And the question I have for you is: Why am I wearing a mask? Some of you might think I’m wearing it to remind you that next Tuesday is Mardi Gras; that Wednesday is Ash Wednesday; and Lent is coming. Right now, it’s carnival time and during carnival people wear masks.
But this isn’t the reason I’m wearing it. No, the real reason is to illustrate part of today’s readings. In the gospel reading Jesus proclaims: “You hypocrite! Remove the wooden beam from your eye first; then you will see clearly to remove the splinter in your brother’s eye.”
And what is a hypocrite? It’s someone who wears a mask. In Greek theater actors wore large masks depicting different emotions so that the audience in the back could tell what their moods were. But here at CGS, I hope you don’t need for me to wear a mask. It’s better when I can really see you and you can really see me and hear me speak clearly. And that is what today’s readings are about: the real me and the real you. About seeing and speaking clearly.
We heard three examples of this in the first reading from the Book of Sirach. In the first example we have a pile of wheat straight from the fields. You could not use such wheat directly for baking your daily bread. First, you had to sift it through a sieve. The small, edible grains would be passed through it; the inedible husks would remain caught in the sieve and be thrown away. In the second example we have a potter who has finished forming his vase. It finally has the shape he was hoping to get. But there may be impurities in the clay he was using or he may have made the walls too thin in certain places. He puts the pot into his kiln and begins the drying process. If there are errors in either the material itself or in his methods, the vessel will crack during the firing and need to be thrown away. In the third case, we have the fig tree yielding bitter fruit or fruit infested with insects, if the farmer did not take proper care of it during it’s growth.
Jesus in his own parables, his own stories, followed up on these thoughts. First of all, Jesus spoke of leadership. A leader must see the way clearly in order not to lead others astray as well as to lead those who can not see the way at all. He also reminds his own followers that disciples who do follow the teacher can, when trained, become like the teacher.
Jesus then speaks of those who are critical of others without being critical of themselves; who try to correct others without first correcting themselves. He too, speaks of trees and good fruit coming from good trees, those which are cared for and cultivated. And finally he reminds his disciples and us: “A good person out of the store of goodness in his heart produces good, but an evil person out of a store of evil produces evil; for from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks.”
“The mouth speaks.” The words of Jesus echo those of Sirach: “When a sieve is shaken, the husks appear; so do one’s faults when one speaks. … The fruit of a tree shows the care it has had; so too does one’s speech disclose the bent of one’s mind.”
And what does this mean for us, now some two-thousand years later? Now in this age of mass communication. A time when a large part of communication seems to focus so heavily on violence.
● The culture of today honors the songs and lyrics of violence proclaimed by Eminem.
● The culture of today makes a blockbuster movie out of the violence of Hannibal Lector.
● The culture of today celebrates the violence of extreme sports in the XFL.
Yet, there are those who smile at such antics and say: It’s not for real. It’s a put on. It’s done merely for shock value. Besides: there is freedom of expression.
Yes, I agree: on the surface these may be valid comments. We recognize that Eminem, Hannibal and the XFL are not reality; or at least we hope that they are not reality any more than “Survivors” on either a Pacific island or in the Australian outback are depictions of reality1.
But what do these examples say about our society, our civilization? Is our civilization being tested? Are we too, being tested? And if so, where does the test begin?
Civilization, itself, begins within the city, within the local community, within the family structure, itself. We see the breakdown of civility almost on a daily basis.
● In the rudeness of both clerk & customer,
● In the interaction of drivers on our roads and in our parking lots,
● In the shouts and accusations of parents and children, of husbands and wives.
Unless we begin to see our own faults and correct them, we cannot hope to correct the faults of others.
● We cannot urge our youth to give up the refuge of their own music until we give up our own refuge, our own addictions.
● We cannot halt the over-consumption of others until we look first at our own forms of self-destruction, our own cannibalism.
● We cannot urge that grown men not be paid for organized violence on the playing field, until we address the violence within each one of us.
On the calendar we have three more days of carnival, of wearing masks so that we can play the fool in public; do what we want to do as part of our so-called freedom of expression. Then comes Lent. A time to remove our masks, to reflect on the true meaning of our lives. Our lives given to us by a loving God. A loving God who did not create us to live in violence but rather to live in him.
During the next forty days it would be well to recall the words of Saint Paul we heard today: “When this which is corruptible clothes itself with incorruptibility and this which is mortal … clothes itself with immortality, then the word that is written shall come about: “death is swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? (….) thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time; February 25, 2001
Sir 27:4-7; 1 Cor 15:54-58; Lk 6:39-45
- Eminem is the name of a current hard-rock performer, known for his violent (for parents) lyrics. Hannibal Lector is a leading character in a movie series involving cannibalism. XFL is the short-lived Extreme Football League, heavy on game violence. The reality TV series, “Survivor” had previous locations on Pacific islands and the Australian Outback.