Deacon Joe

“Before all this happens, however, they will seize and persecute you, they will hand you over to the synagogues and to prisons, and they will have you led before kings and governors because of my name.  It will lead to your giving testimony.” 

What an outlook for the future!!  “They will seize and persecute you; they will hand you over to the synagogues and to prisons, and they will have you led before kings and governors because of my name.” 

WHY???

Because of my name!! 

In today’s Gospel, Jesus has some words that seem extremely harsh.  However, looking at history, his words are rather mild.  Christians have been persecuted and martyred for their belief in Jesus from today’s Gospel forward. 

When the disciples asked Jesus when this would happen, he replied: “See that you not be deceived, for many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he,’ and ‘The time has come.’ Do not follow them!”  So how do we know who to follow?” 

Our church provides the answer for us.  We come to mass and bring our children to mass so we will learn the truth and know who to follow.  Our young people attend Sparks and Ignite where they too learn about Jesus and his love for each of us.  We send our children to Catholic school, so they learn the truth about who to follow, to learn from our Church’s catechism how to discern the truth.  We have our children attend Religious Education classes, so they learn who to follow.  We, as parents, teach our children what is right and what is wrong.  We teach them how to follow our Lord, Jesus Christ despite who the world around us follows. 

Our young adults gather to study and fellowship with each other so they can gain a greater knowledge of God’s plan for them and how to live their lives sharing God’ love with one another and everyone they meet. 

We adults have many opportunities in our parish to gather with others, to study together and learn more about Jesus and his teaching. 

We are fortunate here in the United States that we don’t fear for our lives because we are Christians.  We see persecution all around us.  There have been times in our country when Catholics were persecuted and even martyred for their faith.  Even today, some states single out Catholics because of our faith in the family unit as defined by God and our Church. 

In many parts of the world, Christians are persecuted and martyred because of their faith in Jesus.  This is happening in Gaza, in Nigeria, in the Soviet Union, China, and in many other countries.  Jesus predicted this in today’s Gospel.  Jesus also predicted: “There will be powerful earthquakes, famines, and plagues from place to place; and awesome sights and mighty signs will come from the sky.”  Devastating typhoons, hurricanes, and earthquakes are happening all over the world.  The flooding from three feet of rain in twenty-four hours is something that we can only try to imagine.  To experience it is frightening beyond our comprehension and the devastation left behind these storms is impossible to capture in our minds. 

Hurricane Melissia unleashed high winds and rain on Jamica, Haiti, and some of the other islands in the Caribbean.  This hit close to home for us here at St Joseph Church.  The pictures from the area around the school we support in the Diocese of Mandeville Jamica seem unreal. 

Jesus said that this would happen but that we should not worry about what is happening in the world around us.  Why?  Because there is hope!  It’s so easy for us, in our comforts of this life, to forget that our life is not about here and now.  It is about the Kingdom of God and eternal life with Christ.  We live this life, serving God and helping others, to be able to enjoy eternal life with Christ. 

We pass our faith to our children and grandchildren to enable them to have the same hope in Christ when it seems as though the world is falling apart around us.  We pray for others, especially those who make unkind remarks about us, so we follow Jesus’ example of praying for our enemies despite their hatefulness toward us. 

Jesus also said that we should not worry about what to say when this happens.  The Holy Spirit will give us the words to witness for him.  Our reaction is to retaliate to the one who is causing our suffering.  The Holy Spirit will help us to reply with love and kindness. 

John Kavenaugh, a Jesuit wrote: “Yet Christ, seeming to anticipate our wonder, offered this advice: “Do not be perturbed. … These things are bound to happen.”  Bound to happen.  Life is bound to be this way.  He is not speaking about the end of all times, but the condition of every time.” 

He continued: “I believe there is at least one interpretation of apocalyptic literature (one far more solid than the endless announcements of the end of the world, based on occult reading of scripture) that takes such passages as revelations not so much of what is to come, but of what is now the case.”

Each day is the last.  Each time is the end time.  Each human being faces the end of the world in the span of a life, whether it reach eight minutes or eighty years.  The world, its opportunities and losses, passes away for us each night.  Every sunset announces a closing of a day that will never come again.  Each human death, …., is the curtain on an unrepeatable drama, which, without God, amounts to a tragedy.  Every generation, in some way, is the last, the termination.  And each generation, like each death and every day, witnesses the signs of the end times.” 

The verse from the Alleluia today is from the Gospel of Luke.  It tells us to “Stand erect and raise your heads because your redemption is at hand.” 

So, let us stand erect and raise our heads, regardless of what the world has to say.  Don’t worry about what is bound to happen in the world.  We know that Jesus is our hope, our life!  He will raise us to eternal life with him. 

Jesus told his disciples a parable about the necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary.  He then tells the parable of widow who keeps coming to a judge seeking a just decision against her adversary. 

The Jesuit, Fr. Dennis Hamm, emeritus professor of the New Testament at Creighton University in Omaha, wrote: “That widow in Jesus’ parable who kept badgering the judge to vindicate her cause – think of what she was up against.  As a widow in the Ancient Near East she is without resources.  Since the court of law (the city gates?) was entirely a male realm, we are to picture her as a lone woman amidst a noisy crowd of men.  An oft-quoted description of Near Eastern litigation describes a raucous crowd of clients competing for the attention of a judge, who is surrounded by an array of personal clerks.  Some clients gain access to the judge by supplying “fees” (bribes) to a particular clerk.  The rest simply clamor.  The fact that the woman is alone suggests that there is no male available in her extended family to plead her case.  She is very much alone in an intimidating situation.” 

What is more, the judge is described as one who neither fears God nor is capable of shame before men.  Presumably, he is moved only by bribery, and this woman is either unwilling or unable to use that means.  The only strategy available to her is persistence – which finally gets through to the irreverent and shameless judge.  He knows the woman is not going to give up; so, he gives in.” 

John Pilch wrote: “cultural insights urge more precise translations of this story to show why its popular title, “The Persistent Widow,” is inappropriate.  The word for “widow” in Hebrew means “silent one” or “one unable to speak.” In the patriarchal Mediterranean world males alone play a public role.  Women do not speak on their own behalf. 

A widow who has lost her husband and spokesperson to death is in an even worse condition if the eldest son is not married.  Because widows were not included in Hebrew laws on inheritance, they became common symbols of the exploited and oppressed. Prophets like Isaiah and Malachi criticized the harsh treatment they received, and throughout the Bible widows are viewed as being under the special protection of God. What finally moves the judge is not her persistence but rather that, literally translated, “she will end up giving me a black eye”.  The Greek word in that verse is borrowed from boxing. 

The Greek language also used the word figuratively to mean “blacken one’s face,” which means to publicly shame a person. The translation “wear me down” is incorrect and misses the entire point: “shame.”  By publicly badgering the judge every day, the woman repeatedly shames this shameless person. Who knows but, at some point, that she might not even poke him in the eye, literally? 

After all, in a culture where law-courts were not about justice but shaming others no matter what the cost, this judge would be damaged by the gossip report that a woman has shamed him.  He’d never live that down and couldn’t continue as judge.” 

John Pilch helps us to see the parable in the Gospel from a totally different perspective.  He continued: “The parable makes convincing sense in the Mediterranean world but may be less convincing in the modern world.”  Even though the parable may not have the same impact on us today, we are still conscious of shaming. 

How often do we perform an act or refrain from doing something, so we are not ashamed in front of others?  Peer pressure is tremendous and often makes us act based on what others might think of us.  This is especially true for young people in high school or middle school.  Tragically, some of our young people have committed suicide because of being shamed and bullied by others who are like the judge in today’s parable; they don’t care what anyone thinks of them if they are in charge. 

Shaming is as valid today as it was in ancient times.  Social media influences us more than we are willing to admit.  Realizing that our actions may be posted or ridiculed on Facebook makes us do what we would normally refrain from doing.  This applies to our personal lives as well as our work lives.  But it doesn’t have to be this way. 

In the second reading, Paul writes to Timothy: “I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, ….. proclaim the word; be persistent whether it is convenient or inconvenient; convince, reprimand, encourage through all patience and teaching”. 

The parable tells us “For a long time, the judge was unwilling, but eventually he thought, ‘While it is true that I neither fear God nor respect any human being, because this widow keeps bothering me, I shall deliver a just decision for her lest she finally come and strike me.’”  Now we can begin to understand why praying without ceasing has results.  Jesus said “Pay attention to what the dishonest judge says.  Will not God then secure the rights of his chosen ones who call out to him day and night?  Will he be slow to answer them?  I tell you; he will see to it that justice is done for them speedily.” 

Our problem is that we want justice in this world, but our battle is not earthly, it is spiritual.  Our battle is against evil, and our reward is eternal life in heaven with God. 

In today’s Gospel, Jesus asks the question: “But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”  Think about that question for a moment. 

When Jesus comes, will he find anyone who believes in him?  When we look at the world today, we see ourselves and a few other faithful servants who believe in Jesus, and it ends there. 

Will we let peer, and social media pressure shame us into doing what we don’t want to do?  Let’s pray that we remain faithful in our faith until Jesus comes for us. 

Today the disease we fear the most is probably cancer.  In ancient times, the dreaded disease was leprosy.  If someone developed a spot on their skin, they were required to go show it to the priest and if the priest determined it was leprosy, it was in essence a death sentence. 

The person was required to remove themselves from contact with all people, including their families and friends.  For most, it meant a life of begging for food at the gate to the city or village and shouting “Unclean, Unclean” to anyone who came close to them.  For a Jew, this meant they could no longer go to the temple so there was no way to offer sacrifice and receive redemption. 

In today’s Gospel, ten lepers stood at a distance and shouted “Jesus, Master! Have pity on us!”  As we will soon learn the ten lepers consist of Jews and at least one Samaritan.  In their life of misery, their hatred for one another became insignificant in the scheme of living an extremely difficult life so they banded together begging for food and clothing. 

Jesus has pity on them.  He tells them to go show themselves to the priest and as they were going, they were cleansed of their leprosy.  Even the Samaritan would have gone to show himself to the priest because they were taught that salvation is from the God of the Jews.  As they were going, one of them realized that they were healed and returned to Jesus giving thanks for their healing. 

We know that all ten were cleansed because Jesus said “Ten were cleansed, were they not?  Where are the other nine?”  But only one returned to give thanks, and that one was a foreigner, a Samaritan. 

That means that the other nine were probably Jews and had the most to gain from their healing.  They could now associate with others and go into the temple to worship and offer sacrifice for their sins.  We don’t know if they gave the required sacrifice of thanksgiving for their healing after they showed themselves to the priest, but only the Samaritan returned to Jesus praising and giving thanks to God for healing. 

We are truly blessed.  We live in a nation with more freedoms and a better living standard than any in the world.  Despite the turmoil and polarization in our political system, we are the richest in the world in terms of freedom and wealth.  The poor in the United States have so much more than the poor in the rest of the world, and middle-class Americans live in a standard that only the wealthiest have in many nations of the world. 

How often do we give thanks for these blessings?  Are we like the other nine lepers?  Do we complain about the issues and the hardships of life instead of giving thanks for the blessings we have received? 

Today’s Psalm reads: “All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation by our God.  Sing joyfully to the LORD, all you lands: break into song; sing praise.” 

Indeed, the rest of the world envies the freedom and wealth that we have received from our God.  That is why so many millions want to come to the United States even if they feel the only way into the country is illegal.  We must give thanks for the blessings we have received from God! 

Our culture teaches us that the only way to get ahead is to work, work, work.  The stress of trying to be the best at any cost wears us down until we are unhappy with life and complain about everything.  We become difficult to live with and for others to be around. 

Even with all the turmoil and polarization within our nation, we have so much to thank God for all the blessings we have received from him.  Let us always remember to give thanks for these blessings we have received from his bounty. 

The verse from the Alleluia today reminds us “In all circumstances, give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.”  God wants us to have these blessings and wants us to give him thanks for them. 

God gave us the gift of his Son, who gave his life on the cross that we might have forgiveness of our sins.  Christ rose from the tomb to defeat death and give us eternal life.  It is imperative that we give thanks to God for his many blessings, especially his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ who gives us eternal life. 

Today’s Gospel tells us that great crowds were following Jesus, and he addressed the crowds with the following words: “If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.  Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.” 

Wow!!

These seem harsh and so they are.  But let’s look at the culture of the day to understand the meaning for a person from that culture.  John Pilch tells us that Jesus has been invited for a meal at the home of a leading Pharisee.  The cultural world of Jesus required that people, especially the elite, “eat with their own kind, within their own class.” 

The fact that Jesus is often a guest of Pharisees has led some scholars to suggest that Jesus himself was a Pharisee.  Whatever the case, he never failed to challenge their beliefs and practices in the interest of offering better alternatives. 

This Middle-Eastern understanding of “meals” helps a “foreigner” to understand Jesus’ comments on discipleship in today’s reading, 

A follower of Jesus who ceased “networking” by means of meals would jeopardize a family’s very existence.  The disciple must then choose between allegiance to the family and allegiance to Jesus. 

Choosing Jesus is thus equivalent to letting one’s family go, “hating” the family.  Hate is more suitably translated “prefer,” that is, one who “hates” family actually prefers another group to the family. 

Recall the tight-knit nature of the Middle-Eastern family. The ideal marriage partner is a first cousin.  Sons, married and single, remain with the father.  Everyone “controls” one another. 

Life in these circumstances can be very stifling, very suffocating.  Following Jesus and joining a new, fictive family would be very liberating and exhilarating. 

There is, of course, a price to pay for such freedom.  In the Middle East, the main rule of behavior is: family first!  A disciple who deliberately cuts ties with family and social network will lose the ordinary means of making a living. This is the “economic cross” the disciple has chosen to carry. 

True, by joining a new, fictive family consisting of other disciples of Jesus, a “family-hating” person presumably has a new source of livelihood. 

No longer able to make claims to a livelihood based on blood ties and advantageous social network, members of this new fictive family have to rely on “hospitality,” which in the Middle East is extended exclusively by strangers to strangers.  This risk-filled option is quite a cross to carry. 

Clearly, a disciple who has accepted these challenging exhortations will effectively have given up everything.  Therefore, a would-be disciple must seriously calculate the costs. 

Two brief parables (about construction and waging war) drive this point home.  Anyone who weakens and abandons this determination will become the butt of ridicule and shame.  A disciple must remain firmly committed. 

The behavior Jesus proposes is liberating and heroic but costly.  Jesus’ attitude toward family values gives his followers much to think about. 

Now that we have a better understanding of the culture of that time from John Pilch, we can understand the true meaning of giving up everything. 

Let’s look at today’s culture and how that applies in our lives.  Our families here in The United States are not as tightly controlled as the families in Jesus’ time.  Some cultures still have that tight family bond and are controlled by the patriarch or the matriarch depending on the culture. 

Think about the networking of the individuals through meals today.  To be successful we are told that we must network and know the right people.  The way to do that is by playing golf, tennis, or some other activity that brings us in contact with others. 

Showing up at Social Hour at certain clubs, bars, or country clubs helps us make those connections.  Are we really any different from the people Jesus was addressing in today’s Gospel? 

What happens if we don’t play the game to make the contacts and be in the “Right” crowd?  As John Pilch told us, there are two parables about construction and war that drive the point home. 

Whether we are doctors, attorneys, in sales or management, we are expected to follow these rules or face the consequences; passed over for promotion, shut out, or looked on with disdain.  That is the price of being a follower of Christ. 

Jesus tells us that it is not easy.  We are breaking all the norms of society and there is a price to pay for that.  Peer pressure can make us weak and give in to the social norms.  That is why Jesus stressed that we must be willing to give up everything and take up our cross to follow him.  You see there is a price to pay to be a Christian. 

Father John Kavenaugh tells us that “Jesus’ recommendation of vigilance against possessiveness comes in one of the harshest passages found in the New Testament, a saying about family life.  “If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.”  We must, rather, take up our cross and follow him in discipleship. 

Clearly, he is speaking here of renouncing our loved ones as possessions or as barriers to the redeeming cross.  We can never possess another. 

It is easy for us to let our families, our children, our jobs creep into positions of possessions.  The late meetings at work to impress the manager, the parents who constantly need our help on weekends, so we miss Sunday mass. 

We teach our children that it’s ok to miss Sunday mass for a soccer game.  Suddenly, we are the ones that Jesus is talking to about our possessions. 

As we discern our lives, we too must be willing to give up everything to follow Jesus.  In today’s Gospel, Jesus is trying to inform us how difficult it is to follow him, how big a price we must be willing to pay to be called his disciple. 

“Am I willing to pay the price?  Am I willing to pick up my cross and follow him?” 

In today’s Gospel, a scholar of the law tries to test Jesus when he questions him about how to inherit eternal life.  Jesus, who was so adept at handling those who wanted to trick him answered with a question.  “What is written in the law?  How do you read it?” 

The scholar replied: “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”  Because the scholar needed to justify himself in front of the others who were there, he asked “And who is my neighbor?” 

Once again, Jesus turns his answer back to the scholar with a parable and a question.  “Which of these three, in your opinion, was neighbor to the robbers’ victim?”  He answered, “The one who treated him with mercy.”  Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.” 

Go and do likewise! 

Everything about this parable is wrong!  Extremely wrong. 

John Pilch helps us to understand the culture that made each of the characters in the parable take the actions they did. 

In the Mediterranean world questions are rarely perceived as requests for information.  They are almost always viewed with suspicion as a challenge to personal honor.  The hope is that the person who is asked a question will not know the answer and be shamed by ignorance.  Lest the reader miss the point, Luke explicitly states that the lawyer’s intent was to “test” Jesus. 

In this seven-scene parable, the Samaritan stands at the center:

The robbers strip their victim and leave him half dead.  Now, no one can identify the victim’s ethnicity by his garments or his accent, two very common ways of identifying a stranger in antiquity.  Helping him carries a risk. 

The priest, riding a donkey in accord with his elite status, notices the victim and ponders.  If the victim is dead or is a non-Judean, the priest would be defiled by touching him and have to return to Jerusalem for purification.  Those who just saw him gloriously fulfilling his priestly role would now see him returning in shame for purification.  The risk is too great.  The priest rides on.

The Levite may have come even closer to examine the victim.  Even though the road is not straight, the Levite very likely saw the priest’s response to the victim from afar.  If the priest did not give first aid, why should the Levite?  That would be a challenge to the priest, an insult.  Moreover, if this victim is one of those who live in Shechem (a Samaritan).  The Levite too, passes on. 

The Samaritan is a shocking third character in this story.  Listeners would have expected “a Judean layperson.”  But this hated enemy is the first to feel compassion!  The Hebrew word, related to womb, describes an inner gut-feeling.

He offers the first aid (wine, oil, and bandages), which the Levite could have done but neglected to do. The Samaritan’s risk is that this victim might hate him upon re-gaining consciousness.  Samaritan wine and oil were considered impure and would have made the (very likely) Judean victim impure too!  In a certain sense, the Samaritan in this story line will be “damned if he does, and damned if he doesn’t.” 

The Samaritan then does what the priest might have done but didn’t: he places the victim on his animal, takes him to an inn, and continues to care for him. 

Finally, the Samaritan, in contrast to the robbers, promises to return and pay any additional expenses.  This is perhaps the most foolish part of this story.  If the victim should die, his family, who will not be able to find the robbers, may kill his benefactor instead.  Or if the victim survives, he may rage at this Samaritan for making him impure with Samaritan wine and oil.  It is impossible to underestimate the importance of purity, that is, the determination to “be holy as the Lord is holy” as defined in Leviticus. 

Without John Pilch’s help, we would miss the whole point of the Gospel.  The religious leaders ignored the victim, because it would make them unclean.  A Samaritan, whom the Jewish people view with contempt and have no association with is the one who helps. 

We often forget that Jesus was a radical in his day.  He defied many things about the religious leaders of his faith because of the hypocrisy of how it was lived.  It was based more on how important a person was or how important a person was seen in the eyes of others rather than what was in one’s heart.  This parable is a prime example of that.  How often do we act like the priest or Levite instead of the Samaritan? 

Jesus was constantly teaching that the intent of the heart is what really matters.  It’s whether we love as God loves us and are willing to share God’s love with others that really counts.  Even though Samaritans have nothing to do with Jews, the Samaritan is moved with pity seeing the person, lying along the road, beaten and suffering. 

Remember how the Gospel stated?  It starts with a scholar of the law asking Jesus how to inherit eternal life.  Jesus asks the scholar what is written in the law and how he reads the law.  The response is to love God with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” 

Jesus told the scholar: “You have answered correctly; do this and you will live.”  Why is this so hard for us to live this law?  It becomes even more difficult when we comprehend everyone who is our neighbor.  Yes, everyone I s our neighbor, even the person in the family whom we can’t stand! 

Do I love God with all my heart?  Do I love God above everything else in the world?  Do I love my neighbor as myself?  Not only the person who lives next door in my neighborhood who looks and acts like me but the person in the urban ghetto, the homeless person, the political person I don’t like, the rude person at the store or at work, the person who cut me off on the highway coming to church today. 

Do I really love my neighbor as myself? 

Jesus is telling each of us: “Go and do likewise.”