30th Sunday "Love God and Neighbor by Words & Actions"

 

When I was young, I was not a good Catholic, I didn’t go to confession for many years and rarely attended Sunday Mass. After high school, I gave bad example by words and example. I developed the bad habit of cussing and went to college drinking parties. I didn’t attempt to love God with all my heart and love my neighbor as myself. I lived a very selfish life, without thinking about how my behavior affects others, or myself, or how it affected God.

In college, one day, I went over to a couple’s house, who had several children. We were friends for years. But, in front of their children, out of my mouth came a very foul word. The mother of the children said, “That’s it, get out of my house. You will not say dirty words like that in front of my children.” I apologized and said, “I’m sorry, I won’t do it again.” She said, “I said, you are leaving my house now!” Embarrassed because of my behavior, I felt bad and left. About a month later, I asked if I could come to their house, like I had many times before. She replied, “Yes, but if you say one dirty word, out you go.” I said, “I will not.” It was at that moment, I realized how my words hurt others and gave bad example for children.

Since that day, I put a rubber band around my wrist and whenever I accidentally cussed, I snapped the rubber band. After several weeks, my wrist became sore, but I eventually stopped cussing all together and I never cuss now.

In 1990, I heard about the Virgin Mary’s messages in Medjugorje. And began to daily pray the Rosary, to confess monthly, read the bible daily, fast on Wed and Fridays, and attend Mass regularly. When I started to daily pray the sorrowful mysteries of the Rosary, I saw in my own mind, how my sins hurt Jesus. They caused Jesus to be scourged, crowned with thorns, carry His Cross and be crucified. By meditating on the sorrowful mysteries of the Rosary, I also came to understand how much Jesus loved me. Out His love and mercy, Jesus reached down from heaven and helped me to be a better person.

In the Gospel today, a scribe came to Jesus, asking, “Which is the first of all the commandments?” Our Blessed Lord replied, “Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. And the second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

To love God with all our heart, all our soul, with all our mind and with all our strength is to put God first in everything. St Charles de Foucauld said, “If we love GOD with all our heart, we want only His good, only His will, toward the good, every moment of our lives. All our thoughts must be for Him, for His sake, all words must be uttered for His sake; and all our actions must be performed for His sake. At every moment of our lives we must aim at only one thing, we must seek one goal, to think, to say, and to do what pleases our beloved Lord.”

The first reading from Exodus gives a glimpse into loving one’s neighbor. They were to not harm the weak but rather help them. They were to not oppress the foreigner, nor do no wrong to the widow or an orphan.

The question today is this. Are our actions and our words helping or hurting others? Do our actions and words build others up or tear others down. Do our actions and words point others to heaven or point them away from heaven? In a nutshell are we helping others to get to heaven or leading others to hell?

If we love God with all our our heart, our soul, our mind and all our strength, all our thoughts, words and actions are directed to please God. To do His will. To show God, we love Him, by not hurting Him by our sins.

Our sins first and foremost hurt God, second our sins hurt our own soul, and third, at times our sins hurt others.

Are your words and actions pleasing to God? Are you seeking to do what God wants? Or are you allowing your words and actions to be an obstacle for others.

Over the past year, I have spoken with a number of non-Catholics inviting them to become Catholic. Most are willing to hear what I say, but several non-Catholics told me there are young Catholics and adult Catholics who say and do offensive things in public, and said they are hypocrites. They did not give me any names.

I responded saying, “We are all sinners. We all make mistakes and that God especially loves sinners.” I said, “In every denomination there are people who don’t always live as good Christians”. Jesus said, “I did not come for the righteous, I came for sinners.”

Then I got to thinking, “How do we live our lives as Catholics?” To say everyone is a sinner, was a cheap way to respond to their comments. Being a sinner, because everyone else is a sinner, doesn’t give us the right to say and do whatever we want, because our words and actions either help others or hurt others. Our behaviors can be scandalous, preventing others from joining our church or they can be virtuous and inspire others to join our church.

Local people told me there are Catholic high school youth from our parish who are bullies, they make fun other kids, they use their phones to harass other children. The person told me, they take graphic images of students and send them out humiliating the person whose picture they took. This is seriously sinful. And could be a mortal sin requiring confession, before one receives Holy Communion.

Non-Catholics told me adults from our parish use foul language in front of their children and they don’t like it. I was told Catholics at PJ’s openly cuss, say negative things about others and tell dirty jokes.

The Lord God said, “You shall not wrong any widow of orphan. If ever you wrong them and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry.” God is not only speaking of orphans and widows, He is speaking of every neighbor, every person. Jesus said, “What you do to the least of my brothers and sisters, you do unto me.”

If we oppress others by speaking negatively of them, if we oppress others by our dirty words, if we oppress others by bulling them, if we oppress others by making fun of or humiliating them, God hears the cries of the oppressed.

My dear friends, we are all human and we all make mistakes. We are all sinners. But we must realize our words and our actions can either please God or offend Him. Our words and actions can either hurt others or help others. Our words and actions can lead others closer to Jesus or lead others away from Jesus. Are we an encourager or a discourager? Do will build up others or tear them down? Do we prevent others from being Catholic or help them become Catholic?

When we go to your judgment God will show us how our actions and words affected the lives of others.

By confessing only once or twice a year, one can develop a clouded conscience, where he or she wrongly believes one doesn’t sin. By failing to acknowledge and confess our sins, we become blind to our sins, blind to how we hurt others and blind to how we hurt Jesus.

Every day we have the opportunity to change our life, to be a better person, to truly love God with all our heart and love our neighbor as our self. Jesus patiently waits for us to come to Him to confess our sins, give us peace and help us overcome them. Let us all strive to be holy and give a good example, by our words and actions.