5th Sunday after Pentecost
St. Mary’s in Salem
19 June 2016
1 Peter 3:
8-15
Matthew 5:
20-24
I am really going to have to be more careful about choosing
the time period when I come home for vacation each year and perhaps vary it a
bit more. Thanks to the kind invitation of your pastor, I find myself here in
Salem two years in a row on Father’s Day. My worry is that Father Martin might
start talking about an unbroken tradition since time immemorial and expect to
see me every year on this date! Either that or all the dads in Salem will come
to expect me on this date. Not a bad thing, but I am just saying.
At any rate, best wishes to all the dads here present, as today
we thank God for our earthly fathers, both the living and the deceased. We pray
fervently for those who have preceded us in death and for those still on this
earth we pray they might always better reflect the love of God our Heavenly
Father and help to draw us their children into the mystery of the Eternal One,
Living and True, from Whom all that is draws life and being. Happy Father’s
Day!
To my way of thinking, on this the 5th Sunday
after Pentecost, St. Matthew’s Gospel presents us one the toughest daily
challenges which is ours as Catholics and that is: living reconciled with those
who are given to us in this life. It is a great challenge because it does not
depend upon one side alone; it is very much a two-way street as these two lines
from the Gospel show:
“So when you are
offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister
has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first
be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift.”
“…and if you say, ‘You
fool,’ you will be liable to the hell of fire.”
People who live in the real world often know better than
some of us clergy and understand quite clearly the import of what the Lord
Jesus is demanding of us with these words “…leave
your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or
sister…” You and I might just deceive ourselves into thinking that what
Christ commands we can accomplish by personal resolve, by the force of our own
will: “…gee I’m sorry, no, honestly I am!” First be reconciled to your brother
or sister: how often have we encountered among family, extended relation, friends
and neighbors, situations which just don’t resolve themselves with an “I am
sorry” no matter how sincere? Reconciliation has two sides to it and if the
other party is unwilling, it is almost as if the gift or sacrifice is destined to
remain permanently sitting there on the altar waiting to be offered until the
difference between us finally be resolved.
In terms of the importance of reconciliation, which is
intimately bound to the two great commands of love of God and neighbor, another
very familiar passage comes to mind: sacrifices
and oblations you want not, holocausts and sin offerings you sought not, but
rather a heart ready to do your will, O God. And what is God’s will? That
we would put on His mind, that our hearts would be one with the heart, with the
love of Christ. What about that estranged brother or sister, that workmate or
neighbor? I can freely say I am sorry and in a big hearted way I can even forgive.
Right? Great! But Christ’s point in today’s Gospel is how does the other party
feel towards us. Do they still hold something against us and keep their
distance? As prudent as it is to avoid conflict by keeping our distance, it does
not seem to me that the Lord is going to let us off the hook with a simple,
“Well, I’ve done my part”. For admission to the altar of sacrifice, for
participation in the oblation which the priest offers on our behalf something
more is required. I am not the judge of when satisfaction has been made for
past transgression. I don’t determine myself when I have done enough to be
admitted to Divine worship.
“So when you are
offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister
has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first
be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift.”
The Lord Jesus is being eminently fair in so far as He
promises eternal damnation to those who refuse to forgive, who express disdain
for the other, even if our differences don’t go beyond calling that brother or
sister a fool. Nonetheless, having wronged the brother or sister, or at least
in some way being responsible for that resentment, I cannot force the other to
forgive and be reconciled. God is demanding something heroic of us; the
sacrifice, the oblation required of us must touch our very being.
I cannot help but think of the meditation by Thomas a`
Kempis on the unjust condemnation of the Son of God before Pilate:
“LORD JESUS CHRIST,
everlasting Joy of the saints, I bless and thank you for enduring that angry
crowd’s loud and arrogant cry against you, as the people furiously shouted: Away
with him! Away with him! Crucify him! How intense was the rage of that
miserable crowd! How inhuman the cruelty of those chief priests and Pharisees!
No fear whatsoever could deter them from killing you, and no reason could
restrain them from shedding your innocent blood. Though the heathen judge was
disposed to show some compassion on your behalf, nevertheless, the hearts of
the people were so hardened that they demanded further brutality.” [Tylenda, Joseph N. On The Passion Of Christ According
To The Four Evangelists (p. 48). Ignatius Press. Kindle Edition.]
One of the great scandals held against us as practicing
Catholics would be our failure to accept undeserved suffering and take
earnestly Christ’s command that we seek reconciliation with our brother or
sister before approaching the altar of God to offer our gift. Too little
attention is paid to the condemnation which falls on the other who judges and
holds us at arm’s length. That the forgiveness, that the desire to make up and
place divisions aside involves both parties is clear. Sadly, those who rightly
or wrongly see themselves as having been offended hold back out of a false
sense of what is their due in justice. Angry with a brother, insulting a
sister, classing somebody a fool: they all deserve hellfire says the Gospel. The
thing cannot be whitewashed, without in imitation of Christ the humble
sacrifice of my own very life the gift might as well remain on the altar.
My worthy and fruitful participation in the Holy Sacrifice
of this Altar depends upon my heart. My expression of love for the invisible
Godhead can only be corroborated by the love of the brother or sister whom I
can see. The brother or sister who holds a grudge against you may be in the
wrong, but even to the point of enduring gross injustice, we move first in
Christ to mend the broken and wounded, to establish through whatever personal
sacrifice it may cost that oneness of mind and heart which is the will of our
Heavenly Lord for our worthy participation in that sacrifice which alone gives
glory to God. ...
PROPERANTES ADVENTUM DIEI DEI
