A RADICALLY NEW BEGINNING   

July 31, Saturday

SEVENTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

 

      When the Jews celebrated the jubilee year every fiftieth year, slaves were supposed to be set free, land alienated through debts to be returned to its original owner. The idea was to allow for a radically new beginning, with respect for human rights and dignity. It was an attempt to bring about a more equitable distribution of goods within the people of God. The Christian Holy Year takes its inspiration from the Jewish Jubilee Year. For us, then, should the jubilee year not mean to create more justice within the Church, with a new start to be made, new chances offered to start from scratch? Is this not the image of the Christian life? A clean slate to start with, new reconciliation?

      Would we welcome prophets better than the people in their time, even if they are right? It is so difficult to face the truth about ourselves. Because it is difficult to change, to be open to true conversion. Let us pray in this eucharist for the courage to face this disturbing truth.

 

First Reading: Leviticus 25:1,8-17

God spoke to Moses at Mount Sinai:

“Count off seven Sabbaths of years—seven times seven years: Seven Sabbaths of years adds up to forty-nine years. Then sound loud blasts on the ram’s horn on the tenth day of the seventh month, the Day of Atonement. Sound the ram’s horn all over the land. Sanctify the fiftieth year; make it a holy year. Proclaim freedom all over the land to everyone who lives in it—a Jubilee for you: Each person will go back to his family’s property and reunite with his extended family. The fiftieth year is your Jubilee year: Don’t sow; don’t reap what volunteers itself in the fields; don’t harvest the untended vines because it’s the Jubilee and a holy year for you. You’re permitted to eat from whatever volunteers itself in the fields.

“In this year of Jubilee everyone returns home to his family property.

“If you sell or buy property from one of your countrymen, don’t cheat him. Calculate the purchase price on the basis of the number of years since the Jubilee. He is obliged to set the sale price on the basis of the number of harvests remaining until the next Jubilee. The more years left, the more money; you can raise the price. But the fewer years left, the less money; decrease the price. What you are buying and selling in fact is the number of crops you’re going to harvest. Don’t cheat each other. Fear your God. I am God, your God.”

 

Gospel: Matthew 14:1-12

At about this time, Herod, the regional ruler, heard what was being said about Jesus. He said to his servants, “This has to be John the Baptizer come back from the dead. That’s why he’s able to work miracles!”

Herod had arrested John, put him in chains, and sent him to prison to placate Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife. John had provoked Herod by naming his relationship with Herodias “adultery.” Herod wanted to kill him, but he was afraid because so many people revered John as a prophet of God.

But at his birthday celebration, he got his chance. Herodias’s daughter provided the entertainment, dancing for the guests. She swept Herod away. In his drunken enthusiasm, he promised her on oath anything she wanted. Already coached by her mother, she was ready: “Give me, served up on a platter, the head of John the Baptizer.” That sobered the king up fast. Unwilling to lose face with his guests, he did it—ordered John’s head cut off and presented to the girl on a platter. She in turn gave it to her mother. Later, John’s disciples got the body, gave it a reverent burial, and reported to Jesus.

 

Prayer

Lord our God, merciful Father,
you always give new chances
to the people you love.
Again and again you want to make
a new beginning with us.
God, how good you are to us.
Yes, Lord, we want to try again
to live at peace with you and each other
and to offer to each and everyone
our willingness to accept all,
to forget the mistakes of the past,
and to become new
in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

 

Reflection:

Find God in all things

The Gospel presents us with the account of the beheading of John the Baptist.
Herod Antipas ruled over Galilee from 4 BC to 39 AD, that is, all during the life of Jesus and beyond. He is the one to whom Pilate sent Jesus during his trial.

Who would dare to fight for freedom of speech in a dictatorship? And to denounce a ruler’s character was nothing but suicidal. It continues to be the same even today. In today’s terms, people would have said, it was wrong for the Baptist to interfere with the personal life of a political leader. We have the oft quoted, unwritten guideline of not mingling religion and politics.

We hear politicians say to religious leaders, “Stay in your own spiritual world and leave the real world to us.” They are suggesting that religion has nothing to say on matters that they choose to label as ‘political’. Would they also say, “Leave wars to the military?” Or financial affairs to bankers? Religion has something to say to everyone.

From the time of Prophets of the Old Testament – to John the Baptist and Jesus and the countless martyrs of the Church – people of faith refused to be intimidated by the political powers. Although they were all physically silenced by the powers that be, their silence became the loudest voice of witness against the perpetrators of falsehood and injustices.

As Martyr Bishop Óscar Romero said, “those who protest are killed and whoever tells the truth, the protesters”. John protested the behaviours of Herod and Herodias and paid the price with his head.

The Baptist knew how to risk his life to the end, for bravely denouncing what was unjust. The Gospel of Matthew introducing the account of the martyrdom of John suggests to the reader that Jesus will also be condemned for bearing witness to the truth. Jesus gives himself until the last moment to defend the life and dignity of each of God’s children, particularly those of sinners, the terminally ill, the poor, the abandoned and women.

It is precisely this prophetic testimony of Jesus that captivated Ignatius of Loyola, whose memory we celebrate today. May Saint Ignatius infect us with his spiritual experience to “find God in all things.”

Take Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my entire will, All I have and call my own. You have given all to me. To you, Lord, I return it. Everything is yours; do with it what you will. Give me only your love and your grace, that is enough for me.
-St. Ignatius of Loyola

 

Video available on Youtube: Find God in all things