Word to the Wise
Friday, March 10, 2017 - 1st Week of Lent - Fri
[Ezek 18:21-28 and Matt 5:20-26]FRIDAY, MARCH 10, 2017. FRIDAY IN THE FIRST WEEK OF LENT [Ezekiel 18:21-28 and Matthew 5:20-26] "Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar, and there recall that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift there at the altar, go first and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift." [Matthew] When I was a first year law student many years ago, I remember one of my professors saying, "Don't come to court with dirty hands." This meant that whatever justice one might want had better come from a just heart and a noble cause. Jesus tells us that if we want to offer true worship, we had better come with a clean record of reconciliation. Isaiah often rails against "empty worship," from people who put on an appearance of piety but were unjust toward the poor and oppressed, the widows and the orphan. Many Catholics are familiar with the practice of trying to keep the gap between confession and reception of communion very narrow! This is not quite the same as what Jesus is teaching. This is more than one's "personal" cleansing. It means crossing the gap of alienation and embracing the other from whom we are estranged. The Sermon on the Mount is a demanding teaching. There are some who will refuse to do the kind of reconciling that Jesus demands. I wonder if G. K. Chesterton's famous comment might apply about Christianity being tried and found "wanting" but really never been tried in the first place. It could be a great Lenten exercise to read the Sermon on the Mount and then ask the three questions I have mentioned earlier: What do I need to start doing? What do I need to stop doing? What do I need to continue doing. AMEN
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