Meditation: 23rd Sunday, Ordinary Time, Year B

[TheUbiquitous]

[center][i]Please note: Gospel and readings as presented are only excerpts of the actual Gospel and readings, and the same with the prayers. This is deliberate, to better demonstrate which sections provoked my interest. [/i][/center]

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[b]Introit:[/b] "You are just, O Lord, and your judgement is right; treat your servant in accord with your merciful love."

[b]Collect keywords:[/b] Adoption, "true freedom," an "everlasting inheritance." ([url="http://wdtprs.com/blog/2006/09/23rd-sunday-of-ordinary-time-collect-2/"]Old take from Fr. Z[/url].)

[b]First reading: [/b]
England: "Vengence is coming, the retribution of God, he is coming to save you."
USA: "Here is your God, he comes with vindication; with divine recompense he comes to save you."

[i](Psalm: The fatherless and the widow the LORD sustains, but the way of the wicked he thwarts.)[/i]

[b]Second Reading:[/b] "My brothers and sisters, show no partiality as you adhere to the faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ. For if ... you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say, 'Sit here, please, " while you say to the poor one, 'Stand there,' or 'Sit at my feet,' have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil designs? ...

"Did not God choose those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that he promised to those who love him?"

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[b]DRA commentary: [/b][i][1] With respect of persons: The meaning is, that in matters relating to faith, the administering of the sacraments, and other spiritual functions in God's church, there should be no respect of persons; but that the souls of the poor should be as much regarded as those of the rich. See Deut. 1. 17.[/i][/indent]

[indent=1][i][10] Guilty of all;: That is, he becomes a transgressor of the law in such a manner, that the observing of all other points will not avail him to salvation; for he despises the lawgiver, and breaks through the great and general commandment of charity, even by one mortal sin. For all the precepts of the law are to be considered as one total and entire law, and as it were a chain of precepts, where, by breaking one link of this chain, the whole chain is broken, or the integrity of the law consisting of a collection of precepts. A sinner, therefore, by a grievous offence against any one precept, incurs eternal punishment; yet the punishment in hell shall be greater for those who have been greater sinners, as a greater reward shall be for those in heaven who have lived with greater sanctity and perfection.[/i][/indent]


[b]Alleluia:[/b] "Speak, Lord, your servant is listening; you have the message of eternal life."

[b]Gospel: [/b]"[Jesus] took him off by himself away from the crowd. ... And immediately the man's ears were opened, his speech impediment was removed, and he spoke plainly. He ordered them not to tell anyone. But the more he ordered them not to, the more they proclaimed it."


[indent=1][b]DRA commentary[/b]: See [url="http://www.drbo.org/x/d?b=drb&bk=47&ch=9&l=32#x"]Matt 9:32[/url], [url="http://www.drbo.org/x/d?b=drb&bk=49&ch=11&l=14#x"]Luke 11.14[/url].[/indent]
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Two distinct themes crop up:[list]
[*]election to adoption as God's children on the one hand, and, on the other,
[*]"wickedness" and corruption and disobedience, even among those same God's children.
[/list]
What first seemed interesting when reading this was an apparent tension between our adoption and our disobedience. In retrospect, this is absolutely not a tension but the fundamental reason for the Incarnation in the first place. If we were not disobedient children, why would God need to come down? Even after Jesus performs a miracle, even after we are first growing in faith, we are still not completed in faith. We will still sin, we will still disobey. "Speak, Lord, your servant is listening ..." says this Alleluia --- but are we listening? Do we hear, and do we obey?

Thinking now of Eustace in [i]The Voyage of the Dawn Treader[/i], the Gospel underlines how we are not immediately redeemed by our faith even after we resolve to turn to Christ for redemption. We still have the need to prove our faithfulness; we still have the chance to face the final penalty of damnation. Our reward is not at all settled. Rather, the theme here is one of hope.

We are up in the air, but at least we are not mired in our sin. Before we had no chance. Now we have a chance.

What is hope? Hope is not optimism. Though both hope and optimism point towards a positive outcome, optimism is not based in a real appreciation for how bad things can be, and is all too often focused on worldly ends. Underlining this point: Martyrs, who have no earthly reward, have hope. Do not lose hope, even if you die alone, suffering as Job, but without the final reward Job enjoyed. You will have a better reward in the world to come --- if you obey God, and love your neighbor.

[url="http://wdtprs.com/blog/2006/09/23rd-sunday-of-ordinary-time-collect-2/"]As Fr. Z has it[/url]:

[indent=1]This is a difficult mystery to grasp: we are already sons and daughters in a perfect sonship by adoption, but that sonship is not yet complete: we lack the final essential component, that is, perseverance in faith and obedience for the whole course of our lives and their ratification in death and our particular judgment. It is through many trials that we come to the perfection of adoption which we now share in an imperfectly perfect way.[/indent]

[b]One thread which may yet be lost:[/b] Through all of the prayers and readings this time around is the strong hope for healing, for redemption, and with a focus on the person redeemed. What is Jesus' aim in ordering the silence of those in the town?[list]
[*]Is it merely a request for privacy?
[*]Is there any chance that in keeping quieter the townspeople might notice the person who has been healed rather than just shout about that he has been healed? This is to say, is Jesus' instruction a silent means to provoke men to notice a person redeemed rather than some abstraction?
[*]How does Jesus' earlier move to a more private place to perform the healing help the case for either hypothesis?
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[i]Not having any formal training, I pretty much bumped the propers together and looked for sparks. I will happily renounce every word if this is heterodox. [/i]

What are your thoughts?

[TheUbiquitous]

Whoops. Hey, mods? Think you could move this to the sub-forum?