Tuesday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Today’s first reading from Exodus recounts the story of Moses’ life being spared as an infant. A familiar story, you may recall that at that time Pharaoh was ordering that every boy born to a Hebrew woman be killed. Being a mother, and having two sons, I cannot imagine the fear and heartache that would bring about. Moses’ mother was very clever and guided by God, I trust, in hiding her baby boy as long as she could, and then devising a risky plan with the hopes of saving his life, which worked, but still meant being separated from him most of his life. We know the rest of the story, and what a tremendous role he played in God’s plan to deliver the Israelites out of slavery, although not without hardship. What I really hear in today’s passage are echoes of the heartache the mothers (fathers, too) and children being separated at our borders are feeling today.
In our gospel reading from Matthew, we hear Jesus reproaching the towns that had not repented of their wrongdoing despite Jesus’ “mighty deeds” there. Matthew does not mince Jesus’ words when he says “Will you be exalted to heaven? You will go down to the netherworld.” I hear, don’t deceive yourselves to think that your un-repented evil acts will not go unnoticed. And I can’t help but think of our country in its current state of turning a deaf ear to the cries of the children being separated from their parents at our borders.
I admit I don’t often reflect on Jesus as Judge; it’s uncomfortable and incongruent with the God of mercy and compassion that I know. However, I think it is foolish to ignore as we read further in the book of Matthew (25: 31-46) the “Judgment of the Nations” in which Jesus the Shepherd “separates the sheep from the goats.” Judging them based on how the “least” were treated when hungry, thirsty, a stranger, naked, ill, and in prison, for “what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.”
Let us pray for the grace, wisdom, and courage to treat everyone as if they were Jesus himself -- Jesus the baby, Jesus the child, Jesus the adolescent, Jesus the adult, Jesus the stranger. And let us pray for humility, our own and that of our government leaders, to repent and return to the gospel so that we may hear “Amen, I say to you whatever you did for one of these least brothers (or sisters) of mine, you did for me.”
- Eileen Miller