Fr. Roger J. Landry
St. Agnes Church, New York, NY
Fifth Sunday after Pentecost, Extraordinary Form
June 27, 2021
1 Pet 3:8-15, Mt 5:20-24
To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below:
The following text guided today’s homily:
- Today from the Sermon on the Mount, right after Jesus teaches us the beatitudes and gives us our vocation as Salt of the Earth and Light of the World, he makes explicit for us that his standards for our behavior are very high, something he would later develop in calling us to be holy as the Lord our God is holy, merciful as our heavenly Father is merciful, loving as he has loved us, and ultimately perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect. He tells us that unless our righteousness — the justice of our relationship with God — surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, we will not enter the kingdom of God. The scribes gave their lives to studying the word of God down to the smallest letter. The Pharisees were those who tried to live by what the Scribes taught, seeking to base their whole life on God’s word. Whereas the typical Jew prayed once a day, the Pharisees prayed three times daily. Whereas the typical Jew fasted once a year on the Day of Atonement, Pharisees fasted twice a week. Whereas the average Jew tithed just the things that they were supposed to tithe in the Mosaic law, the Pharisees gave ten percent of all they owned to God. The Scribes’ and the Pharisees’ standard of righteousness was very high, and Jesus was calling us to live by a higher standard.
- Before we get into what that higher standard is, it’s important for us to note that we are living at an age in which a call to high moral standards is not part of ordinary discourse. The standards of the world are basically that we’re supposed to be “nice” and “kind,” the human equivalent of bland mushrooms in a strong cultural sauce, tolerant of everything that the world wants us to accept and intolerant of everything the world wants us to reject. Within the Church, standards in many places have been forgotten or watered down. Many reduce being Catholic to the mere fact of being baptized or received into the Church: whether we pray or play, keep or break promises, steal or sacrifice, come to Mass or sleep in, confess our sins or brag about them, are faithful to our spouse or cheat, provide for or neglect our family, forgive or settle scores, love or abuse the poor, teach the truth or tickle people’s ears, welcome or abort the littlest of Jesus’ brethren, it doesn’t matter, as long as we think we’re good people, as long as we love someone, as long as we do some good to somebody sometime somewhere, and aren’t judgmental toward anyone else — then no one will judge us either. Archbishop Charles Chaput, emeritus of Philadelphia, said earlier this week that one of the obvious problems facing the Church is that many who come to Mass and approach holy communion are, in mentality, non-Catholics. They look at the world, the Creed, the sacraments, the moral life, and prayer basically the same way that everyone else does, rather than with Catholic faith.
- Surveying today’s scene based on Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount, St. John Paul II said in 2001, “The time has come to re-propose wholeheartedly to everyone this high standard of ordinary Christian living: the whole life of the Christian community and of Christian families must lead in this direction.” That high standard of ordinary Christian living, he said, is holiness. And he spoke about various of the means Christ gives us to make us holy — grace, prayer, Mass, confession, the Word of God, and putting that word into practice through charity — all means by which we allow him into our life so that he can help us from the inside to live by the high standards he sets us for us, his own, truly Christian standards. Christ calls us not to mediocrity but to greatness — and provides the means. But this greatness is hard and requires continual conversion.
- We see that very clearly in his words in today’s Gospel about anger and hatred. Throughout the Sermon on the Mount, as Jesus proposed his way, he went much deeper than the Decalogue, trying to interiorize the law and go to the roots of sin in the human heart. It’s not enough, he said, not to commit adultery in the flesh: Jesus forbids adultery in the heart through lust. Whereas the Mosaic law limited retaliation to an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, Jesus calls us to retaliate with good, loving those who make themselves our enemies, praying for our persecutors, turning the other cheek. Similarly, Jesus tells us today that it’s not enough not to murder our brother or our sister. We Christians are called to love him or her. Jesus says that we’ll be breaking the Fifth Commandment and liable to the fires of Hell if we’re angry with our brother, if we insult him by calling him “Raqa” (which means fool, idiot, or empty-headed one), something that, let’s face it, is far from the worst epithet in most of our daily lexicons. These words are especially powerful for the time in which we’re living, when so many Christians — including fervent, practicing Catholics, including various bishop, priests, lay social media personalities and many others — have succumbed to the temptation to lower their standards with regard to some of the fundamental orientations with which Christians are supposed to treat others, including and especially those with whom they disagree. Political and social life have become rancorous. Insults and ad hominem attacks are rife. Cancel culture celebrates character assassination by frenzied mobs, often regardless of the veracity or gravity of accusations. Various tabloids, websites and television programs peddle nothing but gossip. Twitter and other forms of social media ooze with hatred and misanthropy, from non-stop political cyberbullying to caustic criticism by vituperative virtual vultures. It’s hard in such a mordant culture not to descend into the gutters. The stakes are high. Those pushing radical agendas often don’t even feign civility. If they’re driving bulldozers on what seems to be a narcotized rampage, many Christians feel justified, even called, to commandeer tanks to beat them at their own infernal game.
- But this is not Christ’s way. Jesus is stating quite clearly that he considers insulting others to be like murder. We know that homicidal thoughts routinely begin in contempt for others and Jesus is trying to address murderous deeds at their root. And he says that those who judge others or who call them idiots or morons are liable, like assassins, to hell. Over the past several months, we’ve all heard people call leading politicians — not to mention the Pope, Bishops, celebrities, athletes, and even total strangers on social media — far worse things than fools. Worse, they often seem to be proud of themselves for doing so. It’s sad to recognize that those who speak this way probably are clueless as to the eschatological consequences of such mental and verbal bile. The apostle St. John wrote to the early Christians, “Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer,” and added, “Anyone who says, ‘I love God,’ yet hates his brother, is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.” Dorothy Day had a harrowing saying based on these words: that we love the Lord to the extent that we love the person we like the least.
- And so Jesus is calling us today to a much different standard, one in which if we sincerely love God we will show it by loving others as he has loved us. That’s why he says that if we are coming to worship God and recognize not only that we have something against our brother, but that our brother has something against us, he wants us to go first to reconcile before coming to worship him. That’s how essential reconciliation is. We cannot really worship him, he suggests, unless we do. The reason for this is found in Jesus’ use of the word “brother.” We cannot be real children of God the Father unless we love the other children of the Father as the Father does, who, Jesus says later in the Sermon on the Mount, “makes his sun rise on the bad and the good and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.” Our sacrifice before God isn’t acceptable if we approach him like Cain with animosity toward Abel and his other sons and daughters. We can’t really receive his love in our heart if our hearts are stony toward those whom he loved so much that he created, sent his Son to die for and redeem, and with the Son sent the Holy Spirit to sanctify. The devil’s great temptation is to get us to think Jesus’ way is unrealistic, untrustworthy, and a path for “losers.”
- St. Peter in today’s first reading gives us an extended commentary on the virtues needed to live by the standards Christ gives us. It’s important that we see these as a mirror of the type of traits we see in Christ and he wants to see in each of us. These are the traits he wants to help us acquire and live by, through the graces of his passion, death and resurrection. Let’s list them briefly:
- “Be of one mind” — This unanimity comes from focusing on the fact that we come from the same God and are called to journey together toward that same God. We won’t agree on everything, but we need to begin with agreeing on what’s biggest and most important, that we’re children of the same Father and our therefore our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers.
- “Sympathetic” — We need to put ourselves in the others’ shoes and appreciate what they’re feeling and going through, their fears, anxieties, hopes and aspirations.
- “Loving toward one another” — We need to be willing to sacrifice for each other. Jesus calls us to do that even for our enemies, as he did; all the more for those we regard as brothers and sisters.
- “Compassionate” — We need to suffer with them as they suffer.
- “Humble” — Rather than lifting ourselves up by stepping on others, we need to learn to serve them, even to wash their feet, as Christ washed ours.
- “Do not return evil for evil or insult for insult, but on the contrary a blessing, because to this you were called, that you might inherit a blessing” — This is straight out of Jesus’ message in the Sermon on the Mount. We’ve got to end the cycle of violence and hatred. We can’t feel justified because the other started it. If we live by Christ’s standards, we have to stop the evil, by blessing those who insult us, by praying for those who hate us, by loving those who do evil to us. Anything else is not Christian, and if it’s not coming from Christ, we know it’s coming from below, from the one Jesus called the “prince of this world.”
- “Keep the tongue from evil and the lips from speaking deceit” — That’s why Jesus tells us not to insult others, because so much evil starts with verbal daggers, or hostile columns, or incendiary speech, or lies, or half-truths about others meant to demonize, classify and conquer them. We need to use our tongue in a holy way and speak the whole truth in charity.
- “Turn from evil and do good, seek peace and follow after it” — These words mean that we, right now, have a chance for conversion, to turn from evil and to do good. We can become, right now, a true peacemaker by seeking peace, by advancing it and by guiding others feet onto the way of peace (Lk 1:79), continuing Jesus’ mission of reconciling all things in himself.
- “The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears turned to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against evildoers” — These are consoling words, that God listens to and will be attentive to our prayers, if we’re not among those who have hatred in their hearts toward their siblings. God will help us. If it seems like an insurmountable hill to climb, it’s not, because God can move mountains. And so we pray with childlike confidence for the help we need!
- “Who is going to harm you if you are enthusiastic for what is good, but even if you should suffer because of righteousness, blessed are you” — We may suffer for the good, just like Jesus did, just like Peter himself would under the Sanhedrin and under Nero, but we know that Peter was blessed. Jesus said at the end of the Beatitudes that we’re blessed when people revile us, persecute us, and utter every kind of evil falsely against us, because they’ve done the same to the prophets and our reward will be great. That leads us to the last three points.
- “Don’t be afraid or terrified with fear of them” — Jesus tells us not to be afraid because he is with us always until the end of time. We Christians shouldn’t be afraid of anything, Jesus insists throughout the Sermon on the Mount, because the Father has numbered all our follicles and loves us so much more than the sparrows and the lilies of the field. We shouldn’t be afraid of the coronavirus. We shouldn’t be afraid of the mobs. We shouldn’t be afraid even of death. Because Jesus by his resurrection after the crucifixion shows us all that not even crucifixion can keep us down. Sure the pain is real, but very, very temporary. And so he calls us to boldness. One of the reasons why so much evil and violence is happening is because the good are weak, including those who wear collars and crosses over their heart. Jesus, however, calls us not to be afraid and to set the example of faith-filled courage for others.
- “Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts” — Rather than allow fear or hatred in our hearts, we place holiness, we sanctify Christ as Lord of our affections and he strengthens us to love even in circumstances in which no one else loves, on occasions that are truly heroic. With Christ in our hearts, we are lionhearted.
- Finally, “Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope” — Even in the midst of violence and destruction, even in the middle of war, we Christians always have hope because Christ is with us in the world drawing good even from evil. We need to be ready always to fill others with hope, giving them the same reason: Christ is with them, too, and we don’t have to give into the downward spiral of violence, but we can slam on the breaks with both feet and begin to rebuild, receiving God’s crucified love and sharing it.
- Jesus’ words in the Gospel, and St. Peter’s echo of them in the epistle, are not utopian. They’re not soft and naïve. They’re not calling us to pretend there aren’t real problems and deep wounds and that all we need is a nice campfire and someone with a guitar singing “Kumbaya.” No. His words are as challenging, but we shouldn’t be surprised, because his standards are challenging. But in them we find the road to peace, if we’re courageous enough, if we’re wise enough, if we’re Christian enough to live by them and help others to find in them the same light.
- The place we start the rebuilding project that not only our country needs but also so many of our fractured families and friendships need is here at Mass. We hear Jesus’ call and then we open ourselves up to receive him within to help us live up to that call. What he asks of us is our willingness. He wants us to let go of animosity toward brothers and sisters, to be open to forgiveness and reconciliation, and then come to him, offering our lives to extend his kingdom, to become his peacemakers, and to teach his standards by contagious example. In response to not killing, we Christians lay down our lives for others. Instead of anger, we Christians place ardent love. Instead of insults, we Christians praise the Lord and in him praise others. And as Christians, as brothers and sisters of the same Father, we come here to offer our gifts together with all of humanity, asking for God’s mercy, for his help, for his love that will turn the world right-side up. Jesus’ standards for us are much higher than those of the scribes and Pharisees, but if we live them we will liable not to fiery Gehenna, but to eternal communion with the saints in the loving communion of persons who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, to whom be blessing and glory, wisdom and thanks, honor, power and might, forever and ever. Amen.
The readings for today’s Mass were:
A reading from the First Letter of St. Peter
Finally, all of you, be of one mind, sympathetic, loving toward one another, compassionate, humble. Do not return evil for evil, or insult for insult; but, on the contrary, a blessing, because to this you were called, that you might inherit a blessing. For: “Whoever would love life and see good days must keep the tongue from evil and the lips from speaking deceit, must turn from evil and do good, seek peace and follow after it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears turned to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against evildoers.” Now who is going to harm you if you are enthusiastic for what is good? But even if you should suffer because of righteousness, blessed are you. Do not be afraid or terrified with fear of them, but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts. Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope.
The Continuation of the Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew
Jesus said to his disciples, “I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the kingdom of heaven. You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, ‘You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment, and whoever says to his brother, ‘Raqa,’ will be answerable to the Sanhedrin, and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ will be liable to fiery Gehenna. Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar, and there recall that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift there at the altar, go first and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift.”
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