33rd Sunday of Ordinary Time (16.11.14)<\/p>\n
Addicted To Number Crunching?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Human brains are hardwired to numbers. Our life is numerically regulated from infancy, five little toes and fingers! In Matthew\u2019s Gospel for this 33rd<\/sup> Sunday of the Year (25: 14-30) numbers are highlighted thereby playing to the human\u2019s mathematical predilection! There\u2019s always the chance that single-focus preoccupations may obscure other aspects of Jesus\u2019 parable teaching. If, consciously or subconsciously, you find your attention too focused on the \u2018five, two and one\u2019, then why not turn your attention to one of the other elements of this parable teaching such as the householder\u2019s \u2018journey\u2019.<\/p>\n Nowadays journeys of thousands of miles are unremarkable. The nomadic people of Jesus\u2019 time moved far less and, when they did, it was at a much slower pace. Some years ago I was driving from Jerusalem to Jericho on the well-surfaced, modern link road through the barren Judean wilderness. Something prompted me to pull over and stop. I walked some distance from the car in an attempt to connect with the land. After all, this was the desert in which Jesus had battled with Satan centuries before. “Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil”<\/em> (Luke 4:1-2). In Luke, too, the Judean wilderness features in Jesus\u2019 parable of the Good Samaritan: \u201c<\/em><\/strong>But he<\/em> (the lawyer), desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, \u201cAnd who is my neighbor?\u201d \u00a0Jesus replied, \u201cA man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him, and departed, leaving him half dead.<\/em> (Luke 10: 29-30)<\/p>\n Released from the air-conditioned, hermetically sealed car, I began to engage with the barren landscape. I breathed in its smell, felt its texture underfoot and let my eyes take in the subtle shades that can be found even in a desert. A person who knew the Holy Land intimately once spoke about the\u2019 fifth\u2019 Gospel.\u00a0 \u201cWe acknowledge the four written Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. But those who become real pilgrims in the Holy Land, making time for reflection and prayer at the places connected with Jesus\u2019 life and ministry, discover a fifth gospel. It\u2019s not on parchment. It is to be found within the land itself, for wherever you are in the Holy Land you are on hallowed ground.<\/p>\n The scorching sun was almost overhead. The gusting hot wind carried grains of very finely ground sand that had a sandpapering effect on my un-weathered skin. \u00a0A closer inspection of the hillsides revealed tracks made by herds of sheep from ancient times. Their hooves had etched trusted pathways on the unforgivingly dry, hard, gritted surface.\u00a0 Sheep form orderly \u2018follow my leader\u2019 lines when moving in single file on difficult terrain. Today\u2019s flocks follow the ancient, established and proven tracks, without bidding. Sometimes people pejoratively compare others to \u2018being like sheep\u2019, in other words blindly following one another. Maybe we humans are doing sheep a disservice?<\/p>\n Watching a shepherd lead his flock over the hillside in search of sparse pasture drew me into a sense of timelessness. This contrasted strongly with a more usual experience of journeying in an enclosed, fast moving vehicle, counting miles, watching the minutes tick by (more numbers!) with only the most minimal understanding of the land beneath the beating wheels.<\/p>\n As I peered from the hot hilltop down into the narrow, shaded valley floor I was amazed to discover a woman, swathed in veils, sitting side-saddle on an ass with a robed and turbaned man, staff in hand, leading the animal. Their silent, peaceful, measured pace contrasted with the hustle and stress of the high road. They were on an ancient route making use of the shaded, narrow well-worn paths through the valley floors from Jericho to Jerusalem. Here, before me, was a precious glimpse of how Joseph and Mary would have journeyed centuries before. The passage of time has erased many details of my time in the Holy Land. Yet that Judean wilderness encounter remains clear and vivid these many years on enabling this sharing with you!<\/p>\n Each person\u2019s personal journey will have lessons not only for the participant but also for others, who have \u2018eyes to see and ears to hear\u2019! Recent televised Paralympic sports events have been as educational as they were exciting. People with disabilities, be they from birth or as a result of trauma, are now more acknowledged and welcomed in society whereas previously they may have been shunned. It was a significantly important development when Olympic and Paralympic events were held simultaneously. Likewise, medical waiting rooms can teach us how to make a more appropriate evaluation of our own injuries when we see the struggles others face on a daily basis and with such cheerfulness and hope.<\/p>\n Think of the variety of journeys you have made. They will include the physical, spiritual, emotional and medical in addition to those measured in miles and kilometres. For sure, all will have been educational and quite likely demanding for you and, to the extent that you have shared the experience, for others whom you will have encountered along the way. Think specifically of those \u2018journeys\u2019 that have brought God closer to you and\/or, through you, have brought God\u2019s blessing to another or others.<\/p>\n \u201cImmediately the one who received five talents went and traded with them, and made another five.\u201d <\/em>On one occasion, when this Gospel was being read, my neighbour whispered, \u201cNot in the UK recently he didn\u2019t with a bank rate at 0.5%!\u201d\u00a0 How trapped we are by financial numbers! Might the householder not have endowed his servant, over the years, with a capacity for compassion? Might it not be possible that the servants displayed a fivefold or twofold increase in their care and compassion for another or others during \u201cthe long time\u201d of the householder\u2019s absence? The same could be said of accompaniment given to a recovering addict, a released convict, a widow or widower, someone crippled through a broken marriage, the loss of a child and so on. It doesn\u2019t always have to do with either numbers or finance! The householder\u2019s long journey could well have provided character-developing opportunities for his domestic collaborators, \u201ceach according to their ability<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n So what of the collaborator who buried his talent? Well, there\u2019s many a time we may have chosen to do just that. Perhaps we were overcome by fear or selfishness. Perhaps we just didn\u2019t love Jesus sufficiently. The one excuse that we do not have to hand, nor, for that matter, did the servant in the Gospel, is \u2013 \u2018I didn\u2019t know what to do\u2019.<\/p>\n No householder would leave what was precious to him in the care of an ill informed custodian. We are Jesus\u2019 most treasured possessions, so treasured that he willingly gave his life for us on the Cross of Calvary. The householder in Jesus\u2019 parable would have invested both formation and support in those to whom he was entrusting his treasures. Therefore, \u2018doing nothing\u2019 was not an option. The unproductive servant confesses as much!<\/p>\n If we humans imagine that the unearthing our long-buried and under or utterly unused Baptism on the Day of Judgement will suffice, we are tragically and culpably mistaken. \u201cFor to everyone who has, more will be given and they will grow rich; but from the one who has not, even what they have will be taken away.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n If some find the \u201cwailing and grinding of teeth\u2019<\/em>\u201d an uncomfortable, even frightening, analogy then maybe it\u2019s a message that needs to be heard. The Lord\u2019s investment of Baptismal adoption and infused grace in us will not be pristine when we give an account of our stewardship. It will bear the marks of our long and arduous battles with the power of Evil. However, please God, it will not have lost its structural integrity. Moreover, it may bear the grateful inscriptions and names of those whose own journey we supported without counting the cost.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 33rd Sunday of Ordinary Time (16.11.14) Addicted To Number Crunching?\u00a0 Human brains are hardwired to numbers. Our life is numerically regulated from infancy, five little toes and fingers! In Matthew\u2019s Gospel for this 33rd Sunday of the Year (25: 14-30) … Continue reading