteenth Sunday Ordinary Time
Introduction to the Readings
Our three readings today come from the First Book of Kings, the Letter to the Galatians and Luke’s Gospel. I suspect that the only reason for the selection of the first reading is because it contains a sentence which is very similar to one found in today’s gospel, namely a request to say good bye to my parents, similar to the gospel response to a calling namely “let me first say farewell to my parents”.
The Book of Kings selection describes the transfer of power from the prophet Elijah to the prophet Elisha. Don’t be confused by the fact that in the reading Elisha slaughters the oxen and burns the plow. This is to show that he is abandoning his old life for the new one.
And maybe the second reading was selected because the word “yoke” would connect it to the first reading! And of course the word plow shows up in the gospel, tying the three readings together!! But we have been reading from this letter for the past several weeks.
Remember Paul is trying to show that having Christ inside is all that is really needed, not observance of the Law of Moses. In fact we will see a very powerful statement that the whole law is fulfilled by loving your neighbor as yourself.
One clarification about the gospel reading; when the young man asks to be able to bury his father first, Jesus’ response seems harsh to our ears. However, you need to understand that custom had it in those times that the eldest son would live on the land of his parents and was responsible to bury them when they died. His father is not dead, the son simply wants to put off following Jesus until some unknown time in the future.
Homily
Reconciliation and Forgiveness
Last Saturday I had a chat with an aunt of mine in Dublin. She is an Ursuline nun and will be 95 in September. I asked her if she was following the World Cup and she said, “Oh yes, we keep hoping that England will be beaten”!!
It is an attitude not unlike what Jesus came across in the gospel today. To the Jews the Samaritans were the modern day English to the Irish! There are several references to Samaritans in our gospel stories, the Good Samaritan, the Samaritan woman at the well and if we don’t understand the animosity that existed between the two groups we miss a whole lot about those incidents. To talk about a ‘good Samaritan’ is like talking about a good Palestinian to an Israeli or a good English man to my Aunt!
When apartheid was abolished in South Africa and Nelson Mandela was elected president, in order to try and create a single unified country he established the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to try and put the past in the past.
The week before last, the Saville Report was issued in England and it was a 10 year study of a very sad day in Derry in the North of Ireland when 13 civil rights people who were marching in a parade back in January of 1972 were shot dead by British troops.
The report finally laid to rest the claim by the army that they had only fired in self-defense, the report said the army had lied, the victims were all unarmed. The new British Prime Minister, David Cameron, publicly apologized for the incident. These were first steps in reconciliation over a terrible wrong.
The need for reconciliation doesn’t stop just with countries and nations. Most of us know only too well the pain caused by separations within families or longtime friends. I find it funny when you see little kids playing and they get in a row over something. One will run home saying “I am never going to play with Jimmy again”. Just as the parents are getting ready for a face off, they had better look around, because the kids will be back together as best friends.
But by the time we are adults something seems to change. Fear, blindness or pride seems to enter into the equation and keep us apart. And then pretty soon we are finding all kinds of additional items to throw on the resentment heap to justify our position.
We can’t afford to let this happen. We need to reach for forgiveness, we need to remember the words of Jesus, “Peace be with you” “Take the mote from your own eye before reaching for the splinter in your brothers eye”
Each one of us at least knows of situations where family members have become estranged from each other, or lifelong friends have parted ways over some perceived or real wrong done. These are very sad situations, because we will never have the chance to recapture and live the time days, weeks or years lost. In our gospel today we see a classic example.
The Samaritans and Jews had parted ways during the exile. In the eyes of the Jews they were not fully Jewish because they had intermarried with pagans and I’m sure the list is long. After the Exile, when they returned to rebuild the Temple, the Samaritans did nothing but harass their efforts. By the time we get to Jesus there is nothing but pure hatred between them. When Jesus is passing thru a Samaritan village and is not welcomed, James and John want to call down fire on the place. Jesus simply moves on.
Irreconcilable differences can be over come, but it takes both parties to want this. At least we must ask ourselves, have we done everything we could. Then be at peace.
I am going to keep working on my aunt’s opinion of the English!
Picture 1: Mass begins
Picture 2: Communion
Picture 3: Chloe
Picture 4: Zoe