This blog is for the use of the whole parish; please let me know if you'd like to contribute.
Chris (email link at the bottom of each page)
Shunned and rejected, but not by Jesus
15-01-2021, 07:32brokenness, forgiveness, leprosy, outcasts, rejects, sinPermalinkHebrews 3:7–14 • Psalm 94(95):6–11 • Mark 1:40-45
In the ancient world lepers were outcasts. Feared and loathed in equal measure, despised and dreaded too, they scraped out a meagre existence by beggıng and pleading for mercy. The Levitical law was clear, unambiguous and harsh: The leper who has the disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head hang loose, and he shall cover his upper lip and cry: "Unclean, unclean."... [H]e shall dwell alone in a habitation outside the camp' (Lev. 13:45 – 46). Leprosy was clearly a terrible curse, a truly dreadful disease. In Jesus' day the sufferer was declared ritually unclean, and the condition was perceived as a punishment for sin. Lepers did not receive the compassion and care evoked by other diseases but were ostracized, feared and judged as sinners. It is hard for us to conceive of the suffering and anguish of the poor leper in today's Gospel account, although in the early days of the outbreak of AIDS/HIV sufferers said that they felt like lepers. Had he been forced to leave a wife and family? Did his former friends shun him? Where did he find food and shelter? What hope did the years ahead hold for him? How he must have wept and lamented his awful fate! Mark records that Jesus was profoundly moved with compassion for him, which led him to stretch out his hand to touch and heal him.
There are, of course, many in our society who are shunned and rejected, modern lepers if you will. It doesn't take much imagination to identify them: the poverty-stricken, refugees, migrants, those afflicted with AIDS, child-busers, prisoners, sex workers, drug addicts. If Jesus were alive today, these are the people he would love to associate with. But Jesus is alive today living by his Spirit and through the witness of believers who understand that we are all of us in fact lepers. We are all afficted and wounded by sin and darkness, and like the leper we too have received the pity, compassion, love and mercy of God, revealed in Jesus Christ our Lord. Having ourselves received God's amazing mercy, we reach out to others with his pity, compassion, love and mercy.
Lord, you have cleansed us from sin and restored to us the dignity of being your sons and daughters. Holy Spirit, fill our hearts with joy in our salvation so that we might long to share that joy with others, especialy those who have been rejected.
Chris
from Bible Alive
Only God can Forgive Sins
02-07-2020, 07:52brokenness, chances, forgiveness, healing, love, Rolheiser, sinPermalink“. . .if the Catholicism that I was raised in had a fault, and it did, it was precisely that it did not allow for mistkes. If you made a mistake, you lived with it and, like the rich young man, were doomed to be sad, at least for the rest of your life. A serious mistake was a permanent stigmatization. We need a theolgy of brokenness. We need a theology which teaches us that even though we can’t unscramble an egg, God’s grace lets us live happily and with renewed innocence beyond any egg we may have scrambled. Every time we close a door, He opens another one for us . . .
"We need a theology that teaches us that God does not just give us one chance, but that every time we close a door, God opens another one for us. We need a theology that challenges us not to make mistakes, that takes sin seriously, but which tells us that when we do sin, when we do make mistakes, we are given the chance to take our place among the broken, among those whose lives are not perfect, the loved sinners, those for whom Christ came. We need a theology which tells us that a second, third, fourth, and fifth chance are just as valid as the first one. We need a theology that tells us that mistakes are not forever, that they are not even for a lifetime, that time and grace wash clean, that nothing is irrevocable. Finally, we need a theology which teaches us that God loves us as sinners and that the task of Christianity is not to teach us how to live, but to teach us how to live again, and again, and again."
Chris
from Ron Rolheiser
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