Commentary on Matthew 23:1-12 from “Living Space”

Commentary on Matthew 23:1-12 from “Living Space”, a service of the Irish Jesuits:

It looks like an attack on the Pharisees but we should really see it directed towards members of the Christian community, especially its leaders. Jesus levels two criticisms against the Pharisees: they don’t practice what they preach, and they do what they do to attract the admiration of others.

In fact, the words of Jesus are warning to all people in authority. Jesus was attacking the Pharisees, but his words can be applied to many positions in our own society. Executives, managers, doctors, lawyers, bishops, priests, civil servants, parents can all be included here. In so far as they have genuine authority, they should be listened to – the doctor about things medical, the lawyer about things legal, the priest about things spiritual, the parent about family matters…

The Pharisees tried to impress by wearing wider phylacteries and longer tassels. The phylacteries were small boxes containing verses of scripture which were worn on the left forearm and the forehead. The tassels, worn on the corners of one’s garment, were prescribed by Mosaic law as a reminder to keep the commandments. By making each of these items larger one drew attention to one’s superior piety and observance. It is not difficult to see parallels in our time.

Unfortunately, it would be wrong to follow the behavior of such people especially when they become arrogant and domineering, when they use their authority to draw attention to themselves, to assert their supposedly superior status. When they impose burdens on those ‘below’ them, which they themselves do nothing to alleviate.

Authority is not for power, but for empowering and enabling. Real authority is a form of service, not a way of control or domination or a claim to special privileges. So Jesus has no time for people who insist on being addressed by their formal titles. Matthew’s attack on the Pharisees again points to similar weaknesses on the part of church leaders in his time. It is something that again we are all too familiar with in our own time.

“Hi, Jack!”…”Mr Smith to you, if you don’t mind.”

“Hi, Father Jack!”…”Monsignor Jones to you.”

As Jesus says, ultimately we are all brothers and sisters. And elsewhere, he tells us that the greatest among us is the one who best serves the needs of those around him, rather than the one who has the most impressive titles, or the biggest desk, or eats in the executive dining room, or has his/her picture on the cover of a magazine. Unfortunately, we contribute a lot to this nonsense because some of us dream of being there ourselves someday.

Anyone who lifts himself up will be humbled, and anyone who humbles himself will be lifted up.

The perfect model is Jesus himself, who: “though in the form of God emptied himself… walked the path of obedience all the way to death… For this reason God raised him to the highest place.” (Phil 2:7-9)

Reflection
Jesus’ disciples are not to make a big display of religion nor are they to seek honorable titles like ‘father’ and ‘teacher’ and ‘rabbi’. Our teacher is God, and the true disciples learns only from God. We find very often in Jesus a dismissal of ostentatious religion. He calls on his followers to be humble. Our church is to be a humble church, as we are to be in our dealings with each other. For this we need prayer which inserts us daily into the mystery of being loved and called by God in Jesus Christ.

Reflection
An adult is often told to ‘chill out’ by a younger person. We can easily think of people who are puffed up with their own praise and a sort of pomposity about themselves. We don’t like that in others; it may be a bit in each of us. To realize that we are totally dependent on God for life and love is a humbling realization. Prayer at its best keeps us humble, chilled out with the warmth of God's love!

Reflection
Jesus cautions the disciples against an easy rejection of the Pharisees; you are not to reject them outright but are to be discerning and wise. I ask God to help me to resist any fundamentalist rejection of others and to help me to appreciate good wherever I find it.

30th Sunday in Ordinary Time, October 29, 2023

How well do I love God and neighbor?

Matthew 22:34–40

When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them [a scholar of the law] tested him by asking, “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?”

He said to him, “‘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 the first commandment.

The second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”

Music Meditations

• “Be Still and Know That He Is God” (sung by Steven Curtis Chapman) [YouTube]
• “Ubi Caritas” (Taizé) [YouTube]
• “The Servant Song” (sung by Maranatha! Vocal Band) [YouTube]
• “Whatsoever You Do” (sung by Robert Kochis) [YouTube]
• “Love One Another” (sung by Tommy Walker Ministries) [YouTube] (praise and worship)
• “God Is Love” (Ali Auburn) [YouTube] (contemporary Christian song)

Opening Prayer

From Thomas Merton:

Teach me to go to this country beyond words and beyond names.
Teach me to pray on this side of the frontier, here where these woods are.
I need to be led by you.
I need my heart to be moved by you.
I need my soul to be made clean by your prayer. I need my will to be made strong by you.
I need the world to be saved and changed by you.
I need you for all those who suffer, who are in prison, in danger, in sorrow.
I need you for all the crazy people.
I need your healing hand to work always in my life.
I need you to make me, as you made your Son, a healer, a comforter, a savior.
I need you to name the dead.
I need you to help the dying cross their particular rivers.
I need you for myself whether I live or die.
It is necessary.
Amen.

Companions for the Journey

By Daniel J. Harrington, S.J., from “America”, the national Jesuit Weekly magazine:

If you look up the word “love” in a dictionary, you will find something like this: Love means having an interest in and a warm regard for another, and wishing good for the other. That definition is satisfactory, though a bit flat and dull. This Sunday’s Scripture readings can help us fill out the dictionary definition and deepen our understanding of the biblical concept of love.

In today’s reading from Matthew 22, Jesus is challenged to choose the greatest among the 613 commandments in the Torah (the first five books of the Old Testament). He names two: love of God (Dt 6:4-5) and love of neighbor (Lv 19:18). These commandments cover two dimensions of the biblical concept of love. The third dimension—God’s love for us—is even more basic.

God’s love for us is the fundamental presupposition of the entire Bible. God has loved us first, and so we can and should love God in return. God’s love has been made manifest in God’s gift of creation, in the choice of Israel as God’s people, in sending Jesus to us and in giving us life and the promise of eternal life. The theological virtue of love has its origin in God. Those who have experienced God’s love can love God and others in return.

The excerpts from Psalm 18, today’s responsorial psalm, express dramatically the experience of someone who has encountered God’s love and loves God in return. The psalmist proclaims, “I love you, O Lord” and describes the experience of God as the ultimate source of security and hope with a long list of images: strength, rock, fortress, deliverer, rock of refuge, shield, horn of salvation and stronghold. The key to keeping the two commandments to love God and to love one’s neighbor is the recognition that God has loved us first.

The commandment to love God, which is known as the Shema (“Hear, O Israel”) and is a quotation of Dt 6:4-5, was (and is) part of Jewish daily prayer. The text suggests that our love for God must be total, involving all aspects (heart, soul and mind) of our person. The theological virtue of love has God as its object.

The commandment to love one’s neighbor (Lv 19:18) is part of what is known as the biblical Holiness Code. It challenges us to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. While lack of self-esteem is a serious problem for some today, most of us are pretty good at taking care of ourselves (or at least we think we are). The challenge of the second love commandment is for us to take something of the care and concern that we instinctively show for ourselves, and to apply it to others.

Whom should we love? Who is our neighbor? Today’s reading from Exodus 22 provides us with some examples. The neighbor includes not only family members and friends but also aliens or strangers, widows, orphans, the poor and the very neediest in society. In the New Testament parable of the Good Samaritan and other texts, Jesus pushes the definition of neighbor to include even enemies. In this framework the neighbor is not necessarily someone who can offer us repayment or provide some advantage for us. Love of neighbor is not simply enlightened self-interest. Rather, we should love our neighbor because God has loved us first, and in loving our neighbor we respond to God’s love for us and repay that love.

Jesus ends the conversation with the Pharisees by claiming that the whole Law and the prophets depend on these two commandments. The idea is that if we truly observe the two love commandments, to love God and love the neighbor, all the other commandments will be carried out naturally, as it were. Observing the biblical love commandments is in the final analysis an expression of faith. The biblical concept of love is far richer and deeper than any dictionary definition can supply.

Further reflection:

• Reflection on Matthew 22:34–40 from “First Impressions”

Weekly Memorization

Taken from the gospel for today’s session…

The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments:
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 the first commandment.
The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

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

• By Daniel Harrington, S.J.:
  How do you define love?
  In what moments in your life have you experienced God’s love for you?
  Why should you love your neighbor?
  Where does faith come in?
• Do I realize that my love of God is preceded by God’s all-encompassing love of me?
• Which of the three: God, self, neighbor, is the hardest for me to love?
• Has there been anyone it was tough to love this week?
• Is it sometimes easier to love those who are not in our faces every day, or those who pose no threat to our comfort and well-being?
• Have you ever, in spite of your emotional inclinations, treated someone as you wanted to be treated, not as (s)he deserved?
  How did it make you feel?
• Is there only one way to love one another as God has loved us?
• “Love one another as I have loved you”—why is this a particularly high, or as some might say, impossible, standard?
• Why is God’s love, which is spontaneous, unforced and always there, so different from human love?
• In this world’s history, we have refused to recognize whole groups of people who are our neighbors, equally loved by God (Jews, African Americans, immigrants and refugees, the mentally or physically disabled, drug addicts, people on the other side of the political divide, for example). What in the world today exemplifies this lack of love, hatred even, for “the other”?
• We are only about 6% of the world’s population, but we consume more than 33% of the world’s goods. How is this loving others as ourselves?
• Do we love those in our lives just as they are, or do we try to change them?
• By Jude Siciliano, O.P.:
  What do you need to do in order to love God with all your heart, soul and mind?
  What can you do to love yourself without being selfish?

Meditations

A Meditation in the Dominican Style/Asking Questions:

Too often, we focus on the second great commandment. However, Thomas Merton considers the commandment to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind:

We are what we love. If we love God, in whose image we were created, we discover ourselves in God and we cannot help being happy; we have already achieved something of the fullness of being for which we were destined in our creation. If we love everything else but God, we contradict the image born in our very essence, and we cannot help being unhappy, because we are living a caricature of what we were meant to be…

In what ways do I personally fall short of the complete love I am called to? Do I condition my love of God on whether I feel God has been good to me or answers my prayers? Do I sometimes get distracted by my business and worries and shove God to the background of my life? Is my heart too full of other “loves” to find room for Jesus? How much time do I spend each day in conversation with the Lord?

A Meditation in the Dominican Style/Asking Questions:

Thomas Merton once said “Lord, I have not lived like a contemplative. The first essential is missing. I only say I trust you. My actions prove that the one I trust is myself—and that I am still afraid of you”. The question that this raises is how can you love what you fear? (Do we love atomic power or fear it? Do we love a baby or fear it? Do we love our mother or fear her? Do act kindly toward my neighbor out of love for my neighbor or out of fear God’s punishments if I do not?) Our motivations for our behavior and actions are often mixed, aren’t they? Do I act the way I do because I love God or because I fear God and God’s punishments? What is Jesus telling me about this in today’s passage? How do I move from fear to love?

A Meditation in the Augustinian Style/Relationship:

Read Psalm 15:

Lord, who shall be admitted to your tent and dwell on your holy mountain?
Those who walk without fault, those who act with justice,
and speak the truth from their hearts, those who do not slander with their tongue,
those who do no wrong to their kindred, who cast no slur on their neighbors,
who hold the godless in distain, but honor those who fear the Lord;
those who keep their word, come what may,
and take no interest on a loan and accept no bribes against the innocent.
Such people will stand firm forever.

Now consider the following:

Not everyone who says to me ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my father in heaven. (Matthew 7:22)

Both this quote and Psalm 15 have plenty to say about what one must do to enter the kingdom of God. They insist that we must treat people with justice, tell the truth, refuse to harm anyone, be generous, be forgiving, and keep our word. We meet God not on a mountaintop but in our personal relationships. Unfortunately, these relationships often suffer when we are preoccupied or stressed. We ought to treat our family members with the courtesy we treat our friends, and treat our friends with the respect we afford our professors or bosses. Whoever said: “Love means never having to say you’re sorry” got it all wrong. Which of your personal relationships would not stand up to the scrutiny of Psalm 15? What can you do to correct it? Speak to God about this. Be honest and open.

A Meditation in the Dominican Style/Asking Questions:

Read the first reading for this Sunday from the Book of Exodus:

Thus says the LORD:
”You shall not molest or oppress an alien, for you were once aliens yourselves in the land of Egypt.
You shall not wrong any widow or orphan. If ever you wrong them and they cry out to me,
I will surely hear their cry. My wrath will flare up, and I will kill you with the sword;
then your own wives will be widows, and your children orphans.
If you lend money to one of your poor neighbors among my people,
you shall not act like an extortioner toward him by demanding interest from him.
If you take your neighbor’s cloak as a pledge, you shall return it to him before sunset;
for this cloak of his is the only covering he has for his body. What else has he to sleep in?
If he cries out to me, I will hear him; for I am compassionate.”

In this world of ours, where has humanity fallen short of the ideal, particularly concerning immigrants and strangers, those who are poor and need help, those who have suffered losses of friends or family and need a lot of compassion?

Read the famous tract from Corinthians 13 and Paul’s description of love. Where have you fallen short of the ideal? What people in your life are you finding it hard to love—those who are demanding, annoying, those taking more than their share of my attention, time or money, those seeming extra needy in one way or another?

How does the current pandemic make you short on patience and generosity? Take your intentions and failures to Jesus, who understands, and pick one difficult relationship and pray this week for patience, for the openness to love that God shows every day.

Poetic Reflection:

How does this poem by former Stanford Stegner Fellow Thomas Centollela relate to today’s gospel?

“In The Evening We Shall Be Examined On Love”
-St. John of the Cross

And it won’t be multiple choice,
though some of us would prefer it that way.
Neither will it be essay, which tempts us to run on
when we should be sticking to the point, if not together.
In the evening there shall be implications
our fear will turn to complications. No cheating,
we’ll be told and we’ll try to figure the cost of being true
to ourselves. In the evening when the sky has turned
that certain blue, blue of exam books, blue of no more
daily evasions, we shall climb the hill as the light empties
and park our tired bodies on a bench above the city
and try to fill in the blanks. And we won’t be tested
like defendants on trial, cross-examined
till one of us breaks down, guilty as charged. No,
in the evening, after the day has refused to testify,
we shall be examined on love like students
who don’t even recall signing up for the course
and now must take their orals, forced to speak for once
from the heart and not off the top of their heads.
And when the evening is over and it’s late,
the student body asleep, even the great teachers
retired for the night, we shall stay up
and run back over the questions, each in our own way:
what’s true, what’s false, what unknown quantity
will balance the equation, what it would mean years from now
to look back and know
we did not fail.

Closing Prayer

Keep me, above all things, from sin
Keep me from love of anything that is not you: money, attention, power, reputation.
Keep me from avarice and ambition and lack of concern for others.
Keep me from anything that is not ordained by your will.
Let me rest in your love and your grace.
That is enough for me.

Reflection on Matthew 22:34–40 from “First Impressions”

Excerpted from First Impressions, 2023, a preaching service of the Southern Dominican Province:

I have a picture on my wall, a gift from a rabbi. It shows her blessing an unfurled scroll of the Torah. The scroll was old and tattered, so the community removed it from the tabernacle and from its beautiful cloth covering. They had it restored, but before putting it back into the tabernacle, they blessed and rededicated it. This is how they did it: With the congregation assembled in the synagogue they unrolled the scroll and encircled the community with it—some members of the community, wearing white gloves, held the scroll, all the rest were inside the circle made by the unfurled scroll. The rabbi, dressed in liturgical robes and on the inside of the circle with the community, is shown in the process of rededicating the scroll before putting it back in the tabernacle. A member of the congregation said, “We couldn’t just put it away, after all it’s not an antique, a dead book. It’s the living Word of God.” The community was also rededicated along with the scroll.

Another symbol, or sign of the Jewish community’s dedication to God’s Word, is also evident, closer to home – in fact, at the entrance to Jewish homes. It is the mezuzah, a cylinder that is placed on the doorpost of a home. It contains a scriptural quote. For example, the one Jesus quotes in part today, “Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone! Therefore you shall love the Lord, our God, with all your heart and all your soul and with all your strength” (Dt. 6:4). Where I grew up I used to see my Jewish neighbors kiss their fingers and then touch the mezuzah on entering and leaving their homes.

Such is the devotion to God’s Word by our Jewish sisters and brothers: to encircle a community of worshipers with the written word; to kiss it as they come and go each day from their homes. Of course the mazuzah is not a good luck charm, nor kissing it mere superstition, but an expression of their desire to live a life guided by and strengthened by God’s Word, as part of a community, in their homes and beyond. When asked about the greatest commandment Jesus quoted the central commandment of Jewish faith, the one posted on the door frames. Then he takes another teaching, one among many more in the Old Testament, and places it alongside the first. Total love of God is the first commandment and joined to it, love of neighbor as yourself.

If a pagan were to ask a Jew, “Where is your image of God?” They would respond, “In God’s image we were made.” I.e. “The image of our God is o be found in each human being.” That’s what Jesus is implying in today’s gospel. How can we mere humans pay proper homage to an invisible God in our world, in our daily life? Jesus shows us how. He takes the command about loving God with all of ourselves and puts with it the love of neighbor. As Scripture suggests elsewhere: if you want to love the God you cannot see, love the human you can see. Each of us is a dwelling place of God, “In God’s image we were made.”

As I write this Israel is about to invade Gaza. Thousands have died on both sides, and thousands more will die from violence, hunger, destroyed hospitals, missals, etc. Do both sides see what both believe, “In God’s image we are made.” I shed tears watching the nightly news of the war. I have no easy answers, none are possible. From this distance I can pray and send messages to my government representatives—“Don’t forget the civilians caught in the middle. Don’t forget to work for peace!”

But we have work to do here at home as well:

The first reading from Exodus shows that God has always been especially concerned about the neediest in society. Today’s selection comes from a section in Exodus called the “Book of the Covenant,” which is a teaching of social ethics based, not on laws, but on compassion. For those in most need, laws that prohibit certain acts are not enough to protect them. Because the Israelites experienced God’s compassion when they were slaves in Egypt and as they traveled through the desert they, in turn, were to be compassionate to those in similar need. Their laws were to reflect the compassion they received. For example, they were to remember that they were once aliens in Egypt, so they were not to wrong the alien, or stranger in their own land. What does that say to our current refugee crisis here at our borders and those bused to our cities? The media coverage of our own border situation these days has made us aware of the dire circumstances of those who have had to leave their homes because of poverty and violence to find refuge in our country. Strangers and immigrants in a strange land are vulnerable to abuse and being taken advantage of. They have left the support of their families, culture and familiar surroundings in an attempt to flee their homeland and find protection. In many ways they are like the Israelites in Egypt, strangers in a foreign land and totally dependent on the hospitality of its native people—us.”

FAITH BOOK

From today’s Gospel reading: Jesus said... “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 the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

Reflection: The way we know that we are living Jesus’ commandment of total dedication to God, who is unseen, is to make that love visible by loving our neighbor as self. Jesus’ life shows us whom he considered his neighbor. Besides his disciples and friends, neighbor for Jesus included the least likely, the overlooked, the vulnerable and the people who are usually described in stereotypes.

So we ask ourselves: Is God at my center, the inspiration and impetus behind my thoughts, feelings and actions? Who is the surprising neighbor Jesus is calling me to love?

29th Sunday in Ordinary Time, October 22, 2023

What do I owe to civil authorities? What do I owe to God?

Matthew 22:15–21

Then the Pharisees went off and plotted how they might entrap him in speech.

They sent their disciples to him, with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are a truthful man and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. And you are not concerned with anyone’s opinion, for you do not regard a person’s status. Tell us, then, what is your opinion: Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?”

Knowing their malice, Jesus said, “Why are you testing me, you hypocrites? Show me the coin that pays the census tax.” Then they handed him the Roman coin.

He said to them, “Whose image is this and whose inscription?” They replied, “Caesar’s.” At that he said to them, “Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.”

Music Meditations

• “Give Me Jesus” (sung by Fernando Ortega) [YouTube]
• “Come, My Way, My Truth, My Life” (arrangement by Tony Alonso) [YouTube]
• “Seek Ye First” (sung by Maranatha! Praise Band) [YouTube]
• “Lead Me, Guide Me” (sung by Morgan State University Choir) [YouTube] (gospel)

Opening Prayer

From the Carmelites:

Lord, help me to see that serving you and being a good citizen of my country need not be contradictory. Help me the choose wisely in those situations when I must make a choice, always keeping your will and your precepts in my heart. Help me to see in others a witness to your incredible care and love for everyone and everything you have created, because it is all yours.

Companions for the Journey

From “Working Preacher”:

We think of the last days of Jesus’ final week as being full of vexation.

Indeed, they were: betrayal, arrest, torture, and crucifixion. But the first two days of the week were also filled with difficulty. In Matthew’s version of the week, Jesus enters Jerusalem triumphantly on Monday and proceeds to the temple to cleanse it of abuse. Tuesday is particularly full.

Jesus returns to Jerusalem for a series of pronouncements and confrontations by religious leaders. On this day, Jesus curses the fig tree, is questioned about his authority, offers three parables that each conclude with dire warnings for those who assume they are comfortably within God’s favor.

Then he is challenged on whether to pay taxes to Caesar, is questioned about the resurrection of the dead, challenged about the greatest commandment, and engaged in discussion about the nature of the messiah.

Finally, Jesus engages in a long discourse (23:1-25:46) in which he denounces religious leaders, laments over Jerusalem, foretells destruction of the temple, gives his disciples a list of signs concerning the end times, offers additional parables, and tells of the final judgment. Tuesday was a big day.

It seems one of the chief accomplishments of the day was to put the religious leaders in their place. Jesus overwhelms his verbal adversaries and denounces temple leadership so thoroughly that by the next day, Wednesday of Holy Week, the leaders began plotting to arrest and kill this bothersome prophet.

The pericope for this day lies within Tuesday’s busy agenda. Here we have the failed attempt by the Pharisees and Herodians to trap Jesus on what appears to be a political issue: whether or not it is lawful to pay taxes to Caesar. We might imagine the smugness with which they employ this trap. The Pharisees are against the Roman occupation government, so they bring along the Herodians, people obliged to Rome for keeping Herod in puppet power.

Governments are necessary, taxes may be necessary, and every country has a Caesar of sorts to contend with. So, render unto that Caesar whatever is due. But, don’t mess around with the things that belong to God.

Whom do we belong to? Sometimes it seems like we belong to Caesar. Taxes, legal restrictions on our freedoms, imprisonment if you engage in civil disobedience. Or, perhaps, we feel that our job owns us. Or our families. Sometimes, we even feel owned by our material possessions. Ralph Waldo Emerson said it: “Things are in the saddle, and ride mankind.”

But to whom do we really belong? Take a look at any person. Whose inscription is on him or her? Each is made in the image of God (Genesis 1:26). There can be no doubt, then, what Jesus means here. Give yourselves to God because it is to him that you belong. 

It is God who claims us, who made us in his own image. We do not belong to anything or to anyone else. We don’t even belong to ourselves. We belong to God in all our being, with all our talents, interests, time, and wealth. “We give thee but thine own, whatever the gift may be. All that we have is thine alone, a trust, O Lord, from thee.”

The consequences of belonging to God are remarkable. First, it means that God will not forsake us. The Pharisees and the other religious leaders that Jesus denounces were notoriously bad at caring for the people. They forsook their responsibilities and the people God gave into their care. They deserved condemnation. But, God does not forsake his own. By Friday of Holy Week, Jesus made that clear in the boldest way possible.

Second, it means that because we belong to God, we belong to the people of God, the body of Christ. We are baptized into this fellowship and can only lose our membership by turning our backs on God. If there is any alienation, it is our own doing. And, if we return, God is there, as always.

Third, it means that we give to God that which belongs to God’s: that is, we give ourselves. We take the sacred trust and invest it in lives of worship. Sometimes, that worship occurs privately, in devotion. Sometimes, in church with our brothers and sisters in Christ. And the rest of the time, it occurs in the sphere of daily work and service. All of this is worship. Ultimately, giving ourselves to God means that we give ourselves to the world.

Further reflection:

• “What’s in Your Heart?” >>, a homily by Fr. Brendan McGuire for the 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time (year A)

Weekly Memorization

Taken from the gospel for today’s session…

Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.

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 in your life belongs “to Caesar”?
  What belongs only “to God”?
  When do these duties overlap?
• Have I ever felt that my worldly obligations have taken time away from God?
• Has there been a time when I was pressured by the prevailing culture of the workplace or the world I inhabit into making a decision that went against my principles?
  How did it turn out?
  How did I feel?
• When has my duty to God impelled me to speak out against the inequitable or cruel treatment of others by our own government, for example?
• Is there a contradiction between being a good citizen and serving God?
  Do I see Church and state on a collision course?
• If we were to live in a theocracy (no daylight between the laws of God as expressed by religious and civil laws) which religion should be the defining standard?
• Do I have a double standard regarding religious intrusions into political discourse (My Catholic views are ok, but others’ religious views are not)?
• Should my church tell me whom or what to vote for?
  Should it tell me what or whom to vote against?
• Does legitimate civil power have a right to ask anything from us (voting in elections, obedience to laws, the payment of taxes, conscription in the military, for example)?
  What does it not have a right to ask of me?
• Where does the notion of civil disobedience fit into the meaning of this gospel?
• What do I think I should render to God on earth, specifically to the people of God, to all God’s creation, including the natural world?
  Can the term “rendering unto God” be interpreted as working for just laws, support for the poor and marginalized, respect for all life? Can it be interpreted as working to wipe out racism, sexism, elitism of any kind?
• What am I personally unwilling to render to God?
  For this week, keep track of where you spend your money and what you spend it on. What does your checkbook and your datebook tell you about your priorities?

Meditations

A Meditation in the Franciscan Style/Action:

Adapted from “First Impressions” 2002:

It is clear from church teaching that we Christians are called to engage the world and bring our beliefs with us into Caesar’s domain. Vatican II reminded us to take our faith into the market place and interpret our times in the light of the gospel. If we have any doubts all we have to do is to read papal and episcopal documents that address: poverty, globalization, war, abortion, the death penalty, health care, environment, the economy. These teachings remind us that the church of Jesus’ followers doesn’t exist apart from the world and that we are called to be agents of change for peace and justice. It is God’s will that all people be treated justly, the poor cared for and everyone must be given respect and treated with dignity as a child of God.

What is my job as a citizen to call out the failures and omissions, the cruelties and injustices that our system perpetuates? What is my job as a citizen to address poverty, to care for the sick and lonely, to bring justice to the captives, to welcome the stranger? Is this only the job of government, or do I have a part to play? What am I doing in this regard right now? If not right now, when will be the right time to get started?

A Meditation in the Dominican Style:

Psalm 72

1O God, give your judgment to the king, to a king’s son your justice,
2that he may judge your people in justice, and your poor in right judgment.
3May the mountains bring forth peace for the people, and the hills justice.
4May he defend the poor of the people, and save the children of the needy, and crush the oppressor.
5He shall endure like the sun and the moon through all generations.
6He shall descend like rain on the meadow, like showers that water the earth.
7In his days shall justice flourish, and great peace till the moon is no more.

12For he shall save the needy when they cry, the poor, and those who are helpless.
13He will have pity on the weak and the needy, and save the lives of the needy.
14From oppression and violence he redeems their souls; to him their blood is dear.
15Long may he live!

Read sections from Psalm 72, then reflect on the way power is revered in our society, and, in the main, how that power is used. What are the dangers of power? This psalm is frequently used as a description of the way an ideal ruler must use power. Think of our history and all of the ways in which power has been abused. Has this been the story in our own church? In our country? Reflect on these verses as you make your voting decisions for November.

Poetic Reflection:

When we say we want to give to God what is God's, what, exactly, do we mean? Wendell Berry reflects on the ways we pay lip service to God, but are really in the service of another reality altogether…

“We Who Prayed and Wept”

We who prayed and wept
for liberty from Kings
and the yoke of liberty
accept the tyranny of things
we do not need.
In plenitude too free,
we have become adept
beneath the yoke of greed.

Those who will not learn
in plenty to keep their place
must learn it by their need
when they have had their way
and the fields spurn their seed.
We have failed Thy grace.
Lord, I flinch and pray,
send Thy necessity.

—from Collected Poems

Closing Prayer

Jesus, I ask for courage to stand up for what is true and just. Help me to speak out against the atrocities of war, genocide, systemic poverty and the cruelties that people seem to visit on one another, all in the name of being right. Help me not to be too quick to judge those whose decisions are other than I would approve of, and help me to have patience with the mistakes I and others make in living out our lives. Then help me to rest in the hope that in Your will is our peace.

What’s in Your Heart?

A homily by Fr. Brendan McGuire for the 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time (year A)

Many of you have seen that advertisement on television for credit cards
that always ends with "...What's in your wallet?" 
The premise behind that advertisement 
is to suggest that our credit card in some way defines who we are. 
In some way, how we spend our money does say something about us. 
To a certain extent what and where we spend our money tells us
what is important in our lives.

Probably a better indicator of what defines us as people 
is how we spend our time. 
If we want to know what defines a huge portion of our lives
it is where we spend our time. 
More importantly with whom do we spend our time? 
Or on what do you spend your time? 
If we spend time with this group of people 
then we are saying they are more important versus this group of people.
Students at school know this reality all too well.
There are other ways in which we could understand what defines us. 
Yes, it is what we spend our money on; 
and yes, it is what and where we spend our time. 
But it is also with whom we spend our time. 
The "who" is important.
Even more than that, what defines us is who we are willing to stand up for. 
Who are we willing to defend? 
Who are we willing to be vulnerable for?
That tells us a lot about ourselves. 
All of these, in some way, all of these together in their complexity 
will tell us about who we are and what we are.

In today's gospel, we hear this story about paying taxes to Cesar or not. 
People have often misused this scripture to talk about 
the justification to pay taxes or not pay taxes; 
or separation of church and state. 
That is a complete misreading of the scripture. 
Even the most unscholarly approach can figure out that.
Right from the beginning Jesus calls them hypocrites. 
We know by the way they ask their question that is a trick question.
There is a part of us that has to at least enjoy it a tad bit.
How Jesus takes on these most unlikely adversaries; 
he just cuts them down with two phrases:  
Show me the coin. Whose head is this on the back? 
And he just cuts to the quick really fast. 
We might not be distracted by the brilliance of Jesus' answer 
but by what is actually happening in the context here. 
The religious leaders and Herodians were enemies. 
Yet these two enemies came together 
to trick Jesus into saying something that they could hold against him.

But what does Jesus do? 
Jesus reframes it completely. 
Then asks, "What is their priority in life?" 
This is not just about the money. 
It is an indicator. Sure. 
It is time. It is an indicator. 
But what in fact is our highest priority? 
Time, money, who you spend your time with and who we stand up for. 
All these are indicators. 
But in the end, we have to ask the question of ourselves;
"What is the top priority in our lives?" 
Everything else flows from that.

My fear is that as Catholic Christians, 
we do not think about that, half nearly enough. 
We get caught up in the busyness of life. 
We just churn from day to day. 
We go almost like on automatic pilot. 
We do not ask the questions of what is the most important thing in my life.
What is the most important reality of my life? 
And until something actually happens, 
when we get sick or somebody dies, 
then all of a sudden our whole reality gets woken up 
and then we start asking that question.
Must we wait for that moment? 
Is that what has to happen? 
Is that the only way we are going to wake up 
from our secular slumber? 
I plead with you to not.

In some way, shape or form, your faith has made a difference 
because you are here on a Sunday morning 
when most of the world is in bed or at home relaxing. 
Somehow you know that it is a priority of something in your life. 
And this one hour has made itself a priority; 
whether it is the community; 
whether it is the environment; 
whether it is the Mass; 
There is something. 
It got you here. 
But one hour is not enough guys. 
One hour out of 168 hours will not make a difference. 
Oh, I would love if it would make that much of a difference. 
I would cherish that I could stay up here for 10 minutes of preaching
and somehow that would radically change your life for the rest of the week. 
But I am not that foolish. 
I know that fundamentally it takes more than one hour out of 168 hours 
to make changes in your and my life. 
And we have to commit to that extra time.

That is what I am asking you to commit to. 
The one hour is just simply never going to be enough. 
That is why I keep pushing you to pray every day. 
We want to be at 10 hours every week. 
That does not mean that you have to be at your desk 
praying for one hour a day. 
But you ought to be working towards something like that; 
and in the other hours, you ought to be working at being charitable,
giving your heart and soul away to someone else.
Why? Because that is what defines us. 
That tells us who we are because we are standing up for somebody. 
We are spending our time with them. 
And yes, we are spending our energy and who we are with them.  
That will make all the difference.

Today, the question is not what is in our wallet. 
But what's in our heart. 
What is our top priority? 
When we come to Eucharist, 
we come to renew ourselves in our number one priority, 
which is to follow Christ. 
It is easy for us to say it here but
when we walk outside those doors, we have to live it. 
And that is the work we spend 167 hour doing. 
And we need the help every day. 
And that is why I am asking us to find some time to say;
"This remains a priority for me."
What's in your heart?