13th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Please follow this link to familiarize yourself with the Sunday readings.
http://www.usccb.org/nab/readings/070608.shtml
This Sunday’s readings provide a clear thread on a controversial topic: peace and war. The first reading makes abundantly clear the mission of the Messiah, and the description of this figure clearly manifests itself in the person of Jesus. We see easily enough the allusion to the triumphal entry into Jerusalem, an even we celebrate on Palm Sunday in our liturgical tradition. What we have a harder time seeing is what follows: that the Messiah will banish war and the instruments of war, and that he would proclaim peace to the nations. We fail to see it because we fail to heed the message and example of Jesus. Notice that the passage says that he will proclaim peace, not impose it. Peace is for us to accept and to implement in our world. If we, the professed followers of the prince of peace, fail to live peace and work for peace in our world, then we cannot blame Jesus for failing to bring peace to the world.

Very often there are reasons given for resorting to war, and sometimes those reasons are valid; most of the time, however, they are not. It is easy to demonize an opponent in war until we are faced either with the reality that we are often no better than our opponent or that perhaps they are as good as we in many instances. The responsorial psalm reminds us of that fact: “The Lord is gracious and merciful (are we?), slow to anger and of great kindness (are we?). The Lord is good to all (are we?), and compassionate toward all his works.” Even our enemies receive good things from God, and we are called to love our enemies, not to fight them.

Why, then, do we continue in the practice of war? The second reading gives us a clue. Despite our baptism and profession of faith, we still live according to the flesh, which leads to dissention and war. When we are concerned about the flesh we resort to war, for all wars are based on that which is material – land, power, riches, oil, whatever. As long as we remain attached to these things we will continue in our paths to war. If, however, we truly wish to experience the life of the Spirit, then we will put aside our attachments to material things and war.

Finally, the Gospel passage makes clear the insistence of Jesus that his yoke as the Messiah is distinctly different than that of the world and its attachments to material things and war. “Take my yoke upon your shoulders and learn of me, for I am meek and humble of heart.” We are invited to imitate Christ, as that is the only way to be holy, and here we are invited to two particular virtues, the acquisition of which makes attachment to material things and the pursuit of war utterly impossible: meekness and humility. St. Gregory the Great makes that clear in his commentary on this passage: “For a cruel yoke and hard weight of servitude it is to be subject to the things of time, to be ambitious of the things of earth, to cling to falling things, to seek to stand in things that stand not, to desire things that pass away, but to be unwilling to pass away with them. For while all things fly away against our wish, those things which had first harassed the mind in desire of gaining them, now oppress it with fear of losing them.”

Let us ask for the grace to follow Christ and to pursue paths of peace.