Homily for August 1, 2018.
_“When it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into vessels but threw away the bad. So it will be at the close of the age.” *(Matthew 13:48-49)*_
One of the four marks of the Church is that the Church is Holy. This is one point many often argue about. How do we say the Church is holy when there is a least one sinner in it or rather when there are lots and lots of sinners? The holiness of the church is not the holiness of its members. When we say the church is holy, we mean that the church is set apart; different from any other human organization or group.
The Church is God’s kingdom on earth. The church belongs to God even though its members are humans; humans often prone to sin, to evil and limitations. In this Church, (this kingdom), there are good, bad and ugly characters. Yes, there are Angels and Demons both among the laity faithful and the clergy. Does this sound harsh? Not at all, I am only repeating what Jesus said in today’s Gospel passage.
As Jesus put it, the kingdom of God is like a massive catch of fish. It is full of all kinds of fishes. As soon as the fishermen drag it out of the water, they do sorting; they threw the bad ones away and package the good ones into vessels for sale or consumption. Jesus told this parable so that we would not be scandalized. He was trying to prepare our minds ahead so that when we begin to see people whose life contradict what they profess, we would not be surprised.
The story is told of a woman who met the priest and said she was leaving the church. The priest asked her why and she said the church is full of people who gossip a lot, people who are not faithful to their marriage vows; people who play with their phones inside the church and so on.
The priest then gave her a glass full of water and told her to walk through the aisle of the church without allowing a single drop fall from the glass. When she came back, the priest asked her if she noticed anyone gossiping, or doing nonsense in the church while she was walking with the glass. She said: “No.” Then he told her that whenever she comes to church, her only focus should be on Jesus Christ just as her focus was on that glass.
Dear friends, do not be scandalized by any bad Christian. Rather, be inspired by the good ones and strive to be good yourself. Do not allow another person’s sinfulness to become your standard of judging good and bad. That this man of God or that woman of God is a bad person does not mean you too should be bad. You shouldn’t focus too much on the evil of others neither should your membership of the church be determined by the presence of evil-doers. Just know that there is no twelve without a Judas Iscariot. If there are twelve persons in the church, at least one of them is bad. Just don’t try to be the Judas yourself.
I once met a lady who told me how she used to be fully professed reverend sister but is now married with children and attends another church. I asked her why she left and she told me that the Catholic Church and especially the religious are full of sinful people. She left because of scandal. I was still a seminarian by then, and I didn’t know half of what I know now. All I asked her was this: “Now, that you left the Catholic Church, can you say that in your church, everyone is a saint or that your pastors are free from what you accused the religious of?” She was silent for about three minutes and afterwards, she said: “Well, you are right. I have seen worse things, it’s just that I can’t go back anymore.”
In our first reading, God made Jeremiah go to the potter’s house to see how he was working and made Jeremiah understand that was how God works with us. Even those who are bad are not useless. Yes, those who live scandalously are like clay intended for a purpose but proved unworthy. When the clay the potter was working with became spoiled, the potter reworked it into another vessel.
The point I see here is that even the bad Christians inspire good ones by teaching them via negativa. You may learn from a fellow Christian either how to behave or how not to behave. If you know Christian who steals, develop a hatred for stealing yourself. If you know a cleric who is unfaithful to his vows, become the Christian who is faithful to his or her spouse. You cheat yourself if you walk out of the church because of something that Jesus Christ already warned us before time.
Hellfire is real. The clay that failed to become a vessel decorating the king’s palace ends up eventually as that used by the blacksmith to control fire. Allow God to use you, don’t be focused on others who are not doing well.
Let us Pray: Lord Jesus, shape me, use me, mould me, hit me hard until I become exactly what you intended. Amen.
*Be Happy. Live Positive. Have Faith. It is well with you. God bless you. (Thursday of the 17th Week in Ordinary Time. Bible Study: Jeremiah 18:1-6, Psalm 146:1-6, Matthew 13:47-53).*
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