February 27, 2022

The Christian Drive to Do Good
Deacon Kevin O’Boyle

Good Morning/Evening:

At first glance, our readings today seem rather unrelated to each other, and even sometimes to themselves.  If we look at them together though, it does appear they have a central theme.  A challenge we might call the Christain’s Drive to Do Good.

 Our first reading is from the Book of Sirach, one of the Wisdom books of the Old Testament.  Sirach is largely simply a list of bits of wisdom – sayings, as it were to live by.  Chapter 27, where we read from tonight starts with statements that would be helpful in a business arrangement – “For the sake of profit, many sin, and the struggle for wealth bllinds the eyes”.  By the time he gets to our reading, starting at verse 4, he reminds us that a man’s faults appear when he speaks.  And later, that tribulation is the test of the just, that one’s speech discloses one’s mind and he urges us to praise no one before he speaks.  All of these sayings would be good advice to a businessperson, or to anyone setting out on a project that involves working with others.

 Our second reading is a difficult one.  It will help to realize that we are all corruptible due to Original Sin, but Christ will work to give us grace to overcome the weaknesses brought about by that sin.  When we reach immortality with Him, we will finally overcome the corruptibility of sin and take on a new incorruptibility.  With that death loses its sting.  But this happens as we work for the Lord.  We must be steadfast in that work and it will not be in vain.  

Finally, in our Gospel, Jesus tells us by a variety of examples that we must be careful to recognize and remove out own faults  before we attempt to see and call out the faults of others.  A good person will produce good and an evil person evil.

Taken together, our readings today seek to prepare us to work for the Lord.  We should avoid thirsting after profit in our journey, lest it consume us.  Listening to the speech of others will reveal the way they think and as such we should praise no one before he speaks.  We are all weakened in the battle by Original sin, but Jesus will provide us the grace we need to succeed.  And finally, we should look to clarify our own faults before we call out those of others.  In all of this, we are called to move forward and do good.  

Our world today provides us with many opportunities to do good, just as it provides many examples of evil.  Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is an example of what appears to be pure evil at work.  This is witnessed not only in the atrocity of the invasion itself, but in the words used to defend it.  Like saying it was necessary ti remove Nazi’s from Ukraine – ignoring the fact that the President of Ukraine is a Jew with relatives lost in the Holocaust.  Evil is revealed in the words of the wrongdoer.  It might also be said that Putin’s thirst for power has consumed him.  What is left for us to do in this situation is prayer.  Prayer for the people of Ukraine that they may have the strength of grace to defend their freedom.  Pray that the world will recognize the evil at work and seek to defeat it.  And finally, prayer for peace, as Pope Francis has called us to.

We need not look as far for another example.  Scheduled to come up for a vote in our own Senate in Washington this week is the “Women’s Health Protection Act”.  This name of this act is a lie in itself.  It does nothing to protect a woman’s health but seeks to make it easier to destroy it.  The act seeks to codify the evil of Roe v Wade in Federal Law which will overrule any pro-life legislation on State and local levels. This means that things like parental notice, waiting periods, and health or safety regulations on abortion facilities would all be overturned.  The so called “right” to abortion at any stage of pregnancy would be law, and the deeply held moral beliefs of medical practitioners would be trampled.  Our country’s Catholic Bishops have called on us to contact our Senators in Washington to reject this legislation.  It passed by the narrowest margin in the House.  We should all contact the offices of our Senators and urge them to vote against this legislation.  We must send them emails TODAY, to defeat this law.

These are but two examples pulled from very current events that call on us as Catholics to Do Good.  As if we needed more examples, perhaps closer to home, we could look to this Wednesday - Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent.  I don’t know about you, but I find it hard to believe that the penitential season of Lent, in preparation for Easter is upon us already.  It is time for us to plan those traditional Lenten practices of Prayer, Fasting and Almsgiving,  We are called in this way to do good as Catholics.    All of these examples give us something to think about this week.  God Bless.