2019
October 13 / 28th Sunday
●●
2 Kings 5:14-17 ● Psalm 98
● 2 Timothy 2:8-13 ● Luke 17:11-19 ●●
[__01__] I’d
like to reflect on what is peculiar about the moment in the Gospel …and what is
prescribed in the mercy of Jesus …. And what is proclaimed in the message of
gratitude.
What is PECULIAR, what is PRESCRIBED,
what is PROCLAIMED.
[__02__] What
was peculiar to me on the afternoon of August 26th was that I got a
flat tire on my car – the front passenger side tire was punctured by some sharp
metal in the parking lot. It was not the first flat tire I have ever had. But
the peculiar moment was that I was in a new geographical place, out of town,
visiting family in the state of Rhode Island.
The
place was peculiar, strange.
[__03__] What is normal and regular PRESCRIBED “mercy”
(prescription = [Rx])
for such a driving difficulty? Call AAA,
call for roadside assistance or – if you are really high-tech, use the app. You
do not have to call anyone.
Pray also. Jesus, master, have pity on
me. (And – call family for moral support
et cetera, et cetera). AAA was 90
minutes away.
That is the usual way, my default.
But, at this very moment – kind of out
of the blue, I received a phone call from a friend.
During the conversation which I
answered …I was almost embarrassed to to admit to another ADULT – yes I am this
vain – that I had tried but never successfully removed a flat tire and put on
the spare tire in my life.
And, my friend did not say … why don’t
you call AAA – that was not the message of mercy.
The message of mercy was, however,
something I had never ever considered in the realm of physics and torque and
how things turn.
My friend says … new [Rx]
for me and says – just put the wrench on the tire. Then step on the wrench… the
lug nut will loosen … it will work, you will be on your way. It worked
perfectly. The new [Rx]
worked …and I was out of my peculiar predicament.
The next day I drove to a repair shop
and got a new tire.
I thanked my friend both on the phone
and later in person and proclaimed the good news.
So, I was in a peculiar moment out of
town, I got a prescription of mercy of what to do…and I proclaimed that
message…
[__04__] I’d
like to reflect on this Gospel today in terms of what is [PECULIAR] about
the moment … what is [PRESCRIBED]/ [Rx] in
Jesus’ mercy ..and what is [PROCLAIMED] in the message of the 1 leper .. and then
consider how we might receive this as
the Good News.
What is peculiar about the moment is the
geography. Jesus is in between – we read – in between Samaria and Galilee. He
is neither completely inside nor fully outside the so-called beltway of
Judaism.
Here in this peculiar particular
place, he meets 10 lepers who are crying out “have pity on us.” No one wanted them, they were exiled,
ostracized and imprisoned by this contagious disease.
[__05__] What is [PRESCRIBED]/ [Rx]
for the lepers…
Is it the usual default ancient
equivalent of “roadside assistance” where someone else is going to fix and heal
the lepers…or should we just exile them, put them on an island …in quarantine?
That’s what was usually PRESCRIBED.
But, Jesus prescribed something different for
their healing and for our healing.
That is, Jesus does not just give them the
CONVENIENCE of relief from pain, but also the COMMITMENT of a relationship with their faith community,
with the Temple, with the Church.
Look – one of our own corporal works of mercy
is to visit the sick, take care of the sick.
And, when are sick – physically - we are usually very aware of how the healing
comes from outside of ourselves…that we are dependent.
And, when we do get a PRESCRIPTION of healing
that works, we proclaim that message. We want to be in a relationship with such
a physician, right?
But, do we accept the same prescription
and make the same proclamation about the healing of forgiveness.
John Henry Newman – who will soon be
canonized – observed that we usually give credit to the doctor even when we
have to do things to get healed.
John Henry Newman observed that while
a patient is responsible for taking the medicine or doing the exercises, this
does not make the work of the doctor any less significant, does it?
We proclaim the good news about the
doctor.
My example of the flat tire is, of
course, much less serious “diagnosis” and predicament, but I could not figure
it on my own.
[__07__] In
the healing of souls and forgivness of our sins, we also need intervention from
outside…
We might prefer to imagine the forgiveness is
like our own immune system kicking in to fight a virus.
All of us need to be prodded or
encouraged – converted away from our sinful selves, away from our attachment to
PRIDE or FEAR or INDIFFERENCE.
But the prescription is that we need
the love of God and love of neighbor – including the love of parents, teachers,
friends – in order to be healed in this way.
But, forgiveness and the sacrifice of
Christ’s body and blood is a gift from outside, his life laid down for us. And,
we PROCLAIM it each day:
e.g., “Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof but only say the
word and my soul shall be healed… ”
[__08__] What
is peculiar about this moment for many who are here this Sunday at Mass is
their allegiance and connection to Our Lady of Lourdes School. We welcome our
school alumnae and alumni who are here to recall there time at 100 Valley Way
and friends they made, and lessons learned…some of which involved books and
paper.
[__09__] To recall our school days, we recall that
education and learning often prescribes …rules, guidelines and may even be
recalled as austere or strict or not always fun.
But, in all of this prescribing and
prescription, is there not contained also some lessons that we could not teach
ourselves that we could not have possibly learned on our own, and even both the
moments when we felt either successful or unsuccessful at school, there were
prescriptions of mercy from the sisters who taught us, from the teachers who
taught us.. from many.
And, that we needed the help of so
many teachers, and a good school principal, and aides, and classmates and our
parents, to take and receive the “medicine” / “homework” that was prescribed.
And, now as alumni and alumnae we can
give thanks for this education to proclaim it to others and to remember that in
our own pursuit of wisdom and knowledge, it is not only our intelligence that
counts or how fast we got it that mattered….
Or what percentile we were in… but but that we were together and remain
together, persevering, that it is our faith that saved us.
This is what we proclaim. [__fin__]
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