<p><em>Scholars have long debated what Jesus meant when he spoke of Gods Reign. Todays reflection invites us to focus on an even more important reality: we have been empowered and entrusted to bring about this reign of love through the Divine gift and responsibility of our choices.</em></p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><strong>July 30 2023: Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time</strong></p><p>1 Kings 3:5 7:12&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p>Psalm 119: 57 72 76-77 127-128 129-130&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p>Romans 8:28-30&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p>Matthew 12:44-52</p><div><div class=titan__email-divider>&nbsp;</div></div><h3><strong>The Gift of Choosing</strong></h3><p>A reflection by Lori Ranner</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><em><strong>To the Very Reverend William Terry on the occasion of his retirement this reflection is affectionately dedicated.</strong></em></p><p></p><p><em><strong><img src='https://www.dignityusa.org/sites/default/files/screenshot_2023-07-27_at_10.24.12_am.png'></strong></em></p><p class=align-center><em>Il Tuffatore fresco ca. 480 BC. Paestum Italy.</em></p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><em>I would never have imagined being touched in the middle of my heart upset in the deepest part of myself as I was the day he [the diver] appeared to me a perfect arc as if endlessly plunging into the space between life and death. - <a href=https://dignityusa.app.neoncrm.com/track//servlet/DisplayLink?orgId=dignityusa&amp;&amp;&amp;linkId=6026&amp;targetUrl=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Lanzmann>Claude Lanzmann</a></em></p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>The ruins of the Graeco-Roman city of Paestum lie somewhat off the beaten tourist track sprawling across a plain better known for its water buffaloes. Though spectacular in its own right Paestum doesn't get as much press as Pompeii and Herculaneum - its more famous neighbors to the north - chiefly because its death was slow rather than dramatic and had nothing to do with volcanoes. It is much older than either of those brash Roman resorts tucked between mountains and the sea. Even in high season there are no busloads of day-trippers no nearby cruise ships disgorging the eager masses no tour guides shepherding their flocks; it's a place where one is invited to contemplate mortality and beauty at ones leisure with only the rustling of olive trees and the drone of cicadas for company.</p><p>In a small museum adjacent to the ruins there are frescoes from the tombs of a long-vanished people a Latinate tribe absorbed by the Romans and heavily influenced by the Greeks but with their own stubbornly unique ways of doing and being - which included the way in which they memorialized their dead.</p><p>The most famous tomb represented here is that of a young man whose manner of death is unknown and who was buried with great tenderness amid all the vestiges of his life. His armor his weapons probably his favorite cloak his luckiest set of dice: all the things that might occupy a young life the symbols of hope pride ambition belonging. On the walls of his tomb were painted scenes of a <em>symposion</em>literally a drinking togetherwhich is how all the best people would have spent their equivalent of Saturday nights surrounded by music and laughter in the glad company of friends.</p><p>The most remarkable panel of this Tomb of the Diver is the one from which its name is taken. It served as the tombs seal the scene spread above the young mans body; it is the view that he could no longer see. It portrays a diver suspended mid-air in his leap from a platform into the sea. Since its discovery in 1968 the fresco has been the subject of endless speculation: is it a metaphor? For what? Or is it just a beautiful young man immortalized in a moment that comes only once and then vanishes forever? These are questions that will never be settled and probably shouldnt be. After all no one was ever meant to see this panel; it follows no accepted iconographical plan and as Lanzmann experienced its meaning is what we need it to be at the moment of our first encounter.</p><p>The dive is a moment of supreme possibility. The decision has been taken but not yet fulfilled. How it ends is beyond our reckoning. The dive doesnt seem particularly dangerous the platform not especially high. And yet - who knows what lies below the waters? And why is he diving at all? It is in search of something? Is it to hide or just to find some respite on a scorching afternoon? These questions too remain unanswered. Our one certainty regarding this diver is his decision: hes stepped off the platform and in a split second hell knowas we never willwhat happens when he hits the water.</p><p>Todays readings dwell at length on the theme of choicea word which implies both exclusion and acceptance. In choosing one thing or course of action I reject another. Although wed prefer <em>not </em>to choose an essential moment in growing up is the rueful acknowledgement that we cant have our cake and eat it too: that choices must be made. It is a singularly glorious thing about being human this fact that we have to choose. Animals dont driven as they are by instinct habit and fear. In the wistful fantasies of ancient people neither do the gods. Rather whatever they choose doesn't really matter because they suffer no lasting consequences; the slate of Apollos screw ups will always be wiped clean. For the immortals there is never a bill that has to be paid and their credit will be extended indefinitely.</p><p>Such is not the case for mere mortals. The capacity to choose in the knowledge that we will have to deal with the consequences of our choices is a uniquely human property and one in the Christian tradition which is framed as Gods most precious gift: free will.</p><p>Christians at least have the hope of heaven. Even if our life on earth ends up being pretty lousy the right choices will guarantee us eternity in Gods presence. For the ancient Greeks and Romans the outlook was decidedly more bleak. No matter what you choose unless you just happen to be the favorite of some god (and even that can go terribly wrong) all you have to look forward to is eternity as a shade: a conscious if insubstantial being with all the desires of a human but no means of making them real. Thus every choice every moment had to be made with <em>this life only</em> in mind because there wasnt going to be another worth mentioning. For those ancient people what they chose and how they would be remembered for their choices constituted their only reasonable shot at immortality. Indeed their greatest virtue <em>sophrosyne </em>or self-control<em> </em>is predicated upon human limitations: it is the virtue of not only knowing what and how to choose - but actually doing it.</p><p>Human choices are hard. Distinguishing between the truth and the lie often seems impossible; one appears to mimic the other. The tomb of the young man is itself a poignant and probably intentional illustration of this point: what is more real the paintings of living men or the bones of a dead one?</p><p>Of course God doesnt leave us entirely to our own devices in such exigent matters. There is the Law which is to say the patterns and rationale governing both the interior life and the symbiotic life of the cosmosthe divine <em>Logos </em>which the Greeks also knew.&nbsp; We have intellect to discern those patterns we have compassion to guide us in applying them and we have the delight as the psalm tells us which arises when weve chosen and acted in a way that we know is consonant with goodness and justice and light; Gods way. The Law <em>is</em> light. As such it is more precious than gold and rightfully so for what good are riches what meaning can be found in the things of this world if we ourselves are in the dark?</p><p>However laws only have meaning in the manner and circumstances in which they are applied. We are like pioneers every one of us deep in a trackless forest: we make a little clearing so that the light can reach us so that we can build a home as best we can from the materials we find around us growing things gathering things so that we may live. The home we make is the result of all the choices of our livesjust as in death the tomb of the young man surrounded him with all that he had lived and loved.</p><p>How do we know? Where do we find the courage to do what we must? Solomon was the one like no other before or since because when given the ultimate choice the one we all dream about<em>anything you want</em>he chose the power of choosing. Not what he wantedthat is to say not wealth or fame or beauty or even life itselfbut the capacity to understand which of those things is worth having and why. With that we are told God was well pleased. Of course asking for the wisdom of discernment was to acknowledge the limits of his human powerwhich meant that even though he knew what was the right thing it was not always what he did. Indeed Solomons own story ended rather sadly in regret and confusion and loss as a result of the wisdom that he had and chose not to follow.</p><p>In Matthew Jesus takes up this discussion of choice act and consequence. The theme of the day is the Reign (<em>basileia</em>) of God and Jesus is trying to offer the disciples some insight into what such a mysterious concept actually means.</p><p>The Reign of God is not heaven; that much is clear. Elsewhere in the Gospels such as the exchange between Jesus and the Good Thief <em>paradeisos </em>or paradise is used to refer to that place where Jesus is going. Here rather it is the realm of the heavens of which Jesus speaks: according to the original usage the area over which regnant power extends which operates according to a sovereigns law and which answers to their authority. Thus in Jesus parlance it is that part of ourselves and our world wherein our choices answer to Gods guiding Law and in offering our allegiance in this way we belong to God not only through birth but more importantly because we have freely willed it to be so. We have elected to become citizens of heaven by extending heavens realm to earth.</p><p>Now that all sounds very nice you can imagine the disciples muttering but what in tarnation does it actually <em>mean</em>? How do you <em>do </em>it? And it is at that momentwhen his hearers are confused and unsurethat Jesus lets the parables speak. They are mere vignettes not even stories; each one a perfect metaphor which illuminates a single crucial aspect of the theme.</p><p>In the first Gods Reign is compared to the treasure discovered by a nameless faceless man. He sells everything to purchase the field in which it lies: not only does he recognize what he has found as treasure but he wants to make sure it is legitimately his. His claim to this treasure is going to be permanent and irrevocableand it is literally worth everything to him that it be so.</p><p>The next parable (ah were the disciples listening closely enough to catch it?) switches perspectives. Now the Reign of God is not the discoverybut the discoverer. It is a merchant ransacking markets for beautiful pearls when he comes upon the one of the greatest value sells everything he owns and buys itwhich as the disciples surely would have commented is a ridiculous thing for a merchant to do. The man in the first parable got a treasure and land for his investment both of which can be sold if he desires presumably for a good profit. This merchant however is now stuck with nothing but a pearlwhats there to make him so happy about that? For he like the first finder is filled with joy. The meaning Jesus intends for us is an unsettling one: the Reign of God is also longing for us. We are <em>that</em> <em>one thing </em>for which everything else might be sacrificed with a happy heart. Treasure and treasure-hunter lover and beloved: each finds their meaning in the other.</p><p>In Jesus final example the realm of the heavens is neither the treasure nor the one who seeks but the means by which the desired thing is captured. A net that misses nothing: thrown wide gathering indiscriminately both fine and strong and most likely the fishers own creation; the tool of their trade. Not until the catch is properly hauled in will the selection begin between the good and the <em>sapra</em> or rotten: the fish with no life left in them and unfit for the fishers intended purpose.&nbsp; Dwelling in the light of Gods word we find the meansas the fisherman finds among his netsby which we might truly live.&nbsp;</p><p>All three parables present discernment or choice as the most significant human act. On the right choice Jesus tells us hinges everything. Astonishingly far from those pagan gods who use human beings as chess pieces in the thoughtworld of Jesus God has intended that only through the choices of humans can the realm of the heavens be extended to earth. This itself is significant: Jesus is using the power of choice to describe what the Realm of God actually isand what it can be.</p><p>The actors in each parable share the same motivators and personal characteristics. We encounter the treasure-seeker merchant and fisherman each absorbed in their single-minded pursuit. Each is driven by a passion. Each acts according to a wisdom which might seem in direct rebellion against the wisdom of this world. Sensible people with sensible goals might look at the pearl hunter and laugh: everything traded recklessly for a single item only worth possessing for its beauty. All three have made their choices; they have discerned the goal and committed to a course of action. Each is a person not of dreams but of acts; each embraces the consequences.</p><p>We have no way of knowing if the disciples were able to get their heads around the Reign of God any more easily as a result of Jesus explanations. It might have been one of those moments when you are just too embarrassed to ask your teacher to explain the same things a forty-second time. Eventually though the message got through; somehow they <em>did </em>finally understand. We know this because their choices began to reflect their understanding: of Jesus love of the meaning of the cross of our place in the realm of Gods heavens and our role in extending its frontiers moment after moment and choice by choice until there is no longer a need to distinguish between earth and heavenlife and afterlifebecause the reality that each word embodies is the same.</p><div><div class=titan__email-divider>&nbsp;fid:257view_mode:defaultfields:{format:defaultfield_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]:falsefield_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]:false}type:mediafield_deltas:{3:{format:defaultfield_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]:falsefield_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]:false}}attributes:{class:media-element file-defaultdata-delta:3}</div></div><div class=mobile-full><div class=mobile-full><p><em><strong>Lori Frey Ranner</strong>&nbsp;is a New Orleans native. She holds a double B.A. in History and Classics from Loyola University New Orleans and an M.Phil. in Byzantine Studies from the University of Oxford (Keble 1996) with a concentration in&nbsp;Ecclesiastical History.</em></p><p><em>Her area of academic specialization is Latin and Greek ecumenical relations in the period following the Fourth Crusade. Between 1999-2014 she held the post of lecturer at Loyola New Orleans in the Departments of History and Classics. She currently teaches Latin Ancient Greek and World Religions at Ursuline Academy.</em></p><p><em>She is married and mother to three children. In her random bits of free time she is writing one novel editing a second and turning a third into a podcast.</em></p><p></p></div></div>