Homily Feb.24th, 2019:
7th Sunday in Ordinary Time. Luke 6:28-38.
AIM: To help the
hearers share with others the unmerited love God lavishes on us.
ADon=t get mad B get even.@
Which of us has never felt like that?
The desire for revenge, to pay someone back for an injury done to us,
sits deep in every human heart. Is this
desire something we learn as we loose the innocence of childhood and enter the
dog-eat-dog adult world? Anyone who has seen two little children in a playpen
fighting over a toy that both happily ignored until one them picked it up,
quickly becomes skeptical about childhood innocence.
The instinct to seek revenge, to
retaliate, is inborn. It is part of what
the theologians call Aoriginal sin@: the truth that we are not what, deep in our hearts, we
would like to be, and what our Creator meant us to be. The Catechism calls original sin Aa deprivation of original holiness
and justice,@ because of which our human nature Ais wounded in the natural powers proper
to it; subject to ignorance, suffering, and the dominion of death; and inclined
to sin ...@ (No.405). We experience original sin every day. St.
Paul
In today=s gospel Jesus tells us not to
seek revenge, to live by a higher law.
He tells us to love our enemies, to do good to those who hate us. He says we should bless and pray for people
who mistreat and hurt us. He tells us to
be compassionate, to give without any thought of return.
Is that realistic? Is it even
possible? Not, it would seem, in the world as we know it. In another world,
then? Perhaps. What prevents our working for such a better world, at least on a
limited scale: in our neighborhoods, where we work, among our friends and
relatives? We are afraid to begin. We
fear that others, less high-minded than we are, might take advantage of
us. If we start trying to be good to
people who have injured us, won=t they consider us too weak to defend our rights, or too
frightened? Our enemies could inflict
fresh wrongs on us. People who practice
non-violence may win our admiration. But
do they really change things? Apparently
not. The world seems to go on as before.
If the standards Jesus sets before us
in today=s gospel are not to remain simply
beautiful ideas, unattainable in the real world, we need to look at life as
Jesus did. He says nothing in our gospel
reading about the world being better if only we would all love one
another. Jesus is not talking about Abuilding a better world.@
He is talking rather about our proper response to the love God shows
toward us. A key to understanding
the passage is in Jesus= words: AYou will be children of the Most High, for he himself is kind
to the ungrateful and the wicked.@
God=s love for us has no strings
attached. It is not dependent on our
attitudes or conduct. By continuing to
love even Athe ungrateful and the wicked,@ God shows that he is totally free
and totally independent. >Be like your heavenly Father,= Jesus is saying. >Imitate his universal love B the love he bestows on you independently
of your worthiness: not because you are Agood enough@ to deserve God=s love; but because He is so
good that he wants to share his love with every one of his children.=
To follow Jesus= teaching for a lifetime we need a
deeper motive than wanting to build a better world, or to earn a reward. Those motives are fine, as far as they
go. But for the long haul they don=t go far enough. If our motive is the desire to build a better
world, we=ll find that the world won=t change B or at least it won=t change enough. And if we=re looking for a reward, it will
never be sufficient. One way or another,
in time we will grow discouraged. Then
we=ll start thinking that Jesus= standards are unrealistic, and give
up trying to follow them.
The deeper motive we need can only be
faith in the God who never grows weary of showing kindness and compassion to
people who, on any strict accounting, do not deserve either. How many of us really deserve all the
goodness that God lavishes on us? Do
you? If so, then you have served the
Lord far better than I have.
Jesus came to show us that God
bestows even greater kindness on those sunk in evil than on those
who are making every effort to be good. Why? They need God=s love more! That is the point of
Jesus= story about the shepherd leaving the
ninety-nine sheep to look for the one that is lost (see Lk 15:3-7). Jesus
supported this teaching with his own example: going to dinner with the corrupt
tax collector Zaccheus (Lk 19:1-10), accepting the scorn of the upright
religious people who complained: AThis man receives sinners, and eats
with them@ (Lk 15:2).
Does that strike you as unfair? Is it
unfair when parents give more attention, and more love, to the Ablack sheep@ among their children than to the
other siblings who bring honor to the family name rather than shame? Wise
parents know that in such a situation questions of fairness and unfairness
are irrelevant. What is important is not
how much love a family member deserves, but how much love he or she needs.
Why did the father in Jesus= parable of the prodigal son prepare a feast for his
returning son who had wasted the family money on dissolute living? Was it because he deserved it? Of course not.
He received a royal welcome because he needed it. Only in this way could
the young man be assured that he was still his father=s son, still a dearly loved member of
the family despite his folly and sin.
Jesus= message in today=s gospel is really very simple. It is
this: our treatment of others should reflect God=s treatment of us. God showers his love on us,
and his blessings, not according to our deserving, but according to our need. In
a few moments we shall be reminded of this, as we repeat the familiar words
before Communion: ALord, I am not worthy ... @
The Lord who gives us his body and
blood here in the Eucharist despite our unworthiness asks us to share this
unmerited love with others. Then, and only then, are we truly sons and
daughters of our heavenly Father, who B as Jesus tells us in the gospel B Ais kind to the ungrateful and the
wicked@ B in other words, to us!
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