TENTH SUNDAY OF YEAR "A"

TENTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR

Cycle “A”: Mt 9, 9-13

Introduction:   To enter the family of God we must change some of our values. This conversion is not as conspicuous as taking part in devotional practices but is much more valuable. First, we must liberate ourselves from prejudices by which we classify people. Let us stop dividing people into good and bad; those we can greet and those we cannot; those we can love and help and those we cannot. But let us join God’s merciful plan that sees the salvation of all people.

 

The Homily

Sometimes religion goes off the rails. It happens for all of us from time to time. Its derailment takes the form of presuming that God must do what we want. When that happens, God chides us gently back to a proper relationship. The prophet says that God’s coming is like the dawn. “He will come like rain to us...like the latter rain watering the earth.”

Now we can look at the Gospel. It’s about the call of Levi, the tax collector, most probably Jesus renamed him Mathew. (from the Hebrew “Mattai” = “gift of God”) The call of Mathew is striking for its abruptness. Jesus called him while he was at his work, and he immediately got up and followed the Lord. This is more remarkable because of the sort of man Mathew was: the hated tax collector, Roman bootlicker and extortionist, undeserving of any respect and mercy. Even beggars did not receive alms from them. He throws a dinner party for his equally unrighteous friends. And he has to invite Jesus, of all people. Jesus is happy to accept, not because he’s always hungry for a free bite, but because he’s thirsty for people’s souls. The presence of Jesus in this morally malodorous company arouses some nasty comments from the local “religious affairs correspondent.”

The comments are addressed directly to Jesus’ disciples and obliquely to him. The Pharisees in particular thought that to lead a holy life you should be uncontaminated by sinful people, that righteousness was about keeping the many regulations of the Law.  Jesus overhears (as presumably he was intended to), takes the cue and, in the briefest of parables, responds: “It is not those who are well that need the doctor so much as those who are in a bad way.” This teaching is then underpinned with a quotation from the Greek version of our first reading: “I want mercy, not sacrifice.” I don’t need your incense for my nose, but good deeds for my poor.” And then the shocking lapidary statement: “I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” A righteous person is one who is pleasing to God and attached to him and not the self. A self-righteous person is a self-centred person and displeasing to God. God is the totally righteous One.

 

In the time of Jesus, there were self-righteous people like the Pharisees, who divided the population into good and bad. The teachers of the Law were like catechism teachers. They were well versed in religion and admired Jesus’ teaching, but they did not consider as brothers and sisters the publicans and those who failed to fulfil the law.

 We can easily start to view our religion as basically about our own personal state of holiness, and be happy with ourselves if we carry out the right religious acts and avoid serious sin. It is good that we do these things, but not as an end in themselves. As we experience the love of God in our own lives, we will want to show his love to others, reaching out to sinners in need and leading them to repent and come back to God.

My dear friends, you and I are not righteous, but just about good. A self-righteous person is one who goes about with her nose in the air and a calm assumption of superior wisdom and sanctity. “Supercilious” is a person who goes about with one or both eyebrows raised in self-importance. A supercilious person is actually a super-silly-ass!

One day, Mr. Stuart Henry, late Professor of American Christianity at Duke University, was walking across the campus when he saw large group of students celebrating something, perhaps a game or holiday, and doing so riotously. They were loud and unrestrained, many of them drunk. Professor Stuart Henry was disgusted by what he saw; disgusted with the behaviour and a culture that blesses debauchery. When all at once he remembered today’s Gospel and the verses: “When Jesus saw the crowd he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. The professor remembered that at that moment he not only doxologised (praised) Jesus but also felt that these verses were a judgement on him as a university minister and a summons to a deeper sense of his call.

As a priest he was called to heal and bring about conversion, not to condemn, and to look to Jesus for inspiration and strength.

Now-a-days pride and arrogance are the marks of a nation. In the Bible God kept reminding the Israelites that they were chosen not because they were bigger than other people but because he loved them. “Because Yahweh loved you.” It was for this, and for no other reason, that they were liberated from Egypt.

And God’s love is infectious. In his first letter, St. John keeps repeating to his disciples, “Beloved, let us love each other, because love is from God.” What matters above all is the quality of our relationship with God and with each other. Ultimately, the question will be asked of us is, “Were you a Moses or a Pharaoh?” Moses was a friend and liberator. Pharaoh was an intimidator and suppressor. We can live in this world but once. May our presence ease the burden of our neighbour.

PRAYER:  Lord God, thank you for your love that you have revealed in Jesus, that has given us the capacity to be of service to others, of helping them in their suffering and easing their tension. Help us to know our own sinfulness and need of you. Thank you for teaching us the right attitude of mind and heart towards all. Thank you for the ability to pray and recognise our need of you, in every circumstance, especially in suffering and in sin. And as we receive your forgiveness and healing, may we extend the same mercy to those around us who need it most. May we help one another to reach the goal of our life, which is community in you.