Self Interest or the Common Good

This Sunday's passage is about the woman who anointed Jesus with an expensive perfume. The passage tells us that Judas objected to her actions because the perfume could have been sold for a year's wages. That was a considerable sum. However, the author of the gospel tells us that Judas had an ulterior motive. Judas was an alleged embezzler. He was skimming off the top. I say alleged embezzler because we do not know for sure. Judas was never tried and convicted of the crime. However, the point is not to be missed. Judas’ objections were motivated by self interest.

Self interest is a strong motivation today. People have lost the sense of the common good. Detroit is the ultimate showcase of the results of years of political self interest. Politicians have enacted policies and laws to further their own political career, and not to rebuild the city. Administrators and employees in the public schools took advantage of an ineffective auditing system for their own financial betterment.

We always need to be conscious of our motivation and be willing to examine it even under a microscope. Are we against taxes because we want to retain the money or do we really believe that societal needs could be addressed more effectively in another way? Do we favor pro-choice legislation because someone in our family had an unwanted pregnancy and needed an abortion? Do we think that global warming is just a natural occurring phenomena because of the scientific evidence or because to that that it is caused by human activity would require us to make too many changes to our lifestyle?

We can be for or against a cause for many reasons. But we should never lose sight of the common good. We are in this together. What we do in our own backyard will in some way impact our neighbor even if we have a 12 ft fence around the perimeter. Our lives have a certain intradependancy. We cannot survive without one another. We are not and never will be self sufficient. We will not be able to work through the mounting social problems unless we start working for the common good. Unless we do we are nothing more than 21st century Judases who deny their Lord for a few shiny coins.