22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time
September 2, 1021
J.A. Loftus, S.J.
This morning I presided at our 10 AM liturgy here in the upstairs
church. But it was not only the usual community. The community from our
Family Masses joined us upstairs today as they do on occasion. It’s always a
preaching challenge. What does one say to reach a four year old as well as an
octogenarian with a doctorate in living the gospel?
So I prepared a completely different homily for this evening. You are a
more sophisticated and knowledgeable group, I thought. (My preaching
coach used to always say: pay them a compliment; they’ll be less hostile.)
But then I re-read both homilies and another word came back to me from my
preaching coach: “Don’t confuse length with depth.” Besides, it is Labor
Day weekend, and I figured the less work for me, the better. So, herewith, my
children’s homily….
Family liturgies downstairs are actually quite different. For example, I
often have Snoopy with me preaching downstairs. And sometimes even other
lions and tigers and bears. It sometimes makes it easier to get the point of a
homily. But it’s also worth remembering that we have it on some very good
authority (like Jesus himself) that little children often do “get the message”
long before many adults even awaken. Remember the Kingdom belongs to
little children, someone once suggested. That might make us educated adults
squirm a bit.
And remember the old Art Linkletter book (I do realize most of you
were not born when Art Linkletter was on radio and TV. Humor me!) His
book was called “Kids say the Darndest Things.” And they sometimes get it
right quickly. Like the little girl who was asked by her teacher: “Why is it
important for us to be very quiet when we go in church? The little girl
whispered quietly: “Because there are people sleeping in there.”
So I told them this morning that I would try to make this little homily
something almost everyone can understand. But that’s always a challenge.
These are sobering readings.
God gives us people a Law that is good. It is a Law that shows us how
to live happy and full lives. There were ten laws given to Moses on the
mountain. But they could be shortened to only two: Love God back with
your whole heart. And love your neighbors (that’s everybody else around
you) as much as God loves you. All this is in our first reading (from Moses’
book called Deuteronomy.) And don’t add or subtract from any of the law.
But then Jesus comes along (in the third reading, the gospel) and says:
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that’s true, God’s law is good and should be followed, but it is not always as
simple as it seems. Sometimes God’s law has to be modified in order to love
other people better. Remember Jesus saying: The Sabbath was made for
people, not people for the Sabbath! (For the adults here: The law is necessary
but not sufficient in itself to be faithful to God’s real intent.)
And then Jesus gets mad at the religious authorities and calls them
hypocrites. That’s someone who says one thing but does something else.
Someone who thinks he or she knows it all! Who are these religious
authorities? They are like our priests and bishops; you know, the ones who
think they are “in charge” of everything, and always right. We still have
them in churches just like in Jesus’ time.
Oops! Did I just suggest that priests and bishops, and maybe even
popes sometimes get things wrong on occasion? No! Really? (Again for the
adults: There is a marvelous story told of a conversation between Benito
Mussolini and a Roman Cardinal. Mussolini said to the Cardinal: “I will
destroy your church!” The cardinal just laughed and said back: “No you
won’t. We cardinals have been trying to do that for two thousand years and
we haven’t been successful yet.”)
But Jesus gets pretty mad at the people who think that they really
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know, and only they know, what God wants, what God asks of us. Jesus
knows sometimes people come before the laws. No, that’s wrong. Jesus
knows people always come before the laws!
Jesus tells them (and us): it’s not about the outside (what you say and
what you do, what you eat); it’s about what’s inside you. It’s how much you
care and love. It’s about how generous you are and how much you share with
other people whatever you have that they don’t have. And Jesus takes it
further: there are special kinds of people we all need to take good care of. He
calls them widows and orphans. What he means is all the people who don’t
have as much as we do, who don’t have much of a say in what’s happening to
them, who are strange sometimes, and always seem like strangers. The
Gospel calls them “the poor.” They are special people in God’s eyes, Jesus
says.
Jesus might have been thinking of the song I today’s liturgy from Psalm
15: “The person who does justice will live in the presence of God.” It all
depends on how we treat each other–even if that means the law doesn’t look
like its been followed.
St. James, in the second reading we heard, says the exact same thing:
religion is pure only when it cares for the poor always around us.
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(Again for the adults: we still have serious and acrimonious debates
throughout our nation about the “widows and orphans” of our own time,
about the unemployed, the under-insured, about debates concerning some
basic rights like health care and dignity in life as well as in death. We have
litmus tests about who the “real” Catholics are on our political landscapes.
Is it the Vice President or the would-be Vice President? Just keep watching
the political conventions. But I suggest to you that today’s readings are
addressed to ALL Christians. What do you hear being asked of us?)
So the conclusion: People always come first; and the way we care for
them–even those we don’t know, even those we don’t like, even our
“enemies;” the way we care for each other is finally God’s only law. To
quote a pretty well known theologian: “Purity of dogma alone doesn’t make
us disciples of Jesus.” (Ron Rohlheiser)
OK. I hope some of you adults are still awake and can hear a
challenging and sobering call. And I hope we can all learn from the children
how to be more generous and loving even when it makes us feel defenseless
and weak. For to all those who can really hear today’s readings belongs the
Kingdom of God. Peace!
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