2007

A very overweight man decided that he had to shed a few pounds so he decided to go on a diet. He changed his usual commute to work so that he would avoid passing his favorite bakery. One morning, however, he arrived at work carrying a large, sugar-coated, calorie-loaded coffee cake.

Everyone in the office chided him for bringing such a tempting snack to work but the overweight man smiled and said, “What could I do? You see, by force of habit, I drove by the bakery this morning and saw this luscious cake in the window. So I prayed, “Lord, if you really want me to have one of those delicious coffee cakes, let me find a parking space right in front of the bakery. And sure enough, on the ninth time around the block, there it was!”

Had I been fasting for forty days, maybe I would have been tempted to do the same thing! Temptation is as a much a part of life as breathing, eating and sleeping. Temptations come in so many shapes and sizes. Some are downright blatant; others are quite subtle and even deceptive.

Today we hear how the devil tried to use his power to tempt Jesus, first with sensual pleasure, then worldly recognition, and finally, despair.  In each case, Jesus withstood the devil’s efforts to lead him into sin.

In our most frequently recited prayer, one composed by Jesus himself, we ask our Father to “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” Could you picture God ever leading you into temptation? Not at all, but God endeavors to deliver us from evil. He sent his son into our lives to save us from the evil one.

We think of temptation as a cause to sin but for many early Christians, temptation meant a time of testing. The Jewish word for temptation meant a time of trial; a time given to someone to choose being faithful or unfaithful to God. In the gospel, we find Jesus passing the test with flying colors.

Every one of us is put to the test daily.  Like the man who passed his favorite bakery, we are lead into temptations of one kind or another throughout the day or we lead ourselves. Perhaps they are not as dramatic as the ones we find in the gospel but then our resistance to the evil one is not as strong either. While Jesus was prepared to resist temptation, we are more apt to give in.

More than once, I have been rebuked, “Father, you shouldn’t talk so much about the devil and sin.”  I don’t care to, but Jesus often did and for good reason. Sin poses a real danger for us that we too often downplay. For those who deny that the devil is real, Cardinal Jorge Medina had this to say, “We know there are Catholics who doubt the existence of the devil, but this is an article of faith of the Church. Whoever says the devil does not exist is no longer a believer.”

When we renew the vows of our baptism, the first questions asked of us are not, do we believe in God but do we reject sin, the glamour of evil, and Satan, the prince of darkness?

The devil, whose name in Greek means “the deceiver,” seems to have a bottomless sack of tempting tricks available for his use including the notion that he doesn’t even exist! His methods and approaches vary from person to person but his strategy remains the same. Each time the devil succeeds in luring us to sin, the next temptation becomes a little stronger and the next fall becomes a bit easier. Before long, we become hooked and possibly oblivious to the gravity of our own sins.

We need not be afraid of the devil and his temptations. St. Augustine compares the devil to a dog tied to post. He can only harm us if we get within his range.

If we are inclined to dismiss the notion of church authority or believe we can be good Christians without the sacraments or moral guidance of the Church, then we are ignoring the very tools we need for staying clear of him and out of trouble.

Speaking of tools, there is hardly any tool in the mechanical world greater than the wedge. Once you get its thin edge in, it is only a matter of time and force how far the remainder shall be driven. The hardest stone or the toughest wood are not able to resist its power for separation. Likewise, beware the thin edge of sin. It can and will sever us from God.

Let’s not kid ourselves. We have our desert full of trials, our serpent, and our temptations. Lent is a time of entering into the desert with Jesus, of deepening our prayer. Have you ever noticed, though, that when you try to set aside a time to pray that something always comes up? All of a sudden, you remember some chore or some person you should talk to or more likely, you want to take a quick look at the TV or the internet, or getting yourself a snack.  The devil will do almost anything to keep us from praying. Many families tell me about their trials every Sunday morning, getting ready for Mass. Do you think that this is just a coincidence? Not at all. The devil wants to stop us from praying, no matter what.

But we can’t afford to give him that victory. This is the time to turn off our televisions and other distractions, to draw close to Jesus through scripture, worship, the sacraments and prayer, to really learn from him that we do not live by bread alone, but “by every word that comes form the mouth of God.”
 

Sometime after the Civil War, Robert E. Lee was visiting a friend’s Kentucky farm. The family took the retired general to see what was left of a once majestic tree in the front of their home. The mistress, still quite upset, cried bitterly that the tree’s limbs and trunk had been destroyed by artillery fire from the Northern armies. She looked at Lee, expecting some words of sympathy for the loss of the beautiful tree or words condemning the hated Union. After a long silence, Lee said, “Cut it down, my dear madam, and forget it.”

Today’s gospel is among the most radical teachings of Jesus that one can find in scripture. What he asks of us is certainly quite different from what our world has taught us or how society expects us to act. Instead of giving us quaint platitudes, he bluntly tells us to love our enemies. “Do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.” He doesn’t stop there. Turn the other cheek.  Do to others as you would have them do to you. Be merciful and do not judge.

“This is so unreal!” might have been your reaction when you heard this gospel passage yet Jesus is clear and to the point, “Forgive and you will be forgiven.”  In a nutshell, Jesus is challenging us to ponder our approach to living.  Face it, life isn’t always a bed of roses. We get into skirmishes and confrontations. Some minor, others not, so what do you do when someone wrongs you? Are you apt to forgive, forget and move on? Or do you cling to the hurt, unwilling to let go?  Jesus is pleading with us to “absorb” whatever evil is done to us and not respond in kind, so that violence ends with us. To be a disciple of Jesus means having the courage to “cut down” the anger, hatred, despair and distrust that block us from forgiving others when we must, thus enabling justice, reconciliation, and peace to blossom and flourish among us.

Any account of someone forgiving another person for a grievous offense stands out as being heroic rather than the norm. Recall the willingness of both Pope John Paul and President Reagan to forgive their would-be assassins. We may think of them as being heroes but they were simply acting as any Christian should.

I imagine most everyone gathered here aspires to be judged a good Christian but what criteria do we use for being good? Like it or not, there are some inherent values we are being taught here that defines a person as being a good Christian.

We may feel that we are going through the day with a Christian mindset but our actions would suggest otherwise. We approach life with a Christian ethic yet our philosophy may be more akin to “I’m number 1.” “You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.” “If you hurt me, I’ll get even with you.”

Many of our relationships in life are shaped by the notion of reciprocity, rather than by the golden rule. That is, “what’s in it for me?” We tend to act the way society expects us to act rather than the way Jesus urges us to in this gospel passage. Instead of living life with worldly wisdom, we should try a dose of Christian wisdom.

Those who hold no grudge against their enemies but attempt to love them demonstrate Christian wisdom. Those who mediate reconciliation by saying, “I forgive you,” to those who have wronged them demonstrate Christian wisdom. Those who give to the less fortunate without seeking IOU’s give evidence of Christian wisdom. Those who are compassionate to the rejected members of society give proof of their Christian wisdom. Those who treat others in the way they desire to be treated have grasped the wisdom behind what Jesus is teaching here.

For those whose lives are shaped by this wisdom, the command to love one’s enemies has not proven to be impossible.  Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “Far from being the pious injunction of a utopian dreamer, the command to love one’s enemy is an absolute necessity for our survival. Love even for enemies is the key to the solution of the problems of our world. Jesus is not an impractical idealist; he is a practical realist.”  

Henry Ward Beecher, a renowned preacher offered this insight to those who are reluctant to their past hurts. “‘I can forgive, but I cannot forget,’ is only another way of saying, ‘I will not forgive.’ A forgiveness ought to be like a cancelled note, torn in two and burned up, so that it can never be shown against the man.”

Nonetheless, some of us are still apt to protest, “Why should I forgive that person? There is no way I can forgive that person for what was done to me!” I hear that cry often in the confessional but as Alexander Pope said, “To err is human, to forgive divine.” That line may sound like a cliché, but for the sake of our well-being, we cannot ignore it.

Instead of the traditional litany of prayers as a penance, I often urge penitents to say the Lord’s Prayer slowly and reflectively, and then keep the promise buried in the prayer. “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those…”

Jesus isn’t asking the impossible of us. Indeed, we are carried along by the One who has gone before us, establishing the Christian norm that raises the bar beyond worldly standards. With grace, he empowers and enables us to make what many think of as being heroic the norm in our approach to living. Do we dare follow his example?
 

The teenager had her driver’s license for only a few weeks. After much pleading, her father at last allowed her to borrow the brand new family car to go to the mall. She was very careful, staying under the speed limit all the way, and taking great pains to park the car in a safe place.

But on the way home, crunch! She never saw the other car. In an instant, the front bumper, left headlight, and part of the fender were reduced to a mass of crumpled metal. Oh, how she wanted to die! “Dad will have my head! I might as well as burn my driver’s license,” she thought to herself. “I’ll be grounded until I am old enough for social security.”

So she limped home in her father’s once beautiful sedan, terrified about the punishment that was in store for her. As she pulled into the driveway, her parents ran outside. From the looks on their faces, she knew this wasn’t going to be a happy homecoming. Dad ran past the damaged front end to help his daughter get out of the car.

 “Dad, I’m sorry,” she stammered, but he wouldn’t let her finish. As he hugged her, he asked, “Are you all right? Were you hurt? Was anyone else hurt?” She began to cry, a bit surprised that her father was so understanding, and also a bit ashamed that she had expected so little from him.

I imagine that has happened to many of us. Just when we expected our parents to kill us for something we had done, they reacted with understanding, compassion, and immediate forgiveness. So it is with God, who always welcomes us back without a moment’s hesitation.

Like the famed cartoon character, Ziggy, we suffer from an inferiority complex when it comes to our relationship with God. We think that we are neither good enough nor wise enough to see ourselves as being holy. We shy away from God because we cannot imagine God loving us. But that is the beauty of God. Namely, God loves us unconditionally.

That is the valued lesson we can take to heart in today’s readings. We think of Isaiah, Paul and Peter as saints yet these passages suggest that all three men suffered from inferiority complexes as well. None of them saw themselves worthy enough to be in the sight of God.

Isaiah cried out, “Woe is me, I am doomed! For I am a man of unclean lips.” Paul could not forget that drunk with pride and self-righteousness, he did the work of the devil instead of God, so he said, “I am the least of the apostles; in fact, because I persecuted the church of God, I do not even deserve the name. But by the grace of God I am what I am.” Then there was Peter, who after the miraculous catch of fish, pleaded with Jesus, “Leave me, Lord. I am a sinful man.”

But their pleas fell on deaf ears. God did not leave them or punish them. To the contrary, God overlooked their claims of inadequacy, unworthiness, and sinfulness. God called them to change their lives and their world.

“Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?” God asked. “Here I am,” they all responded, each in their own way.  Isaiah is now remembered as one of the greatest prophets of the Hebrew Testament. Paul is remembered as one of the greatest evangelists of all times. And Peter is remembered as the first leader of the Church. However sinful they judged themselves to be, God still used them.

As the saying goes, God doesn’t make junk so a person’s worthiness is not an issue for God. What matters is our willingness to respond. Understanding that, Isaiah, Paul, and Peter ventured forth to celebrate the presence of God in their lives. With grace, humility, and trust, they helped many others ever since to realize that same divine presence in their lives as well.

Do you ever dread getting out of bed in the morning? Not because you are still tired but because there are things you must do that you don’t want to do? For whatever reason, you feel inadequate or not up to doing the task in question. So you pray, “Please, Lord, get someone else. Let me be.” Then you hit the snooze button and go back to sleep.

What if Isaiah, Paul and Peter had hit their “snooze buttons,” rolled over and closed their eyes to what God was asking of them? Perhaps, we wouldn’t be here today.  Like them, we all have fears or feel unqualified. We wish the unpleasant things of life would drop out of sight. But they can be the very tools or events God uses to make saints out of us. As our parents likely told us, if we expect to grow up, then we must get out of bed when the alarm goes off and face the music. We must do the things God wants done.

So what might God have in mind for you? Most likely, God doesn’t have in mind the same thing that he asked of Isaiah, Paul or Peter, but still, in God’s plan of salvation, you are important. You may be the one person God has in mind to get the Good News of his son across to a certain person in your life. Don’t kid yourself; we are all called by God to do our part in his plan of salvation.

At any stage of life and at any age, the voice of God may come to you to pose the same question asked of Isaiah, “Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?” Imagine what an impact we could have on our own community if we would all honestly respond, “Here I am; send me!”
 

Years ago, Laurence Peter wrote a book about inefficiency in the business world. He entitled it, The Peter Principle: Why Things Always Go Wrong. He sent his manuscript to McGraw-Hill, one of the leading publishers of business books in the country. Their editor sent a rejection notice, saying, “I can foresee no commercial possibilities for such a book and consequently can offer no encouragement.”

Dr. Peter sent his manuscript to 20 other publishers and all of them likewise sent him pink slips, also expressing their belief that the market value of his book was limited. After so rejections, you’d think that Dr. Peter would give up, but he didn’t. This time he sent his manuscript to William Morrow which published the book in 1969.

 And how did his astute study on human behavior do in bookstores? Over eight million copies of The Peter Principle have been sold. Not bad for any book, much less one that was repeatedly rejected for having limited commercial value.

Dr. Peter’s experience of rejection has been repeated over and over in history. Consider Abraham Lincoln, regarded by many historians as our country’s greatest president. He was defeated seven times in his bid for elective office before winning the presidency in 1860. Or Vincent van Gogh, one of the greatest painters of the 19th century; yet in his lifetime he only earned $85. Shortly after his death, his sister-in-law sold one of his paintings for $58. In 1990, that same painting was sold at an auction in New York for $82.5 million.

Then there is Jesus, regarded even by some non-Christian historians as one of the greatest persons who ever lived. He was rejected not only by the religious leaders of his time but also, as we just heard, by the people of his own hometown.

If Lincoln, Van Gogh and Jesus had let rejection govern their lives and keep them from doing what they thought was right, our world would be a much poorer place today.

By his example, Jesus is making an important point that we mustn’t ignore. Anyone who hopes to build a better world must be prepared to be rejected. Almost anyone in this church who endeavors to live according to the values of the gospel has experienced the kind of rejection Jesus is talking about here. I have. After all, we live in a society that doesn’t want to hear what Jesus has to say.

Ask the students in high school or college what happens when they try to remain honest in an exam while others are cheating. Ask them what happens when they try to remain chaste or sober at a party while their peers choose not to. Ask anyone what happens when they speak out against discrimination while others around them are assassinating the character of ethnic minorities. In the past that would have been African Americans, nowadays that would be people from the Middle East or Latin America.

As followers of Jesus Christ, we cannot let rejection keep us from doing what we think is right. We cannot let the fear of rejection keep us from being honest, defending the rights of the unborn and standing up for the rights of ethnic minorities. We cannot let rejection keep us from being the people of faith we claim to be or that God has called us to be.

We cannot let the fear of rejection keep us from making God’s role in our lives evident to others. Because if we do, we will leave the world a poorer place.

I do not recall what explanation The Peter Principle gives for why things go wrong but Paul puts forth his theory in his letter to the Corinthians. Without love, we are nothing more than noisy gongs. He isn’t talking about romantic love here. For him, like many ancient writers, love is the social cement that builds up friendship and the common life of society. With examples, he provides a blueprint for addressing the wrongs of our world that takes some of us a lifetime to master.

By rephrasing his letter, we can judge for ourselves how much we have mastered in life thus far. Which statements describe you? I am patient. I am kind. I am not jealous. I do not put on airs. I am not snobbish. I am not rude. I am not self-seeking. I am not hot-tempered. I do not brood over injuries. I do not refuse to forgive. I do not rejoice in what is wrong but I rejoice in the truth. There is no limit to my forbearance, my trust, my hope, and my power to endure.

How many of those statements describe you? On some counts, I am not so sure if I could always give myself a passing grade, but this much I do know. Being a Christian is a matter of responding faithfully to God’s love with a love that compels me to live the gospel of Jesus Christ; otherwise, to quote Paul again, I am nothing. My daily prayer is that I will master these lessons of love even if it takes me a lifetime and leave this place richer in the act of doing so. I hope that is your prayer as well. We mustn’t give up trying.

You might feel that these lessons may be too difficult to master but they are not impossible to learn.  As Blessed Mother Theresa of Calcutta once said, “Love is a fruit in season at all times, and within reach of every hand.”

For those who still fail to see the urgency of Paul’s lesson and Jesus’ wisdom, Dr. Peter had this to say, “Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian anymore than going to the garage makes you a car.”
 

Best known for his radio program, Prairie Home Companion, Garrison Keillor is a superb story teller. In one series entitled, “Leaving Home,” he writes, “I can’t stay, you know. I left so long ago. I’m just a stranger with memories of the people that I knew here.” His point is this: one can go home again, but you can’t call it home any more.

That thought crossed my mind as I reflected on how Jesus must have felt in this gospel setting. He had been away from his hometown of Nazareth for awhile, out on the road making a name for himself as a rabbi. Now he was in town for a visit. Many remembered him well. He was not just any hometown boy coming home, for he had become a minor celebrity. Many were in the synagogue to hear what he had to say.

As was the custom in those days of showing courtesy to a visiting rabbi, Jesus was handed the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He came to these famous lines, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. He has sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free and to announce a year acceptable to the Lord.” Rolling up the scroll, he then sat down, a sign that he was about to teach something profound. He then gives the shortest homily ever. “Today, this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.”

What caught his listeners by surprise was the word, “today,” for they had been trained to look for the future.  Yes, a messiah is coming someday, but without warning, Jesus is telling them, “Your messiah is now here.” Notice that he doesn’t promise them that things will be different in the future.  Instead, he claims the power to transform the present. He tells those who are listening that the kingdom of God is already here.  In most of his recorded lines, Jesus speaks in the present tense, not the future: here and now, God has broken into your life. Today God’s grace abounds. Today, the kingdom of God can be realized. Today, God is revealed behind every episode in your life. Not on another day, not tomorrow, but today.

Had Jesus spoken in Latin, he might have said, “Carpe diem!” In other words, “Seize the day!” This gospel passage challenges us to live and be open to the message and life of Jesus Christ here and now. Not tomorrow, not next Easter, not next year, but today. And how might we do that?

For starters, have you ever thought to go through just one day endeavoring to accept everyone you encounter, making no judgments?  In his book, Love is Letting go of Fear, Dr. Gerald Jamplosky wrote, “Everything we think or say or do reacts on us like a boomerang. When we send out judgment in the form of criticism, fury, or other attack-thoughts, they come back to us. When we send out only love, it comes back to us.”  Make this a day of acceptance and see how this scripture passage can be fulfilled in your hearing.

Secondly, look for the opportunity in the present, even if today is not quite what you had bargained for. A graduate student once complained to his friend that he was quite frustrated with his job. “I don’t do pencil-pushing.” His friend, not a bit sympathetic, shot back, “You know the world is a better place because Michelangelo didn’t say, ‘I don’t do ceilings.’” So it is.  Look through the bible. Notice that Moses didn’t say, “I don’t do rivers.” Noah didn’t say, “I don’t do arks.” Paul didn’t say, “I don’t do gentiles.” Jesus didn’t say, “I don’t do crosses.”

Look for the opportunity today. In things you’d rather not do and in places you’d rather not be, today’s grace awaits you.

Finally, take time to put things in perspective.  I read about a couple who were having their share of marital difficulties. Cultural tensions, financial strain, and two headstrong personalities made for a very volatile relationship. They had separated several times, but each time they decided to give their marriage another go.

One neighbor was empathizing with the wife over her problems. “Gee, marriage can be tough,” and offered bits of advice.  As they chatted, he was hit with a fresh thought and instinctively said to her, “What a love story! You two have been through hell and high water, and here you are still committed to working at your marriage. That is an inspiring example of what love is all about!”

The wife smiled and didn’t say much, but gradually their conversation shifted. Instead of focusing on the obstacles in their marriage, the wife now talked about how she and her husband were working to resolve them. Her attitude became more hope-filled. She had put things in perspective.

Years later shortly after their 25th anniversary, the wife told her neighbor that his positive words had changed her perspective on their marriage. “When Dan and I were going through that difficult period, most of our friends were anticipating our divorce. I started believing we were heading that way, too. But you were different. When you praised us for our ‘love story,’ you gave me hope. You believed in our marriage and that made all the difference.”

To sum up the gospel, make God’s grace real, living a day of acceptance without judgment, a day of opportunity without complaint, a day of perspective without fear. These three things have the potential to make our scripture reading be fulfilled in your hearing….today.