Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time
February 1, 2004


What does the Gospel and Tuesday’s Missouri primary have in common?

It’s an election year, for sure. And you can count on a lot of negative ads, a lot of info-mercials, a lot of smoke and mirrors in the upcoming months on TV, in the press, on the radio. I happened to catch the end of a commercial by one of the democratic hopeful’s about Medicaid. Though I could not tell you the content, what I do remember is the tag line. “I am propose this, not because it is easy or popular, but because it is the right thing to do.” Interesting. And though my jaded mind wonders if this too, is another tactic in the never-ending battle of “spin” and politics– it had my attention. A candidate bold enough to do what needed to be done because it was the right thing to do…

Jesus in the gospel gets a lot of people very angry with him. Why? Why do the people move so quickly from speaking ‘highly of him’ to wanting to throw him off the cliff? I wonder if it because they realized he was not going to be a puppet, not going to be controlled by them, not going to be the local boy done good who is going to change the fortunes of the town in the snap of a finger. Rather, he is only going to do what is right to do, what is important to do, what God wants him to do. When he tells them about the widow of Zarephath and about Naaman the Syrian, he is in effect saying: “I am only going to do what is the right thing to do.” And it doesn’t matter if that won’t get me elected. It doesn’t matter if that will or won’t make me popular. My deepest identity is about fulfilling the scriptures – about doing what God wants me to do.

This morning, I spoke with the Eighth and Seventh grade children who are preparing for confirmation. The message I told them is true for us as well. It’s not about you, seventh and eighth grade/UMSL students. This sacrament, this anointing you prepare for, is not about making you look good and feel good about yourself. The service hours you do, the loving that you bring to the world, are all about ‘doing the right thing because it is the right thing to do’. Confirmation is all about loving the world as a disciple of Jesus, and not about loving the world because it makes you feel good. (Now as an aside, that is one of the benefits of service – it does do the heart good. But that is not why you choose to do it…). We love because it is in our hearts to do, not because of what comes back to us. That is what today’s gospel tells us.

Confirmation marks the beginning of that portion of the journey of faith for you. It is no longer about reward and punishment. It is no longer about “looking good” in your parent’s eyes, in the eyes of the church even, in the eyes of God. Religion is not about posturing and positioning and sound bites. It is about doing the right thing to do because you are doing what LOVE asks you to do.

Which is precisely what St. Paul is inviting us to know in this often quoted letter to the Corinthians. Sometimes I wonder if we really hear what St. Paul is saying. I wonder if couples who choose this for their wedding reading listen to the radical nature of his invitation to love? Love is not about making us feel good. Love is not about warm fuzzies. It is the deadly serious decision to seek the good of the OTHER in ALL the situations of their life.

So, I invite as a way to live into these readings to a little prayer activity. Re-read Paul’s passage to the Corinthians some time this week. And when you get to the ‘love is patient, love is kind’ portion, every time you see the word “LOVE”, replace it with your own name. For eg: Fr. Bill is kind. Most days. Fr. Bill is patient… hmm… Fr. Bill is not self important…. BUSTED. But put your name there and see how far you get in the passage before it rings false. At what point TODAY, are you stopped? Where today, do you need to grow?

For in the end, there are three things that last. Faith, Hope and Love. And the greatest of these is love.