In this Sunday’s second reading we heard that every worthwhile
gift, every human benefit comes from above. We have an intimate relationship
with God through his word that has been implanted into us. We are God’s closest
friends because his Word is in us. But just having this Word is not enough, St.
James says. We have to act on the Word of God. We have to allow the seed of God’s Word to bear fruit. “How are we to
do this?” is the natural question we would all ask. How are we to bear fruit? Being tied to God that is what the
word religion means, being tied to God, pure religion is this. Looking after widows and orphans in their
distress and keeping oneself unspotted from the world[1].
We are to focus our energies on others, not on ourselves. This
was the problem with the scribes and Pharisees in today’s gospel. They focused
their energies on themselves as an expression of religion while they ignored the
needs of those around them. As a result they became spiritually arrogant,
hypocrites. The word hypocrite takes
its origin from two Greek works, huper
meaning beyond, and crisis meaning criticism. The scribes
and Pharisees thought that they were so good that they were beyond criticism. Their
focus was on themselves and their exact fundamental following of the Jewish
laws. They did not have love in their hearts for others. They disdained the
everyday people as worthless rabble.
Their method of following God could not bear fruit because they were
more concerned with themselves than with finding God in others.
It is pretty easy for us to fall into that same hole. We
would do that if we forget that conversion is a process, not a static event.
The beauty of our Catholic faith is that it is profoundly realistic. It
recognizes that we are human beings tempted to make bad as well as good choices
and in continual need of having our course to the Lord refined and even
restored. We believe that the Lord
established the sacrament of penance, of forgiveness, not because we are so
good but because we all have tendencies to be so bad.
A baby has minimal focus on the world around him or her. He
or she needs the help of others, particularly parents, in order to
survive. Little children continue
this natural tendency to be self centered. Good parents help their children break out of this by
encouraging them to reach out to the needs of others. “Share,” the Good Mom
says to her two year old despite the two year old’s conviction that everything
he or she sees is “Mine”. This lesson continues and is developed throughout the
child’s life so that the truly well educated child is the one who finds
happiness is reaching out to the needs of others. This child is well educated
because he or she has taken steps outside of themselves into the needs of
others. True religion is this,
caring for the needs of orphans and widows and staying uncontaminated from the
world.
The symbol of the Christian is the Cross. The cross is both
a reminder of the historical gift of the Lord and a call to join the Lord in
the unique and only true love that exists, sacrificial love. By reaching out to others, by
sacrificing ourselves for others, we take steps out of our own selfishness and
leap into the Love of God. We need to recognize that if we were to be wrapped
up in a little world of spiritual arrogance we create for ourselves we would miss
the wonderful experiences of his presence in others.
All of us have experienced the beauty of God in his
creation, the mountains, the sea, the sunsets at the beach. But there is a greater experience of
God available to us. This is his
presence in others, particularly in those who reach out to us in their need.
The more we expose ourselves to this presence, the more we will participate in
the sacrificial love of the cross, then the less we will allow our practice of
religion to turn into spiritual arrogance.
True religion is this, looking after widows and orphans in
their distress and keeping oneself unspotted from the world ■
