Joy of boasting in the Cross

Sunday | 14 | OT | C

Vancouver, July 7, 2019

​Two weeks ago I celebrated Mass at the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. And when we had our sharing the evening before our departure I asked about the highlight of the visit to the Holy Land. And certainly, Jerusalem, with Mass at the Holy Tomb, that was most commonly shared as the highly in the Holy Land.
 
Why is Jerusalem so special to God, and to us as Christians? We hear references through the Old Testament beginning with the Books of Samuel.
 
Salem means “peace,” and Jebus was the city of the Jebusites which David conquered making Jerusalem his capital and the capital of the House of Judah.
 
Jerusalem is where David brought the Ark of the Covenant which is a sign of God’s presence since the Ark of the Covenant contained the tablets of the 10 Commandments.
 
It was Solomon who had the Temple built that would house the Ark of the Covenant, Solomon David’s son.  So, as capital, as the City of David where the Temple was built, Jerusalem was the point of reference for those who believed in the One True God, the God of Abraham, Jacob and Isaac, for the Israelites. And, of course, even for us.

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Notice that the prophet Isaiah gives a maternal description to Jerusalem: he describes Jerusalem not only as a woman, but as a mother. We call this a metaphor because the city is personified as a woman and mother:
 
How do we know that Jerusalem is personified as a mother? well, the words, “that you may be satisfied from her consoling breast.” “that you make drink deeply with delight from her glorious bosom.”
 
How can we be satisfied or drink from a city? What Isaiah wants to tell us is that this city nourishes us, using the concrete images and language proper to a mother and her infant.
 
We can say that Jerusalem then is like a mother, and we are her children. She gives us life, she nourishes us. How does she do this? she is where God makes Himself present through the Ark of the Covenant kept in the Tabernacle in the Temple.
 
So, we have these two layers of language: the poetic, metaphors, describing Jerusalem as a woman, and this deeper meaning, where Jerusalem nourishes us spiritually, and gives us life.
 
Of course, when Isaiah writes, this is centuries before Jesus is Crucified in Jerusalem.
 
And yet, as prophet, Isiah anticipates the life that Jerusalem gives us as the setting of Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross.
We know, true life comes to us in Jesus Christ, who sustains us, who feeds us with His Body and Blood; Jerusalem nourishes, and Jesus does so perfectly.
 
Jerusalem becomes the dwelling place of supernatural life because Jesus Christ offers, bread and wine, for us to eat and drink, which become His Body and Blood.
 
In his letter to the Galatians we sense the joy of St. Paul, just as the first reading opens, “Rejoice Jerusalem and be glad for her.”
 
Paul, too, is rejoicing because he boasts in the Cross of the Lord. Even circumcision or uncircumcision becomes irrelevant -- central to the Jewish sign of the Covenant.
 
For the Christian it is the Cross that becomes our sign of fidelity.
 
Paul says, “a new creation is everything”: a new creation at Baptism. This is how we are made new, and a new Creation by the power of Jesus Christ, by the Father who sends us His Only begotten Son, by the power of the Holy Spirit who descends upon the Church at Pentecost.
 
Paul speaks of those who follow this rule -- this refers to whom? And to which rule?
 
To never boast of anything except the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Peace be upon them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God. The believers. This is the Israel of God: to boast of the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
 
The Cross is how we are saved -- the centrality of Paul’s preaching. This sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross, the unblemished Lamb slaughtered for our salvation.
 
In fact, Paul’s boasting of Jesus led him to “carry the marks of Jesus branded on my body,” as he Paul states.
 
Imagine that his love and passion for the Lord leads to Paul’s boasting of the Cross, and to his persecution, marked on his body, the marks of chains, the marks of being whipped, the marks of being a prisoner.
 
We know that boasting is part of human nature – right? And it belongs to the sin of pride.
 
Boasting is not about making a true and positive statement about yourself or your family members. There is nothing wrong with that. This is stating a fact and acknowledgement. 
 
Boasting is when you take delight in focussing on yourself, or your family, in such a way that you need to outdo, outshine, outperform everyone else. There is simply no room for the other person – not even to speak.
The person who boasts is really not interested in anybody except themselves. Probably the most widespread disease today is narcissistic personality disorder.
 
Humility and humiliations is the best way to be corrected of this disorder. Paul gives us sound advice: you want to boast, sure, boast; boast in the Cross of Christ.
 
There is the parable of the two hosts: Each of the hosts had the same visitor over for a visit.
 
The first host and his wife received their guest in their beautiful home and fed their visitor with endless praises of their son. And the visitor listened to the host and the nodding wife as they spoke with satisfaction of their son’s intellectual superiority.
 
That same week the same visitor went to second host who lived in a small simple house with his wife and two little children. They were newly married of a few years. On the kitchen hung a Crucifix. The second host and his wife shared with joy their food and their stories.
 
Which of the two hosts boasted in the Lord?
 
In St. Luke’s Gospel we also have this sense of prevailing joy and peace from the first two readings, Isaiah speaks of joy in Jerusalem and St. Paul speaks of the peace that is brought to us by Jesus Christ.
 
St. Luke highlights this contrast between the labourers who are like lambs going in the midst of wolves, as St. Paul had known with his mangled body marked with punishments for his boasting of the Lord, and preaching the Gospel.
 
Christianity is meant to be a religion of peace, and to bring joy to others, and hope, to each home that is visited.
 
And while peace is brought to individuals and homes, hope and joy is brought to the towns where we proclaim, “the kingdom of God has come near to you.”
 
The Gospel is meant to transform us and our society building God’s kingdom on earth as we wait for the perfect kingdom of heaven where there will be everlasting peace and joy.
 
But when the Word of God is rejected, when we are not welcomed because of what we believe and stand for, for those people who show disrespect for the teachings of Christ, God will judge them.
 
Rejoicing, not because God gives us the power to heal, or to forgive, or to deliver; rejoicing as St. Paul teaches, and Isaiah prophesies, in the life Jesus Christ gives us, eternal life, “rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
 
Let us in simplicity and joy, boast in the Lord, rejoice with our Blessed Mother, that Jesus Christ is Lord! Amen.