Coming home for Christmas

thought-for-sundayFrom the desk of Fr. Ignatius Waters, cp

Sunday, 16th December 2018

  

 

In our hearts, there’s a nostalgia for home and a longing for home especially at Christmas time. And the clever advertisers play songs about home that would have you in tears in seconds so that, blinded by your tears, you’ll buy whatever they’re trying to sell!  Where this nostalgia is coming from, we may not fully know. Nor may we know what home we’re longing for. But no matter where we are, we’ll never be at home unless we’re at home with ourselves, with what is deepest within us. In that deepest place, there is a memory of God and a longing for God, acknowledged or not. And one way of really coming home at Christmas is by admitting our need to be reconciled with God and with one another. What’s the use of being at home for Christmas if you’re with people you resent, blame or have never forgiven for hurts imagined or real?

In one of the gospel readings this week, Jesus is saying there is more joy in heaven over one repentant sinner than over ninety nine who have no need of repentance. Jesus also said he came among us to call the sinners, not the virtuous! When we were young students and even young priests, we were killing ourselves trying to be perfect (as we were told we should be!) So, we weren’t one bit pleased to be told Jesus didn’t come for us ‘good’ people at all but for the sinners! What’s the use in trying to be good? It would be better to be lost!

Of course, it doesn’t mean that at all! There aren’t two groups, the good people and the sinners. There’s just one group and we’re all in it. We’re all sinners. We’re good but we’re sinners too. We’re good sinners!  So, Jesus is saying, “I did not come to call those who think they have no faults, who think they’re perfect or nearly perfect; I came to call those who know they are frail and lost in many ways. I came for those who know their need.”

There are some, of course, who live in a fantasy world thinking they’re perfect or nearly there: “O God it’s so hard to be humble when you’re perfect in every way!” They can’t face the darkness inside; they can’t admit their failings even to themselves! And the best liars, as we know, are those who believe their own stories! And if they come near to admitting wrong or failure it’s all because of someone else! “It’s not my fault!” And there are those who know their faults very well but don’t believe they can be any different or don’t want to be any different. A small boy prayed: “Dear God, if you can’t make me a better boy, don’t worry about it. I’m having a real good time as I am!” I’m afraid that’s the prayer of many big boys as well! And big girls too! And even God can’t help those who don’t want to be helped!

 Then there are those who are only too aware of their sins and get depressed about it all: “I keep failing in the same old ways. I’m fed up with myself. I’m drowning in guilt! Why did God make me like this?”  That’s no good either. Yes, we are all sinners and Jesus came for us all. But we were never meant to wallow in remorse or depression. Jesus came to free us from all that. Jesus came to fill our hearts with hope and peace and joy even while we’re still sinners, now and till the hour of our death, Amen

 

Remember the consoling words in the ‘Cloud of Unknowing’: “What God sees with his all merciful eyes is not what we are or what we have been but what we long to be.”