March 3, 2025
Paulist Fr. Rich Andre preached this homily for the 8th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C) on March 2, 2025 at Old St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Chicago, IL. The homily is based on the day’s readings: Sirach 27:4-7; Psalm 92; 1 Corinthians 15:54-58; and Luke 6:39-45.
Today, our readings speak about a whole host of sins we commit against one another. The main emphasis in our passage from Sirach is on the sins we commit when we open our mouths. We may not be able to control all of our thoughts or all of our emotions, but we have a lot more control over the words we choose to say. This feels like an especially great set of readings to contemplate on the weekend before we begin the season of Lent!
For all the times when we have committed sins, especially when we have committed sins in our speaking, we ask for God’s healing mercy.
Lord Jesus, you are God’s Word made flesh. Lord, have mercy.
Lord Jesus, you heal the wounds of sin and division. Christ have mercy.
Lord Jesus, you invite us to greater harmony with one another. Lord, have mercy.
Jesus says that we can produce good fruits or evil works. When we produce evil, what kind of evil do we produce? Most of us can go years, if not decades, without resorting to physical violence. We may rarely experience out-and-out wrath. Our readings today invite us instead to concentrate on our words. Our speaking contributes to the wounds and divisions of the world in unexpected ways.
When I was in the seminary, for example, I prepared a homily for a preaching class on today’s gospel passage. I imagined giving this homily as part of a retreat for a specific group of people I knew. I was proud of this homily, but my classmates were very critical. To them, my preconceived notions about the people who would attend that imaginary retreat were obvious. While I exhorted my audience not to judge others, it was clear that I had already judged them. Oh, the irony!
A lot of us can hide our judgments of other people… until we open our mouths… or until we start typing at our keyboards. Even when we think we’re being diplomatic, our tone and our word choice often reveal that we’ve not only judged the other person, but we’ve also volunteered to serve on the jury and to be the executioner. Jesus says that our words reveal whether we’re producing figs and grapes or thorns and brambles.
For me, and for many of the people whose confessions I’ve heard, the thorns and brambles that we most often produce are tied to one of two emotions: anger or inadequacy. Now, to be clear: emotions are not sins; they are God-given gifts. We call them feelings, because of the physical sensations they generate within our bodies. When we’re feeling angry or inadequate, we can take a deep breath and pray through those feelings. And if we do that, we find the wisdom to use words that can produce figs and grapes. We produce thorns and brambles when we make poor — and often, fast — choices on how to channel our anger and inadequacy.
Many of us struggle with anger. We may sense it as a warmness in our neck and tightening of our muscles. We ignore the feeling or pretend that we’re not feeling it. A lot of us insist that we’re not angry, we’re just experiencing frustration or annoyance. But when we get right down to it, frustration and annoyance are less intense forms of anger.
A lot of people also struggle with a sense of inadequacy, or low self-esteem, or… shame. These may feel like a hollowness in our heart or a hardness in our “gut.” They are such scary emotions, that we often confuse them with their opposite, pride. Think about it: whenever we’re motivated to find ways that we think that we’re better than the people around us, that motivation is often rooted in our desperate feeling of inadequacy when we compare ourselves to those same people in other ways!
Together, the emotions of anger and inadequacy – especially when we try to ignore them or distract ourselves from feeling them – these emotions often reveal themselves when we open our mouths or type at our keyboards. In those moments, we commit grievous sins that we too often dismiss as trivial.
I’ve become aware that there are some people in my life who fill me with a sense of inadequacy. There are others with whom I carry a lot of emotional baggage. Whenever they are present, I find myself tensing myself for battle. Whenever they speak, I am prone to hear hidden agendas, even when our mutual acquaintances assure me that they had no agendas whatsoever. I am quick to reach for the speck in the other’s eye before removing the plank from my own! There is nothing to be gained by me offering them thorns and brambles instead of figs and grapes.
As we begin Lent later this week, can we exchange our stony hearts for softened ones? Can we lay down our weapons, even when we feel vulnerable or inadequate? Can we let go of our grudges? If we don’t, our mouths will reveal the divisive thoughts we’ve been harboring.
Some people think of Lent only as a season of sacrifice, that they’re supposed to be gloomy the whole time. They focus on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday but miss the character of the 6 weeks in between. But the Old Dutch and German words for Lent mean springtime. To put it another way, Lent is a season of spiritual growth. Yes, we may need to prune back the thorns and the brambles in order to produce better figs and grapes, but the goal of Lent is the growing, not the pruning.
A great way to rid ourselves of the brambles and thorns is through the sacrament of reconciliation. We will hold 3 special reconciliation services in the first 14 days of Lent. We are expecting every student in grades 2-8 — especially those in middle school preparing for confirmation — to go to confession at 1 of these 3 services with their families. There will also be a 4th reconciliation service in early April, open to everyone. Join us in these opportunities to lighten your burden!
As we prepare for Lent, let us pray: Holy Spirit, give us the courage to delve more deeply into the emotions that we try so hard to ignore. Help us to acknowledge our feelings of anger and inadequacy, recognizing those feelings as God-given gifts, not as sins. Then, with your guidance, we can use these emotions for building up your kingdom, rather than for dividing the world! Amen.