Tag: Brueggemann

The Passover of the Lord

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Community, Creation, Eastertide, Faith, Gospel, spiritualityLeave a comment

Friday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time
July 21, 2023

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/072123.cfm

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we hear the familiar tones of the central Exodus story.

Waiting for Easter Vigil

As we prayerfully read this passage, we may be carried back to the many Holy Saturday liturgies we have attended in our lives. In our memories, it is early spring, the evenings are still dark, and chapel is barely lit. We know the momentous story we are about to hear and re-enact. We believe it is brought to fruition in the sacramental liturgy we are about to offer. And, within all the memories, all the rituals, and all the words, one phrase stands out:

It is the Passover of the Lord.

“This is how you are to eat the lamb:
with your loins girt, sandals on your feet
and your staff in hand,
you shall eat like those who are in flight.
It is the Passover of the LORD.

Walter Brueggemann says that, in the act of “passover”, the community chooses to move on from its prohibitive existence to a new way of being. It chooses an alternative that requires “departure”:

That alternative is not easy or obvious or automatic. It requires a departure, an intentional departure from that system that the Bible terms “exodus.” In that ancient narrative the Israelites did not want to go, and once they had gone they wished to resubmit to Pharaoh. The departure is a piece of demanding, sustained work. The capacity to think and imagine and act and live beyond that system requires imagination that has dimensions of the psychological, the economic, and the liturgical. Indeed, the core liturgy of Israel (Passover) and the derivative liturgies of the church are practiced departures that now and then take on reality in the world.

Walter Brueggemann: Journey to the Common Good

In our reading from Matthew, and continually throughout the Gospel, Jesus invites his community to a profound “departure” – to a new understanding of the Law as love not requirement.

When the Pharisees criticize the hungry disciples for plucking and eating grain heads on the Sabbath, Jesus confronts them:

I say to you, something greater than the temple is here.
If you knew what this meant, I desire mercy, not sacrifice,
you would not have condemned these innocent men.
For the Son of Man is Lord of the sabbath.”

Matthew 12:7-8

Something greater than the Temple?????? The Pharisees stare at Jesus in stunned amazement! Could such a thing be possible?

Our Gospel tells us that not only is it possible, it is reality. The “Temple” and the old Law had lost their heart to the belief that personal power and affluence trumped human need. Their “systems” for becoming holy had become vacuous.

Jesus teaches that gaining sanctity requires that we live in mercy toward ourselves and others. Rituals, Temples, Churches and codes of conduct are meaningless unless they direct us always to act in mercy. When these same institutions and practices contradict God’s Mercy, we must have the courage for “departure” and “passover”.

“Departure” though does not mean abandonment. It means ceasing the merciless practices condoned by institutionalization, and having the courageous perseverance to build new paths to meaning.

It is clear in the Jewish practice of Passover that the exodus memory became a paradigmatic narrative through which all social reality is described and re-experienced. That is, the narrative pertains to a one-time remembered social upheaval caused by God’s holiness; but the narrative looks beyond that one-time memory to see that the same transactions of oppression and emancipation continue everywhere to evoke holy power.

Walter Brueggemann, Journey to the Common Good

Every day of our lives, we are called to “passover” into greater spiritual awareness, merciful practice, and just living. We may hear the call in small personal interactions, or in the larger context of our fragmented world.

We are faced constantly with alternatives between (just to name a few):

  • selfishness or generosity
  • forgiveness or vengefulness
  • honesty or pretense
  • peacemaking or rabble-rousing
  • addiction or freedom
  • informed decision-making or arrogant ignorance
  • gossip or respect
  • action for the poor or indifferent comfort
  • political and economic elitism or social justice
  • respect fro Creation or utilitarian ignorance

The sacred bridge in each of these passovers is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Choosing it wholeheartedly, we will arrive on the right side of God.

Poetry: Journey – by Mary Oliver

One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice--
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
"Mend my life!"
each voice cried.
But you didn't stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do--
determined to save
the only life you could save.

Music: Took Me Out of Egypt – David Baroni (lyrics below)

Lord I’m feel so empty seems like we’re so far apart
Even tho’ some may applaud me
You alone can see my heart
You don’t look at my achievements or my ability
All You really wants is all of me
And though it frightens me to give my control
There is only room for one King
In the throne room of my soul

Lord You took me out of Egypt
Now take Egypt out of me
You delivered me from Pharaoh
now set me free from me
Let my heart become a promised land
Where the desert used to be
Lord You took me out of Egypt
Now take Egypt out of me

Blessed are the pure in heart
For they shall see the Lord
But eyes that only look to earth
Will lose the rich reward
Of the fellowship eternal the blissful unity
Of the ones who live in Jesus
And no longer serve King Me

Lord You took me out of Egypt…….

Lord I love the gifts You’ve given me
But I love the Giver more
And to worship You more perfectly
That’s what those gifts are for

Lord You took me out of Egypt…….

Me? A Prophet?

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Courage, Discipleship, Faith, Gospel, spirituality1 Comment

Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
July 2, 2023

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/070223.cfm

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, our readings instruct us on the nature of prophecy.

Walter Bruggemann, in his transformational book “The Prophetic Imagination” writes about prophets. He indicates that prophets emerge in the context of “totalism” – those paralyzing systems which attempt to control and dominate all freedom and possibility.

Totalism kills ideas, hope, freedom, choice, self-determination, and creativity for the sake of controlling reality for its own advantage. Totalism is the ultimate “abusive relationship“. Examples in our society include cults, hate groups, mob rule, or any relationship that subjugates another’s free will.

Brueggemann defines the prophet as one engaged in these three tasks to restore hope and freedom:

  • the prophet is clear on the force and illegitimacy of the totalism.
  • the prophet pronounces the truth about the force of the totalism that contradicts the purpose of God.
  • the prophet articulates the alternative world that God has promised, and that God is actually creating within the chaos around us.

Our first reading comes from the Second Book of Kings which was written about 600 years before Christ. The Jewish people experienced the totalism of the Babylonian Captivity.. First and Second Kings was written to help the people understand their situation, to remain faithful to God, and to move toward freedom.

These two books are full of powerful figures pulling the people both toward and away from God – biblical Baddies and Goodies who carried profound messages about faith or its abandonment.

One of the Goodies is Elisha the Prophet whom we meet in today’s verses. Elisha confronts barrenness and death with the transformative power of faith. The Summanite woman is able to benefit from this power because she believes.

In our second reading, Paul doesn’t use the word “prophet” but he talks about the Resurrection Power we receive through our Baptism. This power calls us and confirms us as bearers of God’s transformative Word in a hostile and unfree world.

In our Gospel, Jesus is direct with his disciples about the rewards which fall to those who have prophetic faith:

“Whoever receives you receives me,
and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.
Whoever receives a prophet because he is a prophet
will receive a prophet’s reward,
and whoever receives a righteous man
because he is a righteous man
will receive a righteous man’s reward.
And whoever gives only a cup of cold water
to one of these little ones to drink
because the little one is a disciple—
amen, I say to you, he will surely not lose his reward.”

Matthew 10:40-42

So, are we actually called to be prophets? The answer is YES. We are called by the Gospel and through our Baptism to do what Walter Brueggemann describes above:

  • to name the structures of unfreedom in our lives and in our world
  • to speak truth and stand against those things which contradict God’s Mercy and Love
  • to witness hope and courage by the joyous, generous service of our lives

Photo by Ashley Batz on Unsplash

Poetry: Onto a Vast Plane – Rainer Maria Rilke

You are not surprised at the force of the storm—
you have seen it growing.
The trees flee. Their flight
sets the boulevards streaming. And you know:
he whom they flee is the one
you move toward. All your senses
sing him, as you stand at the window.

The weeks stood still in summer.
The trees’ blood rose. Now you feel
it wants to sink back
into the source of everything. You thought
you could trust that power
when you plucked the fruit:
now it becomes a riddle again
and you again a stranger.

Summer was like your house: you know
where each thing stood.
Now you must go out into your heart
as onto a vast plain. Now
the immense loneliness begins.

The days go numb, the wind
sucks the world from your senses like withered leaves.

Through the empty branches the sky remains.
It is what you have.
Be earth now, and evensong.
Be the ground lying under that sky.
Be modest now, like a thing
ripened until it is real,
so that he who began it all
can feel you when he reaches for you.

Music: When the Prophet Speaks – Van Morrison (lyrics below)

When the prophet speaks, mostly no one listens
When the prophet speaks and no one hears
Only those who have ears to listen
Only those that are trained to hear

Come closer now, I'll tell you what they whisper
Closer now, we'll whisper it in your ear
What big ears you've got when you get the details
Do you understand, do I make it clear?

When the prophet speaks, yeah, no one listens
When the prophet speaks, mostly no one hears
Only those that are trained to listen
Only those who have ears to hear

When the prophet speaks, yeah, no one listens
Baby, baby, baby, baby, baby
Don't you have no fear
You gotta get the truth on what is happening

When the prophet speaks, have to make it clear
Come closer now and I will whisper
Whisper the secret in your ear
What thick ears you've got when you get all the details

Do you understand, do I make myself clear?
When the prophet speaks, you've got to listen
When the prophet speaks, you've got to get the truth
When the prophet speaks, don't need no explanation

When the prophet speaks, have to make it move
Prophet speaks, no one listens
When the prophet speaks, mainly nobody hears
Only those that are trained to listen

Only those who have ears to hear