Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Our Lord calls us to be truthful, to be like him who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. We are not able to live in the truth unless we have Christ. Without Christ, we can often fall into hypocrisy. The Pharisees know the Law very well, but they don’t have Christ. They often despise him, try to trap him, eventually kill him. They try to hinder his love towards the sinner. They want to stop it. Imagine how bad they look in the eyes of others after he does a miracle on the sabbath.
I pray that this is not our way. We cannot live a double life: one way in front of Christ and another way in the world. In this gospel we see a double life. They say one thing and do another or the very opposite. We can be like them. We come to the church and say, holy, holy, holy Lord and when we walk out the doors what do we say? I cannot repeat it here, it is so gross. To your sister don’t you say, holy, holy, holy or to your boss, don’t you say holy, holy, holy, but you are thinking of something else that you cannot say, or he will throw you out.
We say, holy, holy, holy Lord and then we mumble and curse and complain about our history, our cross, why was I born in that country, why is my father this way and my kids that way. Why don’t I have more money and a better job or better grades; why do I have this health problem. But we come here and say, holy, holy, holy Lord, you are so good and stupendous with me: Liars!
Our Lord says that he knows you want to be truthful, and you don’t want to live a double life so don’t let people call you ‘master’, or some other accolade, because only God is good and don’t be tempted to live this double life. Don’t be tempted to live as others want you to live. If they say you are such a great father, so generous, so patient, so kind. But there is only one Father, and he is in heaven. You cannot be what they want you to be. The first among you must be the servant of all. It is an impressive word God gives us today. A Christian is called to look for the last place and who does that here? Jesus was despised by the religious leaders and are you happy to be despised? Only Christ is.
The One who will be present on this altar is the only one who looks for the last place. You and I look for the applause, the pat on the back, the statement: you are always right, you do things so well, true? Everyone does this! Who looks for others to despise him? St. Francis would pay someone to insult him in public and call him a Pharisee, a hypocrite, a lustful, arrogant and selfish person. Can you imagine? And for each insult he had to pay twenty dollars. St. Francis wanted the last place. No one knew that he was paying them to do this.
Who looks for the last place? You and I always want to be the first. This is the battle that you have with your spouse. Maybe you see that you are not first, but you want to be, and you make life miserable for the other. I am the most important person in this house or in this choir or in this whatever. No one sits in my chair! The Pharisees take the seat of Moses, but the seat doesn’t make them holy, it is the person. The title you have or wish you had doesn’t make you good, only you can do that with God’s help. If we find ourselves like this, what should we do?
Our Lord says be truthful. Don’t worry about being yourself even if you are the last one, Jesus says, you will be the first. Look to be the last; it is a lot easier. Don’t be afraid to own your weaknesses. St. Paul says, I boast of my weakness because in this way I will gain the strength of God. I am glad for my weakness, for when I am weak, then I am strong. When I am weak, Christ is in me and shows his power, his power, not mine. If I am strong, then Christ doesn’t show his strength. When I am poor and show my poverty, then I can more easily help the poor ones around me. Then they see that there is no doubt that God is helping me. They know that I could not do this on my own.
When a marriage is falling apart and suddenly the couples comes back together, it shows the strength of God. When we are the last, then we can be the first. Our Lord will help us to humble ourselves and accept humiliations gracefully. Don’t be afraid to show yourself the way you are, not the way others want to see you. Be yourself even if it means to scandalize or to bother the others.
You and I are called to be ourselves and to give testimony being who we are, with our weaknesses, with naturalness and not to be worried. Our Lord will give others the grace to listen to you, as you are, no matter who you are. You are called to be a witness in your life, especially in your weaknesses; then the others will clearly see the power of God.