6th Sunday in Ordinary Time: A cycle (I say to you)
In today’s readings we literally pick up where we left off last week. In the gospel we don’t even skip a verse in Matthew’s fifth chapter, and in the second reading we just continue reading from St. Paul’s famous letter to the Corinthians. Even though our first reading is from the book of Sirach, it just continues in the same vein as last week’s reading from Isaiah.
Sirach introduces us to the idea of choice.
If you trust in God, you too shall live;
He has set before you fire and water;
To whichever you choose, stretch forth your hand.
Before man are life and death, good and evil,
Whichever he chooses shall be given him.
How do we make the choice? On what basis do we choose? So often scripture talks about wisdom and regards it as greater than silver or gold. What is wisdom. All of us know that the smartest or most educated people are not always the wisest. It is just as easy for PhDs to mess up their lives and make bad decisions as everyone else. I can honestly say that my immigrant grandparents, who never even completed grade school, were among the wisest people I have ever known.
It can be said that the ability to make decisions is the mark of a wise person. In politics, business, or even sports we admire the decision makers. How often do we hear announcers say that the quarterback made a good or bad decision right before he was about to be crushed by onrushing linebackers?
Whatever our age we are all going to face life’s decisions. Teenagers will sweat over which college to attend, or which career to pursue. Their parents will have to decide what steps they will take or what sacrifices to make to pay the expected costs. Many people today are facing very tough career choices, especially if they have been forced to change careers. The elderly might have to decide whether to stay in the old house or downsize.
Everyone will say that the wisdom to make the right decision comes more from life experience than from book learning. In films and literature the wise are often portrayed as elderly to indicate years of life experience. We often speak of “wise, old owls.” Nevertheless, we know that it is possible for even the experienced to make bad decisions, especially when they are personally involved.
Most of us need a mentor, a trusted advisor or counselor who can help with our decisions, especially the big ones. In today’s gospel Matthew presents Jesus in the role of advisor. It might sound like he is just issuing commands or orders, but throughout this long reading Jesus is urging us to avoid basing our lives on rigid adherence to a set of rules and regulations but to consider the spirit of the commandments.
This is what he meant by urging his followers to exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees who were known for their strict adherence to the letter of the Law. However, Jesus calls them hypocrites because they often evade the spirit of the Law. When Jesus speaks to the Pharisees , he speaks to us.
We know that it is wrong to kill but anger is just as bad. We know that we must love God but how can we if we are not on speaking terms with our brother or sister. We know that it is wrong to defraud our neighbor but why wait until we’re caught to make amends. We know that adultery is wrong but why lead ourselves into temptation. The wise will avoid what used to be called temptation or occasions of sin.
If your right eye causes you to sin,
Tear it out and throw it away…
And if your right hand causes you to sin,
Cut if off and throw it away.
Jesus uses divorce as just another example. He says that just because a man (and he is talking about men here, since women had no legal rights in those days) can find a legal way to get rid of his wife, does not mean that he can evade his responsibility. Just because of a legal technicality a man is not free to discard his wife for someone else. His wife is not a slave.
Perhaps nowhere in modern society do we face such difficult choices as in the area of love and marriage. Today so many people find it so difficult to make the commitment necessary to enter into marriage. Moreover, the choices become even more difficult when a marriage goes bad. Even on St. Valentine’s day we know that so many marriages that began with undying professions of love, will end in anger and bitterness.
Jesus calls divorce a sin because it hurts all those involved--husband, wife, children, parents etc. Nevertheless, the cure for the hurt is not to turn from God. So many Catholics believe that divorce has excommunicated them from the love of God. Yet, St. Paul, a true Pharisee and a persecutor of the church, told us that nothing can separate us from the love of God.
Reading 1 Sirach 15: 15-20
Reading II. 1 Corinthians 2: 6-10
Gospel. Matthew 5:17-37 (But I say to you).
Showing posts with label the law. Show all posts
Showing posts with label the law. Show all posts
Monday, February 14, 2011
Sunday, July 11, 2010
15th Sunday in Ordinary Time
15th Sunday in Ordinary Time
C cycle
Reading 1. Deuteronomy 30: 10-14
Reading II. Colossians 1: 15-20
Gospel. Luke 10: 25-37 (The Good Samaritan.)
There is an old legal maxim that ignorance of the law is no defense. Maybe that comes from today's reading from the book of Deuteronomy. Moses tells the people that they can't be ignorant of the law because it is built into their very being. "For this command that I enjoin on you today is not too mysterious and remote for you....it is something very near to you, already in your mouths and in your hearts..."
Let's face it. Even if our religious education stopped after grade school, we know that it is wrong to kill, or steal, or lie, or commit adultery. We don't have to be a theologian, or a lawyer, or an intellectual to figure it out. In fact, it often seems that the more education we have, the more we try to deny or explain away the fundamental truth that lies in our hearts.
Today's gospel is the famous parable of the "Good Samaritan." In all of literature only the story of the Prodigal Son is more well known than this one, and yet here it is presented to us as the centerpiece of our liturgy on an ordinary summer Sunday in Ordinary time. Why did our Lord use parables or stories?
Let me tell a joke to make a point. Two string beans were crossing the street when one of them was hit by a car. An ambulance came and took both of them to the hospital. A few hours later the doctor came out of the operating room and told the bean that he had good news and bad news. "What's the good news?" "Your friend is going to make it," the doctor said. "What's the bad news?" "He'll be a vegetable!" ...I'm sure that most of you will remember this story much longer than the rest of this homily. Isn't it true that a well told story will not only have more of immediate impact but also it will remain in our memories much longer. After all, no one took notes while Jesus was talking but his stories were told and retold by his followers.
Jesus is prompted to tell the parable after a student of the Law tested Him by asking, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus asks him how the law of Moses answers the question. In reply, the man repeats the "Shema" that prayer that every Jew knew by heart and which every one of us would do well to memorize and repeat every day.
You shall love the Lord, your God,
with all your heart,
with all your being,
with all your strength,
and with all your mind,
and your neighbor as yourself.
After Jesus commends his answer, the man asks, "who is my neighbor." Rather than giving a theological or philosophical lecture, Jesus answers with the story about the man who was beaten and stripped by robbers and left for dead on the road to Jericho. A priest and a Levite pass him by without lending a hand. They even cross to the opposite side of the road to avoid the stricken man. Both of them had to know in their hearts that the Law commanded assistance to the needy.
It was left for the Samaritan to take pity on the man. Now Samaritans were Jews who had intermarried with foreigners and had contaminated their religion with idol worship. They were viewed by the Jews as heretics and idolaters and regarded with hatred and contempt. Nevertheless, our Lord says that a "Samaritan traveler...was moved with compassion" at the sight of the man. Commentators tell us that this is the only instance in the gospels where the verb which means "moved with compassion" is used for anyone besides Jesus. The Samaritan when he dresses the man's wounds and takes him to a nearby inn to care for him, is acting like Jesus.
Of course, when Jesus asks the lawyer, "Which of these three, in your opinion, was neighbor to the robbers' victim?" his answer is the same as ours would be. "The one who treated him with mercy." What other answer could there be? This law is ingrained in all of our hearts even though we all have difficulty in obeying the true impulses of our hearts.
In today's second reading St. Paul says the Jesus "is the image of the invisible God." For St. Paul, and for Moses, and for the "Good Samaritan" God is not a distant, invisible, unattainable being. We do not have to look "up in the sky" or far "across the sea" to find Him. We can find Him in the words, and in the deeds, and in the simple, but unforgettable, parables of Jesus.
,
C cycle
Reading 1. Deuteronomy 30: 10-14
Reading II. Colossians 1: 15-20
Gospel. Luke 10: 25-37 (The Good Samaritan.)
There is an old legal maxim that ignorance of the law is no defense. Maybe that comes from today's reading from the book of Deuteronomy. Moses tells the people that they can't be ignorant of the law because it is built into their very being. "For this command that I enjoin on you today is not too mysterious and remote for you....it is something very near to you, already in your mouths and in your hearts..."
Let's face it. Even if our religious education stopped after grade school, we know that it is wrong to kill, or steal, or lie, or commit adultery. We don't have to be a theologian, or a lawyer, or an intellectual to figure it out. In fact, it often seems that the more education we have, the more we try to deny or explain away the fundamental truth that lies in our hearts.
Today's gospel is the famous parable of the "Good Samaritan." In all of literature only the story of the Prodigal Son is more well known than this one, and yet here it is presented to us as the centerpiece of our liturgy on an ordinary summer Sunday in Ordinary time. Why did our Lord use parables or stories?
Let me tell a joke to make a point. Two string beans were crossing the street when one of them was hit by a car. An ambulance came and took both of them to the hospital. A few hours later the doctor came out of the operating room and told the bean that he had good news and bad news. "What's the good news?" "Your friend is going to make it," the doctor said. "What's the bad news?" "He'll be a vegetable!" ...I'm sure that most of you will remember this story much longer than the rest of this homily. Isn't it true that a well told story will not only have more of immediate impact but also it will remain in our memories much longer. After all, no one took notes while Jesus was talking but his stories were told and retold by his followers.
Jesus is prompted to tell the parable after a student of the Law tested Him by asking, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus asks him how the law of Moses answers the question. In reply, the man repeats the "Shema" that prayer that every Jew knew by heart and which every one of us would do well to memorize and repeat every day.
You shall love the Lord, your God,
with all your heart,
with all your being,
with all your strength,
and with all your mind,
and your neighbor as yourself.
After Jesus commends his answer, the man asks, "who is my neighbor." Rather than giving a theological or philosophical lecture, Jesus answers with the story about the man who was beaten and stripped by robbers and left for dead on the road to Jericho. A priest and a Levite pass him by without lending a hand. They even cross to the opposite side of the road to avoid the stricken man. Both of them had to know in their hearts that the Law commanded assistance to the needy.
It was left for the Samaritan to take pity on the man. Now Samaritans were Jews who had intermarried with foreigners and had contaminated their religion with idol worship. They were viewed by the Jews as heretics and idolaters and regarded with hatred and contempt. Nevertheless, our Lord says that a "Samaritan traveler...was moved with compassion" at the sight of the man. Commentators tell us that this is the only instance in the gospels where the verb which means "moved with compassion" is used for anyone besides Jesus. The Samaritan when he dresses the man's wounds and takes him to a nearby inn to care for him, is acting like Jesus.
Of course, when Jesus asks the lawyer, "Which of these three, in your opinion, was neighbor to the robbers' victim?" his answer is the same as ours would be. "The one who treated him with mercy." What other answer could there be? This law is ingrained in all of our hearts even though we all have difficulty in obeying the true impulses of our hearts.
In today's second reading St. Paul says the Jesus "is the image of the invisible God." For St. Paul, and for Moses, and for the "Good Samaritan" God is not a distant, invisible, unattainable being. We do not have to look "up in the sky" or far "across the sea" to find Him. We can find Him in the words, and in the deeds, and in the simple, but unforgettable, parables of Jesus.
,
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