On Prioritizing
The Old Testament speaks about the Law of Moses in the
singular. Yet rabbinical tradition piled up a confusing maze of 613 majors laws
(plural), plus a whole constellation of minor laws, rules, regulations, observances, statutes, decrees. The gospel
alludes to this constellation when it reminds us that, "Jews have to
scrupulously wash theirs hands before eating. They may never eat anything from
market without first giving it ritual ablution. And they have to observe the
correct washing of pots, pans, copper kettles, and beds" (Mk 7:4‑5).
They must also scrupulously pay tithes
on the mint, cumin and dill (Mt23:23).
Then add all those other countless do’s and don’t’s for observing the Sabbath, which always got Jesus into trouble with the religious
authorities: “How come your disciples
pick corn on the Sabbath when that’s
against the Law?” (Lk 6:1-5). “How come you cure this woman ill for eighteen
years on the Sabbath?” (Lk
13:10-17). At times this huge maze was quite exhausting for the Jewish
faithful, and so one day Jesus cries out,
“Come to me all you who are heavily burdened, and I will lift the burden
from your backs, and refresh you.” (Mt 11:28-30).
Of
course, we Catholics should talk. Right
up until the eve of the Second Vatican
II (October 11, 1962), we too had our
confusing maze of 613 major laws and countless minor ones. We too had an endless list of rules, regulations,
observances, statutes, decrees. We
had our laws about fasting from food and abstaining from meat at various times
of the year and before Holy Communion. We had
laws that made marriage valid or invalid. Priests had laws that made Mass valid or invalid. All of us
had laws that made our confessions valid or invalid. Of course, with all that
maze of commandments and laws, rules and regulations, came all those venial and mortal sins that we could commit back in those days.
<<There were more than enough of them to keep the confessionals going on
and on through a Saturday afternoon and evening, and even Sunday morning before
mass. We remember the long endless lines outside confessionals before Christmas
and Easter.
In a sense, we too were heavily burdened in those days, and in a sense
Vatican II was saying to us, among many other things, “Come to me you who are
heavily burdened and I will lift the burden from your backs, and I will refresh
you.”>>
Religion
pure and impure
In the gospel
Jesus addresses religion that has gone amuck. That’s religion that has gone astray from an original purity
and simplicity. That’s religion that’s
been weighted down with a confusing a maze of “pots, pans, copper kettles and
beds.“ Jesus berates such religion with
strong words: “You hypocrites, Isaiah had you in mind when he said, ‘This
people honors me with their lips but their hearts are far from me. In vain do
they worship me, teaching man-made commandments as though they were God’s
rules’” (Mk 7:6-7).
In the second
reading St. James addresses religion
that is right on track: “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God
and the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their affliction, and
to keep oneself unstained by the world” (James:1:27). //Religion pure and undefiled before God” is this: to care for
all those hard-working people who can’t afford health-insurance or who need a
decent living wage to provide for their families. //”Religion pure and undefiled before God” is this: to care for
the elderly by protecting
them from the nursing home industry, and by releasing them from the need
to chose between food or pills. //”Religion pure and undefiled before God” is
this: to care for poor kids by means
especially of a good education, so that they don't end up as a criminal or
welfare statistic. //”Religion pure and undefiled before God” is this: to care
for our good Mother the Earth by protecting her skies and her seas.
<<Sounds political, doesn’t it?
It is. Some people in church here
say, “Politics has no place in religion” (not quite true). I chuckle, because just this past week (last week of August 2000) some people out
there in the marketplace were saying, “Religion has no place in politics (and
that too is not quite true) . They were referring to Joseph Liebermann, Gore’s
running mate, an observant Jew who is not
afraid to mention his God. >>
O.T. and N.T priority
In a confusing human maze of rules and regulations,
of laws and commandments, “religion pure and undefiled before God” always seeks
a sense of priority. It seeks to
know what’s important and what’s not important; what comes first and then what comes after that. Despite
its maze, the Old Testament did have
such a sense of priority built in to it. Moses said to the people, “Hear, O
Israel! You shall love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, whole soul,
and whole mind.” Then he directed them saying, “Now take that law and write it on your hearts, and tell it to your children over and over again, and
fasten it upon your wrists and foreheads, and
nail it on your doorposts.” Of no other law did Moses
ever give such a directive. That’s the Law of all laws. That’s the Law before
all other laws. That’s the Law that’s written with capital “L.” That’s the
Priority of all priorities. “So tie it to your foreheads so that you will
always keep it in mind, and nail it to
your door-posts, so that in all your comings and goings you will always be
reminded of what’s first.”
The people
took Moses literally. They wrote this
one great law to love God with whole heart and soul upon little pieces of parchments and inserted them into little
vials called “mezuzahs,” to be nailed to their door-posts. They encased the text in little boxes
called "phylacteries," which they strapped to their foreheads and
wrists at prayer <<(the more orthodox Jews still do that today). This
practice is alluded to in the New Testament when Jesus scolds the Scribes
and Pharisees for enlarging these boxes simply for the sake of show
(Mt235).>>
613
down to 1
Jesus is the new Moses and new lawgiver. By his answer he reduces the maze of 613 laws
to only two great laws, one for loving God from Deuteronomy, and
another for loving neighbor from Leviticus. Or better yet, he really reduces
the 613 laws not to two laws but only
to one law; for he takes the two
great laws and he nails them
together, and makes them one.
Then Jesus goes through all of Israel,
and opens up all those little forehead
boxes and all those door-post vials containing that "lonely” scripture to love God, and side by side with it, he
places a companion scripture to love neighbor, so that now there’s no
loving God without loving neighbor.
Priority
in religion: that’s not, “How come
your disciples pick corn on the Sabbath when that’s against the Law?” (Lk
6:1-5). Priority in
religion: that’s not, “How come you cure this woman ill for eighteen
years on the Sabbath when that’s against the law?” (Lk 13:10-17). Priority in religion: that’s not, “How come you skipped the creed at Mass
today?” Priority in religion:
that’s not, “How come you changed the words of consecration
over the bread and the wine?” No. Priority in religion is this: “How come you don’t take care of orphans and
widows?” Priority in religion is this:
“How come you don’t love the Lord your God with all your heart, and how
come you don’t love your neighbor as yourself?”
But a sense of
priority not only in religion, but also in the whole of our
lives. Our lives are much
bigger than some small department of it
that we call “religion.” The whole of our lives calls for a sense of
priority.
The commentators are telling us that everything is going
quite well for us these days: the economy is on the roll, the
economic indices are good, jobs are up, inflation is down, welfare is
down, and even violent crime is down.
But, they tell us, we’re not as happy as you’d think we should be. What’s the problem? Part of the problem is
this: we are exhausted. In a booming economy
both parents must work to reap the blessings of prosperity. And in the
process people are getting exhausted.
There’s no prime time for anything anymore: no prime time for the kids,
no prime time for each other, no prime time for the family dog; no prime
time for one’s self, no prime time for priority. Prime time is time for all the
truly important and beautiful things
in your life that will never come your way 0pagain. You get only one shot at them, e.g. like
your kids growing up. Once gone, they’re
gone for good.
The whole of our lives
calls for a sense of priority.
In fact, good religion should send us forth with a kind of new commandment: //“Go forth and prioritize that confusing maze of yours
out there, and free yourself from your exhaustion
//Go forth and
determine what’s really important and what’s not; what is substance and what is
merely frill; what feeds your need
for life, and what simply feeds your
need for things//Go forth and determine
that priority which you, as a single individual, are personally crying out for in your own personal life, or that
priority which your family is crying out for from you. Then
take that priority and write it on
parchment, and tie it to your forehead
where it will always be on your mind. And nail it to your door-posts where it will slow down all your comings and
goings, and will save your energy, and will create for you prime time
for all the truly important and
beautiful things that will never come your way again.