Responsibility. Whats your policy

First Reading: 2 Thessalonians 3:6-10, 16-18
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 128
Gospel: Matthew 23:27-32


In the sports world today, there are many scandals of athletes taking performance enhancing drugs such as steroids. These acts of irresponsibility certainly put blemishes on sports stars and make us weary of who we call our heroes. Wouldn't it be great if all athletes took their position as a role model just as serious as they do their athletic career? Now please do not think that I am saying that there are no responsible athletes out there, believe me there are some and they are committed to their faith and to their job as a role model just as much as they are their careers; but I think that we all realize that the majority of athletes are not like this. Unfortunately most athletes and celebrities are me focused instead of others focused.

Jesus had the same problem with the the celebrities of His time as well, only these were not athletes, they were the religious leaders of the time. The scribes and Pharisees were described by Jesus as appearing righteous on the outside, but on the inside they were filled with "hypocrisy and evildoing." Jesus knew of how these leaders of the community were not living as they should, they were not modeling the behavior that they were teaching. They were being very irresponsible and selfish, only thinking of how they could better themselves.

Praise God that in the early church we were given doers and not just talkers. In the second letter to the church at Thessalonica, Paul talks about how hard Silvanus, Timothy, and he had worked around them and how they conducted themselves in a respectable and orderly way around them. Why did they do this? Paul says "we wanted to present ourselves as a model for you, so that you might imitate us. (v9)" So Paul isn't saying here do as we say, not as we do...what he is actually saying is do as we say AND as we do! I believe this is called integrity, which basically means walking your walk and talking your talk. St. Paul and his group knew that they could not just tell the church what to do, they had to actually show them. Paul and the early church fathers knew that they had a responsibility to share the gospel, and as we all know sharing the gospel does not just mean talking about it, it means living it. This is the responsibility that we each have. As St. Francis of Assisi said "Preach the gospel at all times; and if necessary use words."

The company Liberty Mutual has these great commercials that have all of these people doing random acts of kindness and other people seeing them. They always end with the question "Responsibility. What's your policy?" I think that we can all see what the policy of the early church fathers was. Responsibility.

So what's your policy?

Father above, we thank you for the gift of today. Lord take all of the feelings of selfishness and take them up, fill us with kindness and compassion. Help us to sacrifice for you and your glory and to serve you will all our heart, mind and soul. Lord we praise you and may we serve you completely today. We ask this all through Christ our Lord. Amen.