Homily for 6th Sunday in Ordinary Times

Homily for the
6th Sunday 
in Ordinary TimeFeb. 13, 2011
Sir 15: 15-20
Matt 5: 17-37
Christian Brothers, Iona College, N.R.

“Before man are life and death, good and evil; whichever he chooses shall be given him” (Sir 15: 17).

God’s plan for the human race lays out the path of virtue, which is the road to life. So the readings from God’s Word tell us this evening.

Freedom has been all over the news these last 3 weeks, as much of the world, and all the mass media of our country, have watched and listened to what’s been happening in Egypt. Tahir Square has become Liberation Square. A president perceived by a substantial portion of the population as a tyrant has been cast down in the name of democracy.
As happened only weeks ago also in Tunisia.

At least one commentator has wondered whether it’s 1989 in the Arab world. That’s the year when the Berlin Wall was ripped down and the Soviet satellites of Central Europe liberated themselves, followed over the next several years by many of the components of the Soviet Union itself.

How will these revolutions in the name of freedom turn out? Freedom isn’t the inevitable result. In the closing decades of the 18th century, our own revolution could easily have led to a military-backed government had Washington not been the selfless leader that he was. The French Revolution, on the other hand, led to a reign of terror and then to the authoritarian rule and wars of Napoleon.

In Europe democracy has been evolving reasonably well in many countries of the former Soviet Empire, but it has gone backwards in other countries, including Russia.

The revolution that liberated Iran from the Shah in 1979 brought in a worse set of tyrants who have destabilized the entire region.

So what will happen in Tunisia, Egypt, and perhaps other parts of the Arab world remains to be seen.

Freedom can open the way to good or to evil, to life or to death. Freedom is a struggle for nations, and it’s a struggle for individuals. Within us is always an inclination to make poor choices that lead us to slavery, slavery to our passions, to a downward spiral of our hopes and possibilities. To refer again to the latest news, you could ask Lindsay Lohan or ex-Congressman Christopher Lee about that. St. Paul also knew about it, when he wrote to the Romans, “I am carnal, sold into slavery to sin. What I do, I do not understand. For I do not do what I want, but I do what I hate. Miserable man that I am! Who will deliver me from this mortal body?” (7:14-15,24).

Jesus ben Sirach teaches the wisdom that the way of being truly free is to keep God’s commandments. These are liberating to us individually, and to all of us collectively. Behaving well is wise, and healthy to mind and soul.

St. Paul today speaks of God’s mysterious and hidden wisdom, i.e., his plan for the redemption of the human race from our enslavement to sin and to death. That wisdom has been revealed in Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ doesn’t abolish the Law that Jesus ben Sirach so loved. He tries to help us see that the Law points to life, and we are called in fact to go even further in affirming life, e.g. not only by not physically killing our brother but even by respecting him in our language, in settling hard differences with him (Matt 5:21-26). St. James compares the tongue to fire: “It exists among our members as a world of malice, defiling the whole body and setting the entire course of lives on fire, itself set on fire by Gehenna. No human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison” (3:6,8). Isn’t that something we need to be set free of? Isn’t someone who speaks truth and kindness and respect a person who liberates others?

It’s not enuf that we avoid a physical act of adultery; we are called to honor and respect other people also in our hearts and minds (Matt 5:28). We all know how pornography enslaves so many men, and women too, even when it doesn’t lead to a formal act of adultery. Ask the spouse of someone addicted to porn how free she feels. Ask someone in the so-called adult entertainment industry how liberated she is (not that I’ve asked; but I do read the newspapers.)

It’s not enough that we speak the truth when under oath. Unfortunately, a lot of people seem to have difficulty even with that. No, Jesus Christ tells us always to be truthful, even in the most ordinary parts of our lives. “Let your ‘yes’ mean ‘yes’ and your ‘no’ mean ‘no’” (Matt 5:37). Any form of deception or equivocation “is from the evil one” (5:37), from the one we call “the father of lies.” Jesus tells us that the truth will set us free (John 8:32): that truth for which our hearts thirst, which includes physical truth, philosophical truth, moral truth; and the truth that we speak or otherwise represent to our brothers and sisters.

Who would dare to say that truth constricts us? Yes, sometimes physical realities—scientific truths—constrain us. Because of gravity I may not be able to leap as high as I’d like, and because of gravity I’ve got to be really careful when I walk on wintry sidewalks. You should have seen about 8 of us yesterday at the provincial house struggling against gravity to hang a humongous painting in an equally humongous and very heavy plaster frame. But gravity keeps us from floating away into the stratosphere. When we speak of someone who’s well grounded in reality, we allude to gravity, and it’s a compliment.

Similarly, the moral truths of right and wrong, based on our relationship with God, based on the God-given dignity of every man and woman, are liberating to us. The most wretched people we’ve ever met are those who center their lives on themselves, and while they may think they’re free, most of us would make a different assessment. A well grounded person, a truly free person, knows that he’s come from God, is destined for God, and is comfortable living with God: “If you trust in God, you too shall live,” Jesus ben Sirach advises (Sir 15:15), and you shall also be life-affirming, as Jesus of Nazareth teaches.