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Imagine what it
would be like if everyone knew everything about you. No privacy.
People here in church knew all the mistakes of your past as well as
your accomplishments. People with whom you work and socialize know
the details of how you spend your time and money. Everyone would
know what you are really thinking and how you really feel. I expect
all of us would recoil from such exposure.
In fact most of us fight to protect our privacy for the very reason
that we don’t want people to know these details about us. We like to
have control over who knows what about us. When we control who knows
what about us, we are able to control (we hope) the image people
have of who we are. The truth is we tend to work pretty hard to
project the image we want others to see. We are anxious to keep
secret the things we are embarrassed by and to promote the good we
have done.
Oddly enough, this is the anxiety we ask God to save us from in the
prayer after the Our Father, “Deliver us, O Lord, from every evil
and grant us peace in our day. In your mercy keep us free from sin
and protect us from all anxiety, as we wait in joyful hope . . .”
Today’s readings remind us that God offers us that freedom.
In the reading from Isaiah we hear God say, “Remember not the events
of the past, the things of long ago consider not; see, I am doing
something new!” God offers us freedom from judgment. We are used to
being judged on what we have and have not done. It’s that judging
that makes us want to keep secrets and to hide what would be
adversely seen by others. Paul reminds us in the second reading that
it is freedom from all judgment and not just negative judgment that
we need to seek. We would like to have the past we are embarrassed
by to be forgotten but to highlight the good things. Paul’s past is
quite impressive by human standards. He was something of a child
prodigy and rising star as we see that at an early age he is not
only leading the troops of the Sanhedrin, but the people are laying
their cloaks before him to walk on as they honored him. Paul says he
considers all the things of the past to be rubbish compared to the
righteousness that comes by faith.
Our goal is to be free not just from negative judgment but from all
judging. To move beyond the need to prove ourselves and find the
freedom from all anxiety that comes from the faith in a God who
knows and loves us as we are. This is the righteousness we seek. To
find that freedom from judgment and the righteousness of God, we
need the Sacrament of Reconciliation but also something more. As
Christ gave us the power to forgive, he also gave us the power to
bind. How we speak to and about others has much to do with our
experience of God’s freedom and righteousness. When we gossip and
talk about the failings of others, we bind ourselves to judgment. If
others are talked about and their errors and sins are the subject of
our judgment, so too are our failings. In gossiping we hold others
bound and bind ourselves to that same judgment. We work against the
very freedom from anxiety and peace we pray for.
The prayer after the Our Father quoted above is followed by the sign
of peace. This is far more than greeting neighbors and friends. It
speaks to our desire that all may know the peace of Christ which
comes from freedom from judgment. We pray in the Our Father that we
may be forgiven as we forgive others. Let us today offer one another
freedom from judgment that we, with them, may know the peace of
Christ. |
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