Monday in Ordinary Time, 8th week readings, May 28,2007

Scripture: Sirach 17:20-24. Psalm 32:1-7. Mark 10:17-27. Lectionary #347:

Pentecost Sunday disappears so quickly as this Monday in ordinary time
commences. It is liturgically a shock, but like the apostles who stood
gazing into the heavens when Jesus ascended, we are informed that it is
time to get back to the ordinary flow of things in our lives; even the
liturgy reminds us of this. We start with a Wisdom Book, that of Sirach
which is deutero-canonical and considered non-inspired by many Christian
dispensations, but the Catholic and Orthodox accept it. It is not in the
Hebrew canon, but evidence of it is found at the Dead Sea Scroll community
of Qumran where it was written in Hebrew. The Septuagint contains it and
it is from the Greek that we translate it into English and consider it to
be inspired. Some Dominican biblical scholars consider the Septuagint to
be inspired just as the Hebrew Scriptures are and the New Testament.
Wisdom literature is fascinating since it is so down to earth and fits the
considerations of teachers and ethicists and maybe lawyers! Sirach's
message is like our alarm clock as it awakens us on this first day of
ordinary time. We are challenged to "turn" to the Lord-- a word which means
repentance, conversion, metanoia and reconciliation. The word return in
Hebrew is "Teshuvah" from the verb "Shuv" and I found this description of
it capturing a way to interpret the passage from Sirach for today: "
Teshuvah is the foundation of Jewish morality. Prophets and rabbis have
forever come back to the image of a "return" to God--a return from what is
surely just a temporary estrangement."... and Teshuva , tefila (prayer),
and tsedaka (charity) cancel the stern decree."(Lewis Glinert, The Joys of
Hebrew, p.243, Oxford, N.Y. 1992). Thus we are given a lesson about
repentance in Sirach while the Gospel of Mark has Jesus teaching us about
the commandments of love and the courage to follow him even more closely by
the gift of oneself through detachment from possessions or whatever may
hold us back from wholehearted dediction to God. Ouch! For me, the word
repentance is related to a reconciling spirt--only possible through the
Holy Spirit-- and a renewal of a direct return to God through our puposeful
decisions about our spiritual life and its continuing daily journey with
God. What Sirach is saying fits well with the Sacrament of Reconciliation
both community and individual celebrations of it. Hope, prayer, and a
spirit of conversion or turn of mind (metanoia) are involved in the
Sacrament and in the words of Sirach. We have the results that Sirach talks
about in the closing of the passage, "How great is the mercy of the Lord,
and his forgiveness is for those who return to him." This is the grace of
the sacrament as well. We can place ourselves in the shoes of the young
man who came to Jesus asking about what is necessary to inherit eternal
life. Jesus tells him to keep the commandments that involve not only God
who alone is good, but also our neighbor who may not be so good. Jesus
reserves the term goodness only for God on this occasion to capture the
young man's attention. In a remarkable passage the youth says he has done
all of the commandments from his youth. Jesus then looks upon him and
loves him (agapan) with the greatest of love. But the next request of
Jesus, namely, to follow him and leave his treasures for the poor, disturbs
the man and he decides not to follow Jesus for he had much wealth. What a
powerful and beautiful incident in the life of Jesus' ministry in which
Peter too becomes involved by saying that the apostles have left everything
and followed Jesus. What of us? For the Gosple speaks to each of us with
its direct and simple language in this passage. Jesus looks upon each of
us with perfect love and beckons us to follow him. Are we able to do this?
How will you and I respond to Jesus? What must we give up, so to speak, in
order to follow him more closely? We need only to realize that it is the
love of Jesus for us that makes this possible. All things are possible
with the love of God and the love of Jesus given to us by the Holy Spirit
for our daily journey of faith, hope, and love. Amen.