Justice and Mercy
Aug 5: Saturday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time
God’s ways aren’t our ways; His mercy and justice are not ours. Which is why we are commanded to take on His ways. We shouldn’t be surprised when He doesn’t do things the way we expect.
Reading 1
Lv 25:1, 8-17
The LORD said to Moses on Mount Sinai, "Seven weeks of years shall you count–seven times seven years–so that the seven cycles amount to forty-nine years. Then, on the tenth day of the seventh month, let the trumpet resound; on this, the Day of Atonement, the trumpet blast shall re-echo throughout your land. This fiftieth year you shall make sacred by proclaiming liberty in the land for all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, when every one of you shall return to his own property, every one to his own family estate. In this fiftieth year, your year of jubilee, you shall not sow, nor shall you reap the aftergrowth or pick the grapes from the untrimmed vines. Since this is the jubilee, which shall be sacred for you, you may not eat of its produce, except as taken directly from the field.
"In this year of jubilee, then, every one of you shall return to his own property. Therefore, when you sell any land to your neighbor or buy any from him, do not deal unfairly. On the basis of the number of years since the last jubilee shall you purchase the land from your neighbor; and so also, on the basis of the number of years for crops, shall he sell it to you. When the years are many, the price shall be so much the more; when the years are few, the price shall be so much the less. For it is really the number of crops that he sells you. Do not deal unfairly, then; but stand in fear of your God. I, the LORD, am your God."
We all need days off. But on the a civilizational scale, God calls for years off. There was a practical reason for this—a nomadic culture settled down, they don’t necessarily know about crop rotation and such. Letting the earth go uncultivated for a year after six of farming is good for the land, and future crop yields.
But there’s something more important going on. It’s not just the ground that needs a break; we need a break. As Jesus says, “The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath.”1
The idea of the jubilee year was to offer God’s mercy to forgive all kinds of debts, in a reflection of God’s mercy. It wasn’t “fair” in the usual sense of the word. When God shows mercy, it’s because He wants to; it’s not something we’ve earned, or something owed to us by justice.
The jubilee year was similar—it doesn’t make a lot of sense in the human understanding of justice.2 But it probably helped the cohesion of the Israelite nation for a long time.
Responsorial Psalm
Ps 67:2-3, 5, 7-8
R. O God, let all the nations praise you!
May God have pity on us and bless us;
may he let his face shine upon us.
So may your way be known upon earth;
among all nations, your salvation.
R. O God, let all the nations praise you!
May the nations be glad and exult
because you rule the peoples in equity;
the nations on the earth you guide.
R. O God, let all the nations praise you!
The earth has yielded its fruits;
God, our God, has blessed us.
May God bless us,
and may all the ends of the earth fear him!
R. O God, let all the nations praise you!
As I said, one practical result of the jubilee years was a bountiful harvest, generally.
But notice that the psalmist isn’t just praying for a fruitful year for himself and his nation. He wants God to use this prosperity as a sign to other nations, so the whole world can see and know God.
Alleluia
Mt 5:10
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness
for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Jesus knew that being a Christian wouldn’t be easy, for His followers or Himself. He also knew it would be worth it.
Gospel
Mt 14:1-12
Herod the tetrarch heard of the reputation of Jesus and said to his servants, "This man is John the Baptist. He has been raised from the dead; that is why mighty powers are at work in him."
Now Herod had arrested John, bound him, and put him in prison on account of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip, for John had said to him, "It is not lawful for you to have her."
Although he wanted to kill him, he feared the people, for they regarded him as a prophet. But at a birthday celebration for Herod, the daughter of Herodias performed a dance before the guests and delighted Herod so much that he swore to give her whatever she might ask for. Prompted by her mother, she said, "Give me here on a platter the head of John the Baptist."
The king was distressed, but because of his oaths and the guests who were present, he ordered that it be given, and he had John beheaded in the prison. His head was brought in on a platter and given to the girl, who took it to her mother. His disciples came and took away the corpse and buried him; and they went and told Jesus.
I don’t know about anybody else, but I was a little confused by this. Apparently, verses 3-12 (starting with “Now Herod had arrested John…”) are a flashback. Matthew is explaining why Herod thought John was dead, which wasn’t mentioned before this point in Matthew’s Gospel.
Herod, as the tetrarch, is meant to dispense the emperor’s justice. But he’s not concerned with justice, much less mercy; he just wants to impress his half-brother’s wife. He keeps his oath to her not because that’s what justice demands, but because he wants to save face with the court.
As the ruler of Israel in the emperor’s stead, he is not unifying the kingdom per God’s laws. He’s following his own human goals and desires.
We can totally understand his motivations and why he would do the horrible things he does. But do we see the horrible results? Do we recognize it’s because Herod acted in the way we understand and not as God understands?
And economists could probably write entire books about the moral hazard of wiping out all debts on a predictable schedule.