Freedom

If, as it is said, the glory of God is a human person fully alive and, as we know from experience, that to be fully alive is to be free, than our human freedom is fundamental in God’s plan for each of us. Freedom is the single most defining gift that God has given us. It makes us a human person and it is what separates us from everything else. Freedom allows us to choose (or not choose) God or at least, the better good, which of course, is to be a part of God’s plan for Salvation. God’s gift of human freedom is essential, complete and unlimited. It character is not “freedom from” service and love, but “freedom for” service and love. But, we are not God and the human condition is our reality. Our life and our freedom (gifts though they are) are limited and restricted by character and circumstance. It seems our very humanness gets in the way of our freedom. Today’s readings are about the space between God’s gift of essential and unconditional freedom and our limited and very conditional freedom. And unfortunately we often mistake one for the other and so we are not free at all. The first reading gives us an example of freedom used well. A worthy wife is worthy not by happenstance, but by her choosing to live a life of worthiness in the eyes of her neighbors and in the eyes of God. The wife’s worthiness is not cosmetic or some shallow adornment. Her worthiness runs as deep as her desire, understanding and choice to live a life of loving service, where hands work diligently, fingers labor skillfully, arms reach to embrace the poor and those in need. Not for her own well-being and self-glory, but for the well-being of others and for the glory of God. Her worth (called beyond measure) is simply her proper use of freedom. She is free to turn away from the obligations and challenges of life, but she is also free to be responsible for life, hers and others. In choosing “freedom for”, rather than “freedom from”, she lives in the light, immune to the darkness that hates all free things and which constantly threatens to over shadow the children of light. We, St Paul says, are children of light. And where there is light there is the Spirit and where there is the Spirit, there is truth and the truth, as St John says, will set us free. But, only, if we choose truth. It is not magic, it is a matter of choice. For one can only choose to know the truth or live in the light and certainly one can only choose to love. And we must pray to discern and understand and to choose wisely. St Paul says; stay awake, alert and sober. For it is only when we a wide eyed and watchful that we are we safe (or at least safer) from those attachments and desires that get in the way of our freedom to love beyond ourselves, to serve God by serving others and honoring him, by honoring his creation. In today’s Gospel God is likened to a wealthy man who goes on a journey. In preparation for the journey he entrusts his treasure (let’s call it - human freedom) to three human beings (called his servants). This treasure is not divided up equally but rather by their individual ability (perhaps because God’s gift, essential, unconditional and unlimited, can only be experienced in a human way, that is, incomplete, conditional and limited by our character and circumstance.) As the master travels his servants go about their business. Two servants, the ones with the most ability, use the funds (the freedom entrusted to them) to conduct good business, so to speak, and in doing so give the master good return. They increase his wealth and expand his Kingdom. They use their freedom well, not for themselves, but for the service, honor and love of their master and so they were invited to share in the master’s joy. But, the third servant, perhaps in fear of losing what he had been given, or perhaps not knowing what to do with the freedom he had been given, chooses to bury it. Freedom, which by its very nature is free, was now concealed and imprisoned. So tightly constrained that is was smothered, so hidden it was no freedom at all. Set aside and buried it was given no chance to breathe life, expand justice and free others. In this case the servant gave poor return on the master’s gift and contributed nothing towards the master’s wealth and kingdom. Here there was no joy coming. This parable is a cautionary tale. It reminds us that God’s extraordinary gift of freedom is, despite our inabilities and circumstances, meant to be used, and used, as well as possible. The gift of freedom is meant to give good return. And good return (at least to me) is giving glory to God by being fully alive (that is to serve, honor and love him). Oh yah, this cautionary tale ends with a warning. Everyone who utilizes their freedom will be given more, for freedom begets freedom as light begets light. And those who fail to use their freedom will have it taken away and they will find themselves enslaved by the darkness outside. Where they, along with all those who now realize too late what a marvelous gift freedom was, are out in the cold, set to grind teeth and wail into the night.

God and Ceasar

On the surface today’s Gospel is a rather a straightforward story of a trap. A trap set by the Pharisees to trick Jesus into a false move. Set him at odds with both civil and religious authorities. We hear how Jesus turns the trap around and uses it, as he often did, to describe the Kingdom of God and our relationship to it. The Kingdom of God is a transcendent reality that is not up there or out there. It is not somewhere else, but it lies hidden within the world. It is concealed, but active. It’s power uplifts the broken hearted and enlivens the wearied spirt, heals those sicken by a sickened world and sets the innocent free. The world (as it is) is ever before us, but the kingdom is only made known in glimpses and glances, in wonder and miracle, in metaphor and parable. Of course, God’s Kingdom is definitely revealed in Jesus’ words and actions. Jesus shows us how to live in the world. And he reminds us that it is not the world that will transform the kingdom, but that it is the Kingdom that will transform the world into the new heaven and earth. Responding to the Pharisees’ question concerning the paying the Roman tax. Jesus holds up the Roman coin they gave him and relies “Repay to Cesar what belongs to Cesar and to God what belongs to God” indicating that there is a proper relationship between civil and sacred. The Church is not above the world, for the Holy Spirit is not above the world. The Church exists because the world exists. The pilgrim Church on earth is a Church filled with people engaged in the world and each of the world’s vocations and occupations. The Church is not above the world, but guided by the a Spirit, it mediates the space between the demands of the world and the demands of the beatitudes. The Church is the sign of loving God and neighbor, where even Caesar is our neighbor. We are obliged to be good citizens and to participate in a society that abides by its foundational belief We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. Preamble to the Declaration of Independence And as Christians we must broaden and deepen this participation in the command good with what Jesus describes as the only way to be truly human. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they who mourn, Blessed are the meek, Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, the pure of heart, and the peacemakers, Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." There is a proper order to all this. We are citizens of the world (with all its responsibilities and obligations) but we are first and foremost God’s creatures (bound to with duties and service). This should compliment each other making all things blessed but, often they oppose and even fight one another. We are children of men and women born into a time and place but, we have been reborn, in Christ Jesus, as children of God. Inheritors (not of privilege, wealth and power) but of the Way, the Truth and the Life. Inheritors, not of death, but eternal salvation. The world and its systems are passing away. To quickly or not quick enough, it depends, I suppose. Princes and principalities come and go. Power and wealth are transitory, but God, always was and always will be God. And it is to God and his will for this world that we must look. All Civil society (let’s simply call it the world) is called to protect and serve individual freedom and to facilitate the fulfillment of the varied responsibilities for all citizens. Those that rule (let’s call them all Cesar) are obligated to respect and support fundamental rights of the human person and as the Church says “they must dispense justice humanely by respecting the rights of every one, especially the poor and disadvantaged.” We are obligated, as human persons bound by civil society, to help in this duty; discerning the common good and striving to achieve the well being of our neighbors in the spirit of truth, justice, solidarity and freedom. The Church says “ The love and service of ones society follows from the duty of gratitude and belongs to the order of charity.” The world gives preeminence to human being over things, the individual over the community, but the kingdom reminds us that we (as creatures ) have our origin and our destiny in God alone. With the world alone to guide us we are in danger of allowing systems of entitlement and exclusion to hold sway over our actions. We are in danger of settling for the way things are as opposed to crying out for the way things should be. We are in danger of having our political, economic and social lives exclusively reflect self centeredness, while we would be better served by having our decisions flow from faith and our ever deepening encounter with Jesus. We must strive to love as he did. For it is the only the power of love that can make things equal. And this is why we should use the beatitudes as the measure of good citizenship. Our good must be the the common good. We must discern the better good in every circumstance and to choose the better means of achieving it. Only then are we free. In freedom we must render up to Caesar what is his in support of economic progress, but in love knowing that people are not assets to be used. In rendering to God what is his (what isn’t his we might ask) we proclaim that every human life is sacred and that the dignity and flourishing of the human person is the foundation of a good and just society. Being guided by the world alone leads to an ever deepening divisions between rich (of every sort) and the poor (in every measure). And it denies that God alone determines every person’s right to life and to those things required for human flourishing. It is true we must render up to Cesar because we belong to a state and nation comprised of, racial, ethnic, economic, and ideological differences. But, by rendering up to God what is his we embrace and honor this complex reality by understanding that we are our brothers and sisters keepers and loving others is not restrictive and exclusive, but expansive, growing into global dimensions in our shrinking and endangered world. We render up to Cesar what is his to support ordered growth, fair economic structures and sustainable progress. But, rendering up to God what is his, we are active stewards of creation. Care for the earth and the diversity of all that dwells within is a requirement of our faith. We are (because God desires it) social beings designed to live in community. We are God’s creatures made in love to love him in return. To love him is to love others, as Jesus did. To love is to live fully alive and engaged the world that is here and now while our hearts and minds are focused on God and his Kingdom. This is our Christian reality, our challenge that has fundamental moral and ethical dimensions that cannot be ignored. But, do not be afraid, as long as we do not confuse Caesar with God we will be fine.

Last or First, It's Alawys Grace

I find today’s parable one of the most hopeful of all the kingdom parables, for Jesus speaks on God’s self-gift of bountiful and absolute love for us. And this divine generosity is what is rightfully preached on. But, there is also a landowner who speaks of the “usual wage” and I ask myself what is God’s “usual wage”. And we know those hired last received the same “usual wage “as those hired first. But, the fact reminds some were hired first and some were hired last and does that tell us anything at all about us and God? In today’s parable Jesus compares God to a good landowner and those listening, to laborers. In the first reading Isaiah, gives us a hint into this landowners thinking “For my thoughts are not your thoughts nor are your ways my ways. As high as heaven is above the earth so are my ways above your ways my thoughts above your thoughts.” Clearly there is a difference in thinking here. We are human beings (laborers on earth). We are not the landowner and certainly not God. His thoughts and ways are not ours for God is unconditional (that is nothing is before God) and only he is necessary, that is (everything’s comes from and is sustained by him). We are dependent on God for life itself and for how our life is formed and takes shape. We are not so very grand, but still the human person is the apple of God’s eye. And, of course, we are important because we can love and are loved by spouses, family, friends and our community of faith. What runs through all the readings and most especially in the Gospel is the mystery of God’s ways. And God’s way, experienced by human beings, is Grace. The parable of the landowner and the laborers describes the illogical generosity of the landowner. The twist is that the first hire at dawn (and so worked all day) and the last hire at the end of the day (so worked the least) received the same usual wage. Certainly, this is no way to run a business. And to be expected, there was grumbling about the unfairness of it all from those hired first. To this the landowner reminds them - “My friend, I am not cheating you. Did you not agree with me for the usual wage? What if I wish to give this last one the same as you. Am I not free to do as I wish with my money?” First of all, any wage can only come from the landowner and never from the laborer. It flows one way. Secondly, it’s his money and he is free to do whatever he wishes to do with it. Thirdly, it’s a matter of opinion. What the first hired see as unfair, the last hired see as generosity. Here we are to recall Isaiah “my thoughts are not your thoughts nor are your ways my ways.” The landowner has every right to be generous and his generosity is something special. It goes beyond the world’s standards of the reasonable or logical and, as we see, it includes the first and the last. The Gospel says the landowner pays the “usual wage”. What might this usual wage be? At least from God’s point of view, I suggest the usual wage is Grace. The essence and substance of all Grace is God‘s gracious love for us. And God (the landowner in the parable) does not just dole out Grace (the usual wage). God is no miser. God’s love for us, experienced as Grace, is the absolute good, that has all good within it. And this wage is always unexpected and unreasonable, bountiful and boundless. Grace is experienced in many ways and as many things. But, Grace always does something somewhere to someone. Grace is not an abstract idea. It is an enlivening and uplifting indwelling force, experienced in a concrete ways. It is a good living wage. So we know that the rightful landowner or God is unimaginatively generous in the wages he gives and those wages he gives is Grace. So what about the laborers themselves? All human beings, who we shall call laborers lack something, which we will call the “usual wage.” Day laborers must hire themselves out each morning. They are always dependent on another for their daily bread. We have established that the landowner, who owns the vineyard has the right to hire whoever he chooses and to pay those hired what he wants. Of course, the laborers have the freedom to decline the offer. To look elsewhere. But, they are incapable of judging the actions of the landowner. His ways are not their ways! It is important to remember that wages as money is not what we desire. It never is. Money is only a means to an end. What we desire is what the money will purchase; food and shelter, goods and services, nest eggs and savings. And this is true for our laborers in the parable. So imagine, in the pre-dawn light all unemployed day laborers are equally worried and anxious. They need to be hired which will allow them to provide for their family. The laborers hired first, those already waiting at dawn, will, as we know, only get paid at end of the day. But, they already (and throughout the day) will be secure in knowing that they will receive a wage. As they work hard (and honest pay deserves honest labor) they already taste the bread and drink the wine they will enjoy that evening. They already see (in their minds eye) the smiles from their children for having food on the table, and a roof over their heads. Not to mention a toy or two. They are already partaking of what is to come. Those (standing idle) hired only at noon are anxious and uneasy until noon and only after they are hired do they work contented and at peace (in knowing what is to come). Those (still standing about) that were hired at 5:00 have been uneasy, anxious even afraid of not being hired at all, from dawn till dusk. They have suffered all day. And only as the sun begins to set do they feel the relief (in the knowledge of what is to come). So although all receive at the end of the day the same “usual wage” Shall we call it Redemption and Salvation? Those hired first enjoy a new happiness longer. Those hired first experience the first fruits of Grace lived out as hope and are rewarded at the end of the day for hope never disappoints. Does this matter? It does. Though Grace is God’s business, we participate (as receivers) of his gifttttttttttttt giftt, his “usual wage” when it is given early or late. Grace always comes as self-gift and it always elevates and enlivens the human spirit. Grace bridges the gap between us (the Laborers) and the landowner (God). fered us at dawn rather than standing idly at dusk.

Hope is Always In Spite Of

The Grace of God knows no limit and his boundless gifts cannot be contained by man. We know from The Grace of God knows no limit and his boundless gifts cannot be contained by man. We know from scripture that God’s banquet table, laid out for the righteous, also overflows and spills out upon those deemed in our eyes as not so worthy, nourishing them and strengthening them towards a more perfect way of being. God’s forgiveness and mercy goes where God alone wants them to go. It is telling that in the first reading the Lord commands - do what is right and just. not specifically to the people of Israel, but also to the foreigner, who comes to know and love the living God. To the surprise of the self-righteous, it will be the right and just “other”, who will be gathered upon God’s holy mountain. Isn’t it always the surprised guest, who delights most in the unexpected invitation? God’s generosity extends to all people. Anyone can be grasped by God’s love. Anyone can hear his call (even if it is the tiniest whisper) to become right and just. Because righteousness and justice do not prefer one people over another, one nation over another. Righteousness and justice recognizes no boundaries. St Paul the apostle to the Gentiles preached beyond the boundaries of the Law that narrowly defined people of God. For St Paul the Law restricted God’s mercy and forgiveness. He preached that it is only through Jesus Christ that God’s excessive generosity, his Grace and blessing would be “irrevocable” gifts given freely and without exception to Jew and Gentile, female and male, servant and master, me and you, us and them. Hope is an irrevocable gift (given and never taken back). All of us are weak and prone to sinfulness. St Paul calls this being delivered up to disobedience. We are delivered up by our own free will to what takes us away from God. But, St Paul also says, that though we are delivered up to disobedience we are also delivered up, by the Grace of God, through his son Jesus, to God’s forgiveness and mercy. Where sin abounds, St Paul says, Grace abounds more. This is our Hope. Is this what Isaiah meant when he says God will bring them (all the faithful, known and unknown) to his holy mountain to be joyful in his house for God’s house shall be called (because it is) a house for all people. This too is our Hope. Last Sunday were heard about the importance of confidence and indeed it is important. Confidence, always has a sense of the reasonable about it. I am confident because I am prepared, for example. But, Hope is not reasonable, it is courageous by it very unreasonableness. Hope is not sensible, it is in-spite-of. In Today’s Gospel, in spite of being a stranger, in spite of being a Canaanite, and a woman, a mother comes to Jesus. This foreign woman does not come to Jesus confident, because her request is just or a convincing argument. . She comes because she hopes. And her hope rests in Jesus alone. But, Jesus disciples, tell him to send this bothersome outsider away. She has nothing to do with us and we have nothing to do with her. She is not a Jew. Did they remind him that his concern was only for the lost sheep of Israel? The woman cry’s out “Lord, help me” and he replies (perhaps with the words of his disciples still in his ear) that it is not right to take the food from the children and throw it to the dogs. Meaning it is not right to take the Word of God (creative and efficacious) from Jew and give it to the Gentile. But, she does not budge. A growing unexpected faith keeps her planted to where she is. She replies to him that this might be true, but even dogs eat the scrapes that fall from the master table. Jesus knows this. God’s table of plenty has more than enough for all those around the table, and those in the corners of the banquet hall and those at the door waiting to get in, and those not yet invited and even enough for the dogs, who we lest forget, are devoted to their master. Surprised by her insight, her persistence and moved by her faith in him, Jesus does what she asks and heals her daughter instantly and from afar. He asks nothing from her. This is surely hope that did not disappoint. A hope that led to unexpected faith in Jesus, which opened up to new life shared with her daughter within a new community of known and unknown believers. This foreign woman received far more then she knew. At least knew that day. We can each ask ourselves, am I this woman? Do I have courage of this woman, who in spite of the odds, the wisdom of the day, the way things are, still hope - Lord, help me. By her example and the Lord’s compassion I cling to the Hope “the irrevocable gift” that knows no limits and no boundaries and cannot be contained or diminished by any power. I cling to the Hope that already has the first fruit of God’s forgiveness and mercy within it. I cling to the hope that we are the invited quests and the last minute replacements. At the table, or waiting for a hand out. Who knows? That God’s business. But, what I do know. What I have confidence in, is that our living Hope will not disappoint. That (in-spite-of) the frailties of our bodies, the waywardness of our will, the instability of our resolve, the weakness of our faith, our bondage to sin we already (by God’s love alone)share in his banquet.

There Is Work To Be Done

In today’s Gospel we still find ourselves in a field or a garden as a metaphor for the reality of the planting of God’s Word in us and our growing response to it. Last week we heard about the casting of seed onto a diversity of soils, hard and rocky, or rich and well turned. Certainly good soil makes the job easier. But, Regardless of the quality of soil, we all know from experience, that good soil still takes cultivation, and adequate watering to insure a good harvest. Our effort is involved. Of course, we trust in God’s providence. It is right to do so. We believe that at the final great harvest, the wheat (those who believe) will be separated from the weeds (those who deny God) And the wheat will be gathered and bound together (in heaven) while the weeds will be burned in the Furnace (of Hell). Trust is important, but trust is not complacency. St Ignatius of Loyola said - “Pray as if everything depended on God and work as if everything depended on you.” As Christians we wait patiently for the final judgement to come, but do do so lazily or haphazardly fails to promote the Kingdom of God here and now. It is like planting seeds and walking away. Planting is only the beginning. There still is much work to be done. It is like our baptism. Baptism is only the beginning and much of the work of faith is still to be done. It is God’s gift, but we are responsible to care for what is planted (seed or faith). But, to often we rather not do the work. We rather not be bothered. We rather just sit back and hope for the best. We never pull a weed or pray for another, never water a basin or teach a child, but still we dream of that fresh tomato or a faith filled family. We want to be a good Christian. We want our children to be good Christians, but we neglect the work it takes to make it happen. We may not have it in us, but the Holy Spirit does. St Paul tells us that the Spirit comes to our aid in our weakness. Of course, it’s the Spirit that knows how to pray and can teach us how to pray silently in the presence of God, but the Spirit also knows how to toil in the Lord’s field. And if we are open to the Spirit, who is able and willing, he will direct our efforts. If we do a least a little bit of work for the Kingdom, allowing Grace to do the rest, the good seed of the Gospel message once planted (in the heart, home or in the community) will come to fruition. We know Jesus spoke in Parables. And it was his Parables that’s were remembered, shared, eventually collected and written down. Jesus used parables to both explain the unexplainable and to engage the listener as each hearer brings their own experiences and understanding to the story. Each listener naturally puts themselves within the parable. I am rocky soil or good soil, I am wheat or weed. Do I help or hinder God’s work. Today’s parsable points to the future end time with the joys of the heavenly kingdom or torment of the fiery furnace of hell. But, it is also calls us to action now. As the People of God, we are both the wheat (waiting for the final harvest) and day laborers who must work the soil, tend the growth of what was planted and chase off all that could harm it. And yet now the soil seems rockier then ever. The weeds are more numerous. The birds more ruthless. It looks a little bleak in the Lord’s field. But, this is where we find ourselves. This is our field and this is our task before us - to live out our faith right now. It is only in doing the work of love, that we serve the Gospel message. In only in doing the work of love that we, (in the Spirit, and with sleeves rolled up) set out to be good gardeners in our small patch of earth. Jesus clearly asks this of us. And so in confidence let we pray as if everything depends on God, and we know it does. And let us work as if everything depends on us; dig out the stones of poverty and injustice, pull out weeds of abuse and prejudice, chase off the birds of selfishness and despair. It’s the Lord’s field let us water all who thirst and feed all who hunger. Remember, our faith, our children’s faith, needs constant attention and hard work as todays parable reminds us goodness and evil compete and sometimes it’s hard to tell who has the upper hand. It can drive us mad, but we do not despair for despair is complacency. And this is no time for complacency. This is no time to sit back and hope for the best. We look forward to the final harvest where Truth, Goodness and Justice will prevail and the children of God will rejoice in heaven as evil, all evil, will be destroyed in the fiery furnace. But, that is then. Now, is the time to pray and work. And in the Spirit, our efforts (prayer or work), (large or small) are never in vain. For our efforts, our love, is offered up for the Kingdom of God.