Faith-Love-Forgiveness-St Thérèse of Lisieux

HOMILY WEEKDAY 26 02 – Year I

Attraction, Not Promotion:

Memorial of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus –

Virgin and Doctor of the Church

(Zech 8:20-23; Ps 87; Lk 9:51-56)

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While I was in the Holy Land taking a course at Tantur Ecumenical Institute, we were privileged to visit a Samaritan community and a Samaritan priest. He was adamant they were the real Jews; that Abraham had come to Mt. Gerazim and not only Jerusalem, and showed us their synagogue and Torah. Then he showed us the grounds where they still conduct animal sacrifice outdoors during the Passover. This was like being transported back in time to what it must have been like when Jesus went to Samaria.

The readings today remind us that our God is totally non-violent, humble and mild, inviting us to be the same, and drawing people to God’s self.

In the Gospel, Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem, where he knows what awaits him is his Passion and his violent death by crucifixion. He and his disciples enter into Samaritan territory, and not surprisingly, are rebuffed because Jesus is en route to Jerusalem. The Samaritans, after all, have nothing to do with the Jews, and vice versa.

What is interesting here is the reaction of Jesus to that rejection as opposed to that of his disciples, namely James and John who wanted to call down fire from heaven to consume the Samaritans. Jesus simply turned and rebuked, not the Samaritans, but them for their suggestion. Why would Jesus so meekly accept this rejection, go on to another village, and even rebuke his own disciples for their attitude?

I would submit it is because Jesus is living out of his consistent ethic of love as forgiveness. This rejection by the Samaritans is actually a mild prelude to the ultimate rejection he would face in Jerusalem by the religious leaders who actually think they were doing God’s will, as Jesus himself had predicted (John 16:2). So, if he would forgive the Jewish religious leaders on the cross, it fits he would forgive the Samaritans on the way.

I would add another reason – Jesus is teaching them our God is a totally non-violent God. That is something the Old Testament people never really accepted nor lived, hard-hearted as they were. Here, Jesus does not react in kind, but forgives and moves on.

The woman caught in adultery is another example of where Jesus teaches a totally non-violent God. When the religious leaders thrust her before Jesus and reminded him Moses taught she should be stoned to death, Jesus simply knelt down and started writing on the sand. He then looked up, suggested the one without sin should cast the first stone, then wrote on the ground a second time.

What was happening here? What was Jesus writing? Some say the sins of the woman’s accusers. There is another more accurate explanation. Where else in the bible does someone write twice with a finger?

The answer is God, when he gives the Ten Commandments to Moses. After God had written them the first time, Moses went down to find the people were committing idolatry (very close to adultery). Filled with righteous anger, he reacts violently, smashing the tablets, grinding them down into powder, forcing the people to drink the powder, and we are told hundreds of people were killed in the process (Ex 32:19-20, 27-28).

Then Moses, probably proud of his actions, goes up the mountain a second time, only this time he wants to see God’s face. God says that is impossible, but he will see God from behind, so God goes before Moses, teaching him God is merciful, kind, generous, and forgiving through the generations (Ex 34:6-7) – teaching Moses that God is not violent at all. Then God writes the tablets a second time (Ex 34:1), and this time Moses goes down to accept the people where they are at, and works with them to take them to the place God wants them to be. So, by writing in the sand, Jesus is teaching the religious leaders they should learn the lesson Moses learned on the mountain, that God is a totally non-violent God, and that in the presence of Jesus, there will be no killing, no stoning, no violence – only mercy and forgiveness.

It is ironic that as Jesus is making his way to Jerusalem where he will undergo the most violent and painful of deaths, crucifixion, he is teaching his disciples about a God who is totally non-violent!

The first reading from Zechariah echoes this teaching in an indirect way. When the prophet states all peoples from the ends of the earth will make their way to Jerusalem seeking the God of the Jews, and that they will grasp the garments of the Jews saying, “Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you,” they are being attracted and not forced to do so. This is a non-violent evangelization. What a far cry from extreme fundamentalists who force their religion on others at the point of a gun.

There is a reminder in these readings of a slogan of the A.A. program: attraction and not promotion. Would that we could attract people into the church by the way we live non-violent lives of love and service!

St. Thérèse of Liseux, the little flower, certainly lived out these readings of non-violence and attraction. By her “little way,” making love the core of her life and ministry, and promoting spiritual growth by doing small things with great love, she attracted thousands of followers who have a special devotion to her.

The Eucharist makes present the totally non-violent response of Jesus to those who crucified him. He had made his way to Jerusalem knowing this was the fate that awaited him, and now strengthens us to do the same, to live lives of non-violent love and service, as a way of attracting people to follow him and to be members of the church.