Ends And Means

Thus says the LORD: Rejoice heartily, O daughter Zion, shout for joy, O daughter Jerusalem! See, your king shall come to you; a just savior is he, meek, and riding on an ass, on a colt, the foal of an ass. He shall banish the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem; the warrior’s bow shall be banished, and he shall proclaim peace to the nations. His dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth. (Zechariah 9:9-10)

Our first reading cites a promise from God: a savior shall come to us.  Zechariah wasn’t speaking to us, but to his contemporaries.  Nevertheless, it’s a promise Gospel writers, such as Matthew, seized to help explain Jesus’ purpose.

Jesus is the meek one “riding on an ass, on a colt, the foal of an ass” – the description used to describe Jesus on Palm Sunday.  “Peace be with you” is his hope for us although countless battles and wars have occurred since that command, and weapons of war have not been banished.  They have propagated like weeds in an unkept garden – quite the opposite of Eden and Paradise.   Many nations, including the United States, sow these weed seeds that choke out the good.

Our second reading gives us a clear warning: “Brothers and sisters: You are not in the flesh; on the contrary, you are in the spirit, if only the Spirit of God dwells in you. Whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies  also, through his Spirit that dwells in you. Consequently, brothers and sisters, we are not debtors to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. (Romans 8:9, 11-13)

We are not to live according to the flesh.  If we do, we will die; we will perish.  Only by the Spirit can we put to death the deeds of the body which can mean works pertaining to the philosophy: the end justifies the means.  The Spirit dwells in us, but often that Spirit is held prisoner by the flesh meaning our base needs and the darkness can grip us.  By darkness I mean getting what we need without concern for how we get it; that is, the means that might trample our sense of morality and our Catholic consciences formed by following Jesus, our Savior.  One such means is war and the promotion of anger and fear that stoke wars’ fires and destruction.

We must never subscribe to the end justifies the means, but quite often we do despite Jesus’ insistence that we shouldn’t.  Our Catholic Catechism gives us the same instruction.  Regarding good and evil acts, it reads: One may not do evil so that good may result from it. An evil action cannot be justified by reference to a good intention.  The end does not justify the means.  In other words, when we search our souls, do we find them, and are they intact.

Our Gospel reads:  At that time Jesus exclaimed: “I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to little ones. Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.” 

“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.” (Matthew 11:25-30)

Although Jesus likely meant something entirely different, many of us concluded long ago that his yoke is not easy, and his burden is not light.  Being yoked to him doesn’t mean we have been given rest.  Just the opposite because he stirs our consciences.  He troubles us because his commandments are daunting, and we know we seldom obey them especially about loving our neighbor. 

When we subscribe to the end does justify the means, we are the asses on which Jesus refuses to ride.   We are the wise and learned yoked together that plow the little ones into the ground through war, intolerance, bigotry, racist behavior, selfishness, and following leaders committed to the end justifies the means.

Deacon David Pierce