doing something unusual for God - 29th Sunday C 2013
Have
you done something unusual in your life in order to do what you believe Jesus is
asking from you? Have you done something
unusual or even something outrageous for what you believe is the right things,
for what you believe that wants you to do?
Recently there has been a barrage of unique, unusual and even outrageous
things people do to propose a marriage – some popped the question, “will you
marry me” in the middle of a busy airport, some did it by proposing 20,000 feet
in the air, some did it by buying ads on TV and others did it on billboards, some
asked Tom Cruise to do it for them and some have even proposed by making a
privilege speech in the august halls of congress. The crazy things we do for love.
But
back to the question – have you done something unusual for God, something
ridiculous even, something people don’t expect you to do?
For
these past months now there is one person from very far away doing something
unusual, outrageous even to some, that has somewhat disturbed the way things are
even us priests have a hard time following.
The culprit is no less than the Pope, Pope Francis.
The
first sign that things will no longer be “business as usual” was on the day he
was elected Pope when instead of riding the papal limousine he rode the bus
together with the other cardinals. Then
the next day after praying in the church of our Blessed Mother in Rome he went
on a side trip to a modest hotel where he had been staying before the conclave
to pick up his things and pay his bill. These
things would have been dismissed as an aberration if not for an incident about
a Swiss Guard, who was standing guard on the door of the papal office and was
politely offered, and when he refused, politely ordered to sit on a chair and eat
a sandwich by no less than the pope himself – something nobody ever thought of
doing in its more than 500 years of guarding the popes.
Then
things just started rolling. Some
priests taking the cue from the pope sold their personal cars and changed it to
simpler ones. Some even forgo the car
and rode the bus. A bishop in Europe saw
his big but empty seminary building and got the idea from Pope Francis to
convert this into a low cost temporary housing for the poor. It was unusual, it was even outrageous for
some, nobody even thought of it before but then all of sudden it was catching
in on us and many of us priests are having difficulty catching up.
I
have read so many papal documents before telling priests to be simple and it
never made such a tremendous impact as seeing a pope riding the bus with the
other cardinals as they were herded to the Casa Santa Marta.
So
going back to the question, what unusual things did you do for Jesus, something
people never expected you to do, something you do not usually do, something funny,
something weird, something unexpected from you, or at least from the usual you.
This
came to mind because in our first reading we see Moses striking an unusual pose
on top of a hill while battle was raging on down the hill. He was standing with hands outstretched. And when Moses got tired they got a big
stone, had him sit on it and held both his hands in the air. The Israelites
must have looked up in between sword fights and saw this figure on top just
standing there with arms outstretched and this may have encouraged them to
fight further. The enemies must have seen him too and they must have wondered
what he was up to this time and this must have made them afraid. It was an unusual pose, unexpected, but it
made a difference in the battle’s outcome.
And
here is another story by Jesus. Widows
in Jesus’ time were the makaluluoy, the miserable, the pitiable. With the death of their husband they lose a
lot of rights and many times they could not fight for themselves even if they
want to. But in the story of Jesus this
widow is not your usual widow, she was not the typical, the regular widow. She did things not expected of her. She did the unusual so much so that the judge,
who neither feared men or God, had to give in to her lest he received a black
eye from the widow. Yes black eye is the
term used by Jesus if translated literally from Greek. The judge was afraid the widow would give him
a black eye.
So
ok, aside from giving somebody a black eye which I would not encourage you to
do, what unusual thing would you do for Jesus, what unusual thing would you do
for love? What unusual or even a
ridiculous thing would you do for the gospel?
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