Teacher, all of these I have observed from my youth.
Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said to him,
"You are lacking in one thing...then come follow me."
Mark 10:17-27
Before Catholics stopped going to weekly confession in great numbers, we used to hear confessions at the Cathedral, when I was a new pastor there, for at least an hour every day. Downtown churches are traditionally places where people go to Confession to be anonymous - be it parishioners coming downtown from around the city or conventioneers and vacationers staying in the downtown hotels from across the country.
Most of those confessions would put you to sleep, some would move you to tears and a few would curl the hair on your head! You never knew what might be coming at you when you took your chair inside those confessionals. As a penitent who was yelled at by a priest as a child, I am very patient with those who come to confession, especially those who have not been to confession for a very long time. (I think his exact words were “You did what?” I was also convinced that everyone in line heard him! ) Because of that experience, I try to be very patient with those who come to me for confession. I still remember one scared old lady telling me, as she was leaving the confessional, “I have never had anybody to talk that nice to me!” I was so touched that I recorded her words in one of my journals. When I read that journal entry today, I am always reminded of the power of compassion in the confessional.
The only penitents, that I would have to bite my lip over, were not those who returned week after week having done the same old things, but the ones who confessed this way, “Bless me, Father, I don’t know what to tell you. I didn’t take the name of the Lord in vain. I didn’t gossip. I didn’t miss Sunday mass. I didn’t commit adultery. My parents are dead, so I didn’t disobey or disrespect them.” I didn’t do this! I didn’t do that!” Frankly, it bordered on bragging! I would never actually do it, but I have always secretly wanted to say, “Well, goody for you! Now go out and do something before you come back in here!” I emphasize – I never actually said it! I just wanted to!
Thinking back, what was so curious about those “I-didn’t-do-anything-wrong confessions” was the person’s obvious belief that sin is only about doing bad things. People who look at sin that way, reduce their discipleship to simply avoiding bad things. For one who is a serious disciple, avoiding bad things is where you start, not where you should end up as disciples.
When we focus our discipleship simply on avoiding doing bad things, we ask way too little of ourselves and we do way too little for God. Christianity is not just about avoiding evil, but even more so about doing good - about being the salt of the earth and the light of the world. When we focus just on avoiding evil, we are like the rich young man in the gospel that was just read. He was a good kid, who was able to say to Jesus, “I have observed all these commandments since my youth. I never did this! I never did that! I never did such and such!” But neither had he done anything great, anything heroic or anything wholeheartedly for God with the blessings he was given in life! Remember the words of Jesus, “To whom much is given, much will be required?” They were spoken to people like him, and people like us, who are given much in life.
Jesus did not get irritated at this young man’s proud confidence in his own ability not to break the commandments. In fact, it says that Jesus “looked at him with love.” Jesus was obviously pleased with his basic goodness, but after his affirming smile, Jesus hit this young man right between the eyes with a challenge. “Yes, you have avoided evil and that is good, but now do something great, do something positive, do something heroic. You are rich and satisfied, yes, but I believe that you are now ready for greatness. Let go of the trust you have in your financial security and transfer that trust to me. Use the “much” that you have been given to help others! Keep your basic goodness, but now do something great for God!
For this young man, it was not about having, or not having money, it was about what he was giving his heart to! He kept God’s commandments, yes, but his heart was with his money! It says that the young man’s “face fell” and he “went away sad” because he couldn’t “let go” of all his things. He could avoid bad things, but he couldn’t do the great things, the heroic things! He couldn’t make the leap from spiritual mediocrity to spiritual greatness. God did not say, “Love me with part of your heart, part of your soul and part of your mind,” but “love me with your whole heart, your whole soul and your whole mind.”
Sisters and brothers, the “Confiteor” is part of an ancient penitential rite in the Mass. Most of us grew up on it. The “Confiteor” is still one of the options for the penitential rite at the beginning of Mass. It is regaining popularity, especially among the young. I like it because, in it, we confess “what we have done” and “what we have failed to do.” It clearly reminds us that there are two ways to sin: doing bad things, as well as failing to do good things.
Today, through the story of the rich young man in the gospel we just read, Jesus is asking us to look at sin in a new way. Instead of looking at sin in the old way of “doing bad things,” we need to look at sin also as a “failure to do good things,” especially when we obviously have the opportunity to do so! We should not just regret the bad things we have said to others. We should also regret what we didn’t say when we had the chance. Sometimes, withholding an encouraging word from people who could use it is just as bad as cursing them!
I believe in this kind of spirituality. I try my best to practice it. As many of you know, I used to write a weekly column in The Record newspaper. I wrote it weekly for fifteen years. I called it “An Encouraging Word.” The whole purpose of that column was not to look around for sins to condemn, (there are enough Catholic writers doing that) but to train myself to rather look around and find good behaviors that I could affirm and honor right here in our city and in our diocese - people who needed celebrating or situations in need of some tender loving care.
Friends, in this homily I am trying to remind us that maybe our biggest sins are not those things we do or say to hurt each other, but those hundreds of small things we fail to do and fail to say to encourage and build each other up. Yes, withholding “encouraging words,” what we fail to say, could actually be our worst sins. The gospel today calls us to move from “merely good” to “simply great!” Just as "every snowflake in an avalanche pleads not guilty," our hundreds and hundreds of "what we have failed to dos" is what makes the world an avalanche of meanness and cruelty for so many people.
some books from "out of my field." It comes from a belief I have that the truth is the truth no matter who tells it! Recently, I mentioned VIRTUOUS LEADERSHIP: An Agenda for Personal Excellence. It's a book about how the Christian virtues can empower business leaders. It is worth reading and studying even if you are not a leader in the business world.
Today, after reading the story of Jesus challenging a "good" young man to move to a "great" young man, I thought of the Jim Collins book GOOD TO GREAT: Why Some companies Make the Leap - and Others Don't. It, too, is worth spiritual reading and intense studying even if you are not a leader in the business world.
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