Readings for the 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time. http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/102019.cfm
Okay I guess I can give some advice to you all… If you ever have a chance to say yes or no to a judge like this… Say no… It just is not worth it. If aa man says that he does not fear God He is never going to worry about Justice… and if he respects no human being, he is not going to show any mercy.
Think about it.. if you received a speeding ticket for going 3 miles over the limit… he isn’t going to care… no reason will be good enough you will get the highest fine possible. Justice and mercy are out of the picture. And he will never care. If he fears God, he might have a change of heart sometime. but alas it is said he does not fear God. If you have no fear of the one who can make or break you (literally) What chance does another human being have.
Is a Just decision Possible?
Unless you can get to their most primal fears.. Jesus tells us that the judge will give a just decision if he is fearful of pain and injury. He would indeed finally give the woman a just decision not because it is right but simply because he is fearful.
This brings up the point of exactly what is Justice… Well it is a little girls clothing store in Geneva Commons… but I am not sure that is what God has in mind actually. Lets try the dictionary…
the quality of being fair and reasonable.
Merrian Webster
Well that is not much help though it does add a couple of more words to the equation.
Okay so what we can do is to go for the one place we can always get a good definition of God’s thoughts on things.. that brings us to the Magisterium and while this might worry some… one thing we should know about God’s justice is that you can trust in it. So the Magisterium gave us this great book called the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
Catechism Definition Better
The definition we read there is great. It says, “Justice is the moral virtue that consists in the constant and firm will to give their due to god and neighbor.” Hey it is almost if they read the Gospel today. We heard in the Gospel that the judge did not fear God or respect man… It just said that Justice is the opposite of the unjust judge! One is supposed to give their due to God and man.
So now we have a pretty darned good definition of Justice in our heads. Between the reading and the definition, it pretty much says that we should fear God and do his will which is always just… and we should always give respect to another human being. This is consistent with things we hear from the Church all the time. Respect human beings from conception to natural death. The corporal and spiritual works of mercy… Basically comes down to having this love for the image and likeness of God that is found in each and every human being.
Yes, that means every human being, friends, neighbors, enemies, criminals, mass murderers, even family !
More to God than mercy
We have to take a moment here and realize how many times mercy has been shown to each of us… God has touched each of our lives bringing us here to Church today. And it is very easy to fall into the feeling that God is nothing but mercy. But that doesn’t make sense. Particularly when we read our Gospel today. Jesus promises God’s justice will be done and be done speedily. But do we think of that as a good thing? Jesus asks a question at the end of our Gospel reading that has to be focused on by each and every one of us. Will the Son of man find faith on earth upon His return?
Faith in God is at the core of our Catholic well faith. Faith in what though? Faith in this wooden stand, those fabric covered walls, that stained glass window? NO our Faith must be set on one place only God! God will be merciful but he will be just first.
“ἁμαρτία or hamartia” is Greek for sin
Since I woke up today, I have missed the mark (sporting reference used by the Greek to define sin) quite a number of times. I must recognize my missing the mark has effected hundreds of people. For those in my family and those perhaps right here in the church. I may have said something, I may have not said something, I might have done something, I might not have done something. I have to come to terms with that. I messed up and worse yet I may have messed up someone else’s day.
For that I must repent. And this is where God’s mercy comes in. I have recognized my error, I have apologized for it, and I have changed the way I act to be as good as I can be. We ask forgiveness when we began the Mass. But these cannot just be words. We have to recognize just how much pain they cause… not just to the person but to our Heavenly Father. We do this by the grace God gives us. We can grow and we can reach toward this perfection by growing in union with God. The Church gives us many ways to grow in holiness. We have to seek justice though. Without justice we simply cannot grow, because our own sins get in the way. Pride, avarice, lust etc. build a fence around our hearts and that will keep everything out.. including God.
Lets bring God in !
That is not the place to keep God out. Let God and His Church offer to you those gifts which bring you each and every day closer and closer to the person you are meant to be. It is real easy to just say I am sorry without changing anything. Confession is more about changing our perspective, changing our thought process and changing how we even think about sin. Sin, all sin, breaks our relationship with God. This is a horrendous thing. And being that all of humanity is made good, it can be fixed.
The biggest issue is that most of the time, when we sin, we do not even know about it! We are in a hurry and do not see or hear the effect our action or lack thereof has on others.
The other issue that most of us forget is that even if we do not know about them we in a way do damage to God. That is why we should go through our day each and every day. See what went right, see what went wrong. It takes maybe 5 minutes, but that is a small amount of time to change one’s life and to look toward God and be able to say I am still a mess.. but I am trying. I am seeing the things in my life that offend you and my neighbor. Have mercy on me, a sinner.
Be good Play nice Think God !