29th Sunday in Ordinary Time

29th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Fr. Ben Riley

Our first reading for this Sunday is one of my favorites. It’s from the book of Exodus and it’s about a battle between Israel and the Amalekites, and there are typically two ways people react this scripture. Maybe you are in one of these two camps. The first group says, “Okay, who cares, this is an antiquated story that is only of interest to historians or Biblical Scholars.” And the other group says, “I don’t like this story. Too much of the Bible is about war, and it’s an outrage to suggest that God would kill all of the Amalekites.” And to be fair, both of these positions are valid. The problem is, they are taken out of context.

Let me suggest a third way to look at this scripture. I didn’t come up with it myself and it’s not from any contemporary biblical scholar but from an ancient one. Origin of Alexandra lived in the late second or early third century, and he proposed a way of reading this kind of text that is still relevant today.

At this time in salvation history, the only people God had revealed himself to, were the Israelites. They were the only people who had any experience of God’s power in the world. All that is good, and creative, and positive, and beautiful. And in contrast, the Egyptians who held the Israelites in slavery, the Amalekites, the Philistines, the Syrians, all the various enemies of Israel, they stand for all the powers of darkness in the world, all the powers of sin. We might see God’s vengeance toward the Amalekites as harsh, but we have the benefit of over two thousand years of God revealing himself to us, of God sending his Son to save us. The Israelites were at the very beginning of their spiritual journey. God was still teaching them the distinction between vengeance and justice. So, this is a reality of the spiritual life, no matter how uncomfortable or counter cultural it may be. The spiritual life is a battle, always has been, and always will be. At least until Christ comes again, and declares His victory over sin and death, the victory he already won for us on the cross. The war has been won, but until Christ comes again, our battles are still being fought. Now, you may ask why?

Because, as long as there are those who stand up for Christ, those who uphold His commandments and defend His Church, there will be some who support them, yes, but there will be many who oppose them. Think of your own spiritual journeys, when you begin to more ardently walk the way of the Lord, when you more seriously profess the truth that the Church teaches, look how many people are ready to oppose you? Whether it be about a social doctrine of the Church, about an end to abortion or the death penalty, about our prohibition on contraception, protecting the dignity of marriage, or upholding the virtue of chastity. I haven’t been a priest for very long, but I’ve been a priest for long enough to see how vehemently people fight against Christ and His Church. So this battle between the Israelites and Amalekites is analogous to the battle of the spiritual life. Now, how does this play out?

There are foot soldiers. Those who actually do the fighting, on the front lines, with spears and swords. Are there foot soldiers in the spiritual battle? Yes, absolutely. Whenever you fight back against the powers of evil, the powers of hatred, racism, greed, violence, the powers of sin in all its various forms. You are the foot soldiers. It could be as simple as someone speaking negatively about the Church, and you defending the Church. Correcting a misconception or explaining a difficult teaching. We are called the Church Militant for a reason. The Church Militantare, those who are still fighting for the salvation of the World. The Church Penitent, are those who are atoning for their sins in purgatory, and the Church Triumphant are with God in heaven.

While that battle is going on, up on a height, is Moses. The great leader of the Israelites. He has a vantage point of the whole battle, a perspective that the solders can’t see. Moses up on the hill, he symbolizes those who lead and direct the life of the Church. The Bishop is on this high vantage point, seeing all the aspects of the battle from a perspective that we can’t see. The word Bishop, comes from the Greek “Episkopos”, which means “to look out over.” It’s a very functional term, a practical term, it’s not meant to be honorary. The Bishop looks out over, he surveys the life of the Church, a section of the Universal Church that has been entrusted to his care. The Bishop sends out lieutenants, his emissaries, the priests to uphold his vision in the local churches. When a new Pope is elected, he too expresses a vision of the Church and a direction for the battle. Think of when Pope Francis was elected, pretty quickly he expressed a Church that goes out to the margins, a poor church on behalf of the poor. He does this so that we on the ground know how we are to fight.

So, how does the leader, standing on a high vantage direct the fight? Well, how did Moses do it? Certainly, he leads, he governs. The battle would not go very well without direction and leadership, but also, Moses has his hands outstretched. He has his hands raised in this ancient gesture of prayer. I imitate it every time I celebrate the Mass in the orans position, the praying position. Moses is directing the battle, but primarily he is doing so through prayer.

Now, let me tell you something about Bishop Taylor. I know this because I lived with him for four years at the House of Formation. The Bishop gets up every morning at 4:30, he makes a cup of coffee, and sits in his chapel to pray. He is praying for you, he is praying for the Church in Arkansas, he is praying for your children, for your families, he is praying for your salvation, that you might know and love God. He prays for over an hour, then he celebrates Mass, and again, the sacrifice that is manifest on the altar is your sacrifice, it is your joy, it is your sorrow, your heartache, and your triumph, united to the perfect sacrifice of Christ on the cross. You may not like or agree with everything our Bishop, the bishops, the Pope, or I say. And that’s okay, the leaders of the Church are human, and are more than capable of human error. That is why the first duty of the Church in all its varied roles, is prayer. It is not the job of the Pope, the bishop, or me to save souls, only Christ can do that.

And the image gets even more interesting. We learn that as long as Moses has his hands raised the battle goes well, but as soon as he lowers them, the Amalekites, the powers of darkness, start to prevail. What a powerful and foundational point. The Church is sustained by prayer, period. Your prayer, my prayer, the bishop’s prayer, all the religious sisters and brothers in monasteries praying the Liturgy of the hours, all the adorers in Eucharistic adoration. If the Church stops praying, the battle doesn’t go well.

And so we hear about these two young men, Aaron and Hur, who literally hold up the arms of Moses so that he can continue to pray, so the battle can continue to go well. Those who support the Church, make the continuation of prayer, the sacrifice of the Mass, the social outreach and care for the poor possible, those who give their time, talent, and treasure, sustain the prayer of the Church. There has not been one local church, one convent, one monastery, that has survived without the support of the people of God. Yes, over the centuries some very wealthy people have supported the Church, but not always. Also, regular folk gave what they could according to the resources they had. And not just money, but time as well. That support exactly corresponds to these two people holding up the arms of Moses so the battle can continue.

One more point and I’ll conclude. This scripture is a beautiful image of the various roles and positions in the church. And one role is not better than the rest; they are simply distinct. We are all members of the Body of Christ, we are all fighting this battle together, and we all have our role to play. There is this modern egalitarian notion that has infiltrated everything. That everybody is the same. No, we are all different, and that is a beautiful thing. We all bring something unique to the battle. There are some people engaged directly in the various struggles, there are other people who are directing operations, other people who are praying for the success of the battle, and still others who are supporting those who pray. And it is precisely this variety that gives the Church its power. We have to get away from this better/best mentality, because I’ll tell you, this is where things go wrong, and this is exactly what the devil wants.

He wants to turn us against each other. What is the best way to win a battle? It is to have the opponents destroy themselves from within. So we start bickering; it’s the laity against the clergy, the priests against the bishops, the traditional against the contemporary. We have to stop this. It’s the devil’s work. We are most effective when we are united by our distinct differences. United in prayer and united in mission. Only then will the battle against evil be won.