By Sister Karen Cavanagh, C.S.J.
“POPE FRANCIS CALLS us to be a community which builds bridges rather than walls… that is what Jesus teaches us with His words and His actions …” – Father Andy Alexander, S.J., Creighton University.
The writing of these Scripture reflections begins weeks before they are read. This one was started the day ABC aired a very moving 20/20 special edition featuring a virtual audience with the Holy Father. Hundreds of thousands in our homeland met with so many other brothers and sisters in Chicago, Texas and California and with David Muir and Pope Francis as the Holy Father prepared for his visit to the U.S. and to our city.
Today, as you read these pages, the pope will have already graced our homeland and returned to his home in Rome. His words, spirit, love and strong voice for justice that he left behind are a legacy which will long challenge who we are and who we seek to become as Jesus’ followers.
In light of these events and our Holy Father’s many writings and words, I found myself wondering where to begin and how to ponder this week’s Scriptures in my heart. At first, they seemed a conflict between mandates and spirit. Through a spirit lens we read about creation and humanity’s powerful role in the care of all God’s handiwork. We read of God’s great Self-gift as Jesus becomes one of us and redeems all of us. We hear God’s dream that our love be faithful and fruitful. It is God’s plan that we live in harmony, interdependence and the most reverent and even self-emptying care for each other and for all others. God’s plan becomes our mandate.
The first reading from Genesis tells of God’s concern that we not be alone or abandoned, without companionship. It speaks to a complementarity, a non-subordination of one over another and a becoming of one human nature, caring for each other, sacrificing (leaving behind) what was, so that we may care for and nurture what is.
The Book of Hebrews comforts us with the One, Who became our “brother” and is always with us. Jesus assumed, unto His death, the bone of our bone and the flesh of our flesh. He is the One who shows us the how, the why and the way. Mark’s Gospel challenges each of us to be honest with ourselves regarding the fidelity in our relationships and commitments, and regarding the “hardness of heart” with which we might treat or judge another.
Universal and Unique
Breaking open the Word together in this 21st century, we realize again that the message and challenge is both universal and unique for each of us – for every kind of family, for young people and dreamers, day laborers and elected leaders, for those in consecrated religious life, those who’ve married and those who have not, for people of every religion and culture and for those who identify with none. This is a message and call that crosses every class, religion, economic status, nation, race, orientation, political party, shelter, gated community, neighborhood, ocean and language.
God is one, all are one, we – you and I – are one, and we are one with all of creation. This is a reality that is not only essential to a spiritual life, but also essential to the very future of life itself. The future is in our hands and hearts. We are each other’s keepers, especially for those most vulnerable.
The challenge is universal, but it is also unique and individual. Looking into my heart, I ask if I have the courage and integrity to acknowledge those places, faces, and races, where or with whom I have taken a superior or dominant stance?
Do I choose who I call “companion on the journey,” sister or brother, “worthy,” “one of us,” “our kind,” partner and friend? Does that choice further extend to those I might deem “forgiven,” deserving of a second or third chance, welcomed or included?
Have I, at times, been attracted to something or clung to a relationship that veils my original “yes”? Have I been unfaithful to the call of my Baptism or the promises I believe and professed over the years?
“… God looked at all which had been created and found it to be so good … (Genesis 1) … like fruitful plants around your table … may you see your children’s children … (Psalm 128)
In Washington with Congress, in Philadelphia to pilgrims from everywhere, in New York City before the leaders of every nation and all of us, we heard Pope Francis’ urgent plea to “wake up” and realize that the ecological crisis is for real. A conversion – total and unlike any other – is the only way to heal our earthly home and provide the same for our children’s children. Some deny it, others call it overexaggeration or hysteria, others think it too enormous to deal with, let alone think about and so many have been telling us for years. Pope Francis’ encyclical, “Laudato si,” is that urgent appeal to the truth that all of us as one are called “to be protectors of God’s handiwork” and caretakers of all creation.
On this feast of the Holy Father’s patron, Francis of Assisi, we are standing very close to a threshold of “too late!” We need to pray and act as one. The Holy Father’s lifestyle has been proclaiming this since before most of us ever knew him. Like his patron, the pope’s pastoral and shepherding ministry has been to proclaim it to all of us.
Today’s Scriptures tell us that it is God’s plan for us to live in harmony, interdependence and the most reverent and self-emptying care for each other, for all others and for all of creation. It’s the pope’s plan to help us put God’s plan into our words, actions and lives. It is a mandate. His and our agenda is packed. We have the Spirit to guide us and one another to help us remain confident that we are never alone.
Readings for the 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Genesis 2: 18-24
Psalm 128: 1-2, 3, 4-5, 6
Hebrews 2: 9-11
Mark 10: 2-6
Sister Karen Cavanagh, C.S.J., a trained spiritual director and retreat facilitator, is a pastoral associate/family minister at St. Nicholas of Tolentine parish, Jamaica.