A Homily for the Third Sunday after Pentecost

+ There are three ways in which a just man can relate to the unjust. Firstly, with the indignation that “I cannot speak to you for you are a sinner.” Secondly, as an accuser of those sins, driving the sinner to resentment if not despair. The third manner is to lead the unjust to justice—to show them their sin so as to lead them to repentance without losing the fraternal bond of charity.

In truth, however, there is only one manner in which the just man may treat the unjust. We are not conceived immaculately nor are we God. The first two approaches serve only to heighten pride and increase ill will. The latter can bring the sinner to God.

Our Lord demonstrates not only in His words the extent to which He will go to bring back the sinner to God, He also took the form of a servant and died the death of the lowest criminal to bring us back to God (cf. Philippians 2:7-8). And not only to bring us back to God, but to break the power of sin over us. How then could he fail to eat with the sinners of his day so as to turn them from their sin? He sought, and commands us to likewise, to make the kingdom of God available to all who would listen to the words of eternal life. Yet many, even most, turn their back on those same words. (cf. John 6:66-67)

Yet not all those around Him were prepared to listen. The Pharisees and other religious authorities, believing themselves to be just, refused to take up His words and example. They would not be parted from their own sinful ways. And they despised and rejected those who thought and preached to others that they can put their sins behind them. Having no recognition of their need for salvation, Our Lord’s admonitions were of little avail and were often received as if an insult. It is not that they did not have need for correction, but only that they refused any acknowledgement of their imperfection.

So likewise, it is with us. It is easy to know that the converted and repentant sinner is far more pleasing to God and the angels than the continuation of the just. Yet the recognition of the thorn in our own eye is not so easy (cf. Matthew 7:3-5). We also must convert from those sins and vices we have not fully driven out of our own persons. We are, nonetheless, entirely dependent upon the grace of God to avoid evil and do good.

We live, however, in a world where it is often not those who are seeking God who boast of their justice, but those who are hardened in their sin. There are many who boast of their evil doing and rejoice to see sin. Often they even claim that this sin is justice. Bringing them the Gospel in all its implications is all the harder for that reality. Whilst the seed must still be scattered and sewn, it will often land not only on shallow soil but even on concrete (cf. Matthew 13:3-8). Yet even then it might penetrate a crack somehow and put down roots unto eternal life.

Finding such an opening that the seed can penetrate takes much patience and perseverance. Nor can the good, but unsown, soil be ignored in the hope of finding the slightest crack in a sheet of concrete. Yet the charity demanded of us by Our Lord requires this work is undertaken. It is not by accusation of sin that the truth of God shall come to be known; rather it is through encountering His goodness that the evil of sin becomes self-evident. +