Homily for the 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A (2014)

HOMILY FOR THE 6^TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME, YEAR A (2014)

How many of you have ever played the card game, 52 pickup? Can we have a show of hands? I learned this card game when I was 8 years old. My older brother, Bill, sat down with a deck of cards and asked me if I wanted to learn a new card game called 52 pickup. Eager to learn a new card game, I said, “yes.” I asked him how to play it. He said, “Like this.” He held the loose deck of cards in his hand and threw them up in the air, and cards, all 52 of them, scattered all over the room. He then said, “pick them up,” and left the room. I thought, well, that’s a lousy card game, as I began to begrudgingly pick them up.

52 pickup is obviously a card game with very few rules and only fun for one of the card players. Most of the games we play have rules and regulations. Rules and regulations are necessary to a game, because the rules bring an order to the play of the game and makes the game fairer for all the participants. Human society is no different. We need rules or laws to bring order to our lives. When there are no laws, people get hurt, peoples’ lives suffer and like the game 52 pickup , people’s lives become scattered and broken. When laws are broken, or there is a lack of oversight and enforcement of laws, or a lack of laws, disaster strikes society. The economic recession is a good example of how broken human systems can become and the suffering that results from the big financial institutions either break the law or ignore the law.

During the time of Moses, the Jewish people were a loose confederation of 12 different warrior tribes. In order to bring some order to this confederation of 12 tribes a set of  rules and regulations were laid down for them to follow. The law that Moses brought down from Mount Sinai, and the resulting rules and regulations that continue to be laid out in the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, brought a very necessary spiritual and civil order to these 12 tribes so that they could live together in peace. As we read throughout the Old Testament, whenever the Jewish people broke or ignored these rules, disaster struck.  Of these over 500 rules and regulations, you and I know 10 of them. 

1.       I am the LORD your God: you shall not have strange Gods before me. 2. You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain. 3. Remember to keep holy the LORD'S Day. 4. Honor your father and your mother. 5. You shall not kill. 6. You shall not commit adultery. 7. You shall not steal. 8. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. 9. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife. 10. You shall not covet your neighbor's goods.

Like many adults here, I learned and memorized the 10 commandments as a kid. Some I understood quite clearly, some were a bit ambiguous, (just what is a “covet”, anyway?) and others, like adultery were never clearly explained to us by Sr. Angeline. These were the rules that brought order to my life as a kid and they continue to bring order to my life now as an adult. 
  

 In the gospel today, Jesus continues to stress the importance of following the law but adds that while following the Law is important, we are not to make the mistake of making the law more than what it is supposed to be. The Mosaic law becoming more and more important to the Jewish people, over time became more than just law. People began to worship the Law, and placed the law on the same level as God. The people had lost the understanding, the meaning behind following the law. Jesus tells them that the Mosaic law is not an end unto itself, but rather the gateway into a deeper relationship with God. 

Jesus was often accused by his religious authorities of not following the letter of the law. While Jesus followed Mosaic Law closely, there were times when he would break the law. Jesus healed on the Sabbath, which was strictly forbidden by the Law. He countered attacks by asking his accusers whether the Sabbath was made for God or whether the Sabbath was made for humankind. Jesus tells them that God does not need the Sabbath, but it is rather we who need to keep holy the Sabbath. Why? Because we need the Sabbath to grow into a deeper relationship with God and with those around us.

The Great Commandment, “Love God with all your heart, your soul, your mind and your strength, and love your neighbor as yourself” sums up all of Mosaic Law, especially the 10 commandments. We come to Mass to give reverence to the presence of God in Holy Scripture, the presence of God in Holy Communion, and as importantly, to give reverence to God in the people gathered here. We come to Mass in order to receive the grace we need to live fully our relationship with God, and to live in right relationship with all people. Loving God with all our heart, our soul, our mind and our strength, leads us into recognizing the presence of God in all people and living in a deeper relationship with the presence of God within them. In properly understanding the law, we begin to see that our relationship with God does not end with just following the law to the letter, but opens our eyes to see the presence of God all around us. 

  

The Jewish Rabbi and theologian, Martin Buber wrote, all of nature that is around us and especially our relationships with one another are windows upon which we look on God’s face. When we use the law to deepen and faithfully live out our relationship with God’s presence in creation, with one another, and within ourselves, our lives are not only more orderly and happy, in the end we find fulfillment. In the end we find God.