The Church: A Straitjacket Or A Springboard?

June 18, 2023

In an earlier reflection I have spoken of how the Bible is the articulation of the story of a pilgrimage of human beings’ varied and evolving experiences of God.  We find hints of similar pilgrimages in today’s three readings.  

In the first reading we clearly have a picture of a stern God, who is reminding the Israelites of his power, and sternly ordering them to keep his word, perhaps implying that just as he punished the Egyptians, he could punish them if they failed.  In the second reading, we have Paul saying we have been saved from the ‘wrath of God’ through Jesus dying for us.  Both these readings then speak of a God, very unlike Jesus (God and Man) who in today’s Gospel reading is seen to react quite differently to people’s ‘lostness’: When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”  Here we have a Jesus who doesn’t threaten them with punishment for having lost their way, but actually wants to send more ‘labourers’  to help them find their way. This reaction of Jesus is quite different from the spirit of a stern and wrathful God that seems to come across in the two first readings.

But that is not all.  In today’s Gospel reading we have a hint that could remind us that Jesus too was himself on a pilgrimage, in understanding his own mission.  So we have Jesus telling his disciples when he sends them out:  “Do not take a road leading to the gentiles, and do not enter a Samaritan town,  but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel”  It is obvious that Jesus is clearly and emphatically telling his disciples that his message is to be taken ONLY to the lost sheep of Israel.  And yet we know from the actual practice of the early Church’s missionary efforts,  that the early Church clearly did NOT limit themselves to the lost sheep of Israel, but quite actively sought to spread the message to all, including the Gentiles (i.e. those who did not accept Yahweh as their God).  And then we also read in today’s second reading from the letter to the Romans that Christ died for ALL, not just for the children of Israel.   

So was the early Church clearly disobeying Jesus’ teachings?  Such a conclusion is only possible if we subscribe to the belief that right from the beginning of his life, Jesus knew everything about his mission perfectly. We tend to this conclusion based on a belief that  since he ‘came down from God’  Jesus did not have to GROW in his understanding of his own mission.  In reality, all human beings, including we ourselves, are never really sure at the beginning of our lives exactly how we want to live our lives, or what our mission in life is.  And in fact, right till the end of our lives, we may be struggling to find out what we are called to do.  And unless Jesus’ humanity was only a kind of disguise or pretence, then Jesus would have the same experience that is common to all human beings.  In fact we have many examples in the Gospels that indicate to us that Jesus too “grew in wisdom and favour with God and human beings” - a statement we find in Luke’s Gospel (2:52) when we are told the story of Jesus being lost in the temple as a child.   

This growth continues throughout Jesus’ life.  Thus, at the wedding at Cana (John 2:1-11), Jesus clearly tells  his mother that according to himself, his time had not yet come and so was unwilling to help the wedding couple at their marriage feast.  But his mother does not listen to him and Jesus is pushed into working a miracle. So we can perhaps conclude that Jesus did not know that it was time to start his mission - but his mother intuited it and pushed him and he acquiesced and actually started his mission from then.  Similarly, if we accept that Jesus too grew in the understanding of his own mission,  we can read today’s Gospel as telling us what Jesus initially believed, - namely that he was sent only to the house of Israel.  But we find in the Gospels themselves that Jesus himself is challenged in this understanding of his. So, for example, in Mathew 15:21-28 we have the story of Jesus’ encounter with a Syrophoenician woman  who begs him to heal her daughter. Initially Jesus answers with what he believes at that point: “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”  This is the same belief that is expressed in today’s Gospel when he tells his disciples to go ONLY to the lost sheep of Israel. And as if that was not enough, Jesus continues : “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.”   Harsh and completely unsympathetic!. But as the story in Mathew’s Gospel unfolds, the Syrophoenician woman, like any good parent who will stand up against, and plead for her child, even with a holy and powerful man like Jesus, responds pithily: “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”   A powerful retort that forces Jesus to re-think his stance, and then heal her daughter.  And that marks the beginning of Jesus’ own realisation that his message was for all, Jews and Gentiles, and that all human beings are God’s children, not just the ‘chosen’ Jews.  And so towards the end of the same Gospel of Mathew (28:19) we have the same Jesus missioning his disciples by saying:  Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,…”  And in today’s second reading which is Paul’s letter to the Romans (who were clearly not Jews), Paul confirms that God sent Jesus for all sinners for ALL our children of God.  And so the early Church was NOT going against Jesus’ teaching by spreading the Gospel message to ALL, for Jesus himself had grown in his understanding of what God wanted from him, and for whom he was sent.  And in many other parts of the Gospels, we can see examples of other kinds of  growth in Jesus at various stages of his life.   

Even in the selection of the twelve Apostles that we find in today’s Gospel reading, we find a story of growth.  Remember that Jesus had many disciples following him, and it is from among the many that he, at a later stage in his mission, decides to specially select and focus on twelve. But who were these twelve?  A cursory glance at their names and backgrounds offers some interesting insights, reminding us that each of them changed significantly, and grew, as they spent time with Jesus.. One of the twelve selected was Simon the Zealot.  The Zealots were a political group dedicated to overthrowing the Roman occupation of Israel through violent means.  Then we have Mathew (Levi) who was a tax collector, i.e. part of a group which was particularly hated by the Zealots because they cooperated with Rome AND also hated by the poorer Jews because they oppressed them in the collection of the taxes, often demanding more than was their due. Besides these two, we have the brothers James and John who were nicknamed Sons of Thunder, - probably because they were quick to get angry as we read in the story where Jesus is not given refuge by the Samaritans and these two want to rain down fire on these Samaritans (Luke 9:51-56).  As for Peter, though the younger brother to Andrew, he was a bombastic fellow who boasts of his complete devotion to Jesus, but when he is tested,  denies him three times.  And of course we have Judas Iscariot who is one who did NOT grow though he spent as much time with Jesus. For we must not assume that Judas was any less an Apostle - or else Jesus would not have chosen  him.  All the apostles were imperfect disciples, but all grew as they walked with Jesus, whereas  perhaps Judas just did not grow enough.

No women were included among the Apostles, probably because Jesus was part of the same culture where women were not generally given any leadership roles, and so Jesus too had to grow in that aspect too.   But there were women in the larger band of disciples as we know from various other parts of the Gospel stories, and eventually Jesus gave them more and more importance.  Thus we have Jesus supporting Mary who left her kitchen duties to spend time with him (even as he rebuked Martha her sister),  and a prostitute Mary who became one of his closest disciples, and another Mary Magdalene to whom he appeared first after his resurrection.  So gradually Jesus did start giving women more importance, even though he never gave them leadership roles - indicating that perhaps Jesus was also growing in his understanding of women’s roles in that time.   

Thus we have the inner journey of growth within Jesus himself, in the Apostles and in the women who followed Jesus. And these experiences of this pilgrimage towards God that are articulated in the Bible are expressed in many and varied ways. And this growth - of Jesus and of this motley and disparate group of disciples - helped to change the world

And so today’s readings perhaps remind us not to get stuck where we are, but to continuously grow and evolve and experience God in ever newer ways. In fact the Church in its famous Vatican Council 2 document ‘Gaudium et Spes’ specifically calls on the Church to scrutinize the signs of the times and interpret them in the light of the Gospel. In other words the Church asks us to continue this growth and not be limited by our past. Or as a famous theologian Rahner suggests, we should use our tradition (and the Bible too by implication) as springboards for further discoveries, not as straitjackets that stop us from exploring further.

In this regard,  here is an anecdote that I was witness to myself, many years ago when I was still a Jesuit.  Fr. Tony D’mello, who was my Rector at that time, once gave his understanding of a Biblical passage as part of his Sunday sermon. A few months later he gave another sermon in which he contradicted what he had said just a few months earlier. When the Jesuit scholastics (seminarians) who were his ‘blind followers’ heard this new interpretation, they were very troubled and went to Tony to ask him about the change in his teaching. And I remember Tony responding along the lines of: “That was what I thought three months ago, but since then I have moved on and reflected further. Why are you still stuck over there?” 

First Reading: Exodus 19: 2-6a

They had journeyed from Rephidim, entered the wilderness of Sinai, and camped in the wilderness; Israel camped there in front of the mountain. Then Moses went up to God; the LORD called to him from the mountain, saying, ‘Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the Israelites: You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples. Indeed, the whole earth is mine, but you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation.

Second Reading: Romans 5: 6-11

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die.  But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. Much more surely then, now that we have been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life. But more than that, we even boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

Gospel: Matthew 9: 36 – 10: 8

When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

Then Jesus[a] summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness. These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon, also known as Peter, and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus and Thaddaeus; Simon the Cananaean and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him. 

These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Do not take a road leading to gentiles, and do not enter a Samaritan town, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, proclaim the good news, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ Cure the sick; raise the dead; cleanse those with a skin disease; cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment.