The Sunday Sermon Archive

Dear Friend,

Jesus gives us the example of what we are to do when faced with lies and false accusations. In today's Gospel, Jesus pointed out to a multitude of Jews that He (Jesus) is speaking the truth to them, but they cannot hear the truth because they are not of God. They (the Jews) hate Him because He speaks the truth to them, not because they can find any sin or fault in Jesus. The Jews respond by saying that Jesus is a Samaritan and has a devil.

St. John Chrysostom says: "Where it was His [Jesus'] duty to teach them, and take away their pride, He was sharp. But where however He had Himself to endure their offensiveness, He showed great mildness: teaching us to uphold that which pertains to God, and despise what relates to ourselves." Jesus did not respond to the false accusation against His Person — that He was a Samaritan. However, Jesus did deny the allegation of having a devil because this was an insult to God.

St. Augustine says on this matter: "And let us first imitate His patience as a man, so that we may partake of His power. But although He was reviled, He answered not His revilers; yet it fell to Him to deny one thing. They accused Him of two things: that He was a Samaritan, and that He had a devil. He did not say: I am not a Samaritan; for Samaritan is interpreted to mean guardian: and He knew that He was our Defender. For if it was His task to redeem us, was it not His duty to preserve us? Then lastly, He is indeed the Samaritan who draws near to the injured and bestows His comfort on them."

The insults to our person or our character often sting very intensely. The injury often causes us to bring forth anger and revenge. One insult begets another. Quite frequently, such insults become an endless escalation of increasing harsh words. Imitating the silence of Jesus is usually the safest course for us to follow.

Though the accusations may be false, we are nonetheless in need of being humbled. We are sinners, and we have done wrong. We may perhaps not be guilty of the evil or sin that we are accused of, but we have done many things wrong, and this is our opportune moment to humbly accept reproach and atone for our transgressions against God. It may seem like a tall order for us to fulfill, but it is indeed a tiny thing. We are not great. On the contrary, we are but dust and ashes, as we were reminded on Ash Wednesday. This stinging reminder of our unworthiness is a great grace from God, which will help us immensely if we only receive it as Jesus did and for the love of Him.

However, when our neighbor insults God, we must boldly stand up for the Truth. Truth, Justice, Morals, and Faith need to be defended, not with anger or hatred, but firmly and forcefully. We must become like Jesus in that we are ready and willing to die in defense of God and the Church. It is good to remind ourselves that those attacking God or the Church may be honestly misled. It is our opportunity to instruct them and lead them to Jesus and the True Church. We cannot see into their souls or know their thoughts or intentions. Because of this, we should always seek to give others the benefit of the doubt. A calm word rather than raging anger is the tool that Jesus uses and desires that we also use in imitation of Him.

If, through all our humble and patient endeavors, we can make no progress but are only causing our neighbor to sin even more by his anger or hatred, then we should remove ourselves from him, as Jesus hid from the Jews when they took up stones to throw at Him.

When the time came for Jesus to sacrifice Himself, we see that He was as quiet and gentle as a lamb being led to slaughter. Many times false accusations do not even deserve an answer. To respond only gives credence to the calumniators. We then should lift our hearts and minds to God as Jesus did and put our trust only in Him. The evil-minded can only do what God allows him to do. God only allows the devils limited reign. Sometimes it seems, from our perspective, that they have unlimited power, but they can only do what God allows. If God allows physical harm to come to us, He prepares a greater spiritual good. Jesus needed to suffer and die so that He could rise from the tomb. We need to follow Him in suffering and dying so that we can rise with Him into eternal life. May we always imitate Jesus in every conflict or difficulty of our lives here on earth.

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