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The story is told about ol’ Paddy O’Flaherty who one morning woke up
dead and was now standing before the pearly gates of heaven. Ol’
Paddy was pretty self-satisfied finding himself standing where he
was, for ol’
Paddy
had fully expected to find himself in Purgatory or, perhaps even,
standing before the gates of Hell for all of those youthful
indiscretions he never confessed.
The pearly gates were closed, so Ol’ Paddy began knocking away.
With every passing moment, ol’ Paddy’s zeal to enter into heaven
grew. Then, as the minutes passed, ol’ Paddy’s knocking turned into
banging on the pearly gates and, then, as the minutes turned int
hours, his banging into kicking. Never had the pearly gates of
heaven been subject to such abuse! Exasperated, ol’ Paddy finally
shook his fist at the pearly gates and, in a loud voice, demanded, “Lemme
in! Do ya hear me? Lemme in!”
St. Peter finally appeared at the gates. Staring straight into
ol’
Paddy’s
eyes,
St. Peter said in a somewhat stern yet paternal tone, “Now, Paddy,
would you just calm yourself down, ol’
boy?
I’m going to open the gates for you. Just calm yourself down.”
So, St. Peter inserted the two keys into the locks and opened the
pearly gates to heaven. After thanking St. Peter, ol’ Paddy turned
toward heaven―which
looked like a gigantic ballroom painted white with the most
beautiful and bright crystal chandeliers―and,
looking around and seeing who was there—most of whom ol’ Paddy never
would have guessed in a millennium of millennia would be in
heaven—ol’ Paddy gasped, “Glory be to Jesus, the Son of the Most
High God!” Ol’ Paddy was dumbfounded. His jaw was agape.
Every scoundrel ol’ Paddy had ever met during his life on earth was
standing there in heaven, happy as can be.
Suddenly, though, ol’ Paddy snapped to. You see, everyone in
heaven was staring straight at ol’
Paddy. Their jaws were agape. And, they all
gasped in unison, “Glory be to Jesus, the Son of the Most High
God!” Looking around, ol’ Paddy suddenly realized all of them were
equally dumbfounded that the scoundrel they all knew on earth, Paddy
O’Flaherty, had made it into heaven.
It’s awfully easy to be smug, like ol’ Paddy, isn’t
it?
We think the way we see others and the assessment we’ve made of them
is exactly the way God sees and assesses them. We believe that our
list of who does and doesn’t deserve God’s mercy is the list God
will be using on Judgment Day.
The simple fact, however, is that everyone of us stands in need of
God’s mercy and forgiveness. But, it is only the smug—those who
wrongly think they are better and more deserving than others—who
fail to recognize this fact—and live in moral and spiritual
blindness.
Today’s gospel raises the evil of smugness for our consideration by
relating this attitude to that of those laborers who worked very
hard all day long. Yes, they received their just desserts—a
full day’s pay—but were bitter and angry. Why? Because
the owner of the vineyard gave everyone, even those laborers who
worked for only one hour, a full day’s wages. It just doesn’t
seem fair, does it, when we put forth more than all of those others
and receive exactly what they received? Where is the justice?
The evil, however, isn’t limited just to those laborers in the
vineyard. Smugness also evidences itself in:
·
Kids who make demands of their parents, saying things like, “You owe
me!”, “That’s not fair!” or “You always loved X more than me.”
·
Then there’s the more grown up version of the same behavior. Passed
over for some coveted position—whether that be team captain, class
president, prom king, queen, or member of the court, promotion to
manager or vice president—we blame the one who did get the position
for doing so alleging some unjust, unethical, or downright wrong
scheme.
·
For me, this is the worst form of smugness: women and men who get
angry when they don’t get the portion of a parent’s
will they believed was their due. How many families I have seen
over the years broken up because of that sinful act of smugness!
We choose to be smug when we accord first place to our selfish
self-interest, as we play God and determine what justice requires in
our case and, then, as we assess and evaluate others by our own,
freely-chosen, arbitrary, and capricious standards. That’s when we
find ourselves standing there, dumbfounded—just like ol’ Paddy
O’Flaherty—thinking we are better and more deserving than everyone
else, as if we are owed anything and everything we want.
As today’s gospel suggests, smugness is a sin. But why? Is it
simply selfishness? Well, yes and no. Yes, smugness is a sin
because we demonstrate that we love ourselves more than God and
neighbor, which Jesus did teach was the fulfillment of the law and
prophets. But, no, in the sense that what makes smugness especially
sinful—perniciously so—is that we vainly attempt to craft God in our
image and likeness so that God will be obedient to our will.
Beware of the first commandment!
“Let the scoundrel forsake his way,” the prophet Isaiah proclaimed
in today’s
first reading.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are my ways your ways,
says the Lord.”
All too many of us and all too often fail to realize just how lucky
we truly are. God has blessed us in so many ways that we ordinarily
take for granted. Kids take their parents for granted.
Spouses take one another for granted. Family members take each
other for granted. Co-workers take one another for granted.
While we should be expressing our heartfelt gratitude for the
blessing these people are in our lives, we forget about all of that
and end up demanding more and more of them. That’s bad
enough. But, what then happens is that we begrudge others when they
receive a blessing we coveted for ourselves. Their weaknesses
and malice is all so evident to us and makes them undeserving of
anything.
“Why should they get
more than me?” we ask ourselves.
We really are lucky that God isn’t like us, in this regard.
Despite all of our faults and failures―and
just like the owner of the vineyard―God
continues to offer us the gift of redemption no matter what time in
our lives we might show up seeking forgiveness. If we are to
overcome the sin of smugness, however, our challenge is to pray that
God will heal our moral and spiritual blindness so that, in turn, we
will see, honor, and love in others what God sees, honors, and loves
in them.
Then we won’t find ourselves standing at the pearly gates, demanding
that St. Peter open them and, when he does, end up gasping like ol’
Paddy O’Flaherty, “Glory be to Jesus, the Son of the Most High God!”
and wondering just how God let all of those scoundrels into heaven.
“They were bad enough on earth,” we will be thinking, “and now I
have to spend all eternity with them in heaven?”
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HOMILY
