Weekly Reflections

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27th Sunday in Ordinary Time, October 4, 2020

Gospel: Matthew 21:33–43

Theme: What are we doing to/for the vineyard of God?

Gospel: Matthew 21:33–43

Theme: What are we doing to/for the vineyard of God?

Matthew 21:33–43

Jesus said to the chief priests and the elders of the people: “Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenants and went to another country.

“When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other slaves, more than the first; and they treated them in the same way.

“Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.’ So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him.

“Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?”

They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.”

Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the scriptures: ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is amazing in our eyes’? Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom.”

Music Meditations

Opening Prayer

From Sacred Space, a service of the Irish Jesuits:

Jesus, you were thrown out and killed.
But you took no revenge.
Instead you excused your torturers and by your love you reconciled everyone with God.
You showed what divine love is like.
You love me totally, no matter what I do.
May I always wish others well, and pray for them instead of taking revenge on them when they hurt me.

Companions for the Journey

Adapted from “First Impressions” 2020, a service of the Southern Dominican Province:

We read scripture through our own cultural and religious biases, and we particularly interpret parables according to those biases. For centuries in the Christian church, the prevailing interpretation of this passage was a stinging indictment of the Jews who failed to recognize Jesus and the Jesus movement. It goes like this: the vineyard is the world and in this world, God made the Jews His special people, but they strayed from God’s will, and neglected to cultivate “the vineyard” the way God wanted. So God sent prophets down to shape them up. This did not go well. Finally, in desperation, God sent Jesus to set them straight, and those Jews killed Jesus as well. God has no use for them as a people. This somewhat anti-Semitic interpretation of Matthew’s passage had its beginnings as far back as the early days of the Church, when Rome attempted to quash all of the unrest about religion in this part of the world by destroying the Jerusalem temple in 70AD. The non-Christian Jews blamed the Christian Jews for this disaster, and later that year, in Jamnia, the Jewish leaders evicted the Christians from Judaism. As you can imagine, this caused a lot of bad feelings on both sides. Throughout the intervening 2000 years, this interpretation of the parable by Christians sometimes caused or explained away the feelings of resentment against the Jews in their midst, culminating in the elimination of over six million Jews in WWII.

There are several problems with this interpretation, not the least of which is the lingering anti-Semitism still present in many places and in many hearts. The other problem is our own understanding of this parable as not having anything to do with us and our behavior. If this is only about the Jews and Jewish leaders, then we and our religious leaders are off the hook. However, if we look at the parable as just punishment for a loss of justice and righteousness in a community of God, then we need to look at where we are as a people and as individuals in this regard. This parable is illuminated by the passage from Isaiah this week. In Isaiah, justice means fair and equitable relationships in a community that has, as its base, the justice of God.  This justice is expressed through honest dealings with one another; it fails when a more powerful class of people takes advantage of the weaker. If we are in good relationship with God, then from that relationship will come fidelity in doing the works God expects of us:  works of justice in the community.  The prophet suggests that failure of justice/righteousness will lead to disaster for God’s people. This section from Isaiah ends with a powerful indictment its audience must apply to itself.  It stops short of actually pronouncing the judgment, implying there still is time to change and conform to God’s ways.  As always, you can hear the God of love, who raised up a people out of slavery, reminding the people what is expected of them if they are truly to be God’s people.  They must be a just people, unlike the people of other gods. In their midst the poor are to be cared for and justice is to prevail—a sure sign that this nation has a different kind of God who sees to the needs of the poor, the orphaned and the widowed. We have our modern Isaiahs, powerful prophetic voices to lead us in God’s ways.  Notice, for example, how frequently our Pope and bishops have spoken out against violence in the world, the arms trade, on behalf of the poor, for the care of creation, etc. For example, as we draw closer to the national elections here is a statement made by the American Catholic bishops at their national meeting in 1998:

As citizens in the world’s leading democracy, Catholics in the United States have special responsibilities to protect human life and dignity and to stand with those who are poor and vulnerable.  We are called to welcome the stranger, to combat discrimination, to pursue peace and to promote the common good.  Catholic social teaching calls us to practice civic virtues and offers us principles to shape participation in public life.  We cannot be indifferent to or cynical about the obligations of citizenship.  Our political choices should not reflect simply our own interests, partisan preferences or ideological agendas, but should be shaped by the principles of our faith and our commitment to justice, especially to the weak and vulnerable.

We church members call ourselves “God’s people,” the “vineyard of the Lord of hosts.”  The Isaian parable and the Matthean parable should certainly speak and challenge us.  We trace our faith life to its origins in God, who planted the seed of the Christ-life in us; nourished it by the scriptures and sacraments; and gave us prophetic witnesses, parents and teachers.  God has also protected that life within us when it was stressed and tested; renewed it when we wandered and caused it to grow at the most unexpected times.  So, the first thing we do today is remember with gratitude all God has done for us as individuals and as a community. But we have to ask the Isaian question too.  After all God has done for us, what fruits will God find at vintage time?  “God looks for judgment, but sees bloodshed!  For justice, but hark the outcry.”  We call ourselves the people of God, but in our society do our poor receive preferential option; is there discrimination in our assemblies against the aged, disabled, gays, women, the undocumented, etc?  Are our laity involved in decision making?  Is there open disclosure of financial matters?  Are the home-bound made to feel part of our community?  Do we feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the imprisoned? The life of Jesus is given to us today to form us into a community that puts the usual ways of judging aside.  We have to be sure to practice in our lives what we profess. We have to ask ourselves what we are doing to nurture the vineyard of God which is this world, and what we are requiring of our religious and political leaders. What needs to change and how can I make that happen? What more needs to be done, and what can I do?

Weekly Memorization

Taken from the gospel for today’s session…

Therefore, I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that will produce its fruit.

Living the Good News

What action can you take in the next week as a response to today’s reading and discussion?

Keep a private journal of your prayer/actions responses this week. Feel free to use the personal reflection questions or the meditations which follow:

Reflection Questions

  • Do I realize that this parable is not just about those from long ago who rejected Jesus, but also about me?
    How am I behaving as a tenant of God’s vineyard?
  • From “First Impressions,” a service of the Southern Dominican Province:
    Where is our place in the vineyard?
    How is the labor going?
    Does God enter into our decision making?
    Do we see the places we serve as “owned” by God?
  • Which parts of this parable do I find unrealistic? Assuming the details were put there for a reason, what does this story tell me about God? (for example, what kind of Father sends his son into certain danger?)
  • Do I see in this parable a message that God has entrusted me with His vineyard (the kingdom) and it is my job to make it increase, but using my own talents and experience to do so?
  • Do I see in this parable a story of God’s deep down love for me and for all his creation, or do I only see God’s vengeance against those who have done wrong?
  • Who are the modern day prophets for truth and justice have been have been rejected, jailed, tortured, maybe even been killed, but eventually recognized as saviors of the people?
  • How did Jesus deal with rejection by those who he came to save and by those he counted as his friends?
  • We often want to live our own lives as we like, make our personal decisions in our own interest. Where does our pride and our selfishness blind us to the job we were commissioned to do?
  • Have I ever had an experience having a project I lovingly developed fall apart because those entrusted to make it happen lost interest or even sabotaged it? What did I do?
  • What have I done to further the kingdom of God in this world?
    How have I treated anyone who called me to account?
  • From “First Impressions”:
    Has there ever been someone in my life who has been a persistent voice urging me to change?
    Is it possible in that person’s persistence, God is telling me to make the necessary changes in my life?
  • How do we make sure we are listening to the right people, the people who have the message of truth, love and justice?

Meditations

A Meditation in the Dominican Style/Asking Questions

Many people experience God as a Deus Absconditus—a God who has deliberately hidden himself from humanity, a God who is not present in our everyday lives, in our everyday troubles, our everyday pain and sorrow. We have become a “post-religious” world, that is, we seem to function as a society without reference to our creator, our redeemer, our sustainer. How hard is it for you to maintain a relationship with a largely silent God? How do you do so? Where do you find God—in the natural world? In art or music? In the people people you love? In innocent children? Have you ever had a time in your life when your distinctly felt God’s presence? God’s absence? How did you deal with the experience? What do you think is your role in bringing an awareness of God’s grace and presence into the lives of others? Why is it that when people try to bring God into the conversation, it is usually as a corrective for another’s behavior? What does that tell me about our image of God in our own minds and hearts? How can we enlarge those minds hearts to imagine the kind of God who cares so much for the Kingdom that he would send his own Son to us?

A Meditation in the Franciscan Style/Action:

Taken from Sacred Space:

Every one of us has been given a vineyard by God. Our families, our communities, our work, our church, our environment are all parts of our vineyard. God does not exclude anyone from their vineyard. People exclude themselves by failing to tend the vineyard they have been given.

I am called by God to produce good fruits in this vineyard. In this time of pandemic, how am I using the gifts he gave me to help others? What more can I do?

A Meditation in the Franciscan Style/Action:

From “First Impressions” 2020:

JUSTICE BULLETIN BOARD

“[The Lord of Hosts] looked for judgment, but see, bloodshed! For justice, but hark, the outcry” (Isaiah 5:7)

In Isaiah 5, the vine is a metaphor for the people of Judah and because of their social injustice, they clearly failed God’s intention and threaten its destruction. Fast forward eight centuries to Jesus’ time and Matthew writes of another vineyard where God expects a harvest of righteous fruits and will not tolerate injustice. Jesus is speaking to the chief priests and elders and, through the story, tells them because of their injustice the kingdom of God will be taken away from them and “given to a people that will produce its fruit" (Matthew 21:43).

Fast forward again to the present time. The 2019 U.N. Human Development Report argues that the unrest and protests in the world are about more than disparities in income and wealth, but are driven, also, by inequalities in opportunity and power that leads to lack of access to jobs, healthcare, education and social mobility. Pope Francis has identified inequality as a moral problem, saying in Evangelii Gaudium, “Inequality is the root of social ills.” The vineyard again is in danger of being destroyed because of social injustice. Now, is the time of reckoning. The Compendium of Social Doctrine of the Church #83 says that the human conscience is called to recognize and fulfill the obligations of justice and charity in society. But, more is needed than just fulfilling obligations. Pope Francis provides this wisdom, “In every age, humanity experiences injustices, moments of conflict and inequality among peoples. In our own day these difficulties seem to be especially pronounced. Even though society has made great progress technologically, and people throughout the world are increasingly aware of their common humanity and destiny, the wounds of conflict, poverty and oppression persist, and create new divisions. In the face of these challenges, we must never grow resigned… we know that there is a way forward, a way that leads to healing, mutual understanding and respect. A way based on compassion and loving kindness” (11/29/17). When you come to the vineyard to clear the social injustice that has grown there, bring all of your gifts and your love.

To learn more about inequality around the world and what can be done to narrow the staggering economic inequality that so afflicts us in almost every aspect of our lives, explore inequality.org, a project of the Institute for Policy Studies.

—Barbara Molinari Quinby, MPS, Director,
Office of Human Life, Dignity, and Justice Ministries
Holy Name of Jesus Cathedral, Raleigh, NC

Poetic Reflection:

How does this poem from Thomas Merton capture our need to listen for the voice of God in our vineyard?:

“In Silence”

Be still
Listen to the stones of the wall.
Be silent, they try
To speak your

name.
Listen
To the living walls.
Who are you?
Who Are you? Whose
Silence are you?

Who (be quiet)
Are you (as these stones
Are quiet). So not
Think of what you are
Still less of What you may one day be
Rather
Be what you are (but who?) be
The unthinkable one
You do not know

O be still, while
you are still alive
And all things live around you
Speaking (I do not hear)
To you own being,
Speaking by the Unknown
That is in you and in themselves.

I will try, like them
To be my own silence:
And this is difficult. The whole
World is secretly on fire, The stones
Burn, even the stones
They burn me, How can a man be still or
Listen to all things burning? How can he dare
To sit with them when
All their silence
Is on fire?

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26th Sunday in Ordinary Time, September 27, 2020

Gospel: Matthew 21:28–32

Theme: What does it mean to say “yes”?

Gospel: Matthew 21:28–32

Theme: What does it mean to say “yes”?

Matthew 21:28–32

[The Parable of the Two Sons]

“What is your opinion? A man had two sons. He came to the first and said, ‘Son, go out and work in the vineyard today.’ He said in reply, ‘I will not,’ but afterwards he changed his mind and went. The man came to the other son and gave the same order. He said in reply, ‘Yes, sir,’ but did not go. Which of the two did his father’s will?”

They answered, “The first.”

Jesus said to them, “Amen, I say to you, tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God before you. When John came to you in the way of righteousness, you did not believe him; but tax collectors and prostitutes did. Yet even when you saw that, you did not later change your minds and believe him.”

Music Meditations

Companions for the Journey

From a podcast called: “My Spiritual Advisor” by Mark Kurowski. Please do not duplicate.

Monks in the Benedictine Tradition say that a good monk is “obedient”. The root of obedience is the Latin word which means “to hear.” In fact, the first word in the Rule of St. Benedict is “Listen,” as in “listen to the ear of your heart.” To live a Christian life, it is important to be obedient to God. Yet, what does this “obedience” look like? Obedience is important to the understanding of this passage from the Gospel of Matthew. The parable that is painted of the two sons, one who says he will, but doesn’t and the one who says he won’t, but does. Just for popularity, Jesus points to the people who are supposed to be the leaders of the “chosen people”, and says, “you are the ones who say yes, but don’t follow through.” It is the equivalent of, “here! Let me stick my finger in your eye.” Clearly, the second son was listening but not obedient. The first son, it seemed like he was not listening, but then an amazing thing happened. His heart became involved. The words of the Father, after a time of disobedience, began to sink into his heart.

The first son was cut to the heart and realized that he was actively disobedient to his father. He was disrespectful to his father by saying no to his face. He was rude, arrogant and unappreciative of the help that his father needed. This is not to mention the disrespect of all that the father provided him. How would his dad feel about this? What kind of frustration must it have left the father in to think his son would just leave him hanging high and dry in the father’s day of need? What was the motive? Love, guilt, duty? What? The second son gives lip service to get the honor and the status, but then rejects his father and lives out the disrespect that the first son just could not upon thinking about it. The second son is the one who is selfish, self-serving, self-centered and the greater disappointment.

There are several observations that need to be made here. Both of the sons are, well, sons. They are beloved of a father, a Father in Heaven, who created them and gives them life. God loves us all. I have said to you over and over again to remember that passage from the Sermon on the Mount in Chapter 5, which says, “[the Father] makes the sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and the unjust.” We are not dealing with favorites. There are no favorites for God: he loves us all. They are children who have been called upon by their Father to give help in the vineyard of life, to go and spread the word of the love of God. The job of spreading the word of God to all was given to the Chosen People and Jesus is saying that their leadership is not getting it done at that time. It is a lesson for our time. The Father in Heaven needs the word, his Word, spread more than ever. We need people to answer the calling to get out and go. The work in the vineyard is needed and you just might be asked by the Father to go and work it.

The point should be made that the second son was disobedient, but so was the first. There are none who complete the word of God. None of us are perfect. None of us have been good all our lives. We all sin. Just like we should take note that God does not play favorites, we should do well to remind ourselves that all of us have failed God. Yet, what this also means is that, just like the first son, who blew it with his mouth, there is always a chance to repent. We CAN turn it around. We CAN invite our friend to church we have neglected for so long. There is never a time when we CANNOT start working in the vineyard for Jesus.

The question is, how do we get to the vineyard, and the answer is in the Benedictine concept of “obedience.” Hear what the Benedictine Rule says, “Listen, carefully, my son, to the master’s instructions, and attend to them with the ear of your heart.” It means that if the Father tells you that the intent is to bring more people into the Church, then you are to do the loving thing, the kind thing that exhibits hospitality and welcoming others like that person is Christ. It does NOT mean that you would make people feel like they are outsiders and ostracized, lacking the love of God. Let me be clear, I am not advocating everything goes, by no means! I am advocating that we treat everyone with the same love with which God loves them.

Our approach is not to make everyone keep every jot and tittle of the law like we cannot do. It is to invite them to think of what the Father is asking of us, let it sink into our hearts and then invite them to turn from the way they were living and moving to a life that is in love with the Father. It is an invitation to a life that respects the Father and his requests. It is an invitation to a life of love of the other. It is a life that desires to love perfectly. All of these things are at the heart of what love is about. When Jesus was asked which of the commandments was the greatest, he answered that upon one commandment hung all the law AND the prophets: to love God, and the second was like it, to love your neighbor. To be obedient to God is to ask in every situation, what is the loving thing? What is the thing that shows the greatest concern and care for the person standing right in front of me? Sometimes that means giving a little more mercy than is called for. Sometimes it means standing sadly and lovingly firm. Whatever it is, it is to love.

The point of this parable is that we are to serve God out of love, not out of a sense of weaseling out of what we don’t want to do for the Father who loves us so. The point of the parable is that we don’t want to be like THAT GUY. Are you? Are you “THAT GUY?”

In the coming week I challenge all of us to think of two things. First, wake up every day and realize that God loves us like he loves everyone. There is no one who is more valuable than us. We are no more valuable than anyone else. Second, what is it that God is asking you to do this day that you have been neglecting to do? Do it. He loves you, start to do it now. Amen? Amen.

Weekly Memorization

Taken from the gospel for today’s session…

Which of the two did the Father’s will?

Living the Good News

What action can you take in the next week as a response to today’s reading and discussion?

Keep a private journal of your prayer/actions responses this week. Feel free to use the personal reflection questions or the meditations which follow:

Reflection Questions

  • What are the subtle ways in which a “yes” becomes a “no”?
  • Have I ever said “yes” to someone or to a group but really meant “no”?
    Have I ever said “yes” but somehow never got around to living out that “yes”?
    What were the reasons—to keep the peace in the moment; to avoid public embarrassment; to avoid conflict, laziness or forgetfulness for example?
    Did it change my relationship to the person or to the group?
  • Did I ever acknowledge my failure to follow through or did I just ignore it, hoping no one would notice?
    How did it work out?
  • It is easy to give words of assent, and harder to follow through with time, effort and attention. With which of these two sons do I identify myself?
    Which am I—the smooth but unreliable daddy-pleaser, or the guy who, even with a bad grace, does the job?
    How many times did someone in my life say he or she would do something, and then did not?
    How did I feel? Did it alter our relationship?
  • What is the difference between a casual promise to do something and a solemn promise to do something (a dinner date or a vacation plan vs marriage vows, religious vows, a confidentiality promise, a legal agreement)?
  • Has your response to such a disappointment been an unwillingness to trust anyone again, or an unwillingness to take a risk?
  • Who, in today’s world, would be the ones society considers “righteous ones”?
    Today, who are the prostitutes and the publicans who say: “I do not want to”, but who end by doing the will of the Father?
  • Jesus, on his last journey to Jerusalem, makes it clear to the important religious leaders within his hearing that He considers them people who practice lip service, but whose hearts are far from God. Again, He states a preference for those the world deems unworthy or sinful, but who change their hearts and minds to do God’s will. How comfortable am I with that idea?
    Have I ever been complacent about my relationship with God?
    Have I ever fallen away, even a little, from my commitment to Jesus and the gospel? In other words, Have I ever said “yes” to God, but failed to keep my promise? What were the reasons?
    Can I recommit? Why or why not?
    Do I see in this gospel a message that it is never too late to turn back to doing what God wants?
  • Conversion is a lifetime process, so where am I in the process of conversion?

Meditations

A Meditation in the Augustinian Style/Relationship:

From “Sacred Space”. A service of the Irish Jesuits:

Jesus says to me: “What do you think?” Do I take time out to think about where I stand in relation to God? Do I give my soul an opportunity to catch up? I ask the Lord to help me to give time to thinking about things that really matter…

I review the statements and declarations I have made; I ask God to help me abide by them and accept God’s forgiveness for where I have fallen short…

Jesus speaks this parable to me. I avoid applying it to others right now and simply accept Jesus’ warmth as he sees how I have served. I listen for his invitation as he shows me where I hold back…

To live in the kingdom is to be ready to rub shoulders with all kinds. God’s love is given freely and is accepted by many. I pray for a heart that is open to those who are not like me…

A Meditation in the Franciscan Style/Action:

Often, when people are attracted to a certain religion or when people who are repelled by the same, there has been an experience with a person who mirrored for them a certain notion of religion. People who encounter scandalous, indifferent, ignorant, judgmental or intolerant Catholics are going to be repelled. People who encounter joyful Catholics who believe and can be honest with their joys and struggles might be attracted and even converted. So the challenge is this: Can you give an account of your faith? Can you avoid defensiveness and “church-speak” when discussing your religious views? Are you a welcoming and understanding person? Are you re-making the Church and God in your own image and presenting that image as truth? Are you slapping quick and uncompromising theological answers on some really painful dilemmas people have? Are you listening for what is not being said? Are you mirroring Jesus as he talked to tax collectors and sinners? Is your version of Church always right, or can you enter into dialogue? In your interactions this week try to reflect on the version of Catholicism you are presenting to those you meet. It really matters!

Poetic Reflection:

This poem by e. e. cummings demonstrates the complacency of those who are sure they do no wrong, are sure that they have always said “yes”, but who have often said “no” to what matters, like humility, caring for others, not bad-mouthing or gossiping about others, listening to the voice of God in their lives, etc.:

the Cambridge ladies who live in furnished souls
are unbeautiful and have comfortable minds
(also, with the church’s protestant blessings
daughters, unscented shapeless spirited)
they believe in Christ and Longfellow, both dead,
are invariably interested in so many things—
at the present writing one still finds
delighted fingers knitting for the is it Poles?
perhaps. While permanent faces coyly bandy
scandal of Mrs. N and Professor D
… the Cambridge ladies do not care, above
Cambridge if sometimes in its box of
sky lavender and cornerless, the
moon rattles like a fragment of angry candy
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25th Sunday in Ordinary Time, September 20, 2020

Gospel: Matthew 20:1–16

Theme: God’s definition of Justice

Gospel: Matthew 20:1–16

Theme: God’s definition of Justice

Matthew 20:1–16

“The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out at dawn to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with them for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard. Going out about nine o’clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and he said to them, ‘You too go into my vineyard, and I will give you what is just.’ So they went off.

“[And] he went out again around noon, and around three o’clock, and did likewise. Going out about five o’clock, he found others standing around, and said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ They answered, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You too go into my vineyard.’

“When it was evening the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Summon the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and ending with the first.’ When those who had started about five o’clock came, each received the usual daily wage. So when the first came, they thought that they would receive more, but each of them also got the usual wage. And on receiving it they grumbled against the landowner, saying, ‘These last ones worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us, who bore the day’s burden and the heat.’ He said to one of them in reply, ‘My friend, I am not cheating you. Did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? Take what is yours and go. What if I wish to give this last one the same as you? [Or] am I not free to do as I wish with my own money? Are you envious because I am generous?’

“Thus, the last will be first, and the first will be last.”

Opening Prayer

Isaiah 58:6–8, 10–11—on authentic fasting that leads to blessing

Is this not, rather, the fast that I choose:
releasing those bound unjustly,
untying the thongs of the yoke;
Setting free the oppressed,
breaking off every yoke?

Is it not sharing your bread with the hungry,
bringing the afflicted and the homeless into your house;
Clothing the naked when you see them,
and not turning your back on your own flesh?

Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,
and your wound shall quickly be healed;
Your vindication shall go before you,
and the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.

If you lavish your food on the hungry
and satisfy the afflicted;
Then your light shall rise in the darkness,
and your gloom shall become like midday;

Then the LORD will guide you always
and satisfy your thirst in parched places,
will give strength to your bones
And you shall be like a watered garden.

Companions for the Journey

Adapted from “First Impressions” 2011:

These are tough economic times. We have many unemployed and those who do have jobs are working very hard every day. But even if the times weren’t as difficult still, we admire hard workers. We don’t admire shirkers, for we seem to have an innate sense of what’s fair. If a person has a job to do, they should, we believe, do it properly and then receive fair compensation. So today, when we hear the parable of the vineyard workers we tend to identify with and take the side of the “all-day workers.” These are they who say, “We bore the day’s burden and the heat.” Who hasn’t worked like that or, right now, has a job that feels like that?

When those, in Jesus’ parable, who worked the whole day, see what the latecomers have received, the same pay but for only an hour’s work, they go to the owner of the vineyard and make their complaint. “These last ones worked only one hour and you have made them equal to us.” It’s as if the owner broke a contract he made with them and they are indignant.

I think there was a contract—it was in the owner’s mind all along. Because, as the day wore on and he kept going out to hire still more laborers, he stopped naming the salary he would give them. He tells the first group, hired at dawn, that he would pay the “usual daily wage.” When he told the next group to go and work in his vineyard, he doesn’t mention the pay, but merely says, “I will give you what is just.” After that, for the next groups, again the pay isn’t mentioned, just the instruction, “Go into my vineyard.” So, there are hints early in the parable that something different is afoot.

I think the owner planned all along to pay all the workers a full day’s pay because they were day laborers. All were needy and vulnerable, each of them would need a day’s pay to feed their families. Each day, as day laborers, they would have gone out looking for work—day by day—standing around, hoping to get hired, needing to get hired—all along, thinking of the hungry mouths back home.

Why were some standing around, still waiting for work towards the end of the day? We are not told that they were the lazy ones who casually came out late in the day looking for a little work. Probably they were still without work because the strongest and youngest would have been hired first. Those not hired earlier would have been the  elderly, disabled, children and women too—except perhaps, for the very strongest. In our world there is the dictum, “A fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work.” At most of our workplaces there are work evaluations done periodically and the productivity of an employee is reviewed regularly. Raises are based on merit. Often there is a union scale and minimum wage to protect workers. When it works, you get just pay for an honest day’s work.

But Jesus isn’t talking about our labor and pay policies. It’s not a parable about how we are to treat employees. He isn’t telling us to pay people for doing only a little work. Rather, he is describing how God acts towards us; how things are in the “kingdom of heaven” where God’s influence is felt and God’s power is at work. In the kingdom of heaven, judging from today’s parable, the guiding principle is generosity and it is given with no little element of surprise. How could those minimal workers have even hoped for a full day’s pay? You arrive at a friend’s house for dinner, ring the doorbell and when the door is opened a crowd of your closest family and friends are there to shout, “Surprise!” It’s your birthday. That’s not something you planned for; maybe you don’t think you deserve all the fuss. But there it is a party for your benefit, “Surprise!”

I don’t know about you, but I’m not a superstar performer for the Lord. The bottom line is that while I try to do my best, I don’t want to be judged by just my accomplishments. There are days of hard work with their successes.  But there are other less-satisfying days, when I would not like a measure taken of the day’s achievements for the Lord. Some days I invest less effort in what I must do and there are times, I know, I could have done a lot better. What about those other times in our lives we would like to forget, when we should have made different and better choices? But we didn’t. How is all that going to be evaluated at the end of our lives?

We are the recipients of such generosity from God. Jesus first of all paints a concrete picture of what grace is like. If we, who hear this parable today, are awake to what is being offered us again at this Eucharist, then we would have to conclude, “How can I be as generous to others, as God has been to me?”

A woman was interviewed on television. She was chosen as a “heroic mother,” who single-handedly raised a large family. All her children did very well in life and turned out to be good adults with good jobs and families of their own. Hers was a story worth acknowledging and celebrating. The person interviewing her, as if to get some formula that others could imitate to achieve successful families, commented, “I suppose you loved all your children equally, making sure they all got the same treatment.”

“No,” she said, “I love them. I love them all, each one of them. But not equally. I loved the one that was down till he got up. I loved the one that was weak until she got strong. I loved the one that was hurt until he was healed. I loved the one that was lost until she was found.”  What’s it like in God’s world? What is the kingdom of heaven like? It’s like a mother who loves all her children according to their need, and loves them until they become who they were created to be—and then continues to love them.

We have asked God for forgiveness and believe we have received it today—whether we think we deserve it or not.  The parable has taken flesh in our lives. We who have experienced love may think we are not worthy of it, but we are blessed by it nevertheless. The parable has taken flesh in our lives. We have done a small deed for someone, or some group, and the good effects in their lives are out of proportion to our efforts for them. We have known the parable in our lives. Late in our lives we awake to God’s presence and goodness. We wish we hadn’t let so many years go by unconscious to the God we have now come to know. We have known the parable in our lives.

If we have a notion that God thinks and acts like us, today’s parable should dispel that thought.  But the God Jesus reveals didn’t begin to exist with the opening verses of the New Testament. Our Isaiah reading should convince us of that.  The prophet makes it quite clear that God does not act or judge the way we do. We tend to cling to past wrongs done us and keep a mental list of those who have offended us.  We conclude that God will treat them similarly—it’s only fair, we proclaim. But God’s graciousness, Isaiah tells us, is unbounded and beyond human reckoning. While we might conclude that God measures out grace and forgiveness according to our standards of justice, by what we determine a person deserves, the prophet reveals a God who shatters human standards beyond all our reasoning and expectation.

We ourselves might not feel deserving of such a bountiful God, still, today’s scriptures invite us to put aside any false humility we might have and become truly humble by saying “Yes” to our generous God’s offer of forgiveness and love. With empty hands we come receptive to the generous gift God is offering us at this Eucharist; a meal that unites us in love with our God.

Weekly Memorization

Taken from the gospel for today’s session…

Are you envious because I am generous?

Living the Good News

What action can you take in the next week as a response to today’s reading and discussion?

Keep a private journal of your prayer/actions responses this week. Feel free to use the personal reflection questions or the meditations which follow:

Reflection Questions

  • What does this parable say about the day laborers in Jesus’ time, about what would be a payment “that is right”?
    What does this parable say about God?
    Describe God’s sense of fairness as you understand it.
  • Does it bother us more when bad things happen to good people or when good things happen to bad or undeserving people?
  • Do most of us make God over in our own image, and do we have problems when God’s actions or words as translated through Jesus do not match the image we have created? Examples (The Prodigal Son, Mary and Martha, lost sheep, etc.) ?
  • Do I think of the “kingdom of God” as something we earn after death through sacrifice and good deeds?
    Do I think of the “kingdom of God” as God himself who is pure love and nothing else?
    Do I think of the “kingdom of God” as the world’s values transformed by love and compassion for others?
    How has my religious tradition influenced my understanding of the term “kingdom of God”?
  • Are there “bad” people in heaven?
  • Describe a time when you were bothered or annoyed by a situation in which someone was unfairly the recipient of generosity.
  • Have you ever been criticized for giving someone else a break?
  • Have there been times when I have considered myself more deserving than others?
    Have I ever felt unappreciated by those around me?
  • Do I see this parable as a story of human need or as a story of rank unfairness?
  • What is the economic situation for day laborers in our current society?
    Have you ever been one or hired one?
  • What is the state of economic security, food security, health security and education security in our country right now?
    Do we measure a person’s worthiness by how educated she is, how hard she works, how long he has been in this country, whether she has earned my respect or forgiveness?
  • Do you know of anyone who takes no joy in work, finds no dignity in work, works only for the money it produces to supply what she or her family needs to live? What in our society contributes to this joylessness?
  • What does it do to a person’s dignity when he cannot work, especially in this country?
    We live in a meritocracy. How does our culture conflict with this parable?
  • What effect does social injustice have upon the world?
    How do you see social justice principles affecting our national policies toward the poor in our country and in other parts of the world?
  • What is the difference between charity and justice? Is one more important than the other?
  • How is the kingdom of God different from the systems/values we encounter on earth?
    (the following by Daniel Harrington, S.J.:)
    Do you want always to be judged according to strict justice? Or do you want to leave room for mercy?
    Do you ever feel like the workers who were hired at dawn and had worked all day? What do you do with your resentments?
    Have you ever been the recipient of someone’s unexpected generosity? How did you respond?

Meditations

A Meditation in the Dominican Style/Asking Questions

I consider the problem of envy. The older brothers of Joseph, Cain, the elder son in the parable popularly known as the Prodigal Son, countless wicked stepmothers—all suffered from envy. Envy begrudges another what we think we lack or feel we deserve. It has a terrible and sometimes paralyzing effect on us. We cannot think rationally, we cannot act rationally. Sometimes we cannot act at all, but seethe with resentment. Other times the corrosive emotions of anger and despair drive us to harm the object of our envy in some way. As a child, we may have struck another or taken something from him that he loved and destroyed it. As older and more subtle adults we use the weapons of gossip, criticism, cynicism and indifference to wound those we envy. I think about someone in my life of whom I was envious. Why? Was it deserved? Were frustration and despair a part of the picture? Did I have trouble admitting that my feelings toward this person were caused by envy? Did I feel inferior to this person? Unfairly treated by life? Defeated by my own limitations? Did I devalue in my own mind what this person had in order to make myself feel better? How did I resolve the problem? Was I ever the object of anyone else’s envy? Did I feed into it in any way? I pray to God for the clarity of vision to recognize and root out envy in myself, and to recognize and change behaviors which may cause people to envy me.

A Meditation in the Ignatian Style/Imagination:

Adapted from “First Impressions”, a service of the Southern Dominican Province, by Fr. Jude Siciliano:

“Listen… I want to tell you a story…

“My name is Benjamin. I was there—I was in the vineyard that day… hired at the last hour, I could not believe the blessing! How could he have known how desperate I was, walking the marketplace since dawn in the heat, praying that I would not have to go home to my children empty-handed. But no one would hire me…

“Please forgive me for what I am about to tell you, but you see, I used to be a tax collector. It was despicable work, cheating my own people, and over the years I came to despise myself, although the money fed my children and family. But I can no longer hurt my people, and two weeks ago resolved to seek honest work. How I regretted my past then! No one would hire me… they spit in my face and laughed at my need. My children are hungry, and today I promised my wife that if I did not find work I would relent and return to my shameful employment. And so you cannot imagine my joy when the owner of the vineyard gave me a chance. And to be paid a full day’s wage! This is beyond my dreams. It has been salvation for me and for my family. And now I must go to them…”

What might have happened if the other, resentful laborers had known this story? What if they had bothered to come close enough to ask Benjamin and the other latecomers why they had been in the marketplace all day—and learned it was “because no one hired us”? Can you picture them wanting to help this brother who is trying to start a new life—and spontaneously reaching into their pockets to share their hard-earned wages? Perhaps they would even realize that their “usual daily wage” is neither “usual” nor “theirs” at all—but is a gift from the ever-generous vineyard-owner… a gift to be shared. Their resentment could turn to rejoicing that they and their fellow workers really have been given all they truly need.

How easy it is for us, initially, to identify with those disgruntled, angry laborers. After all, we live in a culture that teaches us: “Survival of the fittest! It’s mine, I earned it! I worked hard for this, I have a right to it!” We live in a world torn by the violence of competition and misunderstanding, as we battle over money and power, land, culture, images of God. We worry about our national security, our economy, and we too easily turn to violence to protect what we grasp. My possessions. My land. My God.

It is easy to feel threatened by the “other”—the foreigner, the different, the marginalized. Matthew’s community was apparently no different in this regard. A Jewish community only recently joined by Gentiles, they had to learn that their generous God welcomed the outsider, the latecomer, and called the stranger to be brother and sister to the community laboring in the vineyard of the kingdom.

The Gospel invites them, and all of us, to allow our God who knows all hearts to open our heart to the other—and to transform our perception. From entitlement to gratitude… from resentment to rejoicing… from anger to understanding. Thich Nhat Hahn, a Vietnamese Buddhist monk, tells us: “When you understand, you cannot help but love. You cannot get angry. To develop understanding, you have to practice looking at all living beings with the eyes of compassion. When you understand, you love. And when you love, you naturally act in a way that can relieve the suffering of people.”

What would our world be like if we responded to God’s invitation to know and welcome the stranger? If we each could reach out and come close enough to know the stories of the marginalized people in our church, our workplace, our society? What stranger, what latecomer are you invited to open your heart to, today? And what mystery of transformation might our generous God work in that sharing?

Closing Prayer

Again, from Isaiah:

My thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are my ways your ways.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.

Lord, grant me the wisdom to know the limitations of my own desires and judgements. Help me to understand and appreciate that your love and care transcends all logic. Help me to be more like you in my generosity to others around me—generosity with my possessions, and generosity in my understating of others. I especially pray for…

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24th Sunday in Ordinary Time, September 13, 2020

Gospel: Matthew 18:21–35

Theme: Forgiveness

Gospel: Matthew 18:21–35

Theme: Forgiveness

Matthew 18:21–35

Then Peter approaching asked him, “Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him? As many as seven times?”

Jesus answered, “I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times.

That is why the kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king who decided to settle accounts with his servants. When he began the accounting, a debtor was brought before him who owed him a huge amount. Since he had no way of paying it back, his master ordered him to be sold, along with his wife, his children, and all his property, in payment of the debt. At that, the servant fell down, did him homage, and said, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back in full.’ Moved with compassion the master of that servant let him go and forgave him the loan.

When that servant had left, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a much smaller amount. He seized him and started to choke him, demanding, ‘Pay back what you owe.’ Falling to his knees, his fellow servant begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.’ But he refused. Instead, he had him put in prison until he paid back the debt.

Now when his fellow servants saw what had happened, they were deeply disturbed, and went to their master and reported the whole affair. His master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you your entire debt because you begged me to. Should you not have had pity on your fellow servant, as I had pity on you?’ Then in anger his master handed him over to the torturers until he should pay back the whole debt.

So will my heavenly Father do to you, unless each of you forgives his brother from his heart.”

Music Meditations

Opening Prayer

Adapted from “A Psalm for Pardon” from Prayers for a Planetary Pilgrim by Father Edward Hays:

Grant me, O gracious One,
Your great gift of pardon.

I have searched for it
In every pocket and hiding place
........
I know it is here,
Buried beneath my pain
in a back corner of my heart;
But for now it is lost.

I know that to forgive is divine, but I am not a deity,
And I fear that I will become a demon
Who, by failing to forgive
Will spread the kingdom of darkness.
Remind me ten times and more
Of all that you have forgiven me—
Without even waiting for my sorrow,
The very instant that I slipped
Make me your messenger of your good news I cannot now speak
Give to me the healing words of forgiveness. Amen.

Companions for the Journey

Adapted from John Boll ,O.P. in “First Impressions,” 2005, and William Bausch in 60 More Seasonal Homilies:

I think today’s readings stir up some questions in all of us: Jesus’ answer seems naïve and maybe even dangerous. He seemed to lack any common sense or even to have forgotten the apparent likelihood that giving lots and lots of pardons would not even in the tiniest way get anyone to stop doing bad things. And yet, I suspect Jesus was not all that naïve—I think we need to look at some assumptions we make about forgiveness, so here are five things forgiveness is NOT:

  1. Forgiveness is not ignoring evil and forgetting wrongs that have been committed by individuals, governments, churches—even ours. In some places—the Balkans, Northern Ireland, the Middle East—to forgive my enemy is to betray my ancestors; to forgive is to make a mockery of their sacrifices; to forgive is to condone wrongs against justice and decency. Elie Weisel, in speaking of the Holocaust said: “We must forgive, but we must never forget.”
  2. Forgiveness is not the enabling of bad or destructive behavior. We hear all the time of people who stay in abusive relationships out of a mistaken sense of their obligation to “turn the other cheek”. Let me be very clear: I don’t think we are called to be passive victims of abusive and destructive behavior. Rather, I think what we are actually empowered to do is to invoke civil law to extricate ourselves and those for whom we are responsible from a dangerous situation, and then we invoke divine law or the grace of God to help us heal and get rid of our anger so we can move on with a productive and happy life. We hear also of co-dependents in addictive situations—alcohol or drugs—who forgive and forgive, and their loved one does not get better, he or she gets worse. So the reality is that a simplistic ”forgive and forget” is not what is called for here. Another way of putting it is: that we must forgive the sin, but remember the crime.
  3. Forgiveness is not a demonstration of my wonderfulness. This is forgiveness with a hook, one-up forgiveness, and it says, in effect: “I have weighed, judged you and your behavior and found you sorely lacking in qualities that are worthy of my respect. I have these qualities at this point in time, but you do not. I humbly recognize my superior moral strength and your weakness, my consistent moral behavior and your lack of morality. I forgive you your trespasses. You, of course, will find some suitable way to be grateful from this day forward.”
    This is not forgiveness. This is manipulation.
  4. Forgiveness is not easy—sometimes it might even be impossible. I don’t know how a rape victim forgives her rapist. I don’t know how the victim of sexual abuse as a child ever learns to get over it. I don’t know how someone whose parents were gassed in Auschwitz learns to forgive the Nazis who were the instrument of their deaths; I don’t know how the widow in Northern Ireland or New York gets past the anger and resentment. I don’t know how a parent learns to forgive someone who has damaged or murdered his or her child. In fact, if I am sure of anything at all, it is that God understands our sorrows and our difficulties with resentment, anger—understands, maybe even, our inability to let go and forgive someone. At least, I sincerely hope so. Yes, forgiveness is not easy—in fact, it is impossible, without God’s help.
  5. Forgiveness is not optional—This passage from Matthew tells us that we should be merciful primarily because each of us has received mercy. We are to forgive, not because someone deserves our forgiveness, but because we have been forgiven. When, at the end of the Our Father, we pray, “forgive us our trespasses as we Forgive those who trespass against us,” we are asking God to let the experience of being forgiven so transform our hearts that we may likewise forgive others. It would be a foolish person who would pray the other way around, asking God to forgive us only in the puny measure we are able to forgive others. Our life with God is a gift, from beginning to end. Whenever we asked for forgiveness from God, we received it. The Eucharist is our act of thanksgiving for what we realize again we have received from the hands of a gracious God. A sign that we really believe we have been forgiven free of charge, is to give similar forgiveness to others, again and again.

Weekly Memorization

Taken from the gospel for today’s session…

So will my heavenly Father do to you, unless each of you forgives his brother from his heart.

Living the Good News

What action can you take in the next week as a response to today’s reading and discussion?

Keep a private journal of your prayer/actions responses this week. Feel free to use the personal reflection questions or the meditations which follow:

Reflection Questions

  • From Jude Siciliano. O.P.:
    What effect has forgiveness had on my own life?
    What person or institution am I called to forgive?
  • Have I ever had a falling out with a friend who hurt me? How did I deal with it?
  • How does this phrase refer to my personal obligation to forgive?: “Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven”?
    Does it mean that I will, in one way or another, take my grudges and my lack of forgiveness into the kingdom of God here on earth, which clearly has no place for them?
    Does it mean I will take my grudges and my lack of forgiveness with me into the next life?
  • Do I sometimes identify myself by a wound I have suffered or by an abuse I have endured? (I am a _______ survivor.)
    Why do I do this?
  • How hard is to forgive someone who has really hurt someone we love?
  • How do I reconcile the reality that true forgiveness has no end—that we are called to forgive over and over—with the need for self-preservation?
    How do I forgive a wrong that has been done to me while preserving my own safety and sanity? At what point must I say “no more”?
  • How have past hurts affected my attitude about trusting others?
  • How grudgingly do I extend forgiveness to others?
  • Do I demand forgiveness of another, while withholding my forgiveness of someone?
  • How is forgiveness related to mercy?
  • How does forgiveness exist while still seeking punishment? Can it?
  • Do I have trouble asking for or receiving forgiveness? Why is that?
  • How is forgiveness of another a type of healing for me?
    Do I see my own lack of forgiveness as shackles that bind me to the past or to another that I wish to be free from?

Meditations

A Meditation in the Dominican Style/Asking Questions

Adapted from “First Impressions,” a service of the Southern Dominican Province:

In today’s gospel passage Peter puts a question about forgiveness to Jesus. Peter seems to think he has the right answer. But Jesus answers the question in a way that must have surprised Peter and, as if to back up his response, Jesus tells a parable. But this parable isn’t like one of those passages we frequently mention, easily accessible for reflection. It is a rough-sounding parable. On first hearing we feel edgy because God doesn’t come off sounding like anyone we’d like to get close to or get to know. After ending the parable about the unforgiving debtor’s being handed over to the torturers, “until he should pay back the whole debt,” Jesus adds, “So shall my heavenly Father do to you, unless each of you forgives your brother/sister from your heart.” See what I mean? Sounds like quite a change from the loving compassionate God Jesus has been manifesting in his speech and actions. As a preacher I also suspect that closing line is going to reinforce the image of the punishing and demanding God some of us still carry around within us, even if it is deep down at an unconscious level. What’s a preacher to do with all the baggage this parable is carrying?

How did you respond emotionally as well as intellectually to this parable? What does it say about what God demands of us, even when it seems hard?

A Meditation in the Augustinian Style/Relationship:

Is true forgiveness hard? Yes, but it is also necessary for our emotional and spiritual health. Think of someone who has hurt you in some way, and try to begin the process of forgiveness. Father Patrick Brennan in his book: The Way of Forgiveness, says that we stay forever frozen in the past if we do not begin somewhere. He suggests that we start by naming the pain. Perhaps you could use a journal to articulate those feelings of anger, hurt, revenge, depression. Stay with this exercise until you can accurately state what happened and how you felt. Hard as it is, this is the first step in moving forward.

After doing this, read Luke 22:39–46. What pain do you think Jesus was going through at this time? How did his disciples hurt him? Name some other times when Jesus was hurt by those around him. How do you think he felt? Do you think he forgave them?

The next thing to do is to DECIDE to forgive. You may revisit this decision many times, praying for the strength, the courage and the generosity of spirit forgiveness requires. Note: the decision to forgive must not necessarily be conveyed to the person who hurt you, and in any event my not be communicated in a way that merely reinforces your sense of being wronged, or demonstrates any sort of moral superiority.

Your next step might be to pray for the one(s) who have offended you.

These steps may not always follow the pattern outlined. Like any emotional process, we may revisit certain stages until we have mastered them. The key to making this work rests in prayer and loving kindness--the sort Jesus modeled for us.

And finally, reflect on what you have learned from your painful experience, thanking God for the wisdom you have gained.

A Meditation in the Franciscan Style/Action:

From “Sacred Space” a service of the Irish Jesuits:

I pray for those who have caused me hurt and, even if I can’t wish them well now, I pray that one day I might…

Poetic Reflection:

Is this like God’s forgiveness? How can we mirror it?

“To My Mother”

I was your rebellious son,
do you remember? Sometimes
I wonder if you do remember,
so complete has your forgiveness been.

So complete has your forgiveness been
I wonder sometimes if it did not
precede my wrong, and I erred,
safe found, within your love,

prepared ahead of me, the way home,
or my bed at night, so that almost
I should forgive you, who perhaps
saw the worst that I might do,

and forgave me before I could act,
causing me to smile now, looking back,
to see how paltry was my worst,
compared to your forgiveness of it

already given. And this, then,
is the vision of that Heaven of which
we have heard, where those who love
each other have forgiven each other,

where, for that, the leaves are green
the light a music in the air,
and all is unentangled,
and all is undismayed.

—by Wendell Berry (a former Stanford Stegner Fellow) from Entries

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23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, September 6, 2020

Gospel: Matthew 18:15–20

Theme: Living together in Christ

Gospel: Matthew 18:15–20

Theme: Living together in Christ

Matthew 18:15–20

“If your brother sins [against you], go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have won over your brother. If he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, so that ‘every fact may be established on the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ If he refuses to listen to them, tell the church. If he refuses to listen even to the church, then treat him as you would a Gentile or a tax collector.

“Amen, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again, [amen,] I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything for which they are to pray, it shall be granted to them by my heavenly Father. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”

Music Meditations

Opening or Closing Prayer

Taken from The Eucharistic Prayer II for Masses of Reconciliation; quoted on A Poster for Peace in Memory of September 11, 2001, Liturgy Training Publications

Your Spirit changes our hearts:
enemies begin to speak to one another,
those who were estranged join hands in friendship,
and nations seek the way of peace together.
Your Spirit is at work
when understanding puts an end to strife,
when hatred is quenched by mercy,
and vengeance gives way to forgiveness.

Companions for the Journey

From “First Impressions” (2008). A service of the Southern Dominican Province:

Matthew wrote his gospel around the years 80-85 C.E. Today’s passage is from chapter 18—this chapter is oriented towards the community of disciples. Preceding today’s passage Jesus has advised his followers that they are to protect the least in their community and, when necessary, they must go out to find any members who are lost or have drifted away. When Matthew wrote his gospel it had been a while since Jesus departed. At first Christians expected Jesus to return right away. When he hadn’t, the early church showed the strains of trying to hold themselves together over the long haul.

In the light of the problems his community was having Matthew had good reason to save the life-giving words we hear from Jesus today. Jesus wanted his followers to be a sign to the world of his ongoing presence in the early church. They were to live in a way that would show to others that, while they were waiting for Christ’s return, he was already with them. In Matthew the community was to be the kingdom of heaven already present on earth, and the life of the community and its individual members were to manifest and prove Christ’s presence with them. Jesus didn’t preach just to save individuals. Had he come just to do that, we could live our lives unencumbered by the stress and strain we experience trying to live as the “Christ-like” community we are called to be in the world.

While membership in the church offers us many blessings—a community of co-believers, support for members in stress, a place to celebrate the God Jesus reveals to us, etc.—nevertheless, even like-minded people go through times when they might prefer to drop out and make it on their own. It’s tempting, isn’t it, to ponder what it would be like not have to deal with community issues—to live our Christian lives by ourselves; pray our own prayers and do our best to help others—while we keep our eyes fixed on our “eternal reward?” That sounds nice and neat, doesn’t it? Especially these days of strain when: church attendance is declining; we have so much to put up in our local church communities, and on a larger, more public stage, we feel besieged by scandal and its coverage in the media. What’s wrong with trying to make it by ourselves and to teach our kids what we believe, so they grow up to be “good Christians?” Nothing, I suppose, but it “ain’t Christian!”

Jesus wanted us to continue as his community after he left: as a light on the lamp stand; a city built on a hilltop. In his lifetime he called his disciples together, instructed them and prepared them to continue his work. He assured them that he was with them, not only during his lifetime, but he would always be with them as they went forth to spread his name.

In Matthew’s gospel, from the very beginning, Jesus is named “Emanuel,” “God is with us” (1:23). The gospel ends with the same assurance of his on-going presence. When Jesus commissions his disciples to “make disciples of all the nations” (28:19), he lives up to his name, Emanuel, as he promises to “be with you always until the end of the world.” He clearly wanted us to be a community faithful to his memory. He didn’t want us to be stay-at-home individual believers, but Christians, worshiping together and then going out into the world living lives that proclaim his name to others.

And what better way for a community to be a beacon to Jesus than to practice forgiveness and concern for each other within the community? He wasn’t suggesting such virtues just to hold the community together until he returned. But, since forgiveness is such a rare commodity among individuals, communities, religions, tribes, races and nations, a community that is characterized by forgiveness would certainly be a way of announcing Jesus Christ to the world. If forgiveness were the hallmark of our religious community we would be what Jesus hoped for us—“a city built on a hilltop,” a “light to the nations.”

Weekly Memorization

Taken from the gospel for today’s session…

Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

Living the Good News

What action can you take in the next week as a response to today’s reading and discussion?

Keep a private journal of your prayer/actions responses this week. Feel free to use the personal reflection questions or the meditations which follow:

Reflection Questions

  • When I experience family conflict, how do I resolve it?
    When my friends and I are in conflict, how do I resolve it?
    When some members of my church community and I are in conflict, how do I resolve it?
    In my mind, are any of these “conflicts” truly only solved when people come around to my point of view?
  • Do we sometimes forget that to belong to the Church is to belong to a community of brothers and sisters in Christ? Why is this so?
  • Do we believe that our relationship to Christ depends intimately on how we relate to each other?
    To what extent do we believe that our behavior as individuals reflects on the overall witness that we as a community are called to give?
  • Do I feel that as a community we are responsible for each other’s well-being?
    What are some of the difficulties in achieving this?
  • Do I ever shirk my responsibility to speak up when I know something is not right?
  • When I confront a wrong or injustice do I approach the other in anger or in charity?
  • What are the effects of living in a culture that promotes gossip, scandal, and contemptuous dismissal of those with whom we do not agree?
    What are the effects of living in a culture that relies on legal arguments or intellectual evaluations—that focuses on winning rather than on relationship?
  • How difficult is to become involved in another’s life when we see them engage in cruel or self-destructive behaviors?
    Why, however, are some people all too ready to tell people what is the right way to do things or how to behave?
    How do we find the middle ground?
  • What is the role of personal prayer in dealing with problematic people?
  • Have I ever been part of a church community or another group that developed divisions over some issue or another?
    How did it get resolved?
    To what extent have I sought consensus, or did I work to make sure that my opinion carried the day?
  • What is the role of punishment in this passage?
    What is the role of reconciliation?
  • How do I feel about Excommunication?
    What is the possible danger of putting someone out of the community who does not agree with me? (think self-righteousness, vindictiveness, the cruelty of isolation, for example)
  • Which of the 4-part instruction on dealing with another’s behavior toward me did I have a problem with?
    What are some of the inherent dangers involved in taking others along to reprimand someone?
  • What is the value of having others to pray with?
  • In the letter of St Paul to the Romans in today’s reading he writes: “Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another, for the one who loves one another has fulfilled the law.” How does this apply to today’s gospel?

Meditations

A Meditation in the Dominican Style/Asking Questions

Adapted from “Sacred Space”, a service of the Irish Jesuits.

Let us do an examination of conscience on love today.
Love is patient. Am I?
Love is kind. Am I?
Love is not boastful. Am I?
Love is not resentful. Am I?
Love does not harbor grudges. Do I?
Love does not judge. Do I?
Love does not rejoice in what is wrong. How do I understand this? Live it?
Love rejoices in the truth. Do I?
Love rejoices in the good fortune of others? Do I?

A Meditation in the Franciscan Style/Action:

From First Impressions, a Service of the Southern Dominican Province:

We sense from this passage and all of chapter 18, that the unity and faithful adherence to Jesus’ teachings are important values for Matthew. Christians are not to live as individuals, but as members of a witnessing and supportive community. When a member has been “sinned” against, others are there for support and to see that rights are wronged.

But what’s the spirit of today’s gospel? Is Jesus just talking about individual offenses and sins? Suppose a race is sinned against, what are we to do? Suppose the poor on the other side of town are being ignored or deprived of their needs and rights? Suppose a group in our parish is treated as second class members just because they are new arrivals? Suppose women’s voices are ignored? Or, the elderly patronized? Suppose young people never hear their lives or issues mentioned in the preaching and public worship? What can you do about it? And when will you start?

Poetic Reflection:

Have you ever met a person in your church who could be described the way Mary Oliver describes someone she knows in the following excerpt from a poem in her collection Thirst?

“On thy Wondrous Works I Will Meditate”

7.
I know a man of such
mildness and kindness, it is trying to
change my life. He does not
preach, teach, but simply is. It is
astonishing, for he is Christ’s ambassador
truly, by rule and act. But, more,

he is kind with the sort of kindness that shines
out, but is resolute, not fooled. He has
eaten the dark hours and could also, I think,
soldier for God, riding out
under the storm clouds, against the world’s pride and unkindness
with both unassailable sweetness and consoling word.

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