{"id":4064,"date":"2013-08-03T11:08:17","date_gmt":"2013-08-03T10:08:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/?p=4064"},"modified":"2013-08-03T11:08:17","modified_gmt":"2013-08-03T10:08:17","slug":"at-the-core-17th-sunday-of-ordinary-time-28-07-13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/?p=4064","title":{"rendered":"At The Core. 17th Sunday of Ordinary Time (28.07.13)"},"content":{"rendered":"

17th Sunday of Ordinary Time (28.07.13)<\/strong><\/p>\n

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At The Core<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2018Eureka!\u2019 can be a cry from the soul, a moment of deep joy when a truth is revealed. Diarmuid O’Murchu, a priest member of the Sacred Heart Missionary Order and respected social psychologist and author, wrote: \u201cThere are moments when we know instinctively and intuititively that all is one, that relationship defines the very core of life itself.\u201d (Quote from \u2018In the Beginning was the Spirit\u2019) Diarmuid\u2019s, twenty two words, prompted a eureka event for me. His book successfully liberates the Holy Spirit from the dryness of doctrinal definitions.<\/p>\n

\u2018Eureka\u2019 moments originating with the impulse of the Holy Spirit signal a commencement or re-commencement not a conclusion. In themselves they initiate an impetus capable of engaging, long term, the soul, heart and mind of the discoverer if there is willingness in the recipient. For a non-Baptised adult, being gifted with a call to faith is a eureka moment enabling an onward journey to Baptism and the other sacraments of Initiation. For an infant, Baptism is a eureka moment-in-waiting which will come in the fullness of time. For a Baptised adult whose faith never grew beyond the font, such a eureka moment is a divine invitation to re-connect.<\/p>\n

Diarmuid\u2019s assertion focuses on what has engaged many great minds over the centuries namely, what is at the core of life? His assertion resonates with truth for those who believe in the Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the unique and perfect relationship at the core of all life.<\/p>\n

Relationship is at the heart of the Sunday Scripture for the 17th Sunday of the Year (28th. July) especially the Genesis Reading and St. Luke\u2019s Gospel. Abraham, revered by many people of faith, barters with God (Genesis 18: 20-32) in a familial yet respectful dialogue. Such a dialogue, in both tone and content, would never have been possible without God taking the initiative long before \u2013 as detailed in last Sunday\u2019s First Reading (Genesis 18:1-10). Really, we need to read the whole of Chapter 18 to grasp the development of the foundational relationship initiated by God with Abraham. You may also wish to read again the commentary, on this site, for last Sunday\u2019s Scripture entitled \u2018Hospitality\u2019.<\/p>\n

Abraham\u2019s dialogue with God, this Sunday, reveals an intimacy of respect and trust that is truly breathtaking. Would you dialogue with God in such an intimate manner? Consider that just four generations ago children spoke when spoken to and often called their father \u2018Sir\u2019. Parents lived in one world and their offspring in another. In just four generations our society, savagely disrupted by two world wars and much else, now has numerous children deprived of the care offered by a loving father through death, disintegration of relationship or no relationship in the first place. How sad it is that there will be worshippers in churches this Sunday, listening to the Genesis reading, whose deprivation of relationship in their personal life will prevent them from delving beneath the surface of the Genesis text.<\/p>\n

Many who believe in God have grown up hearing about a deity who is remote and unapproachable. Church authorities were not beyond using fear to inculcate not only an exaggerated reverence but also control. Misuse of the hierarchical discipline maintained by the clerical structure has much to answer for.<\/p>\n

How different is the ethos portrayed in the dialogue between God and Abraham. Here was a human, deeply reverent and respectful both to God and to the gift of life, showing a deep awareness of how much God loves him. The dialogue further reveals Abraham\u2019s appreciation of God\u2019s love for all peoples and Abraham\u2019s personal desire to participate in bringing others to appreciate God\u2019s love for them. To the extent and for the duration of a malformation in upbringing, an injury or injuries in the course of life, or a cessation of a person\u2019s full or partial relationship with God, as their Creator, or their relationship with their human parents, as their progenitors, that person\u2019s capacity to love and be loved is less than God\u2019s will would have it be, is less than God wills their life to be. For God is love \u2013 \u201cWhoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.\u201d (1John 4:8)<\/p>\n

Are we to see in the election of Pope Francis a divinely inspired \u2018eureka\u2019 moment for the Church? Catholics and others are expressing a belief that this Bishop of Rome, called \u2018from the ends of the earth\u2019, has both the vision and the courage to initiate a restoration in the Church whereby the entire international body becomes more in touch with the lifestyle of its founder.<\/p>\n

Jesus\u2019 Gospel parable on perseverance in relationship (Luke 11:1-13) is composed of multiple threads each an illustration of how relationship is the core of life. Seeing Jesus deeply engrossed in prayer with his heavenly Father causes his disciples to ask him to teach them how to pray. These Jewish men were no strangers to personal and synagogue prayer or, perhaps, to reciting prayers. Clearly, Jesus\u2019 prayer was something else, something mysterious, silent, yet wholly attractive. Look back in your life, there will be one or more persons whose almost visible depth of silent prayer captured your attention. For that matter, when did any of us last ask Jesus\u2019 Holy Spirit to teach us to pray, which is not the same thing as trying to remember the words of a prayer? The essence of Jesus\u2019 prayer and mission is his relationship with his heavenly Father that Jesus expresses as: \u201cI and the Father are one.\u201d (John 10:29)<\/p>\n

Pope Francis, as recently as last May 15th, said: \u201cWe are living in an age when we are rather sceptical regarding truth. Benedict XVI spoke many times about relativism, that is, the tendency to believe that there is nothing definitive and to think that truth comes from consensus or from what we desire. \u2026 What comes to my mind here is \u2026 Pontius Pilate’s question when Jesus reveals to him the profound meaning of his mission:<\/p>\n

“You are a king, then!” said Pilate. Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” “What is truth?” retorted Pilate\u2019. (John 18:37-38)<\/p>\n

\u201cPilate,\u201d Pope Francis continued, \u201cis unable to understand that ‘the’ Truth is in front of him, he is unable to see, in Jesus, the face of truth, which is the face of God. \u2026 You cannot grasp truth as if it were a thing; it is encountered. It isn’t a possession; it is an encounter with a Person.\u201d<\/p>\n

In other words Truth is the living, core relationship between the Creators and the created made in the Creator\u2019s image and likeness. The Holy Spirit, the animator of this relationship, is promised by Jesus in the Father\u2019s Name:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhich of you fathers, if your child asks for a fish, will give them a snake instead? Or if your child asks for an egg, will give them a scorpion?\u00a0If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!\u201d (Luke 11:9-13)<\/p>\n

Hunger for a true, fulfilling relationship is fundamental to us. Perhaps if we were to cultivate a hunger in our hearts and souls \u2013 a hunger that arises from a need for communion, a hunger prompted by prayer, a hunger that can be satisfied only by Jesus himself \u2013 such a hunger would drive us to long for our next sacred meal when we will be fed with the bread of The Word and the bread of The Eucharist.<\/p>\n

A final quote from Pope Francis at his 29 May 2013 General Audience in Rome:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Church is born of God’s desire to call all men and women to communion with him, to friendship with him, even further, to participate as his children in his very divinity. The word ‘Church’ itself, from the Greek ‘ekklesia’, means ‘convocation’. God calls us, urges us to leave selfishness behind, the tendency to be wrapped up in oneself, and calls us to be part of his family. This call has its origins in creation itself. God created us so that we might live a relationship of profound friendship with him and, when sin cut off that relationship with him, with others, and with creation, God did not abandon us.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

17th Sunday of Ordinary Time (28.07.13) At The Core \u2018Eureka!\u2019 can be a cry from the soul, a moment of deep joy when a truth is revealed. Diarmuid O’Murchu, a priest member of the Sacred Heart Missionary Order and respected … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archdiocese-of-liverpool"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4064"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4064\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4065,"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4064\/revisions\/4065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}