Ordinary 26

The Twenty-Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Numbers 11:25-29; Psalm 19; James 5:1-6; Mark 9:38-43, 45, 47-48

The Declaration of Independence guarantees the right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” The ‘pursuit of happiness’ is a product of rational Enlightenment thinking. By promoting scientific inquiry and reasoned argument Rousseau, Locke, Bacon, Descartes, Diderot, Wollstonecraft, Hobbes, Newton, Voltaire, Kant, Goethe aimed to improve our lives in this world rather than the next. Not a bad objective from which we all have benefited.

But the phrase “pursuit of happiness” raises a series of questions. What does it mean to pursue one’s happiness? What happens when one person’s pursuit collides into another person’s pursuit?

What is happiness? Are you happy?

In light of these questions, we Enlightenment Americans, including Catholics, view life as a series of choices, ‘pursuing our happiness’. Every aspect of life is simply seen as one choice among many, something a person does if they so desire or have the time.

As an example, is this not true of the worship of God for the Sunday Eucharist? The former archbishop of Chicago, Francis Cardinal George, suggested that many Catholics put Sunday worship on par with other recreational choices or activities. If a person has the time or the inclination they will go to church – which doesn’t mean they necessarily worship God there; they simply ‘go to church’ – or, if not, they may choose to play golf, do the laundry, go grocery shopping, or do lawn work.

The words of Yiddish writer Isaac Bashevis Singer come to mind. He said, in effect, that if we do not worship God, we will worship something else, and perhaps, tragically we will worship ourselves. We will inevitably worship because there is something in our nature – God–given – that moves us to awe and surrender before something greater than ourselves. Though more often we choose something lesser than ourselves. The question, however, is what or whom do we worship?

In a self-referential age like ours, plagued by all kinds of addictions and an engulfing culture of consumerism, our worship of something other can easily steer us away from the eternal God.

The ever–present danger in this moment of history is idolatry. It is the major issue addressed by the Hebrew prophets echoed in the Letter of James.

“Come, now, you rich, weep and wail over your impending miseries.…the wages you withheld from the workers who harvested your fields are crying aloud;and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. …”

The rich do not come off well throughout the scriptures, maybe a bit unfairly? “It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God,” Jesus teaches. Mary in her Magnificat sings that God will cast down the mighty and send the rich away empty. Paul is writing to the young church leader Timothy warns, “Those who want to be rich are falling into temptation. For the love of money is the root of all evils…”

Fair? Or do we need to listen closer.

It is easier for the camel, not impossible for therich to enter the kingdom.

The love of money, not money, is the root of evil.

It is the unjust withholdingof wages that should cause the rich to weep and wail.

In the musical, “Fiddler on the Roof”, when told, “Money is the world’s curse,” the milkman Tevye prays, “May the Lord smite me with it! And may I never recover!”  And then he asks a very important spiritual question, “How do we keep our balance?”

The teachings of Buddhism, Bahai, Christian monasticism, Saint Ignatius of Loyola, native peoples like the Cherokee, all speak of balance and answer his Tevye’s question. Yet we continue to live in a world which is ‘out of balance’. Being ‘out of balance’ is a good definition for idolatry. It is the unbridled ‘pursuit of happiness’. It is not just about the issues of money or wealth for idolatry begs the question, “who or what do you worship?”

As Christians and children of the Enlightenment, have we ever considered, that the “pursuit of happiness” is only to be found in the “pursuit of God”?

[Quotes and ideas taken from “A Strategy for Launching a Eucharistic Revival” by Blase Cardinal Cupich, Commonweal, 13 September 2021.]