27th
Sunday OT
Fr.
Philip Neri Powell, OP
Our
Lady of the Rosary, NOLA
Pope
Francis asks, “Where [does our] journey to Christ begin?” He
answers: “It [begins] with the gaze of the crucified Jesus.
With letting Jesus look at us at the very moment that he gives his
life for us and draws us to himself.” His answer to this question
is frightening. His answer shows us why Paul must encourage Timothy:
“God did not give us a spirit of cowardice.” And why the apostles
beg the Lord: “Increase our faith.” His answer even shines light
on why the prophet Habakkuk wails at God: “How long, O Lord?. .
.Why do you let me see ruin; why must I look at misery?” To look
and see such misery and knowing all the while that Christ's ruin is
our repair. . .no one possessed by the spirit of cowardice could
watch this. No one lacking in faith would be pulled into his gaze
from the cross. Accepting and living the Good News of Jesus Christ is
one life-long act of courage, one small act of faith after another.
But neither Christian courage nor faith in God deserves applause or
gratitude. Why? B/c we are drawn to Christ. . .by Christ.
Pope
Francis says that our journey to Christ begins “with letting [the
crucified] Jesus look at us at the very moment that he gives his life
for us and draws us to himself.” What does he mean by “letting
Jesus look at us”? No one needs my permission to look at me. They
just look at me and here I am, being looked at. All of us are seen
everyday without even knowing it. We look at others all the time w/o
their permission. But couldn't we say that the difference btw Looking
and Seeing is the same as the difference btw Hearing and Listening?
What's that difference? Attentiveness, intention? I can hear but do
not listen; I can look but do not see. Does this sound familiar?
Jesus teaches his students that they will meet people along the Way
who hear and look but do not listen or see. These people will hear
with mistrustful ears and look through cowardly eyes. Attentiveness
and intention make a difference, of course, but the difference that
makes The Difference is faith. Jesus doesn't just look at us from the
cross; he gazes at us. He looks with intent, with purpose, and if we
let him gaze at us, we return his gaze in kind. We are drawn to him
and our looking becomes seeing with faith.
Notice
why the apostles suddenly beg the Lord to increase their faith. They
ask him how many times they should forgive a brother who sins. Jesus
says, “. . .if he wrongs you seven times in one day and returns to
you seven times saying, ‘I am sorry,’ you should forgive him.”
The apostles immediately see the connection btw forgiveness and
faith, and they immediately recognize the weakness of their faith. To
forgive someone who sins against you over and over again requires a
great deal of confidence in the power of mercy to correct error. It
also requires a strong sense of one's own sinfulness. But the purpose
of forgiving others is to draw us back to the Cross and the merciful,
dying gaze of Christ, the one who makes all forgiveness possible.
When you forgive someone who sins against you, you bring the merciful
gaze of Christ to them. You become Christ for them in that moment.
That takes courage. It takes courage and a deep trust in the fact
that not only are their sins forgiven but so are yours. The apostles
know this, so they beg Jesus to increase their faith, to add to their
ability to trust. Unfortunately, the apostles don't yet quite grasp
how faith works. They still see faith as a quantity, a measurable
amount of something that can be increased or decreased. Jesus, as
usual, reveals the truth.
He
says, “If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you would say
to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it
would obey you.” Faith isn't measured in quantities; it's measured
in acts of courage and obedience. As the good habit of trusting in
God's loving-care, faith—even the size of a mustard seed—can
accomplish the seemingly impossible. If this seems improbable, then
consider the strength it would take to forgive someone who sinned
against you seven times, or seventy-seven times. That's not a feat of
brute physical strength but rather a feat of spiritual strength. What
does it say about you and your relationship with God that you can
show mercy to a person who's hurt you seventy-seven times? It says
that you are painfully aware of your own sinfulness and your own need
for mercy. That you can forgive them—even just once—is an act of
courage, an act done in fear despite that fear. If you trust that
Christ died on the Cross for you and even now draws you into a life
of holiness with his dying, merciful gaze, then that trust must be
shared, given out. We cannot follow Christ unless we are ready to
become Christ. And that kind of trust can be large or small so long
as it is also strong.
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