Trinity 4 Homily

 

Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.

Lisa was cleaning out closets this week and came across a couple letters in one of my old boxes. I wrote one of them in the seventh grade. It was one of those “what do you want to be when you grow up” assignments. If all my dreams had come true, then I would be playing second base for the Philadelphia Phillies after graduating from the University of Texas, married to a woman with 38-32-38 dimensions, (I actually wrote that down, as if I knew what it meant, to which the teacher commented, “Good luck”), and be the father of two kids, a boy and a girl. I also said my personal goals were to be a good husband and father and to be a religious man, whatever that means. The entire letter is a bit comical, if not embarrassing. What else can you expect from a seventh-grade boy? 

The other letter is not so funny. It was from my father and today is Father’s Day, so it seems appropriate. The letter is filled with a father’s sorrow and disappointment over a rebellious, ungrateful son. It was written twenty years ago, when I was just about to graduate high school. Like many 17 year old boys, I was immature, selfish, and remarkably stupid. I had made some poor decisions, which were hurtful to my parents, not that I really cared. My dad was in Virginia, taking classes, and wrote to express his love and concern. Toward the end of the letter, he wrote, “You’re at a difficult age and you have some ideas about life, religion, and your future that you need to test. Many young adults choose to leave home and the church at the same time. If you decide not to be active in the church, you’ll be making the worst decision of your life.” My father realized that leaving home was inevitable. He would always be my father, but I was soon to be on my own, regardless of my level of maturity. More crucial, however, was my relationship to the church. If I was so spiritually immature as to not understand my daily need for the mercy of my Heavenly Father, then I would certainly live like a fool. He was right. My decision to disregard the faith and not be active in the church was the worst decision of my life. At the time I was incapable of understanding the truth of what he was saying. A huge log was jammed in my eyes and I could not even see the words on the page. To be quite honest, I do not even remember reading the letter. I’m glad now that my mother saved it. In matters of faith and life, my sinful flesh was in complete control, although I lived under the delusion that I was free. The reality was that I was a prisoner to my sinful self. I was an immature adolescent; arrogant, selfish, and stupid, incapable of understanding my need for God’s mercy. 

In our Gospel Lesson, our Lord Jesus addresses his disciples who, in matters of faith, were like adolescents, not knowing as much as they might have imagined. They needed to be guided and directed. They needed to be taught. Jesus did not want them to remain children forever, so He points them toward maturity in faith. But in matters of faith, growing up is not easy. Jesus makes this clear.  He tells the them to love all people, even their enemies. They are to forgive. They are to give themselves to serve others with selfless humility. They are to imitate the mercy of their Heavenly Father. Jesus is clear and straightforward, which is important when talking to an adolescent. He tells them, “Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you.” The immature, unfaithful person judges and condemns, withholding forgiveness and charity. Like an adolescent, he is full of empty pride and lives under the illusion of self-sufficiency and self-righteousness. He measures his own righteousness with generosity, but is strict and unyielding in his measurement of others. He is incapable of seeing anything beyond himself and cannot see the dangerous path of his own sinful blindness. He is so full of confidence and yet so remarkably dim-witted in faith and life. Like a 17-year old boy who thinks he knows more than his father, the arrogant adolescent of faith thinks he knows more than God. He dismisses God’s Word. He chooses not to listen. He notices the most minute sins and iniquities of others while ignoring his own gross immorality. Jesus teaches that such attitudes and behaviors are incompatible with being a disciple because they do not grasp the Father’s mercy. They are the attitudes and behaviors of a rebellious youth. To act out of selfishness, pride, arrogance, judgment, blame, criticism, and condemnation is to remain a foolish adolescent in matters of faith, always aging but never maturing. The Christian life is not to be marked by such immaturity.