Word to the Wise
Thursday, March 5, 2009 - Thursday in the First Week of Lent
[Esther C:12, 14-16, 23-25 and Matthew 7:7-12]Do unto others whatever you wold have them do to you. This is the law and the prophets.
One of the populist vestiges of Huey Long's rule in Louisiana was state aid to children in Catholic schools! We at St. Mary's Elementary School in Natchitoches, LA, rode the school buses free and received free textbooks, tablets, pencils and RULERS (that's all I remember at the moment). I emphasize RULERS because I remember that on those rulers was printed THE GOLDEN RULE: "DO UNTO OTHERS AS YOU WOULD HAVE THEM DO UNTO YOU!" At that time, the irony of putting the Golden RULE on a RULER was lost to me as well as the irony of that moral injunction appearing on an object that was frequently used as a weapon by school kids! The phrase appears in today's gospel scripture at the end of several lines on the importance of persevering in prayer! Perseverance is necessary to maintain both the relationship to God and the relationship to neighbor! Jesus gives the "Golden Rule" as a summation of the entire Jewish scripture! If our prayer is divorced from our moral everyday living, we are in trouble. It is impossible, in my view, to live a moral life without a life of prayer. But often I find that folks compartmentalize their lives in such a way that they may be seen piously in church and deceitfully in all interpersonal dealings with others. It is prayer and confidence in God's help that gives Queen Esther the courage to persevere and lead her people. We should consider her example seriously. AMEN
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