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God Wants More for Us
THIS CATHOLIC'S VIEW
By Thomas J. Reese, S.J.
Last Sunday, the Scripture readings in Catholic churches had in common that the people wanted something for themselves but God wanted more for them.
In the first reading from Exodus, the Israelites wanted food. They were hungry. They were even willing to give up their freedom and go back to Egypt to ease their hunger. They were willing to sacrifice their long-term good for a short-term gain. Having been slaves all their lives, they didn't know better. God saves them once again by sending manna from heaven.
Likewise, the Ephesians wanted to go back to living their old lives, being their old selves, believing in "deceitful desires." Being Christ like is too much work. Paul tells them to put on the new self, be renewed in the spirit of your minds.
And the crowd that follows Jesus in Matthew's Gospel follows him because he has fed them. They want signs and wonders, they want bread. But he wants to give them the bread of life.
The conclusion of all three readings is that human beings don't want what is good for them, especially if it means sacrificing short-term pleasures for long-term gains. We would rather follow our deceitful desires.
This, of course, is the problem with post-war Americans, the baby boomers and their children. Our parents learned about sacrifice and postponed gratification because of the depression and Second World War. But we have been taught to believe that we can have it all. We spent as fast as the money came in and we borrowed if we wanted more. "Charge it," became a way of having it all now and postponing the day of reckoning.
We also did it with our world, burning oil as if it would never run out, consuming throwaway products that overwhelm and pollute landfills, and wiping out species of fish, animals and plants with no thought of tomorrow. If global warming is even half as bad as predicted, our generation will go down in history as the most irresponsible and destructive generation of all time.
The bill finally came due with the current recession. The recession is not simply the result of economic mismanagement. At heart, it is the result of a moral failure, our failure as consumers and a country to live within our means.
We believed snake oil salesmen who told us we could go to war and cut taxes at the same time. We believed those who want to put the blame on the very rich when there is lots of blame to be shared by everyone. We wanted to believe the false prophets who promised perpetual profits; we wanted to believe the credit card companies; we wanted to believe that the risks were minimal. Like Eve, we wanted to believe the snake.
Pope Benedict argues in his new encyclical, Caritas in veritate, that an economy based on greed and self-interest will ultimately destroy itself. Without a concern for the common good, without a concern for future generations, we run off the cliff like bunch of lemmings.
"You must no longer live as the Gentiles do," writes St. Paul, "that is not how you learned Christ."
Jesus calls us to generosity, to forgiveness, to sacrifice. This message does not compete well against the messages of Madison Avenue and Hollywood.
But Jesus gives us more than just a message. He gives us himself. "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst." Jesus is the ultimate comfort food. When times are bad, we can turn to him and be embraced by his love. When we feel overwhelmed by events that are out of our control, he comforts us. He accepts us as we are and is there for us.
The bread he gives us is his word and himself. In the Eucharist, we listen to his word and we break bread together. We receive the bread of life and by it are filled with his Spirit, which makes us one body, one spirit in Christ. This Spirit gives us hope because it tells us of God's love for us.
By Thomas J. Reese |
August 5, 2009; 1:22 PM ET
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Posted by: Farnaz1Mansouri1 | August 9, 2009 12:00 PM
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Whatever happened to good old fashioned plagues of locusts as punushment for our wrong-doings?
Posted by: PSolus
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Kind of like Falwell saying AIDS is God's punishment for homosexuals (and, uh, er, hemophiliacs) or Roberson saying we should "take out" Hugo Chavez, or evangelicals saying Katrina was God's punishment for blacks.
Maybe this also includes the small and shallow god of Abraham sending tornados every year to destroy the Bible Belt.
Posted by: coloradodog | August 6, 2009 1:27 PM
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What a load of ignorance and superstition.
Whatever happened to good old fashioned plagues of locusts as punushment for our wrong-doings?
Posted by: PSolus | August 6, 2009 10:02 AM
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Makes me wonder if a church based on greed and self-interest will ultimately destroy itself, too.
Posted by: coloradodog | August 6, 2009 7:53 AM
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What some contemporary NT and historic Jesus exegetes have concluded about Matthew 14: 13-21 et al:
"Gerd Lüdemann
Gerd Lüdemann (Jesus, 45) offers the following historical judgment of the account in Mark 6:
The formation of this story derives from the needs of the community. Its historical value is nil. Anyone is free to accept the table fellowship of Jesus and his followers as a starting point for the rise of this story. But that is rather different from the feeding of the 5000.
" John P. Meier (professor at Notre Dame)
John P. Meier (Marginal Jew II,966) suggests that the Gospel stories of Jesus feeding a multitude preserves a tradition about "some especially memorable communal meal of bread and fish" but does not think it possible to offer a judgment on whether anything miraculous was involved in the meal event. See pp. 950-967 for his complete discussion."
And as per most Conservative Jews and their rabbis, the stories in Exodus are all myths i.e. there was no manna from heaven or any other place.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F20E1EFE35540C7A8CDDAA0894DA404482
Posted by: ccnl1 | August 6, 2009 4:56 AM
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IT BOILS DOWN TO LIVE WITH IN YOUR MEANS WITH COMMON SENSE. TODAY SO MANY HAVE NOT A CLUE OF ECONMICS AND OTHERS TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THEM FOR THE SHORT TERM PROFIT. THE BUSH JR. TERMS LOOK THE OTHER WAY ACCOUNT BUSSINESS CAN DO NO WRONG.THE CHURCH IS NOT OF THE HOOK EITHER WITH THE BISHOPS ALWAYS HAVEING THEIR USA MEETINGS AT HIGH COST LOCATIONS ETC. WHAT A EXSAMPLE OF WHAT THEY PREACH. PEOPLE MUST LEARN ECONMICS TO KNOW HOW TO LIVE AND OUR COUNTRY TO IMPROVE. THE WEAK DOLLAR IS GOING TO BITE AMERICA VERY HARD SOON. RELIGIONS OWNS PLENTY OF THINGS THAT IS NOT OF RELIGION BUT PAYS NO TAX ON THEM. THIS TAKES AWAY FROM AMERICA. BEAR IN MIND, THE COMMANDMENTS THAT DEAL WITH ECONMICS. THERE IS MORE POLITICS IN ECONMICS THEN RELIGION BUT THERE IS RELIGIOUS NOSES IN POLITICS. IT NOT WHAT YOU HAVE BUT WHAT YOU DO WITH WHAT YOU HAVE. THIS APPLIES TO YOU AS JUST A PERSON.
Posted by: usapdx | August 6, 2009 12:44 AM
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The comments to this entry are closed.
Tom Reese writes:
In the first reading from Exodus, the Israelites wanted food. They were hungry. They were even willing to give up their freedom and go back to Egypt to ease their hunger. They were willing to sacrifice their long-term good for a short-term gain. Having been slaves all their lives, they didn't know better. God saves them once again by sending manna from heaven.
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I am assuming this is a Catholic interpretation, and it is not inconsistent with one Judaic reading of the Judaic text.
However, Jews through the millennia have noted when reading their text: there are (a) discrepancies within the Torah on the matter of food/possible starvation in the desert, (b) text-internal interpretations almost amounting to midrashim, (c) numerous Talmudic midrashim and other exegeses through the centuries.
Use google for a definition of "midrash."
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As for greed, our runaway late capitalism, "globalization" (exploitation), is far too complex to be laid at the footsteps of vice/virtue, although they do figure in it. The problem will probably never be resolved, and Pope Benedict's good wishes notwithstanding, the Vatican figures in it.