Covering A Multitude Of Sins
This Sunday finds us in that state of limbo between the Ascension of our Lord into heaven and the Descent of the Holy Ghost on the Apostles. Our Lord has left us behind on this earth to fend for ourselves for nine days, after which he will send his Holy Spirit to be our guide, our protector and our Comforter. But until then, we are in that in-between period, bereft of the presence of our Saviour and still in anticipation of the coming of the Holy Ghost. Fortunately for us, we are never completely without God, who is of course omnipresent, existing everywhere and always. Nevertheless, we should take this opportunity to see how the Church counsels us to behave in this brief period between the presence of Christ dwelling among us and the presence of the Holy Ghost dwelling within us.
It should be no surprise that St. Peter admonishes us in his Epistle today that we should remain sober. He’s basically telling us to “Keep calm and carry on,” watching unto prayer. We are urged to stay as close to God as possible through our prayers, making sure the channels of communication between creature and Creator are not broken during these fragile and unstable times. And then of course, he insists that we should “above all things have fervent charity” among ourselves. This highest of all the virtues is essential to us, the love of our neighbor being only second in importance after our love of God himself. And God, who is all loving, surely wants and expects us to maintain this charity towards our neighbor even in the toughest of times. In fact the tougher the times, the greater should be our loving care for our neighbor. And while we await the coming of the Holy Ghost, St. Peter encourages us to be “good stewards of the manifold grace of God,” taking the place of the divine, no matter how inadequately. If we speak, he tells us, let us “speak as the oracles of God,” so great is our calling in these times.
Psychologically, however, the difficulties and evils of the times we live in do not lead us to a greater love of our neighbor. On the contrary, our fallen human nature tends to fall even further into the abyss as we give in to anger, frustration, and hatred towards our fellow man. Pride leads us to think we are better than the ones who have fallen into sin, tempting us to forget our own failures of the past—and present! We are tempted by terrible thoughts of violence and retribution, how the enemies of God should be hauled out of their homes at night and put to death in the street. We wish misery and suffering on our persecutors and those who blatantly attack truth and righteousness. But is this the way of God? Are these malicious fantasies what God expects from us, his loyal children?
On the contrary, if we read today’s Gospel we will find that our blessed Lord cautions us against such violence. He does so by pointing to the behavior of those very enemies we are tempted to despise. They are the ones who will commit violence against us. They will persecute us, putting us out of the churches, even killing us. And, says our Lord, when they do all this, they will “think” they are doing the will of God. Evidently, they are mistaken. “These things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me.” It follows, doesn’t it, that we who do know the Father and his divine Son, will not go around killing and doing harm to those who attack us. Because we know God, because we are quite familiar with his will in this respect, we know that we must never act in such a way. “Blessed are the meek,” our Lord reminds us, “for they shall inherit the earth.”
Being meek does not come naturally. But to be meek in the face of oppression is the mark of the Christian. It is perfectly natural, almost instinctive, to fire back when we are fired upon. But it is not the way of God, and we are told, most firmly, that we must turn the other cheek. It’s an extraordinary thing that God expects of us here, but we know it to be true, and it’s what sets us apart from the rest of mankind who know not God. All these angry thoughts of righteous retribution we must put aside, leaving vengeance to God. Our own lives must be filled with thoughts of charity, doing what we can for our neighbor. This doesn’t mean lending a bag of sugar to the old lady next door! It means doing our best to help those enemies of God save their souls. If we can’t persuade them with our words (even though we may be speaking as “oracles of God”), then perhaps our charity towards them will turn their thoughts to the God who inspires us with that charity. If we can’t make them understand the evil of their ways, we certainly can’t convert them by beating the truth into them. Rather, it must be our very meekness in the face of adversity, that which makes us different from them, which might—might—have some effect. And if it doesn’t, “Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord.”
The devil and his henchmen, it must be said, have a tremendous natural advantage over us. They will resort to every nasty, perverse and violent means they can think of in order to persecute us who represent goodness. To them, goodness is nothing more than an obstacle preventing them from doing whatever they want. It is something that must be destroyed. And there are no limits for an evil man who wishes to destroy a good man. Meanwhile, we are prevented from stooping to their level by using their methods, and that puts us at a great disadvantage. But we must remember that our warfare is not of this world, it is a battle against the principalities of hell, and our weapons are charity, prayer and grace. If we lose sight of this, we become what we hate. But if we do as God wills, if we are truly meek in adversity, if we have “fervent charity among ourselves…” then as St. Peter tells us, that charity will cover a multitude of sins. Certainly, our own sins, and hopefully the sins of our enemies.
One last thought on this subject—if we feel ourselves incapable of this kind of meekness in today’s environment, let’s remember that we are not without the presence of God for long. Next week is Pentecost, and we must pray that he descend upon our weak and angry hearts with his sevenfold gifts. These gifts will help us. We are not alone.