I wonder how many times that
we ask in our lives, “Why is God punishing me?”
“Why does God allow wars, famine, plagues, forest fires, car
accidents. Things that cause us to suffer.” Are we being punished because of our
ancestors? Because of something we’ve
done wrong? Something we haven’t lived
up to? And sometimes we like to do that
don’t we? We blame somebody else for
what’s happening in our lives today.
Either we blame God or we blame our parents, our teachers or somebody in
our past, or somebody on the other side of the world. It’s their fault that I’m being
miserable.
And the first reading from
Ezekiel gives us resounding “No.” Each
of us is responsible for what’s going on in our lives today. We cannot blame past generations. We cannot blame future generations. We each must take responsibility for what we
are doing or not doing. And the whole
point of that first reading is: We can
change, our attitudes, our values, or way of living to conform more closely to
what God asks of us. We don’t have to
stay stuck in the past. In past sins or
failings, whatever it might be. We can
convert our minds and our hearts with the grace of God.
That’s the whole point of
the second reading. Have the same attitude
that is in Christ Jesus. And how does
Paul remind us to do this? Do nothing
out of selfishness but rather look not at your own interest but to those of
others.
See if we just stay stuck
inside of ourselves, that’s what where the selfishness, the greed, the lust,
the anger, the hatred, the revenge, the spitefulness come from. But when we break out of that mode and
mentality then we begin to look that there is a wider world beyond Pat Grile
and the other one person. The sun does
not rise and set upon me. Sometimes I
think it does. And when I think out of
that mode then I can blame other people because I’m not happy today. The sun is not shining. Not my fault.
It’s yours. Obviously you didn’t
pray enough last night. Why is there fog
out there this morning? Obviously you do
not have a clear conscious. It’s your
fault. No. No blame.
No shame. If we have the attitude
of Jesus Christ.
Now how does this work out
practically. Jesus reminds us in the
Gospel. Sometimes we say, “I will not do
it.” And later we change our minds and
say, “Okay, I’d better get going.” But
then if we say, “Oh I’ll do it”, the words come out of our mouths but the feet
are going in opposite direction. Jesus
is saying, “Don’t live that way.”
I don’t know if you ever
heard of many named Charles DeFoucald.
For a while, many years, back in the late 19th century he was
working for the French Geographical Society in Morocco. He did all kinds of exploring Morocco and as
the National Geographic Society would do, it was the French Geographical
Society he was working for. And one day
one of his little nieces said to him, asked him what had he done for God while
he was doing all of that work for France.
A little child asked him that.
What had he done for God while he was doing all that work for
France?
And it changed him. Suddenly Charles realized that all these
things he was doing for a country, for the French Geographical Society, but
there was something missing. And he began
then to have a search for God, to get back to what’s more important and
valuable in his life. He went off to
live in a monastery. Went over, I
believe, to the Holy Land, Jerusalem.
And he was living there in a monastery with some other monks. And one day finally it occurred to him too,
they were inside the monastery walls, safe, secure and protected. But he could hear people moaning and groaning
and wailing and crying outside the walls.
And it finally dawned on him, how could he pray in this safe little
enclave when there was suffering and pain going on outside of him. It was safe and secure for him, but he heard
the call from the Lord through the voices of those people that he needed to do
more. To break out of his own little
world into a wider world around him.
He said it this way, “The
whole of our existence, the whole of our lives should cry the gospel from the
rooftops, not by our words but by our lives.”
“Not by our words but by our lives.”
So he left the monastery. He went
to Algeria. He started a little
congregation called the Little Brothers and the Little Sisters. He went to those who were called the Touraegs
of Algeria. As eventually his work among
those poor people, tribal people, eventually that’s where he lost his
life. But he was trying to do something
to work with the poor and the needy.
Now I doubt if many of us,
myself included, are going to leave St. Alphonsus Parish this morning and say,
“I’m off to Algeria. See ya.”
God is calling me in a
different way as perhaps He calls you.
If you feel the call, like Mother Theresa or Charles DeFoucald, go for
it. Be true to it.
But if we’re not going to go
there, how else can we work out having the mind of Christ. Something simple like this maybe. When I pick up my clothes instead of leaving
them there for someone else in the household to pick up. When I do the dishes or make my bed without
being told 500 times to do it. When I do
a favor for someone without being asked to do it. When I let someone in front of me who has
fewer groceries than I do, go ahead of me in the checkout lane. When I smile at a hurried clerk or someone
that’s serving me in the restaurant.
When I give an honest compliment to someone without being manipulated into
it or asked for it. Those are such
simple little things that you and I can do each and every day. There is no glory in that. But we do it in the core of our hearts and it
goes out and it touches somebody else.
The while idea again is
breaking out of this mentality that the sun rises and sets only on me. It sets on everybody in all of creation. God gives it to all of us. If we just focus on our own agenda: I’m hurting, I’m struggling, poor me, self
pity, then our world is going to be suffering even more because you and I are
not willing to break out of it.
How will we do it
again? I think we are here at the
Eucharist this morning. That’s why we
all come. Because you and I somewhat
instinctively know we need the Body and the Blood of Jesus. There is our strength, there’s our hope. It’s the same Jesus Christ that is going to
come to every person this morning at this Eucharist. He’s not going to say, “I’m only going to
come to those who are 13-years old, or those who are 45 or 63. I’m only going to come to those who are pure
of heart.” I don’t know what’s going on
in your hearts. You don’t know what’s
going on in my heart, yet all of us will come down the aisle and receive Jesus
Christ. He is going to come to each and
every one of us who want to receive Him.
And then He’s going to say to us in the depth of our heart, “What will
you do with My love today? Will you keep
it just for yourself? Wrap your arms
around you and say, ‘Oh how good I am’?” Or will you and I somehow make a
difference in the world today by our presence, wherever that may be? May it be in your home. Or maybe at Target. Maybe at the movie theater. Maybe here in the parking lot. It may be after Mass. I may be by the way you pray during this
Mass. It might be during the work week,
or your school week. It might be someone
you know very well. It might be a total
stranger.
But you and I have the
opportunity today, and each day to have the mind of Christ, the attitude of
Christ. Looking to somebody else’s
interests rather than our own. Surprise
yourself and let the Lord do something to change how we live.