Sept. 2, 2018 22nd Sunday B
Sept. 2, 2018 22nd Sunday B
Have you ever encouraged someone to attend church services only to be reminded, “I don’t go to church because it’s full of hypocrites.” How accurate are the following statements in our own lives: (1) I faithfully live out my Christian beliefs each and every day. Or, (2) I struggle with being true to my Christian beliefs when I am not in church. The honest answer is that yes, the church is full of hypocrites. The challenge from the Gospel today is whether we honor, praise, and bless God with our actions within and outside the church. Simply put, do we honor God with our lips or with our hearts?
Our Lord bluntly said to the teachers of the law, “This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines human precepts. You disregard God's commandment but cling to human tradition. In fact he called them, “hypocrites.” In Greek, “hypocrite” means a “stage actor.” Thus, a hypocrite is a person who pretends to be what he or she is not. If we are honest with ourselves, we’re all hypocrites in one way or another.
Perhaps, we may think that hypocrisy relates only to the religious or spiritual realm, but it also relates to the secular realm. We may pretend to possess virtues and claim to be a good person, but in reality, we sometimes fail to live out a virtuous life. What we say and do in public must also reflect in our private life. Integrity is doing the right thing even when no one is looking. If we truly believe in Christ, there is no private and secular divide; our baptismal promises permeate what we say and do in private as well as in public. We can’t say we are Catholic and ignore the plight of the poor, marginalized, immigrants, and neglected. The Letter of St. James alludes to this when he wrote, “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained by the world. Whether we are parents, grandparents, employee, or religious leaders, our actions should not betray what we publicly state to be our convictions. St. James again wrote, “Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deluding yourselves.
We can’t use our position of authority--whether we’re a boss, media mogul, supervisor, politician, bishop, or priests--to bully or abuse people against their dignity. Even we priests and bishops fail to live up to the high calling and dignity of our vocation. If we are honest, probably all of us honor God with our lips through our prayers and worship, yet outside of this sacred time and space (and probably inside,too), we fall short of holiness. In other words, we are not saints...yet. No wonder we need to cling to Our Savior and receive the numerous grace promised to us! He gave us His very self in the Eucharist, mercy in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, and fellow brothers and sisters in Christ to build up the kingdom of God on this earth.
One of the first steps in accepting His grace is taking time in prayer to ask Jesus to reveal anything in our hearts that we are overlooking that can rob us of the peace and joy in Christ. Jesus mentioned several vices that rob us of peace--evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, depravity, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. Are there any harsh judgements about others or clinging to the past hurts done by others that prevent us from seeing the face of Christ in others? We need to ask Our Lord in prayer to purify these thoughts and desires of the heart and help us transform them into forgiveness, compassion, and mercy.
Our prayer should change our hearts that lead to action. We need to ask Our Lord that all our actions lead us to His peace. We should consider: Will what I’m about to write, say, or do bring sadness, division, darkness, doubt, and hurt? Or, will what I’m about to say, write, and do bring hope, joy, understanding, mercy, and greater faith. Our mission as disciples of Christ is to bring others to God’s peace where they’ll find healing and fullness of life. St. Francis of Assisi told his followers that we should not be quarrelsome or take part in disputes with words or criticize others; instead, we should be gentle, peaceful, unassuming, courteous, humble, speaking respectfully to everyone. Whatever house we enter, we should first say, ‘Peace to this house,’ hence an instrument of peace for our hurting and divided world.
Have you ever encouraged someone to attend church services only to be reminded, “I don’t go to church because it’s full of hypocrites.” How accurate are the following statements in our own lives: (1) I faithfully live out my Christian beliefs each and every day. Or, (2) I struggle with being true to my Christian beliefs when I am not in church. The honest answer is that yes, the church is full of hypocrites. The challenge from the Gospel today is whether we honor, praise, and bless God with our actions within and outside the church. Simply put, do we honor God with our lips or with our hearts?Our Lord bluntly said to the teachers of the law, “This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines human precepts. You disregard God's commandment but cling to human tradition. In fact he called them, “hypocrites.” In Greek, “hypocrite” means a “stage actor.” Thus, a hypocrite is a person who pretends to be what he or she is not. If we are honest with ourselves, we’re all hypocrites in one way or another.
Perhaps, we may think that hypocrisy relates only to the religious or spiritual realm, but it also relates to the secular realm. We may pretend to possess virtues and claim to be a good person, but in reality, we sometimes fail to live out a virtuous life. What we say and do in public must also reflect in our private life. Integrity is doing the right thing even when no one is looking. If we truly believe in Christ, there is no private and secular divide; our baptismal promises permeate what we say and do in private as well as in public. We can’t say we are Catholic and ignore the plight of the poor, marginalized, immigrants, and neglected. The Letter of St. James alludes to this when he wrote, “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained by the world. Whether we are parents, grandparents, employee, or religious leaders, our actions should not betray what we publicly state to be our convictions. St. James again wrote, “Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deluding yourselves.
We can’t use our position of authority--whether we’re a boss, media mogul, supervisor, politician, bishop, or priests--to bully or abuse people against their dignity. Even we priests and bishops fail to live up to the high calling and dignity of our vocation. If we are honest, probably all of us honor God with our lips through our prayers and worship, yet outside of this sacred time and space (and probably inside,too), we fall short of holiness. In other words, we are not saints...yet. No wonder we need to cling to Our Savior and receive the numerous grace promised to us! He gave us His very self in the Eucharist, mercy in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, and fellow brothers and sisters in Christ to build up the kingdom of God on this earth.
One of the first steps in accepting His grace is taking time in prayer to ask Jesus to reveal anything in our hearts that we are overlooking that can rob us of the peace and joy in Christ. Jesus mentioned several vices that rob us of peace--evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, depravity, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. Are there any harsh judgements about others or clinging to the past hurts done by others that prevent us from seeing the face of Christ in others? We need to ask Our Lord in prayer to purify these thoughts and desires of the heart and help us transform them into forgiveness, compassion, and mercy.
Our prayer should change our hearts that lead to action. We need to ask Our Lord that all our actions lead us to His peace. We should consider: Will what I’m about to write, say, or do bring sadness, division, darkness, doubt, and hurt? Or, will what I’m about to say, write, and do bring hope, joy, understanding, mercy, and greater faith. Our mission as disciples of Christ is to bring others to God’s peace where they’ll find healing and fullness of life. St. Francis of Assisi told his followers that we should not be quarrelsome or take part in disputes with words or criticize others; instead, we should be gentle, peaceful, unassuming, courteous, humble, speaking respectfully to everyone. Whatever house we enter, we should first say, ‘Peace to this house,’ hence an instrument of peace for our hurting and divided world.
