ENTITLEMENT

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 25^th Monday  in  Ordinary Time  is, “Entitlement.”

Have you ever heard a word or picked up on something someone is complaining about - or talking about - and you say to yourself, “I have to learn more about that.” Or, “I don’t understand that.”

I’ve said that to myself when I hear people say things like, “The kids  today think they are entitled.”

I usually hear it as a complaint - against young people - or some poor people - or people of a different color - or culture - and I say to myself, “I don’t know enough about all of this entitlement stuff.”

So I spent some time this morning, working on this issue.

To be honest, I still don’t know enough about entitlement.

Let me present two minutes worth of ideas - and thoughts - if interested - and if this is one of your questions, I’ll continue working on this and I urge you to do the same. Make it a topic of conversation and grab other people’s ideas.

TODAY’S FIRST READING

In today’s first reading - Proverbs 3: 27-34 - we move back to the Old Testament

In the opening two sentences I read the following, “Refuse no one the good on which he has a claim when it is in your power to do it for him. Say not to your neighbor, ‘Go and come again, tomorrow I will give,’ when you can give at once.”

That triggered the thought of entitlement - questions about entitlement.

ENTITLEMENTS:

Sometimes entitlements are good; sometimes they are too much.

We’re all entitled to good water, so if someone pollutes, we have a right to scream.

So too clean  air and avoiding noise pollution.

Sometimes rights conflict. 

Like people are entitled that this church to be a house of prayer and quiet and peace and freedom from interruptions. We also have the right to have this place  where others recognize us and say hello to us and ask us to pray for their daughter who just found out she has cancer.

So that’s an obvious problem - and being in 1000 churches I’ve heard people voice this complaint about too much noise in church.

Entitlements sometimes crash or collide.

Fair is fair when we’re on line trying to get into Eggcellence.

Does anyone feel they are entitled not to have to wait on lines getting into a restaurant or to the check out counter in the supermarket.

Once we’re in the restaurant, once we’re seated, it’s fair to want service.

If a waiter or waitress is blind to us for any reason and the waiter or waitress knows or likes someone on a table other than ours, and give them a lot more attention, then fair is fair.

If we’re always getting upset, if we take more than we give, if we’re always late and get mad when others are late, if we think we’re smarter or better looking and therefore take care of me first, that’s a red flag.

The more I read up about entitlements, the more I found it to be a touchy subject. It has two pulls: rights and duties. I have rights while driving - but others also have expectations from me - that are my duty to fulfill.

JESUS

Jesus says a lot about entitlements. We’re entitled to visits when we’re sick or in prison or we’re hurting.  We’re entitled to forgiveness,  70 x 7 times when we make mistakes.

Jesus says we’re called to be aware of each other, serve each other, wash each other’s feet, and to serve and be served.

Jesus didn’t scream from the cross: unfair, unfair, unfair. It was unfair. Yet he forgave because people don’t know what they are doing.

CONCLUSION

Those are a few ideas about entitled. Sorry to say, I found myself only scratching the surface of this issue of entitlements.

In conclusion, in today’s gospel, Jesus calls us to be light to each other. This issue of entitlements would be a clear specific to work on and to enlighten each other on fairness and service.