The Eighth Sunday of Ordinary Time, C March 3, 2019
Fr. Albert St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette
Love of God, Love of Neighbor. Our mission statement. Don’t worry, I won’t start every homily like this. We need round out what we’ve started. Last week was focused mostly on the love of God – the importance of Mass, the Eucharist, Confession and all the sacraments to teach us real love and empower us to live it. Perhaps you heard it and thought “okay, so what next? I get the sacraments, but what does loving my neighbor look like? What do I do?”
Great question. One that Jesus answers for us here today at a pretty practical level. Remember, first of all, what love really is. It is to want what is best for another person. And what is best for every person is repentance and holiness. Here, Jesus compares spiritual maturity to being able to “see” and warns about the dangers of blindness. So, using Jesus’ metaphor, what’s good for everyone is to get the spiritual splinters out of their eyes so they can see, repent, and be holy.
There it is! How can we love our neighbor? By removing the splinters in their eyes, right? Yes. And no. Do not forget that some people are very difficult to love. It’s hard to want what is best for someone who is difficult for us, especially someone who is an enemy. When that happens, we often claim to pull splinters out of their eyes, but we’re really just poking them to make it hurt.
In plain English, it’s incredibly easy to use the idea of repentance as a way to judge, condemn, and hurt our neighbor rather than to genuinely help them. Jesus gives us the clue to this parable right at the end: “from the fullness of heart, the mouth speaks.” He’s pulling from the Old Testament too; our first reading says that “one’s speech” discloses the “bent” or motive of “one’s mind.” One’s speech… your words reveal your mind and your heart.
Elsewhere we hear that we should love with our whole heart and mind. Our words reveal to others and ourselves whether or not we really “love” anyone. This makes practical sense too. What’s the most common, easiest way to affect another person? By talking to them or about them. Our words have immense power to help or hurt, to encourage or discourage, to build up or tear down. If you want to love your neighbors, then look at how you talk to them and about them.
Which is where Jesus’ words cut the other way. “From the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks.” Think about how difficult it is to really control your words. How many of us say things we regret? How often do things come out of our mouths without much thought? This is magnified infinitely in our digital age. Hidden messages encouraging children to hurt themselves or others… outright death threats… vile and vulgar comments in even the most innocent of places… and these hateful words are not rare, they are everywhere.
Still, talking is something we do so easily that, often enough, it practically unconscious, automatic. So, telling you to change the way you talk can be almost as difficult and telling you to change the way you breathe. But if you are going to love your neighbor in a practical, concrete way, it has to be done. And it can be done. How? Prayer, Fasting, and Almsgiving.
Lent starts Wednesday and these three traditional practices are perfect for changing how we speak to and about the neighbors we’re meant to love. How so? Because “out of the fullness of the heart, the mouth speaks.” Prayer, fasting, and almsgiving change our hearts and minds, which changes our words and actions. As Lent approaches, try to choose something realistic in each of these three categories to help you love your neighbor in word and action.
Prayer. If you want to root out evil from your heart you need to fill it with something good. Reading more scripture each day is a simple but powerful way to store up the good that can then flow into your words to neighbors. There are many devotionals and apps that help with that. If you want to be more targeted, then today or tomorrow, write down the names of the 45 people you hate the most or like the least, whether you know them in person or not. Each day of Lent spend 5 minutes asking God to make that person truly happy. A great way to love enemies.
Fasting. We don’t deny ourselves just to punish ourselves for how bad we are. God’s not so much interested in punishment as he is in the healing that comes through being corrected and disciplined. Denying yourself food, drink, or some form of entertainment is a great way to teach yourself, your body, that there is something much more important in life: God, love, holiness. Think of the last time you got angry at someone who interrupted you while eating or playing or watching something. Consider giving up whatever it was that seemed important enough to snap at another human being made in God’s image.
Almsgiving. Traditionally, Catholics would give up something that cost them money and then give the money they would have spent to the poor. If you give up that extra drink or meal or desert or a Netflix subscription, don’t save the money, donate it. Further, don’t just give away money. Consider donating time to serve some person or charitable organization. To keep with our theme of loving words, resolve to “give away” ten compliments each day, or more. Write thank you cards or prayer notes each day to someone in your life.
And while we’re at it, I’m tweaking something else in the parish. I found this in the attic – a poor box. We’re going to bring it back – I don’t know all the logistics yet, but I’m open to suggestions. This doesn’t mean you should stop putting money into different collections, but this will be a way to give specifically to the poor in our neighborhood on top of supporting the parish and diocese.
Love of God, Love of Neighbor. That’s the mission. Prayer, Fasting, and Almsgiving. That’s the method to shape our minds, to change our hearts to be filled with love. And from the fullness of such hearts, our mouths will speak love, our actions will serve love, and, God-willing, our lives will be love.