Category: Ordinary Time Year C

Are you finding it awkward, perhaps even difficult to read the Bible these days?
Especially texts taken from the Old Testament as our First Readings.

Vivid images and accompanying stories from area called Gaza make for difficult reconciliation for me.

I need to admit that I am becoming increasingly despondent when I am invited to read and reflect on these texts.

Kieran O’Mahony OSA, is an Augustinian friar and biblical scholar, living in St John’s Priory, Dublin

Kieran offers us this reflection centred around our First Reading from the prophet Isaiah (66: 18 -21)

“It is hard not to overstate what is happening in Gaza: the destruction of the territory, the starvation and attempted genocide of the people. All this is done in the name of biblically inspired “nationalism”.

As such, it has made many people very, very uncomfortable with overt nationalist passages in the readings from the Bible. This causes the Bible to be frowned upon by those who fight for freedom, equality, and fraternity.

To people perhaps not so familiar with the Bible, today’s first reading from Isaiah must come as something of a surprise. It offers a vision of all nations coming to worship the one, true God.

The reading comes from the last part of Isaiah, usually called Third Isaiah, written after the return from the great Exile in Babylon. In spite of that setting, the reading breathes a broader, more universal air.

This slightly exotic text is a reminder that in the Bible there are not one but two narratives of salvation.

The first one, perhaps more familiar, is unapologetically nationalist, often harshly expressed. It is the story of the ancient Israelites, later the Jewish people. The second one, perhaps less apparent, offers a different story, the story of all the nations and their inclusion in God’s plan of salvation.”

Reading and reflecting on today’s text from Isaiah I was reminded of my visit to the United Nations building in New York City.

The building itself is substantial, rising some 39 floors into the Manhattan skyline; however, the image fixed in my memory is that of flags.

The United Nations Headquarters displays the flags of its member and observer states. These flags are arranged in English alphabetical order, representing the 193 member states and the two observer states (Holy See and the State of Palestine). 

The flags are raised in the morning and lowered in the afternoon on weekdays.

Fluttering in the afternoon breeze they shouted out, “Look at us! We dance together!”

No one flag dominates; they are raised to the same height; the same breeze energizes each flag simultaneously.

Together they flutter as a unified palette of colour.

Then I read with hope the words of the prophet Isaiah, “Knowing their works and thoughts, I have come to gather all nations and languages; they will come and see my glory.” (Is 66:1

Most people nowadays have been on an airplane.

Before the flight starts an attendant says something like this: ‘we’d like your attention for a few minutes while we show you the safety features on this aircraft.’

We are shown how to fasten our seatbelt. We are told the number and location of the emergency exits. We are told that in the event of a sudden loss of cabin pressure, an oxygen mask will be lowered in front of us. We are told that under our seat, there is a life jacket for use in the event of having to ditch in the ocean.

The idea behind all this is to help passengers to be prepared for the unexpected.

The Gospel of today (Lk. 12: 32 – 48) has a similar sense to it, namely, faithful readiness.

The invitation to us is to look again at what is important to us and where our values lie.

The airline attendant makes one last instruction to us, and that is that if, for some reason, we are required to evacuate the aircraft, take nothing with you! Leave everything behind!

Surely, they cannot really mean nothing!

I had a personal example of learning how attached I was to many of my possessions when instructed to vacate the parish house I was living in immediately. The occasion was the Christchurch earthquake of September 4th, 2010. The parish house was constructed of brick and was yellow stickered. This yellow sticker meant we were not allowed to occupy the house. And that meant leaving now!

But what about? . . . Now! Was the instruction.

The author Leo Tolstoy (1828 – 1910) wrote a short story titled “How Much Land Does A Man Need”

The story is about a peasant called Pakhom who desperately wanted to own some land.

By saving every penny he had, he bought forty acres.

He was overjoyed. However, he soon felt cramped, so he sold the 40 acres, and bought 80 acres in another region.

But this didn’t satisfy him for long, so he began to look again.

One evening a stranger arrived. Pakhom talked about his desire for more land.

The stranger told him that beyond the mountains, there lived a tribe of people who had lots of land for sale. Off he went next day.

The chief welcomed him and said, ‘For only a thousand roubles you can have as much land as you can walk round in a day. But you must return to the spot where you started on the same day, otherwise you forfeit the money.

Pakhom was thrilled. He couldn’t sleep that night, thinking of all the land that would soon be his.

As soon as the sun peeped over the horizon a marker was put down on the top of the knoll, and he was off. Men followed him on horseback and drove stakes into the ground to mark the path Pakhom traced out.

He walked fast and made excellent progress. The farther he went, the better the land became.

In his eagerness to encompass as much as he could, he lost track of time. Then to his horror he saw the sun beginning to go down.

He headed for the knoll as fast as he could.

He just made it to the top as the sun vanished. Once there, however, he collapsed face downward on the ground.

“I congratulate you,” said the chief. “You have earned more land than anyone before you.”

But Pakhom made no reply. They turned him over. He was dead.

The story concludes with Pakhom’s servant picking up the spade with which Pakhom had been marking his land and digs a grave in which to bury him: “Six feet from his head to his heels was all he needed.” The servant says!