Homily
for March 11, 2007
Liturgical Year C - Cycle I
3rd Sunday of Lent
By Dcn. Ray Alcouffe Topic:
Our Identity
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Gospel
Luke 13:1-9
Some people told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had
mingled with the blood of their sacrifices. Jesus said to them in
reply, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way
they were greater sinners than all other Galileans? By no means! But I
tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did! Or
those eighteen people who were killed when the tower at Siloam fell on
them— do you think they were more guilty than everyone else who lived
in Jerusalem? By no means! But I tell you, if you do not repent,
you will all perish as they did!”
And he told them this parable:
“There once was a person who had a fig tree planted in his orchard, and
when he came in search of fruit on it but found none, he said to the
gardener, ‘For three years now I have come in search of fruit on this
fig tree but have found none. So cut it down. Why should it exhaust the
soil?’ He said to him in reply, ‘Sir, leave it for this year also, and
I shall cultivate the ground around it and fertilize it; it may bear
fruit in the future. If not you can cut it down.’”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“But
I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did!”
This
homily is for all those who struggle with being judgmental and I
consider myself a premier member of that group. A Homily is supposed to
be about interpreting the scripture readings of the day and then to put
them in the context of our lives, in the here and now. In other words,
“How would God talk to us, if God were at this pulpit, given the
situation presented in the Gospel reading?”
I need to go back to my favorite spiritual writer, Henri Nouwen, to get
an answer. He says that we need to look at how we react to what is
going on in our world today, the events and happenings that get our
attention. The things that we see on TV, read in the newspapers or
magazines, or experience in the workplace or in our families. Things
like those mentioned in Luke, where the Roman authorities kill Galilean
insurgents and then whose blood is used to desecrate the temple
sacrifice. Or accidents like the tower, maybe due to shoddy
construction, falling and killing those whom happened to be at the
wrong place at the wrong time.
We think of similar happenings from today’s news - the aids epidemic,
murders on the streets of Albuquerque, celebrities without morals,
DUI’s in abundance, domestic violence, tornados killing high school
students. Like the people in the Gospel, we look for reasons behind all
these things and are inclined to evaluate them, and make judgments
about the people involved. When the people asked Jesus about such
things, they expected him to validate their judgments, somehow to blame
the people involved for what happened to them. The prevailing attitude
was that God was punishing them for their sins - and I think that, deep
down, we still have that same attitude. Nevertheless, look at Jesus’
reaction. He says, “Do you think they were greater sinners than you? By
no means! In fact, I tell you, unless you repent, you will all perish
as they did.”
Wow! Where is Jesus coming from? Can he seriously mean that murders,
DUI’s, wayward celebrities, etc., are not worse sinners than we are,
and that we have as much need to repent as they? Jesus is obviously
coming from a different place than we. His response is from above, from
God’s point of view - and it behooves us to know what that point of
view is. We, from our point of view, tend to look for reasons that
things happen as they do or for people acting the way they do. The
explanations we settle on tend to make sense to us and thus form the
basis for our judgments and opinions. This comes from our attitude
about life and about our identity. We think that we are what we do,
that we are what we possess, and that we are what other people think of
us. If this is the sum total of our identity, then naturally we are in
competition with everyone else, and consequently, we are filled with
judgments, opinions and condemnations to promote and protect our
identity. Thus, we can have the satisfaction of saying that, when
compared with those awful people in the news, I may be no saint but at
least I am not like them, I am not as bad as they are.
However, from God’s point of view, we are the beloved daughters and
sons of God. We exist, we have our being because God loves us - God
loved us into existence and God’s love sustains our existence. From
God’s point of view, then, we all have the same value, yes, including
those we judge to be reprobates; there is no essential difference among
us. Thus, the universal need for our repentance - for our turning to
God, is that we need then to let go of our judgments and condemnation
of others or at least put them into God’s perspective. We become free
to do that if we really do repent and base our identity and the meaning
of our existence on the love of God.
Another way of saying this is that we need to connect with God, to let
God be the lord of our mind instead of having the world and all its
concerns be lord of our mind. It is our mind with our judgments, which
is the gatekeeper of what can touch our heart. As our judgmental-ness
decreases, so increases the capacity of our hearts to empathize and
reach out in love.
Going back to community and world events, we tend to want to use those
events to figure out who is better or worse than we are. That is not
God’s approach. God’s question for us is, “Are you reading the signs of
your time as signs asking you to repent and be converted?” In the face
of the genocides, aids, murders, and domestic abuse, what really counts
is our willingness to let the immense suffering of our brothers and
sisters free us from all arrogance, from all judgments and
condemnations and give us a heart as gentle and humble as the heart of
Jesus. That is what, “repent and be converted” means.
It’s like the case of Roger, who sat by the hospital bed of his young
son, just out from major, emergency surgery. Dreadful thoughts kept
creeping into his mind, “Why had he not called the doctor sooner? Why
had he not suspected that his son’s troubles were more than a
stomachache? Why? Why?”
Presently, the youngster stirred, opened his eyes and saw his father
sitting nearby. The lad stretched out his small, fevered hand to his
father and said, “Hold my hand, daddy; I hurt so bad.”
Roger took his son’s hand. The small boy smiled weakly and drifted off
into unconsciousness again. Then Roger, taking a cue from his son,
bowed his head, closed his eyes and whispered, “Hold my hand, Father; I
hurt.”
To my mind, when Jesus is asking me to suspend judgment when reading
the signs of the time and let them change my heart, it is similar to
what Roger had to do; it’s that profound a change.
If we cling to the notion that our identity is our successes, our
power, and our popularity, then our death will mean not only the end of
this exchange of judgments, but also the end of ourselves. We have
become nothing but the result of what we thought of others and what
others thought of us. That is what Jesus means when he says, “we will
perish!”
Only when we are connected to the love of God, and accept God’s love
for us as our identity, will we experience life eternal.