It's all context

In the Book of Exodus, we hear God:

punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation

Taken out of context it seems awful and unjust. And is the perfect example of the dangers of individual bible verses. Do children suffer the consequences of their parents choices? Sadly, we see it every day. But does God punish the children for the parents' sin? Of course not.

Today we hear Ezekiel's correction,

Son of man, what is the meaning of this proverb
that you recite in the land of Israel:

“Fathers have eaten green grapes,
thus their children’s teeth are on edge”?

The prophet the goes on to explain,

I swear that there shall no longer be anyone among you
who will repeat this proverb in Israel.
For all lives are mine;
the life of the father is like the life of the son, both are mine;
only the one who sins shall die.

Did God change? Of course not.

In the original cast of Saturday Night Live there was a character named Emily Litella. Each episode she would get upset and go off over what she thought she heard someone say, then after her rant, someone would correct what she misheard. She would then respond with her famous, "Nevermind."

We humans often hear what we want to hear. The Bible was inspired by God, not dictated. That means the hands who committed it to writing were still human, with all that being human entails. Were the Old Testament the complete truth about God there would be no New Testament. Both are essential to our faith, but must be interpreted together.

As the Catechism says clearly:
The Church, as early as apostolic times, and then constantly in her Tradition, has illuminated the unity of the divine plan in the two Testaments ...Christians therefore read the Old Testament in the light of Christ crucified and risen... As an old saying put it, the New Testament lies hidden in the Old and the Old Testament is unveiled in the New.

God has not changed. God will not change. God is immutable.
We constantly change. And the Holy Spirit continues to lead us to a deeper and deeper understanding of the truth contain in the scriptures.

We must let all the scriptures speak to us, not going looking through the Bible for verses that tell us what we want to hear. In the psalms David often rails against his enemies. Does Jesus give us permission to do the same or are we not called to love our enemies?

It is hard work to be a true disciple. It's why we can never divorce discipleship from discipline. There is only one perfect example in the scriptures, Jesus. Today and every day we strive to model him and only him.

Homogenized Relgion

When I first moved back from Italy I was out to dinner with one of our older priests who had also spent time in Rome. We were at an Italian restaurant and I asked, "How long is it going to be before I can eat Italian food in the US and not think "Ugh!"? Without pausing, he responded, "Never." I later had a conversion with an Italian who owned one of my favorite restaurants in Virgiinia Beach, and he told me the story of how when he first opened he cooked the traditional recipes just as they had always been prepared in Italy and soon figured out he had to adjust to American expectations if he was going to survive. He surrendered.

Even more bastardized is so-called Mexican food. One ethnic restaurant after another comes to realize they have to adjust the cuisine to the confines of the average American palate, if they wish to draw the crowd.

Perhaps in a restaurant this is not a bad thing. After all, it is a business. It's goal is to make money. The same should not be true of Church.

Today we celebrate a Holy Day of Obligation, the Assumption of Mary, or what the Eastern Christians call the dormition. Our images all tend to be a rather European porcelain-complexed girl in white (and blue) being taken up to heaven. We barely notice the radical content of the readings of the day.

The centerpiece from Luke's Gospel, the Canticle of Mary

My soul proclaims the greatness of The Lord...He has shown the strength of his arm, and has scattered the proud in their conceit. He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, and has lifted up the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty.

The Church underscores this image by pairing it with the reading from St. Paul's letter to the Corinthians where he proclaims,

then comes the end, when he hands over the kingdom to his God and Father, when he has destroyed every sovereignty and every authority and power.

Christianity in its original form called for radical conversion, a radical reordering of our individual hearts and also our society. But like the Italian and Mexican restaurants we all too often want to strip it of its radical edges, smooth it out, make it more palatable—homogenized Christianity. Saddest of all is when we do it for the same reason as the restaurant; we want to fill up the pews and the collection plate. We don't want to offend the sensibilities of our large donors. We want to keep our people happy. As if Christ founded the Church to make people happy.

Pope Francis from the beginning of his pontificate has made it clear that he expects us all, beginning with his bishops, priests and religious, to embrace the radical uniqueness of a truly Christian lifestyle. Today as we listen to the Book of Revelation, St. Paul's Letter to the Corinthians, and the Canticle of Mary in Luke's Gospel, perhaps we will opens our ears and heart and allow ourselves to be shaken from our comfortable ordinary lives, and embrace the extraordinary life that is Christianity.

Before forgiveness

Today's gospel most of us know well. How many times must I forgive? In Matthew's gospel, 77 times, 7 being the number that represents perfection, God.

We also get the parable of the two servants. One was forgiven by the master, but he in turn refused to forgive another servant who owed him.

While we tend to focus on the aspect of forgiveness, it seems a good idea to go back step. Before I can forgive someone, there has to be something that needs forgiving, an offense. And there a judgement is made.

A person steps on my foot. They reflexively say, "Excuse me", because they are well-mannered. But is there really anything to excuse? Suppose it was an accident in a crowded elevator. Is there anything to forgive? No, because there was no intentionality. And how paranoid would I have to be in a crowded elevator to think that the person stepped on my foot on purpose?

And yet, we do seem to have the ability to find offense where there is none. What is it about us that we see intentionality and sinister motives in the smallest things? I've been a priest for 25 years and worked as part of the diocesan staff for 14. I never cease to be amazed at the times when, a person's name is accidentally left off of a thank you or invitation list and they get into a snit, convinced that it was intentional. Or those who act as if the Bishop has nothing more to do all day than sit around and plot against them.

Before we get to the question of how many times we have to forgive a person, perhaps we need to look to see if there is a genuine offense or are we dealing with a case of our own skewed perception.

We need to admit that we all operate on double, triple and quadruple standards. We have:
the standard by which we measure ourselves,
the one we use for people we love,
the one for people we like,
the one for people we don't know,
the one for people we don't like,
the one for people who happen to belong to groups we don't like or trust.
And those are just a few of the possibilities.

Time and again Jesus reminds us that the ruler we use to measure others will be the one with which we will be measured at the final judgement.

Most of us are doing well if we can accurately judge our own motives for all of our actions. And if we spend our times attending to our own motivations and actions, we will have very little time to devote to judging others. In our America criminal legal system a person is supposed to be presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Try applying that rule to your family members, neighbors, coworkers. Perhaps you will find that you don't need to forgive 77 times, because there aren't anywhere near that number of actual offenses. Short absolute proof we should always give the benefit of the doubt. That is part of loving thy neighbor.

Your unmentionables

Over the last couple of days as we have all been processing the death of Robin Williams, it has dawned on me that much of our problem is anthropology. That is, how we understand the human being.

For us as Christians, humans are composite creatures. We are made up of matter and spirit. The material part we call the body. The spiritual part we call the Soul. Writers like C.S. Lewis have done a magnificent job of explaining the interplay between the two.

Our mistake has been that we behave as if there is this mysterious third thing called the psyche or the mind, as if it were separate from the brain. Then we talk about mental illness, as if it were somehow separate. And in this mysterious world is the boogie man our modern culture still doesn't want to openly deal with. Unmentionables used to refer to underwear. Now it seems to be our attitude toward the brain.

Let's call it what it is. What we are talking about is a part of our physical self called the brain. It is an organ of the body that functions like any other organ. It malfunctions like any other organ. There is a chemistry that can be out of balance. It is the organ of memory, how we receive, process, store, and recall information. Our receptive and expressive language skills reside in the brain. All of this controls how we interact with the world.

Once more I go back to Gabriela Garcia Marquez "Life is not what you have lived, but what you remember and how you recall it in order to recount it." Our brains can only focus on a very limited number for things. And much of psychology is about looking at which memories we recall and how we interpret them. Much of this we have control over and can change. Here is also where our spiritual self interfaces with our physical self. Our soul should guide how we organize, interpret, and respond to all of the data our brain takes in.

But there is also much of what we call "mental illness" that is really brain malfunction. No different than pancreatic or liver malfunction, and needs to be addressed with medicine.

I have cerebral palsy. If you ask what is wrong with my leg, the answer is nothing. I walk funny, because of brain damage. Conditions like bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, etc are no different. They are medical conditions. We need to stop putting mental health in a separate category.

We clergy are here to help with your spiritual part. And there are doctors to help with your material part. There is no third unmentionable part. If you are suffering, talk to your clergy, talk to a doctor. And if your brain malfunctions, take your medicine, without shame.

Each and every day, we should properly nourish and care for both our spiritual and physical self. Neither of which we can do on our own.

I came that you may have life, and have it abundantly.

Today let us care for this most precious gift of life, and help others to do so.

How small can I be?

Once more we cycle back to Mt 18, and the call to smallness.

unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the Kingdom of heaven

Not only does the word used here mean children. It is a diminutive form, little children. Complicating it further the word is also used to refer to servants and slaves, in that way that "boy" was used in the South.

I think it is important here to distinguish between self-deprecation and humility. Self-deprecation is an offense against the basic human dignity we have from conception, and often reflects deeper issues best addressed in counseling.

True humility begins with the recognition of the equal dignity of all human beings, and then freely choosing to put others ahead of yourself. It is a constant self-monitoring process, watching out for those moments when we put ourselves ahead of others , when we act is if my need to get to work is greater than the other person in the car next to me, for example.

Today look for those opportunities to put someone ahead of yourself. Open a door. Let someone into your lane. Let someone speak first. Become the servant at ever opportunity.

The appearance standard

As Catholics we are subject to three laws: civil law, canon law, and the moral law. The violation of civil law is a crime. The violation of canon law is a delict. The violation of the moral law is a sin. But in the last twenty years or so, it seems we have become obsessed with appearances, and to the point of absurdity. People now want to criminalize the so-called appearance standard.

In the Catholic Church we have always understood something similar to, but deeper than "the appearance standard." We call it giving scandal. It comes from today's gospel. Jesus pays the temple tax not because he believes he owes it, but

In order that we not scandalize them

The problem is that the word has changed meanings. We think it means shock, or cause others to talk. The Christian concept has nothing to do with mere appearance. It's not about declaring something wrongs because "It doesn't look good." Me wearing a pair of shorts doesn't look good, but it is not scandalous.

The Greek word means to entrap, to trip up, to cause someone else to fall or stumble, to entice another person to sin. If I am out to dinner with a friend who is a newly recovering alcoholic, I would forego the glass of wine not because it is a sin to drink wine, but so as not to run the risk of enticing him. Because if I entice another person to sin then I have sinned.

The concept of scandal is real, and we should not trivialize it by reducing it to appearance. Each of us must ask, could my action even if not wrong, lead someone to commit a crime, a delict or sin. It is really an extension of the command to love your neighbor. We should not only avoid sin, but do all in our power to help others as well.

Telling the truth

As a newly ordained priest in 1989 I was assigned to Our Lady of Lourdes that had and still has a great school. I still remember the shock I felt the first time an indignant parent told me that, "My child would never lie to me." The parent had been told about the child's bad behavior and the child had done what we all did, claimed they didn't do it.

My parents kept a myriad of foster children including the three of us they adopted. And one of the things we all had in common is that at some point we all lied. I bet as you are reading this you are recalling lies you told your parents. It is part of the child's self-preservation instinct.

As we got older we knew that my mother always adhered to her rule about the truth and so it became easier to avoid lying. Her rule was, "I'm gonna find out the truth so If you tell me the truth now, it's going to go better for you that if I find out you lied." But despite her offer of mercy for truth, as children we lied.

Even as adults we have something we call a white lie, as if it is somehow better. What other colors do lies come in? A lie is a lie. We lie when we say something that we know to be false.

But the worst lies we tell as adults may be the ones we tell ourselves:
—The person who drinks day after day, and tells himself, "I'm not an alcoholic."
—The persons who are shacked up, as my mother called it, who tell themselves, "It's not a sin," because everybody does it.
—The person who would rather suffer in silence with depression, than admit they need psychiatric help.

It is incredibly difficult to be honest with the world and even with ourselves all the time, 24/7. And yet, as Christians that is what we are called to do. Sometimes, with the world, the best way to avoid a lie is to say nothing. We do not need to comment on everything. It may be absolutely true that your boss is jerk, but saying that might get you fired. So say nothing.

We should consciously choose when we speak and when we speak we really only need to follow what St. Paul tells us at the beginning of today's second reading.

I speak the truth in Christ, I do not lie; my conscience joins with the Holy Spirit in bearing me witness

Actually the America lectionary is not the best translation. What the Greek text says in Romans 9:1 is "Ἀλήθειαν λέγω ἐν Χριστῷ, οὐ ψεύδομαι, συμμαρτυρούσης μοι τῆς συνειδήσεώς μου ἐν πνεύματι ἁγίῳ,"

I speak the truth in Christ, I do not lie; my conscience co-testifies with me in the Holy Spirit.

It seems that there are two key parts to being truthful. First, we never speak with alone. The verb here means co-testify or co-witness. We must always speak in union with our conscience. Secondly, we must do it all "in the Holy Spirit."

In a world of constant activity, and chatter. We need to take time to sit in the Holy Spirit with our conscience. We traditionally refer to this as an examination of conscience, but it isn't an examination of our conscience. It is an examination of our lives that we do with our conscience. I and my conscience sitting enveloped in the Holy Spirit examine my life and speak the truth to myself. Then and only then can I speak the truth to others.

Think before you speak, speak in the Holy Spirit, speak in union with your conscience.