20th Sunday in Ordinary Time
August 18, 2013
10 AM & 5:30 PM Liturgies
J.A. Loftus, S.J.
Do you ever have days when you feel “stuck in the mud?” Do
you ever have days when you feel stuck in the mud at the bottom of
a deep well? Do you ever have days when you feel stuck in the mud
at the bottom of a deep well and you were actually thrown there by
someone you cared about?
If you have ever felt any of these things, you now have a new
patron saint, Jeremiah. Been there, done that! Or, I suppose, you
could choose “the man himself,” Jesus. Because in today’s gospel he
foresees his own fate and it is much the same. When the prophets
speak, someone always gets thrown under the bus—or down the
well!
It’s a curious dynamic that we all should pay more attention
to because sooner or later it might affect us all. To proclaim God’s
world, God’s rule, God’s Kingdom, to see through God’s eyes, always
seems to create great division among us. Jesus was a realist. He is
not a utopian dreamer. He knows quite painfully and up-close the
cost of true discipleship. He has had to endure it himself, as the
Letter to the Hebrews reminds us again today.
In your imaginations, flash ahead a few months or flash back
a few months, to the time of Christmas. We sing so joyfully of the
coming of the great Prince of Peace! Do we forget today’s more
realistic gospel? “Do you think I have come to establish peace on
the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.” And then Jesus
begins to name some of the divisions for us. He begins within just
one household, and carries the list down to almost humorous and
exhaustive caricature. All the in-laws get their mention.
And if Jesus could only see us now (which, of course, he
probably can)! We even manage to sub-divide our divisions. And
bizarrely enough, we do it in his name. We have Christians of the
strict observance, Christians of the law and Catechism, and, in this
corner, we have Christians of the cafeteria. We have Christians of
liturgical purity and Christians for social justice—and never the
twain shall meet. And for the most part, we all read our own
translations of the sacred scriptures. Which recent Pope do you
like? You know we now have two to choose from—kind of!
“Do you really think I have come to establish peace on the
earth?” Where have you been all these years, centuries even? And
so far we’re just talking about peace among “believers.” What
about the nations? What about the different races? What about
the social classes we erect and guard so carefully? And the list
could go on, you know as well as I.
The cost of real discipleship is high indeed. Dietrich
Bonheoffer had more than just a catchy title for his memoirs. The
fire that Jesus wants to cast upon the earth will enflame some and
consume others. It is, as he says elsewhere, a two-edged sword. So
which would I prefer? Which do I live more consistently? Do I feel
thrown under the bus, tossed down the well and get muddied often
because of my commitment as a Christian? Or do I just read about
that stuff when I get the time free?
It all sounds so complicated, doesn’t it? How am I, how are
we, supposed to know when it’s okay, indeed not just okay but
required, to get muddy and thrown down the well? Let’s take a
page—another page—from our new Pope Francis. When he was
addressing a group of Argentine pilgrims to World Youth Day a few
weeks ago, he addressed just such a quandary with them. And he
advised them: “Don’t let it get complicated. There are only two
things you need to read again and again, two places in scripture to
which you must return again and again. The Beatitudes and
Mathew 25.
I’m sure scripture scholars around the word were not thrilled
that the Pope reduced the whole message to just two passages. But
he did. We all know the Beatitudes: Happy are those poor, for
theirs in the kingdom of heaven. Happy are the peacemakers.
Happy are those who do justice in faith. Even happy are those who
are persecuted and called names and distrusted because of me.
This sometimes called the Magna Charta of Christian living.
And Matthew 25 you will remember too. It’s that marvelous
story about the gathering of the sheep and goats at the end of time.
And neither group knows why they are elected or condemned until
Jesus explains. “I was hungry and you fed me. I was thirsty and you
gave me to drink. I was naked and you clothed me. In prison and
you visited. When you did it to the least, you did it to me. Welcome
into the Kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of time.”
And then both the sheep and goats go: “Oh, really. I didn’t know
that.”
Is it really that simple? Or is the new Pope nuts? On which
side of the divide will you bet your life? “I have not come to
establish peace but division.”
Maybe being thrown in the mud in a dark hole is not always
as bad as it seems. Peace!