The Sunday Sermon Archive

Dear Friends in Christ,

The patience of Jesus Christ in the face of false accusations is a lesson for us all. The proud of this world interpret silence in the face of false accusations as an admission of guilt. Our natural (fallen nature) inclination is to return the insult and to point out the faults of our accusers. When the glory of God is under assault, we must rise to defend His honor, but when we, who are truly sinners, have been insulted, even when we are falsely accused, justice is truly served. The good advance in grace with every injury they patiently receive, and the evil heap ever greater injury upon their souls with every injury they seek to inflict.

St. Gregory the Great says: "Let man then carefully consider with what great humility he should fly from the anger of his neighbor, when God, hiding Himself, turned away from the fury of those who raged against Him. Let no one then rise in anger against the injuries he receives; let no one give back injury for injury. For imitating God, it is more glorious to turn away in silence from insult than to triumph over it by answering in kind."

"But the proud in heart will say: 'It is a dishonorable thing that a man who has received an insult should take it in silence. For whoever sees you receive an insult, and keeping silent, will not believe you are exercising patience, but rather admitting guilt.' But how do such words arise in us against the virtue of patience if not because we have our minds fixed on this lower world? And care nothing about pleasing Him Who looks down on us from heaven? If we have received injury, let us give ourselves to reflection on the words of God: I seek not my own glory: there is One that seeketh and judgeth."

Jesus, not only remained patient with false accusers, but He, in loving concern, continues to instruct and seek their salvation. He here shows us by His own example the love of our enemies, doing good to those who persecute us. There is an intense passion in the love that Jesus has for us, even when we insult and abuse His goodness towards us. His zeal for our souls is beyond our comprehension, but not beyond our faith. It is through faith that we can imitate Him in the love of God and neighbor. It is through faith in Him that we find the strength to imitate His example of the love of our enemies. Our reason cannot truly grasp the command to bless those who curse us — rendering good for evil, but faith gives us the courage and strength to do as Jesus has done.

We love enemies, not because they are worthy of love in themselves, for only God is good. We must love them simply because Jesus has commanded us to do so. In bearing patiently with Jesus (meekly and humbly), we gain merit for ourselves and potentially soften and win over the evil doers to the love of God. It is not enough for us to love those who do good to us — even the Pagans, who do not know God, do this. We must not imagine that we have fulfilled the command to love our neighbors merely by loving our friends. We only complete this command when we love those who persecute us.

We may hide from them as Jesus did in today's Gospel. In this way, we seek to prevent them from committing even greater sins. We avoid them for their own good, not to avoid any personal pain or suffering. On the contrary, we should glory in the opportunity to endure such injustices because they give us the opportunity to truly follow Jesus and gain ever greater merit in Heaven.

When it becomes impossible to avoid them, we must be ready to defend the honor of God and the Church with our own lives, if necessary. For ourselves, we should treasure every assault upon ourselves patiently, seeking to follow and unite ourselves with Jesus.

Whatever false accusation may be made against us, we should consider that we are guilty of much worse. We are all sinners and deserving of reproach. Our accusers may be wrong in their accusations, but they are not wrong in reproaching us. They are not wrong in humbling us. In this, they do us a great service — a great good. But, to themselves, they do great injury. If we truly understand this, then we will eagerly pray for them. We will even ask God to forgive them for any sins they have committed against us.

We should ever strive to pray with Jesus as He hung upon the Cross: "Father, forgive them. For they do not know what they are doing." If those who seek to do evil to us truly understood what they are doing to themselves, they surely would not be doing it. As they provide us with great blessings in the opportunity to imitate and follow Jesus, we certainly owe them our humble prayers and forgiveness, just as Jesus has shown us.

We may not be able to perfectly imitate the Passion that Jesus has for our sinful souls, in loving our enemies, but we must always strive to draw as close as possible to this. If we are truly aflame with the love of God as we should be, we, of necessity, must have a burning love for the souls of all our fellow men — even our enemies. Let us always seek to forgive as we desire to be forgiven.

May the Immaculate Heart of Mary inspire, guide, and protect us!

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