Dear Friends:
During this liturgical year, we are making our way through the Gospel of Matthew. Matthew’s Gospel was written for a community composed of significant numbers of Jewish converts to Christianity, a community that was also seeing an increasing influx of non-Jewish (Gentile) converts as well. Tensions arose between the Jewish converts, grounded in Jewish customs and traditions, and the newcomers, the Gentile converts, who knew little to nothing of Judaism. What arose was a tension between the “old” (the Jewish way of thinking and doing things) and the “new” (the need for adaptation and change in the ways of being, thinking, and doing). Such tension is never easy and most of us in one way or another have experienced it in our own lives.
At the end of the Gospel this weekend, Jesus says something quite curious when he says, “Then every scribe who has been instructed in the kingdom of heaven is like the head of a household who brings from his storeroom both the new and the old.” There are some Biblical scholars who see in this one verse a biographical reference to the source behind the Gospel of Matthew. His genius is found in his knowledge of and reverence for Jewish tradition and custom which is combined in his openness to new ways of thinking, being and living in the light of the life and the teachings of Jesus.
How do we cope with the tension between the old and the new in our own lives? Do we dig a hole in the sand and bury our heads in it, hoping to avoid any possibility of change and adaptation? Are we so wedded to the ways of thinking and the ways of doing things from the past that we shut ourselves off from facing the challenges of the present that may ask us to look at things from a different and new angle? We must be open to change and adaptation or we will wither away and eventually die. Life itself demands that of us.
Then there are those in our world of today who have absolutely no connection with the past, no real knowledge of the wisdom and insights of history, no grounding in history. These people tend to drift along, carried away by every whim and fancy. They have no roots, no real perspective, and as a result, can live life in a shallow way. We see much of this in the so-called “woke” movement of our time. These people tend to make up the rules as they go along, have little regard for the natural law and the natural order instilled in everything by God, and as a result, life for them is essentially centered on themselves, their needs, and the way they see things. They expect everyone else and everything else to adapt to their way of thinking.
The wise approach to life is found in the middle of both of these. We must have a proper, reverent respect for the world as it is, for the order, the natural law, instilled in creation by God himself. We must be willing to learn from history (not erase it) and use the insights and the wisdom gained from knowledge of what has been. At the same time, we must be open to facing the future and to change and adapt as needed, all the while respecting the limits set down by God.
Have a good week!