Thursday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time

 Lectionary: 362

Settle with your opponent quickly while on the way to court with him.
Otherwise your opponent will hand you over to the judge,
and the judge will hand you over to the guard....

People often asked me, when I served as a chaplain in the VA hospital, if the work wasn't very sad. I agreed that there were moments when I just had to sit down and let the story I'd just heard settle into its place. But I was rarely overwhelmed with other people's sadness. I knew that would do them no favor, and would only wear me out. 

But the saddest stories I heard were of unreconciled families. One fellow told me he didn't know if his mother was alive, and didn't care. Many had lost touch with former wives and the children who'd disowned them. One fellow told me, "When your children tell your grandchildren that you're dead, you're dead!" They had handed their father over to the judge who handed him over to the jailer. They would have nothing to do with him. 

In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus urged his disciples to "settle quickly with your opponent." 

And Saint Paul taught his congregation in Philippi, 

If there is any encouragement in Christ, any solace in love, any participation in the Spirit, any compassion and mercy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, with the same love, united in heart, thinking one thing. 

The Apostle doubled down on that teaching with advice about what not to do:  

Do nothing out of selfishness or out of vainglory; rather, humbly regard others as more important than yourselves, each looking out not for his own interests, but everyone for those of others...

Pharisaic disciples would say their of their enemies, "they deserve no mercy. And anyway, they won't be reconciled. There's no use in trying."  But even the world's diplomats know better than that. They continue to talk even as nations slide toward war, and they are eager to meet following every battle and during every ceasefire. 

I remember one fellow who told me, "Do you know how to spell 'people?' T-R-O-U-B-L-E." He was a very unhappy man but, as I listened to him, he seemed to remember some people fondly; and I hoped he might let those memories lead him toward the light. 

The Testaments, both Old and New, insist that God never gives up on us. When the Prophet Isaiah protested that,

“All flesh is grass, 

and all their loyalty like the flower of the field.

The grass withers, the flower wilts,

when the breath of the LORD blows upon it.

God had replied, 

“Yes, the people is grass!

The grass withers, the flower wilts,

but the word of our God stands forever.”

And Jesus insisted, 

My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one can take them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can take them out of the Father’s hand.

Nor are we permitted to give up. If I quit on others, I risk my own salvation.