If before Lent we saw the season of the call, when disciples were called
to Jesus' side, this period after Pentecost begins by describing what happens
once they are called. For to be a disciple seems also to have an evangelic
dimension. The call of Elisha to follow Elijah and the famous line of the
Gospel about setting the hand to the plow both point to this outreach that
the call to follow God requires. It is this same rhythm that marks our relationship
with the Sunday Eucharist: we are drawn in by the call of God and then sent
forth to be God's presence in the world. When we say, "Yes!" to Jesus we
agree at the same time to a mission and to service to all God's children.
Christianity, then, is not something that we hold as a private possession.
The second reading reminds us that it is something that commits us to love
and to following the call of the Holy Spirit. Do you hear the call? Where
is it leading you?
If before Lent we saw the season of the call, when
disciples were called to Jesus' side, this period after Pentecost
begins by describing what happens once they are called. In these
readings we hear the poignant call of Christ, that those who follow
him give up their very lives.
These words ring true to those who are married, those who have
taken the vows of religious life or the promises of the priesthood,
for single people who have dedicated themselves to living an honorable
life, to parents and children alike, in short to anyone who is aware
of what it means to be in relationship.
What Christ is calling us to is the life of grace, in which all
of our concern for our neighbor is at the same time a response to
the call of God and the stirring of the Holy Spirit. That is discipleship,
and it costs us our lives. But it is the only way to be fully alive
in God.
The synergy in the readings today is really quite exceptional.
When we place David, who confesses his guilt but still receives
a lifetime punishment for thinking that God’s favor entitled him
to take that which was not his, and place him beside the woman who
is given forgiveness after making a ton of bad choices, we get the
sense that God’s law is there for the weak.
To those whom much is given, a high standard of conduct is required.
To those who are most in need of God’s mercy, a higher standard
of care is needed. If this is how God acts, so should we. The second
reading joins this debate by talking about how the laws of humanity,
even if they reflect the will of God are not blueprints for salvation.
All good laws should reflect God’s natural order of the universe;
but even if we got rid of all the unjust laws in our society, something
more is always required – we still need to accept our fallen nature,
we still need God.
There is a choice between a long and a short form of the Gospel
today, and there is a good reason for choosing the longer form.
The role of women in the Church often gives rise to interesting
discussions. The long form of the Gospel today presents us with
an image of women providing for the disciples out of their own means,
and reminds us that there are women in the scriptures who had important
roles in the spread of the Gospel.
The Lectionary today includes a non-scriptural passage,
the sequence, which comes from the pen of the great theologian Saint
Thomas Aquinas. The readings of the celebration deal with bread
and wine (and fish in the Gospel) as signs of God's covenant and
of priesthood and remembrance.
The sequence comes as a meditation on these same aspects and
more as found in the Eucharist: sacrifice, memorial, Communion,
salvation, all in Christ.
The first reading presents the mysterious character of Melchizedek,
the king priest of Salem - what we know as Jerusalem. The Gospel
reading concerning the loaves and the fishes only heightens this
link, from Abraham and Jerusalem to the Covenant of Christ recounted
in the first letter of Saint Paul to the Corinthians.
The love of God fills all of these moments, and continues to
be known by us through Communion and through the liturgy. How can
we respond to this love, this covenant, this unbreakable friendship,
which is life for us?
