[I sit in a chair in front of the altar] I want all of you to try this, as you are sitting down, lift your right foot off the floor and make clockwise circles in the air. Keep doing this, and as you do this take your right hand and draw a big “6’ in the air. Notice your foot . . . it change directions. Try it again. Isn’t that weird? It is actually impossible to do. Your right foot and right hand are pre-programmed for this.
Perhaps there are just some things that NONE of us can. Here’s another one. As we are all sitting down, I want anyone who has never sinned to stand up. OK, look around the church. No one is standing, including me.
It’s not that we are bad people, but we have all done bad things. And our whole parish is filled with people like ourselves. And we are exactly the people who Jesus came for. In the gospel, Jesus said, “I am tired of the phonies who don’t see their sinfulness.” You know they type, who keep pretending to be perfect, who keep putting up a show, who keep pointing out other people’s faults.
It is impossible to be a human and not be a sinner. It’s impossible to a Christian (or specifically a Catholic) and not be a sinner. That’s doesn’t mean we can just give up and think, well I’m a sinner anyway so I might as well just keep sinning. NO.
But it does mean that we must stop saying one thing and doing another. Like in the gospel story. The older son says, “No I won’t do the work,” but does it. The second says, “Yes I will the work,” but never does.
It happens it little things, like when we say, “Ok, I’ll call you” but we never do. Or when someone asks to do something like “Yea, do you want to show up to this event?” And we say “Yea,” but we have no intention of showing up.
Or it can involve big things like professing to be pro-life. Next Sunday is pro-life Sunday. But the problem comes with what being pro-life means. Most people who claim to be pro-life are really pro-birth. Which is a great thing. For example I am pro birth. I am against abortion. I want to see an end to any abortion.
But to be pro-life means as Cardinal Joseph Bernadin made famous when we was the chair of the US Bishops Pro-Life Committee back in the 80’s . . . having a consistent ethic of life. That being pro-life (or for-life as St. John 23 said) is to connect all issues of life womb to tomb: euthanasia, nuclear war, care for the elderly, immigration (and this is Immigration Awareness weekend), care for the poor, the environment AND ALSO to be against abortion. Bernadin calls it a seam- less garment [hold up a seam less shawl]. There are no seams here, nothing added on . . . it’s all one.
Some argue that the abortion issue overshadows any other issue because IF the child is not allowed to be born then all those other rights and human needs do not matter. That argument overlooks the fact that more nearly 8 billion people have already been born . . . and they matter.
So this really hits home when Jesus challenges us NOT to say one thing but do another. But to strive to do both . . . let our words and actions meld together. But they can’t. They don’t. [I sit again] It’s like who among us can stand and profess to be a Catholic and be sinless? Or who can do the right foot thing with a “6?”
By ourselves we can’t. But Christ can. As Paul talked about in the second reading, Christ emptied himself to become fully human, so that he can connect us, he can fill us, he can show us the way. As you just heard Paul say, that we stop looking out for our own interests but start looking for the needs of ALL others.
Just keep trying. Maybe you are not a tax collector or a prostitute, as Jesus said that the end of the gospel . . . but you are a sinner (and I am too) let’s not just say the right things, let’s go do the right things.