The Fairness Doctrine - 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A

Students of American history will be familiar with the title - fairness doctrine. It was the policy of the Federal Communications Commission from the late 1940's stating that a broadcast company, radio or tv, had to air both sides of a controversial issue in a fair and balanced way. It was designed to guarantee a diversity of viewpoints and failure to do so was subject to FCC enforcement, which the Supreme Court held to be valid in a decision on the matter in the late 1960's. Interestingly enough, the fairness doctrine has been officially abolished and is no longer a policy of the FCC.

Today's first reading and gospel texts present us with the theological version of the fairness doctrine. Here, the principle is whether God should extend mercy to the lifelong sinner who repents and whether God should punish the lifelong person of virtue who falls from grace. The prophet Ezekiel presents the fairness doctrine in rather stark and straightforward terms: no mercy will be granted to the virtuous man who commits iniquity, while mercy will be extended to the reprobate who repents at the end.

Jesus, however, nuances the discussion just a bit. He presents the case of two brothers who are asked to carry out a command of their father. The first son promises to do so, but he does not follow through on the promise. The second son, on the other hand, refuses to do so, but late on thinks better of it and fulfills the command of the father. Once again, the fairness doctrine is set in rather straightforward terms: it is the person who actually carries out the will of God in his or her life through actions and deeds who is faithful to the Father. Lip service alone does not cut it; positive actions are what counts.

Lest we go away feeling good about ourselves and our understanding of God's will, we still must consider the second reading from Paul's letter to the Philippians. If we are to follow the will of God, we must imitate the one who did so perfectly in his life, the Lord Jesus. While actions are important and essential in fulfilling the will of God, so too is the attitude with which we carry out these actions. Jesus, the son of the living God, while on earth did not exalt himself or set himself as God's equal. Jesus renounces any claim to honor and titles. Instead, he lowered himself to the status of a slave, taking our place in dying for our transgressions. Our attitudes must be that of the Lord Jesus, otherwise our external actions will have no value whatsoever.

Paul's letter to the Philippians was a moral exhortation to his favorite community, and yet morality is never separate from Christ. As Karl Rahner points out in referring to Paul in this letter: "When he is preaching about morals he is thinking of Christ, when he is thinking about Christians and when he is thinking about the rest of mankind, he thinks of the Lord. He thinks of the Lord as of one someone nearby, someone who once lived among us and has simply gone away and is in heaven; he thinks of the Lord as of one abiding with us in his Spirit, in his word, in his brother and sister, as of one who is coming, who would penetrate ever further into our lives, who would absorb our lives ever more completely in himself, who with his Spirit and his power, with his own history which is still going on, is engaged in one tremendous advent. And he is close to us as well, in the destiny that leads our lives toward a single goal, to death and to judgment, which may be nearer than we think. The Lord is near. He is close to all of us. Are we close to him?" (Biblical Homilies, p. 139)

It is a strange phenomenon that someone can be close to you, but you are not close to them. How often do our children try to snuggle close to their parents, and sometimes we embrace them in return and we share that closeness, while at other times our minds are elsewhere and we only share an incidental closeness of space. God seeks to embrace us fully. May we return that embrace fully in our words, actions, and attitudes. We pray together with the Church throughout the world: "Let us pray for the peace of the kingdom which we have been promised. Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, in your unbounded mercy you have revealed the beauty of your power through your constant forgiveness of our sins. May the power of this love be in our hearts to bring your pardon and your kingdom to all we meet. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen."

An Attitude of Gratitude - 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A

A few years ago I was invited to give a reflection on an aspect of Catholic Social Teaching to a group of youth ministers, so I chose the idea of gratitude since it has spiritual applications as well. The reflection began by giving several wrapped gifts to some of the attendees, none of whom, by the way, thanked me for the gifts. The gifts were snacks, a DVD movie, and other things to share with others. After they opened the gifts I asked them what they were going to do with the gifts. All said they would enjoy the gifts; none said they would share their gifts with others. When we pointed out the obligation in Catholic teaching to share, the group instead moved to complain about how much they make in salary. Needless to say, gratitude was not in the room that day.

The event came to mind in looking at the Gospel text for this Sunday. Jesus compares the reign of God to an owner who goes out to hire people for his vineyard. To provide context, it is important to know that throughout many parts of the country day laborers are the dominant profession of the lower classes. If you visit Turkey, for example, you will see people standing about waiting for someone to hire them for the day or the week. Their entire livelihood depends upon being selected to work for someone, and so they are extremely vulnerable. If they do not get chosen, they and their families cannot eat. Many immigrants right here in Kansas City try to earn a living as day laborers, as it is their custom from their countries of origin.

In any case, workers came to the vineyard at various points in the day to work, and when the day was over the owner came and paid everyone the same daily rate, regardless of the number of hours worked. Those who worked all day did not thank the owner for being employed at all. Instead, they took the opportunity to complain about the injustice of being paid the same as those who worked less than they had. Instead of seeing the owner as generous to those who worked fewer hours, they saw him as parsimonious for not paying them more. The real injustice in the story, however, is not in the action of the owner, but in the lack of gratitude in those who worked the entire day.

In the grand scheme of things, God owes us nothing. He was under no obligation to create anything - but he chose to do so in order to share his being and his love with the entire cosmos. When humankind on our planet fell into sin, again God was under no obligation to redeem the human race through Jesus his Son. Somehow we have developed the idea in modern Christianity that God owes us something, that we are entitled to his beneficence. Yet, God freely chose to extend his mercy upon us and to show the ultimate example of love in the person of Jesus. We in no way have earned this gift. Indeed, we can state with the prophet Isaiah - "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord."

The great spiritual writer Thomas Merton said that the heart of the Christian life is gratitude. In fact, the Second Vatican Council asserted that the source and summit of the Christian life is the Eucharist, a word that means thanksgiving. The entire Christian life is one of dependence upon God and gratitude to him for all that he has done for us. In being ever grateful to God for all, we thereby fulfill the command of Paul in the second reading: "Conduct yourselves in a way worthy of the gospel of Christ." Jesus the Lord humbled himself to become one of us, and humility then is essentially tied to our dependence upon God and our gratitude to him for all that we have and are. Merton's contrast of the humble man and the proud man speaks to the Gospel call today: "The humble man loves himself, and seeks to be loved and honored, not because love and honor are due to him, but because they are not due to him. He seeks to be loved by the mercy of God....The proud man loves his own illusion and self-sufficiency. The spiritually poor man loves his very insufficiency. The proud man claims honor for having what no one else has. The humble man begs for a share in what everyone else has received. He too desires to be filled to overflowing with the kindness and mercy of God." (Thoughts in Solitude, p. 44-45)

As we seek to live a life of dependence, gratitude, and humility, let us join our hearts to the prayer of the Church in the liturgy today: "Let us pray to God that he may attune our thoughts and actions to his own. Lord our God, you say of yourself that you are good with a love that surpasses even justice. Thank you for accepting the little ones as much as the great, those who turn to you at the last hour as well as the laborers who have toiled all our lives. Open us more to the free gift of your grace, make us accept them with gratitude and appreciate how liberally you give to others. Turn our ways into your ways of love. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen."