September 24 [media presentation below] GospelThink Sunday, September 24, Twenty-Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time MATTHEW 20:1-16a I tell you a story of a person who is generous, in fact, very generous. Prayerthoughts a. I am involved with some work right now. Am I working as best I can, that is, following what I should be doing according to the guidelines that have been given me? b. What is just and fair is a guide for the landowner. In my dealings with people, am I always at least just and fair? c. The landowner was obviously generous in giving more than just wages to those who worked less. In what I do, am I generous in giving more than I can? d. The English translation of “they thought” is important. The judgment of others begins in our thinking. In my thinking, am I too harsh on others? Perhaps I should make a practice of praying for those that I think ill of for whatever reason. e. They grumbled, that is, they complained about something that they thought was right. Do I complain too much? f. Sometimes I have the right to complain. Have I always checked the facts before I complain? When I have the right to complain, do I complain to the proper authorities? g. When the landowner was generous, it upset others. As I work with everyone in my group, do I try to be aware of how everyone feels and adjust as best I can? h. My prayerthoughts… Today, I will determine a situation in which I can do more than is required, and carry it out. Some Thoughts on the Liturgy GENEROSITY AND FAIRNESS           One of the best authors on the psychology of love was a man by the name of Erich Fromm who died in 1980.  His book The Art of Loving was very controversial in his approach because he maintained that most of contemporary western hemisphere people—including you and me—do not really know the meaning of love of another. One of the points he makes to support his thesis is that we have defined love of others in terms of “being fair.” He says that people may think that they love another, but really all they are doing is thinking that they only have to be fair with one another.            Fairness is a virtue—it is part of justice—but it is not love. Being fair implies that we will not necessarily feel responsible for one another; loving involves feeling responsible and showing care to another. According to Fromm, we have taken the idea of love and watered it down to the thought of being fair.            Jesus’ story today tells us very definitely that love of others is more than being fair with them. As Christians, we are called to be generous with one another out of love for them. It really was not fair for the master to behave the way he did. The criticism leveled at Jesus by the workers would be correct if justice were the point of the story. But it is not: the Lord wanted to show that love goes beyond what is fair.            What happens if Erich Fromm is correct, and we have done away with generosity, substituting for it, the thinking of simply being fair? If our dealings with others are based on being fair and just, and on that alone, then we will think that at no time should others have more than we do, and we will give them no more than what we think they deserve.            This whole mentality gives rise to selfishness, and when selfishness takes over, love ceases. The storyline of many movies is just that. For example, the movie “Avatar” is based on the need that America has to solve an energy crisis. Our American military finds a mineral that can do it, but it is in the hands of another race of people. The expedition to get it is based on fairness, asking that the discovered race of people will share some of the mineral, but when the military sees that it will not work, selfishness takes over, and they set out to take what they want.            One of Jesus’ insights in the Gospel is that when we are interested only in being just and fair, we will want more than others have. The ones who worked in the vineyard all day wanted more because “they thought”—the words Jesus used—that they should have more. We become selfish when justice is our only consideration. We will not be generous with those who really need our help in the world, and there are many who need it. It may very well be true that what we should be most concerned about in America is not from the outside, it is the gradual decay from within. And part of it is a lack of generosity that is the result of more and more selfishness.            One of the significant facts about human living, I believe, is that high moral and ethical standards are never going to come through any federal or state institution because they are all founded on being fair—and rightly so; justice is and must be maintained. What we as a church and family must do is to lead people to go beyond being fair, and define life and love in terms of the generosity Jesus was talking about today. It may be the only way that love will be the force that it should be in the world. MEDIA PRESENTATION Movie: “Divergent” — beginning session WHO WE ARE The Gospel MATTHEW 26:63b-65a Then the high priest said to Jesus, “I order you to tell us under oath before the living God whether you are the Messiah, the Son of God.” Jesus said to him in reply, “You have said so. But I tell you: From now on you will see ‘the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Power’ and ‘coming on the clouds of heaven.’” Then the high priest tore his robes and said, “He has blasphemed!”

Gospelthink: I say exactly who I am. I know who the Lord is, but do I carry the answer into everything I do?

The movie “Divergent” takes place in Chicago in the future. A war has brought about the destruction of the United States, and all that remains are the people who have congregated in the once-upon-a-time metropolis. To bring about good order from the chaos of differences, the society has been divided into five independent factions: Abnegation (the selfless), Amity (the peaceful), Candor (the honest), Dauntless (the brave) and Erudite (the intellectual). The remaining population are the Factionless, people who have no status, the “poor” of the society. The story is that of Beatrice Prior who was born into Abnegation. She discovered through the universal test given to every young person that she was Divergent, capable of being in several factions, and therefore a possible threat to the system. She had to recognize who she was and choose to live with the choice.

Jesus knew who he was, and therefore what he had to do. The high priest who questioned him understood exactly Jesus’ answer to his question of who Jesus was, and therefore wanted to have him executed. Quoting the Psalms and the Book of Daniel, Jesus identified himself to be the Messiah, the Promised One, and therefore he knew that his task was to redeem humankind, even those who were then persecuting him. Beatrice Prior or “Tris” in the movie “Divergent” had to determine who she was. She had discovered that she could have been of the faction Abnegation or Erudite or Dauntless, and therefore Divergent, and a possible threat to the strict separation of the classes. As she chose to be Dauntless, she managed to maintain her selfless love of others from Abnegation and her knowledge of human nature from Erudite. She was able to choose well what she wanted her future to be, even as she realized that others had to be important in her life. It is a fundamental and important lesson to learn: every one of us must choose who we want to be in the life that we are given. We are given a certain set of circumstances, a certain set of “preparation years” during which we have been formed in one way or another. There must come a time when we see what we were, and then what we can be for the future.  Jesus was able to identify what his life-calling was as he told the religious leaders exactly who he was. “Tris” was able to identify who she was as she came to understand her future role in the city. In a similar way, when we know who we are, we have a knowledge of what our future should be as well.

PRAYER Good and gracious God, You have given each of us our own personalities. Give us the grace to truly understand who we are so that we can freely choose to be what You want us to be. Be with us, we pray.

+++++ GUIDE FOR CLASSROOM PRESENTATION AND PERSONAL ENRICHMENT Theme: In order to choose a good life, it is important that we know who we are.   DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: (session: approximately 67 minutes) 1. What scene during this session of the movie is most striking? Why? 2. What is your understanding of the Messiah? See Catechism of the Catholic Church, second edition, numbers 436-440. 3. True blasphemy, the act of showing contempt for God, was punished by execution. Where do you sense true blasphemy in our world today? 4. What is your understanding of “redemption”? See Catechism, numbers 613-614. 5. When is the best time in a person’s life to determine what their future should be? 6. If you could choose which faction in the movie you belonged to, which one would you choose and why? 7. What does it mean to “think independently”? 8. In general, what are human beings’ worst fears?