What did scribes do? They were ancient Israel’s human word processors & Xerox machines. With almost maniacal accuracy, they hand-copied biblical texts word for word on parchment. But before getting to work, they washed their whole body clean. Then, with ink from a special recipe, they wrote each letter carefully, not missing a single dot or dash that Hebrew letters came with, making sure no two letters touched each other. Otherwise, ulit. They said each word out loud as they wrote it. Except the word “Yahweh,” w/c was too sacred to verbalize. Instead, they said “Adonai.” But when they came to that name, they stopped, washed their hands 7 times, wiped the pen clean, dipped it anew into the ink, & only then wrote “Yahweh.” How many times did the word Yahweh occur in the Torah? Well, that was how many times they washed hands & pen. So, you can imagine how scribes obsessed over the minutiae of the Law!
But this one? He was different. Unlike other scribes, Pharisees, teachers of the Law, this one got it. Loving God & neighbor, he said, was “worth more than all burnt offerings & sacrifices.” Jesus had never heard a hierarch soft-pedal Temple sacrifice like that. You see, sisters & brothers, for Jews, sinning was incurring a debt w/ God. Utang. After a long process of purification, sacrificing a dead animal at Temple was the climax of atonement. Whereupon the debt of sin was paid in full. But then & only then did God clear the slate.
Why do we think that this is absurd today, sisters & brothers? Because it smacks of what we call meritocracy. When we think that what we do or not do for God conditions God to do & not do for us, then, we just might’ve fallen into meritocracy. Meritocracy comes in many subtle religious behaviors today. “I will help the poor so that God will not make me poor. I will help raise funds for the church so that God will accept me into heaven. I will pray the rosary so that Jesus will see I’m devoted to his Mother, & grant my petition & save me.” Seems nothing wrong there, is there? But scrutinize it a little more & we notice that we’re in fact saying, “It’s what I do first that will condition God to then do for me what I want him to do.” In meritocracy, God simply reacts to the stimulus of my merits or demerits. But by default, God idles in neutral. My merits rev up his goodness, & my demerits make him hit the brakes on loving me. But sisters & brothers, nothing conditions God. No one conditions God. Not even the holiest of saints condition God. God’s love & his forgiveness are not conditioned by our initiatives at doing good or saying we’re sorry. Baliktad. Because God is loving & forgiving, we, his creatures, are able to love & repent at all. Because we have been loved & forgiven, so do we also love & say we’re sorry.
The analogy of good parents often helps. Imagine how good parents would feel if their child said, “Mom, dad, I will love you so that you will love me. I will be a good child so that you will be good to me.” Absurd. “Anak, nauna na kitang minahal. Patuloy kitang aarugain hanggang matuto ka ring magmahal. Patuloy kitang patatawarin hanggang matuto kang humingi ng tawad at magpatawad. Kung ayaw mong magmahal o humingi ng tawad, ikaw lang ang sisira sa sarili mo. But as far as I’m concerned, hindi kita matitiis. Patuloy kitang mamahalin at patatawarin, kasi anak kita.” That is precisely what a good parent would say. A good parent’s love & pardon are not conditioned by the merits & demerits of their children. Rather, they would like their kids to learn how to love because dad & mom love them, & not so that dad & mom would love them. Good parents would like their kids to say they’re sorry not because mom & dad won’t forgive them if they don’t, but because dad & mom have always forgiven them their faults. True love is not meritocratic. (And yes, sisters & brothers, I am aware that there are parents who are meritocratic. Their love & attention are conditioned by the merits & demerits of their kids. I’ve taught in 3 Ateneo high schools. Children w/ parents like this are often highly accomplished, yes. But they are some of the saddest, most troubled students I’ve ever known. Why? Because in true loving, there should never be meritocracy.)
Multiply that by a gazillion times w/God whose love goes beyond meritocracy. If God’s love were conditioned by our capacity to pay for the debt of our sins, would we have survived this well for this long? Yet, haven’t we noticed, sisters & brothers? God does not give us what we really deserve. God gives us more than we deserve. “So, Fr Arnel, going back to sacrifice, good deeds, & atonement, do we not do them anymore since God loves & forgives us anyway?” No, we continue offering sacrifices, loving, & atoning. But never think of them as bribes to God! Because that’s what meritocracy comes down to: bribing God w/ the currency of our merits. But if good parents do not keep a ledger of their children’s merits & demerits according to which they give or deprive them of love & forgiveness, why would our God be any less? No, we continue to sacrifice, to love God & others, to say we’re sorry, because God has loved & forgiven us first & always, & much, much more than we even deserve to be loved & forgiven.
Sadly, meritocracy is written almost indelibly on the parchment of our Catholic mentality. The Word was made Flesh & dwelt among Jews precisely to rewrite their meritocratic image of God into a God whose love is both unconditioned & unconditional. So, let’s give Jesus the free hand to inscribe that anew into our hearts. And let that image of God be indelible.
Homily delivered by Fr. Arnel Aquino, SJ
31st Sunday in Ordinary Time 2024
Cenacle Retreat House