February 14 1999 |
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Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time MT 5/17-37 |
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| Background: Today's gospel illustrates how the Sermon on the Mount is a kind of mixtum-gatherum account of the teachings of Jesus. It is a collection of sayings about the Jewish law that Jesus probably spoke on different occasions which the tradition connected into one discourse. The Evangelist is trying to explain the relationship between the Jewish law and the preaching of Jesus, a problem which puzzled many in the early Christian community to whom he was writing. In effect, he says, Jesus teachings fulfilled the law instead of replacing it. The most interesting part of the passage for us today is the segment where he speaks as a proto feminism and rejects the notion that only women can commit adultery against their spouses (a man committed adultery only against the husband of the other woman according to Jewish law in those days) |
read the padre |
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Story: Once upon a time there was a man who thought that women were inferior. They couldn't be trusted to do any important right because their emotions got in the way. He was discreet about stating this position explicitly in public because his wife and his daughters would immediately denounce him. But he still thought it was true. Moreover the women in his family were perfect content that he think he was the only one big enough and smart enough and strong enough to take care of repair work around the house and to get the car fixed and plant bushes and trees and pack the van and drive long distances. It made life a lot easier for them if he thought that he was indispensable. WELL, one time he went away on a week's business trip. He was nervous about leaving the poor, helpless women along at home. What would they do, for example, if there were a flood especially since their house was close to a river and indeed on a flood plain (He was the one who had made the decision about the house because he didn't take flood plains seriously). They told him not to worry. The weather forecast for the week was sun every day. YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENED, don't you? As soon as his airplane left the airport it started to rain and it rained for four straight days. The story of the century the talking heads on TV said. (Why is it that the storm of the century happens at least once ever year. WELL, the river flooded and swept through their house and made a mess of things. So the women in the family (with the help of a teenage son who was a realist) drained the house, called Service Master, the insurance agent, and the parish priest (I don't know why they called him!) and got everything cleaned up. When the man came home, expecting to be hailed as the returning savior, he found that the women were sitting watching a video on television. He was not a realist like his son, but he was enough of a realist to keep his mouth shut. |
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