Homily for Monday of the 11th Week in Ordinary Time

For daily readings, see http://www.usccb.org/nab/readings/061608.shtml

Homily given at Prairie Star Ranch

Most of us think of ourselves as better than some people and worse than others. We look up to some people, even claiming some to be our heroes and role models, and look down on others, judging them as unworthy of our time or attention because of this or that negative quality that they possess. Jesus, however, in telling us to offer no resistance to one who is evil, is telling us to look down on no one. He Himself proved His love for us, St. Paul told us yesterday in the Letter to the Romans, in that He died for us while we were still sinners. This is important for us to think about and to understand clearly. Jesus did not wait until we could reciprocate His love, or until we were able to meet some minimum standard of virtue or piety. No, He died for us while we were still sinners, and this means there is no one for whom Christ is unwilling to die. Jesus looks down on no one. He considers the life of every person He sees to be less important than His own life, and He is perpetually ready to give not just his cheek or cloak or energy or money, as He says in tonight's Gospel, but is ready to give His very life. Jesus is ready and able to do this because of his perfect humility, which causes Him to look down on no one, but instead as their Savior He looks for a way to heal and to strengthen people at their weakest point.

If we want to stop judging one another, we must start by allowing ourselves to be touched by this unique and salvific love of Jesus. We start not by comparing ourselves to other people, but by considering ourselves to be the worst sinners, the ones who are in the greatest need of God's mercy. That is why saints are always the first people in line for the confessional, even if in our eyes, they haven't done anything seriously wrong. The saints, because of their humility, always considered themselves to be the most sinful person in the room, and were the first ones in line for the confessional because they wanted to learn this incredible mercy of Jesus and to always be the first ones to receive it and to become more dependent upon it.

St. Paul told us as well yesterady that if we know Jesus in this way, if we know Him not just as our teacher or role model but most specifically as our Savior, the one who loves us the most because He begins loving us where we need it the most - if we know Jesus this way, then we will know what eternal life is. St. Paul says that if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, how much more, once reconciled, will we be saved by his life. St. Paul tells us the way that we will live forever. It is not by looking good in comparison with other people. No, we will live forever when we see things the way Jesus sees us, and by imitating his readiness not to look down on us in judgment, but to give His life for us while we are still sinners.