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| "The Arrest of Christ", follower of Hieronymus Bosch, circa 1450–1516, Noordbrabants Museum. |
My dear brothers and
sisters,
The Word of God, our Lord
Jesus Christ, is like a perennial stream, for those of us who labour through
the desert of life. He is a clear stream always offering water for those who
thirst, a reference point for those who have lost their way. Even today, in the
Gospel we just heard, he offers words of wisdom that we should take seriously,
in particular, the virtue of meekness.
Consider these words
which we just heard proclaimed in the Gospel:
The scribes and the Pharisees
have
taken their seat on the chair of Moses.
Therefore,
do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you,
but do
not follow their example.
For
they preach but they do not practice.
We may not live among the
Pharisees today, but we continue to have leaders, both within the Church and
outside, who fail to live up to their responsibilities, who in many ways, and
often times, are grave disappointments, if not reason for scandal. What should
our response to these men (and women) be?
In the words of Christ:
do and observe all things whatsoever
they tell you,
but do
not follow their example.
For they preach but they do not practice.
In other words, meekly follow the
good they preach, regardless of their own personal practice. Too often have we
heard people say, I stopped going to church, or for Mass, because of the way
that priest behaved. Christ Himself tells us today, this is no good reason to
stop going to mass, or abandon our Holy Mother, the Church. Rather, even while
acknowledging the problematic behaviour, we should continue to follow their
teaching.
When Our Lord asks us to
“observe all things whatsoever they tell you” he is referring to the various
practices of the Mosaic law. Translating it to our times, it would mean that we
follow all the pious practices that our ecclesial leaders counsel us to do, and
all of the teaching of our Holy Mother Church. The misbehaviour of priests, or
others, is no reason to reject their teaching, which we must comply with in the
spirit of meekness.
Some translations of the
Gospel that we heard today, substitute the phrase “The scribes and the
Pharisees have taken their seat on the chair of Moses”, with the phrase “have
occupied the chair of Moses”. When reading this translation some days ago I was
struck by the various meanings of the word occupied. It could, mean that the
person sitting on the seat is doing so illegally, or illicitly. In other words,
they do not have a right to that chair. Even if it were so, Our Lord suggests,
we are required to obey them if what they teach is in conformity with the law.
What does Christ counsel us therefore
when we are faced with a situation that we do not like? Or one that is
objectively wrong? Christ offers us the virtue of meekness. For those of you
who were at Mass on All Souls Days you would have heard Christ preach to us:
“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the land.” Today, he offers us a
way to understand meekness more concretely.
Now some of you may come
up after Mass and say, or go away from Mass thinking, he is saying this because
he will soon be a priest and is only seeking to strengthen the power of the
priests over the laity. I can assure you that nothing could be further from the
truth!
I am suggesting the
practice of the virtue of meekness because this is something I am struggling
with myself. I am preaching the importance of this virtue because I have realised
that this is one of the virtues that will help up us restore the brokenness in
the world we live in.
You see, we live in a
revolutionary world. A world where rather than leave things in the hands of God
who is the final judge, and a just judge, like revolutionaries we seek to
address matters ourselves. The problem is, however, as Pope Benedict XVI has so
eloquently elaborated, revolutionary attitudes only bring about more pain and
suffering since we take on the challenge of being God. When we see something
that we don’t like, we decide that we are going to fix the matter and
bring about a resolution of the problem. The trouble is, in soi doing we often
only create a new problem, or worse compound the existing crises infinitely
more.
I should add, however, that meekness
does not mean that we simply sit on the sidelines and do nothing, bleating away
like Mary’s little lambs. On the contrary, following the teaching of the
Church, would require us to respectfully, graciously, sympathetically, point
out the problems in our brothers’ behaviour. Don’t forget that admonishing the
sinner is one of the spiritual acts of mercy.
Now, it is possible that we will
suffer the repercussions of this act of mercy, but to suffer these repercussions,
and respond proportionately and justly to them, is a part of our practice of
the virtue of meekness, acts for which we will be rewarded at the end of our
lives and on the day of judgment. Sometimes, however, there is nothing to be
done. We must just suffer in silence and offer it up. Under no circumstances,
however, are we allowed to discredit the office that these leaders hold. On the
contrary, our Lord seems to be quite clear that we obey these sinful men precisely
because of the high office that they occupy.
As for these sinful men, let us leave them to the true judge of this
world. He has already assured us in our reading this Sunday from the Prophet
Malachi:
If you do not listen,
if you do not lay it to heart,
to give glory to my name, says the LORD of hosts,
I will send a curse upon you
….
I, therefore, have made you contemptible
and base before all the people,
since you do not keep my ways
At the end of the day, the virtue of
meekness, is about recognising the power and the faithfulness of the true judge
of the world in our lives here on earth. Let us, therefore, make our own the
words we heard in the psalm today:
O LORD, my heart is not proud,
nor are my eyes haughty;
I busy not myself with great things,
nor with things too sublime for me.
(A version of
this homily was first preached on 5 November 2023 to the congregation at the
Chiesa di San Silvestro in Capite, Rome.)
