Homily Ninth Tuesday of Ordinary Time (Mk 12:13-17) “Am I a Hypocrite?” 2020
Ninth Tuesday of Ordinary Time (Mk 12:13-17) “Am I a Hypocrite?”
Is there guilt by association? When we work for an organization that is unethical does that mean that we are unethical. If we belong to a club that has questionable by-laws and beliefs does that mean we do, too?
When we hear the Gospel today, we could conclude that Jesus felt that it is wrong to be members of groups that perpetuate injustice. Jesus would be hard to have as a church member because he would be constantly pointing out any inconsistency between words and deeds.
He does that with the Pharisees and Herodians in the scene we reflect on in the Gospel at today’s Mass. The leaders of the Jewish community come to him to ask him if it is right to pay taxes to an unjust government.
The Romans were an occupying power in Palestine in the time of Jesus. The common person had few rights and oppression was common. Some prominent men who come to Jesus to try make him look bad. The question they confront him with is meant to either make Jesus look like he supported the hated Romans, or he was a revolutionary trying to overthrow the government.
Jesus turns the tables on his questioners. He asks to see one of their coins. The coin was a Roman coin. You needed a Roman coin to pay Roman taxes. Since the men who questioned Jesus were in possession of the Roman coins it was obvious that they were participating in paying Roman taxes. Jesus exposed them for what they were, hypocrites. They were complicit in supporting the Roman government.
It is hard to be disconnected from all corrupt activity in the world. There is at least a little hypocrisy in everyone’s life. We should try to be aware that there is a little hypocrisy in our life and be humble when it is exposed. None of us are a pure as we would like to be.
1. Is the church perfect? Does that make it an organization that I should not be a part of?
2. Is our country perfect? If it is not, should I revoke my citizenship? Does being a good citizen or church member mean that need to constantly work for reform?
Dear Parishioners,
Last Sunday we had a wonderful outdoor Mass. We got word last week from the Diocese of Peoria, that we can gradually start to worship in our churches, but we can only allow 25% of capacity. We will be trying to get to the point where we can use our church again. We can gather any number of people outside. For that reason, we will continue to have outdoor Masses for the foreseeable future on Sundays. We will have Mass at 9 a.m. in front of Culemans Hall.
Another reality is that the next phase of the installation of our stained-glass windows will begin next Monday. This means the church will only be available on a limited basis for the next 2-3 weeks. This Sunday we will do what we did last Sunday. We will have a live stream Mass at 4 p.m. Saturday and an outdoor Mass Sunday morning. On June 13th and 14th we will attempt to have at least a couple of Masses in church. Please continue to watch these daily letters to get the latest updates.
May Our Lady and All the Angels and Saints keep us safe today.
Fr. Mark
P.S. The daily missals will be expiring this week. New Missals are available outside the back door of the rectory in the box labeled devotional materials. Also, there are One Bread One Body books. Feel free to pick them up at any time.