Homily: 4th Sunday of Lent – Cycle C
In the 2008 film “Seven Pounds”, actor
Will Smith plays the role of “Tim Thomas”, an aeronautical engineer who made a
life-shattering mistake. While driving
one night with his fiancé, Tim tries to send a text message using his
phone. While distracted he accidentally
crosses the center line of the road and causes a multi-car accident in which
seven people die: six strangers and his fiancé.
Completely overcome by grief, Tim sets out to make atonement for his
mistake by searching for seven individuals for which he can offer part of
himself in order to drastically improve or even save their lives.
Tim’s generosity is conditional,
however. The seven individuals that he
will help have to be “good” people: people who are deserving of receiving this
unsolicited act of kindness. Over the
course of the next year and a half Tim donates part of a lung, a part of his
liver, a kidney and bone marrow to help individuals whom he has encountered and
whom he deems “good enough” to receive them.
Next he donates his house to a single mother of two children who feels
trapped in an abusive relationship.
Finally, he will give his life to donate his heart to a woman who has
congenital heart failure and his eyes to a man who is blind. In each of the cases, he did these things
anonymously (using a false identity) so that the people who received his gifts
would not be able to contact him to thank him or try to pay him back. In the end, you get the sense that he has
“made up for” the seven lives that were lost by his mistake by saving the lives
of seven other individuals at the cost of his own life.
This is a good film on many levels as
it deals with a very human issue: how do we deal with guilt and our natural
need to make atonement for our mistakes?
We are sympathetic with Tim Thomas’ plight: who wouldn’t want to try to
atone for the pain and suffering that one has caused? And we are sympathetic with the conditions
that he uses to decide who he will help: because who doesn’t think that people
who have strived to do the right thing in their lives deserve to be rewarded by
receiving help to overcome their hardships?
Nevertheless, the film portrays an atheistic, or at least deistic,
understanding of mercy and redemption.
You see, if there isn’t a God—or at
least if God is just a “divine watchmaker” who created the world and set it in
motion and now sits back to watch it tick—then there is no one to turn to who
is greater than the powers of this world; and so the only hope of redemption
from our mistakes that we will ever have is to become the savior ourselves:
going so far as to give our lives to atone for our mistakes, if we have
to. In this view there is no atoning for
others’ mistakes; and thus there can be no mercy on those unable to atone for
themselves. There’s only “eye for an eye
and tooth for a tooth” justice. Given
this worldview, Tim Thomas is a hero because he made his one life atone for the
seven lives that were lost by his mistake.
But this is not the worldview of Christians, which is displayed
perfectly for us in our Gospel reading today.
In proposing this parable, Jesus is
responding to the Pharisees and the scribes who are confronting him about
keeping company with those who were regarded as sinners: that is, those who had
turned their backs on God to go their own way.
These folks, like Tim Thomas, had a similar idea of “mercy”: that is, that
the blessings of God should only be given to “good” people—that is, those who
deserved it by living a righteous life according to the Law. The parable, therefore, was meant to show
them (and, so, to show us) that we don’t earn God’s mercy by first atoning for
all of our sins. Rather, God’s mercy is
pure grace, that is, gift.
Those of us who understand what a gift
it is to live in God's favor will conform our lives to his will because we
acknowledge that he is a loving Father who only wants what is good for us and
because we trust that the inheritance promised to us will be ours. Those of us who have taken the gift for
granted and have squandered it are nonetheless still loved by God and God is
ready to receive us back, because as his beloved children he still desires to
provide us with everything that will make us happy, even if we have turned our
backs on him. Simply stated, God's mercy
is available to everyone who humbly ask for it, not just those who
"deserve" it.
In the worldview presented in the film
“Seven Pounds”, one has to be heroic, like Tim Thomas, in order to atone for
his or her sins, because there is no mercy, only strict justice. In the Christian worldview, however,
atonement has been made and thus mercy is available to those who could not
atone for their sins themselves. And
because mercy is available, so is hope: hope that one can be redeemed even
without having made personal atonement.
This is the parable of the Prodigal Son: the story of one redeemed not
by personal atonement, but rather by mercy.
Lent, my brothers and sisters, is a
time to remind ourselves that this is the world that we live in: a world in
which, because of mercy, we can be redeemed without the need of personal
atonement. And we remind ourselves of
this by doing three things: reflection, repentance, and reconciliation.
Reflection: Have I turned my back on
God (like the prodigal son)? Have I done
terrible things in my life? Or, have I
been striving to live according to God's will, but have been proud and
judgmental about it (like the older son)?
Have I shunned anyone because they have turned away from God? Do I desire that all men and women be
reconciled to God?
Repentance: If I have turned my back
on God (again, like the prodigal son), I turn back to him now to beg his
forgiveness and mercy. If I have done
terrible things, I don't try to atone for them by myself, but rather I confess
my sins and amend my life: because a long life turned away from sin has much
more value than "eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth" justice. If I have shunned sinners as undeserving of
God's forgiveness (again, like the older son)—if I have judged others as
"un-savable" and so have given up on them—I turn to recognize them as
my brother or sister: as someone for whom our Father literally aches, and I
commit myself to reaching out to them.
Recognizing the reconciliation of God in my own life, I turn to work for
the reconciliation of others to God.
Reconciliation: When I turn from any
of these things, I immediately turn back to the Father and I approach the
sacrament of reconciliation. Like both the
prodigal son and the older son who finds their Father waiting for them, so our
heavenly Father waits for us in the confessional, door open and ready to
receive his lost son or daughter who has repented so that he might celebrate
his or her return.
You know, many of us have been
reconciled to God, and for this we rejoice!
Still many more, however, have yet to be reconciled. Thus our need to evangelize is great. Just imagine, however, if, when we called
people to repentance, we told them that they would also have to atone for all
of their sins. What miserable news that
would be! And, if this were the case, I
could understand our reluctance to share it!
How wonderful is it, then, that we have truly good news to share: that Jesus
has already atoned for our sins by dying on the cross; and so redemption is
free! How could we not share this good
news with everyone? Although many may
not be ready to receive this message, it shouldn't keep us from sharing it.
Therefore, my brothers and sisters, let
us let the joy that we feel today resonate in our lives; so that when others
ask us "Why are you so joyful?", we will always have a ready
response: "Because I have been saved by the Blood of Jesus and so have
nothing to fear!" May our joy pour
out in thanksgiving now as we offer back to God this incredible gift of mercy that
has redeemed us.
Given
at All Saints Parish: Logansport, IN – March 5th & 6th,
2016
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