6 March 2011 - 9th Sunday in Ordinary Time [Cycle A]

March 6, 2011 - Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time

First Reading - Deuteronomy 11: 18, 26-28, 34
Moses told the people, “Take these words of mine into your heart and soul. Bind them at your wrist as a sign, and let them be a pendant on your forehead. “I set before you here, this day, a blessing and a curse: a blessing for obeying the commandments of the LORD, your God, which I enjoin on you today; a curse if you do not obey the commandments of the LORD, your God, but turn aside from the way I ordain for you today, to follow other gods, whom you have not known.”

Responsorial Psalm - Psalm 31: 1-4, 17, 25
R. (3b) Lord, be my rock of safety.
In you, O LORD, I take refuge; let me never be put to shame.
In your justice rescue me, incline your ear to me, make haste to deliver me!
R. Lord, be my rock of safety.
Be my rock of refuge, a stronghold to give me safety.
You are my rock and my fortress; for your name’s sake you will lead and guide me.
R. Lord, be my rock of safety.
Let your face shine upon your servant; save me in your kindness.
Take courage and be stouthearted, all you who hope in the LORD.
R. Lord, be my rock of safety.

Second Reading - Romans 3: 21-25, 28
Brothers and sisters, Now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, though testified to by the law and the prophets, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction; all have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God. They are justified freely by his grace through the redemption in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as an expiation, through faith, by his blood. For we consider that a person is justified by faith apart from works of the law.

Gospel - Matthew 7: 21-27
Jesus said to his disciples: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? Did we not drive out demons in your name? Did we not do mighty deeds in your name?’

Then I will declare to them solemnly, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you evildoers.’
“Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. But it did not collapse; it had been set solidly on rock. And everyone who listens to these words of mine but does not act on them will be like a fool who built his house on sand. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. And it collapsed and was completely ruined.”

Reflection
Without any additional context, this week’s Gospel passage may strike us as somewhat harsh. After all, Paul says quite explicitly in the Letter to the Romans, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” [Romans 10:13] and Luke portrays Peter making that same assertion in the Acts of the Apostles, affirming that, “everyone shall be saved who calls on the name of the Lord.” [Acts 2:21] So if both Peter and Paul (not to mention the author of Acts, Luke) seem to agree that calling on the name of the Lord is sufficient for salvation, how do we reconcile that with Jesus claiming that many who call will be turned away? Did Peter and Paul get the message mixed up?

The challenge pertinent to hearing a small portion of the Scripture each week is that we do not get a good sense of where this fits within Jesus’ larger public ministry, so it can be difficult to understand what he is talking about.

We find ourselves, in today’s passage from Matthew, at the end of the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus began by highlighting which sorts of behaviors and attitudes lead towards ultimate happiness (the Beatitudes), then went on to sketch out how one ought, practically, to live out this call on a daily basis (e.g. “Turn the other cheek,” and “give also your tunic.”) Now, Jesus is issuing one final clarification on the things he has said, and he goes about delineating his point by way of negative portrayal, that is, an example of what NOT to do.

Jesus has already instructed his followers, in the previous chapter, Matthew 6, that, when they pray, or fast, or give alms, they should not “be like the hypocrites” who do all of these things in public. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus constantly invokes the counter-example of the Scribes and Pharisees, whom he indicts on charges of hypocrisy and attention-seeking. Many of these religious figures observe the letter of the Law, Jesus emphasizes, but they do it that they might receive public acclaim, or out of a misconstrued belief that sheer adherence to the Law will result in holiness. Those who perform charitable acts in order to receive recognition might be doing something good, but their hearts aren’t in the right place. And those who become overly focused on religious rituals may have their heart in the right place, but they’re fundamentally misunderstanding the purpose of the Law, namely, to bring people closer into relationship with God and one another. In other words, their focus was on the external act, and not on the internal way of being. This motif of outward appearance versus underlying reality permeates Matthew’s Gospel, and it continues in Jesus’ words today.

Jesus has just finished warning his followers about “false prophets” and those who appear to be doing the work of God, but who in reality are out for their own gain, be it money, power, or prestige. He invokes two analogies that are foreign to us, modern Americans, but that would have resonated immediately with his original audience: a fig tree and a wolf in sheep’s clothing [Matthew 7: 15-20]. Jesus compares the false prophets to a thistle bush, whose fruits, at first glance, very much resemble that of the fig. But unlike the edible fig, which was a staple of the Mediterranean diet and helped sustain life, the fruit of the thistle was poisonous and inedible.

Too, Jesus compares these individual to a cunning wolf that would disguise itself in the garb of a sheep in order to prey upon the flock--this would have been a particularly incisive analogy to its hearers, for the prophets of Jesus’ time were known to wear sheepskin cloaks as a way of identifying themselves as prophets. John the Baptist was not an anomaly in first-century Palestine, nor was Jesus--itinerant holy men who wandered from town to town preaching and performing miracles were extremely common. In fact, this phenomenon was so ubiquitous that the first Christian handbook, the Didache (the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles), produced around 100 AD, has an entire section dedicated to distinguishing between authentic prophets and false ones.

So, in a world where men wandering around teaching and healing was an everyday experience, how was one to know which ones were true and which ones were false? It is precisely this question Jesus is answering today. Many of those who claim to possess a knowledge of the Law are not motivated by an interior desire to help connect people with God, Jesus attests. They may appear, at first, as if they are men of God--just as the thistle looks, at first glance, like a fig, or the clever wolf appears to be a sheep. But upon closer examination, their true identity is revealed.

Thus, we should pay attention to how these individuals who claim to be holy, actually live their lives. The admonition is no less relevant today than it was in Jesus’ day. One need only turn on the television to see literally hundreds of self-identified experts who are eager to tell us how to live our lives, be it an MD with a new diet plan or a political pundit decrying a particular piece of legislation and urging us to take action. With so many people moralizing on cable news networks and opinionating on blogs, not to mention the professors, parents, friends, and spiritual advisers in our own lives... whom are we to listen to? Which voices offer us the best advice for actually living happier, more fulfilling lives? How do we pick those sage few out of the awful din?

Evaluate them by the way they live their lives, Jesus says. Those who are concerned with superficial appearances will be exposed eventually. He introduces a final analogy to make his point--all houses will hold up fine in good weather, but it is only the houses that have a deeper foundation that will survive a storm. Many people in our lives seem to have everything together when things are going their way, but often, it is only in instances of pain, tragedy, or misfortune that their true character is exposed. We, too, are called to be authentically holy and to be sources of support for one another, but how deep is our own foundation? Is our faith the proverbial house built on sand or stone? It is easy to sing “Glory and Praise to God” when we are sitting next to friends at a college parish, led by the beautiful music of an amazing choir. It is not terribly difficult to be in touch with Jesus when we are away on retreat or discussing him in Bible Study.

But how deep is our faith, and will it survive the storm? How do we respond when bad weather shakes the foundations? What about the week that we are denied a fellowship we had been certain we would receive; or are informed that we will not be receiving a job we had desperately wanted? What about the weekend a loved one passes away or a significant other tells us that s/he needs a break? Or, even more mundane... how do we respond when the cashier at the grocery store is rude to us? Or someone slams a door in our face walking into a restaurant? How do we live out our faith in Jesus, our call as Christians, when we have drinks at the bar or are asked to give up a window seat on the plane to accommodate a family traveling with a young child? Are we the ones who cry “Lord, Lord,” each Sunday, only to be exposed as thistles rather than figs when our faith is examined a bit more closely?

Luckily for us, Jesus was a carpenter. So he has experience building houses (unlike most of us). And the best part is that he is happy to assist us as we build ours. We just have to be humble enough to ask for help.

Reflection Questions
1) Have you ever met someone who appeared at first to be a “fig” but turned out, after further interaction, to be more of a “thistle?” How were you able to determine that this person was not actually nutritious and good for your growth? What did you learn?

2) Can you think of anyone, whether it be a public figure or person in your own life, who seems to be concerned more with appearances than his/her underlying state? How do you distinguish between the many people who are offering advice on how to live your life? Do Jesus’ words strike you as relevant or helpful at all?

3) How would you describe your own “foundation?” Do you think it is a faith built on stone or sand (or somewhere in between)? Do you feel that you have a harder time being Christ-like when you are away from Church or away from a community of believers? How might you firm up your foundation? What can you do to establish more support for yourself as you try to grow in your faith, perhaps eventually living in a city where there is not a community like the one you have here?

27 February 2011 - 8th Sunday in Ordinary Time

February 27, 2011 - The 8th Sunday in Ordinary Time

First Reading - Isaiah 49: 14-15
Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me; my LORD has forgotten me.”
Can a mother forget her infant, be without tenderness for the child of her womb?
Even should she forget, I will never forget you.

Psalm 62: 2-3, 6-7, 8-9
R. (6a) Rest in God alone, my soul.
Only in God is my soul at rest; from him comes my salvation.
He only is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold; I shall not be disturbed at all.
R. Rest in God alone, my soul.
Only in God be at rest, my soul, for from him comes my hope.
He only is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold; I shall not be disturbed.
R. Rest in God alone, my soul.
With God is my safety and my glory, he is the rock of my strength; my refuge is in God.
Trust in him at all times, O my people! Pour out your hearts before him.
R. Rest in God alone, my soul.

Second Reading - 1 Corinthians 4: 1-5
Brothers and sisters: Thus should one regard us: as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Now it is of course required of stewards that they be found trustworthy.
It does not concern me in the least that I be judged by you or any human tribunal; I do not even pass judgment on myself; I am not conscious of anything against me, but I do not thereby stand acquitted; the one who judges me is the Lord. Therefore do not make any judgment before the appointed time, until the Lord comes, for he will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will manifest the motives of our hearts, and then everyone will receive praise from God.

Gospel - Matthew 6: 24-34
Jesus said to his disciples: “No one can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink,
or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you more important than they?
Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your life-span? Why are you anxious about clothes? Learn from the way the wild flowers grow. They do not work or spin.
But I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was clothed like one of them.
If God so clothes the grass of the field, which grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow, will he not much more provide for you, O you of little faith? So do not worry and say, ‘What are we to eat?’ or ‘What are we to drink?’or ‘What are we to wear?’ All these things the pagans seek. Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides.
Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself. Sufficient for a day is its own evil.

Reflection

Running over 80 plays per game (that’s a lot) and with an average of only 23 seconds between them (that’s not very long), the Oregon offense under Head Coach Chip Kelly garnered a ton of national attention this past college football season. The Ducks made it all the way to the National Championship Game with this unusually fast-paced no-huddle offensive approach, averaging more points per game than any other team in the country. Their conference foes in the PAC-10 were completely overwhelmed by this potent assault, and opposing coaches no doubt have spent long hours in the film room trying to identify weaknesses in the attack and brainstorming with conditioning staff to devise ways to better prepare their players to face the Ducks this coming season.

Imagine the Head Coach at UCLA had come up with what he thought was a surefire plan to stifle the mighty Oregon offense. Then imagine that he shared his confidence with the team at the beginning of off-season practice, but insisted that the key to success would be the players focusing on their daily workouts with all their energy and not worrying about the game itself.

And yet, human nature being what it is, the UCLA players constantly are going up to the Coach, all throughout spring training and summer workouts, asking, “How are we going to account for the tempo in the 4th quarter of games? How are we going to substitute our defensive tackles quickly enough that we can get set in time for the next snap?” After all, Oregon pasted UCLA 60-13 last year, and the Bruins are eager to find out the strategy for victory this time around. And the Coach continually reminds the players that it’s his job to worry about all of that; their job is to keep doing the tackling drills and running the wind sprints at daily workouts that the coaching staff asks them to do. “Don’t worry about the Oregon game,” you could imagine the Coach saying, “Just focus on today’s practice.”

Today, we hear Jesus saying something similar to the disciples. They are excited. Jittery. Full of energy. Eager to be thrown into the game. And they keep asking him, “When are we gonna go to Jerusalem?” “When will we confront the Pharisees?” “That whole multiplication of the loaves thing was great; when are we gonna do that again?” If the first disciples are anything like we are today, they were anxious to know what was coming next; they wanted to hear the long-term plan.

And Jesus turns to them and quashes all of that. “Do not worry about tomorrow,” he tells them. “Tomorrow will take care of itself.” You could imagine how frustrating that must have been for the disciples to hear! Should they be preparing for a long journey? Should they expect to stay in the current village another month? Were they going to be going out and performing healings? What was coming next?

So why was Jesus pushing back at them and insisting they not worry about tomorrow? After all, it seems somewhat foolish to tell them not to plan ahead. And his words about God feeding the birds of the air and clothing the flowers of the field--what is that all about? Is God supposed to just leave a package of food and clothing on our doorstep each morning? How are we to understand his words?

In order to comprehend what Jesus is saying here, it is essential to understand what he is NOT saying, namely that we should just live for the moment and never worry about anything coming up in the future. He is not telling us we should shrug our shoulders and say, “Eh... the final exam isn’t until next week; let tomorrow take care of tomorrow, and God will provide.” He is not telling us that we don’t have to look for a job, pursue a relationship, or go about the business of daily life. Quite the opposite. His example of the flowers and birds is telling us that we should precisely go about taking care of our daily business.

What Jesus is saying is that, the bird doesn’t rack itself with anxiety about its long-term future. It merely does what birds do--it flies around, looks for food, builds a nest, and does all of the things that give it its daily purpose as a bird. And it is precisely in focusing on these bird-ly tasks that it finds it is fulfilled in all of its bird-ness. In doing what birds do, it discovers that it is fed, it has supplies for a home, and it has the opportunity to raise a family. Too, a plant is focused simply on growing and doing all of the things a plant does, i.e. using photosynthesis to convert the sunlight to energy and drawing water from the soil to grow, and precisely in doing those things, the plant discovers that, because of the way it was designed by God, it flowers and reaches its fulfillment as a plant.

Jesus is saying the same thing to us. He is not calling us to inactivity or passivity; he is emphatically not advocating that we just languish in life and wait for God to feed us or clothe us. Rather, he is saying that, if, like the bird and plant, we go about carrying out the daily tasks that are in keeping with our design and trust in that approach, we will realize we have all that we need and that we are flourishing and fulfilled. Precisely in going to school, interacting with others, cultivating our health and musical interests, we will discover that we are “blossoming,” and that God puts things in our lives to bring us fulfillment, not as a bird, but as a human being.

One could imagine the UCLA coach saying to his players, “Don’t worry about how we’ll substitute in the 4th quarter; just do your conditioning drills now, and you’re going to find when the game rolls around, that precisely in doing the day-to-day workouts I’ve given you, you are ready for this game, without even realizing it.”
Jesus said to the disciples, stop working yourself into a ball of stress over when we’ll go into Jerusalem, and how that’ll all work out. Just do the task of today--talk to the people of this village, listen to the stories they share--and you’re going to realize that all of this stuff right now I am asking you to do is preparing you for what’s coming next. Let me worry about long-term plans--your job is just to do the very best you can with the current assignment.

God says the same thing to us today. Don’t worry about where you’ll meet your future husband or wife; stop working yourself into a ball of anxiety over whether you’ll get into law school or if you’ll find a job--for right now, just focus on the tasks in front of you today. Cultivate the relationships you currently have--and be open to the ones God puts in your life (just as the bird keeps its eyes open and is prepared to spot a meal it sees in the grass below that it did not expect to be there)--and you will find that God “feeds” you, that God “clothes” you. That if we focus on being a good friend and being open to human relationship around us, God will place the “right” person in our lives.

And that, rather than stress about whether we will get into law school or if we will find a job, that precisely in studying for this final or focusing on our LSAT class today, that that very activity will be what results in us getting into law school or being offered a job. Perhaps we put aside the worry about where we’ll be hired, and we throw so much energy into our current paper, that, once our professor reads it, she comes to us and says, “I’ve just finished your paper, and a friend of mine at Princeton has asked me to identify someone for this fellowship she has to offer... and based on your research, I see here, I think you would be a great fit.”

Precisely in taking notes in class--rather than worrying about the final, we will find ourselves learning the material and thus preparing ourselves for the final. Precisely in running the drills--and not worrying about the Oregon game--the players will discover that they have been prepared for the game. Precisely in doing what it is God is asking us to do right now in our lives--instead of racking ourselves with anxiety over what’s coming next-- we trust that we will come to see, in retrospect, that it was part of God’s plan precisely to get us ready for what is to come. “Tomorrow will take care of itself,” is not a call to passivity--it is a call to great activity. And a trust that that activity will yield precisely the sort of fulfillment and happiness that we’re trying to attain.

Reflection Questions
1. Are there any areas of your life that you are currently very stressed about? School? Dating? Jobs? What do you think Jesus in today’s Gospel has to say to you about those areas?
2. Do you find it difficult to trust in God’s plan and to give that anxiety for the future over to God? How have you tried to deal with that stress or anxiety?
3. In your past experience, when you have focused on the tasks in front of you and trusted in God to take care of the big picture, have you found that it worked out? If not, what do you think was going on? If so, how did it feel when things all came together?
4. Moving forward, how might you do a better job of letting “tomorrow take care of tomorrow?” What concrete steps can you take to worry less about the future?

7th Sunday in Ordinary Time - 20 February 2011

The Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time [Cycle A] - Click here for readings

Fulfilling your purpose

Any time you join an organization, club, fraternity, or team, you’re likely going to want to know, “What is going to be expected of me as a member?” For instance, if you were on a varsity athletic team at the University of Michigan, the Coach and Athletic Director would sit you and the rest of your teammates down prior to the start of the season and articulate their expectations for your behavior both on and off the court/field/playing surface. Those expectations almost certainly will go above and beyond what is asked of “normal” students. For instance, you may be required to attend mandatory study sessions in an academic center, or you might be prohibited from attending certain types of parties or social functions. You may be restricted in your ability to speak to the media or post publicly on facebook.

The same would be the case if you rushed a fraternity/sorority, tried out for an a cappella group, or signed up to live in an inter-faith Co-Op. By asking to become part of this group, you are taking on a different set of responsibilities than those already applying to you simply by virtue of your status as a student. Members of the US Military, elected officials, and foreign diplomats all receive a code of ethics unique to their respective organization, much the same as doctors with a valid medical license, lawyers who belong to a bar association, and accountants certified to practice publicly in America. Joining a group confers particular prerogatives and privileges, but it also entails additional responsibilities and requirements. You are expected to behave a certain way.

Any time you join an organization, club, fraternity, or team, you’re likely going to want to know, “What is going to be expected of me as a member?” For instance, if you were on a varsity athletic team at the University of Michigan, the Coach and Athletic Director would sit you and the rest of your teammates down prior to the start of the season and articulate their expectations for your behavior both on and off the court/field/playing surface. Those expectations almost certainly will go above and beyond what is asked of “normal” students. For instance, you may be required to attend mandatory study sessions in an academic center, or you might be prohibited from attending certain types of parties or social functions. You may be restricted in your ability to speak to the media or post publicly on facebook.

The same would be the case if you rushed a fraternity/sorority, tried out for an a cappella group, or signed up to live in an inter-faith Co-Op. By asking to become part of this group, you are taking on a different set of responsibilities than those already applying to you simply by virtue of your status as a student. Members of the US Military, elected officials, and foreign diplomats all receive a code of ethics unique to their respective organization, much the same as doctors with a valid medical license, lawyers who belong to a bar association, and accountants certified to practice publicly in America. Joining a group confers particular prerogatives and privileges, but it also entails additional responsibilities and requirements. You are expected to behave a certain way.

In today’s Gospel, we find Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, articulating the guiding principles for membership in the community of believers who were making an intentional commitment to follow him. Jesus has just finished reciting the Beatitudes—that is, he’s just told them all of the perks of membership. “Happy/Blessed/Most fulfilled” are those who live their life this way, Jesus has attested. “Sounds great!” you could imagine the listeners enthusiastically responding, “So what do we have to do to get in on this happiness thing?” Jesus proceeds to lay out a series of ethical requirements for membership in this community, and they probably would’ve left the original hearers speechless. The normative guidelines elucidated by Jesus in this passage underpin the entire Christian way-of-being in the world.

In Catholic ethics, moral actions traditionally are divided into four categories: (1) prohibited, (2) permitted, (3) obligatory, and (4) heroic. Prohibited acts are those moral behaviors that are not allowed, e.g. lying, stealing, and killing. Obligatory acts are those that we are required to do, e.g. if we overhear a conversation in which two college guys indicate their intention to drug a girl at a party, we are morally obligated to take some action. Permitted acts, or morally indifferent acts, are ones that in themselves are neutral, like whether we decide to go to work on our paper on Sunday afternoon before heading to Church, or whether we choose to work on it Sunday night, after Mass. Heroic or saintly acts, are those that are not REQUIRED by the moral law, but which are morally praiseworthy and virtuous, e.g. if you are walking down the street and there is a building on fire, and a woman indicates that there is still a young child trapped up on the 3rd floor—as a passerby, you would not be morally obligated to run into the burning building, but certainly it would be a very noble and self-less act.

This last category of moral actions—ones in which we go above and beyond the minimal requirements of the moral law—are what philosophers refer to as superogatory acts. (Aside: In Kantianism and Utilitarianism, there is no such thing as a superogatory act.) It is this sort of action—in which we find ourselves doing more than what is called for—that Jesus sets down as THE defining ethical distinctiveness of his followers. Jesus says, You’ve heard both what the civil law requires and what the prevailing cultural norms entail, but I am going to establish a whole new standard for behavior. It would be as though a guy on a college campus announced to his peers: “You’ve heard it said, ‘Don’t be an asshole,’” but I say to you, “Be a GOOD guy.” You’ve been told not to deliberately get a girl inebriated and hook up with her, but I say, actively foster a community where guys create a healthy, respectful dating scene focused on the emotional, physical, and holistic well-being of the girls you encounter.

Membership in this organization we call “the Church,” that is, the entire community of believers worldwide, both past and present, who announce publicly their intention to model their lives after the teachings of Jesus Christ, compels us to a superogatory ethic, a way-of-being in the world that goes above and beyond merely obeying laws. At times, the challenge can feel overwhelming and impossible, particular when Jesus ends this exhortation with the call to be “perfect,” “as your Heavenly Father is perfect.” Yikes! That sounds impossible! And yet, with a bit more unpacking, it becomes more clear what Jesus was really getting at.

The Greek word for perfect here is teleios, which means purposive or fulfilled in its end. It comes from the noun, “telos,” which means end or purpose, in a functional manner. The telos of a hammer is to drive nails into a wall; the telos of a violin is to produce musical notes; the telos of a human, as Jesus has just explained to us in the Beatitudes, is to flourish! Just as a wood worker creates a violin for the telos of producing music, or a technician produces a hammer to drive nails, God, the cosmic craftsman, has created us with an express purpose—to flourish in this life and join him in the next. Therefore, Jesus urge might be re-phrased as, “Strive to fulfill your purpose just as your Heavenly Father purposefully made you!”

The sort of ethical living Jesus is calling us to is not an oppressive, burdensome set of maximalist moral norms meant to make us feel like we are never doing enough and induce anxiety, e.g. I need to sign up for more community service; I need to be a more focused student; I need to be a better friend—rather it is a way of existing in relationship to those around us where we are always focused on how we might best contribute to the common flourishing of the entire community. And, the absolutely amazing part about it is—that precisely in being focused on this sort of community flourishing, we will be fulfilling our own purpose, and will thus attain an unequaled happiness in doing so.

Reflection Questions

1. What might it look like for you, personally, to “turn the other cheek” and “give also your tunic?” People probably don’t punch you very often (and Jesus likely didn’t mean that saying literally), so how can YOU “turn the other cheek?”

2. Do you ever feel like you are not doing enough? Like you need to be a better person? Does this cause anxiety within you? How might Jesus respond to those feelings?

3. Do you ever think about your telos, i.e. your purpose? We all share a common telos—to flourish in this world and join God in the next—but we also have a unique telos that might be correlated to our particular vocation. How are you called to fulfill your purpose?

6th Sunday in Ordinary Time - 13 February 2011

The Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time [Cycle A] - Click here for the readings

"Everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery in his heart."

Much of Jesus’ teachings on morality can be summed up as such: intentions matter. Your internal way of being—what’s in your heart—is as important (if not more so) than your external actions. Most philosophical traditions agree. Nearly every major moral theory distinguishes between the act in itself and the underlying intention of the agent. For instance, the objective act might be that of shooting the family dog. But the evaluation of the morality of that action most likely will hinge upon whether or not the dog was suffering excruciating pain from cancer or if someone in the family simply got sick of the dog and decided to get rid of it. One we might classify as sympathetic and humane; the other as selfish and cruel.

Most criminal law codes concern themselves primarily with external acts and only, to a secondary degree, do they consider intentionality. The traffic cop does not usually care whether you were going 90 on the highway to get to your niece’s birthday party or whether you were speeding to show off the acceleration of your new Camaro—either way, the penalty is identical and you’re probably getting a ticket. Likewise, “good” intentions won’t get you off the hook for shoplifting a dress from the mall, even if you planned on giving it to a poor friend to wear at an upcoming wedding. But Jesus isn’t talking about the laws that hold together a society—he’s talking about a whole code of ethics that supercedes merely getting along with others and not devolving into utter chaos. He is talking about a way of being that leads to becoming a happier, more fulfilled human person, both intrinsic to oneself and in relationship with others.

It’s not enough to not hit someone, Jesus says—if you harbor anger in your heart towards that person, that’s every bit as problematic. There are two words for anger in the Greek: thumos and orge. Thumos is the instant, pre-cognitive emotional reaction one feels to a situation. For instance, you find out, upon coming home after class, that someone has burglarized your apartment and stolen your laptop, or you are out with friends and you hear a random stranger at the bar call one of your close friends a nasty name after she has declined his offer to buy her a drink. There is a natural emotional response to this; it would almost be un-human for something like this not to elicit a visceral displeasure. Orge, by contrast, is the word that Jesus uses in this passage, and it means a long-simmering grudge towards another. Orge goes beyond “getting pissed off” in a given moment. It is a deliberately clung-to feeling of intense animosity that festers in one’s heart and poisons any good will one might feel towards another. It is this type of seething resentment that Jesus identifies as antithetical to internal harmony, external peace, and overall flourishing. God did not create us simply to “make it through the day” or to “manage not to punch anyone.” Even if we never act (i.e. take physical action) on that anger in our hearts, it is—with or without our knowledge—poisoning us from the inside and preventing us from being truly happy.

Jesus is not so much worried about whether or not you break what we would call the (criminal) law, that is the laws of our respective society—there are other people (police) who can worry about that. He’s more concerned with whether or not we’re happy, i.e. flourishing.

And so it is not enough simply to not commit adultery, he goes on to say. Rather, if we so much as look at another person with lust, we imperil the harmony in our heart. Once again, going back to the original Greek text—with its particular cultural paradigm—is important (lest we think all teenagers everywhere should start cutting off body parts). The way it is phrased, Jesus is not talking about the natural, uncontrollable human urge to be attracted sexually to others around us. Rather, he is condemning the intentional pursuit of this sort of physical fixation and reduction of persons to objects for our sexual gratification. It’s one thing to go to the gym and notice all of the fit bodies around you; it’s quite another to wait in line for the elliptical and fantasize about all of the girls/guys in workout attire.

The type of “anger” and “lust” Jesus is here condemning are not the fleeting, unavoidable, hormone-driven responses that evolutionary biology has built into our makeup. Rather, they are the deliberately cultivated attitudes or heart-sets that permeate our daily interactions and adulterate our relationship with others. These types of obsessions serve as impediments to achieving internal peace and ultimate happiness. It’s impossible for you to cling to a burning resentment or contempt of another and still love that person as a fellow child of God, even if we manage to be civil in polite company. Again, it’s simply not feasible to love our girlfriend (or other female friends… or our sister… ) the way they deserve to be loved if we allow ourselves to focus overly on the sexual attributes of the girls in our lives or on our screens. Jesus today challenges us, in our contemporary culture, to identify those things in our heart—enmity, jealousy, superiority, contempt, lust—that prevent us from being truly happy and to replace them instead with the sort of life-giving activities that cause us to grow into the person we were created to be.

Reflection Questions

1. Have you ever harbored the sort of long-held anger or resentment in your heart that Jesus talks about in today’s Gospel? Have you been able to let it go? How? Do you feel better, worse, or unchanged since then?

2. Are there any other types of fixations—jealousy, pride, contempt, lust, etc.—that you struggle with? What might be some possible ways to root out those negative feelings and replace them with life-giving ones?

3. In your mind, is there more to being a “good person,” than obeying the law? Do internal states matter? Do intentions? Are they more important than external physical acts?