“Stretch Out Your Hand” by Rev. Paul Berghout
Monday of the Twenty-third Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 437
Piety
Your boasting is not appropriate. Do you not know that a little yeast leavens all the dough? Clear out the old yeast so that you may become a fresh batch of dough since you are unleavened. For our Paschal Lamb, Christ has been sacrificed. Therefore, let us celebrate the feast, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. (1 Corinthians 5:6-8)
But he realized their intentions and said to the man with the withered hand, “Come up and stand before us.” And he rose and stood there. Then Jesus said to them, “I ask you, is it lawful to do good on the sabbath rather than to do evil, to save life rather than to destroy it?” Looking around at them all, he then said to him, “Stretch out your hand.” He did so, and his hand was restored. (Luke 6:8-10)
Study
Palmer Chinchen tells of the time when he went whitewater rafting down the Zambezi River in Zimbabwe. The guide gave them some essential instructions after they put on all their safety gear. He began with, “When the raft flips.” Notice the guide didn’t say “if the raft flips.” “When the raft flips, stay in the rough waters in the middle of the river.
“Why did the guide instruct them to remain floating in the turbulent water in the middle of the river? The guide replied, “The still water on the edge of the river looks so calm and safe. In reality, it is filled with crocodiles.
Don’t avoid the rough waters of conflict if you must deal with an issue.
Avoidance of conflict prevents persons from discovering God’s will in their personal and institutional lives. At times, God’s law requires us to listen to criticism; it’s part of being a leader.
As faithful followers, we are encouraged to “love one another” throughout the readings this week. Yesterday, Ezekiel reminded us of our responsibility for and to each other. Sunday selection from Paul’s letter to the Romans offers: “Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another.” In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus tells us to challenge each other on our behavior and to pray, “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”
The first step in conflict resolution for non-legal matters is to go and tell the fault to your brother or sister who sinned against you. When he or she committed a crime, the offense should be reported, except for the small claims that Jesus mentions in Matthew 5:40, “If anyone wants to go to law with you over your tunic, hand him your cloak as well.” However, many other conflicts and grievances are not crimes. That was what Jesus was talking about in Sunday’s Gospel. Today, he extends that duty to restorative justice and healing without delay – even if you must act on the Sabbath.
First, ask yourself, perhaps I offended the person in the past, but never made it right. You can’t be reconciled to the offender until you ask forgiveness for your wrongs.
In Paul’s first letter to the Church in Corinth (6:7), he advises them to ignore trivial matters. Proverbs 12:16 says that “a fool shows his annoyance at once, but a prudent man overlooks an insult.”
Sometimes, though, we cannot avoid conflicts, such as the position Jesus finds himself in today. He can not let the injustice of the man’s crippling injury remain.
In Luke’s Gospel this week, we see how Jesus spends a night in prayer and calls his twelve closest followers. When people come to him from all over, he heals them. Jesus announces the Eight Beatitudes.
The poor, the hungry, those who weep, and those hated or excluded or denounced because of him are “blessed.” He warns the fates will be reversed for those who are rich, filled, laughing, and praised. Jesus cautions not to be quick to see the splinter in someone else’s eye when we do not notice the “wooden beam” in our own eyes. Jesus says that people will know us by the fruit of our actions – especially in times when we face conflict and respond with justice or grace under fire. It is only by building our lives upon him, as a firm foundation, can we hope to survive crises.
Our motivation may be to “offer up” the injustice for your sanctification and reduce or eliminate purgatory time. If you should speak to the person who offended you, then know that, while challenging, cleansing remains a demanding, incremental process that you cannot short-circuit in this life. “Remember to focus on Christ’s promise and not the pain of the day or the emotional attributes of the angry. It would be best if you had the quiet conviction to succeed and keep moving toward your ultimate future goals.[i]
It might be more helpful, however, to see YOU are the estranged person who sinned or hurt someone, and your brothers and sisters in Christ, inspired by grace, are trying to keep you connected, but you ignored them, and the Church.
We have all been deaf to the one-on-one pleading for change and repentance from parents, teachers, and spouses. Maybe, at this stage, we may be treated as a Gentile or a tax collector.
However, based on such sinners in the Bible as Zacchaeus or even St. Matthew, Jesus may insist that I am not lost if I follow him into a new life.
Secondly, if talking privately does not work, then discuss the matter with one or two other people who are witnesses, not to the offense, but rather to the unwillingness of the offender to be reconciled. If that does not work, then excommunication is the final step. Keep in mind that most excommunications in the Church happen by a latae sententiae penalty, which is one that follows ipso facto or automatically if certain stringent conditions are met.[ii] Examples include having an abortion, a priest directly breaking the seal of confession. Some bishops do not allow a Pro-Choice Catholic politician to receive Holy Communion in their diocese, although this is not a formal excommunication. Consider, too, that when we die, there will be an apocalyptic resolution to all conflict by God’s fair judgment.
Hebrews 13:17 says to “watch over souls as one who will give an account.” We are to be concerned with someone’s material well-being and their moral and spiritual good. Dean Inge, in a quote that is usually applied to us in the Church, “Whoever marries the spirit of this age will find himself a widower in the next.”
Sunday’s First Reading from Ezekiel explained that if we do not try to dissuade the wicked from his way, the wicked shall die for his guilt, but God will hold us responsible for his death. The First Reading also says that God “appointed” you as a “watchman.”
Action
Do a night watch.
As J. Lee Grady said, “There are
moments in our lives when the Lord may woo us to spend time with Him in the
night hours. Many of us are too distracted by the busyness of life to hear God
call us to a season of prayer. Yet the Lord is looking for people who will
listen to His battle secrets. Will you let Him pray through you?
Lastly, yesterday, that First Reading also says, “But if you warn the wicked, trying to turn him from his way, and he refuses to turn from his way, he shall die for his guilt, but you shall save yourself.”
Let Jesus inspire us with the bold action he displays throughout this week -- in today’s Gospel and beyond – despite the trap set by the Pharisees to act on the Sabbath.
Amen.
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