Bound in Love

Today we are in the 22nd Sunday of the 34 numbered Sundays of ordinary time. Ordinary time is not ordinary in the sense that nothing special is happening; rather, it simply means these are the weeks that have numbers and are not one of the other specific seasons like Advent, Lent, Christmas or Easter. This long stretch of marching through the year is a good time to think about “how do we live out our Christian call in every day environment”. You know that when we go on a retreat, we are clearly focused on something that is not ordinary. But our lives cannot be a constant retreat experience. So we have to know how to live an everyday life in an extraordinary way because of our commitment to follow Jesus.

Our readings today help with that. The book of Sirach is one of the books written in what is known as the wisdom style. These books are full of thoughtful but also pragmatic ideas on how to live a good life. The Psalms are also classified as wisdom literature because so many of the Psalms also deal with how to be a good man or a good woman.

The letter to the Hebrews that we read today shows how the prophets and the rituals of the Old Testament could not be ultimately effective by themselves, but they needed a true Messiah, a true high priest, who could make the one satisfactory sacrifice, the one which would pave our way to the heavenly Jerusalem. The idea of expecting a Messiah is found throughout the Psalms along with the other wisdom theme we discussed.

And our gospel taken from the 14th chapter of Luke continues this dual theme. It seems to be a wisdom-type discourse, but it finishes with a messianic claim of resurrection for the righteous.

In the readings we have these two themes: the wisdom literature about living well and the Messianic them of waiting for a final salvation. Taken altogether, these readings offer us a reminder of why we go to Mass, and how to live when we are outside of Mass in our everyday lives. It is good and right and proper to live a peaceful life, and a peaceful life can be described as one that does not include getting in conflict with other people. So it is good to get along. It makes pragmatic sense to conduct your affairs with humility. It makes pragmatic sense when you walk into a dinner party not to stride right up to the head table and sit down in the seat of prominence. Because it is pragmatic to avoid the humiliation of being told that’s not your seat.

Our faith, however, is not simple pragmatic advice on how to get along with others. Our faith is based on the violent death of a man who claimed to be God and was punished with the most gruesome form of death the Roman Empire could deliver. While the Romans thought they were executing a troublemaker, we know that that man was the awaited Messiah. Indeed, he truly was God and offered himself as a propitiation for our sins. He was not only the one making the offering, he was the offering itself. Through his self-gift, we are redeemed. And we come to Mass to recall and even put ourselves there at the foot of the Cross to participate in that offering of self gift for the redemption of souls.

When we are sent out by the Deacon to go forth, the Church’s hope is that we will go out into our everyday lives fortified by the Mass. Strengthened in that way, we can enter into the hustle and bustle of the day we are given with a commitment to pragmatic good behavior and also to following our Lord and his commandments. We are both in the day and looking forward to the last day. We are hoping that we “will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

Having one foot in the world and simultaneously one foot in Heaven can be an awkward posture without practice and support. The sacramental life, and the life of prayer, are two ways we can develop that good practice and also be supported in it. The world is a place of compromises. The message of our Lord Jesus is to not make compromises even to the point of death. So these weeks of Ordinary time are an opportunity for us to be encouraged in useful ways to grow in the virtues of prudence and charity and justice and the rest while also being attentive to the day of judgment and resurrection.

This week in the readings we were encouraged to pursue humility, and the hint was that it will help you avoid humiliation. Last week we were told to strive to enter through the narrow gate, and humility is a way to make oneself small so as to enlarge that narrow gate. Two weeks ago we were warned by Jesus that the world and even our families will be marked by division, and the weeks of Ordinary time can help us put the divisions of this world into the context of God’s plan of salvation so that we can understand our circumstances better and live through them more peacefully.

These weeks of Ordinary time will build in a crescendo of reminders that the world as we know it will one day cease to exist and God’s reign in heaven will replace it on the day of judgment. May we use the time God gives us to grow closer to him through a life of prayer and the sacraments.