Sunday Homily, February 16, 2014, 6th Ordinary Time, Cycle A
Readings:
Sirach 15, 15-20, Before man are life and death, good and evil.
Psalm 119, Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord.
1 Corinthians 2, 6-10, We speak a wisdom to those who are mature.
Matthew 5, 17-37, If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away.
Observations: on Psalm 119, on Matthew 5, and, first, on Sirach—
What: This is one of those 12 odd books in between the Old and the New Testament.
Author: a Jewish teacher called Joshua. The only identified author in the whole Old Testament. He tells us who he is, that he is a teacher, lived in Jerusalem, and traveled a lot. It seems he put his work together while running a school in Alexandria, Egypt.
His grandson translated the Hebrew work into Greek. This Hebrew text was lost for centuries until the 19th century, when 2/3 of it was found in Cairo. Then other portions were found in Qumran and Masada, as late as 1964.
Date: composed around 175 years before Christ. About 90 years before Christ the Jews put together their official bible, but excluded Sirach because they could not find the Hebrew version, only the Greek.
Christians accepted the book as part of their bible in the 2nd century after Christ. The Council of Trent (keep 1555 in mind as a date) officially accepted it, making it part of that extra 12 books called the Apocrypha or Deuterocanonical. Martin Luther rejected the book & so do many Protestant congregations today.
Subject Matter: practical ethics, duties. Beware of the either / or spirituality presented.
Subject today: you may choose good or bad. Beware of the either / or spirituality presented in the reading. All is either good or bad. No in between or both, which is more what we all are, both good and bad.
It can be simplistic & Pelagian, that is, it is all up to you and you have all the strength needed to choose good. Pelagians thought that you had to EARN your salvation. Therefore, the more religious stuff you did, like the more Masses, the more pilgrimages to the church & shrines, the more novenas & rosaries, the more merit you win for yourself.
Psalm 119: the longest of all the psalms. A focus on observance of the laws, decrees, and statutes.
Matthew 5: a continuation of the Sermon on the Mount. Note the figures of speech called “antitheses,” namely, “You have heard it said, but, I say to you.” 4 even 5 times. Matthew is trying to establish the authority & authenticity of Jesus.
Sources: Good New Bible; New Interpreter's Bible., Wikipedia; Reginal Fuller, S.J., David Westberg, S.J., & Larry Gillick, S.J., St. Louis U. Liturgies, on line.
Tear It Out & Throw It Away, My Right Eye? You Crazy?!
I have mentioned a lot of this once before, but it bears repeating because it is so relevant.
When I was studying theology in Toronto years ago, an article came out in the local newspaper. Some guy had read the passage saying that if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. He did it, folks.
In this passage from Matthew there are five pieces of advice to the early Christians which taken literally can get a person all messed up. Is there a positive as well as a negative to each?
One observation before I touch the five. I have mentioned this so often that I hope you are not worn out. Infinite demand and infinite acceptance. Watch out here for a lot of infinite demand. I’ll give a positive & a negative for each.
Matthew’s five pieces of advice are 1. breaking the least commandment, 2. getting angry, 3. looking at a woman, 4. divorce, and 5. swearing. Here goes.
1. Matthew says that if you break the smallest commandment you will be the least in the kingdom. Moreover, unless you are better than the Pharisees, you will not even get into the kingdom. The positive here is that the bar is set high. The negative is that all, all of us sinners will be kept out. It creates scruples and obsessive compulsive behavior.
2. Secondly, if you get mad at me and call me a fool, you are going to Gehenna. I love it. The positive here is the call to anger management. I am challenged to know that all feelings are okay and need to be controlled. The negative is that it gives me the idea that anger is not allowed, so stuff it. Trouble is, it does not stuff well. Not like a sleeping bag or tent. It pops up in unexpected places.
3. Looking at a woman with lust. The positive here is teaching respect for all people. This advice, written by men for men, was attempting to gain some respect for women who were looked upon as property. I found this in Tanzania & Kenya. Rosemary read me an article about some Muslim who cut off his wife’s ears and nose for reporting him for abuse. The negative is that it teaches us that feelings are sinful. In the old days, we thought we looked at a girl and we were going to hell. This is doubly sad because I don’t think there is a hell anyway.
4. Divorce is adultery. The positive is that it reinforces the unity of marriage. The negative is that people stay in abusive or addictive marriages long after it may even be safe. Divorce is failure and we all fail sometimes even in tragic ways. In order to escape using the word divorce the Catholic Church comes up with the more convoluted word Annulment.
5. Swearing. The positive is that it involves politeness and respect for others. Even if I am okay with my anger I do not swear at someone. The negative is that it tightens us up. We forget the therapeutic value of cussing, maybe a healthy & fun way of releasing anger. The healthy Jesuits I lived with certainly partook of this therapy.
The overall danger in these pieces of advice is that we really get messed up, forgetting two things. First they are presenting infinite demand. Secondly, they make no mention of infinite acceptance.
The poor guy in Toronto who blinded himself is an example of how we can mess ourselves up with goofy religion.
What do you think about these ideas?