Homily, September 22, 2024
From The Pastor
Occasionally, the second reading becomes the access point to the overall theme of the Sunday liturgy. The issue is a difficult one that regularly and undeniably surrounds us yet is rarely given appropriate attention. As Christians, we try to follow the light of goodness but consistently experience the tension of evil and the disorder of darkness.
In the second reading, St. James focuses our attention. ‘Where do the wars and conflicts among you come from?’ This is not an easy question nor one that can be sufficiently addressed in a Sunday homily. Given the context of our society today, we can nonetheless address the question in the mind and example of Christ.
Broadly speaking, there are three spirits in the world: the Holy Spirit, the human spirit, and the Evil spirit. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Love in the Divine Essence. You have the Holy Spirit. God is in you and you are in God. The human spirit is expressed in your personality, temperament, ego, likes and dislikes, will and wants, your autonomy or lack thereof. The Evil Spirit is the absence of love expressed in darkness, lies, chaos, and confusion to defeat the light and the goodness of love, order, and virtue that seeks God.
What is the energy between good and evil? What does the work of evil gain or try to accomplish? What is all that? The Church teaches and believes there is personified Evil in the world in the total and active rejection of God and the good of God. This is a larger question beyond our reach today. Suffice it to say that many if not most of us have seen, heard, or experienced the wiles and hate of the presence of Evil. Its basic reality is sin and its temptation.
In the frame of today’s readings, we can gain insight from St. James. He believes war and conflicts come from our passions, our inner emotions that lead us to unvirtuous thoughts or actions. More simply, James is referring to the unresolved hurts, losses, disappointments, or injustice done against us that trap or lead us to attitudes of negativity, fear, anger, resentment, or bitterness with the need for some payback or retribution that must be paid.
The first reading captures this in the thoughts and actions of the wicked. As if thinking out loud, the wicked plan to shame, conflict, and defeat the righteous by wearing them down away from their virtues. Why?
The virtues of the righteous often serve to agitate and expose the sin and rejection of God by the wicked ones. This is the tension between good and evil. Isn’t this kind of behavior grounded in those who have suffered the absence of love in their lives? Those who have lived with torment, abuse, dysfunction, or abandonment can be filled with anger and self-hatred that can only be expressed in the manner that created the emotions in the first place. This is hard, right? I do not believe anyone wakes up one day and decides to be or to do evil. Those in the absence of love and stability of basic acceptance and belonging can lose the capacity to control their deep emotional pain.
Evil and good will always be in tension. In the gospel, Jesus predicts his suffering and death. The disciples do not understand. How or who would want to harm or kill Jesus in the power of all his light and goodness? We ourselves often have the same question. It is the evidence of sin and evil when the religious leaders and others were so threatened by Jesus and his power for good that they sought to kill him.
What to do? Do not miss the power and will of Divine love. God will not allow sin and evil to have victory over the goodness of creation and humanity. The Incarnation is radical. The Cross of Jesus is radical. The reality of Divine Mercy is radical. Resurrection is the new life of Radical Love.
Believe in Christ. Practice religion. Love God, love yourself, love others from your heart. Love your enemies. Love those who have hurt you. Forgive them. Pay attention to your emotional, relational, physical, and spiritual health, as well as those at home and around you at work and school.
Check yourself for the Holy Spirit. Are you living in the manner of love? Check your human spirit. Are you happy, largely at peace with yourself and others? Are you stuck in anger, unforgiveness, resentment, or other binding emotions?
Check yourself against the wiles of evil: self-judgement, shame, rejection, blame, bitterness with complaints and ingratitude swirling overhead.
Pray. Trust. Use the name of Jesus. Forgive yourself. Surrender your hurts and losses to Jesus and his Cross. He is near you and knows you, understanding all sin and evil. Jesus is the answer and the victory that is yours now and later.
Be at peace.
Father John Esper
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