{"id":760,"date":"2015-09-20T09:23:44","date_gmt":"2015-09-20T14:23:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/?p=760"},"modified":"2015-09-20T09:23:44","modified_gmt":"2015-09-20T14:23:44","slug":"are-you-looking-for-the-truth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/?p=760","title":{"rendered":"Are You Looking for the Truth?"},"content":{"rendered":"

25TH<\/sup> Sunday in Ordinary Time<\/h2>\n

Wis 2: 12, 17-20; James 3: 16-4:3; Mk 9: 30-37<\/h2>\n

Dc. Larry Brockman<\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n

Are you looking for the truth about what\u2019s going on in the world today and about how to solve our problems? Because it is easy to be confused in today\u2019s world with all the experts and pundits. Indeed, we don\u2019t hear the news any more. Rather, we hear little snippets about events, and then hours upon hours of spin on those events. It isn\u2019t even clear that we are hearing about the most important events. It might just be that the media is picking the events to match their spin.<\/p>\n

Why is it that we allow others to pick our news and then let them interpret what they present rather than us assessing where the truth lies? Is it because we are unqualified, disinterested, stupid, gullible, self-absorbed or a combination of all of those things? Or is it because someone who wants to control us thinks we are unqualified, disinterested, stupid, gullible, self- absorbed or a combination of all of those things?\u00a0\u00a0 There is no question about the effect that all this management of the news and its analysis has on us though. It is dividing us, it is causing factions, and we are becoming less capable of working together to solve problems.<\/p>\n

James has it right when he says: \u201cFor where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every foul practice\u201d. That seems to describe our world today- disorder and every foul practice. I\u2019m thinking of Planned Parenthood and ISIS for example.<\/p>\n

Indeed, when I listened to the first reading from Wisdom, two things struck me. First, it was a perfect predictor of what happened to Jesus. The jealous power brokers of Jesus time did precisely what was described in that reading. They persecuted the righteous man, Jesus, and followed the script perfectly, even up to the part about death.<\/p>\n

And secondly, I see the same phenomena happening in this country today. Why else would a gay couple drive across two states to the only county clerk\u2019s office that specifically would deny a marriage license to them if their intent wasn\u2019t to foment trouble? And this is but one example. I saw many other examples in the three hour presidential debate the other night. Rather than focusing on the issues facing our country and the solutions each candidate would advocate, the moderators focused on pitting the candidates against each other.<\/p>\n

So, is there a better way? Is there a better way to recognize truth and how to pursue it?\u00a0\u00a0 First of all, consider the context of the reading from James today. James is talking about how the tongue can get us in trouble. \u00a0And he is referring to the fruits of a loose tongue where jealousy and self-ambition are the motivators. James goes on to talk about what kind of fruits follow from a person who is motivated by God\u2019s wisdom. Rather, he is saying that true wisdom can always be recognized by its works: purity, tranquility, modesty, docility, equity, mercy and piety.<\/p>\n

Then James goes on to summarize his thought this way: \u201cAnd the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace for those who cultivate peace.\u201d Just what does that mean? Well, it means that you cannot have peace without righteousness. In other words if organizations or people advocate peace, but they are not righteous, then don\u2019t count on the peace they promise.<\/p>\n

Now righteousness is different from being right and it is different from being self-righteous. Righteousness means being aligned with what God teaches. And as we have seen, the wisdom of God is \u201cpure, then peaceable, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, without inconstancy or insincerity.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Gospel story makes a very interesting point about seeking the truth. Jesus and his Apostles are just back from the Transfiguration event. So, they had all just been exposed to undeniable, unmistakable, powerful proof that Jesus was God made man. He travels apart from the crowd so he can teach them. I think he is teaching them the truth, don\u2019t you? But when He tells them he is going to have to suffer at the hands of his enemies because he is following the truth and the wisdom of God, what do they do? They put all of that aside and rather, they talk amongst themselves about who is number one.<\/p>\n

So, two things happened to the Apostles. First, they didn\u2019t want to deal with the truth. They should have been talking about all that just happened and all that Jesus taught them. These were incredibly significant events that had just happened. But no, they put all that aside and talked about something else. They didn\u2019t want to talk about the truth. Secondly, they talked about who was number one. That sounds like jealousy and self-ambition to me!<\/p>\n

Lest we be too critical, isn\u2019t that our way as well? First, we really don\u2019t want to hear the truth. We don\u2019t want to hear about our monumental debt, unemployment, lack of integrity in government, ISIS, Moslem extremists, pollution, immigration, and all the rest of it. So, we may just block all that out. Instead, we are interested in our taxes, our rights, our benefits, our security, and our justice. We are interested in ourselves, number one.<\/p>\n

The time is coming when we simply must hear the truth and deal with it. Righteousness and the wisdom of God are the keys. Jesus tells his disciples this at the end of today\u2019s Gospel: \u201cIf anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, are you listening, or are you worried about number one?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

25TH Sunday in Ordinary Time Wis 2: 12, 17-20; James 3: 16-4:3; Mk 9: 30-37 Dc. Larry Brockman   Are you looking for the truth about what\u2019s going on in the world today and about how to solve our problems? Because it is easy to be confused in today\u2019s world with all the experts and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[366,125],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/760"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=760"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/760\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":761,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/760\/revisions\/761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}