Good Enough

Settling only for the best version of yourself

02/28/2022

Mk 10:17-27 As Jesus was setting out on a journey, a man ran up, knelt down before him, and asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus answered him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: You shall not kill; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness; you shall not defraud; honor your father and your mother.” He replied and said to him, “Teacher, all of these I have observed from my youth.” Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said to him, “You are lacking in one thing. Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” At that statement, his face fell, and he went away sad, for he had many possessions.

Have you ever heard the maxim “the good is the enemy of the best”? Why is that? Well, because sometimes we settle for what is good – because we feel it is “good enough” – instead of pushing ourselves to achieve the best. As Matthew Kelly likes to say, you should seek “the best version of yourself.” But sadly, many of us settle for second best, which is another way of saying “good enough.”

I will never forget how Coach Nick Saban of the Alabama football team articulated the difference between good and best. He explained his approach to football practice saying: “We don’t practice till we get the play right. We practice until we cannot get the play wrong.” Did you catch how Coach Saban does not settle for “good enough” but rather reaches for the best his players can possibly perform? He wants his team to understand that "the good is the enemy of the best.” And that is one reason Nick Saban holds the record for the most college football national championships with seven titles.

In the gospel Jesus has a conversation with a young man to whom he tries to teach the adage: the good is the enemy of the best. The young man seems eager to do more, not to be complacent, he does not want to settle for second best. When Jesus tells him to keep a handful of commandments, he answers eagerly: “Teacher, all of these I have observed from my youth.” At that point Jesus turns into a spiritual Nick Saban, and says: “You are lacking in one thing. Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.”

But suddenly, the "good" of material possessions turns into the enemy of the "best" of spiritual possession,s and the young man’s desires are deflated. Just like many eager college football players give up after one week of practice for Nick Saban, so this young man went away sad because he had many possessions. That young man was willing to practice till he got it right, but he was not willing to practice until he could not get it wrong. His good had become the enemy of his best.

My friends, this Wednesday we begin the holy season of Lent with Ash Wednesday. Let me sort of “prime the pump” as we approach this season of grace by inviting you to think of how good things in your life can become the enemy of the best things in your life. In a sense, Lent is the time to step up our spiritual exercise and to practice not just till we get a few commandments right, but until we cannot get any of the commandments wrong. Do you want to win the National Championship at Easter or not? That should be the question in the back of our minds for the forty days of Lent.

And notice, too, that it is surprisingly the good that is the enemy of the best and not necessarily the bad, the sinful or the evil. The spiritual life, in other words, is not always a simple and straight-forward struggle of good versus bad, light versus dark, angels against devils. Sometimes, it is the naturally good things that keep us from supernaturally best things, and as a result this struggle is hard to see. This Lent it is precisely the good we must attack, those things we call “good enough” or “second best” which are really just excuses for our laziness and not seeking the best version of ourselves.

I don’t know if you are a fan of Alabama football or if you like Coach Nick Saban (he is a Catholic, by the way). In fact, in 2020, when a reporter asked if Saban was going to watch the College Football playoff selection on television, he answered: “I go to church from 11 to 12, so they’re going to have to either schedule it at a different time, or I’m going to find out when I get out of church.” In other words, Nick Saban doesn’t let the good of football become the enemy of the best which is Mass.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

 

Smiles Everyone

Seeing how faith produces in smiles in Catholic schools

02/27/2022

I am here today "fishing" for students for Trinity Middle School. One day a boy came late to Sunday school. His teacher, knowing he was usually very prompt, asked: “Johnny, is there anything wrong?” He answered a little sad: “No, ma’am, not really. I was going to go fishing, but my daddy told me that I needed to get on up and go to church.” The teacher was very impressed and asked Johnny if his father had explained to him why it was more important to go to church than to go fishing. “Yes, ma’am, he did,” Johnny explained. “My daddy said he didn’t have enough bait for both of us.”

Today I am going fishing for students but I am also going to church to do it! Now, you might think this should be the easiest fishing in the world because who wouldn’t want to attend a Catholic school if given the chance, right? It should be a no-brainer. But it is not as easy a choice as you might think. I want to share a few insights from an article my brother sent me recently, called “Putting the Catholic Back in Catholic Schools,” by Thomas Carroll. It began with this startling statistic: “Catholic school enrolled more than 5 million students in the mid-1960’s, but today just 1.6 million.” Put simply, 3 out of 5 people who would have chosen a Catholic school in 1960, do not do so today. In other words, it is not easy fishing and recruiting for Catholic schools today.

Nonetheless, I am convinced the best bait for such fishing or recruiting is our Catholic faith. There is simply nothing more precious in the world than being Catholic. And that is the principal purpose, the raison d’être, of Catholic schools. We exist to teach the faith. Let me share three things from the article by Thomas Carroll and expand a little on each one.

The first point Carroll makes is pretty insightful but sadly often overlooked. See if you can catch it. He wrote: “The school’s academic program needs to reflect the full contribution of the Catholic intellectual tradition.” He adds: “One cannot conceive of Western Civilization without the existence of the Catholic Church.” That’s a big statement, so let me give you a concrete example of what he means. Do you know who invented “double-entry accounting,” the basis of most modern accounting? It was a Franciscan friar named Luca Paccioli, who was also the teacher of Leonardo DaVinci.

In other words, the intellectual engine of Western civilization were none other than Catholic priests and monks. Isaac Newton said famously that we see so far because we stand on the shoulder of giants. He was right. But what most people forget, but what we try to teach in Catholic schools, is that those giants’ shoulders belong to Catholic saints and scholars. We would not be able to see very far today without their enormous contribution. Catholic schools help us to see the Catholic foundations of the Western world.

Another point Carroll makes is the lack of “political correctness” in Catholic schools He writes wisely: “A truly Catholic school must embrace truth not relativism; must see individuals as the creation of God and not merely members of identity groups; and must uphold the human dignity of all lives from conception to natural death – regardless of the values of popular culture.” In other words, we can sum up all that with one word: Catholicism is “counter-cultural.” Catholic schools swim against the modern cultural currents.

Do you know what the word “F.A.D.” stands for? It means “for a day.” The Catholic faith, by contrast, is “for eternity.” That is, Catholic schools do not teach what is politically correct, what's popular today and unpopular tomorrow. Instead we teach what is eternally correct. The Catholic faith may end up on the wrong side of history (as some say), but we will not end up on the wrong side of eternity. I will let you be the judge of which is worse, and where you want your children to end up.

The third point is perhaps the most practical one. Carroll writes: “The children in our schools need to see vividly that Catholicism is at its core a joyful and optimistic faith.” In other words, saints should be the happiest people on earth. By the way, have you heard of the modern phenomenon of “cutting”? Young people, and they are invariably teenagers, feel a deep sense of sadness, loneliness, and even despair because the universe feels impersonal and empty. And so, they cut themselves. To a modern mind, it is full of shining stars but empty of saints, it stretches out for millennia, but lack any meaning, it is a world full of facts, but not one ounce of faith. That is a depressing world to inhabit.

By contrast what we teach in Catholic schools is the “joy of the gospel.” That was the title of the of Pope Francis’ first major document called “Evangelii gaudium.” His first lines capture the spirit pervading the halls of every Catholic school. He wrote: “The joy of the gospel fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter Jesus. Those who accept his offer of salvation are set free from sin, sorrow, inner emptiness and loneliness. With Christ joy is constantly born anew.” In other words, there is no need for cutting when you know Christ.

Do you recall that popular television show called “Fantasy Island”? It always began with Ricardo Montalban coming out and saying to those working on the island, “Smiles, everyone! Smiles!” Dr. Hollenbeck, the principal at Trinity, starts every day essentially saying the same thing to our students: “Smiles everyone! Smiles!” But there’s one big difference: our students’ smiles are real and lasting because they come from a timeless faith, and not from a temporary fantasy. And that is a one-sentence summary of Catholic schools: timeless faith not temporary fantasy.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

 

My Favorite Teacher

Trying to make Jesus our favorite Teacher

02/23/2022

Rv 2:8-11 "To the angel of the Church in Smyrna, write this: "'The first and the last, who once died but came to life, says this: "I know your tribulation and poverty, but you are rich. I know the slander of those who claim to be Jews and are not, but rather are members of the assembly of Satan. Do not be afraid of anything that you are going to suffer. Indeed, the Devil will throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you will face an ordeal for ten days. Remain faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life. "'"Whoever has ears ought to hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The victor shall not be harmed by the second death."'"

Who is your favorite teacher here at Trinity? If we were to conduct a straw poll, a quick survey, I wonder if Mr. Ordoñez or Mr. Bruce, Mrs. Hurst or Mr. Jones would top the popularity polls among your favorite teachers. I still remember my favorite teacher from middle school. Her name was Nancy Govang. She had this beautiful auburn hair, and she was an actress in the evening at Murray’s Dinner Playhouse in Little Rock. And I have to confess, I had a huge crush on her because she was so beautiful.

After we came in from recess, usually hot, sweaty and stinky, she said we could put our heads on our desk and even take a nap if we wanted. As we cooled down from recess, she read to us two books that I will never forget. One was called “Animal Farm” by George Orwell. It was the story about these animals on a farm – pigs and horses and donkeys – that take over and kick out all the humans. The animals’ motto was: “Four legs good, two legs bad”, meaning that animals are good while humans are bad.

The other book she read to us was called “Watership Down” by Richard Adams. It was the adventure of a warren of rabbits that flees the impending destruction of their home because of a big construction project. They are led by a huge rabbit named “Big Wig” and the dreams of a little rabbit named “Fiver.” And Ms. Govang was such a talented actress and storyteller she gave different voices to the animals and really made the stories come to life. Do you think any of us slept while she read? No way. I have had a lot of great teachers in school and seminary, but my favorite teacher will always be Nancy Govang, with the beautiful auburn hair.

Today is the feast day of St. Polycarp. If you were to ask the early Christians, like St. Irenaeus, who their favorite teacher was, most of them would vote for St. Polycarp. Why? Well, it was not because he had beautiful auburn hair. Let me give you three reasons. First, he was bishop of Smyrna, and that is why our first reading was taken from the book of Revelation, which mentioned the city of Smyrna, and the letter written to its leader, its bishop. In other words, Polycarp was the bishop of Smyrna, and he was a great teacher. Bishops are called to be great teachers.

A second reason is because Polycarp’s own teacher was St. John the Evangelist, one of the twelve apostles, who were themselves taught by Jesus, Truth himself. Can you imagine having as your teacher the Apostle who leaned his head on the chest of Jesus at the Last Supper? What divine and heavenly secrets John must have heard beating in that Sacred Heart that night and subsequently shared with his students, like Polycarp! And the third reason St. Polycarp was a great teacher was he taught by his works as well as his words, indeed, he died as a martyr. They tried to burn him at the stake, but when that didn’t work, they stabbed him with a sword. The best teachers teach with their lips as well as their life (and death).

Boys and girls, we all have our favorite teachers, maybe Ms. Schmitz (for you), or Ms. Govang (for me), or St. Polycarp (for Irenaeus). But in the end, there is only One who is the best Teacher, for he is not only the one who teaches the truth, he is Truth itself, Jesus Christ. Why is that important? Well, because it means that truth cannot ultimately contradict itself. Jesus cannot contradict himself; he is not schizophrenic. Sometimes people say that science and religion are incompatible and even enemies. Many people today (even some respected teachers) argue that religion and science are at war, and it is a fight to the death. But that is not true, because Truth is one, and that Truth is Jesus.

As you go to high school, college and maybe even get a doctorate (like Dr. Hollenbeck), you will have some teachers who are brilliant and others who are boring. But every teacher always learns from someone else, like I learned from Ms. Govang, and you learn from Ms. Abarca, and Coach Bishop. But there is only one Teacher who never learned from anyone else but has always been wisdom itself, namely, Jesus. He alone is Truth incarnate.

And in the end, anything that is true, both science and religion, social studies or economics, astronomy and technology, religion and reading comes from him. All the subjects we study are like rivers that originate in mountains that receive rainfall from heaven. And that heavenly rainfall - that originally source of all Truth - is our Lord himself. If that original, divine Source of wisdom and knowledge were ever to dry up, all schools would close, even Trinity. There would be nothing to learn and no one to learn it from. And there would be no more favorite teachers, not even the one with beautiful auburn hair.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Salute the Uniform

Praying for our American Presidents

02/21/2022

Rm 13:1-4 Let every person be subordinate to the higher authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been established by God. Therefore, whoever resists authority opposes what God has appointed, and those who oppose it will bring judgment upon themselves. For rulers are not a cause of fear to good conduct, but to evil. Do you wish to have no fear of authority? Then do what is good and you will receive approval from it, for it is a servant of God for your good. But if you do evil, be afraid, for it does not bear the sword without purpose; it is the servant of God to inflict wrath on the evildoer.

I learned a very valuable “life lesson” while in Junior ROTC at Catholic High School. Not only did we learn to take meticulous care of our uniforms that we wore, but we also learned to show due respect for higher ranking officers. The proper form of respect was to salute a higher ranking officer when you came into close contact with them. There was a running joke among the enlisted men, though. The enlisted men’s rank – sergeant, corporal, private – was made of dull, black material. The officer’s insignia, by contrast, was made of shiny, silver or gold material. The enlisted men all agreed that the officers had shiny insignia so the enemy could see them from a distance and shoot them first.

In any case, a lower ranking soldier should always stop and salute a higher ranking officer. The maxim was: “You salute the uniform, not the man.” That maxim captures a very important social principle: we show respect for an office or a rank even if we don’t especially admire the current occupant of the office or wearer of the uniform. This rule should be followed not only in the military but in all manner of social relationships: in families, in schools, at work, and even in church. Salute the uniform, not the man.

Today we observe Presidents’ Day in the United States, and I would like to “salute” the office of president of the United States. We may not always like the president, we may not have voted for him in the last election, but that is no reason to disrespect the office he holds. We salute the uniform, not the man. Here are a few “fun facts” about the 46 presidents of the United States. Do you know the only president who did not belong to a political party? He was not a Republican or a Democrat, a Whig or a Federalist. It was our first president, George Washington. He believed that political parties would deeply divide our nation. In that respect, he was not only a president, he was a prophet.

Four presidents died of natural causes while serving their terms. They were: William Henry Harrison, Zachary Taylor (whose chimney from his house is still standing on the I.C. Church property!), Warren Harding and Franklin D. Roosevelt. Interestingly, four presidents were assassinated in office: Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley, and, as some of you may personally remember, John F. Kennedy. To assassinate a president is a horrific failure to “salute the uniform, not the man.” And there are currently five living former presidents: Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump.

Let’s talk “terms of office” for a moment. Who held the office of president the longest? It was FDR, who was elected for four terms. Shortly after his tenure, in 1951, the Congress passed the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution stipulating that a person can only serve two terms as president (8 years). Who served the shortest time in the Oval Office? It was William Henry Harrison, who died after 31 days in office in 1841. That reminds me of Pope John Paul I, who died 33 days after wearing the “shoes of the fisherman,” St. Peter. Soldiers salute the uniform, while we Catholics salute the shoes. But no matter how long or how short the tenure of a president, we should never fail to “salute the uniform, not the man,” whether he is president or pope.

St. Paul seems to have this maxim in mind when he wrote in Rm 13:1, “Let every person be subordinated to the higher authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been established by God.” In other words, show respect, honor, and yes even obedience to those who hold civil offices (like the U.S. president), because they share in God’s governance of the world. One simple way to do that is to pray for the president. He is, after all, merely a man, and puts on his pants one leg at a time. And if you do not happen to like a particular president, don’t worry, he will be gone in 8 years. But in the meantime, “salute the uniform, not the man.”

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Baptismal Blunder

Seeing how words are the soul of a sacrament

02/19/2022

Jas 3:1-10 Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers and sisters, for you realize that we will be judged more strictly, for we all fall short in many respects. If anyone does not fall short in speech, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body also. If we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we also guide their whole bodies. It is the same with ships: even though they are so large and driven by fierce winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot’s inclination wishes. In the same way the tongue is a small member and yet has great pretensions.

Have you heard the old adage, “Loose lips sink ships”? It originated during  World War II here in the United States. The U.S. government, specifically the FBI, was trying to stamp out spying by German agents, and used this propaganda campaign to encourage Americans to stay “zip lip.” And it worked very effectively! Almost overnight, German espionage in the United States evaporated.

This maxim was also the rule of thumb they taught us in the seminary. A priest’s lips should not be “loose” when he comes to celebrate the sacraments. For example, loose lips can sink ships when it comes to the confessional. You may know that if a priest divulges anything he hears in confession, he incurs the penalty of excommunication. When a priest’s lips are loose, therefore, he sinks his own ship, spiritually speaking.

Recently, the national media has caught fire with the scandal of “loose lips” as it reported the misuse of words during a baptism. Have you heard about this “baptismal blunder”? On February 14, 2022 the New York Times reported three different instances where a Catholic minister of baptism used the wrong words to baptize a baby. That is, instead of saying, “I baptize you,” he said, “We baptize you.” Now, does that sound like a small mistake to you? Well, apply the adage of “loose lips sink ships” and you will see that our words matter a lot, and when we are the ministers of the sacraments, our words matter the most. Our words “make or break” the sacraments, just like Americans’ words would “make or break” German espionage efforts in World War II.

Let me explain why the words of a sacrament are so special that they cannot be altered in the least. When a minister speaks sacramental words, he (or she) is uttering “the form” of the sacrament. We could compare this "form" to the "soul" of a sacrament. The form (the words) is united to “the matter” of the sacrament – say water, bread, wine, oil, etc. – which we can call “the body” of the sacrament. Just like a human person is a composite of body and soul, so each sacrament is a composite of matter and form.

When you change the words of baptism, therefore, from “I baptize” to “We baptize” you are essentially changing the soul of the sacrament. This is why the words of baptism cannot be altered. Think of other such instances: the words of consecration at Mass cannot be changed from “This is MY body” to “This is OUR body”; the words of marriage cannot be changed from “Until DEATH do we part,” to “Until DIVORCE do we part.” In other words if you take the right words out of the sacrament, it is like you are taking the soul out of the body, and the predictable result is a dead sacrament. That is, the sacrament does not communicate the life of Jesus to us.

To some observers, the Church’s response to this baptismal blunder has seemed excessively strict, legalistic and draconian. That impression is exaggerated when one considers the sacramental “no man’s land” into which these pseudo-baptized Catholics have been hurled head-long. The practical upshot is that if a person has not been baptized, he or she has not validly received any additional sacraments. Why? Well, baptism is traditionally called “the doorway” to the other sacraments. So, if you have not entered the sacramental door, you have not received the other sacramental riches inside the Father’s House.

A priest of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, Fr. Zachary Boazman, saw a video of his own baptism as a baby many years earlier. To his shock and horror, the deacon who baptized him had said, “We baptize you.” Suddenly, Fr. Boazman realized he had not received any sacrament validly. His archbishop promptly baptized him, confirmed him, and a few days later ordained him a deacon and later a priest. That deacon’s loose lips had sunk Fr. Boazman’s sacramental ship more effectively than a torpedo from a German u-boat sunk many American warships.

I believe there will be a lot of fallout from this baptismal blunder, both political and practical. Politcally, the Church and her teachings may be maligned and ridiculed by her enemies. St. Peter, the first pope, warned: “Your opponent the devil is prowling about like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Pt 5:8). And practically, conscientious Catholics may feel concerned about the validity of their own baptism and subsequent sacraments. But there may be some positive gains, too. Like what?

The Church as a whole, and especially her ministers, may learn a valuable lesson about how special and sacred the sacraments are. They cannot be changed according to our fancies and feelings; they are precious family heirlooms entrusted to us by our Lord. He is the principal Agent of every sacrament and therefore the proper pronoun to be used is the first person singular, “I”. It is Jesus who baptizes babies, not a priest, or a deacon, much less the community. To change that pronoun is not only reckless but wrong; indeed, it takes the soul out of a sacrament. “Loose lips sink ships” is a great motto for Catholic ministers of the sacraments. Why? Well, because the spiritual war we are fighting is infinitely more important than World War II.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Check Yes or No

Remembering how we first fell in love

02/14/2022

Mk 8:11-13 The Pharisees came forward and began to argue with Jesus, seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him. He sighed from the depth of his spirit and said, “Why does this generation seek a sign? Amen, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation.” Then he left them, got into the boat again, and went off to the other shore.

Today is St. Valentine’s Day in the United States, and it is good to recall some simple but sage advice Archbishop Fulton Sheen gave about love. A lady came to him one day with a laundry list of problems her husband was having and asked the archbishop what to do. He first sympathized with her, but then added: “Think back to the day of your wedding and the handsome, strong, loving and brave man you married. His present problems are only temporarily clouding what you see. But the man you married on your wedding day is your husband, so be faithful to him.”

In other words, every married couple should take time to mentally return to the days of their courtship, engagement and marriage. And there they will discover their deep love again, like a fountain of romance from which they can drink whenever life’s problems make them thirsty for love.

One of my favorite George Strait songs is called “Check Yes or No.” The singer thinks back to the day he fell in love with his wife, Emmylou Hayes, back in third grade. One day in class she passed him a note, and before the teacher took it, he read what she wrote. She asked: “Do you love me? Do you wanna be my friend? And if you do / Well then don’t be afraid to take me by the hand / If you want to / I think this is how love goes / Check yes or no.”

That is, even though the singer has been happily married for twenty years, he still followed the sound advice of Archbishop Fulton Sheen and he thought back to the early days of love: courtship, engagement, wedding bells, even all the way back to third grade. In a sense, we are the best version of ourselves on our wedding day, and as the cliché goes: it doesn’t get any better than this.

It is no coincidence that February 14, Valentine’s Day, is also the feast of Sts. Cyril and Methodius. Indeed, it is a “God-incidence,” as people popularly say, or as the theologians would put it, a “providence,” that is, history guided by the hand of God. Why? Well, because these two blood brothers, who also became priest-brothers, were sent to the Slavs of Eastern Europe to teach them about Christ and Christianity. During their travels and teachings, though, they discovered that the Slavic people did not have a written language, even though they had a spoken tongue. So, around the mid-800’s A.D. they developed what would be called the Cyrilic alphabet (named for St. Cyril) that first translated the Gospels into this new language.

In a sense, Cyril and Methodius were doing what George Strait sang about, that is, passing a little love note. By translating the Bible into the Slavonic language, they were handing the people’s God’s love note asking them to “check yes or no,” to respond to God’s invitation to love, but put very simply, indeed, in their own language. Sts. Cyril and Methodius are called “the apostles to the Slavs” because they sparked the love affair between the Slavic people and God by passing them a note. And like Archbishop Sheen said: it is always good to think back to the days of courtship, romance and falling in love. That is always the best version of ourselves.

This St. Valentine’s Day I would like to ask you to do two things. If you are a married person, to think back to the days of meeting and falling in love with your spouse. Like in the George Strait song, did you steal a kiss on a school bus, or get caught passing a note? Married life is hard, and days get dry and we get thirsty for love, so go back and drink deeply from the fountain of your young love. That is the best version of your spouse, and that is the best version of yourself.

The second thing is to think back in your love-affair with Jesus. Try to recall when you first felt our Lord’s love: at a retreat, or at first Holy Communion, or in hearing a moving homily, etc. But also take out the Bible and re-read your favorite verses. St. Thomas Aquinas, as he lay on his deathbed, asked that the Old Testament book of Song of Songs, the erotic love poetry which we rarely read at Mass, be read from start to finish. St. Thomas felt it was the clearest example of God’s love note to him, asking, “Check yes or no.”

Praised be Jesus Christ!

 

Designated Dogs

Understanding how election also means rejection

2/10/2022

Mk 7:24-30 Jesus went to the district of Tyre. He entered a house and wanted no one to know about it, but he could not escape notice. Soon a woman whose daughter had an unclean spirit heard about him. She came and fell at his feet. The woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by birth, and she begged him to drive the demon out of her daughter. He said to her, “Let the children be fed first. For it is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.” She replied and said to him, “Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s scraps.” Then he said to her, “For saying this, you may go. The demon has gone out of your daughter.” When the woman went home, she found the child lying in bed and the demon gone.

In today’s gospel we hear one of Jesus’ most stinging rebukes. It always makes me cringe, and maybe it does you, too. A Greek woman asks Jesus to come and heal her daughter afflicted with a demon. And our usually loving Lord rejects this reasonable request, saying coldly: “It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.” Wow, Jesus just called that woman a dog. But what is even more surprising is the woman’s humility in accepting that epithet, and she actually answers: “Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s scraps.” And precisely for that humble response Jesus heals the woman’s daughter from the demon. What a weird exchange. What is really going on between Jesus and this Greek woman?

One reason this episode sounds shocking and scandalous to 21st century Americans but seemed rather matter-of-fact to 1st century Jews and Greeks, was because of the Old Testament background that we are so ignorant of. Beginning with Abraham’s call in Gn 12, going through his son Isaac, and culminating in his grandson, Jacob – whose name was changed to “Israel” in Gn 32 – God had chosen the Jewish people out of the whole world to be his particular possession.

This divine election comes to a climax at the foot of Mt. Sinai, where God says to Moses in Ex 19:6: “You will be to me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation. That is what you must tell the Israelites.” I love that cute little couplet that captures the heart of this divine election, saying: “How odd of God to choose the Jews.” But if God had chosen the Jews, that also meant that he had rejected the rest of the nations, meaning, in effect, they were designated “dogs.” Election always implies rejection. We elect one candidate to be president, and thereby we reject the rest of the field.

But we know that this Old Testament background changed with the New Testament and the coming of Christ. Thus we read in Gal. 3:28, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free person, there is not male and female, for you are all one in Christ.” In other words, Jesus has introduced a radical equality into the human family and there are no longer “children” and dogs,” but all are beloved of God.

And yet, there is still a sense in which the Jewish people, indeed all Israel, hold a pride of place among all the children of God. How so? Well, not in the sense that everyone else is designated a dog, but in the sense that the Jewish people are always our older brothers and sisters in the faith of Abraham. And we, therefore, are younger siblings. St. Paul suggests as much when he writes in Rm 11:28-29, about the special place and privilege of the Jews, saying: “In respect to election, they are beloved because of the Patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob). For the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable.” In other words, while the rest of humanity is no longer designated “dogs,” nonetheless, God will always have a special place in his heart for the Jews. His call is irrevocable.

Folks, let me just point out just two practical applications for this balancing act between Jews and Gentiles, between the Old and New Testament, between Jerusalem and Athens. Have you ever noticed how American politics often revolves around support for the nation of Israel and defense against her Arab neighbors? This is one effect of a movement called “Zionism,” that started back in the late 1800’s to support the establishment of the nation of Israel. Mt. Zion is another name for the mountain on which Jerusalem is built (cf. Ps 48).

Now, I’m clearly not qualified to take a position on the pros and cons of this political hot potato. But I do believe that some of its roots, the roots of Zionism, go back into the Old Testament and we hear some surprising echoes in the New Testament, like in today’s gospel reading. In other words, the Zionist movement would emphasize that God has chosen the Jews, but they might deemphasize that the rest of the world is designated dogs.

The second application is how we pray in a special way for our Jewish brothers and sisters on Good Friday. Do you recall those lengthy Intercessions on Good Friday? One of those special intercessions reads: "Let us pray also for the Jews, that our Lord and God may illuminate their hearts, that they acknowledge Jesus Christ as savior of all.” Then it continues: “Almighty and eternal God who wants that all men be saved and come to recognition of the truth, propitiously grant that even as the fullness of the peoples enters thy Church, all Israel be saved.” In other words, the Jews will always and forever be our older brothers and sisters in the faith, even if we are no longer designated dogs.

Praised be Jesus Christ!