Tuesday of the 23rd week in Ordinary Time
Readings of the day: 1 Corinthians 6:1-11; Psalm 147:1b-2, 3-4, 5-6a, 9b; Luke 6:12-19
This homily was given at St. Kateri Tekakwitha Parish, Christ the King Church, Rochester, NY.
Readings of the day: 1 Corinthians 6:1-11; Psalm 147:1b-2, 3-4, 5-6a, 9b; Luke 6:12-19
This homily was given at St. Kateri Tekakwitha Parish, Christ the King Church, Rochester, NY.
Where do we find Jesus in the Gospel reading we have heard this morning? For the Gospel writers, setting is important. And so Luke begins his account of Jesus’ naming of his twelve Apostles with Jesus going up a “mountain to pray.”
For Luke the mountain is a place of prayer; it is a place of nearness and intimacy with God. But then where does Jesus go after he has “spent the night in prayer to God” and chosen his twelve Apostles? We find Jesus no longer on a mountaintop but among the Twelve and the great crowds of people who had followed him from near and far: “From all Judea and Jerusalem and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon.” Jesus stands among them “on a stretch of level ground.”
Many of us may be more familiar with where Matthew places Jesus and his teaching ministry than with where Luke does. How many of us have heard of the Sermon on the Mount? This is one of the longest continuous sections of Matthew’s Gospel. Matthew tends to portray Jesus as the great teacher, a new and greater Moses, whose teaching is delivered from mountain heights. When Jesus prays most intensely in Matthew, he tends to be in a valley or on flat ground. We might think of Jesus’ night of prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, which hearkens back to the first moments of creation, to Genesis’ Garden of Eden. In prayer, Matthew’s Jesus is at once at his most intimate with God and with people; with creation.
Luke’s placement of Jesus is the opposite to that of Matthew: Prayer takes place on mountains, from the mountain where Jesus chooses his Apostles in today’s Gospel reading to “the Mount of Olives” where Jesus prays before his passion and death. Jesus’ teaching takes place “on… level ground.” Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount is Luke’s Sermon on the Plain.
Luke’s setting of Jesus’ teaching ministry reminds me of a popular phrase we use to mean that we are speaking plainly (no pun intended) with somebody; telling the truth. How many of us have heard or used the saying: “I am on the level with you”?
Luke presents Jesus, having prayed at length to discern a great decision like the choice of his apostles, as now “on the level” with the people he teaches; “on the level” with us. Jesus’ Sermon on the Plain is an invitation to us to follow after Jesus in being “on the level” with one another: Clear, truthful, but also acting always with love and for one another’s good.
St. Paul’s example and invitation to us in his first letter to the Corinthians is similar to that of Jesus. Paul’s words to the Corinthians may seem harsh to us at times; parts of the two letters to the Corinthians are called Paul’s angry or “tearful letter” for a reason. Yet, even in correcting the excesses of the Corinthian community, St. Paul teaches and acts in the way Christ had taught and acted: With clarity, with truth, with love, and for the good of the people he serves. St. Paul, like Jesus, invites us and shows us the way to be “on the level.”
For Luke the mountain is a place of prayer; it is a place of nearness and intimacy with God. But then where does Jesus go after he has “spent the night in prayer to God” and chosen his twelve Apostles? We find Jesus no longer on a mountaintop but among the Twelve and the great crowds of people who had followed him from near and far: “From all Judea and Jerusalem and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon.” Jesus stands among them “on a stretch of level ground.”
Many of us may be more familiar with where Matthew places Jesus and his teaching ministry than with where Luke does. How many of us have heard of the Sermon on the Mount? This is one of the longest continuous sections of Matthew’s Gospel. Matthew tends to portray Jesus as the great teacher, a new and greater Moses, whose teaching is delivered from mountain heights. When Jesus prays most intensely in Matthew, he tends to be in a valley or on flat ground. We might think of Jesus’ night of prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, which hearkens back to the first moments of creation, to Genesis’ Garden of Eden. In prayer, Matthew’s Jesus is at once at his most intimate with God and with people; with creation.
Luke’s placement of Jesus is the opposite to that of Matthew: Prayer takes place on mountains, from the mountain where Jesus chooses his Apostles in today’s Gospel reading to “the Mount of Olives” where Jesus prays before his passion and death. Jesus’ teaching takes place “on… level ground.” Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount is Luke’s Sermon on the Plain.
Luke’s setting of Jesus’ teaching ministry reminds me of a popular phrase we use to mean that we are speaking plainly (no pun intended) with somebody; telling the truth. How many of us have heard or used the saying: “I am on the level with you”?
Luke presents Jesus, having prayed at length to discern a great decision like the choice of his apostles, as now “on the level” with the people he teaches; “on the level” with us. Jesus’ Sermon on the Plain is an invitation to us to follow after Jesus in being “on the level” with one another: Clear, truthful, but also acting always with love and for one another’s good.
St. Paul’s example and invitation to us in his first letter to the Corinthians is similar to that of Jesus. Paul’s words to the Corinthians may seem harsh to us at times; parts of the two letters to the Corinthians are called Paul’s angry or “tearful letter” for a reason. Yet, even in correcting the excesses of the Corinthian community, St. Paul teaches and acts in the way Christ had taught and acted: With clarity, with truth, with love, and for the good of the people he serves. St. Paul, like Jesus, invites us and shows us the way to be “on the level.”
No comments:
Post a Comment