Finding Happiness in Suffering, in Order to Create a New World!
Isaiah 66:10-14c; Gal 6:14-18, Lk 10:1-12, 17-20
Happiness is in short supply these days, going by the rate of suicides, gun violence, wars and starvation. It seems that the cares of this world have eroded our happiness. Poor leadership compounds an already complex situation and the media spell doomsday for our times. In these situations, the readings of this Sunday provide us with an optimistic outlook on life, the purview of hope for a better tomorrow; a tomorrow to be shaped both by God and human beings. We need our happiness back!
To situate our first reading, it was the ravages of the Babylonian captivity that depleted Israel’s prosperity, and the state of exile mortgaged her happiness. The deportees from Jerusalem to Babylon went out in pain and humiliation. Many of them never came back. They went into a land foreign to them, without a clear sense of why they had to go there other than the justification given to it by the prophets that it was on account of their sins and infidelities to God. But what if God were sending Judah as missionary to Babylon not as punishment for sins committed? If that were to be the case, then we have a link between our gospel and first readings. The stories of the exploit of the children of Israel in exile, as recorded in the book of Daniel, testifies to processes of conversion for the Babylonians – a missionary journey. While in exile, the children of Judah distinguished themselves in learning, prophecies and dream interpretation. Even the king, Nebuchadnezzar, confessed the supremacy of the Hebrew God (Daniel 3:28). What a success story!
But we must read the exile as a lesson because it came and went. According to our first reading, with the news of a Divine comfort from God, the narrative of hope and imminent change of fortunes, calls Israel to happiness despite being in exile. Eventually, the returnee exiles came back rich, with gifts from their host country, and with a renewed zeal to start all over again – the power of happiness and the reversal in their fortunes. Yes, the years of captivity were also years of learning skills for a better tomorrow. The new architectural design of the Second Temple, the expensive and foreign woods for the construction of the Temple also point to causes and sources of happiness. The hope of returning to their homeland was a motive for their happiness and the message of the Prophet of God was a boost.
The stakes of the first reading are higher than those of pre-exile. If God made true his threat of exile, all the more reason to trust him when he promises to restore what he has exiled. It is the track records of God in dealing with human beings in the past that gives impetus to what he can do in the future for the same human beings. The generation of the returnees from Babylon are like the 72 disciples going out in today’s gospel. Like Judah en route to Babylon, the 72 disciples went out at the Lord’s command not knowing what awaited them. In hope, they accepted to give God a chance in their lives. The 72 returned rejoicing because of the successes they registered, a reminiscence of Judah’s return to Jerusalem. This shows that it is not human anxieties that matter, but the guarantee of success which comes from trusting in the Lord. This simply means that the “joy of the Lord is [our] strength” (Nehemiah 8:10).
Like Exiled Judah on its way to Babylon, the 72 disciples of today’s gospel had to carry nothing with them, eat whatever is set before them, be as vulnerable as lambs in the midst of wolves; yet, they had to proclaim peace to their host, on arrival! At the end of the gospel, Jesus asks the disciples to “rejoice because your names are written in heaven” (Luke 10:20). Indeed, it is when we understand the universalism which undergirds Luke’s gospel, the fact that God wants to reach out to the whole world without exception, then the Babylonian exile serves as God’s conscious effort to reach out to non-Jews to make them too his children. The narrative of the 72 disciples sent out tells us that God needs everybody to preach the joy of belonging to a single and one God. By using 72 disciples instead of 12 apostles, God invites us all to create a common humanity of daughters and sons of God. Then, our names will be written in heaven, the names of the sons and daughters of God, the “the new creation”.
Moreover, our second reading makes us to understand that preaching the gospel can also come in the form of a cross, that is, discomfort like the exile in Babylon. When Paul says “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Galatians 6:14), he speaks in the context of his evangelization of non-Jews. This is clear because he goes on to say: “For neither does circumcision mean anything, nor does uncircumcision, but only a new creation” (Galatians 6:15). Every Christian has a stake in bringing about this “new creation,” where our names will be written in heaven. You know what, when you can love despite being hurt, then happiness will never depart from you! It is the hope of heaven that makes us to love others, despite all odds; it is the determination to be like our Father in heaven, and Jesus our Brother, that makes us love our enemies and bless those who treat us badly.
Our readings today call us back to the happiness that many of us have lost because we are in either of two exiles: some of us are lost in the exile of passion and sin, we do everything except what God wants us to do; others are in the slavery of materialism and the consolation that comes with power, wealth and loose living. The message of today is that we need to look towards God for the source of our own happiness. True and lasting happiness comes from God and from being at right with God and our neighbors. Happiness is contagious just as evil is. Those who rejoice with Judah share also in the joy of Jerusalem. In other words, it is joy shared that is actually joy because it comes from God and reaches our neighbors because God wants us all to be happy despite our crosses, for suffering is also meaningful when seen from God’s plans for us.
The world that is divided between circumcised and uncircumcised, according to our second reading, must cede place to a united world of brothers and sisters, children of the same Father-God. The new creation of which our second reading speaks is where there is no distinction of race, gender, status and nationality: “for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:26-28). Each one of us must stand up against every kind of segregation and discrimination, in order for God’s project of unity and happiness to succeed. Today, you and I are the 72 disciples sent out to create one world of happy human beings.
Assignment for the Week:
Find a part of Michael Jackson’s song “We are the World” that speaks to you and practice it:
Verse 1]
There comes a time when we heed a certain call
When the world must come together as one
And it’s time to lend a hand to life
The greatest gift of all
[Verse 2]
We can’t go on pretending day by day
That someone, somewhere will soon make a change
We are all a part of God’s great big family
And the truth, you know
Love is all we need
[Chorus]
We are the world, we are the children
We are the ones who make a brighter day
So let’s start giving
There’s a choice we’re making
We’re saving our own lives
It’s true we’ll make a better day
Just you and me
[Verse 3]
Send them your heart so they’ll know that someone cares
And their lives will be stronger and free