Thirty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time

The Gospels often highlight arguments the religious leaders of Judaism had with Jesus.
I read a story showing how to start a really good argument. A woman wanted a new SUV, something practical; her husband wanted a flashy sports car. After many conversations, he finally said in frustration: My birthday’s in a week and I want something that goes from 0 to 200 in four seconds or less! Surprise me.  So for his birthday, the woman bought him a new bathroom scale. That's when the argument started. The moral of the story: watch what you say and do; you may start an argument with unintended consequences.

Anyway, the author of the book of Malachi conveys his unhappiness with the leadership of Israel in the 5th century BC (the 400s). Yes, the author says, you have rebuilt the temple, but then scolds these religious leaders for their careless temple worship which jeopardizes that special relationship (or covenant) God made with the Hebrews centuries before. But all is not lost: God, our Father, never reneges on his promises: always faithful despite our unfaithfulness. The point is simple: the Jews should act like God’s people: always trying to keep their covenantal promises to God.

The author of Malachi also may challenge us to ask, what is leadership? For me, leadership is about three Cs: character, courage and a “can do” attitude.

Character defines who we are at our core: it involves ethics, a sense of duty, a value system, morality and integrity. Leadership also demands courage: moving beyond our fears and self-doubts to achieve something worthwhile. Moreover, leadership presumes a positive “can do” attitude. Leaders know what they want, why they want it, and how to communicate that in order to galvanize others into action. They're optimists; they take the initiative; get the facts; have self-confidence and instill confidence in others.

At different times in life, all of us are called to be leaders: as professionals, business people, parents, citizens, and volunteers. And again, what are the ingredients of leadership? The three Cs: Character! Courage! A “can do” attitude! Think about these ingredients in your leadership roles.

Paul in his letter speaks about his fondness for the Christian community at Thessalonica in Greece. Paul worked hard at his tent-making business so that he wouldn’t burden them. And then Paul urges them to let the word of God be a guide to life, a message of hope. After all, the only Gospel some will ever read is our everyday behaviors and attitudes.

In the Gospel according to Matthew, Jesus condemns the scribes and Pharisees.  Why? Because they say one thing and do another.  They make impossible demands on ordinary people. Worse, they do everything for show. They want people to address them with titles. But Jesus says there is only one teacher: Jesus; and there is only one father, God. Jesus then concludes: serve one another. Be the eyes and ears and voice and hands and feet of Christ to other people.

What caught my eye in today's word of God is Paul's reminder to the Thessalonians that God speaks to them in the Bible. Did you ever wonder if God is speaking to you? In fact, He does! God speaks to us especially through the inspired word of God, the Bible, a privileged form of conversation between God and us, a two-way conversation. That’s why we should be ever attentive to the word of God, especially in the liturgy.

Now God authored the Bible in the sense that the Bible includes what God wants us to know about God, the universe and ourselves. But the human authors of the Bible were real authors. They employed the language, images, literary genres, and worldviews they knew to communicate religious truths, not scientific truths.

Moreover, the Bible is not one book but a library: prose and poetry, fiction and history, myths and legends, historical narratives and short stories, genealogies and sermons, parables and letters, songs and codes of law, blessings and curses, prophetic and proverbial sayings and apocalyptic visions. Some books in the Bible evolved over decades; others over centuries. In fact, the Bible was written over 1500 years by at least 40 authors. They are not always easily understandable. That why we have Bible study. 

The apostle Paul describes all scripture as “inspired by God.” (2 Tim 3:16) Not just inspired the way artists, poets, composers and musicans do. It actually has God’s breath, his Spirit in the Bible. Yes, through the Bible, God speaks to us.

The Bible ultimately is about Jesus. Paul informed Timothy that the sacred scriptures are “capable of giving you wisdom for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” (2 Tim 3:15)

Paul spoke to a society not unlike our own. People, Paul wrote, are going to be self-absorbed, money-hungry, self-promoting, crude, treacherous, ruthless, bloated windbags and addicted to lust. (See 2 Tim 3:1–4) But the followers of Christ are called to be different. “Remain faithful,” Paul writes, “to what you have learned and believed.” (2 Tim 3: 14)

The temptation is to place our trust and security in money, education, job, health, family or friends. There is nothing wrong with these things, but ultimately there is only one absolutely secure place in which to put our trust: in Jesus. He loves us unconditionally, and asks that we not only hear God's word but put it into practice.

Our spiritual appetite can only be satisfied in a relationship with God. And that's what Jesus made a reality through his death and resurrection: a relationship with God forever.

Our global Catholic Church is a biblical community of disciples in the sense that it acknowledges and proclaims the Bible as the word of God in human form. In particular, the scriptures point to Jesus as the unique definitive revelation of God to us.  In other words, everything that God ever wanted to do for us or say to us, God did and said in Jesus.

In this sense, there will be no new revelation. However, the Church Universal as a community of disciples is the instrument of the Spirit who guides us along the journey to eternal life in the light of new problems in new generations and in new cultures.

I conclude with a story about Fyodor Dostoyevsky, the great Russian novelist.  Many of us read “Crime and Punishment,” or “The Brothers Karamazov” in high school or college. Dostoyevsky was a wild young man with a lavish lifestyle. Caught up in a movement for political and social reform during the repressive reign of Tsar Nicholas I, he was arrested, tried and condemned to be executed. As the prison guards raised their muskets to their shoulders and took aim, a white flag was raised to announce that the Tsar had commuted their sentence to life imprisonment in Siberia.

While in prison, Dostoyevsky read the New Testament from cover to cover and learned much of it by heart. He wrote, “I believe that there is no one...else like Jesus.” Yes, through the Bible, Dostoyevsky encountered the living Christ.  May we also encounter the living Christ in the word of God.