Avoiding
Digressions
September
3, 2006
Mark
7:31-37
Fr.
George Smiga
I
think I have a good homily to offer you this morning, but
I first want to warn you that in this homily, there are two
digressions—two times when I move off the main point to say
something that I believe needs to be said. The problem with
any digression is once you leave it and go back to the main
point, those who are listening might remain in the digression
and keep thinking about it. So in the homily I have clearly
marked both digressions. When I finish each one and move back
to the main point, please try to come with me.
The
homily, as is often the case, begins with a story.
A
pastor stood up before his congregation one Sunday morning
and said: “My homily this morning will last thirty seconds.
It is both the shortest and the most important homily I will
ever give, and it has three points.
First:
there are millions of people hungry in our world and hundreds
of people who are homeless living here in our city, right
under our noses.
Second:
Most people don't give a damn about this.
Third:
Many of you here this morning are now more upset that I used
the word damn in church than that I told you there were millions
of hungry and homeless people in the world.
First
digression: It is directed to the children here. Yes, I used
a bad word in the homily, but that does not mean that you
can use it when you go home or anywhere else. Perhaps many
years from now, after you have been preaching preached for
thirty years, you might want to say something wacky in your
homily. In the future you can do it, but not today. Your parents
have told you how you should speak. Do what they tell you.
And tomorrow when you go to school, if you want to tell your
friends that Fr. George used a bad word in his homily, make
sure you also tell them why I used that word. If
you are going to do that, you must listen to what I am about
to say next. So listen.
End
of first digression.
So
why would I use such an unorthodox story in my homily? It
perfectly illustrates the tendency that is present in all
of us to become distracted by things that are not the most
important things. We can become fixated on a bad word that
is used but at the same time be unconcerned about the greater
evils that are present in our life and in our world. This
tendency to become stuck on the small things is found in almost
every area of life.
When
I talk to pastors in our diocese who have parish schools,
one of the things they always tell me is the policy on uniforms
in a school should never be changed. If you have uniforms,
you should not try to eliminate them. If you do not have uniforms,
you should not try to bring them in. Uniforms divide a school.
Parents and teachers will spend so much time arguing whether
they should or should not have uniforms that they forget what
the school is about. They forget that the school is not about
what children wear but what they learn.
This
also happens in politics. Every so often a politician will
try to introduce an amendment to forbid flag burning in the
United States . Now, I am not in favor of flag burning. I
would never do it. However, to spend time and government resources
on that issue while at the same time ignoring the larger issues
of immigration, health reform and poverty, is simply not right.
It
happens in the church. We can become very attentive, very
concerned about how we stand or sit at liturgy, about whether
we say this word or that word. It is not that those issues
are meaningless. But they are not as important as whether
the gospel is being preached or whether our children are being
protected.
In
all of these examples, the ideal, of course, would be to address
both the small and the large issue in the correct proportion.
However, it certainly is unhealthy when we fixate on the small
issue and ignore the larger one. This is what has Jesus upset
in today's gospel. The Pharisees are concerned about the disciples
washing their hands. Jesus insists that there are larger and
more important issues to be addressed.
Second
digression: It is very important when we read this gospel
not to imagine that Jesus is criticizing or rejecting the
Jewish law or even Jewish tradition. Jesus was a Jew. He followed
the law and loved it. He probably washed his hands before
he ate. His point here is not to criticize the law but to
remind his hearers that there are more important issues, which
cannot be forgotten. One of these issues is the recognition
that what is in a person's heart is more important than how
this person appears or what they say. Now this belief of Jesus
is thoroughly Jewish. All the great prophets, Jeremiah, Isaiah,
and Ezekiel, made the same point. We must not ignore what
is in the heart. So when Jesus says that those who ignore
that truth are hypocrites, it is very important for us not
to imagine that Jesus is criticizing Judaism in general or
the Pharisees in particular. All religious traditions have
hypocrites, people who are concerned about the details and
ignore the substance. But that hypocrisy was not typical of
the Judaism of Jesus' day or of the Pharisees. To say that
it was, is not only saying something that is historically
untrue but it is insulting the religious tradition that Jesus
loved.
End
of second digression.
So
let us go back to the main point and let us do so in personal
terms. When do we become fixated on the details and ignore
the substance? When do we focus on the things that are not
that important and ignore what is essential? Do we judge people
on how they look instead of who they are? Do we worry about
flag burning, but ignore the larger issues of justice in our
country? Do we become upset because our son gets a tattoo
but ignore the quality of his character? Are we attentive
to the details of the words we say in church but are deaf
to the cry of the poor? Any time we focus on the details but
ignore the substance, we fall under Jesus' criticism of hypocrisy.
Any
time we center on a word but miss the larger meaning, we miss
the gospel. Let us pray this morning that we might focus on
the things that really matter. Let us pray that we do not
give our energy and attention to things, which are marginal
but focus instead on the main point. In other words, let us
try not to get stuck in digressions—whether those digressions
occur in the homilies we hear or the lives we live.
|
