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The Readings for Thursday in the 12th Week of Ordinary Time (B2)
Memorial of St Irenaeus, Bishop and Martyr
Not all who say to me, Lord! Lord! will enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
Don’t let anyone tell you that all you need to do is “believe in Jesus” for Jesus himself says in this passage (and many others) that there’s some doing that has to be done. We have to do the will of Jesus’ Father in Heaven. And we have to hear Jesus’ words and do them. And the doing is not about miracles or other forms of wooji-wooji. Domine, Domine, nonne in nomine tuo prophetavimus, et in nomine tuo daemonia ejecimus, et in nomine tuo virtutes multas fecimus? Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name? That’s not doing the will of God. Speaking in tongues is not either.
Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them. Jesus has just finished telling us that bad trees give us bad fruit. And will get cut down and thrown into the fire. And here he seems to be saying that “Lord, Lord” is not the password into heaven.
Looking into the Old Testament reading today is, at first glance, no comfort. The siege of Jerusalem, the loss of the temple which was the Glory of Israel, the deportation of the King and his court, the loss of an entire religious and artistic culture, and the appointment of an alien king are all the sort of thing that happens when you don’t follow God. And, to make this clear, the alien king changes his name to “Zedekiah” which means the Justice or Righteousness of Yahweh. Seen that way this is all just so much suck. And, in fact, the loss of the Temple on the 9th day of the Hebrew month of Av, is mourned each year with a day of Fasting. (This year that begins at nightfall on the Gregorian date of 21 July.)
And yet.. and yet…
The author of the 2nd Book of Kings knows that this is happening because of the sins of the King and the people. The people are carried off – but not slaughtered. The people are in exile, but not forever. God will bring them back and, in the course of their exile, God will raise up prophets like Daniel and Jeremiah. There will be signs and wonders and even King Nebuchadnezzar who seems like a bad guy today will be shown to be a tool in God’s hands. God is doing something with Israel, and, in the end, with all of us. This exile will end, ultimately, with Messiah. This is all a sign of Zedekiah, of God’s Justice, which doesn’t mean “God’s snarky anger” but rather, “God’s sorting out of all things back to their original intent.” Babylon is a perfect sign of purgation.
So what does it mean to hear Jesus’ words and to do them?
We are familiar with the command to love, and with the ten commandments. The precepts of the Church are well understood. But I think this reading today, especially with the Tag Line of Zedekiah, is about humility. We can come before Jesus on Judgment day bragging about all the things we did “in his name” or we can stand, as the king of Judah did, before his humiliation. We can take what is coming as a gift from God, and let God’s purpose work itself out. That acceptance of God’s Justice, of Zedekiah, is also throwing oneself, in humility, on God’s mercy.
Not all who say to me Lord Lord… but yet all who say to me “Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy on me a sinner.”
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Doxos 