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Bishop's Homily for the Twenty-Second Sunday of Ordinary Time

September 1, 2024

[St. Theresa Church, Kihei (with Installation of Fr. William Kunisch as Pastor)]

Did you know that the Ten Commandments are prominently displayed – in stone -- on the United States Supreme Court building?  If the building were being built now, of course, there would be protests, with many saying that since the Ten Commandments are from the Jewish Bible, which Christians also consider Sacred Scripture, they are a symbol of a particular religion and therefore have no place on a government building.  They would have a point, we must admit, but then the question is: what is the basis of the laws we live by?  Those who built the Supreme Court building obviously viewed this code of law as somehow fundamental, a firm foundation on which to build subsequent laws.

Unfortunately, we humans have a way of distorting things.  The Pharisees and scribes Jesus criticizes in today’s Gospel certainly had no argument against religious symbols.  In fact, they considered them essential to life.  Their problem was that they took the basic commandments of God and started nit-picking and making up their own laws, which were really not based on God’s law but were simply human precepts.  These human precepts were imposed on others, and they expected everyone to know and abide by their own inventions of the law.  This is what led to many confrontations with Jesus.  As the true Word of God, Jesus knew the law of God better than anyone else, and he knew these demands of the scribes and Pharisees were not God’s law at all.

We live in a culture that, for the most part, still recognizes the importance of law in regulating the life of the community.  But, as is easy to do in any age, we have lost a common understanding of the basis of law, why we have laws in the first place, and what is their function in helping us live together in harmony and peace.  Since we now have the notion that everyone has his or her own truth, his or her own reality, is it any wonder that there are so many divisions among us.  We are no longer talking about people with different viewpoints talking to one another to clarify what is true, good, and beautiful, but raising our voices with the notion that the loudest voice wins.

Which brings us back to the Ten Commandments.  They are so basic.  Yes, they were revealed to us by God in the context of the Jewish religion, adopted by Christians, but even if they were not, do they not have universal validity because they are based on true human needs and the way we are all made?  They are, in fact, what we have in common.  This is why they were enshrined on the Supreme Court building, not to promote any particular religion, but to recognize the wisest basis for ordering the common good.

The first three commandments have to do with a right relationship with God.  We today have fallen into what I call “ego-theism,” which is the notion that “I” am god.  I decide what truth is.  I decide what reality is for me.  I decide the ultimate questions of life.  In making ourselves gods, we lose any sense of the common good.  Multiple gods do not necessarily agree with each other, and when they do not, chaos ensues.  One does not have to be a Jew or a Christian to see that when everyone becomes his or her own basis of the law, nothing but chaos and discord can be expected.  Jesus today challenges us to reassert the primacy of the true and living God – for our own welfare.

The other commandments have to do with the ordering of marriage and family, the bedrock of our society; with respect for all life; and with honesty and integrity in all things.  We know how easy it is for us to twist any of these realities to conform to our own “divine” visions.  Here, too, Jesus challenges us to get back to basics, because once we start wandering away from the basics of life and the ordering of community, we are the ones who suffer most.

There are many who want to see the Ten Commandments displayed in every classroom, courtroom  and law office.  This, of course, is a very controversial proposal, since many feel it is an imposition of a particular religion.  However, nowhere does God demand that the Ten Commandments be posted anywhere.  That is a human precept some would like to push.  What God does demand is that we who are believers LIVE these commandments so that others will see how wise and life-giving they are and want to follow them.  It is our witness that is essential, not the display of the Commandments themselves.  So it was when Moses urged the people to live God’s law so that others would see their wisdom, and so it is for us.

This is why it is so important for us to gather here Sunday after Sunday to grow in the authentic Word of God, so that the God who made us, knows us, and loves us, can always be the basis of the laws of our land.  It is the pastor who is charged with preaching this Word of God and challenging all of us to leave behind our tendency to make ourselves god.  (I believe this is one of the major reasons there is so much anxiety and mental anguish in our culture.  It is just too hard to be god!) And, even if we never refer to the Ten Commandments, it is our mission to witness that they are universally valid for all human beings in all times, because they order us perfectly according to the way we are built.  We then witness to others so that there can be a world where we live in harmony and peace.