Jesus told his disciples this parable: “The Kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out at dawn to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with them for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard. Going out about nine o’clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and he said to them, ‘You too go into my vineyard, and I will give you what is just.’ Matthew 20:1-4
Jesus tells the parable of the generous landowner who measures out recompense by love not law. Jesus teaches that this new law of love is the Godly means to calculate justice.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy: We pray to live by the kind of loving justice Jesus calls us to, not by the measurements that keep others in subservience or oppression. We might ask ourselves these questions:
What really belongs to me?
If I have achieved or received much in life is it not by the grace of God and good fortune?
How can I help others have what they justly deserve?
Poetry: from Rumi
When I am with you, everything is prayer. I prayed for change, so, I changed my mind.
I prayed for guidance and learned to trust myself.
I prayed for happiness and realized I am not my ego.
I prayed for peace and learned to accept others unconditionally.
I prayed for abundance and realized my doubt kept it out.
I prayed for wealth and realized it is my health.
I prayed for a miracle and realized I am the miracle.
I prayed for a soul mate and realized I am with the One.
I prayed for love and realized it is always knocking, but I have to allow it in.
Jesus said to his Apostles: “Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth. I have come to bring not peace but the sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and one’s enemies will be those of his household. Matthew 10:34-36
I would not have liked hearing these words from Jesus, would you? The last thing I would have ever wanted was to be set against my precious mother! So WHAT is Jesus talking about?
These words are central to Christ’s mandate to his disciples. He is telling them that they will inevitably meet painful conflict while living out his mission. Sometimes the conflict will even be within their families and among their friends.
This is because God’s Peace is not quiet indifference but the striving for just equanimity for all people. This is the sword of discipleship – we must cut ourselves away from anything that turns us from a just and merciful God.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, We pray for graced insight that we may see where the sword is pointing in our lives, and for courage that we may do the necessary cutting to be worthy disciples and build an honest peace in our world.
Poetry: Swords Into Plowshares – Daniel Berrigan, SJ This poem was written in response to the conviction of the Plowshares Eight, of whom Berrigan was a member, for their civil disobedience against nuclear war.
A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a rotten tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. So by their fruits you will know them. Matthew 7: 18-20
Jesus speaks these words to warn his followers about false prophets. These charlatans may be clothed in a gentle sheep’s skin, but inside they are voracious wolves consuming everything for their own gain. They are liars, thieves, cheats, and pretenders.
Yet many people trust and believe them. How can that be? Are we just too naive to see them for what they are? Maybe. But I think it’s more likely that we want to believe their lies because we think we will benefit from them. We excuse their cheating and veiled thievery because it hasn’t hurt us, just the “other guy”. We espouse their pretenses because we mistakenly believe they will advance us as well as the “wolves”.
Jesus knows we’re not stupid. He says there is one clear and sure-fired way to identify a false prophet. By their fruits you shall know them – and those “fruits” should be the fruits of the Holy Spirit. If, despite the rotten fruit they have produced, we follow them then we will end up in the fire just like they will.
An image today instead of a poem
Music: Ubi Caritas – Where Love and Charity Abide, There is God
Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of our Creator God, Who makes the sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust. Matthew 5:44-45
It must have been so hard to hear and accept Jesus’s words in his Sermon on the Mount. These listening disciples had been raised on the Deuteronomic principle “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth”. What could ever make them turn that principle inside out to do just the opposite of what they had always thought? What would make us turn from this kind of “justice”? After all, it’s even-steven, isn’t it?
In Jesus Christ, there is no even-steven. The Mercy of God is given to all of us without limits. It rains from the heart of God over all Creation. Jesus showed us that there is no place in Mercy for quid pro quo justice. If a disciple wants to love like Jesus, this precept is foundational.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy: Perhaps we are someplace where we can watch the rain today. If not we can remember how rain falls without distinction over everything within its embrace. So too does God’s Mercy fall on us moving us to be its agents in our world.
Enjoy the Peaceful Rain
Poetry: from The Merchant of Venice – William Shakespeare
The quality of mercy is not strained; It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest; It blesseth him that gives and him that takes: 'T is mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes The throned monarch better than his crown: His sceptre shows the force of temporal power, The attribute to awe and majesty, Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings; But mercy is above this sceptred sway; It is enthronèd in the hearts of kings, It is an attribute to God himself; And earthly power doth then show likest God's When mercy seasons justice.
Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar, and there recall that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift there at the altar, go first and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Matthew 5: 23-24
Jesus teaches a profound lesson in today’s Gospel. We cannot be in balance with God if we are out of balance with our neighbor.
In the “court” of God’s justice, that balance resides not in judgment or vengeance. It resides in a love beyond “liking” — in reconciliation, forgiveness, mercy, patience, hospitality, reverence, and service toward one another.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
We realize that we can’t like everybody. We can’t feel good toward everybody. We can’t approve of everybody. But we can choose to be Christlike to everybody.
May we grow in that grace, inspired by the awareness that we are One in God with all Creation.
Poetry: One Hundred Love Sonnets: XVII – Pablo Neruda
I don’t love you as if you were a rose of salt, topaz, or arrow of carnations that propagate fire: I love you as one loves certain obscure things, secretly, between the shadow and the soul.
I love you as the plant that doesn’t bloom but carries the light of those flowers, hidden, within itself, and thanks to your love the tight aroma that arose from the earth lives dimly in my body.
I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where, I love you directly without problems or pride: I love you like this because I don’t know any other way to love, except in this form in which I am not nor are you, so close that your hand upon my chest is mine, so close that your eyes close with my dreams.
So the chief priests and the Pharisees convened the Sanhedrin and said, “What are we going to do? This man is performing many signs. If we leave him alone, all will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our land and our nation.” But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing, nor do you consider that it is better for you that one man should die instead of the people, so that the whole nation may not perish.”
John 11: 47-50
From the moment described in this Gospel, down through the ages, the name “Caiaphas” shouts infamy. At a moment when he could have made all the difference in history, Caiaphas folded to political expediency, planting the seed for Jesus’s crucifixion.
Moral courage is a gift of the Holy Spirit. It strengthens us to tell the truth when doing so may cost us life, limb, or desired status in the world.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
With the gift of free will, God has given us tremendous power, just as God gave Caiaphas. Our words, or our silences, can make or break the flow of grace in the world. By the practice of prayerfully considering our allegiances and testimonies, we can fortify our spirits with a sacred honesty – the kind which Caiaphas lacked on that momentous day.
Why am I making this choice?
Why am I voicing this opinion?
Why am I standing on this side of justice or mercy?
Who benefits, or who suffers, because of my stance?
And, ultimately, will my testimony make the way for God’s grace?
Poetry: All Is Truth – Walt Whitman
O me, man of slack faith so long! Standing aloof—denying portions so long; Only aware to-day of compact, all-diffused truth; Discovering to-day there is no lie, or form of lie, and can be none, but grows as inevitably upon itself as the truth does upon itself, Or as any law of the earth, or any natural production of the earth does.
(This is curious, and may not be realized immediately—But it must be realized; I feel in myself that I represent falsehoods equally with the rest, And that the universe does.)
Where has fail'd a perfect return, indifferent of lies or the truth? Is it upon the ground, or in water or fire? or in the spirit of man? or in the meat and blood?
Meditating among liars, and retreating sternly into myself, I see that there are really no liars or lies after all, And that nothing fails its perfect return—And that what are called lies are perfect returns, And that each thing exactly represents itself, and what has preceded it, And that the truth includes all, and is compact, just as much as space is compact, And that there is no flaw or vacuum in the amount of the truth—but that all is truth without exception; And henceforth I will go celebrate anything I see or am, And sing and laugh, and deny nothing.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, John is gentle but scathingly direct in his teaching:
Children, let no one deceive you. The person who acts in righteousness is righteous, just as God is righteous. Whoever sins belongs to the Devil, because the Devil has sinned from the beginning.
1 John 3: 7-8
John tells us that good is good, and bad is bad. Don’t let anyone fool you. And don’t make excuses when you fool yourself!
John gives us a clear measuring stick to test alignment with his teaching:
In this way, the children of God and the children of the Devil are made plain; no one who fails to act in righteousness belongs to God, nor anyone who fails to love their sisters and brothers.
1 John 3:10
It’s so simple but so hard to be the kind of person John calls us to be!
In our deep hearts, we know what righteousness looks like. It looks like peace, forgiveness, reverence, truth-telling, kindness, service, faithfulness, hope.
And we know what unrighteousness looks like. It looks like war, vengeance, brutality, bigotry, manipulation, indifference, greed, selfishness, megalomania, dishonesty, fear-mongering.
How has our society gotten so mixed up that we allow unrighteousness to parade in the costume of justice! How have we gotten so lazy, greedy, or indifferent that we refuse to look for and remedy the root causes of our societal grievances? For example, when I dig deeper in my prayerful thinking, I might realize that:
Thousands of immigrants are not crossing their borders just to bother me or take my job! They are in fear for their lives and well-being because of a lopsided global economy and a classist devaluation of life.
The armament and weapons industries are not founded on a mission to protect me and my loved ones. Like all businesses, they operate to make money. The more guns they sell, and the more expensive and destructive they are, all the better. We are their marketplace not their protectorate.
The Scriptures are God’s living Word. They are not to be read and set aside as a completed devotional practice meaningless for today’s world.
They teach us about the past but they speak to us of the present. As we pray with them, we are called to be changed by them into persons who more clearly reflect Jesus and the Gospel. That is the hard work of righteousness – work that is the everyday stuff of our lives.
Deeply internalizing John’s teaching today is a good place to start our transforming prayer.
Poetry:And 2morrow – Tupac Shakur, (1971 – 1996), was an American rapper. He is widely considered one of the most influential and successful rappers of all time. Shakur is among the best-selling music artists, having sold more than 75 million records worldwide. Much of Shakur’s music has been noted for addressing contemporary social issues that plagued inner cities. His life was filled with violence and eventually, he was murdered, but his creative work revealed a deep though conflicted longing for justice and peace.
Today is filled with anger fueled with hidden hate scared of being outcast afraid of common fate Today is built on tragedies which no one wants 2 face nightmares 2 humanities and morally disgraced Tonight is filled with rage violence in the air children bred with ruthlessness because no one at home cares Tonight I lay my head down but the pressure never stops knawing at my sanity content when I am dropped But 2morrow I c change a chance 2 build a new Built on spirit intent of Heart and ideals based on truth and tomorrow I wake with second wind and strong because of pride 2 know I fought with all my heart 2 keep my dream alive
Music: Beauty for Brokenness (God of the Poor) – Graham Kendrick
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, Paul and Jesus seem to give us contradictory messages. Paul talks about love, and Jesus tells us what we must “hate” – a bit of a challenge to untangle the core message.
Here’s one way.
We don’t like Jesus telling us to “hate” anything, as in:
If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.
Luke 14:26
Come on, Jesus! You don’t mean that do you – my sweet mom, my precious kids???
No, the scholars say, Jesus doesn’t mean “hate” the way we interpret it in modern English. He is using the common, hyperbolic language of the ancient East which, in this circumstance, would mean “love less or without bias”.
So what is Jesus really saying?
This.
We love many people and things in our lives. But we must love God, and God’s dream for all people, above and within all things.
And that’s not easy! Life is a maze of relationships and situations that can get us very confused about what is most important. That’s why Jesus uses such strong language to remind us that there is only one way through the maze: to love as God loves. This is the heartbeat of our life in God!
Paul says this too, indicating as well how to negotiate the maze by keeping Love’s commandments.
We have such a critical example of this love-hate dynamic in our world just now. The terrible situation in the Holy Land has brought out radical feelings in people all over the world. People who love Israel and abhor violence are disgusted and furious over the attack against the Israeli people. People who love and pity the Palestinians, who have been suppressed into human desperation for decades, are equally disgusted and furious over the mass revenge being wrought upon innocents in Gaza and the West Bank.
I think Jesus would say this to us: You must “hate” those human relationships enough to make you not take sides in this horror. You must look past blood ties and religious ties. You must look to the human person, God’s creature like you who is the innocent victim of political forces. You must add to the voice for justice, mercy, and humane solutions.
No matter how far we may feel from the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, each one of us is at a point of moral discernment regarding them. As massive funding is poured into weapons of war, how do we respond to the ongoing massacre of innocent people? I ask myself what is required of me as a citizen of the world to make my voice heard in this unspeakable tragedy.
If we love with God’s love, of course we will love those we cherish. But we will love them selflessly, with an infinite generosity that always chooses their eternal good. And we will try always to love all Creatures in the same way, seeking to the degree that is possible their well-being and peace. This is the kind of love Jesus taught us on the Cross. May God give us the courage to learn.
Prose: Remarks of Pope Francis at the Angelus on October 15, 2023
Dear brothers and sisters, I continue to follow with great sorrow what is happening in Israel and Palestine. I think again of the many people … in particular of the children and the elderly. I renew my appeal for the release of the hostages, and I strongly ask that children, the sick, the elderly, women, and all civilians not be made victims of the conflict. May Humanitarian Law be respected, especially in Gaza, where it is urgent and necessary to ensure humanitarian corridors and to come to the aid of the entire population. Brothers and sisters, many have already died. Please, let no more innocent blood be shed, neither in the Holy Land nor in Ukraine, nor in any other place! Enough! Wars are always a defeat, always!
Prayer is the meek and holy force to oppose the diabolical force of hatred, terrorism and war.
Music: Ubi Caritas performed by Stockholm University Choir (texts below)
Latin Text
Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est. Congregavit nos in unum Christi amor. Exsultemus, et in ipso jucundemur. Timeamus, et amemus Deum vivum. Et ex corde diligamus nos sincero. Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est. Simul ergo cum in unum congregamur: Ne nos mente dividamur, caveamus. Cessent iurgia maligna, cessent lites. Et in medio nostri sit Christus Deus. Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est. Simul quoque cum beatis videamus, Glorianter vultum tuum, Christe Deus: Gaudium quod est immensum, atque probum, Saecula per infinita saeculorum. Amen.
English Translation Where charity and love are, God is there. Love of Christ has gathered us into one. Let us rejoice in Him and be glad. Let us fear, and let us love the living God. And from a sincere heart let us love one. Where charity and love are, God is there. At the same time, therefore, are gathered into one: Lest we be divided in mind, let us beware. Let evil impulses stop, let controversy cease. And in the midst of us be Christ our God. Where charity and love are, God is there. At the same time we see that with the saints also, Thy face in glory, O Christ our God: The joy that is immense and good, Unto the World without end. Amen.
Today, in God’s Mercy, Paul sounds a lot like someone approaching the microphone at “Sinners Anonymous“:
I know that good does not dwell in me, that is, in my flesh. The willing is ready at hand, but doing the good is not. For I do not do the good I want, but I do the evil I do not want.
Romans 7:18-19
Paul basically attests to the fact that for human beings, even him, will and actions often don’t synch up. Sure, we want to be good people, but as Nike says, do we:
Paul says no, we don’t. The only way we do the good we will to do is by the grace of Jesus Christ.
In our Gospel, Jesus affirms the slowness of the human spirit to act on the realities around us. In some translations, Jesus uses a phrase which caught on with the architects of Vatican II: the signs of the times.
You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky; why do you not know how to interpret the present time? “Why do you not judge for yourselves what is right?
Luke 12:56-57
Jesus is telling his listeners and us that we need to be alert to the circumstances of our world. It both weeps and rejoices. Where it weeps, we must be a source of mercy and healing. Where it rejoices, we must foster and celebrate the Presence of the Spirit.
In the Vatican II document Gaudium et Spes (The Church in the Modern World), we read:
In every age, the church carries the responsibility of reading the signs of the times and of interpreting them in the light of the Gospel, if it is to carry out its task. In language intelligible to every generation, it should be able to answer the ever recurring questions which people ask about the meaning of this present life and of the life to come, and how one is related to the other. We must be aware of and understand the aspirations, the yearnings, and the often dramatic features of the world in which we live.
While we look forward hopefully to the communications that will come from the current Synod on Synodality, the Documents of Vatican II have everlasting meaning for the Church. Although written in the 1960s, these powerful words hold true today. We are the Church of which the document speaks. We are the ones whom Jesus calls to respond with authentic justice and mercy to the signs of the times. Read the newspaper in that light today. Watch the news in that light. Meet your brothers and sisters in that light today.
Poetry: The Right Thing – Theodore Roethke
Let others probe the mystery if they can. Time-harried prisoners of Shall and Will — The right thing happens to the happy man.
The bird flies out, the bird flies back again; The hill becomes the valley, and is still; Let others delve that mystery if they can.
God bless the roots! Body and soul are one! The small become the great, the great the small; The right thing happens to the happy man.
Child of the dark, he can outleap the sun, His being single, and that being all: The right thing happens to the happy man.
Or he sits still, a solid figure when The self-destructive shake the common wall; Takes to himself what mystery he can,
And, praising change as the slow night comes on, Wills what he would surrendering his will Till mystery is no more: No more he can. The right thing happens to the happy man.
Music: The Times They Are A’changin’ – Bob Dylan whose songs in the 50s and 60sbecame anthems for the Civil Rights and anti-war movements. His lyrics during this period incorporated a wide range of political, social, philosophical, and literary influences, defied popular music conventions and appealed to the burgeoning counterculture. (Wikipedia) (Ah, it was a good time to be young!)
The Swedish Academy awarded Dylan the 2016 Nobel Prize inLiterature “for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 96, one of the “royal psalms” praising God as King.
Bow down to the LORD, splendid in holiness. Tremble before God, all the earth; declare among the nations: The LORD is King. The world will surely stand fast, never to be shaken. The Lord rules the peoples with fairness. The Lord rules the peoples with fairness.
Psalm 96: 9-10
Our psalm today forms a link between two readings about two different kinds of human leaders.
In our first reading, we hear about King Cyrus, an “anointed” one:
Thus says the LORD to his anointed, Cyrus, whose right hand I grasp, subduing nations before him …
Isaiah 45:1
In fact, Cyrus the Great respected the customs and religions of the lands he conquered. This became a very successful model for centralized administration and establishing a government working to the advantage and profit of its subjects. Israel thrived under Cyrus and found no barriers to their own religious practices
In our Gospel, however, the Pharisees try to trap Jesus by testing him about their current political leadership, which is not so kindly inclined to the people:
Tell us, then, what is your opinion: Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?
Matthew 22:17
Jesus’s answer simply tells the Pharisees to obey the legitimate law. But that answer is secondary to his real challenge to them:
Why are you testing me, you hypocrites?
Our psalm is the praise song of a people who do not “test” God; who receive both the blessings and trials of life with faith and hope, and seek the path to God within those circumstances.
A “Cyrus-type” leader builds up that holy courage in the people. A “Caesar-type” type leader only builds up only himself.
In his letter to the Thessalonians, Paul shows himself to be such an anointed leader, praying for and encouraging the Church in the journey of faith:
We give thanks to God always for all of you, remembering you in our prayers, unceasingly calling to mind your work of faith and labor of love and endurance in hope of our Lord Jesus Christ, before our God and Father …
1 Thessalonians 1;2-4
Today, there’s a lot of political dust swirling in the wind – a lot of discerning about leadership and our own modern brand of “kings”. The current sufferings of our time cause our hearts to long for “a new song”.
The readings today remind us that the only way our spirits can …
Sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all you lands. Tell God’s glory among the nations; among all peoples, God’s wondrous deeds
… is by living Paul’s formula – “to live our lives as a work of faith and labor of love and endurance in hope of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Poetry: New Day’s Lyric – Amanda Gorman
May this be the day We come together. Mourning, we come to mend, Withered, we come to weather, Torn, we come to tend, Battered, we come to better. Tethered by this year of yearning, We are learning That though we weren't ready for this, We have been readied by it. We steadily vow that no matter How we are weighed down, We must always pave a way forward. * This hope is our door, our portal. Even if we never get back to normal, Someday we can venture beyond it, To leave the known and take the first steps. So let us not return to what was normal, But reach toward what is next. * What was cursed, we will cure. What was plagued, we will prove pure. Where we tend to argue, we will try to agree, Those fortunes we forswore, now the future we foresee, Where we weren't aware, we're now awake; Those moments we missed Are now these moments we make, The moments we meet, And our hearts, once altogether beaten, Now all together beat. * Come, look up with kindness yet, For even solace can be sourced from sorrow. We remember, not just for the sake of yesterday, But to take on tomorrow. * We heed this old spirit, In a new day's lyric, In our hearts, we hear it: For auld lang syne, my dear, For auld lang syne. Be bold, sang Time this year, Be bold, sang Time, For when you honor yesterday, Tomorrow ye will find. Know what we've fought Need not be forgot nor for none. It defines us, binds us as one, Come over, join this day just begun. For wherever we come together, We will forever overcome.
Lavish Mercy 