Therefore, do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you, but do not follow their example. For they preach but they do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens hard to carry and lay them on people's shoulders, but they will not lift a finger to move them. All their works are performed to be seen. They widen their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels. Matthew 23:3-5
Piety
“Racism is an evil which endures in our society and in our Church. Despite apparent advances and even significant changes in the last two decades, the reality of racism remains. In large part, it is only external appearances which have changed.” So, begins Brothers and Sisters to Us, the Catholic Bishops of the United States, the pastoral statement on racism, written in 1979. Almost forty years later, individuals, families, and communities continue to struggle with conversations and challenges that have racial components.
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| In this May 3, 1982, photo, President Ronald Reagan and first lady Nancy Reagan walk with Barbara and Phillip Butler and their daughter outside the family's home in College Park Woods, a subdivision of Prince George’s County in Maryland. Barbara and Phillip Butler said they never received closure after the cross burning on their front lawn. (Barry Thumma/AP) |
Study
Jesus warns us against the false teaching of (some?) Pharisees. He points out that they are “blind fools!” Jesus starts with preaching to us for our fidelity and then veers off…to talk about the proper standards of conduct in His church. Even though calling for our fidelity to authentic teaching, Jesus calls out the hypocrisy reflected in the “spirit of superiority and pride” that is shown by the Pharisees. Jesus warns us. Do this. Don’t do that.
To the charge of walking the walk and not just talking the talk, Jesus adds the charge of acting in order to earn praise. In this charge, we encounter the term “phylacteries” more familiar to our Jewish friends. The Mosaic law required that during morning prayer, men should wear small boxes containing parchments on which verses of scripture were written. These were strapped to the left forearm and the forehead. The “Pharisees & Scribes” who were wearing phylacteries would have looked something like this.
The widening of phylacteries and the lengthening of tassels made piety more noticeable. Jesus says to pray NOT to be noticed but to pray to connect with the Spirit and then act accordingly – more like the way that Boaz welcomed, respected and loved the foreigner Ruth.
Action
“No one lives in a tax-free world. Life costs. The values and kitsch and superficiality of it takes its toll on all of us. No one walks through life unscathed.”
Those words come from one of our modern spiritual leaders, Sr. Joan Chittister, OSB. Commenting on chapter 67 of the Rule of St. Benedict, she reminds us that the Gospel calls us to turn over our hearts and our minds and our very souls to the Lord – every day.
“It calls to us to take life consciously, to put each trip, each turn of the motor, each trek to work in God's hands. Then, whatever happens there, we must remember to start over and start over and start over until, someday, we control life more than it controls us.”
The conflict between racism in Christian communities has been called out many times in recent weeks. Christian communities are not a way to wall us off from all of our equal brothers and sisters.
Remember that scene in The Sound of Music between the Mother Abbess and Fraulein Maria. Maria had been with the von Trapp family but fled back to the convent when she started feeling an attraction to the Captain. "Maria, these walls were not meant to shut out problems. You have to face them. You have to live the life you were born to live."
Sr. Joan could have replaced Mother Abbess. Her additional comments on Chapter 67 included these:
The things we ruminate on, the things we insist on carrying in our minds and heart, the things we refuse to put down, the Rule warns us, are really the things that poison us and erode our souls. We dull our senses with television and wonder why we cannot see the beauty that is around us. We hold on to things outside of us instead of concentrating on what is within that keeps us noisy and agitated. We run from experience to experience like children in a candy store and wonder how serenity has eluded us. It is walking through life with a relaxed grasp and a focused eye that gets us to where we're going. Dwelling on "unessentials" and, worse, filling the minds of others with them distracts from the great theme of our lives. We must learn to distinguish between what is real and what is not.
Here's to trimming our phylacteries and shortening our tassels and demanding accountability without anger. Silence in the face of criminal behavior is one of the reasons the abuse crisis in our Church festered until it exploded into a mushroom cloud of scandal. Now is not a time for silence either.
We can be somewhat encouraged by the creation of a new ad hoc committee by the Bishops. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops announced the establishment of an Ad Hoc Committee Against Racism. The committee will focus on addressing the sin of racism in our society, and even in our Church, and the urgent need to come together as a society to find solutions.
The USCCB put Bishop George V. Murry, SJ of Youngstown, Ohio in charge of the panel. Bishop Murray said: "Through Jesus' example of love and mercy, we are called to be a better people than what we have witnessed over the past weeks and months as a nation. Through listening, prayer and meaningful collaboration, I'm hopeful we can find lasting solutions and common ground where racism will no longer find a place in our hearts or in our society."
We have to face the problems in our hearts so all people can live the lives they were born to live without fear.
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