5th Sunday after Pentecost 2016
A Reading from the first Epistle of St. Peter
Beloved: All of you, have unity of spirit, sympathy, love of the brethren, a tender heart and a humble mind. 9 Do not return evil for evil or reviling for reviling; but on the contrary bless, for to this you have been called, that you may obtain a blessing. 10 For
“He that would love life
and see good days,
let him keep his tongue from evil
and his lips from speaking guile; 11 let him turn away from evil and do right;
let him seek peace and pursue it. 12 For the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous,
and his ears are open to their prayer.
But the face of the Lord is against those that do evil.”
Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is right? 14 But even if you do suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, 15 but in your hearts reverence Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to make a defense to any one who calls you to account for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and reverence; 16 and keep your conscience clear, so that, when you are abused, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.
The Continuation of the Holy Gospel According to St. Matthew
At that time, Jesus said to his disciples: unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
21 “You have heard that it was said to the men of old, ‘You shall not kill; and whoever kills shall be liable to judgment.’ 22 But I say to you that every one who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother shall be liable to the council, and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be liable to the hell of fire. 23 So if you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.
The Church in her wisdom is careful about the words of the Mass. Today we hear the first words of the Introit, and we can learn a lot from the verbs. Exaudi, Domine, vocem meam, qua clamavi ad te. Not “audi” which means, simply, listen, but “exaudi,” hear clearly. Not “dixi ad te”, which means “say to Thee,” but “clamavi”, shout to Thee. The Bride is speaking to the Bridegroom, and she is in pain, pleading for the divine ear. “Be my supporter, don’t leave me, don’t despise me, O God my salvation.”
We would be wrong to suppose that such a prayer is offered so that we might get God’s attention, or change God’s mind in some way. God is ever-present to each of us, closer to us than we are to ourselves. Moreover, God is changeless. Right at the center of the psalms we read the truth: Steadfast is His loving kindness toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever. God is always paying attention; God is always ready to hear those who cry to Him.
Then what in the world is all the clamor for? Why do we “shout”? We shout in order that we might hear ourselves clearly and loudly, so that we can understand down deep in our souls just what a horrible abyss we are crying out from. It’s a bottomless hole that was excavated by our first parents, a hole of rebellion and of tendency to turn our backs on God and do what we want rather than what He wants. It’s a hole many miles deep that we continue to dig deeper with every sin, with every refusal. The biggest fear any human being has is that he has dug so deep a hole that even God can’t get him out. Of course, refusing to believe that God can hear us and rescue us is the sin of despair. God can save us from any peril, especially our own moral stupidity.
The psalms are full of prayers from those seeking an escape from the darkness of sin and death. “I am counted among them that go down to the pit: I am become as a man without help.” “My rock, do not be deaf to me, For if You are silent to me, I will become like those who go down to the pit.” “Do not hide Your face from me, Or I will become like those who go down to the pit.” Can we be saved from the darkness of despair?
Jesus famously predicted that he would rise from the dead after being “three days and nights in the belly of the earth.” Now He was crucified on Friday, and rose on Sunday. But only Friday and Saturday nights was He in the belly of the earth. Where is that third night? Actually, a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and spending time walking in the footsteps of Jesus with Christian guides will answer the question.
There is an archaeological site, considered to be the place where the Jewish high priest Caiphas had his home and court, where you will discover the answer. Dug deep into the earth below the house is a cistern–originally a place to store water–which had dried up by the first century and was used as a prison cell for Jewish convicts. There, awaiting trial before the Sanhedrin, Jesus spent his last night on earth. Go down into this pit and turn off the lights–the guards wouldn’t have given any candles to their prisoners–and you will know true darkness. Not a glimmer of light steals into this hole. There the fellow prisoners of Jesus could abuse Him without anyone knowing but God. That is truly the belly of the earth.
So Jesus, in His Resurrection, became the man who rose from a three-day prison in the belly of the earth. And that means that, joined with Him by faith and sacrament, we too can rise from any morbid depression, any setback. His grace is enough for us to experience Resurrection–surely after our earthly life, but even in these days of our earthly life.
Jesus says that our righteousness must exceed even that of the Pharisees, that sect of Jews who believed to be saved you have to follow each of the 600 plus rules in Torah. Frankly, most of those laws were aimed at the priests in the Jewish sanctuary–destroyed in 70 AD–not the people and not the Church. But our righteousness is measured against that of Jesus–who loved us all the way to the cross and challenged us to follow His love. It goes way beyond the commandments to the very limits of self-giving. That’s the measure we must use for our own conduct, and it’s the measure that is made possible by the sacrament of penance/confession/reconciliation and the Holy Eucharist. Only grace can make us like Christ.
St. Peter today gives us some practical ways in which we can imitate Christ–our Epistle is worth a daily re-read. Keep your tongue from evil. Flee gossip–either in the telling or the listening. Always tell the truth. Watch the foul language when something goes wrong–banish it from your tongue, but even from your thoughts. Be a peacemaker. Reconcile with anyone who has harmed you, or whom you have harmed. When someone attacks your faith, be ready with a response, a truly charitable one. After all, they may themselves be having a really bad day. If you avoid evil, then when you are accused of some wrongdoing, you can honestly say, “what do you mean?” and they will believe in your innocence.
Now let’s take a moment to consider how we should help our youngsters to develop their own moral compass. It helps to understand where in our brains moral decisions are made. It’s up front in what is called the frontal lobe. Psalm 25 asks God not to remember “the sins of my youth.” Why do young people get into so much trouble? Well, adults may sin just as much, or even more, but we are more clever about the way we hide our faults. But the other reality is that the frontal lobe of our brain is the last part to develop. The kids I teach in high school are in prime moral development time, but they are going into the contest lightly armed–maybe 20% developed. Full development doesn’t occur in most males until about age 25. The contest is one-sided without the help of family and the power of grace. Outside the family is the world. The author Salmon Rusdie recently summed it up in five words: “the world is bad opera.” You know it. The music is bad, the lyrics are worse, and the libretto is written by the Adversary. The performers on the screen–silver or LED-- give bad moral example. That’s why we require our children to follow rules, both in the home and especially outside. That’s why we have curfews, insist on meeting their friends, check out the movies they see and the music they listen to and the TV they watch. That’s why we don’t let them have TV’s or Internet computers in their rooms. All these are fences around our young folk to protect them from an aggressively abusive world. As they develop their moral sense, and their active faith, the fences can slowly come down. But, quite frankly, we are surrounded by a culture that has totally lost its moral roots, one that can be comfortable with murdering the unborn and calling sexual abuse “marriage.”
Is there an answer? Yes, but the answer is moral before it is political. If hard human hearts are not softened by the Holy Spirit, elections just switch out dirty laundry for more dirty laundry. Jesus had it right in the Gospel. Be reconciled. Be merciful and you will receive mercy. That kind of relationship is good enough for God; why can’t it be good enough for us?
