Praying for peace and reconciliation in Minneapolis

A Reflection for Thursday of the Third Week in Ordinary Time

Find today’s readings here.

At the end of today’s Gospel, we hear what can sound like an obvious fair principle: “The measure with which you measure will be measured out to you.” But the Gospel then immediately follows it with something profoundly stranger: “…and still more will be given to you. To the one who has, more will be given; from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.”

The first line of that passage sounds like a version of the Golden Rule, a basic ethical norm that can be found in pretty much every moral tradition and that we expect to be intuited even by children as a kind of ordinary fairness. But the remaining lines take us deep into the upheaval of the kingdom of God. (In fact, the readings tomorrow will make exactly this point, as chapter 4 of Mark continues with Jesus saying “This is how it is with the kingdom of God.”)

In the kingdom, the logic of fairness and equal exchange is superseded by a logic of abundance—which, in a way, is another name for a logic of mercy, which gives what by definition cannot be deserved. From that perspective, rather than proposing a model of fairness, what Jesus is saying to us is that we can only fully receive what we are also disposed to give. If we hope to receive from God what we can never earn, if we recognize a need for mercy that goes deeper than anything we can achieve, the way we can ready ourselves to receive that abundance is not by earning or achieving as much as we can and then hoping that God will make up the last little bit we lack—but instead to give with abundant generosity ourselves, trusting that God will give, as the Gospel says, “still more.”

Over the last few weeks, my prayer has frequently been for peace and reconciliation in Minneapolis in the face of the chaos and violence caused by the inhumane immigration enforcement surge. I was struck by something a Jesuit friend preached recently, which was included in America’s recent report about how Catholic pastors in the Twin Cities responded in their homilies to the killing of Alex Pretti. He spoke about visiting Belize recently, and meeting people who themselves live in dangerous and insecure conditions, and said, “You know what each of them said to me, almost to a person? I’m praying for you in Minnesota.”

Perhaps it registers as a shock that a place like Minnesota could become as chaotic as it has been these past weeks. But I hope it may also register as the generosity of being able to pray, even from one’s own insecurity, that God’s abundant mercy may be poured out on all who face danger and as an echo of the solidarity with which Minnesotans are caring for each other. May those prayers for safety and mercy remind us that God cares for us not because we deserve it on our own, but because God loves us “still more”—and may we be moved to measure out what we have been given with like measure to those in need.