THE  REASON 

UNDERNEATH  THE  REALITY

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 5^th Tuesday in Ordinary Time is, “The Reason Underneath the Reality.”

One of the most important rules in life is to question the reason behind a law - or a rule or a regulation.

St, Thomas Aquinas would say, “Authority is the weakest argument.”  In other words, it’s not, “Who said so?” but “Why do you say so?”

We often don’t ask because we might labeled a pain if we do.

I know I don’t like to be questioned  on some things, because I’m not the boss and I realize  I can’t do anything about lots of things - especially in the Catholic Church. For example some marriage legislation, etc.

TODAY’S GOSPEL

The title of my homily is, “The Reason Underneath the Reality.”

I don’t know if that’s a message from today’s gospel, but that’s one issue that hit me.

Today’s gospel has Jesus being quite critical of the Pharisees - and their practices - and dare we say, “One of the reasons they wanted Jesus dead was right here.”  He was going after them for all these washing rules they were pushing.

Of course, it’s important to wash one’s hands - especially during the flu season.

We want those who work in restaurants to wash their hands after going to the bathroom. I saw that sign in a Burger King bathroom the other night - and I said, “Good!”

So washing jugs and kettles and hands is important.

However, if folks become extremists - then maybe enough’s enough.

Is that the point we’re being asked to consider. If the Pharisees amongst us attack  those of us who don’t take everything so totally serious - that we aren’t living up to their standards.  Are they then trying to make the rest of us look dirty and make themselves look so clean?

I don’t know. I assume we know a lot more about cleanliness today than back in Jesus’ time. So maybe they were onto something.  I don’t know.

WHERE I WOULD GO WITH RULES AND REGULATIONS

I remember seeing a documentary about strip mining in Kentucky.

Coal miners - and coal companies - in the short run found it too expensive to live up to all the environmental safety regulations - so it was much cheaper to pay the fines.  They were saving money and making more money and keeping afloat.  Then what happened was run off - because trees were not replanted after strip mining and soil, water, were ruined downstream and down into the valleys.  Then there were big time health problems.

There’s a dilemma that is always there.

The title of my homily is, “The Reason Underneath the Reality.”

I assume the rules for washing hands started off for the right reason, but in time it became an extreme and people were doing it as an extreme - and then they rubbed it in and were saying, “We’re better than you.”

There’s the Pharisees in today’s gospel avoiding helping their parents financially in their old age, by putting their money into a fund called korban.

W.C. Fields in some movie had a Bible in hand and was paging through it and he says, “Just looking for loopholes. Just looking for loopholes.

I would assume the maintenance of parents is more important than donating for maintenance of St. Mary’s and St. John Neumann churches.

 I would assume that the trick is to study all this - ask questions - ask reasons -  and then make sure the reasons below the surface are good ones.

 If they are pride, selfishness, and to feel cleaner than others,  then pause and recalculate our motives and behavior.

CONCLUSION

So obviously in life we need to ask questions.  We have to do our homework.  We need to be humble and honest.