Feb. 27, 2022: 8th Sunday C
Feb. 27, 2022: 8th Sunday C
It’s been really hard to watch surreal images coming out of Ukraine. There were people scrambling for fuel and food, queuing for hours outside cash machines and piling into trains and cars in an attempt to flee their country. Already, our Holy Father has asked everyone around the globe to pray for Ukrainians. In particular, he wants everyone to pray and fast for peace on Ash Wednesday. He prayed, “May the Queen of Peace preserve the world from the madness of war.” Our Heavenly Mother also gave a message on Feb. 25, 2022 from Medjugorje reminding her children to pray and fast. “Help me with prayer, little children, that Satan may not prevail. His power of death, hatred, and fear has visited the earth.Therefore, little children, return to God and to prayer, to fasting and to renunciation, for all those who are downtrodden, poor, and have no voice in this world without God. Little children, if you do not return to God and His Commandments, you do not have a future.”
In times of conflict, those who want to sway the public opinion have deployed “doublespeak” to falsify their intentions, that is using words that disguise or distort their true intention. During World War II, words such as “special treatment” and “final solution” were used by Nazi’s to coverup extermination of Jewish people. To assess the truth behind the words, one must be vigilant in observing the actions of the speaker. The author of Sirach wrote, “When a sieve is shaken, the husks appear; so do one’s faults when one speaks.” In other words, convincing and persuasive words cannot ultimately hide the fruit of their action.
Jesus used the word, “hypocrite,” to describe a person who says one thing but acts contrary. In today’s Gospel, Jesus used the word, ‘hypocrite,’ to address a person who is not self-aware of their glaring shortcomings all the while criticizing his neighbor’s faults, “How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me remove that splinter in your eye,’ when you do not even notice the wooden beam in your own eye? You hypocrite! Remove the wooden beam from your eye first; then you will see clearly to remove the splinter in your brother’s eye.” In our interaction with people we will be open to constructive criticism when the speaker is recognized to have a good heart and great integrity. However, if we sense destructive superiority and self-righteousness in their words, we will not be open to listen.
I came across a list that will help us recognize some of the wooden beams in our eyes
- Do I think that what I do or say is better than what others do or say?
- Do I Always want to get my own way?
- Do I often argue about being right or that others are not right, insisting stubbornly or with bad manners?
- Do I often give my opinion without being asked for it?
- Do I despise the point of view of others?
- Do I often mention myself as an example in conversations?
If we say with our mouth, “I love my spouse,” how is this revealed in the appreciation, attentiveness, and sacrifice done for our spouse? If we say we love the Church and the Body of Christ, do we act to foster unity and actively interpret all things from the best possible point of view?
Our words and actions reveal what is in our hearts. “A good person out of the store of goodness in his heart produces good, but an evil person out of a store of evil produces evil.” If our hearts are not in relationship with Christ, it will be revealed through our actions. When Jesus Christ is our treasure, then our hearts will burn with the fullness of his love like the hearts of the disciples who were on the road to Emmaus.
How do we grow in integrity, in closing the gap between what we say and what we actually do? In a few days, we will enter the season of Lent. God is inviting us into the “desert” to be self-aware and to acknowledge our sinful inclinations in order to grow in relationship with him. In the gospel for Ash Wednesday, Jesus will again use the word “hypocrite,” when he addresses his disciples. He told his disciples not to be like a hypocrite when they give alms, when they pray, and when they fast. Giving alms, praying, and fasting will help us to experience Heavenly Father’s love, providence, and mercy to the extent that we only seek His approval and be less concerned for the approval of men.
The Season of Lent invites us to recognize the temptations of the evil one, deny ourselves, pick up our cross and follow Jesus. I love how the Ukrainian father took off his crucifix necklace and placed it on his little daughter as he said goodbye to her. It spoke so powerfully about denying himself, picking up his cross, and sacrificing for his family and country. Let us enter this season with a goal of bearing good fruit for Christ. May our sacrifice we make bring peace to his fallen world and aid to those who are persecuted. We have one goal in mind, just as Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, “Father, I pray that they may all be one.”
-Fr. Yi
