Weed or Wheat

Reading Thurgood Marshall's biography was particularly interesting for me.

After all, we’re right here by the Supreme Court.

And I worked for a couple decades in the Thurgood Marshall building over by Union Station.

And, like some of you, I saw him a number of times in his later years.

He took strong positions throughout his career as lawyer, judge and justice.

One of his strongest positions was his vigorous and absolute opposition to the death penalty.

Back in the 1920’s he worked for the NAACP and lobbied for legislation against lynchings.

And he also worked to save the condemned who were facing legal executions.

Our Church has long opposed the use of the death penalty in modern society.

And the parable that Jesus explains today tells us something about that opposition.

In the parable, a man plants good seed.

But as that seed grows into wheat, weeds crop up among the wheat.

The man’s servants want to pull up the weeds.

But the master says, let the wheat and the weeds grow together.

Pulling up the weeds might uproot some of the wheat too.

Wait until harvest time.

When all can be pulled up together.

Then, under the Master’s direction, the weeds can be destroyed and the wheat can be preserved.

As Jesus explains, the wheat are the good people, the children of the Son of Man.

The weeds are the bad people, the children of the Evil One.

And at the end of time, Jesus himself will see that the evil doers are punished.

And the righteous are rewarded.

So we servants are to be patient and await that end of the age.

We're not to pull up the weeds.

We could even be mistaken about whether a particular plant is wheat or weed.

We can't see deeply enough to distinguish between the good and the bad.

Our snapshot in time doesn't account for the good falling, or the bad repenting.

In the parable the sorting takes place at the end of the age.

Because it’s clear to the Master who is who.

And in the end, all the falls and repentances have played themselves out.

But we servants here in the midst of time can’t know all that.

So, while we do need imprisonment or other action to protect our society,

We shouldn’t act in such a harsh and irrevocable way as the death penalty.

We might mistakenly destroy a good innocent wheat shaft that we mistook for a weed.

Or, an actual weed that, given time, would have been transformed.

Even if what we destroy is indeed a weed, and would never be transformed,

Our destroying it may cause collateral damage to the surrounding wheat.

Including even damage to ourselves.

More on Weeds

Tuesday 17th Week Ordinary Time

Mt 13:36-43      Read this Scripture @usccb.org

Big Deal

We read it in our scripture; we hear it at Mass; we say it in formal prayers.

We pretty much take it for granted.

Jesus is our brother, Mary is our mother, God is our father.

We’re all brothers and sisters.

We hear it so much, we might forget to be excited about what a big deal that is.

Growing up, I had parents, brothers, a sister, grandparents, aunts and uncles, and cousins.

Most are still around—spread around the country.

Plus I now have children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews.

That probably puts me in a fairly average position for family ties.

I also have a few close friends, including some who don't fit that average picture.

One is a friend I’ve seen nearly every day for over thirty years.

He’s an only child, and a lifelong bachelor,

And his only surviving relatives are a couple cousins in a distant state.

But he’s not lonely.

He maintains a good, active network of friends.

He and I often talk about things that affect our lives.

The news, the economy, politics, and even personal health and finance matters.

Some years ago, he casually mentioned in passing that I was like a brother to him.

As I was thinking about it later, I thought,

That’s really a big deal.

Even if we’re actually closer to some of our friends than to some of our family,

We still think of family as being the higher relationship.

So it's quite a compliment for someone to say they consider you family.

Most of us have some nuclear and extended family.

Large or small, good or bad.

None of us got to choose the family we were born into.

But we love them and maintain our ties with them.

And even if relationships are strained we still feel a commitment to them.

To paraphrase Robert Frost,

Family are those who, when you have to go to them, they have to take you in.

But there are many people who have no family ties.

The bonds have been broken by death, or strains.

They may have good solid relationships with close friends who are like family.

But those bonds can be broken too.

All of our relationships can be ended through forces that are beyond our control.

Any of us could someday find ourselves in that situation.

There’s only one exception.

One relationship where we ourselves have complete control.

And that’s the one that Jesus offers us in today’s Gospel.

He wants each of us to be an intimate member of his nuclear family.

There’s no catch, just one requirement—that we strive to do his Father’s will.

But that striving is completely within our power and completely within our control.

God has given us full control over the one most critical relationship in our lives.

That really is a big deal.

Tuesday 16th Week Ordinary Time

Mt 12:46-50      Read this Scripture @usccb.org

Seamless

Back when I was in law school, I first heard an old saying that's stuck with me over the years

The law is a seamless web.

That referred to the strong interconnections between different aspects of the law.

It was a comparison, an analogy, to a spider's web.

Not the world-wide-web; not the Internet.

World-Wide-Web is probably an uncommon phrase now, people just say The Web.

But that's the full name, it's what that www stands for at the start of web addresses.

That non-place out there in the ether, in the clouds,

Where all our information and communications are linked together.

The world-wide part may go unspoken now, but it's really the most important part.

But back to the spider's web.

You pull at one part of the web and everything else moves.

Everything is affected, even distant parts are reshaped.

That can seem like a revelation to a law student focused on all the artificial divisions.

Contracts, Property, Torts, Administrative Law, Constitutional Law.

But that interconnectedness isn't really so surprising.

All of life is interconnected, holistic, an organic unity.

Even if we separate the world and different aspects of our lives

Into different artificial compartments.

Every action, every inaction, has a far reaching impact.

We've probably all thought about how some relatively minor change in our past

Would have had a profound impact on our future.

What if I had gone to a different school?

What if I had taken a different job, or moved to a different city?

What if I hadn't gone on that first date with my eventual spouse?

What if my parent's hadn't gone on theirs?

This interconnectedness of all things is one of the themes of Pope Francis' encyclical,

Laudato Si, commonly called On Care of Our Common Home.

It addresses not only the ecology, but a broad range of problems in today's world.

Problems with deep spiritual roots but real world, everyday, material impacts.

Problems that will have profound impact on our future and on our children's futures.

Unless we acknowledge them, discuss them honestly, agree on solutions,

And take the proper actions now.

But why listen to Francis?

Who is he to say?

Well, for one thing, he's the Pope.

And, at least at the moment, a very popular Pope with world-wide influence.

Among Catholics and non-Catholics alike.

He's someone not seeking a personal economic or political advantage from the solutions.

Yes, some might argue that he's pushing his own agenda.

Better treatment of the poor, a better world for future generations.

But those are goals that most everyone embraces—at least at that high level.

Francis just might have enough influence to draw and hold the world's attention to these problems.

He might have the moral authority to lead the world to acknowledge these problems as top priorities.

To make more serious attempts to agree on solutions and take action.

At the very least, Francis has shepherded these issues to world-wide attention.

All of our Scripture readings today tell of sheep and shepherds.

In Jeremiah we hear of the bad shepherds who misled and scattered the flock.

God punished them and appointed new shepherds to replace them.

Our Psalm rejoiced, The Lord is my shepherd, there is nothing I shall want.

In our passage from Ephesians, Paul didn't use the word sheep or lamb,

But he spoke of Jesus offering himself on the cross to reconcile us to the Father.

Jesus as the Sacrificial Lamb, the Spotless Lamb, the Lamb of God.

Our Alleluia included, My sheep hear my voice; I know them and they follow me.

And in our Gospel, Jesus' heart was moved with pity for the vast crowd.

Because they were like sheep without a shepherd.

So, as the Good Shepherd, he stepped in and began to teach them.

This shepherd and sheep analogy has been around since at least Old Testament times.

It 's a particularly good one.

Jesus himself used it often.

We all get the picture.

But what are we?

Sheep or shepherds?

We see that Jesus was both—even simultaneously

And so are we.

When we have the ability and the authority to lead, we're called to step in.

As Jesus did and as Pope Francis is doing.

To be good shepherds.

Good parents, teachers, bosses, representatives, ministers, administrators, good examples.

When a good leader with a good cause needs followers, we're called to be good sheep.

Good citizens, children, students, workers, good supporters.

In this holistic, strongly interrelated, organic unity, seamless web of a world,

We're called on to act.

Perhaps today as a sheep, then a shepherd, and then again a sheep.

To always balance our roles.

To always use our gifts to serve in the best way we can.

16th Sunday Ordinary Time

Mk 6:30-34      Read this Scripture @usccb.org

Piecing a Foundation

Sixteen years ago I applied to the diaconate program.

The director told me to go find a spiritual advisor and to meet with him every month.

Later, I was relieved to learn that this was something they instructed every applicant to do.

They hadn’t singled me out as someone who really needed a lot of special help.

I was greatly blessed to find Fr Joe, a Jesuit over at Gonzaga.

And all these years, every month, he's given me great advice.

Up until this April when he was knocked out of commission by a stroke.

At one of our last sessions he asked me, What sacrifice are you making?

I thought, I wonder what he expects of me now?

I had to answer, None, or at least nothing special.

But I guess trying to live a good life I often sacrifice some time or money or opportunities.

He said, No, I do mean what special sacrifice are you making today?

Some little extra thing to show your appreciation for all God has done for you.

And by the way, it's those little things that build our foundation for the bigger things.

In our Gospel today, Jesus clearly expected something—some response.

And the people of Capernaum, Bethsaida and Chorazin clearly weren’t giving it.

What he was looking for was conversion.

Their turning away from any sin and turning back to God.

He had worked to convince them of their need to convert—to repent.

He had taught them and performed great miracles for them.

But they hadn’t responded.

So we hear the harsh, scathing, warning that he gives them.

It’s not clear why they hadn’t responded more appropriately to his miracles and teachings.

Jesus was residing right there in Capernaum, and the other towns were close by.

So he was sort of a local guy.

Maybe they were just taking him for granted,

Or being too presumptive.

Those are still problems for us today—presumption, taking for granted.

And it sometimes takes a nudge or a warning to remind us to show our appreciation.

If we act on a gentle nudge, like the one from Fr Joe,

We can avoid provoking a harsh, fire and brimstone, warning like the one Jesus gave.

So, I pass along Fr Joe’s advice.

Show your appreciation to God.

Make some special little sacrifice today—every day.

Give up something bad or do something good.

Consider yourself nudged.

Tuesday 15th Week Ordinary Time

Mt 11:20-24      Read this Scripture @usccb.org

Harvesting

                                                                                                                                                              by  Pizzazz

Every year in the U.S., millions of pounds of wholesome food are left to rot in the fields.

Or dumped in landfills.

Often as much as 50% of a crop goes unharvested to waste.

Some is left in the field because machines aren’t agile enough to reach it.

Some may be left to control prices—to avoid flooding the market with a surplus.

Hand-picked crops are selectively harvested.

An individual fruit or a vegetable might be blemished or oddly shaped or colored.

And no one would buy it at Whole Foods.

So, the pickers are taught to leave it, or toss it into the dumpster.

After all, the American harvest is abundant.

Why put any effort into that less attractive peach, or ear of corn, or head of lettuce?

Some groups are working to recoup that waste.

Taking a lesson from the ancient practice of gleaning.

Jewish law, and other laws, required landowners to leave some portion of their crop in the fields.

And to allow the poor to come in and take that crop.

Today, organizers match up growers with teams of volunteer gleaners.

The teams go through the fields after the harvest and gather the crop that was left behind.

And then they distribute that food to the poor.

One organizing group, the St Andrews Society, gleaned hundreds of tons of food last year.

A church group here on Capitol Hill gleans the potato fields of a nearby Maryland farm.

Jesus told us to ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.

And, as with so many messages from scripture, that call has multiple meanings and levels.

We might say the gleaners are answering Jesus’ call quite literally.

They’re going out and harvesting the food.

But they’re also answering another of his calls—they’re serving the poor.

A deeper level of meaning in Jesus’ call for harvesters is, of course,

The call for our help in harvesting souls.

And, those seemingly overly-literal gleaners are doing a good job at that level too.

Drawing others through their good works and example.

Helping others to see God’s action in the world.

As Jesus says, the harvest is abundant.

He needs all of us as laborers.

He needs us to spread the Good News of the Kingdom.

The word that God loves us all.

He needs us to show that we love one another.

And he doesn’t want to harvest only 50% of the crop.

He wants to bring in every soul—to thoroughly glean the fields.

So, we needn’t be too selective in choosing where to labor.

Every soul out there is blemished, but he wants them all—including our own.

The harvest gives us not only the opportunity to serve as laborers,

But to be counted among its finest fruits.

Tuesday 14th Week Ordinary Time

Mt 9:32-38      Read this Scripture @usccb.org

Let It Grow

                                                                Mustard Seeds   by Scarletina

In recent days our Gospels have focused quite a bit on Jesus' miracles.

Ten days ago we heard of this same miracle we hear today—the calming of the sea.

Earlier we had Mark's account, today we have Matthew's.

And in between, we've heard Matthew's accounts of other miracles.

Curing a leper.

Curing the Centurion's slave, and Peter's mother-in-law.

And the many sick and possessed who came to her house when they heard he was there.

Curing the woman with the hemorrhage.

Raising Jairus' daughter from the dead.

Altogether a good sampling of the many miracles Jesus performed.

Hundreds or perhaps thousands of cures and other miraculous signs.

Some, like the calming of the sea and the multiplication of the loaves,

Helped many all at once.

But most of Jesus' miracles helped a single individual who was suffering.

He cured them one by one, with special attention to each.

All these miracles demonstrate his supernatural power.

Power over illness, demons and death itself.

Power over the the sea and the strongest forces in nature.

Power that only God possesses.

And he didn't have to call on God, asking God to perform the supernatural deed.

He did it through his own power.

He himself had the power of God.

His miracles supported his claim that he was indeed one with the Father.

All these miracles also show Jesus' love for us and his commitment to saving us.

Sometimes he intervened solely from his own sense of love and mercy.

But often he said that he was moved by the faith of the person requesting his help.

He was clearly impressed and appreciative of that faith.

And often, as in today's Gospel passage, he laments our little faith.

One of his constant urgings to all of us is that we have faith in him.

That we believe what he told us.

That we believe the Good News that God loves us.

Believe that he, Jesus, is the Son of God and he came to save us.

Each of us, personally, one by one.

Believe that he will guide us and help us to do the Father's will.

He's given us his signs.

We see his saving.

We see his power.

We see his saving power.

So why don't we have stronger faith?

Why isn't living that faith the all-consuming top priority and activity of our lives?

We could all benefit from adopting that brief prayer made by a desperate father.

Asking Jesus to cure his son whose seizures threw him into the water and into the fire.

He began by saying, If you can do anything … please help us.

Jesus said, in effect, What do you mean, IF I can?!

The man's response can be our prayer too:

I do believe, help my unbelief.

Tuesday 13th Week Ordinary Time

Mt 8:23-27      Read this Scripture @usccb.org

The Narrow Gate

As you cross the Ohio River, leaving Cincinnati.

There’s a sign on the bridge that says

Welcome to Kentucky – Gateway to the South.

Harold Reese grew up in Kentucky.

He loved baseball, and as a boy he'd go whenever he could to Crosley Field.

The historic home of Cincinnati Reds.

Some years later he was there again for one of the great moments in baseball.

A great moment, but not a proud moment for Cincinnati fans.

In the Spring of 1947 the Brooklyn Dodgers came to town.

They brought with them their new teammate, Jackie Robinson.

The only black player in all of Major League Baseball.

Cincinnati was the southern-most city in the major leagues.

And Robinson had received hate mail and even death threats

Warning him he’d better not dare to play there.

But now, the Dodgers were on the field.

Warming up for the game.

And Jackie Robinson was there, playing 1^st base.

Many in the crowd and in the Reds dugout were taunting Robinson.

Trying to belittle him with racial name-calling.

Harold Reese, the Kentucky southerner, was on the field too.

He was now the star player and captain of the Dodgers—

Better known as Pee Wee Reese.

As the jeering grew, Reese stopped the warm-ups.

He left his shortstop position.

And walked across the field.

He stood beside Robinson, draped his arm over Robinson’s shoulder,

And stared at the Reds and the fans.

He stood there until he had shamed the crowd to silence.

Surely there were many in the crowd who didn’t join in the taunting.

And who knew that the hecklers were wrong.

They may have even been uncomfortable with the taunting.

But they chose to take the easy path.

The broad road, along with the crowd, to the wide gate.

They did nothing to stop the harassment.

Pee Wee Reese chose to take the constricted road—he found the narrow gate.

We may never be called to act in so public a way as Harold Reese.

But we’ll often find ourselves in situations where we need to choose a course.

Where we see that we have two options on how to proceed.

Where one road is easy, and the other is not so easy.

And our inner voice is telling us that the not-so-easy course is the right course.

Today in the Gospel, Jesus is telling us to follow that inner voice.

Tuesday 12th Week Ordinary Time

Mt 7:6-14      Read this Scripture @usccb.org

JESUS SAVES

A few days ago I was out on the sea where the Atlantic Ocean enters Delaware Bay.

I'm no sailor and no swimmer.

The last time I'd been on a boat was probably thirty years ago.

I'd already read today's Scripture passages.

And I felt new empathy with those fearful disciples in the storm in their little boat.

It was easy to imagine my own helplessness if a sudden storm should hit and swamp the boat.

There was no land in sight.

My life jacket might keep me afloat for hours or even days.

Until, maybe, someone would come and save me.

But there was no way I'd be able to save myself.

We may not think of it often.

But that helplessness is a common condition for us humans.

We like to feel that we're in control.

That we can shape our own destiny.

And to some extent we are, and we can.

So that reinforces our illusion that we generally have control of our lives and our world.

Until we find ourselves, literally or figuratively, drowning in the sea.

Then it becomes all too clear that we're helpless.

That we need someone to save us.

In our readings today we hear God asking Job,

Who shut within doors the sea?

Job knows clearly that it wasn't himself, that it wasn't any man.

Even with today's engineering and technology we have very little control of the sea.

Our Psalm continues the storm and saving themes.

They rejoiced that they were calmed and he brought them to their desired haven.

Only God can bring the calm.

Today's Scripture passages speak to us on both the spiritual and physical levels.

They address both the current and future worlds.

They assure us that Jesus has the power to save us, and the will to save us.

On the spiritual level, some people ask,

Where do we get the idea that we need to be saved?

And that we can't save ourselves?

We get it from Jesus himself.

Most all of what we know for certain about God and Salvation comes from Jesus.

Some of it he revealed, some of it he confirmed.

But how do we know we can put our faith in what Jesus tells us?

We know because we sense the truth of what he said.

Because the Spirit within us tells us to believe.

And, not least of all, we know because Jesus performed miracles to give us assurance.

To show us that he had the truth and the power of God.

Today's Gospel gives us one of those many signs.

As God told Job, and as we see from our own life experience,

No man can calm a stormy sea.

But Jesus did.

He had the power of God.

At one level our Gospel passage is about that miracle.

That sign, that proof that Jesus speaks for God.

But the truth revealed in that story also has a deeper level.

It's not just about that one storm on that one day two thousand years ago,

Our lives are full of storms.

And Jesus can calm those storms too.

When we look to Jesus for help and comfort and guidance,

We find the strength to make it through those storms.

Even the most ferocious storms.

Like the violence that thundered through that Church in Charleston this week.

Members of that Church—family of the slain—have shown remarkable calm.

They profess love and forgiveness.

Instead of hatred and revenge the assassin hoped to trigger.

And they praise Jesus for giving them that calm.

When the disciples woke Jesus from his nap in the boat they cried,

Do you not care that we are perishing?

Of course he cares!

One of the reliable truths Jesus revealed for us is that we have a God who loves us.

Loves each of us personally.

A God who is so personally close, so accessible to us, that we can call him Father.

A God who cares about our welfare and happiness.

Who wants to give us all that is best for us.

A God who worked out this mysterious plan for our salvation.

And sent his only Son to become one of us and to save us.

On this Fathers' Day we honor our earthly fathers.

Let's also specially honor our Heavenly Father.

The Father of all, whose fatherhood makes all of us brothers and sisters.

We're all God's children.

The Catholics, the Protestants, the Jews, the Muslims,

Those who acknowledge a Creator, those who seek an unknown God,

And even those with no explicit knowledge of God.

We're all the People of God.

Who have you ever met who wasn't one of God's creations, one of God's children?

The overwhelming Good News today is that God sent his Son to save all his children.

Whether everyone knows it or not, Jesus is the source of their salvation.

As our Evangelical brothers and sisters like to proclaim—

JESUS SAVES!

12th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Mk 4:35-41      Read this Scripture @usccb.org

True Enemy

That's such an extreme word—Enemy.

Who is your greatest, personal, true enemy?

If I have one, I don’t know about it.

But maybe I do have a secret personal enemy out there somewhere plotting against me.

We all have people we disagree with.

People with opposite views from ours on ideology, politics, propriety, and even morality.

We have people we’re competing with.

And people we’re disputing with over some business or social or personal matter.

But they’re not enemies; they’re neighbors.

At worst mere rivals.

To qualify as a true enemy they need to harbor a more intense, abiding malice.

They need to seek to inflict serious harm on us.

Serious physical, economic, emotional, or spiritual injury.

The law and the prophets said that we must love our neighbors.

And that would include our rivals.

But they said it was okay to hate our enemies.

Jesus says that’s not the case; we must love even those who are our true enemies.

As contrary to human nature as that may be

He does expect us to follow his direction.

He doesn’t say we have to like them.

He doesn’t say we have to be friends with them.

Or spend quality time with them.

But he does say we have to love them.

We have to pray for them.

We have to want for them to find eternal happiness with God.

Our old catechism answers apply equally to everyone – everyone.

Who made my enemy?  God made my enemy.

Why did God make my enemy? 

God made my enemy to know, love and serve God,

and to be happy with God forever in heaven.

God loves every person he created.

That includes my enemy.

And if God loves that enemy, just as he loves me,

Then I’d better love that enemy too.

It may not be quite so hard to love the more distant, impersonal enemies out there.

The ISIS zealots.

Outrageous terrorists and violent criminals in our own country.

We can be a bit more philosophical about them.

We can “understand” that the impersonal enemy is misguided or mentally unbalanced.

But when an enemy inflicts direct serious injury on us or our family or friends,

Love and forgiveness can seem impossible.

But it’s not.

Jesus gave us his own example.

In the midst of being brutally tortured, killed and abandoned.

Tortured and mocked for the pure deviant pleasure of the torturers.

He was still able to say:

Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.

And he didn’t leave it at that.

He’s inspired many other examples, great and small, throughout the years.

If we look, we can find little examples every day.

We sometimes find dramatic examples.

Like John Paul II visiting and praying for the man who shot him.

Stunning examples.

Like that Amish community a few years ago.

Forgiving the man who murdered their little girls at their country schoolhouse.

Bringing meals to comfort the sorrowful and humiliated family of the murderer.

Hopefully, the wrongs we suffer will pale in comparison.

Hopefully we'll never even encounter a true personal enemy.

But, whether our enemy is distant and impersonal, or a true personal enemy.

Regardless of the wrong we suffer.

No matter how evil our enemy's acts may be.

Jesus calls us to forgive.

And to love that enemy.

For our own sake.

And for the sake of our world.

Tuesday 11th Week Ordinary Time

Mt 5:43-48      Read this Scripture @usccb.org