Homily for the Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time
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From time to time, Our Lord says things that are so stunning that they not only give us pause, but send us reeling in the very unexpectedness and directness. A particular example of this would be the Bread of Life Discourse to which we’ve been listening for more than a month.
But in today’s Gospel, we get no such stirring Teaching, but a surprising admonition concerning such things as:
+ the meaning of hypocrisy
+ the very source of evil
So, let’s take a look at these in order to see how they might plague us, and how we can — with God’s help — address them and overcome them. We’ll begin with a look at hypocrisy. This concept is based in the Greek words:
+ hypo: beneath the surface
+ krisis: to decide, or to judge
A hypocrite, in our Greek etymology, develops, in our deepening study as:
+ in the theater: the role of an actor playing a part…
+ beyond theater, into society: it would mean one who pretends to live in a certain manner, but actually lives in a quite different way…
+ beyond society into the realm of Faith: it speaks to the sin of pretending to virtue, goodness or religion…
… this final meaning being that which Our Lord adopts in today’s Gospel.
Looking at our most basic, etymological reading from the Greek, hypocrisy means to decide, or to judge from beneath the surface, meaning from an interior dimension. This does not, of course, connote a blissful “following one’s heart.” Hypocrisy, instead, bypasses the heart and lodges itself in the ego, for, as Our Lord says, “… their hearts are far from me.”
A hypocritical worldview or, as in the case of today’s Gospel, a hypocritical observance of religion, develops when one looks to oneself as the source of wisdom, truth or morality, rather than seeking Divine Revelation to inform one’s
heart, mind, and will. It leads eventually, and sometimes rather quickly, to a sinful judgmentalism, which, it may surprise some, is one of the sins I hear most frequently in the Confessional.
How, then, shall we discover and then address the presence of hypocrisy… and its younger sister, judgmentalism in the interior of our lives? The best way would involve an ongoing Examination of Conscience in order to discover the root of evil within oneself. Here we can distinguish between three different types of examination:
+ General
+ Particular
+ Habitual
General Examination
This sort takes into account the happenings of the day that has just gone by, involving a look back at our thoughts, words, and deeds. Here one can ask oneself: “How did God attempt to break into my consciousness today?” And then, with some introspection ask, further, “How did I respond?”
Particular Examination
This means that the examination is related to a particular vice one is trying to get rid of, for example:
+ impatience
+ rash judgment
+ gossip
+ swearing, foul language
… as well as considering a particular virtue after which one is striving:
+ honesty
+ kindness
+ generosity
+ purity of mind, speech, and body.
This is a more focused examination of conscience than the “general” sort.
Habitual Examination
This is where we explore our interior attitudes and dispositions. These attitudes and dispositions are not necessarily in themselves sinful, nor, on the other hand, virtuous, but can incline us to either vice or virtue. Here one asks oneself, “Where is my heart?” Here one can discover the chief wellsprings of good and evil within oneself, as Our Lord points out in today’s Gospel passage, as He says: “From within people, from their hearts, come evil thoughts…”
This examination differs from the others in that it is prospective — that is — forward-looking, rather than retrospective: looking backward to the day gone by. Thus it helps one to prepare to make good use of the day ahead, rather than regret yesterday’s Cross. About this, St. Francis de Sales would write in his book, “Introduction to the Devout Life":
Foresee what business, what affairs, and what situations for seeing God you will encounter on this day, and to what temptations of offending Him you will be exposed, either by anger, by vanity, or by any other irregularity.
By a holy resolution prepare yourself to make the best use of those means which shall be offered to you to serve and to advance in devotion. On the other hand, dispose yourself carefully to avoid, resist and overcome what ever may present itself [as contrary]to your salvation, and the glory of God. It is not sufficient to make this resolution unless you also prepare the means of putting it into practice.
An examination of conscience done well will not lead to discouragement, or scrupulosity — or worse — to despair, even though, through it we can discover some amazing, nagging, repetitive sin.
So… what to do? Take three steps forward.
First:
Admit freely to God that it was you, yourself who sinned, whether this be a single instance, or an ongoing sin… and don’t blame this sin on others or on circumstances. At the same time, though, remember that the sin does not define your nature, and try to distance yourself from it for the future.
Second:
Thank God that the fall was not any worse than it was. God still loves you, so turn to Him in thanksgiving for His patience and His mercy.
Third:
Ask humbly for His forgiveness with a deep trust in His compassion. The 16th-century theologian Lorenzo Scupoli in his book “Spiritual Combat” wrote these words: And if after any fault you feel uneasy, distrustful, and confused in mind, the first thing to be done is to correct your peace and quietness of mind, and with it, your confidence in God. Armed with these, turn again to your Lord, for your uneasiness on account of your sin arises not solely from the consideration of the offense against God, but also of the injury to yourself.
So, we now understand that an examination of conscience is done not as an act of self-recrimination, but as an act of purification. In what Father Jean-Paul de Caussade describes as “the Sacrament of the present moment," looking backward and forward brings us a certain patience with our own sinfulness, which is not acceptance of sin but not denial either.”
Frequent Confession gives us the Grace to make progress in the spiritual life. With prayer and the Sacrament we can turn to God with deep confidence. But confidence in God does not mean presumption or a vague sort of optimism. What it does mean in the well-founded hope which comes from our Faith and our recollection of God’s past mercies is that God will give us everything we need to enable us to do what He wants us to do, as well as everything we need for our own good.
So, the ultimate purpose of an examination of conscience, the prayer it spawns, and the Confession it engenders, is to help us, first of all, to discover evil within, and the possible hypocrisy which is a form of denial… and, secondly, to seek the liberating Will of God, conforming our will to His, as we pray frequently in the Lord’s Prayer.
This is why we hear Moses say about the Lord’s Commandments: “Observe them carefully, for this will give evidence of your wisdom and intelligence.” And to which Saint James adds, “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only.”
To close, a few words from one of the greater Theologians of the 20th — my Mother— who frequently said to her sons: “You should probably go to Confession more often than you do… because you’re probably not as holy as you think you are.”