Bài Đọc I:First Reading: Book of Leviticus 13:1-2, 44-46
The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying: When a person has on the skin of his body a swelling or an eruption or a spot, and it turns into a leprous disease on the skin of his body, he shall be brought to Aaron the priest or to one of his sons the priests. he is leprous, he is unclean. The priest shall pronounce him unclean; the disease is on his head.
The person who has the leprous disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head be disheveled; and he shall cover his upper lip and cry out, "Unclean, unclean." He shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease; he is unclean. He shall live alone; his dwelling shall be outside the camp.
Bài Đáp Ca: Resp. Psalm: Ps 32:1-2, 5, 11
Happy are those whose transgression is forgiven,
whose sin is covered.
Happy are those to whom the Lord
imputes no iniquity,
and in whose spirit there is no deceit.
Then I acknowledged my sin to you,
and I did not hide my iniquity;
I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,"
and you forgave the guilt of my sin.
Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, O righteous,
and shout for joy, all you upright in heart.
Bài Đọc II: Second Reading: First Epistle to the Corinthians 10:31-11:1
So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God, just as I try to please all men in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved.
Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.
Bài Phúc Âm: Gospel: Mark 1:40-45
A leper came to him begging him, and kneeling he said to him, "If you choose, you can make me clean." Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, "I do choose. Be made clean!" Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean.
After sternly warning him he sent him away at once, saying to him, "See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them." But he went out and began to proclaim it freely, and to spread the word, so that Jesus could no longer go into a town openly, but stayed out in the country; and people came to him from every quarter.
BÀI ĐỌC I: Hc 15, 16-21 (Hl 15-20)
"Người không truyền dạy cho một ai làm điều gian ác".
Trích sách Huấn Ca.
Nếu ngươi muốn tuân giữ các giới răn: việc trung thành giữ các giới răn là tuỳ ở ngươi. Người đặt trước mặt ngươi nước và lửa, ngươi muốn cái gì, thì giơ tay ra trên đó. Trước mặt con người là sự sống và sự chết, sự lành và sự dữ, họ thích thứ nào, thì được thứ ấy. Bởi chưng, Thiên Chúa đầy khôn ngoan, hùng dũng và toàn năng, Người luôn luôn nhìn thấy mọi loài. Chúa nhìn đến những kẻ kính sợ Người, và thấu suốt mọi hành động của con người. Người không truyền dạy cho một ai làm điều gian ác, và không cho phép một ai phạm tội. Đó là lời Chúa.
ĐÁP CA: Tv 118, 1-2. 4-5. 17-18. 33-34.
A+B=Phước đức những ai tiến thân trong pháp luật của Chúa (c. 1b).
A) Phước đức những ai theo đường lối tinh tuyền, họ tiến thân trong pháp luật của Chúa. Phước đức những ai giữ lời Ngài nghiêm huấn, những người đó tận tâm kiếm tìm Ngài.
B)Phần Chúa, Ngài ban bố huấn lệnh, cốt để người ta tuân giữ hết sức ân cần. Nguyện cho đường nẻo con vững chắc, để tuân giữ các thánh chỉ của Ngài.
A)Xin gia ân cho tôi tớ Ngài được sống, để tuân giữ những lời Ngài răn. Xin mở rộng tầm con mắt của con, để quan chiêm những điều kỳ diệu trong luật Chúa.
B)Lạy Chúa, xin dạy bảo con đường lối thánh chỉ Ngài, để con tuân giữ cho bằng triệt để. Xin dạy con, để con tuân theo luật pháp Ngài, và để con hết lòng tuân giữ luật đó.
A+B=Phước đức những ai tiến thân trong pháp luật của Chúa (c. 1b).
BÀI ĐỌC II: 1 Cr 2, 6-10
"Thiên Chúa đã tiền định từ trước muôn thuở, để làm nên sự hiển vinh của chúng ta".
Trích thư thứ nhất của Thánh Phaolô Tông đồ gửi tín hữu Côrintô.
Anh em thân mến, chúng tôi có bàn giải sự khôn ngoan với những người toàn thiện, mà đó không phải là sự khôn ngoan của thế gian, cũng không phải của những bậc vua chúa thế trần, hạng người đã bị dồn vào chỗ hư vong. Nhưng chúng tôi thuyết sự khôn ngoan đầy nhiệm mầu của Thiên Chúa vẫn được giấu kín, mà Thiên Chúa đã tiền định từ trước muôn thuở để làm nên sự hiển vinh của chúng tôi. Sự khôn ngoan đó, không một ai trong các vua chúa thế trần đã biết tới: vì giá thử nhận biết, hẳn họ đã không đóng đinh Chúa sự hiển vinh. Nhưng chúng tôi rao giảng như lời đã chép: "Sự mắt chưa từng thấy, tai chưa từng nghe, và lòng người cũng chưa từng mơ ước tới, đó là tất cả những điều Thiên Chúa đã làm cho những ai yêu mến Người". Bởi chưng Thiên Chúa đã mạc khải điều đó cho chúng tôi do Thánh Thần của Người. Thật vậy, Thánh Thần thấu suốt mọi sự, cả những điều thâm sâu của Thiên Chúa. Đó là lời Chúa.
ALLELUIA: Ga 1, 14 và 12b
Lạy Chúa, xin hãy nói, vì tôi tớ Chúa đang nghe; Chúa có lời ban sự sống đời đời. - Alleluia.
PHÚC ÂM: Mt 5, 17-37 (bài dài)
"Người xưa đã bảo như thế, còn Ta, Ta bảo các con thế này".
Tin Mừng Chúa Giêsu Kitô theo Thánh Matthêu.
Khi ấy, Chúa Giêsu phán cùng các môn đệ rằng: "Các con đừng tưởng Ta đến để huỷ bỏ lề luật hay các tiên tri; Ta không đến để huỷ bỏ, nhưng để kiện toàn. Vì Ta bảo thật các con: Cho dù trời đất có qua đi, thì một chấm, một phẩy trong bộ luật cũng không bỏ sót, cho đến khi mọi sự hoàn thành. Bởi vậy, ai huỷ bỏ một trong những điều luật nhỏ mọn nhất và dạy người khác làm như vậy, sẽ kể là người nhỏ nhất trong Nước Trời; trái lại, ai giữ và dạy người ta giữ những điều đó, sẽ được kể là người cao cả trong Nước Trời. Nếu các con không công chính hơn các luật sĩ và biệt phái, thì các con chẳng được vào Nước Trời đâu. "Các con đã nghe dạy người xưa rằng: 'Không được giết người. Ai giết người, sẽ bị luận phạt nơi toà án'. Còn Ta, Ta bảo các con: Bất cứ ai phẫn nộ với anh em mình, thì sẽ bị toà án luận phạt. Ai bảo anh em là 'ngốc', thì bị phạt trước công nghị. Ai rủa anh em là 'khùng', thì sẽ bị vạ lửa địa ngục. Nếu ngươi đang dâng của lễ nơi bàn thờ mà sực nhớ người anh em đang có điều bất bình với ngươi, thì ngươi hãy để của lễ lại trước bàn thờ, đi làm hoà với người anh em ngươi trước đã, rồi hãy trở lại dâng của lễ. Hãy liệu làm hoà với kẻ thù ngay lúc còn đi dọc đường với nó, kẻo kẻ thù sẽ đưa ngươi ra trước mặt quan toà, quan toà lại trao ngươi cho tên lính canh và ngươi sẽ bị tống ngục. Ta bảo thật các ngươi biết: Ngươi sẽ không thoát khỏi nơi ấy cho đến khi trả hết đồng bạc cuối cùng. "Các con đã nghe nói với người xưa rằng: 'Chớ ngoại tình'. Còn Ta, Ta bảo các con: Hễ ai nhìn xem phụ nữ mà ước ao phạm tội với họ, thì đã ngoại tình với họ trong lòng rồi. Nếu con mắt phải của con nên dịp tội cho con, thì hãy móc nó mà ném xa con; vì thà mất một chi thể còn lợi hơn là toàn thân bị ném vào hoả ngục. Và nếu tay phải con nên dịp tội cho con, thì hãy chặt mà ném nó xa con; vì thà mất một chi thể còn hơn là toàn thân bị ném vào hoả ngục. "Cũng có lời dạy rằng: 'Ai ly dị vợ mình, thì hãy trao cho vợ tờ ly dị'. Còn Ta, Ta bảo các con: Hễ ai ly dị vợ mình, trừ trường hợp tà dâm, thì làm cớ cho vợ ngoại tình; và ai cưới người vợ đã ly dị, cũng phạm tội ngoại tình. "Các con cũng đã nghe có lời bảo người xưa rằng: 'Chớ thề gian, nhưng hãy giữ trọn lời mình thề với Chúa'. Còn Ta, Ta bảo các con: Đừng thề chi cả; đừng lấy trời mà thề, vì trời là ngai Thiên Chúa; đừng lấy đất mà thề, vì đất là bệ chân Người; đừng lấy Giêrusalem mà thề, vì là thành của Vua cao cả. cũng đừng chỉ đầu ngươi mà thề, vì ngươi không thể làm cho một sợi tóc ra trắng hay đen được. Nhưng lời nói của các con phải là: Có thì nói có, không thì nói không, thêm điều đặt chuyện là bởi ma quỷ mà ra". Đó là lời Chúa.
Hoặc bài vắn này: Mt 5, 20-22a. 27-28. 33-34a. 37
Khi ấy, Chúa Giêsu phán cùng các môn đệ rằng: "Ta bảo thật các con: Nếu các con không công chính hơn các luật sĩ và biệt phái, thì các con chẳng được vào Nước Trời đâu. "Các con đã nghe dạy người xưa rằng: 'Không được giết người. Ai giết người, sẽ bị luận phạt nơi toà án'. Còn Ta, Ta bảo các con: Bất cứ ai phẫn nộ với anh em mình, thì sẽ bị toà án luận phạt. Ai bảo anh em là 'ngốc', thì bị phạt trước công nghị. "Các con đã nghe nói với người xưa rằng: 'Chớ ngoại tình'. Còn Ta, Ta bảo các con: Hễ ai nhìn xem phụ nữ mà ước ao phạm tội với họ, thì đã ngoại tình với họ trong lòng rồi. "Các con cũng đã nghe có lời bảo người xưa rằng: 'Chớ thề gian, nhưng hãy giữ trọn lời mình thề với Chúa'. Còn Ta, Ta bảo các con: Đừng thề chi cả. Nhưng lời nói của các con phải là: Có thì nói có, không thì nói không, thêm điều đặt chuyện là bởi ma quỷ mà ra". Đó là lời Chúa.
Trong đời sống thiêng liêng, cái tôi hình như không có chỗ đứng, bởi Chúa Kitô đã nói: "Ai muốn theo Ta, hãy từ bỏ mình, vác thập giá mình mà theo Ta". Như thế, từ bỏ cái tôi chính là cách duy nhất để trở thành môn đệ Chúa Kitô và nên thánh. Tuy nhiên, ngược lại, khi từ bỏ cái tôi, không có nghĩa là hủy diệt mình khỏi sự hiện hữu, vì cũng chính cái tôi ấy sẽ là đơn vị hiện hữu và rất thực, rất căn bản để làm nên chính mình, và là khởi điểm của con đường nên thánh.
Điều chúng ta suy tư về cái tôi trong đời sống thiêng liêng là biết nhận ra cái tôi của mình như cái bẫy cho chính mình. Khi cái tôi trở thành cái bẫy cho tôi, lúc đó tôi sẽ chỉ thấy mình lớn hơn tất cả mọi thứ; nó sẽ che khuất tôi khỏi thánh nhan Chúa và sự hiện diện của Người trong các tạo vật. Nó sẽ trở thành cái bóng vĩ đại che khuất tôi khỏi sự hiện diện của tha nhân quanh mình, và lập tức tôi sẽ rơi vào tình trạng kiêu căng bao trùm lên tất cả. Cái tôi ấy luôn thúc đẩy tôi sống ích kỷ và xâm lấn tha nhân. Và dĩ nhiên Satan sẽ điều khiển tôi như cái máy trong tình trạng mù quáng kiêu căng này.
Chúa Giêsu Kitô, dù là Con Thiên Chúa và cũng là Thiên Chúa, đã phán rằng: "Các con đừng tưởng Ta đến để hủy bỏ lề luật hay các tiên tri; Ta không đến hủy bỏ, nhưng để kiện toàn"; cho dù chính Ngài có đủ quyền năng để làm nên một bộ luật hoàn toàn mới khác với luật cũ. Điều đó cho thấy rằng, đức bác ái trong luật mới mà Chúa Kitô kiện toàn sẽ vô cùng bao la và quảng đại như chính cuộc khổ nạn trên thập giá mà Ngài tự ý chấp nhận để cứu chuộc nhân loại. Và một khi những ai theo Chúa Kitô, nghĩa là mang trên mình danh hiệu Kitô hữu, cũng sẽ theo gương Ngài từ bỏ cái tôi ích kỷ như cái bẫy trong đời sống thiêng liêng, để có thể can đảm thứ tha và yêu thương như của lễ hy sinh mới hằng ngày trên bàn thờ. Của lễ đó không là nghi thức buồn chán, nhưng là sự đóng góp hy sinh sống động trong tiến trình từ bỏ: "Nếu ngươi đang dâng của lễ nơi bàn thờ mà sực nhớ người anh em đang có điều bất bình với ngươi, hãy để của lễ tại bàn thờ, đi làm hòa với người anh em ngươi trước đã, rồi hãy trở lại dâng của lễ". Đòi hỏi từ bỏ cái tôi của Đức Kitô sẽ thanh tẩy tâm hồn các tín hữu nên hoàn thiện và được sống trong an bình; và trong trạng thái bình an ấy, họ sẽ dễ dàng khiêm tốn nhận ra quyền năng và tình thương Chúa trên mình, cũng như dễ dàng chia sẻ với những giới hạn và yếu đuối của tha nhân trên hành trình đức tin trong đời sống thiêng liêng vậy.
Lm. Raphael Xuân Nguyên
6th Sunday Sir 15:16-20; 1 Cor 2:6-10; Mt 5:17-37
Free Will and the Divided Self (John Walsh)
New way of living (Henry Wansbrough)
Making good choices (Martin Hogan)
Sign Of Peace (Liam Swords)
Not like Animal Farm (Jack McArdle)
Free Will and the Divided Self
(John Walsh)
So says the Lord God, “A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone, and give you a heart of flesh” (Ezek 36:26). Here God, using figurative language, is addressing us from out the Old Testament about spiritual realities. I wonder how many of you recall the name Philip Blaiberg. He was the first person ever to receive a new physical heart in a transplant operation carried out by Doctor Christian Barnard (2nd Jan., 1968). He was to live a further 19 months, but during all that time his entire body instinctively, vehemently, and ceaselessly fought to reject the implanted heart, even though without it he had no hope of survival.
This struggle is a picture very often of the way our divided yet real self strives to resist the life of Christ in us, the new heart he wants to create in us, that inner spiritual life-source which we too need so absolutely. To allow the vitality and power of Christ become part of us involves pain, and darkness, and mortification, and purification, not because Christ wants to inflict suffering on us, but because the impure and evil elements of our sinful nature do not want to be transformed. “Lord make me pure,” Augustine before his conversion used to pray, “but not yet.” It was a hard struggle before grace prevailed. The great difference, however, between the reaction of the body to an organ transplant, and this reluctance to put Christ at the very centre of our lives, is that you only have to make up your mind finally to follow where God wants to lead you, and it is within your power to travel that path.
The first reading states quite clearly that each person has free will. God does not force his commandments on us, neither is he responsible for the evil which exists in the world. As the reading says in such a thought-provoking and rather frightening way, “Man has life and death before him; whichever a man likes better, will be given him.” In other words everyone decides the way his/her soul shall go. St Paul, in the second reading, says that the weakness and the foolishness of the Cross were the things that God chose for his Son. And even though these things are a greater stumbling block than ever for our present-day culture, the Cross, nevertheless, is the only way to arrive at all that God has prepared for those who love him.
God's claim to obedience, so well exemplified for us in the person of Jesus Christ, is an absolute, total demand, claiming the whole person, not only in outward action but in one's inner attitudes, in one's heart. So not only is it wrong to cause bodily injury to another; we must not even harbour evil intent, or anger, or contempt against others. This sharpening of the demands of the law, to the point of the seemingly impossible, must have caused dismay among Christ's listeners at the Sermon on the Mount. And when Christ went on to say that not only must they not commit adultery, but that it was possible, by lustful looks alone, to commit adultery in the heart, then the surprise and astonishment among his Jewish audience must have been overwhelming.
But what Christ was saying was that the entertainment of lustful thoughts betokens an interior attitude of extreme selfishness, an attitude which tends to regard another person as an object, a means, of satisfying one's own inordinate and sinful cravings for self-gratification, and that this stands in absolute contrast to the loving desire and respect for each other which those in holy wedlock should have. People outside marriage, and sometimes even married couples, often cite love as a reason for setting aside all moral restraints in their relationship. But, on the contrary, it is a fact that true love does impose restraints, the restraints of consideration for, and respect for, and regard for the dignity and the happiness of the person loved.
Is Christ then demanding the impossible in asking us to extend the constraints of the moral law to our thoughts and imagination also? Is St Paul indeed, when he says, “In your minds you must be the same as Christ Jesus' (Phil 2:5)? The answer would be yes, it is impossible, but for the saving grace which Christ is always ready to offer us, to help us attain these ideals. “In Christ all things are possible.” For he is the one who is our advocate with the Father, the one who pleads with sighs too deep for words, that our sins may be wiped away, and that the holiness and purity of God may shine forth in all we are and do.
Christianity - a new way of living (Henry Wansbrough)
The wealth of material in the second and third readings makes it difficult to choose a theme, but one possible approach would be to take the corrections of the Old Law as examples of Jesus' approach to morality,” not so much for their individual material as for the attitude which they inculcate.
The first (as the sixth, which is read next week) is about love, and in this case rules out negative expressions of love (as the sixth will enjoin the complete positive expression of love.) Jesus forbids here not merely the most extreme form of disregard of the value of another person, in killing him, but also lesser forms of injuring another. What unites the three faults of losing one's temper with another, of contemptuously calling him names and of refusing to forgive him is that in each case the humanity of another person and his feelings are trampled underfoot. The importance of forgiveness is shown by the fact that it in a way takes precedence even over strictly religious duties, and presumably the same degree of priority is to be awarded to the other two matters. So in this case the correction which Jesus makes is that one must respect not simply the legal right to live but also those things which enable someone to live a full life and one of self-respect.
The second correction is strictly on sexual purity, but the principle given is of far wider application, concerning purity of intention in general. A mere legalism which is content when one has not actually committed a crime is utterly insufficient. The violent preventative action of self mutilation has never been understood literally by the Church - particularly not in the case of Origen's self-castration to avoid sexual sins - and is best understood as a parable to express vividly the disastrous effects of sin.
The third correction simply disallows an abuse which was tolerated by the law, that of remarriage after divorce. The exceptive clause has, of course, been a matter of much controversy, but the interpretation which is both philologically most acceptable and the only one consonant with the practice of the Catholic Church is that the word translated here “fornication” in fact means “a marriage prohibited by Jewish laws.” The only divorce permitted is one where there is no real marriage, and the correction becomes - as in its original context - a reaffirmation of the sanctity and closeness of the marriage bond, as pronounced in Genesis “the two shall become one flesh” that is one thinking, planning, loving entity.
The fourth correction has not been taken by the Catholic Church (though it has by some other Christians) literally as a prohibition of oaths. It seeks rather to teach that oaths should not be necessary at all. If there is in general an atmosphere of trust and truth-telling the reinforcement provided by oaths is not needed. This it is an atmosphere of openness and mutual confidence which is inculcated.
In short what Jesus teaches by his corrections of the Law is merely a matter of honouring to the full the human values which we find it so difficult to honour.
Making good choices (Martin Hogan)
The first reading suggests the importance of human choice as a theme for a homily. It has been said that we do not make big choices, only a whole series of little ones. The fundamental choice in life according to our first reading is that between fire and water, life and death. That fundamental choice finds concrete expression in the multiple choices of daily life. Each day we try to make choices which are life-giving both for ourselves and others. In the complexities of daily living it is not always easy to discover the way which leads to life. In retrospect, we often realise that we have made bad choices, even though, at the time, we acted in good faith. Both the first and second readings speak about the wisdom of God. We need that wisdom to choose well, a wisdom which comes through the Spirit. Paul reminds us that “the Spirit reaches the depths of everything, even the depths of God.” It is the Spirit who enables us to choose “in depth,” to make the kind of choices which are most in tune with what is deepest in us and, therefore more life-giving.
Choices which come from what is deepest and best in us will be life-giving, both for ourselves and others. In the gospel reading, Jesus proposes a virtue which goes deeper than that of the scribes and Pharisees, a virtue in depth, from the heart. If our depths are sound, if the heart is good, then the choices which come from the heart will be good. The converse is also true. If we harbour bitterness in our heart towards someone, we will inevitably make choices which damage and hurt them. If we cultivate envy in our heart towards someone, we will tend to make choices which devalue them. Beyond our behaviour lie our choices and beyond them lies the heart in which our choices are rooted. Only the Spirit who reaches the depths of God can really reach our own depths. It is the Spirit who renews and transforms our heart. “God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us” (Rom 5:5.) If we keep on opening our hearts to the Spirit of God's love they will be recreated in his love. Then our choices will be rooted in love and will have something of the life-giving quality of Jesus himself.
Sign Of Peace (Liam Swords)
"In just over two hours from now, Nelson Mandela will be released from prison.” That is howl began this homily, when I first preached it in Paris on this Sunday the year Mandela was released. He had then been in prison for longer than most of my young congregation had been born, and longer than I had been a priest. His prison silence resounded all over the world. For twenty-seven long years he was not allowed to communicate with the outside world. And yet, his message reached everywhere. Largely due to this one silent victim the system of apartheid was brought to an end. There is a moral here for all of us. Nowadays people labour under the impression that the individual is powerless to change the system. Yet Mandela and history teaches us that this is not so. Even this century has produced individuals like Mahatma Ghandi in India, Martin Luther King in the United States and Andrei Sakharov in Russia, who have done just that.
It is a strange thing about prophets that they never seemed fated to see the promised land. It was the case with Moses who led his people out of slavery in Egypt but died within sight of the promised land. Most have followed a similar pattern. Both Ghandi and Martin Luther King were assassinated before their missions were completed. Sakharov came close but he too died before many of the great changes took place in his country. Mandela was seventy when he was released from prison where he had spent a little less than half his life. He too seemed destined to follow the same course. But he has survived.
It seems almost as if God had another mission for him to accomplish, perhaps even more difficult than the destruction of apartheid, the reconciliation of South Africans. It is an awesome task. He has to reconcile himself with his former gaolers who took away more than twenty-seven of the best years of his life. He has to reconcile his black compatriots with their former white masters. So far, he has made a good beginning. Just five years later, as President of South Africa he attended the opening match of the Rugby World Cup being held there for the first time. He rejoiced in the victory of South Africa over the defending champions, Australia. There was only one black player on the field and he was in the Australian squad. It was a reminder to Mandela, though he hardly needed a reminder, of how thoroughly the system of apartheid had done its job and how hard reconciliation was going to be.
There are areas in all our lives which cry out for reconciliation. There are neighbours who are not on speaking terms and sometimes for years. Even within families, brothers and sisters have fallen out and refuse to make up. Some disputes go so far back, that nobody remembers now what exactly caused them. Yet many carry these ancient grudges with them to the church on Sundays and all the way up to the altar. Which is why the Vatican Council reintroduced the sign of peace into the Mass and placed it just before Communion. It is a symbol of reconciliation. When you shake hands with the person beside you in the pew, you are making up with your alienated neighbour. If you can't stretch out your hand in reconciliation to him, you can't stretch it out to receive Christ in Communion.
So then, if you are bringing your offering to the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar, go and be reconciled with your brother first, and then come back and present your offering.
Additional Bidding Prayers We pray:
- that we may become reconciled with estranged members of our families.
- that we will make peace with our neighbours with whom we have quarrelled.
- that we will act as go-betweens to reconcile conflicts between others.
Not like Animal Farm (Jack McArdle)
Theme: Today's gospel contains five teachings of Jesus, on law, anger, adultery, divorce, and vows.
Parable: Without wishing to abuse the truth, I recall in general, the main thrust of a book called Animal Farm by George Orwell. There were no rules, no laws, nobody in positions of authority and responsibility. This was to be Utopia, where everything would go along, as things should be, and nobody would dream of upsetting or rocking the boat, and everybody would live happily ever after. Unfortunately, the story doesn't turn out that way. Although the story is about animals, the point of the story is that, without structures, without rules to guide behaviour, without somebody taking responsibility to animate and lead the group, we also can descend into anarchy and self-destruction.
Teaching: Jesus doesn't want to do away with the law; rather he wants to fulfil it. He does not, however, want the law to become an end in itself. The law is there to serve the people, to guide and protect them, and it must not be used to control them and to oppress them. A man is in court for doing ninety miles an hour through a fifty-mile zone. He has broken a good law, which was put in place to protect, rather that to oppress people. Jesus tells us that all law comes from God and, therefore, for a law to be valid, it must be made for the common good. Jesus is more in favour of a law of love, rather than a love of law.
Whether his teaching has to do with anger, adultery, divorce, etc., what he is really speaking about has to do with love. He lays great stress on forgiveness. That's a very powerful word, when he speaks of bringing your gift to the altar, and then you remember that there's someone out there hurting because of you. Leave your gift to one side, go off and be reconciled with that person, and then come back to offer your gift. If we speak about loving God and loving our neighbour, then there must not be any contradiction here. It would surely be a contradiction to be reciting lovely prayers to God, while I'm not speaking to my neighbour. “Whatever you do to the least of these, that's what you do onto me."
He is very clear and definite when it comes to giving one's word. There's no need for solemn oaths, etc., if I am a person of my word. This was very important to Jesus. “You are either for me or against me. Let your “yes” be “yes” and your “no” be “no."” He himself is very emphatic about the sincerity of his promises to us. He gives his word, and he says that “heaven and earth will pass away before my word passes away.” It is difficult to speak about adultery or divorce. I don't imagine any couple who got married with the intention of getting a divorce later on. I credit them with the very highest and best intentions and, as can easily happen, things just don't work out the way they had hoped. No alcoholic ever set out to become an alcoholic. This was something that crept up on him, as it were. Adultery can be wrong on grounds other than morality and sex. It can be a lie, because it can imply a commitment that is not there, and that one party, at least, has no intention of there ever being a commitment. The whole subject of today's gospel has to do with honesty, integrity, and genuine love.
Response: A sin is a sin. If God wanted a permissive society he would have given us Ten Suggestions instead of Ten Commandments. Having grown up in a church, which had a preoccupation with sin that was bordering on the unhealthy, there is now a danger of the pendulum swinging in the opposite direction, to the other extreme, where we lose all sense of sin. I believe that the law of God is written in our hearts in such a way that we know rightly whenever we are wrong. (When I was a child I had a dog that looked very guilty after he did something he shouldn't. One look at him and you knew. As you approached him, he lay down, rolled over on his back, expecting to be scolded. If you patted him, he immediately jumped up, and leapt all over you, knowing that all was forgiven.)
We sometimes hear the saying “My word is my bond.” It is good to be a person of your word. One of the most insightful comments of Jesus is that “the truth will set you free.” The liar has to have a good memory! The facts are always friendly, because they never change. There is a saying of much wisdom which states that “When everything else fails, try the truth, because it always works.” The essence of proper communication is to combine total honesty with total kindness. There are times when total honesty can be brutally destructive, and when total kindness can be totally dishonest. It's quite a struggle to get it right. It is an extraordinary gospel principle to strive to become authentic, to become genuine, to live and to speak the truth. Because original sin had to do with a lie, the antidote, the antibiotic for that is the Holy Spirit, whom Jesus calls “The Spirit of Truth."
Sin, by definition, is a lie. Whether it is adultery, perjury, or self-righteous adherence to law, it can masquerade as virtue, as truth, as something other than the reality. Sin is not so much an act as the reason or motive behind the act. I could visit someone in hospital today because I feel sorry for him; or I could visit him because I want to rejoice in the fact that he is suffering. I could do the very same thing for very different reasons.
Practical: I must confess to being caught in a bind with today's gospel. It contains very clear and very definite teaching from Jesus, so that must surely merit our full intention. I myself, however, cannot bring myself to proclaim any Sort of blanket condemnation of adultery, divorce, etc., and that bothers me in a way. Over the years I have known people who have been divorced, involved in adulterous relationships, etc., and I have known them to be very good people. It is difficult to condemn the sin without running the risk of judging and condemning the sinner. Most people that I know are quite aware of what's right and what's wrong. I don't think you can legislate morality. There is an in-built barometer in the human spirit that instinctively informs us when we're right or wrong. The biggest lies I tell in life are the ones I tell myself. I will never be honest with you or with anyone else until I become honest with myself.
Today's gospel has a lot to do with honesty and integrity. The Spirit of God is a Spirit of Truth. Only the truth will set me free. It is a wonderful thing to strive to be authentic and genuine: to be a person of my word. That, of course, must begin with myself because, as I have already said, the greatest lies I tell in life are the ones I tell myself. To paraphrase a sentence from Shakespeare, “Be true to yourself, and then you won't be untrue to others."
One of the most practical things I can do today is to check on my relationships, to ensure that I am not in a totally contradictory situation as I approach the altar. I often think that others should hear me say “I'm sorry; please forgive me” more than God does.
There would never be a war or, indeed, there might never be a divorce, if somebody somewhere was prepared to say “I'm sorry. I was wrong.” It may sound simple, but it's very difficult for some people to admit to being wrong. In fact, our own pride can often blind us to the fact that we are wrong, and we fail to see things as they are. It's a wonderful freedom to be able to face up to the truth and, when we are wrong, to promptly admit it.
Story: One of the great wonders of the world is the Great Wall of China. It is said to be the only landmark on earth that is visible from the moon. It was built as a protection against invasion from neighbouring enemies. After that entire mammoth endeavour, someone bribed the gatekeeper, who opened the gates and allowed the enemy through! So much for human endeavour!
The Christian life is a sign that should be seen from far and near. It is a sign of contradiction, of course, in that it insists there is another way of living than living with the values of a materialistic world. The only way to preach this message is to live it. “You write a new page of the gospels each day, by the things that you do, and the words that you say. People read what you write, whether faithful or true. What is the gospel according to you?'
