Fr Sean again:
26th Sunday A Cycle Our Actions Define Our Future
In a sermon in 1200 A.D, St Anthony of Padua gave us the proverb, “Actions speak louder than words.” In the film “Batman Begins” Rachel stops Batman from jumping back into the fight and asks him who he is behind the mask. He answers; “It’s not who I am underneath, but what I do that defines me.” It’s what we do that defines us rather than what we say. It’s easy to talk the talk but quite another thing to walk it. In other words, what we do reflects what we value. Nowhere is this more applicable than in religion and politics where it’s easy to say what we believe but quite another thing to behave accordingly. We’re all prone to hypocrisy because we’re sinners and want to be liked. Hypocrisy is pretending to be what one is not. For example, a person identifies as a Catholic but breaks the first and third Commandments by not participating in the Holy Mass every Sunday. Persons who identify as members of the Church but support abortion, transgenderism, and reject Biblical and Church teaching on marriage are pretending to be what they are not, whether or not they realize it. What they do contradicts who they say they are. Their actions contradict their Christian Faith. That is hypocrisy. God hates hypocrisy. This is why Jesus confronted Pharisees and scribes and said to them, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you frauds! You are like whitewashed tombs, beautiful to look at on the outside but full of filth and dead men’s bones” (Mt 23:27). The opposite of hypocrisy is authenticity. To be authentic is to be real, to be true, which involves saying what you mean and meaning what you say through your actions. It’s our actions that define us as either Christian or non-Christian. Jesus revealed that, “Not everyone who says ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven” (Mt 7:21-23). It is not enough to say “Lord, Lord,” we must do what He tells us.
God calls us to be authentic which means “let it be ‘Yes’ if you mean yes and ‘No’ if you mean no” (Jas 5:12). Because God created us to be like Him, and there’s no duplicity in Him, you and I are called to be genuine by making sure that our “yes” and “no” are backed up by our actions. God addresses this in the Book of Ezra (18:25-28). The Israelites complained that God was being unjust to them. He confronted them and asked, “Is it my way that is unfair, or rather, are not your ways unfair?” They thought that if a virtuous person turned to sin that his previous goodness should be enough to save him from its consequences, namely death – as if he had savings in a spiritual bank from which to draw and save him. God informed them that, “When someone virtuous turns away from virtue to commit sin, and dies, it is because of the sin he committed that he must die. But if he turns from the wickedness he has committed, and does what is right and just, he shall preserve his life.” God reveals here that He judges us on the basis of our actions, good or bad, in the present, not what we did in the past. In the eyes of God it is our actions now that define us and are subject to reward or punishment. This is spelled out clearly in Matthew chapter 25 where Jesus revealed that it’s what we do to others that defines us in relationship to Him, not what we say to Him. It’s not our prayers that matter to God but what we do as a result of our prayers.
God’s ways are always fair because He’s always authentic and just. Our ways aren’t always fair because our words and actions don’t always match and so we aren’t always authentic or just. The Holy Spirit speaking through the Psalmist (25: 4-9) reminds us that, “Good and upright is the Lord; thus He shows sinners the way. He guides the humble to justice, and teaches the humble His way.” God’s way was laid down by Jesus and received by the Apostles through the power of the Holy Spirit. This “way,” the only way to Heaven, is spelled out for us in the Holy Bible and the Church’s Apostolic and moral teaching. Thus the inspired St. Paul warns us: “Do nothing out of selfishness or vainglory; rather humbly regard others as more important than yourselves, each looking out not just for his own interests, but also for those of others” (Phil 2;1-11). Jesus exemplified this when “He humbled Himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Though He was in the form of God he did not deem equality with God as something to be grasped at...” Jesus’ words and actions mirrored one another. Words without action are empty. “What good is it to profess faith without practising it? …So it is with faith that does nothing in practice. It is thoroughly lifeless” (Jas 2:14-17).
To emphasize the importance of actions, Jesus gives us the Parable of the Two Sons (Mt 21:28-32). A father asked the oldest son to work in his vineyard, to which he replied, “I am on my way, sir.” But he didn’t go. He asked the second son to work in the vineyard, but he refused. Later he “regretted it and went.” Jesus asked, “Which one did what the father wanted?” The answer was obvious. Jesus was sending a message to the Pharisees and scribes likening them to the eldest son who said “yes” to God’s request to bring His blessing to the world, but they reneged. He likened the Gentiles to the second son, who at first rebelled but then repented and did what God asked of them. This is why Jesus described the scribes and Pharisees as, “This people pays me lip-service but their heart is far from me” (Mt 15:8).
You and I will be judged on what we do with the Faith we have been given, and not on what we say about it. We cannot call ourselves Christian if we don’t practice the Tradition that Jesus handed on to His Apostles and continues to be handed down through the ages in and through His Church. At the moment of death we’ll be judged on whether or not we let God’s Word come alive in our life here on earth. Jesus warns us: “Whoever rejects me and does not accept my words already has his judge, namely the word I have spoken – it is that which will condemn him on the last day” (Jn 12:48). This is urgent because none of us knows when death will come. Jesus urges us to, “Stay awake, therefore! You cannot know the day your Lord is coming …Keep your eyes open, for you know not the day nor the hour” (Mt 24:42; 25:13). Staying awake means that we remain alert, making sure that we match our professed Faith with our actions each day because the good we have done yesterday isn’t sufficient if we sin today and die in that sin. The good we may have done in our past can be quickly erased if we decide to turn away from God at any moment in our life. Jesus gives us the Sacrament of Reconciliation as the antidote to hypocrisy to which none of us is immune. In the first Gospel to be written Jesus proclaimed: “This is the time of fulfilment. The reign of God is at hand! Reform your lives and believe in the Gospel” (Mk 1:15). The time is now for us to believe in the Gospel through letting our actions define us as Christians, faithful members of Jesus’ Church. Jesus stated clearly that, “Whoever acknowledges me before men I will acknowledge before my Father in heaven. Whoever disowns me before men I will disown before my Father in heaven” (Mt 10:32-33). Our actions define us and in them we decide our eternity. (frsos)
Topic: Forgive So We Can Live and Let Live (Read 1776460 times)