Saturday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Put not your trust in the deceitful words:
"This is the temple of the Lord!
The temple of the Lord! The temple of the Lord!"


When I was a boy in the 1950’s, Sister warned us against presumption. “Don’t presume that God forgives you or loves you and will let you go to heaven!” She urged us to continually greater effort in prayer and good works.
Despite her best efforts the sin remains with us today, under the heading of “entitlement.” If anything it’s worse today as we have become a society not of workers but consumers. After fifty years of being told, “You have a right; you deserve it; you have earned it.” it's hard to remember that, in fact, I’ve earned nothing and deserve less. What rights I have are gifts of God.
I must remember daily, everything is gift. A gift is neither entitlement nor right. I met a Veteran recently who worried that he did not deserve the care he was receiving. Of course he had little choice as he could afford nothing else, and needs extensive medical care. I assured him that a grateful nation wants to give him this care, and his response should not be anxiety but gratitude. “Just keep saying thank you to every doctor, nurse, technician and housekeeper.” I told him.
Saint Francis claimed no privilege for himself except the Privilege of Poverty. He wanted to be like Christ in every way. The Lord who was born in poverty, raised in exile, lived on the streets, died on a cross and buried in a borrowed grave invited his servant Francis to share his poverty. Consequently Francis was often hungry and cold as he passed days and nights in the out-of-doors with no more protection from the elements than the shade of trees and the cover of clouds. Whether he baked in the hot sun or shivered through the cold nights, whether he itched with bugs or filth, he thanked God, “You are good, all good, supreme good!” He knew God’s goodness as few others have not despite of but because of his contempt for every creature comfort.
When Jerusalemites cried, “The temple of the Lord!” they thought that God must certainly protect that pile of stone. He seemed to have no choice! So long as they hovered close to the temple, their God must protect them. They had already forgotten how the Philistines captured the Ark of the Covenant, wresting it from the Hebrews. In his own time, with no help from the Hebrews, God allowed it to wander back to the Hebrew camp under the impulse of oxen. Everything is gift!
As Christians, we are entitled to nothing except the fate of Jesus – his poverty, abandonment and misery -- for which we are grateful. To be with him – even at Calvary, outside the gates of the city where there is no temple –would be true delight.