The Present Need

Gospel:  Matthew 9: 18-26

A synagogue official - a man of importance, influence and power in his society - asks Jesus to bring his daughter back to life.  Jesus agrees to do so.  However, along the way a woman suffering from a gynecological issue that makes her ever unclean, approaches Jesus with the hope of being healed.  Jesus stops to take the time to heal the woman and converse with her for a time.  He then continues along the way to the official's house.  

If Jesus gave priority to the synagogue official because of his status and influence, he would have neglected the needs of this poor woman.  Yet, Jesus is ever attendant to the present moment and who is before him in the here and now.  What is more, Jesus' intervention represents his preferential option for the poor.  He did not make the woman wait until he was finished at the official's house.  Jesus instead stopped to meet her needs first - an unnamed woman who was unclean and unapproachable.  

The actions of Jesus in this Gospel portion lead us to reflect on our own lives.  Do we consider the needs of the influential to be more important than those of the poor? Are we attentive to the present moment and the needs that present themselves there? Our ministry and way of life as followers of Jesus must mirror those he embodied.  The needs of poor and vulnerable must be our first priority, and the present moment must be given attention at all times. 

Weary and Burdened

Gospel: Matthew 11: 25-30

Come, all who labor and who are burdened.  This is an invitation to the vast majority of the world population.  Those who do not labor and who are not burdened are the wealthy who create the labor and burdens of so many.  Jesus and his family were themselves laborers.  They were aware of the work and the burdens heaped upon the mass of humanity by occupiers and oppressors of every kind.  He saw the desperation it often created.  He wanted to ease this burden.

The mission of Jesus and, by extension, his disciples is to ease the burden and oppression of the working masses.  How often is it the case that the Church fulfills this mission?  Have we instead ourselves been those who create weariness and burdens for others?  Could this be the reason we see a decline in religion over the past century or so?  These questions give us pause and a great deal of material for an examen on our ministry and relationship to the great mass of humanity.  

At the same time, we can reflect on the many ways we can provide such rest and ease from the burdens of life.  Beginning with sacramental ministry and how we might expand such opportunities and access, to the ministries of hospitality and social assistance there is much we can and must do for humanity that faces much distress and exploitation.  It is the task of every Christian, the task of every parish, to continue this ministry of Jesus in the world today. 

Religion of Ego

Gospel:  Matthew 9: 14-17

How often do we make ourselves the measure and standard of religious practice?  How often do we measure other people by what they do or do not do in comparison with our own practices?  This is what takes place in today's Gospel portion.  Disciples of John the Baptist and the Pharisees say to Jesus:  We fast all the time - why don't your disciples do as we do?  Of course some Scripture or tradition will be invoked to justify ourselves, but the reality is that we make ourselves the standard for all others to follow.

Jesus gives two metaphors to describe what is happening here.  The first is placing a patch on a garment with a hole in it to pass it off as usable and even good as new.  The second is the attempt to pour new wine into an old wineskin - another attempt to pass off as new and good what is not.  The disciples of the Baptist and the Pharisees need a whole new being, not patches and old wineskins.  The appeal to Scripture, tradition, or particular practices have no meaning if they do not make us new beings divinized and illumined.  

When we make ourselves the measure of all things, it is certain we have not been illumined and divinized by God.  We are not a new being, but one passing ourselves off as such.  We can don religious finery, revel in ornate ritual, invoke Scripture and tradition to justify ourselves and claim we are better than those other people.  But if we not have love, if we not have the mercy of God as our animating principle, we have not been made anew, we have not been illumined or divinized.  We are merely another religion of the ego.