Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Overcoming fear

Reading I          Isaiah 49:14-15 (restoration of Zion)

Reading II         1 Corinthians 4:1-6 (Christ judges his ministers)

Gospel                  Matthew 6:24-34 (dependence on God)

Key Passage    Jesus said, “But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?” (Matthew 6:30)

Adult:  

What things do you worry about most frequently? How do you deal with your worry?

Child:  

What can help you worry less about something that might happen?

Seventh Sunday Ordinary Time A

Matthew 5:38-48 

February 23, 2014

For scripture readings click here.

To understand today’s gospel we need to take into account the genre of this text.

It’s what New Testament scholar Robert Tannehill calls a "focal instance."

I prefer to call it a "sketchy scene."

"It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God."

"If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away."

"First take the log out of your own eye."

"Let the dead bury their own dead."

"If anyone strikes you . . .

If anyone wants to sue you and take your coat . . .

If anyone forces you to go one mile . . ."

These sayings picture a specific scene and make a command.

They are specific, exaggerated, and extreme.

They are not meant as blanket principles to fit all situations.

They function like a proverb, which is an ethical flashlight, not a floodlight, appropriate for some situations but not all.

Think, for example of "A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh words stirs up anger.

In some situations, that's a wise word, but in others, a harsh, blunt word is called for.

Jesus' "sketchy scenes" contrast his teaching with conventional human behavior and induce a new way of looking at such topics as judging others (Mt 7:3-5), inward motives and outward behavior (Mt 5:29-30), retaliation (Mt 5:39-42), private piety and public opinion (Mt 6:1-7), family ties (Mt 10:34-36) and the call of God's kingdom (Mt 8:21-22)

Jesus doesn't intend for us to cut off our own feet, tear out our own eyes, pull logs out of our eyes, stand still while someone slaps us twice, and skip our own father's funerals.

He wants to make our habitual, deeply ingrained patterns of behavior seem strange to us.

Do Unto Others as They Have Done Unto You?
The Old Testament law contained what is known as the lex talionis, (Ex 21:24; Lev 24:20;Dt 19:21), known as "an eye for an eye."

It was the principle of "negative reciprocation": an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand, a foot for a foot, a burn for a burn, a wound for a wound, a stripe for a stripe.

While negative reciprocation sounds cruel to contemporary ears, it was designed to set limits on vendettas.

Extract the injury that was inflicted on you and it ends there.

The eye-for-an-eye principle was not unique to the Hebrew Bible, but was known throughout the ancient world.

Matthew's Jesus is not recommending a blanket policy of non-resistance, say when weak and vulnerable members of a community are threatened with violence.

Nor is he dismissing the validity of negative consequences for negative behavior (10:32-33; 6:14-15).

He is saying that "an eye for an eye" is not a legitimate motto for his followers when they suffer personal insult or injury.

Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

Love of enemies

Reading I          Leviticus 19:1-2, 17-18 (various rules of conduct)

Reading II         1 Corinthians 3:16-23 (the work of God’s ministers)

Gospel                                Matthew 5:38-48 (new law of retaliation; love of enemies)

Key Passage    Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”  (Matthew 5:43–44a)

Adult:  What is the point of “turning the other cheek” in an argument, and why is it so hard to do?

Child:   Who are the people you find it most difficult to forgive?

6th Sunday Ordinary Time

Matthew 5:17-37

February 16, 2014

For scripture readings click here.

In the moral life, we can think of commandments in at least a couple of ways.

One way to think of a commandment is as a rule by which we can evaluate the rightness or wrongness of a given action.

We might think of a commandment like, “thou shalt not bear false witness” as a rule against the deliberate telling of untruths.

The moral task then will be to decide whether telling our spouses that “we love” their new neon green and brown plaid blazer breaks the rule against lying or not.

A second way to think of a commandment sees it as a guide and exhortation in the formation of our moral character.

Taken this way, the command against bearing false witness is not just about following the rule, but it is also about the formation of an honest character. The rule is followed not just for the sake of following it, but because by repeated attempts to follow the rule in our ever-changing circumstances, we become people who are disposed to act honestly.

Jesus thinks of commandments in the second way.

Our gospel lesson for today comes from a section of the Sermon on that Mount that traditionally has been called “Antitheses,” because Jesus’ teaching is presented in the following pattern:

First, Jesus says, “you have heard that it was said ”; then Jesus follows with his own magisterial statement, “but I say to you”.

The problem with calling these teachings “Antitheses” is that it suggests that Jesus is contradicting the earlier statement.

But this is not so.

Rather, what Jesus is doing is intensifying the particular law’s claims and thereby clarifying its true meaning.

In the so-called “Antitheses,” Jesus is showing what he meant earlier in the Sermon on the Mount when he said he came “not to abolish the law, but to fulfill it,” and to teach a greater righteousness:

“If your righteousness does not surpass that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never get into the kingdom of heaven.”

The commandments are not just rules to be followed, they are given so that by following them we might become formed in a greater righteousness.

Jesus says:

“You have heard that it was said to those in ancient times, ‘You shall not murder’; and ‘whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.’

But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment.”

Jesus isn’t contradicting the commandment against murder, he is intensifying it.

He knows that even if we keep the commandment not to kill, we can still hate and despise others.

We can follow the rule and still kill relationships, still treat people as if they were dead to us.

Jesus shows us that the fulfillment of the commandment not to kill is the formation of our hearts and minds so that we look at others not with anger, but rather with love.

The greater righteousness is to love others as we would have them love us, even when they are our enemies.

The commandment is given not just so that we won’t kill each other, but so that we will be the type of people who will seek out someone who has wronged us and work to be reconciled with them.

Jesus says:

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

Again, Jesus isn’t contradicting the commandment against committing adultery, he is intensifying it. He knows that even if we keep the commandment not to commit adultery, we can still demean and belittle others. The lustful glance, the undressing with the eye, treats others as objects and takes what doesn’t belong to us, even if it keeps its distance. Jesus shows us that the fulfillment of the commandment not to commit adultery is a faithful heart that cherishes our spouses and respects our neighbors.

L. Gregory Jones, in an essay entitled “The Grace of Daily Obligation: Shaping Christian Life,” reflects on how we become grace-filled people through the daily and disciplined practice of Christian obligations.

He writes:

“Isn’t it interesting that when we are talking about a ballet dancer, or, if you prefer, a Michael Jordan on the basketball court … we describe them as being graceful – full of grace.

Yet anybody who has ever undertaken the craft of ballet or piano or basketball knows how much work day by day by day goes into the cultivation of that gracefulness.

In this sense, gracefulness is not simply a process of sitting back and waiting.

Rather, through the activity of daily habits people are prepared to move gracefully, in a way that transcends the day-to-day preparation.

It becomes so natural that the graceful performer doesn’t have to think it through. …

The gracefulness develops over time so that eventually the steps come together in a powerfully new way, a performance.

That happens only through daily obligation.”

Jesus came not to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. Jesus came to call and form disciples in a community devoted to the higher righteousness.

We follow the commandments not simply because they are rules; we follow the commandments so that we might become the type of people Christ wants us to be, people formed and fashioned for life in the kingdom of God.

We become these types of people not by forsaking the law; rather, we become these types of people by following the law with true intention.

God gave the commandments not so that we would become moral rule keepers;

rather, God gave us the commandments as guides and exhortations for the formation of our character, so that we might become people who are pure in heart,

so that we might love the Lord our God with all our heart and soul and mind, and that we might love our neighbor as ourselves.

Creed: Crucified, Died, Risen

When Jesus "came down from heaven" it was not simply to be born in Bethlehem. He came further and further down, to poverty, rejection, pain, betrayal, death, and finally to the depths of the grave through crucifixion, the very worst form of death that hell ever invented. There is no abyss he has not seen, no depth he has not plumbed.

The first movement of that descent begins in a bureaucracy. Pilate had a long resume of accomplishments in the Roman bureaucracy and, though known for cruelty; had led a life of distinguished public service. A Barbara Walters interview with him would have ended with the normal faux humility we expect from "public servants": "I'm not perfect. But I'm sure I'll be remembered for doing the best darn job I know how."

And so he is remembered, every day, in every language of the world: "crucified under Pontius Pilate." There are only two mortals mentioned in the Creed: Mary and Pilate. They image the only two destinies we mortals ultimately can choose.

John reminds us that by God's mysterious providence, Jesus is calling the shots in his Passion. Jesus tells his disciples he has power to lay down his life and power to take it up again. He offers judgments of his judge Pontius Pilate. He is clothed in royal purple and a crown of thorns by people who have no idea he is really and truly entering on his reign by these tokens of his Passion.

The Passion itself is more than simply Christ's expiration. It involves not simply the stopping of Jesus' heart, but the breaking of it. For his own unfathomable reasons, our Lord willed that he suffer, not simply die in his bed at a ripe old age. We shall never be able to really comprehend this: we can only receive it. Yet, "by his stripes we were healed" (Is 53:5).

And when the moment comes for his death, it comes not because of some accident of myocardial rupture, but because Jesus chose that moment to give up his spirit On 19:30). In that willed and chosen act, Jesus gives up his Spirit to the Father for us, making us sharers in his Spirit.

The seal on this promise of the Spirit is the

Resurrection. Many people complain of the Resurrection as a crass, crude, physical ending to the Gospels. Such people prefer a Jesus who rose spiritually and lives on in the hearts of nice people everywhere—which is to say they prefer him dead. The thing is, as philosophy professor Peter Kreeft, PhD, has noted, resurrection is a crass, crude, physical thing because death is a crass, crude, physical thing. That's why Jesus was buried and did not fade into mist. The world thought it was burying a corpse. God knew we were burying a seed that would sprout on the third day.

Why the third day? Jesus hints at a possible explanation when he calls his resurrection a fulfillment of "the sign of the prophet Jonah." Jonah's three-day adventure in the belly of the great fish was a sign to the hard of heart that they were hard of heart. The inference about our fallen race is not a flattering one.

When people speak of Jesus "fulfilling" the Scripture, they often have in mind the notion that the Old Testament has a series of Nostradamus-like "messianic predictions." According to this scenario, all the attentive first-century Jew had to do was follow Jesus around with his messianic prophecy checklist and say, "According to the checklist, his mother will be a virgin, he'll heal the sick, cleanse the Temple, and die and rise from the dead."

Of course, nobody was expecting anything of the sort. And the reason is simple: people didn't see Jesus fulfilling the Scripture until after he did so. With a great collective apostolic forehead smack, the early Church looked at the life of Christ and only realized after it was all over that he was hidden in plain view in the Old Testament. That was why the Risen Christ had to practically rub the disciples' noses in their own Bibles on the Emmaus Road (Lk 24:27).

The Resurrection is both a wonder we never expected and yet also something the prophets foretold for centuries. As St. Augustine says, the New Testament is hidden in the Old, and the Old Testament is only fully revealed in the New.

Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time    Implications of the new law

Reading I        Sirach 15:15-20 (our free will)      

Reading II       1 Corinthians 2:6-10 (true wisdom)

Gospel              Matthew 5:17-37 (the old Law and the new)

Key Passage   Jesus said, “So when you are offering your gift at the altar,  if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift.” (Matthew 5:23–24)

Adult:  

How do you reconcile with those who have offended or hurt you?

Child:  

When have you taken the first step to make up with someone who has hurt you or whom you have offended?

Fifth Sunday Ordinary Time

Matthew 5:13-16

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Modern visitors to Israel who travel the road north from Jerusalem toward Shechem notice clay-ovens next to some houses along the roadside.

Many prefer to cook in these out-door ovens rather than on their electric or propane gas stoves.

Ovens like these have been around since ancient times. In the biblical period each village had a common oven. Since villagers were often members of a very large, extended family, these common ovens were family ovens.

The common fuel for the oven was something that was more plentiful than wood: camel or donkey dung.

One of the duties each young girl had to learn was to collect the dung, mix salt in it, and mold it into patties to be left in the sun to dry.

In the Middle East and many Third World countries, such dung patties are still used as fuel today.

A slab of salt was placed at the base of the oven and upon it the salted dung patty.

Salt has catalytic properties which cause the dung to burn.

Eventually the salt slab loses its catalytic ability and becomes useless.

Or as Jesus says, "It is good for nothing but to be thrown outside where it can still pro-vide a sure footing in a muddy road?'

This is the Mediterranean cultural imagery Jesus has in mind when he says: "You, my disciples, are the salt, that is, catalyst for the earth-oven."

(In the Aramaic and Hebrew languages which Jesus spoke, one and the same word means “earth” and “clay oven.”

To be salt for the “earth -oven” is to start fires and make them burn.

If Jesus’ disciples do this, they will also become “light of the earth.”

Catholics in the United States have become afraid of “starting fires.”

We have achieved a certain status in wealth and possessions, and we like the status quo.

Let’s not rock any boats.

Too many of us want to come to church and hear a nice homily that will let us return to our comparatively comfortable lives for the rest of the week.

We really don’t want to hear our pastor and our church tell us how evil and uncivilized is the war that’s going on.

We really don’t want to hear our pastor and our church talk to us about money and immigration reform, homeless and food stamps.

But the fact is that Jesus started fires and created light.

Back then some saw and understood.

Others got burnt and put to death.

Today some see and understand that disciples must be people who start fires and create light.

Others today don’t get burnt and put to death, but they suffer the fate of those whom Jesus called “hypocrites.”

In Jesus’s time the word meant “actor.”

These people today, like those in Jesus’s time, take their lines from scripture, but it is hardly the script by which they live.

They are people afraid to start fires,

and thus, people who create no light in our world.