Commentary
Sunday, 3/3/2019, Eighth Week in Ordinary Time
Go to the Head of the Class
First Reading Commentary: Sirach 27:4-7
We have all heard the expression and there used to be a popular song called; “What you see is what you get.” Today they say, “Keep it Real” or “Keep it 100.” It is all about not being phony. What a novel idea: don’t be phony. Be who you are. Don’t try to be someone else. Stop trying to impress and stop expecting to be impressed. Instead, just be honest.
God is not impressed by anything that we say unless it is true and comes from the heart. God does not care about what we build or how well we build it unless we give Him thanks for blessing us with all of the things that we needed to construct it. That includes: the ability. God does not care about how smart we think that we are because He gave us our intelligence and therefore knows better than we do just how smart we are or are not.
If we take Sirach’s advice, we will be honest with others but we won’t stop there. We will also be honest with ourselves. It is pretty tough being honest with other people if we are not honest with ourselves first. Maybe that is why there is so much dishonesty in the world today—people are not honest with themselves.
I’ve commented before how one sin leads to another sin because you have to commit a sin to cover up the first sin. That said, it takes a lot of thought to be dishonest. You can’t be dishonest without thinking about it because you have to always make sure that your story is straight and that you are giving the right story to whomever you are speaking with at the time. In other words, you have to lie all of the time. There is a lot of that going on lately. Been paying attention to the political scene lately?
If you speak without thinking, you are probably speaking the truth although the person on the receiving end of what you are saying may not like it or want to hear it. Then again, the truth might get you into trouble. But that is a risk that we have to take if we don’t want to lie.
Sirach says, “Praise no one before he speaks, for it is then that people are tested.” I find two things to consider here. 1- Do not rate a person’s knowledge before hearing what they have to say. Maybe they are a genius. Maybe they are ignorant. Maybe, like most of us, they are somewhere in between. You just don’t know before they speak. You cannot score their test until they take it.
Don’t judge a person before they act. No matter how much you speculate and no matter how well you may think that you know someone, you just don’t know what they will or will not do in a given situation before they act.
2- Do not rate or judge yourself either. We always want to make a good impression and the only way for us to do that is to constantly rate ourselves and judge ourselves. For what and so what? Will the judgement of any human being get us into or keep us out of heaven? No!
Let’s take another look at what Sirach says from another angle, “Praise no one before he speaks…” because only God deserves the praise. And, “…for it is then that people are tested.” Everything that we say and everything that we do in this life is a test. If our answers are all honest and from the heart, we will pass the test and our Teacher will take us straight to the head of the class with Him in heaven.
The Next Life Is Victory
Second Reading Commentary: 1 Corinthians 15:54-58
Today, Sirach gives us an opportunity to think about our test in this life. St. Paul encourages us to think about the rewards of the next life.
This life is corrupt because we spend so much time doing things that are dishonest to ourselves and to each other. Everywhere one turns, there is corruption in one form or another. But corruption in this message is not limited to that which is dishonest. Paul uses corruption to define all sin which means that any time that we say or do anything which is an offense to someone else, it is corruption.
We all sin and most of us sin daily therefore, we are all corruptible. But if we focus on the corrupt, we will miss out on the uncorrupt. If that happens, we will not get to clothe ourselves with incorruptibility which means that we will not see heaven—enjoy victory.
All of us have the same opportunity of enjoying victory in heaven but that is only because Christ came to light the way and open the gates for us. We do not have this opportunity because of how much we know or how great we are or how much we have. But rather, it is because we made the choice to follow Pau’s advice of always being fully devoted to the work of the Lord because working for the Lord is never in vain.
Working for the Lord means following the Light of the Lord which will always lead to victory.
The Only Thing that God Wants to Hear
Gospel Commentary: Luke 6:39-45
Today’s Gospel ends with Jesus saying, “…for from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks.” That phrase is a direct connection to Sirach’s message today of being honest but this Gospel is also a continuation of our being told not to judge. Yes, Jesus is teaching us that judging others is dishonest.
Jesus began His lesson by asking the question, “Can a blind person lead a blind person?” No. But the blind can lead those who cannot see. Now before you say, “That’s not true,” or make some wise remark back, explain why so many people blindly follow other people who have totally stupid ideas. The reason is because we judge people and put them into places of high esteem that they do not deserve.
Then Jesus made the point that no disciple—student is superior to the teacher although they will be like the teacher when trained. That’s another way of saying that we are in His—God’s image. But Jesus was also making it very clear that none of us will ever be able to measure up to Him let alone be better than Him.
No matter how good we are and not matter how hard we try, we can never be greater than the Creator. It is futile to even think it. It also means that we should never consider holding anyone else in such a high place either. There is only One and it is wrong to so much as think about being that One or thinking that someone else is that One or on His level.
But there are those who give others unearned high esteem or think that they are better than others. To the contrary, most of us are willing to condemn others and sometimes, we condemn ourselves. That is because we spend so much time judging others as well as ourselves. Jesus encourages us to think about that by asking why we should notice a splinter in someone’s eye when there is a wooden beam in our eye.
We accuse others of wrong doing when we are often times guilty of the very same misconduct. We judge others for their actions as though we never sin. We condemn others for their offenses like we are all-holy and righteous. Yes, I’m talking about capital punishment here and I am also pointing out that when we pray the Our Father, we say, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
There are two points that Jesus was making with the splinter and the beam. 1- To judge others is bad enough but to condemn others is not our place. 2- None of us are perfect. We all sin!
Finally, Jesus teaches us that if good is to come from us, we must be good and that goodness, if it is to get us into heaven, has to come from the heart. Why? Because we can fool each other, but we cannot fool our maker. Once again, Jesus said, “…for from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks.” Jesus knows what is deep within our hearts better than we do. Remember, when we speak without thinking, it is usually what we mean and that is the only thing that God wants to hear.
