Click here for today’s Scripture readings.
Gn 18:16-33
Mt 8:18-22
Today’s readings illustrate the ways in which our faith challenges us to live with unanswered questions. As the Lord departs at the end of our Genesis passage, Abraham does not know the outcome of his pleading for Sodom and Gomorrah. The Gospel does not tell us whether the scribe decided to accept a future of homeless wandering. We do not know whether the second person—already a disciple—left “the dead to bury the dead.”
These are questions of fact, but the readings bring to mind deeper issues. The scene between Abraham and the Lord is a debate on the respective claims of justice and mercy. Mercy seems to have the greater weight, but its claims are not absolute. Another aspect of the argument is the assumption that innocent and guilty will share the same fate. Why should that be? The fact the ultimately the Lord will intervene to save Lot’s family does not fundamentally alter the case. We know of the miraculous escapes, but we also know that more often than not the rain, both the welcome and the unwelcome kind, does “fall equally on the just and the unjust.”
The Gospel raises other questions. Jesus’ warning to the scribe is comprehensible. He is being realistic about the cost of discipleship. Nevertheless, we can ask, “Must faithful discipleship always entail such a drastic change in lifestyle? What about that other story where Jesus tells the healed demoniac to go home and share the good news with his neighbors (Luke 8:38-39)?”
It is the second encounter, however, that is the really disturbing one. It is disturbing even when we allow for the fact that the father is still alive, that the disciple’s request is to continue caring for him until his death. Isn’t there a duty to care for aging parents? Is Jesus’ demand one that makes sense only to one who is faced with the necessity of choosing one of two good things, to the exclusion of the other?
Whatever answers suggest themselves to the various dilemmas, walking by faith is on ongoing challenge.
Sister Mary O’Brien,C.P. is a member of the Passionist Sisters’ community in Union City. NJ.
