6th Sunday Year A (Mt 5:17-37) If your virtue goes no deeper than that of the Scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of heaven

 

Why do we talk about sin so much and why is it so serious? Sin is the one thing that can separate us from God for eternity. That is why Jesus often spoke about it. He said,

‘If your eye causes you to sin, tear it out… or if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better to enter life without a limb, than to fall into hell with all your limbs.’

 

So what is sin and what is serious or mortal sin? I have also heard people ask if the teaching on sin has changed, or become too watered down. Is that true? No. Sin is still sin. However, our understanding of these things is all the time changing and hopefully growing deeper, especially as we grow in understanding of how complex we are as people.

 

Before he was made Pope, Cardinal Ratzinger said an interesting thing with regards mortal sin. He said that probably not that many people commit mortal sin, because in order for it to be ‘mortal’—meaning it causes the death of the soul—three things are needed. You must know that it is something very serious, you must deliberately choose to do it knowing it is very serious and you must be completely free to do it. It is not often that all those categories are met, especially the freedom part. All of us are affected by compulsions and are affected by the stresses and strains of what is going on around us and all of that affects our freedom. Sin is always something for us to try and avoid of course, because it is what separates us from God and only in God will we find total fulfillment. If sin didn’t matter Christ would not have had to die for us in order to break the power of sin, but it’s also important that we keep it in perspective or else we can feel overwhelmed by our own weakness and become disheartened.

 

There is also a big difference between falling into sin because of our own weakness and deliberately living a double life. For example, a man (or woman) who is happily married, enjoying his work and life and then one day he meets someone he finds very attractive and he begins to lust after her, knowing that he should not. And he seduces her disregarding his marriage vows and not caring.

 

Now imagine a different scenario where a man is really struggling with his marriage, under great pressure at work and generally finding life very difficult. One day he meets someone who is very understanding, supportive and compassionate and they end up becoming friends. One day they end up sleeping together, but afterwards they are deeply remorseful and realize what they have done is wrong and they must end the friendship. Both of these situations are sinful and adultery, but the circumstances are very different.

 

I think we often forget to take all the circumstances into consideration, but God sees everything and God is always trying to help us, to encourage us. That is one of the reasons why God has given us the beautiful gift of confession, so that we can begin again as often as we fall and maybe more importantly so that we don’t become so discouraged as to give up. Satan is the one who tries to discourage us, to tell us that we are useless, hypocrites, a bad example and that there is no point in trying to live the Christian life, because we are not able. The Lord does the opposite. Jesus is the one who continually helps us to get up again and start over, assuring us of his mercy and compassion.

 

In today’s readings we are reminded that we have a choice. The first reading says, ‘If you choose you can keep the Commandments. They will save you.’ We can choose for God or not, for sin or not. God has given us that freedom and it is ours to enjoy. Hopefully we will use it to choose for good. But even if we do fall, we can turn to God and ask for his mercy. The important thing is that we are striving to live as God calls us to, which is the path that leads us to him.

 

In the Gospel Jesus challenges us not just to live on the surface in a legal way, fulfilling the minimum requirement of what is asked, but instead to live from the heart. If my relationship with God only involves attending mass each week and confession once a year, that is living it at the minimum level. And we know what happens if we live any relationship at the minimum level: it fades away. Why was Jesus so critical of the Pharisees and other religious leaders of the time? Because although they lived the law perfectly, they had lost a sense of compassion and mercy. We can easily fall into the same trap. We can fulfill our religious obligations by going to mass on Sunday and maybe giving to charity, but if the rest of our life doesn’t reflect our faith in some way, then our religious observance doesn’t mean a lot. Here is an example, although it is an extreme one.

 

I went to a conference one time and I heard a lady give her testimony. She shared how God had healed her from terrible abuse she had suffered from an early age, at the hands of her father. She had grown up with incest, abuse and pornography all around her. Her father had even sold her to other men. And yet this family went to mass every Sunday. Obviously there was something seriously wrong there. That is a very extreme example, but Jesus is telling us that just filling outward obligations is not enough. We are called to something deeper than that. 

You have heard that it was said to your ancestors,

You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment.

But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment.

 

The same thing can easily happen in religious life; we can life the ‘rule’ perfectly, while becoming monsters underneath, as we have seen happen. It would be better that we don’t live the rule perfectly, but that we learn to be compassionate and merciful, because our love for God is expressed by how we treat the person beside us.

 

Finally, I think the most important thing is that we strike a balance. Focusing on sin too much is not healthy and we can easily feel discouraged and overwhelmed because everyone sins. Our life in Christ is not about sin, it is about the freedom from sin that God has won for us. At the same time pretending that we never do wrong is naïve.  In St. John’s first letter he says:

‘If we say that we have not sinned, we make [God] a liar, and his word is not in us’

(1 Jn 10). 

 

We will always be sinners, but that is why Jesus came for us. That is what the mass is all about, what the death and resurrection of sin is all about: ‘So that sins may be forgiven.’ Every day we must choose for or against God. That is the freedom God has given us. But one path leads to God and the other to separation from God.

 

If you choose you can keep the commandments, they will save you;

If you trust in God, you too shall live;

He has set before you fire and water;

To whichever you choose, stretch forth your hand.

 

5th Sunday Year A (Gospel: Matthew 5:13-16) You are the light of the world

 

 

Every so often the Lord raises up men and women who live their faith in an exceptional way. It usually seems to be at a time when people really need to be inspired and often when the Church is in crisis. At the end of the 13^th century God called a man called Francesco, or Francis, to live in a radically different way. He was from a town called Assisi in Italy. Francis was from a wealthy family, but he felt that God was calling him to leave everything and follow him and so he did, to the horror of his father who strongly objected. Francis renounced everything and ended up having a show-down with his father in front of everyone on the street. His father gave him an ultimatum. So Francis stripped off all his clothes and walked away naked. Any belongings he had he gave away and went off to live on his own as a poor man, living only for God. Soon afterwards while he was praying alone in a broken down church, he felt God speaking to him from the cross and saying, ‘Francis, rebuild my Church, which as you can see is falling down.’ So Francis started to collect stones and reconstruct that building. However, God had a much bigger project in mind. God was talking about the whole Church. Around the same time pope Innocent III had a dream of a poor man holding up the Church which was collapsing. It was a sign of the role that Francis was going to play. 

 

Not long after Francis began to live in radical poverty, others began to see the kind of simple way of life that he was living and one by one they began to join him. They spent their time looking after the sick, the lepers, praying together, preaching the Gospel and most importantly… inspiring people by the way they lived. Eventually when they had been living this way for a while Francis went to Rome to get permission for this new group to officially become a Religious Order. When some of the bishops were discussing this with the pope, one of them said, ‘It is not possible to live in this kind of extreme way,’ but one of the others pointed out that if it wasn’t possible to live that way, then it wasn’t possible to live the Gospel, since all he was doing was literally living the Gospel. And so he was given permission for his order, which he called the Order of Friars Minor, better known as the Franciscans. Today there are over 12400 priests and religious throughout the world.

 

You might wonder what difference could one man make, in a little known town in Italy, to the whole Church, which was going through a time of terrible corruption. But what he did was inspire, which is more important than any physical work that he did.

 

Today, over 800 years later, people are still inspired by St. Francis of Assisi, because we still need to be inspired. There have been others like him too, a modern-day example being St. Teresa of Calcutta. What is especially important about these people is not so much the work they did, as the effect they had and continue to have, on others. They usually become renowned all over the world, because they inspired people. They preach about God by the way they live more than by anything they could say. The saying, ‘Let us go and preach the Gospel and if necessary, use words,’ is attributed to St. Francis.

 

The Missionaries of Charity in India at least, spend a lot of their time bringing people in off the streets who are dying. They clean them up as best they can and allow them to die with dignity. Most of these people would be Hindu or Muslim, but they don’t try to convert them. That is not what they are called to. They are called to bring the love of God wherever they find themselves, among the poorest of the poor. They say more about their faith in God by what they do than by anything they could say. There is a story of one man they found who was in a particularly bad way. It took them several hours to clean him up and then he said to them:

‘All my life I have lived like an animal in the street, but I am going to die like an angel, loved and cared for.’ Mother Teresa went on to say: ‘It was so wonderful to see the greatness of a man who could speak like that, who could die like that, without blaming anybody, without cursing anybody, without comparing anything. Like an angel - that is the greatness of our people.’

 

In the first reading today we are called to look out for those around us who are in need and there are always plenty of people around us in need, often hidden. Some time back I was talking to a man in Sarasota who was homeless. He told me that he had served in the military, he had also done time in prison and now he was homeless. He also said: ‘You know, doing time in prison is one thing, but trying to survive on the streets of Sarasota is quite another.’ It’s not what you would expect to hear. While helping the poor materially is really important, respecting the dignity of each person is just as important. The way we look after people and treat people is how we tell the world what we believe in. It is not even about giving great amounts; it is about giving what we can with love and treating those around us with great respect, whether we like them or not and regardless of what they believe in, where they come from, even if they are legal or not. The first thing we are called to do is to take care of the person standing in front of us. The political side comes second. That is how we tell others about God.

 

In this Gospel Jesus says, ‘You are the light of the world… the salt of the earth.’ When we live by the teachings of Jesus, we give hope to the people around us, because we show them that they are not forgotten. We become a light in the middle of a world of darkness and selfishness, which tells us only to take care of ourselves. Our world tells us that the only one who matters is me, that I am satisfied and have all I want. God teaches us the opposite. It is not all about me, it is about giving of myself to others. There is nothing wrong with having wealth. In fact it is a great blessing, but the Lord expects us to use it properly. What we have has been entrusted to us, to use well.

 

Think of how small grains of salt are and yet they can bring out the flavor of a meal. They affect their surroundings. We affect our surroundings, for better or worse. Is my focus only on myself and my family? If it is, I am not living the Gospel. That doesn’t mean we have to give away everything we have, but the Lord is telling us that we must also remember those around us who are in need. When we have enough, God is giving us the opportunity to share with others and if we don’t, we will be asked why we ignored them, because we are accountable for our actions and for using all that God has given us. ‘Whatever you did to the least of these, you did to me’ (Matt 25:40). If we ignore the needs of those around us, we are ignoring Jesus. His words.

 

You may argue, ‘I worked hard for my money.’ I’m sure you did, but who gave you the intelligence, the opportunities, the health, the success?

 

Last week I was talking to a good friend of mine, who is quite wealthy. He was telling me that he had given away a large amount of money to a particular university. He said he couldn’t get over how much joy it gave him to do that. Not many people are in a position to do that, but that’s not the point. The point is that all of us can do a certain amount and we have an obligation to do so.

 

I’d like to finish with this prayer which you have probably heard before.

  

Anyway

From a sign on the wall of Shishu Bhavan, the children’s home in Calcutta.

 

People are unreasonable, illogical and self-centered.

Love them anyway.

If you do good people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.

Do good anyway.

If you are successful you win false friends and true enemies.

Succeed anyway.

The good you do will be forgotten tomorrow.

Do good anyway.

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.

Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spent years building, may be destroyed overnight.

Build anyway.

People really need help, but may attack you if you help them.

Help people anyway.

Give the world the best you have and you’ll get kicked in the teeth.

Give the world the best you’ve got anyway.

You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God;

It was never between you and them anyway.

 

(from the book, ‘A Simple Path’)

 

 

‘Your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds

and glorify your heavenly Father.’

4th Sunday Year A (Gospel Matthew 5:1-12) Why I am a priest

 

 

Today I would like to share with you something more personal than I usually would. I would like to tell you why I am a priest. Not how I became a priest, but why I am a priest. I suppose it’s something you probably don’t think of very often, but people often ask me why I became a priest.

 

First of all I believe that God called me to be a priest. There was a real sense of God calling me in this way and it was a persistent call. Although it was something both exciting and wonderful, it was also something scary and painful. I knew it would mean that I would not get married, which is a natural attraction for anyone. When people asked me if I did not want to be married, what I always say is that the calling to be a priest was stronger than the calling to be married, even though both were there. And that calling continues to be there.

 

The year I entered the seminary was the year when all the sexual abuse scandals began to break in Ireland. It started with my own bishop having had a child years before and it got steadily worse with all the other scandals. This made all of us in the seminary think a lot about why we were there. After I was ordained the scandals continued and the atmosphere in our society (in Ireland) was very difficult to work in as a priest. I know it was the same here in the US. Because of the way the media presented it, almost every priest was considered a pedophile, which was very difficult, as you can imagine. Why would I want to be part of an organization that tried to cover up such terrible scandals? The reason is simple, I believe.

 

I believe that Jesus Christ is Lord; that Jesus is the Son of God, the second person of the trinity who took on human flesh. I believe that this same Jesus sacrificed himself for us so that we could go to heaven when we die and be with our loved ones again. I believe that Jesus is present in the Eucharist, not in a symbolic way, but that it really and truly is the body and blood of Christ. Since I believe that is true, there could be no more extraordinary miracle to be part of as a priest. I always consider it the greatest privilege that I have as a human being and as a priest. It is always an honor and a privilege to be allowed go to the altar and celebrate the mass, even when I’m half asleep on a Monday morning, or when I humanly don’t feel like doing it. Sometimes it scares me when God reminds me that I am a sinner and struggle like everyone else and yet He allows me to do this for you his people, because He wants us to be able to receive him in Holy Communion. For all of us, that is an incredible gift. I do not understand it, but I believe it.

 

I also believe that God speaks to us through the sacred scriptures. God actually speaks to us in a very personal way and God has much to say to us. The scriptures were written by human hands, but they were inspired by God and that is why we never replace them with anything else. That is also why I continue to read them over and over again. What could be more important to hear than what God has to say to us?

 

I consider being able to hear confession as another great privilege. To be God’s instrument to bring his forgiveness and mercy to people is a wonderful thing, to see God healing people through me. That people will come to me as God’s instrument, is both humbling and wonderful to me.

 

As a priest I am called to people when they are sick and dying, to be at their bedside, even though I often do not know them and they will tell me things that they will not even tell their own families. I am asked to be there when families are going through great joys and sorrows.

 

Is it difficult? Yes. I have struggled with it every day since I was ordained 27 years ago. Twice I almost left. In fact one time I thought it was all over and I had even told people that I was leaving, not because I wanted to, but because I thought that I couldn’t handle the stress of it anymore; the daily hostility I was experiencing and the sense of isolation I felt in some of the places I was working. Yet each time the Lord called me back and showed me that He would take care of it and He did.

 

The prophets struggled in the same way and what they wrote is comforting. When the prophet Jeremiah is feeling unable to go on he says:

[The] word of the Lord has brought me insult and reproach all day long. But if I say, “I will not mention his word or speak anymore in his name, his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot. (Jer 20:9)

 

Another time when Jeremiah is on the verge of giving up, God pushes him to go on, not just to take a vacation, but to continue.

Therefore this is what the Lord says: “If you repent, I will restore you that you may serve me; if you utter worthy, not worthless, words, you will be my spokesman. Let this people turn to you, but you must not turn to them. I will make you a wall to this people, a fortified wall of bronze; they will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you to rescue and save you.” (Jer 15:19-20)

 

I always find it comforting to see how most of the people who were called by God, tried to resist. They didn’t feel able, or qualified and they knew it would mean persecution.

 

The prophet Elijah was considered the greatest of the prophets. After working an incredible miracle of calling down fire from heaven to show up the false prophets of the pagan gods, Elijah then has to flee for his life, because the queen threatens to kill him. He travels a day’s journey into the desert and then he sits down and says, ‘I have had enough Lord, take my life, I am no better than my ancestors.’ He wishes he was dead. But instead of God telling him to take some time off, he wakes up to find food and drink beside him and an angel telling him to eat, as he will need it for the journey ahead. God pushes him to keep going.

 

It is normal for any of us to become discouraged every so often, but God is always the one to strengthen us and help us to keep going.

 

In the second reading today it says:

God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise,

and God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong,

and God chose the lowly and despised of the world,

those who count for nothing,

to reduce to nothing those who are something,

so that no human being might boast before God.

 

In a mysterious way God seems to delight in calling and working through the nobodies of this world, so that it is all the more obvious that it is God at work and this is something He continually shows me.

 

The apostles were no different. St. Paul writes, ‘But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us.’ (2 Cor 4:7)

 

What inspires me the most? Your faith and every priest I know will say the same thing. My lifestyle as a priest is conducive to being close to God, although that doesn't necessarily follow, but most people's lifestyle isn't. Working in the secular world can be a lot more difficult and that's why your faith in spires me.

 

My faith keeps changing and growing and the path is often difficult, but I believe it is the most important path we will ever be asked to follow and so by his grace I will continue. I would like to finish with this quotation where St. Paul is talking about his own life.

I believe nothing can happen that will outweigh the supreme advantage of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For him I have accepted the loss of everything and I look on everything as so much rubbish if only I can have Christ and be given a place in him. (Philippians 3:7-8)