Feb 28, 2011 - 8th Sun of OT - The Archdiocese of Chicago's Annual "Catholic Appeal"

Readings - http://www.usccb.org/nab/022711.shtml

This week, the archdiocese of Chicago is conducting its annual Diocesan (Catholic) appeal. As such, a prepared message from the Cardinal is being presented in place of the homily at all the Masses.

The Cardinal's Message - http://www.annualcatholicappeal.com/Message.aspx

Feb 20, 2011 - 7th Sun of OT - "Towards easing one's yoke and making one's burden light"

Readings - http://www.usccb.org/nab/022011.shtml

During these past several Sundays we have been following Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount (and we will continue for one more). Those of us certainly of my age and above will know these passages well. Still every time we encounter them, we hear them a little differently.

This year, I have been struck by a message, perhaps even an insistence within Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount that we have a right to lead a simple, uncomplicated, tranquil life.

I say this because while we hear today Jesus calling us nominally to do _more_ than what the “Old Law” required – “You have heard, ... but I say to you ...” But if we reflect on what Jesus asks of us, it’s actually to do follow what Jesus tells us, than to continue to insist on ‘just retribution” and so forth.

Consider the first part of today’s Gospel Reading. Jesus instructs his disciples: “You have heard an eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, but I say to you do not render opposition to evil....” Why does he say this? Because it’s actually quite burdensome to hate someone or some group. Those of us, I nominally say “my age and above” but I really mean “of some experience in life” know that hating someone or some group generally doesn’t make a single thing better and can actually be quite exhausting both in terms of maintaining a requisite level of hurt/anger and then worrying about the more or less inevitable consequences (retribution) for the hurt/anger that we express.

To be sure, Jesus was _not_ naive. He offered three very quick examples to express one’s frustration/anger at the injustice rendered to allow us then to quickly get on with life

“If someone strikes you on the left cheek offer him the right one as well...” In our language, “okay bit shot, you hit me, strike me again, again, what does that prove? That you’re tough. Great ... You’re a tough guy, so what...?”

“If someone wishes to take you to court over your tunic, offer your cloak as well.” Israel was a 2 garment society at the time of Jesus. The tunic was one’s overcoat if one got cold. One’s cloak (basically a long shirt extending to one’s feets. The people of the middle east wear such garments to this day). Jesus was telling the people, “Oh, yeah you really want to take even my tunic. This so important to you that you’d leave me to freeze. Great, why not finish the job, take my cloak (leave me completely naked) as well.” Even the most hard hearted oppressor would understand the message. (Today one could say ... ‘Oh, you want to take my table, fine take it. Want the chair’s as well? How about the bed? The TV?”

Finally my favorite is the last one “If someone presses you into service to carry a load for one mile, carry it for two.” This commandment is actually funny because if one understands it correctly, the oppressed one could claim “Hey, I did what you commanded me to do. I even did _double_ what you asked me to do.” But the result would be that the oppressor would be stuck having to find a way to carry the load back that one extra mile. Hence by disrespecting the oppressed, the oppressor is stuck at the same point that he started with.

Why would Jesus talk in this way? Well,. Israel in his time _was oppressed_, under the Romans. He didn’t want to ignor this fact, but rather to allow his disciples to (as he says elsewhere) “Render onto Caesar what is Caesar, and onto God what is God’s...” Doing what Jesus says above, not letting those who mistreat us dominate us, even in our thoughts, actually helps set us free.

This then is seen even more clearly in the second part of the Gospel Reading today, where Jesus says: “You have heard it said, ‘you shall love your friends and hate your enemies,’ but I say to you, love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you ...”

He reminds us that if we just “love those who love us” that we’re no better than anybody really. Even sinners to the same. And he reminds us in a beautiful way that God “lets the sun shine on the good and the bad, and lets it rain on the just and unjust.”

We’re asked to do the same. Why? Well, as I’ve been saying above, hate, refusing to forgive, refusing to let go, just burdens _us_. The evil doers (and they could well be evil doers) go on happily without us, first probably not understanding that they ever did anything wrong to us, AND EVEN IF AFTER A GREAT EXPENDITURE OF _OUR_ ENERGY THEY MAY COME TO UNDERSTAND THAT IN SOME WAY THEY HURT US, they’ll be the first to _forgive themselves_ and happily go on with their lives while we carry the burden of our past hurts for much much longer. SO IT'S TO OUR OWN BENEFIT to “just let go.”

Finally, so long as we hate someone (or some group, faction, nationality, etc) there’s no hope of moving forward. Instead, if we bring ourselves to compliment someone who in the past may have caused us problems, IT OFFERS SOMETHING NEW a new possibility to get over the past conflicts, misunderstandings. And it may even invite the other person (or faction) to re-evaluate his or her opinion of us (“Hey, this person or group isn’t as perhaps as bad as I thought they were...”) In anycase if _we choose_ to do nothing, nothing will ever change. And if we start being nice even to those who haven’t been exactly nice to us, we may discover just how “light” our previous “load” has become.

So this year I’ve certainly become more convinced that Jesus really came here to tell us that God’s “yoke really is easy and burden light.” And this is Good News, if one ever heard some.

So the Readings this Sunday and really during all these recent Sundays do give us a lot to think about and an opportunity (as they always do) to change our lives.

Let’s seek to take Jesus’ invitation and relieve our burden of past hurts and hatreds and make our lives a bit lighter as a result ...

Feb 13, 2011 - 6th Sun of OT - "In the Spirit of the Law"

Readings - http://www.usccb.org/nab/021311.shtml

Today’s Gospel Reading was rather long. It comes from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, where Matthew presents Jesus as handing down to the people God’s “New Law.” As such it’s supposed to be dramatic and if one looks at the length of the books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy, all things considered Jesus’ “New Law” is not altogether _that long_.

At the beginning of the Gospel Reading, Jesus reminds the people that he did not come to abolish the Old Law but rather to fulfill it. As such, the Gospel Reading today could be understaood as Jesus’ commentary and addition to the Law which the Israelites received by way of Moses at Sinai.

It is clear that Jesus asks the people to follow the _Spirit_ of the Law (of Moses) rather than its Letter.

He gives a series of examples whose goal is to make us humble.

He tells the people that it is not good enough to simply “not kill” anybody. Jesus tells us that to simply be angry at someone is basically the same thing. It’s an exaggeration but it makes a point. Hopefully most of us here have not actually killed anybody, however, probably many of us have at times reduced someone to ashes by what we’ve said to them, or even by the way we _looked at them_. Teenagers are often particularly “good” at reducing people (classmates, “friends”, parents, siblings) to the extent that their victims come to “wish they were dead.” But people of all ages can do this and Jesus reminds us here that it’s of little use to say “Well, I didn’t kill anybody ...” when we may have damaged all kinds of people by what we’ve said and done to them otherwise.

Jesus similarly notes that the sin of adultery really begins far earlier than at its final consumation. That’s the final stage. But it’s a long journey from the time when one begins to play with the temptation to commit adultery to finally committing it. And Jesus again reminds the people that it’s not good enough to simply “not actually have committed adultery” (or perhaps even worse ... simply “not having been caught committing adultery.” The value strived at here is much more than that.

Finally, Jesus talks about oath taking.

This may come across as somewhat strange in the context of the other teachings which Jesus gives here, which _all_ have the aim of making one more humble. Jesus’ instruction to not take too many oaths appears at the outset more _liberating_ than _humbling_. However on further reflection, it does perhaps return us (and certainly our leaders) to a state of greater humility. Let me explain ...

Now it could be said that in our time, oath taking is not taken nearly as seriously as it was taken a generation or two ago. And this has had its negative consequences. People say all the time today that they have much more difficulty trusting people than they did before.

However, this has also had its positive consequences. And those POSITIVE CONSEQUENCES I’d like to stress here.

For instance, there are those who would argue that World War II would not have taken place if people in general, but in particular people in Germany, took the same view of oath taking then as people take today.

In the past, people really took oaths seriously and perhaps _too seriously_ to the extent that it caused them moral quandries when obvious moral evils stared them in the face.

Again, bear with me ...

Early in Hitler’s reign in Germany he ordered that EVERYONE in the German Armed Forces took a personal loyalty oath to him (as Fuhrer).

Now this may have made sense in 1934, when Hitler was trying to turn the country around from the chaos that it was in previously. It may have even made sense in 1936, when things were, in fact, going better for Germany as a result of _some_ of Hitler’s policies (and mostly the enthusiasm that the Nazis created around their policies).

But by 1938-39 this oath _should_ have already become problematic with the Nazi invasions of Czechoslovakia and Poland. It should have become really difficult to follow this oath by 1941 when the Nazis invaded of the Soviet Union and German troops were ordered suddenly to treat Soviet prisoners of war as “untermensch” (subhuman). Soon afterwards came the decrees to start rounding up and shooting/exterminating the Jews.

Then even though the war was obviously lost, Hitler’s regime continued to spew out increasingly insane orders, YET THEY WERE FOLLOWED. And even to the _closing hours_ of the war ON THE STREETS OF BERLINE the SS was still summarily _hanging_ people for desertion and disobeying insane orders to resist.

What to make of this? Even in 1939, when Hitler ordered the invasion of Poland (and actually before that with his order to invade the OBVIOUSLY CZECH TERRITORIES of Czechoslovakia) rather than BLINDLY “following orders” A LEGITIMATE QUESTION COULD HAVE BEEN ASKED BY EVERYBODY FROM THE GENERAL STAFF TO THE SMALLEST PRIVATE – WHY?????? What did the Czechs ever do to Germany? What did Poland ever do to Germany?

Of course the propaganda of the time would have answered “all kinds of things.” BUT THIS IS THE HUGE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN 1939 and TODAY. In 1939 ALMOST NO ONE WOULD HAVE ASKED THAT QUESTION - of “WHY? WHY INVADE POLAND? What did it ever REALLY DO TO US? Today, _all kinds of people_ WOULD ASK THAT QUESTION.. It would still not be popular to do so, BUT ALL KINDS PEOPLE DO UNDERSTAND THAT governments _do lie_ at times.

The French apparently had a similar quandry during World War II. After losing to Germany, MILLIONS OF FRENCHMEN COULD NOT TAKE THEMSELVES OUT OF THE IDEOLOGICAL COUL DE SAC that said -- “Our authorities surrendered to the Germans. Our authorities now tell us to live in peace (collaborate) with the Germans. Therefore we will do what our authorities tell us what to do.”

Now there were millions of Frenchmen and women who didn’t care and joined the Resistance. But millions did not. More to the point, when the Orders came from Vichy for FRENCH POLICE TO START ROUNDING UP THE JEWS, BY AND LARGE, THE FRENCH POLICE OBEYED. They _didn’t_ necessarily LIKE the orders, BUT THEY OBEYED THEM.

TODAY such blind obedience is relatively difficult to imagine. THANKS TO THE CATHOLIC CHURCH and the MAINLINE PROTESTANT CHURCHES in Europe and the U.S., we _do_ understand now THAT WE DO NOT HAVE TO FOLLOW UNJUST ORDERS ... THAT OUR VOWS ARE NOT ABSOLUTE.

So Jesus’ call here to NOT make too many vows is again a call to humility AND IT IS, IN FACT, LIBERATING.

We’re told to live our lives _as simply as possible_. "Let our Yes mean Yes and our No mean No" and ANYTHING MORE EXTRAVAGANT – ie “Oaths to the Great Leader” – do in fact "come from the Evil one."

NO OATH CAN BE USED THEN AGAINST US, TO COMPEL US TO DO SOMETHING EVIL. If it does, then the Oath itself “comes from the Evil one.”

So then, let us seek to live humbly and live free.

And when the world asks us to go out and hate somebody or some group, let us be able to have the courage to ask “why? what have these supposed evil-doers du jour actually done to us?”

There _may_ be an answer, but we have a right to scrutinize the response then for exaggerations and lies.

If we live by the Spirit of God, no one ought to compel us then to do evil.

Feb 6, 2011 - 5th Sun of OT - "We're all part of the salt"

Readings - http://www.usccb.org/nab/020611.shtml

We began last Sunday (and will continue for a number of Sundays) to follow Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. This Sunday, we hear Jesus telling us that we are called to be “Salt for the Earth” and “Light to the World.”

This is a passage that most of us know and in our generation has come to be very important. It’s become important because in generations past, most Catholics/Christians did not feel themselves to be worthy of consideration. In the last couple of generations, there has been an attempt by preachers and theologians to remind us of the GOOD NEWS that in God’s eyes we are his beloved children and hence important.

And to those who still feel themselves to be small, insignificant, unimportant, I’d like underline this again – We are ALL loved by God. That is, in fact, fundamentally the Good News (!!) of Jesus Christ.

Very good. But since so many of us know this passage so well, I’d like to take a somewhat different tack on this passage, EXTEND IT, if you will:

I’d like to underline that God doesn’t _merely_ “love us.” Instead, I’d like to underline that GOD LOVES EVERYBODY. That ALL OF US are part of that “salt” for the earth, ALL OF US are part of that “light to the world.”

I say this because it seems to me that _a lot of us_ have gotten to understand that God loves _us_ (ourselves). And that has been an _enormous step_ in the development of our self-esteem and in giving us courage to “take our place” in the world, etc.

But it seems to me that _in this country_, _in our time_, we don’t necessarily understand that GOD ALSO LOVES “THE OTHER GUY,” THE OTHER PERSON “DOWN THE STREET” across the border, across the ocean, as well. We’re ALL loved by the same God, and ALL OF US both have something to offer and _are called to offer_ what we have for the “benefit of the Kingdom,” for the benefit of the whole.

Yes, it’s great that we “lift up our voice”, “take our place” in society, in the world. That’s wonderful. But if we do this to shout down the person next to us, what good is that? Or if we become so concerned about making _our mark_ in the world, what good is it, if we forget about the people around us?

Now we have the Scouts with us here today. And that is great. First, it’s great because the Scouts encourage the development of all kinds of talents among its members from canoeing, to tracking, to organizing/helping out in the community, etc, etc. But second, kids sometimes understand the need for teamwork than the adults...

Let’s remember the Chicago Bears this year. It doesn’t matter how good the quarterback is -- and Cutler, by all accounts is a decent quarterback – if members of the offensive line aren’t able to keep the defenders from getting to him before he can throw the football to a receiver who’s open, his abilities are lost. Similarly, it doesn’t matter if the team has a great defense or offense if one or the other is unable to do its job.

The point is, that it doesn’t matter how good one is individually, if we neglect the people around us, the whole team fails.

God intends EVERYBODY to be “salt.” EVERYBODY will “taste” different. EVERYBODY is supposed to have something to offer. It makes no sense to make fun of, or to put anybody else down, because when we do that, we deny the “saltiness” of the person to rise. And that person could have something important to offer that we would never imagine and without him/her it gets lost and the WHOLE WORLD SUFFERS because of it.

So EACH OF US is “part of the team.” Each of us has things to contribute. So let’s seek to build each other up so that EACH OF US is able to offer his/her “saltiness” to “the stew.”

Let’s make sure that NOBODY’S “SALT” gets “trampled underfoot.” God bless you all ;-)