Homily 8th Ordinary Sunday A: Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and all his righteousness

Homily for the 8th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A 2017 

Isaiah 49:14-15 1 Corinthians 4:1-5 Matthew 6:24-34

Introduction 

Are there parts of my life that need God and those that don't?  For example, I need God on Sunday from 9am to 10am, but the rest of the week is mine.  Or one could say, I need God when I am sick, bereaved or in trouble, but not when it comes to my work, my business or my family life. 

A story is told about a Catholic family that went out to eat at their favourite restaurant.  When their meal was brought out, the mom asked her four year old daughter to say grace, as she usually did at home.  But the little girl refused to do so.  When the mother asked why, she said: "At home the food is free, so we have to thank God.  But here, why thank God when daddy is going to pay for it?" 

Scripture and Theology 

Jesus disagrees that our lives are compartmentalized into those parts that belong to God and those that don't.  He teaches that our whole life belongs to God. 

To make this point, Jesus asks: "Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your life-span?"  In other words, we are powerless on our own to determine how long we shall live.  God decides that!  And because our entire lives are dependent on God, that is why Jesus says: "do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear."  Even satisfying the basic needs of food and drink, health and clothing is in the hands of God.  And he gives two examples from ordinary life, to make this point. 

• First, he says: "Look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you more important than they?"  In other words, if he gives food and drink to the birds, God will certainly provide food and drink to human beings, who are far more important to him. 
• And as for clothing, he says: "Learn from the way the wild flowers grow.  They do not work or spin.  But I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was clothed like one of them."  And so God will provide clothing for human beings, with whom he has a relationship of love. 

The Prophet Isaiah, from whom we read in the first reading had said as much.  Since he was speaking to a people in exile, a people who thought that they had been abandoned by God, Isaiah reassures them saying: "Can a mother forget her baby?  Or woman the child within her womb?"  Of course the answer is "No."  No serious mother would never do this.  But he goes on to say: "Even should she forget, I will never forget you."  God's providence and care for his people surpasses even that of a mother for her child. 

Going back to the gospel, Jesus asks his disciples to choose God.  For "No one can serve two masters.  He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other.  You cannot serve God and mammon."  In other words, the Christian must never let the concerns of this world trump his trust and dependence on God, who provides for his people. 

Christian Life 

How do we respond to the gauntlet that Jesus has thrown before us?  How do we go about our daily lives of work, school, family, our daily lives of acquiring of food, drink, clothing, while at the same time choosing God over these things? 

This is what one young man in college decided to do, in a letter to his parents. 

Dear mom and dad, 

In his homily today, Father told us that we must put our trust in God alone and he will provide us food, drink and clothing.  And so I have decided that I am not going to worry about getting good grades or finding a job, since I trust that God will provide these things for me. 

Your faithful son. 

P.S. By the way, since God has many people to attend to, while I wait my turn, could you please send me $500? 

Nice try, young man.  Jesus is not asking us to stop going to work and school!  He is asking that as we go about doing these things, we do so with a mindset that puts God first.  This is what we sing in the popular hymn whose words come from today's gospel: "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you, Alleluia, Alleluia." 

And so, we must work, we must run business to provide for our families; but we must do so in a way that seeks first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness. 

• Perhaps you remember the factory owner from several years ago, who rather than lay off his workers, decided to give up his profits to keep the factory open.  Without giving up his responsibility to earn money, he did it in a way that sought first the righteousness of God. 
• Even the employee needs to seek God's righteousness as she goes about her job.  She does so by being diligent, trustworthy, even simply kind.  The pay check she takes home, might be less than she could make; but she is happy because it is money earned honestly and righteously. 

Besides work, family is another important part of our lives in which God has a say.  What we do in our kitchens, living rooms, and yes even in our bedrooms; God has some insights for us.  Being fathers, mothers, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, we can learn from God.  And even the gift of sexuality is subject to God's direction.  You have probably heard about many mothers, who will carry a pregnancy to term, despite the dangers to their own health and life, rather than terminate the pregnancy.  They do this because they are seeking the righteousness of God first, even in their personal and family life. 

What about politics?  Some people think that the "separation of church and state" means that we must choose between our religion and our political involvement.  I looked up the first amendment and this is what it says: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."  And so the separation of church and state is meant only to stop the imposition of an official religion, so that people have the freedom to exercise whatever religion they choose.  Part of exercising this freedom of religion means that people can reasonably bring their God and his teaching to bear on their lives, on their vision of society.  Christians, therefore, must not only be involved in the shaping of their society, they must do so by seeking first God and his righteousness.  What place does God have, if at all, in your political life? 

For example, are you first a Republican then a Catholic, a Democrat then a Catholic or the other way round?  What principles determine your vision of society and politics: the Beatitudes or conservative ideology, the Ten Commandments or liberal ideology?  Who has priority for you: God or mammon? 

Conclusion 

And so we return to our first question: "Are there parts of my life that need God and those that don't?"  We have seen that for Christians God must be involved in every aspect of our lives, especially if by obeying his Word and by seeking his grace in the sacraments. 

But the best way to have God in our lives is not by wearing religion on our sleeve, but by injecting him into our veins.  We should see God's influence in our lives, not like the dressing we slather on our salad, but like the salt and spices that are marinated in our food.  In this way, God permeates everything we do and gives flavour to every aspect of our life.  That is what we mean when when sing: " Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." 

Involvement of the Church in Politics

SHOULD THE CHURCH CRITICIZE THE PRESIDENT? ANSWER: YES AND NO.

From the beginning of Christianity, the Church’s relationship with secular rulers has included both cooperation and opposition and everything in between.  But the recent election of President Trump has brought this question to the fore, especially among Catholics who call themselves conservatives or are indeed conservative leaning.  Many of them are genuinely are wondering why Catholic bishops and priests are not embracing the president en masse, and why on the contrary some are disapproving of a few of his actions and policies.  Why would the Church oppose someone who opposes abortion or at least appears to do so?

I submit that there are three broad approaches to criticizing the president (and political leaders in general), two of which Catholics, depending on their state in the Church, can legitimately adopt.

No . . .

The wrong way to criticize the president is to do it in the manner of DIRTY POLITICS.  Basic principles of Christian charity and civility preclude ad hominem attacks on the person of the president or that of his family.  In addition principles of justice, fairness and truth exclude the use of fallacious arguments in debating or disagreeing with any interlocutor including the president.  I find the Four-way Test of the Rotary club a good summary of the Christian way of disagreeing without being disagreeable:

1. Is it the truth?
2. Is it fair to all concerned?
3. Will it build goodwill and better friendships?
4. Will it be beneficial to all concerned?

Any criticism that ignores these principles is just wrong and no Christian worth the name should engage in it.

Yes . . .

On the other hand, the Christian way to debate politics observes the above mentioned principles and takes two forms:

1. Partisan politics (open only to lay Catholics)
2. Politics in general (open laity and Clergy).

1) Lay Catholics can and should legitimately be involved in PARTISAN POLITICS.  Save for one-party states, the management of most democracies could be described as being partisan politics.  Two or more parties propose different visions of how to manage the polis (state).  In the USA, the principal visions are provided by the Democratic and Republican parties, which are broadly inspired by liberal and conservative ideologies.  While the Church as a body does not endorse any one party or ideology, individual non-clergy members of the Church are free to belong to any of these parties, stand for office sponsored by them or even promote those ideologies and parties.  Hopefully they rely on a well-formed conscience to make those decisions.  That is why it should not come as a surprise that individual Catholics who are Democrats will oppose some of the decisions and policies of President Trump, just as individual Catholics who are Republicans did the same to President Obama.  As long as these disagreements are not done in the manner of dirty politics but rather through civil discourse, these are legitimate ways of deciding what is good for society.

But the Church as a body and its leaders, the bishops, priests and deacons do not engage in partisan politics.  They don’t endorse parties or candidates or political platforms.  I would bet that if Mother Teresa were to run for president, even she would not get an endorsement from the Church and its leaders.  This is because partisan politics is by its very nature contingent and conditional on circumstances.  Good Catholics, for example, could disagree on specific policies and actions, such as what is the best way to tackle the immigration problem.  Also, it is inherent in the nature of partisan politics, that the platform of each side will more or less be consistent with Catholic teaching.  No one party embraces the full gamut of Catholic teaching on social justice.  And so, it would be an abdication of its prophetic duty to uphold the full truth, if the Church endorsed one side that represented only part of the truth.  This self-censorship by the Church is not due to any tax laws, since even bishops in countries without tax benefits for Churches still uphold nonpartisanship in politics.  The Church has to be a mother to all, rather than a hero to some.

2) The Church as a body and its leaders, however, can legitimately get involved in NON-PARTISAN POLITICS, that is by speaking to general moral principles in the management of society.  The bishops do this in the course of their normal teaching, drawing from the biblical principles of the Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes, as well as Church teaching such as the Works of Mercy.  Occasionally they may also speak out when the legislative or executive arms of government enact particular laws or policies, supporting those that uphold the aforementioned moral principles and criticizing those that don’t.  That, for example, explains the recent response of US bishops who were happy with the president’s actions on the defunding of abortion, but not with the actions that seemed to unfairly deal with immigrants and refugees, especially those of the Islamic faith.  That the president ticked one box of Catholic Social Teaching does not give him a pass on the rest of that teaching.

Building the Kingdom of God

And so, should Catholics criticize the president?

1. Lay Catholics can certainly do so by engaging in both partisan politics and politics as such.  As long they don’t engage in dirty politics, it is their right and responsibility to call out the president, when in conscience they think he is doing wrong.  It is also their right and responsibility to support him when his actions are in line with the gospel, regardless of how they voted.
2. Catholic leaders, the bishops, priests and deacons can also criticize the president.  Their role, however, is limited to politics as such, general moral principles, not partisan politics.  There have been times in the past, when Church has lost its prophetic voice, by going to bed with secular leaders, even the relatively good ones.  That is a mistake it should not repeat.

Society is the poorer when both individual Church members and its leaders disengage from appropriate engagement in the public square.  Moreover, the Kingdom of God that the Church exists to build is this world, not some other world.  The Church must bring the gospel in its fullness to bear on the management of the POLIS.