Lev 19:1-2,17-18; Ps. 102(103):1-4,8,10,12-13; 1 Cor 3:16-23; Matt 5:38-48
THE HOLINESS OF MEN’S FOOLS.
A mother once told his twelve-year old son, “Son, I am so proud of your father. He is a well-known successful farmer, a good husband, and a wonderful father. But it pains me that you are nothing like your father. You are very lazy and irresponsible. Please my son, look up to your father and imitate his strength and sense of responsibility.” These words of Chikadibia’s mother pained him and he decided to begin to live in imitation of his father. But the problem Chikadibia had was “How can he be a successful farmer (Diji) like his father, when he has not even a piece of land, nor is he even allowed to go to farm with his father. Everyday, as he is being prepared to go to school, Chikadibia would be angry and crying “I want to be like my father. I want to be a Diji. I want to own big yam farms”. One day, his father said to him: “Chika my son, you cannot be a farmer at this your age. The only thing you can do for me now is to pay attention to your studies. Listen to your teachers, be a good boy in school, do not join bad friends, do not fight with your classmates, do your assignment and ask questions if you do not understand the things taught. These things will make you a hardworking and responsible boy among your mates”. Chikadibia later grew up to understand that his mum’s admonition to be hardworking and responsible as his father, does not necessarily mean owning farms and barns, and getting married and having an organized family at the age of twelve. Rather, it means, adopting the same virtues of his father, to live his own life as his age and stage permit him. In both the first reading and the gospel of today, God tells us “Be you perfect as your heavenly father is perfect”. But the question is: How can a man be holy as his God? How can a human, who is a creature, live to the holiness of his God, who is his Creature? The answer is simple: It is impossible. We are so weak that even our greatest holiness is nothing to be compared with God’s holiness. Our perfection is always limited by a touch of our human weakness that it cannot measure up to God’s perfect perfection. Just like Chikadibia who is so limited that he could not be a farmer and a family man like his father at that age, we are limited that we cannot arrive at God’s perfection as humans. This notwithstanding, just like Chikadibia’s mum, God still calls us to be perfect as our heavenly father is perfect. The question then is: How is our heavenly father perfect? God our heavenly father is perfect in his being God. His perfection stays with/in his being. His perfection lies in his living and acting as God. He is not limited in his godliness. He does not lack in actions that define his godliness. God loves as God; shows mercy as God; blesses and cares for his creation as God. If God is perfect as God, and he calls us to imitate this perfection, even though we are not gods but humans, it then goes to say that God calls us to live perfectly as humans. God wants us to live as perfect human beings, just as he himself lives as perfect God. We are not perfect or holy as God because we pray, and people get healed or we prophesy, and it happens. These are rather God acting through us. And God’s action through us needs no requirement. We are not perfect or holy as God because we see visions. We are not perfect as God because we have ecstasies, or organize prayers for people, and conduct spiritual exercises for people. These are wonderful things, but they do not determine our holiness. Our holiness lies in what we do with our humanity, using God’s divine approaches. It lies in our adopting God’s virtues and living them fully in our dealings with our fellow humans. In the first reading, God explains to us how we can live holy lives in imitation of his own perfect holiness. Our living as holy humans lies in living in communion, peace and love with one another. It means that in everything we do or say, we must always ask “What would God do in this situation?” God does not ask us to do things that he himself does not do. In the first reading, God demands that we must treat other people, the way he himself treats us. God does not bear grudges for us humans, and therefore we must imitate him in not bearing grudges for others. Our sins and daily failings notwithstanding, God loves us without measure. And so, we must imitate him in being perfect in loving others irrespective of what they do. In the gospel, Jesus teaches us that God is so perfect that he allows both the righteous and the sinners enjoy his wonderful deeds. He plays no discrimination in giving sunshine and rainfall. God does not calculate our offenses nor does he keep records of them. Even when we are spending our time thinking of evil to commit, God is dwelling in his eternity blessing us with his eternal blessings. His only desire is not to take revenge but to bring us to appreciate his love for us through his loving deeds to
- In the same way, we must imitate God in caring for and loving others, even when they do not deserve them. Furthermore, our perfection comes, not in imitation of Mr. A or Pastor B, but in imitation of God. This goes to say that no human being should be our yardstick for a holy life. God does not ask us to imitate ourselves or others, but to be perfect in imitation of his own perfection.
Some people look up to others in their struggle to live a moral life. And when they discover that those their ‘icons’ are not who they think, they get discouraged and sometimes, they abandon their practice of virtues. Your priest or pastor is not your model for a holy life. Your parents, teachers, guardians, seniors etc are not your model for a holy life. God, and God alone is your model for holiness. Even when you admire the holy practices of a fellow man, be careful and always remind yourself that he is too a mortal. Be careful, less you fall deeper than your human ‘icons’. As St. Paul warns in the second reading, no one belongs to any created being or thing. We have only one master who is God. And in order to live perfectly as servants, we must look, not on other fellow servants, but on the master himself.
God, who is our ideal for holiness, has his own yardstick which is different from that of the world. God’s yardstick is always something considered foolish before men. He is God of justice, but when it is time to apply his justice, he allows his mercy to take control. He warns and gives us consequences for our disobedience, but when we disobey and it is time to allow us face the consequences, he comes to meet us with compassion and love. We abandon him always and go after other gods. But whenever we decide to turn back, he will be there, arms stretched, waiting to embrace us. His blessings extend to those who hate him, and his mercy to those who reject him. These are foolishness in the eyes of men. Yet, God wants us to model our lives in those things considered by men as foolish and weakness. What sense does it make for someone to ask you to go and apologize to another person who wronged you? What sense does it make for someone to ask you to keep on greeting that your neighbor or relative who has been maltreating you and your children? What sense does it make for someone to tell you to keep on praying for and showing love to someone who you know does not wish your progress? These are considered foolishness and weakness by men. But, in them, God’s strength shines out. And when we live according to them, we become true imitators of God’s deeds. By our beings, we are humans, but when we live in imitation of God, we become divine.
May God help us to know that at our various stages in life, we are called to live in imitation of God’s perfection by acting as God would, and not as the world or our ‘human mentors’ would.
Wishing you a very wonderful Sunday
Fr. Chukwuezugo Nnamah