Ad Jesum per Mariam

Jesus Tells Us We All Have A Common Life That We Are Called to Live. What Does That Really Mean?

St. Paul, and Jesus, Tell Us We All Have A Common Life That We Are All Called to Live. What Does That Really Mean? As St. Paul writes to the Church, he answers a question that is normally asked of Church leaders. The question? Are you saved? St. Paul gives an answer to the Church in his writing. He doesn’t answer, Yes, I am! He answers, Yes, WE are! Salvation in Jesus Christ is never merely personal or individual. Jesus doesn’t save us individually, then bring us together. Rather, He saves us together. He unites us within salvation. St. Paul continues within his writing. The world divides itself over and against one another. St. Paul will have none of that division. What we have in common, St. Paul writes, is much more important than anything that might distinguish ourselves. Why? The Homily continues to explain St. Paul’s message to the Church . . . and to us! We Have A Share in the Life of Jesus Christ St. Paul also writes that we all have a share in the life of Jesus Christ. He writes that we all have a common life that we are all called to live . . . not separately . . . but together. Hmmm! What does that really mean? The One Place In Scripture Jesus Describes His Mother Also in the Homily, we hear from the lips of Jesus the one place in scripture where He describes His mother! Listen to this Mediation Media. Listen to: St. Paul, and Jesus, Tell Us We All Have A Common Life That We Are All Called to Live. What Does That Really Mean? -------------------------------- Image: Saint Paul Writing His Epistles: French Artist: Valentin de Boulogne: 1600s -------------------------------- Gospel Reading: Luke: 11: 27-28 First Reading: GAL 3: 22-29

Broadcast on:: 16 Oct 2024
Audio Format:: other

The Lord be with you, a reading from the Holy Gospel, according to Luke. While Jesus was speaking, a woman from the crowd called out and said to him, "Blessed is the womb that carried you, and the breast at which you nest." He replied, "Brother, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it." The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ. St. Paul is writing to the Church in Galatia. He is providing a very specific and very particular answer to a question that is commonly asked by believers when they speak to people that they meet, and that is, "Are you saved?" And the answer that St. Paul is giving to the Church in Galatia is not, "Yes, I am." It's, "Yes, we are." Salvation in Jesus Christ is never merely individual, it is never merely personal. In fact, Jesus doesn't save us individually and then bring us together. Jesus, rather, saves us together and unites us in that salvation. And so it is, then, that Paul writing to the Church in Galatia is insistent that the way we tend to divide ourselves over and against one another, the way we celebrate, difference, distinction, in oppositional ways, "I'm this, you're that," St. Paul will have none of it. And so he looks and writes to the Church in Galatia that what we have in common is much more important than anything that distinguishes us. Because what we have in common is Jesus Christ. And he doesn't want the community to lose sight of that. However different we may be, however distinctive our own experiences are, the simple fact of the matter is that all of those saved by Jesus Christ have been given a sharing in the life of Jesus Christ. And so he writes to the Church in Galatia, reminding them we have a common life that we are called to live, not separately, but together. No one individual is the body of Christ, but all of us together are that body. And so St. Paul writes to a Church that wants to divide itself, that wants to mark its distinctiveness. These members live this way. These members live this way. But Paul is going to say, "No, what we all do is we live Jesus." Not how powerful and simple that is, and how easy it is to lose sight of that. How easy it is in a world that wants to multiply reasons for division to surrender to those reasons. And so notice Paul begins speaking, to belong to Abraham is not being a Jew. Because belonging to Abraham is not a matter of the blood of Abraham. Rather one belongs to Abraham by belonging to Jesus. It's Jesus who unites us to the covenant. It is Jesus who fulfills all of the promises begun in Abraham. Promises that were made not to a single nation, but to all nations, let there be one people in and through Jesus Christ. So he writes then, "Let's stop playing the game. I'm Jewish and you're Greek. Let's stop playing the game. I'm a man and you're a woman. Let's stop playing the game. You're a slave and I'm free." We can multiply that in our present age. "I'm a Democrat. You're a Republican. I'm a New Yorker. You're from New Jersey." "I'm a Mets fan. You're a Yankees fan. And I'm a pirates fan and a pox on both your houses." But note how we divide ourselves. And St. Paul is saying, "Yeah, these differences are real, but they're not the most important thing. What is most important is that we are one by the blood of Jesus Christ. That blood which washes over us, that blood which saves us and the faith by which we are united to that. And it's the oneness in faith that is much more important than all of the little distinctions that we use to separate ourselves from one another. And this insistence then that faith is what binds us. Faith is what unites us. Faith is what we must not let go of or lose sight of. Faith is what we must accept no substitutes for because it's so easy. It's so easy to try and construct our lives on lesser things. And when we do that, we fragment ourselves and we end up cutting ourselves off from the one real source of life. And faith, as St. Paul is going to say elsewhere, comes from hearing. It doesn't come from doing. Faith doesn't come from birth. Faith comes from hearing. And what do we hear? We hear the word of salvation in and through and by Jesus Christ. And it is that faith that unites us. That faith that saves us. That faith to which Abraham's faith pointed. What a remarkable vision this is, St. Paul going all the way back to Abraham, the one called from all of the Chaldeans and why did Abraham belong to God because God called and he listened and he heard. And he placed his faith in that voice, in that call and in that word and therefore he placed his faith in a person. And St. Paul is reminding the church in Galatia. Our faith is in a person too. Our faith is in God who saves us in and through Jesus Christ. Our faith rests in Jesus Christ. Not in things about Jesus, but in Jesus. Faith comes from hearing, hearing a person, hearing about a person. That's why this reading from St. Paul's letter to the church in Galatia is so very important as we turn now to our gospel reading today. This very, very brief passage from the gospel of St. Luke. And in these two verses we have the one place in all of Scripture where we hear Jesus telling us directly what he thinks of his mother. It's chapter 11, St. Luke's gospel verses 27 and 28. And it's a remarkable scene. Jesus is in the synagogue and he's preaching. And as he speaks to the people, they listen to him in wonderment. His words have authority and they strike to the heart. And in that group, crowding the synagogue, there is a woman who is deeply, deeply moved by what Jesus says. She is so moved she can't contain herself, she stands up and she interrupts him. Imagine that. She stands up, the Lord is preaching and she interrupts him. "Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breast at which you nursed." And as this praise spills out of her mouth what she is really saying, how wonderful your mother is to have a son like you. She compliments the son by talking about how happy, pleased and delighted and lucky his mother must be. How wonderful that woman who is your mother. How wonderful she must be to have given birth to you and to have raised you. You such a good son how wonderful your mother must be to have raised you this way. And on the one hand she speaks those words that mothers all around the world would long to hear about themselves. Not just what a good woman you are, but what a good child you've raised. And how proud you must be. How lucky you must be. How fortunate you must be. If the son is so good, how wonderful the mother. It's a remarkable moment and then it gets even more remarkable when Jesus says, oh don't say that. And we pause and it's what's going on is Jesus saying, don't praise my mother. Is Jesus saying, don't celebrate my mother? And so just a couple simple questions. Is Jesus the son of Mary? You had to thank for a minute there. And is Jesus a good son? Is Jesus better than a good son? Might he be perhaps the very best of all sons? And Mary is she a good mother? Is she perhaps better than good? Might she be perhaps the very best of all mothers? Okay. Would a good son want his mother to be praised? Would the best of sons want his mother to be praised? And would the best of sons be content with just any old praise of his mother or would he want the very best praise of his mother? Good. Having established that, that's our key to understanding what's happening here. This is the very best son and he has the very best mother. This woman stands up and praises him and praises his mother. And Jesus' response is this, if you're going to praise my mom, get it right. Because her real greatness is elsewhere. And what the Lord wants is his mother to be praised and celebrated correctly on the basis of what her real greatness is. And it's not simply that she gave birth to him. And it's not simply that she nursed him. And so it is then that the Lord says, "How do you praise my mother? You say this, "Blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it." And at first hearing, that sounds like so much less. You know, "Blessed is the womb that bore you." That sounds big. "Blessed the breast on which you nursed." That sounds big. "Blessed are those who hear the word of God and do it." To our ear, that sounds small. That sounds less. That sounds ordinary, pedestrian even. And yet the Lord is saying, "This is her greatness." And so now we have to pause and try to figure out what's going on here. And so we have to understand, there is a fundamental and intrinsic connection between listening and loving. If I am incapable of listening well, I will never love well. That is the truth. In fact, tragically in many of our families where we experience the diminishment of love, is often the product of the fact that we no longer listen to one another. And so it is here that the Lord is speaking about a deep and important reality. Because to listen to you, I need to do something. I need to quiet myself. How often has anybody here ever had the experience someone is talking to you? And you're so busy composing your response that you miss what they've said. Have you ever had the experience that someone is speaking to you and you're thinking about six other things that happened this week? And so you missed what was said. Have you ever had the experience of someone began talking to you and you had the reaction of, "Oh, I know where this one's going?" And because you already decided what was being said, you didn't hear a thing. It happens, doesn't it? Why? Because we're filled with ourselves. To listen to you, I have to quiet all of that. I have to make space in my life, at least for a couple of minutes, for you. I have to give you my attention, not my response, not my problems, not what I'd rather be doing. I have to listen to you and hear what you say. In other words, I have to give you the gift of my time and the gift of my attention and I have to make a space in my living for you. That sounds an awful lot like love, doesn't it? Note how important this is. And so when the Lord is speaking this way, he is saying, "Her greatness, my mother's greatness," is that's how she relates to God. The Lord has her attention, the Lord has her time. And there is an openness within her to receive what it is that God would say. Note how powerful now this sounds, how big this really is. If you would praise my mother, get it right. But the Lord goes further because there is a difference between hearing and truly receiving a word that is given. We hear many things. We receive many words, but we don't necessarily correspond to them, do we? And so note what happens, this word that our lady hears penetrates her, lives in her heart and she begins to live in accordance with what God has said to her. This is the faith that comes from hearing. It's not simply that I hear a word, it's that the word penetrates me, enters me and begins to shape my living. This is what St. Paul is reminding the Galatians of. We all have faith in Jesus Christ. We have all heard the saving word and all of us, not some of us, all of us need to live in accordance with that word that we have heard, that word that dwells within us and longs to express itself in us and through us. And so note what the Lord is saying. This is my mother's greatness. It's not that she physically gave birth to me. That's wonderful, but her real greatness is in this listening, in this listening that receives and takes the will of God into herself in such a way that she begins to move and surrender and live in accordance with that will and that word. And now we pause again and we take another look at Jesus because I could ask you the trick question and say, "Who's speaking here?" And you'd say, "Jesus," and you'd be right. But the fuller answer is, "It's the word of God made flesh," is speaking. Note, how do you receive a word? You hear it. You listen. We receive a word by listening. We receive a word by hearing. How does Jesus, the word of God, come into the world? Note how wonderful this is. Mary hears. Mary listens. Mary responds and she receives that word who becomes flesh within her. In fact, when Saint Luke writes about Gabriel coming to visit Mary, he's very careful not to say that Mary ever saw the angel. Every other time an angel appears in sacred scripture, we see him, but not here. Mary doesn't see the angel. She hears him. He enters, he speaks and finds that Mary was already listening. And it's into this listening, in the heart of the world, that in a world and a human race that is so indifferent to God, so unable to pause and receive his word, there is this one ear, this one heart that has been listening. And into her listening, the call of heaven comes. You will conceive and bear a son and you will name him Jesus. So it is, she says, "Let it be with me according to your word." Note again, how does Christ come into the world? Let it be with me according to your word. So as Jesus is naming the greatness of his mother, he is naming something utterly, absolutely significant through her ability to hear, through her willingness to respond, "I have come into the world," and that is why she is the one who gave birth to me. That is why I am the one who nursed at her breast, but before those things could happen, she heard me and she received me in that love-filled listening that marks her life. And she received me so perfectly, so fully, and so completely that I lose nothing coming to you through her. She receives the word of God and perfectly communicates him to the world. This is who Mary is. This is Jesus singing the praises of his mother. This is the meaning behind that beautiful statement of St. Augustine who said, "Mary conceived the word of God in her heart," well before she conceived him in her womb. And it is this conception of the word in her heart that the Lord points to, this conception of the word in her heart that brings him into the world that the Lord points to. And now we step back in wonderment because Jesus says something very odd here and very beautiful. He doesn't say, "Say this, blessed is she who hears the word of God and observes it." That would be easy. And we could look at it and say, "Man, Mary is so great." But he doesn't say that. He says, "Blessed are they. Blessed are those." No. The greatness of our Lady is a greatness we can share. We can't share giving birth to Him. We can't share nursing Him at the breast. We cannot share those things. Those are unique privileges that the Blessed Mother has. The Lord uses that beautiful plural pronoun. What He is saying is, "This is a greatness you can participate in." You too can hear the word of God. You in your own living can observe it. Not as perfectly as Mary, but in reality you can do this because real greatness consists of hearing that word and then living in accordance with that word. This is Paul's invitation to the Galatians. You've heard the word. Live according to the word. Don't divide yourselves. Be one in listening. Be one in living because there is one word that saves you. One word that unites you. One word that gives you life. How absolutely wonderful. And so it is that in just a few minutes here in this place, we'll come forward because that same Jesus Christ, great and powerful son of the Virgin Mary and Son of God is going to be here on this altar. We who have heard His word will come forward and stretch out our hands to Him. When we do that, we are stretching out our hands to His body and His blood. We're stretching out our hands to the Word of God, made flesh to the life of the world. And as we receive Him, we remember that we receive a word, not just by eating, but by listening. And so we'll go back to our places and we'll pause, we'll close our eyes and we'll listen to Him. This word who now will be dwelling within us, this word alive and mighty within us, why? So that in listening to Him, we can live in accordance with Him. And no, we all get to do that. We all get to do that. And how wonderful it would be if all of us would make that great prayer of our ladies are owned this day, Lord, You are within me, let it be with me according to Your word. Amen. [BLANK_AUDIO]