topleft05.jpg (18208 bytes)HOMILY
The Second Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)
16 January
05


 

We all know that it is wrong to make untrue statements about other people.  We know this if not because the seventh commandment states, “Thou shalt not bear false witness,” but because the hash lessons of experience have taught us that bearing false witness is evil.  We not only don’t like people bearing false witness about us to others or bearing false witness about others to us.  We also know it is impossible to build a peaceful world―whether that’s in our homes, workplaces, our legislatures, or even in on a global scale―when we cannot trust that other people (or other people cannot trust that we, for that matter) are speaking the truth.

Oftentimes, however, we aren’t offered an explanation about why it is wrong to make untrue statements.  So, in light of St. John the Baptist’s testimony about Jesus in today’s gospel, “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world,” I’d like to reflect with you today a bit about why it is so very wrong to bear false witness and why we need to eradicate this sin from our souls, that is, the hurt and offense we experience when people bear false witness about us or, for that matter, when other others experience hurt and offense when we bear false witness about them.

The second creation narrative related in the Book of Genesis tells readers that one of the two powers God gave human beings is the power to “name” things.  This power isn’t simply to assign a name but, by assigning that name, to identify what God has created.  What we see and identify isn’t what we see and identify; no, what see and identify is what God has created.  The name we give describes the purpose for which God has created it.

We see this power at work when parents “name” a child.  As parents behold their newborn, they see something very special and unique; and, in that experience, parents experience the awe and wonder that creation truly is.  The name the infant’s parents assign is important, therefore, because the name communicates something not only about what the parents behold but also what the parents hope to see as this child “grows and matures in grace and holiness before God and humanity,” that is, the person God has created and called hat person to become.

For example, on Mother’s Day in 1955, my parents named me “Richard.”  I was told that my mother said to my father, “What a treasure!”  His response?  “Yeah, let’s go bury it until it’s twenty five years old.”  Whether that’s true or not, that name connotes positive qualities, like “rock hard,” “solid,” and “steadfast.”  Now, there’s a person you can count on, who doesn’t waver from his principles when the tides of life batter him, and who possess the courage it takes to walk the gangplank when others would rather make a deal with the enemy.  Years ago, my mother told me that’s what my parents saw and foresaw in their infant son, that is, this unique and unrepeatable person God has created and called to stand for something not to stand for everything.

Decades ago, some friends named their infant daughter “Monica.”  That name positively connotes someone who is “wise” and provides “good counsel.”  This is a woman who is trustworthy because she possesses an innate capacity to help others see what their problems are and how best to solve them.  Evidently that’s what Monica’s parents saw and foresaw in their infant daughter, yet another unique and unrepeatable person God has created.

Naming a child is one of the positive ways human beings exercise the God-given power to name things; hopefully, the name parents give their infant correctly identifies the unique and unrepeatable person God has created.

Today’s gospel identifies St. John the Baptist as “naming” Jesus and announcing this name to the crowd of people gathered at the Jordan River.  It isn’t “Emmanuel,” the “God-who-is-with-us” the angel told Joseph to name Mary’s child.  Nor is it the name appearing at the head of Jesus’ cross, “Messiah,” “the King of the Jews.”  No, John the Baptist said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.”

John names this man, Jesus―“the Lamb of God”―whose mission is to “take away the sin of the world.”  That is, Jesus is the sacrificial lamb who’s death will release the world from the snares all of its members have gotten themselves trapped in and, because of this, have so screwed everything up, that the gift of creation now is in a chaotic mess.  And, since we’re reflecting today upon the evil of bearing false witness, the snares into which people had gotten themselves by making untrue statements about other people and all of the chaos this has brought into the world because they have borne false witness.

John’s behavior is important to consider as we reflect upon ourselves and the power God has given us to “name” people, especially as we exercise this God-given power in our daily lives.  Notice that John announces who Jesus is in terms of who God has created Jesus to be, in terms of his mission, and what that means for people who see and understand Jesus’ true identity.  He’s not that guy “Jesus” standing over there waiting to be baptized.  Notice the Baptist didn’t say, “There’s the carpenter’s son, Jesus of Nazareth.”  No, he is Jesus, that guy standing over there, the carpenter’s son, the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”

Yet, as we all know perhaps all too well, human beings can also exercise the God-given power to name things in a negative and sinful way.  For example, people do this when they engage in gossip, when they libel another person, or when they spread calumny and slander.  This is how, when human beings bear false witness by falsely naming someone, they turn what is God’s grace―the power to name the things God has created in such goodness―into an immense evil that begets all sorts of chaos and destruction.  When people gossip, libel, calumnize or slander another person, their intent is not to “build up.”  No, sadly, their intent is quite the opposite!  They want to “tear down” by naming and categorizing people not as God has created them but as these people see and judge them.

For example, besides all of those wonderful connotations associated with the name “Richard,” it also connotes some negative qualities like “stubborn,” “self-righteous,” and “arrogant.”  Now, there’s a person who is intransigent, who doesn’t listen to or appreciate dissenting views, and who views himself as superior to everyone else.  And, while some people have asked how my parents were so prescient, what’s important to recall is how these negative connotations don’t name the person God has created or call forth better behavior from that person.  No, by naming other people’s faults, what we do is to categorize them and to remind them (and others as well) about who they are, not the person God has created them to be and called them to become.

The name “Monica” also has its negative connotations.  For example, this is a person who is a “know it all,” an “incessant talker,” and one prone to “gossip” about others.  This name connotes a woman who just can’t seem to keep her mouth shut and to be discrete when voicing her thoughts.  In fact, her brother-in-law even calls her “Mouthica.”  Now, while some people have asked how Monica’s parents were so prescient, what’s important to recall is how these negative connotations don’t name the person God has created or call forth behavior more representative of the positive attributes of that name.  No, once again, when we name other people’s faults, what we do is to categorize them and to remind them (and others as well) about who they are, not the person who God has created them to be and called them to become.

God has given you and me the awesome power to name things.  It is within our power to build the Richards and Monicas of our lives up or to tear the Richards and Monicas of our lives down.  In sum, that’s why bearing false witness is so harmful and destructive…so much so that it’s sinful.

So, let’s engage for a moment in a little thought experiment.  Ask yourself the question: “Who do I see when I look at other people?”

Now, envision someone who you love and really care about.  Identify some adjectives that describe that person, words that name who you know that person really to be…and because you love and really care about that person, all you find yourself able to identify are positive attributes.  Got those adjectives in mind?  Now, place yourself and that person in the middle of a crowd, let’s say at the King of Prussia Mall on a Saturday afternoon during the Christmas shopping season.  Now, point to that person and say as loudly as you can for everyone in the mall to hear, “Look there’s ­­­­______, who ______, ______, and ______.

Now, besides the frightful embarrassment this person is likely to experience, the power of your words testify to and bring to the conscious awareness of other people the truth of who you know that person to be.  Should someone in the crowd challenge you to defend your choice of adjectives, your defense is simple: “I have seen and know for myself.”

That’s the grace God has given to us.  Like John the Baptist, who said “The one who sent me…told me,” so too God has sent us and has told us to testify for all to hear how others are God’s children.  That’s how we build up God’s kingdom.

But, since we’re focusing our reflections today upon the evil of bearing false witness and why it is so wrong, let’s take our little thought experiment one step further.

Envision someone you don’t particularly like or care for.  Identify some adjectives that describe that person, words that name who you know that person to be.  Once again, place yourself and that person in the middle of that same crowd at the King of Prussia Mall on that same Saturday afternoon during the Christmas shopping season.  Now, point to that person and say as loudly as you can for all to hear, “Look there’s ­­­­______, who ______, ______, and ______.  (Well, maybe we wouldn’t do this in the middle of the crowd at the mall, but picture yourself sitting at a morning coffee klatch, on the telephone, over a “power lunch,” or at some social function.  Of course, we don’t want that person to hear what we are saying.)

That’s the danger.  To the degree we engage in this negative use of the awesome power God has given us to name the things that God has created, we categorize other people using a standard, the standard of perfection, we know all too well that the facts of our lives could never meet.

For those who wish to be Jesus’ disciples the question all of this presents us is the following: How might we spread the healing brought by the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world?

First: We need to recognize the awesome power God as given us by gracing us with the power to name things.  “Bearing false witness” is wrong but not simply because it breaks the seventh commandment.  No, bearing false witness is wrong because, when we do so, we abuse the awesome power God has given us to heal the sin of the world. 

Second: We need to identify those situations and people where we’ve used this awesome power negatively, not building other people up but, instead, tearing them down.  Bearing false witness is an evil and vicious attempt to exert power over others and to categorize them, rather than to serve others by reminding them of the purpose God had in mind when He created them.

Third: We need to confess our sin, to ask God for His strength to avoid the temptations to abuse this grace, and to set about repairing what we have broken.  Bearing false witness breaks down relationships and can destroy friendships.  Bearing false witness is a public sin, one requiring public confession.

Fourth: We need to commit ourselves to speaking those words that reveal not our judgments about other people but God’s purpose in creating them.  Bearing true witness means speaking to and about people as God Himself does.  John the Baptist shows us we are to bear true witness when he sees standing before him not a man, Jesus of Nazareth, but the Son of God made human, “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”

“You are my servant…through whom I show my glory,” the prophet Isaiah reminds us in today’s first reading.  Only as we turn our backs on the sin of bearing false witness can we―who are baptized to be in our world the living presence of the Lamb of God―effect the taking away of the sin of the world.  This is how God makes us “a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.”  Happy and privileged are we who are called to share in this his life!

 

 

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