Being a bright light of love and mercy

As Christians we are to be the “light of the world”.  By our love for God and others we are to be lights shining on those around us.  You could say that each of us is supposed to be a light-bulb.  You have probably noticed that some Christians shine brighter than others.  When we look at our own life, we can probably see that at times our light has been quite dim, at other times more bright.  It is as though we are connected to one of those “dimmer switches”.  You know, those light switches that allow you to control the intensity of the light in a room.  In today’s gospel, Jesus seems to be explaining how we can adjust the dimmer switch in our spiritual life. He is explaining how we can increase the intensity with which we love God and our neighbor.  There seems to be a few steps to turning up the dimmer switch on our Christian life.

The first step is to acknowledge that we are sinners.  If we do not recognize that we are sinners then our dimmer switch is forever off.  Each one of us has done things that have damaged our relationship with God and others.  For example, in the first reading we heard about King David, a man who was specially chosen by God. Even with all his gifts and accomplishments, David was a sinner through and through, he was an adulterer and a murderer and he acknowledged this.  Even the great saints recognized they were sinners.  Mother Teresa had a wonderful expression that highlights this.  She would say that before going to confession, she entered the confessional “a sinner with sin”.  After the confession she left the confessional “a sinner without sin”.  She always thought of herself as a sinner. The reality is that we are all sinners and we should just acknowledge this fact.

The second step is to realize that the damage done by our sin has been repaired by Jesus.    St. Catherine of Sienna had a great analogy to describe the effects of sin on our life and how Jesus has remedied the situation.  She explained that because of our sin there is a great chasm that separates us from God.  In between this abyss there flows a mighty river.  Whatever we try, we cannot on our own do anything to cross the river and get back to God.  Our sin has caused damage to our relationship with God that we cannot fix.  Because of our sin we owe God a debt that we can never repay on our own.  How then do we cross this abyss to be unified with God?  St. Catherine explains that it is only on account of Jesus’ sacrifice.  The Cross of Jesus is the bridge that connects us back to God.  Jesus has paid the debt we owe God.  The damage that sin has caused to our relationship to God can only be repaired by Jesus.

We love God to the extent that we realize how much He has done for us, that he has paid our huge debt in full.  The woman in today’s Gospel loved Jesus so much because she realized how much she required His mercy. If our love for God is a light-bulb, then our dimmer-switch is how much we recognize the gift God has given us.  The other day I was in the kindergarten class during the class’ Father’s day celebration.  I will be honest; I went because I heard there would be ice-cream.  The students were all there doing activities with their dads.  It was awesome to watch how the kids interacted with their fathers.  They all had so much love and appreciation for their dads.  For each student no one in the world could compare with how great their dad was. I think the kids love their dads in this way because they realize all that their dads have done for them:  how they always provide for them, care for them, are there when they need them.  Somehow when we get older, we lose this appreciation for our fathers.  We forget their many sacrifices.  We run this same risk with the way we view our heavenly Father. Do we realize how much our Heavenly Father has done for us?  That He sent His son to die for us.  The more we let this truth sink in, the more we appreciate what God has done for us, the more we will love Him.

The more we realize how generous God has been in showing us mercy, the more we will show mercy to others.  If the mercy and compassion we show to others is a light-bulb, then our dimmer switch is how much we realize that God has first forgiven us.  The Pharisee in today’s gospel is so quick to judge the woman because he does not see himself as a sinner in need of God’s mercy.  Because he does not realize that God has forgiven his debt, he is unable to show compassion to the woman.  Though we should never approve of sin, we need to show patience and compassion for those who struggle with sin.  Just think of how patient God is with us.  When we are generous in showing mercy and compassion to those who struggle we help lead them closer to Jesus.  When I was at the seminary, my spiritual director was an old monk who has since passed away.  He often repeated a saying that struck me.  Whenever he would talk about people who have fallen into sin, no matter how great, he would always say “there go I but for the grace of God”.  He showed such great compassion to those who sinned because he was so aware of how much mercy God had shown Him throughout his life.  The more we realize how much we have been forgiven by God, the less stingy we will be in showing mercy to others.

Today we have the opportunity to look at our life and see if we are truly being a light to others.  How brightly does our love of God and others shine?  Are we compassionate and merciful to others or are we judgmental?  If our bulb is a bit dim, perhaps we need to increase the intensity on our dimmer switch.  Today let us do this by turning to our heavenly Father with great gratitude for all the mercy and forgiveness He has shown us, especially by sending us the gift on His only Son.

Learn to say "no" to make your "yes" really "yes"

Matthew 5:33-37

Politicians seem to have a bad reputation for not doing what they say. They are known for making promises they cannot keep and for saying things just to please people.  We need to make sure that we do not fall into the same trap.

It is very important that we be trustworthy and sincere.  People should believe what we say.  An extreme example of someone who was not trustworthy is the boy from the story The Boy Who Cried Wolf.  This boy repeatedly tried to trick the villagers into thinking that a wolf was attacking his flock when in reality there was no wolf.  Eventually the villagers caught on that he was not being truthful.  When a wolf really did attack the flock and the boy sought help, no one believed him and so no one came to his aid.  What the boy said was no longer worth anything.  Sometimes when people realize that those around them no longer believe what they say, they try to swear by some higher authority in order to lend credence to their words. People “swear to God” that they are telling the truth.  We are called to be trustworthy in what we say.  We should not have to appeal to some higher authority for people to believe us.  In this way we imitate God.  God is always truthful; He does what He says he will.  We find a great example in the creation story in the Book of Genesis.  There God says “let there be light” and there was light.  He means what He says and He does what He says.  When we are trustworthy and sincere we imitate God.

Sometimes we end up saying things we do not mean or making promises we cannot keep because we do not want to offend others.  Sometimes we fall into the trap of insincerity because we do not want to hurt the feelings of others.  Something that comes to mind immediately is that when people ask us for their help it can be very difficult to say “no” to them.  We have this desire to make everyone happy and we do not want the other person to feel hurt.  Because of this we often agree to do something we cannot do or really do not want to do.  This can often happen to me at the parish.  People will ask if I can help with something and before I even think if I really can, I hear myself saying “yes”. Sometimes I realize later that I have double-booked myself or have committed to doing something I cannot really do.  I am then forced to go back on my word.  My “yes” becomes a “no”.  People can then feel more offended and hurt than if I had just said “no” in the first place.  Learning to say “no” to people is a difficult task, but if we want to be people who are sincere and trustworthy, it is something that we must do sometimes.  We have to avoid falling into the trap of saying things we do not mean or making promises we cannot keep because we do not want to offend others.

Jesus calls us to be people of our word.  We should mean what we say and do what we mean.  Today let us take a look at the way we speak to see if our “yes” really means “yes” and our “no” really “no”.  In particular let see that we do not fall into the trap of saying things we do not mean or agreeing to do things we cannot do just because we do not want to hurt someone’s feelings.

Love makes us more human, lust dehumanizes

Matthew 5: 27-32

In today’s gospel, Jesus is using some incredibly serious language in order to warn us from succumbing to lust.  “If your eye causes you to sin, tear it out” – this is very severe language.  Why is lust such a dangerous sin?  Lust is so dangerous because it is in the opposite of love.  Lust has the opposite effect on us as individuals when compared to love.  Love humanizes whereas lust dehumanizes us and those around us.

When we love, we are focused on the person we love.  True loves draws you outside of yourself and leads you to make yourself a gift to the one you love.  When you love someone you want to look out for the good of that person. We can think of many examples.  A mother naturally desires to care for her child and sacrifices herself in order to do this.  Love is what makes a mother wake up in the middle of the night to care for her crying child.  A father wants to protect, provide for and nurture his children regardless of the costs to himself.  Because of the love a teacher has for her students, she will sacrifice many hours to help them learn and to become all they have been called to be.  When we love, we imitate Jesus who laid down His life out of love for us.  Imitating Christ, the perfect human being, makes us more human.  Therefore the more we love the more human we become.  Love leads us to make ourselves a gift to those we love.

In lust we are focused on ourselves.  When we lust after somebody, we are not concerned with what is best for the other person, rather we are only concerned with gratifying ourselves.  Unlike love which draws us out of ourselves to focus on others, lust turns us in on ourselves. Lusting after someone turns them into a thing that we must possess.  When we lust we become like Gollum from Lord of the Rings.  Gollum was totally preoccupied with the ring.  It consumed him.  He had to have it.  Gollum’s desire for the ring destroyed his life.  Likewise when we lust after someone we dehumanize both them and ourselves.  The person we lust after becomes our “ring” and we, like Gollum, become totally turned in on ourselves, unable to focus on anything else in the world.  Lust destroys us, as Gollum’s desire for the ring destroyed him.  When we lust we become less human.  Lust is the opposite of love because it turns us in on ourselves.

Today’s gospel presents us challenge for us to examine and evaluate our relationships with others.  We can look at our relationships today and ask ourselves the simple question: in this relationship, am I more concerned with what I can give or with what I can receive from the other person?