Third Sunday of Lent
Today’s passage from the book of Exodus is God giving His law to His people. It good to remember that God does not give us this law so as to benefit Him; it is not a self-serving law in that sense. They are not arbitrary; they are rooted in the natures of God and Man. It is a self-serving law in the sense that it serves and benefits those who hold on to its precepts and use them for guidance.
These laws are simply- and directly-phrased commands (“do this” – “don’t do that”), bits of solid-gold, divine wisdom that lay out a path guiding a man away from pitfalls of sin and towards a freedom and a fullness of life. These Ten Commandments can be summed up in Two: “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind” and “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37,39).
We love God because it is right and just and He is all that is worth loving, but firstly, because He has loved us first and given Himself for us. We love our neighbor because, like us, God has loved each of them and created them as worthy and deserving of love, because the One we love has asked us to love them, and because in loving them, we also love the One we love. (That’s a lot of love, but that’s what happens when the One making the rules is the God who is Love.)
As we hear in the Responsorial Psalm (Psalm 19), God’s Law of Love is perfect, trustworthy, right, clear, pure, true, more precious than gold, and sweet. When our lives serve God and follow in the ways of the Law of Love, it brings refreshment, wisdom, rejoicing, enlightenment, endurance, and justice, even though the loving and the serving are their own reward. What wonderful things to which we are called; may love of God and love of neighbor be the beginning and end of all that we do.
At the same time, these same actions, what might be construed as love of God or love of neighbor, can also be done from very different motives. Take for example, those who got chased out of the Temple by Jesus: they could make a convincing argument that they were there, doing their business, in service of both God and neighbor.
After all, since Jews were entrusted with the upkeep of the Temple and they would come from a variety of localities, the moneychangers were there to help the pilgrimaging Jews to fulfill their duties to the House of God. And since many of the people coming from far off were coming to the Temple so as to offer sacrifice, whether it be for thanksgiving or sin, those people selling animals were easing the difficulty of the pilgrim’s journey by ensuring that they could purchase an unblemished animal, suitable for the sacrifice, at their destination and avoid the hardship of bringing their offering with them.
Yet Christ knew their hearts as none else could: the moneychangers and the salesmen were not there out of love of God or their neighbor, but only out love for dishonest profit and gain, which is why He threw them out.
When pursuing what is good and right, when working for justice in the world, such as in uprooting of the affront to human dignity that is racism, it is a good thing to ask yourself: “Why am I doing this? Am I doing this simply because it is right, because it is what God has asked of me? Am I doing this for love or am I doing this because I love the feeling “doing good” or love being seen by others as one who is loving?”
Matthew 6 warns us about the danger and temptation of such motives and (to use a modern buzzword) “virtue-signaling”: “Take care not to perform righteous deeds in order that people may see them […] to win the praise of others.” As we continue our Lenten reflection on racism, we ask God for the grace of a pure heart, a heart which loves our neighbor fully and for love alone.
Families:
Pick one reading from this weekend (available here) and read through it together (before or after Mass)
Ask your children if they have any vocabulary questions. If there is a place name mentioned consider looking it up on a map (google maps is great!) and ask older children to briefly re-tell the story to see if they understood the basics of the message/reading.
Ask one another the questions from Fr. James’ reflection in regards to racism and any service/outreach/activism we take part in in regards to virtue signaling.
Why am I doing this?
Am I doing this simply because it is right, because it is what God has asked of me?
Am I doing this for love or am I doing this because I love the feeling “doing good” or love being seem by others as one who is loving?
Note: If you find out it’s more the latter than the former - don’t panic! It’s a place to start. Now challenge yourself/your family to grow in your reasons why!
Unsure where you’re at? Here are some further questions that can apply to any form of activism, not only racism:
Did you wait until right now to talk to your kids? And are you simplifying the truth? (everyone has to start somewhere, trust your kids to be smarter than you think at catching on!)
Is your activism happening only on camera/social media?
Is your activism solely responsive or pro-active? (i.s. do you only focus on racism during February (Black History Month)? or only on the poor/impoverished during our usual Lenten fundraising project? Work to be more consistently active throughout the year in small ways - conversations about news articles, people, tv shows, etc.)