10/25-26 - 30th Sunday: The Great Command

 

Matthew 22: 34-40

The Word: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/102526.cfm

Our Gospel this Sunday may be a bit tricky.  The scene is that of a lawyer, or a “scholar of the law” is chosen by the ever-cunning Pharisees to pose a question they foolishly hoped would trap Jesus.  Remember the question about the tax last weekend and the Roman coin?  Well, this was another attempt with the same intent. The Pharisees, hearing the Sadducees failed in their attempt to trap Jesus after showing him the Roman coin with the image of Caesar on it, now turn on him again.  This time it is a challenge to explain what might be at the core of the Jewish covenant, a sacred law by which all righteous Jews would live. What is more fundamental to their way of life than obedience to the Sacred Law which governed everything from food, work, worship, and relationships with Jews and non-Jews.  The Pharisees above all were the law police making sure that all Jews were following the proper prescriptions.

So, he poses a simple straightforward test to Jesus: “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” I’m not sure why they thought this question would challenge Jesus but so they did. 

Our Lord is quick to answer that we shall love God with all our heart, mind, soul.  In the Pharisees thinking that would be the answer.  However, Jesus throws them a curve ball.  He takes the command to love your neighbor and places it on an equal level as love for God, then adds a third,
as yourself.  The greatest commandment has three loves within it:  love of God, love of neighbor, and love of self.  We cannot love God separate from our love for neighbor which comes from a healthy love of self as a son or daughter of God.  Not three individual loves but rather one great love with three equal parts.  Sounds somewhat Trinitarian doesn’t it.  One God with three equal persons. Is, therefore human love meant to reflect God’s love for us? 

To love as God loves remains at the foundation of our Christian way of life. Thereby saying that the heart of the Christian Gospel is charity. Yet, what if I’m not loved in return?  What if I show kindness to another and all I receive back is a cold shoulder, an insult, or an angry response?  To extend charity to another is often more challenging than it sounds but it can also become more rewarding than you ever imagined. In other words, if we truly love God then charity, love in action, would be the constant measure and force of our life.

So, they ask Jesus, of all the laws which govern the life of the Jews enumerated in the first books of the Torah, which is the greatest? Moses had given the people more than 600 laws that were to be followed by a faithful Jew so the question is asking Jesus which of them is the essence of all or the greatest among them?

Jesus answers what every Jew would be familiar with, the sacred Shema: “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart with all your soul and with all your mind.” This is the greatest and something they would have agreed with but then he goes a step farther: “The second is ‘like’ it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  While his audience would have been familiar with the sacred love of neighbor, Jesus states that in essence the way to love God is to love your neighbor. It’s not about the law as much as it is about charity in action. In the view of God, everyone is your neighbor for his love is universal. Doing good to our neighbor, wishing no harm upon them, to give charity is to love God through them, which includes our enemies. 

How do we love God?  By showing charity, love in action, towards our neighbor.  Remember the scene of the last judgement in the Gospel of Matthew 25: 31-46.  “I was hungry, naked, in prison, thirsty, ill and you cared for ME.” Whatever is done for these least ones we do for Christ. Whenever good is done for others, we are doing it for Christ. 

The most unique thing is that Jesus put both on the same level thereby as a blend of two laws as one.  “The second is like it . . .” Jesus said. Thus, it is one sacred law with two equal parts: love God and love your neighbor.

Our love is without borders; it is inclusive and extensive of everything God has made and all he loves.

Love is not a feeling or an emotion.  Love towards anyone is a choice, a decision you make. Jesus,' the incarnate Word of God who speaks, captures for his listeners and for us the very heart of the law. This is how God sees it for us.

My attraction or my feelings are simply emotions – that’s not love. True love is a choice I make; a movement towards another to do good for them, regardless of who they are. To love is to will good for the other regardless of my feelings for them.  To do good to our enemies, to wish them no harm is virtuous love.  For to love those who love us is not virtue.  Only when we love the stranger and the enemy can we say that we are loving as Christ has loved.

Remember Jesus washed the feet of his disciples the night before he died and stated clearly: “As I have done, so you must do.” Then he offered them the greatest act of love in the Holy Eucharist the night before he sacrificed himself for our sake.

Give the one who asks for money on a cold night, a warm piece of your own clothing? How about a sincere smile and “hello” as you pass by or a kind comment on something you notice they are doing?  To offer simple assistance to someone who asks for help? To resist judging another person who looks and speaks differently than you or is caught at a different economic level than you? I think we can find endless examples of how we can contribute to the common good and share our love for God.

In closing, let me illustrate this through an ordinary personal example.  A few years ago I was shopping for groceries in the early evening.  It was getting dark and was cold enough to wear a warm jacket.

As I was putting the items in my car, a man approached me who was clearly “on the street” and politely asked for some money.  My usual skepticism stepped in and my initial resistance, but I knew I had a few dollars in my pocket, so I gave it to him.  He thanked me, went on his way to the other side of the lot near the entrance to the store, where he sat down on the sidewalk, covered in a blanket that I’m sure had not been washed in some time.

As I was getting in my car, I had the strongest desire to go to him and offer him the coat I was wearing, but sadly I did not do so. I had another coat and sweaters at home but for some selfish reason on my part, I watched him for a short time, then drove off.  As I write these words, I feel a sense of guilt knowing I had resisted a call from God to love my neighbor.  A lesson learned indeed.  As a priest, you think I would know better but nonetheless, do not resist the grace of God when a moment arrives.

Do good for others and love God in return.

Almighty ever living God,

increase our faith, hope and charity,

and make us love what you command,

so that we merit what you promise.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ your Son, 

who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

God for ever and ever.

(Collect of 30th Sunday)

 

29th Sunday - Caesar or God?

 

Matthew 22: 15-21

The Word: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/101826.cfm

Almighty ever-living God,

grant that we may always conform our will to yours

and serve your majesty in sincerty of heart.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, 

who lives and reigns with you in the

unity of the Holy Spirit, God for ever and ever.

(Collect of Mass)

The following letter was found in the files of the Internal Revenue Service: “Dear IRS, my conscience has been bothering me. I am including a check for $5,000 to pay my back taxes.” At the bottom of the letter was a postscript, “If my conscience continues to bother me, I will send the rest.”

Many things may run through our minds as we consider the Gospel this Sunday. While Jesus really isn’t teaching us about who we owe money to, he does present to us a very interesting response to the challenge of the Pharisees. It can be taken in more than one way. It is actually a riddle Jesus proposes. 

In a clear effort to entrap Jesus, the scheming Pharisees, pose a question to Jesus the “Teacher” as they refer to him, Rabbi, that would reveal on whose side he really is – that of the Romans or the Jews.  Either way, they felt he would entrap himself no matter his answer that seemed to back Jesus in to a corner.

With an almost sickening false flattery, Jesus is  asked the tricky question: “Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?” Matthew relates that Jesus knew their “malice” their evil intent and, as always, could read their hearts.  

If Jesus said “no” you should not pay the census tax, then he would anger the Romans and be accused of sedition. If he said “yes” then he would challenge the very Commandment to the Torah to have no other god’s before you by siding with the Romans and their brutal occupation of Israel. 

In fact, while the tax was originally meant to support the most sacred place in Jerusalem, the Temple, the Jews paid that tax to maintain their worship center. However, when the Roman occupied Israel, they shifted the profit of that tax to support their pagan temples to the gods of the Romans.  So, if one paid that tax, they would not only sympathize with the Romans but violated the sacred Command of God to have no false gods before them. 

To make matters more complicated, imprinted on the coin they showed Jesus was the clear image of Caesar and an inscription which claimed him to be the “Son of god,” in reference to his father, Agustus, who had been proclaimed divine by the Roman Senate.

Nonetheless, “show me the coin, “Jesus stated.  As Pharisees, being representatives of the Sacred Law, they should have no such graven image in their pockets let alone in their hands. Still, someone does although it isn’t stated who but the very fact that it is produced for Jesus proves their complicity and also that Jesus does not carry the coin himself. They possess the coin which pays the census tax, which reveals their complicity with Rome.

Brilliantly, Jesus turns the question back on them: “Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.” Score another one for Jesus!

There is likely no other line Jesus spoke that Christians have wrestled with its meaning.  What is Caesar’s?  What is God’s? How wealthy can the Church be and what about the right use of money considering our Christian faith? We modern American’s may point to this as a classic example of the separation of church and state, but its meaning has nothing to do with our American Constitution.  It is far more about our right relationship in the human community and the one God, who is Lord. One example may help to answer the question as to what belongs to who.

In the story of creation, as God creates humankind, we hear that we are created “in the image and likeness of God,” Every human is created with the image of God as unique.  We don’t look the same, we don’t walk in lock step uniformly and each human person has a unique individuality that reflects the limitless power of God over all things.  To God is owed all things because he is Lord of all and above all.  Like the ancient image of Caesar imprinted on the coin, the image of God is imprinted on us eternally due to our baptism.  We belong to God as we are baptized into Christ Jesus when we are signed with the cross during the ceremony. 

So, to whom do we owe what?  As citizens of a nation, we have the responsibilities of good citizenship of course and to determine what is "Caesars,” that is taxes, obedience to law and order, good citizenship, and patriotism is clear. Government officials have a legitimate authority to protect its citizens, and we work for the common good of all in this Country.  We all know how fortunate we are to have a say in our own governing. Yet that power is limited and uniformly applied, we hope, like the money we carry.

But the things of God have no limit: all is gift, and all is grace.  All authority ultimately comes from him. Our first reading from Isaiah today reminds us how God used the pagan Persian King Cyrus as an instrument to return the exiled people to Israel: “I have called you by your name, and given you a title, though you knew me not.” He released the Jews in captivity and even assisted them in their return to the devastated Jerusalem with assistance to rebuild their temple.  He was a “messiah,” a savior to these people despite his pagan background.  God will use anyone for his good purpose.

We human beings belong to God for as money is printed in the image of an earthly nation we human beings are created in the image of God.  Therefore, it may be not so difficult to recognize that when it comes to our human obligations to our government pitted at times against those that call us to Christian discipleship, we find a tension,

It should be for us a matter of how the human person is recognized, respected, protected, and honored by our government.  If we live in a culture which looks at life as more pragmatic rather than as sacred, then our allegiance must be always to the higher moral standard which God has established.  As the poor, the elderly, the frail, the unborn child the innocent are all unable to support and protect themselves are ignored or dismissed, then we rise to make a difference and speak to “Caesar” so that laws can be changed.  We give to God what is God’s. If the sanctity of the marriage covenant is seen as not what God intended, then we must choose what God is owed not what is popular or political. Give to God what is God’s. We owe him everything as he is the Lord of our lives.

So, while we may separate our allegiance to State and Church we cannot live as dual citizens – one way for one and another way for the other; one way in Church and another in the public place. The choice must be ours.  We are Catholic/Christians who live in a secular culture, and we cannot compromise the things of God for the things of Caesar.  As citizens of a nation life stops here when we are gone.  But as citizens of the kingdom of God, we go on beyond this world where our total giving will be for God alone.  So, whose image do we follow? Upon one another, who do we see?

 

28th Sunday: Don't just show up

 

They gathered all they found . . . and the hall was filled with guests

Matthew 22: 1-14

The Word: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/101126.cfm

May your grace, O Lord, we pray,

at all times go before us and follow after

and make us always determined

to carry out good works.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, 

who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the

Holy Spirit, God for ever and ever.

(Collect of Mass)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

A woman decided that she was going to have a dinner party for a good number of her friends.  So, she spent most of the week cleaning, baking, cooking, and preparing the table.  And when everyone finally arrived and sat down to eat, she turned to her six year old daughter and said, “Honey, why don’t you say the blessing?”  “Mommy,” she said, “I don’t know what to say.”  “Just simply say what you hear Mommy say.”  So the little girl bowed her head and said, “Dear Lord, why on earth did I invite all of these people to dinner?”

Like the woman in the story, you and I can occasionally have regrets about the invitations that we offer.  But that is not the case with our God.  For our God is a God of invitation.  A God who is constantly inviting all people into relationship, inviting all to share in divine life and love. And while at any wedding the bride and groom are the center of attention, here it is the King, who is God himself, who is the center point and the one who relentlessly continues to invite us.

In the time of Jesus, Jewish weddings involved two invitations:  one to invite the guests and to let them know the son/daughter was being married and another, after the necessary preparations had been made for the banquet, etc, to tell the invited guests the when and where. After all, Jewish weddings went on for at least five days of feasting and joy.  No wonder the wine ran out at Cana! Believe me, we priests can write a book about what we’ve seen, heard and been asked at a wedding.

Still, of all the details that go into creating a wedding celebration, the one which seems to cause the most stress is who to invite. Invitations are sent hoping that everyone is included, and no one suffers hurt feelings.

Our readings this Sunday speak both of a feast and of a royal wedding. The prophet Isaiah speaks of a “feast of rich food and choice wines, juicy rich foods and pure, choice wines . . .”

It is God himself, the Lord of hosts, who has prepared this banquet for us and it is God himself who invites us to attend and enjoy the grace of knowing him. Unlike ourselves, God does not discriminate but invites anyone who will accept it. Yet, some strangely refuse the generous call.

This Feast is a foretaste of heaven.  An invitation to share in the banquet our King has prepared and extended to us through his own Son. This sumptuous feast is available to all.  Why would you not accept an invitation to the royal wedding?

Imagine that you received a messenger at your door who hands you an engraved invitation from the King of England to the royal wedding of his son. Or the President of the United States does the same and invites you to the marriage of his son/daughter at the White House.  Who would say no to such an honor? Or Pope Leo invites you personally to attend a major event at the Vatican.  Would anyone say, “sorry, can’t make it.”

One would think that anyone would be honored by such an opportunity. Yet, this story of Jesus takes a weird turn.  While the parables of Jesus are not meant to be taken in a literal sense, they provide an allegorical image for us to ponder. In this case, the Lord in his exaggeration, is striving for our attention to his message.  “Wake up!” “See what God has done!” “Don’t pass this by! "For, in this parable we see the never-ending theme of God's relentless pursuit for our attention.  Though we may feel that it is our search for God that drives us, it is truly his search for us and his invitation to us hoping for our positive response. Just ask St. Augustine what he came to realize he had been missing. But, alas, that great blessing from God is not always received well.

Still, despite the invitation, some refused. Others found themselves just too busy to come making up silly excuses to their own eventual regret. How strange that sounds.

So, the king sent servants into the byways and highways to invite everyone both the bad and the good. The wedding hall was filled, the party began, and the very generous king arrived.  One would think that wedding attire would not be an issue considering where the servants went to fill the hall with guests, but the king spots a guest “without a wedding garment.” That person is treated harshly and eventually thrown out of the banquet! Again, don’t take this literally.  It isn’t about a proper piece of clothing as it is rightly about our response to the invitation.

Sure, I came and here I’m enjoying all the feasting but the call to conversion and grace that God requires of us, is not worth the effort. With the invitation goes an expectation of gratitude and taking this seriously on our part. Showing up is a good thing but it’s only the beginning.  So, leave the banquet and maybe reconnect when the time is right for you –properly “dressed.” Like all the parables of Jesus they are meant to have a twist or to pull the rug out from us to think about a deeper implication.

In a real sense the “wedding garment” is a symbol of the white baptismal garment and the virtues we have acquired in our lifetime. It is the moment to “put on Christ” as Paul reminds us and to acquire a life of virtue: love, forgiveness, compassion, selflessness.  To put on Christ and to conform our lives to his is how we must be clothed to enter the Feast of heaven.  So, we can’t just show up – it’s more than that.

In a way, in telling this parable, Jesus’ invitation was consistent in his ministry.  God, through Christ, has proposed a new vision for humanity and the values of the kingdom are its blueprint. Through his preaching, miracles, his person he constantly extended the invitation yet many surprisingly said "not now" and many accused him of siding with the sinners and outcast.  It was the poor and fringe population that embraced his call.  Like those invited to the parable at the end, those Jesus received were among the forgotten, the fringe, the poor and powerless.

Maybe an interesting question that we must all ask is “why am I here and about to share in the very body of Christ?  What brings me to this Mass?” Even in this time which is so challenging to our faith we still must seek an answer to this fundamental question. We can find an excuse for anything, but why would we refuse the invitation that God himself is offering us?

That feast is a sign of both our Christian faith and the joy of sharing in the Eucharist.  Are we joyful Christians?  Are we here just out of obligation or do we come because we truly want to keep our lives directed in the ways of the Gospel?

So, if we want to be dressed well, put on Christ and enjoy the party!

 

27th Sunday - The vineyard of the Kingdom

 

The kingdom of God will be taken away from you

and given to a people that will produce its fruit.

Matthew 21: 33-43

The Word:https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/100426.cfm

I think most of us will easily call to mind the successes we’ve had in life but will either deny or much rather forget the failures or the past painful memories.  Maybe you worked hard, studied hard, really prepared well on a project or an assignment only to find out that it didn’t quite meet the level you were hoping.  Why was he/she chosen instead of me?  Why was I not recognized for the effort I made rather than him? Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time!

I’ve had successes in my priesthood and I’d be glad to share those but I really would rather not bring up the failures or the disappointing memories. Maybe it’s our ego or own sense of self-importance or it could be a lack of appreciation for what we have rather than what we don’t. Sometimes, we’re just sour grapes.

Considering today’s readings, both the first from Isaiah and the Gospel parable of Jesus about the wicked tenants in the vineyard I think we find some of this.  They provide us a moment to remind ourselves about what we have, and the richness God is expecting of us and maybe our failures can turn out to be successes in the end. 

Both Isaiah and Jesus’ parable from Matthew speak of a vineyard.  In fact, the Gospel has Jesus making comment on the specific passage we hear today from Isaiah.  Yet, the images are tough.  They begin with a vineyard owner who very lovingly prepared his vineyard: on a fertile hillside, spaded it, cleared the ground of stones, planted the finest vines he could find and then built a watchtower in the vineyard to guard it carefully.

But those best laid plans went sour.  He went to harvest the fresh, juicy grapes and found they were wild and tasteless.  He is angry and disappointed, so he abandons it to become a ruin filled with thorns and briers.  How sad.  Such care and love had been given to it in the beginning but for some reason it was wasted.

More specifically, Isaiah clearly states that the vineyard is a sign of the “house of Israel” and that God, who tended his “vineyard” with tenderness and love, has found only rejection and carelessness.  But let’s be careful here.  Does this mean that God has rejected his chosen people?

This is where Jesus fleshes out further commentary in the Gospel.  Tenants in the vineyard had squandered its riches on their own selfish pursuits.  Any servants sent to the vineyard were welcomed with a violent end (Prophets) and even the son of the landowner was killed there (Jesus).  It’s a tough story for sure.  The vineyard taken away may identify the rejection of Jesus by the Jewish leaders and God who then handed over the care of the new vineyard, the Church, to the mix of Jews and Gentile community. The point is more about us because in similar vein we see the Church as the vineyard of the Lord as well. 

So, if we see this for what it is meant it challenges all of us who have been given everything as gift from God.  Our task, by reason of our Baptism, is to take care of that vineyard in which we live: the vineyard of our faith community and the values by which we live here and in this world as missionary disciples of the Lord.  Yet, this history of humanity since the creation of Adam and Eve and the journey through the Old Testament is a patchwork of fidelity and of rejection of God by humankind.  Yet, it is also a story of God’s eternal faithfulness and mercy offered to everyone who would accept it.

Remember the parables on the kingdom of heaven that Jesus often speaks of and that we heard recently in our  Sunday Gospels.  The kingdom of heaven is a way in which we live together in a new relationship not based on my own selfish desires but rather on virtues that are centered on the other: those in need, the poor, the sick, the forgotten, the suffering.  That my life is guided by knowing that I’ve been placed in the Lord’s vineyard with many gifts given from him that are not meant for me alone but meant to be shared for the good of all.  In other words, to take care of one another, to nurture our faith in the Lord, and to guard God’s creation around me for example and not exploit it for my own selfish pursuits.

It’s a very Catholic perspective to say, “all is gift.” God has prepared the vineyard of our lives, gifted us with certain advantages, and shared with us the richness of our faith and its spiritual treasures.  Do we honestly appreciate what has been gifted to us?

As I’ve been given the charge and the gift from God to carefully till the soil of my faith and to grow in imitation of Jesus himself, I can see all as gift and all as an invitation for me to be a good servant. Because our culture today is becoming more critical of who we are as Christians and Catholics and of how we more and more challenge the status quo of what is considered acceptable in society it is becoming all the more important for us to tend our vineyards with care and not let it simply turn to sour grapes through our neglect.

Our second reading from Philippians drives this home beautifully for us.  After a poetic reflection on truth, honor, justice, and beauty, Paul writes: “Keep on doing what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me.  Then the God of peace will be with you.”

 As we gather at the Eucharist each Sunday we see this played out as well.  The very word “eucharist” means to give thanks to God.  We gather not to decide what’s in this for me but more to recognize our unity in the Lord and our care for one another in Christ.  Baptized into Christ we have been placed in the vineyard of the Lord.

Take care to tend it carefully.

           ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Almighty ever-living God,

who in the abundance of your kindness

surpass the merits and the desires of those who entreat you,

pour out your mercy upon us to pardon what conscience dreads 

and to give what prayer does not dare to ask.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, 

who lives and reigns with you

in the unity of the Holy Spirit,  God for ever and ever.

(Collect of Mass)