ATTITUDE

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 31 Tuesday in Ordinary Time  is, “Attitude.”

It’s a word that is sometimes used when parents or teachers or coaches are talking to young people.  I’m assuming Paul is challenging the Christian community in Philippi to look at Christ's attitude compared to their attitude in their ways of thinking and treating one another. [Cf. Philippians 2:5-11]

It’s a word that appears in today’s first reading - when Paul says, “Have among yourselves the same attitude that is also yours in Christ Jesus.” To me that sentence is a bit clumsy, so I looked up other translations. I noticed that the Greek word, “PHRONEMA” is translated by the English words,  “attitude” or “mind”.  So here are a few translations of the key word and key sentence Philippians 2: 5.

 “The attitude you should have is the one that Christ Jesus had.” [Good News Bible]

“Let Christ Jesus be your example as to what your attitude should be.” [J.B. Phillips translation]

“Your attitude should be the kind what was shown us by Jesus Christ.” [The Living Bible - Paraphrased]

“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” [King James Version]

“Let your bearing towards one another arise out of your life in Christ. Jesus.” [The New English Bible]

“Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.” [The New Revised Standard Version]

“In your minds you must be the same as Christ Jesus.” [Jerusalem Bible]

In these translations from the Greek, I hear Paul saying, “Have Jesus’ Mind” - or  “Have Jesus’ attitude.” Or we can use the acronym from a few years back: “WWJD” - “What Would Jesus Do?”

THREE  WAYS TO HAVE  JESUS’  MIND OR ATTITUDE

As I reflected on the 2 readings for today I came up with 3 ways to have Jesus’ mind or attitude on how to live life and how to behave.

FIRST WAY: SELF EMPTYING

The first way is the emphasis of today’s first reading: emptying self of self.  Paul gives us what various scholars think is a very early Christian hymn.[1] The Second Person of God empties himself of being God and becomes us. He then empties himself even further by becoming our servant. He then empties himself even more by being crushed and crucified by human beings. When we killed Jesus - we might say, “We killed God” and “We killed one of us” -  ourselves at our best. Maybe we couldn’t face being who we are called to be: ourselves created in the image and likeness of God.

So the first way to have the mind of Jesus - or the attitude of Jesus -  is the willingness to empty - to die to self - to become the servant of all - like Jesus did. Tough stuff. Haven’t we heard Jesus say that a dozen times? [2]

SECOND WAY: WATCH JESUS

The second way to acquire the mind of Jesus or the attitude of Jesus is to simply watch Jesus dealing with people and life situations and then imitate him. We read the gospels to watch Jesus in action and then do likewise. That means to forgive - to love - to be aware of those tugging on our sleeve - to notice the unnoticed  - to wash feet - to feed others - to go the extra mile - to give the shirt off our back - in other words to do all those things that get us to be called “sheep” and not “goats” when the King gathers us all together at the Last Judgment. [3]

THIRD WAY: PUT HIS TEACHINGS INTO PRACTICE

The third way of taking on the mind of Jesus or the attitude of Jesus is to learn his teachings and then try to put them into practice. Here is where today’s gospel is quite a challenge.

Let me see if I can put into words a bit of what I understand or something that grabs me from today's gospel.

What is my attitude towards life?  Do I see life as an invitation to celebrate - as in a banquet - along with everyone else? We’re aware of the text in Matthew - when Jesus answers those who ask him why do John’s disciples fast and his don’t: “Surely the bridegroom’s attendants would never think of mourning as long as the bridegroom is still with them"? [4]

So how do we see life? If people are recovering from a hurricane like Sandy or Katrina, one better not say, “Life is a banquet my friends, come to the cabaret.” If people are going through a crisis, a divorce, the loss of a job, a death, obviously I cannot see them seeing life as a banquet.

So how we see life at a particular moment is an, "It all depends!"

So the famous words of Ecclesiastes, “There is a season for everything, a time for every occupation under heaven: a time for giving birth, a time for dying; … a time for tears, a time for laughter….” [Eccleisastes 3: 1-8] could be put on the table here. I have to face lots of different situations in life - so I have to adjust my thinking and my attitude - to fit the situation.

So too Jesus. 

I can’t see Jesus with a grin on his face all day long - especially when he saw suffering and struggle - but I ask myself, “What was his basic attitude towards life in ordinary time?" 

That’s one of my lifetime questions.  Compared to the mind or the attitude that the Pharisees had towards life - being all law and dealing with nit picky stuff - I hope to live my life with joy and in and with the freedom of Jesus Christ. I hear this in the gospels loud and clear. I have met people whose main metaphor for life is that it’s a battle. I never got that.  I have always had trouble with that image and that mind set for life. [5]

I also picture Jesus experiencing rejection. I picture Jesus seeing people walking away from him because of his attitude towards life. Was he too happy for them? I picture Jesus discovering that many of those called - didn’t buy his call. He discovered that not everyone accepted his take on life.

Is it automatic frustration if we want everyone to like us - and everyone to accept our attitude and mind set for life?

The more we live, the more we see variety and possibilities in the people around us who are living out  what they think Jesus’ vision of how life works. Here is where we need to check out our attitude towards other people.

At times it is difficult to get along with each other - especially when another is different than I am - or looks different - or talks or thinks differently or what have you.

The reality is that we are different. Who’s right? Who’s wrong? People have different attitudes about who are the “good people” - who are the “chosen people” - who are the “saved” - as well as who are the “wrong people” to be in community and communion with.  We judge each other. We like being with so and so. We avoid being with so and so. We are hesitant about the stranger and the unwashed. 

Today’s gospel is quite a challenge - because Jesus is saying that life is this banquet to be celebrated together. However, when Jesus proclaimed this message: many declined the invitation. So he said, “Okay, if you don’t want to be in the kingdom, at the dinner, at the banquet, I'll send out my disciples to call others and fill the banquet hall.

Luke - challenges Jewish Christians to think outside the box of Judaism - and see that Christ starts in Jerusalem and reaches out to the Gentiles - to the Many!

Today’s parable of The Great Supper challenges us to look at our attitudes towards “Who’s Who?” in our church - in our parish -in our circles.

I hope our church keeps on going out to all the world - to China, to Japan, to Russia, to Moslems, to India,  to Europe, to the Americas - to all regions of the planet. I hope our church keeps calling all to come to the banquet. 

I would suspect this parable of The Great Supper gets in there under our prejudices - into the gray matter of our attitudes at times. We look around and ask, “What is he doing here?” “What is she doing here?” “What are they doing here?” 

I don't know about you, but there is usually someone in the room, who challenges us. To be transparent, I know I am challenged at times by folks who are ultra-right or ultra-strict. I think most people have their list of undesirables. Today’s gospel story challenges us right there - in our mind and in our attitudes.

Jesus says the kingdom - the will of God - is the call to a great supper - a great banquet. If the invited don’t accept this message of Jesus, well then Jesus says to go out and call in the unwashed, the beggars, the blind, the lame and the dumb. My banquet hall must be filled. Notice that Luke’s version of the story handed down from Jesus does not have the addition that  Matthew gives. Matthew says the invited outcast now the in crowd - needs to have a wedding garment. Luke says he or she just needs to be there. [6]

CONCLUSION: REVELATION A STORY BY FLANNERY O’CONNOR

My favorite retelling of this story in today’s gospel is by Flannery O’Connor. It’s in a story called, “Revelation.”

Her stories  take place down south. The setting for "Revelation" begins in a doctor’s office and ends on a farm.

It’s the story of a woman named Mrs. Ruby Turpin who brings her husband to the doctor - because he has a bad sore on his leg.

Ruby comes into a small doctor’s waiting room. She doesn’t like the crowded look of the room and those in the room: white trash, the ugly, the overweight, and the poorly dressed folks. There’s only one seat. She tells her husband to take it. She is screaming inwardly that there is a kid on a couch with a running nose - and whoever his mother is, doesn’t tell him to get off the couch and give it to the lady who just walked in.

Ruby Turpin does not like these folks she has to hover with.

At night she plays a game in her mind about who she would be,  if she wasn’t herself. She wonders who she would want to be and who would she not want to be. She would not want to be black, white trash, ugly, or unwashed.

It’s a long short story - and this sermon is too long already.(7) Let me just say that a girl in the waiting room goes berserk and hits the 48 year old Ruby with a book. She then jumps on Ruby and calls her “an old wart hog from hell.”  They sedate the girl and she is carried away the insane asylum.

The story ends with Ruby back home on their farm. It’s  sunset, It’s  beautiful. The sky is filled with colors. Ruby has a vision - a revelation. She sees a bridge up into heaven. Then she sees folks she considers white trash, the ugly, the poor, the blacks [she uses the n word], to all be on a bridge leading up into heaven.  Surprise she sees herself - but she’s not first.

NOTES

[1] The New Jerome Biblical Commentary, “The Letter to the Philippians,” Brendan Byrne, S.J., p. 792.

[2] Check out these gospel texts where Jesus tells us he is the servant of all as well as our call to serve: John 13: 1-16; Mark 10:41-45; Matthew 20: 24-28; Luke 22: 24-27

[3] Matthew 25: 31-46

[4] Matthew 9:15; Mark 2:19; Luke 5:34.

[5]  Cf. Lorenzo  Scupoli, The Spiritual Combat as well as the writings of Dr. Peter Kreeft. Cf. also Romans 13:14 and especially  Ephesians 6:10-20.

[6] Compare Matthew 22: 1-14 with today’s text Luke 14:16-24.

(7) The spoken version of the homily was 1/3 shorter. As I walked towards the pulpit, I knew it was too long and too vague. I knew it was a first draft - so I fixed it up a bit for my blog. It still needs clarification - especially on Part 3.