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Contents: Volume 2 30th SUNDAY (C) October 26, 2025
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Dennis Keller
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****************************************************** Thirtieth Sunday of Ordered Time October 26, 2025
Sirach 35:12-14 &
16-18; Responsorial Psalm 34: 2nd Timothy 4:6-8 &16-18;
When words are used repeatedly over a long time, the meaning gives way to becoming code words. A code word is defined as a word or a phrase with a special meaning and used to keep something secret. In faith traditions, code words originated with full meaning. Over time, that word loses its power. For example, in the first part of the Our Father. We pray, “hallowed be thy name.” Since it is our wish that God’s name be hallowed, what impact does our praying that have on how we live and relate? The hallowed in this case means “honored, held in reverence.” It is a direct reference to the first of the Sinai Commandments. “I the Lord am your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery. You shall not have other gods besides me.” Hallowed be thy name expresses our intention that God be honored and respected over all other gods, the idols we make for ourselves. We ask that this “hallowing” be applied to all peoples and nations. It includes the second of the Sinai Commandments: “Thou shall not take the name of the Lord our God in vain.” Do we relate “hallowed” to our commitment to keep God in first place in our lives, to never say the name “God” or “Lord” as a curse? Is that what we intend when we pray “hallowed be thy name?” Without this understand and intention in our prayer “hallowed” becomes a code word that we said without intention or meaning. It becomes a ritual devoid of its intention and impact on how we live.
There are other words in this Sunday’s readings. There is justice, right, righteousness, and justified. We have a feeling about what they mean, or do we?
When we think of justice we tend to equate it with our criminal and civil courts. In our tumultuous times there is often question about judgments made. Often the complaint is that objectivity of application of the constitution or in civil judgements the rendering of judgment is influenced by bribery or partisanship. Whether that feeling is valid or just a way of denying reality, respect for justice is diminished. There is a significant difference between secular justice and God’s justice. Justice, both secular and faith based, has truth as the measure against which an event if compared. That becomes the difficulty in secular justice: “what is truth?” With God, justice is focused on God’s creation. Theologians teach that creation – including persons – is an expression of God. That is why John’s Gospel’ prologue speaks of the Word – the Son of God – as the person through which all things are made. He is the Word that creates. And the creation of humanity insists we are created in the image and likeness of God. We ought not to forget that in our relationships with others. Racism, nationalism, elitism, are prideful humans’ method of denying the dignity and worth of persons. God takes a huge chance with each of us. We have free well, we can choose. The Rabbi’s teach that God’s justice, that which is based on God’s will, is that all humanity has what it needs to flourish. Not a mere survival matter. But a flourishing. How excellent is God’s justice.
We hear the word Righteousness a lot in the Scriptures. We may think it means a strict following of rules and precepts. A righteous person is one who acts in accord with God’s justice. The word has a connection with weight. It’s ancient meaning was related to how food, precious metals, clothing was valued. The measuring of weight was with the balance scale. A weight classified by some authority would be a counter balance. The long bar with it had a sliding marker so individual calculations would be accurate. Those who cheated by lessening the balance weight were thieves. Applied to us it’s meaning is that our living is valued according to a standard that comes from an authority. That authority is the Transcendent One, God. Neither we nor any secular body can set the weight by which we are right with God’s value. So Commandments and precepts become the weights by which we judge ourselves. Spiritual writers in the middle ages spoke of the Cross of Jesus as a balance scale. The Cross as a measure is the basis of the judgement of whether we are living and growing in the life of the Trinity. That vital, active, and creative life is named by us as love.
Justification is a tough one. We discover that our lives are not perfect. We fail in loving, in focusing on measuring up to our potential. There are blockades. Judaism calls sin “missing the mark.” The “mark” refers to a workbench that is marked to measure materials used to fabricate something. Missing the mark means that we are no longer the material sufficient to create the flourishing God wills for us. There is a burden we need to clear out. Here comes the cross of Jesus again. His ministry, his healing, his condemnation by religious and civil leaders, his Gethsemane, his Calvary, and his empty tomb, carry the power to get us back in line with the bench mark. We are justified when we are correctly aligned with God’s will for us.
In the story about the Pharisee and the Publican, Jesus points out that merely following the law isn’t always beneficial. When that compliance is the source of pride, arrogance, and despising others, it lacks power to connect with the Creator. That prayer pretty much falls to the ground after bouncing off the iron dome ceiling of pride.
Dennis Keller <Dennis@PreacherExchange.com>
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Blessings, Dr. Lanie LeBlanc OP Southern Dominican Laity
****************************************************** ****************************************************** ****************************************************** 4. ****************************************************** ****************************************************** 5. ****************************************************** Volume 2 is for you. These reflections follow the Liturgical Calendar and appear here about mid week each week. They are written by various guest authors. If you would like to submit a reflection of your own, then click here to send an email request to post to the Webmaster. Deadline is Monday morning of each week for the upcoming Sunday.
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A service of The Order of Preachers,
The Dominicans. (form revised 10/13/2025) |
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