Homily: 3rd Sunday of Lent - Take care not to fall

A couple years ago there was a popular television show on NBC called Lost.  In its own way, the show dealt very well with many Christian themes: redemption, free will, the divine plan.  One particular scene from the third season, stands out in my mind.

A woman named Amira, had been imprisoned and tortured in an Iraqi prison camp.  She had been scalded by hot oil and scars covered her arms and hands.  After she was freed from prison, she married a very powerful man.  And her husband had tracked down and imprisoned the man who tortured her back in Iraq. 

So in the show she walks into the prison cell to confront her torturer, and she told a story.

 “After my husband and I (left Iraq) and arrived in Paris, I was afraid to ever leave our apartment. So I would stare out the window of our apartment and I would see this cat looking for scraps of food. One day some children came to the alley and trapped the cat in a box. I watched them light firecrackers and drop them into the box. I could hear the cat howling from three stories above. And finally, I had a reason to leave my apartment. I rescued this cat, and I brought it home. It sits with me when I read, sleeps with me, and he purrs. But, every once in a while, he will bite me or scratch me. He does this because he forgets that he is safe. So I forgive him when he bites me, because I know what it is like to never feel safe. And that is because of you. So today, I ask only one thing of you. I ask that you show me the respect of acknowledging what you did to me. That it was you who tortured me, and that you remember me."

In tears once torturer said, "I remember you. I remember your face. Your face has haunted me ever since I 

left Iraq.  I am so sorry for what I did to you.”

"I forgive you," she says. "When my husband returns I will tell him I made a terrible mistake. That it was not you. And he will release you."

"Why?" asked the prisoner.

"We are all capable of doing what those children did to that cat. But I will not do that. I will not be that!"

I recalled this story because of Saint Paul’s warning to the Corinthians in the second reading today: whoever thinks he is standing secure should take care not to fall.

Lent is of course a time where we recall our past sins and repent.  However, Saint Paul is talking to people who have already been baptized, like you.  And he is saying even if you have already converted to Christ, even if you think you have this Christian thing licked, always remember the lessons of faith because we are all capable of falling back into sin.

The woman in the story, Amira confronted the man who tortured her in the Iraqi prison camp.  Yet she forgave him.  Why?  How?  I think because she acknowledged that part of her that was very capable of being driven by resentment, bitterness, and anger.  She knew there was that part of her that could easily strike out in revenge. Just like the kids she saw torturing the cat, she would become what she hated, if she became the torturer.  And so she made a very powerful choice, a choice born out of compassion and humility: forgiveness.

It is certainly humbling to acknowledge that given a number of wrong choices, I could easily end up falling into some pretty serious sins.

I remember back in my first year of seminary, another seminarian and I were assigned to visit the prisoners in Cuyahoga County Jail every week.  I remember sitting with one young man who had been arrested for drugs and theft and violence.  His eyes were haunted by guilt and drugs and terrible things that he had done and seen.  And as he told his story, I remember thinking, how if things were just a little different in my life, I could be sitting where he was sitting.  Given the right circumstances, the mistakes he had made were not unfathomable.  And when I recognized that, I had no desire to judge him or to treat him as unclean or even to pity him in a condescending way.  I remember a deep compassion for him, when I acknowledged that I could have easily been the prisoner. 

One modern spiritual writer put it, “Only when we know our own darkness well can we be present with the darkness of others.  Compassion becomes real when we recognize our shared humanity.” 

The compassion that we Christians are to show towards others, I think, is at least partially born out of that acknowledgment that I could easily be in their shoes.  Given the right circumstances, I could have been the one who lost his job, or who is suffering from a deadly illness.  In fact, doesn’t Jesus teach us that what we do for the least of his people, we do for him.

“Whoever thinks he is standing secure should take care not to fall” is an important warning that any of us has the ability to fall.  And so we must show compassion and patience with each other as God has been compassionate and patient with us. 

Saint Paul’s warning is also a reminder that we cannot take our salvation for granted.  If we stop praying, if we stop coming to Church, if we start justifying selfish behavior and ignoring the commandments, if we don’t daily hold ourselves accountable before God for our actions, we can slide into some very serious sin—sin that can result in the loss of our salvation.

For in the spiritual life there are no plateaus—we are either ascending the mountain or falling down the mountain, diminishing, back sliding away from heaven—we are either climbing the mountain towards sanctity, or headed towards a very dark place.  And if we become smug, if we become complacent, if we start to loaf and get lazy about our prayer life…well, I will quote Jesus himself from our Gospel today, “I tell you, if you do not repent, you will perish!”

These are two challenges that most of us face daily: compassion towards those we meet because we might be in their shoes and the temptation to skimp on God.  And we get in trouble when we just start coasting along, pretending like there is nothing about my behavior and attitude that needs to change--or like a particular commandment or teaching of the Church doesn't apply to me.  If we haven’t thought about and discovered where we need to grow, where we are vulnerable to sin, then we haven’t thought hard enough. 

So, may the Lord bless us this Lent with a deep sense of our own sinfulness, and vulnerabilities, that we can radiate God’s patience and compassion towards those in need for His glory and the salvation of souls.