5th Sunday of Lent
Beloved in Jesus Christ,
Today we read in the Holy Gospel, about this woman caught in adultery. Obviously there was also a man involved, but he seems to have sneaked away. Adultery is a poison, it is a sickening attack on holy marriage, on the other spouse, and on the children. Some of us have seen it’s cruel work, it’s ability to change a happy family into bitter tears.
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The ancient Jews and even today some Muslim societies prescribe stoning to death for this sin, because this crime is a horrible blow to family life. We may think that stoning is too harsh of a punishment, but actually, if the adulterer dies without repentance, his punishment will be much worse than stoning: Eternal Damnation; the bible is quite clear about this.
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But God, in his Providence, did not want sin to have the last word. In the new dispensation, Jesus Christ comes to show us that sin – even very serious sin – can be overcome.
By his bitter Passion – by God’s suffering on Calvary – he redeems us from sin, making it possible for a repentant sinner to be healed, and making forgiveness possible.
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When I was a young and naïve priest, an older couple asked if I could bless their marriage, since they’d been married for 60 years. I said, ‘Marvelous!, 60 wonderful years.’ But the man stopped me: ‘It was not all wonderful father,’ ‘There was infidelity, I was unfaithful, but I repented;’ and – as he looked at his wife he said – there was forgiveness.’ Holding hands, they tightened their grip, and she said: ‘Our love is stronger now, than ever before.’
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It is the Passion and death of Jesus Christ that makes it possible to conquer evil, that sin will not have the last word. Soon we will be in Holy Week, and we will walk with Christ in his Passion. This is really the reason that Jesus came into the world, to die for us, to save us, to change everything.
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Once upon a time, there was a great king, who had one, only son, so beautiful, so holy, so good, that he was the delight of his father who loved him as much as himself. Now this son of the king cared very much for one of his servants; so much so, that when that servant had committed a crime and was condemned to death for it, the son offered to die in the place of that servant.
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The father was sad, but he agreed, and allowed his son to be condemned to death in order that that servant might be free from the punishment he deserved; and so the son of the king died the miserable death of a criminal, out of love for that servant.
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Now this story is ridiculous and has never happened in the world and never will, but it is told to us in the Gospels; there we read that the Son of God, seeing that man was condemned to death as punishment for his sins, chose to take upon himself human flesh, and thereby, pay by his death, the penalty that we owed. This is the love of Jesus Christ for us; it shows us how much he has sought us out.
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Our Lord is called the good shepherd. One of those sheep goes straying off where it should not be; – that’s us – driven by curiosity and temptation, into sins of all kinds. Yet this dear shepherd leaves the beauty of heaven to search and search, until he finds us. Seeing that the wolf will kill that little lamb; he gives his life in exchange for the lamb, so the lamb may live. The heart of Jesus is so full of love that he never gives up on us.
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So what then must be our response? We must love Him with our whole heart. We must repent of our sins. We must forgive those who have trespassed against us. And above all, we must unite ourselves to Him daily; speaking to this dear Savior every day in our prayers.
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When we rise, we offer the day to God. We pray at meals and before bedtime: that’s 5 times. We should speak to Jesus often during the day, in our work and in our play. Read a little from the Holy Bible or a spiritual book. In this way, we remain united to the God who has died for us.
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St. Zeno says that Jesus Christ wanted to have for his earthly father a carpenter; he wanted this, so that he could learn carpentry, and thereby handle wood and nails. He says: ‘The Son of God took delight in carpentry work, which, by often using wood and nails, was reminded of the cross, by which he would save mankind.’
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Why did Jesus suffer scourging, thorns, mockery, and death for we ungrateful sinners? It was because he loves us. He saw us spoiled with sin, and made for us a bath in his own blood that we might be cleansed and become dear to God. Christ came upon the earth principally that we might know his love, be forgiven, and ourselves forgive. We then, must return that love by living the Gospel and by praying every single day of our life….. and praying to Mary too!
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The Blessed Virgin was at the cross at the moment of our redemption.
The soldiers, taunting Jesus, ‘Come down from that cross!’
But not Mary: ‘O Jesus, stay on the cross, and save us.’
When we get to Holy Week, let’s stay at the cross with Mary, and pray: ‘Lord, help me; help a sinner who wishes to love you.’
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[Entrusted to the prayers of St. Nicholas]
Friends in Christ, when we pray the Creed each Sunday, we profess our faith in God the Father, in his Son, in the Holy Spirit, in God’s creative and saving work in the world – and then the Creed culminates in the proclamation of the resurrection of the dead.
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The catechism teaches us that just as Christ has risen from the dead, so will we. He leads the way. The Creed literally speaks of the resurrection of the ‘flesh,’ and this means we will really be ‘bodily’ alive, not some kind of ethereal soul. A full, human person, in a glorified body. This is our destiny.
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In the gospel today Our Lord states: “The hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs will hear the voice of the Son of God, they who have done good shall come forth to resurrection of life, they who have done evil unto the resurrection of condemnation.”
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The entire life of Jesus Christ triumphs in his defeat of death by his resurrection. Belief in the resurrection of the dead has been an essential element of the Christian faith from the beginning, but as St. Augustine says, ‘on no point does the Christian faith encounter more opposition than on the resurrection of the body.’
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Today, it is generally accepted that the life of a person continues in a spiritual way after death. But how can we believe that this body, so clearly mortal, could rise to everlasting life? Yet this is central to our Faith. To end up as a floating soul somewhere, gives us no real hope of heaven, it is not true, human life.
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Lent is racing toward Easter; Easter is the greatest of feasts for the Church, and this is because Our Lord shows us that we will be able to conquer sin and death and rise in glorious, resurrected bodies. As St. Paul says, (1 Cor 15:12) ‘How can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection, then Christ has not been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless. But as it is, Christ HAS risen. As in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made to live.
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Our future resurrection is the reason for our hope, when new will be alive with God, and all those we love.
4th Sunday of Lent
Friends in Christ, today we hear Our dear Lord tell this parable of the prodigal son. Here is this son, who took his inheritance and left, to find his own way in the world.
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‘And he gathered up all his wealth, and took his journey into a far country, and there he squandered his fortune in loose living.’
This young man went to try out all the pleasures that the world has to offer; he thought he would find happiness. Jesus tells this parable 2000 years ago, but it still applies today.
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We, still today, try to find happiness in many of the wrong things, and they leave us empty. We think that if we commit this or that sin, we will be happy; if I indulge in this lifestyle or that – after all, everyone else is doing it, ‘God just doesn’t understand, his commandments don’t apply to me.’
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So we often take the easy way out, or we follow the crowd; we may do something wrong to try to make our life easier or happy. But in the end, sin always makes us unhappy and guilty. Then we are like that young man in the gospel:
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‘And after he had spent all, there came a grievous famine over that country, and he began himself to suffer want. And he went and joined one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his farm to feed swine. And he longed to fill himself with the pods the swine were eating, but no one gave them to him.’
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That young man in the gospel had experimented with the promises of the world. But now he was empty and sad. He could only find a job to care for the pigs. He is each of us – when we commit sin, we feel deep down, that we have betrayed Someone. Someone who is very important to us. Someone who loves us – who created us. We wish to turn to God and say: ‘Lord, I feel lost. I need you in my life – please Help me.’
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The devil lures us all the time with his promises: ‘Go ahead, do this – you will be happy. Then we do it. Then the devil says: ‘Look at what you’ve done. Now you are no longer part of God’s kingdom.’ As St. Paul himself said: ‘We end up doing the very thing we didn’t want to do.’ So our sin makes us feel disgusted with ourself, and we don’t even want to pray.
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One of the teachers in school reminded the kids that they would be going to confession this week. We go once a month at St. John’s school. One little boy just blurted out: ‘Awesome!,’ he said. The teacher asked: ‘’you like to go to confession?’ The boy said, ‘I really need to apologize to God for some things; I need to get some things off of my chest.’
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You know, that prodigal son in the gospel – he wallowed in his sins for a long time, his empty life. He hated himself. He felt estranged from God. Then he realizes what each of us knows: There is one thing I have to do. It is difficult, but I have to do it. I have to swallow my pride, and admit my sin. How many times does scripture say that a broken, humbled heart is what God really wants. In other words, he wants us to be sorry, and repent, and throw ourselves into his merciful arms.
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‘And coming to his senses he thought, I shall arise and go to my father and say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you, I am not even worthy to be called your son.’
This is exactly what each of us must do. As that boy said in class, ‘we must go and apologize to God.’ We must kneel down and admit our sins to God’s ambassador, the priest: ‘Bless me Father, for I have sinned – and we name our sins.’ There is no happier person on earth, than the one who has gone to confession, who is freed from the burden of his guilt. We are required to go to Confession at least once a year, but really, going every month is best.
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Dr. Carl Jung was a very famous psychiatrist from years ago; Dr. Jung was not a Catholic at all, but he observed in his time, that fewer Catholics had mental disorders. (Of course in those days most Catholics were practicing their faith.) Now for years, he had searched for a way to help his patients resolve their guilt. Late in life, he noticed that one of his clients showed no signs of guilt or bitterness. He asked her how this could be, with all that she had done. How she could be at such peace?
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She said she was a Catholic, and that Jesus had died for her sins; and that he gave the power to forgive sins to His priests when he said: ‘Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven.”
He looked at her with great amazement and said, ‘You’ve found the pearl of great price for which I’ve searched diligently for more than 30 years! Please never stop going to confession.’
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Jesus is the world expert on the human heart, because he made it. He made us. He knows what we need. He knows that we need to get things off our chest, to begin again.
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Friends, we are all the prodigal sons and daughters. We have in the past, and continue, to fall into sin – But love is most often discovered only after it’s been lost.
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‘And while he was yet a long way off, his father saw him, and was moved with compassion. And he ran and fell upon his neck and kissed him.’ This father was overjoyed to receive his son back, and this is how it is with Our Heavenly Father.
‘Let us celebrate, he says, because my child has come to life again; he was lost, and is found.’
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So let us conclude by going to Mary. This dear Blessed Virgin will always help us, even if we are discouraged. Mary pray for us, that even if we find ourselves far from God, we will always arise, and return to our Father’s House.
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[Entrusted to the prayers of St. Joseph]
Friends in Christ, today in the gospel we see this proud Pharisee, who is compared with the contrite publican. The publican is sorry for his sins: ‘O God, be merciful to me a sinner.’
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During the season of Lent, we are given a number of gospel readings on this theme, in order to lead us also, to contrition for our sins. Yesterday we had a lot of confessions, today we have confessions again until noon, as part of this Day of Mercy. One of the requirements to make a good confession, is that the penitent have ‘contrition.’ He must be sorry for his sins.
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We could perhaps think of St. Peter – remember how he denied Christ? ‘I never knew the man,’ he said. And then he wept bitter tears. Were his tears contrition? Not necessarily. Contrition is on the inside, and may or may not show on the outside.
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Is Peter’s contrition perhaps because he feels ashamed, that he was so foolish as to deny Christ? no. People sometimes say they are ashamed that they committed some sin; this is understandable, but this is not contrition.
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Father Benedict Bauer says, ‘Contrition is sorrow for the sin that was committed, together with a decision not to do it again.’
Sin is a rebellion against the Good God. Contrition fills the Will with sorrow for revolting against God and treating him so badly, who loves us. We regret that we have done this to our Friend.
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Contrition need not be a feeling, or involve tears – it is rather, a genuine change in disposition. The Will, which previously held onto something evil, now casts the sin away and hates the sin. It wishes that the evil would be undone. Therefore, contrition includes the determination to turn away from sin.
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Sorrow is essential for the reception of Confession, without it, there is no forgiveness of sin. Some people who go to frequent confession find that they are not improving or changing their life. Of course this is human nature, we often fall into the same traps. But we should also ask, ‘am I really being contrite, am I really determined to change when I confess?
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Mother Church speaks of two types of Contrition: Perfect Contrition and Imperfect Contrition. Perfect Contrition is sorrow for sin out of love of God, the way that we would be sorry that we hurt someone we love. Imperfect Contrition is sorrow because of fear of hell or other horrors of the sin. (It still must contain a purpose of amendment)
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We have an Act of Contrition that we often use here at St. John’s, it is in the confessionals and on our guides, although you are free to use any one that you like. But in the one that we use here, Perfect and Imperfect contrition are in the prayer.
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We say, ‘Oh my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended thee, and I detest my sins, because I dread the loss of heaven and the pains of hell – there, that is ‘imperfect contrition’ – sorrow out of fear of losing God.
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then we go on:
I detest my sins, because I dread the loss of heaven and the pains of hell, ‘but MOST OF ALL, because they offend Thee my God, who art all good, and deserving of all my love’ – that is perfect contrition –
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Making firm and deliberate acts of contrition can really help us to change our life.
Friends in the Lord,
today is the Feast of St. Casimir of Poland. St. Casimir was born in 1458. His father was the King of Poland. There were 13 children in their family; he was the 3rd.
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Now he was a Prince, and he could have become King if he wanted, but he was not interested. Casimir was very pious and tried to keep the presence of God with him all day. He was well-known for his cheerfulness, and this cheerfulness was contagious to any who knew him.
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He loved the Blessed Virgin; he used to sing a hymn to her, over and over. He even asked that a copy of this hymn would be buried with him in his tomb. When he attend Mass, he was sometimes caught up in rapture, being so near to Christ Crucified. So much did he long for Jesus in the Holy Eucharist, that often at night, he would kneel before the locked doors of churches for hours, regardless of the weather.
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Now although he was a prince, he was always seen in rather plain clothes, and under them he wore a hair-shirt for penance. Rejecting even ordinary comforts, he slept little, spending his nights in prayer, often on his knees for hours; and when he did sleep, it was on the floor not on a royal bed. Even though he was a prince, everyone was at ease with him; he was friendly, cheerful, and calm. St. Casimir assisted the poor a great deal, and he is known for this.
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His father wanted him to marry the beautiful daughter of Emperor Frederick III, but he refused because he had made a private promise of celibacy. At only 23 years of age, he contracted a serious case of tuberculosis; he then foretold precisely the hour he would die, which came true.
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Many miracles happened at his intercession, and 120 years after his death, his body still gave off a wonderful sweet scent. Canonized in 1521, his relics are in the church of St. Stanislaus in Poland.
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What can we learn from St. Casimir? We should imitate his devotion to the Blessed Virgin, and we should also imitate his cheerfulness. Being cheerful, even when we don’t feel like it, and even with those who we don’t like, is a powerful form of charity toward neighbor.
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St. Casimir’s symbol is the lily, for purity; he is the patron saint of Poland and of bachelors.
3rd Sunday of Lent
Beloved in Jesus Christ, today is the 3rd Sunday of Lent; Lent is a time for us to be renewed in our life. It is a time to root out bad habits and sins, personality faults and evil thoughts from our life.
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In the Gospel today, Jesus gives us a warning. In his day, Pontius Pilate had murdered some Galileans, ‘cut down’ in the prime of life; the people were shocked by this. Christ says, ‘Don’t be surprised that this happened to them. He says: ‘What about when that tower fell on all those 18 people at Siloam?’ ‘They weren’t prepared;’ this could happen to any of you at any time.
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Our Lord was warning them, because no one knows how many days we have left on earth; and we DO wish to leave this earth in God’s friendship; therefore, during Lent, Holy Church urges us to repent of our sins.
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St. Bernard says, ‘think of the sins of your youth and be ashamed;’[i] ‘remember the sins of adulthood and weep;’ ‘look at the disorders in your life today and tremble; ‘it is time to repent and turn back to Christ.
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I know many people who are engrossed in things in this life: their work, their hobbies, their romances – but they think little of how their life will end or be judged. St. Camillus was one day looking at a cemetery, and he thought: ‘if those people were alive again, they would do things differently.’ But then he considered himself: ‘What am I doing with the time I have left?’
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There are so-called religious people, who spend their days reading theology or saying a thousand prayers, but they still won’t get along with their neighbor. What are we doing with the time God has yet given us?
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I was reading about a man named Theophilus, the archdeacon of the church of Adana; he was immensely loved and respected by the people, this Deacon. Now it happened that some evil persons made false accusations about him of a crime, and for this, the bishop expelled him from diaconal ministry.
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He was so depressed, that out of desperation he went to a fortune teller who sought help for him from Satan. The devil told Theophilus that if he wanted help, he must renounce Jesus and Mary, and write this down and sign it. In desperation he did it.
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Well, low and behold, the bishop suddenly reinstated him to the Deaconate. Needless to say, Theophilus was full of guilt over what he had done. He was reinstated at the price of his soul!
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He went to a church, and threw himself in tears before an image of Mary and said: ‘O Mother of God,’ you can still help me who have done this traitorous deed. He prayed there for help for 40 days, when suddenly one night Mary appeared to him: ‘O Theophilus, what have you done? You have renounced the friendship myself and my Son, and for whom? For our Enemy.’
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‘O Lady, he answered, you must pardon me and obtain my forgiveness from your Son.’ ‘Mary replied, ‘Be of good heart, I will intercede for thee.’ Days later she announced that he was pardoned; ‘but,’ she said, ‘from this day forward, be grateful to God and faithful.’ ‘But O Mother, he said. The enemy still possesses that wicked document in which I renounced you and your Son.’ 3 days later, he woke up to find the document on his chest.
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Then he went to the church where the bishop was, and in the presence of an immense gathering of people, he cast himself at his feet and with bitter tears related all that had taken place; and then he delivered into his hands the wicked document. The bishop burned it in the flames, and all the people wept for joy and praise of the goodness of God and the mercy obtained by Mary for this poor sinner. This event is attested to by the historian Eutychian, who was an eyewitness.
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Friends, Jesus tells us in the gospel of a little fig tree which bore no fruit; he said, I have been waiting too long for it, ‘cut it down.’ But the gardener asked him for one more chance, and he allowed it. The Lord has already given us so many chances, maybe we are near the end of our chances.
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This Lent, let us Confess our favorite sins and give them up. Let us say with St. Catherine of Genoa: ‘Lord, no more sins. No more sins.’ —
To the praise and glory of the Virgin Mary, Mother of God; in memory of the Life, Death, and Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ, be everlasting praise, honor, power, and glory from every creature, and to us forgiveness of all our sins, forever and ever. Amen.
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[Entrusted to the prayers of St. Peter]
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[i] Preparation for Death, p. 33.
St. Friends in the Lord, today in the gospel, Our Lord predicts his passion to his apostles and also tells of his resurrection. Perhaps then, thinking that the kingdom of God was quite near, the Mother of James and John – whose name was Salome – she asks Jesus that her two sons will sit at his right and at his left in his kingdom. She had heard Jesus say that his disciples will judge nations and sit on thrones, so she asks for greatness for her sons.
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As St. John Chrysostom says, James and John no doubt realized that Peter was held as the leader of the apostles, and so they feared that Peter would get this honor before them.
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Now ordinary mothers only desire for their kids to make a lot of money, be successful, prosperous, important – but at least this mother wanted her children to be great in God’s kingdom, even though she did not understand it. Perhaps those boys sent their mother to ask the Lord this favor, because the Lord always listens to the pleas of a mother for her children. But neither this mother nor her sons understood what is the price of reigning in the kingdom of heaven.
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‘Can you drink the cup that I will drink?, Jesus asks them. In other words, can you suffer? Can you give up your life? ‘We can,’ they say. But they did not know what they were saying.
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When Our Lord is arrested and sent to crucifixion, the disciples ran away! They were not ready to be crucified with the Lord. Jesus knew this, that they were not ready yet. In the end however, James WOULD be martyred, and John thrown into a pot of boiling oil and banished to Patmos for being true to the Lord. So eventually, with the grace of Christ, they would be able to drink the cup of suffering and reign with him.
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But let us think of an interesting scene. Those boys wanted to be, ‘one at Christ’s right and one at his left’ in glory; and at the cross, there with Mary, was Salome, this mother of James and John. And if she looked up, she would see Jesus being crucified, and to her horror, she saw two others being crucified, one on his right and one on his left! Is that where she really wanted her sons to be? !
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When we pray, we ask the Lord for what we want; but then we should leave it up to him on how to answer the prayer, because he knows best how and when to answer it.
2nd Sunday of Lent
Beloved in the Lord, 1400 years before Christ, Moses prepared to ascend Mt. Sinai. Before he did this, he sent 12 men to offer sacrifice to God. Then, taking with him Aaron (his ‘right-hand-man), and two brothers, Nadab and Abihu, they went up the mountain along with 70 elders. It says, ‘there on that mountain, they saw God.’
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Today, we read something similar in the gospel. It is not Moses, but Jesus, who goes up a mountain, Mt. Tabor. He takes with him Peter, his right-hand-man, and two brothers, James and John. This is exactly parallel to the events of the Old Testament, where Moses, taking Aaron, and then two brothers, goes up the mountain, and they see God. But in the case of Jesus, with Peter, James, and John – on that mountain, do they see God? Wow! Do they!
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‘And his face changed in appearance and his clothing became dazzling white….and behold, from the cloud came a voice, “This is my beloved Son; listen to him.” Today, Christ reveals a little sample of his Divinity. This marvelous, luminous glory of God – the Divine Nature of Christ is allowed to bust forth.
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Now in these events, Our Lord is teaching, not only with words, but with his actions. Since the days of Moses, Israel had organized itself according to it’s founding events. Moses had chosen 12 men to offer sacrifice, i.e., priests; he chose his right hand man Aaron to be High priest. And he took 2 brothers with him, Nadab and Abihu. And then there were the 70 others.
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At the time of Christ, the structure of the governing bodies of Israel were based on this model. There was the High priest and his inner circle; there were his 12 assisting priests in the temple. And there was the governing council of Israel called the Sanhedrin, made up of 70 members. All of this followed the model seen around Moses. These are the key numbers: 12 – 1 – 3- 70
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Now how does Jesus arrange his ministry? First, he chooses 12 apostles. There is that number 12. We see that when he went up Mt. Tabor, he took with him his 3 inner circle: Peter James and John – there is that number 3. Peter, his number one man, who will become the “high priest” of the Church, and two brothers: James and John, just like at Mt. Sinai. Furthermore, after this mountain event, Christ sends out 70 disciples. So there is that number, 70. What is Jesus up to?
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The High priest of Israel, and the Sanhedrin – it is certain, were carefully watching what Jesus was doing, and what do they see? They see him assembling around him, the exact same structure that they have: 12 – 1- 3 – 70. Peter will be the new ‘high priest.’ The 12 apostles are the new leaders of the 12 tribes of Israel just like the 12 priests in the temple. And his sending the 70 to preach, shows that he is replacing the Sanhedrin. Therefore, the leaders were furious.
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Jesus did not need to say one word, his actions told it all. He is building a new priesthood and new leaders; He is forming the New Israel – the Church. But the center of the New Israel is not a dead law nor an earthly temple, nor the memory of Moses, but the Living Jesus, who is God.
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On that mountain, Christ shows us the glory of the world to come; not just in himself, but in us, his disciples; this glorious life of the future resurrection. As St. Paul will say: ‘I consider that the sufferings of this present time can’t even be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.’
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But the joy of Mt. Tabor is not only for the world to come; we are to live it now, by anticipation. Why? Because Jesus is living in us; he is with us. As scripture says, ‘Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?’
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Friends, we are ultimately to be Transfigured in glory as Christ is. We follow him. But that transfiguring of ourselves is already beginning. It began in our baptism, when God took up his life in our soul. And the more that we follow God’s will, live the life of Christ, then the more we are transfigured from glory to glory.
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Let us then, never let the Lord leave us, all the day and all the week; through our work and duties and business, let us always find time to glance to our Savior who dwells within us. This is to keep the Presence of God. No matter the obstacles of life, we should always be able to turn to our heart and say as Peter said on the mountain: ‘Lord, it is good to be here with you.’ This is what the saints tell us is the foundation of a happy life: keeping it in mind: God is here, he is in us.
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St. Paul of the Cross would say: ‘Frequently stir up your faith, when you are studying, working, or eating; when you go to bed and when you rise, make aspirations to God.’[i] Speak to him, who is with you. In this way, our problems are easy and our burdens are light.
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My mother had a favorite passage of Scripture, she kept it written on a little note for herself, from Psalm 27:
‘One thing I ask of the Lord, this I seek; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, and behold the beauty of the Lord in his temple.’
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This we can do, today. We can dwell with the Lord all the days of our life.
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May the Blessed Virgin help us to always keep the Presence of God; that in our work and in our play, we may always say: ‘Lord, it is good to be here with you.
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[Entrusted to the prayers of St. Camillus]
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[i] How to Pray always, p. 105
Friends in Christ, in the gospel today we see one way in which the Catholic Faith is totally different from others. Christ tells us to love our enemies, and pray for those who persecute us. This is very different from other, non-Christian religions.
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This is very different from other, non-Christian religions.
I knew a young woman who had grown up Hindu. In India, she sometimes went to Church with her Catholic friend. She was stunned when she heard that we are to pray for our enemies. She said, ‘In Hinduism we have a god that we pray to to hurt our enemies.’ It was this teaching that really drew her to the Faith.
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And Our Lord is not speaking so much about the Hitler’s and ISSIS’s and other enemies, as much as he means the person in our own household or at our own workplace who makes our life difficult.
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So Our Lord asks us to have this kind of Christian love. This being said, we must now ask WHY he said this. The reason is simple: it is such love that makes a person like God. Christ says that Our Father in heaven makes the sun rise on the bad and the good and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.
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God is constantly blessing all of his children, good and bad. He is sending constant blessings upon this earth to us and our enemies. William Barclay says, ‘for what purpose were we made in the first place?’ In Genesis, God says, ‘let us make man in our image and likeness.’ Man is created to be like God. We are to be sharing in God’s life, and conforming ourselves more and more to be in his image and likeness.
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So, one characteristic of God, is this universal concern and goodness to all, this unconquerable goodwill, the desire for the good of each person; and never giving up on anyone. No matter how people have wounded God and insulted him, God continues to desire the good of each person.
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Well, we become like God when we too love the good people as well as our enemies; when we desire good for everyone. And this is why Jesus concludes his words by saying, ‘Be therefore perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.’
Friends in Christ, in the first reading today, God speaks through the prophet Ezekiel; the Lord says that if the wicked man turn away from his sins, none of his crimes will be remembered. This seems to imply that not only can sins be forgiven by God, but that he will forget them?
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The saints tell us, that on the day of judgment, for those who are destined for hell, God will make known even their most secret and shameful sins, of which they never repented or confessed. St. Basil teaches, that with a single glance, everyone will see all the sins of the damned.
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But according to St. Alphonsus and many holy men, for those destined for heaven, the sins they have confessed in confession will not be made known.
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It is common knowledge, that if a priest is going to attempt an exorcism, he will always beforehand make a thorough confession, why? Because the devil will often try to intimidate the priest, by speaking his sins out loud, to his face. Experience has shown however, by exorcists, that the devil is not capable of speaking the sins which have been confessed. They seem to be gone.
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When a child does something wrong, the child sometimes runs to his parents to openly admit his guilt. The parents are pleased by this admission, and usually punish very little. St. Augustine says that we should submit ourselves to judgment now, going to Confession, admitting our faults now, so that at the end of our life we will have already been judged.
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At the Judgement, at the trial of our life, Satan is the accuser, showing the faults of a person’s life. But confessed sins, he is not able to use as evidence in the trial. What happened to those confessed sins? God says today that he forgets those sins, for it is written: ‘None of the crimes he committed shall be remembered.’ And through Isaiah, God says, ‘I will remember your sins no more.’
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If God forgets our sins, that means they don’t exist. St. Peter Damien taught, that God can actually erase parts of history if he wishes. Let us therefore, confess our sins, that the Lord will erase them from our history.
