Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time
I’m
sure this has never happened with anyone here, but imagine a scenario where a
parent tells a child to do something while that child is doing something else
like watching TV, or playing video games, reading, or texting. Then imagine that, lo and behold, that
child does not, in fact, do what the
parent tells the child to do (I know, this must be shocking for you that this
actually happens in some families).
The usual response from the parent would be some variation of, “Why didn’t
you listen to me?”
St.
James tells us in the second reading, that we are to be “doers of the word and
not hearers only.” We have been
blessed with the greatest message of all time. It started in the Old Testament, with the message that God
had chosen a people, and had cared for them and brought them to a land. And, even after they were enslaved, God
freed them and returned them to that land flowing with milk and honey. He game them laws so that they might be
just and upright, and know the good to do and the evil to avoid. This is what Moses is talking about in
the first reading.
And
even “when through disobedience [humanity] had lost [God’s] friendship, He did
not abandon [us] to the domain of death…Time and again [God] offered them
covenants and through the prophets taught [us] to look forward to
salvation.” And then, “in the
fullness of time [God] sent [His] Only Begotten Son to be our Savior. Made incarnate by the Holy Spirit and
born of the Virgin Mary, he shared our human nature in all things but sin…To
accomplish [God’s] plan, [Jesus] gave himself up to death, and, rising from the
dead, he destroyed death and restored life.” And the Church was formed, the New Israel, who was called to
proclaim this Good News of the death and resurrection of Jesus, which saves us
from our sins. And, in response to
this love first shown to us in God, the members of the Body of Christ are to
configure themselves to Jesus, by the guidance of the teaching of the Apostles
and their successors who continue the teaching of Jesus in new times and new
circumstances.
That
is the Good News that we received.
That is the Good News that we are to proclaim. But are we just hearers of the Word? Does what Jesus said apply to us, too:
“‘Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written: This people honors me with their lips, but
their hearts are far from me;’”? Week after week we hear the Word of God and we
receive the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, our Savior. But does it change us? Has the Gospel penetrated our
hearts? In the movie “Godfather
III,” the cardinal who hears Michael Corleone’s confession pulls a small rock
out from a fountain of water. It
is wet, of course, on the outside.
But he breaks the rock in two, and the inside is dry. He says that the people are like the rock
in the fountain. They have been
surrounded by the water of Christianity for centuries, but Christ, like the
water, has not penetrated them.
How many of us are surrounded by Christianity, but Christ has no
penetrated us because we are hearers of the word only, and not doers?
St.
James tells us that if we are hearers only, and not doers, then we are deluding
ourselves. If we think that being
surrounded by Christianity is enough, then we have truly not heard Jesus, just
as the child did not truly hear its parent. At our baptism, a solemn promise was made for us, if we were
infants, or we made it for ourselves, if we were adults: that we would reject
sin and Satan, that we would believe in God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
and that we would raise the child in the faith, and practice it ourselves. This is the same promise that these
families will make today for their children. We promised to be doers of the word. God, for His part, promised to assist
us in that promise with sacramental grace which would strengthen us to do what
we cannot without His help. Have
we lived up to these promises?
Have we, in the ways we are able, changed the world to better reflect the
Gospel? Or have we tried to let
the culture change the Gospel to better reflect our world? Have we been the salt of the earth,
preserving our corner of the world in holiness of life, of have we lost our
flavor?
For
months we have been hearing from politicians how they have the right policies
that will bring America prosperity.
We will hear how they will do x, y, and z to protect the poor, defend
life from natural conception to natural death, to turn the economy around,
etc. And politics certainly has a legitimate
role to play in implementing the Gospel.
But, before that can be effective, we ourselves must be converted. We
must be doers of the word, and not hearers only. Because if we are truly doers of the word then we ourselves
will guard against greed and consumerism and will hold others to that as
well. If we are doers of the word
then we will assist the poor, truly helping them to use the gifts God has given
them for their benefit and the benefit of society. If we are doers of the word then we will stand up for the
rights of the defenseless infant in the womb from the moment of conception and
the elderly who are sick, both of whom can easily be exploited because they are
the weakest members of our society.
If we are doers of the word then we will stand up for religious freedom
so that we can truly practice our faith in peace, and not be compelled to do
anything which is against the teaching of Christ and His Church. “Dearest brothers and sisters:…Be doers
of the world and not hearers only.”