Sunday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time
It was in the seminary that I first heard the parable of the wise old man and the boy with the butterfly. The wise old man travelled from village to village and from town to town and along the way, people would line up to ask him their most difficult questions. One day he noticed a young boy, barely in his teens, standing in the long queue. This boy had a nasty habit. He would catch butterflies, hold them in his little fist and ask people if the butterfly is dead or alive. If someone said that the butterfly was alive, he would let the butterfly go free; but if someone said that it was alive, he would crush it in his fist and prove the answer wrong. The wise man approached the boy and asked, "Son, what question do you have for the old man?" The boy stretched out his hand toward the old man. Inside his small closed fist was a beautiful butterfly he had caught that day. And the boy said, "Sir, if you are as wise as everyone believes you to be, please tell me whether the butterfly in my hand is dead or alive.” For a minute or so the wise man was lost for words. He thought hard for a while, then looked at the mischievous grin on the boy’s face. The old man stared straight into the boy's eyes and said, “Son, whether the butterfly is dead or alive, it depends on you. The choice is in your hands."
Hear today’s first reading one more time. Sirach says, If you choose you can keep the commandments, they will save you; if you trust in God, you too shall live; he has set before you fire and water to whichever you choose, stretch forth your hand. Before man are life and death, good and evil, whichever he chooses shall be given him.” Today’s first reading and the gospel reading are about choices.
Before I go forward, let me put Jesus’ words in the gospel in their proper context. Today’s gospel reading is an extract from the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus had just preached the beatitudes and then challenged his disciples to be salt and light. It is my argument that in the rest of the Sermon, he suggests practical ways in which the disciples can live out Beatitudes or be salt and light for the world. Here is how they will make choices so that the Kingdom of God might be theirs. That is why before Jesus lays out the practicalities, he says to his disciples, “Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” (Mt 5:19). Jesus had already promised Jesus had already promised to the disciples in the beatitudes. But as Sirach says, “Before man are life and death, good and evil, whichever he chooses shall be given him.”
Let us draw three practical implications from today’s readings.
1) Four areas for consideration. Jesus brings four areas before the disciples for consideration: anger, lust, divorce, and oaths. Jesus makes it clear that as followers of Jesus our life and our relationships must not be dominated by these. Two weeks ago, we at the parish woke up to a very tragic episode. Our beautiful shire has not just been vandalized, but desecrated by someone in the dead of the night. Many of us are saddened, devastated and angered by the sacrilege. However, last weekend at all the masses we decided that we will not response in anger. Instead, we knelt and prayed a decade of the rosary at all the masses in compassion and forgiveness. We also prayed for this person’s repentance and conversion. Not acting out of anger may be more difficult when the crime is more personal. Or in this very sensual culture, it is not always easy not to lust after or covet what is not our own. Or how can one get beyond marital infidelity. Or how many people will tell you that a little white lie is fine. Well, Christ today tells us that the choice is in our hands. “Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven…” The choice is in our hands.
2) The Kingdom in the here and now. A word about the Kingdom in which, Jesus says, we will either be great or least. The most common interpretation of the Kingdom of God Is heaven. But as the Catechism tells us, heaven is not a place. Heaven is a state of life… where the fullness of God is accessible to a person. In other words, heaven is not only what we look forward to in the future. Rather, we can experience heaven in the here and now. For example, we are at this Eucharist and because God’s presence is here in a real way, the Kingdom of God is here. The practical implication of this reading is that depending on the choices we make we can either gain or lose God’s presence in the here and now. The Kingdom of heaven or not is a choice we make in there here and now.
3) Focus on Jesus. Just for a moment, I would like us to shift our focus to Jesus. It was one thing for him to preach the Sermon on the Mount and quite another to hang on the cross as his enemies jeered at him and as his mother grieved for him. As Sirach says, “Before man are life and death, good and evil, whichever he chooses shall be given him.” The only thing in the case of Jesus was that it was by choosing death that he would choose life and by choosing life he would choose death; not just for himself but for all of humanity. Jesus did not act in anger. Instead he remained faithful both to God in surrender and to the people in forgiveness. He stood by the truth by saying Yes to God once and for all. In his choice, Jesus fulfilled the Law; through his death his became the greatest in the kingdom; by his death Jesus became the Beatitudes. What Jesus was, every disciple must become. What Jesus did, every disciple must live.
As we come to celebrate this mass, let us bring our lives before Christ. Let us bring our anger, our lust, our relationships and our integrity. Let us pray that in the choices we make, we will say Yes to the Kingdom. Let this Eucharist give us strength. Amen.
Fr. Satish Joseph