Homily Thirtieth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Exodus 22:20-26/Mt. 22:34-40) “Love is the Way to Measure the Law.”
Homily Thirtieth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Exodus 22:20-26/Mt. 22:34-40) “Love is the Way to Measure the Law.”
The Jewish people considered the Law of Moses a great gift. The Law was meant to guide God’s people through the complexities of life. The Mosaic Law reminds me of the time I spent going to seminary at a Benedictine monastery. The monastery was governed by the Rule of St. Benedict. The monks had an expression which was, “Keep the rule and rule will keep you.” The Hebrews had the same belief. If you keep the Law of God, the Law keeps you holy.
The original law that the Hebrews received was the Ten Commandments, but those commandments were considered very broad, so the religious establishment elaborated on the Ten Commandments trying to apply the commandments to practical situations. These interpretations led to hundreds of additional laws that were written down in scripture. We have three of those additions in the section of the Book of Exodus that we read today. The desire was to have people live by God’s standards. The important thing was to influence how people treated each other.
We see three additional directives presented today. The first law presented, forbids the molesting and oppressing of immigrants. The Jews were reminded that they were once a people who were aliens living in Egypt. Since they were treated unjustly, they should be empathetic to foreigners living in the land. The second law forbids doing wrong to the widow or the orphan. Widows and orphans symbolized vulnerable people of every stripe. The third law touches on the poor. Businesspeople were supposed to be fair, if not, downright generous with those in most need. Sometimes the only possession that an impoverished person had was their cloak. The Jewish law stated that a cloak should never be taken in payment of a debt.
Jesus sums up the whole of the Jewish law with the exhortation that we are to always error on the side of love whether we are trying to be obedient to God or fair to our neighbor.
Keeping the moral law is always a challenge. We are aware of that challenge as we contemplate the upcoming election. Many people are presenting what the church teaches. The guidance we should try to listen to comes for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. The bishops wrote a document called “Faithful Citizenship” about 25 years ago and it has been revised each election cycle since. In no way can I cover all the nuances of this document in this homily because in its present form it is 97 paragraphs long.
I would just offer the following. The first premise of the bishops states “the official church cannot take up the political battle.” Clergy are not supposed to endorse specific candidates or parties. The second ideal put forth is that the church’s role is to inform consciences based on moral principles. Thirdly the church is to help each person cultivate the virtue of prudence. Prudence helps us to move deliberately to discern the truth.
The moral principles we should use to decide how to vote (according to our bishops) are four basic social justice principles.
1. Dignity of the human person.
Direct attacks on innocent people are never morally acceptable. That means that life from womb to tomb should be protected. Abortion, euthanasia, assisted suicide, war, starvation, poverty are affronts to human dignity.
2. Subsidiarity
This means that basic building blocks of society should be protected including the family, social organizations and associations. Anything that leads to social growth should be respected. Large institutions should not overwhelm or interfere with local institutions.
3. Common Good
Everyone has the right to life, decent food, shelter, education, employment, health care, housing, religious freedom. We must also care for God’s creation.
4. Solidarity
We are one human family. We are our brother’s and sister’s keepers whatever their race, ethnic background or nation of origin. We are all related and each of us need to be cared for.
I offer my synopsis. I don’t claim that my summary covers every detail. I am struggling to make my choices in this election like all of you. If you want more guidance, I would invite you to go online or ask your children or friends who are computer savvy to help you obtain the document “Faithful Citizenship.” We each must make our own decisions when it comes to voting. We are our own moral agents in the political realm. In the end, our greatest desire is to be respectful of one another and to seek to preserve our democratic process and our right to choose. Our primary goal is always to keep the great commandment of Jesus, to love, not to hate one another, even if we are in disagreement.
Reflection Questions:
- What does have an informed conscience mean to me? Do the U.S. Bishops moral principles resonate with me?
- Should the church be affiliated with a political party? Does one party reflect all the Catholic values?
Dear Parishioners,
Next Sunday we will be celebrating the Feast of All Saints. This Feast supersedes the liturgy for the 31st Sunday of Ordinary Time. On Monday we commemorate All Souls Day.
When we celebrate the Feast of All Saints and all Souls each year, we usually have a Mass of Remembrance for the people from our parish who have died in the last year. We normally do that at Saturday night Mass.
This year we will have a special Mass of Remembrance at 5:30 p.m. this Friday for our deceased members. Our Saturday night Mass is well attended and due to COVID19, we need to limit the number of people who attend Mass.
If you would like us to remember a loved one, please contact our office by Wednesday night and give us their name. People will be allowed to sign in at the church door for this special Mass.
May Our Lady and all the Angels and Saints watch over you this week.
Fr. Mark
P.S. Late in the week Deacon Pat decided to move to senior status (retire) as a Deacon. Deacon Pat will be 79 in February. He felt it was time to do this as we move into the winter season. This means he will be stepping back from being on our staff. I hope can show our thanks in an appropriate way in the near future. This is hard to do with the pandemic spiking again. I will have more detailed thank you in next week’s bulletin. Needless to say, I will miss his many gifts as will our community.