Homily: 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time – Cycle A
Friends, one of the things that has disturbed
me over these past few years has been the development of what many have called
the “outrage culture”. This means exactly
what it sounds like it means, of course: that a “culture of outrage” has
developed among us in which the primary way that we interact with each other
and attempt to solve our problems is by becoming outraged whenever someone says
or does something that we don’t like. It
has become tolerable to become outraged, in other words, and we are reaping the
results of this in places where extreme tolerance of this has led to violent
demonstrations.
Before I go any further, I’d like to say that I
am not attempting to diminish any of the issues about which people are
upset. Some of these are things that
people ought to be upset about. What
disturbs me is not that people get upset; what disturbs me is that people
immediately go from “upset” to “outrage” and that this type of behavior is
something that we’ve not only tolerated, but have given approval to in greater
society.
This, of course, is really surprising because
of the hypocrisy of it all. One of the
characteristic features of the “outrage culture” is that those who have become
outraged tend to make loud, public pronouncements about their outrage seemingly
seeking to shame the ones through whom they became upset into retracting or
modifying their statements and actions.
This is hypocritical because these are essentially bully tactics and if
you ask anyone whether or not bullying is an acceptable behavior among young
people, the answer, of course, is a resounding “no”. Nonetheless, the “outrage culture”, which
seems to thrive on bullying, continues to grow stronger.
But this is not the way that Jesus showed us as
the way to resolve our differences, right?
Certainly, Jesus spoke very strongly at times when necessary in order to
confront those who were in the wrong.
Just look at his interaction with Peter last Sunday. Peter tried to rebuke Jesus when he claimed
that he must go to Jerusalem to suffer and die and Jesus strongly corrected him
(it was no small thing to call him “Satan”!).
But what Jesus didn’t do, was go onto Facebook, Twitter, or his Podcast
to continually blast Peter so as to shame and discredit him, too. Those things are things that you do to an
enemy, whom you wish to destroy, not to one with whom you have a relationship.
What Jesus instructs his disciples to do when
one of their brethren needs to be corrected is a very practical course in how
to do the spiritual work of mercy of “admonishing the sinner”. He instructs his disciples in this way not
because it is the most effective way (although it certainly can be the most
effective), nor because it is the most efficient (it certainly isn’t), but
rather because it is the most loving way to correct someone and to call him/her
to conversion. Even when the process
gets to the end and the disciple is instructed to “treat him as you would a
Gentile or a tax collector”, there is love there; because love desires the good
for the other and the suffering of being separated from the community of
believers, while not in itself good, is meant to soften his/her heart so that
he/she might see the wrong of his/her actions and finally repent of them and
seek reconciliation.
The outrage culture doesn’t allow for this kind
of loving work to happen. Rather, it
immediately sets up one person against another (or one group against another
group) and says, “We are at war”. In
that situation, there can be no dialogue between persons or groups, but only
bloodshed (either virtual or real). But
this is not the way of the kingdom.
Rather, the way of the kingdom of God is the way of communion and
dialogue—the way that begins with each and every one of us looking at every
other human being and saying: “You are my brother/my sister, and, therefore, it
is never ‘me vs you’, but rather ‘me for you’ and ‘you for me’” This is the way Jesus spells out for us and
it is the way to which Pope Francis has been calling us over these last years.
In this way of dialogue, it is not expected
that we will agree on everything. It’s
not even guaranteed that we won’t be insulted or have our feelings hurt! But even in the midst of these disagreements
and occasional insults, if we can stay engaged with each other in dialogue that
seeks communion, we will find a way forward that will lead to greater harmony
and respect for all. This means becoming
vulnerable: that is, exposing ourselves to uncomfortable confrontation and to
the possibility that we may be wrong about something or that we may need to
give up a stance that we hold dear. Have
you tried to do that recently? I don’t
care who you are, that is not an easy thing to do! But if I have the love of God in my heart for
the other person, then I’m going to do the hard thing, because I know that it
will be good for him/her. Please let me
be the first in here to say that I fail at this regularly and I pray for God’s
mercy for each time that I failed to “admonish the sinner” when I had the
chance. My regular failures, though, do
not change the fact that I am continually called to do this good work (and God
certainly continues to give me plenty of opportunities to do it).
Friends, perhaps I’ll close with an attempt to
give you one thing to pay attention to this week and beyond with which you
might challenge yourself. One of the
ways that we excuse ourselves from this necessary work of mercy and instead
give in to the “outrage culture” is to be dismissive. By this, I mean that we look at someone’s
behavior and dismiss it as “Just the way that person is”, or worse as “Just the
way those people are”. I urge you
to pay attention this week to how often you are dismissive of others in this
way. Whenever you are tempted to dismiss
another person, out of hand, pause and say to yourself, “That person is a child
of God, just like me. I wonder if there is something that I can do to help
correct the error I perceive.” If that
person is someone in your community, perhaps God will challenge you to engage
that person in dialogue and confront the issue directly. If that person is outside of your community
(someone you see in the news, for example), perhaps then all you’ll be able to
do is to pray and fast for him/her. Both
are acts of love towards that person, which can bring forth his/her conversion,
true. But even the very act of striving
against being dismissive is an act of love and so that is why I am urging you
to start there.
My brothers and sisters, God is never
dismissive of us. He does not delight in
seeing a sinner face his/her particular judgment without repentance. Rather, he always desires our conversion and
he has made us infinitely capable of turning away from sin and back to
grace. He sent his Son to redeem us in
order to prove to us this truth and the Eucharist that we celebrate is both the
reminder and the re-presentation of that proof to us. Strengthened by what we receive today, let us
work to counteract the “outrage culture” among us and strive instead to build a
culture of mutual respect and fraternity in which we challenge and support one
another “to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect”, so that the kingdom
of God—the only kingdom that can bring true peace to us—might continue to
manifest itself among us.
Given at St. Joseph Parish: Winchester,
IN and St. Mary Parish: Union City, IN
September 10th,
2023
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