Young Adult Catholics

This Sunday’s readings:
http://www.usccb.org/nab/072008.shtml

“Whoever has ears ought to hear!” Like last weekend, we hear these words of Jesus in this week’s continuation of the Gospel of Matthew and the telling of more parables. It’s a good point, since we, having heard these stories so many times, sometimes forget their original purpose.  The secret of Jesus’ parables (and those of others in the Ancient Near East, as well as since then) is the fact that they turn on ambiguity, paradox, and the unexpected. 

For example, no one expected the landowner in one of this weekend’s parables, who got weeds sown through his wheat by an enemy, to simply let them co-exist until harvest time.  The culture of the day was such that someone born into a family inherited the family’s friends as well as its hated enemies and was honor bound to respond in kind to such a terrible deed as trying to destroy someone’s crops (terrible because it threatened the livelihood and survival of the landowner’s family).   Most people at that time, hearing Jesus’ parable, would have expected the landowner to strike back at his enemy in revenge.  But Jesus instead presents a response of patience and forbearance toward the weeds and suggests a path, not of retaliation, but co-optation.  The enemy wanted to destroy the man’s crops.  Instead, by leaving the weeds in place until harvest, the wheat is stronger for having had to compete for the soil’s nutrients and the weeds can be used for fire fuel – an ingenious reversal that shows a different way of living that can make good come forth from all things, even things done with evil intent.

All of the other parables from the Gospel and the other readings this week can be seen as stories about how we can at times wield power poorly and how God wields power. The first reading helps us begin to understand: “For your might is the source of justice; your mastery over all things makes you lenient to all.” 

For God, justice and mercy are parts of a whole, and they always go together.  Thus, the reading from Wisdom, and even the parables from Matthew – are ultimately about power. But this is not power as it is understood in our world of “power brokers” and those who wield power over others, or who claim to wield it “for” others.  It is not a commodity to be bought and sold.  It is now, as it always has been, about relationships and how they are formed and sustained (or not).  In the case of God, the justice and mercy that are part of God’s “mastery” over all things is not about bending people to God’s will but of exercising justice and mercy in ways that make sense for putting relationships of all kinds back together again.

Unlike, God, however, we don’t always see justice and mercy together. We are broken people and we sometimes see in broken ways.  We prefer one to the other rather than imagining how both must go together. Think of how some politicians today speak of bringing some people “to justice!” Now, think about what that phrase means when seen in light of the passage from the Book of Wisdom above! Think of your own experiences.  I know that when someone wrongs me, I’m usually much more interested in justice than compassion!  I don’t have the disposition of mind and heart to consider that the righting of the wrong committed is not just about restitution but about relationship.  That is why I support and speak highly of the work of organizations like the Franciscan Pace e Bene program, which invites people to see nonviolence as a way to exercise power, just without coercion.  They help show the links between compassion and justice, between truth-telling and dialogue, and CTA has partnered with them at a number of its national conferences because of this important message.  It is an insight that our world sorely needs.

One doesn’t have to look far as the election season takes shape to see that justice or mercy do not always find their way to the top of our national agenda.  Is perhaps part of the problem that we ourselves have seen few models of this type of wisdom in our personal or communal lives?  Or if we have, do we dismiss the possibilities of trying to live in this way as impractical, expedient, unwise, too costly, unpatriotic?

The truth is, none of this is new to us.  The reading from Wisdom may also have been a challenge to the Israelites who first heard it, struggling in a time of national rebuilding after a long exile – wondering if God was either just or  merciful, given the hardships they and their loved ones had faced.  Yet, here is presented a vision of an expansion, inclusive, compassionate love, not just for Israel, but for all people – friends, strangers, undocumented immigrants, family enemies, national enemies … everyone.  The call of God in this reading to Israel is unmistakable: “And you taught your people, by these deeds, that those who are just must be kind!”

For those seeking renewal and transformation in church and society this is a lesson that must be learned over and over again as we struggle in the face of circumstances and situations that seem to tell us that these virtues are opposed.  Or we face those who, embittered by anger and experiences of pain and suffering, cannot understand the value in being just and compassionate towards others, even when it is not reciprocated. 

There are other parables in this weekend’s Gospel as well, and they take us deeper into an understanding of personal and collective power and its use – if we have “ears to hear.”

The parable of the mustard seed that grows to become the most persistent of plants and the woman baker who uses just a little yeast to leaven the whole dough are, we are told by Jesus, mirrors of God’s Reign.  Could the message be any simpler? Small things matter! Today, physicists and astronomers speak of chaos theory (or the ”butterfly effect”) and ruminate on how small, almost insignificant, natural forces can have profound long term large – even planetary or galactic – results.  Being attentive to seemingly small things – the daily building of relationships; faithfulness in our work projects; attention to the needs of the poor through direct service; work done behind the scenes on a collaborative project; struggling to stay in a church community that isn’t what I would hope it to be but working day by day through deed and word to give new voice and shape to it  – all of these are the subjects of contemporary “parables” that can invite us into a deeper faith in God and a deeper commitment to justice, compassion, and the right use of the truly remarkable power each of us has. They can be the small pieces of our lives that have lasting effects well beyond what we can dream or imagine. Our call this week seems to be to remain faithful to the small and ordinary stuff of life and attentive enough to find God at work in it, or at least trusting in God’s presence within it, even if it is not apparant.

Failing that, we allow distractions to determine our use of time all too easily.  Failing that, we allow the reactions and responses of others to control our own.  Failing that, our own “parables” don’t have a faith-restoring twist; they become deadening routines of the same.  Failing that, we allow others to strip us of our God-given power to be justice-seekers and mercy-givers … and so dis-empower ourselves and those we are called to serve. 

This disempowerment is no abstract idea.  It is real for far to many in our world who do not see themselves as people of power – God-given power – for true and lasting transformation of our world. Indeed, sometimes our own prayers are simply that inward sigh of the Spirit St. Paul talks about.  But the presence of that same Spirit is a reminder that, even in our weakness, we can find power, that is, we can find ways of relating to one another that are integral, holy, and whole.  Let us pray for each other this week that we all come to a deeper awareness of this so that we too, with Jesus, can “proclaim what has been hidden from the foundation of the world.”