Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church

Homily for March 5, 2006
Liturgical Year B-Cycle II
1st Sunday of Lent
by Fr. John Carney
Topic: The Weeping Christ
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Gospel
Mk 2: 1-12
The Spirit drove Jesus out into the desert,  and he remained in the desert for forty days, tempted by Satan. He was among wild beasts, and the angels ministered to him.

After John had been arrested,  Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God: “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.”
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Let’s start out with a few definitions.  You know I like definitions. 
 
In the secular dictionary, “lent” is defined as “the forty weekdays from Ash Wednesday until Easter, observed by Christians as a season of fasting and penance in preparation for Easter.”  Forty days.  We see in the Gospel today, Jesus prepared for His public ministry for forty days, and at the end of that, He announced, “This is the time of fulfillment.  The Kingdom of God is at hand.  Repent and believe in the Gospel.”
 
The definition of “repent.”  Again, secular definitions that are perfect, I think.  It means, “To feel remorse, contrition, or self reproach for what one has done or failed to do; to be contrite.”  It means, “To feel such regret for past conduct as to change one’s mind regarding it.”  Finally, it means, “to make a change for the better as a result of remorse or contrition for one’s sins.”
 
So, we begin Lent.  I would like to propose a theme for this lent, for you and for me.  It’s not really a theme, but a focus, or an image that we can keep in our minds throughout these forty days--a simple image to motivate us.  That is the image of the Weeping Christ. 
 
First, let me tell you a story.  Father William Bausch is a homilist and author, and he tells of a true story of the Wangerin family.  The father’s name was Walter, and the son, Matthew.  He doesn’t say how old Matthew was, but I think he was probably seven or eight years of age.  He was a bit of a rascal.  He was in trouble all the time.  If you didn’t want him to do something, tell him not to do it, and he would end up doing it.  Matthew had sticky fingers-he liked to steal.  A lot of little kids have sticky fingers, especially little boys and Matthew was no exception.  His father went into his room one day, and Matthew was sitting on his bed with a big stack of comic books.  His father knew Matthew didn’t have the money to buy those comic books, so he asked, “Where’d you get these?”  Matthew said, “From the library.”  His father said, “You mean you stole them from the library?”  I guess libraries have comic books today.  And Matthew said, “Yes.”  Of course, the father knew what to do.  He rehearsed what Matthew was going to say in his confession to the librarian.  He marched the kid down, and Matthew did what he was told.  The librarian looked at him very sternly, and that was it. 
 
That summer, the Wangerin family went on vacation in Vermont, in a small rural area.  When they returned from vacation, Matthew was unpacking his little suitcase, and he had another little stack of comic books.  The father said, “Where did these come from?”  He fessed up, he said, “I took them from the General Store when the old man who owned it wasn’t looking.”  The father burned the comic books.  As he threw each one into the fire, with his son looking on, he said, “Thou shalt not steal.  Thou shalt not steal.  Thou shalt not steal.” 
 
Several months later, again, Walter found a stack of stolen comic books in Matthew’s room.  He was concerned.  He decided that it was time for corporal punishment.  He had never spanked his son before.  He thought about this a great deal, and he decided, “I’ll spank him five times.  I have to spank him enough to let him know this is serious, what he is doing, but not enough to make him think that I hate him.”  So, he did just that.  He put him over his knee and spanked him five times.  He wanted to cry, but he did not want his son to see he was crying, so he said, “I’ll leave you alone for a little while, and I’ll come back and we’ll talk.”  So, the father went into the next room, and he began to cry.  His son heard him.  His father washed his face, and he returned to his son’s room.  They had a long chat. 
 
Several years later, when Matthew was a teenager, he was returning with his mother from shopping, and they were reminiscing about what a rascal he had been, in his younger days.  His mother mentioned to him that he had sticky fingers.  He said, “Yeah, but you know, that last time that dad spoke to me, I never stole anything again.”  His mother said, “Because he spanked you.”  He said, “No, because he cried.  I realized how much my father loved me, and I realized how much I had hurt him.”
 
Jesus cries.  Or really, not cries, but weeps.  I think there is a difference.  A baby cries when she is hungry.  People cry when they are throwing hissy fits.  But weeping comes from the heart.  Weeping involves real, true feeling and emotion.  The Bible tells us that Jesus wept when He looked at Jerusalem as He stood on the hill, and He knew of the destruction that would occur in Jerusalem, largely because of the unfaithfulness of the people.  He wept.  He wept at the death of His friend Lazarus.  He wept in the Garden, as He carried all of our sins to the cross. I think there are other times when He wept, that perhaps are not recorded as such.  There is no question in my mind that Jesus wept when Judas betrayed Him, when Judas came up to Him at the Last Supper and kissed Him, and He said, “Go and do what you must do.”  I am convinced that Jesus wept at that time, as He was betrayed with the kiss of friendship.  I am also convinced that Jesus wept when Peter denied Him. 
 
There is a scene in the Passion of the Christ, where Jesus is brought back from the torturers, and Peter is with other people around a fire at night.  He is keeping warm.  He is accused of being a follower, and he says, “No, I’m not.  I don’t even know Him.”  Of course, three times Peter denied Him.  Then, in the film, they look at each other.  I know Jesus wept, when His beloved Peter denied that he even knew Him.
 
When I was young, and perhaps some of you can relate to this, I heard this frequently from my mother, because Matthew was a bona fide saint in comparison with me.  My mother, and others, as well as tthe nuns told me, “Every time you sin, you drive a nail into the Cross of Christ.”  Remember that one?  I think it’s not really true.  If it is, He couldn’t get that cross through an airport checkpoint, I’ll tell you.  Yes, sin hurts Christ.  Sin hurts Jesus.  Not because the sin hurts Him, but because He sees what the sin does to me, and to you.  He is hurt because you are hurt with sin.  Sin makes us selfish, prideful, lustful, petty and vengeful.  Sin makes us ugly.  When we sin, we hurt ourself and that is what hurts Christ.  That is the reason Walter wept for his son, Matthew.  Because he did not like what Matthew was becoming.  That is why Jesus weeps for you and me when we sin.  He wept because He loved.  Others began to love because He wept.
 
I think Peter’s conversion occurred at that moment of the betrayal.  There’s a wonderful painting of Peter in Tears, Las Lagrimas de San Pedro, by El Greco.  If you’ve ever been to Toledo, in Spain, it’s on display there.  Of course, there’s many El Greco’s.  El Greco was from Toledo.  I remember, I was in Toledo a few years ago, and as I was going through the museum, I stopped and looked at that picture of the Tears of Peter for a long time.  It’s a magnificent picture, as are all forms of El Greco, very distinct.  I looked into Peter’s face, and I could see the pain.  I think, clearly, he was crying because he had hurt Christ.  Then he was converted to be the disciple who became our first Pope.  Before that, he knew Christ, intellectually.  He knew He was the Messiah, he knew He was the Son of God Himself; he knew Christ was the Promise.  It wasn’t until he had that personal interaction with Christ, after he sinned and betrayed Him, that he really loved Christ, because he knew Christ loved him.
 
I guess the question is, “Who is Jesus to you?”  Is He the God who will judge you?  Yes, He is.  But more importantly, is He the God who loves you, who gave His life for you, and weeps when you hurt yourself with sin?  I would ask you to consider keeping that image of the weeping Christ before you during this Lent, in prayer, each day.  It has been my experience that we change much more effectively out of love than we do out of fear.  Maybe we will turn away from sin once and for all.  Turn away, not because we fear the spanking, but because we can hear Jesus weeping.