FIFTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

Fr. Daniel Berrigan, S.J. wrote a poem called EACH DAY WRITES, he says:

“Each day writes in my heart’s core

ineradicably, what it is to be human.”

I have to be honest with you, not only did I not know what the word “ineradicably” means, I could hardly say it. Usually if I can’t even say an English word, I have to look it up to find out what it means. So I looked it up and found out that it means “unable to be destroyed or removed.”

He is saying that each day of life writes a message in our hearts about what it means to be human; a message that cannot be destroyed or removed. Each day tells us that our suffering, the commitments of our hearts and the ways we are present to others who suffer, express what it means to be human. And there is no force in heaven or on earth that can remove these messages, these lessons of life.

Job teaches us that the confusion caused by suffering leads to the desire to understand why pain is so much a part of his life. He had it all; money to buy anything he could ever want for the rest of his life, a wife he loved faithfully, children who were the delights of his heart, land, animals and the gift of faith that kept God near to his heart always. He lost it all in Satan’s bet with God that if Job were to suffer enough he would lose his faith because that’s what human beings do. In wrestling with his pain, Job came very close to cursing God, but God intervened reminding him that all that exists in the universe does so because God caused it, and Job, whether he is in tremendous pain, or is having the time of his life, will never change God. All Job has to do is make a decision: he has to decide if he is going to remain faithful to God, or, abandon his faith. Despite all the odds in his favor, Satan lost his bet. Job chose to keep his faith.

St. Paul, in his letter to the Corinthians, reminds the Christian community of his obligation to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ:

Brothers and sisters:

If I preach the gospel, this is no reason for me to boast,

for an obligation has been imposed on me,

and woe to me if I do not preach it!

St. Paul tells us that preaching the Gospel is an ineradicable obligation: one he could never walk away from; one he could never abandon. We have faithful obligations imposed upon us in our daily lives; obligations to love expressed in the vows we make, obligations to care for, nourish, protect and love our children, obligations to pass on the blessings of our faith, obligations to care for the poor, to forgive sins, to offer compassion for the sick and the grieving, obligations to love God with all our hearts, souls and strength and neighbors as ourselves, obligations to please God by the ways we live.

As always, Jesus shows us by the examples he sets how to fulfill these ineradicable obligations that are written on the core of our hearts. Read chapter 1 of Mark’s Gospel this week. It will take about 15 minutes. Mark tells us that Jesus Christ was sent by God to bring healing to the sick, to call sinners to repentance, and to proclaim the Good news of God’s love to the world. Read about how Jesus was present to the people. He was present as an authoritative voice that freed the man possessed of a demon at the synagogue in Capernaum, he cured Peter’s mother in law and all the sick from around Galilee. He touched a leper and told him of his desire to heal him. Jesus was present to the sick and lowly people of Galilee. He preached the gospel from the from the ambo of his divine humanity by using the language of love, and by being present as a human who offers healing, forgiveness, and a hand that tenderly touches even the lowliest people in the world.

“Each day writes in our heart’s core

ineradicably, what it is to be human.”

Each day tells us that our suffering, the commitments of our hearts and the ways we are present to others who suffer, the joys we share in laughter, the romantic moments when our hearts burst open with the delight of being in love, sacred moments of prayer, the shame we experience when we sin, and the mercy that cleanses our souls in forgiveness; all these moments express what it means to be human. And there is no force in heaven or on earth that can remove or destroy these lessons of life.

May I suggest that we take a few minutes of prayer, to ponder the lessons of this day that tell us what it means to be human. These are the messages that are permanent, they are eternal; they can never be taken away from us. Let the mystery sink into the core of our hearts to reveal the truth of who we really are.