October 11, 2020
Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time, October 11, 2020 – Isaiah 25:6-10A; Philippians 4:12-14, 19-20; Matthew 22:1-14
I recently read a novel called Damascus, about the life of St. Paul and other Christians, some of them martyrs during the 1st century. I didn’t care much for the book, by Christos Tsiolkas, but I did appreciate how he brought to life what if was like to live in the 1st century, what it was like to be a Christian back then. It was a tough slog in many ways, and the novelists graphic descriptions of the terrible conditions in which everybody, Christian and non-Christian, lived, the terrible things they endured, almost blistered my mind. I asked you to listen, during the second reading, for some of the vices, or character flaws, that St. Paul exhibits in that very brief passage.
I once had a friend who would give you the shirt off his back, almost literally. I remember one time, I needed money in a hurry. I told him my sad story. He opened his wallet and gave me a thousand dollars. Without blinking an eye, without making any arrangements to get it back. But he could not accept anything from anybody graciously. He simply did not know how to say thank you, or to show any appreciation. This is a wonderful man in many ways, but that one character flaw turned many people off from him, because they didn’t understand.
In the passage that we read, St. Paul uses the first person pronoun, I, four times in four sentences. What it’s about is this - apparently, the people to whom he’s writing had sent him a gift of money to tide him over because he was kind of under house arrest where he was living. And instead of just saying thank you, he goes on about how well he knows how to live in both humble circumstances and in comfortable circumstances. He goes on and on about all of that and the reason why is several fold. First of all, St. Paul needs to be in control. And so he has to exhibit himself as being in control even when he’s really not.
Secondly, he wants to be self-sufficient. And so he prides himself, and always has prided himself throughout his ministry, on his ability to fend for himself. Very often he talks about the fact that he plied his trade – he was a tent make and a sail maker – he plied his trade in all the port city where he went to preach, so that the Christian congregation would not have to feed or clothe him, whereas other apostles expected to have their meals made for them and to be given the things they needed to survive while they’re on their preaching mission.
He does not know how to say thank you. He goes on and on about how he really knows how to handle things himself. And, he has a great need to emphasize his authority as a governor of the church. And so, he ends with a blessing. Bringing to the fore the fact that he is the one who is in charge of this community, rather than they’re being in charge of his welfare.
You would hardly notice those things because the passage is written so beautifully and so sweetly. But they’re there for everybody to see, hovering over the text. The other thing to notice, however, is that, despite the fact that St. Paul is sort of burdened by all these personality ticks, he continues on bravely to do the thing he feels he was called to do - to be on mission, and to bring Christ to others and others to Christ.
The thing of it is that all of us have some of these kinds of ticks. You know, some people don’t know when to shut up. Some people need to be the center of attention. Some people are Pollyanna all the time; they see the good side of everything no matter how bad it is. Some people are ‘Gloomy Guses;’ they see the bad side of everything no matter what it is. You name it! We all know wonderful people who have one or more of these personality flaws that can get under our skin. These kinds of personality flaws I call the vices of the saints. They are the things that good people are burdened with, and things that they burden other good people with. What do we do? Well, we have to be careful, on the one hand, that these flaws or ours do not suddenly become an avenue or an entryway into actual sin. On the other hand, we need to endure despite all of these flaws and personality ticks. We can’t let them get in our way of the real process of living our lives. The process of living our lives is to live with others, for others, as a gift to God.
If you examine the whole of St. Paul’s life, like that novelist did, you see that despite all of the challenges that St. Paul suffered in his own personality, never mind the challenges he suffered from outside, he continued on that journey until its glorious end.