|
|
||
|
|||
|
January 22, 2017 -- 3rd Sunday, "A" Is. 8,23 – 9,3-1; 1 Cor 1, 10-13, 17; Mt
4,12-23 Whitland Abbey, Wales. H O M I L Y When Peter and Andrew listened
to Jesus' calling, left everything and followed him, they took an enormous risk. In their own time, other prophets had come, claiming to be the Messiah and many had followed them, only to realize, later on, that they had
been misled and had made
a mistake.
In a way, the disciples were
lucky! The one they had followed was the Messiah. And they were so
happy to have made the good choice that, later on, recalling that first moment when they had
heard the call, they embellished it. Actually each one of the Evangelists recounted it in a different manner, describing a different context. They all tended to give the impression that their response
was an immediate and definitive one. In
fact we know by the rest of the Gospel, that they hesitated considerably and did not definitively abandon their
occupations until after
the Resurrection. But by telescoping
the events into a single episode, they stress the
essential point, which is
the power that God's call
has to mobilize all human
energies, once it is recognized and accepted. Jesus' approach in calling his disciples to follow him is
characteristic of the new style that
the young rabbi proposes to adopt. He does not gather them around
him after the manner of contemporary rabbis
and leaders of schools. He is not going to be a teacher sitting on his chair with fervent listeners at his feet. He will be an itinerant
rabbi constantly journeying
toward the poor and wanderers. He will demand from
his disciples not so much willing ears or enthusiastic gaze, as
the willingness to travel
and to reach out, the courage to encounter the other where she or he is, at the furthest frontier. Evangelization will not be a matter of close circles, gathered within a common framework of beliefs around a common master. It will be going
out of oneself to encounter
the other. It might be important to hear this message again during the Week of Prayer for the Unity of Christians. We often tend to identify the Church with the Reign of God (or Kingdom of God). In the Gospel,
Jesus makes a very clear distinction. Everyone, every human being
without any distinction, is called to enter the Kingdom of God. But only a limited number are called to be his witnesses and the witnesses to his Message to the
rest of the world. They
are the Church. And the Church's mission is not to be concerned about the size of its own membership,
or to make sure that everyone joins its ranks. The Church's mission is to help every human being
to become part of the Kingdom
of God. The Church will probably always remain small. The Kingdom of God at the service of Which She is must be
universal. If we remember this,
all the internal problems
of the Church take on a much
more relative importance. Those conflicts, which are normal in any healthy human group existed right from the beginning. The Corinthians were saying: « I belong to Peter, or I
belong to Paul; I belong
to the traditionalist Church or to the progressive
Church. Paul says
“Stop that nonsense. Have you been baptized in the name of Paul or
Peter? Is it Paul or Peter
who died for you?”... Christ is the One who died for us, and we form a Church not in order to
attend to our internal problems but in order to witness together to the same Kingdom of God, in spite of our various conflicts. The net in which we have to gather all humankind it not our own
ranks but the mysterious
net of God's merciful
love for everyone whatever
might be her or his color,
race and beliefs. Armand Veilleux |
|
|
AccueilQuestions monastiquesQuestions cisterciennesÉvénements monastiques Vie religieuse
Écrits généraux |
|||