Scripture-A Reflection on this Month's Readings
by Francis X. Cleary, SJ
Our Good News: Jesus our model, selflessly accepting as the Father's will the suffering we cannot avoid. Early Christians told stories about how Jesus died to answer disturbing questions that challenged their faith, rather than to preserve historical reminiscences. How could God allow this outrage to befall his beloved Son? Can there be any meaning in such an appalling miscarriage of justice? We too wrestle with the shocking scandal of the Cross and look to the four Gospel accounts for reassurance and meaning. Although all four Evangelists told the same basic story, each left us an account with distinctive emphasis. Together they provide divergent but complementary insights into larger mystery of universal suffering. In hearing today's story, lets forget the others and focus exclusively on Luke's interpretation. Luke soft-pedaled the idea of human death as sacrificial, probably because civilized pagans considered the notion barbaric. Instead, he emphasized Jesus as our model martyr, his innocence affirmed by Pilate (three times), by Herod, by one of the crucified criminals, and by the centurion in charge. Another Lukan theme is Jesus' final triumph over Satan, who withdrew after the third desert temptation (4:13) "until an opportune time" when he entered Judas (22:3). The devil succeeded in destroying Jesus, but God brought victory out of defeat. A third distinctive detail concerns Luke's rehabilitation of Jesus' followers. Rather than cowards who abandoned him (as in Mark), the disciples "stood loyally by me in my temptations" (22:28). Jesus pronounced an efficacious prayer to preserve Simon Peter's faith after his betrayal (22:32). The disciples' sleep in the Garden evoked excuse instead of plaintive accusation ("exhausted with grief" [22:45]). God mercifully ignores our infidelities! In Luke's telling, Jesus spoke three times from the Cross, each "word" in character with the rest of his Gospel and rather foreign to the others. He prayed for his persecutors, setting an example for us who suffer unjustly (22:34). Even in final agony Jesus brought salvation rather than judgment (the crucified criminal). And at the very moment of death, instead of abandonment and near-despair (Mark), Jesus professed profound fellowship with God and firm hope in victory: "Father, I put myself in your hands". In sum, Luke invites us to participate in and imitate the suffering of our martyred Jesus. His account especially speaks to those of us who are sick or handicapped, enduring overwhelming pain or dying, and to all victims of injustice. God knows our pain... and that's enough! Easter Sunday, April 12 0ur Good News: Our Easter faith is grounded in an historical event, of which women were the first witnesses and Jesus the interpreter. Easter isn't just an in-house celebration of Jesus' personal good fortune through a stunning reversal of fate. Easter proclaims Good News for everyone and for all creation. That's why our first reading recounts Peter's sermon preached before the first non-Jews admitted into the Christian community. He insisted that Jesus' story wasn't esoteric doctrine or non-historical myth reserved for a select few. It's based on events in the public record, but interpreted through Old Testament categories. By being "anointed with the Holy Spirit and power," Jesus joined in his person two biblical offices, king and prophet, which God established to bring his people liberation and life in fullness. Jesus experienced in extreme measure the common fate of true prophets: rejection, persecution, and apparent failure. Thus, far from ignoring the Cross, Peter emphasized the scandal by quoting Deuteronomy 21:23 - "God's curse rests on him who hangs on a tree." But the fullest possible divine act of grace completely reversed Calvary disgrace. Ours is the "forgiveness of sins" granted through him who fulfills Old Testament promises. Those followers who "ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead" knew what they were talking about when they testified to us about the Resurrection. Instead of having our own personal encounter with the risen "Judge of living and dead," we look to specific witnesses, chosen and commissioned by God." Easter faith comes to us through the Church rather than as private revelation. Luke (optional Gospel) celebrated the key roles of women disciples who accompanied Jesus from Galilee. These, rather than his male followers, kept vigil at Calvary to witness his death and place of burial. Returning early Easter morning they encountered two angels who announced the Good News of Resurrection, and commanded that they "remember what he said to you" in order to understand its meaning. Luke thus held up women as our first Easter witnesses, but equally importantly as models for our imitation. To comprehend and accept our personal experiences of the paschal mystery - that Good Friday sufferings must precede Easter joys - we need to ponder prayerfully Jesus' teaching and example. And by eagerly reporting the Good News "to the Eleven and the others," these remarkable women anticipated our own privilege as witnesses to an expectant world. Second Sunday
of Easter, April 19 Our Good News: Through the risen Christ and with our cooperation, God builds up his Church. Gospel Resurrection appearances weren't composed just to record what really happened" but to explain the meaning for us, now and in eternity, of our risen and glorified Christ. In preaching, teaching, and praying we mustn't focus on historical accuracy of details or harmonize with other New Testament passages (for example, that the disciples gathered in the same upper room for Last Supper, Resurrection appearances and Pentecost). Finally, narratives of post-resurrection appearances address practical problems of here-and-now life within the Church rather than satisfy our curiosity about Jesus' risen and glorified condition. Details introduced into Gospel appearance stories generally make one of two key points. Some stress discontinuity between Jesus' risen body and his previously limited earthly frame ("he came and stood before them in spite of locked doors"). Other details emphasize essential continuity of glorified Lord with the historical Jesus of Nazareth - here, gaping wounds recalling crucifixion. We too await transformation that builds upon, rather than renders irrelevant, our earthly existence. What we do with our present bodies matters for eternity!We're amazed that Jesus came, not to condemn for faithlessness but to bestow "peace" - Final-Age joy rather than richly deserved judgment from God. This was accomplished through a "sacrament" consisting of efficacious sign ("breathed upon them"), interpreted by words ("receive the holy Spirit"). The same divine life by which Jesus had been raised from eternal death was passed on to his first disciples, from whom it comes to us through the Church. Ours is the privileged mission of "standing forth in a world torn by strife and discord as a sign of oneness and peace (Eucharistic Prayer, "The Church on the Way to Unity"). Thomas represents those of us who would demand a personal appearance from the risen Lord to ground our own faith commitment. Jesus returned the Sunday after Easter to rebuke such sinful unbelief. He summoned Thomas - and all of us - to a mature, well grounded faith founded on the testimony of reliable eyewitnesses rather than individual encounters. In sum, today's Gospel makes two basic claims for the Church. First, the Church serves as official witness to the reality of Jesus' resurrection for every generation, a witness in which we have a crucial role. Second, the Church determines conditions for reconciliation, which she mediates-again, with our participation - to an alienated humankind. Third Sunday of
Easter, April 26 Our Good News: We faithful Christians aren't always popular, and mustn't shrink before unavoidable suffering. The Sanhedrin (first reading exercised supreme religious and civil authority). They prohibited Peter and the apostles from further teaching about "that name" (Jesus). By refusing to obey, the apostles committed a deliberate act of religious and civil disobedience. Now they compounded their blatant insubordination, boldly proclaiming the forbidden Good News to that august council! "Better for us to obey God than human beings!" The apostles' ringing justification for such principled lawlessness echoes through subsequent ages to our own times. This passage is appealed to by those who, in the name of God, challenge corrupt exercise of authority in civil government and within the Church. Persons exploiting religious or political power for selfish purposes, boasting in blind chauvinism ("My country I Church, right or wrong!"), irresponsibly mistake loyalty to the Word of God for disobedience and disloyalty. The apostles exercised their official function by testifying to the Resurrection, with Peter foremost among them as leader, spokesperson and witness. They proclaimed Jesus as rejected and executed by both civil and religious authority. His crime: misleading the people. His sentence, as prescribed by the law of Moses: death. But Jesus was totally vindicated, "raised up from death" and constituted sole "ruler and savior" of God's people. Authentic Christian witness incumbent upon each of us may not always be popular and can appear ungrateful or subversive. We must accept attacks and misrepresentations in the spirit of the first apostles, "full of joy" in spite of ill-treatment (in their case, flogging). That we can respond thus rather than with doubt, despair or self-pity - powerfully testifies to the reality of the Holy Spirit who guides and upholds us, especially in adversity. The moving conclusion to today's Gospel focuses on Peter, commissioned with pastoral authority over Christ's Church. He who earlier would lay down his life for Jesus thrice disowned him. Now Peter, the straying sheep, returned repentant to his Shepherd with threefold profession of love in a solemn ceremony of investiture as leader of the Church/flock. All of us disciples seek to follow the way of our Master, but Peter was especially privileged, summoned to sharing the same fate of martyrdom. We too can welcome the suffering from which there is no escaping as our best possible imitation of our Master who suffered out of love for us. |