IS 25:6-10A
PS 23:1-3A, 3B-4, 5, 6
MT 15:29-37
I love working at a Jesuit
institution – one of the main reasons is our call to form students into “Men
and Women For and With Others”. This is
probably one of the more famous Jesuit “taglines”. An interesting tidbit of knowledge that some
might not know is that for many decades, the phrase was simply “Men For Others”
(“Women” was added soon however). But it
wasn’t until the late 1990’s that Superior General Peter Hans Kolvenbach, S.J.
made a call to add “and With” to the statement.
It was a statement that our business as Jesuit institutions was not only
to call students to serve others, but to do it in a spirit of solidarity – to
walk with, to stand with, to be with those who we are helping. But sometimes I have noticed (and even felt
myself) that there is an awkward tension between these two when students engage
with the community around them. It can
be very difficult to help those on the margins while at the same time doing so
in a spirit of solidarity.
These tensions come out in today’s
readings. In Isaiah, we see a God who is
“providing for all people” and one that is “destroying the veil” and
“destroying death forever”. God is
providing food and comfort in a time of distress. The Gospel delivers a similar story – Jesus
cures the lame, the blind, and many others.
Then, he goes on to feed the crowd of thousands.
Conversely, the Psalm for today speaks
of a God who is a shepherd, one that “guides me in right paths”. It is we who are walking in a dark valley,
but God is standing with us as we walk.
This speaks to a God that is not “doing for” but “walking with” – his
rod and his staff give us courage, but we are facing the evils.
While
these tensions exist, I am reminded that we need both to work for social
change. The hungry need to be fed, but
we also need to advocate for a system that leaves no one hungry in the first
place.
We live in hard times – it is hard
for me to not read the news or hear about what is going on in the world without
thinking it is completely broken. There
plenty of veils that need lifting, and death seems to be ever-present. There are so many who are lame, blind,
deformed, mute, and otherwise living on the margins of society. As we work to fix this world, let us hope and
pray this Advent season that God will walk with
us; let us also have faith that He will do for
us what needs to be done.
Bobby Wassel is Assistant Director of the Center for Service and Community Engagement.
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