"BE DOERS, NOT HEARERS ONLY."

Homily for February 19^th, 2020: Letter of James 1:19-27.

          “Be doers of the word and not hearers only,” we heard in today’s first reading. The words summarize the central theme of the whole letter. They are remarkably similar to something Paul says in his letter to the Romans: “It is not those who hear the law who are just in the sight of God; it is those who keep it who will be declared just” (Rom. 2:13). Jesus says the same in the Sermon on the Mount: “None of those who cry out, ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of God but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven” (Matt. 7:21).

          Who are the people who say, “Lord, Lord”? We are! Every time we pray – and your presence here shows that you do pray – we are saying, “Lord, Lord.” God asks for more. If our prayers do not bear fruit in our lives, they are useless.

          Our first reading says the same, using the image of a mirror. “If anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his own face in a mirror. He sees himself, then goes off and promptly forgets what he looked like.” The nineteenth century American author Nathaniel Hawthorne says something remarkably similar when he writes: “No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude, without getting bewildered as to which may be the true.”

There are people who have hidden behind a mask for so long that they have forgotten what their true face looks like. Our masks may fool others. They cannot fool God. God looks behind our masks. God looks at the heart. God reads even our secret thoughts and desires. Yet no matter how great the darkness within us, God never rejects us. God loves us deeply, tenderly, passionately. That is the gospel. That is the good news.