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Eleventh Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle C, June 16, 2013, by Fr. Kevin Anderson

May it be an evening star, shines down upon you

May it be when darkness falls, your heart will be true
You walk a lonely road, Oh! How far you are from home

Be at peace, your sins are forgiven. Believe and you will find your way

Be at peace, your faith has saved you. A promise lives within you now.

Pope Francis said in his homily on May 17 . . . “We are all sinners.  The problem isn’t being a sinner.  The problem is not repenting of our sins, not being ashamed of what we have done.  That’s the problem.”  That quote was listed in our Diocesan newspaper THE VISITOR last month (hint, hint . . . read it, it’s filled with lots of good stuff).

What Francis says is so true.  I find that the problem is not just the act of “sinning” but is not learning (or growing) from the sin.  Drinkers call that a hang-over.  Most people learn from a hang-over and don’t do it again.  Some never learn and they keep up the same behavior.  Hence the problem.

To me it all comes down to having a boundary.  For example, knowing what is appropriate or how far that you can take something.  Some people don’t have well established boundaries.  That’s where our faith can help . . . we offer some real work-able and healthy boundaries. This is especially needed for all kids and for those adults who can’t (or won’t) set a boundary for themselves. 

We also call that “forming one’s conscience.”  That doesn’t mean we are free to do whatever we want . . . it means that we look at the situation and factor in getting “formed” by faith, by information, by scripture, by experience . . . and then we do or do not do something. 

The trouble occurs when we get stuck on a rule (or law) without any conscience about it.  Let me give you an example . . . there is the practice (rule) of not eating meat on Fridays in Lent.  Some of you are old enough to remember when we did this every Friday and some feared that eating meat was a “sure ticket to Gehenna.”   Well in college, I remember once that me and some buddies were out on a Friday evening . . . and we waited until 12:01 to order a meat pizza so that technically it was not Friday anymore.  I mean, that’s just goofy.  The abstinence rule is there is help us make more room for God . . . not as a “rule to get-around.” 

Some of you do this every day with Church rules, trying to “appear that you are obeying the rules.”  So ask yourself  . . . for whom?

St. Paul makes it real clear in the second reading today that obeying the law is not what is going to impress God.  Nor get us into heaven.  Paul said very clearly (if you missed it) “we are not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ.” 

Pope Francis gave some excellent examples of that (again from THE VISITOR in the most recent issue.)  He said in his homily on May 25, “Too many times we are faith-checkers instead of facilitators of people’s faith.”  Then he cited examples of a couple coming to a parish wanting to get married but before being congratulated they are told how much it will cost and asked for their baptismal certificates.  Or Pope Francis cites the example of an unmarried mother wanting to have her baby baptized only to hear, ‘No, you aren’t married.’  Instead of a greeting that says, ‘Thank you for having the courage not to have an abortion.  How can we help?’”

Pope Francis or St. Paul are not saying we don’t need any rules.  But we need compassion, like I talked about last weekend.  We are all sinners.  If we only allowed sin-less people to be here at Church, or only perfect people to receive communion  . . . well, we’d save a lot of money on hosts and wine for we’d have a pretty empty Church.

Jesus teaches us not to give up  . . . on ourselves, or on anyone else.  Just as Jesus showed forgiveness to the woman in the gospel, he also shows us forgiveness.  But let us also start: using some common sense; to learn from our mistakes; to become informed from what scripture and the Church teaches . . . and to trust our faith in Jesus Christ.

May it be the shadow's call, Will fly away
May it be your journey on to light the day
When the night is overcome, You may rise to find the sun

Be at peace, your sins are forgiven. Believe and you will find your way

Be at peace, your faith has saved you. A promise lives within you now.

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