Sunday Homily, October 26, 2014, 30th Ordinary Time
Readings:
Exodus 22, 20-26, You shall not molest or oppress an alien.
Psalm 18, I love you Lord, My Strength
1 Thessalonians 1, 5-10, You know what sort of people we were among you.
Matthew 22, 34-40, The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.
Exodus observations–
What: One of the great books of the Bible, the second book of the O.T. A good read. The name means 'departure' and refers to one of the most important events in Israel's history, the departure of the people of Israel from Egypt where they had become slaves after going there to escape drought in their own land.
Author: not Moses, but a bunch of people putting together the story most likely after the Babylonian Captivity, therefore around 555 before Christ.
Our selection: comes from the "Book of the Covenant," that is, the law or commandments.
The materials in the book are akin to many legal codes of the ancient Near East, the most famous of which is the Code of Hammurabi, 20th Century before Christ.
Today's reading comes from a section of the code dealing with the laws of social conduct. They inculcate a social ethic based upon compassion. Abstract justice is not enough, especially for the underprivileged. The lesson was obviously chosen to go with the summary of the Law that forms the gospel reading.
Watch how Yahweh (that is, the person writing in Yahweh's name) says he is compassionate just after declaring he will kill certain types of people if they are not compassionate.
Matthew observations–
What: another example of the cultural game of "gotcha," a set up. How this works you got to know the background…
Background: The Pharasees identified 613 commandments in the Torah (first 5 books of the O.T.) 248 were positive ("thou shalt"), and 365 were negative ("thou shalt not"). How could anyone remember all of them? Were some more important than others? If you choose one, what about another??
See where we are going? Our Gospel, "the Greatest Commandment?" Matthew has the the Pharasees ask this question to put Jesus into a bind. But again, Jesus slips their trap.
Some teachers distinguished between "heavy" and "light" commandments. The "Ten" are examples of the heavies. An example of a light commandment is in Deut. 22, 6-7, which stipulates that a person who finds a bird's nest with a mother sitting on eggs or with young may take the young but must let the mother go. The reason for observing all these commandments: "That it may go well with you, and that you may live long." (Deut. 5, 16; 22, 7)
Resources: The New Interpreters Study Bible; St. Louis U. Liturgical @ Liturgical.slu.edu
Love Myself ? I’m okay, you’re okay?
I hate it when I get these ideas. I composed a homily yesterday evening and was all ready to go this morning when I woke up. At 8:00 A.M., 30 minutes before Rosemary & I depart for Vines, I change my mind. I want to talk about an event that took place Saturday evening.
I want also to tie it with the great commandment. I have said it maybe a hundred times, there are 3 commandments here, love God, love my neighbor as myself, and love myself. Loving myself, from my own experience and my experience in psychology, is the most difficult and the foundation of the first two. I don’t love myself, I don’t love anybody else.
A little dictum that sums it up for me is, “I’m okay and you are okay.” It does not have to get dramatic, just simple.
Here is what happened last evening and exemplifies some of this.
At about 6:30 I told Rosemary I was going to walk across the street to the Chase bank on the corner of Preston & Royal. It was a gorgeous Saturday night and I thought, ‘I’ll just walk over to the bank and make a deposit of a check.’ We live maybe 300 yards from this corner.
So I walk to the bank, I make the deposit, and am ready to return, crossing back across Preston at the light. But what do I see? A man is lying on the cement on his right side, his right hand under his head, and he is asleep. He is in the corner parking slot in the small Chase parking lot.
I think, ‘Is he alive, does he need help? He is in a bizarre spot, tons of Saturday evening traffic, out of sight tucked into the parking nook, and looking like a homeless person, old, gray pants and t-shirt.’ He also has a sunburn high water mark on his left arm, a sign he is outside a lot.
‘Should I go check on him? What if he pulls a gun or knife and kills me?’ I feel like the Pharisee in the parable of the Good Samaritan. So I call 911. At least something. The lady says the police will swing by right away.
I walk away a bit, not toward the corner, but toward the drug store so I can see him. I’m curious. I stop and wait. I wait maybe 15-20 minutes, hoping to see the cops check on the guy.
Finally I say to myself, ‘Stop being such a wimp. Go check on him. The cops are taking too much time. I’ve worked with lots of guys like this. He won’t hurt me. I’m bigger and in better shape anyway.’
So I walk over to him, look down, and say, “How you doing, man?” It wakes him and he looks at me with light blue eyes which are like out of focus. He wonders where he is. This young man is on something. That is obvious.
The first thing he says is, “Thanks for checking on me.” Does that ever touch me. We talk a bit and finally he asks me if I have a cigarette. I said I don’t smoke, but I wished I had a cigarette, if that was all he wanted for a little pleasure.
I admit that if he wanted money for food, I would have walked him right over to McDonnell’s on the opposite corner. I also admit that I did not want spend the evening carrying him down to The Bridge, if he asked me for a place to stay. And I certainly knew Rosemary would toss me out if I brought him home. He did neither.
So I asked him if he was okay and he said yes. I walked away again toward Dougherty’s drug store. I looked back one time and he was still just sitting there on the cement looking around and looking at the people driving up to use the ATM machine, which probably made them nervous.
The guy is in my spirit right now. I wonder. How did he get to where he is? Where is he? When did he get addicted? Does he love himself, enough to love his neighbors? Can he say, ‘I’m okay and you are okay.’
What do you need to do to say, ‘I’m okay and you are okay,’ if you can’t say it this morning?