The Killing Fields

Gospel: Matthew 5: 20-26

On the surface of things, the commandment against killing and murder seems easy.  Just don't violently murder someone and you're good with this commandment, right?  Well, not so fast.  Jesus tells us that we may not be angry with others, and we ought not speak ill of others.  And if we have a dispute with our neighbor to resolve it amicably, to be forgiving and seek mutual understanding so as to avoid any ill feelings and conflict.  Now the commandment is much harder.

Yet there is great depth of wisdom to what Jesus says here.  Consider all the many excuses and "exceptions" we create to this commandment against killing.  We justify war every time we engage in it.  We do the same for capital punishment and other state violence.  We have even justified genocide, slavery, and other horrid practices that kill our neighbor in body and soul.  The commandment is one we have really ignored and debased.  

We come to these atrocities because we have not attended to these smaller matters Jesus enjoins upon us in this Gospel portion.  When we look upon others as less than us, as objects and inhuman.  Jesus reminds us that every single human being is an image and likeness of God, as a son or daughter of God, a temple of the Holy Spirit.  If we fail to do so, then the murder in our heart lurks, leading to the bloodshed we claim is so easy to avoid.   

Asking and Receiving

Gospel: Matthew 7: 7-12

As self-interested beings we see this Gospel passage as about ourselves and what we can obtain from God in prayer.  We bring our petitions before God like a child bringing her list of toy requests to Santa: we want material things, relief from problems, healing from ailments, and mercy for our sins.  Our lists and demands are endless and incessant, and we believe we will receive these things because this passage tells us so, or the part that we choose for our focus.  

But perhaps this passage isnt' about prayer or our own self-interested pursuits therein.  Perhaps it is more about how we treat others.  We want God to give us all these things noted above, but are we willing to grant similar things to others?  We want material things - are we sharing such with others? We want relief and healing and mercy, but are we extending those things to other people? We cannot expect to receive such things if we ourselves are engrossed in a selfish suburban lifestyle.

Jesus went about providing healing, liberation, and nourishment to all sorts of people - friend and foe, native and foreigner, neighbor and stranger.  Jesus received nothing in return for such care for others.  He calls us to live such a life of mercy as well, a life not governed by self-intesrest but one animated by solidarity and the common good.  When we go to God with these requests for ourselves, let us remember how we are called to provide such to others in their need.   

The Call to Repentance

Gospel: Luke 11: 29-32

We seek a sign, just as the people of Jesus' day did.  We get the same answer: no sign will be given to us except the sign of Jonah.  We misinterpret this sentence.  We believe it refers to Jonah being in the whale for three days, just as Jesus would be in the belly of the earth for three days, only to rise again.  But this is false.  Jesus makes it clear that the sign of Jonah is much more uncomfortable for us than we would like to admit or accept.

Jonah is called by God to to the Gentile city of Nineveh to invite them to repentance.  Jonah reluctantly does so, and to his chagrin the people do repent, at a time when Israel was ignoring and even killing prophets who brought them the same invitation.  Jesus too came to invite us to repentance, and as in Jonah's day those who accepted the invitation were somewhat surprising, while those who did not accept the invitation were allegedly self-righteous and religious.  

The invitation to repentance is extended to us in our day.  We are invited to do so through works of mercy for others - to the hungry and thirsty; to the naked and homeless; to the sick and imprisoned; to the immgrant, refugee, and migrant.  And, by and large, we find similar patterns of acceptance and rejection of this invitation.  The self-righteous religious spurn the invitation while others take up the message of Jesus and carry it out in their lives.  Lent is our time to make this choice.