Friday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time
"That's just not real life." That's the phrase my students will say when I ask them to think about how to buy clothes (as an example). What do they think about buying clothing made by companies that pay fair wages and don't use sweat shop labor? What do they think about shopping at a thrift store instead of buying new clothing? Their response of "That's just not real life," relates to their heartfelt sense that looking good, especially in Ugg boots and skinny designer jeans, is necessary in "the real world."
Of course, the question of what counts as "real life" depends very much on a person's perspective. Ugg boots are normal for my upper-middle class students, but for most people I know, they're too expensive and not very realistic for a family on a budget. One of my tasks as their teacher is to help them see and understand other perspectives on the world - and especially God's perspective about the world.
It's that learning to change perspective and see things in a new way that today's scriptures are suggesting, too.
Today's Old Testament reading (2 Kings 11:1-4, 9-18, 20) depicts a person who has a perspective that matches that of many other rich and powerful people in her day. Athaliah, mother of the king and greedy for power and fame even to the point of murdering her grandchildren and who is willing to worship Baal (an idol); Jehosheba, another royal, who hides away the son of the dead king, Joash, the son of the dead king, and Jehoiada, one of the chief priests of the temple. For six years, Athaliah’s greed and power rule over Judah. Even worse, she permits Baal worship and clearly goes against the Jewish laws. Life for the non-royal people in the story would involve feeding their queen's greed, power and love of fame.
Think about the change in perspective that happens when, in the seventh year, the priest acts to put Joash on the throne. (Joash is probably not more than seven years old himself at this point.) The high point of this story is the utter joy with which the people greet Joash, and the complete turnaround the people make: they destroy the idolatrous temples and thus show how great God’s power is in their lives. In today’s story, it is the peoples’ witness and faithfulness to God that demonstrates God’s power, rather than anything miraculous God does.
To follow God's way means to be faithful, to lack greed, to be loving, even in spite of others who might behave in the opposite way. In today's gospel lesson Jesus (Matthew 6:19-23) reiterates the central message of the first reading. “If your eye is sound, your whole body will be filled with light." Learn to see the things of this world for what they are: just stuff that decays. We want that stuff, we want what others have.
Humans always have free will to store up those kinds of treasures, of course, but Jesus is emphasizing that the way to peace, joy and happiness is not by going along with what human society suggests is good (like greed and power, as Athaliah thought). The stuff of human culture often seems so real to us, but Jesus shows how that “reality” is fake: it decays, it dies, just as Athaliah died. Rather, we can be truly happy and truly human when we see that we are God’s and that God offers the things that are eternal.
- Jana M. Bennett