Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time
November 5, 2023

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Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/110523.cfm

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Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, our readings perfectly complement one another delivering a clear message: all leadership, including spiritual leadership, requires the disciplines of humility, honesty, justice, mercy, and love.

These disciplines are so easy to lose in the euphoria of power and the delusions of superiority. Malachi, prophet of the 5th century before Christ, vehemently points this out. Speaking for God, the prophet states:

O priests, … I will send a curse upon you
and of your blessing I will make a curse.
You have turned aside from the way,
and have caused many to falter by your instruction;
you have made void the covenant of Levi,
says the LORD of hosts.
I, therefore, have made you contemptible
and base before all the people,
since you do not keep my ways,
but show partiality in your decisions.

Malachi 2:2

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Five hundred years later, Jesus echoes the rebuke to his own generation:

Do not follow the example of the scribes and Pharisees.
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.’

Matthew 23: 3-7

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What are phylacteries anyway, and what is Jesus talking about when he describes them as widened?

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The wearing of phylacteries in Jewish practice is similar to Christians wearing crosses or being signed with ashes on Ash Wednesday, All of these devotional acts are intended to demonstrate one’s faith and invite others to faithful practice. But when exaggerated, such practices draw attention to oneself rather than to the faith. It is often an attempt to proclaim the superiority of one’s faith perhaps because, in our hearts, we are unsure of it.

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Jesus says that such exaggerated devotion is unnecessary when our lives speak for themselves, demonstrating faith through our works of mercy.

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.

Matthew 23: 8-12

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We are all leaders at some level in our lives — parents, teachers, supervisors, politicians, clinicians, and everyone who has influence over another’s life. In each of these roles, our soul’s lens can be turned toward ourselves, or it can be turned in merciful care toward the other. The way we effectively turn the lens is to continually deepen ourselves in the greatest commandment: Love God above all things and your neighbor as yourself.

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Poetry: Some keep the Sabbath going to Church – Emily Dickinson

Some keep the Sabbath going to Church –
I keep it, staying at Home –
With a Bobolink for a Chorister –
And an Orchard, for a Dome –

Some keep the Sabbath in Surplice –
I, just wear my Wings –
And instead of tolling the Bell, for Church,
Our little Sexton – sings.

God preaches, a noted Clergyman –
And the sermon is never long,
So instead of getting to Heaven, at last –
I’m going, all along.

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Music: Where I Find God – Larry Fleet

The night I hit rock bottom, sittin’ on an old barstool
He paid my tab and put me in a cab, but he didn’t have to
But he could see I was hurtin’, oh, I wish I’d got his name
‘Cause I didn’t feel worth savin’, but he saved me just the same

That day out on the water, when the fish just wouldn’t bite
I put my pole down, I floated around, was just so quiet
And I could hear my old man sayin’ “Son, just be still
‘Cause you can’t find peace like this in a bottle or a pill”

From a bar stool to that Evinrude
Sunday mornin’ in a church pew
In a deer stand or a hay field
An interstate back to Nashville
A Chevrolet with the windows down
Me and him just ridin’ around
Sometimes, whether I’m lookin’ for Him or not
That’s where I find God

Sometimes late at night, I lie there and listen
To the sound of her heart beatin’
And the song the crickets are singin’
And I don’t know what they’re sayin’
But it sounds like a hymn to me
Naw, I ain’t too good at prayin’
But thanks for everything

From a bar stool, to that Evinrude
Sunday mornin’ in a church pew
In a deer stand or a hay field
An interstate back to Nashville
A Chevrolet with the windows down
Me and him just ridin’ around
Sometimes, whether I’m lookin’ for Him or not
That’s where I find God

From a bar stool, to that Evinrude
Sunday mornin’ in a church pew
In a deer stand or a hay field
An interstate back to Nashville
A Chevrolet with the windows down
Me and him just ridin’ around
Talkin’, well I do that a lot
Well, I do that a lot
That’s where I find God