Befuddled. That is a friendly sounding word that means “confused, perplexed, unable to think clearly.” Befuddled. A word that seems to describe our world today. It’s a word that describes me these days more often than I would like. With too much information around me, how do I know what to believe? With normal life continuing to be altered, how do I know what to do?
Our Scripture readings today have perplexed me….and they were both originally meant for people who were confused. Let’s look at them. Maybe they can give us some clarity and direction.
Jesus Speaks to Confused People
Today’s Gospel is one of many short scenarios in Luke 11, 12, 13. In Luke 10, Jesus extends his ability to touch and heal with “the 70.” This is very significant for all of us laity, because when Jesus did that, he extended the power to change the world beyond the apostles-to-be. He extended it to people meant to be ordinary lay people. I think these returned enthusiasts were an audience for today’s Scripture.
Have you had the experience of trying something new and finding it works marvelously? Whether it’s a new cleaning product or computer program or prayer strategy, if this new thing works, there is a tendency to think it is a miracle marvel. I suspect, considering all the stories in Luke 11, that that was how “the 70” were when they returned from having healed and cast out demons. Jesus is helping them get a bit of a grip on reality as he gives the Lord’s prayer, as he notes that just because an evil spirit has gone out does not mean it is gone for good, and now as he cautions people to put “signs” and miracles in their place.
As crowds gather today to hear and see Jesus, he doesn’t wow them with miracles. He cautions them in their enthusiasm. He says, “This generation is an evil generation; it asks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.”
Remember the story of Jonah. God told Jonah to preach repentance to the people of Nineveh. Jonah went the other way—even across the sea. A storm came, the frightened crewmen threw Jonah overboard, a fish ate him, then spit him out on the shore three days later. Jonah then did what God asked. Nineveh repented. But that wasn’t the end of the story. Jonah’s ego got all involved because he preached “forty days and Nineveh will be no more,” but God responded to the repentance with mercy, not the threatened doom. Jonah had to be further disciplined and formed by God.
What Did Jesus Mean?
To continue the description of how Catholics read Scripture from last week, the catechism also talks about layers of meaning in Scripture. There is the literal meaning (what the words say) and the spiritual meaning (the application of the Bible story to our lives). The spiritual sense is further divided into the allegorical sense (the application of the story to Jesus), the moral sense (how this Scripture helps us live moral lives as Christians), and the anagogical sense (how this Scripture points us toward union with God and heaven.) CCC 115-117.
There is an allegorical meaning to this reference to Jonah. Just as Jonah spent three days in the belly of the fish but then emerged alive, Jesus spent three days in the tomb, then rose from the dead.
In the moral sense, I think Jesus is also saying in effect, “Don’t let your ego get too tied up in signs and miracles. The important thing for you, just as it was for Jonah, is that you move people toward repentance and becoming part of the Kingdom of God. Don’t run from what God calls you to do, now that you have had this experience of doing miracles, but don’t think it is you who are doing it. Don’t’ get befuddled. Be faithful to the message, not the experience of giving it or the results of your work.”
St. Paul and the Galatians
In today’s first reading, St. Paul says he is working in an allegorical sense with the story of Abraham and his sons. The Galatians are in the middle of church controversy about the transition from Judaism to Christianity. Do you have to become Jewish first before you become Christian? As a Christian, do you have to observe Jewish law? They were befuddled.
Paul uses the familiar story of Abraham and his sons Isaac and Ishmael to clarify things for them. In the allegorical use of that story today, Paul says that it is the new Christians who are the “children of the promise,” even though they have not been circumcised and are not living by Jewish Law.
Doubtless, this would have caused significant stir in Galatia, because they were used to using that story to follow the Law . Paul was making an important point: it isn’t history or lineage or law that saves: it is faith in Jesus Christ.
For Us Today
The phrase that jumped out at me today is in Galatians, “For freedom, Christ set us free; so stand firm and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery.” Paul’s reference to slavery here is the slavery of Jewish law.
But what about freedom today? How do we recover from befuddlement in controversies today? Can we become slaves to the craziness of our world? Here is some of what the catechism says:
1740 Threats to freedom. The exercise of freedom does not imply a right to say or do everything. It is false to maintain that man, “the subject of this freedom,” is “an individual who is fully self-sufficient and whose finality is the satisfaction of his own interests in the enjoyment of earthly goods.” Moreover, the economic, social, political, and cultural conditions that are needed for a just exercise of freedom are too often disregarded or violated. Such situations of blindness and injustice injure the moral life and involve the strong as well as the weak in the temptation to sin against charity. By deviating from the moral law man violates his own freedom, becomes imprisoned within himself, disrupts neighborly fellowship, and rebels against divine truth.
1741 Liberation and salvation. By his glorious Cross Christ has won salvation for all men. He redeemed them from the sin that held them in bondage. “For freedom Christ has set us free.” In him we have communion with the “truth that makes us free.” The Holy Spirit has been given to us and, as the Apostle teaches, “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” Already we glory in the “liberty of the children of God.”
It is a bit confusing to me to read that the Holy Spirit gives us freedom. What does that mean?
Does the Holy Spirit Give Us Consolation?
Not when it comes to freedom. We can’t say we have the Holy Spirit so we can do what we want. Following the Holy Spirit takes hard work. It means we sift through all the confusion around us. It means we assess guidance given by news and views in light of what we know to be God’s way. Just as Jesus told his followers and St. Paul told his, “Clarity comes from following God’s lead.”
I’m in the mountains again this weekend—seeking direction and clarity. I talked yesterday with two friends about all the confusion. One of them said, “As I think about what I do, I think of God’s continued guidance to me to focus on relationships. I cannot solve this mess of a world. But I can choose to think what can I do to be helpful to the people who live near me, whom I know.”
That makes sense to me. That follows the goodness of God and the Holy Spirit. I can do that. And, really, that’s what Jesus did. That’s what he sent those 70 disciples to do. That thought un-befuddles me. It frees me.
Prayer:
Lord, ground me in Your freedom—the freedom and the call and the grace to do small, good things right where I am. Help me to be free enough to love those who live near me by doing to and with them as You would do. I am today a spiritual descendant of those “70” ordinary people you sent out. Keep my head on straight and lead me, guide me, Lord.
