Reflections
- 16th Sunday
In
the pre- Vatican church of the 1950’s and early
60’s, some of us will remember sermons based around
the notion of God being a judging God, a distant
remote deity, probably with a white beard who had
no love or connection with his,-and it clearly
was,- his people;- a God who enforced harsh and
petty rules and punished those who did not comply.
The obvious result of this message was for many
a religion of fear and scrupulousness. Of worrying
about whether the eating of bacon chips was breaking
the Friday no meat rule and whether toothpaste broke
the fast before communion. But these paled into insignificance
against the backdrop of mortal sin and the fate of
eternal damnation.
What was the cut off point between mortal and venial
sin for stealing? $100? $1000? Was this indexed to
the consumer price index? How did it compare to $US,
the pound sterling and the shekel?
What were acceptable excuses for missing mass on
Sunday? Was State Rail track work good enough?
An unreliable alarm clock? Getting it right religiously
(and to some degree politically) was about obedience
to rules but not a loving relationship.
Today’s readings are about the theme of God’s judgement,
presenting a very different notion of what that means
and on what it is based. The first reading from the
book of Wisdom makes the link between judgement and
justice. It talks of the great strength of the judgement,
a strength marked by lenience not harshness. Towards
the end we have this wonderful description of what
is a virtuous person. There is no mention of great
deeds or sacrifice, of belonging to a particular
group or obeying strict rules. The virtuous person
must be kindly to his fellow people. We all know
from our own experiences of life how simple, complex
and challenging that message is. The other positive
instruction is to give your children the good hope
that after sin, there is repentance. That statement
is made without mention of rules, restrictions, rituals
or exclusion clauses. Just the simple statement –
after sin there is repentance.
The psalm continues that theme. The Lord is forgiving,
full of love and compassion, abounding in love and
truth. Our hell fire preacher of the 50’s would have
seen truth as an absolute a point of exclusion (an
in group and out group) supporting his power. The
psalm puts truth clearly in the context of love and
compassion.
The second reading from Romans is about the relationship
between God and humanity. We are not alone. The Spirit
is there to help us express what can’t be put into
words for God knows our hearts anyway. Prayer is
not a set of formal ritualised commitments which
added to the burden of guilt and obligation or perhaps,
self righteousness of the 50’s super- scrupulous
Catholic, but, the entering into our lives and hearts
of a divine spirit that loves us just as we are.
Prayer is about being open to that spirit, to that
gift.
The gospel from Matthew gives us more insight into
the issue of judgement. Today’s reading includes
some parables, a common device used by Jesus. Current
scriptural scholarship sees parables as a way of
putting one thing alongside another by way of comparison
and illustration. Rabbis used parables, before and
after Christ’s time, to clarify and drive home their
message, to make truth understandable. What a parable
is not – is an allegory. An allegory is a point-by-point
matching up of each aspect of a story with a fixed
meaning. It is thought that the explanation of the
parable is not Christ’s words but was added in by
the early church. In fact it seems to contradict
what is the core theme of the parable.
Today’s parable shows that the task of the disciple
is to sow the right seed and not to judge the weed
from the wheat. And why shouldn’t they judge?
Because, the reading tells us, they might get it wrong and destroy good seed,
not that they might let some bad seed through. The harvest is God’s and we
shouldn’t assume that we could go around judging others, or even ourselves,
and assume we have it right. We can never know the heart or mind of another
so it is not our place to judge and condemn. The apparently small and unremarkable
mustard seed has the capacity to provide shelter. It is not for us to imagine
we understand the kingdom of heaven and who or what is important in it. So
when we look at the essence of today’s readings we see a reminder that it is
not for us to judge others but equally not to fear the judgement of God. For
our God is a God “ of mercy and compassion, slow to anger, abounding in love
and truth.”
Anne Hudson
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