6th Sunday OT, A February 12, 2023
Fr. Alexander Albert St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette
You have heard it said, “do not miss Mass on Sundays,” but I say to you that everyone who goes to Mass on Sunday, but purposely comes late or leaves early has already skipped Mass in their hearts. And whoever comes to Mass but plays on their phone or tunes everything out has insulted God rather than worshipping him.
You have heard it said, “you can go to confession to get your sins forgiven,” but I say to you that whoever goes to confession but does not actually repent has only made their sin worse.
You have heard it said, “bring your children to catechism so they can get 1st Communion and Confirmation,” but I say to you that if they receive the sacraments but you do not live the faith every day at home, the sacraments will not help them at all.
What do the sayings of Jesus and these sayings have in common? One answer is that they make the commandments more difficult, more demanding. That is true. Some act like the Old Testament was all tough rules and difficult demands until Jesus came along and made everything simpler, easier, nicer. This shows that that is not true. Jesus not only enforces the Old Testament commandments, he makes them harder.
The other thing these sayings have in common – the reason I added a few sayings – is that they all point to this simple fact: there are no loopholes. If you want to be happy, to follow Jesus, to get to heaven, you have to be sincere. Minimalist rule-following doesn’t work. Jesus doesn’t just want people to avoid murder, he wants them to actually love the people they might have murdered. He doesn’t just want our actions to look good, he wants our minds and hearts to actually be good.
And that requires sincere conversion. Don’t get me wrong, the person who goes changes from being a rebel to being a rule-follower has definitely made progress. It is better to try and fail at keeping the commandments than to not try at all. But there is a level beyond mere rule-following. It is the level of virtue, of transformation. Not just going to Mass, but actually worshipping God with a whole heart. Not just receiving the sacraments, but consciously engaging them with faith. Not just following the rules, but treating Jesus as a real person in your life with whom you have a real relationship.
As the first reading and gospel make clear, following the commandments is essential. If you break the commandments and do not repent, you will go to hell. I don’t care if a priest, bishop, cardinal, or even the pope tell you it’s okay to sin – it is not. “To none does [God] give license to sin.” Millions of Catholics were told – and some are still being told – that sexual sins aren’t a big deal. That’s a lie. Even today, there’s an option to read a shorter version of this gospel that conveniently leaves out Jesus’ teaching on divorce and his command to cut off limbs that lead us to sin. There are good reasons to use that shorter option, but some pastors – too many – choose that option so they can simply avoid the tough teachings. But if people are not even taught the minimum, if they don’t even know what the commandments actually are, then how can they learn to live the deeper and more genuine way of life that leads to real joy and to eternal salvation?
Now, I know you have heard the truth about sexuality – contraception, divorce and remarriage, abortion, transgenderism, homosexual behavior, selfish acts, premarital sex – you know those are mortal sins. Still, I want you all to move beyond the mere rules and limits to see and live out the beauty of chastity, of genuine self-gift, of offering your bodies to God in a genuine way. That starts with the rules.
What’s more is that I… that Jesus wants you to move beyond the prohibitions into a life of real discipleship, of truly becoming not only God’s obedient servants, but his devoted sons and daughters. These sayings, these increasingly difficult demands aren’t prison bars… they’re more like a cast for a broken bone. When the leg is healthy, you don’t need to restrict it… you just have to make sure not to do anything stupid enough to break it. But once you do break your leg? You’ve got to set it right and wrap it up really tight, constricting it so it can heal and return to right freedom. Our wills are broken – we keep choosing evil. So, Jesus is clamping down, increasing the restrictions of the commandments to set that broken bone in place.
But the point is not the cast. It is the authentic freedom that comes once the cast has done it’s job. It’s finally getting to a place where our free will stops moving in the wrong ways in order for it to move in the right ways. So yes, missing Mass on a Sunday is a mortal sin. Rain is not an excuse, hunting is not an excuse, sports are definitely not an excuse. Serious illness, unavoidable travel, physical impossibility – these are exceptions, though you still need to do something to worship God. And that’s why if you do make it to Mass, but then don’t actually worship God, it’s not much better than missing. The point is to worship in the way God asks by participating in Mass as best we can.
Every sacrament requires faith. If you go to confession without trying to repent, it’s useless. If you wait until someone is unconscious and about to die to get them anointed, there’s a good chance it won’t help them, especially if they were resistant to the faith before. If your kids receive 1st communion or confirmation but don’t have faith because they don’t see faith in their life at home, they don’t gain anything. Those graces lay there dormant, practically useless until they have a real conversion later on… if they ever do. This is not to say the sacraments require perfection, only that they require sincerity.
There are no loopholes! Salvation requires living faith and living faith requires love. In a moment, we’re going to profess our faith. Then we’re going to turn that faith into love through the transformation of the Eucharist, singing the great “amen” – “I believe” to the claim that God is present, that He is love, that we love him back, and that all glory and honor is his. So sing it or at least say it. More importantly, mean it. Let your yes mean yes and your no mean no and then prove it by striving to live it with sincerity. Anything else is from the evil one and leads back to him… forever.