Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church

Homily for February 18, 2007
Liturgical Year C - Cycle I
7th Sunday in Ordinary Time
By Fr. John Carney
 Topic: Mercy
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Reading I
1 Samuel 26:2, 7-9, 12-13, 22-23

In those days, Saul went down to the desert of Ziph with three thousand picked men of Israel, to search for David in the desert of Ziph.  So David and Abishai went among Saul’s soldiers by night and found Saul lying asleep within the barricade, with his spear thrust into the ground at his head and Abner and his men sleeping around him.

Abishai whispered to David: “God has delivered your enemy into your grasp this day.  Let me nail him to the ground with one thrust of the spear; I will not need a second thrust!” But David said to Abishai, “Do not harm him, for who can lay hands on the LORD’s anointed and remain unpunished?”  So David took the spear and the water jug from their place at Saul’s head, and they got away without anyone’s seeing or knowing or awakening.  All remained asleep, because the LORD had put them into a deep slumber.

Going across to an opposite slope, David stood on a remote hilltop at a great distance from Abner, son of Ner, and the troops.  He said: “Here is the king’s spear.  Let an attendant come over to get it.  The LORD will reward each man for his justice and faithfulness.  Today, though the LORD delivered you into my grasp, I would not harm the LORD’S anointed.”

Gospel
Luke 6:27 - 38
Jesus said to his disciples: “To you who hear I say, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.  To the person who strikes you on one cheek, offer the other one as well, and from the person who takes your cloak, do not withhold even your tunic. Give to everyone who asks of you, and from the one who takes what is yours do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you. For if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you?  Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you?  Even sinners do the same.  If you lend money to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you?  Even sinners lend to sinners, and get back the same amount.  But rather, love your enemies and do good to them, and lend expecting nothing back; then your reward will be great and you will be children of the Most High, for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.  Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. 

“Stop judging and you will not be judged.  Stop condemning and you will not be condemned.  Forgive and you will be forgiven.  Give, and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap.  For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you.”
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I’m under a lot of pressure since I returned because Father Tom has set this precedent about seven minute homilies. A kid saw me in the grocery store yesterday and said, “I liked his homilies better because they’re shorter but you’re funnier.” I still have some of my pride but I don’t have my notes. Let me get the scripture.

We hear the Gospel so often that sometimes, I think we don’t really listen to it. Did you hear that Gospel today? Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who mistreat you and if someone strikes you on the cheek turn your other cheek to him. All of you sat there, heard that, and went, “Oh, that’s right.” I think the disciples pretty much had the same reaction. I think they probably said, “Now, he’s gone too far.” This is very tough stuff to do. Now the question is, “Does Jesus mean what he says and is it possible?” The answer to that is, of course, he means it and of course, it is possible. He doesn’t ask us to do what is impossible. But what we are talking about here is not forgiveness; it is mercy, which is much, much bigger than forgiveness. In the first reading, we had an excellent example of that mercy from David and Saul.

Now you know the story of David and Saul. David was the youngest of eight sons of Jesse. He was a gentle youth, ruddy in complexion as the bible says, and he slew the giant Goliath, who was either 6’10” or 10’ tall depending on what a cubit is. David had no ambition to be king of Israel. He only wanted to serve his king. He loved Saul as the king and thought of Saul as his father. Yet Saul was insanely envious and jealous of David because the people loved David because of who he was, because of what he had done. Therefore, Saul plotted to murder David, start the military campaign against him. In this wonderful story today, you see how David and Abishai steal into Saul’s tent and God had cast a spell on Saul. In effect, God gave Saul over to David to do with Saul whatever he wanted and of course, he spared his life.

David gives us an excellent example of mercy. He forgave his enemies. He prayed and treated well those who mistreated him. He turned the other cheek but from a distance, a good example of mercy. Forgiveness is just wanting to and deciding to give up revenge or resentment towards another. Mercy is a disposition of the heart and very different. Forgiveness is something we do; we decide to do. It’s a thing, an action but mercy is an attribute, a disposition of the heart. As a matter of fact, mercy is an attribute of God. The great Spanish author Cervantes said, “That of God’s many attributes all of which are equal because it is God, mercy is the greatest of his attributes.” We are made in His image and He gives us this grace of mercy.

We need to be people of mercy and are we? Well, I don’t know but I do know that when we are petty, we are not merciful and we are oftentimes so petty. How do we become merciful? By practicing it in small ways. That’s how you learn anything. Mercy is a virtue to be attained so that it can be truly be a disposition of your heart and my heart. We attain those attributes, those virtues by little steps at first. Do you get really angry when someone cuts you off or when someone is rude in traffic? Well, I know you do because I hear that in confession. That is pettiness. It really is and it indicates the disposition of our hearts. Pettiness, we see it all around the place.

An example, a story, a few months ago a man came to see me. He was approaching retirement and he had had a health scare. It turned out to be nothing, just some arrhythmia in his heart but it was okay because it could be treated with medicine. Nevertheless, he got a scare and said, “I got to go see the priest.” He arranged an appointment and came to see me. By the way, he’s not a parishioner, so don’t try to figure out who this is. He came by and he said, “I just need to go to confession. I haven’t been in a long time.” I heard his confession and yes, he needed to go to confession. We talked about his whole life. It was kind of a general confession and his children were grown and out of the house. He talked about his wife and it was clear he loved her. He talked about her with great affection. For some reason, I don’t know why, I looked at him and I said, “How come you’re not wearing a wedding ring?” Some men don’t have a wedding ring but I just kind of knew there was something. I mean, I just said this because of something. It shows you how desperate God is when he uses these things. He said, “Well, in my work I have to take off my ring and watch because of…” whatever he does. “It was on and off and on and off and I misplaced it. Finally, I said I’m not going to wear it.” I said, “Well, how does your wife feel about that?” He said, “I explained it to her.” I said, “I didn’t ask you that. I asked you how she felt about it.” He said, “I don’t know.” By the way, many times us guys don’t think a lot. Then he said, “You know, come to think of it, she’s not wearing hers either.” I said, “Well, put your ring back on.” He said, “I don’t know if I can.” I said, “Well, why not?” He didn’t know “why not” but as we talked for ten minutes, he figured out why he was hesitating. Do you know why? He was afraid if he put that ring back on, he would be telling her that over all these last forty years was his fault, which somehow, he would be surrendering.

What’s that? What is that? That is not mercy. That is not a disposition of the heart. We need to be merciful as God is merciful, as our Father in heaven is merciful. Said the prophet Micah, “What does God want of you?” I don’t have the exact words. Some of you know it. He wants us to act justly, to walk humbly, and to practice mercy. We need to do that and we should start that at home, with your marriage, with your spouse and with your children. Take it to work with you in the morning when you go.

That was over seven minutes.