Homily for Tuesday, 22 October 2013– Ferial

Tuesday of the 29th week in Ordinary Time

Readings of the day: Romans 5:12, 15b, 17-19, 20b-21; Psalm 40:7-8a, 8b-9, 10, 17; Luke 12:35-38

Who among us has lamented recently, even in the silence of our own hearts, that there does not seem to be the same inclination as in the not-so-distant past in the Catholic Church to preach on sin, final judgment and, yes, hell? Our Church, some say, seemed to emphasize far more than now what have been called the four “last things”: death, judgment, heaven, and hell.

While I was driving to Mass one day last week, I heard this very complaint voiced on Catholic radio, with the show’s host warning preachers against losing the art of the fire and brimstone homily. I am not about to criticize those of us who have ever held this view. To deny that sin, God’s judgment, heaven, and hell are real would set us as individuals, as a society, and as Church, on a very dangerous path.

But although attentiveness to these “last things” is important, so is attentiveness to first things in order of priority: that our God is a God of mercy and that God wills that all people be saved, even though we are sinners.

Our first reading today from St. Paul’s letter to the Romans makes this point magnificently. St. Paul writes this letter as a criminal trial scene. Many of us can think of at least one famous trial in which someone who was probably innocent was found guilty or, more to the point of Romans, in which someone was almost certainly guilty but was acquitted.

St. Paul, then, asks us to put ourselves into the trial scene of Romans, only we are the defendant. We are sinners before one another and before God, and we are clearly guilty. As St. Paul writes: “all have sinned.” Through our sin, “condemnation came upon all” of us. Yet, Paul continues: “through one righteous act,” the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, “acquittal and life came to all.”

God would make a very poor judge, prosecutor, or juror, since he cannot even ensure that those who are clearly guilty are brought to justice. However, I want God to lead my defense team at the final judgment!

That God will indeed lead our defense in our last moments, as St. Paul assures us, is comforting. However, as St. Paul will say in the same letter to the Romans, God forbid it that we keep on sinning just because we are acquitted of all charges by Christ’s self-sacrifice on the cross!

No, we are invited by this acquittal that none of us deserves to turn from sin out of gratitude for God’s mercy. Today, pray a grateful prayer for this gift, beginning perhaps with the last words we speak before communion: “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.” If anyone feels so moved, not primarily by your sin but by God’s mercy, you may wish to go to encounter this mercy in an especially profound way in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

Let us keep in mind that we are all sinners; that there is judgment; that there is heaven; that there is hell, but above all that God’s justice is tempered with mercy and a will to save. For this, let us be grateful.