AN ENEMY AMONGST US

A SERMON FOR THE 5TH SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY

Have you noticed how often during this time after Epiphany that the epistles and gospels emphasize the virtue of charity?  Elsewhere, in the catechism, holy Scripture, the sermons and writings of the saints, there seems to be almost an obsessive attachment to this virtue of charity. St. Paul tells us that it is the greatest of the virtues.  Even Our Lord himself went to great lengths to make sure we understood that it is charity, love, that is the greatest of the commandments, indeed the summary of all the other commandments.  So let’s get this straight before we go anywhere else:  love for God, and love for our neighbor is theessential element of being a good Catholic. Without it we are not fit to be called a Christian, a member of the Body of Christ.

But have you ever noticed, that in spite of our understanding that charity is so important, we still manage to sin against this virtue so very easily!  Think about it!  How much does it take for you to go off the deep end?  How patient are you with the faults of your fellow man, your wife, your husband, your brothers and sisters, the folks at work?  Why is it so easy?  Maybe we’re not having a good day to begin with, or maybe it’s just one thing after another, grating on our nerves until eventually we explode.  Or maybe we’re just innately miserable people. But there it is, lurking in the back of our personality, always ready to come lashing out with that venom and nastiness we just can’t keep down.

If we pay attention to today’s Epistle and Gospel, it may just help us a little with this problem.  

The Epistle first of all reminds us that charity is our fundamental duty, and must always be at the basis of everything else we think and say and do. Indeed, all those thoughts, words, and deeds are of no value at all, if they are not motivated by love.  Practising any of the other virtues is, basically, a waste of time unless those virtues themselves bring us to a greater love of God and neighbor.  St. Paul tells us to put on “as the elect of God, holy and beloved the bowels of mercy, benignity, humility, modesty, patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another, if any have a complaint against another.”  He tells us to “put them on,” as though we were actually clothed with virtue.  These clothes are more like a uniform.  Just as you can identify a police officer, or a nurse, or a priest by the uniform they wear, likewise this uniform of fraternal charity is the mark of God’s elect.  If we don’t have this mark, distinguishing us from the pagan, nobody will know who or what we are.  There’s a rather banal Protestant hymn, which nevertheless expresses this idea rather succinctly: “They’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love; yes, they’ll know we are Christians by our love!”  We may turn our noses up at this rather hackneyed way of expressing it, but please, don’t dismiss the idea behind the cliché. Without love, not even our Lord himself will recognize us on Judgment Day as one of his disciples.  

 We don’t need to fixate on the details of practicing individual virtues, while we forget the beginning and end of every virtue – charity.  If we do, we’ll just get bogged down in the details – and remember, the Devil is in the details!  Just focus on what truly must be the focus of our behavior—charity.  Otherwise, we can pray all we want, we can consecrate our whole life to God, take religious vows even.  But if we have not charity, it will profit us nothing.

So the next time we’re tempted to lose our patience with someone, let’s remember what St. Paul tells us today.  That we must have mercy, compassion, and mutual forgiveness, in other words, that love which has no room for division or dissension, which overcomes strife and forgives offences.  We must have a love that is willing to make any sacrifice, overcomes any difficulty, so we can live together with everyone, even the wicked.  We are all all children of the same God, and it’s his job to sort us out.

This ideal of charity that St. Paul describes in the Epistle is described to us in practical terms in the Gospel. Our Lord describes how, when a man sows good seed in his field, an enemy comes in and oversows cockle among the wheat.  The farmer here is God, who has generously sown the good seed of grace in the world. But then along comes the Devil, sowing evil in and amongst.  

For now, let’s pass by the larger question why God permits the devil to do this. What we should recall though, is that evil is merely the absence of good, and it is we who drive out the good in the world when we abuse our free will and offend God.  So let’s not even think about blaming God for the existence of evil in the world.  What we are interested in today though, is how we should act towards people who are behaving in what we perceive to be a bad way.  Should we be filled with righteous zeal like the servants in the parable, ready to attack the evil, root out the cockle?  Wrong response!  God’s answer to such a response is a resounding “No!”  “Lest perhaps gathering up the cockle, ye root up the wheat also together with it.”  God spares the wicked cockle, not because it is good, which it isn’t, but in order to save the wheat.  He spares the wicked for the sake of the good.  Some situations may seem to us absolutely deplorable, and yet God asks us for patience, that we exercise charity, compassion, and mercy.  He doesn’t tell us to make friends with the wicked, but rather to tolerate their presence amongst us.  Just as he tolerated the presence of Judas in the midst of his Apostles, not casting him out, but showing him love, and giving him many opportunities for him to change his wicked heart.  After all, if Christ can change water into wine, he can change cockle into wheat.  It is always possible for the sinner to convert through the grace that God gives him.

Look at St. Mary Magdalene, who converted from her wicked ways and became a great saint.  The good thief on the Cross, who turned his life around during his last few minutes. And St. Peter, who denied Our Lord three times and regretted it bitterly.  These examples and so many more should convince us more than anything else that we should seek to do good to all men.  Our Lord did not permit St. Mary Magdalene to be stoned, or the good thief to die without hope.  He was ready to forgive St. Peter with instant compassion.  And likewise, we should be prompt, not to uncover and discuss the wickedness of others, but to extend the hand of charity towards those who annoy us, or even those who would harm us, those who truly hate us.  Instead of being so quick to retaliate, with harsh words, insults, and harmful gossip behind their backs, let’s rather practice what Our Lord asks, that we patiently bear the unkindness and hurt that others may place upon us, accepting them for what they are, our little crosses in life that give us the opportunity to follow Christ up Calvary to our salvation.

The next time we are faced with dissension, criticism, disrespect, whatever it may be, let us try to follow what our Lord asks of us, and not return evil for evil.  Evil will be dealt with, but we are not God’s policemen.  Our job is to attract others to a more godly life by our example of charity, not to destroy them by our zeal.  When faced with an enemy within, let’s leave justice and vengeance to God, while we show forgiveness and love, tolerating the presence of the cockle among the wheat. Justice will eventually be done, but it’s not our job to mete it out.  “Vengeance is mine”, saith the Lord.  Leave it to him for that harvest day when conversion is no longer possible, while we follow the words of St. Paul: “Even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.”