Mass readings for the 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time:
Wisdom 18.6-9 Psalm 33.1-12, 18-20, 22 Hebrews 11.1-2, 8-19 Luke 12.32-48
Jesus has tough words for us – we need to do as he asks, we need to do the hard work of discipleship, no excuses. However, he prefaces his message with words I think we all need to repeat, repeat to ourselves especially as we experience current and future stresses and strains in our politics and economics.
He says, “do not be afraid, little flock…”
Yet how does one not become anxious as interest rates rise, and other economic indicators signal problems that, perhaps, compromise your own plans, for retirement, home ownership, schooling, career and so on?
Look at the advice our Lord gives: sell everything, give it away—for where your treasure is, your heart is also.
It’s as much to say that we must be careful in what we stake our life upon: if it is money, career, education, property, we are being foolish because all that will pass away, and can be taken away at any time. It is a poor investment to take too much of an interest in this world; and so, we ought to cultivate a disinterest in the world, and nurture our awareness of God through an active discipleship that sees us in prayer, evangelization, catechism, service and worship.
That is work, to be sure, but if we believe Jesus to be our saviour and guide, well, that’s the work that we must be doing; all else is at best discretionary.
So, I would think there would be now a natural objection to all this as unrealistic for the vast majority of humanity who must pay attention to the world, to make a living in it so as to feed, clothe and house oneself and one’s family.
And I would argue that Jesus isn’t actually advocating the extreme even as he speaks of selling it all and giving it away. We know he uses such exaggeration to make his point; but also, for some, their salvation really will require that total commitment to him, and an absolute forsaking of the world.
For all of us, our inclination has to be in the direction he points us toward. No, maybe not sell it all, but in no way look upon it as the source of your security; keep the house, but know that your true home is in heaven; do your work and earn your daily bread, but in whatever you do, make of it an occasion to earn the heavenly bread of life.
The medieval German mystic known to the Church as Meister Eckhart meditated extensively on this matter of how we were to relate to the world around us, especially as it really is so often a source of worry for us; and he advocated the cultivation of disinterest, and argued it was as much a theological virtue as faith, hope and love.
Now, I wouldn’t agree with that assertion on its face, but in reading Eckhart you get the nuance of his argument which is that disinterest in the world frees us to a fuller faith, a loftier hope, a greater love.
One can’t help but note something akin to buddhism in this for in buddhism it is our attachments to the world that cause our suffering. Eckhart tells us that while suffering for Christ is laudable, if we live in disinterest to the world, then our only attachment is then to God, and so our suffering is diminished. You and I will still suffer because, well, we are inexorably bound up in our physical being. So, when I drop a hammer on my bare foot, I will suffer the pain of it, but when I consider the state of my society, my pity need no longer be accompanied by suffering with hand-wringing worry and stress over what is to become of things.
Everything is in God’s hands, and by faith we live in anticipation of God’s promises. Just as Abraham obeyed God, set out on his quest for the Promised Land, found it, yet could not fully possess it even as he moved about through it, living in tents. Just as Abraham and Sarah, frustrated by an inability to have children of their own, by faith lived to see God’s promise to them fulfilled in Isaac, but in our eyes the even greater fulfilment is in the countless spiritual progeny they have today.
This may seem a descent into the trivial; and I suppose it is. But not feeling well in the latter half of the week, my usual research for the homily was forsaken for a half-hearted indulgence in following discussions of the sad state of our popular culture. As I sat nodding in front of a screen sipping herbal tea, I watched a discussion of how Hollywood, with increasingly rare exceptions, is incapable of making decent original movies. For example, an upcoming Indiana Jones movie starring an aging Harrison Ford is expected to be a disaster.
I bring this up because it put me in mind of the original film: Raiders of the Lost Ark. I think almost everyone has seen it once, or is somewhat aware of the outline of the story that I might be able to point one simple observation about that whole mini-epic that is germane.
The story, likely without the screenwriters being aware of it, is profoundly biblical, and not because it involves the Ark of the Covenant. Rather it is because when you consider that for all the hero’s efforts, the bad guys get the ark in the end anyway. All his effort, all his suffering which is made very apparent, ultimately fails to stop the Nazis from getting the prize. But if you know the movie, God is the one who ultimately takes care of things.
Yet, there isn’t much of a movie unless Indiana Jones does what we’re all called to do: oppose evil. And that’s why he’s still the hero, even if we must admit, he failed by his own efforts.
Now the one thing about that character I never got, is that after his experiences I would have thought he’d have become a profoundly religious person, but in the other movies he’s remains that stereotypical secular academic who is a stalwart agnostic. We know better, and while our adventures in this life may not be quite so cinematic, we’re still called to do this heroic work; and perhaps approach our roles as did the actor Harrison Ford when first playing Dr. Jones all those years ago. It’s a part, and for each of us, it’s not a small one; and God has cast us in it. And we play the part not to win the prize, get the girl, be the hero, so much as to please the producer, the director, to be who we have been asked to be in this drama, in this adventure: the agent of good, the opponent of evil, the hero who is upheld by God and delivered from his captors, emerges triumphant over his adversaries.
This puts me in mind of C.S. Lewis’ remark that we are like soldiers in a war that will be certainly won, but in the meantime the work of winning still needs doing. Most people in wartime recognize that they have a part to play in the national effort – it’s no different now. Indeed, Lewis reflecting on his wartime experiences as a soldier said that the human situation in war is really no different from that of peacetime, it simply that are human condition is aggravated in the extreme in war.
As Jesus tells us, if we do as we are asked, we will be commended – like the obedient servant, the good soldier, the actor who takes direction; if we fail to do it; like some petulant, spoiled, overpaid and egotistical movie star worried more about the size of his dressing room than how well he plays his part, well, the consequences are going to be more than unpleasant.
Play our parts well, shoulder our responsibilities, be humble and good servants, and God will invite us to sit at his table where he will serve out to us a banquet unequalled in splendour.
Amen.