Mother Rebecca
September 27, 2015
Num 11:25-29; Mk 9:38-48
There
is a little problem with today’s gospel.
We hear Jesus tell us to amputate our own hands and feet – and whatever
else causes us to sin! I think Jesus is
being a bit overly dramatic in an attempt to emphasis the severity and
seriousness of sin. In a culture that no
longer talks much about sin, this may be a much needed gospel for our
times. But wasn’t it just a few weeks
ago Jesus was telling us that nothing on the outside makes us unclean, but what
causes sin comes only from within?! The
battle we are called to fight is inside of us - with our thoughts and disordered passions – with the mind and heart. So if we put these two teachings together,
this amputation would not leave us handless and footless, but rather every one of us would be left “mindless”!!
In reality, it is our conflicting
thoughts and passions that need to be cut off, not our hands and feet. So Jesus speaks quite vividly today of the
practice of nepsis. It is about reaching
apatheia - about detachment to things
that are not of God. Cassian calls this apatheia ‘purity of heart’ and explained that this detachment leads
us to contemplation - union with God and unity within our self.
It
sounds ironic: detachment to create
union; to ‘cut off’ to form communion.
Yet these two opposite themes run together in the readings. The first theme is about dissection while the
second is about connection. In the Book
of Numbers, Joshua tells Moses to stop Eldad and Medad from prophesizing
because they were not among their group.
Joshua wanted to cut off those outside their camp even though their words were good.
Next we have John telling Jesus to stop people doing good works in His
name because they too did not follow their cluster. Yet both Moses and Jesus say do not prevent
them: “Who is not against us is with
us.” Jesus said we can tell a tree by
its fruit. So a question we might ask
our self is: What fruit do I bear? And what needs pruning?
But
we can take this analogy further, not as individuals but as a community. We are one body striving towards one goal,
which is Christ. Is there anyone in
community I exclude because they do not live the monastic life the way I think
they should? Can I relate to each and every
member or do I cut one or two off because they cause irritations? I am not called to exclude others but to look inward and remove thoughts and feelings
that exclude me from others. Any community not in communion is broken for
when we cut off a limb we are all wounded.
Yet looking at it on the other side, when I exclude myself from the
common life am I not exposing myself to potential sin and greater temptations? This calls us to examine our relationships in community and as community. Again, there
is an interior battle that needs to be waged with our thoughts and hearts. This is a challenge – detachments within are
needed to bring unity without.
But
let us widen the analogy even further, from our physical body, to that of the
Mystical Body. St Paul speaks of all
humanity as members of the one body in Christ.
He said, “The body does not consist of one member but of many.” (1Cor12) “Suppose the foot was to say ‘because I am
not a hand, I do not belong to the body’.
It belongs to the body nonetheless… God appointed each limb and organ to
its own place in the body as He chose.
If the whole were a single organ, there would not be a body at all.” Paul concludes saying, “You are Christ’s body
and each of you a limb or organ of it.”
When we start excluding groups who are not like us are we not cutting
off the limbs of the Mystical Body? To amputate
others is to lose our self as well as our true identity. Any community not in union with the Mystical body
is broken for when we cut off a limb we are all wounded. As St Paul said, “When one member suffers we
all suffer together with it. If one
member is honored, all rejoice together.”
We are all born from the same womb and so we are all brothers and
sisters in the One Body of Christ.
Thomas Merton said that we as monks “go into the desert (or cloister)
not to escape the world but in order to find them in God.” Is our prayer bringing us to greater
compassion and unity? Is our prayer moving
us to reach out in love or to cut off in self-preservation?
But
there is still another analogy to this detachment that leads to union. Pope Francis in his latest encyclical said
that our connection with our diverse world is found by detaching from all
corruption that harms our world and the cosmos.
When we treat our planet as the gift it is, we will be responsible in
our actions and share these gifts with all people. We cannot divorce ourselves from the living
environment that sustains our existence.
Pope Francis says the only way we could ignore the intimate connection
between ourselves and the ecosphere is to objectify it and see it only for my
use…and thus, abuse.
So
let us take seriously the sin that separates us from our true self, from our
community, from the Mystical Body, and from all of creation. There needs to be detachment to find union,
things’ to cut off’ to form communion, dissection so as to have
connection. Unity is found when we amputate
all those thoughts, passions, and actions that are not of God. As Merton said, “In my soul and in your soul I
find the same Christ who is our life. This life is love and together we all
find Paradise which is the sharing of His love.” This is the love we strive for: a love that unites, a love that brings
fullness, and a love that will “bring us all together to everlasting life”. (RB
72:11)
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