Sunday, February 26, 2017

The Gospel asks the question: "why worry?" Jesus responds with a new commandment: Thou shalt not worry.



The Gospel asks the great question of “why worry?”  The wildflowers don’t worry.  The birds don’t worry.   Why should we?  If God cares for them, why would God not equally care for us who are made in the image and likeness of God?  The Isaiah text from the first Scripture reading speaks of God’s tenderness as like that of a mother towards an infant. 

Why worry?  The answer to this is easier said than done?  Parents worry about their children making good choices in life.  We worry about our own health and the health of the people we love.   We worry and wonder about our country and the politics of our country.  Young people worry about career choices and who they are going to live their life with.

I worry when so many people tell me:  “Father. I am not spiritual but not religious.”  What does that mean?  I believe in God but this Church doesn’t touch my soul.  Can you really be spiritual without belonging to a community of faith with all its messiness but with many people who love you and seek to be loved by you and so discover God’s presence in our midst?

Another worry is what many of us have what is called “tragedy fatigue.”  We can’t even remember the latest horrific event given how frequently these tragedies occur.  The sad outcome is this:  we forget the awesome tenderness of God towards us.

The commandment that Jesus gives us today is:  Thou shalt not worry.  If we take this commandment of Jesus to heart, what happens to your anxiety about your children, your anxiety that you will not get what you need for yourself and for your family, your worry about a sick relative, your worry about what the future holds for you?

The Scriptures invite us to ask the question:  what worries do you need Jesus to take from you?  Can you identify a particular worry that is close to your heart that, with God’s grace,  you can turn it over to the merciful love of Jesus?

Again, from the first Scripture reading:  “Can a mother forget her infant, be without tenderness for the child of her womb?  Even should she forget, I will never forget you.”

As we reflect on that basic Gospel question:  “Why worry?”   We also ask:   What kind of God is God?  What do we expect God to do for us?

I am puzzled and dismayed by preachers who project God as vengeful, full of anger, and ever ready to punish at every opportunity.  Now I was born at night but not last night.  I have come to recognize that we can find whatever version of God we want to find in the Bible.  The devil can quote Scriptures for his own purposes.  But this I know:  Jesus did not come down from heaven to reveal a vengeful God.  God did not make us for his wrath.  He made us for His love.  God cares for what God creates – the birds of the air, the lilies of the field, and, most of all, you and I.  This is the God who is the true North Star of our lives.

An eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth is an expression that was found in the cultures surrounding the Jews in the time of Jesus.   This kind of retribution is not in God’s thinking.  An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth is clearly not found in the heart of Jesus.  He is interested, very interested, in finding that we treasure His love in our hearts and that we are willing to forego the attractions of this world in order to secure “the pearl of great price.”

Yes, repentance and reconciliation are many times necessary for us to return to union with God in our hearts and souls.  This is the profound meaning of the Lenten journey of encountering Christ.  But when it comes to repenting, we need not fear.  His heart calls to our heart,   “Can a mother forget her infant, be without tenderness for the child of her womb?  Even if she should forget, I, God declares, will never forget you.”

Yes, we need to make good choices and seek first the kingdom of God.  Jesus tells us that spiritually multi-tasking is not a good idea.  The Lord wants our undivided hearts free of the daily preoccupations  of life that cause to lose our centeredness in God.

How easy it is to become a slave of what we own -- even if is only a cell phone.  We are all caught up in the devious attraction of spiritual multi-tasking.  Our hearts desire to be faithful to seeking first the kingdom of God but the lure of the good life of success, of pleasure, of power, and prestige entice us.  You will notice that after proclaiming the Gospel telling us not to worry about what we are to wear and what are to eat, that God will provide us,  I did not then suggest we skip the collection this week.

Yes, we live in a material world but we are not to become slaves we what we own.  What we have been given, we have given to share.  But we all are tempted to make idols out of the mammon of this world.  We like to be comfortable, don’t you know, and we all are capable of becoming a slave to what we own.

The season of Lent provides us with the opportunity to do a spiritual inventory of what are the important values of our life.  We need to honestly ask the question:  What is God’s plan for my life?  What does God expect of us?

To draw a focus on how to answer the big questions of life.  I invite you to meditate on the faith journey of St John of the Cross.  After he struggled with the Dark Night of the Soul in his writings and in his life, he profoundly said:    “In the evening of life, we will be judged on love alone.

Have a blessed day.







Sunday, February 12, 2017

Is Jesus a law-breaker or a law-keeper?



Is Jesus a law breaker or a law keeper?

From the perspective of the critique of Jesus against the legalism of the Scribes and Pharisees, in Jesus extending the merciful love of God to sinners, you can say that Jesus dismisses the preoccupation of law- keeping and emphasizes the mercy and the love and the compassion of God.

On the other hand, Jesus is clear in today’s Gospel in saying:  “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.  I have come not to abolish the law but to fulfill it.  Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law, until all things have taken place.”

The real message of Jesus in today’s Gospel is yes we need to live very ethically and have a deep respect for the rule of law.  The commandments are not just suggestions or guidelines.  We are to obey the commandments.  But Jesus is also saying very clearly that rule keeping is not the end of the story; we are called to be disciples in which we seek to encounter Jesus in prayer and in daily life.

Discipleship of Jesus is deeper than obedience to the law.  Jesus fulfills the law by demanding more in the way of love.  Discipleship demands conversion of heart.

It should not surprise us that Jesus goes beyond the requirements of the laws of the Old Testament, even while saying they need to be observed.  In this section of Matthew’s gospel Jesus fleshes out a deeper meaning and intent of the commandments.  For example, when he speaks of the sin of murder, the taking of another’s life, he speaks of it as including the diminishment of a person’s life by harsh words or actions.

We can keep all the rules but if our hearts are not filled with the joy of the Gospel in the words of Pope Francis, we haven’t experienced the conversion of our hearts.

For example, in living out the Sacrament of Marriage, it is not just a legal contract of an eye for an eye and not committing adultery.  Marriage is a lifelong covenant of love in which two people are called to love and honor each other in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health for all the days of their lives. 

Today’s Gospel calls us the vision of discipleship that while detail and discipline can train us in keeping the rules, we can only discover how to love through forgiving those who have hurt us irrespective of whether they ask for forgiveness or not,  or are repentant or not.  We can only discover how to love by helping those in need, whether they deserve help or not.  We can only discover how to love by standing with those who are oppressed even if it is dangerous for us.  Yes, we live in complex times in which we wonder about the morality of issues of immigration, of homeland security and the like.  The Lord calls to welcome and to stand people who are in need.  We can only discover how to love by asking the Holy Spirit to enlighten our minds with wisdom.

Discipleship of the Lord Jesus is not taking the easy road of lax morality; rather our discipleship leads us to follow the example of the one who laid down his life for our salvation and out of love for each and every one of us.

We are called to more than just keeping the rules.  We are called to love deeply.  May our prayerful question be not just about rule-keeping but how do I discern to say YES to the plan of God for my life. 

Jesus offers a much more challenging ethic than legalism because we are not able to say we’ve met our obligation as long as anyone goes hungry or suffers oppression or is abandoned and alone.  This ethic requires endless charity. 

Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount presents Jesus as the new Moses, not as a lawgiver but as a guide who shows us a life full of blessing, of joy, and service to people in need.

For me as a priest confessor in the beautiful sacrament of reconciliation, the priest is not meant just to  be a spiritual attorney general determining whether the law has been broken or not, or whether a particular action is a sin or not, rather, the primary ministry of the priest is to communicate the healing, forgiving, merciful love of Jesus.  Yes, the priest can provide needed counsel, but more importantly the priest is to share the merciful love of Jesus with the penitent.

As we celebrate the Eucharist, may we be mindful of today’s Gospel:  “If you bring your gift to the altar, and there recall that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift there at the altar, go and first be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift.”

The lesson for us clear.  This is how seriously God views our human relationships.  We cannot hate our neighbor – no matter who he or she is, no matter whether they deserve it or not – and then say we love God.  For whatever we do to the least of our brothers and sisters, we do to Christ himself.

To give a preview to next Sunday’s Gospel, we are to love our enemies and to pray for those who persecute us.

In the words of Pope Francis, “my hope is that we will be moved by the fear of remaining shut up within structures which give us a false sense of security, within rules which make us harsh judges, within habits which make us feel safe, while at our door people are starving.   Jesus does not tire of saying to us:  Give them something to eat.”

In the Gospel, we hear no ordinary rabbi interpreting the Torah but One whom we already know to be God’s beloved Son not “going light” on the law and the prophets but going deeper and challenging us to reach beyond the letter of the law to the fulfillment realized only in self-sacrificing live.

May all of us have a blessed day as disciples of the Lord Jesus.