Back in the 1970s, when our parish was learning to sing four hymns at every Sunday mass, there were not a lot of songs to choose from. One we sang often was, “Whatsoever You Do.” That song is based on today’s Gospel. It lists the populations Jesus describes in the Gospel: the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick, the imprisoned. The chorus goes, “Whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers, that you do unto me.”
I remember a particular time in the 1970s, when I was a young wife and mother, that I had a moment of conversion singing that song. I can see myself walking up to communion, singing, and suddenly realizing that I was so busy with my home and family that I didn’t ever even think about the “least of my brothers.” I had before I was married, even before I had children, but not in those days. At that time, it led me to become involved in pro-life work. (And, through the years I’ve realized that there can be plenty of “the least of my brothers” in my own family.)
Conversion Again
Today God is using this Gospel, along with the first reading from Leviticus, to challenge me again. Father reminded us in his homily this Sunday that “the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12)
Jesus used Scripture to counter Satan’s temptations in Sunday’s Gospel. I believe he is using it on me with today’s readings to help me with what God wants me to work on this Lent.
Last week I went to confession and was given the penance to “pray with” (not “pray for”) someone with whom I’m having difficulties. Father said to me, “Can you do that?” At the moment I thought and said “yes,” BUT when I got home and started to do it—it was another matter!
You see, the differences between us that cause the difficulty are doctrinal and political. So, how can I pray WITH someone who is looking at God and “whatsoever we do” through a very different lens? When I tried to do it, I quickly discovered that the words stuck in my throat. My thoughts were, “If I pray with them, I will be praying for things I do not want, do not believe. I would be lying to God.”
I balked.
But it was a penance, and I had accepted it. So I had to settle for praying, “Lord, show me HOW I can do this. Give me the grace to be able to do it.”
Show Me How
Last week I had already prayed with these readings and focused on the beginning words of Leviticus: “Speak to the whole assembly of the children of Israel and tell them: Be holy, for the Lord, your God, am holy.” I was going to talk about how “holy” doesn’t mean “religious.” It means “set apart,” “different.”
Now that sense of “called to be different” takes on a new significance. As Bishop Barron says in Session 2 of his “Mass: A Privileged Encounter” series, we as Catholics are called OUT OF the world. We are called to be holy, to be set apart.
The world says, “If I have a different point of view, I either tolerate the other perspective or fight against it.”
That is not the Christian way. The Christian way is to struggle through differences, to look at them in light of faith, tradition, Scripture, and solid thinking.
Also, God has standards for his people. I Leviticus, God lists “whatsoever you do’s” that would make the Hebrew people different: “You shall not steal.” “You shall not lie or speak falsely to one another.”You shall not go about spreading slander among your kin; nor shall you stand by idly when your neighbor’s life is at stake.” Finally, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Scholars tell us that in the Mosaic Law there were more than 600 of these commandments. Each was a way that set the people of Israel apart in the world of their times.
Each still sets a Christian apart today!
And, of course, Jesus added that ALL these “least of my brothers” are our neighbors. He didn’t take away the Mosaic standards—he upped them.
AND, through his Passion, Death, and Resurrection, he gave us the Grace, the Sacraments, and the community of the Church to help us do them.
Leave the Gift to Do the Work
As the Word of God slices around the marrow and bones of my soul today, it gives me some clarity with how to approach this penance that does indeed point out the internal mess/anger that is the source of “my brother having something against me,” that leads me to need to “leave my gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to my brother (sister), and then come and offer my gift.” (Matthew 5: 24)
- In both Old and New Testaments, God’s Word says “Whatsoever You DO.” The list in Leviticus and the list in Matthew are both lists of actions—not thoughts or beliefs. God expects his children, including me, to ACT. But he seems to allow for some difference in perspective–within the parameters of faith in God and Christ.
- God is clear in these Scriptures that God expects of his children BOTH/AND: personal moral purity AND outreach concern for the least, the lost, and the last.
God has built on my original prayer work to note to me now that being “holy” is being different from the world, and God wants me to find a way to let go of what holds me back. He has pointed out my Lenten journey.
The struggles in myself and others in my Christian community are, honestly, reflections of polarities that wreak havoc across the Church and our nation today: political and theological differences between people too often lumped together as “liberals” or “conservatives.” It can be an unnatural division between “Personal moral purity” and “outreach to the least, the last, and the lost.”
God says to me today: “BOTH/AND. I call my children in their personal lives and in how they seek to evangelize the world: BOTH/AND. Be holy. Reach out. Ask of others to comply with moral standards. Be non-judgmental and merciful in perception, word, and deed.”
It’s Not New
These or similar struggles are on almost every page of Scripture. They are in every age of the history. The peace of Pentecost lasted two chapters in the book of Acts. At different times they were between Jews and Gentiles–or between traditional monks and the new mendicant orders—or between one reform or another.
We Christians carry within us our “survival of the fittest” mentality of the world. We apply it to our dealings with each other—in every age.
And there are plenty of saints on both sides of issues—in every age.
Us sinners forget what Christ did and said on Holy Thursday: he washed feet; he treated both Judas and Peter with respect–while he named the truth of their betrayals; he said “This is my commandment: Love one another as I have loved you.” (John 15: 12). He set his disciples apart from the world and begged the Father that “they might be one” as he was in the Father and the Father was one with him. (John 17: 11)
Our visions (MY visions) get clouded by our differences in the MEANS to the ENDS—and perhaps even the vision of what the END is. But operating from the differences only is the way of the world, NOT the way of Christ.
The two-edged sword of Scripture is clear: our Father’s standards are strict—and I am not innocent. I truly cannot TODAY do what that penance asks of me. So, I leave my gift at the altar and do whatever it takes to come to peace.
I can just see Jesus smiling gently and saying, “Ah, Mary, welcome to Lent!”
May Jesus keep smiling and gently guiding all of us this Lent as his Word finds just the right spot in our souls and begins to work on it.
Prayer:
Lord, I will keep the Lenten practices I picked out, AND I will give myself up to this metanoia You give to me. I trust that as I try to do what seems impossible—to pray WITH someone who has a very different vision of faith—that You will be with me, that You will lead and guide me BEYOND myself to do what You ask. Help me! Help all of us as You show us what we need to see to be more conformed to Your love.
