READINGS: Ecclesiasticus 27:5-8; Psalm 92:2-3,13-16; 1 Cor 15:54-58; Luke
6:39-45
THEME: INTEGRITY NOT HYPOCRISY
After this Sunday, we take a break from Ordinary Time of the Year and begin Lenten season which the Ash Wednesday this week ushers us in.
As we prepare to enter Lenten season, the readings today offer us some guides to being real to ourselves, accepting our positions as disciples, and being always ready and willing to produce good fruits by keeping our hearts free from sin.
- Do Not Be a Hypocrite: You too need help with your logs!
The English word hypocrite is taken from Greek word, “hypokrites” which translates into English word “actor”, and it means one who wears a mask, pretending to be what or who he is not.
In today’s gospel reading, Jesus refers to hypocrite, someone who pretends he has no fault but focuses on the faults of others. In his book, Priests for the Third Millenium, Bishop Timothy M. Dolan, tells a famous story about Mahatma Gandhi.
According to the story, “a young woman travelled eleven hours to meet with Gandhi in order to ask his help with her troubled three-year-old boy who was unruly, hyperactive, would not sleep….” Then Gandhi asked her “tell me everything about him…tell me what he says, what he wears, what he eats….” Then the mother gave Gandhi the information he requested about the boy.
Then Gandhi sat silent and said to the woman “I know the difficulty, but I cannot tell you until after a month. Come back then.” In obedience, the woman travelled back home, a journey of eleven hours.
When she came back after a month, she asked Gandhi, “So now…what is wrong with my boy?” Then Gandhi replied and said, “he eats too much sugar. Do not let him eat sugar and he will be fine.”
Although the woman felt relieved to have found out the cure for her son’s sickness, she was angry and disappointed that it took Gandhi so long a time, and that she had to travel all these distances these times only to hear this as her son’s problem.
So, in anger she said to Gandhi “You should have told me this the first time I came to you.” Then Gandhi replied to her “I could not tell you yet at that time because I was still eating sugar myself.” For Gandhi, it was hypocritical condemning the boy’s action when he himself was in the same mess.
Many of us like to present ourselves or even to be presented as that person who has no fault but sees all the faults of others. We all have heavy logs of faults in our eyes. It is hypocritical to pretend to see the speck in other people’s eyes when we can’t see well ourselves. Do not look to discover other people’s fault rather work to be healed yourself.
- Accept who You are: a blind disciple
Each time Jesus called any of his disciples, he would say “follow me.”(cf Mk 2:14; Matt 4:20; 8:22; 9:9). This “follow me” has the sense of “come after me” in the sense of “I lead, you follow” (cf Mk 8:34;10:52; Matt 10:38). This call ‘to come after Jesus” is given to every disciple.
Today’s gospel reminds us of this our general vocation and position: people who follow. If we all are followers, it means that we have one leader: Jesus Christ. He takes the lead, we follow. When Peter tried to take the lead from Christ, thereby giving Christ instruction regarding his mission, Jesus did not waste time to rebuke him: Go behind me, Satan (vade retro me, Satana) (Mk 8:33) thereby sending Peter back to where should be his position: behind Christ as a follower.
It is hypocritical to see ourselves, no longer as a weak and fallible disciple but as an infallible teacher and leader, one who dictates what is right and wrong, one who provides the way. It is also hypocritical to see someone as “the perfect one who knows the correct way to be followed.” How many souls have been led astray because they raise someone to the status of “the way…the truth…the life” only to be scandalised when they experience the human weaknesses of this their idol!
Take no man’s life as the rule because no one is without some elements of moral blindness. It is not for joke that Christ cited the Father as our model of living when he said “Be ye perfect as your heavenly father is perfect.” (Matt 5:48). Many young people’s lives have been destroyed by those “human idols” who were seen as “incorruptible mentors.” In living our lives, Christ remains the only one who leads us safely in the right path to the Father. Follow no man…. Follow Christ.
- Keep the Heart always Pure, then the fruits will be good
Today’s first reading remarks that man is tested in his conversation. (cf Sirach 27:5-7). Someone is analysed based on his/her spoken words. Normally, when we encounter someone who dishes out rotten words, we always say: “You have a very bad mouth.” But today, Jesus tells us that it is not the mouth which is bad and rotten but the heart because what the mouth produces flows directly from the heart (ex abundantia cordis, os loquitur) (cf Lk 6:45).
Hence, the words of our mouths give evidence of the state of our hearts. We can never know whether we have a wonderful Mango tree until we eat its fruit. The kind of persons we are, comes from what proceeds from our mouths.
On ourselves, we cannot produce good fruits because of our injured human nature. Our effort to be good and to produce good fruits must be met by the grace of God. But no matter how corrupt our human nature is, the apostle Paul tells us in today’s second reading that when we sincerely labour in the Lord, we cannot labour in vain (cf 1 Cor 15:58).
We are all weak, carrying our logs in our eyes, struggling with our imperfections, but as St. Paul tells us, we must not admit defeat in our struggle to be bearers of good fruits of love, peace, joy, forgiveness, repentance etc. rather we must keep on working to become better.
We must always keep our hearts free from the dirtiness which sin brings. We must eliminate from our hearts, unforgiving spirit, hatred, selfishness, desire to be recognized and praised etc. so that the fruits of the Holy Spirit may find abode in our hearts, keeping it clean and good as to produce good and holy fruits.
Fr. Henry Chukwuezugo Nnamah
Catholic Diocese of Aguleri.