media presentation below] GospelThink Sunday, November 5, 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time MATTHEW 23:1-12 Study yourselves and see that you are not hypocritical in the way you behave. Prayerthoughts a. The Lord is outspoken and critical about the religious leaders of his time. No doubt there is some criticism that I have of religious and political leaders. Do I argue from facts as Jesus did? b. In general, I should practice what I preach. Do I say things that people ought to do and not do them myself? Think of your strongest criticisms of others. c. When I see people who are really hurting, do I try to remedy what I can? d. Do I expect others to honor me for whatever by wearing something special or a place of honor or a proper name? e. Am I truly a servant to others? Think of the people you see every day. f. Am I too prideful wanting others to think of me in some “exalted” way? g. My prayerthoughts…   Today, I will read 1 Thessalonians, chapter 2, and write an important thought from it.   Some Thoughts on the Liturgy THE HYPOCRISY OF CHURCH-GOERS           There was a popular song out a number of years ago by the rock group Genesis that was entitled “Jesus He Knows Me.” Some of the lyrics are these: Do you see the face on the TV screen, coming at you every Sunday? That man is me. You buy a piece of paradise, you buy a piece of me. Don’t need to believe in hereafter: just believe in me. ‘Cause Jesus he knows me and he knows I’m right. I’ve been talking to Jesus all my life. I believe in the family with my ever loving wife beside me, but she don’t know about my girlfriend. Won’t find me practicing what I’m preaching, won’t find me making a sacrifice. But I can get you a pocketful of miracles. I’ve found true happiness ‘cause I’m getting richer day by day. If you wanna get closer to him, get on your knees and start paying. [emphasis mine] It is a song obviously lashing out at TV evangelists especially with their pleas for money.            The song is not far from the thought of Jesus in today’s Gospel concerning the evangelists of his day—the scribes and the Pharisees. But it was not money they were after—it was power, power that came by way of honor and authority. And so Jesus says:           Do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you, but do not follow their example. …  All their works are performed to be seen. Or in other words: do not be hypocrites.            Hypocrisy is an interesting phenomenon to talk about. It is an automatic trap or problem area for anyone who gives direction to others: priests, ministers, teachers, parents, legislators, anyone showing leadership of others. In our case, it is anyone who chooses to do something good that others see, and therefore anyone going to Church. For whatever reason, we go to Church, and in doing so, we say to the world: “I believe in God through Jesus Christ.” We must listen to Jesus in the Gospel today. It is possible to say ‘I believe’, and not put it into practice.            We should be very interested in what we say in Church. We say strong words during the service, words like, we believe, we will, we do. We must truly listen to what we say and do. We receive the Lord in the words of the Gospel and in the Eucharist. How can someone receive the Lord and with the same mouth tear down someone else or allow foul language to come out of it? How can someone receive the Lord and continue a life-style that makes a shambles of a marriage or parenting? How can we miss the sacredness of life itself by being bitter and angry most of the time? Or refusing to see the good in life?            How?—according to Jesus, we have allowed religion to be nothing more than something to be seen or performed.           What’s the antidote to hypocrisy, how do we stay away from it? This Gospel gives us that as well. Jesus says:           The greatest among you must be your servant. Service—we have heard that before from Jesus, in fact a number of times. The way to keep ourselves from the hypocrisy of saying one thing and doing another is to work on behalf of others. Serve people, give to them without expecting anything in return, make others feel important because they are—really.            By the very fact that we go to Church, we are making a statement to the world outside that we believe in Jesus Christ. We must realize that we could be hypocrites… or if we carry through, we could be people who are helping this world. MEDIA PRESENTATION Movie: “The Batman” — beginning session GOOD INFLUENCE The Gospel MATTHEW 13:24-30 Jesus proposed another parable to them. “The Kingdom of heaven may be likened to a man who sowed good seed in his field. While everyone was asleep his enemy came and sowed weeds all through the wheat, and then went off. When the crop grew and bore fruit, the weeds appeared as well. The slaves of the householder came to him and said, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where have the weeds come from?’ He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’ His slaves said to him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’ He replied, ‘No, if you pull up the weeds you might uproot the wheat along with them. Let them grow together until harvest; then at harvest time I will say to the harvesters, “First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles for burning; but gather the wheat into my barn.””

Gospelthink: The Lord gives us the parable of the wheat and weeds. Have I learned to avoid the weeds-evil in my life?

Reclusive billionaire Bruce Wayne known as Batman together with Gotham City Lieutenant James Gordon discovered the evil that the Riddler had brought about together with the likewise evil person, Penguin. He had killed the mayor, city commissioner, and finally district attorney Gil Colson. When he killed Colson, the Riddler or his real name Edward Nashton, had set up bombs around Gotham City. As Batman and Gordon worked to fight both the Penguin and the Riddler, they worked with Selina Kyle who helped solve the problems. Most of the city’s important people were involved with the evil element that the Riddler stood for. Eventually, the evil was only temporarily conquered and the good people of the city including Batman were involved in the rescue effort to save the city and the good mayor Bella Real.

Jesus warned his disciples that in the arena of life, there are wheat and weeds.The wheat are the citizens of the kingdom that Jesus was preaching. The weeds are the followers of the evil one. Jesus’s story concentrated on whether we are wheat or weeds, that is a citizen of Jesus’s kingdom or followers of the evil one. And one of Jesus’s scare tactics was that we should be citizens of the kingdom because if we are following the evil one, we will be “gathered for burning,” that is, go to hell. There is evil present in almost every action movie, and certainly in “The Batman.” It is eminently clear from the very beginning of the movie that there were many evil people in Gotham City, perhaps even more than any other Batman movie. It seemed more than even Batman could handle, and indeed at the end of the movie, all Batman could do was help people recover from the evil. But it is also clear in the movie that there are many good people in Gotham City. They could fight the evil elements and win some battles, even if it seemed that their victories were only temporary compared with semi-permanent evil defeats. Good and evil. The age old problem that was evident from the first creation of man and woman. What can be done about it? We will never be able to wipe the evil completely from the face of our earth, but perhaps there is a solution. It was suggested at one time that Jesus really ended his story this way: “When harvest time came, the Master found that as the wheat and weeds grew together, the wheat had begun to change the weeds and the weeds actually began to act like the wheat.  At harvest time there were very few weeds to burn. One of the hopes of the movie is that the very presence of people like the Batman and Lieutenant Gordon could influence the weeds of this world and make them to change.

PRAYER Good and gracious God, we want to be part of the wheat of this world, the good people who perhaps can influence others toward the good. But our human natures often keep us from following what You want of us. We absolutely need your grace. Be with us, we pray.

+++++ GUIDE FOR CLASSROOM PRESENTATION AND PERSONAL ENRICHMENT Theme: There will always be good people, but unfortunately, there will always be evil.  DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: (session: approximately 83  minutes) 1. What scene during this session of the movie was most striking to you? Why? 2. What are some evils in the world, and what can you do about them? 3. In your opinion in our world right now, what percentage of people are wheat–good and what percentage are weeds-evil? 4. In general, do you feel that movies present more evil than there really is?  Yes or no and why? 5. In general, do evil people influence others to be evil?  Likewise in general, do good people, people like the Batman and Lieutenant Gordon influence others to be good? 6. In general, who are the strongest influence on peoples’ lives?  Why?