CUT  AND  PASTE

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 4^th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A,  is, “Cut and Paste.”

MEANING

Anyone who has a computer and uses it to do homework knows what “cut and paste” means.

Anyone who writes letters with their computer or iPad knows how to cut and paste.

You simply take a section from here - you highlight it - you cut it - and you then paste it over here. The phrase, the process, comes from before computers, when someone cut something out of one section of writing and put it some other place. Then they glued it or pasted it - nice and neat.

It saved time and work - if you made it nice and neat.

Cut and paste.

THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW

This year we are using the gospel of Matthew in Ordinary Time for the Sunday gospels. The scenario is to run the gospels in Ordinary Time on a 3 year cycle: Matthew - Year A, Mark - Year B and Luke, Year C.

This Sunday we have as our Gospel reading the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount.  Jesus went up a mountain, sat down, and began teaching his disciples some of his key teachings.

The Sermon on the Mount goes for 3 chapters in Matthew’s gospel.

There is a theory that some early Christian writer gathered a lot of the sayings and short teachings of Jesus and used it as a list of Jesus‘ teachings for new Christians. It was simply a series of one liners or short messages of Jesus like, “Turn the other cheek.”  “Go the extra mile.” “Love your enemies; pray for those who persecute you.” ”Stop worrying about what you are to wear or what you are going to eat.” “Enter by the narrow gate.”

Today’s gospel reading has the so called, “Beatitudes.”

They are 8 or 9 secrets of beatitude or happiness. “Show mercy.”  “Be a peacemaker.” “Hunger and thirst for what is right.”

Nice.

Next week we’ll have another section of the Sermon on the Mount - and on and on - in ordinary time - till it’s finished.  Then Jesus will say at the end of chapter 8, “the wise person is the one who builds their house, their future,  on these words. If you do that, it’s like building your house on rock. Then when the storms and floods of life come, your house will not fall down. It’s built on rock. The fool doesn’t go that way.  He or she will be building their house on sand and when the storms and floods of life come, their house will cave in.

That document - what we call “The Sermon on the Mount’  is what some scholars think existed. It’s called by some,  “Matthew Q.”

The scholars, the theorists, say it was written in Aramaic - the language of Jesus - in Palestine - in the first century.

They think Matthew took that document of 3 short chapters - pasted it to Matthew’s first 4 chapters, then pasted that to the rest of the gospel of Matthew - and that’s our present Gospel of Matthew which we have in Greek.

FOUND DOCUMENTS

It’s only the year 2017.

Wouldn’t it be great if that’s true and someone found Matthew Q - buried somewhere in the Middle East?

It’s possible. In 1947 they found the Dead Sea Scrolls - and they were Old Testament writings that were over 2000 years old.

In 1945 in Upper Egypt they found buried the so called, Nag Hammadi Library of some 50 texts from the early church - from off shoot Christian groups. They include the so called Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of Philip etc. etc. etc. They help us compare gospel texts and how they were used.

So we never know.

A POINT FOR THIS HOMILY

I have a theory that each us has a library - a short library of sayings and teachings - buried inside of us - in our mind.

Some teachings, slogans, sayings are from our moms and dads. Some are from school teachers. Some are from ourselves. Some are from Jesus.

I remember being on a retreat with a group of women once and we did an interesting exercise. We asked the group to take 10 minutes of silence and come up with one saying from your mom or dad - something they told you over and over again when you were a kid - and you go  by that teaching today.

As each woman explained a teaching or a saying from their mom, like have an extra clean set of underwear when traveling, in the trunk of your car, just in case.  Moms were forever taking about moms who insisted on their kids make their daily bed. If they do, they will have a neat life. Be careful of your friends.

I also think we all have a saying or two from Jesus. It’s been cut and pasted into our life.

My favorite bible text is, Galatians 6:2. “Bear one another’s burdens and if you do, you’re fulfilling the law of Christ.”

I was sitting on my stoop in Brooklyn once - as an adult, while. The next generation - were playing stick ball on our street.

My nephew Michael is standing there - when he spots an old lady going by with her shopping basket on wheels.

Michael screams out, “Time out!” and runs over and helps the old lady get the basket to her steps. He pulls it up the stairs. She opens the door and he pulls her wagon into her house.

He comes running out screaming, “Play ball!”

There it was, my favorite Bible text, being acted out by a teenage kid.

CONCLUSION

Enough already….

I think this is purpose of Catholic schools and religious education - to plant the word of God inside people’s soul - and cut and paste as time goes on - better texts.

Talk to each other. Find out favorite Bible texts or sayings and ask which one’s work. If something someone says is helpful - cut and paste it into your life as well. Amen.