Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 84

A good person out of the store of goodness in his heart produces good,
but an evil person out of a store of evil produces evil;
for from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks.”

 R ecently, a high school student noticed something amiss in a schoolmate. This odd person owned an AR-15 and was buying ammunition online; and, at the same time, speaking violently of personal enemies at school. Because the student was uncomfortable with the friend, they called a hotline and notified a reporting system operated by Sandy Hook Promise. The volunteer agency contacted local authorities in Morgan County, Indiana and an apparent tragedy was averted. 

No one can know what might have happened, and the lawyers will discuss that in court. But in America today the only thing unusual about the story is that someone intervened before a tragedy took place. 

We should all be alert; we should all be prepared to "judge" friends, acquaintances, and neighbors and, "If you see something, say something." We cannot know what goes on in one another's minds but we can be aware that a violently disturbed nation is engaged in a civil war, and many disturbed individuals are eager to kill someone, anyone. It has not happened in the chapel at Mount Saint Francis yet, and we pray that it does not, but no one can know and everyone should be alert. 

With that being said, we turn to today's scriptures and hear a different kind of warning. If we're looking for trouble, a good place to start is within our own hearts. If evil thoughts, murder, adultery, unchastity, theft, false witness, and blasphemy come from the heart; and these are what defile a person, then our work begins within.  

The Season of Lent, which begins this coming Wednesday, offers us new opportunities for the satisfying, serious work of penance. Some of the happiest gatherings I have ever attended were sponsored and attended by alcoholics, drug addicts, and other social misfits. Some of them had committed crimes we do not describe in polite conversation. But they found peace of mind in admitting both the details of their wrongdoing and their enormity, because they had found the superabundant mercy of God. 

We would know nothing about sin if the Lord had not revealed it to us, and delivered us from it. Sin is, by definition, forgivable, just as shadows are defined by sunshine, and winter by summer. God, in his mercy, shows us how we sin against our own nature; and how we violate our own dignity by some of our attitudes, moods, words, and behavior. 

He shows us that we do not have to think, feel, or act that way; he shows us a better way; he opens the way before us; and then he gives us the courage and willingness to start walking -- one step at a time, one day at a time.  

More often than not, when I consider my sins, my bad habits, my discontent and unhappiness, I cannot see a choice. I am stuck and feel stuck and I believe this is the human condition; or this is my way. Perhaps I feel cursed or doomed, and I cannot imagine changing. This pathetic condition is not unlike that of the resentful student who owns an AR-15 and buys ammunition online. 

If someone points out my bad attitudes, I might say, "I will try to change!" but that only means I have no intention of changing. Promises to try are as worthless as Monopoly money. But when I turn to God and ask him to direct my life, things happen. 

We believe in God as our creator. That means that God is creating us at every moment and is not bound by our history. He is calling us out of nothingness into being at every moment; and should he take his loving gaze off us for a moment, we would cease to be. Although our past is quite real and cannot be changed, the ever present God can bring into this present moment something new, unexpected, beautiful, and good. 

Some people call them miracles. The Bible calls them mighty works. We find hundreds of them in the Old and New Testaments. Everything from the parting of the Red Sea, to the Wedding Feast at Cana, to the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. They're not miracles in the sense of being stranger than science, for they make all the sense in the world when you understand that our Creator can do something in this moment that was neither foreseen nor predictable a moment ago. People can change. Murderers can change. I can change when the Lord makes it so. 

Mass shootings in schools, shopping centers, churches, and streets might stop. Our civil war might be given a ceasefire. Our God is more than capable of that Mighty Saving Work. 

Ash Wednesday commands us to remove the wooden beams from our eyes. We will begin like the psalmist who goes forth weeping, carrying sacks of seed. But, after six weeks of sacrifice we will return with cries of joy, carrying our sheaves. (Psalm 126)