On Which Everything Depends

 

Love of God and love of neighbor.  All the law and the prophets depend on these two commandments. The Pharisees were drawing Jesus into a complex situation to try to get him into trouble.  Jesus was not willing to dismiss any of the religious laws, rather he said all the other laws and the messages of the prophets were dependent on those two commandments.  The reality is not just the laws and the messages, but rather everything in life depends on those two commandments.  It all depends on love of God and love of neighbor.  It seems so simple, yet it eludes us.

Unfortunately, we live in a time when we think nothing depends on love of God and love of neighbor.  As a society, we have relegated God and especially the worship of God to a hobby for those who might be interested.  For so many of us, God is one choice among many.  He, for some, is just a choice on the self-help shelf of the bookstore.  Certainly, God is there to help us in time of need, but he is not meant to be a first responder, waiting on the sidelines for some emergency to arise. He is meant to be on what all else depends.  And so, we have distanced ourselves from that first commandment.  We don’t depend first and foremost on God.  We depend first and foremost on ourselves.  We think that all things depend on us.  And when that fails, and it always does, we turn to the God, the first-responder.

In a sense, without the first of Jesus’ commandments, there is no chance that the second one even has a shot.  If we are not dependent on God, who is love, we will never be able to love others. And so, we continue on this dangerous path of egoism, love of self.  It is a path that just naturally leads us to chaos.  And so, as of this writing, we find ourselves in deep chaos.  We have groups of people committing atrocities against innocent people.  We have someone apparently suffering from some sort of mental illness, taking the lives of over at least a dozen people, perhaps acting out of how he perceived being treated by others.  These are all complex issues.  And so, we find ourselves asking Jesus:   What are the answers to our challenges?  And he gives the same response he gave to the Pharisees – we need to love God and love neighbor.  Everything else depends on those two things.

This really is at the heart of the Scripture, at the heart of the Bible.    Both Testaments call us to a dependence on God and to live in right relationship with him and with one another.  And yet we fall away from it.  But this is nothing new.  Throughout salvation history, we have seen people commit to the covenant and then fall from it.  They became dependent on themselves and on their own misconceived idea that they could go it alone.  The truth is without him and without each other, we can do nothing.  Everything depends on love of God and love of neighbor.

- The Servant

 

29^th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Matthew 22:15-21

 

Politics.

We cringe even at the mention of that word because, at the very least the discussion of politics is awkward.  Worse, it’s divisive.  And at the very worst, it leads to hatred and violence.

Even Jesus was subjected to the awkwardness, the divisiveness and, of course, the hatred and violence of the politics of his time.

In today’s gospel we see how the Pharisees openly and deliberately trying to trap Jesus in making a “no-win” political statement.  One can imagine this scene being played out in today’s world:  There’s Jesus being interviewed on TV by one of the so-called hard-hitting reporters trying to get a “gotcha” moment to drive up ratings.

In today’s gospel we see Jesus giving the most perfect answer, disarming the Pharisees, essentially rising above the divisive issue of whether paying taxes was siding with the oppressor, or refusal to pay was supporting his people.  Essentially, what matters most, he says,  is that we give to God what is God’s. 

Did the people of his time, however, view his answer the same way we do?  We understand and believe in Jesus’ message of putting God first.  Did those Pharisees see it that way?  Perhaps they over-simplified his answer and thought that if he was saying we should give to Caesar what is Caesar's then he is implicitly saying that the taxes should be paid.  Would the Pharisees have, at least, “spun” his answer that way, to show that Jesus was not a true champion of” “justice” and that he was not supporting the oppressed poor?

Let’s go back to the image above of Jesus being interviewed by some pundit on TV.  Couldn’t you imagine all of the social media comments the next day?  The outrage would be rampant; the divisiveness heightened. 

Would people even hear – much less understand – what Jesus meant when he said we should give to God what belongs to God.

That leads to the real question:  What belongs God?

How do you answer that?

Let’s turn to our own times for a second.  Right now the world is dealing with a dilemma that sounds and feels just like the dilemma that the Pharisees imposed on Jesus.

On October 7^th the world witnessed the sudden and horrific attack by Hamas against the Israeli people.  Since then we have also witnessed Israel’s response which includes not only a military response, but the blocking of food, fuel and water to the Palestinian people in Gaza.

And every day the dilemma is presented to each and every person:  “Who is right?”  “Who is wrong?”  “Who is justified?”  "Who is the oppressed, and who is the oppressor?" Say one thing and you’re accused of supporting terrorists.  Say another and you're accused of being antisemitic.   Try to take the middle ground and you find your words distorted and used against you – and attacked by both sides.  Urge peace and, well ...  

.... there was a story reported this week that a landlord in Illinois, so outraged at the Hamas attack in Israel, that he confronted his Palestinian-American tenant, a 32 year old mother of a six year old boy. She responded, "Let's pray for peace."  He stabbed her and her six year old son, wounding her, and killing him.

A mother said "Let's pray for peace" and her son was killed.

A Mother said, "Let's pray for peace."  And her Son was killed.

They paid the ultimate price.  For peace.  For what belongs to God.

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

Do I have it in me, to give to God what belongs to God?  Life, peace, joy, kindness and charity, forgiveness and mercy, healing and hope, strength, compassion, guidance, comfort…  Do I have it in me to speak up for these things, even if it means paying the ultimate price.  Jesus gave to God what belongs to God – his entire life.

The world will always present us with dilemmas of ALL sorts.  How do I choose?

I leave you with the words of St. Ignatius Loyola in his prayer, the Suspice:

 

Take, Lord, and receive all

my liberty,

my memory, my understanding

and

my entire will,

All I have and call my own.

 

You have given all to me.

To you, Lord, I return it.

 

Everything is yours,

Do with it what you will.

Give me only your love and your grace,

That is enough for me.

 

 

 

“Call Me Ishmael”

 

Dinner with the King.

In this weeks Gospel Matthew 22:1-14 Jesus tells the parable of  a  king that’s wants to have a wedding feast for his son.  The king sends out his servants so they can bring the invites guests to the party. The guest refuse to show up. The King sends out the servants a second time  and once again the guests refuse to come to the feast.  Not only did they refuse to come the the feast, some killed the king’s servants. The king was very angry so he responded by sending his troops out to have the murderers killed.  Then he said to servants go out invite whomever you find.   The king finally has his feast . At one point the king was meeting his guests.  One guest was not dressed appropriately for the feast.  The king requested they this guest be removed. He said  “Many are invited but few are chosen.”

   I love  the use of this parable because it touches upon a few different aspects of being a follower of Christ.  One of them is that we have all been invited to the feast. GOD has room for all us.  There are no limits to who can  be a follower. We can all be there.  Now, just like in the parable we have a choice.  We can choose to accept  the invitation. We can choose to go the the feast and be with the King.  So, consider that we  get a daily invitation when we wake up and go out into the world. We have a choice to reflect our love of God on to others. We have a choice in how we show up.   We can  choose to bring the energy and spirit of the lord with us or not.   The  invitation is always there.  The choice to be a follower  is  means we put God into all of our actions. It means we  put God first. To accept the invitation is to be Christ like.  We talk the talk and walk the walk. Do you accept your daily invitation?  

Another aspect of Christianity that is parable touches  upon is how we prepare for the feast.  Are we spiritually prepared to dine with the King? Have we taken the steps  to ensure we are going to fit in at the feast? I like to think that God wants us to prepare daily. He wants us to get prepared and stays that way.  Spiritual preparation can be as straightforward as prayer every morning.  It can be attending mass as often as possible.  It can be as subtle as the little quiet prayers you say for someone else or yourself during the day. To be spiritually prepared means you have opened up your life to being with the God at all times. You are dressed and ready  for the feast at all times.  Spiritual preparation  means you live a life that God isn’t  just involved in.  God is your life.  That’s type of preparation that it takes if you want to be with the King.   

As a follower of Christ sometimes I think we can take the invitation to the feast for Granted.  We assume that we are automatically in and we don’t have anything else to do.  That’s where we can get into trouble. That’s where we can get to comfortable and slack off in our preparation. This week a  is great one to renew our commitment and get ready for the Feast.  The last thing you want to do is show up unprepared for dinner with the King.