Insisting on our terms

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today challenge us to consider how much of insisting on our own terms are preventing our full relationship with God.

Love and Freedom

The Prophet Ezekiel lays out the great invitation of God to restore the relationship with His people through an intimate Presence in their being.

* [36:25–26] God’s initiative to cleanse Israel (cf. 24:13–14) is the first act in the creation of a new people, no longer disposed to repeating Israel’s wicked past (chap. 20). To make this restoration permanent, God replaces Israel’s rebellious and obdurate interiority (“heart of stone”) with an interiority (“heart of flesh”) susceptible to and animated by God’s intentions (“my spirit,” v. 27).

The Gospel of Matthew resonates with the intimate connection between Love and Freedom as the mercy and generosity of God must be accepted as our free choice.

* [22:11] A wedding garment: the repentance, change of heart and mind, that is the condition for entrance into the kingdom (Mt 3:2; 4:17) must be continued in a life of good deeds (Mt 7:21–23).

The lament and prayer of Psalm 51 to create a new heart for us may begin our reconsideration of our selfish choices.

* [Psalm 51] A lament, the most famous of the seven Penitential Psalms,
* [51:18] For you do not desire sacrifice: the mere offering of the ritual sacrifice apart from good dispositions is not acceptable to God, cf. Ps 50.

Julie Kalkowski shares that the texts made her think about her response to God’s invitation to her for a closer relationship.

Today’s Gospel and Jesus’ ministry remind me to not write off people whom whose politics I don’t consider to be ‘good”.  Both the King and Jesus knew that in order to be “good”, you first have to have a relationship with God. I find it is easier to be open to others who believe differently than me if I make time to sit with God.  I am not saying that it is easy, just that somehow it is easier. That song: “All are welcome, all are welcome, all are welcome in this place” keeps running through my head as I write this. So, for the next few weeks, I will try to be more inclusive and to look for common ground with  others instead of seeing our differences. To not judge or dismiss anyone, but to welcome them as another child of God.

Don Schwager quotes 20th Century pastor Dieterich Bonhoeffer on cheap grace or costly grace and John Chrysostom (347-407 AD) on the guest with no wedding garment.

Dieterich Bonhoeffer, a Lutheran pastor and theologian in Germany who died for his faith under Hitler's Nazi rule, contrasted "cheap grace" and "costly grace".
"Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves... the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance... grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate... Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock. Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life."
What then must we understand by the wedding garment but love? That person enters the marriage feast, but without wearing a wedding garment, who is present in the holy church. He may have faith, but he does not have love. We are correct when we say that love is the wedding garment because this is what our Creator himself possessed when he came to the marriage feast to join the church to himself. Only God's love brought it about that his only begotten Son united the hearts of his chosen to himself. John says that 'God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son for us' (John 3:16)." (excerpt from FORTY GOSPEL HOMILIES 38.9)

The Word Among Us Meditation on Matthew 22:1-14 How is it that you came in here without a wedding garment?

In the same way, the man at the end of Jesus’ parable was out of place. He chose not to wear the wedding garment provided for him, snubbing the king’s generous offer to clothe him with dignity. We can liken this to the clothing of the saints in heaven, “the righteous deeds of the holy ones” spoken of in the Scriptures (Revelation 19:8). We may think this fellow was treated harshly, but it’s actually what he chose for himself. For the wedding garment—the righteousness available through Jesus’ sacrifice—was his for the taking. He just didn’t put it on.

Friar Jude Winkler sees the proclamation in Ezekiel as the manifestation of the triumph of mercy of God in destroying sin with Love. Sin is an act where we imprison ourselves to our lowly nature. Friar Jude notes the garment is at the door. We have to identify with the groom.When we exclude ourselves by our choices, there are consequences.

 Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, quotes Thich Nhat Hanh on the Buddhist insistence on the necessary link between being peace and making peace. This reflects Christian spirituality’s traditional insistence that all our action in the world must be combined with contemplation.

Being peace is an absolute prerequisite for making peace. And by “being peace,” . . . [Thich Nhat Hanh] means deepening the practice of mindfulness, both formally in regular meditation as well as throughout the day as we receive every person and every event that enters our lives; through such mindfulness we will, more and more, be able to understand . . . whomever we meet or whatever we feel, and so respond with compassion. Only with the peace that comes with such mindfulness will we be able to respond in a way that brings forth peace for the event or person or feeling we are dealing with.

Father Richard notes that most Western people are already geared toward action but need training in contemplation. Connecting to Ezekiel, if the inner world is authentic, an individual’s political, economic, and service attitudes will change organically from the inside out.

References

(n.d.). Ezekiel chapter 36 - United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Retrieved August 23, 2018, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/ezekiel/36
(n.d.). Psalms chapter 51 - United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Retrieved August 23, 2018, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/psalms/51:12
(n.d.). 22:21. Retrieved August 23, 2018, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/matthew/matthew22.htm
(n.d.). Creighton Online Ministries - Creighton University. Retrieved August 23, 2018, from http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/online.html
(n.d.). Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved August 23, 2018, from http://dailyscripture.servantsoftheword.org/
(n.d.). Saint Rose of Lima, Virgin (Optional Memorial) - Mass Readings and .... Retrieved August 23, 2018, from https://wau.org/meditations/
(n.d.). Daily Meditations Archives - Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved August 23, 2018, from https://cac.org/category/daily-meditations/