Homily for the 8^th of March 2006 : Wednesday of the 1^st week of Lent

Ananda Matha Ashram, Makkiyad, India

Jon 3, 1-10; Lk 11, 29-32

Homily

The prophet Jonas was sent by God to the Pagans of the city of Nineveh. But he did not want to have that mission and he flew towards the city of Tarsis. That, as we know, led him – and all his companions – into a terrible storm. In the midst of that storm he recognized his sin and accepted – he even asked – to be thrown into the see. He then began a journey into solitude, symbolized by his time in the belly of a big fish, before at last beginning his mission of preaching the message of repentance. However, he could not conceive that a pagan city would convert to God, and when it did, he is unhappy with that conversion. As we know by the rest of the story, God will make him understand through the image of a plant that grows in a day and dies as quickly that he has the same merciful love for the pagan city of Nineveh as he has for the people of Israel.

It is to all of that that Jesus refers when he says to the scribes and the Pharisees, whom he calls “an evil age” that the only sign hat will be given to them will be the sign of Jonas. We should no see in this only the fact that the three days spent by Jonas in the belly of the fish and his coming out of it is the symbol of the three days in the tomb and the Resurrection. There is more to it; because Jesus speaks also of the conversion of the inhabitants of Nineveh and of the coming of the Queen of Sheba in order to listen to the wisdom of Solomon. It is a universalistic message. Salvation is for all the nations.

One of the Fathers of the Church, St. Peter Chrysolog (bishop of Ravenna at the beginning of the 5^th century) has a beautiful commentary of that text in which he shows that the story of Jonas is realized in Jesus. He even goes as far as saying the Jesus ran away from the face of God, just like Jonas did, quoting the beautiful text of chapter 2 of the Letter to the Philippians. He, who enjoyed the divine condition, left that condition in order to become man. He came into the depths; he emptied himself in order to become one of us. The Father raised him and his message reached to the ends of the world.

We are often like the scribes and the Pharisees, asking God to give us signs. We are also like Jonas, refusing to go to those of our brothers or sisters that we consider belonging to another category, another group, another class. Then, at times, God takes us and make us go through a storm – an experience of solitude or even of personal failure. Let us try to be rather like the Queen of Sheba, not hesitating to go on a journey, to leave the trodden paths of our own certainties – or illusions – in order to listen to God’s wisdom – that wisdom which is always offered to us in the listening to and the meditation of the Word of God, but also in the listening of our sisters and brothers.

Then, we will always return to the heart of the Sign of Jonas: there is no fullness of life without going through death. We must always die to ourselves, so that Christ may be born – and born over and over again – in us.

March 9, 2006 – Thursday of the 1^st week of Lent

Ananda Matha Ashram, Makkiyad, India

Est C, 12. 14-16. 23-25; Mt 7, 7-12.

H o m i l y

The prayer of Queen Esther that we heard in the first reading is certainly one of the most beautiful prayers of the Old Testament. It is certainly full of confidence in God and of fidelity to the faith of her people Israel. But we are still pretty far of a Christian prayer. She is going to see the King Assuerus in order to save her own people and she asks God to put in the heart of the king “hatred for our enemy, so that he and those who are in league with him may perish”.

The Christian prayer, as described by Jesus to his disciples is quite different. There is no place for hatred in such a prayer, since Jesus’ disciples are expected to love their enemies as themselves. This sums up the law and the prophets, says Jesus. And he describes here a very interesting dimension of such a love of the enemy: “Treat others the way you would have them treat you.” This is quite simple; but also quite demanding!

In the measure in which we apply that basic principle, we can approach God with a total confidence. That confidence is interestingly described in the following formula: "Ask, and you will receive. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened to you. For the one who asks, receives. The one who seeks, finds. The one who knocks, enters.”

And the ground for such a confidence resides in the fact that God has towards us the attitude of a loving father. If even men, who are sinners, give good things to their children, how much more will not God give to his own children what they ask for in confidence?

So, dear Sisters, in our prayer let us not asks good things from the Lord only for ourselves; but with our hearts filled with the same love that God has for everyone let us also pray for all our sisters and brothers.

March 10, 2006 – Friday of the first Week of Lent

Ez 18, 21-28; Mt 5, 20-26

Ananda Matha Ashram, Makkiyad, Kerala, India

H O M I L Y

At times, if we read the Gospel superficially, we have the impression that Jesus is not very logical or consistent in his teaching. There are texts in the Gospel, in which he preaches against the legalism of the Pharisees, saying that the Sabbath has been made for human beings and not human beings for the Sabbath, and so on. But at other times Jesus tells us things like what we just heard: that if our justice does surpass that of the Scribes and the Pharisees, we will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven. The explanation of that discrepancy is certainly that Jesus functions according to a type of wisdom and logic different from ours.

And the explanation is also that for Jesus the Law given by God is not a restriction of human freedom, but on the contrary a gift of love, an indication given to us by God on how to arrive at our final destiny. God's will is our salvation, and it is in that sense that we pray in the Our Father: "Thy will be done".

Today's Gospel is the first part of a longer teaching of Jesus in which he repeats four or five times: "You have been told... I tell you"... He is asking for a radical change: not a change of the law itself but a change of our relationship to the law ‑‑ a change that requires a conversion of the heart more than a conversion of the law. He is not promulgating a new legalism more demanding than the legalism of the Pharisees; he is replacing the demands of legalism by much more rigorous demands of love.

Of the various precepts of the law mentioned by Jesus, let's take only one or two examples. First, let's take the precept not to kill. There is probably no precept more trampled upon today than this one. Most of the pages of our daily newspapers seem to be written with human blood. Of course, there are the crimes of those we call with hypocrisy the "common criminals". But we also kill, in the name of the State, in the name of political ideals, in the name of race and religion, or often to defend economic interests and empires. Most of the wars are orchestrated by others than those who fight them and die in them. But Jesus does not simply remind us of the precept not to kill, he invites us to the full respect of life, that requires love, forgiveness, reconciliation, compassion. There are many ways of killing other than by using a weapon: indifference kills, slander and calumny kills, envy kills, and most of all egotism kills. Jesus is asking for a total, consistent, radical respect for life.

The other is the precept not to commit adultery. Jesus is asking us to go much beyond that, demanding that we avoid any behaviour that treats another human being as an object. Just as there are hundreds of way of killing, there are hundreds of ways of transforming another person into an object: it can be the object of our lusty desires, but it can also be the object of our fears, of our discrimination, of our manipulation, of our sense of superiority. Jesus is asking for a total, radical respect for the dignity of every human person.

And most of all, whatever may be the way we have offended our brother or sister, He asks us to go and get reconciled before approaching the altar in order to offer our gifts. Les us ask the grace to be able to give and to accept pardon.

March 11, 2006 – Saturday of the 1^st Week of Lent

Dt 26, 16-19; Mt 5, 43-48

Ananda Matha Ashram, Kerala, India

Homily

Already in the Old Testament, as we can see from our reading from the book of Deuteronomy, obedience to God was not simply the fearful observance of a set of rules. Of course, there were many "commands and statutes", but they had to be observed with the heart and the soul. That observance was part of a relationship with God. It was an agreement between God and the people, a covenant : Yahweh would be their God, and they would be his people. As for the people, they must walk in God's ways.

Later on, through the Prophets, the people gradually learned something about God's ways. But the full revelation was made by Jesus, through his teaching and his life and death.

God's ways are ways of love, indiscriminate love. So, if we want to live as His children should, we should have a heart that does not distinguish between stranger and neighbor, between countryman and foreigner, between friend and enemy. We should be a sister or a brother to everyone and everyone should be considered as a brother or a sister to us.

If these very simple recommendations from the Lord were observed, many international conflicts could easily be resolved. Many community problems would also be resolved or would not exist.

This is, of course, something that we have heard many times before, but that takes on a particular meaning in this time of Lent, when we prepare ourselves to celebrate the Paschal Mystery of the death and resurrection of our Lord. Today’s readings remind us that love has a price.

Armand VEILLEUX

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