Love and mercy

Josef Fuchs, a person who deeply influenced my life, died recently. Forty years ago, he was one of my moral professors at the Gregorian University in Rome. His classes were automatically interesting because he taught "de sexto:" the course on sex.

Yet, his influence stretched beyond that specific topic. Father Fuchs often reminded us that, especially in the confessional, we were not so much to be "answer men" as we were to be ministers who help form and respect the conscience of others. Instead of giving erudite responses to complicated questions, he encouraged us to listen carefully and ask appropriate questions in order to understand and appreciate the motives behind the penitent's actions.

The German Jesuit certainly mirrored the mentality of the historical Jesus. Even the most liberal Scripture scholars - those who claim we can know almost nothing about the historical Jesus - concede that there's one thing about which we can be certain: He associated with people whom the "good folk" regarded as sinners. That's why Sunday's Gospel is so important (Mt 9: 9-13).

Calling sinner

Matthew, the evangelist, describes the call of Matthew, the sinner. Tax collectors were looked upon as sinners both because of the way they collected taxes - by force, blackmail and intimidation - and because of those for whom they collected taxes - the hated Roman occupiers of Israel. Jesus deliberately calls Matthew while he's "sinning;" he was "sitting at the customs post."

Jesus surfaces something in this traitor and his sinful friends that others seem not to notice. Jesus' only defense for His outrageous behavior is the statement, "Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do....I desire mercy, not sacrifice."

People who claim they're "saved" without Jesus shouldn't object to those who can be saved only through Jesus. He sets the record clear: "I did not come to call the righteous [those already carrying out God's will], but sinners."

If we need Jesus in our lives, we're admitting we're sinners. He didn't come to help anyone but sinners. Respect for those outcasts must have been one of the deepest motivating influences in His life and ministry. There's no other way to explain His oft-condemned table-fellowship with them.

Though a practicing Jew, Paul constantly associated with Gentiles. He defined his ministry as being an announcer of the Good News to them. These Gentile Christians were looked upon as sinners by many of Paul's fellow Jews because, after their conversion to Jesus, they didn't follow the laws of Moses.

How saved?

The Apostle addresses this problem in the second reading (Rom 4: 18-25), reminding his readers that the first Jews in history - Abraham and Sarah - actually lived hundreds of years before Moses promulgated his 613 famous regulations. How were they saved if they didn't have rules and laws to save them?

Along with the author of Genesis, Paul believed salvation came through their faith in Yahweh, a faith which parallels the faith of those non-Jews who carry out God's will by imitating Jesus. After all, it was this God who "raised Jesus our Lord from the dead," not Moses.

In spite of His openness, we presume Jesus, like Amos, often dealt with people who weren't sincere about their relationship with God; those who pray, "Let us strive to know Yahweh," yet whose "piety is like a morning cloud, like the dew that early passes away" (Hosea 6: 3-6). Such people are quick to offer sacrifice but slow to develop their love and mercy relationships with others.

Jesus, Paul and Amos taught that an experience (knowledge) of God should be the goal of every disciple of God, not an experience of rituals and institutions. All three knew what to look for in people, even sinners.

No doubt sinners who encountered Father Fuchs in the confessional encountered someone who had as much confidence in and respect for them as the historical Jesus had in and for those sinners He encountered.

(6/2/05)