21st Sunday of OT C - Discipline

St. Rose of Lima, from catholicsaints.info

Readings: http://usccb.org/bible/readings/082519.cfm 

Discipline – that magical and fearful word.  What comes to mind when you first hear that word?  Chances are it’s something a bit harsh, whether you’re the one giving or receiving it.  Maybe there’s memories you have from childhood of particular ways of discipline that your parents would give you when you did something wrong.  Maybe you think of things from school or your workplace – what happens when you either do something intentionally or even just make a mistake.  Or maybe we think of grunt-work, that we need to put in a lot of effort to grow.  At school this week, I heard a boy telling his angry dad, “I didn’t know there was another side to the homework!”  Sometimes it’s those simple mistakes that still require some sort of discipline, to help us be more careful.

If these are our memories of “discipline,” why is it that we hear it brought up in our second reading?  What does God’s discipline even look like?  Divine lightning bolts?  Flames of fire?  Unanswered prayers?  But this is nothing compared to what we see in the Gospel: this unfortunate scene of standing outside the locked door, saying, “Lord, open the door for us,” and Jesus replying, “I do not know where you are from.  Depart from me, all you evildoers!”  Now I don’t know about you, but that sounds really harsh to me!

What are we to make of all of this?  Maybe it’s that what seems harsh from our perspective might actually be for our good.  This could be our wake-up call to listen to Jesus in a new way.  Let’s return back to Jesus’s statement at the locked door, “I do not know where you are from.”  Another way to put this might be, “I do not know from where you are coming.”  Here’s the thing: are we coming to Jesus from a position of true humility and receptivity, or are we coming in the place of pride and entitlement?  Listen to the statement in reply, “We ate and drank in your company and you taught in your streets.”  It doesn’t say that there’s a relationship built up between Jesus and the seekers – the seekers think pridefully that because they just happened to be around Jesus, they deserve to enter into the house.  But Jesus wants for more than for us to be just “around him” – he wants us to be in relationship with him.

Let’s go back to the word, “discipline.”  This actually comes from the Latin word “discere,” which means, “to learn.”  When we are disciplined, we learn what is right from wrong.  There’s another word that comes from this Latin word: “disciple.”  When we are disciples, we are ultimately students, learning from our Master.

Here’s the hope for us: it is definitely possible for all of us to live as disciples, and I’m sure that no matter where we are in our faith life, the fact that we’re here at Mass is a sign of at least some desire for this.  Jesus offers us some definite hope: while he says that the “gate is narrow,” he also talks about people from all nations coming to the gates of heaven, fulfilling the prophecy made in our first reading from Isaiah.  We are the ones who come from the end of the earth – simply by the fact we’re in the Midwestern United States when Jesus came to Israel on the other side of the world.  We fulfill this prophecy made by Jesus when we accept his invitation to become his disciples.

The second reading explains why God disciplines us: “God treats you as sons.  For what ‘son’ is there whom his father does not discipline?  It later brings the peaceful fruit of righteousness.”  We become sons and daughters of God by our baptism, and God wants to draw out our love for Him and for all others.  Therefore, when we encounter difficult times in our faith or in our life, we don’t need to think that God is abandoning us; rather, we know by the cross that Jesus is with us right there. 

One person who recognized this fact was St. Rose of Lima, whose feast day we celebrated on Friday.  She lived a short life of 31 years in Lima, dying in 1617, but she saw God’s call for her to follow Him completely and be that witness to others.  In the Liturgy of the Hours that all priests and religious pray, there was this beautiful letter from St. Rose, explaining an experience of prayer she had.  Listen to what she writes:

Our Lord and Savior lifted up his voice and said with incomparable majesty: “Let all men know that grace comes after tribulation. Let them know that without the burden of afflictions it is impossible to reach the height of grace. Let them know that the gifts of grace increase as the struggles increase. Let men take care not to stray and be deceived. This is the only true stairway to paradise, and without the cross they can find no road to climb to heaven.” When I heard these words, a strong force came upon me and seemed to place me in the middle of a street, so that I might say in a loud voice to people of every age, sex and status: “Hear, O people; hear, O nations. I am warning you about the commandment of Christ by using words that came from his own lips: We cannot obtain grace unless we suffer afflictions. We must heap trouble upon trouble to attain a deep participation in the divine nature, the glory of the sons of God and perfect happiness of soul.”

Yes, our life in faith isn’t always easy or a walk in the park.  But when we remember that God is with us, we receive strength to walk with Him as His disciples.  This can be our prayer today: where are the areas of our life where we feel like we’re receiving or need discipline from God?  Then offer those upon this altar today, asking for the grace to walk with God, to strengthen our weak knees and our drooping hands so that we can pray with full confidence to God!

Quote found at http://www.liturgies.net/saints/roseoflima/readings.htm