Thirty First Sunday in Ordinary Time - October 30, 2011

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I came across this joke that I think is worthy to share: (by Deacon Dick Folger) The pastor gave an unused office in the church building to the new head of the liturgy committee. She had a big superiority complex, and the new office added to her high-and-mighty attitude. When one of the maintenance staff knocked on her door, she picked up her phone and pretended to be on an important call. “Yes, Bishop, thank you for your kind wishes,” she said, hanging up the receiver with a smile. With queenly demeanor she looked up at the man standing in her doorway. “May I help you?” she asked. “Sorry to disturb you,” he said. “I’m here to hook up your phone.” In today’s Gospel, Jesus reminds us again: “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”

Many of us if not all of us have experienced times of great disillusionment with our heroes - be they movie actors, musicians, politicians, teachers, neighbors, priests, bishops, religious brothers or sisters, or whoever. Those experiences of realizing the humanity of one or a number of people we hold in high esteem shake our values and trust. We as a church know all too painfully how much more grave the disappointment and hurt is when the person who hurts, abuses, lies and cheats are the ones to whom we look to be our guides into the ways and world of our God. The sexual abuse scandal has so severely rocked our faith communities precisely because it has been our beloved priests and bishops and volunteers whom we respected and trusted who did such heinous acts. It is for that very reason that our church now goes to pains length to protect our children. The expectations and regulations are not meant to be statements that we don’t trust those who work with children, but that we need to do all in our power to create an environment that is a safe one. We continue to pray for victims of any type of abuse, especially abuse at the hands of religious leaders and workers.

It would be easy to set this Gospel aside as a lesson in the sort of leadership many of us don’t have to worry about. Yet, each of us is called to servant leadership be we parents, spouses, friends, neighbors, mentors, confidants or students. Pope Paul VI in his opening address for the second session of Vatican II said that “we are to serve one another and the world with profound understanding, with sincere admiration, not despising but appreciating, not condemning but strengthening, not tearing down, but building up.” We are to be a people of religion of the heart, not of the externals alone. We are not to ignore the inner world from where the love of God and neighbor originates and develops.

I think Pope Paul VI expressed well Jesus’ warning to his followers. “Do not follow the example of the scribes and Pharisees” especially in regards to their lack of compassion and their habit of putting the law above the people the law serves. That is really what Jesus was talking about when he said the scribes and Pharisees “tie up heavy burdens hard to carry and lay them on people’s shoulders, but will not lift a finger to move them.”

In a culture where anything goes, it is easy to turn to Church laws and rules to provide not only conscience formation but to give order to our lives in a world so scarred by a lack of order. And doing that is not wrong or bad. But when we put our ability to abide by every law of our church above the love and compassion and mercy our Lord has for us, then it can be very easy to scorn others who are not so skilled in following rules and laws with such devotion and precision. The scribes and Pharisees placed so much importance on their ability to follow Jewish law that they lost their need for a loving God who is filled with compassion. Their self-righteousness kept them blind to the presence of the Son of God in their midst. Their ambition became more important than their need for a Savior and their need to believe that Jesus is the Son of the God they thought they were serving.

It is not an easy task to balance compassion with expectation, forgiveness with righteousness founded on law, and mercy with consequences of sin. When we make it our business to judge the hearts of others, then we are taking on God’s work and also adding weight to that which broken people already carry on their backs.

(For the Mass at Coastal Carolina University: Yesterday at the retreat, one of the student lead a session. It was on solidarity. We read an article about the injustices done to migrant workers who picked tomatoes for farmers. I believe what we read said that the worker only gets $0.50 per 30 pound bucket of tomatoes. We were asked to sign post-cards to businesses like Kroger and Walmart to ask them to pay just 1 penny more per pound for tomatoes. In so doing, the migrant workers who make way below minimum wage in even conditions like slavery would almost double their salary. That session made me think of what the Methodist Campus Minister, Tom Wall, said at a mission trip reflection one spring break when we were with them on a mission trip to the Dominican Republic some 7 or 8 years ago. Leading the reflection after one day’s work, he stated that some say that the wealth of Americans lies on the backs of the poor of the world. Of course that statement led one of the Methodist students to come undone! Evil in all forms, especially oppression of the poor, persists when good people do nothing! Many on the retreat did sign the postcards - a very small but important act of solidarity. The student leading that session asked us to do two things at the end. One thing was to write on a piece of paper one more thing we would do concretely to be in solidarity with anyone – family members, friends, the sick, the oppressed, etc. – and put that promise to God in a box which was placed on the altar and blessed during the intercessions. She also asked us to reflect privately about to what extent we let God rule over our stewardship of time, talent and treasure. In other words, do we invite God into decisions we make in how we identify and then share the gifts of our time, talent and treasure. There are many ways of placing or of loosening heavy burdens hard to carry on the shoulders of others.)

To each of us the gospel is addressed: Are my words bold, but my deeds few? Do I expect others to conform to exacting standards, but lack the love that makes these values believable and performable? Am I really convinced that “the greatest among you will be the one who serves the rest?” Is what I am doing here at Mass an empty legalistic external observance or is it the sign of an interior conversion of the heart? The answers to those questions are found in our thoughts, words and actions toward others; pay attention this week to those thoughts, words and actions. Our sins do not define who we are – they are merely symptoms of what needs healing and cleansing. We need to be cured, not cursed. That desire and prayer shouldn’t be what we say only for ourselves but also for all people, especially those we may want to judge!