REFLECTION Sunday´s Gospel

6^th Sunday of Year (Feb 13, 2011)

Fr James McTavish, FMVD

“Freedom!”

“Freedom!” – this is a famous cry in the movie Braveheart. One epic line goes “your heart is free, have the courage to follow it.” Our hearts aspire for this true freedom. In the first reading today, Sirach reminds us that we are free and “if we choose, we can keep the commandments – they will save you.” He mentions choice two more time in a few verses (Sir 15, 15-20). Of course a life of prayer and recourse to the sacraments helps us make good choices and stick to them. It means that we need to live a spiritual life and St Paul talks of the Spirit in his letter to the Corinthians (1 Cor 2, 6-10). The Spirit is God’s wisdom and strength and we need the help of the Spirit in our daily lives – this Spirit that comes to help us in our weaknesses. In today’s reflection I would like to focus on just two areas from the Gospel where the Spirit can help us – in controlling anger and in having a healthy gaze.

Jesus said “whoever is angry with brother will be liable to judgment.” It is a common experience to be angry. Many wonder if anger is always wrong or if it can be justified sometimes. It is not wrong to be angry in front of a wrongdoing. St Thomas Aquinas tells us that anger is not wrong when it is in accord with right reason. If you tell someone off or correct them for an error it may be justified but not if the anger is excessive or disproportionate to the wrongdoing. The anger should be in accordance to right reason. He wrote “if one desire the taking of vengeance in any way whatever contrary to the order of reason, for instance if he desire the punishment of one who has not deserved it, or beyond his deserts, or again contrary to the order prescribed by law, or not for the due end, namely the maintaining of justice and the correction of defaults, then the desire of anger will be sinful, and this is called sinful anger” (Summa theologica II-II, 158, art 2).

The Saints wrote about anger and it may be helpful to summarize some of their teachings – it is better not to let sinful anger enter because when you invite it in, it is a difficult guest to get rid of. Secondly, it is usually useless to correct others when we are angry. Thirdly, sinful anger makes you suffer. That is why Jesus encourages the listeners to reconcile quickly with others. Saint Catherine of Sienna said that there is no sin or wrong that gives a man a foretaste of hell in this life as anger and impatience. When someone becomes angry with us meekness can be a great antidote. I remember recently a person coming to see me and they were in bad mood as they were exhausted from over-work. I was trying to help them yet there manner was reactionary! I asked them if they knew about a certain issue. “Of course I know about that!” he responded strongly. In that moment I was very peaceful and persevered patiently trying to help the person. Later they wrote me an email thanking me for all my help. St John Chrysostom said that as fire is extinguished by water, so anger is put out by meekness.

When Jesus mentioned about anger he was counteracting the lex talonis which allowed an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth – in other words the response should be commensurate with the insult. But often the response went out of hand and retaliation was the norm. Jesus knew that this is not the solution and takes us beyond the letter of the law and strikes at the root of the problem. How many times relationships are strained, broken or even destroyed because of anger and no one has the humility to ask forgiveness or say sorry. Even though we admit we make mistakes, we can say so sincerely that we are not perfect, it is sobering to ask when was the last time we said sorry? For most of us it is hard to remember. Yet we just admitted that we do make many mistakes. Houston we have a problem! We can teach about many things but how great to teach others how to say sorry. I remember my dad saying sorry to my mum. I was only 6 years old but I learned from my parents how to say that word. Those three words can give so much life to a relationship – not only “I love you” but also “I am sorry.”

The second area to reflect on briefly is the phrase of Jesus “You shall not commit adultery. But I say to you, everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” One thing is to look at a woman and another is to look with lust. One seminarian said to Fr. Cantalamessa “I like to gaze at women especially beautiful ones. If God did not want us to look at them why did he give us eyes?” Fr. Cantalamesa responded that he also gave us eyelids so we can close them sometimes!

One area of real concern today is the growing increase in use of pornography. Today, the number of people looking at pornography is staggering. Pamela Paul, a TIME Magazine reporter whose 2005 book “Pornified” is among the first general-interest, book-length examinations of this subject, said: “Americans rent upwards of 800 million pornographic videos and DVDs (about one in five of all rented movies is porn), and the 11,000 porn films shot each year far outpaces Hollywood’s yearly slate of 400. Four billion dollars a year is spent on video pornography in the United States, more than on football, baseball, and basketball. Men look at pornography online more than they look at any other subject” (P. Paul, “From Pornography to Porno to Porn: How Porn Became the Norm,” in The Social Costs of Pornography: A Collection of Papers (Princeton, N.J.: Witherspoon Institute, 2010)”

Let us help one another especially to pray for those who struggle with their human weaknesses. May we be more vigilant about what our world is watching on TV, in movies and on the Internet. We pray that the Holy Spirit fill us and make us strong for the good works that God has planned for us. Our freedom has been won at a price. May this be our battle cry too – “freedom!” Amen.