PICKY,  PICKY,  PICKY

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 22 Saturday in Ordinary Time is, “Picky, Picky, Picky.”

There are two types of people: Picky, Picky, Picky People and Unpicky, Unpicky or whatever is the opposite of picky, picky, picky people.

I don’t see myself as a picky, picky, picky person, so I can pick on picky, picky, picky people in a homily.

But we all know down deep that picking on people is not the best approach for challenge, for healing, for change, for conversion, for growth, for niceness.

TODAY’S GOSPEL

Today’s gospel has this theme of picky - picky.

It’s called Phariseeism.

The Pharisees are constantly picking on Jesus - for his non-fussy, non-meticulous, non-persnickety way of doing life.

The Pharisees sat back or stood back watching Jesus and his disciples - for mistakes.

There is a gospel text, “The Pharisees stood far off watching ….” [Check Luke 6:7.]

Here is Jesus and his disciples in today’s gospel walking through a field filled with growing grain on a Sabbath. They are hungry - so they start picking  heads of grain, rubbing it in their hands to separate the chaff - and get to the good stuff for nourishment.

I was trying to picture what that would be like - and I picture people at a baseball game with a bag of peanuts in those light brown shells - twisting and breaking the shell - to get the peanuts inside - and dropping the shells to the cement floor of the baseball stands.

If you’re a daily Mass goer, you have heard enough gospels readings where the Pharisees are trying to pick a fight with Jesus over some trivial pursuit of theirs.

Sometimes Jesus walks away. Sometimes Jesus challenges back at the challenger. Sometimes Jesus says, “Let me tell you a story.”

If there is one message we hear loud and clear from Jesus it’s this: the Sabbath is for us - not the other way around.

If people buy clothes, cars, houses with one eye to impress others - various people pick religion as a way to impress others - but the tricky, tricky, tricky thing about religion is that it’s dealing with spiritual stuff which is invisible. Bummer - if you want to be seen and to impress others.

What to do. Well, Picky, Picky Pharisees   make much of religious practices that can be seen and measured.

So Jewish law, Pharisaical law, religious laws were made up in the form of visible physical stuff:  rules for fasting, lifting, walking, working,  what you can and can’t do on the Sabbath.

Trouble is:   this made the Sabbath a day of rules and regulations rather than a day of rest. So people were not getting a break. They had 6 days of hard work then a strict day called “Sabbath” which was not an easy Lazy Boy Chair day - or a day to take the kids to the park or the Lake or to go hill climbing or get something sweet to eat.

In today’s gospel Jesus counters with a story about David. Maybe invoking him, the Pharisees would see a hero who didn’t have a picky, picky, brain. David and his men were starving. They entered the house of God and grabbed the bread offerings which only the priests could eat.  Hey if a hero like David could do that, what’s so bad about taking a grape off a vine or some grain off a grain stalk?

CONCLUSION

Being the world’s or the neighborhood  police - being the family spy looking for people who are breaking all the rules, takes energy - and can be draining - and we might forget we get to pick what we’re looking at - and sometimes what we’re inwardly complaining about - or enjoying or praising.

Uh oh! Better end this homily now.  Picky, picky people - when it comes to preaching - can be picky about length of time of preachers pontificating from the pulpit.