Thursday of the Eighteenth Week of Ordinary Time
In the ancient Hebrew, the word we have for righteousness and justice is sedeq, which most literally means right order. The idea is that when things are as they were intended to be by God, then the poor will be taken care of, nobody’s rights will be trampled on, and God’s grace will be evident in every situation. So this idea of sedeq is of course a frequently-mentioned topic in the prophets’ preaching. Today we have the prophet Jeremiah pointing out the lack of sedeq in the community of the Israelites: “for they broke my covenant,” Jeremiah prophecies, “and I had to show myself their master, says the LORD.”
There is just one possible antidote to the infidelity of the people, and that is God’s loving-kindness. The Hebrew language has a word for this, too, and that is hesed. It is summed up in the way the Lord wishes to bring the people back into right relationship as Jeremiah says: “But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD. I will place my law within them, and write it upon their hearts; I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”
The hesed that Jesus brings is still more radical, and that turns out to be a problem for Peter. He knows well enough who Jesus is: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus enthusiastically accepts his statement of faith and confers on him the ministry to direct the Church of the future: “And so I say to you, you are Peter,” Jesus proclaims, “and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.” But when it turns out that the way for Jesus to make all that happen and unleash God’s ultimate loving-kindness is for Jesus to die, that doesn’t set well with Peter. “God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you.”
The thing is, for hesed to happen in any situation, someone pretty much always has to lay down their life. It might be physically as Jesus did on the cross, but it could also be by letting a disagreement go, pursuing forgiveness even at the cost of being right about something on principle, or giving up one’s own desires so that others can be nourished. And Satan knows that hesed is the worst thing in the world that can happen for him. So he always wants us to say “God forbid, Lord! Why should you have to die? Why should I have to die?” But we have to put such thoughts aside. We have to think as God does, not as human beings do.
Sphere: Related ContentSaturday of the Fifteenth Week of Ordinary Time
There is a wonderful, comforting message in today’s readings, and it’s a message that speaks to all of us when we’re at the end of the rope in our faith life. That message is that God hears the cries of all of us who are poor in one way or another. Whether we’re actually poor, or whether we’re oppressed, or are spiritually poor and struggling, or our relationships are poor, or we’re just feeling impoverished by a life that is one struggle after another: God hears us. He can’t help but hear us.
The Psalmist echoes the cry that goes on in all of us when we are in the midst of hard times: “Do not forget the poor, O Lord!” How often when we are being tested, do we wonder where God is and demand that he do something right now? It might even feel like we’ve been forgotten. But today’s readings say that isn’t so. God is with us, God hears us, and will always be with us in our need.
That’s what Micah is reminding Israel of in today’s first reading. They can’t be ignoring the poor, because God doesn’t. They can’t be oppressing the innocent, because God doesn’t. They can’t be living evil lives, can’t be cheating people out of their inheritance, can’t be taking what is not theirs, because God does notice, and God will not ignore the evil deeds of this sinful people. There will be justice for the poor, God will reach out to them in their need.
Jesus, in the Gospel, was almost running for his life. He knows that the Pharisees are turning up the heat and trying to kill him. But he will not miss healing the sick and broken along the way. He warns them not to make him known, but he does heal them. Because he cannot be deaf to their cries for wholeness and healing.
That message of comfort comes to us this day. Wherever we find ourselves this morning, whatever need we may have, whatever brokenness in us needs to be bound up and healed, we can know that God is aware of our needs, and will be with us in good times and bad. No matter what.
Sphere: Related ContentMemorial Day
Today's readings: Isaiah 32:15-18, Matthew 5:1-12a
One of the effects of a presidential election for me, is taking a long hard look at who we hold up as our leaders or our heroes. In some ways, a presidential election is a celebration of whoever is the least objectionable candidate, because in this day and age, it’s hard to get good people to run for office. And who could blame them? It’s so hard for candidates to deal with all that public scrutiny, the months of campaigning, the financial outlay. It seems sometimes that those willing to go through all of that aren’t exactly the cream of the crop. But apply that to any other field of interest. What about our sports heroes, or entertainers? How many of them turn out to be flawed in many ways? The people we want to hold up as heroes are very often not very heroic.
But today is a day to celebrate true heroes. People who have given their lives for peace, justice, and righteousness. The beatitudes that we just heard in the Gospel proclaim them blessed: blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, blessed are the peacemakers, blessed are they that are persecuted for the sake of righteousness. We have heard these before, but it’s so important that we hear that these people are blessed, these people are true heroes because of what they sacrifice and stand for and fight for.
I am hardly the person who is going to glorify warfare. I think our Church’s teachings counsel that war is not the way to peace and that developed societies like ours can and must use our resources to seek other ways to solve problems. But I certainly acknowledge that there are and have been times in our nation’s history that have called on people to fight for our freedoms and to fight for justice. Today we honor their memory with immense gratitude, because without their sacrifice we might not enjoy the blessings we have today.
Those who have been part of our lives, and the life of our country, who have been people of faith and integrity are the heroes that God has given us. These are the ones who have been poor in spirit, who have mourned, who have been meek, hungry and thirsty for righteousness, merciful, peacemaking, and all the rest. If we would honor them on this Memorial Day, we should believe as they have believed, we should live as they have lived, and we should rejoice that their memory points us to our Savior, Jesus Christ, who is our hope of eternal life.
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The Epiphany of the Lord
We gather together today to celebrate the twelfth day of Christmas. Today is the traditional day for the celebration of the Epiphany of the Lord, a time when we can see who Christ really is, when our eyes are enlightened, and our hearts are opened. Because there is a gift to be had here today; more precisely, I think there are three gifts to be had here today. The magi famously offered their three gifts: gold, frankincense an
d myrrh. I don’t think we can expect to receive those gifts today, although we’ll use a bit of frankincense later in this celebration. But the Scriptures today speak of three gifts that come with this Christ Child … the one who continues to lay sleeping in the manger on this holy day.
The first fist gift he brings us is justice. Justice is what people long for in every age. When everyone has what belongs to them, when no one is poor or needy, when the marginalized are brought into the community, when the wrongly imprisoned are free, when everything is right and we are all in right relationship with one another and with God, that is justice. People have striven for justice in every age and place. While we are all called upon to do what we can to make justice happen in our world, we know that we do not ultimately have the power to bring the real justice that this world longs for all by ourselves. That can only be done by God, and in God’s time. Our psalmist today says, “Justice shall flower in his days…” The gift the Christ Child brings is the possibility of that great day of justice. We know that because Christ has died and risen, we can count on the salvation that will be ours on that day when everything is made right.
The second gift Jesus brings is peace. Peace, too, can be an elusive thing for us, and peace, too, has been sought after for ages upon ages. We often think of peace as the absence of conflict. And that alone is daunting. We have conflict in many places today. We think of Iraq, Afghanistan, and many places in the middle east, to say nothing of Africa, Korea, and many other places. I’m not even sure, honestly, how to count the number of wars being fought today. And this says nothing about the lack of peace that is violence in our communities, discord in our families, and unrest in our hearts. If we are to define peace as just the absence of conflict, it is clear that even that is beyond us.
But that’s not how God defines peace. Peace is more than a feeling, it is a way of living, or more exactly, a way of being. It stems from the right relationship that is justice. In fact, we are told that if we are to desire peace, we must work for justice because peace can’t happen in an unjust world. If the mere absence of conflict is a peace that we can’t seem to achieve, how much less will we ever be able to come to a peace that is a completeness of right relationships with God and every other person? And yet, this child in the manger is the one who has come to bring “peace till the moon be no more.”
The third gift Jesus brings is light: the revelation of the mystery. And that’s what we celebrate today. “Epiphany” means “manifestation,” it means coming to know what’s right in front of us. Coming to see the revelation of Christ in the Scriptures, in the Church, in the Sacraments, and in every person and place. It is a celebration of light, light that is the glory of God, appearing and overcoming the darkness of a world that does not know God. Jesus came to a world that was darkened by the absence of justice and peace, into a world which in some ways didn’t want to be brightened by his life. So basically, he was coming into a world not much different than the one we experience today. Our time’s need for justice and peace is obvious, and the world’s refusal to come to the light is well-known. But we have the light. Jesus came to bring us that light. Maybe it’s not the light of the star on that night, but it’s the light of Scripture, of his presence in the Eucharist, and his activity in the Church and in our hearts.
We who have received the wonderful gifts of his justice and peace and light, are called to bring those gifts to the world, because the gifts we receive are never just for us. St. Paul tells the Ephesians – and us – today that we are called to be stewards of these gifts, given to us in grace. And so, just like the magi, we are the ones who need to bring our gifts and open our coffers.
Epiphany is the feast of those called by God's grace to leave behind the familiar and accustomed and to go searching for Christ in, what seems to be, the most unlikely places. Where will we find him and what gifts shall we bring when we discover Christ in our world? In place of frankincense, we could advocate for poor families, especially for single parents and the newborn. There are 25 million poor children in our otherwise-wealthy country, and untold numbers throughout the world. In place of gold, we could contribute to help those at shelters for homeless families, or international programs for children and the aged. In place of myrrh, we could visit the sick and dying.
The gospel story tells of a light in the sky that guides the foreigners to Christ. We don't have the star; but grace is continually given to help us find Christ. God's grace does what the star did for the Magi, it guides us to the out-of-the way places where Christ can be found. The Magi came bearing the types of gifts one would bring to royalty in a palace. But today Christ isn't found in a palace; he isn't rich, he is poor. The Epiphany reminds us that each day Christ manifests himself to us in the world's lesser places and in surprising people. Those are the places to go looking and bearing gifts—starting with the most important gift, ourselves.
We will come forward in a few moments to pay homage to our king, just as did those Magi so long ago. When we offer our gifts on this holy day, perhaps we can also offer the gift of ourselves, this gift that we ourselves have received from God himself. As we begin this year, perhaps we can resolve to make our giving an act of gratitude for all that we have received. Nourished by our Savior today, we can go forth in peace to bring gifts of justice, peace, and light to all the world.
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