Reading Francis

After a wonderful retreat, we did about 36 hours of tourist stuff in Rome, but we did go to mass in St. Peter’s, which remains a great way to skip the line and get in before the tour groups overrun it.

The gospel reading that day (Thursday) really struck me. Not because I hadn’t heard it before (though it was fun to learn that the Italian translation of both the Aramaic “Raqa” and the English “You fool” is “il stupido”). No, it struck me because I sometimes hear of Christian leaders quoting Scripture to argue a point about how someone else is going to hell, but it’s never this one.

It seems like Christians would be a lot better at the whole “Spread the Good News” thing if we focused on this one more and a lot of the others less. First, because it doesn’t let anyone off the hook (except I guess anyone who never gets mad, which…). Note that Jesus does not offer any exception in cases where someone deserves to be called il stupido. And second, because it offers reconciliation as the get-out-of-hell card. Though it’s by no means free to make amends to those we lose patience with, it’s freeing in a way for which there’s no substitute.

Anyway, here’s the passage from Matthew 5. I’d love to hear this more often from Christian leaders, even if it means they have less time to harp on Leviticus or whatever.

“You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment. But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment, and whoever says to his brother, Raqa, will be answerable to the Sanhedrin, and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ will be liable to fiery Gehenna. Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar, and there recall that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift there at the altar, go first and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Settle with your opponent quickly while on the way to court with him. Otherwise your opponent will hand you over to the judge, and the judge will hand you over to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison. Amen, I say to you, you will not be released until you have paid the last penny.”