Welcome to Finding God in Our Hearts. The following production, Pastoral Reflections with Monsignor Don Fisher, is a weekly program of deep spiritual insight on Scripture, revealing the indwelling presence of God. We appreciate your listenership and if you find this program valuable, please subscribe and share with your friends. Share this program is funded with kind donations by listeners just like you make your donation@pastoralreflectionsinstitute.com we’re celebrating the 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time. The opening Prayer O God, by whom we are redeemed and received adoption, look graciously upon your beloved sons and daughters that those who believe in Christ may receive true freedom and an everlasting inheritance through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God forever and ever. Amen.
A reading from the Old Testament the book of Ezekiel 33rd chapter 7 through the 9th verse thus says the Son of Man, I have appointed watchmen for the house of Israel. When you hear me say anything, you shall warn them from me. If I tell the wicked, O wicked ones, you shall surely die. And you do not speak out to dissuade the wicked from his way. The wicked shall die for his guilt, but I will hold you responsible for his death. But if you warn the wicked, trying to turn him from his ways, and he refuses to turn from his ways, he shall die for his guilt, but you shall save yourself the word of the Lord.
If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts. Come, let us sing joyfully to the Lord. Let us acclaim the rock of our salvation. Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving. Let us joyfully sing psalms to Him. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Come, let us bow down in worship. Let us kneel before the Lord who made us, for he is our God and we are the people he shepherds, the flock he guides. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts. Oh that today you would hear his voice, harden not your hearts as in Meribah, as in the day of Massah. In the desert where your fathers tempted me, they tested me, though they had seen my works. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
A reading from St Paul’s letter to the Romans 13:10 Brothers and sisters owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another. For the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments you shall not commit adultery, you shall not kill, you shall not steal, you shall not covet. And whatever other commandment there may be are summed up in this saying, namely, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no evil to the neighbor. Hence love is the fulfillment of the law, the word of the Lord.
The Aluiye verse. God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Hallelujah. The Gospel for this Sunday is taken from Matthew 18:15 22. Jesus said to his disciples, if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have won over your brother.
If he does not listen, take one or two others along with you so that every fact may be established on the testimony of two or three witness. If he refuses to listen to them, tell the Church. If he refuses to listen even to the Church, then treat him as you would a Gentile or a tax collector. Amen. I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
Again, Amen. I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything for which they are to pray, it shall be granted to them by my Heavenly Father. For two or three are gathered together in my name. There am I in the midst of them. The Gospel of the Lord Take a few moments as we listen to the music to ponder the wisdom and the truth found in these readings. Religion evolves.
Human beings evolve. The world evolves. We are not who we were many, many years ago. And one of the shadows of religion is that it tends to feel that it is the one thing that never changes, that always holds the same truths. And it may be that they hold the same truths, but how those truths are interpreted by those of us who listen to them could be radically different than someone in the Old Testament because they were different. And so it’s not that the rules or laws are as far as what they basically are based on has never changed, but how we interpret them is very different.
And I find myself in such a strange place. After being a priest for over 55 years, I have felt more animosity toward my church from my church members, brothers, Catholics who are upset with the direction that she’s going in, or at least either that or they’re really disappointed. And when they go there, they’re not fed and nurtured. It seems so strange to me because I was so enthusiastic about the Vatican Council and how it would change everything. And at the heart of that change was so clear to me that the Church would be no longer seen as this hierarchical of officials running our lives. But the Church was as it is in The Gospel, when people gather together and pray for God’s will, that will has been empowered to change people.
Just knowing it isn’t the same as longing for it, wanting it, asking God to give it to us. And what we long for is what the opening prayer prays for. True freedom. Freedom. So let’s look at the difference between the Old Testament and New Testament, because preaching for the last 50 years on both has really been exciting. Before that, it was only the New Testament that Catholics heard on Sunday.
But here’s the difference I see so clearly. The Old Testament is based in law. The power of a law over someone else’s desires or wills. It fundamentally tells us what we’re supposed to do. So it’s based on authority and then therefore it’s demanding that we follow that. But then the interesting thing in the Old Testament is the very thing that the law is there to change people’s hearts so they’re not so destructive.
The law simply gave people the right to destroy people who weren’t following the law. In other words, it’s about power over people. And when they don’t do what you are told, they’re destroyed. At least in the beginning of the Old Testament, it’s clear when God saw a city filled with sin, it would just say, well, I’m going to destroy them all. And he would and he did. So you have power over people.
The goal if they don’t, if they don’t do what they’re told and that obedience is the goal, then they get the very thing they’re told not to do to people. Stop violating each other, stop hurting each other, stop destroying each other. It’s like the evil is there and the Church is using the same tactic as evil does practically by saying that you have to basically be a person who is acceptable or being condemned. So then you look at the New Testament, what’s the difference? Radical difference. It’s no longer focused on actions so much, but on who we are.
So what I see, the New Testament where Jesus came to establish is this incredible, wonderful community of like minded people who realize that they are called to evolve into something more than they are and that they’re invited to live in a world that does not return evil for evil, but instead of condemning those that are wrong, it accepts them, forgives them, and seeks to open their eyes. What a difference. If it’s really about becoming someone instead of doing what you’re told. I see this incredible sense of freedom coming into it. And I believe that’s exactly what God wants us to understand about Religion, it’s communal. And the communal aspect of it is not everybody blindly following the same rules and regulations.
I remember growing up in the 40s and 50s in Catholic cities like Chicago, Philadelphia, St. Louis, you know, we all did the thing we were doing because we, I mean, we all did it. So we never questioned it. You know, we couldn’t eat meat on Friday, we couldn’t do other things. Lent. Doing the discipline of Lent by giving up things, which is all fine and good, but I never questioned any of it.
I just did what I was told and everybody else did. So there’s a communal nature of religion where it becomes a culture. And when you’re in the culture, you don’t question anything. If somebody questions it, they’re dangerous. But it’s important today more than ever to really look at whatever religion we are a part of, or if we’re not a part of any religion, to look at what it is that we’re challenged to do, to become what’s our spirituality. And I see so much that spirituality being described in a way in the gospel of a place where people gather together like minded people wanting the same thing, not wanting to be controlled, not wanting to be told what to do, not wanting to have someone in a place of authority that impedes your ability to live the life that you know deep inside of you is an authentic, true life.
What a wonderful idea. What a wonderful image, I think, of what the church could really be, or maybe I should say what it really is. Because when you belong to a community that feeds you with all kinds of fear and anger about the way the world is, and wanting somehow for all those people to be somehow punished and destroyed when we attack them instead of longing to change them, we’re in this false, deadly, dark, unhealthy religion. But if we can look at it as Jesus describes it and feel the freedom that comes to a human being who knows that in their heart their major reason for being here is not to be selfish. As the Old Testament so clearly focuses on self centeredness. Do the law or you die.
What’s your motive? My well being, My future. All about me. New Testament how can I respond to the call of religion? What is my response to it? My responsibility to free people, to give them a sense of their own value, their own dignity, their own worth.
To free them from the excessive fear, shame and anger that comes with a rigorous legal system that you have to surrender to. What a gift to be able to live in this day, this time, where not only are we reexamining every institution I mean, who do you trust? Every institution seems to be ruled by people who have some self centered motive. They serve the company rather than the customers. They do everything they can and even lie to be able to sell their product or do what they claim they will do. And they don’t ever perform up to what they’re supposed to be.
All of that, we see it everywhere, so it’s obviously going to be seen in religion. But the thought that that same kind of self centeredness lives in religion is a little bit frightening. And it shouldn’t in any way, shape or form give us a feeling that religion is intrinsically the wrong route, the wrong journey, the wrong thing to surrender to. No, listen to the religion that is described by the one who came to move religion out of an unhealthy den of thieves, as Jesus would call the men of the temple into this glorious kingdom of freedom and acknowledgment of beauty in ourselves. And when it’s not there, we gather together, tell each other what we see in each other that isn’t what we think. That is really our nature believes in us by telling us what we could be.
And they believe in us so different than being cut out and condemned. It’s a great time for the church. Great decisions are going to be made and I pray my church, the Catholic Church, every religion understands fully the mystery of this great great tradition founded not in the Old Testament, but founded on the New Testament, on love and not law. Sa Father, your son came into the world to do something for all of us. We call it redemption, forgiveness of our sins. But Lord, you know that it’s more than that.
It’s a transformation of our very essence and opening us up to the beauty, what it means to be a community member that’s loving and changing and growing together. Bless us with that kind of experience of religion. And we ask this in Jesus name, Amen. The music in our program was composed and produced by Ryan Harner for this show. Pastoral Reflections with Monsignor Don Fisher is funded with kind donations by listeners just like you. You can make a one time or recurring tax deductible donation on our website pastoralreflectionsinsinsinstitute.com we thank you for your listenership and your continued support.
Without it, this program would not be possible. Pastoral Reflections with Monsignor Don Fisher is a production of the Pastoral Reflections Institute, a NonProfit in Dallas, Texas dedicated to enriching your spiritual journey. Executive Producer Monsignor Don Fisher Produced by Kyle Cross and recorded in Pastoral Reflections Institute’s Daughter Studios. Copyright 2023.
