2020-09-20 _ 25th Sunday
●
Isaiah 55:6-9 ● Psalm 145 ● Romans 1:20c
– 24, 27a ● + Matthew 20:1-16a ●
Title: Body-Soul-Unity-Dignity
[_01_] A few years ago, when my parents were moving out of their home to a smaller home, it was time to evaluate what items from their home would be moved what items might be discarded, recycled or put out the curb for municipal “pick up.”
It was interesting to note who stopped by to pick up items we were
putting out at curb, being discarded or recycled.
Some people even made requests, wanting to know – in
advance – what we were putting out and when.
One person – who was interested in collecting potentially
valuable sports-related nostalgia and memorabilia asked my father: “do you have
any old Major League Baseball trading cards?”
As you may know, there is a marketplace for these MLB baseball
cards, for famous stars who later made it to the Hall of Fame.
My father responded: “if I had any old baseball cards, I would not be
putting them out at the curb for recycling.”
I.e., he would retain what was materially valuable.
Yet, it is not also true that a family home cannot be
reduced to or measured by: __ material objects, __ possessions, __ number
of bedrooms, __ square footage, __et
cetera, etc.
The home is more than these things. And what we long for in
a home also unites us, connects us, in ways that we cannot actually touch or
see.
[_02_] Now, if a home
has a life that is “intangible”, so much more does a person have this…
At the very moment that
child comes into the world, no one is actually comfortable, not even the baby …
and he has no idea no idea what just happened.
But, the child is…not only tangible ..but also a spiritual
being.
But this combined reality of BODY and SOUL does not start –
as we profess - when the child is born.
We might say it is not even fully completed when the child is born. For a
newborn child remains extremely dependent on his mother and father …and his
soul/spirit are yet to be really known.
So, the reason that we – as Catholics and Christians – are
opposed to any measure – including abortion for a unborn child and also
including assisted suicide for a very sick person that could take the life of a
person whose life seems less tangible, visible…
Is because we believe child exists from the moment of being
conceived. And we believe that a very
sick – even terminally ill person – exists even when their strength begins to
fade.
We believe that a person– body and soul and spiritual identity
- does exist from the moment of
conception. That may be hard for us to understand – because one’s soul and
spiritual identity are intangible. They are intangible for adults too. Yet, the
exist: God’s ways are not our ways.
God’s ways are given to us so that we can love and relate
to each other not simply on a physical level but even in spiritual intangible
ways.
[_03_] God also loves
and wishes to forgive / reconcile with those who have experienced abortion.
Ours is a merciful God: God’s ways are not our ways. God forgives not because
it is in his best interest…but because it is in ours!
If you need more information about such forgiveness, please the
Rachel’s Vineyard program. There are resources and people to help nearby. You
can call me or call Archdiocese of Newark confidentially.
You are loved simply because you exist. And, you exist
because you were loved.
God is inviting us into the vineyard, into His way, His
plan, at every hour of every day.
And the last will be first.
[_04_] This past
week, I attend a memorial for a friend’s brother who had died tragically a few
years ago after a cancer diagnosis in his early 40’s.
His life remains valuable, treasured…in some ways, you
could say that – even in death – his life is “viable”. God’s ways are not our
ways.
Because in death, we are “viable” and in God’s presence and
certainly not forgotten.
We cannot be eliminated.
[_05_] This is also the lesson to the workers of the vineyard who
feel cheated because they earned the same as those who had worked a much
shorter interval.
As followers of Jesus Christ, we are called to recognize
that our spiritual pursuits, our prayers have value to us – an inherent value –
not because they are earning us a future reward ..but because there is a reward
right now in learning to pray and praying and having a life with God.
[_06_] Doing so, it
helps us to live and live more fully, it helps us to appreciate the life of
someone who has died, the life of someone who is sick, the life of someone with
special learning needs…
It helps us to appreciate and pray for neighbors and
friends and those we do not know who are in financial distress, though we may
live at very different, separate addresses.
As St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians about how our lives
and bodies and community and Church are constructed, Paul was writing this to
make an analogy between the harmony of the human person in all its separate
senses and characteristics and that we are called to have the same harmony with
each other:
“God has constructed the body … [so that] the parts may
have the same concern for one another. If one part suffers, all the parts
suffer with it; if one part is honored, all the parts share its joy.” (1 Corinthians 12:24-26)
Our faith in God and our love of neighbor remind us we are
really all in this together.
[_fin_]
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