Pick a Number From One to Ten

Deacon Tom writes

“Pick a Number From One to Ten”

Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

Have you ever seen the Mel Brooks skit about the Fifteen Commandments?  It seems that when Moses came down from Mt. Sinai, he originally had three tablets each containing five commandments inscribed by God. But when Moses got to the bottom of the mountain, he dropped one of the tablets. Moses looked over his shoulder at the Lord who was still in the cloud at the top and asked Him, “What should I do, Lord?”  God replied, “Let’s go with ten!”

How many commandments do we need to live wholesome, peaceful, and humble lives?  Jesus takes the Ten Commandments and reduces them to a single one with two equal parts… “Love God with all your heart, mind, and strength; and, love your neighbor as yourself”. So when Jesus is challenged by some Pharisees about washing his hands before eating, he calls them what they are…hypocrites. Jesus knows that this notion of ritualistic purity is a diversion from doing the real work that God calls us to do. In fact, a lot of the work God calls us to do is pretty dirty if not totally ritualistically unclean. Working with the homeless or in AIDS clinics or Soup Kitchens may get your hands dirty but such activity is sure to open your eyes to a level of poverty and how deprived of personal hygiene many poor and indigent men, women, and children experience day to day. There is a large contingency of our brothers and sisters today for whom eating off of dirty plates is the least of their problems.  Newsflash… Jesus is not worried about us eating from dirty dishes! The filth Jesus wants to alert and cleans us from is that which comes from within – our hardheartedness, our deafness to the needs and concerns of others, our self-centeredness, our out of control desires, our lusting for what’s not ours. So again, how many commandments do we need to save us from ourselves?  Ten?  Seventeen?  Do we decide which number is right for us – just like the Serta sleep bed, or are we going to listen to what the teacher has to say…and take up our cross and follow him by loving God and placing ourselves in the service of one another?

God didn’t bring us into creation to get caught up in the minutia. We do need rules to guide and govern our lives. And so Jesus gave us some simple ones to live by. If we want to live happy and fulfilling lives, we must see in ourselves and in each other the dignity that God has given to us. We must come to recognize that God dwells in each and every one of us. And, we must realize that we come to know, love, and serve him by knowing, loving, and serving one another. We don’t need a lot of rules to live a[i] good life. Rather we must, in the words of St. Paul, “Be doers of the word and not hearers only” following Jesus’ example by Loving God and each other.

Enjoy the day!

Deacon Tom

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Give Thanks Always

Deacon Tom writes

"Give Thanks Always"

Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

2,000 years ago St. Paul instructs the Ephesians “Watch carefully how you live, not as foolish persons but as wise”. He is concerned because “the days are evil”. Do we need to “Watch carefully” how we live today?  Do we need to heed Paul’s advice to the Ephesians and “give thanks always and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father”?  Yes, on both counts!

When it comes to our consumption of material goods, for instance, no matter how much “stuff” we have, we are more likely to complain than be thankful. That’s just the way it is. It’s one of the consequences of living in a consumer driven society. We have become accustomed to setting our expectations so high when it comes to material things. We want what we want when we want it!!!  We suffer from the psychological need for “Instant Gratification”, a condition arising from the unlimited desires within us. I think it is safe to say that Madison Avenue knows us better than we know ourselves. How sad is that?  Madison Avenue is able to shape our desires and mold our behavior from our early childhood. If you haven’t seen enough “Infomercial” watching your programs on TV, turn on the kids shows on Saturday morning…You will be amazed!

But our personal experience tells us that when we do get the things we want, it doesn’t take long for us to become disappointed with them. They are not what we expected… they didn’t match my other clothes… it doesn’t do what we wanted it to do…it broke soon after we got it home. And so goes the litany of disappointment.  Material things just aren’t capable of providing us with long-term joy and happiness. That’s the true nature of the things of this world.

Scripture draws heavily on the image of God as a parent. What father or mother does not want to see their children happy?  The real question to ask, of course, is what makes us happy?  We need the things of this world for sure. But we need to be “wise” in our choices. The wisdom that Paul insists upon in today’s reading is that we put God first in the choices we make by giving thanks to him for all that we receive. It is a thankful heart that God desires most and we shape that heart by realizing that all that we receive, all that we have, come from him and belong to him. Our lives, our families, our health, our jobs, our joys, desires, and plans are gifts he has shared with us and they are only a part of the bounty of what he has in store for us. Wise men and woman understand this reality and that understanding is what allows them to “Give Thanks Always”, every moment of the day, in good times and in hard times, on sunny days and the soft days when the due falls. This is the wisdom of the ages that enables those who seek it to live well and…  “advance in the way of understanding” by thanking and praising God at all times. 

Enjoy the day!

Deacon Tom

Image credit -  en.wikipedia.org