Sermon on the Ranch with Fr. Bryce Lungren
(October 26th Sunday Homily)
Readings:
Reading 1 — Sirach 35:12-14, 16-18
Psalm — Psalm 34:2-3, 17-18, 19, 23
Reading 2 — 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18
Gospel — Luke 18:9-14
Transcript:
Today’s readings remind me of a story that a bishop that I was around a lot told us once. It wasn’t necessarily the most dramatic story, and I don’t even know if I get all the details right, but the punchline sticks with you. He said he was involved, he sat in on a trial. It’s kind of like a family whose son did something pretty bad, right? He was on trial and they asked if he, maybe as a priest, maybe as a bishop, I don’t know, would sit in the stands and support them to whatever degree, and so he did.
So then whether it was the time of the sentencing or whatever, the judge, let’s just say the time of the sentencing, the judge turned to the kid and said, you know, son, like throughout this whole trial, you’ve showed no remorse, you’ve showed no expression on your face. There’s no sense of sorrow, you might say. It’s probably pretty evident that he was guilty. So in that moment, the kid, he just let down his guard and broke down.
He let his acknowledgement of his wrongdoing show and his sorrow at the same time. So in that moment of sorrow, of acknowledgement of his guilt, the judge had mercy. The judge was gonna throw the book at him and the judge didn’t. The judge gave him a merciful sentence because he showed his sorrow.
It’s just a really amazing little acknowledgement of how this dynamic works. That God is very willing to forgive us, but we have to first acknowledge our guilt and then be sorry for it. That’s the equation. Okay, so I think of this prison is full of innocent people, right? Just ask them. So many people have not acknowledged their guilt.
That’s the key to this whole enterprise is for us to say, I’m a sinner man. Just own it like the guy that beat his breast in the gospel today. They said Lord have mercy on me. I’m a sinner. We want to be that guy. We want to move towards that direction just acknowledging not only that I am a sinner, here’s what I’ve done. We don’t have to nitpick ourselves. We want to be real. So that’s who we want to be, the humble guy.
The guy that we don’t want to be is the guy in today’s gospel who was convinced of his own righteousness. That’s what he did. Our Lord describes him as being convinced of his own righteousness as he went up to the temple and said, Lord, look at me. We don’t want to be that guy. We want to be the humble guy. We get that dynamic. I just want to highlight St. Paul here because he really gives us the example, but there’s also something interesting about him too.
Here St. Paul in his letter to Timothy, our second reading. Sounds a little self-righteous to me, you know? So what’s the difference? The difference is, St. Paul acknowledged our guilt, his guilt.
Think back on his life. How many times did he self-proclaim the fact that he persecuted Christians and consented to their murdering? He owned that reality in his life and then he followed it up, but the Lord had mercy on me. So Paul did the hard work of cleaning his house throughout his life. And so he can stand in that place and say, the crown of righteousness awaits me.
That’s the difference between him and the Pharisee in today’s Gospel. I don’t think he acknowledged his sin. That’s what the Lord is highlighting in his life. We want to be more like St. Paul. To do so, we really need to acknowledge the fact that God is a just judge. He really is. We might get away from the fact that my actions in this life will one day be judged.
Not just the act, the intention of the act. God knows all that stuff. I want to be just cognizant. Every move I make has an eternal consequence. With that in mind, it can help us make the right move or not. Okay, but the deal is, God is a just judge. He will come at the end of our lives, at the end of time, and judge us worthily, justly, what we have chosen to do, right or wrong. But the time we’re in now is a time of mercy.
Jesus came to show us God’s mercy. Are we open to that? To be open to that, we got to acknowledge our sin, our guilt. Not just that I’m a sinner, here’s what I did. We don’t have to nitpick our lives, but be real. And I think of this in life because often we go throughout our lives. I missed Mass last Sunday. Lightning didn’t strike me. What’s the big deal? You hadn’t struck yet.
But God knows this stuff. If we don’t owe up to it, that stuff building up. We want to clean our house. We want to acknowledge our guilt so that God can have mercy on us. That’s this whole game plan. And if you listen to the Mass, there’s so much about God’s mercy in here. We’re here as the tax collector. Lord, have mercy on me. We’re here. That’s the opportunity that’s even here at Mass.
Are we acknowledging, here’s my guilt, I need some help, here’s what I’ve done, I’m sorry. For Catholics, it’s not just hypothetical. We have it in our heart, we have the sacrament of confession, where I can go like St. Paul and say, here’s what I’ve done, and I’m sorry, and I’m gonna choose not to do it again. That’s repentance, that’s conversion.
That’s when the just judge will have mercy on us because we’re sorrowful and we own it. This is a Christian program. We need to acknowledge this dynamic in our life and where are we at? Am I owning my sin or not? And just my participation in the sacraments, Mass for sure, but confession as well, I think is a real good gauge on how much I’m owning the fact that I am a sinner. Here’s the particular sins, cleaning our house like St. Paul so we can be excited about the just judge when he comes.
He will give us his rewards so we can have a healthy sense of righteousness because we’ve done the hard work of conversion. That’s what’ is open to us. That’s what our readings really lend to us. We want to keep that on our forefront that we can take advantage of this time of mercy called life. Jesus is here to have mercy on us at the end of our life or when God comes again, whenever he comes as our judge.
He gives us what we’ve chosen to do or not. So let’s take advantage of this time of mercy, acknowledge our guilt, acknowledge our sin, and seek repentance through acknowledging our guilt and being sorrowful for it and choosing not to do it again.
