The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today invite us to contemplate the Holiness Code in the Hebrew Testament and seek the guidance of the Spirit in experiences that deepen our preparedness for transformation.
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| Compassion of parents |
The reading from the Book of Leviticus presents a ritual and moral holiness including various rules of conduct.
* [19:17–18] These verses form a unit and describe different attitudes and actions towards one’s fellow Israelites. A separate passage is necessary to advise a similar attitude toward aliens (vv. 33–34). Cf. 25:39–46. The admonition at the end of v. 18 came to be viewed in Judaism and Christianity as one of the central commandments. (See Mt 22:34–40; Mk 12:28–34; Lk 10:25–28; cf. Mt 19:19; Rom 13:8–10; Gal 5:14). The New Testament urges love for enemies as well as neighbors (Mt 5:43–48; Lk 6:27–36; cf. Prv 25:21–22).1
Psalm 19 declares God’s glory in Creation and the Law.
* [Psalm 19] The heavenly elements of the world, now beautifully arranged, bespeak the power and wisdom of their creator (Ps 19:2–7). The creator’s wisdom is available to human beings in the law (Ps 19:8–11), toward which the psalmist prays to be open (Ps 19:12–14). The themes of light and speech unify the poem.2
The Gospel of Matthew sets the stage of the judgement of the Nations.
* [25:31–46] The conclusion of the discourse, which is peculiar to Matthew, portrays the final judgment that will accompany the parousia. Although often called a “parable,” it is not really such, for the only parabolic elements are the depiction of the Son of Man as a shepherd and of the righteous and the wicked as sheep and goats respectively (Mt 25:32–33). The criterion of judgment will be the deeds of mercy that have been done for the least of Jesus’ brothers (Mt 25:40). A difficult and important question is the identification of these least brothers. Are they all people who have suffered hunger, thirst, etc. (Mt 25:35, 36) or a particular group of such sufferers? Scholars are divided in their response and arguments can be made for either side. But leaving aside the problem of what the traditional material that Matthew edited may have meant, it seems that a stronger case can be made for the view that in the evangelist’s sense the sufferers are Christians, probably Christian missionaries whose sufferings were brought upon them by their preaching of the gospel. The criterion of judgment for all the nations is their treatment of those who have borne to the world the message of Jesus, and this means ultimately their acceptance or rejection of Jesus himself; cf. Mt 10:40, “Whoever receives you, receives me.” See note on Mt 16:27.3
Tom Shanahan, S.J. comments that they ask: “When did we see you hungry, etc.” and Jesus famously answers them, “whatever you did for one of these least of my sisters or brothers, you did for me.”
Notice the emphasis here. Not on the grand deed, the enormous task, but on simple care for others. I’m not asked to save Omaha, or Nebraska, or an even bigger chunk of real estate. I am simply called to look outside myself to others as Jesus looked outside of himself and responded to people’s needs.
Lent is the perfect time to examine ourselves and to be challenged to be selfless...
Our task for Lent is to let ourselves be opened outward – towards those who look for care. Can I accept that challenge? Can I even become aware of their calling to me? And can I trust that Jesus means what he says to us all?
Lord, keep us close to you during this Lenten season. Help us to know in our hearts the love that you show us and the strength of our God who invites us all to imitate You in showing that love to our Sisters and Brothers.4
Don Schwager quotes “Gathering and Separating,” by an anonymous early author from the Greek church.
"And he will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats." So then, people on earth are intermingled, and not only intermingled in that the righteous live side by side with the wicked, but they are also indistinguishable. Between the righteous and the wicked there is no apparent difference. Even as in wintertime you cannot tell the healthy trees apart from the withered trees but in beautiful springtime you can tell the difference, so too each person according to his faith and his works will be exposed. The wicked will not have any leaves or show any fruit, but the righteous will be clothed with the leaves of eternal life and adorned with the fruit of glory. In this way they will be separated by the heavenly shepherd and Lord. The earthly shepherd separates animals by their type of body, whereas Christ separates people by their type of soul. The sheep signify righteous people by reason of their gentleness, because they harm no one, and by reason of their patience, because when they are harmed by others, they bear it without resistance. He refers to sinners as goats, however, because these vices characterize goats - capriciousness toward other animals, pride and belligerence." (excerpt from INCOMPLETE WORK ON MATTHEW, HOMILY 54, the Greek fathers).5
The Word Among Us Meditation on Matthew 25:31-46 comments that Jesus says that we should see him in other people, especially the poor, the prisoner, the hungry, and the foreigner.
A story about St. Francis of Assisi illustrates this truth perfectly. Thomas of Celano, one of Francis’ early disciples, described it this way:
So greatly loathsome was the sight of lepers to [Francis] . . . that, in the days of his vanity, he would look at their houses only from a distance of two miles and he would hold his nostrils with his hands. But now, when by the grace and the power of the Most High he was beginning to think of holy and useful things, . . . he met a leper one day and, made stronger than himself, he kissed him.Writing about this incident himself, Francis said, “What had previously nauseated me became a source of physical consolation for me. After that I did not wait long before leaving the world.”
What happened to Francis can happen to you. But don’t think you have to make such a radical change overnight—or all on your own. Thomas of Celano attributed Francis’ act of kindness to “the grace and the power” of God. Francis may have taken one or two steps in welcoming people with leprosy, but he knew that he was able to embrace that man only because he was “made stronger than himself.” In other words, it was a combination of Francis’ decision and God’s grace that changed his heart.6
Friar Jude Winkler comments on the text from Leviticus as part of the Holiness Code. Matthew is redefining righteousness as compassion. Friar Jude notes that compassion is a theme at the beginning and end of Matthew’s Gospel.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, comments that Russ Hudson spent several years studying George Ivanovich Gurdjieff’s “Work,” as did his colleague Cynthia Bourgeault. In her book The Holy Trinity and the Law of Three, which draws on the teachings of Gurdjieff to more deeply explore the Trinity, Cynthia writes:
The enneagram of personality has captured the popular imagination, that’s for sure. And you have to admit that there is something brilliant and even damnably strategic in its design. Using that classic ego bait—“let me learn my type, some interesting new thing about me”—it draws people in, only to put in their hands basic tools for self-observation and non identification. . . . Progressing enneagram students rapidly develop the capacity to see that they are in fact not their type; it is simply an impersonal, mechanical pattern that plays out within them... [3]
A shift in the sense of selfhood begins to occur, so that they reside less and less in their outer personality manifestations and more and more in their inner witnessing presence. Fixation upon the personality begins to wane as the deeper roots of identity emerge. Thus, the teaching has the possibility of moving people to a new level of interior freedom and encourages them to develop precisely those spiritual skills that Gurdjieff himself identified as essential to conscious transformation. . . .7
Our compassion is a path to deeper transformation of our lives and the discovery of the ways in which we are called by the Spirit to serve those in need.
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