Sometimes, after I've prepared a homily, the priest will let me know that he'd like to preach. And that's OK, never a problem. It's good for me to prepare so I can appreciate God's Word even more. The below homily is the one I didn't preach today, but thought my tiny band of readers might find it of some benefit.
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Readings: Is 1:10, 16-20; Ps 50; Mt 23:1-12
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I have to admit, listening to today’s Gospel passage from
Matthew always causes me to cringe a little.
Jesus, of course, was talking about the Pharisees and
Scribes and their hypocrisy, and warning the people, especially His disciples,
about following their example. As we see throughout the Gospels, these spiritual
leaders of the Jewish people didn’t really hide their hypocrisy too well. It
wasn’t just obvious to Jesus, but we suspect everyone saw it.
Indeed, Jesus offers us a sad litany of their offenses,
everything from grasping honor and privileges for themselves to making life
unbelievably difficult for others. But Jesus is also letting His disciples know
that they, too, can fall prey to these same failings, and so the warning
extends across the centuries to us as well. And there’s one sin -- and I think we
can safely call all these failings sins -- that strikes me with the greatest force.
It’s when Jesus says, “For they preach but they do not practice.”
You see, as a deacon, a man once declared by my bishop to
be a true “servant of God” – he actually said that to all of us at our ordination.
Anyway, when I hear Jesus say this about those Pharisees, I find myself wanting
to hide behind that “seat of honor” over there.
It’s a very obvious seat isn’t it? Comfortable too. Yes,
indeed, no matter how crowded the Mass, I’ve always got a great seat don’t I?
Heck, the parish even gives me a parking place, so the old deacon doesn’t have
to tire himself out.
But it’s really that preach and practice thing that troubles
me. I’m preaching right now, and soon enough I’ll probably be telling you how
to live your lives during this season of Lent. I did just that at a couple
of Masses this past weekend.
And yet, like you, I too am a sinner. Most of the faults I
address in homilies and the remedies I preach have their source in my own
behavior, or in that of those I love and know best. Yep, it’s always easier to identify
the sins of family and friends, isn’t it? We know them so very well, just as
they know us.
Anyway, as I dig deeper into my own conscience to uncover
my faults, I realize how different I am from the man I was 30, 40, or 50 years
ago. I guess my spiritual life, my struggle toward some degree of holiness, has
actually progressed, not as far as I’d like, and certainly far below the Lord’s
hopes…
On a wall in our home, hangs a rather large portrait of Jesus
– it’s the Divine Mercy image – and I’m serious, but sometimes when I glance at
it, Jesus seems to be shaking His head at me…Maybe it’s just my aging vision,
but I think it’s more than that. He’s just showing me I have a long way to go.
Lent, though, is a good time for introspection, a time to
take a good, hard look at ourselves – a time to let God reform us, to transform
us, into His ways
It’s also a time for simplicity, a time to turn away from
the busyness of the world and its false attractions and promises.
But perhaps most importantly, it’s a time for sacrifice. So
often we try to avoid any kind of sacrifice because sacrifice often means
suffering, and yet it’s there, in our sacrifices, where Jesus Christ comes to meet
us.
It’s there, when we bear our everyday crosses, that He
comes to us and carries them with us.
Jesus never said that living the
Christian life would be easy; but He did promise we wouldn’t be alone. He would
join us.
Yes, I suppose I’m guilty of a touch
of hypocrisy, but thanks to Jesus’ words, at least I know it, and can repent. Maybe
some of those Scribes and Pharisees also came to recognize their hypocrisy when
they listened to Jesus, and then they too repented.
Perhaps they, too, heard Isaiah’s message,
one they would have known well:
“Wash yourselves
clean!...[and] set things right”
And how do we do
that? We change, for that’s what repentance means.
“Put away your misdeeds from before
my eyes; cease doing evil; learn to do good. Make justice your aim: redress the
wronged, hear the orphan's plea, defend the widow.”
Oh, yes, so let me leave you with
another thought:
Don’t be too critical of deacons and
priests, of bishops and popes, for we too are human and subject to the whole
range of human failings.
How much better simply to pray for us,
as we pray for you.
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