February 14, 2010
Lectionary Reflection
Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time
Greetings!

Passionist JPICAs we celebrate Our Sunday observace we keep in mind both Valentines Day which is celebrated on Sunday and President's Day which is celebrated on Monday. The Lectionary Reflection which is provided by Fr. Sebastian MacDonald. CP considers the theme of balance and justice which allows us to contemplate the balance of justice that we observe in the behaviours of both President Lincoln and Washington. Click here to go to our Lectionary Reflection Blog and share your thoughts with us.
 
This theme comes at an appropriate time where we also observe the international Day for social justice. The Catholic community recently went to Washington with the Cathoilic Social Ministry Gathering and in the action-links below you will find blogs and organizational links on Catholic social issues.
 
As we prepare for Lent let us consider the them of justice which is interrelated with charity and almsgiving.
Peace,
John 
 
Readings:
  • Jeremiah 17:5-8. Each persons experiences desert dryness at times; only the one with faith and deep roots in God survives and even bears good fruit
  • 1 Corinthians 15:12, 16-20. If our hopes are limited to this life only, we are the most pitiable of all people. If Christ has been raised from the dead, he is the first fruits and we will follow.
  • Luke 6:17, 20-26. How blest you poor... you hungry. The reign of God is yours. Your reward shall be great in heaven. 
CP-World logoCalendar:
February 12: Solemn Commemoration of the Passion
February 14: Valentine's Day
February 15: President's Day
February 17: Ash Wednesday (Day of Fast and Abstinence)
February 20: World Day of Social Justice (UN observance)
 
Quotes:
Catholic social teaching, like must philosophical reflection, distinguishes three dimensions of basic justice: commutative justice, distributive justice, and social justice.
-U.S. Bishops, Economic Justice for All, #68
 
To take politics seriously at its different levels -- local, regional, national and worldwide -- is to affirm the duty of all people to recognize the concrete reality and the value of the freedom of choice that is offered to them to seek to bring about both the good of the city and of the nation and of humanity. Politics are a demanding manner -- but not the only one -- of living the Christian commitment to the service of others.
-Paul VI, Octogesima Adveniens, #46
 
It is fully in accord with human nature that politico-juridical structures be devised which will increasingly and without discrimination provide all citizens with effective opportunities to play a free, active part in the establishment of the juridical foundations of the political community, in the administration of public affairs, in determining the aims and the terms of reference of public bodies, and in the election of political leaders.
 
All citizens ought to be aware of their right and duty to promote the common good by casting their votes. The church praises and esteems those who devote themselves to the public good and who take upon themselves the burdens of public office in order to be of service.
-Vatican II, Gaudium Et Spes, #75
 
Individual citizens and intermediate groups are obliged to make their specific contributions to the common welfare. One of the chief consequences of this is that they must bring their own interests into harmony with the needs of the community, and must contribute their goods and their services as civil authorities have prescribed, in accord with the norms of justice and within the limits of their competence.
-John XXIII, Pacem In Terris, #53
Thoughts for your Consideration: By Fr. Sebastian MacDonald, CP
Issues of justice, along with peace and integrity of creation, involve balance.  Justice is a matter of preserving some kind of equality between two (or more) parties.  It doesn't have to be absolute equality, but enough to preserve the integrity of the exchange that occurs between people.  On that basis, people are then free to advance their own concerns.
 
This matter of balance is to the fore in today's scriptural readings.  Jeremiah expresses it in describing the divine-human relationship, calling upon the familiar landscape of Judea to illustrate it.  Things become troubled when there "is no change of season".  For seasons balance each other out: the dry counters the wet, the hot offsets the cold.  When that doesn't happen, trouble occurs, just as when a person neglects his relationship to God, and throws his life out of balance.
 
crossPaul says much the same thing regarding the balance Christians strike between death and resurrection.  They need each other to depict what Christian existence is all about, thanks to our relationship to God.  Death without resurrection is troubling, just as resurrection proposed without death as part of the scenario is senseless.  There is a balance to affirm in the relationship prevailing between death and resurrection.
 
Luke hones this sense of balance in the context of common human experiences, such as riches attained without the background of poverty, or abundance enjoyed without any sense of hunger, or constant merriment at hand with no sensation of grief, or acclamation received without opposition or criticism.  He presents Jesus as seeing only woes in store for those deprived of this awareness.
The imbalances portrayed in today's scriptures are types of injustice, since they picture a distortion of the exchange that is to prevail at different levels of our lives.  This is of concern to God, Whose role in our lives entails an "admirable exchange" between our needs and His gifts.
 
Tomorrow we celebrate Presidents Day, focusing especially on two significant men, quite similar to each other in this matter of justice as a form of balance.  Both tall men (6'3" and 6'4" respectively), they were married to short women (5').  Men of few words (the one said hardly a thing at the Constitutional Convention, the other was "the most closed-mouth man" his friend had ever known), both good wrestlers and horsemen, both honed in the cauldron of war (The Revolutionary war, the Civil war), both defenders of the geographical integrity of the nation (one opposed to the sale of the Louisiana territory, the other to the division of the union), they sought a balance in the exchange between the views of a Hamilton and a Jefferson, and between pro-and anti-slavery forces.  Both men strove for the rudiments of justice amid contentious exchanges.  Neither was a church-going person, but each recognized concerns similar to those that Jeremiah, Paul and Luke express today in laying out God's expectations that we live our lives sensitive to the balances that are to prevail.
capitol2Action-Links:
The Passionist JPIC Office took part in the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility gathering last week and the Catholic Social Ministry Gathering This week. Visit the Passion for Justice Blog to read about the positions and issues that were taken and discussed at these two events.
 
Don't Give up on Healthcare Action: Please visit the Network lobby site to ask your representative to support this important piece legislation.
 
Send Immigration Reform postcards to Congress: Visit the Justice for Immigrants Network to get postcards requesting your representative to support this issue.
 
St. Paul of the Cross "The world lives unmindful of the sufferings of Jesus, which are the miracle of miracles of the Love of God"
 - St. Paul of the Cross
North American Passionist JPIC Office