Scripture reflection for June 23, 2008...ordinary time.

Scripture: Monday of twelfth week in ordinary time. II Kings
17:5-8.13-15.18. Psalm 60:3,4-5.12-13. Matthew 7:1-5. Lectionary # 371:

Perhaps, the theme of judgment and judging is central to the readings
today. We all make judgments every day, but as one sagacious scholar, Fr.
Viviano says, "Every simple sentence such as "This cow is brown" is a
judgment, and in an adult life we cannot escape the obligation to make some
judgments even on the moral character of others. Parents, fiances,
employers, civil judges, church administrators, etc. all have this duty.
Jesus' teaching warns against usurping the definitive judgment of God, who
alone sees the heart. By contrast. our judgment must be tentative, partial,
and inadequate (see I Samuel 16:7; Jeremiah 17:10). But wherever possible,
we should try to mind our own business and not meddle in others." (New
Jerome Biblical Commentary, p.646).
In the reading from II Kings, God's judgment is filtered through the
redactor of II Kings who works with his own bias against the Northern Kings
of Israel. It is a tragic time for Israel and Judah and the Kings are not
very helpful to create cooperation with God's salvation history through the
covenant. We are put into the picture of the conflict God has with the
people and their rulers through this part of II Kings. The Assyrians will
conquer them and destroy many of their buildings thus the Psalm fits the
mood of this specific time in the history of God's people who mirror us.
The writer continues his sermon like style which is judgmental and
didactic. He displays the facts of infidelity, idolatry, and abandonment of
their first love of God. It is a period of wholesale failure on the part of
Hoshea, King of Israel (732-724 B.C.) and is focused on the fall of Samaria
to Assyria. The Jewish Study Bible sums it up: "sin, violation of the
covenant, and retribution by which the author evaluates all the kings of
Israel. Nobody but Israel was responsible for the major calamities that
befell the kingdom." (Jewish Study Bible, p.758). Yet, we can read at a
deeper level that God's fidelity will overcome this horrible failure and
once again redeem the people and the land. God is always the agent of
salvation history.
Psalm 60 is communal and almost a lamentation. It helps us to
confront such above situations with the reality of a God-check. "Divine
anger leads to divine abandonment. Punishment as a result of divine anger
is a common Near Eastern idea." (Jewish Study Bible, p.1347).
Jesus also is instructing us about judging others. We all have enough
work to do in our own spiritual life without looking at the specks in the
eyes of others while we have beams within our own. We should always
realize that what we do not want done to us in another's judgment, we
should likewise do in respect to them. Yes, today, the readings are
strong, blunt, and difficult to live out, but the whole of the Bible is
there for our instruction, admonition, and for our spiritual development.
We keep remembering that the mercies of the Lord do endure forever and that
we want to be on that side of God's scale rather than on the judgment of
God. Amen.