The Thirty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time
Malachi 1:14b–2:2b, 8-10; Psalm 131; Thessalonians 2: 7-9, 13; Matthew 23:1-12
Saint Teresa of Avila, one of our great Christian mystics, asks us to consider the opening two words of the Lord’s Prayer: Our Father. She draws our attention to those words because they acknowledge that we have a filial relationship not only with God but also with each other.
Teresa notes that the opening address, is not simply Father, or Dear Father, or My Father. Jesus taught us to say, Our Father. Our Father takes us beyond our tender relationship with God to a relationship with each other. In English, you could argue that our human relationships with each other, the ‘Our’, leads us to a deeper relationship with God who is our common ‘Father/Mother’.
What are the implications then of the “Our” in “Our Father”?
To have a common parent means that we are all sisters and brothers. We are family in more than image or a figure of speak. Here in lies a reality of divine and human relationship. What qualities characterize our human, familial and sibling relationships? A review of the relationships between biblical siblings confronts us with all too honest realities[?].
Cain is jealous of his brother Abel and murders him. Esau and Jacob, fraternal twins, fight and jostle so much in the womb of Rebekah that she complains life is not worth living. Later in their story, as you may recall, Jacob with his mother’s help, cheats his brother Esau out of his birthright by deceiving their father, Isaac. The daughter of King David, Tamar, is raped by her half-brother Amnon. Eleven of the twelve sons of Jacob are jealous of their brother Joseph who plot to murder him though they settle for selling him into slavery. Miriam and Aaron, the siblings of Moses, out of jealousy complain to God about him. Even the family of Jesus think he is out of his mind and come to take him away. I have to wonder why Jesus called the brothers, James and John, the ‘sons of thunder’?
Yet the prophet Malachi and Jesus as they chastise priestly and lay leadership about their hypocrisy and laying heavy religious loads on people, remind us
Have we not all the one father?
Has not the one God created us?
Why then do we break faith with one another,
violating the covenant of our ancestors?
It is the broken covenant with each other that God rails against.
Call no one on earth your father;
you have but one Father in heaven.
The greatest among you must be your servant.
Whoever exalts themselves will be humbled;
but whoever humbles themselves will be exalted.”
It is the lack of humility in our relationships with each other that Jesus objects to.
Breaking faith with each other and a lack of humility before each other confront us with present realities. We need to ask, what are the implications of “Our”
…for the Israelis, the members of Hamas and the Palestinians people? …for Ukrainians and Russians, …for Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland? Have we not all the one father? Has not the one God created us?
What are the implications of “Our” for nations in their relations with refugees coming to our borders and shores? Whoever exalts themselves will be humbled; but whoever humbles themselves will be exalted.”
…for the 53 million people, mostly children, who will go hungry tonight in our country? Have we not all the one father?
…for Neo–Nazi and hate groups throughout our country and relations with Jews, black people, gay people, Asians and Muslims? Has not the one God created us?
…for our own family members who cannot sit together at a Thanksgiving Day dinner table without arguing? Whoever exalts themselves will be humbled; but whoever humbles themselves will be exalted.”
…for our relationship with our own siblings and friends?
Saint Teresa would appreciate the Indian Jesuit spiritual teacher and writer, Anthony DeMello who tells this story:
A guru asked his disciples how they could tell when the night had ended and the day begun. One student said, “When you see an animal in the distance and can tell whether it is a cow or a horse”.
“No,” said the guru. Another disciple offered, “When you look at a tree in the distance and can tell if it is a neem tree or a mango tree”. ”Wrong again,” said the guru.
“Well, then, when does night end and day begin?” asked his disciples. The teacher responded, “Night is ended when you look into the face of any man or woman and recognize your sister or brother in them. If you cannot do this, no matter what time it is by the sun, it is still night”.
It might do us all some good to reflect simply on the opening word of the prayer, “Our Father…” before we dare pray it again.
David Wm. Mickiewicz 