The Risen Lord is our Redeemer

THE RESURRECTION AS REVEALING GOD AS REDEEMER, NOT AS RESCUER 

Faith isn’t meant to do that. Jesus doesn’t grant special exemptions to his friends, no more than God granted special exemptions to Jesus. We see this everywhere in the Gospels, though most clearly in Jesus’ resurrection.

To understand this, it’s helpful to compare Jesus’ resurrection to what Jesus himself does in raising Lazarus from the dead.

We are all familiar with the story of Lazarus. Jesus’ friend has died, and his sisters in turn ask him the question: “Why?”  Why, since you loved this man, did you not come to save him from death?

Why is it that God invariably seems absent when bad things happen to good people? Why doesn’t God rescue his loved ones and save them from pain and death?

The answer to that question teaches a very important lesson about Jesus, God, and faith, namely, that God is not a God who ordinarily rescues us, but is rather a God who redeems us. God doesn’t ordinarily intervene to save us from humiliation, pain, and death; rather he redeems humiliation, pain, and death after the fact.

Jesus treats Lazarus exactly the same way as God, the Father, treats Jesus: Jesus is deeply and intimately loved by his Father and yet his Father doesn’t rescue him from humiliation, pain, and death. In his lowest hour, when he is humiliated, suffering, and dying on the cross, Jesus is jeered by the crowd with the challenge: “If God is your father, let him rescue you!” But there’s no rescue.  Instead Jesus dies inside the humiliation and pain. God raises him up only after his death.

Jesus never promised us rescue, exemptions, immunity from cancer, or escape from death. He promised rather that, in the end, there will be redemption, vindication, immunity from suffering, and eternal life. But that’s in the end; meantime, in the early and intermediate chapters of our lives, there will be the same kinds of humiliation, pain, and death that everyone else suffers.

This is one of the key revelations inside the resurrection: We have a redeeming, not a rescuing, God.

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2nd Sunday of Easter (C)

Short Reflection for the 2^nd Easter Sunday (C): Divine Mercy Sunday

Reading: Acts 5: 12-16; Revelation 1:9-11. 12-13. 17-19; John 20: 19-31

Selected Passage:  Jesus said to him (Thomas), "Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed." (John 20:29)

Reflection:  Do we need to put our fingers into his wounds in order to believe?  Jesus is, truly, RISEN!  We believe, because the testimonies of his disciples are trustworthy. They saw and experienced the Risen Lord. 

In a very special way, the Divine Mercy Sunday invites us all to face and embrace the difficulties and pains of life with confidence. God’s mercy endures forever!   www.badaliyya.blogspot.com

5th Sunday of Lent (C)

Short Reflection for the 5^th Sunday in Lent (C) – The Samaritan Woman at the Well

Readings: Isaiah 43: 16-21; Philippians 3: 8-14; John 8: 1-11

Selected Passage:  “Then Jesus straightened up and said to her, ‘Woman, where are they?  Has no one condemned you?’  She replied, ‘No one, sir.’  Then Jesus said, ‘neither do I condemn you. Go, (and) from now on do not sin anymore.’” (John 8: 10-11)

Reflection:  The gospel tells us that God does not condemn us.  In fact, he gives us the grace not only to free us from our past but the opportunity to begin life anew. Such is the LOVE of God that he offered his only begotten Son that we may have new LIFE and life to the full.  Quoting St. Paul in the 2^nd reading: ‘one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead…’

The Prodigal Son's Brother

THE PRODIGAL SON'S BROTHER

Interestingly, in a curious omission, when Jesus quotes this text to define his own ministry, he leaves out the part about vengeance (Luke 4:18).

There are too many of us in the church and the world today, who have the same burning need. We want to see misfortune fall upon the wicked. It is not enough that eventually the good should have their day. The bad must be positively punished.

To my mind, this desire for justice (as we call it) is, at its root, unhealthy and speaks volumes about the bitterness within our own lives. All these worries that somebody might be getting away with something and all these wishes that God better be an exacting judge, suggest that we, like the older brother of the prodigal son, might be doing things right, but real love, forgiveness and celebration have long gone out of our hearts.

In the end, it is because we are wounded and bitter that we worry about God's justice, worry that it might be too lenient, worry that the bad will not be fully punished, worry that there might not be a hell.
But we should worry less about those things and more about our own incapacity to forgive, to let go of our own hurts, to take delight in life, to give others the sheer gaze of admiration, to celebrate and to truly join in the dance. To be fit for heaven we must let go of our bitterness.

Like the older brother, our problem is ultimately not the excessive love that is seemingly shown someone else. Our problem is that we have never fully heard or understood God's words: "My child, you have always been with me and all I have is yours, but we, you and I, should be happy and dance because your younger brother who was dead has come back to life!"

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4th Sunday in Lent (C)

Short Reflection for the 4^th Sunday in Lent (C) – The Prodigal Son

Readings: Joshua 5: 9. 10-12; 2 Corinthians 5: 17-23; Luke 15: 1-3. 11-32

Selected Passage:  “Coming to his senses he thought, 'How many of my father's hired workers have more than enough food to eat, but here am I, dying from hunger. I shall get up and go to my father and I shall say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.  I no longer deserve to be called your son; treat me as you would treat one of your hired workers.’” (Luke 15: 17-19)

Reflection:  The season of Lent is an invitation to come back to our senses.  Like the Prodigal Son, we need only to recognize our sins and go back to the Father.  The compassion of the Father knows NO end. He is there waiting for us with neither condemnation nor judgment. He is merciful and full of compassion with NO recriminations and instead he prepares a banquet on our return home. www.badaliyya.blogspot.com