Readings
Reading I: Isaiah 43:16-21 |
Preaching TipAvoid this “Spiritual Deepity”: God helps those who help themselves
A phrase that is often thrown around in Christian circles is "God helps those who help themselves".
It sounds good on the surface. It seems to indicate that God wants us to try our best and to make a good effort toward our personal goals. The phrase promises that if we do, God will then help us to accomplish said goals. It has a motivational ring to it.
Leaving aside whatever good the phrase has on a human motivational level, it is not a smart choice to employ while preaching the Word of God. The phrase is often considered problematic for three reasons:
It is Not Scripture This phrase is not found anywhere in the Bible, and many attribute its origin to Aesop’s Fables and later to Benjamin Franklin's "Poor Richard's Almanack".
It Contradicts Scripture The Bible consistently portrays God as actively helping the vulnerable, the poor, and those in need, which directly contradicts the idea of only assisting those who can help themselves.
It Confuses the Faithful There are many people who feel they have tried hard to help themselves and yet they have fallen into hard times. If this phrase is true, then God did not do anything to help them. Ergo, they could conclude that either “God must not care about me” or “God isn’t real”.
We as priests should make the effort to remove “spiritual deepities” from our preaching, opting instead for being more honest and real. This will help people more so in the long run than if we take the easy path of dropping spiritual platitudes, cliches, and deepities as a way of avoiding the hard work of weekly homily preparation. |
Fifth Sunday of Lent, Year C
CUARESMA PARA COMENZAR A VIVIR
El pasaje del Evangelio nos describe el encuentro de la miseria humana con la misericordia divina. Los fariseos que traen a la mujer adúltera, ya han decidido que debe morir; se fijan en su pasado y quieren que se le aplique la ley. Jesús no quiere entrar en su juego porque ninguno de ellos puede pronunciar el juicio justo. Ellos también tienen un pasado pecador. Es Jesús quien ejercerá el juicio no condenando, sino salvando. No condena porque mira al futuro, al proyecto que tiene amorosamente establecido para cada persona.
Hermanos y hermanas:
1. Todos somos pecadores. Llevamos escrita en nuestra naturaleza caída esa inclinación al mal que nos hace débiles. Hay dos maneras de ver esta realidad: Los pesimistas se lamentan y viven mirando hacia atrás con remordimiento, pero ¿Para qué sirve denunciar el mal si después nuestra vida no anuncia algo radicalmente nuevo y diverso? Sin embargo tenemos otra alternativa: Mirar hacia delante. Es la actitud de quien tiene fe en ese Cristo que perdonó a la adúltera devolviéndola a la vida.
2. Jesús nunca busca culpas ni culpables. Vemos que Cristo rescata a la adúltera de la pena de muerte. Una ley puede conseguir que una adúltera muera pero sólo Jesús puede lograr que una adúltera empiece a vivir. Cristo no ha venido al mundo a condenar al hombre sino a salvarlo y darle vida. Queda atrás el pecado y la muerte y se abre un nuevo horizonte de amor. Jesús siempre estará en pie junto a nosotros para defendernos de los juicios de los hombres; sólo nos pone una condición: que nos arrepintamos y rectifiquemos.
3. Dios está siempre dispuesto a perdonarnos. Esta es la gran novedad del Evangelio: El perdón nos devuelve a la vida y nos permite volver a comenzar cada día. En este tiempo de Cuaresma podremos oír de nuevo la Palabra de Dios y llorar nuestros pecados. El cristiano no pertenece a esa categoría de hombres que mira siempre atrás, sino a esa otra formada por valientes que se abren con entusiasmo y confianza al porvenir.
La vida nueva en Cristo nace del perdón. Isaías les decía a los israelitas: "No recordéis lo de antaño, mirad que realizó algo nuevo". Y lo que convirtió a San Pablo en apóstol generoso y feliz era el pensamiento de que tenía que olvidar su pasado para lanzarse a lo que le quedaba por hacer. Es tiempo de hacer buenos propósitos: Luchar contra el pecado y preferir morir antes que pecar. Acercarnos a la confesión seguros de alcanzar el perdón. Perdonar para ser perdonados. Le dice Cristo a la adúltera y también a nosotros: "¿Nadie te ha condenado? Tampoco yo te condeno, anda y en adelante no peques más".
Fifth Sunday of Lent, Year C
LENT IS A TIME TO LEARN HOW TO LIVE
The Gospel passage describes for us the meeting of human misery and divine mercy. The Pharisees that bring forward the adulterous woman have already decided that she should die; they look at her past life and want the law to be applied to her. Jesus has no intention of going along with their scheme, since none of them is in a position to pass proper sentence. They also have a past life of sin. It is Jesus who will pass judgment, not of condemnation, but of salvation. He does not condemn because he is looking into the future, at the plan he has lovingly determined for each person.
Brothers and Sisters:
1. We are all sinners. Written on our fallen human nature is this inclination to evil that makes us weak. There are two ways of looking at this reality: pessimists will start lamenting and live looking back with remorse, but what's the good of saying no to evil if afterwards we don't say yes to something radically new and different in our lives? Yet we have another alternative: live looking forward. This is the attitude of those who put their faith in the same Christ that forgave the adulterous woman, giving her back her life.
2. Jesus is never looking for guilt nor for the guilty. We see that Christ saves the adulterous woman from her death sentence. The law can put an adulterous woman to death, but only Jesus can cause her to come to life. Christ did not come into the world to condemn man, but in order to save him and give him life. Sin and death are a thing of the past, and a new horizon of love opens up. Jesus will always be standing next to us to defend us from the judgment of others; he only has one condition for us: that we repent and reform our lives.
3. God is always ready to forgive us. This is the great novelty of the Gospel: pardon brings us back to life and allows us to make a fresh start every day. In this season of Lent, we are able to hear God's Word once again and weep for our sins. A Christian is not one of those who spends his whole life looking backward, but rather someone courageous who looks toward the future with enthusiasm and confidence.
New life in Christ is born from forgiveness. Isaiah told the Israelites, "The things of long ago consider not; see, I am doing something new!" And what made St Paul into a generous, happy apostle was the thought that he had to forget his past life to undertake what still needed to be done. Now is the time to make good resolutions: to fight against sin and prefer to die rather than commit a sin. To approach the sacrament of Confession, sure that we will be forgiven. To forgive and so be forgiven. Christ tells the adulterous woman, and tells us also: "Has no one condemned you? Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more."