Homily for the 7th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A 2020
Lev 19:1-2, 17-18; 1 Cor 3:16-23 and Matthew 5:38-48
Introduction
"So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect;" that is what Jesus tells us his disciples. And in the first reading, God has told the people of Israel, “Be holy, for I, the LORD, your God, am holy.”
Being perfect and being holy like God; is that even possible for us mere human beings? It was hard enough when our moms said to us: "Why are you not like your sister who is scoring all As? Why don’t you play an instrument like your brother? Why are you not an athlete like your cousins?" But now we are being asked to be like God, who is holiness itself, who is perfection itself!
My friends do not be afraid! I have good news for you. It is possible to be perfect like our heavenly Father; it is possible to be holy like the Lord our God.
Scripture and Theology
We have to start by understanding, what does it mean to holy? What does it mean to be perfect? When I was a young boy in seminary, we thought that the holy seminarian was the one who was pious externally, such as one who folded his arms when he prayed, who spent hours in prayer, and basically wore religion on his sleeves. Thankfully as I advanced in my studies, I learnt that while piety was certainly part of holiness, that was not the essential element of holiness.
Holiness is being set apart from this world of sin and imperfection and being like God. That is what God did when he set the people of Israel apart from the rest of the nations, so that they would be his people and he their God. They would be like him and would point others to him. Holiness involves two elements, a setting apart from the world and a drawing closer to God.
We Christians are also called to holiness in this way. Unfortunately for a long time, there was this mistaken notion that only priests and nuns and brothers were holy, because they were set apart by the Sacrament of Holy Orders and by Religious Profession. Thankfully the Second Vatican Council reminded us that all the Baptized are called to holiness (LG 39-42). We are set apart by our baptism so that we can be dedicated to God and be like him.
What does it mean to be like God? The Lord was very clear in the first reading:
You shall not bear hatred for your brother or sister in your heart.
Though you may have to reprove your fellow citizen, do not incur sin because of him.
Take no revenge and cherish no grudge against any of your people.
You shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.
In other words, hatred and revenge are incompatible with the holiness of God, but love is compatible because that is who God is.
And yet hatred for others, especially for those who are not like us, has become honourable, even a requirement in politics and society today. But in line what we heard in the first reading, Jesus tells Christians "love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father.” He is raising the bar for us, telling us that he expects more from us, for we are holy, we have been set apart from the world for God. He asks: “For if you love those who love you. . . Do not the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brothers only, what is unusual about that? Do not the pagans do the same?” Perfection for Jesus means going beyond the common standards of justice found among tax-collectors and pagans, terrorists and murderers, society and the world. If we are to be holy, we have to be above the fray, just like God, who does not bear hatred for sinners but seeks their redemption.
Similarly revenge seems to be the order of the day, even among our politicians, who like children on the playground will say, “he hit me first, that is why I hit him back.” While vengeance is a natural human tendency, Jesus tells us that Christians cannot take an eye for an eye or a tooth for a tooth, or even the pound of flesh that the Merchant of Venice sought. While seeking justice against wrong-doers is even an honourable pursuit, the first reading was very clear: “Though you may have to reprove your fellow citizen, do not incur sin because of him.” Our anger and response to evil must not be evil itself; it must be righteous. That is what holiness entails, that is what is what perfection means.
Moreover, Christians may sometimes have to forego even righteous revenge and just deserts, because that is exactly what God the Father does to us; forgiving us when he should punish us, punishing us less than we deserve. When Jesus was on the cross, he did not take any eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth; instead he gave his eye, he gave his tooth, he gave his life, so that we who choose to be his enemies, might have life. That is the example he set for us Christians. That is probably why in Luke's version of this teaching he does not say "be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect" but "Be merciful, just as [also] your Father is merciful." Holiness and perfection involve mercy.
And so as we come to the end of the reading from the Beatitudes, in which Jesus has been teaching a whole new way of being perfect, of being holy, of being like God, he fulfils these two Old Testament laws by reversing them. For the Christian who wants to be holy, no longer is the law, "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth." No longer is the ideal "You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy." Now Christians must treat even their enemy with love. That is why Jesus tells the rich young man, “If you wish to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to [the] poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” Perfection and holiness are not just piety, but active generosity and love.
Christian Life
What does it then mean practically for you and me, to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect, to be holy as God is holy? Although being perfect and holy is a tall order, it is possible with God's grace. Let me offer a few suggestions.
First, as charity begins at home, so must perfection. Far too many families today lack love and live in hatred. Childhood disagreements and petty jealousies cause siblings to fall out with each other; differences on how to care for mom and dad in their old age or how to share the inheritance can make siblings not speak to each other for decades. If we are to be holy, the model for resolving family conflict cannot be that of Cain and Abel, but that of Joseph in Egypt, who treated his brothers that had sold him into slavery much better than they had treated him. Our love, our holiness, our perfection must starts at home, in the family.
But we must extend them outside the home. What is our attitude towards those who fall short of God's law and even of civil law? Surely they deserve punishment, if God's justice is to be restored, if order in society is to be maintained. But vengeance has no place in the administration of justice. That is why Catholic teaching forbids the use of the death penalty, which does not seek to reform the criminal, but simply take an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth and a life for a life. As pro-life Catholics, we cannot selectively choose what life to promote and what life to take. Jesus holds us to the higher standard that promotes a culture of life, rather than a culture of death.
A third area of trying to reach the perfection of Jesus, is in our attitude to people that are different from us, especially those are often considered our enemies. Think of the 120,000 Japanese-Americans placed in concentration camps during World War Two; think of all the Asians, especially the Chinese who today are the object of vitriol and prejudice because of the corona virus. Think of the vilification in some quarters today of all Arabs, Muslims and Mexicans. Think of the blanket denigration today of refugees and immigrants. That is the kind of hatred that the Lord has come to reverse by calling us to a love of all, even our enemies.
Conclusion
So, returning to my first question, is any of this possible? Can we be holy as God is holy? Can we be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect?
There are two American sayings that have always appealed to me. "Like father, like son" we say, when we see children imitating their parents. And secondly we also say that "the apple does not fall far from the tree," when a child takes after their parents. If we can attempt to imitate our fathers and our mothers, who if truth be told are quite imperfect, how about with, his help, imitating our heavenly Father, who is perfectly holy, perfectly merciful, perfectly loving?
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