A SERMON FOR THE 5TH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
How many times do we look around us and come to the conclusion that we’re surrounded by idiots. We try so hard to make things work, to get things done right, and yet, along the way, someone always seems to pop up and throw a monkey wrench into everything we’re doing. Our reaction is usually not too pleasant.
If that’s the case, today’s Gospel should give us pause. “Whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall in danger of the judgment…. Whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council… whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.” Here are three stern warnings from Christ himself to be very careful when we’re looking around at those “idiots” that surround us, or indeed, tossing any pejorative names at our fellow-man. Nor should we fondly imagine that such names are limited to Raca and Thou fool. When’s the last time you said that to your husband? What the English translators of the Bible used to call each other back in the 1500s are not the same words that come spewing from our lips in 2019. Our words of choice today are more likely to be idiot or moron or worse. I tried to look up examples of more nasty names that convey the same sort of unkindness and spite, but the politically correct folks at Microsoft have put some kind of disabling mechanism on their thesaurus for words like these. Maybe they’re behaving more like Christians than they realize.
The point is, though, that according to our Lord, we are actually placing ourselves in danger when for no good reason, no just cause, we call our neighbor unpleasant names, or even just get mad. This danger increases according to the level of viciousness that motivates us. Thus, if we’re just mildly angry at someone, if we shake our fist at another driver who cuts us off on the interstate for instance, we’re probably not in danger of the worst punishment, which, as our Lord reminds us, is that of “hell fire”. Such anger, if it arises out of mere frustration or from being in a bad mood—even if it’s for no good reason, no just cause—is usually a venial sin. We should avoid it, certainly, but we won’t go to hell for it unless we take it a step further.
That second step comes when we include contempt for the poor recipient of our unjust anger. When, for example, we call him or her “Raca” or some modern equivalent. The word Raca,by the way, means vain, empty or worthless. It’s derived from a word meaning “to spit”. Not very nice. It’s used to express contempt for the person to whom we’re speaking. It’s worse than just being angry at them, but most of the time it still doesn’t quite rise to the level of mortal sin. We’re still not in danger of hell fire.
That danger arises when we allow our anger to boil over into the third stage. This is when our name-calling or angry words rise to a level beyond contempt to actual hatred, where we wish to harm our neighbor, or for harm to befall him. The harm could be physical, as for example when we tell someone to “drop dead” and mean it. Or it could be spiritual as in “Go to hell.” Any time we get so angry with our neighbor that it rises to this level of hatred, or we resort to out-of-control violence to express our anger, we are committing a mortal sin.
Just a word in passing on bad language in general. There’s no combination of letters or syllables in the English language, or any other language, that produces a word that is intrinsically evil. Sure, there are unpleasant, coarse and vulgar words that do not become a gentleman or a lady of honour. But these naughty words are not evil in themselves, they merely lower the tone of conversation and make the person using them sound like an uncouth brute. They certainly can be sinful depending on their context, for example by scandalizing children, or by deliberately offending decent people who prefer to maintain a higher sense of dignity and self-esteem. So as Catholics, let’s try and avoid!
One such word, which can no longer be used in normal society without giving offence, is what is now referred to as the N-word. There was a time when the word may have been acceptable in some quarters, but no longer. We do often hear African-Americans calling each other by this name, and in their case, obviously, there is no hatred implied by their use of the word. While we may question the prudence of calling each other this, it’s not really any different than a friend calling another friend a moron for acting stupid. The sin in using the N-word comes when it is used as a tool of racism to express hatred for our neighbor who happens to have been born with a different skin color. That’s not a just cause. If that’s how we feel, and our contempt reaches the level of hatred, such anger is seriously offensive, not only to the recipient of our hatred, but to God also.
I remember one example I heard about in a documentary about the Tuskegee Airmen, a squadron of black fighter pilots during World War II who were noted for their bravery and skill in warding off enemy planes from allied bombers. When these brave volunteers were being transported by train across the United States to their ports of departure, the railroad had to put special curtains over the windows of their trains. They learned very quickly that if they didn’t, whenever the trains stopped at a station, the residents would pelt the train windows with stones as soon as they saw a black person “presuming” to put on an American military uniform. Here is true racism, racism that rises to the category of bigotry and mortal sin. If this is how we think and behave, we truly are in danger of hell fire.
Unfortunately, and in spite of the huge strides forward made in race relations in this country, a certain element today has discovered another word, even more hate-filled than the N-word. Let’s call it the R-word. In fact, let’s just say it. The word is “Racist.” I’ve just given you a clear example of true racism. But today, more and more innocent people are being accused of racism by the political left, even though there isn’t a racist bone in their body. I’m not interested here in why the left use this tactic. It’s obviously to their political advantage somehow, in keeping the African-American voting block solidly Democrat. What’s important for us, here today, to keep in mind, is that this use of the word “Racist”, when it’s used like this with no just cause, and with the vitriolic hatred that we so often see in the likes of Antifa and their ilk on the far-left, is just as bad as the N-word. In fact, it may even be worse, because it’s based on an accusation that is false. It’s being used to destroy people’s relationships, their careers, their lives. If you are called a racist, a Nazi, or a white supremacist, you will find that it’s a name that sticks, and you’ll have a very hard time trying to prove that it isn’t true. It’s a very clever diversion by God’s enemies to falsely accuse others of the very hatred they themselves are spewing forth by their very accusations. Again, God is offended, and you can be sure he will be the ultimate judge of who is truly bigoted and who isn’t.
Our first lesson this morning is that we must never deliberately use words that convey the wrong kind of anger, in other words that display our contempt or hatred for someone. Our second lesson is that we must also learn how to react properly when others use such words against us. If you do find yourself a victim of such angry taunts, don’t let them disturb your inner peace. Certainly, don’t ever return evil for evil, “railing for railing”, as St. Peter warns us in this morning’s Epistle. Two wrongs don’t make a right. More hatred is never the correct response for hatred aimed at us. If we return angry words for angry words, we are never going to de-escalate the situation effectively, which should always be our aim.
We’ve used racism as just one example this morning, but really it could be anything. There is no limit to the ways in which angry words can be used to hurt others. St. Peter, in his epistle today, tells us this: “If ye suffer for righteousness’ sake, happy are ye: and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled; but sanctify Christ the Lord in your hearts.” And how do we sanctify Christ in our hearts? By keeping his words firmly rooted in our own hearts, those powerful words of the Beatitudes he delivered during the Sermon on the Mount: “Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven.”
To sum up, our anger should never be a gut reaction. We should give some consideration as to whether any anger is justified at all, and if so, the manner in which it should be expressed. If we feel the more prudent course is to display anger, then let’s make sure we are on the side of the “Blessed”, the ones who are reviled and persecuted—never one of the revilers and persecutors. Let the words of the 4th Psalm be our guide: “Be angry, and sin not!”
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