Sunday Reflection, January 28: Truth Spoken in Love

Sunday Reflection, January 28: Truth Spoken in Love

Scripture Readings: http://www.usccb.org/nab/012807.shtml
Jeremiah 1: 4-5, 17-19
Psalm 71
1 Corinthians 13: 4-13
Luke 4: 21-30

As I thought about the Scripture readings for this Sunday, I was reminded of a conversation I had with a Dominican priest when I was a senior in college. I had made plans to move in the first official year with the Passionist community (called the novitiate), and I was looking forward to it. But the Passionist priests who were in charge of students decided that it would be better for me to wait another year before entering novitiate, do some teaching, and take some time before the next step. I was not at all happy about this decision, and I began to wonder if it was a sign that entering the Passionist community was not meant for me at all. I thought that those in charge had made a mistake. So I went to talk with the Dominican priest who had been a professor of mine in college and had acted as my spiritual advisor. He listened to all that I had to say with great patience and compassion. But then he looked at me and calmly but directly told me that he thought I was the one who was making a mistake. He said that I was being hasty and thoughtless in considering backing out of the whole program just because the directors had asked me to wait a year. He also thought that I was engaging in too much self-pity. I was not expecting such an answer, and it certainly was not what I wanted to hear at the time. His answer startled me; it took me aback.

As I look back on that conversation today, I can see that this Dominican priest was right. What he said to me was true, and he spoke it out of genuine care and concern for me. I am sure that it was not an easy thing for him to say. It’s never easy to say something that someone does not want to hear. Perhaps each of us can recall similar experiences in our lives when significant people have said important things to us that we did not want to hear but needed to hear at the time. It may have been a parent, teacher, coach, counselor, spiritual director or good friend. Maybe as we look back on our lives with the eyes of faith, we are able to recognize that at some of those important moments God was speaking to us through that person.

Our Scripture readings for this Sunday’s Mass illumine the importance of speaking the truth in love. They also invite us to be open to hearing the truth spoken in love. The prophet Jeremiah is a wonderfully intriguing, larger-than-life person of the Hebrew Scriptures. He certainly did not seem to have the natural temperament required for a prophet. He was too sensitive and introspective for the thankless task of speaking God’s challenging word at a time of national crisis and confusion. His skin was not thick enough for the job. This Sunday we hear part of the story of his call from God – part of Jeremiah’s “vocation story.” This account hints at the difficulties that his vocation will entail. The leaders will fight against him and try to crush him. In later years, Jeremiah will at times speak of wanting to quit, to run away from his vocation. Yet in the end he did not run away because God kept him in his vocation. He persevered in his calling to speak the Word of God, the truth of God, to his people out of love and concern for them. This Word focused on the need for conversion, and it was never a popular word at a time when the people wanted consolation and not challenge.

Jesus experiences in his own day what Jeremiah had known centuries before. The Gospel passage for this Sunday is a continuation of the Gospel we heard last Sunday. In his own hometown, among relatives, friends and neighbors, he says things that disturb them. He warns them that he will not live up to all of their expectations. His Gospel will not just be a safe, comforting, “God is on our side” message. It will challenge them to deepen their commitment and expand their horizons. And so they run him out of town, leading him to the edge of a hill. This incident, which takes place at the very beginning of Jesus’ public ministry, foreshadows what will happen on another day, on another hill, the hill of Calvary.

The call to speak the truth in love and to be open to hearing that truth is indeed a very challenging one for all of us. Saint Paul writes so beautifully about the meaning of love, of true charity, in the passage from First Corinthians that we have heard so many times. The love about which Paul speaks is something that is quite powerful and enduring. It is not just a nice sentiment or a vague, saccharin feeling. It is a powerful force. This charity is an attitude and a way of life that is genuinely concerned about the other person, committed to the total well-being of the beloved. It is, as Paul says, a love that rejoices with the truth.

Speaking the truth in love. It is very easy for us to err in either dimension of this call. On the one hand, we can avoid speaking the truth because it seems too risky or seems just to make life too difficult. We may fear that a relationship will be jeopardized or that we will be considered disloyal. It is sometimes easier to live in denial or avoidance of the truth with an easy, superficial peace. On the other hand, at times we say what is on our minds not out of charity but out of pure frustration, anger, or even contempt for the other person. We can hit people over the head with our version of the truth, using it almost as a weapon. All of us have probably been on the receiving end of that at some point in our lives. That is not speaking the truth out of love, either.

As Catholic Christians, the challenge of speaking the truth in love applies to our personal lives and to our voice on social matters. It is very difficult to express in a loving way to a friend or relative that we are concerned about their excessive drinking or other addictive behavior. It is not easy to address in an appropriate way the anger or resentment that may have built up between us and the people with whom we live or work. But doing so can be acts of genuine charity.

In its social teaching, the Church seeks to address issues that are often very complex with integrity and compassion. In so doing, Catholic Christians are called not to adopt the ideology of any single political or social group. And so, we are called to take a stand for the protection of human life that includes the unborn, the poor and disabled, the elderly, and we also speak against capital punishment. In a society that is intensely focused on sex, we are called to speak with integrity on behalf of the institution of marriage as a union between a man and a woman, a unique bond of love and life that begets children. At the same time, we are summoned to exhibit compassion for those who sincerely grapple with the Church’s teaching on sexuality and marriage. In a country divided about the war in Iraq, we must recognize the complexity of the situation in Iraq and the sincerity of many who feel that the United States and other countries have helped to free Iraq from the tyranny of a ruthless dictator. At the same time, we are called to advocate for a process of peacemaking that will end the deadly violence there and truly serve what is best for the people of Iraq.

When we are willing to speak and to listen to the truth in love, Christ touches our lives and our relationships with his grace. At the Eucharist, we gather in the presence of the living Jesus, who was God’s truth and love incarnate. He gives us the strength to speak and to do the truth in love because he embraces us and sustains us. It is Christ himself who is patient; it is Christ who is kind. Christ is not rude or self-seeking; he is not prone to anger. Christ does not rejoice with what is wrong but rejoices with the truth. There is no limit to Christ’s forbearance, to his trust in us, his hope in us. It is Christ who will never fail us.

Fr. Robin Ryan, cp