Altar of the Crucifixion at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem

Monday, September 21, 2015

Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time



I don't think it is a big secret that I love it when we have children here in the Church. I think deep down, people in general love having children around. Yes, there can be those times when it is not so enjoyable. No one likes to see a child upset; sometimes a baby's cry can be a bit distracting. Sometimes I'm asked, “Father, do you get distracted when a child is crying or making noise?” The answer is, “Yes, I do get distracted. But I can also get distracted by a fly buzzing in my ear or hearing an emergency vehicle going down the highway”. Distractions happen sometimes. Despite those annoyances or discomforts we may have experienced at times, I believe they are offset greatly by the more positive experiences we have with children in our midst. I'm talking about the joy we have in hearing a child's laughter or seeing a child's smile as they wave hello. There is nothing like listening to a child sing his or her favorite song, whether it from the radio or from church, even if it is slightly off-key. There are many different things that children say and do that in turn make us smile and laugh.

All children have a wonderful innocence about them that makes all this possible. We adults live in a world of cynicism and doubt in which everything is questioned and criticized. It brings us back to joy when we can see that childhood innocence at work once more. One of my favorite TV shows has been NCIS. One of the main characters in the show is named Leroy Jethro Gibbs. This character is known for being rough, but in several episodes, the other characters are amazed to see how well he gets along with children. One character pointed this out and Gibbs replies, “You know why I get along with children so well? It's because when they lie they don't have the guile to get away with it.” In his own gruff manner, Gibbs is talking about a child's innocence. An adult can learn to maintain a lie and to keep the truth a secret. But that takes time. A child is too innocent to keep it up.

There was a writer in the early 20th Century named G. K. Chesterton. He was a great Catholic theologian and philosopher. In one of his books, titled “Orthodoxy”, he talks about how we humans have lost our ability to be amazed at the world around us. We simply take everything for granted. A small child, on the other hand, is easily amazed at the most simple and mundane things. He gives the example of the opening of a door. Such an action holds very little consequence to us, but to a small child the opening of a door is the most amazing thing in the world at that moment. As we get older, we loose that sense of wonder. Chesterton's point is that we need to return to that sense of wonder and innocence. Even within our faith, we need that innocence and that wonder of what Christ is doing for all of us.

Christ also talks about the innocence of childhood. He responds to an argument that the Twelve have on their way to Capernaum about who is the greatest. The answer from Christ is simple yet amazing: “If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.” To help drive His point home, Jesus uses the example of a child. “Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me”. When was the last time any one of us was told to act more like a child? Yet this is precisely what Christ is telling us here. We need to be innocent, free of guile, open to the wonders and amazement of the world around us. It is then that we can become more like Christ and be the servant of all.

So obviously the goal is to return to that innocence that we all started out with and to grow in our relationship with God. But what happens if we don't do that? What happens if we choose to ignore these words and simply focus on who is the greatest and who is the most powerful or influential and simply doing what we want to do? The readings today talk about that as well.

We continue hearing this week from the letter of St. James. Today the Apostle talks about the difference between those who seek innocence and purity and those who seek their own selfish wants and desires. When we seek that childhood innocence that I have been talking about and seek the “wisdom from above” we find what is pure, peaceable, gentle, and compliant according to James. We find peace, righteousness and sincerity. The more we strive for these good things, the more good things will be produced. However, if we instead seek only what we want and not what is from above, we find something different. “Where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every foul practice”. Sin and disorder begets more sin and disorder. He goes on to talk about how it is our passions, specifically our disordered passions, that lead to killing and war and conflicts.

This leads us to the conflict that we hear about in the First Reading. The Book of Wisdom talks about how the “wicked one” plots to do many cruel things to the one who claims to come from God (even to putting him to a shameful death). He even suggests putting the just one to the test to see if God will rescue him from their clutches.

One does not have to be a Biblical scholar to see that this passage foreshadows what will happen in Christ's Passion. Our Gospel reading for today includes a prediction from Christ about His upcoming Passion. “The Son of Man is to be handed over to men and they will kill him”.

Why this cruelty? Why this strong desire to silence those who come with the blessings of God? It is because those evil men do not have the innocence and purity that Jesus is talking about. They are ruled by jealousy and selfish ambition. They are more interested in what they want, than in what God may want for them.

Let us not seek our own selfish gains, brothers and sisters. But let us strive for what is good, pure and holy. Let us seek for that childhood innocence once more, so that we can receive Christ in our lives.

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