NB. Last Sunday I celebrated the 8.00am Mass at St Dominic's and the deacon preached. Today I'm celebrating at Our Lady of the Rosary, and the deacon is preaching. So, here's one from 2011.
6th Sunday OT
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Joseph Church, Ponchatula
A comet slams into the earth,
causing massive earthquakes, tidal waves, firestorms: the comprehensive
collapse of human civilization and the beginning of a new Ice Age. A
few, small pockets of humanity manage to survive—those living on
mountain ranges and far from the coasts. Each community fights to
survive. They must find food, clean water, medical care. There is no
law, no church, no military, nothing left to guide the survivors but
raw, individual instinct and the will of the strongest among them. Some
few still talk about right and wrong, some few still invoke the name of
God, or the authority of the Bible, and some even appeal to reason when
the more savage choices have to be made. But who is God? What is the
Bible? Where is reason? Six billion people have been reduced to a few
hundred scattered across the world. The choice is live or die. What I
have just described is the plot of one of the very first novels I read
as a kid, Lucifer's Hammer, published in 1977. From the moment I
opened the cover of this book, I was hooked on Doomsday fiction,
apocalyptic literature. Of course, what I described could be the plot
of just about every disaster movie made since the 1950's. Hollywood is
still making Doomsday movies—2012, The Road, Independence Day—and
they've been diligent in producing my favorite Doomsday sub-genre, the
Zombie Apocalypse movie! Why do these sorts of stories fascinate us?
What is it about the collapse of civilization and the destruction of
humanity that appeals to us? Here's a guess: we want to know what
might happen if there were no rules, no law, no consequences. Could we
be moral without the threat of punishment?
Now, you have to be wondering
what zombie movies and novels about comets have to do with the gospel.
Besides the fact that Jesus is talking about Judgment Day—who enters the
Kingdom and who doesn't—we have in the gospel a lengthy lesson on what
it means to be a moral person. Jesus is teaching on the Law: how he
has come not to abolish it but to fulfill it. In the longer version of
the reading, he says, “. . .until heaven and earth pass away, not the
smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law.
. .” He goes on to warn that anyone who breaks the commandments will
not enter the Kingdom. However, those who obey the Law will be the
greatest in the Kingdom. So, to be a moral person, a person held in
high esteem among the hosts of Heaven, you must obey the Law. Sounds
straightforward enough. But then Jesus does what he does best. He
throws a curve, adding, “I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses
that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of
heaven.” You should understand immediately that the scribes and
Pharisees were renowned for their obedience of the Law. But here Jesus
tells his disciples that their righteousness must surpass that of the
scribes and Pharisees. Mere compliance is not enough. Something more
is required.
In the shorter version of the
reading, we have three examples of how our righteousness can surpass the
righteousness of mere compliance. Jesus uses murder, adultery, and
oath-breaking to illustrate his point. Under the Law, killing another
person, sex with someone who isn't your spouse, and swearing a false
oath are all grave sins. The Law outlaws these behaviors. The act of
murder, the act of adultery, the act of swearing a false oath are all
forbidden. Since Jesus did not come to abolish the Law but to fulfill
it, he teaches the disciples that these behaviors remain sinful.
However, good behavior does not produce surpassing righteousness.
Something more is required. He says, “You have heard it said, 'You
shall not kill; You shall not commit adultery; Do not take a false
oath.' But I say to you, do not be angry; do not lust after another'
and let your 'yes' mean yes and your 'no' mean no.” Surpassing
righteousness springs from a clean heart as well as clean hands, from
both a pure spirit and a pure body. You refrain from murdering your
neighbors. . .but do you refrain from hating them? You refrain from
committing adultery. . .but do you refrain from lust? You refrain from
swearing false oaths. . .but is your word alone honorable? Actions are
born from intentions. And pure intent is the mother of righteousness.
For all that he teaches us about
living in right relationship with God, Jesus has nothing at all to say
about living through the Coming Zombie Apocalypse. He really doesn't
say much about Global Warming—er, I mean “climate change”—or nuclear
annihilation, or the devastation of a global virus outbreak. All he has
to say about the End Times is that on the Day of Judgment, the goats
and sheep will be divided. The goats will be tossed into the fire, the
sheep raised up to heaven. If you want to be among the sheep, live now
in surpassing righteousness. If you prefer to be a goat, then revel in
hatred, anger, lust, adultery; worship false gods, refuse to help those
in need; basically, believe and behave as though the only thing that
matters to you is your survival. Given the choice to live or die, what
won't you do? In the movie, The Road, a man and his son travel
the roads of an unnamed country after the world has been more or less
destroyed. There are no animals, very little clean water, no plant
life; nothing resembling the rule of law except the sort of rule that
comes from the barrel of a gun. The man and the boy spend their time
scrounging for canned food, bottled water, and sleeping under pieces of
plastic. When they are awake, they have to run and hide from gangs of
roving cannibals. Along the way, the man tries to teach the boy about
hope. The boy listens and learns. But every time their lives are
threatened, the man abandons hope and resorts to surviving by any means
necessary. The boy notices the contradiction and wonders if his father
genuinely nurtures any hope at all. This movie (and the novel it's
based on) provide us with an opportunity to see what happens when the
power of the law to rule humanity is destroyed. How do we behave when
there is no law, no church, no military, nothing to guide us, nothing to
reward or punish us? If our movies and novels are any indication of
what most of us would do, then we are in deep trouble. A life of
surpassing righteousness can never be about mere survival; it is a life
lived in constant hope.
And hope—like faith and love—is a
virtue, a good habit. If hope is to be a constant in your life, a
rock-solid, bottom-line reality, then your answer to God's call to
holiness is going to have to be Yes. Let that “Yes” mean yes. If your
“Yes” means “Maybe,” or “When I can,” or “If it's convenient at the
moment,” or “When things are good,” then your “Yes” means No and that is
from the Evil One. Hope is a choice. Sirach says, “If you choose you
can keep the commandments. . .if you trust in God. . .He has set before
you fire and water to whichever you choose. . .Before man are life and
death, good and evil, whichever he chooses shall be given him.” Choose
to listen and obey. Choose to trust and love. Choose life and
goodness. Immense is the wisdom of the Lord! Choose His surpassing
righteousness as your own and live in constant hope. Let your “Yes” to
His invitation mean Yes. In the face of unemployment, sickness, a
death in the family, comets, zombies, nuclear annihilation, whatever
comes, let your “Yes” mean yes. Whether you are preparing your taxes,
walking on the beach, dating your high school sweetheart, or trying to
save your marriage, let your “Yes” to God's righteousness mean Yes.
Anything else is from Evil One.
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