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?
