Woe to Leaders

The first half of our Mass is devoted to the Liturgy of the Word.

We have our First Reading, usually from the Old Testament, sometimes from the New.

That’s followed by a Psalm with responses, and then a Gospel passage.

On Sundays and special feasts we also insert a Second Reading from the New Testament.

But how do we decide which Scripture passages to read?

We follow a guide called the Ordo, and a set of books called the Lectionary.

There has been some form of Lectionary since at least the 5^th Century.

The first is attributed to St Jerome.

That first Lectionary covered only Sundays.

But it has evolved over the years though many updates,

Under the guidance of Church committees.

The current Lectionary covers weekdays as well as Sundays.

It has a three-year Sunday cycle that covers all four Gospels in considerable detail.

One year each for Matthew, Mark and Luke.

And with John repeated each year during the Lenten and Easter season.

The weekday Lectionary follows a two-year cycle.

Again, allowing for a fairly comprehensive coverage of each Book of the Gospels.

But even so, it doesn’t provide a complete verse-by-verse reading through each Book.

Some verses are skipped over, especially in the Sunday sequences.

And serial weekday installments are sometimes replaced by readings for a saint’s memorial.

Today’s Gospel gives us a second day of sharp criticism and warnings to religious leaders.

Woe to you scribes and Pharisees.

You hypocrites, you blind guides.

And tomorrow, our Gospel will continue with a third day of warnings.

This three-day repetition seems like something the committees could have trimmed down.

But they didn’t.

And that’s encouraging.

It shows that those committee members, themselves all Church leaders,

See the vital importance of leaders serving well and fully meeting their responsibilities.

They see the dangers, and the need for repeating the warnings.

They’re aware of the devastating damage that blind guides and hypocrites can do.

Today’s message to leaders is—focus on the most important things.

Give appropriate attention to the smaller matters, but don’t exaggerate their importance.

Devote your efforts to judgment and mercy and fidelity.

Focus on the two great commandments—love God and neighbor.

Today’s message is not only for high-ranking Church leaders, but for all of us.

It’s direct guidance from Jesus himself to each of us as members of his Church.

Telling us how to stay on the path to the peace of his kingdom.

But it’s also guidance to each of us as leaders.

Because as members of his Church we are also leaders.

There are always others looking to our example as they search to find their own way.

Tuesday, 21st Week in Ordinary Time

Mt 23:23-26           Read this Scripture @usccb.org

Mission Accomplished

In 1862 there was a battle at Malvern Hill near Richmond.

A Union captain tells in his diary of a heart wrenching incident in that battle.

A young Confederate officer and his small patrol held a key position some distance away.

The Confederate officer was rallying his men and blocking the Union advance.

So, the Union captain called for his veteran sharpshooter, Sgt Driscoll.

He asked him to try to take out that troublesome Confederate officer.

Sgt Driscoll took careful aim and shot.

He brought down his target, and the leaderless rebel troops ran off.

As the Union troops advanced they neared the fallen Confederate, face down in the field.

The captain and Sgt Driscoll checked to see if he was still alive.

Sgt Driscoll turned the body over, and his eyes met those of the young Confederate.

As they recognized each other, the dying young man spoke his last word—Father!

That Civil War took 750,000 lives.

And led to many tragic stories of divided families.

Father against son, mother against daughter, and brother against brother.

These family divisions didn’t necessarily stem from, or even lead to, anger or hatred.

They were the inevitable result of differing beliefs and priorities and choices.

Divided families were most often found in the border states,

Where members moved in both cultures and allegiances were most easily split.

The Georgetown University student body was also deeply split.

Nearly all left to fight—some for the North, and some for the South.

After the war, the returning students helped to choose the colors for the school insignia.

In a spirit of unity and reconciliation they chose Union blue and Confederate gray.

Today, our country is again (or still) deeply divided.

So far, the anger and hatred in our country is mostly contained at verbal warfare.

But deep divisions and civil wars are taking over 100,000 lives in Syria and Libya.

And hundreds are dying in Egypt.

And here at home, as well as abroad, we still have all the age-old divisiveness.

Conflicts that have plagued families since the days of Cain and Abel.

Ranging all the way from simple tension, to domestic violence, to murder.

Amid all that, we come upon today’s Gospel passage.

And Jesus says, Do you think I have come to establish peace on earth?

Our honest answer is probably, Yes, as a matter of fact I did.

And when he goes on to say, No, I tell you—but rather division. 

We might be tempted to respond with, Well then, Mission Accomplished!

Our division is clear from a quick look at the daily news.

Or at the state of our families and our country and the world.

How can we reconcile Jesus’ words of division today

With his many other references to his mission of peace and unity.

At the Last Supper he said, My peace I give to you.

And we repeat that at every Mass.

He prayed to the Father that we might all be one, with him and with each other.

He said a house divided cannot stand.

The Gospels and the Church make many other claims that Jesus brought peace and unity.

We offer each other the sign of peace.

We pray: You came to gather the nations into the peace of God’s kingdom.

You are mighty God and Prince of Peace.

You came to reconcile us to one another and to the Father.

You heal the wounds of sin and division.

Those positive messages reflect Jesus’ ultimate mission--

Bringing reconciliation, unity and peace.
On the other hand, today’s discouraging words on division

Reflect Jesus’ realism concerning our process for claiming that peace.

They reflect his understanding of the human nature he shared with us.

He knew that he was forcing us to make another crucial life decision.

Make another choice; profess a new allegiance.

He knew that we would be like those people in the border states 
With one foot in each of two worlds.
That some would embrace his message and others would not.

There would be tension.

Strong feelings and strong disagreements about the truth of his revelations.

Divisions between those who have accepted his message and those who have not.

The Good News is that Jesus didn't bring only division.
He brought the opportunity for peace and unity.
He completed his ultimate mission.

He reached his goal of reconciling us to the Father.

And establishing the kingdom of heaven here on earth.

When he said, My peace I give to you.

He added that his peace was different from the world’s peace.

His is a deep, abiding, inner peace.

A calming peace that lets us bear the temporary divisions and sufferings of this world.

Because we know that ultimately a better world awaits us.

That better world, that kingdom of heaven on earth, is already here today.

It’s growing and it’s available to everyone who chooses to claim it.

Jesus established it, but has left it to us to continue building it up.

That’s our mission.

To enter the kingdom ourselves.

And to help others enter.

God does not will that even one of us be lost.

So we work to spread his message of true peace and unity.

And try to gently help draw in everyone who stands on the other side of the divide.

And for each new member who embraces the message and enters,

We can repeat—now with all sincerity—Mission Accomplished.

20th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Lk 12:49-53           Read this Scripture @usccb.org

Little Ones

The other day, I was in a museum gift shop.

A little girl, about five years old, was looking at a large butterfly encased in a plastic cube.

And two little boys were looking at books nearby.

She turned to them and said, I’ve seen a butterfly like that.

One of the little boys, of similar age, answered her, I’ve seen lots of them.

To which she responded, Well I’ve seen hundreds.

He said, I’ve seen thousands.

She upped the ante, I’ve probably seen a million.

At that point, the other boy, slightly older, joined in with a sarcastic, Sure you have.

Are these the humble little children Jesus was talking about in today’s Gospel?

They sound more like the disciples.

Concerned over who’s the greatest, who can outdo whom?

Kids were much the same two thousand years ago.

So, Jesus wasn’t holding that child out as the model of perfect humility.

He was using the child as a model of truly humble status.

A person fully dependent on someone else.

A person who doesn’t have all the answers.

A person unable to make it, to even survive, without help.

A person who, at least deep-down, sees and acknowledges that dependence.

Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven?

What an inappropriate question!

What a lack of understanding of what heaven is about.

But maybe we have to give the disciples a break.

What’s obvious to us now, wasn’t so obvious to them.

Unlike us, they hadn’t yet heard all that Jesus would teach about heaven.

So he teaches them.

Your ambition is to be recognized as greater than the others in heaven?

You imagine you have the power and ability to earn such a position for yourself?

With that attitude, you can’t even get through the gate.

You’ve got to drop that ambition and self assurance.

And acknowledge that you’re as powerless and dependent as this little child.

Of course, that applies to us today as well.

We’ve been blessed with so many gifts.

The gift of life, the gift of faith, the gift of Jesus’ teaching, the gift of salvation.

We didn’t do anything to earn them.

They can’t be earned; they’re gifts.

We are in fact like that child Jesus called over, fully dependent upon someone else.

Fully dependent upon those gifts.

We are in fact the little ones that Jesus spoke of.

Our job is to recognize and acknowledge that.

And to appreciate and cooperate with the gifts we’ve been given.

To do all we can in our poor limited power to get ourselves through that gate.

And not to push ahead of as many as we can, but to help along as many as we can.

To not only be the little ones, but also receive the little ones.

It’s good to be counted among the little ones.

There’s Good News and great consolation for us.

Especially if we should happen to go astray.

Jesus assures us that our heavenly Father will come looking for us.

He’ll rejoice at bringing us back.

And best of all, it is not His will that even one of us be lost.

Tuesday of the 19th Week in Ordinary Time

Mt 18:1~14           Read this Scripture @usccb.org

Pep Talk

We can all use a pep talk now and then.

We might just be weary.

Or we might be suffering from uncertainty, doubt, lack of confidence, or fear.

Especially if we’re getting ready for something that’s going to push us to our limits.

We might need a little reassurance,

A little boost to our faith in ourselves and in our cause.

Words from a trusted leader or advisor.

The coach before the big match.

The general before the big battle.

The mentor before the big step.

The Transfiguration was a great reassurance to the apostles.

Assuring them they were on the right track, that Jesus truly was the Messiah.

Our passage from the Letter of Peter shows how profoundly impressed he was.

He’s assuring the new disciples that he and John and James were eyewitnesses.

They actually saw Moses and Elijah talking with Jesus!

They heard God’s voice from heaven say:

This is my Son, my beloved, in whom I am well pleased.

And that great event becomes not only their assurance.

But assurance they can pass down through generations of disciples, to us.

Another piece of evidence for any of us needing a little boost of faith.

But one line struck me as I reread Luke’s Gospel account.

[They] spoke of his exodus that he was going to accomplish in Jerusalem.

As Moses led the Israelites out of the grip of the Egyptians,

Jesus would soon lead the world out of the grip of death.

But the accomplishment would require great sacrifice and suffering from Jesus.

Maybe this event wasn’t all about us.

Executed to give the apostles and us some reassurance.

Maybe the main purpose was to reassure someone else.

What did Jesus know and when did he know it?

He knew all that he learned through his frequent listening to God in prayer.

But did he know that he was actually God himself?

More than just a vague understanding or a firm belief.

But actual, certain knowledge?

What restrictions did God the Son place on his own knowledge when he became man?

When did Jesus fully know that he was God?

In the womb?

In the manger?

In the temple?

In the Jordan with John the Baptist?

On the mountain with Moses and Elijah?

Or perhaps, outside the tomb on Easter morning.

Whether Jesus had full knowledge that he was God or not,

He knew that he was already weary from the burdens of his mission.

He saw that his time of extreme suffering in Jerusalem would soon be upon him.

It was a great blessing from the Father to send him encouragement.

And to send it with such convincing and reassuring power.

Through  a personal visit from messengers no less than Moses and Elijah.

And through His own direct, audible, fatherly voice from heaven.

It was an unmistakable sign to Jesus that he was on the right path.

And that he was in good hands.

The Transfiguration may not have been all about us.

But it was, in large part, meant for us too.

Not only to bolster our faith in Jesus.

But to show the kind of Father we have.

One who sends us encouragement and comfort and guidance.

If we’ll just look for His messengers and recognize them when they come.

And learn to recognize His voice.

The Feast of the Transfiguration
Tuesday of the 18th Week in Ordinary Time

Mt 13:24-43           Read this Scripture @usccb.org