Seeing and responding to the saving power

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today alert us to consider how we respond to the request from God for simple and faithful action in harmony with the Divine will.


The Prophet Micah delivers a three fold command from God to Judah to restore the damaged Covenant relationship.

* [6:8] To do justice refers to human behavior in relationship to others. To love goodness refers to the kind of love and concern which is at the heart of the covenant between the Lord and Israel; it is persistently faithful. To walk humbly with your God means to listen carefully to the revealed will of God.

In the Gospel from Matthew, Jesus points to signs of pagan recognition of God that are not seen by the religious leaders of people of the Covenant.

* [12:38–42] This section is mainly from Q (see Lk 11:29–32). Mk 8:11–12, which Matthew has followed in Mt 16:1–4, has a similar demand for a sign. The scribes and Pharisees refuse to accept the exorcisms of Jesus as authentication of his claims and demand a sign that will end all possibility of doubt. Jesus’ response is that no such sign will be given. Because his opponents are evil and see him as an agent of Satan, nothing will convince them.

Rabbi Ismar Schorsch, writes that Micah espouses the primacy of ethics over ritual.

The goal of genuine religion is not to mollify God with escalating numbers of sacrifices culminating in the offering of one's own first-born child. On the contrary, what God has long demanded is "only to do justice and to love kindness and to walk modestly with your God" (6:8). Again, the thrust runs diametrically counter to our penchant for self-absorption. The best way to infuse the world with holiness is by harnessing the self. As long as ritual is tethered to that aspiration, it can provide us with the discipline to move beyond ourselves.

Roland Coelho, S.J. shares that Micah provides a three-fold summary of concrete acts of love and service that help us be free of our false self and be filled with God’s Spirit.

This is what God wants of me:
To do what is right. To be just, to be fair, and to be equal, with special care for the poor and the downtrodden. To reach out to those who are shunned by society.
To love goodness. To be merciful and faithful as God is—a God who has made us in the divine image and likeness, a God who loves us unconditionally, a God who desires our wholeness and fullness of life.
To walk humbly with God. To be aware of God’s presence and to put God first in my life, to listen to God’s voice, and to obey God’s will. I become aware that God is my closest friend and constant companion.

Don Schwager shares the thoughts of an anonymous early Christian teacher on the stumbling block of the sign of Jonah that ties to the cross.

"What is the sign of Jonah? The stumbling block of the cross. So it is not the disputers of knowledge who will be saved but those who believe true teaching. For the cross of Christ is indeed a stumbling block to those who dispute knowledge but salvation to those who believe. Paul testifies to this: 'But we, for our part, preach the crucified Christ - to the Jews indeed a stumbling block and to the Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God' (1 Corinthians 1:23-24). Why do the Jews seek signs and the Greeks seek wisdom? God pointed to the sign of the stumbling block of the cross to both the Jews and the Greeks. Thus those who wish to find Christ not through faith but through wisdom will perish on the stumbling block of foolishness. Those who wish to know the Son of God not through faith but through a demonstration of signs will remain trapped in their disbelief, falling on the stumbling block of his death. It is no small wonder that the Jews, considering the death of Christ, thought he was merely a man, when even Christians - as they purport to be but really are not - because of his death are reluctant to declare the only begotten, the crucified, as incomparable majesty. (excerpt from INCOMPLETE WORK ON MATTHEW, HOMILY 30)

The Word Among Us Meditation on Matthew 12:38-42 asks How many signs did these Pharisees need? … When a person steadfastly refuses to believe something, even in the face of overwhelming data, it’s probably not because of weak faith; it’s more likely because of a hardened heart.

C. S. Lewis once said that the evidence leaves us with only three possibilities: Jesus was either a liar, a lunatic, or the Lord. Let’s believe the third option, and give him our hearts today.

Friar Jude Winkler looks at the legal format of the charge against the people in the Book of Micah. The call to us is for an Interior change of heart to a simple faithful humble life lived in the ways of God. The response of the pagans to God is Jesus answer to the religious authorities seeking a sign in the Gospel.

Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, notes that Jesus’ most consistent social action was eating in new ways and with new people, encountering those who were oppressed or excluded from the system.

As Christianity developed, the Church moved from Jesus’ meal with open table fellowship to its continuance in the relatively safe ritual meal we call the Eucharist. Unfortunately, that ritual itself came to redefine social reality in a negative way, in terms of worthiness and unworthiness—the opposite of Jesus’ intention! Even if we deny that our intention is to define membership, it is clearly the practical message people hear today. It is strange and inconsistent that sins of marriage and sexuality seem to be the only ones that exclude people from the table when other sins like greed and hatefulness are more of a public scandal.

The three simple instructions of Micah, particularly our need to walk humbly with God, are invitations to examine how we see and respond to the Love invitation.

References


(n.d.). Micah, chapter 6 - United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Retrieved July 23, 2018, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/micah/6

(n.d.). Matthew, chapter 12 - United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Retrieved July 23, 2018, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/matthew/12

(n.d.). Torah Table Talk - Oceanside Jewish Center. Retrieved July 23, 2018, from http://www.oceansidejewishcenter.org/tabletalk/5765/4_07_Balak.pdf

(n.d.). Creighton U Daily Reflections .... Retrieved July 23, 2018, from http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/daily.html

(n.d.). Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved July 23, 2018, from http://dailyscripture.servantsoftheword.org/

(n.d.). Saint Bridget, Religious (Optional Memorial - Mass Readings and .... Retrieved July 23, 2018, from https://wau.org/meditations/ 

(n.d.). Daily Meditations Archives - Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved July 23, 2018, from https://cac.org/category/daily-meditations/