11th Sunday after Pentecost – August 12, 2012
(Epistle 1 Corinthians 4: 1-10. Gospel Mark 7: 31-37)
The publican in last week’s Gospel accuses himself, saying “I am not worthy to lift up my eyes to heaven.” St. Paul continues this lesson in humility in today’s Epistle saying, “I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church.” St. Paul puts humility before us so we will practice it because humility prevents us from fighting with each other to see who will be first or best. Humility is that gift from God which causes the “brethren to dwell together in unity . .. . For there the Lord hath commanded blessing, and life for evermore.” (Psalm 133, v. 1, 3. KJV Psalm 132) We acknowledge in today’s Introit that it is God that causes us to live together in the same house, that is, in the same Faith under the Church. Like the publican in last week’s Gospel, we are sometimes too afraid to name our faults, but the Church in today’s Collect asks God to forgive the sins that we are too afraid to ask pardon for and asks in a most delicate way that God will “pardon what our conscience fears, and . . . grant what our prayer presumes not to ask.”
St. Paul also shows us in today’s Epistle that even though he is now justified, that is, transformed from the state of unrighteousness to a state of holiness and sonship of God, humility allows him never to forget his past sins “because I persecuted the Church”, as he puts it. The graces God gives the humble man permit him to see more clearly the enormity and disgrace of his sins. St. Augustine wrote of this, saying St. Paul “glorifies the just and the good God by publishing both the good he has received and the evil of his own acts; and this in order to win over to [Christ] the minds and hearts of all who hear him.” (St. Augustine, Retractations 2: 6)
There is more in Paul’s Epistle today, but I have limited my comments to humility, because it is a most important virtue on which depends not only all our progress but also our security in the Christian life. Humility allows us to thank God and praise Him for our justification, and at the same time keeps our pride in check by never forgetting our past sins.
Jesus also spoke of humility when He said, “Suffer the little children to come unto me, for of such is the kingdom of Heaven.” (Matthew 19: 13-15) A child’s faith is without a doubts or reservations, and so they give themselves over to love of parents and love of God with complete humility. Children don’t start with logic and arrive at such a love. To start with logic is to place the logic of our mind above God – in essence to worship ourselves. In Matthew 19 Jesus is urging us to do what children do, “for of such is the kingdom of Heaven.”
In today’s Gospel our Lord took aside the man who couldn’t hear or speak, to perform a miracle away from the crowd, teaching us that more miracles are wrought through humility and modesty than through the vanity and pride of public performance. He could have cured the man with a simple word or thought alone, but instead, put His fingers into the man’s ears and touched his tongue to show that our Lord’s Body is united to His Divinity. He looked up to Heaven and groaned like a man in prayer might do, and then with a single word, “Ephpheta,” healed the man.
Before we received the gift of faith and the sacraments we were not unlike this man who was deaf and dumb. These gifts healed our souls just as our Lord’s gift of a miracle healed this man’s ears and tongue. If we are truly thankful for our gifts we should tell others about them, just as the deaf and dumb man told others about the Lord after his cure. We would not have received the gifts of faith and the sacraments unless our Lord thought we were worthy of them. And we would be foolish indeed if we threw these gifts away rather than sharing them with others.
At our Baptism the priest touched our ears and also said, “Ephpheta, be thou opened,” that is, be thou opened to the Word of God. In an earlier time, God spoke similar words to the Prophet Ezechiel: “And he said to me: Son of man, receive in thy heart and hear with thy ears all the words that I speak to thee. . . And go . . . to the children of thy people . . . and [thou] shalt say to them; Thus saith the Lord . . .” and so on. (Ezechiel 3: 10) In telling us today of the miracle of the deaf and dumb man Mark confirms the words of Ezechiel.
One sentence in today’s reading is: “And the sting of his tongue was loosed; and he spoke right.” (Mark 7: 35) We would hope that we always speak right, but in speaking about our neighbor, do we not often speak wrong? Do we not often detract our neighbor in criticizing, censuring and denouncing our neighbor’s acts? Of all bad habits, this is the most common and also the most vicious and most harmful. The harm caused by detracting another is so great that the Curé of Ars has said that it is the cause of most of the souls that go to hell.
Detraction means making known a defect or fault of another unnecessarily, and in such a way as to cause injury to his good name or otherwise. If we tell something bad about our neighbor that is not true, that is calumny. When we detract someone, don’t we invariably add something to the story to make it worse, to make it more interesting? That is calumny, a more serious sin than detraction. St. Francis de Sales warns against calling someone a sinner because he sinned in the past. When Simon saw Mary Magdalene weeping at our Lord’s feet he thought that if Jesus were indeed a prophet he would know that she is a sinner. (Luke 7: 37) But Simon was wrong, because Magdalene’s sins had already been forgiven. In last week’s Gospel the Pharisee in the temple condemned the Publican in the back of church as being a sinner, but at that very moment the Publican through his humility was justified before God. We deceive ourselves when we think badly of our neighbor even if we have good reason for it. St. Francis de Sales, again, said that since God can forgive the worst of sins in a moment of time. How dare we say that the person who yesterday was a sinner is the same sinner today.
What is our best defense against sinning by detraction and calumny? It’s to keep our mouths shut. Do not spread tales, whether they’re true or not. And how do we confess this sin? It is not enough to say we have slandered someone. We have to say whether it was in humor, from hatred or revenge, or whether we wanted to injure someone’s good name. We must tell who we spoke against, our superiors, our family, persons consecrated to God, and whether we spoke against one person or many. All of this is required to make a good confession. Remember; when we detract someone there is always injury to that person, whether the injury is slight or serious. If someone detracts another person to you, walk away, excuse yourself and go pray for him and for the person he detracts. The Holy Ghost has told us that God hates six things; but the seventh he detests, and that is tale-bearing. (Proverbs 6: 16-19) When we die we will be asking God for mercy. So while we are alive, let us show mercy to our neighbors by not speaking evil of them. +++
We Celebrate the Tridentine Latin Mass
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