| For your convenience you can now listen to Fr. Bob’s reflection, click here. |
27th Sunday of Ordinary Time
|
| 10-4-20 |
| Neil
Diamond sang a song many years ago; I can only remember one line: “Song
sung blue everybody knows one.” That line is so true. At some time in
all our lives we can only sing a sad song and it seems that God has one
too. Listen to our Old Testament reading today from Isaiah. He places in
the mouth of God a very sad song. A song of lament about God’s
unrequited love for Israel. |
| The
song begins like a love song telling of God’s eager tender care,
providing every possible provision and protection for His beloved
people. But by the second verse of the song, the mood turns dark, the
music somber. For all the love that God has lavished on His people, they
turn away from Him. And God asks them, what more could I have done for
you that I did not do? God sings song sung blue. I am sure that some of
us can imagine how God felt. Many of you have felt the sting of this
same disappointment yourself. |
| Perhaps,
your song sung blue is a child, the beloved recipient of all of your
heart, soul and love. But who rewards you with a lifetime of rebellion,
rejects your values, does not love the church. And you are left
broken-hearted wondering how this could have happened. After all the
love and prayers you poured into your child’s life. Maybe your song sung
blue is a ballad about your years of loyalty to a company, only to have
that same company throw you away all in the name of down-sizing or
profit engineering. A lot of people in this country today are singing
song sung blue. |
| What
is your song sung blue? The loss of a loved one, the loss of a
relationship? A divorce, do you feel rejected? Not wanted by your church
or you have a serious illness? Everyone at some time in their lives
sings a song sung blue and we all end up asking why. Here we touch the
very core of Christianity. I mean the mystery of suffering. History of
endless tales of tears, which no human escapes. Many years ago, I drove
upstate to pick up Dorothy Day. If you do not know who she is, look her
up online. She is up for canonization. Her early life was not happy,
very difficult. The church began to attract her because of the faith and
piety of some of her friends. |
| She
became a catholic because of her need to be connected, to be part of a
community. The institutional church was for her something she both
criticized and loved. To be a part of this community of faith brought
her immense comfort, strength and joy. She ran houses for the homeless,
the poor victims of injustice and those with drug and mental problems.
She welcomed anyone that had no place to go or nobody wanted. After a
long session of speaking about her work and answering questions, a young
social worker said, “Miss Day, I worked at one of your houses for just a
few months, the needs of the people you serve were so great. They have
so many problems; I did not know where to start. How do you do this day
in, day out? Dorothy Day did not directly answer her question; she just
smiled and began a story. |
|
A woman all alone in the world lost her brother; he died of cancer,
still young. She kept asking God “Why?” But hearing silence she set out
in search of an answer. She had not gone far when she came upon an old
man sitting on a bench. He was weeping, he said, “I have suffered a
great loss. I am a painter and I have lost my eyesight.” |
| He,
too, was seeking an answer to the question, “Why?” The woman invited
him to join her and taking him by the arm they trudged down the road.
Soon they overtook a young man walking down the road, walking aimlessly.
The source of all his joy, his wife, had left him for another man. So
he joined in the search of an answer to the why question. Shortly they
came upon a young mother weeping on her front doorstep. |
| She
had lost her child, so she too joined them. But nowhere could they find
an answer. Suddenly, they came upon Jesus Christ. Each confronted Him
with their questions. But Jesus gave no answer, instead He began to cry
and said, “I am bearing the burden of a woman who lost her brother, a
girl whose baby has died, a painter who has lost his eyesight and a
young man who has lost his wife to another.” As He spoke the four moved
closer and they embraced each other. They grasped Jesus’ hands and Jesus
spoke again. |
| “My
dominion is the dominion of the heart. I cannot prevent pain, I can
only heal it.” “How?” asked the woman. “By sharing it,” He said. Then He
was gone. And the four were left standing, holding each other. What
theology tells us and our faith confirms is that in bad times, as well
as in good, in sickness and in health, in death as in life, God is
there. And this God is a God of love. A God who loves you individually. A
God who loves you even if you cannot understand how a loving God can
let this or that happen to you. |
| For
all our intellectual sweat, we have not solved the problem of evil. Why
not? Because our minds, however brilliant, are too small to grasp God.
When I am puzzled by all the problems around me, I remember Job in the
Old Testament. He was a good man, loved God and everyone else, kept
God’s law. So, he cannot understand why he is suffering so much. Job is
desolate, He trusts God, but he cannot get through to Him. The God who
had been so present to him is now only absent. But God speaks to Job,
not explaining, not apologizing. |
| He
does not give Job a theology of suffering. The real experience for Job
is simply to encounter God and in that encounter, Job finds rest from
his questioning. Not because he understands, no explanation has been
given. Very simply, he has experienced God. This kind of encounter is
only possible if you have touched God. This kind of encounter is only
possible if you have touched God and have allowed Him to touch you. If
He has touched you, the questions will not vanish. The ‘why’ will not
wear away. |
| But,
as with Job, within you there will be a profound peace. And, like
Thomas Aquinas, who spent his whole life asking why and finally said all
my questions are straw. He wrote, “Lord, at your service here lies my
heart-lost, all lost in wonder at the God thou art.” |
|
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