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I have a long-time friend who is a urologist. Over the years, I can’t
count the number of times he’s told me about a patient who has died
unnecessarily from cancer whether it’s prostate cancer, kidney cancer,
or bladder cancer. It seems that when the symptoms of disease first
appear, the patient somehow convinces himself that if he doesn’t go to
the doctor, if he doesn’t have tests taken, and if he doesn’t get any
results reported back, then the bad news he fears simply doesn’t exist.
It sounds like one of those “guy things”―like
not wanting to ask for directions when lost on an automobile trip―but
it’s not, my friend assures me. This attitude blights the better
sensibilities of both sexes.
Evidently what
happens is that these patients delude themselves into believing “If
there’s no test, then I can’t be sick.” They then proceed merrily along
their way until they can no longer manage the symptoms which now give
powerful evidence about how virulent the disease has become. Whereas
less radical medical measures might once have taken care of the symptoms
and ridded the body entirely of the disease in its early stages, radical
measures must now be taken if there is to be any hope of preserving
life.
While this rather
convoluted reasoning leads many people to this truly tragic state and
some of us to chuckle, most of us tend to use the exact same reasoning
when it comes to our spiritual lives. When the symptoms of spiritual
disease first appear―for
example, we discover that we’re being less sincere than we ought to be
or we are giving less than a full faith effort at work or home, perhaps
we find ourselves getting into petty arguments or belittling others, we
start grumbling and griping or moaning and crying about everything
everybody else has and we don’t possess―we
somehow believe that if we neglect these symptoms, nothing possibly bad
will come our way, spiritually speaking. “If I don’t confront my
demons,” we may think, “they’ll just go away. Everything will get back
to normal and I’ll be fine again.”
In today’s Epistle,
St. James challenges us to examine carefully the roots of these
spiritual symptoms that, left unchecked, can become spiritual diseases
threatening the health and vitality of our souls. “Beloved,” he writes,
“Where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every
foul practice.” While we might prefer to neglect our disorders and foul
practices in the hope that they will somehow miraculously disappear, St.
James challenges us to examine the roots of those evils, and, in
particular, the spiritual diseases of jealousy and selfish (or “blind”)
ambition.
Especially in our
culture where “achievement” is synonymous with “possessions,” it’s so
easy to understand how the desire “to be somebody” can tempt us to
equate our worth in materialistic terms rather than in terms of who we
are as children of God.
Let’s call the
people who so many want to be like the “haves.”
How often have we
heard adults (or ourselves for that matter) stating their worth in terms
of their position in an organization, the number of figures in their
income, the size of their house and acreage, the logo emblazoned on
their automobile, the zip code zone or neighborhood where they live, and
the prominent social clubs they belong to? Is what we possess an
indication of our dignity and worth as human beings? Another way
to test for this attitude is how people (and ourselves, too!) introduce
our friends. Do we name them? “I’d like to introduce my friend, Mary
Ann.” Or, do we identify what they do? “This is Mary Ann. She’s a
corporate attorney.” Is this a friend I am introducing or a rung on my
ladder or notch on my holster of social success?
How often have we
heard young adults (and perhaps our own children or even ourselves when
we were young) describing their worth in terms other than who they are
as children of God? Young adults point to grades and academic honors
received in school, trophies and ribbons they’ve won in competitive
athletics, sporting the latest in fashion, having membership in an
exclusive clique, or having the right boyfriend or girlfriend hanging on
one’s arm at the prom. Is this a person I respect and care about or a
piece of red meat I am sporting about to impress others using them to
make me somebody?
From the looks of
things, all of the “haves” and all of those who want to be like them
appear perfectly happy. They have or are in the process of acquiring
everything that makes members of our culture jealous of and ambitious to
emulate.
That’s one side of
the coin.
The other side of
the coin are all of those “have nots.”
What about all of
those men and women who don’t make six figure incomes, who can afford
only to live in average-sized or small home on a half-acre plot of land
or less, in a middle- or lower- middle working class neighborhood, who
drive a five- or ten- year old Ford Taurus, and for whom the most
prominent social club they belong to is their parish? Their friends?
Probably the most highly publicized moment of recognition and fame for
all of these “have nots” will be when the local paper publishes their
obituaries.
And their children?
Unfortunately, their parents don’t advertise on the bumper of their
Taurus, “Proud parent of an honor student at XYZ school” and not because
their parents wouldn’t like to. No, it’s just that their kids aren’t
honors students. Their kids, however, are involved in competitive
athletics. It’s just that their teams always seem to finish in second
place. Their clothes are neat and clean; but, they were purchased at
Walmart. They also have friends but they just don’t happen to be
popular or part of the “in group.” And, to top it off, these young
adults never seem to get the most beautiful or handsome date for the
prom.
St. James notes that
succumbing to the temptation to identify our worth in strictly
materialistic terms or to measure our worth by the absence of material
possessions are the first symptoms of the two deadly spiritual diseases
of jealousy and selfish ambition. The roots of the symptoms of
conflict, passion, dissatisfaction, unhappiness, and war are jealousy
and blind ambition. These spiritual diseases emerge as conflict and war
not take place not only within us but also between us and other people
and they cause us to desire more of what we possess or to desire
everything we don’t have. Then, we delude ourselves into believing that
we cannot live without all of these things. We become envious of
everything we believe will make us happy but, even when we finally
possess these things, they never seem to give us the lasting happiness
we desire so much. As St. James notes, from this disorder―jealousy
and blind ambition―comes
every foul practice which, at its root, is the rejection of who we truly
are, children of God.
From the time Adam
and Eve walked the earth, down through the time when the apostles walked
with Jesus, and even into our own times and perhaps homes, people have
steadfastly believed that if they simply ignore the symptoms of the
spiritual diseases of jealousy and blind ambition when they first
appear, nothing possibly bad will come their way, spiritually speaking.
Take a look as the
symptoms of these spiritual diseases emerged among the apostles in
today’s gospel.
Just after Jesus
finished teaching the apostles about his impending death, some of them
talked not about how they might carry his mission forward to the ends of
the earth but instead about how great each of them would be in the
Messianic Age and how they’d measure their greatness. The apostles
obviously didn’t understand that this Messiah was not going to be the
great and conquering hero they believed he would be. Instead, Jesus
told them he would be a suffering servant whose glory would be
manifested not in the trappings of an Emperor but in being executed,
“the just one for the sake of the unjust.” This teaching was so foreign
to everything the apostles had ever been taught about the promised
Messiah that they just couldn’t get it. They chose to argue, instead,
about which of them would be greatest in the kingdom of the type of
Messiah each of them envisioned.
But, Jesus then
confronted the apostles with this question: “What were you arguing
about?”
It was a question
not one of them wanted to or could answer. Their shame―giving
evidence of the disease of jealousy and selfish ambition present their
souls―rendered
them mute. Where just moments before the apostles were busy arguing and
debating about what would make each of them great in the eyes of the
world, Jesus unmasked their jealousy and selfish ambition, exposing each
apostle for just how small each of them had become. I suspect not one
could look Jesus in the eye, but instead each pressed his chin into his
chest and looked straight down at his sandals as the seconds felt like
hours.
We experience
similar feelings of shame and embarrassment when our jealousy and blind
ambition are unmasked and we are exposed for being the very small people
we truly are...especially when we stand before the Creator! It really
is a moment of grace when someone demonstrates just how we’ve used them
to advance our own ends. But, instead of being grateful, we turn
red-faced with embarrassment, look down at our shoes, and stand there
mute. We may also take the offensive, demanding that we deserve better
than what we already have―whether
that be a better income, more attention, responsibility, greater power
or prestige, possessions or comfort―exposing
even more so
our jealousy and blind ambition. Our embarrassment now transforms
into anger. We may even lash out at the one who saw through our
charade.
“Where jealousy and
selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every foul practice,” St.
James reminds us. At the same time, he also tells us, we have the power
to choose wisdom with its “good fruits.” It seems like such a simple
choice, yet it is the choice that has bedeviled humanity since the time
of Adam and Eve. And, unfortunately, it seems that in our own day and
in many of our own homes we are prone to the temptation to ignore the
symptoms of jealously and selfish ambition in the vain hope that these
diseases will magically disappear.
Like the apostles
who suffered from these spiritual diseases, Jesus offers us the example
of a child. As any loving parent knows, a child has no influence. A
child can give nothing nor do much of anything for us. Instead, we must
serve a child’s needs. We must protect a child with our own life and
livelihood. We must surrender our time for the sake of a child. Our
luxuries must wait while we provide for what a child wants. And there’s
no guarantee that our generosity will ever be returned.
But, that’s not all.
While in our culture
we look upon children as the image of innocence, the “haves” of Jesus’
world looked upon children as “have nots.” With a high rate of infant
mortality, children were not accorded social status or legal rights
until they reached the age of maturity. In a culture that prized
status, children had no status; where adults sought to make themselves
significant among their peers, children were the most insignificant
members of society; where being kind to the “haves” may have garnered
status, being kind to a child gained absolutely nothing except perhaps
the esteem and love of one “have not.”
When Jesus placed
that child in the midst of his apostles, then placed his arms around the
child, and said, “Whoever receives one child such as this in my name,
receives me,” Jesus gave this “have not” what is the most coveted status
of all, dignity. His message was as simple as it was clear: it will not
be the “haves” who carry forward Jesus’ teaching to the ends of the
world. No, it is the “have nots” who will be his emissaries.
The story is told
about a convention of devils where Satan decided to give a great prize
for the best idea to gain new souls for Hell. Frenzied bedlam seized
the convention floor as devils hurriedly put forward one idea after
another. Shouting in the direction of the podium, one devil yelled,
“Give them power.” Another yelled, “Offer them money.” Yet another
hollered, “Bestow fame upon them.”
Standing at the
podium and hearing all of these suggestions, Satan sighed to a devil
standing beside him, “These are all still useful tools, but they’re
getting old and fairly recognizable. Human beings are getting more
sophisticated these days.”
“Then offer their
wildest fantasy,” the devil said, “or better yet, why not offer them a
spot on a reality TV. show?”
Raising his arms and
motioning the crowd of devils to be silent, Satan told the audience to
come up with more creative suggestions.
And just after Satan
said this, a voice came from the back of the convention hall: “I’ve got
the greatest idea of all.”
All of the devils
became silent at the audacity of this one devil who believed that he
could outwit the Great Deceiver himself. “Convince them not to worry
about their lives and the state of their souls, that they have plenty of
time to turn their lives around and to get their souls into order,” this
devil insisted.
On this particular
journey through Galilee and into Capernaum, Jesus saw his own death
nearing on the horizon. In teaching about becoming like little
children, Jesus insisted that his apostles value the “have nots,” that
his apostles minister to these little ones, and that his apostles
recognize the dignity which the “have nots” possess simply because of
who they are as children of God not because of what they possess, their
social status, or the prominent circles they happen to walk in.
When we live in this
way―the
way that Jesus taught the apostles―we
make the choice to be wise by being good for some one rather than
being good for some thing. We choose not to use people as means
to our jealous or selfishly ambitious ends. Instead, we choose to
view each and every human being as an end in itself and deserving of
dignity as a child of God. And our happiness will be true happiness
because it will come from serving the “have nots”
rather than from
clawing our way onto
center stage to be recognized “as somebody” alongside the “haves.” |
HOMILY
