Dear Friends,
I have been trying really hard not to get caught up in Facebook arguments. But the other day I couldn’t help myself. (Surprise?!) Someone had posted a favorable review of Taylor Swift, calling her Christian-like for her many acts of generosity, including the money she donates to food banks at every town where she performs. One reader, of course, protested, saying that Taylor was “far from Christ” and “far from righteousness” because works are dead without faith in Jesus, and Taylor hasn’t professed her faith.
Really? Perhaps that commenter should read today’s gospel: any act of mercy is an extension of Jesus’ mission of love! Anyone who gives a cup of water to the thirsty out of love belongs! Or remember Matthew 25: 31-46? Some of the sheep who “get into” the kingdom are confused and ask Jesus, “When did we serve you?” They were completely unaware they were serving him. They had never professed faith in him. Yet they were feeding the hungry and thirsty, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and imprisoned. Aware or unaware, using faith language or not, they were already caught up in the Kingdom way of living, the God way of loving! They belonged.
And when Jesus speaks in apparent tough language in today’s gospel, it seems that his hyperbole is meant to shock the likes of the commenter above into changing their ways. When Jesus tells folks to cut off their foot or pluck out their eye, he is saying in the most urgent way possible that we should be ready to cut out of us any mindset whatsoever that wants to divide, separate, judge, categorize into good and bad, in and out, righteous and unrighteous. If we continue to live with such primitive and tribal instincts, we force ourselves and the world to live in an unquenchable Gehenna, an unending fire pit of nastiness, division, sadness and separation: hell.
But if we live “on earth as it is in heaven,” if we live the way Jesus shows and empowers us to live through his Spirit within us, well, then we begin to live with kindness, connectedness, joy and unity. We begin to live in heaven.
Peace and every good,
Father Liam