3rd Sunday of Lent
Cycle B
March 4,
2018
Saint Mary Parish, Pylesville
9:30am and 11:15am
Artistic
Minimalism
In the
world of art, there is a type of painting called minimalism.
My
understanding is that minimalism began as an artistic style in the 1960s. These artists depict an object – like an
apple –in the starkest possible way.
They might
paint a few red dots and some rounded lines more or less in the shape of an
apple. But they would not represent the apple itself.
Minimalists
depict only the bare essentials. They paint a minimum and that is why this
style of art is called minimalism.
Religious
Minimalism
Today’s
Scripture passages address the issue of religious minimalism.
The Old
Testament passage gives us something very familiar – the Ten Commandments. These commandments have formed the foundation
of Judeo-Christian morality for the past 3,000 years.
They
are important and we need to obey them. But,
these commandments are also minimalist and here is why I say that.
Notice
in today’s gospel that Jesus is dealing with some people who are in the temple.
They are obeying the basic commandment of keeping the Sabbath holy.
After
all, they are there, in the temple. But, they are really not putting themselves
into the prayer.
Instead,
they are absorbed in the merchandising that is associated with temple
sacrifice. So, they are keeping the religious law as it is literally written, but
they are not observing its spirit.
Jesus
gets angry with them. Why? Because they
are religious minimalists.
Something
like minimalist painters, they are only observing the law in a bare-bones way
and have not put their heart into it.
Jesus calls us to much more than this religious minimalism
Religious Maximalism
We
might say that he calls us to a religious or spiritual maximalism.
He wants
us, for example, to look at the Ten Commandments and really put our heart into
them. He wants us to go beyond the letter of the law and embrace its spirit.
Jesus
wants us to do as much good as possible. That’s what I mean by a spiritual
maximalism.
Let’s
look at just two of the commandments as examples of this.
Two Commandments
The commandment
says: “Remember to keep holy the Sabbath
day.”
The
minimalist approach says: I come to Mass every Sunday. The maximalist approach
says: I come to Mass and try to put myself into it.
I join
in the prayers and try to take in what the readings are saying. I try to be
aware of the Lord’s presence when I receive Communion.
And
beyond that, I also try to pray every day and make every day a holy day. So,
this is an illustration of the maximalist approach.
Let’s
take one more commandment: “You shall not
kill.”
The
minimalist approach says: I would never think of killing or even physically
harming another person. For the maximalist approach today, in our year 2018,
this commandment is nudging at least me in a specific way.
I, personally,
am thinking about the killing going on in our country. I am thinking that the
commandment “You shall not kill” has
something to say about the number of killings of adults and school children that
is gong on.
So, I personally
feel the need to look reasonably and calmly at where we are with some of our
laws on firearms. I feel the need to look at existing background checks and see
if we need stronger ones.
And I
feel the need to question whether owning assault weapons should be part of the civil
rights of the ordinary citizen. This, for me, is an illustration of the
maximalist approach to the commandment about killing.
Conclusion
I want
to conclude by looking at the conclusion of today’s gospel.
It says
that some people “began to believe in
Jesus because they saw the signs he was doing. But Jesus would not entrust
himself to them because he understood human nature.”
Jesus
sensed that they liked his healings of people—that is what is meant here by “signs.” But he also understood that
they would probably revert to their pattern of observing the letter and not the
spirit of the law.
They
would go back to a minimalist approach and not accept the challenge of a
maximalist approach. The passage leaves us with the question: what will we do
today?
