One of the things that saddens me most about us humans is that when we disagree with someone we begin to abuse them, to say unpleasant things about them. You can see and hear me give this Homily on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7LrVFzCzJs
We all do it. Think of some politician, some prominent world figure, that you strongly disagree with. Think how easily you slip into saying unpleasant things about him and then think why you do it, indeed why I do it. The answer is probably that we feel helpless to change that person, to change what that person is doing or saying, so it makes us feel good to at least commit him in our mind to the darkest place in hell. On the world stage, it might be Putin or Trump, or one or both of those warring generals in Sudan, or the Taliban ; locally it might be that Councillor who is pursuing a policy we think is wrong. Lots of this happens on the Internet, where people are abused and threatened with all kinds of horrid things simply because they say things others disagree with, or even just because they are famous Sadly, I even see Catholics saying awful things about the Pope if they think he is too liberal, or some Cardinal if they think he is too traditional.
Clearly this is not a new phenomenon, it happened way back in Biblical times as well, which is why the author of our 2nd Reading (1 Peter 3:15-18) says so firmly “Always have your answer ready for people who ask you the reason for the hope that you all have. But give it with courtesy and respect.” Obviously, some Christians were trying to persuade pagans they were wrong by saying all sorts of horrid things about them, just as some pagans said nasty things about Christians, suggesting for example that we were cannibals! One side hurling abuse at the other side, and then getting worse abuse back, and so on and on into mindless battles that lead nowhere. Not much courtesy or respect there! It reminds me of a common sin I hear in the Confessional. “We had an argument Father, and I lost it and said all sorts of things about him (or her) that I didn’t really mean.”
The people who disagreed with Jesus also went in for this this kind of abuse didn’t they? Remember what Jesus said about them? “For John came (that’s John the Baptist) neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’”
The Christian solution to this kind of almost instinctive behaviour comes of course from Jesus. What he suggests in our Gospel today (John 14:15-21) is that we remember that God is always with us, that whatever opposition we face, however deserted we feel, we are never alone ; God is always with us. So Jesus says : “The Father will give you another Advocate to be with you for ever, that Spirit of truth whom the world can never receive since it neither sees nor knows him; but you know him, because he is with you.” And later he promises “I will not leave you orphans.” Now, as you know, Jesus doesn’t say that this will make life easy for us. He says for example “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33) Our problem is that we don’t really believe this. We see all the troubles in the world, we see the corruption, we see the wars and the oppression, the poverty and the starvation, and our response is to feel helpless. We also have our own problems, problems at home or at work, problems with our health or with our financial situation, and we do not feel that God is doing anything about all this. And, when we get angry about it, we say “I have the right to be angry!” And we don’t mean by this the kind of anger that Jesus had – righteous anger against the evils of the world – but anger that overwhelms us, where our rational judgement about things is replaced by irrational feelings.
I suspect that one of the reasons we feel we are justified in feeling like this is due to our modern understanding of ourselves. Nowadays, we have this idea that if it feels right for me inside, then it is the right thing to do. Our feelings have become our God. This is made worse by a misuse of the word “conscience,” where following what my conscience tells me has become the same as following my feelings. I remember one young woman who was pregnant saying to me “We loved each other so much, that it felt right to let him have sex with me, but now I know too late that he was just using me again.” Now, I am not condemning those who have sex outside marriage. Each situation is different. In this case that word “again” will tell you that the man had already abandoned her once in her first pregnancy, and yet when he came back into her life, her feelings got the better of her, and now he’d deserted her again.
So although we have that word “conscience” in our 2nd Reading, where we are told to give our argument against others “with a clear conscience.” What people fail to realise is that for Christians our conscience is not some automatic robot inside us that always guides us to make the right decisions. Our conscience is something that has to be formed. We constantly have to learn what is right or wrong, first from our parents, and later from good teachers, and from the teaching of the Church. Indeed, the Church says that forming one’s conscience is a lifelong project. In the Catechism it says that “In the formation of conscience the Word of God is the light for our path, we must assimilate it in faith and prayer and put it into practice. We must also examine our conscience before the Lord's Cross. We are assisted by the gifts of the Holy Spirit, aided by the witness or advice of others and guided by the authoritative teaching of the Church.”
Now notice the role of the Holy Spirit in this? I’ve already quoted from our Gospel the teaching of Jesus that he will send us the Holy Spirit, and perhaps we should also remember what the fruit of the Spirit is, as laid out for us by St Paul in Galatians 5 (22-23) “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” We have to recognise that getting angry with people we disagree with, getting angry about people who do wicked things, does us no good. Nor does it help the world, as anger creates yet more anger. We need instead to become more aware of God the Holy Spirit working within us, we need to let God help us to be… kind and gentle and self-controlled. We need regularly to ask God to help us with this, to help us to form our conscience, rather than simply resorting to our inner feelings.
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