Homily

I watched a documentary film about an eight-year-old boy who had been terribly, horribly abused by his mother and her boyfriend over a period of many months, and finally, after one savage attack, the boy died. The suffering this poor boy went through, over and over again, was absolutely inhuman. Finally, the four social workers involved with this boy were indicted for not doing anything to help him, and therefore, by neglect and inaction, they caused his death. The four workers then reacted in a way we all understand. They all said it was not their fault, they were not to blame, they were good people.

We are good people too, are we not? We don’t kill people, we don’t rob banks, most of us have never been in jail (for long.) It is true we sin sometimes, small things that aren’t really that bad. Basically, we are good people. Joseph Stalin was evil. Charles Manson is evil. I’m not like them. Therefore, I am a good person.

I think it’s a very bad idea to think that we are good people, because it tends to allow us to overlook our sins and our faults because, really and truly, if I am a good person, how bad could those sins really be? And if they’re not really that bad, why should I worry very much about them? Everybody has their faults. But basically, I am a good person.

So, then let’s think about the prayer we say before Communion: “O Lord I believe and profess that you are truly Christ, Son of the Living God, Who came into the world to save good people, of whom I am the first.” Or did He come to save sinners? Did Jesus come for those other people, or for me? Just before I take the Holy Eucharist into my hands at the altar, I bow three times and each time I say, “O God, be merciful to me a good person.” Of course not. “O God be merciful to me a sinner.”

My friends we should really work to give up the idea that we are good persons. It is irrelevant and harmful. If we filled every seat in Autzen stadium and asked everyone in those seats who thinks that they are a good person to stand up, how many people do you think would still be sitting down? And wouldn’t it be comforting to see so many saints, all those good people? We’d give them the keys to our houses, wouldn’t we? If all those people think that they are good people, then what do those words really mean? It’s dangerous to think I am a good person, because it tends to downplay and minimize my sins. And if my sins are not that important, why do I need Jesus? Why do I need Jesus Who came into the world to save sinners, if I am a good person?

Today we see more and more people who reject the idea that there is such a thing as sin, so why would they need saving from something that doesn’t exist? How many times have you heard people say something like, “It really doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you are a good person?” My reply is, how do you know what is good, and why do you think you’re a good person? How do you judge such a thing? Is it any surprise that such a person would not feel any need to call upon a Savior, and if they don’t need a Savior, why would they want a relationship with Christ?

In Luke, chapter 5, Jesus says, “I have come not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” So, do we think Jesus is calling us, or not? It’s very dangerous for us to think that we are good people, and all the true evil is out there. That fact that other people do worse things than I do, does not make be a better person. Only Jesus can truly make me a better person, if I let Him.

We should never reject the label of “sinner.” First of all, because it is true. But after that it is also because I am in need of Jesus Christ. I am in need of Him to save me and save me from myself so many times. I am in need of Him to pardon my sins, because even though I am tempted to think I am a good person, I cannot pardon myself. That’s why, before I touch the Holy Eucharist at the altar I say, “O God be merciful to me a sinner.” I need that reminder.

This is what a Lenten season of repentance is all about. It’s about seeing the reality of my sins, which I can often ignore so quickly and forget with such ease, and how those sins wound my life and the lives of other people. I need to truly see them, as much as possible, but not so that I may condemn myself, but instead to ask for the healing mercy of Christ our Lord; to ask Him to fill every hole I have put into my life, and fill it with grace. I come to Jesus not because I am a good person, but because He alone can save me, and save me even from myself. His love covers the great defects in my own love, and His love is the healing power that brings me more deeply into His divine life—as much as I will allow Him to do so.

If we come to Jesus, like the lawyers, scribes and Pharisees, if we come to Him in our own righteousness and goodness, we will not clearly see Him, we will not understand what He is saying to us just as they could not see Him or understand Him. But if we come as people who desire to be good and to be holy, and if we hold out our sins to Him for His mercy like the Publican, the tax-collector did, then, as genuine sinners, we are on the right road where He will save us. Through the prayers of the most holy Mother of God, this Lent, let us ask Jesus to save us—even today!