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Scapegoats

29/9/2023

A Reflection on the Gospel for Sunday, October 1st, 2023:
Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Matthew
21.28-32

Jesus said to the chief priests and the elders of the people: “What do you think? A man had two sons; he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ He answered, ‘I will not’; but later he changed his mind and went. The father went to the second and said the same; and he answered, ‘I am going, sir’; but he did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.”

Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him; and even after you saw it, you did not change your minds and believe him.”

Pause. Pray. Reflect.

Every culture has its scapegoats. Indeed, some sociologists have argued this is essential for human society – we don’t feel like we truly belong until we can point to someone else and say they don’t.

The culture Jesus grew up in was highly gender-segregated, so it’s no surprise that there were male and female scapegoats: tax collectors and prostitutes. Tax collectors weren’t told how much each person owed – rather, they were given an amount to send to the Roman Empire, and allowed to use force, coercion, and threats to collect as much as they wanted, keeping as their salary what they didn’t have to send. As you can imagine, this made them highly unpopular and an easy target for anger about the Roman regime. Prostitutes lived outside of a system of male control – belonging to neither their father nor a husband and seen as a threat to God’s command to marry and bear children. They were loathed by nearly all and were excluded from much of ancient Jewish society.

It's important to understand the visceral hatred they experienced to understand how radical it was for Jesus to say, “The tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you.” He said this to the chief priests and elders – men who had dedicated their lives to studying God’s law! Jesus is celebrating those who spent their lives rejecting God’s people and God’s commandments ahead of those who believed they were holier than anyone else.

This Sunday’s Gospel reading is a reminder that our actions matter. We are saved by our faith, but if that faith is genuine, it will change how we live our lives. When Jesus called tax collectors and prostitutes to repentance, they believed and changed their way of life. This reading is from the Gospel of Matthew, who is traditionally believed to have been a tax collector before his conversion – he gave up wealth and power to study under a homeless preacher. Meeting Jesus changed him, and he became a person who followed Jesus.

Our culture has scapegoats, too. In my experience, they often fall along the ideological lines that divide us so deeply – most of us can think of a type of person or group of people we consider utterly evil, opposed to all that is good, in violation of God’s laws. This reading is a reminder that even those we hate are God’s beloved, capable of repentance. If we fail to see this – if we see their choices as unforgivable – we may be surprised to see them ahead of us in line at the pearly gates. The stories of the saints are littered with those who changed from persecutor to follower: Saint Paul, Saint Augustine, Saint Olga, Saint Volodomyr. God’s grace is generous, surprising, and – if we’re ready to accept that we can be wrong – delightful. It’s not too late for us to see the potential for good in everyone we meet.

Jenna Young

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Giving and Receiving

28/9/2023

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A Reflection on the Second Reading for Sunday, October 1st, 2023:
Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Philippians
2.1-5

Brothers and sisters: If there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, then make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others.

Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.

Pause. Pray. Reflect.

Two themes stand out to me in the second reading for this Sunday. First, the importance of our shared faith community, and second, the importance of putting others’ needs and interests before our own.

The opening words of this letter vary across biblical translations, but I find the New International Version’s translation especially helpful because it makes the connection between unity in faith and like-mindedness with Christ so clear: “Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from His love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being in one spirit and of one mind.”

Throughout my life, I have been blessed many times over by the friends and community that I found through church. There’s something incredibly special about being with people who share not just the same beliefs and values but the same core – the same deep trust in a loving God that both roots you in the present but also gives you purpose to keep looking forward, no matter what obstacles and suffering life throws at you. As a child, I used to make lists of my favourite books, movies, and activities (The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, My Fair Lady, and Lego, for reference – yes, I was quite the nerdy young lady!) and ask my classmates and peers what their favourites were, thinking that matching interests were the foundation for a good friendship. As an adult, I’ve learned that while interests make for good conversation, they’re not enough.

We are also called to put others first – our families, our friends, our neighbours, our communities, and indeed, strangers. This is being Christlike. This is sharing in the Spirit. This is experiencing God’s love and desiring that everyone else encounter and experience it too. Now, personally benefitting from this altruistic service to others is easy. But living it, giving it, offering it – that is the hard part. I’m an only child (which might explain some of my nerdiness…) and have lived most of my adult life on my own, away from family and without roommates. I have a tendency to put my own needs and interests first. I don’t always recognize when my independence is actually selfishness, or I push for my own preferences rather than honour and lift up what others want and need.

This letter calls me to be humble. To have a mind and a heart that are as much like Jesus as I can manage in my broken humanity – to put others before me and to love deeply, with compassion and sympathy. My friends and church community have shared their love and kindness so willingly and unstintingly from their deep wells of faith. In the longer form of this reading, Paul reminds us that Christ, though the Son of God, “emptied himself [...] he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death – even death on a Cross” (Philippians 2.7-8).

Lord, help me to be humble and share back the love with which I have been blessed. Let your love for me be a gift that I give back readily to everyone around me. Help me to look to the interests of others and put them first – because in doing so, what I’ll really be doing is putting You above all things.

Kim Tan

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Mercies of the Moment

27/9/2023

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A Reflection on the Psalm for Sunday, October 1st, 2023:
Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Psalm
25

R. Lord, be mindful of your mercy.

Make me to know your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth, and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation.

R. Lord, be mindful of your mercy.

Be mindful of your mercy, O Lord, and of your steadfast love, for they have been from of old. According to your steadfast love remember me, for the sake of your goodness, O Lord!

R. Lord, be mindful of your mercy.

Good and upright is the Lord; therefore he instructs sinners in the way. He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way.

R. Lord, be mindful of your mercy.

Pause. Pray. Reflect.

As I examine my heart this day, in the light of the pleas of Psalm 25, it occurs to me how often I elevate myself above God. I lead my life as though outcomes are dependent on me when, in truth, I can do very little to affect them. This past year, we learned my son suffers from an autoimmune disease and it has shifted the way I view God’s mercy. In fact, at one point I seemed to have determined that since it was clear God wasn’t going to do anything about this, I was going to have to take matters into my own hands. I grasped at control over everything from the diagnosis to the medications prescribed to what my son ate and who he hung out with – until, very predictably, I became discouraged and so very lost. I was lost in trying to sort out the ending to the story – mine, my son’s, and the stories of others I love. In doing so, I removed myself from the mercies of the moment. This is what Saint Thérèse’s life teaches me on this, her feast day: God’s mercies are in every moment.

“God does not call those who are worthy, but those whom He will. As Saint Paul says, ‘God will have mercy on whom He will have mercy.’” -Saint Thérèse

It would seem I had a deep-seated belief that God deemed me, and by association my son, as unworthy of His mercy. But if this were true, was Saint Thérèse also unworthy? Her untimely death from tuberculosis at the age of 24 would suggest so. Yet she herself would disagree with this line of thinking. Thérèse, in her limitless wisdom, once said, “In order to become a saint, one must suffer much, always seek the most perfect path, and forget oneself.”

This is where I had gone astray. Rather than accept the path of suffering, I fought it. Rather than seeking the most perfect path, I condemned God, the doctors and, mostly, myself. Rather than forgetting myself, I was consumed by the hardships that were upon me due to this abrupt redirect in our lives. I could not see the mercies of the moment because my mind was racing to the places only God was meant to see.

The psalmist for this reading pleads with God to be mindful of His mercy. The irony is that it is through my own mindfulness that God’s mercies may be perceived. And what is mindfulness, but prayer? For what is it that we are being mindful of when we pause and contemplate what is steadfast, immovable, true, and good? It is the Lord, ever mindful in His very being, ever present to us whenever we are present to Him. So today I aim to be present to Him in moment-by-moment prayer. Prayer is a gift for the humble of heart and I am grateful that the Lord used this psalm to humble me enough to receive it.

Saint Thérèse, most humble of heart, pray for us.

Lori MacDonald

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No Man Is an Island

26/9/2023

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A Reflection on the First Reading for Sunday, October 1st, 2023:
Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Ezekiel
18.25-28

Thus says the Lord: “You object, O House of Israel! You say, ‘The way of the Lord is unfair.’ Hear now, O house of Israel: Is my way unfair? Is it not your ways that are unfair?

“When the righteous person turns away from their righteousness and commits iniquity, they shall die for it; for the iniquity that they have committed they shall die.

“Again, when the wicked person turns away from the wickedness they have committed and does what is lawful and right, they shall save their life. Because that person considered and turned away from all the transgressions that they had committed, they shall surely live; they shall not die.”

Pause. Pray. Reflect.

Recently I found myself reading again the beautiful prose that has come to be called “No Man Is an Island”: “No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.” The 16th-century poet and clergyman John Donne composed these lines as part of a sermon about the connectedness of human beings to each other, and Ernest Hemingway paid homage to them when he named his novel For Whom the Bell Tolls.

I believe we are all deeply connected to each other, and we must honour that connection by considering how our actions affect those around us.

The first reading for this Sunday caused me to examine this connectedness and to consider the ripple effect that results when I choose to act in a particular way. While it is true that the decisions I make can impact my family, friends, and neighbours – for example, if I dump hazardous waste into a local pond and wildlife dies as a result, I have adversely affected those who enjoy that pond and its wildlife – some actions have an especially pronounced adverse effect on me and on my development as a human being.

Bishop Robert Barron, in a sermon on Ezekiel, chapter 18 (which is the source of this Sunday’s first reading), observes that the moral decisions we make define the person we are becoming. Each decision is like a brick in the foundation of the character we are building. If my decisions are just, my character, the person I am becoming, will be constructed of good stuff. However, if my decisions are morally wrong, then the bricks with which my character is constructed are flawed; they are morally wrong, and they are shaping the person I am becoming. Consequently, if I decide poorly, then I must bear the responsibility of those poor decisions, the flawed construction of my character.

Ezekiel tells us that God does not hold us accountable for the poor decisions of those around us. We are accountable only for the decisions we make ourselves. Looping back to Bishop Barron, then, who we are becoming not only will affect us in a very real way here on earth; it will have a great impact on the conversation that awaits us with our Maker when we take our final breath.

But what do I do when I lack the strength or the knowledge needed to make good decisions? Some decisions are very hard, and sometimes I am ill-equipped to figure them out on my own. It is then that I must call on the Lord in prayer, consult people of good character, and model my behaviour on the teachings of Christ.

Ezekiel says: “[W]hen the wicked person turns away from the wickedness they have committed and does what is lawful and right, they shall save their life.” As I reflect on the first reading, I am grateful for the reminder that I must be still and consider so that I make the best decisions I can. My life, both in the here-and-now and the hereafter, depends on it.

Donna Davis

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Scapegoats

A Reflection on the Gospel for Sunday, October 1st, 2023:Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Pause. Pray. Reflect.

Giving and Receiving

A Reflection on the Second Reading for Sunday, October 1st, 2023:Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Pause. Pray. Reflect.

Mercies of the Moment

A Reflection on the Psalm for Sunday, October 1st, 2023:Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Pause. Pray. Reflect.

No Man Is an Island

A Reflection on the First Reading for Sunday, October 1st, 2023:Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Pause. Pray. Reflect.

Archives

A Reflection on the Gospel for Sunday, October 1st, 2023:
Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

A Reflection on the Second Reading for Sunday, October 1st, 2023:
Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

A Reflection on the Psalm for Sunday, October 1st, 2023:
Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

A Reflection on the First Reading for Sunday, October 1st, 2023:
Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time