Lord, let us see your
kindness,
and grant us your salvation
You will be reading this on or
after Sunday July 15. I’m writing on Wednesday, July 11. That is a bit distracting
for me since July 11 is the feast of St. Benedict, and I’m finding it difficult
to focus less on Benedict and to look ahead to the readings of the Fifteenth
Sunday in Ordinary Time.
On second thoughts, maybe there is no tension between the two...
While there is no evidence that
St. Benedict initially intended to form a religious congregation, his communities of men
who were seeking to follow Christ with all their heart, soul and mind, became a
significant movement in Italy in the sixth century.
In the 1400 years since, these
Benedictine communities have spread across the world. Benedict’s first communities were in the hills
just east of Rome (Subiaco, 40 km
inland). Then came the most significant foundation at Monte Cassino. You will recall this hilltop monastery from
NZ World War II history. This is where 343 NZ soldiers died in January &
March of 1944. Many of these soldiers are buried in the cemetery below the
monastery.
Back to Benedict. The growing
Benedictine communities needed guidelines for their life together, so Benedict prepared the document that remains today as the frame for Religious life in
many communities today. This “Rule” begins with the key word: Listen!
And now, with this bit of
direction from Benedict, we are ready to appreciate today’s Mass readings more
deeply.
We meet Amos in the Old Testament reading. He was a farmer. Then his life
changed. In his own words:
“The
LORD took me from following the flock, and said to me,
Go, prophesy to my
people Israel."
So Amos was called to be a
prophet. Like St. Benedict (who lived 12 centuries later), Amos knew that human
life could only be lived fully by the one who listened to God.
When you hear that
Amos was called to be a ‘prophet’, what do you imagine his job-description
was? Many people think that a prophet
is the one who can predict the future in a spooky and magical kind of way. But
a prophet is no fortune-teller.
The Old Testament prophet was not a
‘predictor’ of future events. Instead the prophet was one who had a heightened
awareness of the reality of the present, and who could also see the
consequences of this reality. The prophet was sensitive to the voice of God.
The prophet was one who listened for God.
The one who listens for God, will hear God. This encounter renews the desires
of the human heart, by reorienting the heart to God.
In the words of the of Vatican II’s
Pastoral Constitution (7 December 1965), the prophet is one who is able to
accurately read “the signs of the times.”
The prophet, with this insight, is the
one most able to see the consequences of present attitudes and behaviours. The
prophet will therefore be hypersensitive to everything that is an ignorance of
(or a rejection of) God’s invitation to us to live abundantly.
The one who hears (or reads) the
prophet, might mistakenly think that this preacher is an ‘orator of doom,’ since s/he will often begin by clarifying the problem before offering the solution. But the prophet is a real preacher of good news. The prophet is a true harbinger of hope, and hope is the path from death (i.e.
hope-less-ness) to life. As the New
Testament begins we hear the same message from John the Baptist: “Repent,
for the good news is at hand.”
John sums up the role of the prophet in
a single word: repent!
Now, to jump ahead to today’s gospel
which begins: “Jesus summoned the Twelve and began to send them…” Then to jump ahead to the end of this
reading: “So they went off and preached repentance…”
There are many noises that clamour for our attention
each day. All too easily the journey of
human life can become an exhausting lurch from one demand to the next. We fall
into bed at the end of the day exhausted. We hardly seem to have slept before
the alarm rattles us awake to endure a new day. And too often the new day is
nothing new. Life is not meant to be like this.
There is something wrong!
And the prophet can tell us what is wrong. We have
forgotten to listen. We need to repent - to turn to God anew.
It is our desire to listen for God that urges us to
gather for the Mass every week. From the
midst of the demands of our days we need to hear anew the voice of God. We need
the grace to live in harmony with the beautiful desire that God has for us.
And so we pray in the prayer of today’s psalm: “Lord, let us see your kindness, and grant us your
salvation”.
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related blog entry:
On Anzac Day 2008, pilgrims from Christchurch were at Monte Cassino.
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