14th Sunday in ordinary time. Today’s readings: Isaiah 66,10-14c; Galatians 6,14-18; Luke 10,1-12.17-20
Once, while walking with an elderly Italian professor past a woman who was breastfeeding her baby, the professor remarked: “È commovente vedere una madre allattare il suo bambino” (It is moving to see a mother breastfeeding her baby). No wonder the prophet Isaiah used the same imagery to describe the new era of well-being that was being ushered in after the harsh experience of the Exile in Babylon experienced by the people of God: “Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad for her, all you who love her; rejoice greatly with her, all you who mourn over her. For you will nurse and be satisfied at her comforting breasts; you will drink deeply and delight in her overflowing abundance” (Isa 66,10-11).
Although heavily sexualised nowadays, women’s mammary glands were aptly used by the prophet as a metaphor of the source of life, with the sole difference that what would gush forth from them was not maternal milk, but peace flowing like a river. It is the peace we receive when we truly welcome Jesus into our lives, even when he uses his disciples or ministers as a means to foster this openness on our part.
This reminds me of the way a priest once described his experience of distributing Holy Communion during mass – he used the same image and said he felt like a mother nursing her children at the breast as he fed them Jesus, the Bread of Life.
The Gospel message is blatantly clear – welcoming Jesus alone brings true peace, the shalom that he asked his disciples to invoke upon all who opened their homes and hearts to the saving Gospel message. The Hebrew word shalom is highly rich in meaning: apart from signifying peace it also implies prosperity, success, intactness, wholeness, well-being, a state of health and salvation.
The Lord came to give us all this and more. However, over the centuries this very fact has been a stumbling block for Jews who were faced with the invitation to accept Jesus as the promised Messiah.
Apart from signifying peace, shalom also implies prosperity, success, intactness, wholeness, well-being, a state of health and salvation
David Klinghoffer’s book Why the Jews Rejected Jesus.In his book Why the Jews Rejected Jesus, David Klinghoffer speaks of a certain Rabbi Moses ben Nachman, who debated with Christians over the identity of Christ and the authenticity of the Gospel.
During the disputation at Barcelona in 1263, he claimed: “Yet from the days of Jesus until now, the whole world has been full of violence and plundering, and the Christians are greater spillers of blood than all the rest of the peoples…” Indeed, Jews believed that the Messiah would usher in a messianic era characterised by peace. For them, therefore, the very lack of it over the centuries following the life of Jesus on earth put his role as Messiah seriously into question.
Conversely, St Paul kept his focus squarely on the mystery of the cross and the way it regenerated those who seriously put their faith in its power and lived according to its dictates. Writing to Christians in Galatia who were wrongly emphasising the importance of certain religious practices, the Apostle to the Gentiles averred: “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is the new creation. Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule – to the Israel of God” (Gal 6,14-16).
Christ’s disciples, having been the first to experience his peace in their hearts, have been commissioned by him to call his blessings upon those they encounter: “Peace to this house” (Lk 10,5). That wish is ultimately for people to embrace Jesus. The old adage “No Jesus, no peace; know Jesus, know peace” is as true now as it has ever been these past two millennia.