Fr. Glens Homily for Today! Thanks Fr. Glen! Scraps from the Table Rev. Glen Mullan August 17, 2014 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A) (Is 56; Rm 11; Mt 15:21-28) The longer I have been a priest, and the more classes I teach on various topics regarding the Church and theology, the more important the Old Testament becomes. For instance, at my previous parish when we sought to renew the liturgical life and correct some of the errors of the overly emotional, personality- centered approach so much in vogue today, the corrective principles could be found in the way God structured the liturgy for the Israelites in the Law of Moses, especially Psalms, Exodus, and Leviticus. Thus, as we developed the handbook for training sacristans and liturgical ministers (and ultimately the congregation), we appealed to the same qualities God originally tried to inculcate among the Jews: How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord God of Hosts (Ps 84:1) Zeal for your house consumes me (Ps 69:9) For glory and for beauty (Ex 28:2) According to the heavenly pattern (Ex 25:40) Holy to the Lord (Ex 28:36) God was very specific and particular, even down to the smallest details governing the rituals, the words, the quality of materials, and the colors to be used (cf. Ex 25:2-7). In teaching the class on the liturgy, I was reminded over and over again of the Jewish foundations to Christian worship. Though the new wine of the Gospel has been poured into new wineskins, replacing many forms and rituals of the Old Testament, nevertheless, the fundamental structures and patterns remain the same. The church building still should maintain the three-fold division of the temple; the Mass still combines the essential purposes of the synagogue service (Liturgy of the Word) and temple sacrifice (Liturgy of the Eucharist). To become better Catholics, we need to become more Jewish! There was a reason God chose this particular nation to be His own. It was to form them in a specific way, under His direct personal guidance, to be a society or kingdom that reflected the “City of God” instead of the “City of Man.” Among all the pagan (Gentile) nations of the world, this was the only nation that worshipped the true God, and organized and structured itself according to the principles of true religion (not superstition) and justice (10 Commandments). In its legal, social, and economic structure, when followed to the letter, it was a holy and righteous nation. The Jews were healthier, wealthier, and wiser than the rest of mankind, but these were only secondary blessings which flowed from the fact that they were first of all God’s people, “Holy to the Lord” (cf. Dt 4:6-8). God does not love Jews/Israelites more than others. But God does love their way of life more, because it is the one He designed! We need to realize, that when God “chose” this people, it means that He personally grew and formed this people as His nation, under the protection and guidance of His strict laws. He did not choose a people already formed by someone else. When the fullness of time arrived for the world’s salvation, God had on earth a healthy vine on which to graft the unhealthy, malformed Gentile nations. God’s desire was always the salvation of the world, and not simply that of the Jews, as the Old Testament makes clear in such prophecies as our first reading, from Isaiah. God needed this healthy and solid (correct) foundation upon which to build his universal (Catholic) Church. In the same chapter as our second reading (Rm 11:17-19), St. Paul speaks about this grafting process. Thus the Old Testament continues to serve as the basis for training and re-forming the Gentile nations in the correct ways of holiness and righteousness, pleasing to God. It is a mystery that the Jews did not accept the Messiah en masse, and something that grieved and puzzled St. Paul in particular. But in Romans 11 he proclaims that the recalcitrance of the Jews is providential; it is the opportunity for the Gentiles, and he implies that before the end of the world, the Jews will finally return (Rm 11:15,24-26). Almost all of us who will hear this teaching and these readings this Sunday, are from the Gentiles. Our people came to Christ from various pagan backgrounds. Today the Church speaks of the need for a completely new “re-evangelization,” which is a kind way of saying that we have basically become pagans again and are in need of being re-formed again from the beginning according to correct principles. And it’s not just the case of liturgical re-formation, though how we worship does express and reflect how we live, and our Catholic liturgies have indeed become banal, “pagan,” and worldly. Instead, it’s the issue of how we view the world and life, and how we seek to organize and live out our life. The most fundamental precept of the (Jewish) law is to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength” (cf. Mt 22:37; Dt 6:5), and concretely this translates into the 10 Commandments, among which the third commandment has special emphasis: “You shall organize your life and schedule around the obligation of religious worship on the Sabbath” (cf. Ex 20:8-11). It is curious but not coincidental, that even the Gentile cultures which do not know the Old Testament, follow a 7-day week. At this level, all the world is Jewish! However, that is only the beginning. From the love and Fear of the Lord expressed through the keeping of the Sabbath, our lives are to be built in justice and love toward our neighbor, keeping holy the family built upon marriage, not harming others or stealing from them, and living always in truth and integrity. Daily life is to be governed by principles of duty and obedience, and God’s people are expected to know and love His Word, and pray seven times a day. To be a better Catholic, one must always become more Jewish, less Gentile. In the Gospel, Jesus highlights this truth about Jewish superiority in the most striking way. He refuses to help the Gentile, until she humbly acknowledges the superiority of the Jews, and proclaims her recognition of what Jesus later told the Samaritan woman, “Salvation is from the Jews” (Jn 4:22). In Jewish parlance, “dog” is the pejorative expression for a Gentile. Jesus accepts it as true, and requires the woman to accept its truth if she desires the grace which the Jews possess! It is a lesson for us to relearn today, who are Gentiles. It is a lesson for us to hear again in the United States, where we have consciously rejected our Judeo- Christian heritage, and re-embraced a savage paganism. It is a lesson for modern “Catholics” to hear again, whose lives are little different from the pagans around us, and who have in many cases reduced our faith and religion to something completely acceptable and conformable with this shallow pagan world around us. Our pagan society, our contemporary culture is woefully inferior! It is filled with deformity, superstition, and injustice. It is offensive to God. As in the Gospel, Jesus looks at us and says, why should I help these dogs! We do indeed seem to prefer groveling in the dirt picking up scraps that fall from the table, unaware and unwilling to rise to the dignity that allows us to the sit at the table and partake of the banquet as children of the true God, disciplined, educated, formed, and raised according to His Word. The Old Testament was a “pedagogic” time, a time for God to teach, and for people to learn and be disciplined, sometimes severely. There is a reason why it still remains the bigger part of the Bible! Just because we have the Gospel, the Good News of salvation, it does not mean we are done with the pedagogy. As God was merciful to the Gentile woman in the Gospel, God is merciful to us. But are we, like the Caananite gentile woman, humble enough to admit we have much to learn, and a long way to go?
Posted on: Sun, 17 Aug 2014 23:52:45 +0000
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