26th Sunday in Ordinary Time, September 245, 2011

Ez 18:25-28; Phil 2:1-11; Matthew 21:28-32

          The parable of the two sons is one of the shortest in the New Testament.  Matthew gives only the bare outline.  Of the father we know nothing except that he has a vineyard badly in need of good workers and a pair of sons in need of a good spanking.  The second one, a familiar type, is all talk and no action.  The first one would interest us more if only we knew what makes him tick. Why does he at first refuse to do his share in the vineyard? What prompts him later to reverse himself? We sense there is a good story lurking beneath the surface, but Matthew supplies no details.

          But as we start thinking about the passage from today’s gospel we realize that actually, the meat of the passage is not in the parable itself, but the circumstances surrounding it.

 Jesus is addressing “the chief priests and elders of the people”.  The ones who would soon have him captured by soldiers, bound with ropes, and hauled before Sanhedrin. And we all know the story of how the Sanhedrin then turned itself into a kangaroo court, found Jesus guilty of blasphemy, and handed him over to Pilate for execution.

Jesus aims this parable at them and they knew it very well.  He not only does identify the elders and high priests with the second son, but he lumps the tax collectors and prostitutes with the first. No insult could be greater. 

In the eyes of most Jews all tax collectors and prostitutes were outcasts.  The tax collectors were lackeys of the imperial authorities in Rome.  Not only did they handle the accursed Roman coins, but also they enriched themselves at the expense of their Jewish brothers and sisters.  Respectable Israelites regarded them with the same kind of contempt people today have for drug dealers, terrorists and child molesters.  Yet these, Jesus assured his stunned listeners, along with the shameless prostitutes, had a better chance of gaining entrance to heaven than the religious leaders of Jerusalem.

What does Jesus try to tell his listeners, and particularly the leadership of his people?

The good news of Christianity is not that certain sinners are nice people and have better chance of being saved that anyone else. But that all sinners regardless of who they are can turn from their sins, even those as deprived as tax collectors and prostitutes were in Jesus times, and drug dealers, terrorists and child molesters in our times. And if they turn away from their sins they can be saved. As long as they are, I would add,  alive there is a chance for them.

The bad news is that those who consider themselves saints, even those who received as much respect from others, as the members of the Sanhedrin, the chief priests and the elders did in Jesus time, and as much as the popes, the bishops, the priests, the deacons and religious still receive today in some circles, they all can in reality be unrepented sinners heading directly for,  I would add, hell.

We might know and see hoards of people claiming to be the disciples of Christ and crowding the church each Sunday, receiving religiously the Eucharist every single time they are there, but it does not mean that automatically any of them is entering the kingdom of God. It does not mean any of us is entering the kingdom of God.

Only deep inside of our hearts each one of us knows which child of God he or she is:

·       The one with all religious and nice talk, who knows how to work the system, who pretends holiness and meekness to receive recognition and respect from others, but no action and no conversion of heart,

·       or the other perhaps with no talk, or not so eloquent one, who struggles with his or her sinfulness on daily basis, but a visible change of heart.

          "Preach the Gospel always, and if necessary, use words."

24th Sunday in Ordinary Time, September 11, 2011

Sir 27:30-28:9; Rom 14:7-9; Mt 18:21-35

         

          According to costofwar.com, since 2001, we have spent more than $1.2 trillion on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the spending continues to run indefinitely. During that same period, the base budget for the Department of Defense has risen 38 percent to $540 billion. At the same time we battle as the nation high unemployment of more than 9%, and seriously question  sustainability of Social Security and Medicare programs. The most tangible and visible human toll of wars on our side - more than 6000 soldiers killed and more than 44,000 wounded. 

           How much longer will we have to continue this fight?  What do we have to do to put stop to it? Anyone of us who has studied history knows well that war is never a long term solution.

          I believe that today's readings from the Holy Scriptures suggest to us possible solution. However, that solution is not easy and very demanding. To many it does not appear to be very patriotic and it seems to be a sign of weakness.  It demands a lot of faith. For only faith can sustain seeming insanity of being willing to do it.

          That solution is called forgiveness.

·       Forgiveness that is so easily misunderstood by many of us, that we confuse  with so many other things.

·       Forgiveness that is not pardon - for only a court may waive punishment but not grant forgiveness.

·       That is not condoning for we may forgive without approving of the offense.

·        That is not forgetting for some wounds are simply unforgettable.

·       That is not the same as reconciliation for we may with great effort forgive another, but remain unable to be in their presence, or feel very uneasy about doing that.

·       That is not denial for we must look the offense in the face, call it by its right name and let  the horror of its stun and outrage us so with God's grace the healing might be ours.

·       Forgiveness that gives up our right to resentment and revenge against unjust treatment which occurred and hurt us.

·       Forgiveness that lets go insatiable yearning for punishment.

·       Forgiveness that allows others through their contact with us and the values which we deeply uphold to know God who can free them from their sins, the guilt of their offenses, and the power  which sin holds over them. 

          As we remember today the 10th Anniversary of 9-11:

·       we remember that great injustice has been done to us.

·       We remember those who have died because of a few who allowed madness and sin to take over their lives.

·       We remember those who risked their lives to save and help so many others on that day.

·       We remember those who continue to die and continue putting their lives in danger for us day after day.

·       But we also remember that we have survived, that we are alive;

·       That the future is ours, but only if we are willing to forgive.

         

          War and violence is not a long term solution. They do not heal or bring peace to our human hearts. They do not promise any sustainable future. As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. used to say in his speeches:

"Hate begets hate; violence begets violence; toughness begets a greater toughness... The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. … Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. "

   

          Today's readings from the Holy Scriptures call us to the seeming insanity of forgiving evil and injustice even as heinous as 9-11, so God and His grace, and mercy through us, can be more present in our world filled with strife, suffering, and violence.

          Through Christ God has done that once before. Through us who are rooted in Christ thanks to our common baptism, He can do it once again.

          Whenever we are willing to forgive. Whenever we are willing to gather to celebrate life and values which life upholds, as we will do it today celebrating our Patronal feast day after 11:30 mass, we do exactly that.

23 Sunday in Ordinary Time, September 04, 2011

Ez 33:7-9; Rom 13:8-10; Matthew 18:15-20

(mostly from Celebration Preaching Resources)

·       If you saw your young child about to put his hand in a hot stove, wouldn’t you move quickly to prevent him from being burned?

·       If that same child got hold of your prescription medicine, you’d act just as quickly to prevent a terrible mishap.

·       If a distracted friend was about to step into oncoming traffic, you’d grab her arm to save her, wouldn’t you?

·       If, perhaps, a companion drank too much at a party, you would see to it that he did not drive.

·       If your teenager was hanging out with friends who were known to be troublemakers, wouldn’t you do something to remedy the situation?

·       What if a friend or coworker was in an abusive relationship — wouldn’t you try to help him or her in some way?

        There are countless other occasions when we see someone hurt or in danger or on the brink of a calamity and we, good friends and family members that we are, step up to help. If we can extend our care to others in all these instances of physical, emotional or psychological need, why are we reluctant to do the same with regard to sin?

        Today the sacred texts address this issue clearly and frankly, affirming that we are responsible for each other, and that we are to help one another not solely for the sake of correction, or to alienate or isolate anyone who is wrongdoing, but with an eye to their and our own conversion.

        We, through the gift of our common baptism, owe it to one another to be responsible for one another, to love each other, and  to promote each other's good and well-being.

        That means we should never tolerate in the midst of our community that that  brings death or destruction, what encourages hate, abuse, or exploitation, what promotes the values contrary to Christ and His gospel. And those who encourage those kinds of behavior or actions or live by them  need to be corrected, or unfortunately if they refuse to change their ways to be treated, as Jesus says in today's gospel, as a Jewish person would treat a Gentile or a tax collector. The only question which each community should ask themselves is What does it mean? 

·       Does that mean helping n any possible way that person to recognize his or her sin and to encourage them to seek forgiveness and restoration to the community from which they alienated themselves by their sin?

·       Or it means asking them to leave the community hoping that they will come back when they are ready to change their ways of living to the ways worthy of the Disciples of Christ?

        Whatever that means,  this last tragic course of action should not be taken lightly and only as the last resort,  for as one of the catholic theologians once said, I believe talking about the community of believers including of course its hierarchy, that:

"The Church exists not for the pious and the righteous but for the sinners and the godless. It must not judge and condemn, for all the gravity of its message, but heal, forgive, save. Its inevitable warnings must not be an end in themselves but a reminder of the offer of grace held out by God… there is no part of the Church which is perfect, no element which is not constantly in need of correction and improvement… this Church knows that there are no sins and omissions to which it cannot be tempted and to which it has not, in one way or another, yielded… However much it continues to keep sin at a distance, it has no reason to keep the sinner at a distance.”