Thirty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/103011.cfm

The king still lives

All their works are performed to be seen. 


Surely one of the greatest inventions in human history is the law. We could not live with one another without it. To take the simplest example, Americans drive on the right side of the road. That means that if I set out to drive from Louisville to Los Angeles, I will not have to negotiate with every single driver coming from the opposite direction about which side of the road we'll take. Can you imagine the stress of such a trip? And the inevitable misunderstandings? And the consequent crashes? No one would get anywhere without that fundamental law of the road. 
The Hebrew people believed this great gift of the Law came from God Himself and they were enormously grateful for it. Psalm 119, far and away the longest of the 150 psalms, celebrates the decrees, ways, commandments, ordinances, statutes, laws, prescripts, words, and promises God has given us. Gratitude in this psalm flourishes like a blooming flower or a gushing, inexhaustible fountain. 
Patriotic Americans also feel enormous gratitude for our law, especially as it's enshrined in our Constitution. Our nation of many religions and innumerable nationalities with multiple cultures is bound together only by our loyalty to the law. We have no natural boundaries to the north and south to define us. The ruled line between our northern states and Canada is quite arbitrary, subject only to mutual agreement. And so is the porous boundary between Mexico and our southern states. 
But, despite our gratitude and love of the law, spiritually it has its limits. There is still plenty of room between outward compliance and inner rebellion to allow for hypocrisy. 
All of the Hebrew Prophets knew this, which is why we find so few references to the Decalogue in their writing. Observant religious could still ignore the plight of widows, orphans and aliens as they paid their tithes of mint, dill and cummin. (Matt 23:23) They could still enjoy scandalous luxury as they widened their phylacteries and took honored seats in the synagogues. 
Jesus condemned their behavior with, "All their works are performed to be seen." 
They wanted to be seen by family, friends, neighbors, strangers and enemies. They expected even God to honor their apparent piety. As they say in Hollywood, "They believed their own press releases." 


Jesus' taught his disciples a new and better ambition; we should love the Lord God himself. To put it in our own parlance, we enter a "relationship" with God which is full, unguarded, open, available and eager. In this "place" with God I forget myself. I don't even worry if I am complying with God's law because I am not paying attention to myself. I am attentive only to God; I want to please God whom I love, and not just placate the God whom I fear. 

The Hebrew prophets knew this mystery and the Jewish tradition has never forgotten it, but Jesus sharpened that awareness for us, especially by his death. Saint Paul penetrated the mystery when he intoned the Old Law, "accursed is anyone hanged on a tree." (Galatians 3:13) Jesus was, to all appearances, despised by men and God. If there was anything just in him it was apparently declared null and void by his horrible death. He was the Prodigal Son who had gone off to a faraway place and wasted his wealth on harlots: i.e. Israel, Judah, Jerusalem and the Church. If he was justified it was only by his faith. Despite his innocence he he took upon himself the guilt of us all. Only his utter abandonment to the just mercy of God and only God's absolute Goodness could redeem him. 


His faith is our faith as well. As much as we love the Law and our religion and our moral code, and as much as we are grateful to God for the gift, we live by faith, as Jesus lived. In this faith we have the freedom even to break laws, as the priest and Levite should have when they passed by the half-dead victim on the way to Jericho, even as Jesus did when he touched lepers and healed on the sabbath.