Lectionary: 389When you spread out your hands, I close my eyes to you; Though you pray the more, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood! Wash yourselves clean! Put away your misdeeds from before my eyes; cease doing evil; learn to do good. Make justice your aim: redress the wronged, hear the orphan’s plea, defend the widow.
The Hebrew prophets were sickened by the sight of manifest hypocrisy among the civic, business, and religious leaders of their time. They saw ostentatious displays of largesse as the wealthy gave alms to the Temple. Some of the money was also distributed to the needy. But the prophets knew these donations would not -- and were not intended to -- change the essential structures of poverty.
The Holy Spirit had given to the prophets a very ordinary gift: the willingness to hear the Word of God in their public worship and private reflection. Where others heard the same stories, laws, and poems; recited, chanted, and sang the same words and melodies; marched the same processions and danced the same gestures day after day after day, the prophets felt the gracious, generous, joyful presence of God. It was fascinating, fresh, dear, and new each morning. So great is God's faithfulness.
But they knew God saw the wretchedness of some in Jerusalem, and was not placated by the cacophonous babble that echoed through the temple. Since their first appearance over ten thousand years ago, cities have always been accompanied by beggary, but it should not happen in Jerusalem, in the shadow of Solomon's Temple. There was no excuse for such misery in a city consecrated to the Lord of Heaven and Earth.
The prophets feared for Jerusalem; if it was no different from any city it would suffer the same fate of all cities since the foundation of the earth. its moral rot would leave it prey to foreign enemies. Its destruction would come with a bang, not a whimper, in the volatile world of the Mideast.
In today's gospel, the Lord reminds us of that same inevitable violence:
“Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth. I have come to bring not peace but the sword.
Jesus demands unwavering loyalty to himself. This is not the demand of a narcissistic tyrant who needs the unquestioning love of his nation. Jesus, as he is lifted up on the cross, must draw everyone to himself. We must see his passionate love of God his Father as the Way, an exceedingly narrow gate, that leads to eternal life. Whoever fails to take up his cross and follow him fails the basic challenge of human life. It is not easy to be human; it's not supposed to be.
Hypocrites fail. They do not surrender themselves; they do not aspire to smallness. Rather, they do everything to enlarge themselves; their wealth, power, prestige, and influence. Even their charitable giving promotes themselves. As Saint Paul said,
If I give away everything I own, and if I hand my body over so that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing.
"Make justice your aim." Isaiah says. "If you want peace, work for justice." Pope Saint Paul VI. "No justice; no peace!" cry demonstrators. The Hebrew prophets saw today's troubles three thousand years ago, "redress the wronged, hear the orphan’s plea, defend the widow."
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I love to write. This blog helps me to meditate on the Word of God, and I hope to make some contribution to our contemplations of God's Mighty Works.
Ordinarily, I write these reflections two or three weeks in advance of their publication. I do not intend to comment on current events.
I understand many people prefer gender-neutral references to "God." I don't disagree with them but find that language impersonal, unappealing and tasteless. When I refer to "God" I think of the One whom Jesus called "Abba" and "Father", and I would not attempt to improve on Jesus' language.
You're welcome to add a thought or raise a question.