Looking over past homilies, I noticed that, in 11 years of preaching, lent has never been this late. And usually, once the Easter season is over and we hop back into ordinary time, we pick up up in the 9th or 10th week. So I have no notes or past homilies to refer to and these readings are not often preached on or heard at Mass. Which is a shame because they contain a series of practical and relevant teachings any one of us could use in our life right now.
Let’s zoom in on the rapid-fire lessons Jesus is doling out in the gospel today. The first one deals with teaching and being taught. “Can a blind man act as a guide to a blind man. Will they not both fall into a ditch?" In other words, we cannot teach until we have learned. We accept this truth in many areas of life. We read the reviews of persons, products, and services online. We want the teachers in schools and universities to be qualified. I don’t think anyone would take their car to a mechanic who boasted about having no “formal” training! No one wants a doctor or lawyer who lost their credentials!
If this is true about matters of this world, how much more important will it be for the things that deal with eternity?! We have a responsibility to carefully choose who teaches us about our faith and spiritual life. We need to take an active role in helping that aspect of our lives grow. It won’t happen by osmosis. Jesus promises his Holy Spirit to guide the Catholic Church with a teaching authority when it comes to matters of faith and morals. We don’t have to blindly figure out these things by ourselves. In fact, it is a really bad idea to try and be our own church and teacher. This divinely-guided authority is called the magisterium and it involves the Pope, Bishops, theologians and consultants. The duty of the magisterium is to make sure we can follow the true teacher, Jesus Christ, in a time and culture that is very different than 2000 years ago. This teaching authority is a great gift but sometimes, out of pride, laziness or even scandal at the human weakness of some of our leaders, we rebel and try to make it on our own wisdom. Some questions to reflect on from this first lesson are: who is my teacher in spiritual matters? Am I teachable? Do I put in the effort to keep learning about my faith from good solid teachers or did my spiritual develop stop in grade school, high school or college?
The second mini lesson deals with judgements. In one of his most well-known quips, Jesus says, “Why do you notice the splinter in your brother's eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own?” We are really good at seeing the imperfections of others while being completely blind to our own. Oftentimes our defects are far more serious but we take someone to task for a much smaller fault. And, how little patience we have for the people who have the exact same imperfections as we do. Interestingly enough, Jesus doesn’t say we should stop caring about the splinter in our brother’s eye. But he demands we clean up our own vision first before we help them remove it. That way we can help others grow and improve in ways that are charitable and genuine.
The third lesson relates back to the first reading from Sirach and teaches us not judge ourselves or others by appearance. "A good tree does not bear rotten fruit, nor does a rotten tree bear good fruit. For every tree is known by its own fruit.” Our thoughts, words, and actions show who we really are. When a person does good things, we know this is a good person. When a person is continually stirring up trouble, we know that this person is troubled. The fruit reveals the person. In the same way, it is not enough for us to say we are Catholics and then live as pagans. In fact, it is not enough to say we are saved. What we need to say is that we are in the daily process of being saved. Our actions must reflect God's gift to us. If they don't, then we are in fact rejecting his salvation. Yes, we always depend upon the mercy of God, but we have to respond to this mercy by doing our best to live the Christian life. If we don’t, then our fruits will demonstrate the insincerity of our conversion. This hypocrisy of Christians, whether it be the laity out in the world or the clergy in the churches, is the biggest turn-off to those who don’t yet follow Jesus. Our thoughts, words, and actions must be consistent with what we believe, otherwise, not only may we be lost but so might others through scandal.
This Wednesday Lent finally begins. I need this Lent to work on these powerful lessons of Jesus. Perhaps you do too. Lent is a time for us to grow in our faith and let the Holy Spirit guide us through the prayer and teaching of our Church. Lent is a time to look into ourselves and ask the tough questions. Lent is a time to consider our living of the Christian life. Do our actions demonstrate Christ's continuing conversion in our lives? Do our thoughts, words, and actions direct others towards God? How hard am I working to remove that beam from my eyeballs? If we are honest, we all have some work to do. So let us ask the Lord for his patience, mercy, and grace!
