15th Sunday in Ordinary Time Cycle B 2021 (’00)

Sunday 11 July 2021 (’00): 15th SUN in ORDINARY : B

1. AMOS7 12-15

  • Read 1:1- 9:15! TheClaim of this terrifying prophet! ‘Yahweh will vindcate   His Moral-Imperatives  by every imaginable natural&historical disaster!’
  • Mid 8th Cent BC, The Holy Land was divided into Judah (south) & Israel (north)!
  •  Prophet’: Declares by Word & Action TheWill of a divinity, say Yahweh or Baal!
  • Who are the prophets of Mammon&Aphrodite&Dionysus&cet in Irish Society?
  • How would I know that Yahweh’ was calling me to become ‘His Prophet’? &Have I any conception of what it would entail, for my safety&health&career?
  • How is my Church contriving to neutralise ‘unwelcome or interfere with prophets’?

2. THE PSALM: 84:9-14

  • Read 84(85).1-13(14)! Why was ‘Yahweh thought to have effective control over  the processes of nature & history & politics?&Why was all-this ‘Justice-related’?
  • ‘Peace!’: The ‘Fullness-of-Life’ imagined & yearned at a particular juncture!
  • Mercy FaithfulnessJusticePeace! The ingredients & Concomitants of ‘Covenant’!
  • How is covenant understood & valued & actualised & monitored in my Community?
  • If I were ‘Yahweh’, what would be my Agenda for the local church of Armagh?

3. EPHl.3-14 ·

  • The ‘Of&In&Through&UnderChrist SluaghGairm  for another UrgentWrestle!
  •  ‘Christ!’: The Will to Universal Reconciliation embodied in Jesus (&Disciples… )
  • How was Paul initiated into knowledge & actualisation of this Plan&Mystery?
  • But is this rhetoric relevant or credible in contemporary Capitalist Society?

4. MK6:7-13

  • ‘The Unclean Spirits/Devils!’: Various ‘dynamic Breaths’ (representing social& psychological& somatic & other factors) imagined to infest people & cause ‘illness’!
  • ‘How do I visualise this ‘Authority Over’ passing from Jesus to The Twelve?
  • These extremely spare& Spartan Mission Orders! Any equivalent nowadays?
  • Is ‘The HomelessBeggingItinerantPreacher’ currently the Offer of ‘Repentance’?
  • Repentance! Voluntary Total Transfer-of-Allegiance from Mammon to Yahweh!
  • But seriously, is all this story anything more than a vaguely edifying fairytale?
  • Which ‘Pairs” in  my Community are being addressed in this excerpt?

5. The presence & action of the Blessed One, is it like this?

What about this new mission-initiative? I hear they’re to be called ‘Staffers’ since only they’ll have a staff of blackthorn, & clothes from Oxfam!’ The Practicing Sceptic spoke casually, but interested! ‘Or is it all as yet under wraps? Spring it on the plebs?’ After a will-I won’t- I pause, The Official Believer responded, as if to a child, ‘No, as far as I’m aware there’s nothing in the pipeline! perhaps someone was heard quoting from the missionary discourse in one of the Synoptics .. ‘ ‘Oh, like Augustine conveniently   overhearing …’   … & fabricated   a   caricature, so as to   subvert the forthcoming diocesan mission. ‘ ‘You mean, they will have bread & haversack, &coppers in their purse?’ ‘Of course! All those words of Our Divine Lord are inspired allegorical… ‘ ‘But will they get to stay in the houses? Ah shake the dust from under their feet?’  ‘Listen, it’s inspired & allegorical & a-child-of-its time! OK?’  ‘OK,  Bossuet!
I just thought I’d heard an interesting initiative! Fine,  fine….. Everything’s in hand…!”

6. RIDDLE    Which is more needed in my Church?

Piety. Controversy, or Authority?

Refections and comments can be emailed to adbi@chokmah.ie