WHAT’S THE BOTTOM LINE?

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this Friday in the 3rd Week of Advent is, “What’s The Bottom Line?”

One of the habits in Jewish religious tradition was to ask a Rabbi to present the bottom line - to sum up the whole of Judaism in one word or one sentence or with one basic message. “What’s the bottom line?”

One added thing was to keep their answer short - so sometimes a Rabbi was asked to do this while standing on one foot. How about that for homilies?

As you’ve heard in various homilies there were 613 commandments revealed to Moses. I have not done it myself, but if you comb through the Pentateuch - the first 5 books of the Bible - that’s how many laws you find.

365 were negative commands: thou shall nots - some say it’s 365 so there can be a law for every day of the year.

And there were 248 positive commandments: some say that corresponds to 248 parts of the body. I don’t understand how that works. I have 10 fingers and toes - 2 eyes, one nose, etc..

Now, all those 615 laws didn’t have the same importance - so over and over again people asked in various ways, “What’s the Bottom Line?”

ANSWERS

Rabbis answered that question in various ways. Let me give a few.

Some rabbis said David summed up the 613 laws with the following 11 principles. I found this in a Jewish book. I couldn’t figure out if these 11 principles were gleaned from the Psalms.

               1) Walk uprightly.
               2) Work with righteousness.
               3) Speak the truth from your heart.
               4) Practice no deceit with your tongue.
               5) Don’t do evil to your neighbor.
               6) Don’t do anything that your neighbor can reproach you for.
               7) Don’t be a vile person.
               8) Honor the person who fears the law.
               9) Don’t be like those who swear they are not hurting themselves, but won’t change.
             10) Don’t lend money to others out of usury.
             11) Don’t take a reward against someone who is innocent.

Some went through Isaiah and said he summed up the 613 with 6 principles:

               1) Walk in righteousness.
               2) Speak peacefully.
               3) Don’t make money by making fraudulent deals.
               4) Don’t take bribes when they are waved at you.
               5) Put your hands to your ears when people talk about people.
               6) Shut your eyes when you start to see evil.

Some said Micah the prophet summed up the 613 with 3 principles: Do justly, love mercy and walk modestly with your God

Others summed up Isaiah in a different way than above, so upon further examination Isaiah has 2 commandments. We heard them in the first sentence of today’s first reading:

               1) Keep justice;
               2) do righteousness.

Habbakkuk summed it up the whole 613 laws with 1 principle: The righteous shall live by faith.

CONCLUSION

How do you sum up life? What do you think life is all about? What would be your bottom line?

We know Jesus was asked that question several times and in Matthew 22: 34-40 he sums it all up with two quotes from the Old Testament. He quotes part of the Shema from Deuteronomy 6:5 - which every Jewish service begins with - and then something from Leviticus 19:18. He says that the Greatest commandment is, “You must love the Lord your God with your whole heart, and your whole soul, and your whole mind.” Then he says that the second commandment is like it: “You must love your neighbor as yourself.”

That’s his bottom line. And when we see Jesus’ life we know he practiced what he preached.

So the title, the theme, the point of my homily today is to ask, “What’s your bottom line?”

Speak up! Try answering that standing on one foot or in 25 words or less or what have you.