Sin should never be tolerated

Twenty Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B

Tolerance is a highly valued attribute in today’s culture, perhaps seen as its greatest virtue. According to this value system, the only thing which cannot be tolerated is an intolerant person. This is why Christianity, the Church and our set of moral teachings are most frequently vilified because they are perceived by the world’s magnanimous standards as rigidly intolerant. Should anyone in the Church have the audacity of proposing a set of moral norms to us, they would most likely be met with this question: “who are you to judge?”

Today’s passage is made up of two sections which provide us with what seems to be opposite ends of a spectrum. The first part seems to have an extremely tolerant and inclusive Jesus reprimanding His own disciples for their narrow-minded intolerance. However, our Lord in the second part launches into this vitriolic diatribe against those who cause scandals and in fact, even condemns them to destruction and hell fire should they fall into error. So, how do we make sense of this bi-polarity? Is our Lord Jesus the model of tolerance or intolerance? I believe the question is misguided. Our Lord is neither the epitome of tolerance or intolerance. Tolerance has nothing to do with His actions. Context is needed in reading both sections.

Let’s begin with the first section. Pay close attention to the words used by the Apostle John in his complaint to the Lord: “Master, we saw a man who is not one of us casting out devils in your name; and because he was not one of us we tried to stop him.” Take note that this man who is the subject of John’s complaint is being accused of not being “one of us,” the “us” here specifically referring to the Twelve Apostles who had been chosen and commissioned by the Lord to preach and cast out demons. There is no indication that this man is not one of our Lord’s followers; he could very well have been a disciple or follower of the Lord, as is evidenced by the fact that this man casts out demons using the name of Jesus and not his own nor by any other power. It would appear that the Apostles, or at least John, thought that this authority was exclusively theirs and they had a monopoly over these matters. They had forgotten that their authority is derived from the Lord who can choose to share it with anyone whom He chooses.

A similar situation is narrated in the first reading, where it is Joshua who complains to Moses that two men who were not part of the original group of seventy elders were now exercising the authority of prophecy. Moses answered him, “Are you jealous on my account? If only the whole people of the Lord were prophets, and the Lord gave his Spirit to them all!” This is an important reminder that the Spirit of God blows where He wills and who are we to put limits on His actions. We should be rejoicing at God's generosity rather than complain out of jealousy if He chooses to favour others. Although we must respect the freedom of God to give what He wills where He wills it, there must also be prudent discernment of spirits to ascertain whether the origin of such action or teaching is the Holy Spirit or from some other source. As St Paul reminds us in 1 Thes 5:21-22, “But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good; abstain from every form of evil.”

In the case of the gospel, our Lord provides us with a criterion of discernment: “no one who works a miracle in my name is likely to speak evil of me. Anyone who is not against us is for us.” Is our Lord advocating some form of indifferentism, that all religions, all philosophies and all churches are the same and equal paths to salvation? Notice that our Lord is not asking His disciples to accept, include and tolerate all and sundry. Blind tolerance is not the objective of the Church. Those who are the enemies of truth, the enemies of the teachings of Christ and His Church, those who serve values opposed to ours, can never be accepted nor tolerated. To tolerate such behaviour would be to work against the very mission of Christ and the commission given to the Church. It is for this reason that heresy (erroneous or false teaching), apostasy (total renunciation of the Catholic Faith) and schism (disobedience against the legitimate authority of the Church) are met with the harshest of penalties - excommunication. One cannot claim to be “with us”, if the person or persons are clearly working “against us.” For this reason, we cannot shake hands with a false gospel or cooperate with those who would lead the flock astray.

This becomes clear in the second half of the passage. Those who are in fact working against the Body of the Christ, leading others astray are to be met with zero tolerance. Don’t take it from me. Listen to what the Lord Himself had to say: “anyone who is an obstacle to bring down one of these little ones who have faith, would be better thrown into the sea with a great millstone round his neck.” The word translated as “obstacle” is “skandalon” in Greek, which literally means “to trip up, to make someone fall.” This is what scandals do - they cause others to sin. Our Lord reserved His harshest condemnation for such a scenario - it is better that they meet with a Mafia-like execution than to continue leading others into error. Traditionally, this is reflected in the Latin maxim “error non habet ius,” “error has no rights!”

The irony we see in today’s world is that maximum tolerance is accorded to all forms of depraved behaviour where sexual sins are often presented as legitimate alternative life styles which need to be recognised and celebrated. Today’s society applauds itself for being highly enlightened and open-minded and that those who would take offence with such behaviour and lifestyles are the ones who should be opposed for their rigidity and bigotry.

Rather than construing the last few statements of our Lord in today’s passage as evidence of our Lord advocating some form of hudud punishment in the form of bodily mutilation, we need to recognise the ecclesial and symbolic meaning of His words. If St Paul describes the Church as the Body of Christ, what we are seeing here is the fundamental basis for the penalty of excommunication. Excommunication excludes the offender from taking part in the Eucharist or other sacraments and from the exercise of any ecclesiastical office, ministry, or function. On the face of it, it sounds unreasonably harsh. But we need to remember that excommunication is meant to be corrective and remedial, rather than punitive. By the penalty of excommunication, the Church does not condemn anyone. Rather it is a teaching tool - it is meant to emphasise the seriousness of certain sins or offences that cuts a person off from sacramental grace. Without this warning, the person may be deluded to continue in his or her error and wrongdoing.

Certainly, there are many things which we must learn to endure - the quirks and idiosyncrasies of others. God knows we have our own annoying traits which others have to put up with for the most part. But there is something which cannot be tolerated and should never be tolerated even in the name of being nice and peaceable - it is sin. Sin corrupts not only our lives but the community. But just like God, we must show forbearance and mercy to the sinner with the hope and expectation of his repentance. If we truly love our neighbour, then it is our fundamental duty where possible to reach out and lead him or her to the truth and to righteousness. We do so not because we are envious or judgmental. Charity demands we do something to stop the rot and prevent the person from being "thrown into hell where their worm does not die nor their fire go out." Let us never forget that it is not our reputation but the salvation of every soul which is at stake.

Do you want to go away too?

Twenty First Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B (2nd Homily)

We unabashedly profess in our Creed that the Church is Holy. But we humbly and sadly acknowledge that the Church is also made up of sinful members, whose lives are sometimes totally at odds with that universal call to holiness. In the past months and weeks, I’m sure you have heard, as I have, “I’ve had enough,” from many within our Catholic community. With all the revelations of abuse and questions of the culpability of those religious leaders who did not address the problem in an open, transparent and timely fashion, the wounds of so many that may have begun to heal have been opened up again with similar strains of anger, disillusionment, even disgust, and many are saying, “I’ve had enough.”

The scandal of clergy sexual abuse has grown from being, as the church once claimed, about a few bad apples, to a world wide disaster stretching across various continents, revealing not only cover-ups by bishops of priests’ behaviour but accusations against archbishops and cardinals. Those who hold the authority of teaching, guiding and governing us. Those who have been entrusted to preach “the message of eternal life”. As I read report after report, commentary after commentary on the current crisis, I was assailed by a cocktail of emotions. As a priest, I felt both ashamed and demoralised. If that was my experience, I dare not imagine how the victims, their family and the laity would react to this avalanche of damning exposes.

Even if the Church is now trying to address more openly the terrible reality of abuse by its clergy, the stories that continue to emerge about the global dimensions of the problem and especially the pattern of denial and secrecy on the part of the hierarchy challenge all of us to ask how we continue to find light and peace and hope in the face of darkness, distrust and disgrace. Some people feel that the behaviour of their leaders are “intolerable” and believe that they can no longer in right conscience remain associated with an institution that is so corrupt.

It is in the midst of such a crisis of trust in the leadership of the Church, and anticipating that many of the faithful are contemplating to walk out if they have not already done so, the confession of Simon Peter at the end of today’s gospel is heartening, “Lord, who shall we go to? You have the message of eternal life, and we believe; we know that you are the Holy One of God.” This comes immediately after a major walkout of followers of Christ. They find his claims and his teachings “intolerable.” This was a sad watershed moment in Jesus’ ministry. From now on the crowds begin to thin out. The cross on Calvary would begin to draw near. Following Jesus’ would lose its celebrity appeal and attractive shimmer. The pain of seeing the disciples leave Jesus must resonate with most of us. We’ve seen how friends, family members, relatives, fellow BEC or parish members leave the Church. There seems to be a plethora of reasons why people do so. Some are disenchanted with their priests or with fellow church members. It doesn’t help with all these scandals we hear or read about in the media.

But the Twelve remained, at least for now. They too will flee when the going gets tough, when our Lord gets arrested. But for now, the words of Peter helps us to make a fine and necessary distinction between personalities and the content of their teaching. Of course, it is only natural that we often confused the two. So many flock to parishes or churches who boast of priests and pastors with cultic personalities. Likewise, so many turn a deaf ear to this or that cleric, just because they have cause to dislike them. Rarely do people pay real attention to the content of their teachings and its fidelity to Truth. In other words, popularity often trumps Truth. And that is why we priests are not only tempted by sexual sins and material possessions. But perhaps apparent, the sin of wanting to appear popular. When we try to bend or window dress the Truth, we risk losing not just authentic love but also our souls and the souls of those whom we commissioned to guide, to teach and to sanctify. When we are too busy pretending to be someone else, someone affable, someone attractive, at the expense of the Truth, then we end up selling the people a lie, and that perhaps is the greatest abuse of our ministry.

We are all scandalised, and rightly so, by the sins and failures of some of the Church's members, particularly those who were chosen especially to guide and serve young people. But let this not distract us, as Satan wishes to do, to see that it is in the Church that you will find Jesus Christ, who is the same yesterday, today and for ever (cf. Heb 13:8). He loves you and he has offered himself on the cross for you. Where so many human shepherds have failed the People of God, this Good Shepherd will never betray your trust. Like Peter, we are challenged to make that same confession, “Lord, who shall we go to? You have the message of eternal life!”

Our Lord poses that same question to us today, “What about you, do you want to go away too?” The question involves both a push and a pull dimension.  A “push” question - Why go? If it is to find a safer haven, a less corrupt and more pristine Church, “with no speck or wrinkly or anything like that, but holy and faultless.” then I think that many will be disappointed.  A “pull” question - Why stay? There may be a hundred reasons to leave, but only one fundamentally good reason to stay - Because Christ chose to stay. It is because of His choice, that we can truly claim, without any trace of hubris on our part because we can take no credit for it, that the Church is Holy. The Church is Holy, because she is the Bride of Christ. The Church is Holy in spite of the sinfulness of its members, because the Church is the Body of Christ, who chose to die for us sinners. When Jesus died, his community fell apart. He had been betrayed, denied, and most of his disciples fled. It is easy to remember the many “Judases” and their painful betrayal but difficult to remember the courageous and exemplary holy souls like St Peter and the apostles and many good faithful Catholics who choose to stay! If we are thinking of walking out because of Judas, think again. It’s not Judas that we are walking away from. It’s from Jesus. As much as the Enemy tries hard to paint a bleak picture about the Church, we should not lose sight of the bright holy radiance that She gives through the saintly and exemplary lives of her sons and daughters. That’s the power of the resurrection.

The darkness within the Church is real, and it has too often gone unaddressed because of our refusal to acknowledge it. But the light within the Church is also real, and has too often gone unappreciated. If the answer to darkness is light, then the antidote to sin is holiness. Our answer to all these horrific revelations which highlight the sins of the members of Body of Christ, should not be to walk out, to despair, to give in to resentment and wanting to get even. It is fine to feel shocked and to be angered. But unless we move on in the path of light, seeking to be witnesses of light, striving to bravely live our lives in holiness, then sin would truly have the last word. For when we choose to focus only on the darkness that we see in the Church, we will miss the consolations the Church offers, out of concerns for its shadows.

I want my Church to shine. I know you want the Church to shine too. And she shines best through the beautiful lenses of the saints, whom one author likens to stain glass windows allowing the light to enter the darkness of the Church’s interior. But I understand that everything, from our institutions to our innermost beings, are seen through a glass, darkly. Before, we can appreciate that light, we need to clean the soot, the dust and the dirt of those windows - there must be purification, there must be cleansing, there must be repentance and reparation. So don’t leave, there is a big clean up job to be done and we need all the help that we can get. Only then can we make our way forward, in bright hope, as we reach beyond the darkness of sin to the Light of the Eternal One.