‘Yes, there are those now last
who will be first, and those now first who will be last.’
Luke 13:30
O praise the Lord, all you nations,
acclaim him all you peoples!
Strong is his love for us;
he is faithful forever.
Psalm 116
The nineteen year long Vietnam War
came to a close with the fall of Saigon in 1975. New Zealand withdrew in 1972
and Australia in early 1973. It is hard to imagine the power of the people who
forced the hands of their governments to remove their troops from this pitiable
war. For Australians that pain was realised in the sending of conscripts to
fight an unwinnable war. New Zealanders were more fortunate, sending only
standing troops. No one can forget the images of helicopters rescuing desperate
souls from the rooftops of allied embassies, or the horrifying image of Phan
Thi Kim Phuc - also known as the Napalm girl.
We can all recall the hostile and
inimitable return of our soldiers from this conflict and the scarring that
occurred with such overwhelming rejection by community after community. We also
know that in many cases the damage was irreparable. How do we heal this agony
caused by our own self-righteousness?
In overcoming her physical, more
importantly her psychological injuries, the emotional and spiritual pain, Phan
Thi Kim Phuc found Christ. Her faith enabled her to forgive those who had
damaged her and her family.
There are thousands of narratives from
both our veterans and the Vietnamese
whose recounts would bring anguished tears to our eyes, and yet 46 years later
there is still palpable pain that remains.
Those who wrote the psalms (whom we
collectively call 'the Psalmist') needed to express the extensive array of
emotions about their daily lives, their story, their relationships with each
other and their God. In the turmoil that the Hebrews faced - against their many
enemies, in victory and in loss, they complained, mourned, celebrated and
praised. What they always returned to was their faith that the God who gave them creation, who made them a nation,
who saved them from Egypt, who led them to the Promised Land - would always be
with them. Such was their confidence.
While Psalm 116 (117) is the shortest
of all the 150 psalms it encapsulates the joy and aspirations of the Hebrews:
their God is the God of all nations, and all must praise him because his love for his people is
strong and faithful. And this was a people who would understand our veterans,
and the people whose land they fought in.
I do wonder how much difference faith would
make. Do you?
Peter Douglas
Catholic Thinking – The
Apprentices of Jesus
Professor Thomas
O’Loughlin, Professor of Historical
Theology, University of Nottingham, UK, has held the Chair of Historical
Theology at the University for ten years and is a priest of the Diocese of
Arundel and Brighton on England’s south coast. Professor O’Loughlin spoke at a
Eucharistic Convention in Auckland in July this year and gave a series of
lectures around the country about ministry, discipleship and the sacraments.
His visit was supported by Good Shepherd College – Te Hēpara Pai, as well as the Dioceses of Auckland,
Palmerston North, Christchurch and Dunedin. The following is a synopsis of one
his presentations: ‘Journeying as Disciples of the Lord with St Luke’s Gospel’.
“Becoming
a follower of the Christ is not a done deal, but a work in progress.”
Professor
Thomas O’Loughlin.
We have all heard the
word ‘disciple’ hundreds of times. We even have very fixed idea of what the
disciples of Jesus looked like as they followed Jesus around Palestine on his
journeys. Disciple is just one of those words we use in church and do not think
much about. But in the middle of the last century a group of Christians in
Germany – faced with the horrors of Hitler’s Nazis – became convinced we needed
to think about the whole matter once more.
It is very easy to think
of our religion in terms of identities – and most situations encourage us to
think in this way – so that I say ‘I am a Catholic’ or
‘I am a Christian’ or ‘You are a Buddhist’ or
‘She is a Muslim.’ The box is ticked, there is little more to
say, and we can just see life as following accepted conventions; for example,
‘Jews go to synagogue’ or ‘Catholics go to Mass’ and that is that. But what if
I recognised becoming a follower of the Christ was not a done deal but a work
in progress? Now I would not start from my identity, but from my failure to
recognise what being a Christian entailed, and I would become aware that at any
time I might only glimpse what it means to be a disciple.
LIFE LONG LEARNING
“One is always becoming a
Christian.”
It is very easy to get
complete command of any body of facts that can be learned by rote, downloaded
from a book, and then trot out predictable answers to old questions. What is
far more challenging is to learn slowly how to master a skill – whether this be
the skills of a plumber or someone who seeks to build the Kingdom of God –
because one must always be open to new problems, new challenges, and to note
while we are hopefully getting better, we are still far from perfect. One will
only know one is a Christian at the end of a life time of
trying to make life better, seeking to value love, seeking to minimise
destruction, and seeking to bear witness to God the Father’s love for all
humanity manifested in Jesus the Anointed One. One is always becoming a
Christian.
So growing and learning
what it is to be a disciple is a life-long process. Indeed,
being a disciple is far more like being an apprentice in a trade than being a
student in a school boning up on a subject. The student has all the answers at hand
if only she can get them all into her head; that done, she can pass the exam
and ‘be’ something. The apprentice learns a bit here, learns another bit there,
meets this situation and that, makes mistakes and has to start over – messy,
slow, but constantly in touch with the real world. Indeed, as the real
constantly changes, the apprentice has to think up new solutions to problems
that may never have existed before. If we think about Jesus being followed by
his apprentices, and ourselves as his apprentices, then we radically alter our
vision of who we are, what we are about, and what Christianity will mean for us
today, and tomorrow.
Picasso, the painter,
once said, ‘tradition is having a baby, not wearing your grandfather’s hat’. We
often think of religion in terms of the past, and of holding on to the past;
but if we are apprentices then the challenge is the future and making it a
little more like the world of justice, peace and love that God’s love beckons
us to build. Tradition is not a having, but a making. We hand
on the vision of Jesus to that it is more there tomorrow than today.
“If we think about Jesus
being followed by his apprentices, and ourselves as his apprentices, then we
radically alter of vision of who we are, what we are about, and what Christianity
will mean for us today, and in tomorrow.”
THE LECTIONARY
In this life of being
apprentices, the great school is the liturgy. There we not only praise the
Father through his Son, but we recall in the gospel each week the events,
stories, teaching, and parables that were to challenge the apprentices in the
first churches – and which still challenge us today. Indeed, in the Year of
Luke in the lectionary – and 2019 is such a year – this theme of discipleship
is a major theme and explicitly set out as such in lectionary’s plan.
Lectionary: a book or listing
containing a collection of scripture readings to be read aloud in the
services of the Church on a given day or occasion.The present Catholic
lectionary was introduced March 22, 1970. It contains a three-year cycle of
readings for Sundays and solemn feasts, a two-year weekday cycle, and a
one-year cycle for the feasts of saints. And it contains readings for a large
variety of other Masses. There are also responsorial psalms that follow the
first readings for each Mass, along with Gospel or Alleluia verses to follow
the second readings.
|
The whole of the Year of
Luke is broken into eight units (see Lectionary, pp. lii-liii)
but there are three units focussing on discipleship.
·
Lectionary unit 4: towards Jerusalem.
·
Lectionary unit 5: pardon and
reconciliation.
·
Lectionary unit 6: the obstacles facing
those who follow Jesus.
Unit 4: Towards Jerusalem
This unit is devoted to
the first part of the ‘Travel Narrative’ and its theme is the qualities Jesus
demands of those who follow him. It runs from Sunday 13 to Sunday 23, and
contains 11 Sundays. Its sections/themes are listed in Table 1 below (items
that are only found in Luke’s gospel are shown in bold).
TABLE 1: THE YEAR OF LUKE:
ORDINARY TIME SUNDAYS 13‒23
Sunday 13
|
The journey begins
|
Sunday 14
|
The mission of the seventy-two
|
Sunday 15
|
The Good Samaritan
|
Sunday 16
|
At the meal in the house of Martha
and Mary
|
Sunday 17
|
The friend in need
|
Sunday 18
|
The parable of the rich fool building
barns
|
Sunday 19
|
The need for vigilance
|
Sunday 20
|
Jesus brings ‘not peace but division’
|
Sunday 21
|
Few will be saved
|
Sunday 22
|
True humility
|
Sunday 23
|
The cost of discipleship
|
Unit 5: Pardon and
reconciliation
This unit consists of
just one Sunday: Sunday 24. Its focus is on the ‘gospel within the Gospel’:
Jesus’ message of pardon and reconciliation. It is devoted to Lk 15 (all but
three verses of which are only found in this gospel), which consists of a
string of three parables:
1. the lost coin;
2. the lost sheep; and
3. the prodigal son.
Unit 6: The obstacles
facing those who follow Jesus
This unit is devoted to
the second part of the ‘travel narrative’ and explores the obstacles facing
apprentices of Jesus. It runs from Sunday 25 to Sunday 31; its sections/themes
are shown in Table 2 below.
TABLE 2: THE YEAR OF LUKE:
ORDINARY TIME SUNDAYS 25‒31
Sunday 25
|
The unjust steward
|
Sunday 26
|
The rich man and Lazarus
|
Sunday 27
|
A lesson on faith and dedication
|
Sunday 28
|
The ten lepers
|
Sunday 29
|
The unjust judge
|
Sunday 30
|
The Pharisee and the Tax-collector
|
Sunday 31
|
Meeting Zacchaeus
|
Thomas O’Loughlin ‘Making the Most of the Lectionary, A Users’
Guide (tinyurl.com/The-Lectionary-Users-Guide)
In many ways this is the
most characteristic section of Luke’s gospel for none of these sections,
stories, incidents are found elsewhere in the gospels.
SELF-IMAGE
If we think it is better
to think of ourselves as apprentices to the Christ rather than being
Christians, then each of these Sunday gospels challenges our assumptions,
prejudices, biases, and certainties. Faith is an adventure to build the Reign
of God; it’s anything but our inherited ‘old school’ customs. The apprentice is
always learning, and at the same time making a difference – hopefully for the
better – to those around them.
Professor Thomas
O’Loughlin FRHistS, FSA, the Humanities Building, University of Nottingham, UK
NG7 2RD.
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