My Tassels Are Longer Than Yours | August 22, 2015

 August 22, 2015

Today’s gospel is a cautionary tale about pride. When we are given roles of authority in any realm like coaching, teaching, ministry in the church, parenting, etc. we need to be cautious that we don’t get carried away by that authority and that we remember that all these roles are ones of servitude. I know that a lot of times I get all puffy and if I had a phylactery (a box containing scripture verses, worn on the forehead or arm), I would definitely want it to be super shiny and cuter than anyone else’s phylactery, bedazzled even. And let’s face it, my tassels would not only be longer than yours but they would obviously match whatever outfit I was wearing, duh. Yeah, I can definitely get caught up in that kind of frivol.

However, Jesus is saying that the law was established to guide us not to weigh us down. God’s laws should free us to love more deeply by harnessing the things in our life that keep us away from God. So, if the law starts turning our eyes away from God and onto the pomp and circumstance or any of the other bells and whistles that superfluous religiosity can induce, we need to step back and humble ourselves. Humility means more of God and less of us. One can still be in a high profile position and be humble. Humility points people to God like the Blessed Mother did at the wedding feast at Cana, “Do whatever he tells you.”

Being part of a church with a definite hierarchy and lots of rituals, tradition, rules, etc. really makes this gospel really hit home. The good news is that Pope Francis gets it and is trying with all his being to emulate Jesus’ message here. The day he was elected as Pope, to sit on the chair of Peter (formally the chair of Moses), he chose to ride the bus with his fellow Cardinals. There was no tassel competition in that act. He paid his hotel bill in person. No phylactery widening there. He pours coffee for his guests in his common dining room. He washes prisoner’s feet and women too. He sneaks out at night to feed the homeless and the list goes on and on. Pope Francis gets it. We need to get it too. It is a great honor and privilege to be entrusted with the message of Christ and to be called Christians. We cannot lord it over others, we cannot participate in petty wars over doctrine and what people wear to mass.

This gospel is a great reminder that we need to give all glory to God and do as Jesus did. Jesus allowed the law to move his heart into service of others, and to love fiercely because God first loved him. Let’s follow in those footsteps and pay close attention to Pope Francis’ lead on the matter. Let our prayer and service be longer and wider than our tassels and phylacteries so that all will see through our actions that we belong to God.

Reading 1 RU 2:1-3, 8-11; 4:13-17

Naomi had a prominent kinsman named Boaz,
of the clan of her husband Elimelech.
Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi,
“Let me go and glean ears of grain in the field
of anyone who will allow me that favor.”
Naomi said to her, “Go, my daughter,” and she went.
The field she entered to glean after the harvesters
happened to be the section belonging to Boaz
of the clan of Elimelech.

Boaz said to Ruth, “Listen, my daughter!
Do not go to glean in anyone else’s field;
you are not to leave here.
Stay here with my women servants.
Watch to see which field is to be harvested, and follow them;
I have commanded the young men to do you no harm.
When you are thirsty, you may go and drink from the vessels
the young men have filled.”
Casting herself prostrate upon the ground, Ruth said to him,
“Why should I, a foreigner, be favored with your notice?”
Boaz answered her:
“I have had a complete account of what you have done
for your mother-in-law after your husband’s death;
you have left your father and your mother and the land of your birth,
and have come to a people whom you did not know previously.”

Boaz took Ruth.
When they came together as man and wife,
the LORD enabled her to conceive and she bore a son.
Then the women said to Naomi,
“Blessed is the LORD who has not failed
to provide you today with an heir!
May he become famous in Israel!
He will be your comfort and the support of your old age,
for his mother is the daughter-in-law who loves you.
She is worth more to you than seven sons!”
Naomi took the child, placed him on her lap, and became his nurse.
And the neighbor women gave him his name,
at the news that a grandson had been born to Naomi.
They called him Obed.
He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.

Responsorial Psalm PS 128:1B-2, 3, 4, 5

R. (4) See how the Lord blesses those who fear him.
Blessed are you who fear the LORD,
who walk in his ways!
For you shall eat the fruit of your handiwork;
blessed shall you be, and favored.
R. See how the Lord blesses those who fear him.
You wife shall be like a fruitful vine
in the recesses of your home;
Your children like olive plants
around your table.
R. See how the Lord blesses those who fear him.
Behold, thus is the man blessed
who fears the LORD.
R. See how the Lord blesses those who fear him.
The LORD bless you from Zion:
may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem
all the days of your life.
R. See how the Lord blesses those who fear him.

Alleluia MT 23:9B, 10B

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
You have but one Father in heaven;
you have but one master, the Christ.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel MT 23:1-12

Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples, saying,
“The scribes and the Pharisees
have taken their seat on the chair of Moses.
Therefore, do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you,
but do not follow their example.
For they preach but they do not practice.
They tie up heavy burdens hard to carry
and lay them on people’s shoulders,
but they will not lift a finger to move them.
All their works are performed to be seen.
They widen their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels.
They love places of honor at banquets, seats of honor in synagogues,
greetings in marketplaces, and the salutation ‘Rabbi.’
As for you, do not be called ‘Rabbi.’
You have but one teacher, and you are all brothers.
Call no one on earth your father;
you have but one Father in heaven.
Do not be called ‘Master’;
you have but one master, the Christ.
The greatest among you must be your servant.
Whoever exalts himself will be humbled;
but whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”

Two Things | August 21, 2015

 August 21, 2015

The most daunting thing about being a single woman with no children is who will take care of me when I am old or ill. That’s one reason I can relate to Naomi in the first reading and why Ruth’s kindness toward her touches me in such a special way. Throughout the Bible there is a great emphasis placed on taking care of widows and orphans. Widows and orphans are at the very bottom of the social ladder and considered useless and worthless. God obviously disagrees with that notion.

Ruth was Naomi’s daughter-in-law and a Moabite. We should keep the phrase “nothing good can come from Moab (or Nazareth)” in the back of our mind so as to see the connection between Ruth and Jesus. Moabite women might be the ancient version of the Las Vegas showgirl or something along those lines. They had a very seedy reputation and Ruth was one of God’s poster children for being able to work through anyone with an open heart. Ruth came to love Naomi very much and Naomi shared her faith in God with Ruth in such an effective way that when she became widowed herself, Ruth chose to follow Naomi’s God and to take care of her. The reality of the times, however, meant that what Ruth was really choosing was to be useless and worthless as a widow for the rest of her life. She didn’t have to and could have moved back to her home in Moab and remarried and lived a fairly normal life, but her love for Naomi and God was bigger and she essentially laid down her life for another. This is why Ruth, a Moabite woman, appears in the genealogy of Jesus in the first chapter of Matthew. God does not conform His ways to ours but uses our sometimes-crooked lines to write the story of salvation.

Again in the gospel today, we see Jesus in a witty exchange with the Sadducees and the Pharisees. These two groups of religious leaders had been challenging Jesus on his knowledge of scripture, the law and the prophets for some time. Every attempt to stump Jesus resulted in their own shaming and they were quickly running out of dignity. The scene opens with the Pharisees tag teaming in because the Sadducees had just been silenced (shamed) yet again by Jesus. Questions were meant to test or challenge people and the Pharisees asked, “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” with the expectation that Jesus would somehow change the law to his radical way of thinking, and then they would have him trapped. How foolish, right? It’s like quizzing J.K. Rowling on all things Harry Potter. She wrote the freaking book!!! And He wrote the book, so essentially, He gets to quote Himself by saying, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”

When Jesus throws the second commandment in, he was doing so to trip them up, because literally every Jew knows the Great Shema from Deuteronomy 6, however, not all of them know the importance of this second commandment found in Leviticus 19:18. Jesus was demonstrating his complete knowledge of scripture while at the same time showing the Pharisees their own ignorance. I’m sure this did not go over well with them but for our own growth, it is a great reminder of how to order our lives properly.

The proper order is this: 1.  Love God with everything in your being first and most; 2.  Then you must love yourself, yes yourself (insert the Whitney Houston song here: “Learning to love yourself, it is the greatest love of all….” After you love God first!!!); 3. Then and only then, can you love others well. We get it backwards a lot of times and feel that finding love on earth first will ignite our love for God, or finding a soul mate becomes our biggest priority.  Jesus gives us the order: love God first, and then love others as yourself. It is safe to assume that unless we fill our souls with love for God, we will never be able to pour love out to others and especially ourselves. Let’s work on getting the proper order back so that we can love well and be well.

Reading 1 RU 1:1, 3-6, 14B-16, 22

Once in the time of the judges there was a famine in the land;
so a man from Bethlehem of Judah
departed with his wife and two sons
to reside on the plateau of Moab.
Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died,
and she was left with her two sons, who married Moabite women,
one named Orpah, the other Ruth.
When they had lived there about ten years,
both Mahlon and Chilion died also,
and the woman was left with neither her two sons nor her husband.
She then made ready to go back from the plateau of Moab
because word reached her there
that the LORD had visited his people and given them food.

Orpah kissed her mother-in-law good-bye, but Ruth stayed with her.

Naomi said, “See now! 
Your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and her god.
Go back after your sister-in-law!”
But Ruth said, “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.”

Thus it was that Naomi returned
with the Moabite daughter-in-law, Ruth,
who accompanied her back from the plateau of Moab.
They arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.

Responsorial Psalm PS 146:5-6AB, 6C-7, 8-9A, 9BC-10

R. (1b) Praise the Lord, my soul!
Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the LORD, his God,
Who made heaven and earth,
the sea and all that is in them.
R. Praise the Lord, my soul!
The LORD keeps faith forever,
secures justice for the oppressed,
gives food to the hungry.
The LORD sets captives free.
R. Praise the Lord, my soul!
The LORD gives sight to the blind.
The LORD raises up those who were bowed down;
The LORD loves the just.
The LORD protects strangers.
R. Praise the Lord, my soul!
The fatherless and the widow he sustains,
but the way of the wicked he thwarts.
The LORD shall reign forever;
your God, O Zion, through all generations. Alleluia.
R. Praise the Lord, my soul!

Alleluia PS 25:4B, 5A

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Teach me your paths, my God,
guide me in your truth.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel MT 22:34-40

When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees,
they gathered together, and one of them,
a scholar of the law, tested him by asking,
“Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?”
He said to him,
“You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart,
with all your soul, and with all your mind.
This is the greatest and the first commandment.
The second is like it:
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”

Wardrobe Malfunction | August 20, 2015

 August 20, 2015

Have you ever showed up to an event in the wrong outfit? I’ve seen a woman in stiletto heals at Disneyland before and one time a man at the gym was wearing jeans and a button down shirt while pumping iron. Another time after mass I hugged one of my teens that was still wearing a wet bathing suit straight from the beach. In California we can get away with pretty much wearing whatever we want to things because our culture is laid back, however, in other places there are rules to dressing appropriately based on the season and the type of event. Today’s gospel seems to be about a wardrobe malfunction on the surface but it goes deeper than that.

Remember parables are stories that make one doubt the real meaning so one will think even harder about it. Weddings in the Middle East were a seven-day event. Imagine having to pay for seven days of festivities for the whole village. This story tells us again that God invites us all to the banquet. The king in the story summoned all the “invited” guests to come party for seven days but they refused the invitation. Don’t you just hate when people don’t RSVP? How much food do I buy? How much wine? So he sends out his servants a second time to those “invited” this time with the menu for the feast so as to draw them in via their stomachs. I am guilty of wondering what food is going to be served at the parties I’ve been invited to and I find this to be a darn good strategy on the king’s part. It says only some ignored the invite and the rest killed the king’s servants. WTH? Was this a foreshadowing of the martyrdom of the Apostles? The king was pissed needless-to-say and destroyed those that did this to his servants. Don’t mess with the king!

The king said, “The feast is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy to come.” To me it sounds like he’s talking about the religious leaders here who were the ones with all the education, scripture, and liturgical practices but were still missing the deeper message of God and definitely of the Messiah. So the king says, “Go out, therefore, into the main roads and invite to the feast whomever you find.” Yay!! That means us!! Get your dancing shoes on because the DJ is playing the Electric Slide! The servants gathered “all” that they found “bad and good alike and the hall was filled.”

The Apostolic church has been highly successful in gathering people for the feast, good and bad. What do we wear to the party? This is the twist in the story. In the Middle East, if you are hosting a wedding, you provide the proper wedding garment for each one of your guests, similar to how Yakima’s are supplied in Jewish temples for those that don’t have one. Remember that this story is about a king who would definitely follow this protocol. So all were invited and accepted the garment offered them to enter the wedding in the proper fashion (pun intended) except for one man. When the king noticed the man he said, “My friend, how is it that you came in here without a wedding garment?” The man was “reduced to silence” because the answer was “your servants gave me the garment but I refused to put it on.” How often do we know the right thing to do and we deliberately choose the wrong? How often do we defy the rules that we think are pointless? How often do we refuse God’s unconditional love? How often to we disrobe God’s generosity and ignore his invitation to the table? 

To be “silenced” in the Middle East is to be shamed and shame is the worst possible thing that can come to you and/or your family. Jesus’ audience would have known this and that is why this parable is so scandalous for them. It is shameful to refuse someone’s hospitality let alone a king’s. We don’t place quite the same emphasis on such things and so this parable might not resonate the way it should for us. The consequences for refusing the king’s hospitality and generosity was to tie his hands and feet together and throw him outside of the community where there would be “wailing and grinding of teeth” (a reference to hell).  The consequences of sin are grave. We need to not make light of that. Sin is a deliberate turn away from God who not only invites us, tells us what’s on the menu, and gives us the right garment to wear making it as easy as possible to enjoy the party, but does so more than once!

Our human nature and pride tend to cloud our good judgment and keep us from receiving the free gift of grace that God wants to constantly clothe us in. May we decide today to accept the invitation and to wear the garment of God’s love that is freely given so that we can get out there on the dance floor and celebrate the king’s son on his wedding day! (Oh, and by the way, we are the bride!) For many are invited but few choose to participate and that is a major wardrobe malfunction. 

Gospel MT 22:1-14

Jesus again in reply spoke to the chief priests and the elders of the people in parables
saying, “The Kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king
who gave a wedding feast for his son.
He dispatched his servants to summon the invited guests to the feast,
but they refused to come.
A second time he sent other servants, saying,
‘Tell those invited: “Behold, I have prepared my banquet,
my calves and fattened cattle are killed,
and everything is ready; come to the feast.”’
Some ignored the invitation and went away,
one to his farm, another to his business.
The rest laid hold of his servants,
mistreated them, and killed them.
The king was enraged and sent his troops,
destroyed those murderers, and burned their city.
Then the king said to his servants, ‘The feast is ready,
but those who were invited were not worthy to come.
Go out, therefore, into the main roads
and invite to the feast whomever you find.’
The servants went out into the streets
and gathered all they found, bad and good alike,
and the hall was filled with guests.
But when the king came in to meet the guests
he saw a man there not dressed in a wedding garment.
He said to him, ‘My friend, how is it
that you came in here without a wedding garment?’
But he was reduced to silence.
Then the king said to his attendants, ‘Bind his hands and feet,
and cast him into the darkness outside,
where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.’
Many are invited, but few are chosen.”

At The End Of The Day | August 19, 2015

 August 19, 2015

I’m sure you’ve seen men standing outside places like Home Depot waiting for someone to offer them work. This is very Mediterranean and would have been something Jesus’ audience would have witnessed everyday. Finding work is a struggle and has always been a struggle, and our dependence on money and living comfortable lives adds an extra element of stress. When I ask kids what they want to be when they grow up, the majority of them say “I want to be rich so I don’t have to worry.” Finding God’s plan for our lives might also be a struggle and our deep desire to be loved and to belong might also add an element of selfishness into the mix. Let’s look at today’s parable.

Parables take an ordinary everyday situation, add an element of shock, and leave the audience in doubt as to the real meaning or to quote my pastor growing up, Fr. Kulleck, “Parables are stories that make you think.”

The first thing we need to note is that the Landowner went out to find the workers who were standing idle in the marketplace. This made me think that we must be still in order for Jesus to be able to come to us. When we wait on the Lord, He will come to us with the same invitation that the Landowner gave, “Go into my vineyard.” We have the opportunity to say yes or no to that invitation. If we are waiting for it, chances are we will say yes to it.

The next thing to look at is that Jesus says, “And I will give you what is just.” Every other time I have read this gospel I could have sworn that he originally said I will pay you a day’s wage, but he clearly says here, “What is just.” As we approach the Year of Mercy, we really need to wrap our hearts around God’s way of justice and not our own. We categorize people into various levels based on income, work ethic, neighborhood, education, physical ability, marital status, age, religion, etc. and we think it “fair” that people within these categories get what they “deserve.” God doesn’t even know how to categorize and sees us all as beloved and worthy of unconditional grace. The only way we can adopt this kind of thinking is to stay close to the source, “to go into my vineyard”, and get back on the vine.

The Landowner goes back out at noon, three o’clock, and five o’clock and offers the same invitation to “go into my vineyard and I will give you what is just.” Obviously, the Landowner had more work that needed to be done and in order to complete the work; he needed to keep adding people to the payroll. The Jews wanted to be God’s first and only chosen ones. There’s the element of shock, the kingdom of God is for all including the Gentiles. We are all called at different times in our lives to come into the vineyard and each time we say yes to the invite, we say yes to the promise of eternal life. There are no degrees of eternity, it is the same to all whether you say yes in your twenties or yes on your deathbed, and while that might make our human brains a little frustrated and inclined to throw a temper tantrum, it has to be this way or else heaven would not be free or limitless or eternal. The Israelites were definitely God’s first chosen people, but because of His endless love, He keeps adding chosen ones to the payroll and that my friends, is you and me.

The next thing the Landowner does really shakes things up. It’s time to pay the workers and he pays the ones he hired last first and the ones he hired first last. He pays them all the same amount and of course, the ones who worked all day have something to say about it. I know that I would have felt the same if I was in their shoes and it’s safe to assume that you might too. According to our standards this is totally unfair! Yep, that’s Jesus’ point; our standards are not God’s standards.

Jesus is reiterating that God’s mercy is endless and His goodness is beyond our human standards (thank God). It is not for us to compare God’s generosity and to turn it into something that can be obtained if we work harder, follow more rules, or check more boxes off of our how to get to heaven list. God’s love, mercy, kindness, and goodness are meant for everyone and all we have to do is accept it. When the Landowner asked the workers, “Why are standing here idle all day?” their response was, “Because no one else has hired us.” Sometimes we wait for life to happen to us don’t we? Sometimes we look for love in all the wrong places, don’t we? Sometimes we try to fill the hole in our heart with things other than God, don’t we? Jesus comes to us in our waiting. Perhaps the times of day in this story are the times of day when we need to stop and pray or stop and wait for the invitation to go into the vineyard. He will keep asking and we have the freedom to say yes or no. The point is not to wait until the last minute but to say yes whenever you are called.

At the end of the story the workers hired first are envious of those that were hired last. I know that envy is something that I struggle with on a daily basis and we know that it is indeed one of the seven deadly sins. This parable can help us rid ourselves of envy if we can apply it to our own lives. Let’s celebrate everyone called to the vineyard no matter what time that is because at the end of the day (and I’m pretty sure this Bible passage is the source of that colloquialism), the truth still remains that we are ALL invited and God’s generosity cannot be categorized, so enjoy the benefits and be thankful that you were even “hired” at all.

Gospel MT 20:1-16

Jesus told his disciples this parable:
“The Kingdom of heaven is like a landowner
who went out at dawn to hire laborers for his vineyard.
After agreeing with them for the usual daily wage,
he sent them into his vineyard.
Going out about nine o’clock,
he saw others standing idle in the marketplace,
and he said to them, ‘You too go into my vineyard,
and I will give you what is just.’
So they went off. 
And he went out again around noon,
and around three o’clock, and did likewise.
Going out about five o’clock,
he found others standing around, and said to them,
‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’
They answered, ‘Because no one has hired us.’
He said to them, ‘You too go into my vineyard.’
When it was evening the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman,
‘Summon the laborers and give them their pay,
beginning with the last and ending with the first.’
When those who had started about five o’clock came,
each received the usual daily wage.
So when the first came, they thought that they would receive more,
but each of them also got the usual wage.
And on receiving it they grumbled against the landowner, saying,
‘These last ones worked only one hour,
and you have made them equal to us,
who bore the day’s burden and the heat.’
He said to one of them in reply,
‘My friend, I am not cheating you.
Did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage?
Take what is yours and go.
What if I wish to give this last one the same as you?
Or am I not free to do as I wish with my own money?
Are you envious because I am generous?’
Thus, the last will be first, and the first will be last.”

No time to write today....