When you make your nightly examination of conscience, and prepare monthly for the Sacrament of Reconciliation, there’s a simple way to recollect yourself for the needed self-scrutiny. After all, if it’s been a long day or month, we can feel overwhelmed and unsure how to assess our efforts to live (or our failures to live) in Christ.
This simple means is to recall that all the commandments of the spiritual life converge in Jesus Christ. What does this mean? Today’s Gospel passage offers a concrete example. The imagery with which Jesus preaches today seems only to be about the challenge of loving our neighbor: specifically, a sinful (“blind”) neighbor. But the two great commands of Jesus—to love God fully, and to love our neighbor as our self—converge in Him.
We are not to look down on our sinful brother, but rather to look up to him. This is possible because of our authentic need for humility. Christian humility is in one sense nothing more than honesty. Both my brother and I are sinners. We are equal in this. But Jesus calls me to serve as brother as if I were serving Jesus Himself. For this reason, from my state of sinfulness, I look up to my sinful brother. From this stance, I may help him remove the splinter from his eye. Jesus, of course, never sinned, but He did “become sin”—in the phrase of St. Paul—so that in my sinful brother I can see the Jesus whom I am to serve.
CCC 218-221: God is love CCC 294: God manifests his glory by sharing his goodness CCC 2838-2845: “forgive us our trespasses”
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The great British convert and apologist G. K. Chesterton once said, “Forgiving means to pardon the unpardonable, or it is no virtue at all.” By contrast, you and I often are willing only to forgive if we deem someone’s sins not too serious or offensive. Today Jesus challenges us to go further in being instruments of His Divine Mercy.
On this Sunday in the midst of Ordinary Time, we ought to think back to the Sunday after Easter Sunday. The Church calls this day Divine Mercy Sunday, in honor of Jesus instituting the Sacrament of Confession in the evening following His Resurrection. The gift of this Sacrament is anything but ordinary. Yet the fruits of this sacrament are meant to help each Christian face the ordinary challenges of forgiving others as we have been forgiven.
One way to realize to what extent we ought to extend mercy to others is to turn the table. We ought each day to consider how much God Himself has blessed us in showing us His mercy. We ought to remember that each day we act sinfully, in a way that calls for God’s mercy.
All of us long to find a place where we are at home, where we are trusted. But even more importantly, we long to find a place where we can be forgiven, for we know that there are times when we fail to live up to the trust that people place in us. We might ask ourselves, “Which is more important to me: trust or forgiveness?”
If we look to our own experiences, it’s easy to answer these questions. When we consider the workplace, we can hope that our employers or supervisors might be patient and help us when we have trouble with a task.
But if we were to imagine our worst Monday, a day in which hour after hour produced nothing but terrible results, and finally ended in a major blunder or misjudgment, we might naturally expect to receive a pink slip instead of forgiveness. Businesses have to trust people, or they wouldn’t have any employees. But they do not have to forgive endlessly. They can only tolerate a certain amount of error. After that, the relationship is over.
All of us long to find a place where we feel at home, which first and foremost means a place where we know we can experience forgiveness despite our sins. We want a home where our relationships are not defined by, or at risk of termination because of, our sins.
Home is not simply where the heart is, but where the forgiving heart is. The home in which we find the deepest sort of forgiveness, a selfless and generous forgiveness that seeks to build up the one who has transgressed: this is our truest home.
The Church, wherein we share in the Body of Christ, is our truest home both on earth and in Heaven. By right, we should feel most at home there, before its altar, because it is there that we revel in the source of all forgiveness. When the priest speaks those words that Christ spoke at the Last Supper, we are taken into that home where forgiveness was first given by the God-man, when He said, “This is the Cup of My Blood. It will be shed for you and for all, so that sins may be forgiven ….”
But in this home, we find not only forgiveness. In our home which is the Church, sharing in the Eucharist means giving thanks not only for the forgiveness wrought by Christ’s Sacrifice on the Cross. We also give thanks for the fact that when we share fully in this sacrament, we receive not only a share in Christ’s forgiveness. We receive a share in the life of Christ himself. We receive not only the Forgiver’s forgiveness. We receive the Forgiver.
To receive forgiveness is to be restored to our former self. But to receive the Forgiver means not simply that we’re restored to our former self, but that we’re raised from our state of sinfulness even beyond our old self, to a share in the life of the Forgiver’s Self. We share in the life of Christ, and so are asked to offer forgiveness to others as Christ does: to all persons, in all circumstances, forever.
In today’s Gospel passage Jesus bids us to follow the Golden Rule. “Do to others as you would have them do to you.” The Golden Rule is heard within the setting of admonitions by which Jesus leads us to share in His Cross: “Love your enemies.” “Do good to those who hate you.” “Pray for those who mistreat you.” These admonitions are examples of living out on the moral and spiritual planes what Jesus accomplished on the Cross.
We all know that it’s very hard to live out these admonitions. But it’s good to remember that Jesus is not only our teacher, who set us an example on the Cross. He is also our Savior, who from the Cross on Good Friday bestows grace upon all who beseech Him as they strive to imitate Him.
In the final part of today’s Gospel passage Jesus offers us some rhetorical questions. The first is representative: “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you?” By the questions that follow Jesus leads us to see the Face of His heavenly Father. When we live the Golden Rule, we will be “children of the Most High”. Finally, to sum up everything He’s been exhorting us to live, He offers a simple principle that you and I might take and repeat throughout this day whenever there is a quiet moment: “The measure with which you measure will in return by measured out to you.”
“Woe to you when all speak well of you.” These words of Jesus seem at first hard to reconcile with the honors we confer on the canonized saints of the Church. If we took the words of Jesus literally, then the praise given the saints would be wrong. Then again, what of our speaking well of Christ Himself, and praising Him? We don’t doubt that we ought to praise Christ, but given that fact, how do we understand His words in today’s Gospel passage?
What Jesus teaches in this passage—and in all the Lucan Beatitudes—is that a Christian can only find consolation in one place: within the Holy Spirit. None of the things which Jesus preaches against is bad. Money, food, laughter, and praise are all good things. The evil which distorts and perverts these good things, however, is the temptation to rest in them: that is, to believe that these things can make us happy for any longer than a mere moment.
It is when we root good things such as money or praise within our earthly selves that they become that source of evil that Christ is preaching against. May the grace of the sacraments help us to offer all our pleasures in life to God, and admit that none of them can save us from being rooted in this world.
“She will bear a son and you are to name Him Jesus ….”
As the Church today celebrates the nativity of Mary, we reflect on human nature. In the great universities of the Church, this is the study of theological anthropology: that is, the study of man vis-à-vis God who is man’s Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier. God in Himself—as Father, Son and Holy Spirit—had no need whatsoever to create man. Nor did He have need to care for fallen man.
But God chose, and still chooses, to redeem and sanctify individuals. He does this through Christ Jesus, who entered our world through the life of Mary. In the field of theological anthropology, Jesus and Mary stand at the head of our prayer, reflection, and study: Jesus as a divine Person who took on a human nature, and the Blessed Virgin Mary as the perfect human creature.
Today we hear in the Gospel about the family tree of Jesus. There were some great figures in Jesus’ family tree, such as King David. But most of the people in Jesus’ family were very ordinary. Maybe the most ordinary was Mary.
That might seem strange to say, because we might want to say that Mary was the most extraordinary. Of course, Mary was the most holy of Jesus’ ancestors: she was the only person to come before Jesus who had never sinned. But still, at the same time, Mary was really the most ordinary person to come before Jesus.
If you were to walk down a busy street in a large city, and Mary walked by you, you probably would never recognize her. That’s because Mary lived out the Gospel so fully. She lived out the Gospel even before Jesus became a human being. It’s because Mary lived out the Gospel so completely that Jesus became a human being. But living out the Gospel is really very simple, very quiet, and very ordinary. It doesn’t mean being famous, or looking for attention from others, or wanting to be better than those around you.
For me to live the Gospel means living like Mary: listening for God’s voice every day, letting his Will for my life sink into my heart, and carrying out that will with the love of my own human heart.
But they became enraged and discussed together what they might do to Jesus.
Jesus in today’s Gospel passage (and on many other occasions during His earthly life, leading to the Cross) faced those who had turned the meaning of religion inside out. Jesus in this passage heals the man with the withered hand, and the response of the scribes and Pharisees is to become enraged: they discussed together what they might do to Jesus.
In this we see a similarity between Jesus’ day, and our day: a similarity between the world of Jesus, and the world in which we live. The world in which we live today may be much larger than Jesus’ world: there may be more countries, and more peoples who have to speak with each other, and work to get along. Likewise, the Church today extends throughout the world instead of consisting of a small band of disciples.
Yet there are today people, just as in Jesus’ day, who return evil for good: whose actions make no sense. Whether we reflect upon the example of the scribes and Pharisees in today’s Gospel passage, or Pontius Pilate, or Judas Iscariot, the question we have to ask is: how did Jesus respond to those who hated Him, and nailed Him to the Cross? Can we be like our Lord Jesus, even in a situation like this?
St. Paul in yesterday’s First Reading referred to Christians as “stewards of the mysteries of God”. In today’s First Reading Saint Paul continues to preach on the topic of stewardship, noting that everything in our life is a “given”. But if this is so, he rhetorically asks the Corinthians, why are they “boasting as if [they] did not receive it?” In fact, the “givenness” of our lives and everything in them calls for humility from us.
But St. Paul goes further. In describing himself and the other apostles, he debases himself for a specific purpose. He describes the apostles as being “like people sentenced to death”, as “fools on Christ’s account”, and “like the world’s rubbish, the scum of all”. At the same time, he raises up those whom he serves, saying that the apostles are weak, but the Corinthians are strong, and that the Corinthians are held in honor, but the apostles in disrepute.
These points are made to admonish the Corinthians as Paul’s spiritual children. Here he reveals his motive in this passage of his letter: to beget in his children the humility that will foster spiritual growth. He concludes with a verse that contradicts those who say that Christians—such as priests—cannot serve as spiritual fathers: “I became your father in Christ Jesus through the Gospel.”
“Rather, new wine must be poured into fresh wineskins.”
Depending on circumstances, two given cousins may resemble each other very closely, or not at all. Today’s Gospel passage presents a contrast between Jesus and His cousin, John the Baptist. Jesus confirms the differences between Him and John, although these differences lead in the same direction.
The context of this contrast is a complaint lodged against Jesus by the scribes and Pharisees. They uphold the practice of fasting and prayer, but at the same time note that Jesus’ disciples don’t seem to engage in either.
Jesus responds with a metaphor and a parable. Consider the former. Jesus describes Himself as a bridegroom. We as modern Christians understand that by this metaphor Jesus is referring to Himself as the bridegroom of the Church, though that part of the metaphor would have been lost on His original hearers. But He continues by noting that when the bridegroom is taken away, then the wedding guests will fast.
The latter part of the metaphor can be applied in two ways. The first we can reflect on in terms of Jesus’ earthly life, and the time of His Passion and death during Holy Week. The second we can reflect on in terms of our own earthly lives as pilgrims on our way to Heaven: that is to say, as members of the Church Militant. We may only share fully in the wedding feast of the Lamb in Heaven, and so while still here below we fast and pray, hoping for complete union in Heaven with the Lord.
CCC 2055: the Decalogue summed up in one command to love CCC 1443-1445: reconciliation with the Church CCC 2842-2845: “as we forgive those who trespass against us”
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Today’s Responsorial Psalm comes from Psalm 95. The last section of Sunday’s Responsorial ties most directly to the rest of the day’s scriptures. The refrain of the Responsorial comes from this final section, and is a paraphrase of Psalm 95:7-8: “If today you hear His voice, harden not your hearts.”
One notable feature of this sentence is that it speaks in the plural. Its command is to “harden not your hearts”, not “your heart”. Psalm 95 is a “community psalm”, to use a modern phrase. As so many of the psalms make clear, they were composed for liturgical worship, which by its nature is communal rather than individualistic.
This is good to remember when we as Christians are tempted to reduce our faith to something simply between “me and Jesus”. Just as in Jesus both the divine nature and human nature fully dwell, so living one’s faith in Jesus means both fully loving God, and fully loving one’s neighbor. As soon as we prefer one of these to the other, our faith is no longer focused squarely in Christ.
This leads us to ask why Psalm 95 exhorts us not to harden our hearts when we hear the Lord’s voice. What about the Lord’s voice might tempt us to do so? The answer is two-fold.
The first is that He commands us to love Him with faith. During the Exodus, God’s people demanded signs from God of His power. This is what Psalm 95 is referring to directly. In our own lives each of us sins when we lose faith in God’s providential love, in which all things—even sin and evil—work together for good, in the words of Saint Paul [Romans 8:28].
We are also tempted to harden our hearts when the Lord’s voice calls us to love our neighbor, especially in the form of forgiveness. Here the Responsorial Psalm ties together this Sunday’s other Scripture passages. The Second Reading explains God’s command that we love our neighbor. The First Reading and Gospel Reading focus on God’s command to love our neighbor by offering fraternal correction.
Offering fraternal correction can easily lead to the hardening of one’s heart. It can lead to cynicism and self-righteousness, or can be thwarted by our fear of the other’s response. But these threats to our spiritual peace don’t excuse us from the Lord’s command. One of the helpful points from today’s Gospel Reading is that Jesus situates our need to offer fraternal correction within the setting of the Church.
In only two passages in all the four Gospel accounts does the word “church” appear. In fact, these two passages are very close to each other: in chapters 16 and 18 of Matthew. In both, Jesus gives His Church the power “to bind and to loose”. In today’s passage, Jesus explains that He’s speaking about that power in the context of a brother’s sin.
Jesus is very clear about the steps that need to be taken. The first step is to speak directly with the sinner himself before discussing the matter with others. God demands that a sinner not be tried, convicted, or sentenced in absentia, because it’s the sinner’s welfare that is at stake as much as the welfare of the one who is sinned against. In our modern throw-away culture, we may not wish to love the criminal, but only the victim. Jesus is calling us to love both, as He Himself did on His Cross.
Here’s a practical suggestion for the next time you need to offer fraternal correction. If you struggle to offer fraternal correction, whether because your heart is fearful or callous, go first to God in the Sacrament of Confession. Admit there your own sinfulness to Him who is the Father of both you and the one whom you must correct. Being on the receiving end of Divine Mercy will help form you into a bearer of mercy. The experience will also help you approach your brother with a love akin to that which Jesus showed on the Cross. This is the love that effects communion within the Church, and that makes Jesus present in the midst of us.
Moses Striking Water from the Rock by Valerio Castello (1624–1659)
Reflections on the Sacred Liturgy 