Monday of the Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time (September 17, 2018): Learning from divisions

A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Luke. 

When Jesus had finished all his words to the people,
he entered Capernaum.
A centurion there had a slave who was ill and about to die,
and he was valuable to him.
When he heard about Jesus, he sent elders of the Jews to him,
asking him to come and save the life of his slave.
They approached Jesus and strongly urged him to come, saying,
“He deserves to have you do this for him,
for he loves our nation and he built the synagogue for us.”
And Jesus went with them,
but when he was only a short distance from the house,
the centurion sent friends to tell him,
“Lord, do not trouble yourself,
for I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof.
Therefore, I did not consider myself worthy to come to you;
but say the word and let my servant be healed.
For I too am a person subject to authority,
with soldiers subject to me.
And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes;
and to another, ‘Come here,’ and he comes;
and to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
When Jesus heard this he was amazed at him
and, turning, said to the crowd following him,
“I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.”
When the messengers returned to the house,
they found the slave in good health.

Are there divisions in your family or workplace or parish? St. Paul makes a startling observation in today’s first reading. He says, “There have to be factions among you …” as if this were a good thing.

Why? Where is the blessing in division? Paul explains: ” … for the approved — the tried and true — to become known and stand out clearly.” Tried in what? True to what?

Love. Sometimes we’re motivated by love, and sometimes we’re motivated by selfishness. The word “sin” means, at its historical root, “to miss the mark.” What is the mark we always aim for? Love. Jesus put it this way: “To love God wholeheartedly and to love others as you love yourself.”

If we truly want to unite ourselves to God, so that we experience his unconditional, caring love each moment of each day, we have to live in his love, which means that our love for others has to be unconditional, like his.

To perfect our love — to become aware of the limits of our love so that we can stretch and grow beyond these limits — our love has to be tested and tried. Every difficulty is an opportunity to love more fully than we did in the last test we endured. However, this growth will divide us from those who choose to remain selfish.

Paul says that the selfish person gets drunk on his wealth while disregarding the needs of others. To put this in terms of parish divisions, for example, selfish clergy and lay leaders get intoxicated by their status, their authority, their clout, their college degrees, their years of experience, and even their God-given talents while disregarding the feelings and insights and input and value of others.

In the midst of this, the “tried and true” stand out clearly. They try to mend divisions by extending gestures of kindness when they’re mistreated. Who is the person who proclaims “the death of the Lord until he comes again” (which Paul describes as the true meaning of the Mass, i.e., the Lord’s Supper)? The one who offers humble, loving service despite conflicts. We proclaim the Lord’s sacrificial death on the cross by making sacrifices, nailing the unloving reactions we feel. Thus, we become Eucharist for others.

In today’s Gospel reading, why did Jesus praise the faith of the pagan centurion? It wasn’t only because the official understood the power of an authoritative command. The man had humility; he even built a synagogue for the Jews out of concern for them. We can surmise from this that he genuinely loved his ailing servant. Likewise, in our humility we’re able to see the value of others, not just for what they can do for us, but as precious human beings.

Our faith is tried every time we encounter people who oppose us. Our faith is proven true when we respond to them with love.

Today’s Prayer:

My Lord, help me by strengthening my trust in You. Heal me and deliver me from everything that stops me from working the wonders You long to work through me. Amen.

© 2018 by Terry A. Modica