Keeping One's Options Open

21st Sunday in Ordinary Time

Joshua 24:1-2A,15-17,18B  

As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

Psalm 34

John 6:60-69  

Master, to whom shall we go?

The Bread of Life discourse draws to a close.  Jesus' teaching is tough. A commitment is called for and "many of his disciples returned to their former way of life."

This day's selection from the book of Joshua also asks for commitment. Joshua has "all the tribes of Israel" gathered and he says, "If it does not please you to serve the Lord, then...how about I call a cab."

Now is the time.  All the options can't stay on the table. Joshua (and Jesus) would rather not be bogged down with perennial fence-sitters. I suffer from an attraction to keeping my options open. It is, I suppose, a result of living with so many options. I am reminded of that person staring at the cereal options in the grocery store.  Keeping one's options open is a legitimate life-theme in my world. Not for Joshua. For Joshua...and Jesus, being non-committal is its own kind of slavery.

There are days when I am so deliberate about my commitment:  As for me and my house...

And then, on other days I shrug a little like Peter: Where else would I go...

Either way, I throw my lot in. I am tethered by choice to my God and my people. And the paradox is that the tether is liberating!

Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life;

you have the words of everlasting life. 

Alleluia, alleluia. 

Your People Shall Be My People...

Friday of Week 20 in Ordinary Time

Saint Pius X, Pope (1835-1914)

Blessed Victoria Rasoamanarivo (1848-1894)

Ruth 1:1,3-6,14-16,22 

Do not ask me to abandon or forsake you!  For wherever you go, I will go, wherever you lodge I will lodge, your people shall be my people, and your God my God.

Psalm 146 

Matthew 22:34-40 

You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, and your neighbor as yourself.

My habit has been to first peek at the Saints of the day.  And today I was happy to see a Blessed Catholic laywoman being remembered.  Then I read her story.  Much of it is certainly worth celebrating and remembering.  But it is hard to read that part of her blessedness comes from the “martyrdom” that was her marriage.  Victoria was “given” in marriage to an abusive and violent man.  Many tried to persuade her to leave the marriage.  I find myself wondering how “blessed” she might have been freed of that painful “martydom?”  Marriage and martyrdom don't belong in the same sentence. 

And then I took that mood to my reading of this first part of Ruth.  In its entirety, this short narrative is one of the most beautiful pieces of literature in the Bible.  Today’s portion is a testimony to the strength that comes from the intimate relationships that thrive within the community of women.  But the background of the story of Naomi, Ruth, and Orpah is the plight of women subject to the lordship of their male protectors.  Written between 950 and 700 BCE…I understand. 

Blessed Victoria is modern.  Canonized by John Paul II.  Wow.  That is a very slow pace of change.

The Love commandment is to ground everything else that comes as law, we hear in the gospel.  Choosing the loving way is never the easy way. 

It is a heavy Friday…

Some Tough Language

Thursday of Week 20 in Ordinary Time

(St. Bernard, Abbot, Doctor)

Judges 11:29-39*

Matthew 22:1-14

I admit to being very uncomfortable with this parable.  I much prefer the Lucan version (14:15-21) without the murder, the ejection of the one with improper clothing, and the darkness where there is the standard Matthean wailing and gnashing of teeth.  My 21st century sensibilities are too polite!  But deal with it, I must.

This passage is directed to the Chief Priests and Pharisees and provides an explanation for the mixed reception of the gospel.  At the writing of this gospel the Temple has been destroyed and this unfolding drama, with God using the Roman army as instruments of His wrath, is status quo in Israel's history.  No shock there.

So I shed my politeness and I see this parable emphasizing the HUGE invitation that God delivers through Jesus.  I see the inclusion of the weak and marginal.  I can taste the bounty of the table.

Behold I have prepared my meal; my oxen and fatted calves have been slaughtered, and all are ready.  Come to the wedding feast.

And just because I think I have accepted the invitation…mere admission isn't quite enough!  I must take up my role in the ongoing story.  And the wailing and gnashing do put a little umph in my step!

St. Bernard, who, leading by example, took on a corrupted Church, pray for me!

*In Judges, the saga continues...things are heating up again as Jephthah promises God, "whoever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites shall belong to the Lord. (i.e. human sacrifice)  And guess who has missed him the most?  His only child, his singing, dancing, tambourine playing daughter.  I guess the whole giving up child sacrifice took a while to stick. 

How Low Can You Go?

Tuesday of Week 20 in Ordinary Time

Judges 6:11-24

…and then Israel reverts yet again!  Enter Gideon, stage left

Matthew 19:23-30

…continued teaching on the dangerous allure of material wealth with the saying about the camel and the eye of the needle

So in a nutshell, God raised up Judge #1, Othniel who won for Israel 40 years of peace. He died. Israel forgets about God and reverts into past behaviors. Then comes unlikely Ehud (the left-handed) and he earns 80 years of peace. Israel forgets again.  Then unlikely Deborah (the skull-crusher) and another 40 years.  So here we are and this time God chooses Gideon “whose family is the lowliest and I the most insignificant member”

Why is it easier for God to choose the lowly one?  My bet is that God chooses us all.  It’s just that some listen better than others.  And when life is tough, calling on God is a more authentic daily conversation.  I find myself longing for the closeness I felt to God when I was pretty much on my knees in confusion and lostness.  I’m rich and camel-like.  But maybe if I learn how to better spend myself and my resources; and maybe if that learning comes by way of a close and listening-heavy friendship with God, then I’ll get lowly enough to hear that call meant for me.

I pray it so.

Are You Speaking to Me?

Monday of Week 20 in Ordinary Time

Judges 2:11-19

Matthew 19:16-22

This passage from the Book of Judges could just be the whole book in Miniature.  Israel just can't stay clean.  They are addicted to the shiny God's of the Canaanite's.  God, the One God, delivers them seven times by sending seven Judges to bring them back.  But with the death of each Judge comes a reversion.  It is dizzying.

God is a "tough-love" parent who tries to save but the Israelites haven't quite bottomed-out yet.  He (God) allowed them to fall into the power of their enemies.  Sounds to me like God is respecting human freedom.   

The Gospel today is the story of the young man who approaches Jesus with the question, What good must I do to gain eternal life?  Jesus responds with the commandments, which the young man proudly proclaims that he has mastered.  Then Jesus offers the next step, go, sell what you have and give to the poor…Then come, follow me.

The sexy sins (and I mean sexy) appear loud and clear in Judges.  They are alluring, intriguing, impressive…shiny even.  So too are the material possessions of my own life, those I own and those I covet.  The dangers of wealth, clearly a difficult gospel theme for first-century Palestine, is even more so in my world.

What do I count as blessing?  If I count something as blessing does that mean that its absence is curse?  I have some re-thinking to do.  I must be careful when I interpret tough scripture passages and somehow I am not implicated.  I am the rich young man.  Perhaps he will turn around...