Homily: 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Cycle B
Friends,
as we continue our journey through Ordinary Time, we are reminded of important
truths that help keep us on track. A
full six months removed from Lent and Easter—in which we focused on
acknowledging our sin and worked towards repentance—this Sunday the Church
gives us a reminder that sin still matters, even when it isn’t Lent.
In
the second reading today, Saint James issues a stern warning to the rich who
have taken unjust advantage of those less fortunate than them. He lays their sins before them and prophesies
that the comforts and excesses that they are enjoying now God has permitted so
as to “fatten their hearts” for the coming slaughter. He is warning them because they have become
complacent in their sin and because God will not overlook their injustices on
the Day of Judgment.
In
the Gospel reading, Jesus is just as deliberate and graphic. He instructs his disciples to be vigilant
against sin. In fact, another way to
describe Jesus’ teaching using some of our more modern parlance would be to say
that Jesus instructs his disciples to be intolerant
of sin. God has laid down a law that
must be obeyed and to choose against that law is to choose against God himself
and will result in eternal separation from God, which will be the cause of
eternal suffering; and so Jesus tells his disciples: “Be intolerant of
sin! If your hand causes you to sin,
CUT. IT. OFF! If your eye causes you to
sin, PLUCK. IT. OUT! Failure to do so
will condemn you to a place of eternal suffering: much like being in the middle
of the unquenchable fire of Gehenna.”
Gehenna,
for those of you who may not know, is not just another name for Hell. Gehenna was an actual place outside the walls
of Jerusalem. It was a valley on the
outskirts of the city that had been used for human sacrifice in Old Testament
times by the evil rulers of the Israelites who worshiped pagan Gods. By the time of Christ, the valley had become
a huge, outdoor public incinerator, in which trash and refuse, including the
dead bodies of animals and criminals, were thrown and eventually consumed by a
smoldering fire that was constantly kept burning. Obviously, this was not a pleasant place to
be; and, having seen it, Jesus’ disciples knew that this was not a place that
you could imagine yourself living for all eternity. Thus, the extreme images that Jesus uses to
describe how intolerant one should be of sin in his or her life.
Okay,
so the next question is this: “Is there a particular sin that our readings are
highlighting for us?” I believe so. It is the sin of envy and the associated sin
of possessiveness.
In
the first reading, we listened to the story of how God shared the spirit of
prophesy that he had given to Moses with the seventy elders of the tribes of
Israel. This was requested of God so
that Moses wouldn’t have to bear the burden of prophesy alone any longer. Those selected to be “inaugurated” into this
role of prophet gathered at the meeting tent for the ritual. Two, however, remained in the camp. Even though they were not at the gathering of
the elders when the spirit of prophecy was distributed, they still received the
spirit and began to prophesy. Thinking
this wrong, Joshua reports this to Moses and urges him to stop these two elders
from prophesying. Moses, however,
rebukes Joshua: saying that he would be happy if everyone would be given the
gift of prophecy.
Joshua
was envious and possessive of the gift of prophecy. He wanted to keep it for himself (or, in this
case, for his master, Moses). Moses,
however, was not envious or possessive.
He was glad to see the gift being shared and wished that it would be
shared even more openly.
Similarly,
in the Gospel reading, we heard of how John the Apostle, much like Joshua in
the first reading, reported to Jesus that there was a person driving out demons
in the name of Jesus. We heard of how he
urged Jesus to stop that person from doing so, simply because that person wasn’t
in the group of disciples that followed Jesus as he traveled. As Moses did, Jesus rebukes John: telling him
that no one can perform miracles in Jesus’ name who, at the same time, can be
against Jesus.
John,
it seems, was envious of the person performing those miracles and was possessive
of the benefits that being a close disciple of Jesus provided. Thus, he urged Jesus to stop the person from
performing those good works. Jesus,
however, was not envious of this person nor possessive of the power that was
demonstrated by this man in good faith (Jesus came in order to manifest this
power in the world, right?). Thus, he
was glad to hear this news and instructed his disciples that they, too, should
be glad to hear it.
Let
us note that in neither case are the “accusers” specifically accused of being
envious, yet their actions demonstrate that envy was at the root of their
actions. Let us remember that the name “Satan”
means “Accuser” and that Satan constantly accuses us because he is envious of
us because of God’s care for us. Perhaps
Jesus had this in mind after John made his accusation. Thus, he decided to teach his disciples of
the importance of eradicating sin (like envy) from their lives.
Friends,
we should be mindful of any time that we feel it necessary to accuse someone of
something since our accusations are often motivated by envy. Pope Francis has this to say about envy: “It
was this door, the door of envy, through which the devil entered the world. The Bible says, ‘Through the envy of the devil,
evil entered the world.’ Jealousy and envy open the doors to all evil things. It also divides the community. A Christian community, when some of its members
suffers… from envy, jealousy… it ends up divided: one against the other. This is a powerful poison. It is a poison that we find in the first pages
of the Bible with Cain.” Pope Francis
sees envy (and the possessiveness that flows from it) as a poison that kills
our solidarity and, thus, destroys our community, which can lead us to even
greater sins.
Perhaps
envy might be better described as a cancer: something that takes root in us and
destroys us from the inside. Ignored and
untreated, cancer will kill us. Just as
we wouldn’t ignore a cancer diagnosis, but rather would submit ourselves to
treatment in order to eliminate it, so, too, we must acknowledge the presence
of envy and possessiveness in our hearts and submit ourselves to “treatment” in
order to eliminate it.
What,
then, is the treatment to eliminate envy and possessiveness in our lives? Let’s look again at the scriptures. Neither Moses nor Jesus are jealous because
good works are being done beyond what they control. Rather they are grateful for the good that is
occurring without them. Gratitude and a
generous heart, therefore, seem to be remedies for envy and
possessiveness. By giving thanks for the
good deeds others do (and not just when they do them for us) and for the good
things they receive, we burn envy and possessiveness from our hearts. A very famous spiritual exercise is the “examen”
prayer. The first part of this prayer is
taking time to acknowledge and give thanks for the good that we have received:
acknowledging that all good comes from God.
By beginning in this way, we eliminate envy and possessiveness from our
prayer and, thus, open ourselves to receive even more from God.
My
brothers and sisters, sin still matters.
When we tolerate sin in our lives—even a seemingly small sin, like envy—we
allow a cancer to grow within us, silent and sinister: a cancer that destroys
us from the inside. Let us take courage,
then, to take up (or continue) the good works of gratitude and generosity so that
all sin, especially the sins of envy and possessiveness, might be eliminated in
us. In doing so, not only will we preserve
our lives from the fires of hell, but we will also discover what our Responsorial
Psalm tells us: that “the precepts of the Lord give joy to the heart…” the
eternal joy made possible for us by Jesus’ sacrifice… the same sacrifice that
is made present to us here on this altar.
Given in Spanish at Saint Paul’s Parish: Marion, IN –
September 25th, 2021
Given at Regina Mater Monastery: Kokomo, IN – September 26th,
2021
Given at St. Patrick Parish: Kokomo, IN – September 26th,
2021
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