Sermons
Sunday, October 15th 2006, 28th Sunday of Year B
Homily delivered at Saint Mary Magdalene in Flint, TX by Father Tim Kelly
Scripture: THE RICH YOUNG MAN (Mark 10: 17-30)
The most fascinating part of this passage is that it is the only place within the three Synoptic gospels where Jesus is said to love anyone. Not even Mary, not even the disciples, are said to be recipients of Jesus’ love, according to the synoptic gospel texts. This rejecter of the call of Jesus is the only one. Why does Jesus look at this young man with love even when he knows that he has not got what it takes to be a disciple?
Jesus looked at him with love.
Let us hear those noble words again: “Jesus, looking at him, loved him….” This is what we all want to know, what we all long for, why we are here today and every Sunday. That, in spite of our fearfulness, our inability to take the next step, our pettiness, our sinfulness, our lack of faith and trust, Jesus, looking at us, loves us.
This action of Jesus nails the lie the false teaching that the Church is only for the saved or the virtuous. “The Church is not a hotel for saints, but a hospital for sinners.” As the great Augustine said so many centuries ago: it is a societas permixtum, a mixed society of saint and sinner. And we all hope that when Jesus looks at the Church (you and I and the ones not here today), he loves us.
Jesus looked at him with love even as he walked away. Our friend Brennan Manning, who graced this parish with his words of mercy and compassion last June, has written something that may explain how we must respond to the words of this Gospel.
“Don’t be so foolish as to measure my father’s compassion with your compassion. Don’t ever be so silly as to compare your thin, pallid, wavering, capricious human compassion with mine, for I am God as well as man.”
Jesus looked upon him with love even as he walked away from him. It appears therefore, that God’s love for us does not depend on our virtue or, to use that Catholic term God does not love us because we are in a state of Grace. How very disconcerting!! What is the point in being good if it does not gain us some brownie points in the heavenly cookie store? What is the point in being virtuous if God is not looking? If God loves sinners so much, what’s the point in good behavior and obedience to the commandments?
Jesus looks at him with love even as he walks away downcast.
The mercy and the love of Jesus for the sinner is no less than his affection and his care for those who love him back. God is just so much more than the sum of all our imaginings. God is so much more that all our ideas. Our God is an awesome God and His Son Jesus Christ is like him. He forgives even when we are only beginning to be sorry. He heals even when we are still full of bitterness. He loves the least lovely as much as the beautiful. The rich Young Man is still special to Jesus and his future is a future loved by Jesus.
Jesus looked upon him with love
In this Gospel reading we uncover for a moment the face of God the Father. For this moment, Jesus reveals to us who His Father really is. Greater than the roaring of the sea and sweeter than honey from the comb. God of power and mercy. Our God is awesome; our God loves the undeserving. This is the example which Christ sets before us in all our dealing with those who hate us or who harm us.
Looking at him, Jesus loved him
Stark and frightening contrasts have clouded our awareness in these last weeks. The dark shadow of a gunman stalked the peaceful Amish Christians of Pennsylvania. Dark and ominous days of sorrow and death and weeping. Mothers and fathers weeping for the innocent lost ones. The days of anger could truly be said to have fallen upon us. The Dies Irae- the just anger of God could be called down on the murderer and those who loved him.
But Christ came and he stood among those people, saying “Follow me”. As they walked in darkness, he led them along the right path. He led them by restful waters so that their souls were revived. He led the Amish along his own path to forgiveness and generosity. In their extraordinary response, they have shown us that we must love the sinner while we abhor the sin. See how the Christians love one another.
And we, the people of Smith County, we who pride ourselves in being righteous and Christian, a buckle of the Bible Belt, what have we shown the world this week? What example have we followed? Certainly not that of Christ as he loves the Rich Young Man.
The Buckle of the Bible Belt burst this week and the pants have fallen down around our collective knees, showing us to be a lot less than we boasted about. The world cannot make up its mind whether to laugh or cry at the spectacle.
The jury in the murder trial of a 94 year old Catholic woman, Cecelia Sneider, a woman whom I knew when in the Cathedral, has handed down a death penalty to Clifton Lamar Williams. In an open and democratic society such as we have, a jury speaks for all of us. A jury does the work of the people. So we are tied into their verdict, even if we do not agree.
When the world was being shown the Christian ideal of forgiveness and compassion by the wounded and devastated Amish, the supposedly Christian people of Smith County showed how their Christ would have behaved if he were in Mark’s Gospel. If Smith County Jesus were in the Gospel it would read like this
“Looking at him, Jesus despised him for his sins. Jesus turned to his disciples and told them, “Take him out and stone him as the law demands.” And Jesus returned to the good people and stayed with them awhile."
A few years ago, another criminal, a murderer called Napoleon Beasley, was executed in this county. Our former bishop, by then the Bishop of Corpus Christi, made a statement on that occasion. In that statement he acknowledged that the convicted was a bad person, a murderer of an innocent and wonderful man. The crime was despicable and needed to be punished. The Criminal was totally unrepentant. The execution was called justice. But his death did not stop crime in Texas. His death did not bring back the dead nor heal the wounded. If anyone deserved death, he did. But nobody deserves death.
Lamar Williams deserves to be punished for what he did. He raped and stabbed an innocent old lady in her bed. He is a despicable and dangerous person. But the point was not his attitude, but ours. The verdict of the jury to impose that death penalty says more about the shallowness of our Christianity than about the evil of Lamar Williams.
The evil and the horror of Cecelia Sneider’s murder challenges us just as the deaths of six little girls challenged the Amish. It was a moment for choosing to be greater than our pain and our fears. But what did we choose? We certainly did not choose the nobility of the Amish way. We chose to comfort ourselves with revenge, when we could have sent a message to the world that Jesus saves and loves us.
To paraphrase Bishop Carmody’s statement:
“If anyone deserves no mercy it is Clifton Lamar Williams; But everyone deserves mercy.”
We Christians in Smith County had choices to make this week. We made a bad choice. Just like the Amish, we were presented with murder most foul. Just like them, we faced raw and savage violence from an evil man. But unlike the Amish, we Christians of Smith County chose revenge above mercy. We have turned our backs on Jesus and his Church. We have chosen to follow a home-made Jesus, one who suits our own ideas. We have sinned greatly. We have chosen the Jesus of Smith County above the Jesus who still loved that Rich Young Man.
“Miserere nobis Deus." May God have mercy on us.
Contact Webmaster
2004 www.flashtemplatezone.com