Sermon

for the

3rd Sunday

After

Pentecost

Man has the inclination to be the judge of his brothers and to impose upon them his own point of view. Let us be honest, we all have this tendency, don’t we? Let us put ourselves for one moment in Mister Know-it-all’s shoes, which could be anyone of us. I said Mister, but it could be a Miss or Mrs. too. In this matter I do believe in sex equality.

" It is well known that I know everything better than everybody else, so I know what is good and what is evil for everybody. And since I have sufficient knowledge, I can pass judgment on my neighbor who is necessarily less knowledgeable than me; or, if by chance he is more knowledgeable than me, then he is certainly much too proud, which makes him too blind to see the truth, which I, of course, know so much better than he. Because of me, of course, I am humble and I cannot be wrong. "

Well, Mister or Mrs. Know-it-all – again, who could be anyone of us – is not a child of Adam and Eve for nothing. Their sin, which we call original sin, is not only theirs. It is ours too. You can give the excuse that it was not your fault and that you have nothing to do with it, but the Church still reminds you that this sin is truly yours. You didn’t commit it personally, but you were born with it and all its consequences. One effect of original sin is the corruption of the good of nature. We acknowledge with Saint Thomas Aquinas the four wounds of nature which are ignorance, malice, weakness and concupiscence. Let us understand well that we are all affected by these wounds. Every human person comes into this world in such a state, except Our Lady who was preserved by a unique privilege.

We know this, I would say on a theoretical level but for some strange reason and as if by magic, we seem to forget this on a practical level, at least when ourselves are concerned. It is not difficult to notice how ignorant or malicious our neighbor is, but when it comes to looking at ourselves, our nature becomes reluctant to recognize our own defects.
At first sight, this observation can make us laugh, but in fact it is alarming, because it is simply the opposite of what we are supposed to be. Look at the Pharisees of the Gospel. Jesus does good around Him everywhere He goes. But He doesn’t act according to their social criteria. “ Can you imagine? This man receives sinners and eats with them! What a disgrace! ” And they murmur with a vengeance.

We may have good reasons to be indignant about their behavior, but don’t forget one thing. We are no different than them. And it is quiet a paradox. We claim that we are Christian, and traditionalist Catholic on the top of that; we assert that we have nothing to do more precious than doing God’s will; we militate in favor of the social reign of Jesus Christ in the society; we are supposed to be disciples and friends of Jesus, and yet we act like His enemies. Like them, we are indignant when our neighbor does good. And if he does something evil, it is immediately an outcry and we are so happy to be the one who throw at him the first stone.

But what kind of Christians are we? Why don’t we rejoice with Our Lord when we see good around us? Why are we so indignant, so hard and so prompt to judge instead of being compassionate and merciful? Are we imitators of the Pharisees or of Our Lord Jesus Christ? As Traditionalist Catholics, are we keepers of the Traditions of Jesus Christ or of the Pharisee’s?

Dear Brethren, it now the time to choose. Let us turn to Our Lady so that She can help us to make the good choice, which is of course, Our Lord Jesus Christ. May She help us to see evil first in ourselves, so that, with the help of grace, we can cure ourselves first of our own sins and defects. It will be a better way to glorify and serve God, definitively better than making ourselves righter of wrongs.