When I was in middle school I played on our Catholic school baseball team. It happened one Saturday that we were scheduled to play a game at 11am against my cousin's team, but it had rained for a few days prior. Our coach called us the night before the game, asking us to be at the field at 8am to prepare the field for the game because the grounds crew did not do so. Upon arriving at the field we saw standing water in the dirt infield and we asked our coach how we were going to fix the problem. He ordered us to step back, and he took a can of gasoline, poured it over the dirt infield, then set it ablaze. The field dried almost instantly, and we resumed our work in preparing the field for the game, which we wound up winning 11-1.
That event from my childhood came to mind as I reflected on the first and second reading. In many ways we could have said to our coach that it wasn't fair for him to expect us to work for two hours preparing the field, then play a seven inning baseball game and win. Yet, he did expect it of us and we did it. In burning that field it seemed like the stubble of the fields burned away by the justice of God so that only good soil would remain for new growth to take place. Paul's injunction to work was certainly evident in our coach's expectation of us to be both the grounds staff and the time that will win the game on the field we prepped. Neither the game itself nor the victory we achieved would have been possible without our work to prepare the field for play.
The responsorial Psalm provides us with the theme for today's Mass, a theme I learned on that ball field twenty eight years ago: The Lord comes to rule the earth with justice. Justice is not fairness because fairness is subjective in nature. It wasn't fair that we had to prepare that field, but it was a just deed we performed. In the same way the purveyors of iniquity will say that it isn't fair that God will punish them for oppressing the poor and acting selfishly, but it will be just because everyone deserves a share in the fruits of the earth.
One might argue that the Gospel text does not deal with justice, but we must pay attention to the setting of the story: people were marvelling at the wealth of the Temple and the majesty of the sacrificial rites. Jesus then reminds his audience that none of this opulence matters. All of it will be destroyed, and indeed it all was destroyed by the Roman invasion of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. What matters in our lives isn't the adornments and ceremonies of religion but rather it is performing the justice of God in our lives that is important.
In our own day the "liturgical wars" have taken their toll on the casualty count of the faith community. The liturgy of the Church is a means to an end, not an end itself. The rites of the Church are designed to effect what they signify in those who participate in them, for in each of them there is the fundamental call to serve God and neighbor in our everyday lives. If we are not becoming more just and loving servants of the Lord Jesus then perhaps the fault lies not in the liturgy itself but rather in our outlook on the liturgy. Do we come with clipboard ready to critique the liturgical celebration and see nothing beyond the rite itself? Or, do we approach the liturgy with the attitude of the humble student ready to learn what the Church provides for us in the liturgical celebration - in the prayers, scripture texts, and gestures of the worshipping community? As in the parable of the Pharisee and Publican, the latter will go away justified.
My baseball coach used the work and fire to teach us a valuable life lesson. Jesus uses the stark image of the destruction of the Temple to remind his audience what is really important - what is really the justice of God. We pray for the grace to ever seek the justice of God in our lives and in our world: "Father in heaven, ever-living source of all that is good, from the beginning of time you promised man salvation through the future coming of your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Help us to drink of his truth and expand our hearts with the joy of his promises, so that we may serve you in faith and in love and know forever the joy of your presence. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen." (Opening Prayer)
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