Bible On Call
- Scripture Reflection, March 7: The 'Blame Game'
- Scripture Reflection, February 28: Come, Seek God’s Face
- Scripture Reflection, February 21: Leaving Egypt
- Scripture Reflection, February 14: Be Exceedingly Glad
- Scripture Reflection, February 7: Excuse Me!
- Scripture Reflection, January 31: Speaking Truth in Love
- Scripture Reflection, January 24: Jesus' Inaugural Address
- Scripture Reflection, January 17: Journeying with Mary
- Scripture Reflection, January 10: The Baptism of the Lord
- Scripture Reflection, January 03: The Epiphany of the Lord
- Scripture Reflection, December 27: The Feast of the Holy Family
- Scripture Reflection, December 20: Mary's Yes and Our Yes
- Scripture Reflection, December 13: A Day of Rejoicing
- Scripture Reflection, December 6: Taking Jesus off the Shelf
- Scripture Reflection, November 29: First Sunday of Advent
- Scripture Reflection, November 22: The Solemnity of Christ the King
- Scripture Reflection, November 15: Called to be Stars forever
- Scripture Reflection, November 8: My "spoiled" lens. What's yours?
- Scripture Reflection, November 1: Solemnity of All Saints
- Scripture Reflection, October 25: Branch and Root Desires
- Scripture Reflection, October 18: About the First and the Last
- Scripture Reflection, October 11: A Blank Check for God
- Scripture Reflection, October 04: Two Equals One
- Scripture Reflection, September 27: The God of Surprises
- Scripture Reflection, September 20: True Greatness
- Scripture Reflection, September 13: Who Do You Say That I Am?
- Scripture Reflection, September 06: Be Opened
- Scripture Reflection, August 30: Fooling Ourselves
- Scripture Reflection, August 23: Don't Forget
- Scripture Reflection, August 16: Living the Eucharist
- Scripture Reflection, August 09: Simple Truths
- Scripture Reflection, August 02: Everybody's Got a Hungry Heart
- Scripture Reflection, July 26: Only Five Loaves?
- Scripture Reflection, July 19: The Shepherd's Voice
- Scripture Reflection, July 12: Mission Impossible?
- Scripture Reflection, July 05: Hearers of the Word
- Scripture Reflection, June 28: Living Life to the Fullest
- Scripture Reflection, June 21: Amidst the Storm
- Scripture Reflection, June 14: Become What You Are
- Scripture Reflection, June 07: Trinity Sunday
- Scripture Reflection, May 31: The Feast of Pentecost
- Scripture Reflection, May 24: The Ascension of the Lord
- Scripture Reflection, May 17: Friendship with Christ
- Scripture Reflection, May 10: Growing Fruits in God's Vineyard
- Scripture Reflection, May 3: The Good Shepherd
- Scripture Reflection, April 26, 2009: Witnesses to Christ's Love
- Scripture Reflection, April 19, 2009: Risen With His Wounds
- Scripture Reflection, April 12, 2009: Easter Sunday
- Scripture Reflection, Palm Sunday, April 05, 2009: Love Conquers All
- Scripture Reflection, March 29: Transforming Our Hearts
- Scripture Reflection, March 22: Amazing Grace
- Scripture Reflection, March 15: Called to Integrity
- Scripture Reflection, March 8: Sharing Christ's Cross
- Scripture Reflection, March 1: Renewing the Covenant
- Scripture Reflection, February 22: Time of Renewal
- Scripture Reflection, February 15: The Gospel Slumdog
- Scripture Reflection, February 8: Holding on to God's Hand
- Scripture Reflection, February 1: Words of Power
- Scripture Reflection, January 25: The Conversion of Saint Paul
- Scripture Reflection, January 18: That all may be one!
- Scripture Reflection, January 11: Baptism of the Lord
- New Year's Day Reflection
- Christmas Message
- Scripture Reflection, December 21: Intersecting Plans
- Scripture Reflection, December 14: Called to be Light
- Scripture Reflection, December 7: Prepare the Way of the Lord!
- Scripture Reflection, November 30: Be watchful!
- Scripture Reflection, November 23: Feast of Christ the King
- Scripture Reflection, November 16: God's Economy is not in Recession
- Scripture Reflection, November 9: Called to be Church!
- Scripture Reflection, November 2: Feast of All Souls
- Scripture Reflection, October 26: Back to the Basics
- Scripture Reflection, October 19: Jesus and Joe the Plumber
- Scripture Reflection, October 12, 2008: Invited to God's party
- Scripture Reflection, October 5, 2008: God never gives up!
- Scripture Reflection, September 28, What Would Jesus Do?
- Scripture Reflection, September 21: Your kingdom come!
- Scripture Reflection, September 14: Triumph of the Cross
- Scripture Reflection, September 07: 1+1=3
- Scripture Reflection, August 31: Teamwork with God
- Scripture Reflection, August 24: From 'Rocky' to 'Rock'
- Scripture Reflection, August 17, Tenacious Faith
- Scripture Reflection, August 10, 2008: Take courage!
- Scripture Reflection, August 3: Eyes of Compassion
- Scripture Reflection, July 27: Pearl of Great Price
- Scripture Reflection, July 20: Compassion is Power
- Scripture Reflection, July 13: The Sower and the Seed
- Scripture Reflection, July 6: The Gentle Mastery of Christ
- Scripture Reflection, June 29: Heroes of Faith
- Scripture Reflection, June 22: Be Not Afraid
- Scripture Reflection, June 15: Many Are Called
- Scripture Reflection, June 8: The Much in Meals
- Scripture Reflection, June 1: Extraordinary Generosity
- Scripture Reflection, May 25: Connections Made to Last
- Scripture Reflection, May 18: Holy Trinity Sunday
- Scripture Reflection, May 11: Pentecost Sunday
- Scripture Reflection, May 4: The Feast of the Ascension
- Scripture Reflection, April 27: Speaking and Living Our Faith
- Scripture Reflection, April 20: Our Future Heavenly Home
- Scripture Reflection, April 13: Good Shepherd Sunday
- Scripture Reflection, April 6: The Ultimate Servant
- Scripture Reflection, March 30: Inspirational Stories of Faith
- Easter Reflection: Alleluia, He is Risen!
- Good Friday Reflection and Podcast
- Holy Thursday Reflection & Podcast
- Scripture Reflection, March 16: Palm Sunday
- Scripture Reflection, March 9: The Raising of Lazarus
- Scripture Reflection, March 2: Open to Possibilities
- Scripture Reflection, February 24: First Impressions
- Scripture Reflection, February 17: Human AND Divine
- Scripture Reflection, February 10: Appreciating Lent
- Scripture Reflection, February 3: A Dose of Humility for the Super Bowl
- Scripture Reflection: Now Free to Grow in Love
- Scripture Reflection, January 20: Servants of Reconciliation
- Scripture Reflection, January 13: The Baptism of the Lord
- Scripture Reflection, January 6: Beyond Our Expectations
- Advent Reflection, December 23: "God Is with Us"
- Advent Reflection, December 16: “Loved by the Son of God”
- Advent Reflection, December 9: Patient Expectancy
- Scripture Reflection, December 2: A Vision of Peace
- Scripture Reflection, November 25: Christ the King
- Scripture Reflection, November 18: The Meaning of Reverence
- Scripture Reflection, November 11: The Traditionally Printed Word
- Scripture Reflection, November 4: Risk, Hospitality and Justice
- Scripture Reflection, October 28: The Promise of More
- Scripture Reflection, October 21: “I lift up my eyes to the mountains”
- Scripture Reflection, October 14: Words
- Scripture Reflection, October 7: Singing the Same Song
- Scripture Reflection, September 30: Direct Gazes on the Face of Christ
- Scripture Reflection, Sunday, September 23: Love Is Ingenious
- Scripture Reflection, September 16: Finding Home
- Scripture Reflection, September 9: A Perfect Example of Christian Discipleship
- Scripture Reflection, September 2: Humility Does Matter
- Scripture Reflection, August 26: A Faithfully Present Christ
- Scripture Reflection, August 19: The "ordinariness" of Christian Discipleship
- Scripture Reflection, August 12: Bringing Life to Others
- Scripture Reflection, August 5: Growing Rich in the Sight of God
- Scripture Reflection, July 29: Two Essential Attitudes
- Scripture Reflection, July 22: Models of Hospitality
- Scripture Reflection, July 15: The Good Samaritan
- Scripture Reflection, July 8: Christian Understanding of Freedom
- Scripture Reflection, July 1: Our Adventurous Lives
- Scripture Reflection, June 24: Becoming A Light to the Nations
- Scripture Reflection, June 17: Courageous Reconciliation
- Scripture Reflection, June 10: Corpus Christi
- Scripture Reflection, June 3: Trinity Sunday
- Scripture Reflection, May 27: The Feast of Pentecost
- Scripture Reflection, May 20: The Ascension of Jesus
- Sunday Reflection, May 13
- Scripture Reflection, May 6: Dungy’s Gift to Grieving Parents
- Scripture Reflection, April 29: The Good Shepherd
- Scripture Reflection, April 22: “Do you love me?”
- Sunday Reflection, April 15: Touch the Wounds
- Sunday Reflection, April 8: Easter Sunday 2007
- Holy Thursday Reflection, April 5: Holy Thursday 2007
- Sunday Reflection, April 1: The Essentials for Christian Discipleship
- Sunday Reflection, March 25: Throw your stones away and parking tickets, too
- Sunday Reflection, March 18: The Welcome Home
- Sunday Reflection, March 11: A Lenten Summons
- Sunday Reflection, March 4: God, the Giver of Abundance
- Sunday Reflection, February 25: No More Peer Pressure
- Sunday Reflection, February 18: Loving Our Enemies?
- Sunday Reflection, February 11: The Beatitudes
- Sunday Reflection, February 4: Extraordinary Encounters
- Sunday Reflection, January 28: Truth Spoken in Love
- Sunday Reflection, January 21: Inspiring News for Life
- Sunday Reflection, January 14: An Abundance of Gifts, Not Threats
- Sunday Reflection, January 7: The Football Fans’ Search for Hope
- Christmas Reflection: The Significance of Stuffed Animals and Jesus
- Advent Reflection, December 17: Life Lessons at a Coffee Bar
- Advent Reflection, December 10: 'Good News' for Rejoicing
- Advent Reflection, December 3: The Gift of Hope
- Sunday Reflection, November 26: “Your Kingdom Come, Your Will Be Done”
- Sunday Reflection, November 19: A Glimpse of God’s Faithfulness
- Sunday Reflection, November 12: Giving the Little That We Have
- Sunday Reflection, November 5: BEING the Great Commandment
- Sunday Reflection, October 29: Courage in Jericho
- Personal Reflection, October 22: Servant Leadership
- Sunday Reflection, October 15: Naming What's Important
- Sunday Reflection, October 8: Our responsibilities are God’s blessings
- Sunday Reflection, October 1: Open to the Spirit
- Sunday Reflection, September 24: Who’s the greatest?
- Sunday Reflection, September 17: Our Treasured Images of Christ
- Sunday Reflection, September 10: “He has done all things well.”
- Sunday Reflection, September 3: Conversion of Heart
- Sunday Reflection, August 27: Our Choice to Follow
- Sunday Reflection, August 20: Unity in a Divided World
- Sunday Reflection, August 13: On the Road of Discipleship
- Sunday Reflection, August 6: "I Know a Man"
- Sunday Reflection, July 30: The Abundance of Fragments
- Sunday Reflection, July 16: Our Mission if we choose to accept
- Sunday Reflection, July 2: The Grace of Desperation?
- Sunday Reflection, June 25: The Calming Presence of Christ
- Sunday Reflection, June 18: Serving Up a Banquet
- Sunday Reflection, June 11: The Trinity, A Communion of Life and Love
- Pentecost Sunday: Tuned Into the Spirit
- Sunday Reflection, May 28: The Presence of the Absent Jesus
- Sunday Reflection, May 21: The Sign of True Friendship
- Scripture Reflection, May 14: The Garrison Keillor STRETCH
- Sunday Reflection, May 7: An Encounter with Jean Vanier
- Easter: Memories that Give Hope, Peace and Love
- Good Friday Reflection: Overwhelmed by John
- Holy Thursday Reflection: Three Days, One Liturgy
- Palm Sunday Reflection: In Gratitude for Good Mentors
- Memorial of Cardinal Bernardin
- The Christian Life
- Praying With the Scriptures
- The Reluctant Prophet
- Bible On Call
Scripture Reflection, March 7, 2010: The 'Blame Game'
Scripture Readings:
Exodus 3: 1-8
Psalm 103
First Corinthians 10: 1-12
Luke 13: 1-9
Click here for the podcast.
In reflecting on the gospel passage from Luke for this Sunday, I could not help but think of the statement made by a popular televangelist after the devastating earthquake in Haiti. He suggested that the people of Haiti had brought this disaster upon themselves because of their sinfulness. In a particular way, he adduced the revolt of Haitian slaves against the French in the early nineteenth century. His was an expression of the theology of retribution – the idea that suffering is the result of punishment by God for the personal or corporate sins of the victims of suffering. Pastoral ministers sometimes encounter this idea when they visit people who are ill and hear them ask, “What did I do to bring on this affliction?” Similar statements were made after 9/11 and hurricane Katrina.
In this Sunday’s gospel, Jesus is talking about two events that have been “in the news.” Some Jews from Galilee got on the wrong side of Pontius Pilate and were murdered by that ruthless governor, apparently in the midst of a ritual action of sacrifice. And a tower – probably a tower atop a city wall in Jerusalem -- suddenly collapsed, killing eighteen people. Jesus knows that some folks are concluding that these people must have deserved what happened to them; they must have been “greater sinners” than everyone else. Jesus tries to nip that thinking in the bud by stressing that everyone needs to recognize his or her own need for conversion. His words are strong: “But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did!” Here, and in the famous story of the man born blind in the gospel of John (chapter 9), Jesus challenges simplistic thinking that automatically connects personal suffering with the sinfulness of the victim.
It seems that it is a human trait to want to find simple explanations for situations of suffering and deprivation. I must confess that I sometimes hear myself doing the same thing. We can walk through an impoverished area of the city and assume that the people “must want to live this way.” We see a homeless person and immediately think that he or she must want to live on the street. We seem to have a natural (or unnatural!) inclination to blame people for their own suffering or misfortune. It is true that sometimes individuals or groups of people act in such a way that they bring suffering upon themselves. People need to take personal responsibility for their lives. But the simple equation – personal suffering = personal sin – just does not suffice to explain the mysterious tragedies of life. The “blame game” is a simple strategy that does not do justice to the complexity and the mysteriousness of life.
The local tragedies about which Jesus speaks in the gospel take us back to the first reading from Exodus. There we accompany Moses as he encounters the “remarkable sight” of the burning bush and receives his own vocation. As he experiences God addressing him, he asks to know God’s name. In ancient cultures, knowledge of a person’s name meant that one had a certain power over that person. But the name he is given is suffused with mystery: “I am who am.” There have been a number of interpretations of this divine name given by biblical scholars, but in fact the name is virtually untranslatable. Moses cannot gain any power over God and, as he will find out, no human name or image of God can capture or exhaust the mystery of God.
These Scripture readings invite us to recognize that as people of faith we dwell within mystery. Tragedies like earthquakes and tsunamis, and other causes of untimely deaths, move us into the realm of mystery. We want straightforward explanations for such events, but such answers are often not available. We yearn for the answer to the question of “why”: Why did this happen to those people (or to me)? So often, this question of why simply cannot be answered in this life, even by the most astute theologian. The urgency and pain expressed in the question of why is the great wound of human history – a wound that can only be healed by God. And so we are left standing before the mystery of suffering and the mystery of God, invited to trust that God hears our cries and will be faithful to us.
Even though the question of “why” is often left unanswered, this Sunday’s Scriptures give us a glimpse into the answer to another important question – the question of “where”. Where is God to be found in the midst of human suffering? When God reveals himself to Moses, he immediately communicates his intimate knowledge of the affliction endured by the people of Israel. “I have witnessed the affliction of my people in Egypt and have heard their cry of complaint against their slave drivers, so I know well what they are suffering.” God is with the people who are oppressed and suffering, right in their midst and on the move to bring them redemption and life. Something similar is suggested by the parable told by Jesus in the second part of the gospel passage. The fig tree that has borne no fruit in three years is given another chance. The gardener convinces the owner to allow him to tend this tree with special care in the coming year in order that it may bear fruit. This story reflects the patience and compassion of God who walks with sinners, continually inviting them to turn to him.
As we continue our Lenten journey, I believe that these Scripture readings call us to be people of trust and of compassion. We are invited to renew our trust in God’s fidelity in our lives, even at those times when it is difficult to feel God’s presence in the midst of the darkness of suffering. The clarion call to conversion issued by Jesus reminds us that strengthening our friendship with God in the “ordinary” times of life enables that relationship to endure through the more difficult times. These Scriptures also call us to imitate our God in his compassion for people who are suffering. We are summoned to be people who, like God, hear the cries of the suffering and walk with them through the darkness toward the light of God’s faithful love.
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