(Second
Sunday of Advent (C): This homily was given on December 06, 2015 at St. Pius X
Church, Westerly, R.I., by Fr. Raymond Suriani.
Read Luke 3: 1-6.)
[For the audio version of this homily, click here: Second Sunday of Advent 2015]
Our
Holy Father, Pope Francis, has declared the period from December 8, 2015 to
November 20, 2016 to be an “Extraordinary Jubilee [Year] of Mercy”. (Deacon Fran spoke about this in his homily
last weekend.) Normally Jubilee Years
happen every quarter century (the last one occurred in the year 2000 under Pope
St. John Paul II), but Pope Francis decided that we couldn’t wait that
long. He believes that we need one right
now, ten years early (which is why it’s called an “Extraordinary” Jubilee Year).
And I
think that the Holy Father is “right on” in his assessment of the situation. You know, if there’s one thing our world is
in desperate need of at the present time, it’s mercy. People need to receive mercy, and they also need to be willing to extend mercy to others.
And
this is not just pious talk. There’s a
lot at stake in all this. We can either choose
to heed the call of Jesus and the Holy Father by seeking mercy for ourselves—and
by making the effort every day to show mercy to our brothers and sisters—or we
can choose to do our part in helping to fashion a world without any mercy.
And if
you want to know what that kind of world would be like, you only have to do one
thing: look at ISIS (the Islamic State)!
The violent, hateful actions of the terrorists associated with that
diabolical organization are the violent and hateful actions of people who live
in a world without mercy—a world that they want all of us to be part of.
Needless
to say, that’s a very dangerous and scary world to live in—which is why it’s so
important for us to internalize this message of mercy during the coming year
and put it into practice.
It’s
fitting that on the Sunday before the Jubilee begins we hear about John the
Baptist in our gospel reading. In his
baptismal ministry at the Jordan River, John functioned as a powerful
instrument of God’s forgiving mercy. As
it says there, “John went throughout the whole region of the Jordan,
proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.”
Mercy
was offered to people through John. Mercy
is offered to us through the Church, and especially through the sacraments of Baptism
and Penance.
But
it’s not enough to experience the offer
of mercy; mercy also needs to be received. The Pharisees and Sadducees, you will recall,
came to the Jordan River to be baptized like everyone else. And mercy was offered to them, just like it
was offered to everyone else. But John the
Baptist recognized the fact that because these men lacked true repentance for
their sins, they were in danger of not
receiving the mercy that was being offered to them. And so he tried to wake them up by saying to
them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned
you to flee from the coming wrath?
Produce good fruit as evidence of your repentance.”
Hopefully
some of them listened.
Let me
share with you now the formula for receiving God’s mercy. It comes in the form of a little equation—an
equation that I will probably refer to quite often during this Jubilee Year. You could call it, “Fr. Ray’s Mercy
Equation,” and it goes like this:
Recognition
+ Repentance = Reception
When it
comes to God’s mercy, Recognition + Repentance = Reception
First,
recognition. In order for me to receive
God’s mercy and experience its fruits in my life, there are certain things I
need to recognize …
- I need to recognize what Jesus Christ has done for me by his passion, death and resurrection. In other words, I need to come to the recognition of what Jesus did to make mercy available to me.
- I also need to recognize the fact that I, personally, need mercy—that I’m not perfect—that I have things in my life that need to change.
- And, finally, I need to recognize the fact that I am capable of receiving mercy—that mercy is a possibility for me—regardless of what I’ve done. Now that’s a tough one for some people, who’ve managed to convince themselves that they’re beyond the reach of God’s forgiveness and mercy—even though they’re not.
But
recognition is not enough. It’s
essential, but not sufficient. For the reception of mercy, repentance needs to be added to recognition. Yes, I need to recognize what Jesus has done
for me—and that I’m a sinner—and that I can be forgiven for my sins; but then I
need to open myself up to that forgiveness and mercy by actively repenting of those
sins.
The
best place to do that, of course, is in the confessional. And if we’ve committed a serious sin, it’s
not only the best place to repent; the confessional is also the NECESSARY PLACE
to repent!
(On
that note, don’t forget there will be two of us hearing confessions on the next
two Saturdays from 3:30-4:30.)
Let me
conclude now with this thought:
Almost
all the pundits on the cable news networks are constantly talking these days about
ISIS, and the threat that that particular organization poses to us and to most
of the rest of the world.
What is it going to take to get
rid of ISIS?—usually
that’s the question they’re trying to answer.
From
all indications, a strong military response is going to be necessary to
accomplish the goal—and not just from our military, but also from the
militaries of other countries throughout the world.
But
getting rid of this one terrorist organization, as necessary as that is, does
not address the problem at its root. The terrorists of ISIS, as I said earlier,
reject mercy: that’s a core tenet of their perverted philosophy. But that means that EVERYONE in the world
right now who buys into the same philosophy and rejects mercy is also contributing,
indirectly, to the problem at its root—even if they have nothing to do with any
terrorist organization.
They
have what you might call the “ISIS mentality”—which is fueled by hate and by a
desire for revenge. This is the mindset,
incidentally, that stands behind many acts of domestic violence and road rage,
as well as some of the recent attacks we’ve seen in our country against police
officers.
As
individuals we don’t have the power to destroy the ISIS organization itself
(unless we’re a member of the U.S. Military), but we do have the power to do
our part to help destroy the “ISIS mentality” in our world—which is just as
important.
We do
that by first receiving the mercy of God ourselves—and then by showing that mercy
to other people.
May
that be our goal for the upcoming Jubilee Year—and every year thereafter.
