Breaking the Word

31^st Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B – 31^st October 2021 — Gospel: Mark 12,28-34

Healthy Self-Love

Jesus responds to the scribe by combining Deut 6,4-5 and Lev 19,18. He links theological truth to practical and ethical demands. It is impossible to love God and hate those made in His image (1 Jn 2,9-11; 3,15; 4,20). It is impossible to love your neighbour as yourself if you do not love yourself. There is a need for an appropriate self-love which is based on God’s priority love for humankind. This means that there is a healthy way to love ourselves, and that serves as model for how we should love our neighbours. There is also an unhealthy kind of self-love. It is named as selfishness, which we find in the form of self-awareness, self-actualization, self-esteem, and self-absorption. We need, naturally, a sense of our own value as children of God fashioned in His image (Gen 1,26-27). We must rejoice in our giftedness and accept our physical, mental, and psychological makeup (Ps 139). To criticize ourselves is to criticize our Maker! But, He can transform our fallenness into a reflection of His glory. However, the emphasis of this statement is not on self-love or self-respect. The Lord did not invite us to follow the “me-first philosophy”. In self-love, we do not comprehend God’s grace; but we feel good about ourselves or meet our own needs. We put ourselves at the center rather than God. Instead, the Lord emphasizes that love is less a feeling and more a decision to act for the good of the other-and-community. It is learning to see ourselves and others through God’s eyes. Paul used this analogy of Jesus with different wordings (Eph 5,28-29).

30^th Week in Ord. Time, Saturday – 30^th October 2021 — Gospel:   Lk 14,1.7-11

Tips for Avoiding Shame

Jesus’ advice to choose a low place in the wedding banquet sounds pretty shrewd as it gives the hope of being directed to a more favorable position by the host publicly. But Jesus is interested in the arrangement of the banquet rather than the actual food. So, he tells the parable about receiving honour that emphasizes two components of banquet setting. First, selection of the seat; and second, invitation list. In an honour and shame culture, avoiding shame is of utmost importance for the participants. This is not simply embarrassment. Public shame may have tangible implications for the shamed. Sometimes, if the shame is significant, a family’s exchanging practices can be negatively carried forward by a public shaming. On the opposite end, public honour, which is determined by the host, may come to those who express humility.  Jesus’ statement in 14,11 confirms this offer. Jesus’ words also help us to understand the requirement for entering into God’s kingdom. He shows that those who take the lowest place are those who know their unworthiness and look to God’s grace to move up higher. For Jesus earthly life is only a microcosm of what life meant to be. Regarding our table manners, we may be thinking short term, while God views our position within the arc of the divine long-term perspective and according to God’s true table purposes.