Fr. Rick Spicer

In these difficult times when jobs are scarce and homes are being foreclosed in record numbers, Jesus’ advice about not worrying may seem naïve and even insensitive yet as always, he has a timeless message for us to heed. He is cautioning us not to let our pursuit of worldly goods push God aside.

“No one can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”  Mammon? Now, that’s a word we rarely hear, even in scripture.  It was a Hebrew word for material possessions, not just money, in which a man would place his trust. Jesus is challenging us to ponder where we are placing our trust. Might we be guilty of idolatry?

Idolaters are people who overemphasize human values. They worship technology, bravery, sexual love, prosperity, relaxation or communication. Each of these human values can be associated with an ancient Greek god: Vulcan, Mars, Venus, Pluto, Bacchus, and Mercury. Do any of these “gods” matter more to you than Jesus?  Before answering that question, consider your priorities. What really matters to you? Is it having the latest bit of technology? Is it working out daily at the local gym to be in top shape? Is it surfing the internet to indulge in certain fantasies? Is it playing the local casino or stock market to fatten your portfolio? Is it lounging on the beaches of Maui? Is it mastering the latest communication gadget?  Today as back then, Jesus knew that human values commanded the attention of his listeners, so much so that God could easily become second fiddle to the many gods that are more appealing to some people.  While any of these gods can make life more interesting, do they enrich our lives in the long run?

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear.”  Let’s not kid ourselves. Often caused by external circumstances, worry is something that affects all of us.  Worry comes from an ancient Anglo-Saxon word that meant to strangle or to choke. Worry is wasting today’s time to clutter up tomorrow’s opportunities with yesterday’s troubles. Worry chokes off the opportunity to live the present moment, leaving us prone to a life of feeling bad. Worry is another god that commands center stage in some people’s lives. Instead of worrying, Jesus invites us to turn from our idols and to trust in God. “Look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not more important than they? Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your life-span?”

I suspect many anxious persons would think so, but worrying in itself doesn’t add a single moment. In fact, worry is needless, useless, and even dangerous to one’s health. Just ask anyone who suffers from ulcers. Worse yet, it’s an example of bad faith.

Urging his listeners not to worry about what they are to eat, drink or wear, Jesus then points out, “Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides.”

Notice the verb that Jesus uses is need, not want. A German mystic, Johannes Tauler, who lived 800 years ago, shares this story to highlight the difference. Upon encountering a beggar at the front door of his church, he said, “God give you a good day.” The beggar replied, “I thank God, sir that I never had a bad one. I thank God that I am never unhappy.”

Tauler asked him what he meant. “Well, when it is fine, I thank God; when it rains, I thank God; when I am hungry, I thank God; and since God’s will is my will, and whatever pleases him pleases me, why should I say I am unhappy when I am not?” said the beggar. Tauler then asked him, “Who are you?” The beggar replied, “I am a king.”  “Where then is your kingdom?” asked Tauler. The beggar answered quietly, “In my heart.”

Freed of the idol of worry, the beggar was a king because he had learned to live in the present moment, savoring what God has blessed him with.  The devil on the other hand wants us to live in the future, fearing something that might happen or dreaming of a time when all will be perfect. The crisis in the Middle East, for example, is jacking up the price of oil. Are you already worrying about what will happen to your budget when gas hits $4 per gallon? What will such worrying accomplish?

Can anyone think of believing in God without trusting Him? Is it possible to trust in God for the big things like forgiveness and eternal life, and then refuse to trust Him for the little things like clothing and food?

To trust God does not mean sitting back and acting irresponsibly as if food, money, and clothes are not important. Without food, there is no life. Without clothes, the body is unprotected against the elements of nature.  Jesus isn’t advocating reckless living. As stewards, we are to make good use of our resourcefulness and plan our lives in a responsible manner. However, worry, which arises from being overly concerned with our own welfare, is a wasted effort, unbefitting of one who claims to trust in God.

When we put God first, our happiness is no longer dependent on the contents of our closets, our bookshelves, our garages, or the people that move in and out of our lives. When we put God first, our happiness flows from the experience of the presence of God’s love in our lives. When we put God first, we have the time and the ability to enjoy life, to look at the birds in the sky and the wild flowers and say, “God, how beautiful they are. How good you are. How caring you are. How blessed I am for in your love, you have not forgotten me.”

Late one night a cheerful truck driver pulled into a roadside diner for a coffee break. While he was eating, the atmosphere became tense as three wild looking cyclists entered, wearing dirty black leather jackets trimmed in metal. Immediately they targeted the truck driver. One poured salt on his head; another flipped the doughnut on the floor, while the third “accidentally” bumped the coffee, spilling it onto the driver’s lap. Meanwhile, the driver said nothing. He quietly got up, slowly walked to the cashier, calmly paid his bill and left. “Man, that doodle ain’t much of a fighter,” sneered one of the cyclists. The waiter behind the counter peered out the window into the night and replied, “He doesn’t seem to be much of a driver either. He just ran his truck over three motorcycles!”

Getting even is the game many people play whenever they have been victimized. In good conscience, they defend their right to get even with the line taken from Leviticus, which Jesus quotes in today’s gospel, “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.”  But they fail to consider why God even gave the Levites this bit of advice in the first place. Before then punishments were rather harsh. If you wronged someone, his buddies would likely murder your entire clan. God is now urging that the punishment should never be more severe than the crime itself.

Confusing retribution with vengeance, many people feel that real justice is found when we can get even. If we can’t get even, we tend to hold a grudge against the wrong doer. In either instance, the pain of the wrong persists. The sentiments of bitterness and hatred cause us much suffering. No wonder, Jesus is urging us to move beyond revenge and break the cycle that perpetuates the hurt. Instead of seeking revenge, he challenges us to forgive.

“Oh no, I can’t do that. I can’t forget what that person did to me,” might be your first reaction but let’s get one thing straight. Forgiving and forgetting do not mean the same thing. So what should we do when find it impossible to forgive someone who has wronged us? I offer you three steps.

For starters, we can ask for the grace to forgive that person. Corrie ten Boom was a prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp, incarcerated along with her family for helping Jews in Amsterdam during WWII. After the war, she traveled about, urging the citizens of Europe to forgive one another for the hurts and crimes they endured. One night after a talk in Munich, a man walked up to her and held out his hand, seeking forgiveness. Corrie froze when she recognized him as one of the most hated guards in the camp where she had been imprisoned. At first, she couldn’t reach out to take his hand, so she prayed for the grace to do so. “Jesus, I cannot forgive this man. Help me to forgive him.” At that moment, Corrie was able to take the man’s hand in a spirit of true forgiveness. She did not forget the pain that man had inflicted on her yet she received the grace to move on with her life.

The Jesus, who commands us to love our enemies, will give us what grace we need to forgive others. Practicing what he preached, he even prayed for those who were about to kill him. “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

That brings to mind the second thing we can do and that is, we can pray for those who have hurt us. One penance I often suggest when celebrating reconciliation is to pray the Lord’s Prayer thoughtfully, then keep the promise you have made. When penitents look puzzled, I remind them, “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” For some people, that is the most difficult line they will pray today.

That archaic word, trespass, means to cross the line. When we say that prayer, we are saying that we will forgive those who cross the line of common decency so that we also might be forgiven for the times we have crossed the line ourselves. I advise penitents to forgive anyone who has hurt them in any way and if they cannot yet do so, then at least pray for that person.

Someone once told me, “When I want to change a negative attitude toward someone, all I have to do is begin praying for them. After about a week of prayer, my attitude toward them begins to change.” That brings us to the third thing we can do, which is to see that person in a new light.

So often, when we have been hurt, we fail to see the person who has hurt us as a fellow human being. When we pray for those who have hurt us, we begin to walk in their shoes and see that they too are hurting. When we pray for others, we see them not as our enemies but as people whom God loves unconditionally and whom Jesus loved enough to die for.

Speaking of enemies, Abraham Lincoln was once confronted by someone who protested his decision to pardon a Confederate prisoner of war, claiming that this was no way to destroy one’s enemies. In response, Lincoln said, “Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?”

Jesus spoke of going the extra mile. I recall years ago when Avis, then the second largest car rental agency in the country, bragged, “We try harder.” This message said to the customer that Avis would go the extra mile in service. That is what I hear Jesus calling us to do as his followers. We are expected to go the extra mile when forgiving and serving others.

Today’s readings call us to holiness, love, and perfection. “Be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Jesus ends his lesson by urging us to imitate God when responding to those who have hurt us. Like Jesus, may we be slow to anger and abounding in kindness, doing our part to build a perfect world.

Hanging on the wall in my office is a shred of bark on which a calligrapher penned this line by Robert Frost. “Two roads diverged in a wood and I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.” Looking back over our lives, we can all think of instances where we made choices that have made a real difference in our lives, such as the person we married, the career we pursued, the education we sought, the friendships we maintained, and the place we call home. Choices made in response to a commandment have, for better or worse, made a difference as well.

In the first reading, Sirach assures us that if we keep the commandments, they will save us, yet which road we take is up to us. “Before man are life and death, good and evil, whichever he chooses will be given him.” In other words, God gives us the free will to decide which road we wish to venture down.

We are who we are because we have free will; the choices we make shape our lives, literally and figuratively. When people have the right kind of relationship with God, they can read what God has put into their hearts. When they are distant from God, they begin to define their own code of conduct, likely ignorant of the wisdom behind God’s commandments.

Sirach exonerates God from all blame for the evil in the world and rightly so. The consequence of sin can be placed directly at the feet of those who choose to do so. Like Topsy in the classic, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, we might say, “The devil made me do it,” but we made the choice to listen to the devil in the first place and that is the concern Jesus is raising in the gospel.

The choice to keep or ignore God’s commandments is yours but so too are the consequences of your decision. As Sirach points out, the evil choices will burn us like fire while the good choices will refresh us like water.

Every age in human history has reflected its own wisdom. Aristotle contends that we become what we are as persons by the decisions we make. Jesus comes along and essentially proposes that we make the decisions we make because of the persons we are. We make or should make decisions precisely because we have been graced by baptism.

Paul tells us of a timeless wisdom that comes from God. “What eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and what has not entered the human heart, what God has prepared for those who love him, this God has revealed to us through the Spirit.” The more we love God, the more we can see this wisdom which will enable us to appreciate the beauty of God’s law, not just the commandments but also the moral teachings of the Church.

Some of us tend to read the commandments literally, perhaps unaware that they are really the reader’s digest of God’s moral teachings. For this reason, Jesus calls on his listeners to go to the root of each commandment. Far from declaring them obsolete, he broadens a few of them to include thoughts and words in addition to deeds. By covering all dimensions of human behavior, Jesus hopes to lead us to a fullness of life with his wise counsel on how to avoid temptation in the first place. In a nutshell, he is instructing his disciples to watch out for the little things that undermine our relationships.

For example, I suspect few of us have ever actually killed anyone, but how often have we allowed uncontrollable anger to harm another person or even kill a relationship? Anger in itself is not a sin, but how we express anger can be deadly. Jesus provides the antidote, “Go and be reconciled with your brother.” Unfortunately, pride sometimes stops us from apologizing, so in the mean time, the fury of anger eats away at us and our relationships with others and God.

I also suspect that adultery is an uncommon experience yet speaking as a confessor I know that chastity is likewise not so common. How often has lust tempted you to act inappropriately? Lust can impact a relationship, leading to sexual misconduct such as fornication, date rape or child molestation that, like anger, can destroy lives and relationships.

Two monks were on a long journey. They came to a ford in a wide river and wanted to cross. Standing there was an exceptionally beautiful woman with a low cut dress who also wanted to cross. One of the monks picked her up on his shoulders and waded into the river carrying her across. When they reached the other side he put her down and the two monks continued their journey. When at long last they got to where they could spend the night the other monk scolded his companion.

How are we going to explain to the Abbot the disgrace you have brought on the monastery? People could have seen you carrying that woman across the river. Had he forgotten that he was a monk? How dare he touch a woman, let alone one so provocatively dressed? He went on and on. Finally, the first monk said: “Brother, I left that woman on the bank of the river; you seem to have been carrying her all day.”

Also on my wall is another piece of art by the same calligrapher; this one features a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson, “What lies beyond us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” What we choose to dwell on has the potential to enrich or destroy the dignity of others as well as our own. Jesus urges us to take the road that leads to reconciliation, respect for others, compassion, and love. Granted, this path is a challenging one yet a more rewarding one as well.

Some years ago New York magazine listed outstanding New Yorkers. Only one Catholic was mentioned, Dorothy Day of the Catholic Worker Movement. For fifty years, she practiced the Beatitudes daily in her House of Hospitality in New York City. She fed, clothed, and housed the poor. She practiced the Beatitudes so well that secular editors saluted her. She was our “tainted nature’s solitary boast.” Why weren’t there more Catholic New Yorkers on the list? After all, there are over a million Catholics in New York City.

Dorothy Day understood something about the beatitudes that many of us don’t. This wasn’t intended to be a “feel good” litany. Meant to challenge our basic values, the beatitudes sum up what our attitudes ought to be here and now if we want to be blessed by God. The Beatitudes are the owner’s manual Jesus gave to each of us at Baptism for living the Christian life. Blessed are they who, like Dorothy Day, realize what Jesus is promising his followers can be experienced in this lifetime, provided we abide by his teachings.

The beatitudes can be seen as many slices of one brilliant diamond. Jesus could have added or subtracted one of them and still the total message would be the same. He gave us the Beatitudes not to increase our knowledge but to change our lives. They express ideal conclusions for courageous behavior.

Undoubtedly, those who first heard Jesus speak these words were surprised. In biblical times, the good Jew attained holiness by diligently following 613 man made laws that elaborated the Ten Commandments. Ignoring any of them rendered you a sinner in the eyes of others. This sort of high expectation put holiness out of reach for the ordinary Jew. Jesus turned things around, asserting that simply following laws is not enough to please God. He expressed the beatitudes not as commands, but as pathways to holiness that anyone could travel.

Jesus wasn’t the first to enunciate these principles. Cicero, who died in 43 BC, penned, “There is nothing that makes a man more like God than mercy.” The root meaning of mercy is to give compassionate care to others, even when they have done nothing to deserve it.

The spinal cord of the Beatitudes is love; our love of God as well as belief in His love for us. But the Beatitudes, as Dorothy Day so ably demonstrated, also include love of neighbor. Important too is love of one’s self. It is difficult and perhaps impossible to love others if we dislike ourselves.

With the Beatitudes, the modus operandi for being a Christian evolved to a new level. We are being asked to help others even though they may not deserve it. We are being invited to be generous with money even though we have mortgage payments and bills to pay. I believe it was Arthur Ashe, the tennis star, who once said, “From what we get, we make a living. From what we give we make a life.”

Why was Dorothy Day a modern day saint? She was cheerful when it was difficult to be cheerful, patient when difficult to be patient, pushed on when she wanted to stand still, kept silent when she wanted to talk, and stayed agreeable when she wanted to be disagreeable.

The requisite for sainthood was quite simple and always will be.
Saints are those who see and act on what they see. They see with the eyes of Christ. They see what is important, what matters, what takes priority and hints at the divine. They grasp the message of the Beatitudes and live by them accordingly.

Jesus began by saying, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” The remaining eight Beatitudes are really echoes of this primary one. Those who “mourn” are those who dare to become vulnerable through loving…and thereby find the secret of happiness. The “meek” renounce power and violence as a means of acquiring happiness…and thus are candidates for true happiness. Those who “hunger for justice” have a passion for the reforms that will enable everyone to live and dream. Those who are “merciful” renounce anger and vengeance as they offer forgiveness. The “clean of heart” are the sincere and truthful ones who reject all that is mere sham and pretense in life.

The “peacemakers” promote forgiveness and reconciliation as the only sure way to peace. And those who are “persecuted” are those who persevere as did Dorothy Day in the pursuit of these ideals in spite of ridicule from others who seem to be the wise and prudent ones. Thus, the Beatitudes represent a program for true holiness and happiness through the wisdom of the gospel rather than through the misguided wisdom of purely secular philosophy.

If you need courage to practice the Beatitudes, consider this advice from US Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia: “We are fools for Christ’s sake…We must pray for courage to endure the scorn of the sophisticated world. Jesus is greater than our greatest problem.”

To paraphrase the British author, GK Chesterton, one cannot argue that the Beatitudes have been tried and found wanting. Rather, they have been found hard and not tried. Try them and see for yourself that they indeed will make a difference in your life and your relationship with God.

Today’s readings begin with a line from Isaiah that is proclaimed at the Christmas Midnight Mass, “The people who walk in darkness have seen a great light, upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom a light has shone.” Few of us know the feeling of being in darkness, unable to move because we cannot see any light. I once experienced total darkness in an underground cave, where the absence of light left me feeling very much alone and hesitant to move.

There is certainly a great deal of darkness in our world. The headlines remind us of that reality constantly. In today’s Herald, I read a young teenager jumped to his death from an overpass in Lynnwood. A gunman in Everett recently wounded three bystanders outside a nightclub. A man in Arlington was arrested in connection to a fatal stabbing two weeks ago.

Had there been a newspaper in Capernaum 2000 years ago, Jesus may have read similar headlines. Darkness existed then as well. Isaiah described this region near the Sea of Galilee as the district of the Gentiles. Their irreligious ways evidently had a major influence on the Jews who lived there, allowing them to grow distant from God and the celebration of their faith; hence they are described as people living in darkness.

Jesus began his ministry with the message, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Repent has several meanings. Among them is to feel remorse, but repent means more than simply feeling sorry for one’s sins. Repent also means to “make a change for the better as a result of remorse for one’s sins.” If we want to experience the kingdom of heaven, then we must practice the art of repenting. We must make a change for the better in our lives. So long as we live with the status quo, unwilling to change for the better, the kingdom of heaven cannot be experienced.

Granted, change doesn’t come easy. Jesus knew that and he spent three years wandering the hillside of Galilee and the streets of Jerusalem proclaiming that change can happen if one would take to heart the good news of his preaching. He served as a light to people in darkness and once they were freed from the darkness of sin, they served as a light to others.

Mother Teresa of Calcutta once visited a man who literally lived in darkness. His room was filthy and dirty. Cobwebs hung from the ceiling. There was no light in the room and he rarely opened the curtains. The condition of the room reflected the sad state of the man’s mental and spiritual condition. He was living in despair and gloom, convinced that no one cared about him.

She began to clean his room despite his many protests to leave him alone. Beneath one pile of rags and trash, she found a dusty, grimy looking oil lamp. After much polishing, Mother Teresa asked him why he never lit the lamp.

“Why should I? I don’t need it for myself. I have become used to living in the darkness…and no one ever comes to see me.”
“Will you promise to light it if one of my sisters comes to see you?” she asked. He replied, “Yes, if I hear a human voice, I will light the lamp.”

One of Mother Teresa’s nuns began to regularly visit the man. No longer was he living in darkness, literally and spiritually. His life was now brightened by the oil lamp and the light of hope and love which had been lit in his darkened heart, all because one person cared about him.

One day he said to the nun visiting him, “Sister, I am ok now. From now on, I’ll be able to manage on my own. But do me a favor. Tell that first sister who came to see me that the light she lit in my life is still burning.”
What a lovely thought! “The light she lit in my life is still burning.” Imagine how many lives would be different had someone lit the hearts of those whose actions harm themselves and others. Imagine how different our lives would be if the millions who had been aborted in our country had been allowed to see the light of day and someone’s love. Imagine how different your life would have been had your heart not been lit by the message of Jesus.

The word, repent, is so important that it is actually the first word Jesus speaks when he begins his public ministry. He is calling us to a change of heart, to take on a new way of thinking and living.

In addition to wondering how we ought to repent, some of us may be thinking, “What should we do?” For starters, do what you can to dispel the darkness of sin. Pray to resist the urge to sin. Do that which adds to the light of the world, not that which is just part of its darkness. No matter how much any moral decision might cost us, we will always be happy with ourselves when our choices are determined by the light of the Lord.

We have been enlightened by Christ and his teachings but some times we ignore him when it comes to choosing how to handle a given situation we find ourselves in. When we base our decision on the values of our faith rather than the values of an irreligious society, than we are doing what we can to bring His light to others. Granted, the temptation is always lurking to sin but anytime we do, we hinder ourselves from experiencing the kingdom of heaven.

Like the apostles, we have been called to enlighten the world. If we live in the light of Christ, we will bring his light to others. In closing, I offer this maxim from Mother Teresa, “Love Jesus, live with Jesus, and you will live for Jesus.”