Saturday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Behold, my servant whom I have chosen,

my beloved in whom I delight;
I shall place my Spirit upon him,
and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles.

Just as God’s chosen people must depart from Egypt, Jesus’ disciples must depart from the Jews and go to the gentiles proclaiming justice. Why this is has never been very clear to us. It is certainly a great disappointment and a great sadness. 

But it also fits the pattern of God’s saving works. Cain was the older brother but he was not chosen. Reuben was Jacob’s oldest child, but his beloved were Joseph and Benjamin. Saul was the first king of the Israelites but David received the promise. God’s ways are not our ways.

The pattern is invariably composed of rejection, violence, crisis and release. There is always a darkness which attempts (and fails) to stifle the light. Cain slew his brother Abel; his brothers sold Joseph into Egypt; and Saul hounded David until he was defeated by the Philistines.  

God continually challenges his own people to listen to his ways. Can they worship the child born in Bethlehem? Only the despised shepherds who heard the angels’ singing. The great and mighty, the wise and pious don’t get it at all. They have unwittingly placed themselves where they cannot hear the good news.

God continually challenges us. God is always “The Other” who both affirms our human nature by becoming one of us and confronts our human expectations by being unpredictable. Sometimes some of us will recognize the pattern. Or at least the wisest, like Nicodemus, will suspect there is more going on here than we can discern.

And so we practice the art of discernment. We try to place ourselves in a place where the Holy Spirit will speak to us. We let the Cloud of Unknowing descend upon us, revealing our sins and shaming our inadequacies until we are ready to expect the unexpected. And hearing a word we bring it back to the Church asking, "Come see a man who told me everything I have done. Could he possibly be the Messiah?"

It may be that God has spoken a word to me that will not be fulfilled for many years to come, perhaps long after I have died. When I meet women who believe they are called to be priests I admire their patience. I think there is a Word here but I do not know what it means.

See, I am doing something new! Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? 

Actually, I do not perceive it, but I am willing to wait in darkness until it becomes clear.