31st Sunday in Ordinary Time, November 5, 2023

The dangers of spiritual arrogance and moral superiority

Matthew 23:1–12

Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples, saying,
“The scribes and the Pharisees
have taken their seat on the chair of Moses.
Therefore, do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you,
but do not follow their example.
For they preach but they do not practice.
They tie up heavy burdens hard to carry
and lay them on people’s shoulders,
but they will not lift a finger to move them.
All their works are performed to be seen.
They widen their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels.
They love places of honor at banquets, seats of honor in synagogues,
greetings in marketplaces, and the salutation ‘Rabbi.’
As for you, do not be called ‘Rabbi.’
You have but one teacher, and you are all brothers.
Call no one on earth your father;
you have but one Father in heaven.
Do not be called ‘Master’;
you have but one master, the Christ.
The greatest among you must be your servant.
Whoever exalts himself will be humbled;
but whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”

Music Meditations

• In Christ Alone—Celtic Worship Featuring Steph MacLeod
• Create in me a Clean Heart Oh, God—Maranatha Singers or Keith Greene
• Here I am Lord—John Michael Talbot

Opening Prayer

Sometimes it is hard, Lord, to avoid the tendency to seek the approval and admiration of others. It is also hard to avoid the tendency to demand of others a level of commitment that is unrealistic at best and impossible at worst. Help me to cultivate humility, and a deep understanding of the burdens others are facing. Keep me from the terrible sin of judging others, and keep me from listening to those voices that make me feel guilty when there is no need to do so. Keep me honest.

Companions for the Journey

From “First Impressions” 2023, A service of the Dominicans:

Religious leaders do not come off too well in today’s first and Gospel readings. These past three weeks Jesus had been in contention with the “chief priests and elders of the people,” now he takes on the Pharisees and scribes.

Jesus is not accusing them of not knowing their religion. They knew it very well. They were even good at teaching it to others; it is just that they didn’t practice what they taught and preached. “For they preach but they do not practice.” In Jesus’ time, the teachers of Torah fell into two broad categories: those who took a very strict interpretation of the religious law and those who were broad interpreters. The strict teachers made religious observance very difficult for the ordinary person who lacked both the education and time to learn and practice all the minutiae these teachers emphasized. Thus, the strict interpreters could easily point an accusing finger at those around them, the common folk, who in their ignorance were constantly breaking the rules. These strict interpreters did little to lighten the religious burdens they taught. Thus, they provided still more loads for an already oppressed people to carry. As a result of their burdensome teachings, they made it sound as if God were exacting and demanding. While those who gave a broad interpretation had a more pastoral approach. In today’s passage. Jesus addresses the scribes and Pharisees. He accuses them of taking a position they themselves do not follow. Nor, he says, do they do anything to relieve the heavy burdens they have imposed on others.

Then, there is the matter of titles given to people of distinction. My father’s first name was Joseph. When I was a boy, if I had called him Joe, I would not have survived to adulthood. Yet Jesus says, “Call no one on earth your father....” What about those priests I served at the altar in our local parish when I was a boy? Should I have called Father Kelly, Pat? And, to allude to another strange passage, should I have cut off my right hand when it offended me, or plucked out my eye, in the third grade, when it roamed to my desk mate’s test? I sense that Jesus is using exaggeration to make a point – and he makes some good ones in today’s Gospel.

In Jesus’ day “father” was not only used to address a male parent, but also as an honorary title for distinguished elders living or dead. However, Jesus is saying, that a disciple is not to be distracted by a search for honor and titles. We are to go about our “business,” the work of preaching and fulfilling our vocation. If our lives conform to what we teach, that will be enough. Let God take care of any subsequent honors for us. To be esteemed in God’s sight is what counts. And only God may know who these “honorees” are.

The Malachi reading is an indictment against religious leaders who have been guilty of another violation of the teacher’s responsibility – they have not observed God’s ways and have taught falsely. “You have turned aside from the way, and have caused many to falter by your instruction....” These priests failed in their roles as leaders and teachers. As I fly out of Kennedy airport today, I note the front page story in the paper I am reading. The headline reports that another diocese is being sued for millions of dollars by dozens of people who allege clergy abuse over past decades. I am sure those in the pews cannot hear this Malachi passage without applying it to all the recent clergy scandals. And well they should. All religious teachers, and anyone holding positions of authority, have to take this reading to heart.

But the scriptures speak not only to certain religious leaders, but to all believers. We must search our consciences, not because we have committed similar crimes, but because we all fall short of the ideals we profess and teach. In some ways, we do not “lay to heart” the commandments of God; nor, says Malachi, do our lives give sufficient example of “the glory of God’s name.” We are all expected to give witness by word and deed to our God. “You have turned aside from the way,” Malachi complains. The prophet, formerly speaking for God, now speaks in his own voice, “Why then do we break faith with one another violating the covenant of our ancestors?” Sounds like Paul in Romans when he laments, “I cannot understand my own behavior. I fail to carry out the things I want to do and I find myself doing the very things I hate.” (Romans 7: 15-16) Our human nature needs help; Paul, Malachi, all of us – our condition cries out to God for redemption.

Those of us who hold the position of teacher, in any way (parent, religious sister, priest, uncle, grandmother, etc.) listen to today’s readings with humble hearts. We certainly are aware of our responsibilities to teach by word and example. Yet, as we reflect at the end of a day on how well we lived up to what we profess and teach, we know we fall short. Maybe our consolation and encouragement can be found in Paul’s closing words today:

“...we too give thanks to God unceasingly that, in receiving the word of God from hearing us, you received not a human word but, as it truly is, the word of God, which is now at work in you who believe.”

Paul was certainly aware of his shortcomings. But what he passed on came from God – who planted the Word in him. The gospel message is not a dead letter; but a living growing word. Our teachers in faith have passed that Word on to us. We have heard that Word today at this liturgy and will be fed that Word made flesh in our Eucharist. We are not discouraged by how we fall short, how we fail to fully live the teachings we profess and pass on to others. Instead, with faith in that Word “at work in you who believe,” we are assured God is not finished with us yet. So, we ask the Holy Spirit here today to help us cooperate and live up to the living Word in us.

Further reflection:

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

Weekly Memorization

Taken from the gospel for today’s session…

Whoever exalts himself will be humbled

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

• Caveat: We must be careful in criticizing the Pharisees that we do not engage in any kind of anti-Semitism—all religious and organizations can harbor hypocrites…
• Have there been instances in my life where those in authority do not seem to understand the difficulties involved in what they were asking me to do?
• In religious matters, have there been individuals or public statements that seem to ask more of us than Jesus did?
• Do people sometime quote Jesus in making rules or regulations and determining punishments for infraction of those rules?
• From Living Space:
  What is my religion to me?
  Wings to lift me or a weight to drag me down?
  A matter of love or of law?
  Jesus offers rest and relief to those who labor and are burdened. Can I recognize myself in the Pharisee—the Pharisee in me?
• Are there societal rules or religious rules, or even workplace rules that I find annoying? Impossible to follow?
  Am I always right in being irritated by these rules?
• How do I think Jesus would react to some religious, societal or workplace rules my culture imposes on me?
• How tempting is it to behave in a way that elicits admiration from others?
• Have I ever been in a position where I demanded a level of commitment or compliance that was truly burdensome?
• If one of the issues in this gospel is the absence of humility in those who pretend to be moral leaders (either religious or secular), where do you see this in your own life?
• Where is the consonance between what I “preach” to others and my life as I live it?
• Do I include myself in the opening penitential rite at Mass, or am I praying for others who have failed: “Lord Have Mercy”?
• Are there instances where I do not always practice what I preach? (honesty, humility, not judging others, generosity, selflessness, etc., etc.)
• Am I tempted to revel in being honored or in being given a place of honor?
• What can I do to lighten the loads that people are struggling with—loads imposed by themselves or others in their life?
• As a baptized member of the Church, whom am I called to serve? Have I accepted that vocation?
• Can you think of anyone who serves in teaching and nurturing capacities in our Church, but are often not recognized for the services they render—not treated with the same respect that others in the Church are?

Meditations

A Meditation in the Thomistic Style:

Read Mark 10:34-45. Notice that Jesus in no way condemns ambition but simply teaches the disciples that their desire to be first should be in the area of humble service to others: “Whoever wants to rank first among you must serve the needs of all”. Do I have this kind of ambition? What do I need to change in my present way of life in order to do a better job of serving others? How might I, like Jesus, give my life in ransom for others? Speak to Jesus about your need for his help in being a better leader, mentor, director, boss, parent, of others.

(Adapted from Prayer and Temperament by Chester Michael and Marie Norrisey, 1991.)

A Meditation in the Augustinian Style:

In New Seeds of Contemplation Thomas Merton said:

And now I am thinking of the disease which is spiritual pride. I am thinking of the particular unreality that gets into the hearts of saints and eats their sanctity away before it is mature. There is something of this worm in the hearts of all religious [people]. As soon as they have done something which they know to be good in the eyes of God, they tend to take its reality unto themselves and make it their own. They tend to destroy their virtues by claiming them for themselves and clothing their own private illusion of themselves with values that belong to God. Who can escape the desire to breathe a different atmosphere from the rest of [humanity]? (p. 49) The saints are what they are not because their sanctity makes them admirable to others, but because the gift of sainthood makes it possible for them to admire everybody else (p.57).

I write my own psalm, in the first verse thanking God for my own spiritual gifts, but being very careful to not be smug about them. In the second verse I write about the spiritual gifts I admire in others, in and out of ministry, in and out of my Church, being careful not to compare myself to them or others. I sit silently in hope and peace.

Poetic Reflection:

Mary Oliver’s poem: “More Beautiful Than the Honey Locust Tree Are the Words of The Lord” may help capture for you a vision of spiritual humility:

1.
In the household of God I have stumbled in recitation,
And in my mind I have wandered.
I have interrupted worship with discussion.
Once I extinguished the Gospel candle after all the others.
But I never held the cup to my mouth lagging in gratitude.

2.
The Lord forgives many things,
so I have heard.

3.
The deer came into the field.
I saw her peaceful face and heard the shuffle of here breath.
She was sweetened by merriment, and not afraid,
but bold to say
whose field she was crossing: spoke the tap of her foot:
“It is God’s, and not mine.”

But only that she was born in to the poem that God made, and
called the world.

4.
And the goldfinch too
And the black pond I named my little sister, since
otherwise I had none.
And the muskrat, with his shy hands,
And the tiny life of the single pine needle,
which nonetheless shines.

And the priest in her beautiful vestments,
her hand over the chalice.

And the clouds moving, over the valleys of Truro.

5.
All day I watch the sky changing from blue to blue
For you are forever
And I am like a single day that passes.
All day I think thanks for this world,
for the rocks and the tips of the waves,
for the tupelos and the fading roses.
For the wind.
For you are forever
While I am like a single day that passes.
You are the heart of the cedars of Lebanon
and the fir called the Douglas,
the bristlecone and the willow.

6.
It’s close to hopeless,
For what I want to say the red-bird
has said already, and better, in a thousand voices.

The white bear, lifting one enormous paw, has said it better.

You cannot cross one hummock or furrow but it is
His holy ground.

7.
I had such longing, for virtue, for company,
I wanted Christ to be a close as the cross I wear.
I wanted to read and serve, to touch the altar linen.
Instead I went back to the woods where not a single tree
turns its face away.

Instead I prayed, oh Lord, let me be something
Useful and unpretentious.
Even the chimney swift sings.
Even the cobblestones have a task to do, and do it well.

Lord, let me be a flower, even a tare; or a sparrow.
Or the smallest bright stone in a ring worn by someone
Brave and kind, whose name I will never know.
Lord when I sleep I feel you near.

When I wake, and you are already wiping the stars away,
I rose quickly, hoping to be like your wild child
The rose, the honey-maker the honey-vine;
a bird shouting its joy as it floats
Through the gift you have given us: another day.

—From Thirst

Closing Prayer

Sometimes, Lord, when I or others are disappointed in me, I forget your loving and understanding presence. Help me to remember that you are always there, ready to help me help myself. Your love is constant, Lord, and even if I sometimes doubt that anyone cares, especially those in authority over me in any way, you are there for me holding me close to your heart.

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.