Fifteenth Sunday After Pentecost

September 13, 2009

Homily for the Anglican Usage Mass

of the

St. Thomas More Society

celebrated at

St. Anthony of Padua Roman Catholic Church , 1013 Wood Street

Scranton, PA

Mark 8:27-35

            In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.  Amen

            When Jesus was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane just before His crucifixion, St. Peter was there with Him, along with the other disciples.  But while the other disciples offered no resistance, St. Peter drew his sword and struck the high priest’s slave, cutting off his ear.  Jesus quickly put an end to St. Peter’s violence and even went so far as to heal the man’s wound that St. Peter had inflicted.  Jesus also rebuked Peter for his action.

            Peter’s actions that day were a long time coming, and they show us that he had not learned the lessons that Jesus attempted to teach him when He called him “Satan” in today’s Gospel.  Even as Jesus approached His death that would redeem the world, St. Peter still was not on the side of God, but of man.  Today I am going to contrast these two positions—the side of God and the side of man—to explain just what Jesus meant.

            To be on the side of man, we must first hate our enemies.  That is, we must hate those who hate us.  We must not stop at hating the sin, to hate only what God hates.  Rather, we must associate a person’s sins with his entire being.  He is not a person who has committed murder, but a murderer.  He is not a man who has stolen, but a thief.  He is not a man who cheated on his wife, but an adulterer.  To be on the side of man, we must be careful not to see anything good in the life of someone who has offended God by his sins.  In this way, we can experience the visceral hatred that leads one to swing a sword in anger and harm those who God loves.  Peter can serve as an example in this regard.

            To be on the side of God, however, we must put aside hatred.  Jesus never approved of sin.  In fact, he hated it.  Even when He saved the woman who had been caught in the act of adultery from being stoned, His last words to her were “Go, and sin no more.”  Yet Jesus also said to her, “Neither do I condemn you.”  He did not condemn her to death because he loved her.  To be on the side of God, we must see in the sinner more than his sin.  We must see the child of God, created in God’s image, the person for whom Christ died.  And when we see the sinner with the eyes of Jesus, then we will be able to love the sinner as Jesus loves him.  Man hates his enemies, but God loves His.  To be on the side of God, we too must love our enemies, seeing in them what is right about them and not just how they have wronged us.

            Hatred leads us to the second way to be on the side of man rather than God.  Our hatred will cause us to deem our enemies worthy only of judgment and therefore unworthy of our sacrifice on their behalf.  If we simply hate those who have committed sins, we can stand in solidarity with those who were ready to stone the woman caught in the act of adultery.  Hatred leads to judgment, and judgment has no time to bear the cross for the benefit of the guilty.  Judgment requires that we always make the guilty carry the cross.  Peter’s violence in the Garden of Gethsemane indicates that this is precisely what he thought of those who arrested Jesus.  Not only should Jesus not suffer for them, these wicked men should be made to suffer for what they were doing to Jesus.  Peter’s violence showed he had judged them unworthy of mercy.

            To be on the side of God, however, means that the love we have for even the guilty will lead us to have mercy on them.  Just as our love will cause us to see in the sinner more than his sin, our love will tend towards preserving the life of the guilty.  Because we love them, we who are parents do not want our children to die for every infraction of God’s law.  We want them to live despite their sin; so we consider what sacrifices we must make on their behalf to spare them the judgment they deserve.  Well, guess what!   Every single person on this earth is God’s child, and He loves even our enemies with a greater intensity than we love our own children.  Naturally, then, God desires sinners to live despite their sin; so He has determined to show them mercy by the sacrifice of His only Son.  To be on the side of God is to see our love for the sinner lead to mercy for the sinner.

            But, you know, we could just kill all the sinners.  If we want to be on the side of man, our hatred for our enemies will lead us to judge them unworthy of mercy.  And if they are unworthy of mercy, then they are worthy only of death.  St. Peter did us a favor by striking out in hatred and judgment the way he did.  His example showed us that bad ideas lead to bad deeds.  His satanic hatred and his judgment led him to the logical satanic conclusion—death for those who would offend God.  Rather than see Jesus bear His cross for the salvation of the guilty, Peter would crucify them himself.

            To be on the side of God means something quite different.  In today’s Gospel, Jesus not only indicates that His love and mercy for the sinner will lead to His sacrifice on their behalf.  He also insists that if we are to be His disciples, we must do the same.  “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”  To be on the side of God means we would sooner die for the sinner than kill him because we worship a Savior who died for the very people who killed Him.  Those who are on the side of man kill their enemies, but those who are on the side of God are willing to die that their enemies might be spared eternal death, following the example of Jesus, who died to save all mankind.

            The satanic error that St. Peter made is quite common.  I have made it myself.  Eight years ago in my grief and anger, I called my father and told him how much I hated those who had attacked our country on 9/11.  I did not hate only what they had done.  I hated them.  And if my dad had not challenged me that night, my hatred may have led to the loss of my soul.

            But cooler heads prevailed, and I came to understand that Peter’s satanic error was not the last example he left us.  Instead, St. Peter recovered from his hatred, his judgment, his desire to kill, and he came to fulfill his role as the rock upon whom Jesus founded the Church.  His love for Jesus led him to love his enemies, to suffer all kinds of abuse at their hands, and finally to die as a witness to the life that God desires even for those who would crucify innocent men.  And all he was doing was following Jesus’ example.

            What example do we wish to follow?  Do we wish to follow the satanic example of our enemies who hate us, who have judged us unworthy of mercy, and who have tried to kill as many of us as they can?  Or would we rather follow the mature example of the first Vicar of Christ, our late Holy Father, St. Peter?

            I do not commend to you the 9/11 hijackers.  I would instead commend to you St. Peter.  In his hour of weakness he could more easily imagine a god who hated his enemies than the God who loves every one of His children deeply and passionately.  But St. Peter finally did come to understand that God loves him.  He came to understand what it means to say to Jesus, “You are the Christ” and mean it.  May all of us have the courage to make this same confession, and like St. Peter, love our enemies even unto death that they might escape the fires of hell and receive eternal life.