24 March 2012, Satya Nilayam
Jer 11:18-20; Jn 7:40-53
A. INTRODUCTION
First Reading: Jeremiah, as a prophet of God, is the target of vicious conspiracies which want to wipe him out. Ultimately God is Jeremiah's only protection against his enemies.
Gospel: Pharisees have a fixed and closed idea about the Messiah. Since Jesus does not fit into their idea, they reject him.
B. HOMILY : Ideology or Weltanschauung?
In our course on Philosophy of Liberation, there is a chapter called "epistemological presuppositions for a philosophy of liberation". First year brothers may remember, (I hope they do!) we discussed two terms: Ideology and Weltanschauung (world view).
Ideology is a bad word. It is an already-worked out, and once and for all fixed, set of inter-related ideas. And for many people when they find that reality occasionally refuses to fit the mould, they simply force it to do so or discard such noncompliant data; the system is what counts for them. This is an oppressive epistemological standpoint.
On the other hand, a liberative approach is open to an ongoing dialogue with the world with reality. Weltanschauung or worldview is a dynamic and progressive vision of reality. If one discovers a new nuance or dimension of reality that had not been taken into consideration while formulating ones vision of reality, then one modifies the existing vision, integrating this new perspective.
In the Gospel reading today we see that the Pharisees have a fixed ideology that Christ must be born in Bethlehem in David's family. When Jesus comes he does not fit into their ideology because he, they think, is from Galilee. So they discard him.
We need to remember we are not reading this passage simply to condemn the Jewish religious leaders or the Pharisees but to reflect on our own prejudices and short-sightedness. How do we see Jesus, the Gospel message, the whole Bible, the Church? Is our understanding once and for all fixed one? Jesus is the fullness of revelation, no doubt about it. But have we grasped that revelation fully – once and for all?
Are we not like the Pharisees when we have a prejudiced idea about our family members, friends, neighbours, teachers, students, other ethnic groups or castes – when we condemn them once and for all without even trying to know why they are that way?
If we are honest, there is something of the Pharisees in every one of us.
"Let him or her who is totally without prejudice or who has never passed judgement on another cast the first stone."
Let us pray for an open mind to accept the ever revealing the message of Jesus. And also be very open about the many and surprising ways in which Jesus can speak to us.
Vally Mendonca, S.J.
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