The Good News for the Day, June 13, 2024
Thursday in the Tenth Week of Ordinary Time (362))
Jesus: to you and me:
What I am saying is this: unless your “justice” –your sense of right and wrong—gets past how sophisticated scribes and religious people like Pharisees do righteousness, you will not be getting into the other realm. For instance:
You have grown up hearing people say, “Thou shalt not kill.” And “A killer has to be held accountable in law.”
But now I am telling you:
- anyone mad at a brother or sister will be brought to account;
- whoever calls someone else “good-for-nothing” will be held guilty in public opinion, and
- whoever calls someone, ”fool” will be in danger of going to hell.
So—say you are going to church with your donation, and you remember your brother or sister is mad at you for some reason. Drop your donation before you put it in the collection! Go! First, make up with your family, then come back to put it in. Patch things up between you and someone who disagrees with you before you find yourself in court—for fear your opponent might win the case, and you are the one arrested and sent to jail. I’m telling you: you won’t get away with anything until you pay the last cent. (Matthew 5)
So many of us carry an irritability – easily upset at another driver, at a message on the radio or TV, at a neighbor’s thoughtlessness, and even at a friend’s different opinion about something I hold different. The name-calling that occurs all over social media echoes what happens in person – but perhaps not always expressed out loud. But that hot little coal of anger remains in my soul – a bitter flavor of resentment, a small hunger for revenge, and a sense of looking down on someone less than me.
A prayerful and thoughtful reflection about “justice” reminds us to follow Jesus in two things. Ordinary justice means to treat others the way we want to be treated – that is a fair and just way of behaving. The justice of God is different, of course. The justice of God is salvific, forgiving, and redeeming. God wants no one to be lost in their continuing to hold anger and resist the forgiveness of sin (to “go to hell”).
Many Christians recite the phrase, “Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world….” Taking away sin requires that – whoever it is taken away from – gives it away, lets it go, offers it open handedly to whoever wants to take it.
The low-grade irritation that marks too much of our time is the kind of thing that God wants to take away if we are willing to give it up. Remember it is not rare extreme violence that you and I deal with. It is the petty stuff that makes such a difference.
The Good News is the relief of realizing that if I let go of anger – or more fundamentally – my irritability about differences – yes, I am free of spiritual jail.
jorisheise 