Today’s question involves your own personal philosophy. It’s this: Do you get what you deserve? Do you get what you have earned? Most of us, I believe, like to think we do. And when we don’t get what we deserve, what we’ve earned, we, at least, think we should have. After all, it’s the “American Way,” isn’t it? You work hard and you get your reward. You don’t work hard; you’re a loser.
We learn this at an early age. Parents tell their kids, “You study hard and you’ll earn good grades. You goof off and you’ll fail.” Later on, our boss tells us: “You work hard and you’ll earn that promotion and the raise which go along with it. If you slough-off or miss the deadline, you’re going to be fired.” None of us wants to play the “Donald Trump” game and hear the words: “You’re fired.” We all want to be the final “Survivor” who earned the position because of how we played the game, no matter how bad our actions were in order to get to be among the “final four1.”
We call it a Meritocracy, a society in which each one of us gets what we merit, what we’ve “earned.” We believe a Meritocracy is good and greatly preferred to an “Aristocracy” in which we inherit from our ancestors everything we have. We’re told inherited wealth is not as “good” as what we, ourselves, have earned, even if we would probably enjoy having inherited money and not need to go to a job each day. Yet, deep down, we’re willing to make sacrifices in order to earn our living. We tell each other, if it’s not worth our own self-sacrifice, it’s not really worth the getting.
When we get what we’ve earned it’s OK to feel self-righteous about it. After all, I earned it. It’s my right to have it and keep it. Why do I need to share what my hard work accomplished? Let others work for what they want. Let others earn it. The poor are that way because they don’t want to work. They’re just lazy and so they get what they deserve. Nothing. That’s what capitalism and free enterprise are all about. You get what you earn and you keep it.
Sometimes, we call it the modern business ethic: work hard and you’ll get what you earn, slack off and you won’t get anything. A number of us turn this “business work ethic” into our personal “religious ethic” as well. We tell ourselves, if we pray more, God will give us more.
It’s not a new idea. It’s an idea going all the way back to the Prophet Hosea whose words we heard in the first Reading from today. “In their affliction, people will say: ‘Let us know, let as STRIVE to know the Lord; as certain as the dawn is his coming, and his judgment shines forth like the light of day! He will come to us like the rain, like spring rain that waters the earth.’” But what does Hosea say is God’s reply? The Prophet, speaking on behalf of God responds: “What can I do with you people? Your piety is like a morning cloud, like the dew that early passes away. … It is love that I desire, not sacrifice, and knowledge of God rather than holocausts.”
In no uncertain terms, Yahweh told those he loved, he did not want, nor need, the sacrifice of animals and the other burnt offerings of holocausts. He did not want superficial demonstrations of piety which vanish into the air as moisture evaporates in the heat of day. Instead, Yahweh told those he loved that indeed, he had loved them into existence and all he desired was for them to love him in return. To love him, by loving one another. Not because they earned or merited his love. Not because others earned love by doing things for one another. God’s love is unconditional. He loves those he created without demanding they do anything to merit his love. He asks the same for those he created out of his love – to love one another because they are creations of his love and not because they earn the love of one another. It is said: God loved us first. Our loving Him should come in response to His love of us. What we offer to Him and to others should be given in gratitude for His love, and not as an attempt to earn his love.
We heard similar words in today’s reading from the Gospel of Matthew. We heard how there were those who asked Jesus’ followers: “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” They were, in fact, asking how can he gather with those who do not merit his attention. With those who are the riffraff, the dregs of our society? With those who consort with our enemies, the Romans, and work on their behalf? With those who do not exhibit our own kind of piety in how we follow the teachings of God? How can be break bread with those who are not righteous, who haven’t made it in the sight of God?
The disciples did not need to reply to the question, for Jesus, himself, responded with the words echoing those of God: “‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’” Mercy. A gift given not because it is earned, not because it is merited, but rather a gift given because it is the right thing, the loving thing to do. It is a gift which is not the result of a pious act, an act performed in an attempt to appease God. It is not offered to make God change his mind and react favorably.
The Lord does not demand a superficial action to gain his love. Instead, he desires that we love unselfishly, without requiring anything in exchange. Mercy means loving those who hate you, those who abuse you. It means loving your worst enemies, no matter what they have done to you. It means loving others without waiting for them to do the “right thing,” without their needing to earn your love in order for you to treat them well. And it’s not easy to do.
Each of us is self-righteous. Each of us believes we do the right thing for the right reason. We believe we repay kindness with kindness. But we also repay ingratitude with our own ingratitude. When a car suddenly pulls in front of us, we don’t let the driver into our line without thinking we are being taken advantage of. When a store clerk is rude, we react with our own rudeness, without considering what a rotten day the clerk might have been having. When we see a street-corner beggar, we wonder why he’s not employed and working like we are working. When we hear about those who have no insurance or cannot pay for needed medicine, we say that’s their tough luck, I have no responsibility for changing the system. And when we read about the killing of Iraqis by insurgents, we wonder why they can’t learn to get along with one another as we do.
And each time, we feel righteous in our beliefs. We feel justified in our actions. Justified. To be right with God. To be aligned with God. It’s true my computer program will allow me to “right justify” or “left justify” my sentences. It will also allow me to use “full justification” in which each line is accurately spread out to fill the entire space between the two margins. But what program, what action allows me to be “fully justified” with God, to be aligned with God as completely as God wants me to be?
The answer, perhaps, can be found in the final words we heard Saint Paul address to the Romans in today’s Second Reading. He reminds us our Lord “was handed over for our transgressions and was raised for our justification.” It is not through our own merits that we are justified. It is not because of what we do here on earth that merits a reward in heaven. Rather, it is because of the love shown by Jesus the Christ that we are saved, we are rented, reconciled, with God, the Father, who sent him to us out of His love for us. It is through their love sent to us in the Holy Spirit we are able to return our love to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Perhaps, we need to remember the words spoken by Jesus in the last line of today’s Gospel: “I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.” Perhaps, we all need to accept we are all “sinners,” we gather as a Church of Sinners who are in need of the mercy of God. A God who desires us each show mercy to others, a mercy given not because it is merited but, rather, because of our gratitude to the God who loves us, first.
Two thousand years ago, Jesus saw Matthew, a tax collector, doing his assigned work, collecting tolls from those bringing goods into the city. And while Matthew was continuing in his daily work, Jesus said to him: “‘Follow me.’ And he got up and followed him.” Today, we are invited to give up what we have been doing, all those actions which have been our attempts to earn our way in this world and, we believe, into the next. Today, when Jesus says: “Follow me,” can it, also, be said: “And WE got up and followed him?”
Tenth Sunday in Ordinary Time; June 5, 2005
Hos 6:3-16; Rom 4:18-25; Mt 9:9-13
- Two television reality shows were popular. Donald Trump at the end of his Apprentice would tell the losers, “You’re fired.” In the program Survivors, contestants were eliminated weekly. Basketball elimination games were played until the “final four” were selected for the semi-final games.