<div class=oldwebkit><p><em>We believe all Scripture offers inspired truth but how we come to that truth depends upon our own spiritual journey and the times in which we live. The church has acknowledged for generations that each person must find the message of Scriptures in cooperation with Gods spirit and the Wisdom of the community. Todays reflection finds the truth of these Scriptures not so much in the message they intended to convey to their historical audiences but rather in the limits of the Love that it envisions and now we are invited to transcend.</em></p></div><div class=oldwebkit>&nbsp;</div><div class=oldwebkit><p><strong>November 6 2022: Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time</strong></p><p>2 Maccabees 7:1-2 9-14</p><p>Psalm 17:15-6 8 15</p><p>2 Thessalonians 2:16-3:5</p><p>Luke 20-27-38</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h3>Confronting the Limits of Our Loving</h3><p><em>&nbsp;A reflection by Jeff Vomund</em></p><p>At first glance I find little to celebrate in todays readings. There seems remarkably little good news. The passage from Maccabees celebrates the story of a family of sons and their proud mother who watched them be slaughtered as opposed to break the dietary rules of their faith. Several aspects of this passage are particularly unsettling. One that a loving deity would require such fidelity or even seek it seems absurd. What Catholic parent would prefer their child be put to death instead of eating meat on a Friday in Lent? Two that the people who are put to death (Is it for their faith or obstinacy? Im not sure.) seem to show no more regard for the human dignity of their captors than their captors show to them. Had the tables been turned one wonders if these loyal sons would have treated their enemies just as harshly. If the historical record is any indicator the Maccabees seem to have been just as violent as the Greeks they fought. Three in a post-9/11 post January 6 world religious and political zealotry feel misdirected more than laudatory. Widening ones expanse of respect and compassion toward all creatures and creation is more central to our spiritual quest than the observation of purity laws. Indeed such cultic rules should be followed only to the extent they help us grow in our awareness of Loves calling to care for one another.</p><p>If we connect the first reading to the gospel then the overall theme of the two passages is belief in the resurrection and its consolation to those who suffer in this life. But to be honest I find that rather cold comfort as well. Not that I doubt in some existence after our time on earth but rather that I gravitate to the more traditional approach of our mystics: that all life is on a continuum and how I will experience Love in the next Reality has everything to do with how I receive and share Love in this one. However this section of the Lucan text seems unconcerned that Jesus love the Sadducees and instead intent that he prove them wrong. For Luke this passage is not about love so much as honor and shame. Jesus defeats the Sadducees in a battle of wits. He is honored (and by extension so are we Jesus followers); they (our adversaries whomever they may be) are shamed.</p><p>Our first reading is also about honor vs shame the honor of staying faithful to the norms of ones tribe vs the shame of disavowing ones tribe due to fear. These readings assume the Maccabees vs the Greeks as well as Jesus vs the Sadducees are clear battles of good vs evil. Neither text questions the black and white moral imagination or the ingroup vs outgroup context that is meant to give these honor-shame battles so much power. But that is precisely what Scripture should be doing for us these days: challenging our notions of who belongs in the Divine Circle of Love. Instead of reifying our tribal boundaries the Scriptures should help us transcend them; instead of hardening our hearts against the Other our faith should be challenging our preoccupation with our own righteousness.</p><p>Not that it is wrong necessarily to take pride in our community to be grateful for our own tribes version of faith. But a spirituality which stops at affirming the specialness of ones own group is at best insufficient and at worst dangerous. Phyllis Trible famously advocated for the freedom to preach against passages in Scripture that further patriarchal or oppressive structures. But I am not so much preaching against these passages as allowing them to challenge my own limitations by recognizing theirs. When do I retreat to my own version of ingroup/outgroup thinking demonizing some and lionizing others depending upon how their beliefs affirm my own? When do simply want the Other to be vanquished as opposed to allowing their presence to help me grow?</p><p>As we approach mid-term elections (please take the time to research the candidates and issues; and vote if you havent already) our televisions and computers inundate us with the ugly consequences of our ingroup-outgroup political system. Each million-dollar political ad is a fortune spent trying to convince us that the other side is crazy cruel and morally bankrupt. But where does that lead us? To celebrations of owning the Libs on Twitterto attacking democratic institutions out of a twisted dedication to our democracyto attacking the individuals with whom we disagree. These reactions are a long way from the One who forgave sinners talked to women and foreigners as equals healed Samaritans and dined with all manner of peoples.</p><p>How do the limitations of these texts help me reflect on the limits of my own loving? And more so how can encountering and acknowledging my limits lead me to a deeper trust in the limitless mercy of the One whose beloved children we all are? How might recognizing my own halting attempts at loving make me just a bit more gracious when confronted with the limits of others?</p></div><div class=oldwebkit>&nbsp;</div><div class=oldwebkit><div class=mobile-full><img class=mobile-full src=https://www.dignityusa.org/sites/default/files/civicrm/persist/contribute/images/uploads/static/jeff_vomund_8dbf652b6f060d082c4e6a7cee9eaaa6.png alt= width=166 hspace=0 vspace=0></div><div class=mobile-full><p><em><strong>Jeff Vomund</strong>&nbsp;is a member of Dignity/Washington and currently lives in Arlington VA. After 15+ years of full-time parish ministry and 7 years of teaching students with particular learning needs Jeff now works at George Mason University as a Graduate Research Assistant and a Graduate Lecturer while pursuing a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology.</em></p></div></div><p style=text-align: center;><a class=btn btn-primary href=https://www.dignityusa.org/civicrm/mailing/subscribe>Subscribe to Breath of the Spirit</a></p>