A Penitent Blogger
Flip!
I once heard a famous journalist say that his job was to discomfort the comfortable and comfort the comfortless.
Such an attitude seems to find resonance in today’s Gospel and in today’s Responsorial.
The Responsorial is from the second chapter of 1 Samuel: a song of exaltation by Samuel’s mother Hannah, who has been given a son as an answer to her prayers (as recounted in today’s first reading – 1 Samuel 24-28).
The bows of the mighty are broken,
while the tottering gird on strength.
The well-fed hire themselves out for bread,
while the hungry batten on spoil.
The order of the world has flipped.
The Gospel (Luke 1:46-56) consists of the Magnificat of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who has conceived a son who answers the prayers of all mankind.
He has shown the strength of his arm,
and has scattered the proud in their conceit.
He has cast down the mighty from their thrones
and has lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.
The order of the world has flipped.
But while the journalist’s slogan may seem to resonate with the canticles of Hannah and Our Lady, nothing could be farther from the truth.
For one thing, this journalist himself lived an extremely comfortable life: living in a great mansion nestled along an exclusive and thickly wooded lane of mansions above a set of cliffs just up the river from the most powerful city in the world (when he was not on his ranch).
But there is another, desperately critical difference between the journalist’s self-important assertion and the joyful exclamations of these two humble women (who would be more important that the rich journalist ever could be).
The rich and powerful become hungry and weak,
while the hungry and weak become satisfied and exalted,
but at the center of this cosmic flip is God.
Flipping the order of the world purely for the sake of flipping is a short route to chaos.
But if the flipping of the sinful and unjust order of the world is a direct result of God’s presence and action in the world, the result is not chaos and destruction, but rather drawing nearer to God.
May we not seek change simply for its own sake.
Rather, may we seek only God and let ourselves be changed by him.
Such an attitude seems to find resonance in today’s Gospel and in today’s Responsorial.
The Responsorial is from the second chapter of 1 Samuel: a song of exaltation by Samuel’s mother Hannah, who has been given a son as an answer to her prayers (as recounted in today’s first reading – 1 Samuel 24-28).
The bows of the mighty are broken,
while the tottering gird on strength.
The well-fed hire themselves out for bread,
while the hungry batten on spoil.
The order of the world has flipped.
The Gospel (Luke 1:46-56) consists of the Magnificat of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who has conceived a son who answers the prayers of all mankind.
He has shown the strength of his arm,
and has scattered the proud in their conceit.
He has cast down the mighty from their thrones
and has lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.
The order of the world has flipped.
But while the journalist’s slogan may seem to resonate with the canticles of Hannah and Our Lady, nothing could be farther from the truth.
For one thing, this journalist himself lived an extremely comfortable life: living in a great mansion nestled along an exclusive and thickly wooded lane of mansions above a set of cliffs just up the river from the most powerful city in the world (when he was not on his ranch).
But there is another, desperately critical difference between the journalist’s self-important assertion and the joyful exclamations of these two humble women (who would be more important that the rich journalist ever could be).
The rich and powerful become hungry and weak,
while the hungry and weak become satisfied and exalted,
but at the center of this cosmic flip is God.
Flipping the order of the world purely for the sake of flipping is a short route to chaos.
But if the flipping of the sinful and unjust order of the world is a direct result of God’s presence and action in the world, the result is not chaos and destruction, but rather drawing nearer to God.
May we not seek change simply for its own sake.
Rather, may we seek only God and let ourselves be changed by him.
posted by Penitens | 3:42 AM
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