Catholicism is a sinners' Church...Thanks be to God.

What is stunning to me in today’s Scriptures is that Jesus had little trouble with sinners but had his greatest troubles with the religious leaders of his day, religious leaders who were hypocrites.  To pick upon a contemporary expression, Jesus wasn’t concerned about fake news.  He was concerned about fake religion.

In speaking to his followers, Jesus said:  “The scribes and Pharisees have taken their seat on the chair of Moses.  Therefore, do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you, but do not follow their example.  For they preach but they do not practice.  They tie up heavy burdens hard to carry and lay them on people’s shoulder, but they will not lift a finger to move them.”

Of all the evils that Jesus confronted, one of the greatest was the evil of hypocrisy.   The Pharisees and scribes exalted themselves and made their mastery of the law a badge of social privilege.  Worse, they lorded the law over the people. 

Today’s Gospel brings us into the core of Jesus’ moral teaching.  What Jesus demands of the people of the covenant is integrity, being who you say you are, making all your behavior an expression of your beliefs, no matter the cost.

Catholicism down through the centuries has at times been called “the sinners Church.”  Now I ask you thoughtfully:  is this a compliment or an insult to be called a sinners Church.  Did not God our Father in heaven send His Son to us not to condemn us but to save us?  Who better to be in our Church than sinners?  Sinners are the object of God’s saving and redeeming love.  Again, Jesus had little trouble with sinners but had His greatest troubles with his religious leaders of His day, religious leaders who were hypocrites.

Now we have in our parish life 108 of our youth that we are preparing to receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation for the first time on December 9^th.  These youth are beautiful and very much loved and blessed by our forgiving God.  But they are not perfect, don’t you know.  They need to learn to say sorry.  And in so doing, they are the recipients of the merciful love of Jesus.  These mostly second graders become even more beautiful when they can say sorry and humbly ask for forgiveness.

Please God these youth will always be blessed with the gift of humility recognizing they stand in need of the forgiving, healing love of God.  Please God the gift of humility helps all of us to recognize that we all stand in need of the forgiving love of God.

The critique of Jesus to the scribes and Pharisees is that they did not walk their talk.  The question for us:  Do we walk our talk?  This is a question for all of us, not just for preachers.  What is our talk?

It was Jesus’ integrity that allowed him to heal on the Sabbath; he knew that God’s will was for the well-being of people, no matter the cult restrictions.  Integrity led Jesus to the cross because his life meant nothing if he weren’t faithful to His Father. 

What is our standard of integrity?  What is our talk?  We believe the spirit of Jesus is within each of us.  We are made in the image and likeness of God.  As the Body of Christ, we are to be the witnesses of God’s healing love in the lives of people.  We are to love even our enemies.  If we are who we say we are, we have the power to set the world ablaze.

Yes we are sinners.   There is weakness in all of us.  This is why we belong to the Church.  This is why we know that we stand always of the forgiving love of Jesus.

May we always be sinners seeking to be saved.  May we always rely on the power of the Holy Spirit within us.  We don’t preach ourselves.  We preach the power of God’s love that is within us.   In the power of God’s love for us, we have the means to set the world ablaze.

May we never try to be people who we are not. The critique of Jesus was that fake religion is intolerable.  Fake Religion is when in our hypocrisy we pretend we got it all together.  Fake religion is when we do not walk our talk in trusting in Jesus as the center and the North Star of our lives.

Rather than keeping our integrity under a bushel basket, may we follow the example of St Paul who proclaims:  With such affection for you, we were determined to share with you not only the Gospel of God, but our very selves as well.

The apostle Paul preached by the example of his life.  So must we give our very selves in the ways we give witness to the love of God.  We have with us today some volunteers from Shepherd Home, the beautiful hospice here in Penfield, who would be glad to chat with you after Mass in the gathering space as to ways you could become involved in witnessing to God’s with people who are about to go home to God.  Surely the Shepherd Home volunteers are not keeping their integrity under a bushel basket.

Whether being involved in the beautiful ministry at Shepherd Home, whether committing yourself to be involved in our Christ  Life initiative of deepening our relationship with Jesus, whether you simply wish to give thanks to God for the blessings of your family life, may we together with the apostle Paul share the Gospel of God and our very selves with one and all.

Have a Blessed day.