Politics and Selling Out are Synonyms: Homily for 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Is 45:1, 4-6

Mt 22:15-21

 

There is much truth behind the old saying, "politics make strange bedfellows." Politics brings together people who have little in common and who frequently detest each other.  We see the strangeness reenacted every four years during the dreadful time leading up to presidential elections. It is amazing how people will compromise themselves  in the pursuit of power. This next campaign is going to be a real screamer, each party being as angry, nasty, and hypocritical as the other.

 

Today's gospel shows that the same dynamic existed in  the Ancient Near East. In this case the  Pharisees and the Herodians were certainly not drinking buddies.  The Pharisees wanted nothing to do with the Herodians who were supporters of Herod Antipas, a non-Jew.  And the Herodians held no truck with the Pharisees. The Herodians were mostly servants of the Roman Empire in contrast to the Pharisees who awaited the Messiah to free them from that same empire.  Strange bedfellows indeed.  However, in this case the two put aside their differences to  team up against Jesus in order to entrap him with a difficult question.

 

In this particular scenario, the reason for the question was more important than the answer.  It was the reason for the question that formed the kind of unholy alliance such as the kind we routinely see in the American political scene.  It is a classic question that illustrates the concepts of: A rock and a hard place, No win, Lose-lose,

 

The question was skillfully formed. Like most politicians going in for an attempted kill, Jesus' interlocutors opened with a fawning tribute to Him:  "Teacher, we know that you are a truthful man and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Tell us what is your opinion."  They then asked the famous question "Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?" Because of the opposite positions of the Pharisees and the Herodians Jesus was in what appeared to be a double-bind.

 

Had Jesus agreed that it was lawful to pay the census tax he could have been discredited by the Pharisees for placing secular law above the Law of God.  Had he said it was unlawful to pay the tax he could have been accused of treason by the Herodians. 

 

Jesus recognized their malice. Rather than blurting out a yes or no answer

or beginning a long rambling rationalization that argued both sides of the question, He asked for a coin.  After asking whose image was on the coin Jesus famously said,  "Render unto Caesar that which belongs to Caesar and unto God that which belongs to God."

 

Jesus' response has been analyzed under different lenses over the centuries. Some admire the rhetorical skill of his answer.  Some use it to make philosophical statements about the separation of church and state.  But Jesus was not intending a witty response to a hostile question, nor was he commenting on the various church-state issues that continue to rankle the U.S. today.

 

Jesus’s reply was not meant to show off his rhetorical skills. nor was he making a philosophical statement about the separation of church and state. He was not suggesting that the church should be confined within certain parameters and not get involved with politics. Jesus broadened the question and raised a challenge to his questioners. If the coin belongs to Caesar because it bears Caesar’s image then what belongs to God is that which bears God’s image. And because God creates every human in His image and likeness every human being--including Caesar--bears God's image and ultimately belongs to Him. 

 

We heard an echo of the Shema Yisrael, the central prayer in Judaism, in the first reading from Isaiah. "I am the LORD and there is no other, there is no God besides me. . . .

"I am the LORD, there is no other." Unlike the coins of the world that bear the images of rulers, living and dead, all humanity bears the image of God.  This includes the child in the womb and the old man dying of Alzheimer's. We bear that image from conception until natural death.  It is a sin to destroy it.

 

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Eight deacons were ordained in Oakland, CA this morning (CA time).  Among them was Kao Chia-yang, SJ a friend of twenty years.  We met when he moved to D.C. from Taiwan to study at Georgetown.  My buddy Ignatius Hung, SJ sent an email ordering me to invite him to dinner.  I did.  And then every month, at least, for the next several years.  We talked about him entering periodically.  As he wanted to enter here in the U.S. he had to get a green card.  He mailed his application moments after he was notified that he had the card.  He will be ordained a priest in New York (Fordham) in June.  Itry to avoid NYC under all circumstances.  I will be there.   The photos did not p0ost in the order in which I wanted them to.  Don't have the energy to redo.

Chia-yang coming off the altar

Having just made the promise of obedience

Grasping the gospel book

Being vested in the damatic

Laying of of hands by Bishop Michael Barber, SJ

Prostrate during the litany of the saints

The sign of peace

Prayer over the deacons

Going to their seats at the end of the rite of ordination.

The processional

Fr. Jack, SJ, MD

 

 

The Vineyard of the Lord: Homily for the 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time

 

Is 5:1-7

Ps 80

Phil 4:6-9

Mt 21:33-43

 

Today’s gospel begin where last Sunday’s ended. It continues the vineyard theme.  Taken together the first reading and the Gospel illustrate the dependence of the New Testament upon the Old Testament, best expressed in the theology school dictum that one cannot understand the New Testament

without first knowing the Old.

 

The images of the vineyard, the wine press, and the tower that Jesus used in the parable, came directly from Isaiah. They make the same painful point about fidelity, or lack thereof, to God’s law.  But Jesus then moved beyond Isaiah. 

 

Cultivating a vineyard is complicated, difficult, and demanding work.  It is not so much a job as it is a vocation and a way of life. I spent most of 2011 doing tertianship in Australia.  Yes, it was a dream come true and then some, particularly for a photographer.

 

Though based in Sydney we spent about half the time posted all over the country.  The only experience we had in common outside of Sydney was the thirty-day retreat at the Sevenhill Jesuit Retreat House located on the grounds of the Jesuit winery near the town of Clare, South Australia. 

 

With 35 wineries the Clare Valley,  is one of the centers of the Australian wine industry. Begun by Bavarian Jesuits in 1851 it was one of the first wineries in the Clare Valley.  The setting on 1000 acres rolling hills is beyond beautiful.  BUT . . . the beauty obscures an important fact.  Caring for a vineyard is backbreaking work that demands both physical stamina and familiarity with organic chemistry.

 

Sometimes, despite precautions, hard work, the commitment of the wine master and the dedication of the workers, the harvest is not good and the wines are less than wonderful.  Unfortunately, 2011 was catastrophic. It was unusually cold and cloudy. There was way too much rain during the harvest.  Only sixty percent of the grapes in the valley were even harvested.  The others died on the vine.  But, the winemakers at Sevenhill and the rest of the Valley were not giving up.  Once the scope of the problem was defined, the staff at Sevenhill rolled up their sleeves and began to prepare for 2012.

 

So it is with God who loves us and forgives our sins rather than giving up on us.

 

In the first reading we heard of the vineyard owner’s dismay when, despite constructing the vineyard, putting in a watchtower to prevent sabotage,and carefully cultivating the grapes, he harvested not sweet grapes but useless sour grapes.  Isaiah was, like Jesus in the gospel, using the image of the vineyard for the people of Israel, people who, despite God’s care worshipped false idols, ignored the law, becoming like sour wild grapes unfit for wine or anything else.  

 

The vineyard is a symbol for the people, a symbol for us, in the psalm as well. The psalmist asks the Lord to restore the vineyard and care for it despite the poor harvest, despite the people violating and forgetting the covenant yet again. In the psalm we ask the Lord to restore us despite our propensity to commit the same sins over and over while periodically throwing in a few new ones. The psalm is a combination of confession, faith, and bargaining.  But  the  composer, who captured the essence of human behavior in the psalm, knows that God is forgiving and will relent. 

 

Jesus takes the vineyard image further than Isaiah when he predicts His own death.  But he also tells of  the mission to the Gentiles, those who were not part of the old covenant. “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.”  Truer words have rarely been uttered.

 

There are three more verses at the end of this parable.  The last two are critical to put the parable and of all of Jesus’ teaching into context. We read, “When the chief priests and Pharisees heard his parables, they knew that he was speaking about them.  And although they were attempting to arrest him, they feared the crowds for they regarded him as a prophet.”

 

The truth hurts.  Sometimes the truth hurts the one who reveals it, particularly in the cancellation culture of the U.S.  Killing the bearer of the truth may be much easier than making fundamental changesin our lives, actions, and attitudes as a result of hearing that truth.

 

Five more chapters of parables and discourse follow chapter 21 before Matthew recounts Jesus’ passion and death.  All of the parables and discourses are familiar.  All of them challenge us, just as they challenged Jesus’ hearers.  At times they are painful because we see ourselves reflected in them.  The reflection is not pretty. 

 

We can clean up that picture easily enough. The instructions are found in the second reading:

 

Do “what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me.  Then the God of peace will be with you.”

That peace will surpass all understanding.  That peace will trump anything we can imagine.   

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The choice of photos was easy: the vineyard at Sevenhill, Clare, South Australia.  It was a magnificent place in which to make the thirty-day retreat doing the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius.  I'd been told it was going to be very hot.  One friend almost left the retreat he was so miserable.  That was not our probem.  Indeed, it was like being on retreat in mid-November.  Not good for a vineyard.  

Fr. Jack, SJ, MD