17th Week, Friday, July 30

 17th Week, Friday, July 30

Leviticus 23:1, 4-11, 15-16, 27, 34-37 / Matthew 13:54-58

God instructs Israel about worship; "Celebrate these feasts”

 Alvin Toffler's book Future Shock deals with the effect that rapid change has on people. He says people need a predictable framework against which to live their daily lives. The appearance of new car models each fall, the unchanging rotation of seasonal sports, the April 15th deadline for filing income taxes, the familiar rhythm of holidays— this unchanging framework is important to us. It gives our lives a recognizable rhythm. Without this rhythm, we'd be like a boat drifting aimlessly at sea. The people of ancient Israel didn't have to worry about future shock. Nevertheless, they did appreciate the value of a familiar pattern of yearly worship. It gave their lives an unchanging framework for keeping in touch with God.

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How do we celebrate birthdays and feasts? "We are plunging ahead so rapidly that . we find ourselves looking at the present through the rear-view mirror." John Haegle

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God gave feasts to the Jews and to us not merely to celebrate God’s wonderful deeds of the past but to relive them in the present and to draw strength from them for the future. Modern society has largely lost the sense of festivity. We go to sport festivals or watch them on TV: they are spectacles to be watched, not to participate in. We have turned religious feasts into Sundays and holidays of obligation. But joy, spontaneity, sharing and encounters cannot be commandeered. We have to create the sense of true community wherein there is again room for creativity, spontaneous joy, a sense of gratuitousness. Our ultimate destiny is not to work but to love…

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 Let us just say that a very rich close relative has this request of us. After he has passed on, he will leave a big sum of money with us on one condition. And that is that we will go to his tomb on a particular day every month and tidy up the tomb and offer a prayer for him. That sounds rather simple considering the amount of money we are going to get if we can commit ourselves to do that. So, we might think that it would be easy to do that. After all it is just once a month on a particular day. So, we would agree to it. And so, the eventuality finally happens, the relative passes on, and we receive this big sum of money. 

And from then on, we faithfully go to the tomb on the particular day every month to tidy up the tomb and offer a prayer for the deceased relative. So, month after month, and year after year, we will perform our duty. But there will come a time when conditions are not too favourable and our commitment will be put to the test. Under such circumstances, we will come up with reasons, and even excuses, to skip a month or to change the day, and whatever. So, what sounds simple may not be that easy. What we begin with fervour may slowly fizzle away, as monotony and routine set in. 

In the 1st reading, we heard of the Lord giving Moses a list of solemn festivals to observe, with these instructions: These are the solemn festivals of the Lord to which you are to summon the children of Israel, sacred assemblies for the purpose of offering burnt offerings, holocausts, oblations, sacrifices and libations to the Lord, according to the ritual of each day. These solemn festivals have the purpose of keeping the people connected to the Lord in worship and offering sacrifice. It was to be a time of thanksgiving to the Lord for the blessings and the wonders the Lord has done for His people.

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Fully human as he was, Jesus looked forward to his coming home to Nazareth with eager expectation. What will be the reaction, he wondered. They were astonished about his wisdom and his is power to work miracles. These two are divine prerogatives. God alone is almighty and all wise. They recognized in him something divine. But then they remembered that his schooling was no different from theirs. They that his schooling was no different theirs. It had been in the synagogue where they met him. It was all quite different from what they expected of the Messiah. The wisdom and power will be his, but when he comes nobody will know from where he comes. They will accept the divinely gifted Messiah. They would accept Jesus back as one of them. They could not accept him as God and man. The same is true of the Church today. Many would accept the divine Church, fountain of truth, goodness and holiness but not one to whom Christ has entrusted the infallible truth, the grace that is God's power in human hands.

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Jesus is not welcome either among his people, in his town, his home country, for he is disturbing people’s consciences. He confronts them with the challenging reality of God and his ways. Christ shakes his people from their security in laws and outward practices. How dare he, one from their own town and street? Who does he think he is? Dare we to be the prophet’s voice needed today? Dare we to be unconventional?

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Prayer

God of joy, you invite us to celebrate feasts in honor of your name as moments of intense encounter with you and with people.  Make our drab existence explode, at least from time to time, with spontaneous and contagious joy for your wonderful deeds of salvation and for the happiness of being together.  Keep a sparkle of laughter in our eyes as we plod along toward the complete freedom and joy of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen