17 June 2014
Tuesday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time
Although modern societies, based on a money economy, highly value mercantile relations, it was not always so. Ancient China no less than Catholic Europe placed commerce at the lowest level of society – indeed, usury has generally been considered something evil in Catholicism and Islam. This affected human relations. Calculating advantage in human relations was seen as something ignoble: and, just as the word “ignoble” indicates, the truly noble did not calculate. The truly noble practiced “noblesse oblige.”
As the family of Jesus, we are children of the Great King, who is no money lender: He gives everything away, freely, no interest charged. Grace! In our relations with others, we are tempted to calculate advantage, to invite to our parties people who will repay in some way. Jesus goes directly against this, and tells us to invite people who couldn’t possibly repay. As the nobility of the universe, such generosity is only fitting.
But much more shockingly, He tells us to have such largesse toward our enemies. After all, our Father is the Great King: no enemy can put a rock through His picture window, and why should He – or His children – narrow their hearts because of the reaction of someone who, in the end, cannot hurt them. Instead, He and they (we!) are the loving family that only helps, free of charge or calculated self-interest.