Twenty-Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
As I grow older (and hopefully wiser), it’s interesting to note the different fads that have popped up over my four decades of life. Numerous people bought Beanie Babies, certain that they could pay for their children’s college education with those little stuffed animals. Kids had fidget spinners not that long ago, which allowed them to play with a little spinner during different activities. Religiously, we had the fad a decade or two ago of wearing wrist bands that had the abbreviation: WWJD or What Would Jesus Do.
You don’t really see those bracelets too much anymore, but hopefully that doesn’t mean that people have stopped thinking about what Jesus would do in particular circumstances. The Word of God that we heard today challenges us to go a step earlier, and not only consider how God would act, but also how God thinks.
Isaiah prophesies today that God’s thoughts are not our thoughts and God’s ways are not our ways. And in the Gospel, Jesus takes basic labor laws (that you get paid the same rate as everyone else in the same job multiplied by the hours you work) and puts them on their head. No doubt in current society, Jesus would have been sued for unjust labor practices.
But it should cause us to think: how do I see the world? Do I think of things the way God does? If not, how can I? Let’s consider those questions that the Holy Spirit has put on my heart, and hopefully puts on yours.
First, how do I see the world? There are numerous options. I could see the world through a selfish lens, make an anti-Copernican revolution, and insist that the world has to revolve around me. Or I might see things merely from an economic point of view, of how it makes me more money or benefits my job. Or I might view the world as a constant struggle of power between races, genders, or socio-economic classes.
Or do I choose first and foremost to recognize that God has created the world in goodness, and has made me its steward, not to tyrannize, but to care for it? Do I consider that I am a beloved son or daughter in the son of God, whom God has created out of love, and recognize that every other person I encounter is also created by God out of love? Do I view things not in competition with each other, but as opportunities to grow closer to God? Do I, to paraphrase St. Paul, use the world without becoming engrossed in it or obsessed by it?
To apply the Gospel to this analogy, some people have larger parts in the symphony, some people have smaller parts. But if the symphony is salvation, then each person still has a part to play and can be included, no matter how many measures a particular instrument is featured. We do not lose out of salvation because God includes another person for a shorter period of time. As long as we cooperate in this magnum opus, then we need not worry about how much the other has. God desires salvation for all. We shouldn’t worry about whether another person had an easier path to salvation. We should simply rejoice that they had the chance to participate in the salvation God won for them.
If I’m not sure if I’m thinking with the mind of God, then how do I try to think with that mind? How do I live in such a way that God’s thoughts become my thoughts, and His ways become my ways? To start with, we need time in silence. Silence helps us know the mind of God, especially when we apply the Scriptures and the teachings of the Church as the food that we’re chewing on in silence. The Benedictine tradition of lectio divina, or divine reading, helps us to read the Scriptures or a Church document, and then sit in silence with it and chew on it, like a cow chews on cud, slowly grinding it down. And then, with the thoughts that come, put them against the Word of God. How do they stack up? Do they contradict what God has revealed authoritatively? If so, I’m probably not thinking with the mind of God. Do my thoughts advance my own salvation and the salvation of others? If so, I’m probably on a good path of thinking and acting like God.
[My dear parents, in bringing your child for baptism, you are promising to help Maximiliano think with the mind of God and act like God as he grows and matures. You promise to pray with him, to read Scripture with him, to help him to learn to love and serve our neighbor as Christ commanded us, because in serving them we really serve Christ. But you are not alone. This entire faith community, as well as the godparents you have chosen, also promise that we will assist you in helping form your child in the faith. We are never done growing in our love of God and understanding of the truth. So we all continue to grow and help Maximiliano grow in becoming the saint God calls him to be through Holy Baptism, just as we strive to be the saints God has called us to be through our baptism.]
Thinking with the mind of God and acting like God is not a fad. It will not come and go like Beanie Babies, fidget spinners, or bracelets. Each day, strive to think as God thinks and to act as God acts. To the extent you do, you will be repaid handsomely for your labors.
