Wednesday of the Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time
This is a unique day when the weekday readings all line up around a common theme. Today’s readings are clear, direct, and hopefully capture our attention. God’s word may make us squirm a bit today as we’re invited to consider the extent to which we judge others and our inherent self-righteousness. St Paul and Jesus are both animated and forceful in their words and message. Come, Holy Spirit, give us open and receptive hearts to your challenging directives; create in us a humble, contrite, and willing spirit to listen to your voice and to obey your will. Thank you, Jesus, for loving us, calling us to account, and showing us the pathway to life. Thank you, Father, for your priceless kindness, forbearance, and patience.
St. Paul’s words drop me to my knees in contrition. How dare I judge another human being when I, myself, am a sinner, shown unfathomable mercy by God? And yet I find myself being critical of others on a nearly daily basis. Do I really hold God’s priceless kindness, forbearance, and patience in low esteem? Really? How can I do that? My soul wails in sorrow and repentance.
Jesus repeatedly says “woe” to the religious leaders of his day for their hypocrisy. They make a grand show of religiosity and pious practices, but their hearts are far from God. This grievous behavior is not unique to them. How often do I, do we, “do the right things,” and yet fail to love our neighbor and surrender our hearts fully to God?
Today’s readings may sound harsh, and they are intended to call us to account. Yet, always in the Word we hear the Voice of Love. God’s unconditional, eternal love for us is what calls to us and desires the best for us. It is love that leads us to repentance. In Jesus’ “woe,” I hear sadness, not anger – sorrow that his leaders missed the mark, grief that they set the wrong example, angst that they had strayed off the path of true obedience, agony over their failure to love.
What is Love saying to you today through these readings? I hear Love asking me, “where is your attention?” If my attention is overly focused on others – their behavior, what I perceive to be their attitudes, what I assume to be their motivations – then I fall into the trap of judgment. A critical spirit can easily take over and consume me. If my attention is overly focused on myself – on performing well, impressing others, maintaining my reputation – then I fall into the trap of self-righteousness. Self-righteousness and a critical spirit toward others go hand-in-hand. Eventually I fall prey to the delusion that I’m ok and others are not – in fact if I convince myself that others are the ones with the problem, it supports my high opinion of myself.
The antidote to these sins is to maintain my attention solely on God and God’s love and mercy. Today, may I, may we, hold God’s priceless kindness, forbearance, and patience in HIGH esteem. Today, let our focus be on the vast mercy of God and let that make us weak-kneed in gratitude. Today, let us allow God alone to be the judge and let us simply relax in the knowledge of our belovedness. Today, let us view every other human being on the planet as God’s beloved. As our psalm proclaims, “Only in God is my soul at rest.” Today, let us rest in God, content in the knowledge that we can never justify ourselves through our “good deeds” or pious attitudes. Thanks be to God we have been justified in Christ Jesus! Let that be more than enough today. Amen!
Elizabeth Wourms