2  SENTENCES

INTRODUCTION

The title of my thoughts for this 21^st  Tuesday  in Ordinary Time   is “Two Sentences.” 

The first sentence is from today’s first reading and  the second sentence is from the gospel. 

FIRST SENTENCE

The first sentence is Paul’s statement: “Let no one deceive you in any way.” [2 Thessalonians 2:3]

I read today’s first reading a few times last night – seeing what might hit me for a homily. The first sentence that  hit me was the one I just mentioned: “Let no one deceive you in any way.”

Woo! Wow!  That is a tough assignment – and a bit sand papery. It could rub our ability to relate and communicate and be with each other in everyday life and every day interactions.

How to be really honest – honest honesty - that takes time and work and tact.

How to do that takes good judgment.

How to do that takes living with each other – working with each other – being with each other  and sometimes learning the hard way – that the other is a B. ESer – or incompetent – or not skilled – or not good in certain areas – or lazy -  or a non-listener –or  a non-learner – a person who has stopped growing or what have you.

It means to be alert.  There is that old joke bouncing off that word “alert” – that the world needs more “lerts”.

But it could actually mean that the world needs more people to be alert – to pay attention – to oil the machines – protect each other from viruses –to be kind to one another -  to be exact in newspaper articles –in speech -  to do the research – etc. etc. etc.

To go deeper when it comes to honesty – to pay attention to ourselves being honest with ourselves.

I remember a statement. It might have been by Kurt Vonnegut: “Oh the lies I have told to my energies.”

And I noticed in The New York Times for yesterday mention of a novel coming out September with the title, The Lying Life of Adults by Eleana Ferrante. It praises Ann Goldstein as a wonderful translator from the Italian. Will that book get readers to look themselves in the mirror for their honesty as adults?

So once more: the first sentence for today is from St. Paul: “Let no one deceive you.”

SECOND SENTENCE

The second sentence is from Matthew’s gospel: “Woe to you if you  pay forward your energies for the tiny stuff and you neglect the weightier things of the law: Judgment and mercy and fidelity.”

Jesus is pretty strong here in the 23^rd chapter of Matthew with his woes. He talks quite clearly about the human condition. He says something we all know. We clean  the outside of cup and bowl and neglect the inside of who we really are.

We can be superficial. We can strain out the gnats. We can also   swallow the camel.

I’m sloppy  - so I might be dishonest when I say that I wonder at times about people being neat and tidy about some things – and then they get caught for moral messy inner rooms in their life – that spills out into actual messy crimes.

CONCLUSION

This morning my homily is 2 sentences to think about: honesty and not avoiding the big issues by fixation on the small stuff.