Homily: 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Cycle C
One of the blessed parts of the
ministry with which I have been entrusted here is to hear confessions. Blessed because I get to be God’s instrument
of healing for your souls when, because of sin, they have been hurt. It’s not always the most pleasant experience,
however. In fact, sometimes it can be
downright frustrating! One of the
frustrating things that happens more than it should is when a person comes in
and forgets whose sins it is that he or she is supposed to be confessing. If you’re one of those people, please let me
make it clear for you now: when you come to confession, you are to confess only
YOUR sins, not somebody else’s!
Generally speaking, however, folks do focus on their own sins: those
things that they have done which they acknowledge have offended God and hurt
their neighbor in some way.
Nonetheless, in recent months, I've
begun to notice that there seems to be something missing in the majority of
confessions that I hear. You see, most of
the sins that people confess to me are for things that they have done: that is,
for offenses that they have committed. What I’ve noticed, however, is that I rarely
hear people confess the sin of not doing
something that they should have done. In
other words, not a lot of people are confessing sins of omission.
Sins of
omission are good things that we fail to do when it was in our power to do
them. If we take a look at our world, we
quickly realize that, yes, there are a lot of people committing grave sins every day.
Certainly, however, we can also acknowledge that there are a lot of
people failing to do the good that they are capable of doing. This, I would argue, creates a vacuum—an
empty space—in which more sinful acts can be committed. Thus, the fact that I rarely hear people
confessing sins of omission means that there isn't a strong awareness among
people that these are, in fact, sins (or offenses against God) and , thus, that
these are "confessional material".
Our
scriptures today remind us, however, that it isn't enough simply to avoid evil,
but rather that we also must actively pursue the good. In the first reading from the prophet Amos,
we hear him declare “woe to the complacent in Zion”, meaning that very dreadful
things were about to take place for the people of the southern kingdom of Judah
because of the extravagance with which they dine at their banquets, even while
their kinsmen (the people of the northern kingdom of Israel) are suffering from
the disintegration of their society. He
tells them that, because they have ignored their kinsmen in need, even though
they had the resources to do something, they, in fact, will be the first to suffer
when the king of Babylon comes to force them into exile.
Then in the
Gospel Jesus tells a parable that describes a similar situation, only in more
concrete detail. A rich man dresses
extravagantly and dines sumptuously every day, while a poor man, Lazarus,
suffers at his gate, hoping that the rich man will have enough kindness to give
him some of the leftovers from his meal.
After both of their deaths their roles will be reversed and the rich man
will be the one who suffers. Nevertheless,
this man’s ignorance is further on display when he asks Abraham to send Lazarus
to help relieve his suffering. Can you
imagine? He ignored Lazarus in his need
and now he expects Lazarus to help him in his suffering? How conceited!
Notice,
however, that neither Amos nor Jesus condemn the sin of overindulgence in food
and drink (i.e. gluttony)—even though they certainly could have condemned them
for it. Rather, both condemn
overindulgence at the expense of the poor
one in their midst—the sin of omission in which they failed to act for the
good of the suffering ones among them, even though (and especially though) it
was in their power to do so.
Because she
was recently canonized, Saint Teresa of Calcutta has gotten a lot of press
lately. Because of this I have been able
to learn a little more about this saint and her work. One of the new insights that I have gained
about her life is that she was as much a prophet as she was a charity worker. Of course we all know her for her dedication
to the “poorest of the poor” in the streets of Calcutta, India. These works of charity that she and the
religious order that she started performed brought plenty of attention to her. She never desired that kind of attention,
however. Nonetheless, she accepted it,
because of the opportunity that it gave her to bring the plight of the poor to
the attention of those who had the resources do something about it. In other words, when the spotlight came to
her, she used it to help people who were rich to see the poor and, thus, to
invite the rich to help them. In this
way, she was much more than a charity worker: she was a prophet. A prophet who called out the rich and
powerful in the world for their sins of omission against the poor. A prophet whose words are still very relevant
today.
The famous
Irish statesman, Edmund Burke, once said that “The only thing necessary for the
triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
My brothers and sisters, our inaction in the face of poverty and need is
a sin of omission of the same order that our scriptures speak of today. And so, what do we do? First, we need to pray. We need to learn how to examine our consciousness
and our consciences so as to see the poor in our midst and to acknowledge when
we have failed to respond to them. Then,
we need to act. Once we see where we
have failed to act, we must begin to fill the void that was created by our
inaction with the acts that we have failed to do. In other words, we need to be good men who do
something so that evil will not triumph in the world; and (perhaps, more
importantly) so that we won’t suffer the same fate as the rich man in Jesus’
parable. Finally, we need to repeat the
first two steps constantly. Elsewhere in
the Gospel, Jesus said that the poor will always be with us. Therefore, once we've acted to fill one void,
then we must begin again and pray to discern the next void that God is calling
us to fill and then act to fill it.
Saint Mother
Teresa never thought that she could eliminate poverty by herself. She was simply trying to do her part by
loving Jesus whom she encountered most profoundly in the poor. If each of us would do the same, that is, if
each of us would acknowledge the concrete way that God is calling us to act and
then commit ourselves to acting out of love for Jesus, then our world would
definitely begin to change for the better.
My brothers and sisters, as we approach this altar to give thanks to God
for all of the good that he has given to us, especially for the strength that
we receive when we receive the very life of God in Holy Communion, let us commit
ourselves to this good work so that God’s kingdom may truly be realized in our
midst.
Given at All Saints Parish: Logansport,
IN – September 25th, 2016
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