Reflections on the Sunday Liturgy from Pedro Arrupe Institute Available at http://liturgy.deepenyourfaith.in
September 11, 2011 – 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time Sir 27:30-28:7 ; Rm 14:7-9; Mt 18:21-35 Spiritual Track: By Fr. Edwin D’Souza SJ Abraham Lincoln said that “only he has the right to criticize who has the heart to help.”In today’s three readings from the Holy Scriptures, we hear God giving us the responsibility to be our brother’s keepers. Therefore, the term “its none of my business” is not biblical, nor is it acceptable in the practice of the Christian life. Such an expression echoes a passage that we are familiar with from the Book of Genesis where it states, “Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother, Abel?” And Cain answers “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” There is a perversion that may occur when we are afraid to carry out fraternal correction and that is Gossip. We talk with everyone we can about the faults of the other person, just not with that person himself. This “backbiting” is almost a pleasing pastime for us. The person affected is often the last to find out that his faults are being discussed…Gossiping is unmerciful. Instead the solution proposed to the Church in the Gospel today requires much more maturity. As parents, caregivers and even in their personal occupations, Christians are called to be responsible and accountable for the welfare of those under their care. The Word of God that we have heard today, does not speak of worldly responsibility and accountability. It speaks of God's commanded spiritual responsibility and accountability that each and everyone of us has towards our neighbours. It speaks of our responsibility of correcting our brothers and sisters in Christ who live in error. This obligation is nothing new. It has always existed in the Catholic Church, from the early days of the Christian community right up to the present time. In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus teaches us how to proceed as responsible and accountable brothers and sisters who are genuinely concerned for the spiritual well-being of others. First of all, we are obligated to privately approach the sinner so we will not publicly humiliate him or her. If the sinner has sincerely repented, praise God and maintain that privacy afterwards. No one else needs to know of the sins of others to avoid a chain reaction of gossip that will damage the spiritual life of all those who are involved. If the sinner remains indifferent to his salvation, we have an obligation to meet again, but this time with two or three witnesses. If the individual refuses to listen to all, we are commanded to tell it to the church. And if the offender still refuses to listen, even to the church, let such a person be to us as a Gentile and a tax collector. Why did Jesus say to disassociate from them? It is because when we put a bad fruit among good fruits, the bad fruit corrupts the others. The good fruits begin to take the same shape as the bad fruit. If everyone is indifferent to the sin of one person, that sin becomes acceptable to the extent that sooner or later, all are committing the same sin as a norm of Christian life and society. Let us take some time to reflect on our responsibility towards God. Let us reflect on how we will account to God for the actions of those around us, be it our parents, our brothers or sisters, our children, our relatives, our neighbours, our co-workers, our peers, all of those who's life we touch. Let us do what we must do so that when we appear before God on Judgment Day, we will be able to repeat the words of Jesus, "Not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost." [Jn. 17:12] Scriptural Track: By Fr. Ronnie D’Souza SJ The choice of readings selected by the Church for this Sunday focuses on being kind and merciful. Our sinful fallen nature seeks revenge, hatred and anger. But the teachings of today’s scripture readings are just the opposite. It is a call to be like God Our Father who is kind and merciful. The Book of Ben Sirach is an entertaining and (mostly) edifying book. Much is solid advice at the level of practical human experience. The section highlights two basic attributes of God in the Bible. Those who seek vengeance on others will have to face the justice of God. As further motivation for forgiveness, the sage is urged to “remember” death and the commandments of God’s covenant (Sir 28:6-7). Only those who deal mercifully with others can expect mercy from God. Otherwise prepare for strict justice from God. This section from St. Paul’s epistle to the Romans is taken from the part which refers to “when Christians disagree” (Rom 14:1-15:7). It deals with disunity which has always been a problem with God’s people. Some of these problems stemmed from the varying backgrounds of the different believers in the Churches. In this section, Paul emphasizes that it is the Lordship of Jesus Christ that is the reason for unity in spite of all diversity. If as Christians we should ‘take it to the Lord’ in prayer rather than being critical of our brethren, there would be stronger ties of brotherhood in our churches. In Rom 14:7-9, Paul offers the Biblical perspective of man: man is only a creature who is aware of the Lordship of God, and understands his own role as God’s steward. But more than that, he is called into a fellowship with God in a “covenant relationship”. Paul emphasizes the believer’s union with Christ when he reminds us in Rom 14:8: “If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord, so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.” We can understand that the believers belong to Christ both in life and death. He does not live for himself alone: he lives for Christ. He has committed both his life and death into the hands of Christ, surrendering all he is to Christ. Today’s Gospel reading is taken again from the fourth discourse of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew (Mt 18:1–35). This full sermon of Jesus deals with why the disciples are disunited, and what a disciple ought to do to be open to the Lord’s grace. The various sections of the sermon deal with various aspects of relations within the Church, and how the disciples should deal with one another. Today’s reading is about forgiveness and the need for it in the life of a disciple. The question Peter poses actually indicates his own errors: To begin with he lacked humility himself. He was sure his brother would sin against him, but not he against his brother! Peter’s second mistake was in asking for limits and measures to forgiveness. The parable Jesus recounts in response to the question of Peter is not about salvation, for salvation is wholly grace of unconditional love given freely. The parable deals with forgiveness between brothers, not between sinners and God. The emphasis is on brother forgiving brother. Note the three stages: a) The man was a terrible cheat. But he was not ashamed because he stole; he was ashamed because he was caught. And he actually thought he was big enough to earn the money to repay the King’s account. b) The man should have left delighted that he was forgiven all. Instead he resented that he had to beg for time. He would rather have someone else beg and grovel. So when he met his fellow worker who owed him a pittance when compared to his own debt to the master - he made this fellow worker beg and grovel. He showed no mercy, but rather threw him into prison. Perhaps he had the legal right to do this but certainly not the moral right. Having been spared the shame and suffering of prison, should he not have done the same? c) He got the justice that he meted out to his fellow-man. Note the two bases for the judgment. Firstly, God’s forgiveness provided by Christ is always available. Secondly, the man lived his life like one who does not believe that God existed. Consequently he was neither compassionate, merciful nor forgiving. Because of this, he shall face the judgment of the King and be condemned. Note the merciful servant received forgiveness but he had notexperienced forgiveness deep in his heart. Therefore he was unable to share with others what God had shared with him. The Lord’s warning is serious. God cannot forgive us if we do not have humble and repentant hearts. Theological Track: Shannon Pereira SJ The Gospel reading of today does not only reflect on God’s justice or help us to differentiate between the logic (reasoning) of God and the logic (reasoning) of the world. But a deeper reflection would reveal the very nature of God, the dimension of his love and the conditions to access his Kingdom. For in this parable, the master is God himself and the vineyard is his Kingdom to which we are all invited. The first concern of God is not to abandon any person outside his Kingdom. He goes out in search of his people early in the morning, then at the third hour, then again at the sixth and the ninth hour and finally even at the eleventh hour. So from sunrise to sunset he looks out for laborers to work in his vineyard. In other words, from the beginning of time to the end of time, God is in continuous search of his people. Like the sower who goes out to sow the seed or the good shepherd who looks tirelessly for the lost sheep, God’s one passion is to invite us all to participate in his glory and joy. Thus from the origins to the end of history, God comes to gather each and every one of us making no exception. It is true that in this passion to welcome everyone, the Master does make a preference – a preference for the last. Who are these last? The other evangelists (Mark, Luke and John) would call them the little ones, the poor, the sinners. Matthew calls them the anawim – poor in spirit (Mt 5, 3) – “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of God”. They are the excluded, the forgotten, the destitute, the outcast etc. It is precisely because no one thinks and looks at them, that God is concerned about them in a privileged manner. It is true that these last did not bear the scorching heat and the burden of the whole day. But they heavily bore the burden of their solitude and the feeling of being useless. No one thinks of them. But God does. By treating them as the first, he restores them their dignity. By paying them the same amount of wages, he understands them as men of distress rather than a work-force to be remunerated. In the first reading, Isaiah gives us a key to understand this parable of Jesus. “My thoughts” says the Lord “are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways”. God wants us to understand that his love for each one of us is unique. He makes no exception in showering his love on one another. We need to accept and understand this preference of God. We need to accept and understand that God is greater than our hearts. The master in the parable of the laborers in the Vineyard reaches out to those who due to various reasons, fail to respond to the call of God’s love, to the message of Christ, to the message of the Good News. The truth is that in the Kingdom of God there are no firsts and lasts. There are only children of God. And among these children, there are some who require to be shown more love since they have a feeling of having failed or of being good for nothing. By paying them the same wages and by calling them firsts, God gives them what he has promised – the Kingdom in its totality without subtracting anything. The laborers of the first hour react as if they were deprived of something when the laborers of the eleventh hour were paid the same wages. However, in his Kingdom, God deprives them of nothing. On the contrary, he gives them true friends by raising the last in equality and in dignity. We notice that the last question asked by the master of the vineyard remains unanswered – “Are you envious because I am generous?” This question can help us understand the Kingdom of God. We know that to be envious of some good is to be sad that we do not possess that valuable good, and especially if that valuable good is given to someone who does not deserve it. The opposite of being envious is to rejoice at some good accomplished or received by others. Thus the Kingdom of God is where those who do not have, will receive what they are in need of, and the others will not be envious of them but rejoice that each one can live decently with equal dignity. This unanswered question is for us to ponder on in order to bring about the Kingdom here and now in our lives, as it is one of the requests in Jesus’ prayer – Mt 6, 10 – “Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” The second reading of Saint Paul brings a synthesis to all that we have reflected: “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If it is to be life in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two.” The Apostle Paul is in two minds. His earnest desire is to be with Christ but at the same time he needs to respond to the last question in the above parable. He needs to work for the conversion of Gentiles and look after the Christian communities so that the Kingdom of God may come on earth. The Gentiles belong to the category of the last in the above parable who are struggling to respond to God’s love. They are hired at the eleventh hour. Paul helps them to become equal heirs of the same Kingdom of God.