Our Way is not God’s Way
Sunday, September 24, 2023
by Fr. David M. Knight
View readings for Sunday, 25th Week of Ordinary Time: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings
Lectionary no. 133 (Is 55: 6-9; Ps 145: 2-3, 8-9, 17-18; Phil 1: 20c-24, 27a; Mt 20: 1-16a)
Inventory
Do you hire people for your purposes or to give them purpose? Do you pay people in proportion to their need or their usefulness? Are you nicer to some people than you are to others? Is this the way God acts? If God’s way is different form yours, does that make either one of you wrong?
Ideas to Consider
The theme of today’s Mass is that God’s way of acting is very different from ours — different, but better. The Entrance Antiphon celebrates God as the “Savior of all people…. Whatever their troubles, I will answer their cry.” And the Responsorial Psalm declares, “The Lord is near to all who call him” (Psalm 145). We, on the other hand, are less likely to help strangers and foreigners — and especially our enemies — than we are to help family and friends. This is natural for us — and unnatural for God.
And so, in the Opening Prayer we ask God’s help to “come to perfection” through the way we “love one another.” Perfection is to love as God does. And justice on earth depends on love. In the Alternative Opening Prayer, we acknowledge this: “the perfection of justice is found in your love.” And we ask to “find this love in each other” so that there might be justice on earth, with peace as its consequence. This is the basic principle t hat should guide all Christian efforts for social reform. Love evokes love and leads to justice. The opposite of love — hatred, retaliation and violence — evokes hatred, retaliation and violence and leads to more hatred, retaliation and violence. But after 2000 years of Christianity, we still do not accept this, and love is still not our way. Power and force are our way. Still, as consecrated by Baptism stewards of the kingship of Christ, we have embraced the responsibility and the task of converting society to do things God’s way. This theme will guide our reflections during this season.
God’s Way vs. Our Way
In Isaiah 55:6-9 God says, “my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are my ways above your ways and my thoughts above your thoughts.”
The first example he gives of this is: ”All you who are thirsty, come to the water! You who have no money, come… without paying and without cost, drink wine and milk” (Isaiah 55:1). This is not our way!
His second example is: “Seek the Lord while he may be found, call him while he is near…. Let [the wicked] turn for mercy to the Lord… who is generous in forgiving.” This, too, is not our way. We distance ourselves from those who offend us. But the liturgy has us proclaim repeatedly, “The Lord is near to all who call him.”
Isn’t it true that when we are not acting toward God as we should we feel he is distant and withdrawn from us? We don’t think of him as being so close and eager to help us as when we are devout and faithful. We fall into this error because we assume God is like us. The truth is, “The Lord is near to all who call him,” to saints and sinners equally.
Our way is to love our friends and neighbors and hate our enemies. But Jesus proposes God’s way to us:
Love your enemies… so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.
His ways are not our ways. God will answer a sinner’s prayers as quickly as a saint’s — maybe quicker, because they need it more! We find this hard to believe.
The Last Shall Be First
The workmen in the Gospel story (Matthew 20: 1-16) found it hard to believe that the landowner would pay those who only worked one hour as much as he paid those who had worked all day. But the landowner did not think as they did — or as we do. He was not hiring people just to get his work done; he was saving them from idleness, letting them do something life-enhancing with their time, and enabling them to provide for their families. His goal was not his profit but theirs.
Suppose all of society worked on this principle, and that everyone — employers and employees — had the good of everyone as their goal. Would there be any poverty? Would there be some so rich they can afford to spend obscenely, paying more to gratify a whim than laborers make in a year? Would there be others so poor they live in squalor so depressing their life is constant desperation? Are Christians responsible for changing this? What does it mean to be consecrated at Baptism “prophet, priest and king,” if not to take responsibility for establishing God’s reign over every area and activity of human life? As Baptism Jesus called us and sent us “into his vineyard” We are stewards of the kingship of Christ. This commits us to leadership in efforts to transform society and “renew the face; of the earth.”
“Life is Christ”
In Philippians 1: 20-27 Paul proclaims the root truth of Christian existence: we are only on this earth to be Christ and become Christ, and to let Jesus Christ continue his life and mission in us:
For to me, living is Christ and dying is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me…. my desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better; but to remain in the flesh is more necessary for you.
By Baptism we “became Christ.” The word are St. Augustine’s, speaking to the baptized, “We have become not only Christians, but Christ. Marvel and rejoice: we have become Christ!”(quoted by John Paul II in The Splendor of Truth, no. 21). Our first work on earth is to do all we can to let the life of grace grow in us, until we come “to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13). In the measure that we are “immersed” in the mind and will and heart of Christ, Jesus can act with us, in us and through us as he desires to continue his saving, transforming mission on earth.
When we accepted his divine life in Baptism, presenting our “bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God” (Romans 12:1) we accepted to let Jesus extend his resurrection by coming to live in us as in his own body and continue in and through us his work on earth as Prophet, Priest and King. We have no other goal in life except Christ’s goal. We live to let him live in us. We work to let him work in us. The only fulfillment we seek is that “life to the full” he came to give (John 10:10). The only reward we look forward to is “what no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him” (1Corinthians 2:9). Jesus said, “See, I am coming soon; my reward is with me, to repay according to everyone's work” (Revelation 22:12). This is the only reward that lasts forever, and it is the satisfaction of all desire, human and divine. So it is only logical that Paul should say, “To me, life is Christ, and death is gain.” If we are wise, we live for what we die for.
This is plain logic, pure and simple:
For we are God's servants, working together; you are God's field, God's building.… I laid a foundation, and… each builder must choose with care how to build on it. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one that has been laid; that foundation is Jesus Christ.
Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw — the work of each builder will become visible, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each has done. If what has been built on the foundation
survives, the builder will receive a reward. If the work is burned up, the builder will suffer loss; the builder will be saved, but only as through fire….
Do not deceive yourselves. If you think that you are wise in this age, you should become fools so that you may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.…
So let no one boast about human leaders. For all things are yours, whether… the world or life or death or the present or the future--all belong to you, and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God (1Corinthians 3: 9-23).
We live to let Christ live in us. When we die we cannot die, because Christ is our life and Christ cannot die. That is why for us “living is Christ and dying is gain.” To think like this is to think like God.
Insight
How does the coming of Jesus change my whole goal in life? When I change my goal, do I see everything else in a different light? What priorities change?
Action
Write down, for exactitude, what you are living for. Make it God’s work.
Reflections brought to you by the Immersed in Christ Ministry
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